Costa Rica

Ok, so I guess the slide into a new year and new country hasn't been enough to provoke me to be a better blogger. But thems is the breaks. I would love to post a bunch of pictures of Radar dancing with the monkeys of Costa Rica, but that hasn't happened as of yet. That is not to say that Costa Rica has been anything less than great!

We are loving it! Radar especially is loving it! He's made a bunch of friends, including two imaginary friends (named Bim and Mum Bim... Bim and Mum Bim are actually his hands and when his hands do something they shouldn't (ie, splash water all over the bathroom, throw something they shouldn't, hit Fanny, etc) and I tell him not to do whatever it is that he shouldn't be doing, he tells me that it wasn't him, but it was his friends!) Radar's talking more than ever and I am in love with the age 3! Age three is full of wonderful things like Radar saying to me, "Mama - yo estoy feliz con mi Mama!" (Mama, I am happy with my Mama!) And when I get back from the office, his face explodes into a smile and he sprints towards me for a leaping hug while screaming "Hola Mama!" Last night when we were reading his night time book, he interupted me and said, "Mama, tu fuiste a la oficina hoy un poco. Pero entonces veniste a la casa. Siempre vienes a la casa porque tu quieres mucho a nene." Yes, ladies and gentlemen... my 37 month is talking in full, conjugated, complex, logical sentences and I am so in love with every bit of it (oh, for those who require a translation, he said, "Mama, you went to the office today for a little bit. But then you came to the house. You always come to the house because you love me very much.")

Where was I before that tangent? Anyway, I would post a bunch of pictures, but it seems like I forgot to bring the charger for my good camera (do I get any points for bringing the camera?) What can I say... we've been on a busy adventure and I haven't stopped to write about it.

Anyway - we really are enjoying Costa Rica, although we haven't yet gotten out of San Jose (I still go to work at an office every day). And even though I don't have lots of pictures, I suppose I should post the few I have taken (without any particular context or explanation) and try to do better in the near future so that all of you, and later Radar, will have a good account of our little 2012 adventure!

Lots of love,

Titi and Radar

Pants on

FIRE!

Not to disparage any of you, but if my few readers haven't already caught on to the fact that I'm a bold faced liar when it comes to promising to post, then, well... how to put it politely... you're either unquenchable optimists or just plain dumb!

As for the Christmas plot. I would say that it was a HUGE success! I woke up at 5am, showered, finished packing, walked Fanny and put all our luggage in the car. I took his change of clothes downstairs. We had to be at the airport at about 6:45am, so at 6:30, I woke Radar up with great excitement and told him it was time to go downstairs to see what gifts Santa had left under the tree (after doing pee pee, of course). He immediately woke up and we went downstairs, him giggling and me giggling, both of us tensed up with anticipation.

And then we got downstairs.

And the tension immediately released.

And we stared at the tree.

Then we looked at each other.

With a shrug of my shoulders, I said, “Huh?”

With a shrug of his shoulders, he said, “Huh?”

I immediately grabbed the phone and called Santa. He explained that there had been a misunderstanding and that he hadn't received the message I had left with Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve.

Everybody makes mistakes.

We got on skype and called Grammy to see if indeed Santa had delivered the gifts to Casa Grammy.

She said that she was a little disappointed because she thought the gifts were for her, but she promised she wouldn't open them.

We changed Radar, got in the car and went to the airport. I went up to the counter and explained the emergency situation to the JetBlue agent. She understood and gave us seats on the airplane to Grammy's house.

And we went to Grammy's house and Radar got all his presents.

It was a great big success!

And Radar never got upset about the whole mess.

He's 3 and when you're 3 (instead of terribly 2), you're much more mature and don't freak out over stupid things like no presents under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.

Instead... at 3, you reserve your meltdowns for more serious crisis... like when you get to Grammy's and you see the cereal dispenser has fruit loops in it and you tell your Mama you want fruit loops and she serves you a bowl with milk.

That's right... when you're 3, that is a proper reason to have a full-blown, punching, screaming, crying temper tantrum! Because you wanted to turn the damn handle on the cereal dispenser yourself and you didn't want any damn milk in your cereal! And that there is a good reason to melt down on Christmas morning!

Ugh.

Ok, and I also didn't take pictures of anything having to do with the Christmas plot... but here are a few pictures / video that I did take over the last couple of days, including Radar's first and very successful visit to the dentist!!!

And that's it for this belated report.

Hope to see you one more time on this side of the calendar year!

Lots of love,
Titi and Radar

Santa tracker

Feliz Noche Buena!!!

Today we are gearing up for the final episode of our 2011 Santa Plot (described in previous post & Antonio, I promise that when Radar becomes a proficient reader (as Tia Sara pointed out, likely within the year... I think that's what she said), if I catch him reading through old Radar Love posts, I will quickly delete any mention of there not being a Santa - including this one!)!

Over the past week, Radar has caught me twice talking on the phone to Santa, trying to clear up an apparent misunderstanding:

Me: No, no Santa. No, you must deliver the gifts to Radar's house, NOT Grammy's house.

