Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday...how about Textless Thursday?!

Wordless (almost) Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

(Antonio's new girlfriend!)

Wordless Wednesday!

A morning with Mom/Grammy!

Last Sunday Albert worked so he could then have this coming Friday off for a 3-day weekend! YAY! So Saturday night my Mom came over and spent the night, since she was already on this side of the water visiting her sister, my Aunt. As most of you know, Albert works the early shift, up and out the door at 4:30 am, so it was perfect for my Mom to keep Antonio and I company! We had french toast and vanilla lattes for breakfast! It was great! Even Antonio tried the french toast and liked it! It was great having my Mom there to hang out with us. We watched a few cartoons, played and tried on his costume so Grammy could see him in it! Antonio had some good Grammy time too! They played a lot, read books and even had some good snuggle time; everyone was happy!

My Mom helped me blanch some green beans to freeze and she had bought some organic carrots to cook, all for Antonio! It made it so much easier having two of us here so one of us was always entertaining Antonio! He LOVED all the attention! He didn't even nap until 1:30 when Grammy put him down! Spending time with her was something I had needed and wanted to do for so long; having time just my Mom, Antonio and I to spend time together! I was "soul comforting"! It's funny how much more you appreciate (and need) your Mom once you become one yourself! I was bummed to see her go but I knew Albert would be home soon and that she wanted to get home before the Sunday ferry rush! It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday morning/afternoon! Hopefully we'll do it again soon!

wordless Wednesday!

15 months!

As promised here is a long time coming up date on Antonio! He recently went in for his 15 month Well Child visit. As expected he is growing! His current stats are:

Height: 31.5 (63.88%)
Weight: 27lbs 12oz (87.38%!!)
Head: 48 cm/18.9" (74.28%)

He clearly is still a good eater! In fact he will eat anything you put in front of him except apples; weird I know. He loves both applesauce and apple juice but if you put a piece of apple in front of him he won't touch it, in fact if you try to feed it to him he turns his head! Very weird considering he's liked portabello mushrooms, asparagus, fish and everything else! Maybe it's a texture thing, who knows. As far as height, it has slowed a bit, his height/weight used to stay pretty much the same percentile until a few months ago. The doctor doesn't have any concern for it though.

However, the doctor is a bit concerned he isn't talking yet. He hasn't said any words/word yet. Neither Albert or I are much talkers so maybe we just need to talk more. She, the dr., gave us a phone number of a "birth to 3 Early Intervention" program that is federal/state run to have them come out and evaluate Antonio. : ( He seems to understand some things, like "light", "no" his name, lets go and a couple other things but if you ask him to bring you a book or something he doesn't seem to understand. I figure it doesn't hurt to call them, especially if its a "free" program! We'll see. As some of you have seen, he is a very smart boy so it's not that he is "lacking" per say but just not talking. Regardless, I will keep you posted on if we decide to try it out.

Antonio walks EVERYWHERE! In fact he is starting to run or walk very fast. He is starting to want to walk instead of being carried now too. I am not sure if that's a good or bad thing yet! :/
He has recently decided to NOT sleep through the night anymore. :/ We had a great stretch of about 2 months, then he got sick; fever, throwing up and nasty cold and hasn't done very good at sleeping through ever since. He's also cut 4 teeth in the past month or so. I'm just ready for an uninterrupted night of sleep! We are still doing swim lessons but this month, October, will be our last month until after Christmas and then we will have to see how the weather is.

He is turning into such a Papa's boy! He absolutely loves his Papa! They play all the time; chasing, tickling, "getting" each other, it is so, so cute. Antonio loves it if you follow him around with a blanket behind him, a big blanket, and then he will turn around, fall on it and want you to pull him around on it. So cute yet so weird! There is so much love between them and there's always giggling between the both of them!

A bit overwhelmed

Again, it has been awhile since I have posted. Ever since I went back to work my "to do" list has grown longer. Then the middle of last month my 1 co-worker left on a medical leave and has been out ever since so I have been working full weeks. Meanwhile, between busy weekends, swim lessions and life, the blog has taken a back seat. It is one of the many things I have been meaning to do but just haven't found the time to do it; especially since Antonio LOVES the computer. Since we Skyped with my parents while they were gone and continue to "try" to Skype with Albert's mom he always wants to see who is on the screen and "bang" on the keyboard. Not a good thing, as you may know, Apple computers don't come cheap! :/

It looks as if I may be catching a bit of a break. Starting next week I will start having Friday's off....for now. It will give me a chance to catch up on some cleaning/laundry and grocery shopping that I haven't been doing on the weekends and then have the weekend free! My co-worker is not back yet (he could use some prayers, he is diabetic and had to have his big toe amputated beacuse of an ugly infection) but my boss was able to work it so I could have a day off a week! I am/was feeling like I got up, went to work, got home, made dinner, spent maybe an hour with Antonio, got him ready for bed, showered, cleaned the kicthen, tried to watch a Tivo'd show, go to bed, REPEAT. TO top it off Antonio has decided he doesn't like sleeping through the night anymore so I am so tired on top of it. It isn't/wasn't fun! So now I will be able to spend more time with Antonio, which is HUGE and do those things!! I'm so excited! I really don't know how the rest of all the working mom's do it; I really don't.

