Trucks!

Happy Halloween!

Diego At Play

Diego is a power player. It's all about peddling, driving, picking up and dumping garbage, smooshing play-dough, reading truck books, racing trucks, crashing trucks, lining up trucks, piling trucks, you get the idea. He's a kid with a plan and that plan usually involves a truck. We are constantly amazed by how fun and creative our little guy can be when it comes to playing.

He likes to ride his tricycle, but hates the helmet. He'd rather live on the edge without head protection. This just doesn't fly with mommy, so he grudgingly lets us put one on, then asks if he can take it off two seconds later.



Diego is very interested in categorizing and counting. Here he is doing some truck inventory. Believe it or not, I think there are a few missing from the photo.


Often, Diego will invent scenarios with his trucks. Here he is creating a traffic jam. When I came in the room, he was yelling at the other cars to get out of the way. After I took the photos, he got out his fire engine with the siren and made all the cars move over.


Tough day on the road for this dude and this penguin.


When I showed the following photo to Diego, he said, "Good morning!" I don't know what that means, but I removed the baby doll and a day later she was back in the same spot. Hmmm.



Sometimes Diego needs some 'me' time.

Music Appreciation

Diego just can't eat his lunch without a little Belafonte.



They're gonna go on tour soon.

An Interview With A Two Year Old

Diego had a fabulous birthday last month. He had a special visit from Grandma, Auntie Ali and Uncle Josh and if that wasn't enough, he had a blowout party with more family and friends. For Diego, the whole purpose of having a birthday is to have a cake, with candles and people to sing "Happy Birthday." He had all that and more. After he blew out the candles, he was so charged with excitement, he did a nice face plant right into the cake. Ah, that's how it should always be.



Thank you to Auntie Carina for the photos.

I was going to tell you how and what Diego is doing as a two-year-old, but maybe it's best to let him tell you in his own words. I gotta say, getting this interview was tough. Sometimes a toddler just doesn't want to talk to the press.

Count Down to Two

Diego has really kicked it into high gear in anticipation of his 2nd birthday next month. Apparently, he still has a few things to cross of his To-Do-While-I'm-Still-One list. In the past month Diego helped raise money for the ACRS Food Bank, fostered his garbage truck/dumping obsession, met some of his family from Malaysia, had a sleepover with his cousins, got a "hawk-on-top" haircut, spent some time out doors au natural, cut some canine teeth, met Bella the dog, and drove numerous buses and tractors.

He's currently packing for a trip to visit Grandma, Pop, & etc. in Colorado next week. Here are some highlight photos from the past month. We'll talk to you on the flip side of the big two mark.

Big Head

Walk for Rice

When Diego gets hungry, he can really eat! Some of his favorite foods are lamb, beef, rice, noodles, soy beans, broccoli, mushrooms, pear, and just about anything you can dip in ketchup and mustard.



Luckily, we are able to give him all the nutritious food he needs to keep his little body healthy and his cheeks chubby. There are some parents who struggle to do this for their kids on a daily basis and they live right in our community here in Seattle. This is why we are participating in the Walk for Rice (WFR) this Saturday at Seward Park.

The WFR is a family fun run and walk that raises money for the ACRS Food Bank, which is located in Seattle's International District. This wonder of a food bank is one of the most-used food banks in King County. Nearly 5,000 households - two-thirds of whom are children under the age of 18 and elders the average age of 75 - rely on the food bank and its four satellite locations to get enough to eat. It is also the only food bank in Washington that regularly distributes foods for Asian and Pacific Islander diets. Please join us in helping to fill its shelves by joining our team and/or sponsoring us in the event.

Helping is easy. You don't even have to get up from where you are sitting. You can click here to go to our team page to join us or to donate online. If you do want to get up from your chair, then you can throw on some comfy shoes and meet us at Seward Park this Saturday, June 20, and bring your money donation at that time. Donations are also accepted in the form of unopened bags of rice.

Thank you to all who have and will donate to this cause. If you miss this opportunity, please consider donating food or money to this or any local food bank throughout the year. Hunger is a living, breathing problem that can be solved if we all do our part.


Mommy and Diego at the 2008 Walk for Rice

Summer's Coming!

