Our Trip to South America: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hey folks! Dad here. So, yeah...it's now been over a year since we went to Buenos Aires, Argentina (down in beautiful South America). We wanted to share our trip with you. I'm sure that those of you with kids can understand perfectly why we're just now getting around to sharing our travels. In fact, maybe a year ain't so bad.

We're going to be uploading some video installments of our trip (and, someday, other trips as well). I say "installments" because, quite simply, we have a lot of video footage; lot's of very shaky video footage. So you may not want to watch if you are prone to motion sickness. Anyways, by uploading the small installments we are able break one long boring video into several small boring videos. We don't think the videos are boring, though. Okay...Scratch that. I don't think the videos are boring. But, then again, I'm also the guy who entertains himself by organizing typefaces.

Regardless of their entertainment value...If you envision some Mexican border town (i.e. Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, etc.) when you hear the name "Buenos Aires" or "South America", please--for the love of everything holy--watch at least a couple of the videos. I think you'll be surprised by how unMexican Argentina is. And please, especially if you are one of my relatives reading this and are about ready to burn me at the stake for sacrilege, don't take "unMexican" to be a dis on Mexico. I love Mexico immensely. But I also love breaking down misconceptions...especially those relating to Latin America.

Alright, I've written enough. Please watch the videos. This first one is actually one of the last in the series, but we happened to finish it first. Enjoy.



P.S. The teacher in me needs to say one more thing: If you want to learn more about Buenos Aires and/or Argentina, go here:

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_aires
www.bue.gov.ar/home/
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina

Classical Guitar

Elijah has recently chosen Ian's small classical guitar as his favorite "toy". I am not sure if he just came out of the womb with a love for music / dancing, or if it is just that we have so many musical instruments lying around the house he was bound to find them more interesting than the blocks. Either way, we love watching him explore his interests. Here are some clips of him "playing the guitar" :)

Sunday in the Park

Elijah is just now starting to enjoy the park.  He always loved the nature walks we would take, but now that he can crawl up stairs, he has moved from the jogging trails to the jungle gym!  He is all about that playground, and although the other big kids seem to swallow him up, he holds his own (he has quite the Taurus attitude when he wants to do something!)  

Sunday was a beautiful day here so we headed to the park.  Here are a few pics of Elijah's adventures.

I like to stick my dirty hands in mommy's mouth while she pretends to bite them! :)

Perspective!!! Look at my BIG feet! 

Daddy and I went down lots of slides!  The tunnel ones were the most fun when we would pop out and mommy would surprise us at the end!  

Although, Daddy had to lay back to fit in the tunnel and I think it made his hair static-y.  :)

I loved to be on the playground and walk across the bridge.  

It had perfect rails for me to hold on to wherever I roamed.

Here I am making my quick crawl up the playground levels.  

I have to concentrate, but man it fun!

Chicago

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  I have been wanting to get a post up about our baby-moon / reunion trip to Chicago for a while!  Last weekend Ian and I flew to Chicago for a Mission Year reunion (minus Maggie).  For those of you that don't know, I did mission work in East Oakland for a year after college and these were all my team mates that had the privilege of living with me in a tiny duplex for a year! :)  Lots of memories there!! :)  

Anyway, it was a wonderful little get away and a great time to catch up on the past 7 years!  (I can't believe it has been that long since I had seen everyone!)  We tried to do everything in the "Chicago Style"... from hotdog toppings and homemade pasta to deep dish pizza with the sauce on the top and public transportation around the city!  Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Here we all are eating our hotdogs "Chicago Style" out in front of the aquarium.

This was one of the sculptures in Millennium Park.  It reflected the whole of Chicago and was so amazing!  Don't you just love interactive art?

Here is another picture from underneath the sculpture.  If you look really close you can see Ian and I in the middle taking the picture.

Ian took this picture of Ohio street at dusk.  Chicago was beautiful!

And, here is the whole crew (without Maggie).  I think everyone looks exactly the same as when we left Mission Year!  I love you guys!!!

Rockin' Out

Boy does our little man like to rock out. Here he is with another one of Daddy's toy instruments. It is a "One Man Jam" guitar. And it gets Elijah in the mood to groove! :)

And a few mornings later...

Pink Goop

Hi, all. This is Daddy. I'm here to talk about a problem that has surfaced ever since little Elijah Hawk came along: What to do with all that cuteness. If you've ever read Dr. Seuss's The Cat and the Hat Comes Back, then you're familiar with the dilemma of the "pink goop." When the mischievous and unwelcomed cat and the hat...er...comes back to visit a couple kids who are at home alone, he decides to take a bath. To the children's horror, the cat's bath leaves a pink ring-around-the-tub. The cat then decides to clean the mess up using the lady of the house's white dress (smart), leaving the bath tub clean and the white dress...well...pink. After using the wall to clean the dress, a pair of shoes to clean the wall, (and so on), it becomes obvious that the pink goop isn't something you can just "get rid of." Sure, you can move it around, but it's not something you can just make "go away,” which brings me to main point.
I know it's a crude comparison, but cuteness is like the pink goop. You know that sudden rush of intense, gushy emotion you get when you spy an irresistibly cute and cuddly puppy? That's pink goop getting into your system. It's like having ants in your pants (albeit much more pleasant). Your system's knee-jerk reaction is to seek relief by finding somewhere to put it; an outlet, if you will. This usually takes the form of kissing, cuddling, and snuggling with the source of cuteness, and--most of the time--it brings relief. Our systems can usually process a “cute puppy dog’s worth” of pink goop. But when you’re the proud parent staring into the eyes of your babbling, cuddly, blue-eyed, soft-faced, blond, baby boy, the cuteness reaches levels so lethal, the system cannot even begin to process such copious levels of pink goop.
So what is my dilemma? No matter how many kisses, hugs, cuddles, stares, and snuggles I bestow on my little love target, I can't get the ants outta my pants. I don’t know what to do with Elijah’s excess cuteness. I can’t wipe it off with a white dress, I can’t clean it off using the wall, and I can’t funnel it into a pair of shoes. I swear I’m one step away from pouring maple syrup on him and gobbling him up for breakfast. He’s just TOO CUTE!!!

