4 Countries in 40 Hours, And Other Vacation Highlights

¡Hola, chicos! Greetings from Buenos Aires, where it's a sunny, er, brisk 55 degrees. Surprised to find me here? Well, I was surprised, too. For about three days, ever time I woke up, I was somewhere completely new! But such is the life of a stand-by jet-setter like me.

As of Monday night, we had planned to fly to Houston and from there to Quito or Panama City and then on to Quito. But at the airport Tuesday morning, the Houston flight had filled up, so we had breakfast and had some races up and down the concourse before flying to Newark. Then we spent all day in the Newark airport (which does not have a play area that I could find, like Cleveland does) before getting seats to Panama. I had successfully avoided taking a nap all day long, so when we got on that plane, I was not inclined to follow flight rules. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't get Daddy all the way out of his seat so I could stretch out, despite my best efforts, so when we arrived in Panama at 10 pm, I was wired. My parents favorite hotel didn't have any rooms, so we had to go to another hotel...in the end, it was all the way into the next day before I got to bed. I've never stayed up so late in my whole life since I started sleeping through the night!

The next day, we still couldn't get to Quito, or anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere, except for Montevideo, so that's where we went. Before we left Panama, we went to Plaza Bolivar, in Casco Viejo, for lunch outside, and I chased a bunch of pigeons and a cat and played with some big kids who had just gotten out of school. We had just enough time for ice cream at Graniclement (I had white chocolate!) before heading back to the airport.

In Plaza Bolivar

Mommy's paella, with a giant langosta on top!

I love me some french fries!

The flight to Montevideo was overnight, and this time, I slept a little better, if not all the way through. I had never been to Uruguay (or Panama, for that matter) before, so I was up for anything, but over breakfast at 4:30 am in the airport, my parents decided to go on to Buenos Aires and stay put for the rest of our vacation rather than splitting our time between Montevideo and Buenos Aires. So we got on one more plane, a commuter flight across the Río Plata, went to an office where we arranged for an apartment, and here we are!

I love Buenos Aires. Everyone here, big and small, stops on the street to talk to me. I am really good at saying "hola" and "ciao" which makes me extra popular. There are playgrounds everywhere, which makes me so happy. We go to a different one every day - and in the park we went to yesterday, Parque Lezama, there was even a merry-go-round, which I had never ridden before, because I was too little, but this time I got to ride it, twice! The first time, I drove a red car, and the second time I rode a white horse that went up and down.

The merry-go-round

We also take several snack breaks each day ("snack" is one of my favorite words!) at one of the many cafés here. I love snack time, because I usually get a warm milk (or sometimes a chocolate milk) and a medialuna, which is a small, sweet croissant. I am in heaven!

One of our café stops: a medialuna and a decorating magazine...

...coffee...

...and caprese bruschetta!

Of course, it's winter here, so I don't have much use for my sandals (or as I like to call them, "scandals") or my shorts, but I had some long pants and a jacket and a sweater packed for Quito nights, so I'm doing okay. My parents bought me a green scarf, in which I am even cuter, if such a thing is possible. I demonstrate this fact by shrugging my shoulders and tucking my chin against my chest and saying "too cute!" which is cheesy but also cute. My mommy, however, didn't have any long pants, so we went to Recoleta for some shopping and got her outfitted for the weather, and I got two books - one with the ABCs and the other with various forms of transport - which I read while we wait for our meals.

Looking for the playground in Plaza San Martín...

...there it is!

Apparently, my parents have been here twice before, but they had never really gotten out of their favorite neighborhood of Palermo and Palermo Viejo, so I've been dragging them out of their comfort zone to explore new places (and new playgrounds!). In addition to Recoleta, I've taken them to Centro, La Boca, and San Telmo. Yesterday was the big street market in San Telmo, and we walked past all the booths and street performers, which were so interesting. I especially liked a 10-piece orchestra which included four accordion players and a man who made a marionette dance out of a suitcase.

The marionette show

Today, we're going back to Recoleta to see the famous cemetery there, and later we're going to the zoo! I'll tell you about it next time I get online. ¡Ciao!

Famous Quotes

Hi, it's me - Milo! Mommy is finally done laying around with that vertigo thing, and The Summer of Milo^TM has resumed. I'm getting ready to go on vacation, and since my secretary is back on the job, I thought I'd post a little update before I leave.

