Journey to Atlantis

Journey to Atlantis
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales

Sea World, 9/26/2009.

I have to start out by saying that I'm very proud of my little boy.

We went to Sea World with friends/co-worker of Julie, Andrea and her husband Michael and their son (who Christian loves) Adam. We had so much fun. They are in the process of decorating for Halloween so each section had a different theme; skeletons at and around the entrance, werewolves, and evil clowns around the bigger rides.

Well, being that Adam can ride all the rides, except the Great White, I didn't want them to be bored with us at Shamu's Happy Harbor. We stood in line at Shamu's Express for a minute or two, but the line was too long and I figured it wasn't worth it for Michael or Adam, so we left.

Well, we stopped by Journey to Atlantis and were checking it out to see if the boys could ride. Christian is, of course, like 4" too short, but the attendant was half asleep and so we just walked in, me carrying Christian.

We got through all of the attendants (no lines!!) and got front row seats!

Christian was excited and I was pumping him up telling him he's going to go faster than he's ever gone before. The climb up was cool, he liked that. Then it spins you around and sends you backwards down a little dip. He DID NOT like that at all. He didn't cry but his face was stuck like it is in the picture. I was telling Michael that I was a dead man. Julie is going to kill me. As a dad I sometimes push Christian to do things maybe he's not ready for and this could have easily been one of those times right? I mean, they have those height rules up for a reason right?

Well, anyway, back to the story. All that is on my mind now at the top of the ride is how am I going to make sure Christian doesn't cry? There was no way. That little dip scared him half to death and now we're are about to drop off 100' into a pool of water. So I'm talking and talking "This is going to be great!" "You have never been this fast before" "Remember, if you love daddy and want to see him live a long life, you won't cry"

Well it tipped, scooted forward and down we went! He had this face for the first 50' and I swear right after this picture he had the biggest grin on his face. We landed, water splashed up all around us and when it cleared, there was silence....."Dad....I freaked out!!!! Let's do it again!!!" WHEW!

Julie had her eagle eyes on us and was looking in our direction to see if he was ok. I gave her a thumbs up and threw in a little raising the roof action.

Thanks to Andrea who bought the photo to commemorate the event.

We had so much fun. We are going back on October 1 for the Halloween events!

Faces

Christian.

We have so much fun "fighting". He's Wolverine and I'm the "bad" guy or worse, Aquaman (thanks mom). No matter how I plead my case, I am never the good guy and he's never the bad guy. It's always Christian and December against Daddy. Talk about unfair odds. December gets into it too - growling and mouthing (not biting). Christian loves to tackle, sword fight, jump from sofa to sofa, jump on me, and pillowfight. Mostly he stands in front of me and flails his arms and makes noises as if he's fighting. I guess I need to train him a little better.

Every night we read books. His books of choice are Dinosaur books. Tonight he read a book while I looked at another. But when I was done, he didn't give me another book to look at, he just said "Let's not share anymore".

Tonight he wanted to make mommy laugh, so when we were done reading he ran to her and told her his best pee pee and poo poo joke (which I advised against) and mommy was not impressed. Christian came back to me dejected. "Mommy said that was inappropriate" then asked me to say that it was appropriate so that mommy would laugh. I then gave him a joke to go tell mommy. Two dinosaurs walk into a bar....you'd think one of them would have seen it. He was very excited to go make mommy laugh after the first debacle. He sprinted to her, "mommy I have a very funny joke" and he continued "Two dinosaurs saw a bar which they didn't see". Mommy got the clue and burst out into laughter. Christian ran back to me to tell me the great news. He made mommy laugh.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Christian's World of Words

Playground at Sunset
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales

I wanted to list some of the sayings Christian has right now that we will always remember. I know most of you won't know what he's talking about because he's singing songs, etc, but I'll try to explain.

"Your BEE yard friends the bee yardigans!" - theme from Backyardigans.

"COVER THE BLANKET!" - this gets to you around the 100th time he says it a night! You cover him, his kicks it off, or turns and some part of his body gets exposed, "cover the blanket" - rinse, lather, repeat.

"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13, ert-teen, 17,18,19,20" - almost

"Dada" - recently switched from Daddy who knows the reason

"It's a GHOST train" - GeoTrax DVD - loves playing with his tunnel

"Sleep in mommy's bed" - every night at bedtime

"No auntie" - totally unprovoked

"Go away Daddy!, I want water, Call mommy" - when I'm trying to get him to go to bed.

