Coon! Coon!!

according to Jacqueline, anyway.

We found this cute little guy in our neighbor's tree yesterday evening.




Or maybe not so cute.....



Perhaps vicious.....

Oh...wait....no, he's cute:

(Note: he was actually yawning, but those fangs sure make him look evil!)

'ellow

Jacqueline's favorite color at the moment is yellow ('el-low" as she calls it). When it's time to go out, she heads for the coat rack, reaches for this raincoat of Christian's, saying "el-low....el-low." Do you want to wear that?, we ask... "Mm-hmmm"

from Sea Turtle to Salamander

After a few rounds of not-so-successful swimming lessons with Parks and Rec, we decided to enrol Christian in private lessons this time. He was in a class with one other 5 year old boy, and they both did amazingly! In prior classes, he was very timid in the water and unwilling to do most of the activities...No more! I guess the timing was right because this time he eagerly did everything the instructor asked, and was rewarded tonight with his Sea Turtle certificate. Next up, Salamander!

Wooden oven...hmmmm

Guess this place won't be around too long....

Bye Bye Glitter Pie...

On Sunday April 11 we had our last class at our fave institution in The Beach, Glitter Pie.    This was another in a succession of small businesses closing down in the beach, and the loss will be felt greatly by proprietor Tiffany Pratt's most loyal following.  Some pictures from the day....

Last Glitter Pie...

Jacqueline's first and last :( Glitter Pie experience.  Notice the paint on her face - she's already a pro!

Deep in concentration....

What happened to my hand??!!

Christian is right at home....

We will miss you Tiffany!!!!  (Christian's face says it all!)

More glitter pie fun....

Christian's 5th Birthday party
Christian's 4th Birthday Party
Miscellaneous Pie

Future Lifeguard?!

Dolphin Encounters Photo Contest Winner – Melanie Thomson
by Janay on March 15, 2010

Dolphin Encounters Photo Contest Winner – Melanie Thomson

Future Lifeguard on Blue Lagoon Island? He could be. What a creative photo! Thank you to Melanie for sharing this photo with us. We can’t wait to see you again and we want make your time back to Blue Lagoon Island very special. The entire Dolphin Encounters families look forward to seeing this famous little lifeguard! Congratulations!

Christian's first book

We went to an "Escort Your Artist" session at Glitter Pie a couple of weeks ago, and this book was one of the projects. Christian's all about writing sentences these days, although it required some translation on my part :)

Christian's Book

A rare moment...

Sharing a stool, eating their bananas. It's not often I can get a shot of them together...one or the other is usually either moving or making a funny face.

Like this....

Vacation pictures

I've recently had a chance to organize all our vacation photos from our Christmas trip to the Bahamas. Here's links to the photo albums.

We stayed at the Riu Palace, Paradise Island for 10 nights.  The weather was great almost all of the time. (I, of course, wished it were just a little bit hotter).  Food and service were great, and the kids LOVED playing in the sand.  Unfortunately, the waves at the beach were too high for the kids to play by the seashore, but we did have a couple of day trips to islands, with some calmer beaches.  We went for a day to Blue Lagoon Island, and spent the day on their lagoon beach - very calm clear water to play and snorkel in - Christian even snorkeled with Hugo's help - he was very proud of himself!!  

Lots of pictures at the links below:

Bahamas trip (kids pics are in here!)

Underwater (snorkeling) photos

Atlantis Aquarium

18 months update

 

At 18 months, Jacqueline...

- knows about 35 signs, favorites being more, milk, mommy/daddy,food/eat, ice cream, pizza, cheese
- is starting to talk, although we don't understand much of what she says yet....most popular are done, bum, on (gone), muh (more), go, and recently buh-puh (apple). She's sure trying though - babbles a mile a minute at times.
- weighs 25 lbs and is about 32 inches tall. (bigger than christian was at this age - he was only 24 1/2 lbs by age 2!)
- loves music and LOVES to dance. Not sure where she got the rhythm from - certainly not mom and dad!
- Has settled in well to the toddler room at daycare, charming all the teachers with her cute ways
- has been walking for nearly two months now, being a late starter at just over 16 months
- loves to give hugs
- LOVES her big brother, who, about 95% of the time is so good to her
- favorite foods are milk, pizza, broccoli, pear, peppers.
- can feed herself with a spoon or fork (although it's debatable whether more yogurt gets IN her or ON her!)
- loves our cat, Scratchy, and out parrot Mojo
- always looking at books or asking us to read her one, she anticipates what is coming on the next page.
- sleeps through the night almost every night
- has 12 teeth, and, as of this past weekend, it appears more are on the way (if buckets of drool are anything to go by!)