Monterrey, Dennis the Menace Park

While driving to and from our hotel and around Monterrey we noticed what looked like an awesome park.  We've been to this part of town many times and have often sat by the duck pond there, but until having Emeline, we didn't notice the really cool play structures as well.  So to try to burn of some energy before our drive home, we stopped at this park to let Emeline run around.  

Little did we know that this is the park of all parks!  It's called Dennis the Menace Park, and apparently it's famous.  We didn't have the camera out, so this was my best cell phone photo capturing the multiple play areas beyond the huge suspension bridge.  But check out the link above to see how really cool it is.  There is a giant train, a rock climbing wall, a maze made out of bushes, and even a little snack shop. 

Emeline and Daddy at the top of the sun bridge before going down the roller slide. The slide had rollers all the way down it so you probably felt like you were sliding down a conveyor belt. 

 

At the bottom.

 

Running across the bridge.  

 

Apparently this could have been a days event in and of itself, so if you are ever in Monterrey with kids, don't miss this park!

Monterrey, the aquarium

Here are some pictures of our visit to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. 

My favorite..the jellies!

The rest of these photos are our attempts at taking photos of Emeline enjoying the aquarium, but at places like this, Emeline has a lot of fun, but most of her fun is just running from place to place.  So unfortunately, despite the camera being in "sports mode" most of the time, these aren't the greatest pictures.  But you can tell she's having fun!

With dolphin fins I think...

Stopping to enjoy the ocean.

She loved running around the kelp forest.

Between people passing in front of the camera, and Emeline moving non stop, this was the best picture of her and Wes in the clam shell.

She loved the kids area where they had this thing that moved up and down like ocean waves. 

Fun in the water section.

And enjoying the playground!

Family photo before heading out.

Monterrey, at the beach

We took a little family vacation to Monterrey after Christmas to take advantage of the time Wes had off work.  We were going to try to head towards Tahoe to see some snow, but because their wasn't any, we went to the beach instead.  After checking into our hotel, we took a stroll down to the beach to breath in some winter sea air.  Here are some photos.

Big Sister

November 6, 2011 was a big day for Team Zuber. Wes returned from a refreshing weekend away at our church's men's retreat, Elaine ran her first half marathon, and Emeline found out she's going to be a big sister.

Whaddya think? Does she look the part? I think she'll be a great big sister, but she's got a little longer to enjoy having mommy and daddy all to herself.

Tired from a long weekend and a little overwhelmed by the the reality of heading back into babyland, but excited there will be more branches in our family tree.

Baby #2 is now 14 weeks along and expected to arrive in July 2012.

Christmas morning

The long lost video was found! I mentioned in our earlier post about Christmas that we got a great video of Emeline opening some presents. I thought my phone crashed and lost it, but it reappeared! Enjoy this belated Christmas joy.

Happy New Year!

Twenty One Months

After Emeline turned 1, I backed off to 3 month updates instead of monthly ones. But as I reflected on what I would write now that she is 21 months, I just felt overwhelmed. It seems like the last few months she has really grown up a lot. Of course she is still a rambunctious toddler, but she is constantly surprising me with how much she knows about the world and with her amazing personality. Sometimes I feel like I hardly know her because she is changing so quickly.

Emeline is still a runner and a climber, but now is just incredibly fast. We had a moment on a recent trip where we realized she could open the hotel door because it was a pull down handle. So while we were in the room, we kept the safety latch on. But when Wes and I were getting ready in the morning, I heard a door close, and I looked at the main door and the latch was open. So I burst out the front door with wet hair, running around our hotel floor to find her. In fact, she had not left the room, but what I heard was the bedroom door closing, and I ran around the whole floor for nothing, but honestly, she is that fast, and I wouldn't put it past her.

Emeline's zest for life is really breathtaking these days. She is overjoyed to do many things she loves, especially sing and dance, and she shows it with lots of clapping and "yays". She claps with a "yay" when songs end, when you arrive at a destination, you name it. It never ceases to make me smile, even if the event is rather ordinary. I love her joyous perspective on things, it is infectious.

Emeline's language continues to grow exponentially. I was keeping a language diary, but during our move it got misplaced, and now as I'm trying to catch up with the new words she knows, it's almost impossible. She doesn't always articulate each word clearly, but I think I hear a new word almost every day. She's also started to pronounce the ends of words more clearly. She mostly says the first part of the word, such as 'da' for 'down' or 'pa' for 'park'. But now she more clearly says 'down' and 'pak' (the r sound is still hard). She's also working on multisyllable words like 'pitcha' for 'picture', 'paka' for 'pocket', 'bucka' for 'buckle', etc. And now we've got lots more multiple word phrases such as 'down Papa' for 'sit down Papa', 'no more cheese', 'bye bye park', etc. I'm impressed with her but, I guess I'm supposed to be.

She can also point out most of her body parts when asked, make lots more animal sounds, and she even follows instructions better. So now I know, comprehension is not much of an issue, but if she doesn't listen she's probably too excited or her strong little will is getting involved.

Without further ado, here are some recent pictures of my little E monster devouring a bowl of strawberries. Enjoy!