So with all that being said, I will try to follow this blog up with an Antonio update. After all, this blog is about him!!!

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

(watching Grandpa BBQ)

It's been way to long.....

Sorry all; I been terrible at keeping up with this blog lately. Things have been hectic! Well as you all know Antonio turned the big ONE a month and a half ago, July, 11th. We delayed his party until my parents got home the first of August! However that gave us the opportunity to have a bunch of little partied for him. On the actual day of his birthday we woke up and I made blueberry pancakes for him. Antonio LOVES blueberries; I'm surprised he hasn't turned blue! We went to Toy's R Us with him and got a couple toys for him; of course a toy computer was one of them from Papa! I made cupcakes for his "cake" however he was very unimpressed!

The following weekend his Aunt Nelly and cousin Angelina came for a visit! We went to his 1st Mariner game and he did great! They played the White Sox and Antonio got to meet Omar who currently plays for them. Omar remembered me and came right over to us! I introduced him to Antonio and he was great with him. Antonio on the other hand just stared with a concerned, curious look on his face. We made it through 3 innings and decided to call it a night before a meltdown occurred! It was perfect too because we saw the Mariners score a run and Omar hit two hits! We were winning when we left so to us it was a GREAT game! The night before Nelly and Angelina left we had a mini birthday party with a mini cake and presents!

About a week later my mother in law came to visit for a few days! It was great having her here, cooking every night! Grandma and Antonio hit it off GREAT! They both loved each other! Antonio learned to walk the first day she was here which made Grandma so happy! :) It was sad for everyone when she left! That following weekend my parents came back from their year long Europe trip where the went EVERYwhere! That was a great reunion! They hadn't seen Antonio since he was a month old and were very surprised at how big he really was. We had skyped with them almost once a week but seeing them seeing him via a computer screen didn't do him justice!

The following week my daycare lady was on vacation for two weeks so my parent came over a couple times each week and spent some quality time with Antonio! It was pretty much a forced bonding time for all involved but it turned out well! The daycare lady came back from vacation and things have gone back to normal! Finally! However, Antonio has been teething and has been fighting a cold all at the same time and its been hard on all of us, especially him! I am hoping he is at the end of it now! In the middle of all that we had Antonio's 1st birthday party! (A post to come about the party....soon) So as you can see July and August have been pretty busy, hectic months with all the visitors, lack of daycare etc. Oh, and we started swim lessons the end of July. Antonio seems to like them, though is still pretty cautious!

I hope to catch up on a couple blogs in the next few days with pictures etc! Hope you haven't given up on the blog yet!

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday (a day late)!

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

It's not the best video but the audio is awesome! You can just hear the delight in his laugh!

Wordless Wednesday!

Eleven Months!

T-minus ONE month! Wow! We've decided to postpone Antonio's birthday a month so my parents will be here for it. So it will be August 14th, I concluded I wanted my parents here for it and Antonio will never know the difference anyways. We will still have a tiny celebration on his birthday the 3 of us but wait for the party until August. Plus that gives me an extra month to get ready for it! : ) I've started thinking back to a year ago this time; how uncomfortable I was starting to feel and how tired I was after doing ANY activity! My feet and legs were just starting to double in size. Crazy! I had just had my first of two baby showers.

(whoa!)

I know, I know, this is about Antonio not me but its partly about him. He was in my tummy all curled up and cozy. Anyways, he is 11 months as of Friday. He is becoming a little person more and more everyday. When Albert and I are talking and we laugh, Antonio will laugh too. It is so cute! He wants to be involved so he laughs even though has no idea why. He's beginning to show his inherited temper he unfortunately received from me. When he doesn't get what he wants (ie. the refrigerator door closes before he can "get in it") or when we take something away from him (ie. the remote control) he throws a fit until he is otherwise distracted. Luckily he is distracted enough at daycare Anne, the daycare lady, hasn't seen this side of him...yet.

