Here's the story...

of three lovely ladies...who were baking up three very lovely boys...














all of them had hair of brown, like their mothers, the youngest one in curls...













and that's the way, we became the baby bunch!













I know I've posted these pictures already, but today is photo Friday and you're supposed to tell a story with three pictures and this is the only "story" I could find on short notice.

Brown Gold

Since today's Photo Friday theme is rainbows (oopsy, did I forget to mention that?), here is a picture that I took some years ago. I like it not only because it has two rainbows (that's right two!), but because it looks like one of the rainbows divides the sky into two sections. One side is dark and ominous and the other side is bright and sunshiny...interesting.

Anyway, you know they say that you can find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Well, let's just say that Christian found some "gold" inside his diaper this week. Yes, my darling son has discovered his family jewels (and I don't mean the shiny kind) and always reaches down to cop a feel when we change his diaper. Fortunately and unfortunately, he only does this when he feels that they are smeared with something...yes, you know where this is headed. Well, yesterday the new nanny was changing his poopy diaper, and my mom hadn't warned her about his tendency to grab his nards. The lady proceeded to change his poopy diaper and as she reached over for the wipes, she failed to notice that Christian's hand reached right into his diaper. Yum. Wait, it gets better, then he rubbed his face. The nanny was freaking out cause she couldn't call my mom to help her because she was out in the backyard and she couldn't leave the baby unattended because he would fall off the couch. She quickly propped some pillows around him and ran to the sink to get some wet paper towels to wipe him off. Wow, what an initiation! hee hee. I'm amazed that she did it alone because that's a two man job. One to clean and hold his hands and another to clean his butt! Ah fun times.

Anyway, speaking of nannies, we were supposed to try out different nannies this week, but since my mom liked the first one that came, that theory went out the window. Let's see how long this one lasts. Her hubby makes good money so she doesn't really HAVE to work, so I would imagine that if any little thing pisses her off, she'll leave. The good thing about her though is that she has all the daycare/childcare certifications, so she is more knowledgeable than the average bear about children and their developmental stages and such. She seems nice. Cross your fingers!

My life in a blog post

I saw this over at Oh Well and decided to do it here too.

20 years ago I....
was enjoying the final days of my summer vacation.
was getting up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons.
was riding my bike.
was rollerskating.
was going to Pirates or Riverboat Playhouse to play video games and skeeball.
was having fun playing "doll" with my 7 month old baby brother.
was excited about starting the 5th grade.
was hoping that my best friend Lynn would be in my homeroom.
was hoping that I would finally fill in my training bra.
was dreading that I had to get braces.
had a crush on Marcus and Jorge and Geoffrey.

10 years ago I….
was going to community college.
was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
was deciding that maybe I didn't like Architecture that much and should switch majors.
was trying to figure out what majojr to switch to...perhaps interior design?
was thinking of joining the Navy
was hanging out with my friends from high school, sometimes driving around aimlessly
was going to Marsbar

5 years ago I….
was working at Jackson as a secretary
was going to school part time at night to finish my Bachelor degree in business
had finally picked a major
had broken up with R
was single and dating, but wanted to get back with R
was still living with my parents
was wearing braces (yes, again)

3 years ago I...
was still working full time at Jackson
was going to school at night (also full time) to get my MBA degree
had been married to R for a year and a half
had been living in the first townhouse I bought with R, for a year
had had Candy for a year and decided she needed a little friend
got Lucy, the Jack Russell Terror Terrier
was forced coerced into going to a Salsa class/club with my friend Nubia, who wanted to try it out, I said "fine, but just this one time"...ha ha

One year ago I…
had been working at my current job for a year
was 34 weeks pregnant and had my baby shower at work (I was large and in charge)
was not getting much sleep, and it wasn't going to get any better
had been living in my current house for a year
sold my favorite car to get a bigger baby-friendly car and cried

Yesterday I…
spent the day with C man at my mom's house
practiced playing Texas hold'em with my brother and my mom (I lost of course)
watched "The Grudge"

Today I…
went to the value adjustment board to dispute the absurdly high taxes on my house
got the taxes reduced
had lunch at a sushi thai place with my husband
talked with him about where we should go for our "real" honeymoon (driving to Orlando and back doesn't count as a honeymoon)
went back to work
will go to pick C-man up from my mom's house
will have dinner with my parents
will go home and watch the season premier of PRISON BREAK!

