Pint-sized Pirate

As promised two weeks ago, here are the pictures of my little pirate. Cman only wore the costume long enough for me to take one picture of him because it is way too hot these days to be wearing a costume outside.

Anthony's birthday party was quite fun. The kids got little pirate loot bags with a scarf and eye patch and other fun pirate stuff. The cake was adorable too. There was also a bounce house and guess who actually got in? That's right...Chris did! I went in with him and at first he had his usual koala grip on me, but shortly thereafter he let go and started hanging on to the walls and trying to walk and trying to bounce all over the place. Woohoo! Then when he got out of the bounce-house, he started climbing all over the place on all sorts of things. I'm glad that he's finally starting to gain some independence and mobility. I think the swimming and the MyGym (yes, he goes to that too, that's a post for another day) have really helped.

That same weekend we also went to the birthday party of a family friend and Sofia was there. Chris must really like her because he tried to feed her and didn't get jealous when my mom was carrying her. This past weekend he saw Sofia again at a baby shower. This time he was more preoccupied with feeding himself...oh, and looking under her dress. They sure start young don't they?

He ate his first McDonald's cheeseburger the other day. Mind you, the boy hates chewing things, so we have to feed him the pureed stuff. He sure chewed that puppy up real fast and ate the WHOLE thing (he left about 2 bites of it). It's funny because he also squeezed the heck out of it too. Before I get the evil eye for feeding him fast food, my mom has also discovered that he loves broccoli, cucumber and tomato, so I guess that balances out the junk food right?

Since we're on the subject...

..of my family and their media involvment.

Here's a video I found on Youtube of my cousin. It's a commercial she did for a store over in El Sal. She was Miss El Salvador in 1996 (you know, cause I wasn't available...what with being out of the country and all that..ha ha) and was one of the top 10 finalists for Miss Universe that year. You go girl!

My grandma is famouser than your grandma

Check it out! My grandma (dad's mom) was featured in an article/blog post a couple of weeks back!

I have had centenarians on both sides of my family, so if longevity genes exist, poor Chris is gonna have to put up with me for a looooong time.

Felipe Ignacio is here! *UPDATED*

My friends Lilli and Adrian had their little baby boy at 3:56 this morning. Felipe weighed 6 pounds 14 oz and was 19-1/2 inches long. I think he looks alot like his mommy. What a cute little munchkin.

Many thanks to Amanda for providing us with pictures.

*UPDATE* I went to see him at the hospital and mom and baby are doing fine. Lilli's a brave woman because she did it without any pain meds! Although he looked like his mom to me when I first saw the pictures, I now take that back. In person he looks just like his father (Adrian mini-me). He's really little and really pink. I gave him the nick name pinky. Or better yet....Felipinknacio. Hee hee.

Sign 'O' the times

Am I the only one that finds this stop sign hilarious? Yes? Oh um, well, then you might as well stop reading now cause it gets worse.

I was on my way to pick Christian up from daycare the other day when the aforementioned sign caught my eye. My mom says it's been that way for a month, but I had never really noticed it before. I got a good chuckle out of it, so of course I returned to take a picture of it. Obviously you have to know the song to find it funny (and being immature doesn't hurt either) because my mom didn't get the joke.

Although they did deface a street sign, I have to admit they do have a sense of humor and unfortunately so do I. Not one to be outdone, I decided to come up with my own street signs. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I run into these.

Behold:

If you're feeling romantic...



Vanilla Ice ice baby...


A little Michael Jackson?...


and because I'm an equal opportunity defacer (only in the digital sense of course), I wouldn't want the other street signs to feel left out, so here's one for the freestyle fans...

Nostalgic

I recently came upon a blog that features digital photography from El Salvador. The photographer's name is Miguel Angel. Simply stated, the man's pictures are beautiful. His sunsets and landscapes make me want to be there relaxing in a hammock under a tree. The quirky pictures of clowns, crafts and baked goods remind me of my precious country that I've left behind.

Maybe it's because I'm from there, or perhaps it's because I'm way too sentimental, but tears were rolling down my face as I scrolled through his archives. He not only captures the essence and beauty of my little country's landscapes, but also of it's people.

He opens a window into the hearts of those he photographs and enables you to look into their souls. I see worry, pain, tiredness and struggle in their faces and it saddens me that they have to work so hard to make a living and survive.

It's times like these that I reflect on how lucky I am. Why did I get all the opportunities that I've had? Why me and not them? I'm no better than they are.

You can see more of his pictures here. When you get to the bottom of the page, click on "entradas antiguas" to see his previous entries.

