The Beautiful Area in Which I Live

Did I mention how much I love where we live? There are parks and lakes and fun things to do. The following are a few pictures from one of our walks by the lake. And I really don't have a great camera for scenery, but I try.

Here is Manny and Luis on the bridge with Stanley from Weston. We are supposed to be bringing him places with us and taking pictures. Sorry Weston, it might not be that exciting.


Somehow Luis and Manny always look great in pictures. I, on the other hand, do not.
I look a little stoned, but I'm guessing I was talking to Manny. Turns out Manny is scared of swings now. ????

For serious-why can I never (almost) get a nice picture?

VIP Manny

In Manny's class at school they have a thing called the VIP. Every day (MWF) a different kid gets to be the VIP. This menas they get to bring something for show and tell, be line leader, hold the flag during the Pledge of Allegience (which Manny pretty much knows now, how cute!), stand at the front during circle time and help talk about the weather, day of the week, etc. And the most exciting part is bringing home Lucky, the class puppy. They get to take care of him (in his bag is a blanket and a toothbrush) and then write in his journal all the fun things they did together. Manny has been waiting patiently for weeks now for his turn. And funny thing is he would ask me if it was his turn. I would tell him no and then we would look at the calendar to see whose turn it was next. Pretty soon he knew how many people and who was before him. Mackenzie, Lincoln, Koral, and then me! And even funnier was that he would practice. I would catch him in his room, sitting on his bed, with his hands behind his back. (He already knew what he was going to bring for show and tell--his star turtle night light that shines the stars on the ceiling at night.) He would then very seriously bring the turtle out from behind his back and hold it up, push all the buttons, and then walk around in a circle "showing it" to his friends.
So here are a few pictures of Manny with his beloved Lucky, who went with us everywhere for the 2 days we had him.
Lucky carefully wrapped in his blanket.

Manny giving Lucky a piggy back ride.

Manny and Lucky-BFF

School crafts and a present from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Justin

Manny makes a lot of crafts at school, but this one has got to be my favorite so far. Isn't it cute?
Posing with his creation.


And Aunt Jessie and Uncle Justin surprised Manny with a super great present--a Handy Manny Drill!

Slowly getting the hand of it.
What a beautiful creation! It actually makes a lot of things, but this is the only thing I have a picture of. This is what he wanted to make first. After it was done he said, "Wait!" And then disappeared into his room. When he came out he had a bird in his hand and put it in his house.
THANKS AUNT JESSIE AND UNCLE JUSTIN!

Preparing for Baby, School, Handsome, Class Clown

Manny is getting excited for the baby to come. He has been practicing swinging the swing slowly and driving the stroller around (which usually ends up with him running it into things really hard and laughing, but he always starts out nice). He even asks often if he will be able to hold the baby. He still likes to feel his brother kick him and still likes to try to poke his finger in my belly button.

But about a month ago he did something that really made me laugh. It is a little before 7 in the morning, I am just laying in bed resting. All of a sudden Manny comes bursting in the room and says, "Is my brother coming out yet?!" What? Super random, but super funny. I have no idea where he is getting this stuff.

Manny is still loving school and it seems as though his teachers love him, too. Even the teacher in the class next to his says that he is her special boy this year. A little girl also told the teacher, "Look at Manny, he's so handsome." I say, isn't it a little early? They're 3.

At Manny's school they eat lunch. Every day he asks me to pack him a peanut butter and honey sandwich. So I do. But when I pick him up I ask, how was school, how was your lunch, and he tells me he didn't eat it at all. He threw it in the trash. What? I eventually talked to his teacher to see if he was really doing that or if he was taking a couple of bites or what was going on. She told me that Manny is very social. They usually have to remind him to stay in his seat. So he must be too busy talking to his friends and before he knows it lunchtime is over and it's time to clean up. So now the teachers have been very nice and trying to encourage him to eat his sandwich. And so far it is working.

It also looks like we might have the beginnings of a class clown. I'm hoping not too distracting. Manny has now figured out that when you say the wrong words in a song or a phrase it's really funny/silly. He loves to sing songs and put in the wrong words. And it gets quite a laugh with his friends so he does it all the time. I am trying to think of good examples, but all I can think of is "The itsy bitsy spider went up the water brick...hahahaha. Down came the brick and smashed the spider out....hahahah" or "Give said the little streamy, Give o givey, Give o givey," etc. Now place these weird phrases and wrong words in almost every conversation and you'll get an idea of how fun (not always) it is to talk with this kid.

Bug Update

I am not quite sure what this is, but I don't really like them. They can jump really high and are really fast.

And we also have had ants lately. I don't understand why. They weren't even getting anything delicious at my house. They were marching in from where the cable tv is supposed to come into our house. I am assuming they were looking for the kitchen, but most of them ended up in the shoe closet or in our sofa chair. Don't worry, everything is cleaned and sprayed a million times so hopefully they won't return. I even sprayed the outside of the apartment. And they bug people from our apartment will be spraying on Wednesday. Yay!