In the next year I will…
celebrate my son's first birthday!
cry about my 31st birthday (boohoohoo, I'm getting old)
have a haunted house (in my house) for Halloween
go visit my family in El Salvador
baptize my son
try (and convince Ren) for baby number two
go and visit my friend Jenny in LA
go to Disney World again at some point (its inevitable, I might as well just put it on the list)
take ballroom dancing lessons (and convince Ren to go with me)

On Fire

Even though I never hardly ever watch basketball, I made sure to turn on the tube last night. The Miami Heat won their first championship and this fair-weather fan couldn't be prouder!

Go Heat!

Father's Day Weekend

Christian had a great time with his grandpa and his dad this past Father's Day weekend. He got his grandpa a picture frame with his picture in it and he got his daddy two shirts and a best buy gift certificate. Christian also found out that he's going to have yet another little playmate next year because his friend Brandon is going to be a big brudder! We've got lots of little boys in our group, let's see if we can get some girl power going here, my fingers are crossed.

Well, Meredith gave me some good advice about the nanny situation. Unfortunately, I had already hired the woman when I read it. Also unfortunately, I will get to put her advice into practice after all. The lady we hired last week quit on us. She claimed that she could no longer work as a nanny/housekeeper because she was allergic to dust. That's fine and dandy, but she knew that going into it, and we told her (in the ad and in the interview) that the job involved cleaning, so WTF? Anyway, thankfully we kept the list of 100+ people that called, so we don't need to place another ad. We will be calling up a couple of the ladies that we liked from the interviews and having them come to the house for a day as a trial run. That way, they can see what the job entails and we can see how they work. It won't guarantee that we won't get a quitter again, but at least it helps. Thanks Meredith!

Other than that, the weekend was great! Christian got a new stroller and a new jumperoo (check out the new floors!). We got a new stroller so that we don't have to keep taking the one stroller back and forth to my mom's house. It's a cute jogging stroller (nevermind that I don't jog) which rides really smoothly and looks really comfortable. The only thing I failed to notice is that it weighs a ton, but I need the exercise anyway, so that'll make up for the fact that I don't jog.

The three amigos

This weekend we went to Andrew's baptism. We were running late(as usual) and walked into the church right when he was letting out a little scream. I guess the cold water must have scared him. I told Christian to take notes, so that he would be prepared for his own baptism and not freak out (yea right). After the baptism, we all got together for some yummies. Christian was reunited with his friends Andrew and Matthew and they had a great time hugging each other and chewing on their shoes. Unfortunately Sophie was missing so we weren't able to get a picture of the fabulous four again. Amanda tried to help me get a picture of Christian's bottom tooth, but he just wasn't having it. Unfortunately for him, I'm very persistent and I got him in the car later that day. I felt like a paparazzi again.
Oh, before I forget, the theme for photo Friday is: "Summertime Eats/Treats" Show a local, hometown favorite summer eat, or your favorite treat". Let's see if I actually get on the ball and participate this week.

