Let him eat cake

Yesterday, the birthday boy had a busy day! I took the day off so that he could spend the day with his Daddy and his Mommy!
First mommy took some pictures of him as soon as he woke up (you just couldn't wait could you mom?). He still had the sleepy face on and the flash wasn't helping. Daddy brought him a cupcake with a candle, but he stuck his hand in the frosting and in a matter of seconds it was everywhere: his hands, his hair, his face, his leg, R's clothes and the bed sheets (and this is just a little cup cake, I can't even imagine the mess with a big cake). Then it was time to open his birthday presents. Mommy got him (yeah, sure it's for him, Claudia) a little people fun park. At first I thought he only liked the box, but he warmed up to it as soon as he learned that the pieces were removable (and throwable). He also received 2 Baby Einstein movies from his Daddy (Baby da Vinci and the language nursery). His little friend Dylan gave him two movies as well! His Tia-Abuela Bertita sent him a gift too (a cute little Mickey outfit) and his grandma Evelyn and grandpa Hugo gave him a sand and water table (yeah, sure it's for him, Claudia). At first, he didn't know quite what to do with it and just kept walking around it. Once he realized that the blue sand was touchable, he dug right in and started throwing it on the floor (great) and putting it in his mouth (double great). I think we're going to have to put this away for a bit because he still puts everything in his mouth.
No birthday is complete without a visit to the pediatrician...What? Yes, folks, R scheduled the Dr.'s appointment for that day because Wed is his day off. My poor baby had to go the doc on his birthday. He got the chicken pox shot and a TB test. We will have to go back next week for the other shots and his blood work. The doc said he is thin (not worrisome though) because he hasn't gained weight since his last visit (still about 20 lbs), but he did grow a little bit (29+ inches). She concluded that he is drinking too much milk and not eating enough food. I feed him, I swear I do.
She also said that he should be eating adult food now and no more baby food. I don't know but, he's not really ready for that because I've tried and he can only take a few bites (and chew them) and then he starts gagging and stuff. I think the problem is that he tries to stuff all the food in at once, so of course, he starts gagging on it and out it comes! I'm going to start giving him more food that he can feed himself and chew, but I'm not stopping the baby food yet. Oh, but he can eat cupcakes! No gagging problems with that one!
Speaking of cupcakes, at dinner time, R gave him another cupcake with a candle on it (hey, you can never have too many cakes on your birthday right?) and we sang Happy Birthday to him. He looked at us quite strangely but was happy to have another cup cake. He was even willing to share and he didn't like it one bit when it was all gone. Oh, and let's not forget the requisite leaning pictures (I'll have to add those to my collection).

Mmmm finger lickin' good!

One year

Dear Christian,
Your daddy has spent the whole day saying "Can you believe it's been a year?" over and over again. I'd like to concur and say "Yeah, I know, I can't believe it either", but no, I CAN believe it. It does feel like a year has passed. It's been a long year and I've felt and lived every bit of it. Today, my little baby, you are one year old and you have taken me on a roller coaster ride the likes of which I could have never imagined.
Together, we've experienced (in no particular order): baby kicks, ultrasounds, ligament pain, heartburn, C-sections, recuperation, baby blues, breastfeeding, burping, mastitis, midnight feedings, twin bed sleeping, exhaustion, raspberries, pacifiers, diapers, explosive poop, black poop, green poop, poop on the wall, getting squirted with pee, rattles, sponge baths, umbilical issues, first baths, lack of tummy time, first Halloween, first thanksgiving, first Christmas, first new year's, first valentine's day, first St patty's day, first Easter, first fourth of July, pumping milk, daycare for 3 weeks, snotty nose, booger bubbles, fevers, gases, coughs, ear infection(s), a million different bottles, cereal, cradle cap, long nails, scratches, SIDS obsessions, overprotectiveness, teddy bears, bottom teeth, baby food, videos, pictures, car trips, baby walker, laughs, bumps, bruises, scratches, first haircuts, bubble baths, car seats, multiple strollers, multiple nannies, standing in the crib, projectile vomiting, top teeth, biting, drooling, kisses, rolling over, sitting, sitting up, lunging, crawling, pulling up, standing, cruising, walking, running, face landings, sleeping through the night, Easter bunny, tantrums, giggles, mama, dada, papa, nana, baba, saliva bubbles, everything going in the mouth, toy invasions, rocking to sleep, singing to sleep, storytime, shoes, blanket, chewing, choking, pediatrician appointments, vaccinations, clapping, peekaboo, screaming, hating shampoo, pirate faces, stroller meltdowns, squeals of delight, formula, Santa Claus, tickles, antibiotics, playdates, waving byebye, first dip in the pool, screaming in restaurants, hating the shopping cart, mother's day, first trip to Disney, first trip to Busch Gardens, first theme park ride, first Hurricane, car seat meltdowns...and first birthday! WHEW! We made it!
Wow, you must be exhausted little man! I get tired just reading that list! There's definitely some highs and lows in there, but the highs are just so awesome, that I forget about the rest (at least momentarily anyway). I read once (I don't remember where) that someone described parenting a baby like having a really hard exhausting job and then winning a Nobel Peace Prize once in a while (or something like that). Yeah, that makes sense. I won the best prize of all though, I was blessed with you, my little boy. Happy Birthday Christian. I love you my little baby and with every day that passes, I love you even more. I'm looking forward to the next year of "adventures" with you.
Love,
Mommy.

