Bi-Lingual Baby

Blank Pages

My Dear Precious Love,

I had to describe my life before you
I would say. . .

Blank pages
in a book
waiting to be filled
with your sweet laugh,
your smile,your touch.

Blank pages
that I tried to fill
with relationships,
with work,
with this and
with that.

Blank pages
that I didn't
even know
were empty.

Thank you for filling my life with more meaning than I have ever known. I love you with my life!!

Love, Mommy

18 Months cont...

Hi sweetness,

Just a quick note to share your 18 month stats since we hadn't been to the doctor yet when I wrote your 18 month blog. You have grown an inch and a half since our last visit at 15 months and weigh almost 2 pounds heavier! You are now 32 1/2 inches tall weigh in at 24 pounds 10 ounces!!! Woo hoo! My growing boy....

I am however a little frustrated as ALL the winter clothes I bought you (18-24 months) are WAY too big. GREAT....now what? You have until now remained consistent with your age and clothes size. Not now! I actually pulled out your 6-12 month box and tried on some pants that you were wearing all last winter and they FIT. A tiny bit short, but perfect everywhere else. LOVELY. Would have been perfect had I not bought a whole new wardrobe about 2 months ago! Those will have to do until I get some pants that are 12-18 months I guess.....sheesh. It's just so hard to know ahead of time what you little boogers will be wearing. Oh well.....

Ok, gotta go pick you up! Love you!

Love, Mommy

Is This a Good Time??

I must admit, before having a baby I used to get slightly frustrated when I’d call my some of my friends who had kids and the conversation would go like this:

Me: “Hi, how are you?”

My friend: “Exhausted. The baby was up at ------ No, you can’t have another Yogurt! -- 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. for no apparent reason and then -- We do NOT sit on our sister’s head!! -- I had to take the car into the shop but -- Hey! Can’t you guys SEE that I am on the PHONE?! The next person who starts whining goes in time out!---- Sorry. You there? Now what was I saying?”

Me: “Um, I’ll let you go. Bye!”

Now I am that annoying, distracted person on the other end. I’ve learned when calling my other "mommy" friends to start conversations with, “Can you talk?” I used to say, “Are you busy?” But seriously, when is a mom NOT busy? If her kids aren’t bleeding and she can chat while she changes a diaper, that’ll do.

Unfortunately, stress is unavoidable when you’re a mom. I've had my fair share of it lately...this age is a tough one! :) And anyway, the challenge of finding time for a phone call is not really a matter of being busy, but rather, available. It’s not that I’m too busy doing something productive, like, unloading the dishwasher when somebody calls. It’s that I’m preoccupied by my son who’s trying to see if both his feet AND hands can fit in the dog's water bowl at the same time or I'm busy diving across the room as he is pretending to be Superman as he climbs ON TOP of the Dining Room table.

Most of the time it seems that Caden waits until I’m on the phone to be bad. He knows I’m distracted and doesn't like that he is not the center of my universe at that moment. So if you call me and our conversation is interrupted SEVEN times in the first 3 minutes, I apologize. Gosh I hate that for you. If I seem distracted, it doesn't mean I’m not listening. Trust me, I can fish a lego out of the toilet with a spatula and talk at the same time. Don’t bother asking if it’s a good time to talk because there’s never going to BE a good time. Now, what were you saying again? :)

Thanks to all of you for your unending patience with me!

Flight Risk

By the time Caden turned one years old he had been on 25 planes. Insane!! 99% of the flights went pretty smoothly, considering most of them were just the two of us.. It wasn't until he started walking that things got not so fun. Take our last trip for instance.... This time, all of us were traveling together. Two parents should be easier, right? The first leg of our flight was only two hours to Houston. Perfect, right? Piece of cake, right? Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.

First, I realize that airport security is there to make air travel safer for all of us right? But, come on, forcing a baby to dump out his sippy cup and remove his little shoes that take 10 minutes to wrestle back on? (Note to self...get the Velcro kind next time.) It's just not the easiest thing holding your child while taking his shoes off, your OWN shoes off, folding the stroller up, putting it on the conveyor belt while your child is trying to grab everything during the process. So there I was, holding a squirming WIDE AWAKE baby at 4:30am, trying to rush through this process so as not to miss our plane, while he is squirming and waving at everyone in sight. Then we had to double back and retrieve the stroller that was left on the conveyor belt along with our 6 billion carry-on items. (I am AMAZED at how much a 24 pound baby requires to travel!!!)

