Summer Into Fall (via Facebook...)

Once again a season has passed too quickly!  (Thankfully, in Phoenix, it's the one we WANT to pass quickly!)

As I work to catch up on missed posts, here is an overview of the past few months via facebook posts...

Daniel prayed tonight before dinner these exact words: "Dear Jesus, I really really want to go to Disneyland. Can you help me make a giant rocketship please? Amen."

"Naptime?  i can't take a nap now.  my head hurts and what if i will fall asleep and have a dream about a pokey forest and then i wont be able to turn my head so i wont be able to find my way out of the forest and i'll NEVER see you or daddy again?  that's why i shouldn't take a nap."  


Enjoying a little wee-hours blog surfing on some of my newly neglected old favorites, and this line from one mom just touched me deeply. She had written about "mother guilt" and how we don't understand how well Jesus understands. One of her closing lines: "I just sit here beside the friend of fishermen and tired mothers." Love it.

Daniel: "Daddy, I love being nice to kitty-cats. Kitty-cats are my favorite animal. But I am allergic to tigers."


Irritated with him for something, I said, "First of all, that's not how we act in this house."  He quietly looked up and said, "What's second of all?"

Daniel just asked me to marry him. while I know that he doesn't understand it (as evidenced by his subsequent suggestion that I might marry Violet) it was still sweet :) My cute little Oedipus.

Daniel's had a crick in his neck for a few days. Today, he wakes up, stumbles over to me and says, "Mommy, I can't feel my brain."

Fernando set up Daniels play tent yesterday and apparently Daniel slept in it last night... All night.

The kids were up super early today... Uncharacteristic for both of them. So we had a pancake breakfast on a Thursday :)

My four year old sees the snack I'm making him and says, "Now THAT's what I'm talking about!" and proceeds to point at me, wink and click his tongue. He's FOUR.

The kids wanted to get dressed up to give me a birthday concert. But Daniel got irritated, and the result is the funniest video ever. I love his intense pout the entire time. :)

‎"Honey, there are just some things that need to happen. And there are people who do those things. And I am one of those people." - Fernando, after I walked in on him killing a cricket (all this time I thought he released them outside to go free...)

Sprouts is always more fun with Captain America. A guy in the checkout line shook Daniel's hand and told him to keep up the good work. Daniel nodded solemnly and said "Thank you... I will."

I had company at Sprouts today... Last week was Captain America, this week was Batman. Shopping is so much more fun this way. :)

Thor was very helpful. Lesson to remember: Shopping is more stressful when 1) your 4 year old is carrying a giant foam hammer and 2) he wholeheartedly believes that hammer possesses superhero type qualities.

Ready for THIS? Daniel just tested positive for strep... AGAIN. Trying a different antibiotic, hoping to stop this tennis match soon.

His smile is changing... So grown up. And it's not my smile or Fernando's... It's his own.

Daniel just held up a piece of cheese and then pointed to his mouth. "This side is the good guys side and this other side is the bad guys side. Let's see who gets more cheese."

Me and my baby, at the train park today. Fall is almost here. And by almost I mean: It was still really hot out.

The happiness that Fall brings me is ridiculous. Daniel agrees... we drove to work with windows down, enjoying the cool air and he declared, "This is an AWESOME morning!" Agreed, little man.

Soulful

This is an old photo (April), but still my favorite of Daniel this year.  

It's just so... soulful.  

How I love him.  

Like Father Like Son

In a lot of ways, they are duplicates of each other.


Like the way their eyebrows peak at exactly the same place on each eye.  And their legs - spitting images, especially when they walk.  And how their fingers bend every so slightly in exactly the same direction.

Amaro genes are strong, apparently.

But they truly are carbon copies of each other when they sleep.

Their facial expressions... their body movements... the way they stretch... the way they wake up (slowly)... it's uncanny.

And adorable.

Vintage Memory

Of all the fancy photos I did with my nice camera, this might be my favorite memory of Daniel and Fernando from the beach (taken, of course, with my iPhone).

I just think we're gonna look back on this one and smile.

Beach Bums

My son is a beach bum.  Not gonna lie... I'm pretty happy about this.

As a kid, I was a water rat.  So it was beyond fun to relive my youth and watch Daniel splashing in the waves of the Pacific ocean last week.

After camping, we hit San Diego, our other favorite place in the world.  It wasn't Daniel's first time, but he thoroughly enjoyed showing Violet the ropes - they were inseparable.  Violet was cold on the beach (she and I spent most of the time cuddled under towels) but Daniel didn't let the temperature stop him.  He and Fernando spent hours digging in the sand, carting water in buckets from the ocean, and just playing in the waves.