Favorite Movies or TV Shows:

"Backyardigans - Mighty Knights"
"Cars - MONSTER TRACTOR"
"Finding Nemo - except the sharks"
"Backyardigans - Volcano Sisters"
"GeoTrax - DVD"

Favorite Toys:
GeoTrax Train set - Grand Central Station, Tunnel
Dinosaur Place Mat - yes, the one he eats on.
A play mat with a picture of a railroad track.
Hot Wheels cars and the yellow race track
Dinosaurs - Stegosaurous
Playdoh

Activities:
Gymboree Music class - dances, instruments, sings songs
Gymboree class - climbing, jumping, sliding,
Swimming pool at Lifetime

I've probably left out a lot. Look for a new blog from mommy soon.

See you next time.

Good News, Gym, Matt & Stu

Playground Look
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales

Seems like a given that every one of my blogs starts with "Sorry I haven't updated this in so long", so from now on, consider that statement implied before every post.

Look at Christian, almost 28 months old. Julie just called me today all excited....."OMG, are you sitting down", she said, "Christian just went potty in the toilet." She is such a happy mommy. No one is prouder of Christian than she is and she has a lot to be proud of.

We were going to start the bribe technique after Easter with M&M's and lollipops, but we'll see what happens at home now.

Got a new camera at work and it takes great pictures. We recently discovered a park closer to our house that has a little rock to climb and a play area, plus 1 - 2 mile paths. It's great.

Plus we've also just joined LifeTime Fitness. It's so close to our house and is great (except for their pool hours, but that's another story). So now instead of sitting in front of the computer all day long, I can meet Julie and Christian after work at the swimming pool, rock wall, basketball courts, or weight room. I really enjoy working out with Julie again. Christian loves the pool and is getting to like the Child Center because it has the GeoTrax train set he loves so much. Except mommy hasn't left him in their longer than 15 minutes at a time. They need a Mommy Care Center next to the Child Care Center so that Julie can peek in on Christian.

Matt Sutton called me today from Iraq. It was good to hear his voice and catch up a bit. It's 8 hours ahead over there and they were getting ready to go flying. He seems a little down about the time away from his family and friends. He returns in December and his battalion is moving from Colorado to Kansas (near Manhattan) so hopefully we can go to Colorado to see him and his family before the move.

Stu should be back in a month and a half. Just read a couple posts on Kaycee's blog - she's got great pictures and a interview that Stu did on Fox News. Thanks Kaycee for keeping us updated.

Merry Christmas!

Santa!
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales

We packed up the SUV and headed north to spend the weekend with the family formerly known as the NC Parkers.
Wii had a lot of fun watching Christian and Libby play together. Addi was very informative of her where-about's "just in case we needed her".
Christian and Libby had their share of "My Daddy" discussions. I think it was resolved as it's Christian's daddy, but Libby's house - they were happy with that resolution.
We went to the Frisco city hall and ran into Santa. Libby and Addi happily went to take a picture with Santa. Meanwhile, watching them, Christian had the death grip around my neck. "I scared, Daddy" - then the miracle on city hall's street, Santa whipped out a candy cane. Christian relaxed his grip and walked right up to him. We weren't planning on a Santa picture, but we got one.

Two Years

Profile
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales

Today is Thanksgiving and my little one just turned two years old and I have so much to be thankful for. From hearing his little voice looking for me "Daddy......R U?" and when he did find me, "Daddy...c'mere" as he reaches his tiny hand out for mine to lead me into our bedroom so that we can dance to the music mommy was playing for all of us. So I'm thankful that I get to dance with my son. The little smirk on his face and the moves he was throwing out there are something I hope I never forget.

Tonight was a late night for Christian because he missed his nap even though Julie and I tried a few times to put him down. He closed his eyes for 10 minutes in the truck and was back to full power.....until the third quarter of the Cowboy game when he came to the sofa, climbed up on me and slept on my shoulder for the rest of the game. So when we got home we played, wrestled and read books until 10pm. One book he has is an animal book. He'll point to every animal and ask (even though he knows the answer already) "Isit?" So we played the "isit" game for a good half hour before daddy couldn't take anymore. He is a sponge though and will remember everything you teach him. Right now he's a little voice recorder, repeating everything you say, or at least the last word you say. This comes in handy when we want him to say goodbye to the grandparents or store clerks. They think it's sweet.

He is speaking spanish now! Can I take the credit? Julie? Nope. The credit goes to Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go. Diego is his favorite cartoon at the moment (we've gone from Baby Einstien, to the Backyardigans, to Elmo, to Dora, to Diego). That show does a good job teaching both languages. Out of the blue one day Christian and I were around the breakfast table and he's looking at something on the floor and just starts "Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro, Cinco......" I was floored. He honestly doesn't watch that much TV (mommy is pretty strict about that). He's just a fast learner.

