El Gringoqueño

We purchased a tent the other day in anticipation of our great camping trip to the island of Vieques for the 4th of July.  Being a new tent, I set it up in the backyard as a test.  I thought it would be fun to spend the night out there with the kids in a backyard camp out.  I started the evening off with a nice meal cooked in my little hibachi; pureed carrots, pork chops, and Laura’s leftover rice dish.  Oh boy was it good.  Then we piled into our tent.

Note the carrots still lingering in the corners of Javier’s mouth. 

The tent is so huge that there are actually spaces to explore inside.  We bought an add-on that has a portable shower and changing room.  This monstrosity sleeps 10 adults. 

Asier is getting more guapo every day. 

The theory was sound, but at precisely 7pm, the wind died and I spent the night in a sauna.  I hardly slept a wink from the heat, but the kids were out cold… well except for Javier who cried so much we put him in his bed… and Asier who wanted his bed too.  Sigh, so in the end, it was just Jaimito, Olaia, and myself.

I think it’ll be much better though when we set this up on the beach in Vieques.  There’s always a sea breeze.

Jaimito:  Daddy, Mommy said I deserve a prize.

Me:  Oh really, Jaimito.  Why?

Jaimito: Because I picked up.

Me: Oh great, thanks.  I picked up too.  What do I get?

Jaimito: I don’t know.  Ask Mommy. 

Growing up, I always looked forward to winter, the snowball fights, fort building, and the sledding.  I miss it, but we’ve attempted to recreate a little bit of that fun here in the tropics.

We call it sledding criollo style.  Grab yourself a piece of cardboard, find a nice grassy hill, and away you go.  No cold weather gear required.  As usual, Javier had the most daredevil bad ideas, but everybody had fun. 

Even Asier got into the action.

This Christmas, my nephew and his mommy (my sister-in-law) made me the most awesome gift. Check this out, folks:

That is one fine hand-made high quality popcorn receptacle for the containing and the despensing of delicious salty, buttery popped corn.  The name carefully lettered on the side is to assure destruction to all who dare touch it. 

Only the problem was that I couldn’t get it on the plane, so they had to ship to Puerto Rico.  When it finally arrived, we sat down with the kids and said to them that under no circumstances are they to touch the bowl.

This is my pop-corn bowl. No touchie, under pain of death.

Aw, who am I kidding, you should see how the kids react when I make popcorn.

"Daddy," exclaim the niños, eyes as big as dinner plates, "can we use the ‘Popcorn Bown’?"  It’s like the highlander of popcorn bowls; there can be only one. 

Does it makes the popcorn taste better or something.  After careful consideration (i.e. eating popcorn)  I think it does.  It makes popcorn an experience.

Check out those cool little popcorn kernels painted in there.  Those are the little fingers of my cute little nephew and his mommy.  I am impressed, and it goes to show me that a 4 year old and his mother can outstrip Chinese manufacturing any day.

That is quality "Made in America." 

We have some milestones over here in the O’Malley Gorbea monkeysphere.  All the little monkeys are beginning to pull more of their own weight, contributing a fair share to our little settlement here in Puerto Rico.

So here they are, documented by me, your resident big monkey participant observer.  All dates are in ISO 8601 format unless otherwise noted.  *chuckle* 

Jaimito learned to ride his bike yesterday, 2008-04-04, at approximately 5:30 pm on a sunny afternoon.  There was a break in the week of rain, the clouds parted, and a clear beautiful cool breezy day ensued.  Jaimito took full advantage pedaling all the way from the little hill to the little tree.  I’ll get some video of it today and post it.

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Javier is potty trained.  He’s such a big boy now.  Yeay!  He decided he no longer wanted to wear a diaper - ever - starting in earnest on 2008-04-01.  Yes, that’s right, April Fool’s Day, but this was no joke.  Javier was dead serious.  He’d flirted with potty training for the better part of a month, but it was the Spider-man underwear that finally got him to go all in, declaring, "I’m Spider-man.  I’m the black Spider-man!"

He’s also taken a large step in his language skills.  He feels more confident expressing himself and we’re beginning to see more of his sweet personality.  His favorite thing recently is throwing his arms around us and declaring, "I love you, Daddy/Mommy/Olaia/Jaimito/Asier."

I’m potty trained too, but then I guess you could have guessed that.  Laura loves this picture. *wink*

Asier can walk. Here’s a video.  He just up and decided it one day, 2008-03-13 at precisely 15:17 (that’s because the video has a datestamp, hehe).  His brothers and sister were prodding him, standing him up and encouraging him.  Soon he was away with his chubby rolly poley butt.  See for yourself.

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