This past weekend was full of holiday celebrations. We had a bbq every single day of the long weekend! The Snyders kicked off the weekend first with their annual bbq. Each year gets more and more complicated because all the kids keep increasing in size and number! We had about 8 kids there, all boys! Eventually our friends with their two daughters came.
Now here is the youngest addition to the party. 3-month old Jude with his mommy, Amanda. Isn't he cute? Perhaps I should say HE was the least trouble of all. He slept a bunch of the time!
No bbq would be complete without a game of wiffle ball. The kids loved to run around the field, but admittedly they didn't quite get the game. Dads played while their kids ran alongside them, got them the ball, and some of the older kids swung the bat.
The next day the Snyder's attended a b-day celebration bbq. Ethan was glad to find his friends Abby and Macy whom he saw just the day before!
Here is a little video clip of our stay...
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One of the highlights of Fort Lauderdale's downtown area is their Museum of Discovery and Science. There we got to walk through an exhibit showcasing Florida's aquatic life, play in the toddler area, and introduce Ethan to advanced scientific concepts! Magnetism, for one. Ethan knows full well how magnets work--but only on the refrigerator in our kitchen! Here we are at a table where you can see how magnetism can "rub off" on other pieces so that they stick together.
Another really fun part of the museum was their aerospace center. We got to try out flight simulators, take a look at certain parts of an airplane, and even sit in a real cockpit! David and Ethan got to fly together as you can see here, while I tried my hand at flying a cessna. I crashed. Twice. Looks like my career as pilot is shot!
Today we went to the Flamingo Gardens to check out their wildlife sanctuary, aviary and botanical gardens (location hint!) Here I am standing next to something called a champion tree. It was huge! One of the neat things about this place were all the birds. For one thing, they had peacocks everywhere. I will forever be traumatized by this one little guy who apparently felt rather threatened by Ethan. Ethan stood several feet away but was looking right at it, and before I knew it, this peacock spread his feathers in all his glory. It was spectacular, but also frightening.
Of course, I wanted a picture. The peacock walked around in a circle, so we crouched low and waited for him to turn around again. Snap! The picture went. Then before I knew it, I heard a strange sound behind me and this peacock started charging with that magnificent plumage. I grabbed Ethan and started running, but he fell, and the peacock was still coming! I turned around and swung my bag at it. How stupid. Ethan was on the ground crying from a scratch, and here I was swinging my bag at a bird. David was stunned that he saw what looked like me dragging my own son away from a harmless bird. I don't know, but I had flashbacks of Jurassic Park and raptors in my mind. That SOUND... I admit, I was a bit shook up for the rest of the visit.
By dinnertime we were well recovered, especially after some deep-fried seafood! Ethan has a big smile on his face, doesn't he? He should...after his favorite food: pepperoni pizza. And it wasn't bad pizza, either. We are, after all, in the Venice of the US (location hint AGAIN!).
Several days ago we had dinner with some friends of ours. We were to bring dessert, and I was wanting to eat something really special. My mother had this New York Times recipe that she had wanted to try this past Christmas, but we never got to making it. Mom, I have to tell you, this dessert is GOOD! I will definitely be making this again. Layers of brownie, chocolate pudding, chocolate whipped cream, chopped chocolate and fresh raspberries make this trifle a definite treat. The only shortcut I took was to use brownie mix rather than making them from scratch, but all the other ingredients were made according to the recipe. Delicious! Bittersweet chocolate, unsweetened cocoa and tart raspberries are in perfect harmony. Now if only I could make my layers more even in that trifle bowl...
For the past few months we've been considering a difficult decision, and today it all came to a head. Our dear kitty, Eddie, needed to find a new home. Rather than putting him in a shelter we put an ad in the paper and were surprised how quickly we got responses. The first day of our ad (today) we got two phone calls, and the first one decided to indeed adopt him as his own. A nice, older gentleman came over tonight to meet Eddie, and they immediately took to each other. Eddie is such a nice kitty, after all! Here we are saying our last goodbyes.
I tried to find some old pictures of Eddie. I've had him for 8 years, and adopted him as a kitten. But here is a photo taken about one year ago. I think it summarizes well our life with Eddie, and the relationship between him and Ethan. To our surprise, Ethan understood what was happening, and when the car pulled away, he immediately began to cry. "More cat!" he kept crying. Later that evening he asked, "Where's Eddie go?" in his toddler English. It made me sad. Eddie's new owner, Murray, promised "visitation rights", and we offered free cat-sitting when he goes on vacation. So perhaps we will see Eddie again.
A few days later I made some jello jigglers for a little girl I know who just had her tonsils removed. Our friends, the Schmidtgalls, have two little girls, and they now BOTH have had this operation done. No fun for them, and no fun for mom either. This was my first attempt to make these things and I think they came out pretty well. But boy, are they sweet!
This is a zoomed in snapshot of baby at 12 weeks. Baby moved around quite a bit at this appointment, and I was able to see the legs squirming to and fro. I was able to see the umbilical cord, too. In this photo the legs are somewhat concealed. What you see is mostly the crown to rump (or butt) here.
This past weekend, the Snyder family drove to Louisville, KY to attend the wedding of my cousin, Victor (That's Vicky's cousin). It was a lovely ceremony at a beautiful cathedral in downtown Louisville, and the reception was at an arts center just outside downtown. Very chic! And the food was yummy! My cousin Vic is a chef, so he knows food...
I didn't get as many photos of family as I wanted to. It's hard to do that when you're looking after a toddler! But we had Cuestas from all over the globe: Japan, Russia, Australia, Canada, Europe. We're all over this crazy planet! Ethan had a great time dancing, as you can see from the slideshow. More photos to come of our stay in Louisville...
It's hard to see in these pictures, but most of Ethan's skin will look normal after about 6 months. However, there will be some scarring of those trouble spots we keep mentioning. You can see one of the spots just below the crook of his elbow.
All of this pink skin is new, healthy skin. We will need to be vigilant about sun protection the next year, after which we will see what the final scarring will look like. I had a similar injury as a small child, and already I recognize the scar tissue on Ethan, because I had the same kind of skin on my right thigh. But by the time I reached my twenties, it was hardly noticeable!
Maybe we can chalk it up to "mommy mush brain"! I want to give a special shout out to Grandma and Grandpa Cuesta ("Pipaw") for the colorful Zoobooks subscription they started for Ethan earlier in the year as an early birthday gift. It's one that will keep on giving, for sure! Every month we get a magazine focusing on one animal. It's filled with pictures, educational info, even an activity page. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
