Zavala Blog

The Pool

2009-07-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

Well we have been swimming for over a week and Sebastian has gotten it. He loves to be in the water now and is getting pretty good and moving his hands and legs in an imitation of swimming. He hasn't gotten to where he can move very fast but he is definitely getting the hang of it. Clay and Allison came over today and we had a blast. I have three videos to share today. The first is of everyone swimming and the second is of Clay doing a funny little jump in his float. The last one is a video of Clay getting dunked under water. He actually smiles when he comes back up. We did this several times and every time he came up happy. Hope you all enjoy seeing them.

Hello Again

2009-05-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well it has been awhile since I have posted on my blog. I must apologize. We were busy with moving and then I just got side tracked. Well, we are in South Carolina now. I am keeping some kids in my house. Right now I just keep my two nephews, Yahir and Donovan but hopefully I'll start keeping a couple more children soon. I have a video of my nephew I would like to post so that everyone can see how cute he is. The video is of him in his new bed. The bed is actually the one we used for Sebastian up until recently.

I also have pictures of Sebastian and Yahir's new bunk bed. They are really excited about it. We'll see how Sebastian feels in the morning. He gets the top bunk.

Bath Time Singer

2008-09-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

I have been very busy today since this is my final week of class for this block of classes. I was working on my paper and Sebastian was in the bathroom taking a bath. All of the sudden, I heard music. I tried to sneak up but he saw me. I was afraid that he would stop but he did not. He will probably kill me when he is older for putting this on the web but it is so cute and you can't see anything. Take a look.

Pittsburgh Zoo is Busting with Babies!!!

2008-08-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

Sebastian and I went to the Pittsburgh Zoo today with some friends of ours. We had a great time seeing all the new baby animals that are there. Sebastian had a great time exploring the zoo with Monique (12), Kimberly (10), and Rose Mary (4). I work with their mom Lucy at the daycare. We saw many animals at the zoo. The kids loved seeing the young tigers. Sebastian and I saw the two tigers when they were little. They sure have grown a lot.

The biggest highlight of the trip was seeing the baby elephants. We have two girl babies born in July. Their names are Angelina and Zurri. They were so cute. They are out with the entire herd so it was somewhat difficult to get a good picture of two little elephants when the big elephants kept blocking my view.
Another of the babies was a tiger cub. This little fellow was a surprise because we did not expect to see him. He was not scheduled to come outside until later. We were very happy he came out early.
That seems like a lot of baby animals for a zoo right. Well there are still more. We also have a baby orangutan named G. I have a video of him that was just so cute.

Sebastian spent most of the day glued to Lucy's second oldest daughter, Kimberly. You will see her in almost all of the pictures of Sebastian.

Rose Mary's favorite part of the zoo was the monkeys. She even helped me to take some pictures of the gorillas.

When we went to the Aquarium the kids got to play doctor. They always have many events at the Pittsburgh Zoo and today was "Baby Day". They had booths for face painting and arts and crafts. The kids loved playing doctor and taking care of the baby dolls and teddy bears.

The biggest highlight of the Aquarium was when the man cleaning one of the exhibits posed for a picture with the girls and Sebastian.
After the Aquarium we stuck the kids in a polar bear trap. Unfortunately they would not stay put.

Then we got to see the polar bears. We wanted to see them swimming but they had other ideas.

The Pittsburgh Zoo has an underwater walkway so that you can see the polar bears swimming. Since they did not want to swim we just took a picture break.

The kids were getting tired of walking around so we let them play on the playground. They had a blast.
As I mentioned, there are lots of baby animals at the zoo right now. The other animal to have babies is the beaver. I have a video of one of the adult beavers scratching themselves and the babies swimming around. Lucy said they have grown a lot since she last saw them.

One of the last things that we got to do was pet a boa constrictor. Everyone thought it was pretty cool.

After a long hot day, everyone cooled off. Everyone but me that is. I was too busy taking pictures.
It was a wonderful day. Everyone was exhausted but we had a great time. I hope we all get to go back soon.

Visitors from SC!!!

2008-06-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

We had a couple of visitors this past week. Felix's brother and sister-in-law came from Aiken, SC to visit us. They brought their son Yahir with them and he and Sebastian had a blast running around the house. Sebastian also got to have a vacation from daycare. Although he was missed and missed his daycare friends, he had a great time playing with his cousin. We also got great news from Karla and Juan. Karla is expecting a baby this January. She is hoping for a girl this time around. I will keep everyone updated. We all had a great week.

He's Back!!!!!

