More Of The Crazy Kid

This last weekend I finally decided to take the cover off the pool for summer. I wanted to let the pool get a little warmer first so we can do night swims but it's too hard to clean the pool with it on and I was getting some algae. I had two choices. Take it off, clean it and put it back, or just take it off and put it in the garage. I decided to put it in the garage.

So Saturday after doing my yard work Natalie wanted to hang out with Stephanie so I took Adri and Zoe for a swim. Adri had been a terror all morning. She was clingy and crying and even when it came to putting on the sun block she wasn't a happy baby. Normally she loves lotion but not Saturday. I put her in the pool and for 15 minutes she was having a fun time splashing Zoe, pushing my head under water and laughing, screaming her lungs out, telling me to skip and throw her, etc... Then all of a sudden her head went down on my shoulder and she because the sleepy clingy bug.

I had a hard time convincing Natalie to come in the pool but eventually she decided to join us. She thought she could slowly get in. Amateur. Do things the California way. Jump in, feel the shock, get over it. It's like a band aid. Just rip the stikin thing off! So I finally made her jump in and she finally learned, after 5 years,  that I'm right. It's not so bad if you jump it. Once the shock is gone it felt great. The water was 83 degrees, far from cold. So once Natalie got in I decided to record Adri being the clingy bug. Video below.

Saturday night we took Adri for Pizza and Cold Stone. I'm getting ready to drop another 15 pounds so I thought I would have a super fun binger night first. I have this kid trained. Her favorite ice cream just happens to be mine, cake batter with butterfinger. I was sitting there feeding her and Natalie would offer her the banana ice cream and she would say "no, cake batter butterfinger". Smart girl.

Sunday morning we were outside and Adri discovered a millepede. Yeah, time to spray around the house again. I got some video of her. She's always funnier before we start recording her though. Sunday afternoon after waking up from a late nap I took Adri swimming again. This time with Zoe and Amanda. It's always more fun with the other kids over because Adri laughs at them so much. I guess it's because they're so goofy.

Sunday night we were at the dinner table and Adri threw her food on the table and then started singing very clearly "clean up, cleanup, everybody do your share". She's only 21 months! If I could only tape her saying some of the things she says. The way she puts sentences together at her age is amazing. We tried to get her to do it again but it just wasn't the same. The video is still funny though. Her two favorite songs are Happy Birthday and Jingle Bells. In the video she starts singing to us and then goes to a whisper and eventually she's just mouthing the words. She's such a crazy kid.

Last night she pulled another funny one at dinner. Ten minutes into dinner she folders her arms and yells prayer. Then she says "thank for the day, bless the food, in the name Jesus Christ, AMEN!" She is just so random sometimes. After that she suddenly got tired. I busted out a slice of mango pie for her and couldn't get her to eat it. She had climbed up on Natalie and kept turning her head to the spoon even when I told her it's ice cream. Finally I put some on my finger and got her to try it but even after that she wouldn't take it on the spoon. So she climbs off Natalie and starts pointing at the plate and says mango pie. I grab the food and she says "no, mango pie finger". For some reason the kid would only eat the pie off my finger. Weirdo.

And here she is showing how crazy she is. Look at her go. 

Feb/March 2012

Well here is my monthly update Things are heating up here so we took Adri on a couple beach trips. The last one we had at Hollywood I decided I will never go there again during Canadian season again. It was way over crowded and took us an hour just to park. Once we got down to the water it was very windy and choppy. The water was warm so I took Adri swimming and she was enjoying the waves but I was having a hard time enjoying myself while having to jump every 5-10 seconds so she doesn't get hit in the head with a wave. Next time we are going to Boca Raton. Lucky for us the pool is now warm enough to really enjoy it so we are going to have some pool weekends for the next couple weeks.

Lately Adri and I have had a couple new games. Her favorite has to be the claw (video below). I have a toy claw that I chase her around the house with and she screams bloody murder. I'm waiting for the day the cops show up. She also likes it when I play bobo claw, and boppie claw. Bobo claw is when I pull out her bobo with the claw and boppie claw is when I push her boppie (corn popper) around with the claw. She also likes hiding in her Dora tent and having me pick up the tent and drop it on her using the claw. She's a crazy kid. Another game of her's is waterboarding me. She likes to push my head under the shower now and yell eyes. That means "close your eyes Daddy, you're gonna get waterboarded". She thinks this is hilarious.The more I act like I'm struggling to breathe, the more she laughs.

So the latest developments with Adri.