Oh sure, make me look like a liar

Children have the most amazing ability of knowing which parent they can manipulate and which parent won't go for it.

Yesterday I took Cman to swimming class because R had to work late. Based on what R had told me from Sunday's class I was fully expecting that Chris would not want to be in the water or do any of the activities. I mentally prepared myself to not push him to do anything he didn't want to do and to just take it easy and follow his lead. This is very hard for me because I'm all about trying new things (especially when I'm not the one doing the trying...ha ha).

From the moment I entered the pool everything that I was expecting to happen did not. I was expecting the water to be cold, it was warm. I was expecting him to complain, whine and squeal (yes, that's his latest talent), he did not. The class went wonderfully. He relaxed a little for the songs, he did most of the activities (albeit hesitantly, but he did them nonetheless). He even got on the little table and walked around by himself and started climbing the handle bar. Once he got to the top, I helped him jump in the water. What happened when he came up for air? He loved it and wanted to do it again...and again...and again (very unlike his koala grip from last time).

They had a new activity where the kids had to walk on a floating mat and then jump in the water. I let him watch the other kids do it first and then encouraged him to try it. He did it with no problems...twice! He floated swam underwater a couple of times and not a tear in sight. He protested sometimes when it was time to change activities, but would quiet down when he realized that I was holding him and nothing would happen to him (and that if you whine while you're diving you'll get water up your nose...JK...kind of).

I think I struck a good balance between following his lead and prompting him to try new things. Once he tried a new activity I cheered him on, but didn't push him to do it over and over again (like the other kids were doing). I just let him rest or play for a little while and then we would try it again.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how great the class was and how nicely he participated. Last night I told R all about how well he swam and how he did all the activities and he almost couldn't believe it. It's like I was talking about a totally different toddler. I think it's because R is a big softy and treats Christian like a baby, so Cman then adopts that role. On the other hand, with me, he knew that the big baby act wasn't going to work, so he ponied up and put the macho in macho man. Woohoo! Great...now I'm going to be singing that song all day.

Scattergories Meme

I got this from Lilli, who got it from Tere.

Instructions indicate that you must answer each question using the first letter of your name. It must be a "real" answer, nothing you made up. If you don't have an answer, skip it. So here I go:

Your Name: Claudia

Famous Singer/Band: Creed

4 letter word: Crap

Street: Calle Ocho

Color: Cerulean

Gifts/Presents: Coach purses

Lingerie: Crotchless panties (Claudia! You minx!)

Vehicle: CRV

Things in a Souvenir Shop: Candy

Boy Name: Christian (duh)

Girl Name: Camila

Movie Title: Can't buy me love

Drink: Coffee

Occupation: Crime scene investigator

Flower: Calla Lily

Celebrity: Cindy Crawford (bonus points for double C)

Magazine: Cosmopolitan

U.S. City: Columbus (Ohio)

Pro Sports Teams: Chicago Cubs (bonus points)

Fruit: Cantaloupe

Reason for Being Late for Work: Car jacked (yeah, that would be a good reason)

Something You Throw Away: Crap-filled diapers

Things You Shout: Coño!

Cartoon Character: Captain Caveman (bonus points!)

If you want to play along, consider yourself tagged. Leave a link in the comments section.

Updates of all sorts

We've been busy doing lots of fun stuff lately, so I apologize because the blogging has fallen by the wayside.

The Friday before last, my partner in crime Jenny, came to visit from LA. She was going on a trip with her parents, so unfortunately I only got to see her for one night. Although one night is barely enough time for us to talk and catch up, we made the most of it. We went to out to dinner and had fun goofing off with our friends Meg and Claude. Meg and I are going to LA in two months to see her though, so I'll see you in September Jen!

We will be adding another boy to our group of kidlets because I found out that my friends Lissette and Mike are expecting a little one in October. I found out a tad late though since she's already 25 weeks (prob 26 by now). She was waiting for the first trimester to pass before telling anyone and then after that, she didn't quite know how to tell people because so much time had passed. I wonder if she planned on letting people know with the baby shower invitation! Speaking of babies...my friend Lilli is due to have her little boy at the end of this month. She's got a poll going to see who can guess the date of the baby's arrival. I guessed the 18th, so let's all send some contraction vibes to her so I can win ok? Ha ha...sorry Lilli.

I've been feeling awfully creative lately, so I had a little arts and crafts session at home the other day. Since Cman likes to act like he's the king of the universe, I made a little crown for him to wear on his head. I'm also working on a little project for his birthday in September. I could have bought this item for $35, but I think it's so much more fun to make things yourself. Too bad you'll have to wait until Sept to see what it is (what a tease).

