el guacamaya's blog

What do you do?

2010-11-30T21:05:00.021-06:00

12-2am Sleeping.

2-2:15am Nursing, checking tweets, checking email. Realizing I didn't Cyber Monday and wondering if I missed anything good.

7am S up for milk. Quietly chat with Douglas about weird evening with boys.

7:15am S poops and then pees all over me while nursing. Leave warm bed, change diaper. Come back to bed and realize neck pain has set in. Again. Weird.

7:22am Boob 2. Douglas thinks about waking Joaquin to bring him in to me. I convince him otherwise. He showers. S is awake for real so we hang in bed and he kicks me.

7:54am 'Mami, I'm awake!' from Joaquin's room. He's soaked too. Change pajamas for, uh, other pajamas. He tells me he slept 'great!' and Papi slept with him a while and on and on then mentions his tummy was hurting. Explains weird night a bit.

8:00 - 8:30am Douglas brings me coffee and cake (Blame tango students! It's leftovers from class) to bed and we set up Joaquin in chair for special treat of Handy Manny with his oatmeal. Sebastian continues to lay on bed and kick me and talk. (Normally Joaquin eats with Douglas in the kitchen for some boy alone time, but he has to get out and get to a company to pick up some tooling he won in an auction)

8:30am I sneeze eleventy billion times. Get Joaquin out of high chair and cleaned up (get his vitamin from kitchen and notice giant pile of cat throw up. yeah) and move him into my bed bc S is fussing. Ready for nap. S on my shoulder for rocky bouncy attempt at nap-dom. Drinking cooled off, almost cold coffee. Check weather on iPhone. Consider first call to cops about Barking Dog Hell. Don't bother.

8:35am S is down. Swaddle, put in co-sleeper. Set up camera, grab phone and coffee cup. Joaquin is playing in his room waiting on me to finish up. Pass through kitchen and see throw-up and ignore a second time. Consider unloading dishwasher. Don't. Refill coffee cup. Likely won't drink it. Walk in J's room. Oh! A Poop. Change him.

8:56am Construction play time commences. Also considering what food to make today. And checking board I moderate. And checking Twitter. My job at construction is to fix the crane repeatedly. Considering leaving house later bc we have guests coming tomorrow to play. Note: considering is usually the extent of the action on any given item.

9:13am Friend sent tweet that Allegro coffee was BOGO at Whole Foods. Sealed deal we go today!

9:19am Joaquin puts on his hat bc I won't leave his hair alone.

9:27am Joaquin takes hat off. Tells me 'don't tickle my hair anymore'. Making shopping list while doing crane work.

9:44am Scratching Joaquin's back. (More, mami!) Discussing Christmas and scissors.

9:53am Sent text to Douglas a text to bring Christmas stuff home tonight from 'storage' at his company. Joaquin sitting on my lap and telling me I don't have a big belly anymore. I have a little belly now. Considering buying him a pony. Do boys want ponies!? Also Boob Alarm just went off. Ouch.

9:55am Getting off Joaquin's floor. Groaning noises. Going to unload dishwasher, get Joaquin a snack of pomegranate seeds, radio on, clean up cat throw-up because Joaquin noticed it, add to shopping list, set-up coffee pot for tomorrow, discussion about being careful climbing and cracking head and teeth coming out and not being able to eat snacks without teeth and can I have milk from the 'fridger' and Sebastián is still asleep. And Fruta Fresca just came on radio and can I tell you how much I love Carlos Vives.

10:30am Got Joaquin dressed. Discussion about minding and behaving bc the Insane Bug started up. Going to get myself dressed which will wake baby, but he's been stirring and kicking in the swaddle.

10:35 -11:09am Got dressed which included putting on some make-up which includes Joaquin doing the same with pretend make-up. Discussion about eyelashes and eyebrows. Discussion about mascara. Baby still sleeping even though we are in the room. Get clothes from dryer and start folding waiting on S to wake. Give J one thing at a time to put away. Do walk-thru whole and pick stuff up. Each pass thru kitchen think these three things 1) Joaquin's poop diaper in trash is stinking up the house 2) that's a good song on the radio 3) ???? I forgot the last thought. Finish laundry. Am surprised he's still sleeping through us in room. Eventually wake him up - yes, really - and change diaper and put warm clothes. Sit down to nurse at 11:09.

11:09 - 11:19am Fighty nurser. Milk spray. Concerned bc Joaquin is making a bed in the glider in the nursery and discussing sleeping there. He went and got baby oso and toys. Wonder about tonight bc of insanity with last night. Worried he is scared in his room suddenly bc he's talking about sleeping in his 'baby room'. ???? Milk spray. Fighty nurser. Typos galore while writing this on iPhone and wrestle nursing. Agree with Joaquin he can watch potty DVD in truck. Final push to get out the door in the cold. Coats on, go.

11:21 - 11:27am Got Joaquin's shoes gloves hat coat on. My boots on. Baby pooped! Diaper change time. Also remembered 3rd thought was SHUT UP DOG when I walked back in kitchen.

11:39am In car letting it warm up. Boys in. Cursing wind and cold and wanting a garage and remote start. And a garage. And a tropical island. And it's not even Dec 1. Also I have eaten nothing but a slice of cake today. And my neck hurts. Ok. Going.

12:02 - 12:10pm Nursing S in car at Whole Foods. Oy. Got fussy in drive bc he didn't get enough earlier. Bc of wrestle nursing. Joaquin is watching potty DVD. I am catching up on Twitter and email and board. Ok. Fought more. Putting him in sling and going in. This may end badly. Am starving!!

12:52pm Done! Got everything on the list. Heading home now. S fell asleep in sling in the store, but transferred to car seat easily - still sleeping. Pain in neck now makes me want to cry. Cannot move head either way.

1:16pm Home. Now to get all of us up 3 flights and get lunch for Joaquin. He ate mango slices in the store and a kids clif bar and water. I bought sushi for myself. Also friend called and will stop by later.

1:50pm Joaquin ate peanut butter and jelly, milk. I wolfed sushi while unpacking groceries and putting chicken in crock. S snoozed in car seat on kitchen floor. [SHUT UP DOG, POOP SMELL KITCHEN, UGH, NOT DADDY YANKEE] Now standing by changing table and letting S kick and stretch. Friend on her way over. Unlocking door so she can let herself in. Joaquin in bed listening to favorite African lullabies. Going to change S's diaper and get on bed to nurse. Ariel will let herself in and come hang with me!!

2:00pm Nursing, checking email, twitter and board. Ariel's here.

2:20 - 3:30pm Sit and visit on my bed. Off and on try and nurse fighty nurser. He falls asleep on me.

3:35pm Joaquin is up. Go hang out in living room. Talking around/over him. Not as much fun. Again nursey fighting baby. Big Baby Gas! Small Poop!

4:33pm Ariel leaves. Flip chicken in crock pot. Fussy Fu Fu baby. Joaquin to his room for not minding or listening. Cried about three things in a row. Refused snack. Drank milk.

4:36pm Trying again to nurse to nap. Biting! Super baby fusses. My neck is killing me. Won't nurse without biting - milk spray. Not hungry. On shoulder bouncing so I check email, board, Twitter and catch up with world hoping he goes down.

4:53pm Moved to nursery for glider to furiously rock screaming baby. Burping sad hurting screaming baby. Repeatedly asking Joaquin to play nicely in his room so I can get S down. Then will play construction with him. Am starving again. Clearly don't eat enough. Am also waaay behind on water today.

4:57pm Take pic of S to see if he's awake bc he chilled out but seems tense still. He's awake.

5:10pm He's asleep. Take back to our room, swaddle. Leave. Walk in Joaquin's room to put wheel back on dump truck. Poop! Change third poop diaper of his today. 5th total poop diaper of the day. While changing it, S wakes. Hear big baby crying. 10 minutes of sleeping??? Leave Joaquin and ask him to put his pants back on himself.

5:15pm Go rescue baby from Swaddle of Terror. Back to nursery. Rock rock rock.

5:21pm S asleep again. Will attempt 5:10pm again.

5:26pm S down. Put Joaquin's pants on him. ;-) Set him up in kitchen for water painting while I make D's salad for tomorrow lunch, take chicken out of crock, drink huge glass of water, and another, slam down chips and hummus, set up plate of food for Joaquin's dinner so it's ready to go, put away all the plastic drying on dishrack. Joaquin eats more pom seeds.

5:52pm Screaming sad S. Short nap! Go get him and sit down to hold him at kitchen island while J paints more. Read Twitter and email. Evaluate things I didn't get done: trash out, diaper champ emptied in nursery, cookie dough made.

5:59pm Sebastian poops. I mean, really! That's 6!! Joaquin is now eating pom seeds more than painting. I am on third glass of water. Leave D a voicemail checking in. J is done and off to change S poops.

6:05pm Tummy time, finally a milk chug from S, Joaquin sitting on nursery floor repairing things. Like the play mat.

6:20pm Bitten! No biting, baby! Smiles when I tell him No biting, baby. I suck, I smile back. And then kiss him. No wonder I get bitten. Poops! SEVEN total now. Joaquin requests On the Road Again over and over. I give in.

6:30 - 7pm Joaquin has dinner - crock pot chicken and roasted Brussels sprouts and butternut squash and apple sauce. Tells me next time no squash, just sprouts. Alrighty. I mobile deposit tango class checks, drink more water. S chills in bouncy seat eating his hands. Empty kitchen trash and set outside FINALLY. On The Road again plays non-stop. Wipe down counters.