*She is still afraid of sitting on the toilet. I don't know why. She'll sit on it for fun but the minute we try to get her to pee on it she starts screaming.

*Adri's favorite movie, cartoons, and music are The Chipmunks. She ask for them all the time. First thing when she wakes up and sometimes even in her sleep. She also asked for the Lion King in her sleep. She loves to hum along to the Chipmunk songs in the car.

*Adri likes to sing Jingle Bells and Happy Birthday.

*Adri likes to laugh in her sleep. At first I didn't know if she was laughing or choking because she would wake me up and then she would stop. Well a couple weeks ago she woke me up with her laughing and then she started laughing even harder until Natalie woke up scared. I think this crazy kid was dreaming of The Claw.

*Adri is now using complete sentences. English, Spanish, and Spanglish.

*Adri is now learing about child labor. Yesterday I decided she needed to learn how to contribute around the house so I took her outside, gave her a sponge, and had her help Natalie wash the car. I don't want lazy kids that don't know how to do the simple things and help out. Teach them young while they still think it's fun.  She seemed to enjoy it. Her reward was some pool time where she practically fell asleep on my shoulder after her 30 minutes of fun time. Get her trained now. In ten years she is going to be working the banana/mango stand.

*Adri likes to tell us now, forcefully, when she is done. You can see in one of the videos below. Beans and rice, all done....

*Adri likes to play helicopter and airplane. I stop once I'm dizzy and can no longer stand up and she tries to walk away like a drunk. Once in a while she gets away from me and falls down.

Those are just a couple things that stick out in my mind right now. But being a busy parent my memory isn't as good as it used to be. This kid is keeping me busy. Below are my pictures and videos from the last month or so. My absolute favorite is the video at the very bottom. Adri was dancing and a little more than 2 minutes in she got really crazy. She was spinning to the beat and then did this eye rolling this. It was hilarious. I don't know where this kid learns this stuff.

Adri enjoying the waves at Hollywood. These aren't the ones I was jumping over. We did go in much deeper than this.

Adri after getting her haircut.

Her first carwash.

Some pictures we took on Miami Bay by Tio Jose's house.

Adri and I playing "The Claw". We play this game everynight. She'll start asking for the claw and she wants me to chase her. One night Natalie wasn't home and she brought me the claw and said "Claw, get Mommy". Her run is just too funny. We actually don't mind the screaming either. We think that's pretty funny as well, for now....

Adri in the morning. She's quite a character when she wakes up.

At Butterfly World. I was standing the bird aviary and this bird flew over onto my shoulder. I did not ask him to do it and it kinda creeped me out.

Adri found my fart application on my iPhone. She thinks it's the funniest thing in the whole world. Here's almost a solid four minutes of Adri making fart sounds and laughing.

Here Adri is at the beach. She has learned how to fill up her bucket, compact it, and flip it over. Of course once I turn on the camera she doesn't do it.

Trying to feed a toddler. Here she is hitting herself in the face and then crying boo boo to get attention. She also hits her head on the cabinets and yells boo boo, hits her legs, etc... Saving this video for the day CPS comes out to investigate the bruises.

Saturday naps

Adriana likes her tostones.

The Adri dance. How can you not laugh at this. Can I get 2 million youtube views?

Joe VS The Anole

Well I have been having a battle with a brown anole in my apartment since April or May. I caught one around that time and put it in my tank with "Killa" my pacman frog. Killa was taking his sweet time to eat the anole though, a couple weeks, and my door was open in the evening because it was the dry season and I was letting in the cool air. Along with the cool air I let in another brown anole who stayed into the wet season and is now trapped.

It's common for me to get anoles and geckos in my apartment. Geckos are more than welcome. They stay on the walls and ceilings, seldom go on the floor, and they don't bug me. Green anoles aren't so common. They are native and stick mostly to bushes and trees and aren't a problem. But the brown anole, an invasive anole from the Caribbean has taken over and eats the green anole. These brown anoles are fast and can jump really far. Just one of many introduced species that are destroying the native habitat. These anoles along with Burmese Python, marine toads and Cuban frogs are suppose to killed if you catch them. Everyone knows I like frogs and nature and such, but I do kill these things due to the fact that they wipe out the native species and are a huge problem here.

So the anole that has taken over my apartment is the invasive brown anole. For months I kept seeing this stupid thing run and jump in the glass on my aquarium then bounce off and hit the floor. He was trying to get some booty from the anole I left in with "Killa". Once Killa ate the anole the other brown anole only came around when it was feeding time and there were crickets in the aquarium. But I kept finding evidence of the anole around my apartment in the form of anole poo on my tile floor. I was getting pretty annoying and started setting up mouse traps. But a mouse trap doesn't get set off by a small anole so that didn't work so great.