2008-06-22T09:42:00.001-07:00

Felix arrived here in Pittsburgh this morning around 9:30. He is very happy to be back but extremely tired from his long trip. He took many pictures during his trip. Most of them are his family but some of attractions in the area where his parents live. He also brought back food that his mother made for Sebastian and I to try. This is Danizela, Felix's daughter holding her younger cousin Kirsten This is Felix with his nephew, Didier. He was Felix's shadow the entire trip. Felix said he did not want to let him leave. These are three of Felix's nephews together. The oldest is Abimael, on the right is Mantequilla and on the left is Didier. This is Danizela (standing in the green shirt) with her cousin, Andrea. Remember these two because I have a past photo of Danizela and Andrea as toddlers that I will show you. These are Felix's parents. They were very happy to have him home. The pictures above and below are of a park that was built recently in the city of Felix's family. It is very nice. The little green mansion is a duplicate of the president of Honduras' mansion.
This is a picture of Felix's parents house.

This is a very funny video that I could not help but include. Felix had loaned the camera to his nephew, David, so that he could look at the pictures. David changed the mode to video without Felix knowing about it. Then Felix tried to take a family photo. They had three attempts and still no clue that it was video till a little later. I laughed when I saw it.

Below is a picture of Danizela(right) and Andrea when they were close to two years old. I also included a picture of Sebastian at the same age. All he needs is more hair. I think they look a lot alike. The adults in the picture are Felix's sister, Leslie, and brother, Juan. The picture is at the girls' baptism so they are also the girls' godparents. Well, he had a great time and plans to go back and visit them soon. The next time Sebastian and I will be joining him. We also hope to bring his daughter, Danizela, back with us.

Baltimore Zoo Trip

2008-06-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well, last weekend Sebastian and I went to Baltimore to visit with my parents. We had a great time. We went Saturday to visit the Baltimore Zoo where they recently celebrated the birth of a baby elephant. The elephant is named Sampson and he is only four days younger than my niece, Lydiah. He is a very cute baby and we watched him for quite a while. At one point he picked up something and put it in his mouth while one of the handlers went running over to try and take it away. It was funny because I am sure that any parent has done the same with their toddlers. Any way here are some picks of him.

There were other babies at the zoo. They had a baby camel which was so cute.

And Sebastian got to go on a camel ride. The women on the camel with him is a friendly lady who did not mind Sebastian riding with her and her son.

It was very hot but we had a great time.

Sebastian got to brush a goat.

We got to feed a giraffe named April.

Here is a picture of Sebastian pretending to be a turtle.
Followed by a picture of Sebastian in the same spot when he was only five months old.

We had a really great time. And I loved spending more time with my niece.

The rest of this past week was spent working and waiting for Felix to come home from Honduras. Check soon for pictures of Honduras.

Felix in Honduras

2008-06-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well Felix left Pittsburgh for Honduras yesterday at 7am. He was very excited to be off to his home country and to be seeing his family again after six long years. He took a plane to Atlanta and from there he took a plane to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This city is about four hours from Felix's home town, so he took a bus to Tegucigalpa, which is near is parents home and his sister picked him up from the bus station. Everyone is very excited to see him. He saw his daughter, Danizela, his parents, his three sisters, and his seven nieces and nephews. I talked to him Saturday night and he sounded so happy to be back with his family. He will be returning in two weeks and has promised to bring lots of pictures to show everyone. I will post some of them as soon as possible.

National Zoo trip

2008-06-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

On our trip to Baltimore at the beginning of April, we went to the National Zoo in Washington DC. We all had a great time. Some of us had never been to the National Zoo before and for two in our group it was the first trip to any zoo. We all had a great time.

I had to start with this picture. I had never seen a black squirrel before. This was just some squirrel running around the zoo.

Here is my niece, Lydiah. It was her first trip to the zoo. She had a great time sleeping through it.

Here is my nephew, Clay. He also enjoyed walking around the zoo. This was his first trip as well.

Here is everybody. Big Cheese!! Hey!?! Where did all the moms go.

Oh!! There they are. These are the Mr. Moms of our group.

Here is Sebastian pretending to be a gorilla.

This picture site is a bit of a tradition for us. Below is a picture of Sebastian on his very first trip to the National Zoo in the very same spot. I already plan to get another picture of him here when we return in the future.

Hello All

2008-06-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted to create a way to keep in touch with all of my family better. I would like to let everyone know how we are doing. I am still working in daycare and I love my babies. Felix is still working installing pipe for Verizon and he has been very happy with his job. Sebastian is doing very well in his preschool class. He is learning all his letters and is learning to write is name. Felix is preparing to go to Honduras for two weeks so we will miss him while he is gone. He is excited to see his family, especially his eleven year old daughter, Danizela. He also has three sisters and they each have children, so he'll see all of his nieces and nephews. I will try to post often to keep everyone up to date on how everything is going in our lives.