The Crazy Leprechaun.

I had big plans for St. Patrick's Day. With his reddish hair, twinkling eyes, and slightly crazed looking grin, I think Henry may be an actual leprechaun. I was going to dress Henry as a little leprechaun, but my quick search for infant leprechaun costumes turned up nothing but a somewhat inappropriate leprechaun costume for a toddler girl. The toddler costume resembled a tiny saloon girl covered in green satin shamrocks as opposed to a leprechaun. Then, I thought I would dress Henry up as an little Irish Man. Or rather, I planned on dressing Henry as I want Irishmen to dress - like characters from The Quiet Man. I searched for a wool cap and a cable knit sweater, but, you know, wool clothes are slightly unseasonal for mid-March in Florida. Fortunately for Henry, Abuelita sent him a special onesie to celebrate his first St. Patrick's Day with a matching bib. My Aunt Eileen also sent him a bib to mark the occasion. Thus, Henry was spared the humiliation of being dressed as an enchanted creature on a day other than Halloween and spared the discomfort of wool in 80 degree weather. Sadly, the luck of the Irish wasn't on our side this week. Henry developed another infection, and the only people to see Henry in his holiday splendor was the staff at the pediatrician's office. In the picture above, he is wearing his St. Patrick's onesie and one of his St. Patrick's bibs. Since Henry goes through many bibs a day, he had the opportunity to wear both of his celebratory bibs.

Beautiful Night Launch

On Sunday night, there was a shuttle launch. We watched it from our house. The sky was completely clear, and the launch was beautiful! Here I am holding Henry as the shuttle first appears over the horizon. Henry was more interested in looking at the photographer (Dad) than the shuttle launch.

This picture doesn't do justice to all the colors reflected in the water vapor trail from the shuttle.

Visit from Bisabuela Maru and Prima Veronica -Part III

Henry was worn out after his visit with Maru and Veronica. He took a nap with his monkey as soon as they left. He is probably dreaming about all of the good times from this weekend - the walk to the canal and to the beach, swimming with the manatees, the rocket launch, Maru's jokes, playing with the monkey and his new favorite game Rocotin. Adios, Maru y Veronica!

Visit from Bisabuela Maru and Prima Veronica -Part I

Henry had two very special guests this past weekend. His great-grandmother Maru and his cousin Veronica from Texas came to meet him! Henry and Maru have an accumulated 94.5 years of life experience so we have a lot to learn from them. Here, we are watching the manatees at the canal by our house.


In this picture, you can see a mama manatee and a baby manatee swimming side by side. The baby manatee is sticking its nose out of the water. It was the first time that Henry and Maru had seen manatees. Later that night, Maru and Veronica saw their first rocket launch. We watched it from our front yard - it was magnificent!

Visit from Bisabuela Maru and Prima Veronica - Part II

Henry and Maru join the other surfers for some burritos at DaKine's after catchin' some waves at the beach.


Maru is teaching me how to sing and play "Rocotin" - a game from her childhood in Quito.
Chatting after our early morning laps in the pool. Maru taught Veronica and I some new jokes that would make a sailor blush.
Maru was continually impressed by Veronica's strength. Henry loved playing the monkey game with Veronica and Maru. The rules of the monkey game are simple to learn - hold a monkey in front of Henry and say "Monkey!!!" He loves this game and laughed and laughed.

Doing the foot hold.

In the past few weeks, Henry has reached that classic baby milestone of holding his own feet. He likes holding feet so much that he tries to hold the feet of his daycare classmates. When Henry first met the new kid at daycare (the only baby girl), he reached out and touched her feet (gently, of course). He either really likes her, or he just really liked her pink socks.