Finally, it's October!

Cooler weather has finally arrived in Houston and we've taken full advantage of it.  We did lots of outdoorsy things, like going to the farmers' market, playing outside, and going on stroller rides through the neighborhood.

This morning, in an attempt to wake myself up a little more, we went to the park about .5 mile away.  It was great until JW refused to abandon his stroller because he was too busy working the buckles.  Then he tried to eat the tiny pebbles in the playground area.  Seriously, why would they put choking hazards all around a little kid park?  Finally I just chased him around a bit before we headed home.  It did wake me up pretty well ;)

Melting our hearts

I've started so many posts in the last month or so, but just never got around to finishing them.  So here's a (somewhat) short and sweet story, rather than one of my rambling updates. 

JW has been teething pretty heavily over the last month.  He currently has five teeth that he's working on -- three cuspids and two upper molars.  This, coupled with starting a mother's day out program two days a week, has wreaked havoc on his nap schedule.  We're both taking it in stride, though by dinnertime (5:30 for him) he's sometimes a howling mess.

Tonight was one of those nights. He dumped his shrimp and rice on the floor and was sobbing through his bath.  He was soooo glad to finally land in his crib.  Well, two hours later he woke up crying.  After John tried to get him back down for a while, I finally came in to nurse him.  As I did that, I felt his tummy rumble.  That absolutely broke my heart... my baby was hungry! Knowing that a little nursing wasn't going to be enough, I sent John downstairs for a cereal bar and some almondmilk.  The three of us sat in his dark bedroom, cuddling him as he ate his snack.  After finishing, he grabbed his paci and motioned for John to put him back in the crib.  He's sleeping soundly as I type :)

August already?

Well here we are, about to wrap up the summer season -- well, as defined by the academic year -- and boy, we've had a busy summer.  We spent most of the last month traveling, for a total of six plane rides and four states (well, including connecting airports.)  I'm fairly confident that I will not allow for any further plane travel whenever we have a child in the household who is between 12-18 months.  I can't even begin to count up the hours of sleep I lost worrying about all of this traveling, but in the end it was a good experience and I'm glad that we had the chance to make it to Wisconsin for a wedding and New York for a short visit.

Now that JW is old enough to do activities, play dates, etc., I'm trying to figure out how we will spend our days this year (again, academic year rules in our house! Thanks, Strake Jesuit...) Last year I had to plan everything around his naps, but he's more flexible nowadays and will hopefully be dropping his morning nap in the next month or so, so I hope we can get involved and do some stuff.  It's so crazy how just as you're getting used to your kid being a certain way, he changes.  Like now JW eats with a fork, when just two weeks ago he would have likely stabbed himself in the eyes with one.  He doesn't throw bowls on the floor (as much.)  He understands commands (though doesn't always follow them.) 

We're so spoiled by having John home all summer... it's going to be hard to see him go back to work! I guess the one good thing about him going back is that there are fewer dishes to do during the day.  ;)

Happy 2nd Father's Day, John!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my wonderful husband and the father of my adorable son :) He is *such* a devoted dad and husband, and I just hope that one day JW will realize just how amazing his dad is.  Trust me, great dads in the world are hard to find (I know from experience) and we ought to treasure those men who are manly enough to truly get into parenting and bring out the very best in their families. 

We went out to breakfast this morning to celebrate :)

14 months: Baby -- err, toddler -- signs!

After months of trying to get JW to learn baby sign language, he has finally picked several signs up and is using them constantly.  "Milk" is his favorite one, while "more" is a close second.  He will wave, clap his hands, and give kisses by request now, too.  It's super cute.

His favorite word by far, though, is "dada." He happily calls out for his Dada all day long... this is not to be confused with "da," though, since that's reserved for Kaiser and the rest of the animal kingdom. 

You know you have a toddler when...

You drop a small fortune on Amazon.com ordering a variety of gates, locking mechanisms, and the ultimate in childproofing -- the crib tent. 

