"Toddler" Pals

When we got Sophie, one of the biggest reasons why we got a puppie was so that the puppy and Marielle could grow up together. Sophie seems to be growing a bit faster than Marielle, but they are definitely both still toddlers, and love growing up together. Over the last few weeks, Marielle has become more and more aware of Sophie lounging around the house. Back when Marielle was first starting to walk, she would bring Sophie chew toys and pet her occasionally. Lately, she lays on the floor with her, feeds her treats, gives her kisses in the morning, and sometimes tries to pluck out her eyes (Sophie doesn't seem to mind). Sophie is so gentle with her, and Marielle is pretty good too except for the excessive interest in Sophie's eyes. It's really cute watching them together.

Help Thinning Out My Wallet

Anyone who has ever gone out with Viv and I has seen my wallet. You couldn't have missed it because it is monstrous. We're talking about awallet that could rival George Costanza's. In fact, I have feared having backing pain in my latter years due to the damage caused by my lopsided sitting. My friend Leif stopped carrying his wallet in his back pocket after seeing Goerge's wallet on Seinfeld. Geoff has switched to the money clip and won't shut up about it :) He's always trying to get me to adopt this streamlined approach to carrying ID and funds. He's probably on to something. I just never make time to go through all the junk I've been carrying. I just can't imagine walking into Payless Shoes and not getting a punch for my 7th pair of shoes. Well, the other day Marielle set me on the path to ending the insanity. She took it upon herself to sift through my wallet and throw out the junk. Literally. I now have a wallet with more pockets than I have cards for! Money clip, here I come? Perhaps I'll start by cutting back to a bi-fold.

Our Fun Filled Weekend

We had a great and super busy weekend. This Friday we got together with Geoff, Colette, and Alex. We were so excited that they were in town to visit! We went and ate some good Mexican food on Friday night and then came back to the house and just hung out. I think Marc and Geoff stayed up until early in the morning. The next day we all ate a good breakfast (by good I mean good tasting and not healthy, gotta love Lamars). Then Colette and I went and got a pedicure and Marc and Geoff hung out with the babies. When we came back the kiddos got to play with eachother some more. Marielle and Alex play really nice together. While they don't always share well, they always seem to enjoy eachother's presence. They always want to do whatever the other one is doing. It was fun watching the two of them together. Thanks for coming guys, we'll see you on Friday!


On Saturday night Marc and I went to my friend Griffen's wedding (no pictures). It was beautiful. The ceremony was so romantic. As part of the ceremony the pastor talked about how little children responded to the question "what is love?" One little girl said that "Love is when your grandmother has arthritis and can't paint her toenails so your grandpa does it for her. And when your grandpa developes arthirtis in his hands he keeps painting her nails." I thought that was so cute. It makes you think about how you treat your spouse and how much nicer and loving you should be. Anyway, the whole wedding was great. Great people, great food, great band. Marc and I stayed for a little bit and even cut a rug. Its been a while, but we are still dancing machines.


On Sunday my sister Jenn flew into town! She came in to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday. It was so great to see her. We also got to see her boyfriend Jason and his son Anthony. We all got together and drove down to Monument to surprise my mom, who was totally surprised. Then we all went and did what my family loves to do. EAT!! There is nothing better than Korean food. It was fun to see Jenn with Marielle. She is such a great Emo (aka Aunt). Marielle acted all shy at first, but it didn't take long for her to warm up to her. My favorite picture from Sunday is the one where Jenn and Marielle were eating chips together.








In the afternoon Marielle, my daredevil of a daughter came down a gigantic slide. I think she loved it and hated it at the same time. She kept asking for "mor" though so we kept letting her slide down. Here is how crazy she looked sliding down. Anyway, long blog short. We had a great fun packed weekend where we got to see lots of the people we love.

Global Warming and the Next Ice Age

A new age is upon us, one in which guests in our house no longer need to fear death from heat stroke.