7pm Handy Manny Christmas show on for Joaquin, we pile on our bed. D calls. Home around 9-10pm. Yeah! Last push of the day. Nursing S and he's chugging again.

7:25 - 8pm Pajamas on both boys. Teeth brushed. Snuggle on bed a few minutes more and discuss good day. Joaquin asks about my 'cute bra' and asks to please do the hooks (nursing bra-he can see straps under my tank) a few times. This is something he would do all day if I would let him. Head to his room and all rock together while listening to African lullabies. Tuck him in. Back to my room for what has become longest put-down ever for Sebastián. Concerned that Joaquin is going to have weird night like last night with two wake-ups and shrieking between 8-11. Please no!

8:01pm On my bed, S kicks me, eats hands. I wait for his patience for those two things to wane. Turned on Tv and will let E! News run on pretty much mute.

8:09pm Nursing S again. He's not fighting! Emailing all the photos I took today to myself. Hoping I remember log-ins to blogspot since I haven't posted in forever. I do not think Brad Pitt is attractive. Lip-licker. Extreme neck pain. Do you think an ibuprofen would have helped!? And why 12 hours later do I think of this?!

8:24pm Joaquin is asleep. More worry. This is what happened last night. That's very fast to fall asleep. Worries he will wake/shriek. Sebastián totally out after nursing. About to attempt swaddling but know he won't stay down. This is part of very weird evening schedule we have going. Let's see what happens. .... Yeah. No. Awake. But upset. Hold me, mami. Go visit with friends online while putting him up on killing neck and shoulder, bouncy bouncy bouncy.

8:41pm Dozing on me over. Commence hollering. Deliver a new boob. He's truly tanking up. And I just hit Starving again. I am really bad about not eating when busy. Now the shakes kicked in. Arg.

8:57pm Swaddle S, put him in co-sleeper. Do not expect him to stay. Grab laptop and rush to kitchen. Micro food. Load and dump all minutes into draft in blog. Download all pics. Start slamming food.

9:12pm Crying S. Grap laptop, gulp 2 more bites, put food back in micro so poop-touching cats don't get it. Unswaddled Sebastián. Plop on broken neck shoulder - still never took a med for it. Mentally agree sleeping babies weigh way more. Also note that this waitress way of doing things (you know, consolidate, be efficient, be doing 4 things at once) is totally my way of
life. Since 8/23/2010 for sure. And also since 11/17/2007. But all day non-stop now. Makes it hard to just sit and be. Kendra is on Tv on mute. Look at monitor. Joaquin hasn't moved since he fell asleep. This worries me. Three years in and I still fret over his sleep. That 8 month stretch of no more than 22 minute naps really gave me PTSD, I think. No joke. He sleeps like a champ at night but that screaming was odd and I am clearly worried it will return.

9:23pm Think I can put S back down!? He's totally out and dead weight on my shoulder. Want to go finish gulping food.

9:25 - 9:52pm S is down and swaddled. I eat the rest of my food (not enough) and edited the post, loaded photos. Realized I have a lot of S and J's and sometimes Sebastián has the accent and sometimes not and do I care.

9:53pm Pour a class of wine. It's been open a few days but it's drinkable. Sauvignon Blanc. Eat three Geneva cookies in rapid succession. Farking Farking Farking. Dog is still barking. And S just squealed from our room. It's 9:59pm. I am tired.

10:10pm S has squealed a few more times. I have eaten 5 more Geneva cookies. Douglas may be home soon. Or not. He had to stop and buy cat food bc the cats don't get Whole Foods chow. Considering the day. Now snickering to myself. I have two more hours to journal and likely will be up for them. But I don't want to. I am done. If Douglas comes home, he will rub my neck, I will tell him I love him and I will be happy. Joaquin was so very good today. S was fussy, but the poor baby hasn't been fussy more than 10 hours his whole life, so whatever. No big deal.

I love my family. Tomorrow we can do it again differently. But really, it's kind of all the same.

Oh and Hi. I just took a giant break from my blog. And now I am back. Because my friends at Twitter inspired me to do this. Being a stay at home mom is a breeze.

'Night.

4 minutes of tricks I can do

2009-09-16T14:57:00.002-05:00

This video equals: I forgot to take video for a while, so let's see if we can get Joaquin to do a bunch of tricks at once.

It started off with Douglas doing the Big Stretch after dinner and Joaquin joining him. So I grabbed my camera and asked Douglas to please re-stretch. He did. And then you get this. Four minutes of weird.

And this isn't even close to all the strange things we ask him to do.

It's hard to say what my favorite is. Is it me asking him to "do" lobster and him say "rico!" (delicious)? It is the MAMA! that comes after Por Favor? Maybe the fact that he takes more syllables to say Por Favor than any person ever in the history of por favor-ers? Or the fact that we can make him do anything if we bribe him with "applejiss".

Whatever. I can watch it over and over. But then, I am the MAMA!

Amor, A-meow: The Video

2009-09-16T14:45:00.006-05:00

Starting earlier this summer a song was being played over and over and over on our Sirius tropical station. It's Fernando Villalona's Yo Soy Aquel. And it's Joaquin's first favorite song. Maybe because it was overplayed, or maybe because it has an awesome "amor, amor, ammmmmmmmmmmor!" lyric in it.

Whatever caused it to hit a chord with him, it did. And since it was on heavy, heavy rotation he heard it at breakfast, in the car, at lunch, in the car, in the car, in the car, in the car, at dinner and apparently in his dreams. He sang himself to sleep many a night this summer "Amor, Amor, Ammmmmooooooor!" So so sweet. And his little pursed lips made it even better.

And then. One day. He changed it up. "Amor, A-meow!"

It's how he sings it now. And if he doesn't want to sing it when you ask, he still will, but he will really rush it. So here's the video from last night (I waited way too long to get this) and he starts off with the rushed version and then gets into it for a while.

First Haircut!

2009-09-16T14:18:00.004-05:00

The bird's nest in the back of his head from the car seat rides just finally got to be too much. I mean, really really too much. It was a big dreadlock after each trip and a lot of conditioner and combing each night in the bath.

So last week, we went and got a haircut.

A very fancy haircut in a place that costs twice as much as Papi pays for his!

And he was so very good the entire time.

Here's some footage.

Where we started. Big. Frizzy.

First cut done. Ok. Deep Breaths.

It tickles!

I don't know. I am not sure this is the right thing to do!

FLUFFY! Your styling is FLUFFY!

Check out the sweet ride at the salon.

ALL DONE!

I think I may like it.

Two days later. Mama-styled version. :-)

SummerDance last night.

2009-06-19T13:43:00.006-05:00

Well, it's like his favorite thing ever. Dancing to music. And staying up past his bedtime. (Ok, favorite that's a tie with kicking a ball around!)

Last night was the first tango in the park for SummerDance and we dusted off the Ergo Carrier just like last year. Of course, he's bigger!! Taller and much heavier. But he's also stronger and I don't worry about him acting like a dead weight to swing around. He loves it and he's safe.

He rode on me the entire night and I am a bit sore this morning as a result. That was 2 hours of dancing with a little break in the middle to eat some grapes and cheese and stretch his legs.

Needless to say, he loved it. And it's fun to see people react to a threesome tango family. One couple came up to us and said they have a photo of us dancing at the Cultural Center when I was pregnant. And now they have one of us with the kiddo, too.

Joaquin and I danced with Papi and two other brave leader souls were willing to take us on as well.

It was great!

The family that tangos together, sweats together. Super humid. Super wet. Super curly.

My boys.

And a couple more photos since I am dedicated to practicing with my camera.

This is from Monday, June 15. Cafe Gelato.

And this is from this morning. Putting on his chapstick.

First day of Soccer. Consider it an early Father's Day!

2009-06-16T20:30:00.008-05:00

Well, I took over 200 photos from this grand event. First, I swore to keep practicing. Second, I knew we needed to document, document, document the event. I hope Joaquin doesn't feel the pressure, but he needs to get a full ride to a very good school on his soccer (nay, futbol!) skills. So we started him at 18 months. That's about when you learn that soccer practice has 45 balls, bubbles and all parents on the pitch chasing you around, too. I figure we can learn about offsides in week 3 or 4, right?

Let's state the very obvious. JOAQUIN LOVED IT! It's the combo of one of his favorite things ever (balls) with the doing something with Papi, with .... well, it was SUMMER on the first day and we have been waiting around for summer for like... uh, a year.

Perfect, glorious day. We love soccer.

Where can 18 month olds learn to play soccer in Chicago?

Papi put my kit on for me. Apparently I don't get to wear my Honduras uniform. Boo!

All suited up. This one may last for a year or two! And yes, that's an Extra Small.

Doing drills with papi. He loves Coach Nikki!

Working on his Game Face.

One of the best parts of the practice was stacking cones.

Future scholarship recipient.

They got stamps on their hands at the end. He's never had a stamp. He loves stamps now.

My favorite little boy and my favorite shot of the day of him.

And a final shot of the mother of his crazy hair.

Practicing with my camera after taking a lesson

2009-06-13T22:43:00.008-05:00

On Friday I got to take the entire day off to run around with my camera and try and learn new stuff. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. I took a class with Rachael from Metropolitan Images. She's the gal that took my maternity photos and Joaquin's first year milestones.

