lovely baby humps

hi there..with summer less than a month away Vale got an early dose of pool action at the beautiful Aviara in Carlsbad a few months back and ever since one of her favorite words is "berca" her way of saying "alberca" which is the Mexican word for swimming pool, I say Mexican because other spanish speaking countries call it piscina. I guess we sometimes call is that too, when we want to sound fancy and stuff. Vale had a blast splashing in the 1 foot pool which was fun even for the adults. Kevin and I took turns playing with Vale in the pool while the other parent lounged and sipped cold beverages. It was super relaxing and a lovely time spent with the family it was also a little preview in to what our summer is gonna look like, Vale is currently signed up for daily swim lessons that start in a couple weeks. I'm a little terrified that they'll make us dunk her. yikes, poor V. but alas, she's gotta learn since my parents pool has always been a source of worry. I'll be sure to share some of the many pictures we'll be taking of Vale as she begins her swimming career :)

p.s. thanks to tita J for letting us crash her relaxing vacation a bunch of times, and a shout out to tita Kalani for the awesome mommy and baby swimsuits! gracias!

let it snow

Vale played in the snow for the very first time last week and loved it! She went from being super curious to excited to wet and cold! As you can see in the pictures below, she stayed hydrated by eating snow, and not only did I let her, I encouraged it by helping her find the cleanest most unplayed with patch :) My friends Norah, Paty, their kids, Vale and I drove up to Mount Laguna which was about 30 minutes outside Julian...we made a snowman, had a snowball fight, and had an all around gloriously childlike time. Afterwards we went into Julian and indulged a bit w a delicious apple pie and hot apple cider, yum!

(this is not actually a snow picture, it's from a trip to the zoo but it's on a polar bear and polar bears love snow, so there you go)

Bate's

It's been too long dear friends, so sorry. But before I can put up the uber cute snow pictures from the other day I must, MUST share the pictures we took at Bate's nut farm way back in mid November :) We had a blast, mobbing the perfectly selected and neatly arranged pumpkins with a less than eager baby trying to get the shot. We even walked the entire field looking for the biggest and brightest pumpkin and totally found one, which Vale showed her approval off by planting a big wet one on it. Last year she was two months old and barely awake, Next year she'll probably want to ride the ponies and run through the corn maze, but this year she was soo happy just running through the pumpkin field, kissing pumpkins, bird watching, and staring in awe at the animals in the mini zoo.

Last year at Bate's, she was so little!

world famous + Safari

No doubt her favorite place to go right now is the zoo. We like to go right when it opens when there aren't many people and the animals are having their breakfast and are at there most active. Vale is fascinated by the elephants and makes a great imitation of them, the giraffe is another of her faves, she pretends to be eating leaves when we get to them. She's seen them eating on a few of the visits so now assumes chewing is what these guy do. Other top fav animal contenders are the flamingos, the orangutans, the pumas, cheetahs, the goats at the petting zoo, and ALL the birds! As much as she loves the animals and the walking around and making animal noises and seeing all the other kids, she hates the skyfari, I'm not sure if its the altitude she dislikes or the less than spacious ride. Either way we ride it every time we go and every time I'm confident she'll like it a little more,(I'm wrong) since she points at the baskets suspended by the cable as we walk through the zoo quite excitedly. I'm sure one day she'll like the skyfari as much as my nephew and niece do.

                            

p.s. The pictures are from 3 different trips to the zoo and one from the Wild animal park now called San Diego Safari Park.

September 29, 2011

Having thrown the house out the window, an expression in Spanish meaning to throw a big party, to celebrate Valentina's 1st birthday, we wanted to make her real day of birth fun for her on her terms. We started the day off with a trip around the neighborhood to visit all the dogs, cats and birds, followed by lots of reading and her fav snacks throughout the morning.

Her favorite cousins came over a bit later with balloons and lots and lots of hugs and kisses. Then we did what any girl would do on her birthday, we went shopping and she got a pair of new kicks, her first pair of big kid shoes she loved them so much that she wore them out.

Kevin and I agreed the previous night that if Vale could say so, she'd want to hang out at the beach on her day. So we went.. and I really don't think we misread her, she loved it (as usual)! After the beach we paid her grandparents a visit to wish them luck on their trip as well as get b-day kisses. Vale's b-day concluded with an apple sauce cake and since we topped it with her favorite: strawberries and yogurt she dug into it big time making it a super sweet moment and one we had really hoped to see!










p.s. I can almost be sure that this is most likely probably the last b-day related post, we'll be back to regularly scheduled fun times posts real soon here :)