Yes, leave your water bottles at home and stop counting the seconds until you leave because the Barrios Family finally has air conditioning! So this is a story that started back when we bought our house. Vivian and I couldn't believe what our builder wanted to charge to include air conditioning in the home construction. We opted out in favor of seeking installation at a later date. Well, two and a half years later we have been kicking ourselves for not having A/C installed then. This summer's heat has been unbearable. I'm saying this despite the fact that I'm off at work each day. I know because I can see it on Marielle and Natalei's faces each afternoon when I step into our inferno of a house. Well, now I can expect to come home to a nanny and daughter wrapped in blankets. We' had procrastinated all summer long, in much the same fashion as we have with taking our folded laundry upstairs, and now with barely any summer left, we have cooled the place down!

We are thrilled . . . or should I say chilled?

Just Some Stuff About My Girl

Marielle's favorite thing to do is figure out things that she can do by herself. Last weekend she figured out that the step at my parents house was just her size. She loved sitting on it and then getting up and sitting back down on it again.





She has also taken a liking to playing with jewelry and hair things. She is mommy's little girl! So this week we had fun putting head bands on. Her nanny got her a bunch of head bands and I thought it would be funny if she wore them all at once.





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One of my favorite things that Marielle does is make sweet eyes. When I was a kid my grandpa used to say "make sweet eyes" and I'd make this little scrunched up face. A few months ago Marielle started making a similar face so we started it calling it sweet eyes. Now we tell her "make sweet eyes" and she makes the face. Its just this scrunched squinty look and I LOVE it. The picture doesn't do the best job of depicting it, so I'll try and take another one.

Lilo and Stitch Pony Tail

Here is another pony tail picture of Marielle. Our friends sent Marielle a package of toys for her to play with on her plane ride to Japan. Included in the package was a couple of Lilo and Stitch hair bands. I put one in her hair and she really dug it. So here's the pic. I also included a picture of her hair after I took the pony tail out. hehe

NICU Picnic

Today we all went to St. Joseph Hospital's NICU Reunion Picnic. Basically, once every year in August the hospital has a picnic for all of the preemies/sick babies who have been in St. Joseph's NICU. Its fun to go because all the doctors and nurses who take care of your baby get to see how your child is doing. Marielle loved the picnic. There was a puppet show that she found particularly enthralling. She also really liked dancing to the music that the D.J. was playing. She really has become quite the dancer. For all of you who have not seen her moves she sways back and forth with her whole body, bounces up and down, and also does the best twirls I think I have ever seen. Anyway, while we were there Marielle got to see her old nurse Karen. Marc and I always liked when Karen was watching Marielle because she always gave her such great love and attention. She also saw Dr. Pantoja who was one of her primary physicians. He was really impressed with how Marielle was doing. At the end of the picnic we got pictures that were taken of all of us last year. Boy how a year changes things. First of all Marielle was quite the chubba bubba as my little sister would say. Second of all, she was such a baby in the pictures. Yes, I realize she was a baby in the picture. Its just that she looks so different now. Now she looks like a little girl instead of a baby. When you look at pictures of her now I think its easier to see her personality come through.

Alright Already

This is for my sister Jenn and for my friends Lisa and P.C. I am adding another blog entry and this time it has pictures. My sister Jenn said she didn't want to read about me being sick on the blog. She comes to the blog to see pictures of Marielle. Lisa and P.C. have been distraught that there have been no blog updates for a week. Hopefully the blog entries below will satisfy all of those who have been without an update of our family for six days. Enjoy.

Death Becomes Her

I have been soooooo sick this weekend. It started on Friday when I was feeling tired and a little under the weather. I assumed I was just exhausted and needed to sleep. When I woke up on Saturday I felt like total crap. I was extremely nauseous, had a headache, the chills, and my whole body was achy. Marc was not at all sympathetic. "You just need to eat something." he says. Hello! I feel nauseous, I don't think eating is going to help that. To appease him, however, I let him buy me some Jamba Juice. Marc had insisted on going to get me something to eat even though I told him I didn't feel like eating anything. Long story short, the Jamba Juice didn't make it more than a few minutes. Marc's response "It's cause you have to eat something more substantial." Anyway, we had a wedding to go to on Saturday evening. After not being able to hold down even water I decided that perhaps we should not go and expose everyone to the serious on the brink of death illness that I had. Anyway, today I woke up feeling a little better. I'm not quite up to normal strength, but come tomorrow I think I'll be there. By the way, this morning I received more "awesome" sympathy from Marc. I slept in because I still feel sick and Marc's response was "you need to get moving." Hello! I DO NOT FEEL WELL. Anyway, in a little bit I'll post some updated pictures of the squirt and talk about happier news than my illness. As Winnie the Pooh says "Good Bye for Now."

