Puppet show with Joaquin

Joaquin is saying a lot of new words
Agua
Abuelo
Abuela
He tries to say uno dos tres.
So he is learning spanish.I think he misses his dad alot and says Da da and wants his daddy to appear.
Jason, who is in Sydney misses him terribly too.
i think joaquin needs to see his dad
We went to a puppet show at 4pm at the Melipan yesterday. I really enjoyed it and so did Joaquin and my mum.
The show was called El Becado and was about a young clown that won a scholarship to a magic school. The teacher of the magic school was an old witch who ended up teaching him a few things and ending up finding love. There was scary part where the demon of dance starts to move and yell and blow fire, Joaquin was scared but watched the whole play from beginning to end.
He made friends with some of the little girls who had gone to see the play and when they called out his name he walked to them and hugged one of them.
Afterwards we went to the local Irish Pub, had a picada, Joaquin had some fritas and un tostado de queso y tomate. He loved being out and sitting in the booths eating, drinking out of glasses and watching the people practice tango.

He loves going out and playing in the garden, throwing rocks in the creek.

Joaquin en Esquel 16 meses

Joaquin loves hanging out with the bookcase in his pjs and trying to find a good book to read


He is also very curious and wants to be in the kitchen when La abuela is cooking or cleaning. He loves pots and pans and forks and spoons and knows which drawer they are stored in and when he takes them out he puts them back in.

the name game

I just found this post at Lovely Design and I have the same problem as Sharilyn and can relate to this.
Joaquin has his father's surname but not mine :(
I chose his name which is rather spanish but there are no indications to his russian-jewish roots in his name at all.

This is my brother, Joaquin and I at the carousel on Sunday night.


My parents, my brother Sebastian and Joaquin

Very busy busy

This morning I got up at 4am and so far since Jason has left I have been very busy and it has all been a bit chaotic here at my parents place.
My brother also left for Cordoba ( a very long bus trip away to the north of Argentina) on Monday morning and it is just me the little one, my parents and my great aunt, as well as Bondi the dog. Coogee the dog came back to my parents place a few weeks ago, after going missing for 6 months. But last week a family came past our place and demanded their dog back. She had been lost and ended up befriending another family who kept her as a family pet(they call her Perla). My parents decided to let her go as the son of this family was so distraught without her and was crying outside the house wanting his dog back. Even though it has been my parents dog since she was a puppy and my parents desexed her and look after her and have taken her to the vet and have her registered under their care etc. In the end it was like the classical tale from the bible where the baby is claimed by two mothers and the King Solomon says something along the lines of as you both can not decide who is the real mother then I will cut him in two and give you each a half. One of the mothers was so distraugt she said No, do not do this, give him to the other mother. So the king realises this is the real mother of the child, the one who does not want any harm to occur to her child, who would rather her child be alive and well with another, than not.

I am so busy finishing some proofs for a paper, about to start on the presentations for a conference. At the same time I miss Jason so much, and we are not organised here, with Joaquin who wants to get into everything and walks around so much all day.I have been trying to find out about childcare for him, or daycare so he can go and play with other children his age for a few hours and I can do some work and it is not so much pressure on my parents who have so much to do too.

Things to do today:
Send email about proof before 9am
Add corrections to paper before 9am
Make a cover letter for fax before 9am
Send fax after 9am
Go to secretary at the daycare center between 2pm-5pm
Start gym (was meant to go at 9.30am this morning)
Write to confrence about accomodation
Write to friends who are going to conference
Do presentations for conference
Buy ticket for conference
Organise meals for Joaquin
Organise myself

