Cousin Andrew to the Rescue

My cousin Andrew is a firefighter and paramedic. He welcomed us to one of the Attalla, Alabama fire stations where he works. This was Jonathan's first visit with cousin Andrew. Andrew rescued us from a dull day of travel in the car by providing Jonathan with a great topic for conversation. Jonathan now talks about firetrucks all the time! "Andrew showed me firetruck." "Andrew showed me am-blance." "Andrew let me drive truck." "Andrew let me wear hat." "Andrew put me on stretcher-bed." "Andrew turned on lights on truck." Andrew has quite a fan!

Sweet Home Alabama: 4th of July

We were able to join my parents in Alabama for a 4th of July celebration and birthday party with my Ma Grannie, Aunt Sharon & Uncle Danny, and my cousins, Adam, Tara, Savannah, Claire & Chloe. Ma Grannie celebrated her 77th birthday! We had a wonderful time watching the little cousins play together. Jonathan does not get to see Savannah, Chloe, and Claire very often, but you would not know that to watch them run around the yard together. Aunt Sharon (Granna) is a party planner extraordinaire! We enjoyed a silly string romp, floating duck pond, visit to her beach, bike rides, eat-all-you-want candy dish, cookout, watermelon, & cake and ice cream. Uncle Danny provided a tribute to our founding fathers and a Ray Stevens song festival! It was sweet to be back in my father's home town!

Marrero Family Wilderness Experience

We are not tent, cabin, camper, under the stars kind of people. We enjoy the outdoors, but we love airconditioning and beds without bugs! So, needless to say I would have never guessed that a rest stop at the Bass Pro Shop would be an ideal thing for the Marrero family. I was wrong! Who would not love: a walk down a stocked indoor stream, looking at more stuffed animals than some museums of natural history hold, playing a free round of mini-golf, enjoying a huge aquairum, drinking a cup of starbucks while watching a plane overhead, watching Nascar simulators with an excited toddler, and shopping for Columbia and North Face sportswear? I'm a Bas Pro Shop fan! They won me over with their sleek marketing that must appeal to Yuppie outdoor lovers as well as country Bubba who likes to fish every weekend and kill stuff!

Jonathan's Day Out with Thomas

After hearing Jonathan say, "I ride Thomas 'morrow" everyday for a week, we were thrilled when he finally got to ride on Thomas. We took a much anticipated family trip over to Connersville, Indiana to the White River Valley Railroad for the Day Out with Thomas event. Jonathan was able to meet "Sir Topper Hat" (Sir Topham Hat), the railroad Barron from Sodor Island, and a real train conductor. It was quite fun to see 7 passenger train cars from the 1920's and 30's behind Thomas filled full of excited toddlers and their families. Jonathan was especially excited to see us pass the "baboose" (caboose) train, a train of nothing but caboose cars full of toddlers too!



I must admit that Thomas has grown on me. The first time I saw the cartoon of train models with funky faces and little wooden people, I was a bit ooked out by them. But, each engine has a name and unique personality (Salty is my favorite). The shows teach character values like reliability, responsibility, and usefulness. When the engines misbehave, Sir Topham hat gets cross and provides prompt consequences. Perhaps when Jonathan disobeys I'll send him to work in the quarry with Rusty!

Love that Chick-fil-a Cow

Our local Chick-fil-a had customer appreciation week this past week. They could host a day just for the Marrero family because we are there so much! Thankfully, "happy meal" is not in Jonathan's vocabulary. Jonathan does not even know what McDonald's is, but he sees Chick-fil-a and says, "chicky bok bok." Can you tell where is Mommy likes to get her fast-food fix? These pictures are from the 1950's themed free milkshake day. Jonathan loved seeing the cow and the girls in the "cow" skirts with hula hoops. He insisted that I take him to the street sidewalk in front of the parkinglot so that he could see the cow up close. Later, he was thrilled when the cow came inside. He and our friend, Addie Grace, gave the cow some love.

Corn on the Cob

They say that there is more than corn in Indiana, but when Jonathan is eating corn--nothing else matters! He has loved corn since he could eat the nasty baby puree. Last year, Jonathan was eating kernels sliced off the cob by Mommy and Daddy. This year he insisted on having his corn on the cob. If I had not finally taken it from him, he would have eaten the cob!

"Thank you God, Dinosaur Bones"

This past month, Jonathan has started saying his bedtime prayers on his own. I am now learning the art of gratitude from a 22 month-old.