He is doing great at eating more solids. He's tried a lot and seems to like pretty much everything. Sometimes it takes some persuasion but typically he likes whatever we give him. I find a hard tome thinking of meals to give him. I have lots of snacks, puffs, fruit, crackers etc but I have a hard time thinking of "meals" to give him. The other day we got home from class and needed to eat lunch. I gave him some leftover pork chops, which he liked, and some blueberries. However he didn't eat much for him but seemed done. So I made myself a grilled cheese which he LOVES. We went upstairs to play and I ate my sandwich. Well he wanted some so he started to fuss it up. I gave him a bite and he seemed very pleased. I had brought up some puffs just in case and when he wanted more of my sandwich I offered him some puffs instead. He wanted nothing to do with them, he just wanted my sandwich. He kept refusing the puffs and ended up eating half my sandwich! I was amazed he could not only taste but see that I was offering him puffs and NOT my sandwich. He knew the difference!

Things Antonio is doing & continues to like:

-Talking all the time; lots of dadadadada and other sounds but no mamamama yet. : (

-Still no walking on his own but close.

-He cruises EVERYWHERE and love walking with his walker!

-His new thing is biting, he bites everything from people (not good) to fabrics to anything else.

-He is what sounds like, grinding his teeth; it is AWFUL!

-He takes things (toys, tupperware etc.) out of their containers and then puts them back in (sometimes) and then takes them back out and so on....they never end up back in though. ;)

Wordless Wednesday!

Antonio at EMP (Experience Music Project)!

Wordless Wednesday!

Eating!

Antonio's eating! I mean eating real foods, we all know he has been eating all along!! Last Friday, the 21st, the daycare gal said she had given him some fish crackers and he ate them.....whole! I was shocked! So I tried giving him some spaghetti o's since they are very soft and easy to gum. He LOVED them! I had made Albert and I spaghetti with ground beef and onions which he frequently eyed! The next day, Saturday, we gave him his normal breakfast, oatmeal mixed with pureed fruit. For lunch I made grilled cheese for us and gave Antonio some fish crackers and banana and a little bit of grilled cheese to try. He loved it and ended up eating half of mine! So since he was doing so good Albert tried giving him a little of the left over spaghetti from the night before; he LOVED that too! Ground beef, onions and all! We were so impressed! : )

Since then he has eaten eggs, toast, pineapple, chicken (from chicken tacos), banana, apple and loves them all! He has a total 6 teeth and is learning how to bite with them well. However, when he eats he tends to put everything on his plate/tray in his mouth all at once! Luckily he hasn't choked yet and we have learned to only give him a few items at a time until he learns to slow down.

We are so proud of him, I was worried he'd only be eating puree's for forever! :p Luckily, he is still enjoying his purees considering I had just made him a bunch! If anyone has any ideas on what other foods to try I welcome the ideas. I am going to get some yogurt this weekend for him to try too. My baby boy is growing up.....

Wordless Wednesday!

Wordless Wednesday!

Ten months!

T-minus 2 months until Antonio will be a year old! CRAZY! In the past couple months I have found out 2 of my dearest friends are pregnant! One is due the beginning of September and the other the end of November. I am so excited for both of them. I pray that both of them have a healthy rest of their 9 months! As for Antonio, well he is finally adjusting at daycare. I am still able to stay home on Monday's with him so Tuesday's are still kinda hard on him, well, both of us. However, the rest of the week is good. Dropping him off has gotten easier, he no longer fusses or even cries. In fact pretty much as soon as I put him down when we get there he crawls into the kitchen to find Miss Anne (the daycare lady). It's pretty cute. The rest of the kids seem to really like him and play with him which warms my heart. Albert says that the other kids play a "game" with him. Antonio crawls over to the bookcase, pull all the books off then they put them back up, then he goes back over and pulls all the books off again and so on. Apparently it's fun for all of them. :)

Some things Antonio is doing and continuing to enjoy:

-He's still loving his walker and cruising EVERYWHERE!

-He's starting to eat things besides puree's; barely

-he's loving the Gerber puffs and is getting better and getting them into hid mouth!

-He still gags on most things we give him but he is getting better; it seems to be a very slow process for him.

-He's begun the babble, the real baby babble, it is so cute.

-he's got the dadadadada down pat. No, no mamamama yet; soon though!

-He's been sleeping through the night (7pm-5:30 or 6am) for about 3 weeks now!!!

-He's gotten 3 more teeth, possibly 4 so that has bothered him at night but he seems to still sleep through.

-He's gotten his top 2 and 1 on the bottom and VERY soon another up top.

