Tia Normita and Iñaki visit!

We had so much fun with Tia Normita and Iñaki!!!:) They came from Mexico to celebrate Tonito's birthday, Maya's birthday, and Tonito's baptism, as we have chosen Normita to be Tonito's godmother. Iñaki is only 5 months older than Maya- but of course 5 months make such a difference when they are so little. He is walking, running, and can say "mas," "mama" (my accents aren't working in blogger), "leche," and the kids favorite (because he is so cute when he says it) is "agua." They came late on Wednesday night, and when everyone woke up on Thursday he just joined in and played with them, and let Tonito and Vivi lead the way. Whenever they are around new people they act a little wild and show off (don't we all:)??) and this was no exception. But the chaos and running around hysterically laughing was so fun, and every night the kids were all so tired from all of the activities we did every day.


On Thursday we went to the awesome arboretum where the Children's Garden is second to none. What a fun park!!! There are so many interactive exhibits and these tree house-type climbing playgrounds, slides, water features to play in, and all of it in the middle of a beautiful forest. Tonito hadn't been there before, and he loved going from activity to activity- he's such an easy-going kid who will just have fun no matter where we take him. We had a picnic lunch and then headed home for naps with 4 exhausted kids.



On Friday we went to the zoo. The kids loved the animals, but Maya was TERRIFIED of the dolphins at the dolphin show. We walked in to this loud techno music and were finding our seats in the front row when a huge dolphin jumped out right in front of us- and that was the end of the show for Maya. She was actually trembling with fear, so I went and sat way back up in the stands and turned her towards me. She just hummed and sucked her thumb and self-soothed, pobrecita. No more dolphin shows for us! But good thing she moved us back, because Tonio, Normita, and the kids stayed in the first row and got soaked:). We saw all of our favorites: the monkeys, the penguins, the bears, the elephants, and some others. It was so cute to see the kids holding hands and running through the almost empty zoo (because hurricane Ike started to show up).