Spring Recap

We’ve been having our usual windy, New Mexican spring here in Albuquerque. The weather has been alternating between warm, cold, warm, cold with periodic WINDY days since February. El Niño is in effect right now, which means NM will get more than “normal” rainfall, and indeed we have had LOTS of rain this spring.

Side note: El Niño is short for the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which is a complex weather phenonmena that has an average cycle of 7 years. Positive (above “average”) equatorial sea surface temperatures means we’re in the El Niño phase and negative equatorial sea surface temps mean we’re in the La Niña phase. Lately this has come up in many random conversations and people have asked me so many questions about it…I may do a separate post on this soon.

Weather notwithstanding, we have had a lovely spring and are eagerly awaiting the warm summer. What did we do all spring?

First, we figured out that Mia still NEEDS to have a nap, even if she protests it. You may recall that Mia started preschool in the fall, for three mornings a week. We always did naps in the afternoon. In the spring, we increased to three “full” days per week (8:15 to 3), which means she has a short nap with the whole class and, more importantly, that she gets to stay at school “all day!” like the big kids. Then on non-school days, we often skipped naps. One afternoon, after a minor meltdown over some trivial thing, she fell asleep like this:

Nap time is important

Silly Mama — Don’t you know naps are necessary?! It isn’t always easy to get her down, but then she sleeps for about 2-3 hours every afternoon. And she still sleeps 10-11 hours at night. Sleep is sooooo important!

We enjoyed watching all of our flowers blossom at various times throughout the spring. (Apologies for my photo skills, because these really don’t do them justice! The Lady Banks roses were so amazing that we actually hosted a little soiree to share them. And the wisteria smell heavenly.

: Pink blossoms in March

: Asian plumbs

: Our Lady Banks roses

: Arms full of wisteria

: Purple is her favorite color (some days)

We had a short visit to Dolores and got to hang out with some good friends (and still didn’t have time to see everyone! We hope to return soon!)…Mia declared she wants to move in with them and now often asks if various friends can live with us.

Fun with friends

Patience with the small ones

Who is on the phone?

Whoa! This is good!

Our social calendar looks a bit different these days (meaning since we became parents), since things just aren’t as fun if we don’t honor nap time and bed time. Still we manage to find plenty of time to play with friends. We’ve been having lots of fun playing with our old and new friends…

Three little monkeys jumping on the bed

Partied out

After dinner giggles

Such fun!

Wild animals in our midst

Good times with “old” friends

After dinner walks are the best

Play time continues

Play time

On non-school days, we have several spots for rock climbing and general exploration…

Exploring gravity

Mechanics to lift and gravity to fall

Cafe lunch entertainment

Climbing all the time

Rock climbing at the museum

Mastering the swirly slide-down bar…Now she says, “Mama, don’t help me. Stand waaaaay over there!”

Getting ready to take baby and kitty into the aquarium

As close as we get to the ocean, at least while here in NM

Pushing her baby & stroller through the aquarium

This is the playhouse that Mia wants (from auction display at our botanical gardens)

Mia’s school is great and we’ve made all kinds of good friends there. (And we LOVE Montessori!) We have been enjoying school activities, including an Earth Day parade and Spring Tea.

Earth Day parade through the ‘hood

Earth Day school parade

Post-parade performance

A lovely hostess at her Spring Tea

Mia and Papa at Spring Tea

Spring Tea

And, of course, we continue reading hundreds of books and hiking as often as possible. (Buying books is my biggest weakness. Thank you, ABQ library system for helping me to restrain myself!)