Life is getting very interesting -- and active -- around here ;)

Not sure I like these toddler days...

The last few days have been a struggle.  My usually happy kid refuses to be put down, wakes up crabby from every nap, wants to comfort nurse every 2 minutes (which, even as a very big supporter of nursing, I'm *so* not okay with), and generally wears his grumpypants all day long.  I long for 6pm to roll around, because bedtime offers me the promise of some quiet time in the evening.  It also usually brings a husband home to help me, though there are times that JW refuses to stay with John if I'm not in the room, and comes looking for me, sobbing the entire time.

I really hope this passes soon.

John William's book obsession

My wee one loves books.  He loves to be read to, to flip the little cardboard pages, and point (with a thumb and two fingers) at the images in the book.  We have several books in his playroom and some upstairs, but we mainly play downstairs, so I've become quite familiar with the collection.

I have a freakishly good memory, but I don't think that's necessary to memorize these books once you've read them about 1000 times each.

So today we went out and bought a new one while we were out.  It's called "Ten Tiny Puppies."  He got SO excited when I handed it to him... I'm going to have to restrain myself from buying him hundreds of new books now ;)

If any of you have recommendations for toddler appropriate (read: virtually indestructible) books, please share!

Something I should have learned by now...

When you're pregnant, people give you so much parenting advice, and while some of it is useful, a lot of it is quickly forgotten (intentionally or not.)

One gem of advice that I still hear is that I should nap whenever my precious angel of a child naps.  I didn't follow that advice very well when he was a newborn because I was so overwhelmed and stressed out and desperate to find a "new normal".  I failed to follow that advice, even though it made sense and I was exhausted.

Well, here I am, a year later and I'm sooo sleepy right now because I couldn't fall asleep last night (ugh I hate insomnia) and instead of napping during those precious few minutes of the day when JW is asleep, I'm here on the computer, or I'm eating (okay that's necessary, I realize), or whatever.  And now I hear him getting up from his afternoon nap and I'm still exhausted.

I really wish I'd taken that advice.  Here's to the rest of the crazy day!

Adventures in...baking :)

The moms' group at church asked for volunteers to bring refreshments for two funerals being held at the church this week, so I signed up to bring cupcakes to one and muffins to the other.  However, this afternoon when I opened up the pantry to start baking, I realized that all I had was funfetti cake mix. 

I thought about going ahead and serving them, but seeing as the funfetti would be on the inside and kind of a surprise, I decided against it.  Totally not appropriate.  I can't succumb to my laziness.

Good thing the grocery store is like three blocks away ;)

Happy Easter week!

After going to daybreak (7am) Easter Sunday mass, we came home, put JW down for a nap, and then packed up the car to get ready to head out to our family's country property about 2 hours west of here.  I was pretty nervous about how JW would handle the car trip, napping in a new place, etc., but he did really well :) Here are some pictures of our Easter spent with family...

Once he figured out that people wanted him to put stuff in that basket, he held on for dear life.

Being the youngest kid there (out of 3 kids total lol) he got a lot of attention!

Playing with his first confetti egg... not sure what to do with it.

Ah, so if you tear off the paper and crack it a little, out comes confetti!

Very serious about cracking confetti eggs!

Happy Easter, everyone!

What do oranges, strawberries, and tomatoes have in common?

Apparently John is sensitive to this triumvirate because we've been dealing with off and on hives and general sniffly snottiness over the last few days.  I thought maybe the diaper rash he had was caused by his cloth diapers, so we switched to sposies for a few days and slathered on the rash cream, which seemed to help a little, but we noticed that the rash came back -- and spread to his legs and torso a bit -- after eating strawberries.  Soooo now we're playing detective, giving him benadryl (per pediatrician instructions, of course) and hoping that those pesky fruits get out of his system soon so he can feel better. 

So much for a pleasant birthday week!