(pause for Santa's feedback)

Me: I'm not sure why you thought that. We will be here, at Radar's house and we need the gifts to be delivered here. No, not to Grammy's.

(I look up to Radar to get his agreement and he nods in agreement).

And today we're going to use the awesome NORAD/GOOGLE Santa tracker to see Santa's progress. Of course, I imagine that cell phone reception in some of the more remote locations of the world might make it hard to get in touch with Santa, so I really hope he's got it straight!!!!

SANTA TRACKER

You can change the language up at the top, so have fun tracking Santa!!!

Finally, here's just a few pictures from our photo shoot yesterday where I tried to get a decent picture of Radar and Fanny sitting cooperatively and cutely... not such an easy thing to do!

And finally, the winner (that I posted on facebook yesterday as our official Christmas card since I was way too lame to print & send real cards!)

We wish you all a very Merry Noche Buena & I promise to post tomorrow about the success (or flop) of our Christmas plot!

Lots of love,

Titi, Radar, Fanny & Mulligan!

The Santa Plot

I'm pretty stoked that Radar 'gets' a lot more these days. It makes talking (or cursing) in front of him a little harder, but the upside is awesome. For example, he 'gets' that Christmas is just around the corner and that Santa will be coming to bring him a gift if he's a good boy (ok, so the 'you have to be a good boy or Santa won't bring you a gift' angle isn't really working that well). We even sat down and wrote Santa a letter and Radar decided on the gift he wanted - a camera. So now, whenever he sees a picture of Santa or Santa on the tv, he says that Santa is going to bring him a camera.

***spoiler alert - - - if you believe in Santa, please skip to the pictures below***

The thing is, since I have to do Santa's bidding and since none of Santa's elves build any toys here in Nassau, I have to place the Christmas orders online and have them sent to Grammy's house. And since there are no more mules running between South Florida and Nassau before Christmas, that means that when Radar wakes up on Christmas morning, there will be no presents under the tree. And for a 3 year old that 'gets' it - that just plain sucks!

So here's the Santa plot. Although we can't get the gifts here before Christmas, we do have a flight booked to go over to Grammy's on Christmas morning. And I'm not going to tell Radar about that flight. Instead, when we wake up Christmas morning and go downstairs and see NO presents under the tree, I'm going to get really upset and I'm going to call the North Pole! At that point, Santa will explain that he made a terrible mistake and that he delivered the gifts to Grammy's house. I am then going to slam down the phone and we are going to hurriedly pack our suitcase to get to the airport and get to Grammy's house! Of course we'll be calling Grammy somewhere along the line for her confirmation that Santa indeed drop by her house and that he indeed did leave Radar's gifts there.

The reason I think this plot will go over pretty well? See, Radar already thinks that adults are pretty dumb and he really enjoys being smarter than big people. So there's no reason to think that he won't enjoy believing that Santa is just as dumb as the rest of us big people!

Ok - here's a few pictures from yesterday when we put up and decorated our tree (that Santa won't be visiting this coming weekend). Pardon the "Rudolph" look... I didn't realize until I reviewed the pictures this morning that Radar had a clump of squash on the tip of his nose! Oh well!!!

Lots of love,

Titi and Radar

Happy Birthday my three year old Moon

at 8:37 tonight
whether you’re asleep or still awake
i’m going to kiss your sweet face
just like I did for the first time
exactly three years ago at 8:37

as beautiful a picture as words can paint
they just can’t quantify or explain
what you do for my mind and my heart
words fall short

because when you fall sleep
i still study every detail of your face
sometimes tracing the contours of those delicious chubby cheeks with my finger
in absolute wonder
and i actually feel a heat radiate from within me

i feel that heat a lot
when you sing a new song
mangling the words into the sounds as you hear them
or when you never fail to notice that the sun is going down
or that the moon is out
or that the sun has come back up

if i’d read every book in the world
and seen every movie and every play
and been given a lifetime to sit and create
some awesome fictional character with my words
i could never have come up with a character as
unique
and
wonderful
as you

but since words are what i can offer this evening
and since you might actually read these words one day
i’ll write the words that I say to you every single day

i love you i love you i love you
i love you more than the sun and the moon and all the stars in all the sky
i even love you more than all the chocolate in all the world

and to borrow from a poem I wrote to you when you turned 9 months old, it all still holds just as true!!!

Happy Birthday my Moon

If I could eat the moon with a spoon,

I know it would taste like you.

If every star was a fine tuned guitar,

You'd be all of the songs up there too.

If the great big sun was a big ball of fun,

It would be boring without your light.

And if this spinning earth hadn't seen your birth,

Then nothing would be quite right.

You aren't just my smart, silly, sweet special son,

You're my food and my music and all of my fun.

You aren't just a normal three year old boy...

You're my everything.

You're my life.

You're my joy.

A veritable Radar concert!

First letter to Santa

Radar didn't do the writing, but we agreed on what the letter to Santa should say and he made me write upside down while he was busy decorating the rest of the card.

More to come...

Lots of love,

Titi and Radar