A Celebration of Life

A wonderful man is missed:

Last weekend, we made an impromptu trip back east to pay our respects, and say goodbye, to (great)grandpa Mel. Our flight was long, with lots of stops, but being with loved ones during a rough time was cathartic and Tiago was a little ray of light on a cold, grey, day. Tiago (knowing nothing of grief) enjoyed seeing his uncles, aunts, grandma, great-grandma, cousins, etc. He really bonded with great-aunt Karen on our outgoing flight. (See above, where he finally nabbed a 45 minutes nap during the last leg of a long day--literally collapsing into her arms after running up and down the isles, shadowing a friendly male steward for nearly 4 hours straight!)

Above: a very punchy Tiago and (patient) Aunt Karen kept busy while we waited for our connecting flight. (not captured on film: Tiago doing endless laps on the moving sidewalks, and learning to jump!)

Above: Tiago and Aunt Karen do a happy dance upon hearing that the delayed flight was back on schedule!

Day in the Life

We have all been so bogged down with work, daycare, and chores that it has been hard to keep up with photos, let alone this blog! That said, here are a few random photos and films documenting a day in the life of our G-Unit. One film captures Tiago's endless positive energy (even when getting over his bronchitis)--before going to work and daycare (you will notice that Nate was unaware that I was filming and was trying to get his things in order, for the morning). The other film documents Tiago's utter delight at his east-coast cousins' antics (at the end of a day's work, we sat down to check out the La Serna Blog)! He watched their film at least a half dozen times (laughing hysterically the first couple of times)!

Turkey Day Weekend

As much as Tiago LOVES his turkey meatballs (and gingerly refers to them as "pavo"), he wouldn't touch his beautiful plate of food that daddy and mommy prepared for him. He didn't even try his "vino" (grapejuice) even though he is always after our vino (of the fermented type).

(It could be because he was on the brink of bronchitis/fever/asthma...poor guy.)

But, on a different day, he certainly made room for berry short-cake dessert!

Really, what is the point of eating? There are just so many other, more interesting things to do in life? (for example, throw said food on the floor and use your bowl as a hard-hat.)

Tiago thouroughly enjoys helping "dadda" with the woodwork. He even carefull lined up the wood-splints along the window sill (here he is counting to make sure he has enough). Our turkey day vacay was very mellow and just what our little G-Unit needed!

Here Tiago was participating in the Thanksgiving calls (Tiago, haciendo sus llamadas en el dia de gracias)

French Doors

When Tiago saw his Dadda and Grandpa get out their tools, he didn't skip a beat in getting out his little plastic Home Depot tool kit. (Above, he is offering his Grandpa a plastic drill bit. Below, he uses his hammer to help pull off the door frame; meanwhile, Natasha constructs her own building block kingdom)

the Guilar visit

This weekend, the Guilars came to visit and helped to install some beautiful french-doors! Tiago loved playing with Natasha and the two kids interacted wonderfully

On Saturday, the mommies took the kids to the San Francisco Exploritorium while the daddies did most of the installation.

Some of the exhibits were over Tiago's head, but he still seemed to enjoy himself for the most part

(Natasha and Korah dance around in front of the elapsed time camera.)

(Animal House) The kids made up their own game of animals that fly across the room with a powerful sneeze.

Tiago loved to wake up bright and early (5am) so that he could play with Natasha's very cool gizzmos, gadgets, toys and...shoes--of course!

Trick or Treat?

Early Sunday morning, October 31st, Batman and a Stylin' Skeleton head out to Burton Park Later in the morning, the kids head over to the Bouncy-House/Pumpkin patch

Natasha shows Tiago the wonders of Jack O LanternsThe two prepare for their trick or treating
Mommy didn't pre-teach her 17 month old about the joys of trick or treating, and Tiago seemed to think all of the excitement was over hanging out in the driveway and watching cars speed by!

Tiago only made it to one house before turning into a pumpkin but Natasha made out like a bony bandit!

The Memory Game

First of all, I would like to establish that I do not force Tiago to do this memory game (also, this was actually the very first time that I had ever set all of the pictures out in front of him like that)...He's really into identifying nouns!
Second, I would like to assure you that he knows who you are but, in an effort not to upload a five minute video, I have edited the piece into a few short clips (which has taken me a couple of weeks to do--due to time constraints and Blog-glitches--ugh).

Third, I especially like his body language when searching for more challenging faces (those of family members whom he has either only recently met or whom he has only met once --over 1/2 a life-time ago--Tio Matias, we're expecting a visit from you before he turns two!)...Notice how he pairs some of the couples together? He did that a lot (usually, if I asked him to point to a female, he would also point to the male counterpart--musn't forget about the men!!!)

Random Shots

(Coming home from daycare, looking like a big boy!)

I was trying to capture a picture of him wearing his Converse sneakers from Zio and AJ, his Gap hoodie from great aunt Paula, and his alphabet magnets from Aunt Megs...

(We were trying to figure out the Face-Time option on the new iPhone...Tiago thought we were Skyping ourselves!)

We were all feeling a little crummy after a twisty ride up N. Hwy 1 (aka: Dramamine-Drive). It was a cloudy day at the beach but we still had fun.