I have been talking up a storm the last few days, and not just that baby stuff I used to say. Here are some of my words of wisdom this week:

• "Happy Birthday!" - Ever since I celebrated my cousin Bailey's birthday last week, I have been talking about birthdays and Bailey and my cousin Spencer and ice cream cake (wow, is that stuff great!). The other night, I was in Target with Mommy and Nonna, and after we paid for our stuff, I waved to the cashier and yelled "Happy Birthday!" to her. For some reason, Mommy and Nonna started laughing like I made a joke, but I think the cashier really liked that I was so nice, because she thanked me.
• "Have fun!" - I love to tell people to have fun when they leave my house. I learned it from that book "Blue Train, Green Train" that I like so much.
  
• "I drink it all." - I got this new kind of cup this week that has a straw in it and pictures of Diego playing soccer. It's a cup for bigger kids, and it holds more milk than any of my sippy cups. I used it for the first time today, and when I emptied it, I announced that I drank it all. Pretty complex sentence, huh?
• "Read to?" - I ask this question when I hand a book to my parents. Sometimes, I'm more specific, as in, "Monkey George Milo read to?" (Sometimes word order is a little challenging.)
• "Make a basket!" - I have a basketball at home that I like to bounce, but Nonna has a basketball hoop and three little basketballs that are made for the bathtub, and I got to play with them for the first time this week. The letter K is really hard to say, but the next morning, when I woke up, I was thinking about that basketball game, and I wanted to talk about it, so I concentrated soooo hard to tell Mommy, "Bas-KET-ball! MaKe a basKET!"
  
• "It says 'Milo'!" - I now recognize my name when my parents write it for me. Does that count as reading? I also read "A-D-T" on a little sign in my neighbors' yard a couple of weeks ago. I can't wait to figure out all those groups of letters I see!
  
• "Daddy working airport" - I came up with this gem just this morning in the car, after Mommy and I dropped Daddy off at work. I am an astute observer of daily life.
  

So that's it for my verbal highlights; here are some pictures:

For the first time ever, I got to squish some Play-Doh. Daddy showed me how to roll it so I could make a worm (whatever that is), and Mommy made me a dog, which I thought was cool.

When I was younger, I was legendary for my stellar behavior at the movies, but once I stopped nursing and started crawling really, really fast, I found it hard to concentrate on the screen. The last time I went to a theater, Mommy let me crawl up and down the ramp while she tried to watch the last of some movie, and by the time she gave up and carried me out, my shirt was so dirty we had to throw it away. That was about a year ago.

Lately, my parents have been talking to me about being old enough to watch a movie, if it was interesting enough, and if I went to a kids' movie, where there would be other kids making noise, and if we went to a matinee on a weekday, so maybe there wouldn't be anyone else there we would bother. When Mommy asked me this week if I wanted to go to a movie, I answered with a resounding "YES!" (when I say yes, I really mean it), so after my nap that day my parents took me to Tower City. I had a grilled cheese sandwich at the Greek restaurant, and then we went to see "Kung Fu Panda". It had a bear, and some geese, and a monkey, and two tigers. Sometimes they fell down, which I noted loudly to make sure everyone present understood it. There was also some cheering and clapping, which I really enjoyed.

According to my parents, the best part was that I didn't even think about doing anything other than watching the movie until it was about half over. At that point, my parents strapped me into my booster chair we brought from home, and I had some raisins, and then I wrote for a while on my doodle board, plus I watched the movie off and on, too. I was only really antsy, trying to get down to check out the floor and asking my parents to pass me back and forth, for the last ten minutes of the movie. My parents were frankly surprised at how well I did. They told me they were really proud of me. Here's a picture of Daddy and me watching the previews:

Today, Mommy and I dropped in at Oma's house to surprise her, and we were surprised to find Bailey already there! After I went out back to see Ono, I went in and watched some TV while Bailey finished her waffle, and then we played a bunch of stuff with Oma, liking cutting animal shapes out of Play-Doh and crawling inside of the tent she made over the kids' table. When we started to get worn out, she asked us to climb up on her two buckets, and then she read us a ton of good books.



Next time I post, I'll be on the road somewhere. I'm not sure where, exactly, but I've been practicing saying "hola" and "gracias" and I hope I get to use them.

Back on the Block

Sorry for the delay in posting, but my mommy's been acting weird, like sleeping during the day and not wanting to pick me up and declining to take dictation for blog posts, which I have found shocking, frankly. Daddy and I took her to the doctor, who said she had positional vertigo; I don't know what that means, exactly, but I do know it means that I got to ride in a wheelchair, which was incredibly exciting.

Because Mommy was out of it, I spent most of the weekend at my nonna's place, which was cool, because we took walks and I got to pick up sticks. We also did stuff like taking the garbage out (I got to carry the empty pizza box to the big garbage cans!) and reading Nonna's picture encyclopedia, which has pictures of just about everything that you could ever want to know the name of, plus it has words that a grown-up can read to you so you now know the name of the thing! Amazing!

