As Promised, More Pictures

These are from the Thurber Dairy Farm. Their cow's milk goes to make Cabot Cheese - EAT it, it's good stuff.

This is the second leg of our bike ride, after the visit to the dairy farm. Yes, that's me way off in the distance. Not because I couldn't keep up, but because the kids cried most of the way and I couldn't take it anymore. Daniel was a good sport about it. Of course, by the end they looked fine, but don't be fooled.

The first part of the trip was a blast for them, especially going down hills

This is a picture Liz's mom caught of us having flashbacks in the milking parlor!

Wouldn't be Summer Vacation...

If you didn't meet a cow, try building a sand castle but instead buried grampa, paid a visit to the Ephs, saw a rainbow, tried to learn to swim, went to the park with tia Lala, "drove" the grandparents' car and abused said grandparents' cat.

Xavi wasn't fond of cows when he met his first, but by the end (and two dairy farms later) they were old friends. He even knew that milk (his all time favorite food - sometimes he makes a meal out of it) comes from cows. Did I mention that another cuspid came in while we were in NY? It's the third of four. One more to go and then we just have the 2 year old molars! Which will probably come in at 3 years at his pace. Oh! and in NY Xavi slept on a bed the whole time we were there. It was a mattress on the floor (worried about falling off), but the tranistion back to his twin bed has been smooth so far. All naps and night sleep occur there. He's been in a bed for almost three weeks, we may move the crib out before the summer is done!

Summer Fun in the Adirondacks

We've been in upstate NY for a few weeks now, getting ready to head back to Chicago soon. Xavier has had the best time here. He asks for oma and grampa every morning and sees them soon after. We've been to many petting zoos and two dairy farms, sat on a tractor, fed oma's goldfish, biked through the hills of Vermont, ate MANY wild raspberries, and played in the mud. Also hung out with tia Lala and other friends, old friends like Alaina and new freinds like Maria. Vocabulary increased tremendously. He loves to identify animals he sees and now colors and shapes too. He asks for help and says please (occasionally). He tells me when he wants to go down the road, in the car, to see the sheep. Or out back to pick raspberries or to sit on the tractor. He says "another book" and then "one more book" at bedtime, both in Spanish. He also makes some interesting faces...like rolling his eyes with a grin on his face when you ask him to say please for example. Here are some pictures of highlights of our trip with more to come.

transition

Sleeping in the bed hasn't worked all that well recently. It only works well when Xavi's really tired and completely ready for bed. Otherwise we get a roaming toddler. We tried closing the door, only to find him on top of the changing table again or locked in his closet. Closet doors have come off and changing table is out. He'll fall asleep in the crib sometimes and ask to be moved to his bed in the middle of the night, but then wakes up at 5am and is so excited to be able to get up that we can't get him back to sleep for at least another two hours. We're back to only napping in the bed...we'll have to move more slowly on night sleeping...story of our lives. Today he made a poop in the toilet, TWICE! we were so excited but realized that like sleeping in the twin bed, this too shall move at a snail's pace (at least for us). He also tells us when he has to pee, either right before or during. I think lately he's been telling us right before but we haven't moved fast enough. Gotta teach him the concept of holding it. Never thought how tough that idea is to teach...