Swiper No Swiping!

Nícolas is a HUGE fan of Dora the Explorer! Dora has a little companion, Boots, and together they go on great adventures rescuing friends or exploring things. Along the way comes a sneaky fox called "Swiper the fox" that likes to swipes whatever Dora or Boots have. Nícolas loves to play this little segment. If you've never seen Dora, just click on the link to see a video clip. Fast forward to 8:35...Swiper No Swiping.

In the video below, Nícolas is warning us that Swiper wants to swipe "mami's sunglasses"... The little twist he adds before saying "oh man" comes from a very specific episode. I guess it got stuck with him!

Old McDonald had a jiraffe??

Nícolas puts on a new twist to the classic kids' American song "Old McDonald had a farm."
See how he chooses his animals based on whatever he picks from the bin...Who said Old McDonald can't have a lion in his farm?!! Very creative!

I'm 2 years old!

See Nícolas saying how old he is in both English and Spanish. We're still working on getting his fingers right though!! :)

Easter Card Story

Grandmomma Karen & Granddaddy Jim sent Nícolas a cute Easter card. Nícolas loved it so much, he actually made a story about it. If you have a hard time understanding him, the story pretty much goes like this..." Once upon a time there was an easter bunny and a mama egg and abc's and more abc's and a circle...the end..." He's got quite the imagination!

Turn up your volume!!

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday was cloudy most of the day. We took some time to read the Bible kids version and Nícolas got to play with his cool Easter Truck basket! Here's a video of him uncovering all the presents in his basket.


Since the day got much better towards the evening, we drove to a park nearby and let him do a little egg hunting! Watch him find all the eggs!!

Night Night Prayers

One thing we always made a habit of doing before going to bed is pray with Nícolas. He is doing a great job! No complaints at all! Right before putting him to bed, he'll tuck in a few of favorite animals under our couch pillows (TRex, Brachiosaurus, whale...to name a few) We just have to make sure we watch out the next morning! Chris and I alternate when putting Nícolas to bed. Chris prays with him in English and I pray with him in Spanish.

Turn up your speakers and get ready to hear the sweetest little voice...

Here's Chris's night night prayer...

My version is just like Chris's, except slightly longer as I added a few more prayer requests for his grandparents :)

Nícolas's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Nícolas!! Yup!! Our little man is 2 years old!! This year, we celebrated his party at a park near our house. The party was safari themed from a very popular kid's show "Go Diego Go." This is the cake I had made.He had a giraffe piñata, which the kids loved and everyone had a great time! Nícolas was NON stop from 10a till 1:30p! (correction...since he woke up at 5:30a!) He was full of energy...well..that's not news!!

We were very excited my parents came to visit!! They have been spoiling Nícolas tons, and mami too :)

You can view the rest of the pics on Nícolas's 2nd Birthday album.

Celebrating our 6th Anniversary!

I can't believe that this beautiful day was 6 years ago!
God has blessed me with an amazing husband and now our love is extended through our little Nícolas!

I made this year's present for Chris a little extra special. Since I've been working really hard to get in better shape, I treated myself to a nice professional glamorous photoshoot. I got an 8x10 photo framed and had a friend deliver it to Chris's work on Friday morning. He was delighted! He loves showing off his exotic wife :) He also got a new set of irons for his newest favorite hobby, golf!


Later that day, he came home to a bigger and extended version of my early present. I had this collage framed and is now adorning our living room! With college football around the corner, the football shot as the central photo seemed like the perfect fit!

This year we made a weekend celebration out of it! With a little one in the house, we now have to balance our time as a family and as a couple. On Saturday morning, we took Nícolas to a birthday party. He had a blast! Well...Daddy did too! The playground was supposed to be for kids 4 and older and you could only slide feet first. As you can see, Nícolas decided to defy the rules! Hmm...he must get that after his daddy :)

On Sunday afternoon, Chris surprised me with a trip to the Circus!! He kept me guessing the entire time and I had no clue what he was up to! I had never been to one in the U.S. and it was definitely an amazing show!

Shamu show @ Sea World

This is Nícolas's 2nd trip to Sea World this year. Back when we went in June, he was mainly interested in the dolphins and fish.

This time, all he could talk about was whales!

He was certainly looking forward to the whales this time around! As soon as we got there, our first order of business was to take him to see the whales! What better place than the Shamu show!

Below you can see a clip of Nícolas watching the show. He actually "sat" through the show the entire time! (all 30 min of it!) You can tell he was into it. He really enjoyed it!

Nícolas's 1st Haircut!

