CARACAS!!! land of arepas and scotch

we arrived on the 18th thinking we were to head to the coast for some beach and 2 days later nicolas got a weird sounding cough. so we went to the clinic where they took blood and x-rayed his chest to find he had bronchial pneumonia (the beginnings of it) so we began treating him with around-the-clock medicines and therefore no beach. no nice beach. argh.


well that's life though eh? we had a fine christmas and took him out to malls as he got better and he now rules the hernandez household. entertaining us with song and dancing to any music he hears.

the social life here is active and we are enjoying seeing friends and family. we were up late celebrating the beginning of 2007 and nicolas even got excited about all the fireworks in caracas.
photos here include:

nicolas learning karaoke with his godmother - feeding carrots to a camel in the petting zoo and playing with santa`s hat - which was an outfit for the hernandez beagle. :-)

One of my favorite Nico summer stories....

This is a photo of one of my favorite stories about Nicolas. It happened in August when Martha's mom and sister were visiting us (i have alot of posts to make to catch us up to October).

We were on Block Island for the day having a great lunch and giant margaritas (yes!) at the Spring House Hotel. While there we let Nico run up and down a giant hill that the hotel is on. I helped him walk up and down this big hill twice - at his insistance. We started walking back to the Ferry and Nico was so excited and he was grabbing onto the bar of the stroller so he could sit right up.

And then the very next minute when we checked on him - this is how we found him.

We stopped in Ben & Jerry's and i took this photo.:-)

Summer's heatwave

Newport 2 weekends(?) ago. The Foltz family in town for a wedding and we meet to eat Ben & Jerrys on the pier.

Nicolas and we spent the better part of this weekend indoors in the air conditioning sheltered from the non-global-warming heatwave that has made this year the warmest in recorded history in the US. So these photos are from the past 2 weekends or more. :-)
PICTURE GALLERY HERE
hopefully no password needed.

Today Nico enjoyed a 2 hour nap on the sofa - normally he's in the pack 'n' play. So it was his first Sunday-afternoon-sofa-nap and boy he loved it. And was grumpy when we woke him. Naturally. :-)

Summer begins

Nico has been doing all sorts of new things so much so that it's hard to track them. His vocabulary has grown. (UPDATED)

in spanish: zapato, agua (pronounced aqua), mami (not mommy), hola, quack-quack, carro and casa (pronounced calah), pie, alla, tete, tina (pronounced ina), coco, gracias

in english: star, ball, dada, eat, bye, hi, hello, up, grandma (pronounced manma), apple, yum, all done, clock... and he also repeats a lot of new words

Two Nico stories:
2 weeks ago martha was changing Nico in the bathroom preparing him for a bath - when he opened doors under the bathroom sink just enough to pee into the cupboard. :-)

We were with friends who have a little girl (2 years old) and we were changing Nicolas in front of her. When she saw Nico naked she pointed and said "big one! big one!".

:-)

-- more later

Nico walks!

we picked him up at daycare and they told us he had walked around all day - and sure enough he continued that when he got home. :-)

watch it!

AIN't NO MoUNTAIN hIGH ENough....!!

see Nicolas climb the stairs

Nicolas is getting to be a little devil sometimes. You see, he loves to sit on the first few stairs on the staircase and bang on them to get our attention. If we choose to come, he climbs the stairs and if we choose not to come, he climbs the stairs. Either way he's going up. :-)

OTHER THINGS: We have all been pretty sick lately here. Got food poisoned last weekend so we were wiped out and in addition to that, Nico got 2 ear infections. Grumpy times. But it's getting better. He's beginning to eat some solid foods - mostly goldfish crackers - but we are hopeful. He is refusing to walk still which is curious - but that doesn't stop him from getting around.


MORE PICTURES HERE

that's it for now.

nico gets around

We have had a slow time trying to recover our lives and Nico has been helping us by : refusing to eat at night, climbing up the stairs, repeating words like "carro" and "agua", throwing balls and chasing them, pushing the kitchen chairs around, occasionally standing on his own, pouring all our tupperware onto the kitchen floor, clapping his hands together, picking his nose, and putting his toys into our baskets and on our bookshelves. Thanks Nico -- I am certain your granddad is very entertained by you as are we.

gone fishing

My father died on Saturday afternoon the 18th of February.
There is nothing I can write that comes close to the loss we are feeling.

his obituary

This is a photo of me and my dad on the day of my civil wedding to Martha August 28th, 1999.

my dad

it's been awhile since i posted. my dad had a massive stroke a few weeks ago and has had severe complications which means he won't be coming home. we are arranging for him to enter a hospice facility. it is a very sad time for us all.

Happy New Year! South American Style!

Man it's good to have a new year don't you think?


Nicolas stayed up late to celebrate our new year at a beach resort on the venezuelan coast that Martha's brother recommended (he works there) . Nicolas had a great time at the beach. He loved the ocean and the pool and the sand and all of it. Me? I loved the pina coladas and snorkling and... well pretty much everything.



We had a fine christmas too with Nicolas playing baby jesus during a neighborhood Mass. All the neighbors here gather for caroling venezuelan style (involves drums and a cuatro) and then we have treats. A great idea all around. Nicolas is the rock star of our venezuelan tour and get's plenty of attention whereever we go.

Time is flying by and soon we are back to lack-of-sleep lives and cold weather but for now we are spending the next few days enjoying caracas with martha's family and hopefully getting in some more hammock nap-time.

:-)