So after a full day class I vowed to keep my camera close at hand. Today I grabbed it for some photos after getting back from Target with his brand new first pair of Converse. And then I lugged it out of the house in the diaper bag, too.

Tomorrow we have the first day of soccer practice (the idea of this makes me laugh! this is the first day of disorganized running around in the park with other 18-24 month olds!!) and I will have my camera at the ready.

So just because I know Rachael will be hassling me if I don't practice, here's what I caught today.

New Shoes! Papi picked them out!

Checking out the flowers on the balcony.

Trying to get back inside and go and dance with Papi. Is his class over yet?!

Getting smart.

Mami asked me to do a Kitty Meow! Twice.

(Notice furrowed brows of plaintive kitty face during meow!)

Doing a jump dance with a kitty toy in hand. Aka: Freaking out.

And a self-portrait I took during the class.

Joaquin Cousteau.

2009-05-10T22:35:00.003-05:00

Auntie Monkey sat for Joaquin tonight. Apparently he hassled her for a bath over and over with pleas for agua and signing bath. She gave in to the relentless begging.

She got her revenge. She gave him the beloved bath with the shower raining on him. And put his safety goggles on.

The pay-off is the final few moments.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T13:57:00.004-05:00

My second Mother's Day.

It was such a nice weekend. Saturday was brunch with girlfriends, then the entire day of playing with my boys and then heading out to see a play and have dinner with Douglas. Sunday has been hanging out at the park and napping. Perfect. Off to teach class in a few hours.

Here we are.

Do Not Want.

2009-05-08T22:36:00.001-05:00

Today Joaquin signed EAT at me like 100 times.
And then waved off each thing I gave him. He ate a lot of yogurt today.

At one point he was squealing for the just washed broccoli on the counter.

So I gave it to him.

Raw.

These speak for themselves, no?

The final shot is where he set it down when he was done.

This is the best photography work I have done so far.

I am proud of me.

A week in Texas. AKA. You can do 6 days on fruit and no naps.

2009-04-03T21:35:00.002-05:00

Joaquin and I got home this evening. To a very happy Papi that his family had made it back safely. Watching Joaquin see his "stuff" and know he was home was a really cool experience. As much fun as he had with his cousins, he was really going on a LOT less sleep and a LOT LOT less food. He lived on grapes and whatever Cheerios he could forage from Uncle Matt. And no nap unless it was on a person, preferably on Grandpa Tommy in a porch swing.

But we are back. He gladly kicked the mirror facing his carseat and turned his music on before he was even in the straps. And he ran into his bedroom to make sure the crib was still there.

He went down without a peep after EATING REAL FOOD.

It was a fun week. And I need to go through all the video and photos and start uploading quickly, but I am tired tired tired.

Here's one. Cousins can go to the beach together. Rockport Beach, Texas.

Dip & Bite.

2009-03-20T15:59:00.002-05:00

I am not sure if this video is more to prove that Joaquin has the most annoying mama on the planet or to show off his brand new Dip & Bite skills.

This was his first Dip & Bite. I did it about 3 times and passed it to him. What a pro.

He figured out Dip & Lick really quickly, too.

He's not 100% sure he loves fish sticks yet.

Is he really THAT girly looking? Really!?

2009-03-20T14:13:00.002-05:00

It's happening over and over. I keep hearing how gorgeous "she" is. I just say thanks, but when they ask her name, the cat is out of the bag. Well, usually. Heh.

It's the curls, right? I mean, for pete's sake. He doesn't even wear baby looking stuff much. Tshirts, cords, sweats. Pretty manly gear. Well, it's not pink.

This photo is from my phone just moments after I heard "What a gorgeous spring flower she is!" What!? Huh?! He's in a black Tshirt. And cords. And brown and green BOY shoes.

I will not cut this curls. Or in this case, his post-nap frizz. Not anytime soon. No way. He can deal with being called a girl. He should get used to it anyway. Look at his Papi!

Just me and my big hair. Reading a book.

2009-03-13T22:22:00.003-05:00

What?! Come on. Give me a break. I am half TEXAN, right?

Good weather is GREAT!

2009-03-06T15:12:00.002-06:00

Oh please let it not be winter anymore. Please. I love warmer weather.

Grandma came back from Texas and so Joaquin made a trek to Brookfield Zoo with Jodie, McKenna, Adeline and Pal. It was a lot of fun. This is how much fun it was.

Today it was even WARMER out so we went to the park for the first walking around visit to the park. So much fun. He wandered a lot. He found another kid that signed and was cracking me up watching him sign bear at the fountain and looking at me and signing to me, too. Yes, you speak the same language.

I was like his shadow trying not to limit his fun but keep him from getting clocked by the swings, crack a skull walking under a metal jungle gym or just knocked flat by the bigger kids that run instead of toddle. He loved it. So did I...

For the record. I hate winter. Hate. Spring and Summer and Fall are where it's at.

PS: Gymboree stuff is oddly sized. That's a 3-6 month Toucan T-shirt he's still wearing. He's 75% for height (32.5 inches) and 25% for weight (22 lbs 13 oz). And still fits in that shirt. Weird. Good thing. We have a bigger one but it can wait.

A couple of new family portraits.

2009-03-03T08:56:00.004-06:00

A friend of ours from tango is also a photographer. We had an opportunity to take some photos with Dan this weekend. Joaquin was, uh, tired since it was pretty close to naptime, so he wasn't really interested in doing much in the studio for posing. But there was a huge Irish Wolfhound there and he would have loved to have snuggled up on the dog bed instead for all his shots. He could have walked under the pup's belly and never brushed hair against him... what a huge sweetie.

Anyway, he's been carrying around Dan's business card with shots of the dog all week and signing "puppy" at it.

Here are the shots from Dan. His studio is here: http://danielbyrnesstudios.com/

How in the world does he know!? What in the world?!

2009-02-24T21:10:00.001-06:00

Ok, seriously. It's a real question. How does he know!? This boggles my mind.

Tonight we decided to play on the bed instead of the living room because Douglas has a bum knee. So we were all on the bed and I tucked Joaquin under the covers and handed him the remote. He loves the remote. It's sick, actually. I heard him call it mama.

Anyway, normally I let him carry it around the room and he just clicks the buttons and looks at the TV. He doesn't like to WATCH Tv, he likes to play with the remote.

So tonight we kept handing it to him and Douglas noticed. HE TURNS IT AROUND THE RIGHT WAY EACH TIME. He even will grab it with his hand flipped if you let him so he doesn't have to turn it over with 2 hands. It's crazy!

HOW DOES HE KNOW THIS?!

Yes, there is a red light at the top. Sure. But if you point it at the TV or backwards, it works just fine. I tried. Before this video, I used it backwards each time. Nope. Didn't confuse him, he still flipped it.

It's a serious question. How does he know. And how is he SO hardwired to flip it around. Watch. I hand to him correct once, he doesn't even begin to flip it. Watch at 1 minute. He DOESN'T EVEN LOOK at it and he flips it.

How does he know?!

Is it because he's male?

Mama. Let's dance today.

2009-02-18T21:22:00.001-06:00

His mouth was hurting. His first molar is coming in. EEEEouch. What helps a sore mouth? Well, it's not in Toddler 411, but I think the real answer is simple: BILL WITHERS.

Dance around to some Bill and almost everything gets better. This was like dance 12 of the day. He is crying at the start because I set him down to turn the camera on. Stopped the second I picked him up. Strangely, I am worn out this evening.

What's so funny?

2009-02-10T14:57:00.001-06:00

Do you think he's gonna be an engineer or a theatre major? Does SMU offer discounts for legacies?

Can you LAUGH?

In honor of Adeline's 1 week birthday... Joaquin walks and Mami gets it on video!

2009-01-15T20:53:00.002-06:00

It's been about 2 weeks of a few steps here and there. I got a really hilarious video (to me) of me trying to coax him to walk. He didn't walk. He did every.single other trick he knows. For 2 mins. But no walking.

Today I finally finally finally got it. Although it's about 1/3 of the walking he did without the camera on. Of course it is. Douglas has yet to see this much in fact.

I do apologize for my extremely loud self. I really do. Please just use mute. It will save your ears.

Also, I am obviously looking straight into the sun, too. It's so toasty in the living room with all that light. But hard on the eyes.

HAPPY ONE WEEK ADELINE!

Oh and cats are better than dogs. That's for you Daisy, Fado, Carter and Radar. Here's why. We dare you to use your kid and prove us wrong.

Snow for Breakfast

2008-12-17T11:03:00.002-06:00

I am pretty sure no explanation is needed here. We have plenty of 'breakfast' in Chicago right now.

First time sitting on Santa's lap.

2008-12-15T16:47:00.007-06:00

Well, he won't remember it, but I sure will. Three hours in line at the Macy's on State Street (downtown) for Santa. Holy Moly. For a kid that tends to lose his cool rather quickly in the stroller anyplace where it looks like we may be shopping, this was a cakewalk. He stayed calm, he watched the other kids, he even took a 45 minute nap in the line. Woah!

And then when it was his moment to sit on Santa's lap, he didn't cry at all. He did try and de-glasses him, but that Santa is a smart cookie and avoided his grabs easily.

This is a photo of the photo we paid for. Not great quality, I should have just bought the DVD. But my brain was on Fuzz Mode after that line.