photos from Esquel Sunday

Waking up after an afternoon sleep on Sunday



Playing on Sunday afternoon


Merry-go round in the Plaza

Sunday morning in Esquel

Joaquin is sitting quietly in his high chair having some vegemite toast (wholemeal bread made lovingly by my mother every morning), he already has had his oats and his bottle of milk and his morning breastfeed at 9am.
The racing cars are on tv, something my dad watches religiously every Sunday morning. Joaquin is watching the cars while eating his toast. He just said Dada and I think he misses his daddy.
He calls his grandfather ta-t-ta, after my dad yelled one day "Los perros se quedan afuera" (the dogs should stay outside) and Joaquin tries to mimic him but only gets ta tat ta ta ta ta. Now every day and moment he sees his granddad (abuelo) he says Ta-ta, so maybe my dad will be known as Abuelo Ta-ta.
Abuelo Ta-ta said he will take Joaquin down to the Arroyo Esquel with his tricycle after he has finished his breakfast and as it is sunny outside I think it is a good idea. I am trying to catch up on writing and finishing my proof for a paper that is about to be published. Jason is in bed hopefully sleeping well after arriving this morning. Jason has written a beautiful email and I miss him so much.
I am feeling not too good, with a sore blocked ear and remnants of a sore throat and Joaquin woke up during the night crying and I tried to breastfeed back to sleep but he breastfed then I put him in his cot and he cried and as I am sleeping in a bed next to him he sees me there and calls out for me. So i finally got him to sleep by moving the cot with my hand, rocking it and he actually liked that and went to sleep.
I think he is still tired this morning, as he was upset when I opened the door of tha cabin with the keys, he wanted to have the keys and open the door himself. He then walked over to the car and tried to open the boot with the house keys. He is such a funny little boy, very persistent, and he knows what he wants. He is very creative and wants to learn about his world around him so much. At the same time he is cautious about what he does and actually thinks about things, you can tell by his facial expression and his eyes.

in patagonia with Joaquin

In Patagonia,
In Esquel, with my family.
Joaquin is asleep in the cabin, he is sleeping only one sleep a day but I think he is still very tired. He does sleep well at night, going to sleep at 9.30pm and waking up at 9am already full of beans.
He is a very funny little boy, he loves to put crayons together and likes to pile things of similar structure together.
Yesterday he was playing with the crayons on a cushion and lined them up together.
He can hold a pencil and we all saw him walking around with my mother's notebook and a pencil making notes holding the pencil in his hand as if he was taught at school, yet he is only 15 months old. He knows how to draw with crayons on paper as well.
He is eating well and still enjoys veges with tomato based sauce.
Jas and I think it is so cute how he calls Jas "Dadi" with such a strong English accent. Were does he get that from?

Lazy Sunday asado

Today is Sunday. It is nearly 8pm and the sun is still out, it is still incredibly light out and it had rained before. It does not get dark until 11pm.
We had an asado with my family and Sebas postdoc director who is visiting El Sur from Cordoba.
We had a little lamb on the asado and chorizos with a salad made of freshly picked lettuce from my mum's garden. I also made chimichurri with fresh tomatoes, garlic, parsley, orgegano, oil and viniger. We had lunch and played some trivial pursuit. Joaquin had a little nap before lunch and only slept for 30 min and I went in to get the trivia from the cabania and he was crying in his little cot. Poor munchkin. I got him up fed him and Jas made his lunch (a small plate with lamb cut up in small pieces, fresh peas from the garden semi-mashed, small baby cubes of carrot and pumpkin mash. He ate it all. He also had some grapes (just the fleshy bit inside) and laughs so much when Seba throws the grapes into the air and tries to catch it with his mouth. He had a laughing fit yesterday in the afternoon when we were having lunch. After lunch today we tried to put him to sleep in the cot as he was so tired but he cried quite a bit and it really is draining to see this to go through this for both Jas and I. Finally I got him out of the cot breastfed him and he fell asleep and we put him in the cot to sleep. This was at 6.30pm and he is still alseep now. I think he is quite upset as his second tooth came out yesterday.
I would like to go to the park camping as we have less than a week left in Esquel. I will miss my parents my brother so much. It is terrible. I hope we will be back in September!

Photo of Joaquin 31 Dec 2007