Christian had his first little coin operated vehicle ride in Walmart the other day. At first it freaked him out a little, but then he enjoyed the ride. He even found a little toy cow in the car.

The weekend before last we went to Dylan's first birthday party. There was a fun ball pit for the kids and I'm happy to report that Cman actually got in to play with the other kids...repeatedly! Woohoo! Yay for progress! You laugh, but I bet you it was the ball pit training that helped!

Unfortunately the area where no progress is being made is in the swimming pool. Whereas before he would get in the pool (and stay in for the whole class) and even go underwater, now he doesn't even want to go in anymore. The past 3 times that we have taken him to the pool he has only wanted to play on the steps or not even wanted to get in at all. I guess it was too much too soon; now we have to take it slow and let him get warmed up to it again. I don't want to freak him out so that he'll never want to go in the water again, so we have to take cues from him and go at his pace, however slow that may be.

The daycare is going fabulously. He doesn't cry anymore when Ren drops him off (neither does Ren..ha ha jk). He sleeps one two-hour nap now and that is a glorious stretch of time that allows me to nap with him or get important stuff done around the house (you know like scrapping and watching movies and stuff).

I haven't done a "words" blog in over a month because he's gotten to the point that I can no longer count them and/or remember them. He used to say one or two new words per day, but now he repeats things all the time, so I'd have to be walking around with a notepad in order to get them all down. Let's just say he's become quite a little parrot.

Speaking of parrots, we'll be going to a pirate theme birthday party this weekend, so adorable toddler pirate photos are forthcoming!

Mama's girl

Woohoo! Why am I so happy you ask? Well, for one, I'm eating cheeseballs...and two, my mommy came back from vacation yesterday! In fact, I was so distressed that she had left that I hadn't even mentioned it here (that isn't sarcasm, it's the truth). Yes, my mom was on vacation for like 19 days and that meant that we had to make alternative arrangements for Mr. Cman's care.

R and I went back and forth about what we would do. I wanted him to go to daycare for some much needed socialization, he didn't want to throw his baby to the lions, so he took the first week off from work. R stayed with Chris for most of the day, but he also took him to the daycare across from my mom's house for a couple of hours a day as well (so he can get used to it....Ren, not Christian). My mom was doing this too before she left, so it wasn't anything new to Christian. For the second week, R managed to take the days off as well since he had some unused vacation from last year (how is THAT possible you ask? the MAN does not like to take vacation...yes, weird...I know).

So the second week he took Cman to the day care for larger chunks of time: from like 9 am to 3pm. Chris cries when R drops him off (they probably both do), but he does that at my mom's house too, so it's all about the Daddy attachment and not so much about where he's being left. Other than that, it hasn't been too much of a tragedy. I can already see the benefits of him being there because he plays by himself more these days and doesn't really need me next to him at all times. The lady tells me that he feeds himself (I wonder how much he actually eats vs what ends up on his clothes) and he watches Sesame Street ("Emmmo") and he takes two hour naps and he gets lots of love from the other kids and he has a great time.

Now that my mom is back, he is going to continue going to the daycare, but my mom will be picking him up at around 3pm so he doesn't spend THAT much time there. I think it's going well so far. Yay!

Another waxing method

Yesterday Christian discovered that stickers can go on faces too!
Ah...the things I do to entertain you my son (so that you will eat).

Chris loved putting the stickers on my face, but he REALLY loved the part where I had to rip take them off. You know that peach fuzz that people generally have on their face? Yeah? Well, I've got a little less of it on my face today. Can we say sticker waxing?

Below is the video of him cracking up as I rip them off my face. Turn up the volume and listen real close for the surprise at the end (it comes after I say "say bye bye Christian, bye bye"); he says bye bye in his own way.

2nd 4th

I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday. For Cman's 2nd Fourth of July, we went to Amanda's house for a BBQ and fireworks show. The kids had a ball playing together. We tried to get an impromptu photo shoot going with the terrific trio, but it was almost impossible. There were always two toddlers sitting and one standing up doing his own thing. Once that one sat down, another would get up, lather, rinse, repeat. At 9pm it was time for the fireworks, so we walked about a block from the house to get a better view of the show.

Although this was Cman's 2nd 4th of July, this was the first time he got to see fireworks (he was asleep last year). At first, he was a little frightened of the loud sounds, but once he got over that, he was able to relax in his stroller and enjoy the show. I think he had the best seat in the house. He surprised us by saying a new word while watching the show: WOW! It was cute and caught everyone off guard because nobody had actually said the word. Quite apropos Christian!