And this is a shot on my camera.

And this has nothing to do with Christmas. But it's all three cousins in their Halloween costumes!

And this is what babies like to do with their papis in our house. Dance a little tango in their pajamas. So sweet.

First Birthday Party Today!

2008-11-15T22:00:00.017-06:00

Today we got to have So Much Fun. And we got to experience kid overload and why only a really crazy, crazy person would work in a daycare or preschool. Joaquin's party was at Grandma Pal and Grandpa Tommy's nest. And it was a great, perfect way to start a lifetime of birthday parties.

Let's get this party started. Good Morning to Baby Birdie. It's 8:30am and he's ready to go.

This was the invitation. Oddly enough, we decided to keep running with a bird theme. Come on, it's probably the only party I get to pick the theme for, right!?

And then came the Favor Crew. That's mom, Lisa and Aunt Deb armed with needles and threads and little bits of felt. My contribution was keeping the scraps from the Halloween costume, cutting all the wings and beaks and ... uh ... that's it. Favor Crew did a great job with the finger puppets and the bird seed bags.

Birthday Cake! Baked and decorated by Grandma Pal. Using the flock of birds from the baby shower over a year ago.

Photo Banner of the monthly photos. This was a really easy project. Just print the photos out and tape to the left over invite paper and envelopes. It's already tucked away in his baby book, too.

Just a glimpse of the Kid Chaos.

Marshall stays cool as a cucumber. This party is cake!

Time for Birthday Cake. He was so stinking cute. The video is about a minute long and it's us singing to him while he tentatively poked at the icing. And then after eating like the baby bird he is from Papi and Mami.... he digs in. This stuff IS good.

This is what it looks like when Papi asks for a besito from a baby covered in cake and icing. Uh, yuck.

Hey, Mami! Let's get to work on playing with these bags and stuff, ok?

This rapt attention lasted for this single (first) gift. And then he got bored of it, and the bigger kids realized There Are Presents To Be Opened and Played With Here! Woo Hoo!!

Marshall and McKenna approve McKenna's gift! School buses hardly need to be unboxed to be fun!

Grandma Pal and Marshal and Lisa winding down at the end of the party. Joaquin is . . . fading.

Back home. After a nap in the car, a bath with his toys and in his pajamas. Ready for some milk and bed. Of course, once he was in bed he spent about 40 minutes talking to himself and singing and re-capping the whole day over and over.

What a great party!! Thank you to Mom and Dad and Lisa and Deb for all their help. We couldn't have done it without them.

Finally. Here are some of the professional photos from his One Year birthday shoot. We love them. As usual.

Have you ever seen a baby Brain Fart?

2008-11-07T12:00:00.003-06:00

I did. Last night. If we ask for Guppy, we usually get Guppy. Ask for Blink. Get Blink... often about 10 in a row. Siren, you get a Siren. Last night, I asked for Guppy and got a Blink-Siren. Hahaha! He literally brain farted on camera. And you can see the custom gate Douglas made. How lucky to be a baby with a papi that's handy and precise.

Also, on Sunday he started pointing. At everything. I know Sesame teaches us "don't point little girl, don't point" but he's so stinking cute pointing at the wall, the fan, the cat, the curtains, the chair. Everything. And so I spend my day naming things in English and Spanish (some things I have to look up).

Also, he knows Hair. If you ask him where his hair is, he will show you. He also will show you mami and papi's hair. With a nice strong yank. He's so smart.

9, 10, 11 months. Almost a year old!

2008-11-04T20:41:00.016-06:00

Well, I am behind again. What's new? So let's start with some photos.

9 Months Old.
My camera battery konked out taking this series. This is a "I am making a poop face!" photo.

10 Months Old.
Check out those curls. Other kids are working on motor skills or words. Nah. We are working on growing hair.

11 Months Old.
Almost impossible to keep him in this chair. I am glad we only have one more month of these dangerous photo shoots left.

Photos from our friend Elysia. She babysat him one evening for us. He's in love. I think he wants an Elysia for his birthday.

She didn't know this was Poop Face. Heheeheh.

He has yet to crawl. He scoots! Sitting upright. He uses his hand and foot to scoot along. And I have to admit, it's really cute. And what a saver on his knees, too! Here's a little video of him scoot-scooting around the floor. Oh, and fetching.

Here's a very long rather dull video of a boy and his cat. I am not sure who's better here. The boy or the cat. The cat sure is impressive, though.

Professional photos from his 9 Month Photo Shoot.

Dancing with his parents at SummerDance in August.

And finally, from just last week. He knows a pomegranate and a banana for sure.

HALLOWEEN. His first halloween. Mami and Papi are sure it's the best. Since we got to eat all his candy! Yes. He went as a scarlet macaw. He is El Guacamaya. The national bird of Honduras. Thank you so much to Grandma Pal for making this costume. She did the sewing and the hat. I cut the wings. Twice. See the video at the bottom of me having an attack of laughter. I tried it on him and the wings were way too huge. So I had to recut them.

Make sure you go over to Matt, Jodie and McKenna's blog for the photos of McKenna as a giraffe and a tiger.

Phew. That's a lot of updating. We are in full first birthday party planning mode, too. Looks like it will be a huge crowd. I promise to get photos up much sooner after the party, too!

I am so behind again... 8 months photos and more

2008-08-18T10:27:00.015-05:00

So a friend called me out publicly for the lack of timely updates. And she's right. Joaquin turned 9 months yesterday and I haven't even posted his 8 month pictures.

He also is a professional sitter now. He does konk over on occasion, but he can sit for long periods of time and play with his toys and he butt scooches to move around. Both his bottom teeth are in, they likely still have some distance to come up still, but they are there and much more obvious than when he broke them through at 7.5 months.

Let's try and catch up.

I am 8 months old today!

Hey, mami, can we let the cats come in. I see them out there!

I am pretty cute, huh?

At 8 months he developed a very, very flirty head tilt.

These are photos taken at Heather's birthday party by Auntie Monkey Ariel. They are from August 9th. It makes a difference to have someone that knows what they are doing take the photos, huh? :-)

And then I finally, finally started practicing with my camera. Finally. Yes. I know. So here's what I got in the past week.

Seven Months Old. Incredible. Time does fly!

2008-07-04T23:01:00.005-05:00

June 17, 2008 Seven months seven months seven months! It's not really a landmark age, but we sure do love it around here. It comes with lots and lots of traveling rolling, sitting up pretty well (although he needs a spotter because he launches himself over when he is ready to go!) and more spit bubbles and FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY the first tooth. It's here. Well, it's through. It's not all the way up. And yeah, it's crooked. Heh. Douglas and I will start setting aside orthodontic money now, I guess.

Here's my photoshoot of the day and a video with Samui... the most patient cat ever!

I r 7 monthz. I haz banana.

I am so big. How's this smile, mami?

Who invited you!? Why are you always here?!

Video with Samui.

An Assortment.

2008-07-04T22:39:00.003-05:00

Just a little assortment of odds and ends.

Aborted Nap. Someone would NOT nap. I watched him on the Video Monitor but it wasn't revealing the real reason he couldn't sleep. It was the disco. The disco was keeping him awake.

Seriously. I have no idea how he did this. May 29, 2008.

Caught on video. Signing "Kitty Kitty Gatito".
And I honestly think that he hasn't done it since then. Ha. Of course. June 3, 2008.

Busted. Licking the playmat. June 24, 2008

Working my leg muscles on the soother. June 24, 2008

June 14, 2008. My first ride in the park swing. Wicker Park, Chicago.

Professional Photos: Six Months Old

2008-07-04T22:23:00.004-05:00

So, our photographer friend Rachael came to see us for Six Months Photos. I think you will agree, we got some wonderful shots of our baby here. I love them so much. This was such a good investment. We will treasure these photos forever.

Check them out...

Mami, am I in here?

You drew the mustache on me, too!? Can I divorce my parents?!

Look at me. Sitting on the sofa!

Hey ladies. Wanna hang out on my playmat?

Woah. Flirt much?

Professional Baby.

Awwww.....

Mami, it's nap time. I am really sleepy and teary-eyed.

I eat more than milk now! Woot.

2008-07-04T22:03:00.007-05:00

May 28th. First Real Food Day.

Yeehaw. Having hit the six month mark and getting the go-ahead from our pediatrician, we started Real Food. Or Solids in the world of baby lingo. We started with a lovely concoction of Mommy Milk and Rice Cereal made super-duper thin and watery. A straw would have worked better than the spoon. But since he hadn't even tried a spoon before... it was worth starting slow.

We have quickly moved to baby oatmeal because rice cereal is, uh, binding. And apparently oatmeal is too. So we make it with prune juice now. I am making all his food. Which basically is about as simple as 1-2-3. Shop, steam or boil, puree, freeze in ice cube tray. Then just transfer to ziploc baggies and take the ones out I need for the next day the night before. Super duper easy and since buying organic can be a pretty penny it does help to be able to make my own. Do you know how many servings a single large sweet potato makes?! A LOT. We are still working on the same one.

So far at a month into eating real food with a spoon Joaquin has had applesauce, pearsauce, sweet potato, carrots, peas and acorn squash. He loves everything! So far he's only having a single meal of Real Food a day because it's mostly practice right now since he still is getting his nutrition from milk. But he's got it down pat.... He likes to play and does spit sometimes, but really he likes eating enough to just keep at it until All Done!