So one day I'm sitting on the couch and I see a little beetle or roach of some sort running across the tile. I haven't had many of these since the brown anole invaded and it became quite clear why. I wanted to get up and smash the bug but I was being lazy so I just watched it run. Next thing I see is the brown anole running across the room, takes the bug, has half of it hanging out his mouth, and runs off to his lair, under my stuff I got out of storage while waiting to move. So then I kinda had a change of heart about wanting to kill this anole.

Well that only lasted a couple days. Pretty soon I was finding anole poo on the floor again. Then one morning I go to put on my Dr. Martin boots for work and I feel wiggling by my toes. I rip off my boots and there is the brown anole who jumps out of my boot and runs off. So 2 weeks ago I grabbed my blowgun and shot the anole. He was laying under my total gym and my stuff from storage not moving. I thought for sure he was dead. So I grabbed a plastic stake and tried to pull him out from under there but he got up and ran away. I hadn't seen him since then, until this morning.

D-Day
So today was the end for the anole. I fed my frogs last night and the crickets are really loud. Mr. anole came out looking for some food. I grabbed my blowgun and shot the anole right under my kitchen table. I saw sparks from where the dart hit the tile so I thought I missed, hard to believe because I'm a damn good shot. Well then I see the anole and I hit him right above his rear legs, in the abdomen. He was squirming, kicking, and rolling around on the floor, and he looked like a kabob so I didn't think he could run off. I thought I'd just go over and pick him up by the dart (about a five inch hunting dart with a barbed end, there's no way he's getting that thing out), and then I could just feed him to Killa. Well he ran off again, under the total gym.

So time to get creative, right? Really, I need my own show for this next move. I have a magnet that is capable of lifting 200 pounds or so. So I pulled that thing out and put it next to a high traffic area of the anole by the total gym. The dart is metal so if he goes anywhere near it he's going to get stuck and it's over for him. On top of that I have a mechanics magnet, one that looks like an antenna and mechanics use it to get nuts and bolts that get dropped in hard to reach areas. I couldn't find it before work, but when I get home if he's not already stuck to the big magnet or dead I'm going to use this other magnet to fish him out. So I think the war is over with the anole. I'm just waiting to confirm his death but there is no way he is going to survive with that dart in him. He'll either die or get stuck to my magnet trap.

More to come once I confirm the kill. I would have done it this morning but would have been late to work.




Brown Anole (Bahama Anole)

Green Anole (Carolina Anole), these are native to the Southeast.

House Gecko. Not native but nice to have around to eat the bugs and save money on insurance.

Giant Sequoias

OK so this isn't the first time I had been to Sequoia, but I just didn't appreciate it enough when I was a kid. Back then the most interesting thing to me was the caves. Now that I'm older it's kinda like seen one cave, seen them all. I was more fascinated by the huge trees this time. The Sierras, and especially Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite, all make the Southern California mountains look weak.

I bought a couple digital camo bandanas. Natalie of course said they look stupid until I put one on, then she decided she wanted to wear one too. Of course she didn't know how to put it on, so I had to show her how to sport a bandana.

Driving up to the Giant Forest

"General Sherman Tree" Largest tree on earth.

 Me at the base of The General Sherman Tree. My brother in law was suppose to get the whole tree, that is why I ran far away, but he zoomed in. Guess I ran for nothing. I'm gonna have to teach him how to use a camera!

Another large one. "The Sentinel". Natalie and I are standing in front of it.

My sister, Cassandra, and her daughter Aubrey, in front of The Sentinel

The family in front of a fallen tree

Natalie and Dominic

The biggest fallen branch I have ever seen

The kids on a huge fallen tree branch

Everyone loves Uncle Joe

The family

Hotness by the roots of a fallen tree

Yes, even my dad's diesel F-250 fit through this fallen tree.

I'm trying to reach the top

Me on top of "Tunnel Log"

Natalie under "tunnel rock"

Moro Rock, from the bottom of the mountain.

This is called Manzanita. If you look at it full sized, it has really interesting red bark.

Crystal Cave

And this is Crystal Cave. It was a pretty warm hike through the forest to get there but once we got there it was nice and cool in the cave. The tour last something like 45 minutes.

The munchkins

The call this cave bacon. Not exactly what I would call it.

This reminded me of goonies.....Hey you guys!