We had his birthday party on Saturday the 17th at the park where my mom lives. The weather was bad. It was gray and drizzly the whole time, but everyone showed up and it was a lot of fun. Christian loves playing with his cousins and there were a lot of other friends there as well. Julie did awesome job finding games, jumping castles, food, even filling up the pool with water by filling up an ice chest with water, pouring into the pool at the park and then going back to mom's for more water. We had a pinata for the kids and my nephew David only got the chocolate cars wrapped in Nascar foil. Who let the redneck into the family? Opening presents was a serious downnote for Christian. He'd open one present and want to play with it, so that when we gave him another to open, he started crying because we had to take the one he just opened away. He's ok now. Barely.

Quick Catch Up

Just wanted to update everyone. We are finally in our new home!! I don't have any pictures up yet but will soon.

Christian is growing up so fast, I'll have new pictures up on Flickr soon as well.

Well? What did you expect? I said this was a quick update.

Go Spurs Go!!

Looking forward to FOOTBALL season. Go Cowboys Go?

Spurs In Second Round

NBA.com Finley’s Hot Hand Carries Spurs Into Second Round



The San Antonio Spurs closed out the series tonight 93-78 against the Denver Nuggets. My sister and I looked all last night for tickets because we wanted to go. After she went to sleep I found some and called her in the morning. Well we finally ended up just going through TicketMaster and found some really great seats. What a view, we had section 120, right above where Finley was shooting all his threes! What a game! He shot the lights out. I thought he was 8 for 8, but at the end of the game listening to it on the radio, he missed one early on and so was 8 for 9, a new Spurs record.

Manu struggled, Parker was Parker and Tim was Tim. The Nuggets looked beat the whole game save for their run at the end of the second.

Looking around the AT&T Center and watching the camera pan the crowd, I saw all the families there, and everyone was really happy and the kids were all laughing (except for one who started crying when the camera panned to her), it made me love this town more. San Antonio has such a family atmosphere and going to the Spurs games brings these families together. I can't wait to bring Christian to the Spurs games were I can teach him the game and we might even bring Mom, though she'd be kicking and screaming until we administered the Cotton Candy.

Peace out - Go Spurs Go.

Future Drummer

Future Drummer
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales.

Oh yes she did. Julie and I decided to cut Christian's hair. I should restate that JULIE decided to cut Christian's hair and I agreed. She spoke with Silvia, her haircutter and doer person, who assured her that a #4 with the clippers would not be too short. So Julie started cutting Christian's hair and the #4 was way too short to cut all the way around and the top. It was at that point Julie saw the opportunity for the mohawk she'd always wanted to give him. He looks cute (can you say "cute" in regards to a mohawk?).

More pictures on Flickr.

Joel "My brain is fried so I can't tell a decent story" Gonzales

Fish

Ok, I got a good response on this little video, so I decided to try posting on here (Ginny, your blog helped with some coding issues, thanks!):

Enjoy:

Been Awhile

Wow, I haven't written here in a long time.

Well, we've sold the house in College Station and are living in San Antonio now. I work for a 3d graphics company doing mainly architectural renderings, illustrations, and will eventually get to do some animations.

Got some new pictures for you on my flickr account. Go check 'em out. If you know the address.

Gig 'em or us?

Gig 'em
Originally uploaded by JoelGonzales.

What is going on with Coach Fran? Losing to Tech, OU, and now Nebraska? What kind of pansy decisions is this guy making during the course of the game? Kicking a field goal from the 2 when we were down 7 points and we have a 300 pound running back? It's funny that Lane declined all interviews this week because he was mad aslo.

But then today playing Nebraska, Lane only had 3 carries in the 3rd quarter and we come out throwing the ball? Since when with Lane, Goodson and even Lewis are we a passing team. You could tell that with all the dropped balls we had.

I'm so frustrated right now. But at least we are going to the Alamo bowl because we scheduled 4 high school teams at the beginning of the year.

So, it's another "Maybe next year" year for the Aggies.

Trick or Treating

Trick or Treating, originally uploaded by JoelGonzales.

It was late in the evening when I figured out why we dressed up our little boy as a Golden Retriever and took him trick or treating around the neighborhood with some friends of ours.

He's 11 months old. He's not going to EAT the candy that he actually did enjoy picking out. So, why were we going through all this trouble? It was all a ploy by MOMMY to get all the loot. I thought she had been way to excited about Halloween. Shame on her for using this cute kid to steal candy from unsuspecting home owners. And Christian? How will this affect him?

Oh well, this year we have to chalk up the win to Julie. Next year is going to be an interesting showdown for all the candy at the end of the night because neither one of them knows how to share yet.