Here are some photos and a video of the very first bite of food he had. Enjoy! He did.

Video of First Real Foods.

Turning six months old in TEXAS!

2008-07-04T21:30:00.006-05:00

On May 15th, 2008, Joaquin took his first airplane trip. And it was to Texas to see his great grandparents, great aunts and uncles and go to a family reunion. On top of all of that he turned six months old and went to the beach for the first time the same day. Talk about packing a lot into 4 days!

First of all, I need to brag on my baby for a second. He was amazing!! What a happy little guy. Just put out a pallet of blankets on the floor, scatter some toys around and put a bunch of people in a circle around the room and he is happy as a lark, er, parrot, for a few hours. He was definitely working the Professional Baby all weekend. I was beyond impressed with him. Not only that, we had just given up the swing for naps the week before and he was able to sleep in his playpen that we bought for night and naps almost without a single fuss. He did refuse a few naps, but he was a pro enough to know if you Nap Strike you have to be a happy baby so no one tries to put you back in the baby jail to sleep again. He's clever. I think he gets this from his papi.

We spent some good time with Great Ma and Great Pa in Houston and Great Aunt Deb. Here are the photos from our Houston time.

Everyone together enjoying the air conditioning.

Four Generations.

On Saturday we traveled down south for the reunion, the beach and more great-relatives. Joaquin was a big fan of watching the seagulls at the beach. But you know, I still think he thinks they are flying Siamese Cats.

These are at the reunion at the Rockport Beach. We basically put our suits on for the photos and then changed back. But hey, they turned out great. He got baywater on his feet and even 2 months later I still sniff them and saw Ewwwww, those smell like shrimp!

Quality time in Aransas included sitting in the rocking chair with Great Grandma and chewing on his giraffe.

On the way back to Houston we stopped at Woodsboro to visit Ronald and Patsy, the new baby barn kittens and a good photo op in front of a great handpainted Texas fence. Perfect!!

Joaquin took a big nap right on Patsy's shoulder. Those are very, very rare from him. But he found a great snuggle partner and just took supreme advantage. Smart fellow.

And finally... since we weren't at home with the big guacamaya puppet, we had to use the little one and great grandma's chair. I think it worked.

SIX MONTHS OLD TODAY!

I am so behind. We owe everyone a LOT of posts. Let's start with Mother's Day!

2008-07-04T21:13:00.006-05:00

EEEE-Yikes! How has it been two months since I have posted to the blog!? What in the world have we been doing. Uh. Well, enjoying decent weather for one. Going outside without many many layers. Driving with the windows down. Putting on sunblock. Those kinds of things.

So let's start back in time a couple of months and I will try and get as up to date as I can. And yes. I am posting on the evening of July 4th ... hope hope hoping that the racket outside from the illegal fireworks won't wake Joaquin up. It sounds like Beirut around here.

Mother's Day. It may be my new favorite holiday. (It's definitely topping July 4th. Heh.) We had a great day as a family together. Starting with opening some very sweet presents that included a dogtag style "locket" that I wear with a photo of my baby boy. And of course he is obsessed with it and loves to yank on it and play with it. So we only wear it out and about. It's a great built-in toy. After I wear it one day he spends the next day looking for it. Let's talk about Object Permanence shall we? :-) Douglas also got me a very sweet book called I'll Love You Forever. How in the world I am expected to read that to Joaquin and not bawl each time is beyond me. He also got me an adult book, Barbara Walters' autobiography.

We went for brunch at Gioco. A restaurant we hadn't been to before but definitely will return to. It's nice to be able to make reservations for brunch because waiting on a table often eats up the "good" baby time in the infant carrier.

Here are photos from our day.

Game over! Let's GO!

We went to the Shedd Aquarium today. We like fish and watching kids!

2008-04-27T18:05:00.003-05:00

Oh, what a fun day. We went to the Aquarium today to check out the fish. What a fun time for us all. Joaquin really enjoyed watching the fish swim around, but he also really loved watching all the high-energy kids run around, too. He did so well in his big seat on the stroller, sitting straight up and looking around.

After the Aquarium he got pretty hungry, so Papi fed him a little bottle in the car. Guess what!? Joaquin feels big enough to hold his own bottle (mostly!) and even take it in and out of his mouth when ever he wants. I cannot believe how well he did with it since he probably hasn't even had 15 bottles in 5 months.... seriously!

Here are the photos and videos of our day. Not a lot of pictures of fish, I went with a camera with an almost dead battery. Nice planning, mami!

Are you taking photos again?

The elusive Mami and Baby photo. :-)

Kissing me. Again. Again. Again again....

More photos. It's hard to look cute All The Time.

A short video at the Aquarium. Typical staring at camera baby, too.

Holding my own bottle. That's right. I can do it myself. Once you take the lid off.

Look at what I can do...

I am 5 Months Old now!

2008-04-19T16:20:00.005-05:00

Holy smokes. This month flew by. It may have something to do with all the fun we are having or the fact that at least a few days a week we get better weather. On Thursday the 17th Joaquin turned 5 Months Old. Goodness! We celebrated by seeing a friend at lunchtime, recording an interview for a local radio station about tango, having a bath and drinking a lot of milk. Sounds like perfection for a baby, huh?

Here are our photos from mami's 5 Month photo shoot.

Yeah. I am 5 months old.

Hanging out with my guacamaya puppet and smirking.

A new position for the chair. And some drool.

Don't tell Papi we let Samui in the nursery and in the chair. ;-) It was a special occasion.

Here are two "out-takes" from our photo shoot.

We got a LOT of feet in the air shots. Someone loves to play with his toes.

And Samui was bored of this game and desperate to leave. Can you tell?

FINALLY..... We have rolling as of 4.5 Months. This is a really really long video but it's what happens when your baby decides to roll from front to back to avoid Tummy Time. Now it's very hard to get him to stay on his belly for too long.

And a few more photos from the past few weeks.

My newborn hat from Prentice doesn't fit, mami.

I would like to play in the Johnny Jump Up but my armpits are still too low. Stupid armpits.

Trying out the Big Boy Seat for the stroller before putting it on. We did go for our first walk in it on Friday. It's FUN!

Mmmm.. I can eat a Carrot. I can gag on a Carrot, too.

2008-04-01T12:51:00.002-05:00

Hahhaha. This is from last night. Don't watch if you are squeamish about drool and baby gags or mami's that snort and gasp from laughing/mocking their kid.

He loves his Organic Toys. We have a Banana that goes in the car, this Carrot and some Grapes. The Grapes are no where near as fun as these toys that gag.

It's long. Enjoy!

4 months old today!

2008-03-17T18:23:00.004-05:00

It's so good to be 4 months old. Joaquin spends his time blowing bubbles and screech-screaming. He will start on the bubbles within about 3 seconds of being awake for the day. It's great. He also loves to be held, snuggle-buggled with kisses on his neck and for Papi to tickle him. We are SO lucky that he is still sleeping through the night ... every night! He is addicted to all naps in the swing (or in the car!) and I have no idea how we are going to get him to nap in his crib... do they make adult sized swings? :-)

Because he has stretched his sleeping out a bit and we don't need 10-12 hours of sleep, we started letting him sleep in the crib in his nursery. No issues with that at all. I just get up when he wakes up and we start the bubbles over in his room and not in the co-sleeper like before. It's not quite as much fun to have him out of the room, but it's nice not to be watching TV on mute. Heh.

These are some photos from today. And then the most annoying video ever shot. But he won't do anything when he knows the camera is on and I at least wanted the audio of his laughter. I am SO sorry about my voice. It's torturous, I know. He seems to like it though.

I am getting Big. I am Serious Baby.

Mami, can I put this one in my mouth, please?

LOOK! The elusive other dimple that makes appearances only at really odd expressions!!

Warning. This video is long. And annoying. And loud.

A little assortment of photos and a video.

2008-03-06T18:06:00.005-06:00

So... we have a thumbsucker. He is still sorting out how to keep his little baby fingers from jabbing him in the eye, but he knows that he likes to suck his thumb. Specifically his left thumb. He reaches for toys most often with his right hand.

This photo was taken after breakfast in the bed with me. He was dozing and thumbsucking.

The dreaded Tummy Time. He still detests it. But if I use this towel he will stay there for a whopping 4 minutes. It's too bad he screams bloody murder when I remove it, though. He really isn't bearing weight on his arms like he ought to be doing. Still. He looks pretty proud of himself there, doesn't he?

And this is a little video of Nursey Mouth. He recently started doing this pretty actively. I like to think it means he is hungry, but I caught him doing it 2o minutes after he ate today. So..... I hope it doesn't mean I Have Teeth Coming or something. Yikes. Maybe it's the progression after the bubbles he has been blowing for the past 2 weeks. Whatever. It's really cute, I think. Little Nursey Mouth.

Adventures in my crib. Or "Help! I crashed!!"

2008-02-24T13:48:00.003-06:00

It's almost too hard to type this out. Because I am laughing so hard I am crying and can hardly see. Poor baby. I am laughing AT him.

Ok. So Friday night we decided to try Joaquin in his crib. He has slept there just a couple of times and he is a swirm worm. So he needs the positioner so he doesn't put his face up against the edges. And last time we put it too 'high' up in the bed and he scooched all the way down the bed at night. So Friday night we decided to start him low so he has less room to scooch. Right. Hahahah.