Pop-adelic

Here's something fun I found. Check it out...it'll keep you occupied and put some pop back into your life.

Get it? Pop? Ha ha. Ok, fine BE that way.

Thar be nay nanny

Arrr, It looks like me mom be aft t' watchin' Christian again. T' nanny didn't show up t' work last Friday and called later that day t' ask for her check.

So much for that. I didn't get the impression that C-man liked her that much anyway, and my mom said that she was always trying to get him to go to sleep. That's really what did it, on Thursday she was trying to put Christian to sleep and my mom told her not to, she told her that she ought to try and entertain him instead of always trying to get him to nap. I guess she didn't like that.

R doesn't want to put him in daycare yet (the whole sickness thing is annoying), but I think he should go to daycare so he can play with other kids and be more social. R keeps pushing the daycare age back. First he said we would put him when he turned 1, now he's saying 2. When he's 2, he's going to say 3...I can see where this is going. The thing is Ren wants to avoid the sickness thing, but Christian is sick again now. He's had 3 colds in the past month!

After a good round of wrestling and bribing, I finally got a picture of those elusive upper teeth. Can we say orthodontist? Check out the gap between those two puppies. I hope that closes up eventually.

Oh and I've noticed that C does the funniest thing. Every time we put him in the car seat, he leans to his left and looks at his elmo and cookie monster mirror. When he's in the high chair eating, he leans to his left to play/flirt with us. Either he's trying to fart, or he just likes leaning to the left.

On Saturday he blew me a kiss and then said "mama", that wee boy sure knows how t' make his mama`s tide.

Oh and in case you're wondering why I'm talking like a pirate, no, it's not because I've been possesed by Davy Jones (the pirate, not the monkey)...it's because today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Check out the pirate translator and join the fun!

The season is upon us

C-man has been very clingy with me lately. Usually he doesn't care when I leave the house, but this morning he was crawling to me and calling out "mama". It makes me sad to see him get upset, but it does feel nice to finally get a bit of recognition though. He's still a little gun shy about walking by himself all over the house. He prefers to have someone hold his hand. At least we don't have to hold both of his hands anymore because that was really killing our backs!

His 1st birthday is in 13 days. I finally made up my mind what I was going to do. I was wavering back and forth because I did not want to have a huge bash for his birthday since he really doesn't know what the heck is going on, but I didn't want to completely downplay the event either. We decided to just invite family (and with R's family, that's already a lot of people) and a couple of close friends. Then came the problem of where to have it. My house is still in the progress of cleaning and painting etc, so I didn't want a lot of people there. I couldn't have it at my mom's house either because there is nothing to keep the little ones entertained there. Soooo, we're going to do the party at the pool. Plenty of entertainment and plenty of room. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Cross your fingers.

In other news, I'm feeling really happy these days because "the season" is approaching. Yes, yes, my Halloween fanaticism has awoken from it's hibernation (was it ever really asleep?). I love this time of year. I love September because it builds up the anticipation to Halloween. Then we have Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November and then Christmas in December. It's just a great time from now until Jan 2nd.