We board, give Caden his blanket and pacifier and attempt to get him settled. Yeah, right. He’s pointing out the window shouting “oiuroauoiupoiueroiu!" "woeirueoiugoiwuerou!" SOOOO loud. He sounds like he's talking Chinese or something and the more we tried to put our hands over his mouth to quiet him, (I mean it WAS an ungodly hour) the louder he got. He actually started making people laugh it was so funny the way he was attempting to talk. After he quiets down he then proceeds to start doing leg presses on the seat in front of him. This child can press triple his body weight, I swear. We took off his shoes so as to soften his kicks to the back of the seat. Yeah, right. I had much apologizing to do already and we hadn't even taken off yet.

Caden busied himself licking the window (lovely) and putting the tray up and down in front us. When he saw someone put their window shade down, you might as well have put a piece of raw meat in a lion's cage. He DOVE for the window and started SLAMMING the shade up and down. Oh dear God......

We spent the next two hours passing Caden back and forth between us, prying his fingers off the hair of the passengers in front of us, retrieving his pacifier from the people behind us, flagging down the flight attendant to refill his sippy cup, and praying desperately that Caden would not throw a tantrum in this tiny beast of a plane. Not only does Caden NOT sleep AT ALL, but he actually breaks a sweat from the exertion of everything he’s doing in that little 3 feet of area.

On our flight home from Houston to Nashville there were so many planes in line to take off that we had to sit on the runway for 45 minutes. We mentally counted the number of gray hairs that had sprouted during the trip and swear to never, ever step foot on a plane again until Caden is 16. Too darn bad for our families. They’ll just have to come see us and make do with web cams. :)

As if to make up for things, Caden slept and behaved beautifully the last leg of our trip home. All in all he did pretty good for an eighteen month old learning about his world. Really, I can’t complain too much. Sure, he purposely kicked over my drink, forcing me to spend a leg of the trip sitting in a puddle of ice water. Sure, he insisted on opening his packet of pretzels himself, showering everyone in the surrounding seats with pretzel crumbs and salt. Sure, he licked every nasty plane surface he could find, and chose to wait til we got on the plain to totally fill his diaper. Sure we almost lost our minds, but it's all worth it right? I can't help but ALMOST laugh now....almost. Now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to go shred my frequent flyer card. :)

You've Got Mail!

Hi my precious,

You are sleeping now...as you usually are when I am writing you. If I tried to do this when you were awake you would be crawling all over me and my laptop. You definitely want my undivided attention while you are awake!

So I think I've mentioned before how much you LOVE the mailman. You hear the mail truck before it even gets to our street and start freaking out you are so excited. You immediately head to the door and want to greet our mailman "BEAR" as he is called. (One day I just had to ask him his name since we see him everyday. He has a big beard so that is what people call him.) He says " I have NEVER had anyone sooooooo excited to see my everyday! It makes me feel so good.....I know as I turn down your street that someone is waiting for me." Aw.........how cute is that!!!! You stand on the curb watching him inch down the street and you start waving frantically at him when he is about two houses away. Every day it is so cute. I just can't get enough.

So.....the other day I decided to get a picture of you with "your mailman." :) I will never get tired of your sweet cuteness. Thank you for making every day so special for me. I love you....

Love, Mommy

My Turn!

Hi baby,

Just wanted to share a little video of something we do almost every day. Your Gramma and Grampa sent you a little bus push toy that you adore.....you push it around every day...sit on it...stand on it...AND.....push ME on it! I just sat on it as a joke one day and you were THRILLED. Now you want me to sit on it all the time!! So....here we are!! You are more precious than words my love....

18 MONTHS!!!!

Happy 18 Month Birthday baby!!!

Wow....you are officially One and a half!! Aw.....what a fun time. I keep having more and more fun with you and I just can't pick which month since you've been born that I have loved the most. You are just too precious at every stage. I love you, I love you, I love you!!

You are sooo full of energy in this stage of your life. Goodness boy, you have your mommy and daddy running everywhere after you! You are quite the character...so interested in everything you see and so curious of the world around you. You can't get enough of everything.

THINGS YOU LOVE RIGHT NOW:


Still crazy about trucks and any machinery type thing.

I swear, you just OBSESS over any truck or tractor or lawn mower or any motorized ANYTHING. You just LOVE them...stare at them...point and scream in excitement...you just take it all in. Adorable. I don't really see why a lawn mower is so fascinating, but hey, to you it is like going to Disney Land or something so I totally respect that and give you the 10 minutes you want to simply watch and adore. You still scare the jeebies out of me in the car when you will just randomly SCREAM "TRUCK!!!!" every few minutes or so. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but it still freaks me out every time. :)




Someone chasing you.