That's this. (He was actually asleep when I took these photos...)

Then Saturday night not only did he scooch and crash up the end of his crib, but he also got OUT OF THE SWADDLE again. Look at that face! He busted out both arms starting at 3am. I watched him on the monitor. He would grunt and struggle and get a bit out and then fall asleep. Then thirty minutes later he started up again. Grunt, struggle, one arm free! What a character.

Check out how he crashed in his crib by 7:30am today. I am dying over there. What a nutball!

This one is a little blurry, but look how high he kicked his swaddled legs up on the crib wall!

Three Months Old!

2008-02-18T15:23:00.002-06:00

Wow. Yesterday Joaquin turned three months old. We celebrated by singing to him on the changing table, and feeding him lots of milk. Which means we didn't do ANYTHING different than any other day.

Although I did take some photos. Enjoy!

Oh, and he is balding now. His hair is falling out by the finger-fulls. Poor kid. I wonder what it will be when it comes back.

Two Videos....

2008-02-01T18:09:00.000-06:00

The first is from Wednesday. After a bath. Mom snorts at me to get me to react. And a bit of chatter screeching at the end. Be patient, it's about a minute and a half.

The second is from today. Someone loves his giraffe. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. Lick. This is one licky baby. I do believe Samui is doing some odd training of the kid when I am not around. Also about a minute and a half....

Baby discoveries are.... odd!

2008-01-28T10:57:00.001-06:00

Most babies find their hands. It's one of the first fascinating things they find. Not our baby. Our baby found his sleeves! He has been looking at his sleeves since last night when I put him in this onesie. He is up on the changing table and watching his sleeves. What a nutty baby.

Given who his father is, I have to wonder if he is upset that I didn't iron his outfit for him first. ;-)

Hey, Marshall. Wanna hang out in my crib?

2008-01-26T18:41:00.000-06:00

The boys had a nice afternoon together. Hanging out, sucking or licking on their hands (Marshall sucks, Joaquin licks), watching the mobile, shooting off some farts and then trading off who got to eat in the glider or get changed on the changing table.

Here are some photos from our Baby Get Together. Marshall is two weeks big and Joaquin is ten weeks enormous.

Marshall, how many photos do you think they are going to take?

Yeah. Let's put our hands in our mouths. Good idea!

I dare you to sneeze and fart at the same time.

I have a big head. I know!

How big is Marshall? SO BIG!

Look at that big boy.... And those eyes.

Be very still. There is a rattlesnake in my bed.

2008-01-22T20:01:00.000-06:00

Hehehe.

Great Aunt Carol brought us a rattlesnake stuffed animal. It looks a little more like a python in the head. But it's very sweet and Joaquin already loves to follow it with his eyes. Here he is pretending he is NOT a rabbit at Grandma and Grandpa's house this afternoon.

I am not a rabbit. Please do not eat me!

I can pose with Mami....

2008-01-22T19:47:00.000-06:00

On Monday we hung out with our friend Jen so we could catch up, play with the puppy Missy and Jen could take a few photos for a class project. Needless to say, Jen got the stinky side of the baby since we did a full diaper blow-out that required Joaquin to be bathed in her kitchen sink. I bet we don't get invited back until he is about 20. :-)

Here are a few of her photos. Aren't they cute!?

Mami and Babe...

Not sure who is weirder!

Photoshoots bore me.

Hmmmmmmmm.

Oh for Pete's Sake.

This is dull. I may just fall asleep.

Fine. I am asleep.

And he stayed this way for almost 3.5 hours, too! Jen is a miracle-worker with the napping! Thank you!

I am not a fruit!

2008-01-20T16:27:00.000-06:00

It's about 5 degrees today. So what in the world are you supposed to do on days that are this freezing?!? Pretend like your baby is a fruit. Put him over the fruit bowl.

If you are the baby... you are SO bored of this game.

A Randomizer: In Photos.

2008-01-18T15:06:00.001-06:00

Random photos I have taken and not posted. Let's call this the Photo Randomizer!

Joaquin has a friend and her name is Allie. She gave him a hug last Friday.

And then she smiled for us, too!

Someone is sleeping on Mami's side of the bed!

And someone is hogging the remote...

We call this the Monkey Branch. Joaquin is a Monkey on Papi's Branch. And he will suck and suck and suck on his knuckle in this position. He loves it!!

Monkey Branch on the Cat Post!

Professional Nappers

Lisa and David's Kiddo is here ...

2008-01-18T14:49:00.000-06:00

So, yes. I am a week late posting about Joaquin's cousin's arrival. He was born last Saturday 8 weeks almost to the minute after Joaquin. Lisa and David have a big ol' baby boy on their hands. Like 9 lbs. 9 ozs. big. Ack!

Check out these snaps from his arrival last Saturday! Lisa looks incredible. She looks really YOUNG, too! Wow. Motherhood suits her already.

The Happy Family!

Two Months Old!

2008-01-18T14:34:00.000-06:00

It's been two months.... yesterday!

Where in the world has the time gone? We have a two month old Big Boy on our hands now. Of course, I never took nice photos for his One Month birthday, so there is nothing to compare to... perhaps I won't screw this up for Three Months and we can have a nice little series of his first year.

We went to "work" yesterday so I could visit our friends at my previous agency. I freelanced there for the last 2 months of my pregnancy so they were kind enough to deal with Big Erica, so it was time to meet Big Joaquin. He did so well! For the first time out of the car he tolerated his car seat for a while on the stroller. And then I carried him around a bit, too. He ended up totally konking out after I fed him a bit. It was so nice to see everyone!

Hi! I am Two Months old now! I am almost as big as my Guacamaya puppet!

Mom! You need to figure out the settings on the camera fast. We look so yellow!

Ugh. Tummy Time. The most hated thing in his babyworld. He detests this but I got a full minute out of him yesterday. Which is well below what we should be doing but when it brings on screaming that causes choking, it's easy for me to "forget" to do it, you know? This worked pretty well. When I didn't have the camera in my hand the animals were singing and dancing for him.

Missing Milo.

2008-01-09T17:09:00.000-06:00

It was a sad week last week. Our good kitty Milo passed away of a surprise heart condition. He had an emergency on Saturday and was rushed to the vet's where his heart condition was diagnosed. We tried drugs for a few days when he came home, but on Thursday the 3rd he passed a clot that paralyzed his back legs requiring us to put him and down and end his suffering.

I am so sad to lose such a great cat and companion. He really did know me and love me as much as a furry cat face can and no other kitty can replace the Milo personality.

Samui is mourning his loss, too. He went and spent a few days with Mom and Dad's kitties, but now that he is back home he is back to howling and searching. I don't know if it's Milo exactly he misses or simply the companionship and warm fur body in his cat bed. (Well, dog bed. Please don't tell him!)

This photo is the last we took of Milo. The silly guy jumped up on the counter on Wednesday night. Totally against the law (I know he did it anyway!), but he stayed when I came in the kitchen and pretty much asked not to be fussed at. So we let him stay and Douglas and I pet him for a while. I took a few photos of him having no idea it would be our last ones.

Milo was such a great guy. Douglas named him for me and for seven and a half years he was a wonderful friend. I am very sad that Joaquin won't grow up with this kitty. It's funny, I call Joaquin "Milo" each time he pees in a fresh diaper, since Milo loved to stalk the litter box when it was being cleaned and be the first guy in to take an immediate pee in the fresh litter. So, a little bit of Milo lives on, I guess. Heh.

I miss Milo. I hope he is enjoying The Scratching Post in the Sky. :-)

Joaquin gets to eat with his Papi

2008-01-09T16:59:00.000-06:00

I am so behind! We have a lot of really cute photos to share, but I haven't gotten to posting them yet. It's been... well, busy. Things are going well, but I don't seem to have much time on the computer during the day. I check email and often reply from my Treo. God Bless The Smartphone! But I need to be on the laptop to edit photos and update the blog. So... we are really behind.

I need to pull all the Christmas photos off the good camera and post them. Perhaps one evening I can work on that while Douglas and Joaquin hang out and watch The History Channel. :-)

In the meantime, Joaquin got his second bottle this week. And this time, his papi got to feed him. We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's to see David's family in town for a visit and I brought some milk along with me. I still had to feed him the "old-fashioned" way later, but it was nice for a start to have a bottle with his daddy.

The first photo has lots of tears, because when he is hungry, he means it! He is hungry. And that brings on big cries and big tears. Joaquin was seven weeks old exactly in these photos.

By the second photo he wasn't as panicked since there was some milk in the belly!

And this is what happens when you put 3 ounces of milk in Joaquin's belly. Sleep! Pretty chunky looking baby in this photo, huh? I am anxious to see how much he weighs now. He was 10 pounds 2 ounces on December 20th. He feels SO heavy!

Gallery is up of Newborn Professional Portraits!

2007-12-27T10:11:00.000-06:00

I am really really behind. So sorry. We have lots of photos to share, but I have to have the time to get them off the camera and posted.

In the meantime, the gallery of proofs for our Newborn Professional Photographs is up. Click here to see all 90 images! We love them even if poor Joaquin looks pretty worried and concerned in most of them.

He was 3 weeks old when they were taken and is almost 6 weeks old now. What a lot of growing he has done!

Professional Newborn Photographs... We have "teasers"

2007-12-12T21:11:00.001-06:00

On Saturday, Joaquin's third week birthday :-), we had professional photographs taken by the company that did our Maternity Photos. The full gallery won't be available for a while, but we did receive four teaser photos today we can share.