It has been a big month for Diego. He's been playing and learning at the speed of light. Actually, some of that speed earned him his first shiner. Luckily, it was pirate day at Gymboree that week.



So along with some extra head protection, Diego has been continuing his obsession with the solar system (he's memorized all of them), the alphabet (he can identify all the capital letters and is working on the lower-case), colors (all down pat, except those tricky ones like gray or khaki), and is starting to use sentences and better pronunciation ('gaga' has graduated to 'garbage' finally!).

Diego is also enjoying his life as a very active and happy toddler in the warmer weather. Our backyard seems to hold endless intrigue and delight for him, especially when water is involved.



We're hoping that whole potty learning thing will happen sometime this summer, but we're not putting money down on the table. We figure it'll happen when it happens and until then, we can be outside when wearing the underwear.

Of course with warmer weather, simple pleasures like frozen treats just can't get any better. Also knowing which hand is which is a priceless skill no matter where your spoon may be.



All in all, with Diego coming up on 22 months, we continue to be amazed by his humor, his sweetness and his enormous noggin that holds a very, very smart brain. Every day is such a joy with him and we're more than happy to sit back and watch him grow.

Eww!

Diego has been taking great pride in his new yard. He is an expert at spreading dandelion seeds, squirting passersby with the hose and now he's taking on the slugs. We have a huge snail colony living in our front yard and the other day it was just the right temperature and humidity to bring them all out of hiding. That's when we pounced.



Diego felt a little conflicted at letting us use his sand bucket for snail collecting, but soon got into the spirit and only tried to free the snails once.

Snail spotted,
snail plucked,


snail dumped,

snail cache!

Eww!

Egg Hunt

Gone 19

Diego is having a great time being 19 months old. He loves to practice counting and with a little encouragement, he can count to 20! He is also working hard on identifying letters with the help of his trusty refrigerator magnets. He's improving his shape knowledge and has been working getting those pesky colors down. This can be pretty difficult since his parents seem to see colors differently. What daddy thinks is gray, mommy calls green. Hmmm.

Since Diego no longer lives on Capitol Hill, rainbows are harder to come by so he's been making his own.











The other day, Diego received a huge box from the FedEx man. After a very suspense building de-packaging, he found a kitchen inside!


Thank you to Grandma and Pop for sending this fabulous thing! One of the best parts about this toy is that Uncle Josh and Auntie Ali played with this when they were little. Diego spent the first 2 hours with his new kitchen just getting it organized. Now he gets up every morning and can't wait to get cooking.

Knocking on Heaven's Door

Boulder and Nana's Birthday

Diego had a great time in Boulder visiting family. He even got a surprise visit from Daddy, who flew in for just one night! Diego's Pop also traveled from Kansas to join the fun. Diego and Pop had some good times checking out the bee hives and the rest of the wildlife in Grandma's backyard.

As you can see from the photo below, Diego adores his Grandma.

When we arrived at Grandma's house, Diego discovered a play kitchen set that used to belong to Auntie Lala and Uncle Josh. He wasted no time and got straight to work making tea and cake for everyone.


This trip was complete with the drama of a visit to the ER. Unfortunately, Diego had an ear infection that was making him feel very sick. Luckily, after the antibiotics kicked in, he got right back to being his happy lovable self.

Diego loves a good head rub.



After saying goodbye to the Boulder crew, Diego jumped right back into his social duties here in the Northwest by helping his Nana celebrate her birthday. Happy Birthday Nana!

New Home, New President, Same Boy

Diego is settling into his new home and is especially excited about the trash/recycle cans that came with the house. He really likes his new room and seems to feel comfortable in almost every area in the house. We're not sure if he misses our old apartment on Capitol Hill, but he does ask about our old neighbors, Dave and Dotty.

Diego continues to be a chatterbox and loves to use his words. Recently he's been trying to count and likes to sing "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe." He is also working hard on learning his shapes. So far he's mastered star, oval, diamond, and parallelogram (not making this up). He seems to want to go for the more obscure shapes before starting in on the run-of-the-mill square, triangle, circle, etc.

Next week, Diego and Mama are off to celebrate his 18th month with a visit to Boulder to see Grandma, Pop, and Co. Pictures to follow!