However, he's being a good sport and has even started walking! No longer is he only taking a step or two, but now he's really going from one room to the other without tripping.  I guess in a few weeks he'll be refusing to be carried, right? Wow.

Congratulations to my dear friend M and her husband D on the birth of their baby girl! Sometimes I miss having a newborn in the house.... sometimes. :)

1 year old!!!

So Monday was John's first birthday! We had a big party on Sunday and he had a blast.  Seriously.  I've never seen such a young kid enjoy a big party like that.

His birthday brings back so many memories and is truly bittersweet because his babyhood is technically over.  I know he looks no different today than he did on Sunday, but he is a very different child now than the one I brought home in the early hours of April 12th of 2010.

There is no one on this planet whose face captures my attention the way his does.  I never get tired of looking at his little nose, his bright blue eyes, and that silly little smile (filled with big teeth!) What a honor to be his mama :)

First steps!

So yesterday JW finally took some real, advance-forward steps! John caught him take two tiny ones at mass (where we sit in the cry room because he likes to make all sorts of noises during quiet times) and then in the afternoon, desperate to grab the phone, took another two steps toward it.  It's so crazy to think he wasn't even interested in walking until about a week or so ago, when we finally let me hold his hands and help him walk.  I wonder how long it'll be until he's actually walking around.

We redid our kitchen cabinets and entertainment center, and wow, what a difference! The paint fumes are still around a little, which is gross and annoying, but it's pretty worth it.  John added an antique white glaze to the "dover white" cabinets, which saved us over a thousand dollars because he did it himself.  Pretty awesome :)

We are in the process of sleep training JW a little more.  He's never been the best sleeper, especially for naps, and lately he wants us to sit in there with him forever and won't fall asleep, so we decided it was time for a little cry-it-out.  Luckily he hasn't cried for more than 10 minutes straight at any point, but those minutes were excruciating.  I know some people use that method starting at like 7 weeks, which I think is insane and something I'm absolutely not capable of outside of a dire situation, but I can see why it's popular toward the end of the first year when you're at your wits' end.  Because we're about there.  He also won't sleep anywhere but at home in his crib, so once we've got this "I require your presence in order to sleep" thing kicked, the next thing will be to alternate naptime places.  Siiiigh.  You probably think I'm crazy, and you're probably right. 

Even days where he drives me nuts, this little guy's smile just melts my mean-mommy heart :)

How is it March already?

Baby boy is almost 11 months old! He's standing unassisted really well now; in fact, he'll squat to play with toys and then stand right back up.  He's barely starting to show interest in taking a step, even assisted, so I think we still have a while before we're walking.

His birthday party invitations arrived this week, which is crazy.  We're mailing them to our gigantic family next week, I think, just to give people time to plan.  We may even heat the pool in order to have something for people to do, since I refuse to hire a clown for entertainment (my mom's suggestion, of course.) Nor is she getting the chimp she wanted as the greeter.  I don't know how serious she was about that one, but given her many years in event planning, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a chimp arrive at my house on April 9th.  Sheesh.

My real estate work has gotten pretty busy the last month... I have a closing for a seller this coming week (provided the appraisal went well) and then one, possibly two, at the beginning of April.  It's funny that three transactions at a time makes me feel very busy, but hey, I can only get things done in the two naptimes around here, and sometimes those aren't more than 1 hour.  One client loves to talk on the phone, even about the tiniest things, so I've given up trying to only take his calls during naptime and now he talks to me while he hears Scout the Dog singing about naming a green monkey after John.  Yeah.  ;)

Ten months, 4 days -- crawling towards toddlerhood

We officially have a cruiser in this house.  He's currently playing in his "play yard", wrestling this inflatable penguin to the ground.  This child is freakishly strong, so occasionally I see him standing up with a heavy-ish toy in his hands, shaking it.  It's pretty funny to watch :)