After Daddy insisted Nícolas's hair was growing a mullet and looking a bit too wild, we decided to get his 1st haircut on his 22nd month birthday!
If you've had the priviledge to meet our little one, you may imagine how Nícolas behaved the entire time. He does not like to be strapped with his arms covered, and much less with someone messing with his hair!
The hairstylist did a great job! You can see the rest of the pics on the album located on the right-hand column of the blog.

Fun entertainment

Just a few snippets of Nícolas doing some fun things...

Uncle Rubén taught Nícolas this dance this past Christmas. We finally caught him on video in April and he still remembers the dance very well!!

Practicing his singing skills for American Idol!

A daily dose of cardio is Nícolas's secret for staying in such good shape!

And a little horse riding at the end of the day...

It's Baseball Season!!

We went to the opener season game at the Round Rock Express. We got seats on the grass and Nicolas enjoyed running around everywhere!! With a little toddler, it's hard to keep up with the game. i had to keep an eye on him the entire time, so I'm not sure who were playing or even the score. It was fun though!! You can see more photos here.

Our little star!!

Nícolas and I always go to the park for an enjoyable walk and to feed the birds. Several months ago, a local musician that always plays at the park was putting together a baby video and took a few seconds of footage of Nícolas. He would not stay still, of course...but enough for a few seconds. The video is up and wanted to share it with you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiCVkgQ9eWE

You can see him at 0:50 into the video. Very cute!!

Masterpiece

Somehow Nícolas got a hold of a pencil and decided to show his artistic abilities on the wall!! We got him next to his masterpiece and he happily posed! "Cheese!!"

Big Boy Bed

We decided to go ahead and get Nícolas acquainted with his new toddler bed. He loves it, but only to play in it! He puts his friends there for night night, just not him! We want him to at least get used to it. It's a start!

Hail Storm in Austin!

On Wed. March 25th, we had a pretty heavy storm and had lots of golf ball sized hail pouring down! My new car was spared since we put it in our garage before it started raining, but Chris's car got some dents.

You can see the pretty view of our neighbor's house

Chris is holding a few samples of the hail. Some as big as a tennis size were reported in our area.

We borrowed a couple of Nícolas's toys and made a little "hailman" art.

The Big 18.....months!!

Yup!! I'm such a big boy now :-) I celebrated with a baseball cupcake and one and a half candles. The cupcake was yummy! You can see more pics on our March Gallery.

Here's a little update about me so far: I love running around FAST!!, riding with my trucks, playing baseball with Daddy, kicking the ball with Mami, reading in English and Spanish, going to the park and feeding the birds, and playing with my friends. I am learning to go up and down the stairs on my feet with my parents' help and starting to learn a bit about potty training.
My favorite shows are "Mouse" (for Mickey Mouse), "Manny" (for Handy Manny), and the movie "Cars."

My vocabulary is growing! I know a little over 60 words now!! Some of my new ones are: cheese, broccoli, banana, cookie, apple, cello, tractor, potty, turtle. My counting is still work in progress, but so far I can say "two(2), three(3), five(5), eight(8), nine(9), diez(10)." I also know the sounds of various animals like the duck, kitty, dinosaur, tiger, lion, chick, sheep, cow, dog, rooster, turkey and elephant.

Here's a videoclip of me enjoying my cupcake! Daddy was making funny faces behind camera :-)

A Great Great Visit!!

Nícolas had the wonderful opportunity to meet his Great-Great Uncle Dan, PaPa's brother, and Aunt Evelyn. They are taking on quite a long and fun journey from Prescott, AZ all the way to FL and meeting friends and family along the way. We were lucky they were able to stay with us for a little while. They are really amazing!

They've been married for over 60 years, taken trips all over the world, including Venezuela in its good days, love telling stories and playing games!! We had a nice meal at our favorite steakhouse, had some reading time with Nícolas, had a little taste of venezuelan food, and even played Mexican train. For more pictures, you can check out our gallery .

Our new ride!

After an unfortunate incident, I had to say goodbye to my highway companion of almost 6 years, my protegé 5... We had no time for car shopping because I needed a car ASAP! We were very blessed to have found an incredible deal on this 2009 Mazda CX-7. It's awesome!! I've never had an SUV before!! Here are a few pics of our new carro!!

Very studious!!!

He looks so cute pretending to read!! What's even more amazing is that he can recognize when his book is upside down.

Here he is doing a flashcard lesson with Daddy. Notice how he seems to have an answer for everything!! Sounds like Jimmish :)