You LOOOOVe to be chased. When I ask you to come to me, or say "it's time to go!", you go running in the opposite direction...not to be bad, just so that I'll chase you. You take off and start giggling....it's really so cute. If I don't chase you, you'll come back, touch me to get my attention and take off again. I chase you saying "I'm gonna get you!" and you just laugh and laugh and laugh... (We do this about 20 times a day) :)




Giving "fish kisses"

You haven't been as axious to give kisses lately so I started making a fish face with my lips sucked in like a fish and saying, "Give me a fish kiss!" Well you LOVED that and gave me super kisses! So now that is what I say and you are eager to please! You even walk around trying to make that fish face yourself.



Elevators and Especially ESCALATORS!!

Even beyond your love for machines is your love for THESE silver beasts!! You are so funny when you see an elevator somewhere, you start hootin' and hollerin' and making your famous face as you run towards it. You LOVE to push the buttons and wait for that big door to open. I DO remember elevators being a pretty big deal when I was little too. I think my brother's and I always argued who would get to push the button. So yeah, I remember, and I let you have your fun....:) When we were at the airport this last week both your dad and I spent about 10 min each taking you up and down the escalator. You were soooo funny and had people laughing so hard at you because you were just so VERY excited every second of your trip up AND down. Your joy is just contagious and it just makes you fun to be around.



Grapes.

What can I say? You just looooooove grapes. You can't get enough, and I really just have to cut you off so that you don't turn into a giant grape yourself! :)



THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE RIGHT NOW:

Getting your diaper changed. You've gone through phases of this before, but now it is just insane. You just twist and turn,climb your feet up the wall, grab the diaper, stiffen your legs to the point I have to literally PRY them apart.... I feel like I'm trying to change a baby octopus!! Good grief child!! :) It only takes ONE minute! Can you just lay still for ONE minute? I know I'm interefering with your exploration time, but sheesh!! :)


ok.....it's 2am and i'm so tired...can 't do anymore. I love you more than I could ever type on here. You are the funniest little guy on earth...I love you. I'm so happy you are one and a half....I'm so proud of you..

Love, Mommy

Vacation? Yeah RIGHT!!

Hey my precious,

So we just got back from our trip to Mexico to see your "Mexican Family." :) Your grandparents paid for us to go there and see them for a week, so we packed up and headed out...Woo hoo! The morning we left we had to leave by 3:30, so because you are not the type of baby that can be moved from one location to the other without waking up, you were wide awake at 3:30. You would think you would fall back asleep in the car on the way to airport? Oh no! Wide awake and hyper.... :) Laughing and acting so excited as if you knew we were getting on a plane. Crazy!! You can bet my butt would have been snoozing if I had that opportunity!! :) You amazed us that day because until 5:30 that night, you were awake the whole time except for a 40 min cat nap on one of the flights. WORLD RECORD for you! 14 hours? How?? Crazy boy...

There is something about you being in Mexico that has us saying everyday, "Who are you and what did you do with our son?" I swear, you become this hyper little guy just full of more energy than we've ever seen. You are able to go all day without a nap, which is impossible here, and you eat like a HORSE!! I mean to tell you, you PACK it IN in Mexico!! I've never seen a child eat so much! You are literally eating every two hours or so!

We were supposed to be on vacation I guess, but your daddy and I were pretty stressed most of the trip. Your grandparent's house was like the WORST house possible to take a one year old in, much less STAY there for a whole week! :) Oh gosh....HARD tile floors, HARD tile stairs...VERY SMALL....lots of breakable figurines littering every surface around. Yikes!! It was a little scary for us, but you did just fine and your Grandparents were wonderful helping with you. I got to sleep in almost every day!! So hey, that was AWESOME!! One of MY favorite parts of the vacation! Hadn't done that since you were born!! We felt bad cause someone had to chase you around all the time since you are sooo curious and soooo fast! :) All in all, it really went fine and it was so great to see your Uncle Sergio, Aunt Blanca, your cousin Sergio, your Uncle Jorge Carlos and your Aunt Marcela....they are all so great and it was fun spending time with them. Your cousin was a little jealous the first few days but then he started warming up to you and you guys were really cute together.

We took a few pics of our time in Mexico.....even of your GIANT crib! Not sure when we'll get back but I think things will be a little easier with you next time. Thanks for being a good little boy.....I love you....