Daniel loved our little hotel, and days after we came back to Arizona, continued to talk about "when we were at our other house tomorrow".  Which of course means "yesterday".  Which of course means "sometime in the past".

There are lots of other photos of the San Diego trip HERE on the photography blog, and HERE on Violet's blog.  But those are just a handful of my favorites in regards to our a vacation through the Daniel Filter.

My Mini Photog

My sweet little man took his camera on our recent camping trip, and managed to take some pretty amazing shots with that little blue plastic wonder.

May I present... Daniel's camping trip, through his own eyes :)

Vacation Bliss

Ah, the bliss of vacation. A few days away from reality in our favorite spot... Sedona. It was Daniel's 2nd time (Violet's 1st) but he was too young the first time to remember. Everything from the s'mores to the sleeping bags were new and exciting to him.

Cold enough to require serious snuggling at night but warm enough to warrant some cold creek swimming, we managed to hit the "sweet spot" for camping up north. Our theme song for the trip ("Knee Deep" by the Zac Brown Band) was replayed so many times the kids ended up learning the words.

Daniel could have played in that creek forever... or rolled in that grass forever... or roasted marshmellows forever... or thrown rocks in the river forever... so he kept telling us. And he and Violet were absolutely inseparable the whole time. It's precious to watch them choose each other when they don't have to.

More artsy photos HERE... and more fun photos on Violet's blog, HERE... but here are a handful of fun Daniel memories from our favorite trip yet.

Four Haircuts Later...

We took Daniel to get a haircut and instead ended up with four haircuts.  He was actually really entertained by the progression.  (And we were really entertained by the mullet stage.)

We all love the resulting faux hawk except that he HATES having his hair looks crazy or stand up.  At all.  So, it just kind of lays there now.

Bike Night

Fernando went to "Bike Night" at a nearby mall... you know, hundreds of Harleys, lots of noise and lots of leather.

So we had our own bike night at home... you know, crayons, silly photos, and printed pictures of motorcycles just begging to be colored.

We are bad to the bone, baby.

Someone Special With Blue Eyes

Daniel will be an excellent writer someday.  His level of description and creativity astounds me, even in routine tasks.  He has begun to identify us in fun ways that we have to "figure out".  For example:  "I need someone special with blue eyes to turn off the lights for me."  I'm sure this has something to do with the way his teacher at school calls students to help with classroom chores, but I still love it.  Nothing like a 4-year-old calling his mom "someone special with blue eyes".  

But I digress.

Last week, I decided to try it in reverse.  I was cooking dinner and was elbow deep in a bowl of something.  

I said, "I need someone special with brown eyes to bring me a big spoon."

Daniel didn't hesitate, even though I was looking directly at him (and no one else was in the room).  "Daddy and Violet have brown eyes, too."  

He just stared at me, waiting for me to be more specific, I guess.

I said, "I need someone special with super hero undies to bring me a big spoon."

Without batting an eye, Daniel yanked his shorts down and cranes his head around to see who is on his bootie that day.  Spiderman.  

He began jumping up and down, yelling, "It's me! It's me!  The someone special is me!"  (As if he didn't see this one coming.)  He brought me the spoon and we proceeded with cooking dinner. 

I know this wide-eyed innocence won't last forever, but it's sure fun while it's here.  

The Baby Rohl Complex

So, after Violet's 2nd birthday party (Viomi), Daniel developed a tiny complex.  Tiny as in small and plastic, with a onesie.

Violet was given a baby doll (Baby Rosie) and fell in love with playing Mommy - she carts that baby everywhere and dotes on it.  Daniel immediately followed suit with one of Violet's other dolls (which he has now adopted as his own).  He even named the baby:  Baby Rohl.  Don't ask me where the name came from... we have no idea.


Update:  Baby Rohl is out and Baby Karate is in.  Very in.  I'm writing this update in OCTOBER, people.  Baby Karate (also named by Daniel for who knows what reason) has become his "child".  For months now, if Violet is playing with her dolls (and even if she isn't) Daniel constantly tells me that Violet is Baby Rosie & Baby Sydney's Mommy and he is Baby Karate's Daddy.  And together we are one big family.  They frequently put the babies to sleep and admonish anyone in the house (including Mittens) if too much noise is made.  I suppose this is a byproduct of having a little sister... and I don't mind one bit.