We have to go to the doctor today to get his second dose of the flu shot.  Why so late in the season, you ask? Well, I didn't feel comfortable giving it to him at his six month appointment since he was getting approximately 2356262 other vaccines at the same time, so we waited until the nine month appt.  Speaking of doctor's visits, I'm so angry at the lab where our doctor sends us for bloodwork.  Long story short, John suffered through three separate venipunctures at the hands of a very incompetent (at least child-wise) phlebotomist.  He ended up with a horrible bruise that took over a week to go away.  I took a picture of it so I can show his ped.  Ugh.  He was such a trooper and barely cried; I was the one who was traumatized by it! Maybe things have changed since I was a young child, but they didn't do venipuncture on infants for routine testing like that when I was little. 

On to happier things -- we're very excited that Biz is coming to visit this coming weekend, and that Laura is probably coming to visit in the next few weekends, too!

JW is playing a toy car right now... he really looks like a toddler.  I think I'm going to cry.  Lol it wouldn't be the first time I've cried this week, since I shed a few tears after giving him a tiny trim and I put his little hair in a baggie in his baby book.  That act is a little creepy, I'll admit, but I figured he might want it one day lol.

Sharp nails

One of my failures as a mother is the trimming of nails.  As a proud "pet parent," I have to pay someone else to cut my dogs' nails because even my sweet animals won't tolerate me coming at them with a clipper or even a grinder.  Well, now as a proud human parent (maybe that should have quotations around it, too lol), I still can't manage to cut my son's nails short enough so that he doesn't inflict injuries on himself or others.  I could barely do it to him when he was a newborn and nowadays forget it.

Today, JW scratched the side of his face from his temple down to his chin.  I assume he did it with his fingernail, since he doesn't usually have a knife or other blade on his person (usually).  This wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that any scratch on this kid turns bright fire engine red and looks AWFUL for several hours afterward.  So needless to say, we won't be going out for the rest of the day because I'm scared that someone will call CPS on me.  In fact, I was going to post the picture of it that I sent to John earlier, but I think it's probably best not to :)

9 months!

Dear little buddy,

You've now been on the outside as long as you were on the inside.  You're currently learning how to play with the little cars you got for Christmas, and you like to clack your tongue at me all day long.  You're very good-natured and don't mind that your face still has flecks of dried peach puree on it when we're at Lowe's.  You like to take your socks off in the car and drop them in the driveway.  You still think diaper changes are a form of modern-day torture. 

I could go on and on about you, but you're currently exercising some major strength and are about to break your cage -- I mean, play area.

Much love,
Mom

O Christmas Tree...

Sunday we went to buy our Christmas tree :) Right now it has only purple and white lights on in celebration of Advent, and then we'll turn on some multicolored lights on Christmas.  (That was the way the Christmas-decor-lover and her theologian husband compromised.)

Here's a picture of John waiting in line with us to get our tree's trunk trimmed (say that three times fast.)

I never thought I'd be one of those moms with a cart cover, but after getting looks from people at Target when I didn't use one, I felt bad and was worried that someone would report me to CPS. So I bought a cover for $5 at a church yard sale :)

When can I cut his hair? He looks like a fuzzy old man.  It doesn't look so bad in person, but in pictures he looks kind of ridiculous (and lovable, always.) How long does it take for his hair to really grow in? I'm still not really sure what color I'd call his hair.  Like sandy brown? Whose kid is this?? lol you wouldn't know he is a quarter Mexican and quarter Venezuelan... he looks pretty Irish to me :-/

Just a PSA...

Dear Shall-Remain-Nameless,

Don't try to feed lemons to my baby.  I don't see you taking a nice big bite out of a juicy lemon, so please don't encourage my son to do that.  While I told you not to do that because he's (supposedly) not allowed to have citrus until he's a year old, the real reason I said no was because giving a baby a lemon is ridiculous and mean and whyyyy would you do that? 

Hugs,
A.