Babies and restaurants, a deadly combination

Greetings furry (for those of you that haven't shaved yet) friends! Boy am I feeling jolly today. Hm...I wonder why...anyways, I placed the ad for the nanny in a small newspaper thingy and it came out on Wednesday last week. I put my mom's phone number so that she could speak with them and arrange interview dates. My poor mother, I think she's received easily over 100 calls in the past week. I can see her cringe every time her cell phone rings; she doesn't even answer it anymore. I asked for it I guess. We interviewed three ladies on Saturday. The first one doesn't have papers to be in the country, the second one doesn't really seem like she needs the job (so any little thing that upsets her and she'll be out the door), and the third one was trying to convince us to put Christian in modeling. She went to her car to get the brochures and everything to show us that her grandkids were also in modeling. Sweet thought, but who has the time for that? Anyway, the third lady was nice, except that she travels to her home country alot, so what would we do when she is gone? I liked her because she seemed very energetic and she worked at daycares before and had all the certifications and hours required to do so. She has her own transportation and doesn't live very far from us, so everything sounds great, well, except for the traveling thing.
Since my mom is so fed up with phone calls, she told me to just pick that one and that's it. I'm not so sure I want to do that. I mean, hello, I paid for the ad, I paid so that I could have many choices, so I'd like to interview a couple more. Not all 100 of them, but you know, at least 5 or 6. So today, I think we're seeing 2 or 3 more. Depending on whether I like them or not, we'll see if we interview more or not.

Other than the nanny deal, we didn't really do much this weekend. Yesterday, Ren, Christian and I went to the mall to see if we could find some really nice patio furniture. It got kind of late, so we decided to have dinner there. I had seen this restaurant called Texas de Brazil and I wanted to try it. Little did I know that it was a nice establishment with tablecloths and cloth napkins that charges 40 dollars per person. Oopsy. So Ren and I dressed in jeans walk in with the stroller and feel totally out of place, but we were hungry and already there, so whatever, screw the smart casual dress code. Now, usually, Christian is very well behaved in restaurants, so we didn't even think twice of going there with him, but no, not that day. He didn't want to be in his stroller, he didn't like the high chair, he wanted to be on my lap pulling all the things off the table. When it was time for him to eat, I put him back in his stroller and put his bib on. He pulled it off. I put it back on and he screamed. Ok, bib stays off. I fed him carrots and he didn't want any so he screamed again. Ok, no carrots. I made him his bottle and after a little while he threw it and screamed. I don't know where the heck he learned to do that, but it was then and there that he decided to practice his screaming skills. Every time we did something that he didn't like, he would let out a scream. Fortunately, Ren and I had a sense of humor (that day anyway) and just laughed at him. Cause, honestly, it really was funny. If you know me in RL, ask me and I'll do the little scream for you, very funny. So the point of the story is that neither of us got to eat in peace. We had to take turns eating and keeping him from screaming. Ren and I vowed to never be one of those couples that brought a screaming baby to a restaurant and that night, we were exactly that. It looks like Christian is at the age where he can no longer be taken to an eating establishment. He will no longer just lie in his stroller quietly and drink his milk and go to sleep, oh no, not anymore. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. We left the smart casual place looking not too smart and extremely casual with carrot baby food all over Christian, and not to mention all over our clothes as well. Fun times.

Loose ends

I need to get my blogosphere back in order here. It's taken me 2 weeks to write about my NY trip (and I'm still not done), I haven't done any Christian updates, I didn't blog about what I did last weekend and I have totally neglected my photo Friday duties. Talk about being a slacker! Well, since I need to get things back in order, this will be the catch-up blog where I will try and tie up all the loose ends.

Ok, first thing, Photo Friday. I've missed out on the past 3 weeks of photo Fridays, so I will submit them all now. Ha ha. Ok, let's see, on May 12th it was "your best travel photo", then on May 19th, it was "Hats", then on May 26th, it was "Grace" so here are those pictures:
today's theme is: "We want to see a wacky thing that your hometown (or current town) is known for or just something crazy that you go by every day and think 'I can't believe somebody did that/put that there.' You can make it something you love or something you hate or something you love to hate". Unfortunately, since I just found this out, I don't have anything to submit (there goes another late submission). Besides, I can't think of anything right now.

