A video from yesterday

Scotty hardly crawls anymore.  And he just LOVES pushing that popper around!

Typical Monday

On Monday, Feb. 23rd, Rebeca left for work and came back just a few minutes later with a flat tire.  So, we all piled in the other car and took her to work.  Since we hadn't had breakfast, we stopped at AJ's Supermarket in the La Encantada Shopping Center.  We picked out a few things for breakfast and ate in their sunroom, which was very nice.                                     

 Then we looked for a baby book called Tails, but they said they were out of stock.  Guess we're going to have to run by there again one of these days.

After having breakfast we drove to Tucson's Botanical Gardens to show Scotty the Butterfly Exhibit they have there right now.  He was FASCINATED with the butterflies and with the fish in the little stream. 

Then we walked around the rest of the gardens a bit.  Scotty loved the seed discovery boxes in the Children's Discovery Garden.

The train set and village they have there is adjacent to the Children's Garden and it is quite impressive.  Scotty just LOVED seeing that little train go by that is approaching from the bottom of the picture.

Today's picture

After running around to stores - trying out his new little fire engine!

Drive #2

Friday, Guillermo and I took a little drive again.  We drove towards Willcox, and since we got to Willcox a little early (the Sandhill Cranes usually arrive around 5:30pm), we decided to go ahead and get our hotel room and then go to the lakes.  On our way to find a hotel, we saw a bunch of police cars with their lights flashing ahead of us at some business.  As we approached, we saw that there were many many police outside their cars WITH THEIR GUNS DRAWN!!  It was a little scary driving past that because who KNOWS what was going on.  All we could see was some guy standing in the middle of the driveway with his hands up.  We were happy to get away from THAT, and decided not to get a room in the hotel right across the street from it.  At the hotel we picked, there was no one in the lobby, so we decided to come back later.
We drove on to the lakes and the Sandhill Cranes were already there, hanging around on the ground close to the lakes.   So we parked our car, walked to a good vantage point and then we stood around for a while to see what was going to happen.  As it got later, we saw groups of cranes sometimes just lift up and take off.  Some of the groups were amazing to watch and we just loved the whole spectacle.  We walked around the whole lake with two other people and that was interesting.  When we felt like it was over, we drove back into Willcox, the police situation was over and we got our room at Days Inn.

Video of the cranes: http://youtu.be/hGeu2uGCa2M

and another; http://youtu.be/a3_N47bivfk

The next day, Saturday, we left Willcox and drove around the lake areas, trying out a trail or two.  We didn't see much, but we did see a Great Horned Owl on a huge nest.  That was exciting.  Our plan was to see the cranes coming in at 11am from a different vantage point - which was a platform by a power plant but that turned out to be disappointing.  Simply because the cranes flew in very very high, and they didn't stop at the lakes by the power plant.  

So, we left there, drove to Tombstone, where we had lunch.  Then we drove towards Sonoita and decided to drive to Parker Canyon Lake because Guillermo's brother Charlie had said he would be there.  When we got to the lake, we couldn't find Charlie's truck anywhere so we just headed back to Tucson.  Charlie later told us he WAS there, but even if we had found his truck, we wouldn't have seen him because he was on a boat out on the lake at the time we were there.

Drive #1 was to the Chiricahua mountains, and we went on Feb. 14th.  

That weekend Guillermo and I planned to give Rebeca and Jason a little time without us being around so we decided to take a drive out to the Chiricahua Mountains, following the same route Fernando and I had taken on a drive back from Tucson back in about 2004 or so.  We exited I-10 on Dragoon Rd. and drove through Sunsites, looking for the same place for lunch that Fernando and I had eaten at.  We couldn't find it so we drove on past Sunizona until we saw a sign that said no services from that point.  So we thought we better turn around and find a place to eat in Sunizona.  We had lunch at a very typical country cafe called Sandy's.

Then we drove on into the Chiricahuas.  We stopped first at the visitor center and bought a few things there before walking a little on a trail right by the center.

Then we got back in the car and drove to the end of the road where we walked along the Massai Nature Trail and saw the Balanced Rock.  Then we walked Echo Canyon Trail to Echo Canyon Grotto.  

This is on the Massai Nature Trail

And now we're on the Echo Canyon Trail and in the Grotto section of the trail

Then we left there and drove past the trail called Natural Bridge Trail which we had taken back in 1979 when Rebeca was 7 months old.  That is one hike we will NEVER forget because it was such a beautiful cloudless day to be taking a hike up the trail with her.  We stopped up high on the trail somewhere to give Rebeca a little snack and as we snacked up there, we saw this little speck of a little white cloud coming over the ridge.  We quickly became alarmed when that little white cloud seemingly within minutes blew  up into this HUGE dark menacing cloud and the next thing we knew it was starting to rain with thunder and lightning.  We were stunned at how quickly it all unfolded.  Anyway, since Guillermo was carrying Rebeca on his back in a backpack type thing, our only choice was for him to run back down the trail as fast as he could with her and get her inside the car.  That left me lagging behind them,.  I tell you, I was terrified.  Not only because it was raining, thundering and lightning lall around us ike crazy, but I was just worried sick at how Rebeca must be feeling and that she must be just screaming in that little backpack as her daddy was running down in the storm with her.   Guillermo told me later that Rebeca did not make one sound  the entire way down, We figured she must have perceived that this was a very serious thing and so she hunkered down against his back  and just trusted her daddy to get her to safety.  Thinking about it now, that was a very dangerous situation for us to be in and we realized it then, but it just seemed the best thing to do was to get her off that trail as quickly as possible.  There was no place to hide. 