Funny story is that Manny cried when he saw that I was killing these ants in our apartment. I was really confused, because we have had many talks about how bugs do not belong in the house. We kill them if they are in the house, but if they are outside we leave them alone because they are in their home. (He used to like to smash bugs outside.) But these ants were in our house. So I asked him why he was crying. He said those were his tickle bugs. Apparently he liked it when they would crawl on his arm or feet-they tickled. Gross.

First Day of School!

Manny has started preschool and he absolutely LOVES it. He was so excited to pick out his clothes the first day, and wear his backpack, and pack a little lunch. It's only Mon-Wed-Fri from 9:15-12:15, but he loves to talk about how he goes to school like Papi.

3rd day, but this was the first real day. The first 2 were just a half hour or hour to get to know his teachers and get to know his class.

House Guests and Beautiful Matching Necklaces

Okay, so this may be an exaggeration. I didn't actually find this guy in our apartment. It's one of Manny's toys he liked to scare Abuela with, but sometimes it seems like these are in my house. I actually find the following-

And since you can't really tell his shape I will tell you-this is a cockroach. He, at one time, had been about 1 1/2 inches long. And in case you are horrified about the cleanliness of my home-little cockroaches mean that your house is dirty, but big ones just come no matter what here. And 1 1/2 inches is big. I've been talking to our neighbors and they say they get them all the time here (and this lady is constantly cleaning her house). But apparently the apartment complex knows about it and you can get on a list for them to spray your house twice a month. I will be calling.

And this is what I find when I am not the lucky one to catch him. Luis will smash it and leave these marks on the wall. Maybe to scare off other roaches?

And Manny made these beautiful matching necklaces for us all. Who knew Fruit Loops could be so crafty and stylish?

Goodbye Tio Dani........Sadface

We had to say goodbye to Dani at the end of August. He was going to Peru (to eventually make it to Holland to be with his girlfriend). This is a picture of Manny tring to see what is in Danilo's mouth. Danilo would often tease Manny that he would eat his toys, and then when Manny would cry Dani would "spit" it out and give it back to him. There were quite a few tears shed, but Manny had just learned that Dani was just teasing him and was trying to figure out his tricks.

Manny and Dani

The cute Vergaray boys

And sadly this is the only picture we have of all of us. A friend (who may or may not be an expert at taking pictures) was nice enough to take it for us.

The "Silly" Car

I keep forgetting to post funny stories.

So, we have friends that were going on a long vacation and asked if we could "watch" their car for them. Yay! A 2nd car! But it is a standard. I told them I was not an expert at driving one, but they said it was okay. I couldn't mess it up. They just put a new clutch in.

So, the time comes for me to drive it home. I should say that when I said I was not an expert at driving a stick shift I meant to say I drove my sister's car twice when I was 16 (which is almost 15 years ago). But I only stall it once on the way home! I was pretty proud. But Manny, on the other hand, was laughing and kept saying, "This is a silly car," as I was not the smoothest driver (the car did jerk quite a bit).

The next couple of weeks I would be proud of myself if I only stalled it once a day. You don't realize how many stops you come to on your way to somewhere. It's amazing. I remember coming to a stop light and saying, "Please be green, please be green" or "Change, change, change" because if I could just keep rolling, I wouldn't have to stop and then have to put it in 1st gear (and most likely stall it).

I am now doing great driving the car, almost a professional (okay, maybe not, but I at least can't remember the last time I stalled it). And we don't call it the silly car anymore (which Manny did for quite some time, he would ask, "Are we taking the silly car?"). We just call it the "black car."

Manny's Birthday!

Here is Manny opening his present from Granny. Funny that we didn't know it was wrapped inside the package.

Yay! He found it.

Cars, a coloring book, and crayons!!!

Manny loves his "racing cars" and tells everyone he sees that Granny gave him racing cars. We play with them a lot. Thanks Granny.

Papi and I go him a harmonica, some rocket balloons (he is scared of, he hid under the table when Papi tried one), a Matching/Memory Game, etc.

This is what was given to him for breakfast. The peanut butter from me, and the cupcake from Papi.

This is what he ate.

Here is the finished pato!! Isn't it beautiful? Papi had to go to school and do some homework so Manny and I relaxed and played with toys, then went to pick up hid pato, and stopped at the temple and the church bookstore. Manny's been asking to go see the temple so we went to the church next to it and looked at the temple.

I caught him sitting like this.

After I took the first picture he wanted another one, so here is the posed hands in his face (all his idea). What a weird kid.

If you look super close in the clouds you can actually see the temple and Angel Moroni in the background.

Then we had a party at Abuela's and Abuelo's. The traditional tres leches cake. And we celebrated mine a little early, too

Manny getting money (to support his "sweet chicken" addiction--he loves this restaurant called Thai China, actually it is all of our favorites, but turns out you need money to go there).

Presents from Abuela and Abuelo. They went the high tech route.

Manny loves his "computer"

It doesn't look like he likes it, but he does.

Thank goodness Tio Dani was there to undo all the packaging. Here is Manny "helping"

Teaching him how to drive his remote control car

We sure are going to miss Tio Danilo when he leaves