Jonathan's first prayers began with lists of immediate family members--including the four-legged variety, "Thank you Mommy, Daddy, Bustelo, Daisy." He then started to add "Nana, Papa, Grandma Gigi." Now he adds great-grand parents, "Thank you God, Great Daddy, NeeMee, MaGrannie." And, frequently he will include "Uncle John, Mari, Nando" even though he does not get to see his aunt and uncles very often. We also hear the names of friends, "Kelsea, Taylor, Chlo-Chlo, Rob, Chelle, and Ang-la" to name a few we have heard. This past week, we have been getting lists of things and characters too: Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big-Bird, trains, Thomas, cars, and turtles!

But, my favorite thing he prayed for this week was dinosaur bones! It isn't completely random, we have recently had several trips to the Children's Museum and Jonathan has discovered the Dinosphere. He was a little timid at first because the life-size display with loud roars and changing lights is a bit over-whelming for little ones. But, once he discovered the dinosaur nests and dinosaur play tables he has been hooked on dinosaurs. Last weekend, he played dinosaurs in the nest with our good friend Angela who was visiting from Georgia. And, Wednesday he met a palaeontologist and touched a dinosaur femur with Efrain. I guess it all made quite an impression on him. He prayed, "Thank you God, dinosaur. Thank you God, bones. Thank you God, dinosaur bones." My son has shown me why Jesus tells us to be like little children. In their sweet innocence, children are not only thankful for the big things in life, but they also never forget the seemingly little things in life that point to our creator! Have you prayed for dinosaur bones lately?

30,000 Cows Oh My: Our Family Trip to Fair Oaks Farms

We admit it, we are fan's of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel. When I think that changing diapers is s diry job, I just watch Mike and realize that my job is quite good! There is always someone doing a much nastier job! Recently, we were surprised to see an episode of Dirty Jobs where they were at a dairy farm in Indiana. After seeing him assist with the birth of several four-legged little ones, clean cattle barns, transform poop into power, and work on the milking carosel, we knew we were going to have to see Fair Oaks for ourselves. Though it felt like we drove half-way to Chicago to get there (and we did), It was well worth the drive! We witnessed a the birth of a calf in the theater-style birthing barn, enjoyed an amazingly stink-free farm tour, adopted a stuffed calf complete with ear-tag, jumped like crazy on the "Dairy Air" jumping pillow, played on the playground, and ate the world's best grilled cheese sandwich followed by chocolate milk and icecream! We had a Moo-velous time!

A "NeeMee" is Born: Jonathan's Mother's Day Visit in White House

We were delighted to be able to spend Mother's Day weekend with my grandparents in White House, Tennessee. Though it was a short visit, Jonathan packed a lot of fun into his time with Great-Mommy and Great-Daddy. Highlights of Jonthan's trip included: rides around the yard in Great-Daddy's golf-cart with Snoopy-Dog riding shot-gun, playing with Great-JoJo and Great-Termite, eating grapes out-of the grape-truck, digging in the garden-spot, sleeping in Great-Daddy's arms during Daddy's Scrabble challenge with Grandmommy, giving Great-Mommy a Jonathan signature name: "NeeMee," eating homemade chocolate chip cookies from the cookie jar, and taking more rides around the yard in the wagon on the back of the riding mower. My grandparents are a wonderful blessing and influence in my life and to see them loving on my little one is one of life's great joys!

Grandma Gigi's Visit

Grandma Gigi came to visit us at the end of April. We were excited for her to visit since we had not seen her since Christmas! She was thrilled to put her eyes on Jonathan and see all that he can now do. We were tickled when she kept calling for us to "look at him" to see each thing he did that was new to her.

While Daddy was at work, we took Jonathan to Franklin to eat at Pizza King. He loved the train theme, especially the "choo-choo" that brought our drinks to the table. Grandma spoiled him by taking him to our favorite toy store, Imagination Station. She bought him several cars for his Thomas the Train set and a pair of dump trucks named Max and Monty. He especially loves his "BA-boose" (caboose) that plays the Thomas theme song.

Here comes the drink train!

Gigi and Jonathan enjoyed time at the park, playing trains, decorating the driveway with side-walk-chalk, and blowing bubbles.

Gigi brought an entire suitcase full of treats from Puerto Rico. While Efrain and I love the coffee the most, Jonathan's favorite treats are the pastries. Here he is digging into a box of pastelillos filled with guava paste.

Jonathan and Gigi had a great time!