New Mexico

We have just returned from a trip to see Abe's parents. Though the journey was long and hard on us all, it was worth it. We had a great time.

Leo loves spending time with his doting grandparents. He follows them around like a doting puppy and leads them like a little Hitler! Like at home, he loves to feed the animals, but up there he also got to ride them. At first, he was a little scared of being on a horse, but he asked to do it again and loved it. After riding in front of Abe for a little while, he then got on by himself and Abe led him. He continues to talk about it constantly.

We also had a belated Christmas, which of course Leo loved as well. Amazing how quickly a child learns the appeal of presents!

Nico had a great time too. A whole new house to crawl around and get into trouble in.

Unfortunately the weather was cold and windy for a lot of the time we were there, which limited the time spent outside. But it did eventually clear and we got to go to a park. Nico went on a swing for the first time, which he thought was fantastic. I guess we'll have to set up the toddler swing we made for Leo, so that Nico can have some more time gliding through the air, especially as it is now wind season and so cannot go outside as much as the boys would like.

So now we're home and settled back in. We have a huge long list of things to do, as always, but it'll all have to wait until the wind dies down.

Click here for a whole bunch of photos.

Trip to Grandparents

Well once again I have gotten behind on blogs. I mean to keep up with it, really I do, but then somehow the time disappears and... oh well. Needless to say, we have been very busy, although some of our projects I'll keep secret until we are further along with them.

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit Abe's parents. Emily, his sister, is off to Oxford University for a couple of years, so we converged at Jim and Vickie's to steal a quick visit.

The bulldozer was supposed to be arriving at our place around that time, so we didn't stay long. In hindsight, we should have gone for longer as it didn't come when it was supposed to, or even close. The quick turnaround was very hard on the kids (12 hour trip each way) and us.

Nevertheless we had a great time. Leo especially LOVED the extra attention. It's hard being the only one for three years and then having a little brother arrive on the scene to share (or steal) the limelight. He got to feed and ride a calf, ride a horse, ride a trike, ride a wagon, ride his Auntie Em. He really loves it there.

Nico also had a good time. I was a little worried that he might not be happy being passed around, as he has gone through a stage of not really wanting to be held by people other than us. But my concern was needless. He was charmed by them all and charmed them in turn.

We tried to go swimming, but the outing was cut very short by lightening on the horizon - the lifeguard at the swimming pool and river area kicked us out of the water, so we went to the park instead.

Leo was very sad leaving, but it had a little payoff in that we got to visit Uncle Augie on our way home. Again, an overly short visit, but better than nothing.

If you want to see more photos, they are in the folder August '11.

Gifts for the Grandparents

As my belly gets bigger and more cumbersome (I now only have 6 weeks to go, give or take whatever Nicky decides), travel will be limited, so we decided to go and visit Abe's folks one last time before our family increases.

We split the trip into two days as we were all kind of sick and tired with Leo's cold. This is definitely the worst cold I have had (and still have, almost two weeks later) in a long, long time. And, in the spirit of family sharing, we left the grandparents with the gift of our germs... very sorry, Mo-mo and Po-po.

On the second day of our journey, Abe had some running around to do, so he left Leo and I at a MacDonalds. Now, this is normally an establishment we do not particularly favor, and have never been to in the 10 years we have been together, BUT it was right next to our motel AND it has a huge play area! It was all I could do to get Leo to eat some food before he ran delightedly to the maze of colored slides. He had a blast, especially when another little boy arrived and joined him. He was sorry to see papa return and say it was time to go, although there was a very large consolation: "We're going to Mo-mo and Po-po's".

Leo loves it at Jim and Vickie's. There are of course the horses, cows, chickens, fish, and the feeding thereof to keep him entertained. More thrilling though are the vehicles. There's the big bike with the basket on back, his little tricycle (which after an hour or two he had learned to ride - you can cycle at our place, but off-road mountain biking would be a fairer description of the activity), a red wagon which he wanted to hook up to every other vehicle, the four-wheeler. He was constantly pulling on either Jim or Vickie's arm to get them to go for a ride with him, and they usually acquiesced! In fact, it was generally a chore, and often ended in tears, to get him to come inside at all.

We had a great few days and are now back home, with what seems like a million things to do.

For more photos, click here.

Connally Visit

This Wednesday, Jim, Vickie and Emily came to see us. We had been telling Leo about them coming for several days, saying that Momo and Popo were bringing a big elephant (that Abe and siblings had played on as kids) and that Em would be sleeping in his room. Each time we would would say that they were coming, he would then say "Big boo (his word for elephant), Em in Leo's night-night".

We met them for lunch at a seafood restaurant in the city and then we all went on to visit a friend of ours in hospital. Armando - he and his wife being our closest friends from the village - is awaiting a back operation for three ruptured discs. He loved seeing Jim and Vickie and was very grateful for the visit - he has now been lying on his back for more than three weeks and is bored (not to mention in pain).

We then went back to our place. This is the first time Abe's sister, Emily, has been here, and the first time that Jim and Vickie have seen everything so green.

Leo definitely remembers them all from May and he rememberes which games to play with each! He has changed a lot since they last saw him, as he is now saying a bunch of words and is more boy than baby. He really loved having them around, so much so that he didn't want to sleep, which caused a few tears.

We hung out at our place, talking, walking around, weighing baby rabbits, etc. We also visited our neighbour's ranch and got some apples from some of his 5000 apple trees.

On Friday, we went to a local fish farm. The place is beautiful. Many ponds, huge trees, picnic and BBQ areas. Abe cooked us some trout and corn, while we did a little fishing and walking. After lunch Abe got to fish some. While Jim and I got one fish each, Abe bagged about 30! They were all little Perch, which we took home to put in our pond (which is now full of water). We still need some Catfish, but that'll have to wait til another day.

They left on Saturday and since then it has not stopped raining. A pretty good excuse to stay inside, read, watch movies and play with the little guy, who is still talking about Momo, Popo and Em.

Thanks for a lovely visit.

For more photos, click here. And for other photos of Leo this month, click here.