Some random video clips

Elijah trying out "No Hands"

Elijah goes to visit Joni

MiMi Horse Rider

Typical Saturday Morning in pictures

When Elijah first wakes up Daddy usually goes and gets him, changes his diaper, fixes his morning bottle and brings him into bed with mommy. Elijah and Daddy are slow to wake up. They both like to lay around 1/2 awake and 1/2 asleep for a while. :)

"I'm starting to wake up"...

"OK, I am awake MaMa, you can stop taking pictures."

This is where Elijah has already had his morning bottle and starts to get antsy to play, but Mommy and Daddy still want to be lazy and not get out of the bed. So, we compromise with a book in the bed and we are all happy. :)

Daddy starts to wake up and is ready to play!

"By the way, my top two teeth are coming in!"

Mommy enjoys laying around and watching Daddy and Elijah play in bed! :) One of Elijah's favorites is to get thrown in the air!

OK, we are up now. Mommy made breakfast for Daddy and Elijah wants some of Daddy's quiche. (He is getting to the age now where he can try big people food and he loves it! He has a stomach of steel!)

They are so cute together. I think Elijah is really starting to look like his daddy!

He even gets to try some of Daddy's protein shake!

Looks like I just drank poo! :)

"I am happy with shake all over my face and Daddy thinks I'm funny!"

Now that Mommy and Daddy ate, it is Elijah's turn to have a breakfast meal. I make all his food, so this morning he had oatmeal and steamed and blended mixed veggies and plums. :) That tiny bit of food takes hours to make and goes in 5 minutes. :) sorry, that was a little mommy vent.

"Last thing I get to do before I go down for my nap is help Daddy in the back yard! I think it is hilarious to watch Daddy snap off the dead limbs on the Esperanza plant!"

Then Elijah gets to go back to bed for a nap and Daddy and Mommy get to take a breath or go back to sleep if they can!

Weekends don't have the same level of relaxation when the little ones arrive, but they are fun in their own way. I can still remember crawling into my parents bed on weekend mornings and playing around in there until we could force them to get up! It is neat to think we are starting to make those kind of memories with Elijah.

-Love you all-

Elijah Moved

*Note: these photos were supposed to go after the entry about the new nursery, but since I am new to this blogging thing I didn't do it quite right. So, this order really bugs me, but you're gonna get the photos first and then you can read the story, I guess. :( sorry. I'll try to do better next time, but I am not promising anything.


Elijah's old crib is white and sage green. He has pulled this canopy down on top of himself several times, so I was sure the new crib would NOT have a canopy. This is where baby #2 will soon sleep.

Here is Elijah's old room. I realize now that I should have taken the tacky diaper champ out of the picture...sorry about that. The newborn will get to have the glider in his room of course. :)

Here is a close up of Elijah's new "big boy" bedding set. He loves the circles!

Here is a picture a bit further away. Elijah got to take Rupert (that is the name of his huge over sized bear) with him to his new room and a big boy reading chair. He also got some nice artwork on his walls, instead of the pregnancy pictures of mommy that were in the old room.

Switching Rooms

Now that we are preparing for baby #2 we had to give up our beloved guest bedroom and turn it into yet another nursery. We went round and round with the options for rooms and ended up deciding to keep the first nursery the same and give Elijah a new "big boy" room where he would have plenty of room to play. He still has a crib, but we were able to buy boyish bedding this time since his old bedding was gender neutral because, as you know, we chose not to find out the sex of the baby till Elijah's birth.

So, Elijah packed up his things (which means mommy moved all his current clothing into the closet next door) and transfered to a new room. He was so excited, and it just so happened that his new bedding has circles on it (his favorite)! Of course the first time we tried to give him a nap in the new room all he wanted to do was jump up and down in the new crib! It took a while for him to get used to the fact that he was supposed to sleep in the crib instead of talk, bounce, teethe, or roll around.

So, here are some pictures of his new room and his old room (where baby number two will sleep). The old bedroom is much more newborn-ish, I think.

Elijah and His Drumset

Recently Elijah has really gotten into playing his drum set. Funny enough, we have had this little baby drum set for 5 years now. When we were living in Irvine, at Las Palmas Apartments, someone was getting rid of it and Ian snagged them from beside the dumpster. (We actually have a few toy instruments that Ian uses to sample from every so often.)

That being said, when Elijah was able to pull himself up to stand, Daddy ran out to the garage to grab the drum set. After a thorough Clorox bleaching session, Elijah had his first toy drumming experience. He has played with Daddy's real drums before, but it isn't the same as your own personal sized set...not to mention, Elijah's set has a recording device, and 10 or so sample buttons he can push that play beats from different musical genres. (i.e. the "hip hop" button, the "techno" button, etc.) Elijah now has a new favorite toy and mommy and daddy have a permanent, repetitive, annoying tune constantly playing in their heads.

We noticed, also, after hitting a few of the sample beats on his drum set, he was swinging his little diapered butt to the music! We were so excited, especially Daddy, because he a;ways hoped Elijah would get some dancing abilities from his mom's side of the family. (He says he never dances without getting a couple drinks down for confidence and the ability to "not have to think about how stupid I look".) So, it was always a dream of his that our kids would somehow inherit the master dancing skills of mommy. :)

Here is our little groovin' guy playing and swaying...