It was a hard photo shoot. Our little model was pretty fussy the entire time and confused that I kept half-way nursing him just to calm him down. Just a little tip: That doesn't work. Ha!!

We look forward to sharing the rest of the gallery in a few weeks, too.

Look at my Pooping Face

2007-12-11T12:13:00.000-06:00

Hahaha. This is the best!

This is how we know that someone is either doing a pee or starting to work on a poop. He gets very serious and purses those lips into a really cute little kissy face. But don't get close, he is about to let a stinky fly.

And this time with more Thoughtful Forehead.

Night time rituals. Sleeping on Papi. So cute. Both of them.

Two Weeks Old

2007-12-02T17:02:00.001-06:00

A few more photos from his Two Week Birthday...

First of all, we went to the pediatrician on Saturday - his 2 week birthday - and found out that he is, indeed, perfect. Really. You don't have to tell us that. In fact, not only is he perfect, he is eating like a professional. He lost 4 oz from birth to his 4 day appointment and now at his 2 week appointment he was a full pound above his birth weight. So our baby bird is weighing in at 8 lbs and 8 oz right now. That means in a week and a half he gained a pound and four ounces. Egads. Yes, he loves to eat. I knew that. This was really nice proof of it. And it helps mentally with the stamina needed to be the sole provider of baby food, too.

Everything else at the appointment was great, too. He is measuring 21.5 inches, making us think that he was very mis-measured at birth. Surely he didn't gain 2.5 inches in a week. Douglas is convinced his knees were bent at the hospital measurement. This makes it sound like he was right.

Jan and Beth came to visit us on Friday. We totally forgot to take a photo with Beth.

And these are photos from the Two Weeks Birthday. The fleece outfit is from Ana and just the most snuggly thing ever. Clearly. Look how he hangs on on the sofa with his mom... dead cold asleep, too.

Two Weeks Old. One Pound Heavier!

Check out my favorite sleeping position when I don't have to be all swaddled down.

Mami, do it with me!

As for Mami and Papi....

Mami cannot sit for long periods of time (i.e. nursing) without a serious pain in the behind. I have either a broken or severely bruised tailbone. And there is no cure but time and patience. My poor inflatable donut broke, too. So I sit on one Boppy Pillow and nurse with the second one. Thank goodness Lisa is loaning me hers for a bit.

Papi is super-duper busy at work (yeah!!) and he is the professional of the First Shift of the Night. Lots of snuggles and rocking and then hanging out in the nursery while Joaquin sleeps so I can get some real rest in the bedroom. Thank goodness for wireless internet, eh? It's not easy to sleep with Joaquin in the bedroom in his co-sleeper because he makes lots of chirpy, squeaky noises and wakes me up over and over. Sleeping with him out of the room makes for restful sleep - even if it's only in 2-3 hour chunks!

The best thing of the past two weeks - besides watching our son start on a healthy growth path - has been the blessing of family. Mom and Lisa have been absolute angels and have traded off staying here with us. It allows me to feel sane and not totally alone (even though I have only left the house twice in two weeks for the pediatrician appointments) and to get some real rest at night. Not only that, I may be eating better than I have consistently in years. Hmmm... maybe I should go and put some cookies in right now for Mom and Dad when they get here. My fridge has homemade cookie dough just waiting to be sliced and baked right now... mmmmmmmm!

First bath, Mom's Birthday and Looking Good in Stripes!

2007-11-27T18:38:00.000-06:00

Running a little behind on getting photos up to the site. Hopefully when the new computer is here we can do this easier in the little nap breaks.

We took these photos during Joaquin's first bath. He was one week and two days old.

He did really well and unfortunately it's the photos and video that upset him. He was really very patient and a good baby up until I pressed my luck and started taking photos.

I was fine until you took a picture!

Click on the play button to see video of an upset baby bird.

After the bath. Still. Happy. Warm.
Dressed in his favorite outfit: Male Nurse!

Click on the play button to see how happy he was after the bath!

These photos are from a day earlier, too.
Joaquin was 1 week 1 day old.

From Friday, November 23rd. Mami turns 35!
And has to carry her baby to eat cake and open presents. Ha!

One week old birthday.

2007-11-25T17:07:00.000-06:00

Hanging out in the Ergo Baby Carrier. So happy!

We had a friend come over on Saturday to help fix my broken laptop and she brought her camera along. She was able to get a few nice photos of Joaquín that I wanted to share. In fact, this is the first day we dressed him up in an outfit other than a white side-snap shirt and white sweat pants. He was looking like a male nurse the first week of his life. Heheh.

So our baby turned a week old and also lost his umbilical cord, too. What a big day for him! Awww... he's all grown up. ;-)

We are doing really well so far. The help of mom and Lisa has been tremendous and we have been spending lots of nights and days together.

Joaquín is continuing to be a champion nursing baby. He loves to eat and we ask him to Open Wide, Baby Bird! and he is really good at cooperating. He has decided he is a fan of his swing and his infant seat. We also have a swing that the infant seat snaps into making it very mobile around the house, too.

He also loves the Ergo Baby Carrier and is strapped onto my chest at least once a day to wander around and let me have the use of both arms. He even worked for three hours with Douglas one night. We really don't want him to become an engineer, but he seemed to enjoy the design work a lot.

In my Co-Sleeper in Mami and Papi's room. I love to be swaddled and no one swaddles as well as Papi does!

Look at me in Puppy Wear!

Mami and Joaquín

Catching up on photo posting!!

2007-11-22T13:57:00.000-06:00

My laptop is still on the fritz, but I was able to pull a few of the best photos from the last few days and post them to share with everyone.

Our little Baby Bird is so adorable and we are having fun figuring him out.

Right now his days and nights are mixed up and so nights are quite hard. Luckily Grandma is here and knows how to help out at all the right moments. Including laundry and feeding me moments.

Enjoy these photos of our Baby Joaquin.

At the hospital. 2 days old. Our Anniversary!

Going Home! Wearing his Thanksgiving outfit from Grandpa and with his handmade blanket from Stephani, Stacey's mom. 2 days old.

Hanging out with Mami and getting burped. 3 days old.

Papi is attacking my feet!! 3 days old.

This is how we spend most of our days. On the bed after eating. Look who came to visit... the cats! Strangely Milo seems to know how to use a Boppy by instinct!

I love to smile when I pass gas! Look at my dimple!

I love my Grandparents!

2007-11-19T10:01:00.000-06:00

Look who stopped by yesterday to take care of our little baby bird.

We are going home today after our last round of visits and perhaps even a shower. I am nervous about that part, actually.

So far, so good. We love getting to know our beautiful boy and are looking forward to starting our life at home with him.

Oh... and Happy Anniversary to us. It's our 2nd Wedding Anniversary today! What a special present to take our baby home on our anniversary. That beats any gift!

I hope to resolve some really awful computer issues soon, too. Right now it's very hard for me to get online because my laptop is falling apart.

Our son is here....

2007-11-17T18:29:00.000-06:00

We are so happy and blessed to introduce

Joaquín Alonso Sutton Rivera

Born today, November 17, 2007
12:37 p.m.
7 lbs. 8 ozs.
19" inches

Much more to tell about the labor and delivery but the happy news is that he is here and he is so healthy and so adorable and we love him so much.

Hard to tell from these photos but he has dark black hair! And his Papi's nose!

Four hours old.

Look who has a dimple!

Today is our baby's Due Date!

2007-11-15T20:51:00.000-06:00

Wow. It's almost 9pm on our due date. And neither of us are surprised we are just twiddling our thumbs waiting. Well, that's not totally true. Douglas went to work and is teaching a private lesson right now and I finally started feeling something that seems like it could be significant and a sign of things to come.

In fact, I invented a new word today. Cramptractions. I started having cramps last night in the middle of the night - enough to wake me up and make me restless. They continued during the day and I started to realize they do come and go and sometimes when they go they are totally gone. Like I understand a contraction does. So. Well. I have been having about 18 hours of Cramptractions thus far.

Yeah! Hehehe.

Enough that I went out for Starbucks and to get a manicure and ran out of steam and got a bit worried about the cramps. I wanted to be back at home. It seemed that driving around may not be a great idea.

For all I know, it could be gas. I bet I just have gas.

I took another belly photo in honor of 40 weeks and hitting our due date. I do appear to be falling over backwards, huh?

You can see the whole run of them from the pregnancy here.

My Ultimate LOLcat.

2007-11-14T16:25:00.000-06:00

Not baby related all - unless you want to count that he is fervently kicking me while I type this - but it's clear my Ultimate LOLcat has been found.

Enjoy...

And for those new to the LOLcat world. Here are some previous Invisible ones to give you an idea of what came before.

5 things I didn't expect ...

2007-11-11T21:49:00.000-06:00

Not things I expected at all when I was pregnant. Strange truths from behind the empire-waisted, tie-backed maternity shirts.

