Happyness

So, today when I got home from work, Jack-a-doodle was already awake.

Jack, his arms full of trucks; "Dada, I'm so happy."

Me; "You are?"

Jack; "Yeah. I have so many trucks."

Jackers

Some other things Jack is saying now..........

"Home sweep home."

"Goodnight sweetheart." (to his mother at bedtime)

When something is super good, he'll say, 'Dee-wicious, Dada, dee-wicious, right?'

That is another thing that Jack has been doing lately, saying 'huh' or 'right?' right after saying something.

We were walking out to the car the other day and Jack piped up with 'It's a nice day, right Dada?'

I was kinda being grumpy so I replied that the day was ok.

Jackers thought about it for a minute, then said, 'You're not sure, right Dada, you're not sure, right?'

We sure wuv our wittle guy.

November

This is my grandfather, Felipe Acosta.

This was his birthday in 2008. He would have been 86 this past Friday.

I spent a lot of time with him growing up. If you were to think of the stereotypical grandfather, you know the type-the one who always had candy, bought you tons of toys guns, took you to Western Playland all the time, took you to Ascarate Park to feed the ducks and play in the park, took you to movies, always had fried chicken on hand and a special refrigerator out back full of soda pop and beer, had a basketball hoop in the back, and who didn't care what time you went to sleep when you spent the night and who was a chef before he had retired to be the perfect grandpa, so he could whip up magical meals like magic-that was my Granpa. The kind of Grandpa that loved you not matter what.

Okay, so maybe that was just my Grandpa.
My grandmother had passed a while ago, so he was ready. He left this life this last November, and Heather and I were able to go down for the funeral. We got to see most of the cousins, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. This is Marcos.
This is Brittany (Nicholas's wife), Camille (Marcos's wife), and my Heather.

With Trisha, Uncle Albert's wife.
Silas, Trisha's youngest.
My sister Fred, cousin Katya, and her momma, my Aunt Becky.
My cousin Clarissa and my sister Davi.
My cousin Edica.

Cousins Chris, Santina and Camille.
Dave, Nik and Santina.
Tia Lori, Tia Cheeta, Tia Becky.



Nik and Geno.
More Claire.
Uncle Albert
Cousin Bianca (Bonkers), Uncle Eddie, cousin Katya.
Bonkers.
Tia Irma.

October Memories

One of the fun things about watching a kid growing up is watching as he discovers things that you have in your memory from when you were a kid. I remember celebrating the centuries old heathen tradition of All Hallow's Eve myself with the sacredness of dismembering a pumpkin, and now I get to pass that on to Jack. Or Heather gets to-all I did was take the pictures.



Trunk'or'Treat was pretty good, albeit a little drizzly. We never decorate our car, just hang out with our friends and hand out candy from someone else's car. I had to get a picture of this family-Jack LOVES Curious George.
Our friend's kid, Dennis, had a great home-made costume. Oh no, Doc Oc is gonna get me!!! RUN!!
Jack was a firefighter, or, as he says, "fider fider." His friend Little Man was a horse, his favorite animal. If that kid could be a horse he would do it.
Heather went as a hippie-gypsy lady. I went dressed in black with a glow in the dark plastic hockey mask. Cuz, you know, my name's 'Jason.' Get it? Cuz of that movie-Friday the 13th-Jason-get it?

Anyways, we had good month.

Wook wook, Dada, FIVE cars!!!!

Jack has not yet mastered the capacity to make the 'L' sound. So everything you would say with an l at the front of it or pretty much anywhere in the word is missing in action when Jack tries to say it.
'I wuv you, Dada.'

'No wike it, Mama, no wike it.'

'Wet's watch.............Monster-A-wee-ans?' (Monsters vs. Aliens)

Want some.......choco-wit mee-ook, Dada, want some choco-wit mee-ook?'

'One, two, free.'

'Wook wook Dada, A found a am-bwoo-wance.' (Look look father, I located my ambulance.)

Prayer time is also a lot of fun;

'Pwease bwess fam-bweeee, pwease bwess cars'a'running, pwease bwess Dada job an' Mama job...'

'Pwease bwess Bishop Smiff, pwease bwess Pwesident Mooooooon-soooooon..........'

'Pwease bwess Ameeeee and An-fon-eeeeee.........'

'Pwease bwess chips, and nugg-gets and sawsa ketchup......'

'A tank you a nursery, A tank you a fwendsssssssss......'

Jack can also count to 5. Meaning that if you hand him 3 cars and ask him to count them, he says, 'One, two, free. Wook, wook, Mama, FIVE cars.'

Or if there are 10 toes, he says, 'One, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Wook, wook, Dada, FIVE toes!'

It's either way cute, or I'm a crappy teacher.

Also, the only pronoun Jack possesses is 'she.' So that means that anytime anything happens to anybody, 'she's' coming, or 'she's' here.

As in, 'Wook wook, Dada, amboowance. She's taking na merrrrrrrr-gency. See a'doctor.'

Yes, Jack.

'Goes whee-ooo, whee-oooo.'
'Wook WOOK Dada, FIRETRUCK!!!!! Goes wheeee-oooooo, wheee-oooooo!!!'

BRASIL!!!! Warning; Delicious Ahead.

One of our favorite places to get our grub on is a Provo establishment called Tucano's. It is a Brazilian style churrascaria; basically you sit and get your drinks delivered to you, you get your salad

from the salad bar, and then you get several different wait staff that bring you meat, piping

hot, fresh off the grill.
Each table has a short little dowel, painted red on one end and green on the other, with yellow in the middle. If you have your little dowel with the red side facing up, it means you don't need any more meat, green means go go go delicious.
They have all kinds of goodness, from bacon wrapped turkey to filet mignon to teriyaki beef to brisket to breaded cod in a mango salsa to chicken wings to, well, you get the picture.

There's also Brazilian lemonade and great desserts, and their salad bar is excellent. I like the Waldorf salad the best, but let's face it, you don't go there for the salad bar. Also, I would be remiss if i spoke about Tucano's and didn't mention the grilled pineapple-it's Heatheraise's favorite.
Kia Monster.
Jack Monster.

Going Back

When you move away from home, there always remains some nostalgia for the places where your favorite food memories reside. The same goes for your favorite places to grub in college, or your favorite cheap eats in grad school, etcetera.

The above picture is me, my college roommate Dan (back in Provo from med school, and a friend of his) eating at Cafe Rio. I like to call it Cafe River, but that's just me. Dan was able to make a quiet quick trip back to the place where we both went to college, and looked me up, and where did we eat? Cafe River.
If you peruse the facebook group 'You know you're from El Paso if.....' you'll soon come to a line about "You know you're from El Paso if the first place you eat at when you get back is Chico's Taco's."

This fine culinary masterpiece you see Heather enjoying is the real deal-Chico's Taco's. To learn more about this place, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zosJA_FGDAY, or or just Google the term. I can't believe this place actually made the Food Networks 'Best Thing I Ever Ate With my Hands," but there you go. Would'ya believe after five years of marriage and numerous trips to El Paso, I realized I had never taken Heather to eat there. That situation has been remedied, and let me tell you, they were as good as I remembered.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.....deep fried crunchy tacos swimming in sauce and topped with the cheapest yellow cheap cheese very little money can buy-there's nothing else like it.
Come'on, you know you want some.