I've started planning my Halloween activities for this year. Usually I have a big party and go all out with the decorations. We're not going to do that anymore though (at least for a while) because last time someone brought some friends that we didn't know and well, let's just say they suffered from sticky fingers syndrome. Not cool. It's a shame that some people had to ruin the fun for everyone else, but I'm not going to put all that hard work into something just to have my sh*t stolen. Ok rant over.

Anyway, we're having a haunted house this year instead. It's for the trick-or-treaters (mostly the older kids) and their parents to pass through. We did one two years ago and had a blast (at least I did), so I'm doing it again. The theme of our haunted house will be an asylum. I've got most if not all of my supplies ready and it's going to be great. The only thing I need are volunteers...any takers? he he.

The other thing that has me giddy is that I purchased my tickets for Halloween Horror Nights already. It looks like this year is going to be the best one yet. I can't wait. I'm going to get lots of ideas for my haunted house from there...especially since I'm going to the behind the scenes tour. I swear this holiday makes me feel like I'm 10 again. "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear". Ha ha, yeah, real mature.

Look ma', no hands!

Urgh! Yesterday I typed this post up and just after I hit the submit button, I closed the browser by mistake and lost the post! How annoying. So, I will now type it up again for your reading pleasure. See? Aren't I nice?

This past long weekend, I was going to post a picture of Christian's new post haircut look, but I got totally distracted by the fact that he started doing this:



Notice the panicky momma in the back ground. On Saturday, he surprised me by letting go of his little play table and walking over to me. The pictures above were taken on Sunday. The panicky momma is in the background because Christian has decided that it is best to run and not walk. Unfortunately this makes him get way too much momentum. He is then, not able to stop as gracefully as he should. He's landed on his face, once already and I'm scared of how many more times he'll do so. His top two teeth are starting to come out and I'd hate for him to knock them out before they even have a chance to come in. Here are some pictures of me trying to get a picture of the emerging teeth. Notice I always do it in the car seat. It seems to be the only place I can get him to sit still long enough for me to take the pictures. He didn't smile big enough for me to really see the teeth, but I tried.

Yesterday, he ate spaghetti for the first time at my mom's house. He really liked it and kept opening his mouth for more. Speaking of opening his mouth. He seems to think that it's funny to show off the contents of what he's eating, and God forbid you should tell him NO!

Last, but not least, check out the shirt that Ren got for Christian at baby gap. Who or what does it remind you of? Rocker baby. Too cute.

Not a book worm

I've been tagged by Manders, so here goes:

1. A Book that changed my life: I can't say that one particular book has changed my life. I think that with every book I read, my life is enriched in some way, but I can't attribute any monumental life-altering perceptions or moments to one specific book.

2. A Book that I've read more than once: Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. I always wanted this book as a child, but never got it. I remember checking it out the the library many times.

3. A Book I'd take to a desert Island: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I'm going to need a really long book because who knows how long I'll be on this island.

4. A Book that made me laugh: My Point...and I Do Have One by Ellen Degeneres. She's very funny and silly.

5. A book that made me cry: A Child Called It by David Pelzer. Very sad story about a boy that is abused by his mother and ends up going from foster home to foster home. Now that I have a son of my own, it has even more of an impact on me.

6. A book I wish had been written: The DaVinci Code Part 2 or another book by Dan Brown. I already read Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress. I love his writing, it totally draws you in. This question actually helped me discover a book. I was going to put "A book by George Lopez" (one of my favorite comedians), but with a little Google help, I found out that he does have a book!

7. A book that should have never been written: I haven't read any books that I didn't like (other than textbooks, but even those are needed for learning), so I don't have an answer for this one.

8. A book I'm currently reading: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen; yes, it's taking me forever since I never actually pick it up. Now that I think about it, I don't even know where it is anymore.

9. A book I'm planning to read: Two books: Emma and Mansfield Park. As you can see, I'm trying to read some Jane Austen books (that have movies as well, so I can watch the movie afterwards). I purchased them at Barnes and Noble, but they're just sitting on my bookshelf, not making any progress (see question 8).

10. Five people I'll send these questions to: Anyone that wants to do this. I won't tag anyone because I'm not really sure who's done this one yet. I've seen it on a couple of blogs already.