Getting back into our routine

Well, we had a good trip back home last Sunday and Monday.  We left late on Sunday, getting a few last minute things done with Rebeca and finding a few extra minutes to take some pictures.

 We will miss this little boy terribly.  It's just not the same doing Facetime.

We will miss how he used to love to press the button to make his walker play "Oh Susanna" because he knew that would make us dance and clap and sing to that music.  We will miss how he would put his palms up and say, "ah?!" questioningly, meaning "what happened?"  We will miss how he would stand in front of all of his books, hold his hands up and go, "Ahhhhhhh", because he was entirely thrilled with how many good books there were for us to read to him.  We will miss how he would put his forefinger up, meaning: "hear that?", whenever he would hear a motorcycle.  Guillermo will miss seeing Scotty walk over to him with the two little French books in his hands, because only Abuelito can read those books to him correctly.  I will miss seeing Scotty run towards me as fast as he could, laughing, knowing that when he got to me, I would lift him up over my head and then give him millions of kisses.  There are hundreds more things we will miss.

Scotty was sitting in his high chair, having lunch, when we left so that made it a LITTLE bit easier to leave.  Still, it was quite sad......

  Then we stopped in Benson to have lunch with Roy.  Thank goodness for usually having lunch with Roy.  It gives us a little something to look forward to after leaving Rebeca's house.  We always enjoy meeting up with Roy.

We got as far as El Paso the first night, staying in a different hotel than usual which turned out to be just fine.  We had good weather to El Paso and good weather home from there.  The only little glitch is that an engine light came on, of course right after we left Fort Stockton so we were basically out in the middle of nowhere.  Checking the car's manual, it didn't seem imperative to stop immediately so we kept driving to Sonora where we had a garage check it out.  They claimed it "no big deal" and turned off the light.  

Last Full Day in Tucson

We had a nice breakfast at Millies Pancake Haus with family....

Scotty loved being with Charlie and his motorcycle.

Two pictures

Scotty is going to start going to a little school on Monday so today he had his first little trial stay there in the school.  It was an observation day for Rebeca and Jason.  It didn't go as well as they had hoped.  It started off great  - while Rebeca and Jason were still in the room with him.  But as soon as he realized they had stepped out, he basically did a lot of heavy duty crying and screaming.  There were brief periods of calmness but those were short.  Being in the room right next door to where he was, Rebeca and Jason could plainly hear him all upset and it was so hard for them.  The school is a good one and very inviting and bright and fun so we know that as soon as Scotty has gotten used to the place, as soon as he builds a relationship with one of the teachers there, he will actually love the place.

Only 3 days left here..... And Happy Birthday to Mom!!

First and Foremost, Happy Birthday to you, Mom!!!  We hope you had a nice birthday and I'm glad you were able to "talk" with Scotty a little bit on the phone when I called you.
Some random pictures from the last few days....

This little guy just LOVES walking around out in the yard, which is something he has just recently started doing.  He loves being outside so much that when it's time to go inside, he gets MAD!!

This is the first time he WALKED to the mailbox (he usually is in his stroller).  Here he is handing Guillermo the key to the mailbox as we get closer to it.

He loves his nightly bath!

Those are quite some faces the two of them are making.  Scotty said his first Spanish word today - pez.  Which means fish.

So, after he had to come inside this morning, he was inconsolable until he was able to sit at the front door and look AT the outside.

Enjoying the outside in the afternoon

This time, when it was time for him to go inside,  I had plans for him to look at something inside that he loves and that I knew would distract him from the fact that he was actually leaving the outside.  Fortunately, it worked and he came inside happily.

Visiting the Santa Rita Mountains

Nice relaxing Saturday today.  We drove out to Green Valley, to a place called La Posada.  La Posada is a retirement community and they hired the firm Rebeca works for to design many of their gardens and signage.  So, Rebeca has had a big role in the design of many things there and for the longest time we have wanted to go out there to see it in person.  The gardens and the park were so nice and relaxing.  The people who live in that community must really really enjoy visiting that area.

After visiting La Posada, we drove to Madera Canyon.  We sat on some benches with a lot of other people for a while to watch some birds and hummingbirds and it was so amazing to see how little Scotty loved watching the birds, too.  The hummingbirds were at a feeder quite close to us so he got to see the hummingbirds really well.  He just loved it.

After Madera Canyon, we drove to Tubac where we had lunch and from there we drove to Tumacacori.  Scotty was asleep by then so I stayed in the car with him while Guillermo and Rebeca visited the mission.  Guillermo says that his mother and her brother Henry long time ago climbed around on the walls of that church so visiting there had special meaning for them both.

Fun Sunday at the zoo

Today we met Camille, Reid and their daughter Iris at the zoo!  We enjoyed spending time with them there and getting to meet little Iris.  The weather was just perfect!

Scotty and Rebeca doing the Giraffe Encounter.  This is where people get to feed a giraffe some carrots.

Scotty fascinated with the giraffe sticking out his tongue!

Scotty and Iris watching a Great Hornbill bird.  It was making an interesting call. 

Taking a lunch break before seeing the second half of the zoo.

After our lunch there, we met up with Camille's mom, aunt and cousin who went with us through the second half of the zoo.  That was a lot of fun!