que tiene el mundo entero en sus manos

This week I caught Titus singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" in Spanish. They are learning it at school to sing on International Day. Every Wenesday for 15 minutes Titus has Spanish class. I have such a deep desire to learn Spanish. Even more though, I want my boys to learn to speak it fluently. Several kids in Titus' class speak English as well as Spanish and some also speak Portuguese. I feel so blessed that Titus can be learning words and songs at the age of three. Unfortunately, I will be in PA for a wedding and will miss his little performance at International Day. I'm quite heartbroken about it. I know I will have more years to be there as it is something all of the elementary school participates in. But, oh how I hate to miss the first.

More Close-Ups

I've been so desperately trying to get my camera to do something. Anything. Yet all I get is extremely close-up shots taken in the manual setting.




Since it doesn't auto focus, the object must be completely still. Which is a joke when taking pictures of kids. Or should I say, kids floating in an inner tube in the ocean. :) Or I get blurry not so close shots. It's been so upsetting not having {properly} working a camera in the house.





Quincy doesn't understand why I am so close and he can't help but reach out and try to grab the camera.

And, yes, I know I probably shouldn't be taking the camera into the ocean after it already got wet...but I figure what the heck, it already is broken. ;)

Quincy's 1st.

On September 3rd we celebrated Quincy's first birthday. It was a bit of a struggle to decide just what to do for his birthday. Having only been in Florida for about a month and a half, Quincy doesn't have "friends" here and since we have no family here, it was a hard decision but in the end we decided against having a party. It felt terrible in some ways because, doesn't every child have a first birthday party? When I thought about the tradition of the first party, I felt as though it really isn't necessary and really dones't even make a lot of sense. A one year old is too young to enjoy it, may be overwhelmed by all the people and probably shouldn't be eating the amount of sugar that the first birthday cake contains. But, it's tradition to let the "baby" dig into the cake. Right? And why such a huge celebration for making it to one year. Were there doubts that the parents were capable of providing for the child in a way that would allow him to make it to one year? I know these thought all came out as a way to justify not having a party and trying to push away with the guilt that comes from not throwing a first birthday party. But...in the end, I do feel a little mixed. I feel like Quincy got cheated a little by not having a big party, but I also think that if we would ever have another child, I would want to throw a huge party after the birth to celebrate the child instead of at the one year mark.

I did decorate with balloons and Quincy woke up to gifts from us. And one that my mom had sent earlier. He seemed to be fine with that. What he wasn't fine with was Titus taking his new toys. It was a battle between the two of them...and one more reason why I was actually glad we didn't have a party. What a disaster that would have been, Quincy receiving all the gifts and Titus stealing them all away.









After breakfast and gifts, we went as a family to the Miami Seaquarium. It was a great place for the boys at the ages of 1 and 3.






...and then the jumping dolphin came down right in front of me and Quincy. We became completely soaked. And so did my camera. And that was the end of Quincy's first birthday celebration pictures.

Well, except for this one that I was able to take in manual setting. The only setting that works. For extreme close-ups.



So now, not only did my poor Quincy not have a party but he has so few pictures of his first birthday. Let the guilt increase.

Between Raindrops

Just as we were about to leave for the beach yesterday, the raindrops started falling. We got in the car anyway and told Titus that we might not be able to go onto the beach if it was still raining when we got there. I told him to pray that it would stop. He did. It did. Just long enough for us to have one wonderful hour of fun and relaxation.