-He's learning to clap, well, he's only done it about 4 or 5 times but it is SOOOO cute!

-He's started giving "open" mouth kisses and I LOVE them! They are a bit wet but so sweet! :)

-As of the past 3 night's he seems to have abruptly weaned himself of his binky.

-he's never been one to need it a lot but mainly to fall asleep. The past 3 nights he has refused it which is weird but we are ok with it! :) Lets hope it keeps up!

Wordless Wednesday!

Antonio's likes......

Here is a video Albert put together this weekend. Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday!

Yes, I know, I owe you guys two Wednesday's worth! So here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks!

Wordless Wednesday!

9 months!

I can't believe how close that baby icon on the timeline is to the "1"!! Amazing! We went to Antonio's 9 month well child check Monday. We went to a different doctor that is MUCH closer to home and hoped to like him and stay with him but I will drive the additional 20 min each way and go back to the original doctor. The appointment was a joke. This new doctor knew his stuff and did what he needed to do but then was outta there. Since Antonio had a cold he checked his ears, throat and lungs and all were good. Then he checked a couple other routine things then got up to leave. Well I had some questions and had to pretty much cut him off to ask before he left. I got two in while his hand was one the door knob. He briefly answered them but so fast I barely had time to comprehend. Antonio's original doctor always asked if I had any questions and then answered them all. I assumed ALL pediatricians would do that, boy was I wrong. Needless to say we won't be going back the him.

Enough negative, on to positive! Antonio is GROWING!! Here are his current stats:

Weight: 22lbs 8 oz (79.62%, down from 95.8%)

Height: 30" (93.64%, up from 92.9%)

Head circumference: 45.5 cm/17.91" (56.48%, up from 29.6%)

Some things Antonio's doing and liking:

-He is getting better and better at walking. Still needing help but cruises the couch (or anything) just fine by himself.

-He is loving walking with his walker!

-Has learned how to crawl up stairs. (not so good)

-Started primarily crawling on his hands and knees instead of on his belly

-Loving all food as long as it's pureed.

-He gags on anything not pureed even if it's super soft, so we're easing into that.

-He seems to really like the new tastes and textures of meats

-Still waking once a night for a diaper change and a little snack. (however, I don't think it's the hunger that wakes him, I'm starting to think him being wet does....)

-He seems to have reconciled with the vacuum cleaner. However we haven't turned it on with him yet!

-He's freaked out by my hair dryer now too.

Back to work.

I know it's been FOREVER since I posted something. Things have been a bit hectic. Last Tuesday, the 6th, I went back to work. It was awful. I dropped Antonio at daycare the previous Thursday and Friday and thank goodness that I did because I would have been a wreck! The first day back went ok. I dropped Antonio at daycare and he cried as I walked away, breaks my heart that he does that, absolutely breaks my heart. I got to work and got reacquainted with co-workers and the computer system. Going back to using a PC instead of a Mac is hard enough! ; ) All day I thought about Antonio and as the day went on I thought about what we would be doing at that moment; it was so sad and pathetic all at once. It was pretty scary how much came back to me after being gone for 9 months! However, a lot has changed and I feel like a new person all over again!

When I got off work I stopped to pick up Chinese at our favorite Chinese place and then rushed home to see my boys! It was so good to be home with Antonio (and Albert); I just scooped him up and loved on him. It was the best. : ) Albert said it was fun picking Antonio up at daycare, lucky him, he gets to be the hero and pick him up! Albert's car is missing the back middle seat head rest so Antonio can see out the back window where in my car we have the head rest and mirror blocking his view. Antonio seems to really like being able to see out the back! Albert had that Friday off so he got some Antonio time which they both seemed to love! They will get to do it again this friday too!

In Antonio's first week at daycare he caught a cold and a small diaper rash started. Luckily I noticed the diaper rash starting Saturday morning so I started creme on it and it was gone by Monday! YAY! The cold however, is holding on good. I will spare you the details but he is really congested and has a good run to his nose. He has started a congested cough yesterday too. Poor little guy. Hopefully he can fight it and be done with it this week.

I hope that things start to go better for all of us with daycare and work. I am still looking for an afternoon/evening pt job so I can stay home with Antonio at least most of the week. I know he is getting great social skills but I just HATE being away from him. In fact today when Albert went to pick him up Antonio was "cruising" the gate that goes around the fireplace at daycare. When they were leaving all the kids were saying bye to Antonio; Albert said it was cute! Awww...my sweet boy is making friends! Yay!

Wordless Wednesday!

Hopefully the video works! You do need to press play even though it is black!

Wordless Wednesday!