P.S. When I ran spell check it told me to replace Marc with Marcia. I thought about doing it cause I thought it would be funny. But perhaps that is the illness talking.

Marielle Has Found Her Identity

You have all heard this, but I think it is so cute that Marielle has figured out who she is. Well sorta. This weekend we all went shopping and every time Marielle passed a mirror she would look at herself. Marc and I began asking her "Who is that?" and Marielle would answer "me." We thought it was so cute because she would say it and then be proud of herself like "yeah I know who I am." Marc and I have also been working on getting Marielle to say her name. Figuring that Marielle might be a little hard for her to say we worked on getting her to say Ellie. We would point at her and then say Ellie. Now when we ask "Where is Ellie?" she points to herself.

I am so embarrassed . . .

for the guy on the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy show. Marc and I were watching Queer Eye this evening and the guy they were making over was obsessed with the medieval time period. He proposed to his girlfriend by taking her to this castle where everyone was dressed in medieval garb. (Before I go any further I apologize to anyone who dresses up in medieval attire on the weekends, this is not meant to offend you). Everyone at this castle spoke in old English and acted ridiculously. i.e. They said things like "Excuse me fair maiden." To make matters worse, before this guy proposed he participated in a sword fight where he got his butt kicked several times. If Marc dressed up in medieval attire before he proposed and participated in a fight where he got his butt kicked, I might have to think a little harder about my answer. Thankfully, Marc did not wear tights when he proposed. At least he didn't wear any tights that were visible to the public. Anyway, after the guy gets his butt kicked he goes inside and during a dinner with all the other medieval enthusiasts he proposes, with the permission of the court of course. Anyway, while we were watching the show I kept covering my eyes. The whole thing was just so embarrassing. It was like watching Napoleon Dynamite in action. Except on the show, this guy was not acting. Not to be to harsh, the guy seemed really nice, but he definitely was not any cooler than Napoleon. By the way, Marc and I were just doing our best Napoleon immitations. We were trying to figure out the best ways to type some of his sounds. Comment with your suggestions.

Dog Whispering?

So while we were out in New York visiting Viv's Dad and his fiance, Meredith, we came across a guy calling himself the Dog Whisperer. No, he wasn't some crack pot on the street asking for money like the Naked Cowboy. He has a show on the National Geographic Channel (I think you need a fancy digital cable package to get this channel). Viv's Dad and Meredith love watching his show and were really excited about us getting to see it. Apparently they have heard about our dingo of an 8-month old puppy.

I was a little skeptical at first. With a name like "The Dog Whisperer," I thought it was going to be some guy who has some sort of psychic who talks to dogs. That, however, is another show. The dog whisperer himself is, in fact, totally reputable! Basically, he helps the owners of problem dogs assert themselves as the pack leaders. By doing this, most of a dog's problems seem to melt away when they fall in line as a subordinate. He talks about how most troubled behavior stems from the dog's confusion over who is in charge. Viv and I were hooked from the first episode in which we watched him tame an over-protective chihuahua named Nunu who had been attacking the owner's roommate.