The Waddle. You can resist it all you want. One day. You get the waddle. I refused to admit I would waddle. I fought the waddle. I even practiced my tango walk once or twice for Douglas to show him I wasn't going waddle. But it was all for naught. I waddle now. I have to move side to side in order to make forward motion. And I really don't know why. It's funny looking, it's a cliche, it's inevitable. I give up. Hopefully my tango walk will return. Some day.
I like Babies 'R Us. It's better than Target. It's like Target on Steroids. It's the perfect place to waste time, to shop around and to realize you need everything and nothing that is within these doors. I even know where stuff is in the BRU. Yeah, it goes by BRU around our house now.
Maternity Pants Are Just As Horrible As Regular Pants. For girls with short legs, that is. Do people really exist that can buy pants off the rack without shortening 3 inches from them? Thank goodness I spent the entire portion of my pregnancy that needed maternity pants in cropped pants. Or floods based on how they looked on me. Now that it's November and I am honest-to-God living in one pair of ancient, non-maternity yoga type pants. I wash them every other day. They are the only pair of long pants that fit me. They were black 3 weeks ago. Now they are a nice shade of kinda-black....and really stretched out. Heh.
Maternity Pants Are Better Than Sliced Bread. Assuming I can find something in the right length, the fact that you don't have to waste a mili-second of time unbuttoning or unzipping is perhaps the most under-estimated bliss ever. I don't know how I will be able to return to the Land of Needing Two Hands to Pull Down My Pants. It's so comfy here is Stretch Waistband World.
The Belly is Hard. The Belly Doesn't Bend. Why didn't I know this? Why did I think getting out of bed would be just as easy as before?? It's like being a turtle trapped on your back. Help me. Please! I have to catch a heel on the side of the bed and hoist myself up. At my massage on Saturday I almost fell off the table. She got me about halfway up to sitting and let me go... I started to tip to the right. NOT GOOD. I cannot stop myself, I cannot bend. Luckily she caught me before I went overboard. It would have been a big mess of me. Naked. On the floor. Ack.

The Nursery is complete. It's a Nest. Or a Sanctuary.

2007-11-10T20:40:00.000-06:00

Late one sleepless night - before we knew if it was a baby boy or a baby girl - I had an ah-ha! moment about the nursery. When we were in Honduras the summer of 2006 we bought a few souvenirs and hadn't found homes for them yet. Two tree bark works of art from the Mosquito Coast that I had taken to be professionally framed - and then put in a closet - and two wooden carvings of birds - a Macaw and a Toucan.

All of the items came from Macaw Mountain Bird Park in Copán Ruinas. A place that we are looking forward to taking our baby to visit when he is old enough to enjoy the birds himself.

So slowly, The Office transformed to The Nursery. And the theme is parrots and tropical birds. The amount of sweet, thoughtful items we have been given to put in the room is so touching. It really feels like we have made a nest or a sanctuary for our little baby. And now, because of all the parrot talk, we have started to call him El Guacamaya. It's a joke - mostly. It's not the manliest of nicknames. But it's fun to use your Michael Buffer boxing announcer voice and set the stage for Baby Boy "El Guacamaya" Rivera.

Don't forget to click on the photos to see them larger.

This is a detail of the quilt above the crib. It was the first nursery item I bought once we decided to do the parrot theme. This was from eBay.

Someone in our family has clothes in three closets. He had to squeeze down to the lower bar so the baby outfits could have some room. It's still the office filing system, too.

These photos were taken at Macaw Mountain. Except for the bottom one... those are cookies from one of the baby showers.

Here you can see one of the tree bark artworks. The other is above the light switch as you come into the room. The pillows in the chair were made by mom (grandma!) and the macaw puppet is a special gift from one of our very close tango friends. We were blown away by how sweet he is! Michelle outdid herself with this gift.

Maternity Photo Shoot. Such wonderful keepsakes!

2007-11-10T19:59:00.001-06:00

After seeing stunning photos from Rachael at Metropolitian Images we decided we needed to get on the ball and do these, too. After all, we had some great snapshots from the pregnancy, but nothing was going to be as timeless as the work of a pro.

Rachael came over on a Friday afternoon and we spent a few short hours getting over 100 excellent shots. Narrowing these down is going to be almost impossible. But let's give it a shot!

I am 35 weeks 6 days pregnant in these.

Now the next series are my favorites. But they need a little explanation...

Douglas used my lip liner one night to draw on The Belly. Because when I breathed in and out I could make the belly button move like a little mouth. So he drew the mustache and we made The Belly sing. We were cracking ourselves up for a long time that night!

For the photoshoot, I wanted to do the same thing. But take it just a little further. I love these shots! They are really goofy and really us.

Baby Showers. So much love.

2007-11-10T18:34:00.000-06:00

We were so blessed to have two baby showers for this kiddo. And on the same weekend, too! The first was a friend-only shower and the second was tango friends and family. Both were so unique and so special to Douglas and me.

We didn't have a wedding shower and so this was new and I was just completely overwhelmed by the love shown to us and our baby on the way.

Here are some photos to show how cute everything was.

Friend Shower.
September 22. 32 weeks. 2 days.
The fantastic hostesses Stacey, Denise and Stacey.

Family and Tango Friend Shower.
September 23. 32 weeks. 3 days.
The wonderful hostesses Lisa, Jodie, Jan and Beth.

Check out these handmade Toucan cookies! Mom and Lisa made these...

Belly to Belly. Only 7 weeks apart!

The neatest Belly Trick ever!

2007-11-10T18:19:00.001-06:00

What a great thing happenstance is. I have a friend with a twin. And the twin likes to Mehndi things. You know, paint on skin with the henna plant to create a temporary tattoo. So the twins have a Mehndi Party one evening - complete with all sorts of wonderful Indian snacks - and I decide to Mehndi The Belly.

It seemed like it would be fun. I had no idea how great it was going to be afterwards. I really recommend that all Baby Bellies get Mehndi-ized. At least once. It's so so neat and it will surprise your midwife at your next appointment too. Hehehe.

These photos were taken by my friend Ariel. She knows her way around both The Belly and a camera!

Starting out...

Halfway finished...

Completed! Waiting on it to dry...

My Henna-ed Belly. I loved it SO much.

Dancing with The Belly

2007-11-10T17:49:00.000-06:00

One of the most fun parts of this new Adventure in Pregnancy has been continuing to go out dancing together. In fact, the first baby movement I felt was after SummerDance one evening when we had been dancing salsa to live music. We went for Mexican food and the baby continued to dance and thud away inside me.

Adorable. Exciting. So frustrating that I could feel it but Douglas could not.

Following are some photos of our time out dancing with The Belly.

July 2007. 21 weeks. 3 days.
We were hired to dance at a wedding in Wisconsin. I was the DJ for this event and Douglas danced with our friend Holly for the show.

August 2007. 26 weeks. 4 days.
We were hired to dance for Terrazas wine company at The Park Grille in Millennium Park.

At this event we had a number of couples and I was able to sneak in a performance, too. It was so fun to still be able to dance in a show. We took these two photos afterwards at Cloudgate (aka The Bean). It's really hard to see The Belly here.... but trust me, it's there!

September 2007. 31 weeks. 4 days.
We were hired to dance for Quaker Oats to kick off their Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.

This time I danced a handful of times in the hour-long show, including the full 6 minute finale to Gotan Project. Sure, I was a hot sweaty mess afterwards, but it was really wonderful to be able to say at almost 2 months until delivery, I was still performing at (almost!) full-speed.

Sure, I no longer can fit into my tango shoes. Sure, I am panting like a mad dog at the end of the dance. But we did it. It's so neat to have these photos of Mami and Papi dancing to share with our son as he grows up.

If you were a Giant Belly...

2007-11-10T16:05:00.000-06:00

I am really glad that I took these. It's been fun to see the changes happen and be amazed at how much the body can grow. It's funny that at the start it seems absolutely impossible to have a Giant Belly. I mean, I guess I knew intellectually I would get one, but you cannot imagine it's really possible.

And yet it is. And I have really loved it. Giant Bellies are great!

12 weeks. 4 days.

15 weeks. 1 day.

18 weeks. 3 days.

22 weeks. 5 days.

28 weeks. 5 days.

34 weeks. 3 days.

38 weeks. 3 days.

40 weeks.

Starting at the ending... almost

2007-11-10T15:37:00.000-06:00

Oh boy. Talk about starting at the finish line. I am 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. And finally starting a blog.

This must be taking procrastination to a whole new level. But it's time to get ready to share photos of our baby as soon as he makes his appearance and have a place to update his discovery of the world.

Bear with me as I learn to blog. Wow. Blog. Oh my goodness.

Telling Erica's Family.

So, to start. Here is our announcement to the family. It was April 8, 2007 and I was officially 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant. We had seen the heartbeat already and had ultrasound photographs to share, too.

We rigged a Boogle Game and I threw down a challenge to mom. Winner take all. She was hesitant to play with such stakes. Turns out, I had to fake playing for a full three minutes because she wasn't seeing our full sentence message on the board.

Start at the bottom left and go up, down, up, down.
We are pregnant now.

One of my favorite photos ever. The moment I read the message outloud.

Look! We super glued the pieces in. This game is stuck this way forever now.

And a bunch of my rings in the bottom to make the game sound like it was shaking up!

Finding Out The "Flavor"

A whooping a 12 weeks later we went in for our 20 week "big" ultrasound to find out how the baby was growing and what "flavor" of kid we had on our hands.

Given my adoration for most all things stupid, naturally I am a fan of the LOLcats or cat macros. So I had to announce the news to our friends via cat macro.

Milo got to be the one to break the gender!

And yes. For the record, I did make a girl announcement and a we-cannot-tell announcement, too.