July Pictures

Such a ham!

See pictures here...

Happy Birthday To Me!

Okay, so my birthday isn't actually until tomorrow but whatever. I've been around long enough to start celebrating early if I want. We're skipping swimming lessons tonight and having Bertolli for dinner. I'm in a nostalgic mood and thought I'd start the festivities off with a flash back to 2007. It was my 30th birthday and I was exactly 8 weeks pregnant with Caleb, whom at that point we were all referring to as Francois. Can you even remember?

This is the email I sent out to publicly announce the news. All of you knew already and we'd just had our first sono with Dr. Binford and were ready to tell the world....

Hi Guys,
My 30th birthday is this weekend and today I got the best birthday present ever... Juan and I heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time - yup, we're pregnant! We're about 8 weeks with an expected due date of March 9th. We are absolutely thrilled to say the least.. This will be the first grandchild on either side and our parents are over the moon (in English and Spanish). Jonathan, Adriana and Lily are thrilled too - planning to spoil the baby rotten in retribution for the years of abuse suffered at the hands of their bossy older siblings. Amber has been #1 Aunt seeing to it that we got in with the OB we really wanted. My poor husband has been a real trooper. My mood ranges from moderately difficult to snarling beast. He's taking it all in stride so far and providing lots of Gingerale, Grilled Cheese sandwiches and Twix. As always, Chloe is completely clueless. I've attached our first baby picture - not really looking like a baby yet but I think it's absolutely perfect none the less.

Two years later and the birthdays keep on getting better....

Bon Appetit

What do you notice about the picture below?

You're supposed to say "Wow! A real place setting - napkin, utensils and a cup without a lid! Pretty brave Mom..." And it is. I decided that the child wouldn't learn how to eat like a civilized person if never given the chance so he's now got exactly what we have and we have happily seen some success.

I've also decided that he needs to start eating what we eat. I'm tired of making two meals three times a day - one for us and one for him. So, we're eating a little less spicy things and he's having to expand his palette a little. It's working ok. Last week Caleb ate shrimp, spaghetti and chicken. This is a huge accomplishment given that he usually avoids all forms of meat and pasta. Last night we had baked fish, baked potatoes, asparagus and tomatoes for dinner. See how cute it looks all cut up and on his plate?


He didn't think so. He ate 1/4 of a tomato and promptly haded the rest to me. He tried one bite of asparagus and then threw the rest on the floor. He took one look at the fish promptly poured the contents of his cup (milk) on top of it and asked for "kakers nana" which for those of you not familiar with Todderlish means graham crackers and a banana. I informed him that this WAS dinner and that he'd met his cracker and banana quotient for the day. He glared and proceeded to eat the cheese off of the baked potato. I tried to hide some fish under it in the hopes that he'd eat it by accident. Nope. I finally relented and gave him some carrots. He ate those and we called it a truce.

We are persevering though....

I Heart IKEA

Last weekend Angelica and I went to IKEA to see if we could find some storage for the playroom. I wanted something that would hold toys and be functional without being too childish since the room also doubles as the media room. I also wanted it to go with the entertainment center which is a dark wood. We found a bookcase that looked perfect and so yesterday Juan, Caleb and I went back to take another look. Luckily for us it was 50% off! Hello! That means it was just $109. The only one left however was the floor model which luckily didn't even have a scratch or ding. Getting it home already assembled was a bit tricky but we made it and Juan got it upstairs and I put everything away. I love it. So totally love it and am VERY proud of us. What do you think?

And as a bonus - check out how WHITE this baby's butt is!

Condiments

I think he liked the ketchup...

Things I Say Every Day

Pretty entertaining if I do say so myself. Get it? Say so? And it's things I say? Ha!

1. Uh oh what? Caleb says uh oh and I have no clue what for.
2. Stop pulling her hair out! He has a new fascination with Chloe's fur and loves pulling it out by the handful. Nice.
3. You've had enough bananas for today. Let's eat something else. Yesterday he ate 3 bananas and still wanted more. He really is a little monkey.
4. Dude, don't throw your food. If you're done eating then just say so. This requires no explanation.
5. Where's the choo choo? Great distraction although I do feel a bit guilty when I know that choo choo is nowhere to be found and that he's just wasting his time looking for it.
6. It's too hot for outside. Let's play inside. Never works but it's worth a try.
7. Wow, you are so pretty. He is. So very pretty.
8. Nice touches. Don't poke Mommy's eyes out please. He knows where your eyes are and he loves to poke. Hard.
9. Seriously. Where do you learn these things? He knows how to put the lid on tupperware. He can do a puzzle meant for 3yd olds. Oh, and he also knows how to undo the top buckle on his carseat. Why me? Why me?
10. I love you big boy. I do. A lot.

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Thursday

This is what happens when Mom leaves the bag of goldfish too close to the edge of the table. He thought it was fun to stomp on them. Nice.

New Shoes

Caleb and I went shopping this morning for new shoes. His old shoes had been through quite a bit and were getting too tight. We went to the Stride Rite outlet and found snazzy new shoes for just $30. Score!

House pictures and new shoes pictures here.

Weekend Update

My car is sick. Bleah. That's managed to blow whatever concentration I had left on this hot Friday afternoon so I thought I'd entertain all of you with some updates on our adventures in the new house.

1. Pool Cover. The pool cover was installed on Monday. It's pretty snazzy and we are quite happy. The only issue so far has been that Chloe can't drink the pool water when it's on. She's annoyed but we're thinking that pool water probably isn't good for bassets anyway.

2. New Dishwasher. I have a new dishwasher. Don't ask why. Or at least don't ask why in front of my husband. Just wait til he's not around and tell me it's pretty.

3. Decorations! A huge thanks to my parents for helping spruce up the new digs last weekend. Eat your heart out Martha Stewart.

4. Caleb and Chloe are both sleeping through the night again. Such a relief to be back in our normal routine and well rested.

5. What's left? We still have NO clue where Juan's running watch or his scuba goggles are. Note: I was not responsible for packing either of those items. I've checked and rechecked every remaining box in this house. I think they must be in the garage somewhere.

I'll add pictures soon...

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!