Sunday afternoon, Daddy came home from work and took me to Oma and Ono's house, where I got to eat lasagna and sing "Happy Birthday" to my cousin Bailey, who is two years old now. I also got to run around outside with Bailey and Spencer and to help Bailey blow out her candles and to eat ice cream cake, about which I cannot stop talking, even two days later.

Yesterday, I got to spend the day with G.G. and Aunt Terry, and we had a picnic of raisins and animal crackers, and then Oma picked me up and took me home and gave me my bath and gave me tons of kisses. The day was so exciting that I did not want to take a nap all day long, so I went to bed at 7 pm and didn't wake up until 8:00 this morning!

Mommy is finally doing better today, so we went to the West Side Market Diner, for a breakfast of my favorite hash browns ever in the history of the universe, and then to Target, where we bought me some diapers and my first ever Play-Doh, which I look forward to trying out soon. I have this book that I love to read over and over in which one of the things a girl in the book does when she is so mad that she wants to squeeze her cat is to squeeze some clay instead. I really like the part where I get to say, "squish, squish, squish!" I hope to get to do some real life squishing myself. I'm also looking forward to swimming all the time now that the pool is open down the street.

Before Mommy got sick, I did some other stuff, too. Here are some pictures of it:

My parents and I went to Edgewater Park for a picnic and a little soccer.



Our neighborhood club had its first Porch Night Out last week. Daddy couldn't be home for it, and Mommy had to do some walking around to say hi to people who were sitting out on their porches, so Nonna came over and had dinner with me on our front porch, which was fun but also difficult to do, because there are so many distracting things going on down our street that it makes it hard to just sit down and eat dinner.

Because Daddy had to work on Father's Day, Mommy and I took him out one night last week to Momocho. It's a little nicer - and slower - restaurant than the ones I usually frequent, but I behaved incredibly well. I did take off my shoes, but a boy has to do something to get comfortable, right? I had rice and green beans and ice cream, which I think is a pretty reasonable meal, but my parents must have lost their minds: my daddy had something called huitlecoche, which is mold that grows on corn, and my mommy had grasshoppers, which seems like something interesting to play with but I'm not sure about eating. I guess when she was pregnant with me, my parents went to the place in Mexico where they eat grasshoppers, and my daddy tried them but my mommy didn't want to take any chances, for my sake (thank you very much for that!), so now she wanted to make up for her missed opportunity. I think her curiosity is satisfied. Because we were celebrating, our server brought my daddy a dessert with a sparkler in it, which was a pretty cool way to end the night.

ICU (NUROK)

Life is good. Hot, but good. This week I've been to the zoo, a birthday party, the library, the park, the West Side Market, the swimming pool, the taco restaurant, and the play area at the mall, plus I've gotten to visit with Maggie and her parents, Joel and Lynn, Grandpa (he's that man who looks like he's walking across Tennessee on my US map), and nearly all of my local family at one time or another. Dude, The Summer of Milo^TM rocks.

I'm also working on saying all kinds of new stuff. When I'm taking my nap (or rather, when I'm supposed to be taking my nap), and I lean over the top of my crib so I can look into the mirror in my room and see whomever is in the kitchen, I say "I see you!" (in a sing-songy voice, of course). I've figured out the concepts of "open" and "broken" and use those words all of the time. I'm also learning the states; I like to point out Ohio, where I live, and Florida, where I have noted that my cousins Johnny, Jessica, and Alex live, as well as a couple of my uncles. I love that there is always something new to learn.

So here are some of the pictures of me doing stuff:

Grandpa came to visit and we raced cars until I pooped out from the sheer thrill of it.


Grandpa slept in my future big boy bed in my room, and when I woke up in the morning, he got me up from my crib and let me crawl in with him.

Grandpa took me for a wagon ride and we played in the park and got all wet and dirty and it was awesome.

I stopped by to see my Oma and we read this cool magazine she had.


My cousin Lilli turned 1, and I got to go to her party. Outside the party, I got to play with Bella and Bailey.
Here's the birthday girl, with her Nona, who is my (great) Aunt Barb.

Lilli got a bubble machine that all of us bigger kids had fun with.

My parents and I went to the zoo, and I saw actual elephants, plus zebras, monkeys, giraffes, birds, a hippo, and a kangaroo. I also got to ride a train all around the zoo, which was the best.



I love to cook, but my mom was getting tired of me using stuff she needed, so she got out all of this play cook stuff that's just for me to use. I like all of it, but my favorite thing is the butter. My parents don't get why I love the butter so much, but they are parents, after all. I'm sure this is only the beginning of them not getting it.

Maggie came over for a potluck, and at first I scared her with my maniacal laughing, but then I chilled out and we played together.




I gotta go make some lunch now.