Lovey Dovey!

We have been enjoying our last days of summer now that I am not puking all day! We went for an afternoon to Lake Calhoun and had fish fries at the lake and ice cream for dessert. It hit me when looking at these pictures just how big Ignacio has gotten. He is such a beautiful little ball of light that makes me smile and believe in the possibility of anything every day. There really are no words to describe just how in love I am with my kid and what my family has become. Ignacio is funny, kind, empathetic and smart. He keeps me on my toes and some days in the past few months has kept me just going in general.

"Lalo, lalo, lalo.....!!!!!!" It echoed through the pavillion at the park. It's Ignacio's way of saying ice cream in Spanish and as I sat and ate my food while Angel took him to stand in line for "lalo" I could hear Ignacio screaming with excitement that in only a few short seconds an creamy and cold dessert would be in his hands. Ignacio lives "out loud" and it is one of my favorite things about him.

Ignacio's language is taking off. Here are some of his most recent achievements:

I sneezed and he said, "Salud mama!" to which I looked at him in wonderment and said, "Gracias!"

When I was dancing like a dork he said, "Go mama, go mama."

When sitting at the dinner table he mimicked me and said, "Mama says no!"

He can count to 10, knows four colors and four letters. Kindergarden? PLEASE!!!!

Ignacio is a character and he has started to intentionally do things that make us laugh, much like a jester. His sense of humor is RIGHT up my alley and I love that I "get" my kid. With a goofball for parents his chances of turning out perfectly "normal" are minimal but, as my mom used to say, "Do you want a "normal mom?" How boring is normalcy!

Table for four please! Ignacio has really taken to all his little amiguitos and this night at dinner he decided they were all dining in. He is so kind and generous to his little friends, often offering them food and drink from his. Recently however a few of them have been acting up because he is frequently telling the kitty and elephant "NO, NO!" I'm not getting in the middle of that one!

Ignacio always has to leave the house with something and that is why our living room and my car's backseat are a revolving toy box. He always grabs the biggest item in the house like his sit n' spin and looks at me, hoping that today might be the day something bigger than a kleenex box will make it out the door. I then break the news to him that it is staying home and, at the point when most kids would have a nervous breakdown and throw themselves into a tantrum, he drops it and picks up something else substantially smaller and makes his way past me.