After seeing two or three success stories, I got pumped about coming home and trying out some of his tactics with our dingo. To be fair, Sophie really is a good girl. She's actually fairly mellow for a puppy, she is very gentle with Marielle, Marielle loves on her all day, and she loves hanging out close to us. I think that we sometimes forget that she is still so young. We really were spoiled with our perfectly trained Chloe. Our lack of training experience is definitely part of our trouble. The big things are that she pulls when being walked, is easily distracted, and believes that the statute of limitations for a command like "stay" runs for only about ten seconds. The pulling while walking has really been driving me crazy. It makes the walk no fun for either of us. This happened to be one of the Dog Whisperer's primary focuses. He showed how to calmly, and gently assert yourself as the leader during a walk. He would demonstrate on the show and I was a bit skeptical about how quickly he seemed to get a dog in line. They probably cut the forty takes before it finally worked, right? Wrong. On my first morning walk with Sophie after our trip, I tried out the Dog Whisperer's tactics and they worked! With only about two corrections a found Sophie walking calmly at me side. It was great, and we both are enjoying are much more laid back walks.

This guy's show doesn't teach everything, but asserting yourself as leader seems to be a cornerstone of obedience. Viv and I have kind of known this. I mean that's kind of common sense. The show was an eye opener onto all of the little things that we do that had undermined that position. Everyone should watch. Lisa, they even had an episode with a Great Dane with shiny/smooth floor issues. By the end of the episode, the dog was cruising around a linoleum-lined school like it was no big thing.

Maine

OK, the long-awaited Maine posting is up! I meant to crank this out Sunday afternoon, but got bogged down putting our gear away after our trip. Viv and I are notoriously bad about unpacking after a trip. We never put our toiletries away, and for this trip, our suitcases were already out and on our bedroom floor from our last trip. Yesterday, I was determined to do things different and get things put away.

Let me start by saying we had a great time in Maine. Maine was completely different than I imagined it. Being so far north, I packed a sweatshirt. I quickly found out that I wouldn't be needing it. Being so far north, I expected there to be little to do. I quickly found that Geoff, Colette, and Alex had a full agenda ready for us, and we loved every minute of it. They took us around to all of the little gems they had come across. From what I could tell, Maine had many more gems yet to be discovered by us. I would definitely considered vacationing there again. In the summer only of course.

We spent a day exploring Acadia National Park and Mt. Desert Island. Specifically, we strolled around Bah Habah (AKA Bar Harbor) after a morning hike, visited the Bass Harbor Head Light (In Maine every lighthouse is called a head light. I think it's because not every lighthouse is actually a house), played in the North Atlantic at Sand Beach, and feasted on lobster at a local lobster pound, which is a outdoor restaurant specializing in steaming up lobsters for you on the spot. Vivian, Marielle, and I were beat by the end of the day.

Our second real outing took us south of Bangor to the seaside town of Camden. I was telling Geoff that Camden and Bar Harbor reminded me a little of Breckenridge. Their main streets were perfect for just leisurely walking/shopping. The trip to Camden itself was a lot of fun. You pass some gorgous little houses along the way and the lush woodlands are amazing. Camden had a neat little fair going on so we looked through the different artists' tents. We saw some neat things. We may have to recruit Geoff and Colette to track down some artists names so we can see about getting some original Maine art. We grabbed sandwiches in town and then headed out of downtown Camden in search of a beachside park Geoff and Colette had seen on previous visits. We found the park, had lunch, let the little ones swing and run around, and I actually went swimming. It was cold, but more bearable than I thought it'd be. Later that afternoon, back in the Bangor area, we took the kids to a playground that also has this great interactive fountain. Watching the kids climb around and play in the water was great.

Watching Alex and Marielle play was definitely the high point of our visit to Maine. Each morning, Alex would hear Marielle wake up and then he'd come looking for her. The two of them would play around on the bed or the air mattress while the rest of us would observe them while getting motivated to actually get up for the day. They both just seemed in awe of each other. They are both so much more aware of their surroundings even since our trip to Florida in May. They don't totally play together yet. They more play in the vicinity of each other and occasionally cross paths. Those moments are the best. In those moments you can see their excitement for each other. Soon they'll be an unstoppable duo that no playgroup could challenge. If we could get Nathan back from over-seas on a space available flight to make it a trio, watch out world!

Geoff, Colette, and Alex, thanks for always making us feel at home and showing us a great time.