As we drove past that trail, we felt grateful that things turned out ok so many years ago.  We also drove by the campground we stayed at that year.  

Then we left the Chiricahuas and found the road that Fernando and I had taken so many years ago.  He and I were headed back to San Antonio so we took a little road that was part dirt, but it seemed to be a shortcut.  I remember back then how horrible that road was but how interesting it was at one point to be driving through what felt like an Ocotillo Forest.  When we got to that part of the road this year, it was a little disappointing because the ocotillos were barren and brown and the whole area didn't look anywhere near as impressive as it did back then.

Sure doesn't look like anything close to an Ocotillo Forest.  But my memory of how pretty it was when we drove through there in July many years ago reminds me that it certainly CAN look pretty foresty around here!

We then drove back to Willcox and got to the lake area in time to see the Sandhill Cranes coming in.  We were planning on staying the night in Willcox but texting with Rebeca made us realize we should get back to Tucson.  Turns out that Scotty was having a high fever and Rebeca was also starting to feel sick again.  So, without question, we drove back to Tucson.  The drive this day was so enjoyable and Guillermo and I had such a good time.

And the most important thing!

On Monday, February 16th, we say Scotty started walking!

On that day, after lunch, and after washing him up, I put him down on the rug (which is the usual routine).  But this time, instead of wanting to sit, he stiffened his legs and stood there.  He had actually been doing that before a few times and taking a few steps but this time, much to my amazement, he walked all the way over to the patio window - a total of 47 steps!!!!!!!

That was so exciting!  As we've always done when he takes steps, we start counting and when I got past 20, I just couldn't believe that he was continuing on!!!  His previous records were 15 steps and 18 steps, but on this day, he just blew his previous records away!!  It seems that ever since that 47 step moment, he does more walking than crawling.  Today is Friday and he just walks around like an old pro!

I have my laptop back

Well, when we arrived here in Tucson on Jan. 6th, I plugged my laptop in probably the next day and it was totally dead.  Nothing worked to get it to turn on.  So, a few days later I took the laptop in for repair.  That was at the beginning of January and I just got it back a week ago!  They had the thing for almost a month and a half!!! I wasn't worried with how long they kept it because they kept me up-to-date frequently on what was happening.  It seemed they were having a tough time figuring it out and knowing my laptop, I'm sure it was giving them fits.  But it's working again and that's what's important.  Who knows how long it's going to continue lasting, but we shall see.

When I don't have the laptop, I miss it but not all that much really.  My tablet does a pretty good job and I'm really used to just using that.  I also got so used to using Guillermo's laptop when we were in Europe that if something absolutely has to be done on a laptop, his laptop does the job just fine.  As much as I love my tablet though, there is something about a laptop that I find it's absolutely necessary to have one.  So, it's nice to be able to use my laptop again and here's hoping it lasts for some time longer.

To the Zoo again, Yay!

Things are so much back to normal that we went to the zoo again today!  The last time we went was right before Scotty got sick so it's been quite a while.
We had quite a nice time with the Baby Boy today.  He was so entranced with all the giraffes and elephants, he loved seeing the ostriches walking around, and he loved watching all the birds in the aviary.  We just love watching his face when he sees all the animals.  His face is filled with such wonder and awe.  He rides in a stroller most of the time, but when we're in front of an animal, we lift him out so that he can see the animal better.

He had fun with this stone that was by the elephants.

The Tucson Zoo is just the right size.  We do half of the zoo and then it's time to sit down and have a little lunch.  This energizes us for the last half of the zoo.

We look forward to taking him to the library tomorrow for Baby Story Time (which we have gone to 3 times already and he just loves it, but we have had to miss the last two times because he was sick) and we look forward to taking him to the zoo again next week!

Yay for weekends

So, Scotty still has a runny nose, but he is back to his old self.  Rebeca seemed to be getting better but yesterday said she felt like she was having allergy problems.  Guillermo today didn't feel all that well and fortunately was able to get a lot of rest this morning and early afternoon, which seemed to have helped tremendously by mid-afternoon.  Myself, - I'm still not 100% but I'm a WHOLE lot better than I have been the last 4 days or so.

We are so ready to be away from being sick!!

Enjoying juice from a cup and he has a spoon in his hand and tries his hardest to lift up food, but it's just so difficult!

Did this post on Feb. 2nd, but never uploaded it!!

Oh well, here it is now - 5 days later.

We took Scotty to the Zoo last week.  It was great watching him look at all the animals!  All the animals that we usually talk with him about as we're reading books with him at home.  Tucson has a very nice zoo and we were thankful that it was a smaller zoo so that we could see the whole thing before Scotty got tired.   We took him to the Zoo story time and then later we got to hear the jaguars and the tigers roar!

Guillermo got this wagon out that Rebeca and Jason have and we lined it with towels for Scotty.  Oh my goodness does he love being pulled around in the yard!  It's good for us, too, because that little boy gets quite heavy after a while!

Every day we pull up to the vegetable garden that Guillermo planted out back and we check on how much the plants have grown.  Then we pull up to a cactus and I pull out a tuna for him to hold.  He always holds on to that tuna tight as we tour around the yard.  When it's time to go in, he hands me the tuna back and I place it back on the cactus for next time.

Here we are giving Scotty a steamy bathroom to hang around in for a little while.  His cold was horrible and it was hard for him to breathe.

He's sick here but still looking happy.

It was so good to see him eating a little bit of SOMEthing.

Rough week

We've all been a little sick.  Nothing major - just colds, but it's worse when a baby is sick.  Poor Scotty has had a terrible cold.  He's finally getting better and we've all been just elated to see him eating and enjoying his food again!

I will try to get some pictures on here this week.