Ok, time for a Christian update: We have toothage! I was feeding him his baby food yesterday when I noticed something white in his mouth. Since he refuses to show me his lower gums, I had to get creative to see what was going on in there. Every time I pulled his lip down to see, he would stick his tongue out, so that wasn't happening. I had to wash my hands and stick a finger in his mouth so I could feel around for the gold. Aha! I felt little serrated edges! So yes, his lower left tooth is finally out and it appears that its next door neighbor is knocking on the door, so we should have two teeth soon. Yay! Now if only I could get a picture of it. I'll have to pull his lip down while he's sleeping...hee hee. When I put my hand out, he gives me five and he also blows kisses now, very cute. I'm working on teaching him to clap his hands. I read somewhere that he should be waving bye-bye too. He doesn't do that yet, but that's cause we've never really taught him to, so I think I'll start showing him how. If he's lying on a pillow, he is able to sit up by himself. I'm currently teaching him how to sit up from a lying flat position and he seems to get the mechanics of it, but still needs me to get the ball rolling if you will (or get the boy rolling in this case..ha ha). On the crawling front, well, there is no crawling. He (still) hates tummy time, so I don't see that happening. My mom says that I skipped the crawling stage altogether, so let's see if he takes after his mama.

Weekend re-cap: Annie is one of my favorite movies of all time. My mom took me to the movies to see it when I was a child and I guess we have come full circle, because last weekend I took her to see the musical. We saw it on Saturday at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts. I don't know if I was more enthralled by the musical or by the actual theatre. It was so beautiful! The architecture was breathtaking and I seemed like a child because I kept looking all around with a look of amazement on my face. The ceiling of the theatre actually had little stars on it, so you felt like you were outside. Very cool. Anyway, I loved the show, but I always get a little teary eyed at the beginning because I've got a soft spot for orphans. Yes, I'm quite backwards, I cry at the beginning, not at the end. Go figure.
On Monday, we went to our friends Damian and Lisa's place. It was Christian's first time in a pool (of the non-inflatable type) and he had a blast! At first, we put him in a little inflatable boat and he didn't like that too much, but he started to enjoy himself once I held him in my arms. He loved the pool and loved to sit on the ledge and then "jump" in to the pool. Afterwards we went back to Damian and Lisa's house for a BBQ. Christian had a great time with his friends Andrew and Sophie. Brandon and Rebeka were also there to add to the chaos excitement.

And last but not least, the continuation of the NY story. We last left off when we were all dying of exhaustion and we had to go back to the bar that we had been to the night before to drop some stuff off. We got back to the bar to give some things to our favorite bar tender Joaquin and thank him profusely for his generosity and for not laughing at what dorks we had been the night before. After the bar, we walked over to a diner that was nearby and decided to have dinner there. The service was horrible, but we entertained ourselves by stacking our food into a work of art. Since we weren't able to go to the MoMA, we made our own MA. After our dining and sculpting we dragged our 100 pound feet back to the bus stop. Up until this point, I had noticed that all the bus drivers we had gotten were old and ugly, but alas, what do we have here? I sat at the front of the bus admiring the youthful cutie that was driving the bus. I was 5 minutes into my stare-fest when I noticed that the bus driver had a convenient little mirror where he could see what every one in the bus was doing (it's called a rearview mirror claudia). So yea, I got busted. Oh well, whatever. Hee hee, at least I wasn't panting or drooling. The next day, we woke up even later (notice the trend here, each day we woke up later and later...ha ha) and we packed our bags. We had to get a little creative because the girls (yeah, ok Claudia, blame it on the girls) had bought waaay too much stuff and their suitcases were waaaay too small. After we smooshed our stuff into the suitcases, we headed out for our last day of shopping. Yes, even though I just told you that our bags were full. What can I tell you, we just don't learn. We made a quick stop at Serendipty and then hit the stores that we had missed the previous day. I bought a bunch of cute outfits for Chris like this one and bought some souvenirs to bring back to my co-workers and family. We were supposed to be back at the apartment at 3pm so that we could make our flight, but we didn't get back until 4pm-ish. Fortunately someone was looking out for us because we took a taxi (note the bags under our eyes) to the airport and made it there in about 20 minutes (instead of the hour+ that was predicted)! We got there with an hour to spare before boarding time and all was wonderful. The flight back was uneventful and we had a wonderful time and that my friends is the end of the story. Thanks for tuning in.