New York

New York was tons of fun. Marc and I loved spending time with my Dad and his fiance Meredith, and we know Marielle did too!






On our first day in New York, we spent the day with my Dad and Meredith. We went down to Fulton Street and the South Seaport. We wrapped up the day by getting sandwiches to go from the Peanut Butter &Co. Marc has been dying to go there since seeing their Elvis sandwich on the Food Network (the Elvis consists of a grilled peanut butter sandwich with bananas, honey, and bacon). The next day we toured the areas surrounding Manhattan Island including Nyack, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, and Greenwich and Stamford in Connecticut (can anyone say Dunder Mifflin Headquarters). While out and about, we went to a Gothic Mansion called the Lyndhurst Manor. The tour was fun and Marielle was such a good little girl during the tour. She let us learn about the history of the mansion room by room without really so much as a peep. Our favorite part of seeing the mansion, however, was the large estate it sat on. It was like we had a private park to ourselves. We loved watching Marielle run around in the grass. At some points she had some issues walking in it though (see picture). The grass was really uneven and every once and a while she had trouble keeping her balance.

We spent another day hanging out with my Dad. We got to see the hospital that he will start working at shortly and went grocery shopping for dinner with Meredith's parents. Dinner was a lot of fun. It was great meeting Meredith's parents and they seemed thrilled to finally meet Marielle.

Our last full day in town, the three of us went out exploring the city on our own. We took Marielle to Grand Central Station, Times Square, and Central Park. We also went to FAO Schwarz. Marielle loved it! She especially loved the dolls there. We tried to have her play on the infamous piano, but she didn't weigh enough to make the keys light up.

New York is such a great place to visit. My favorite is all the great but cheap food you can get. Throughout our entire time there, we ate at great places. Everyone knows how much I like a good meal, especially at a good price. I love that most of the good places to eat are NOT chains. There is great ethnic food at good prices all over the city. We also like the great parks in New York. The upkeep of the grounds was awesome. We had a good time strolling through some of the parks.

As you can tell from our photos, we had a good time visiting New York. My dad and Meredith were great hosts and we can't wait to go back for the wedding.

4th of July

We had a busy 4th. We went to Marc's parents house and had a wonderful turkey dinner. It was like Thanksgiving in July. Marielle, true to form, was on the go all day. She spent some time swinging with her GG (Great Grandpa) and GGS (Great Grandma Susan). She also had fun getting on Grandpa's Harley. She even made bupbupbupbupbup sounds, which is apparently the sound motorcycles make. Although we wanted to go watch fireworks, Marielle only had one nap and we knew she wasn't going to make it to a 9:30 fireworks show. Hopefully next year Marielle will be ready for staying up a little later. Well we hope everyone had a happy fourth. Oh yes and "freedooooooooooooom!"


P.S. Our family sends our thanks to those who serve or have served in the armed forces. Including my Dad, Marc's Dad, Marc's Grandpa, our friend P.C., and soon to be my cousin Noah who has just started at the Air Force Academy. We are proud of all of you.

Telephone Time

Marielle has been showing a lot of interest in phones lately. She picks them up and puts them on her shoulder (as shown in the picture) and gibber jabbers into it. Sometimes she even says hello, like there is actually someone on the other line talking to her. She also gives you the phone like "here its for you." Our families think its cute so they let Marielle play with their phones. Twice, however, Marielle has locked features on a couple of the phones. Once she turned on voice activitation and another time she turned off the phone's ringer. In both instances it took a while to turn off the features she had turned on. He he. Anyway, our families have learned to start locking their phones before they let Marielle play with them.

Marielle and Her Reading Buddies

I am amazed at how much my Ellie Belly loves to read. Her Halmoni, Grandpa Al, Auntie Sarah, and Uncle Josh came up this weekend to visit and Marielle read with every single one of them. She loves to go and grab a book from her red wagon and bring them over to you and say reet (read) or beu (book) and then back her little behind into your lap. I find it pretty cute. Anyway, Marielle had a great time hanging out with the family. As you can see it was a very educational experience.