I took a picture of Sydney in Jose’s bakery in Puntas last June and thought it was so cute I saved it to my phone as the desktop picture and it has remained there since. The busy season (winter when we usually have waves) gets a little too crazy on the Puntas side of the point and our friend Annie over at Rincon Vacations turned us on to a new bakery in Rio Grande off of the 414. She recommended the Cubano sandwiches and we’ve been a weekly customer ever since. Honestly, do yourself a favor and go the Panadaria Boriqua off the 414 and order a sandwich. They are around $4.00 and can practically feed two people.

Sydney and I were in the bakery a few weeks ago and I took a picture of her in front of the pastries and it dawned on me that it was the same shirt she was wearing in the picture I took 6 months earlier. The only difference was that 6 months earlier she was wearing the top as a dress, not a shirt!

Two closing notes; She is growing super fast. She’s the best!

Abuela, Summer and Sydney at the lighthouse

Beautiful Clear Blue Ocean

Sydney and Summer Reading at the English Rose

Stay tuned for some house updates, we’ve been going hog wild! In the past two months, we finished the back deck, built an outdoor shower, replaced the steps to the shed, built a new shed down the hill AND planted tons of new plants. Also, Sydney is still growing…bigger and bigger every day. She even started singing songs with us this week. Paddycake has also been a blast. Stay tuned.

Here is a picture of Summer and Sydney from last week with Sydney sporting her new hairdo. Hello everyone!

Sydney Sporting Her Hairdo With Mommy

Sydney and Eli playing with the alphabet and animal magnets Santa brought.

Christmas Cookies

Christmas Day wagon rides.

Just delivered cookies (see above) to our neighbors.

This video was from a week or so before Christmas, but I laugh out loud every time I watch it so here it is for you guys too!

I am stoked to see our trees, build a fence and a chicken coop.

Sydney is ready to go;

Packing up Sydney for Puerto Rico

Yesterday, Sydney discovered how to turn on the cold water on the water cooler. Now, every time cruises by the cooler, she looks up at the spout and goes for a quick pull just to see the water come out. I have a feeling it may be time to raise the water cooler.

We completely baby proofed the back deck (it didn’t take much) and set up a bunch of toys and books back there. It is Sydneys domain. I sit out there with coffee every morning and watch her explore her toys and her new little world.

Here is Sydney standing up using the wall. From here, she’ll cruise all the way around the corner to the other side of the window and look out at me. She’ll chuckle a little, go for the water cooler and then cruise back out to the deck.

Click to Get Full Size Version

Some Sydney Video Action

Here is Sydney in action on the back porch demonstrating her ability to make an elephant noise, crawl, cruise along the wall and take some steps. What a rad little girl

Sydney time takes 100% of your attention 85% of the time. That 15% is when she feeding herself cheerios, playing with her juice bottle or watching the animals in amazement. Even when she is on the front porch in the pack n’ play (see photos) or trying to crawl around on the floor, she requires constant supervision. It’s like she’s a baby or something

This last week, I have been leaving the office around 5:00pm and loading up Sydney in her new baby backpack and hiking up into the hills. Our average hike was about 45 minutes or so and Sydney just loved it. Loaded up in the pack, she is way up high, bouncing around, grabbing for leaves, checking out cows (see photos) and staring at every dog and cat like it’s the first time she’s seen one. Keep in mind, we’re in Puerto Rico and everyone has dogs. It’s like a barking orchestra as you walk through the narrow roads up and down the hills.

Last weekend, we started building bench railings on the front porch. Sydney is getting more and more mobile everyday. Putting up the bench railings is going to kill two birds with one stone. First, Sydney won’t be able to fall off the sides of the porch (highest part, the front is bordered by a big planter) and that is a good thing. Second, it solves our front porch seating issues. Porch furniture is super expensive and we haven’t found anything that we like that will work on our narrow front porch. Adding the benches has eliminated the need for furniture out there. Now we have two hammocks and seating for 6 to 10 people. I’ll upload the bench photos as a single post once we finish them. You can get a sneak preview by checking them out in the background of the front porch picture with Sydney.

Summer and Sydney Watering the Pineapple Plants

I left the office and hiked up to the top of the hill and found Summer and Sydney (in her sling) watering the plants with the hose. It really is cool to see our plants/trees hit the 2 – 3 year old mark. They aren’t big yet, but they are established little trees. By the time Sydney is ready to climb trees, she’ll be swinging on branches of trees Summer and I planted. It’s awesome.

Pineapple Flowers

We have two flowers coming out of one of the pineapple plants. The colors really are amazing. The plant that is producing this round is the same plant that produced the first round of pineapples we got. The first round had 1 pineapple. We weren’t in town when it ripened so we didn’t get to taste it, but because we never cut off the rotting fruit, the pineapple that grew off of the plant grew into a new pineapple plant. Sweet.

Pinapple Facts



Pineapple Nutrition

I did a little research on pineapples and found out a few cool things.
• The English name pineapple came from European explorers that re-discovered due to its resemblance of a pine cone.
• The original name for a pineapple is Tupi, which comes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• The Spanish word for pineapple is piña.
• A pineapple plant can grow to be as big as 5 feet tall and deadly leaves that are 3 and a half feet long. (the leaves are very sharp and spikey, not poisonous)
• Each pineapple plant can produce multiple fruit (pineapples).
• A pineapple is made up of helically arranged flowers that form the fruit. So, it is not actually one fruit, but many combined into one.
• Pineapples are mostly pollinated by hummingbirds (we have a bunch)
• Pineapples and the root are used in traditional Filipino medicine as an anti-inflammatory. It was both eaten and applied topically.
• Pineapples are chill sensitive and should not be stored in the refrigerator.

Hopefully we will take advantage of our pineapple crop this year, eat them all up and then replant them for pineapples in a few years. This is not a vicious circle.

Does anyone know what kind of plant this is that Sydney and Summer and standing next to? It is really cool looking, almost prehistoric. Is this the plant that killed off the dinosaurs?