Getting a little bit older.

I started this blog wanting to document my daily on-goings. It started out that way and I had many posts that talked about what was going on in my life. Now that it's been almost 8 years, things have started to settle with dust. I've contemplated over and over again about deleting the blog but there are so many wonderful moments on here. It's practically a journal. So many things have happened from a miscarriage, to finding out we were pregnant, to the birth of our first child--a son named Michael, work, life, and everything else in between. I don't think I'll ever part with this blog no matter how I am feeling at the moment. Maybe I'll sit at my laptop one day and just start writing  without stopping, but for now, a post at a time.



On a different note, Spring Break is here and oh my! It was much needed. Michael and I have such a hectic schedule every day, it wears us both down. From going to school from 9-3pm and then ABA therapy for another 3 hours, plus homework and our nightly routine. It's exhausting (another reason why I haven't been back) and it's been only a few years. All of the hard work is paying off though, a lot of progress has been done and we still have quite the journey to go. Hopefully I can get mini breaks from our schedule to just pop on in and say hello around here. I do miss it.

Lifeisms

My morning? Yes, it went something like this:

For the past few days, Ive tried making it a goal to be at work about a half hour earlier, each time, traffic gets me--no matter the time I leave. Today, my timing was going perfect! Then I stupidly left my coffee on top of my car. It is now somewhere on Fruitridge Road as I was headed to my mom's to drop Michael off. No bueno. At my moms, I frantically search for a coffee or equivalent to satisfy my morning addiction. Luckily my BIG little brother, Daniel, bought me a coffee.

Bad luck, but awesome family!

My weekend with the Giraffes.

We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here, and it's not the last of it. I have a few work projects that will take over my life for the next couple of weeks, but it's okay--they are fun! Since crazy is the word around here and we had a break from it this past weekend, we decided to take Michael to the zoo.

But first, this is how my Sunday started:

Michael crawled into our bed during the wee hours of the night and when I awoke, this was my view.

He like to sleep in the "other" direction.

 We tried to interest him in the flamingos, but this giant snake slide seemed much more enticing.

The giraffes! 

Backstory: I have an affinity with Giraffes ever since I was in second grade. Our teacher each assigned us an animal to do a report on and I hated that I was given the Giraffe because you know, I wanted something cool like a Dolphin. Anyhoo, after learning about the Giraffes, I fell in love.  Fastforward--Michael did too.

During our trip at the Zoo, we learned about the upcoming Giraffe feeding at 2pm. You know we were there! So in line we waited.

Waiting to feed the Giraffes. Say "cheese!"

Our turn to feed the Giraffes. We each received two pieces of romaine lettuce to give them. Their tongues are long!

Hello my beautiful friend!

Michael's turn to feed his new favorite animal. He was scared at first and threw the first piece of lettuce. When we gave them the second piece--well you can see his face. Loved it!
---
...and that was our Sunday. It was hot! So we came home and just lounged until it was time for dinner at my in-laws.

But not before leaving you with this:

Michael woke up throwing up phlegm and so it was a snuggles and tv watching kind of day.

I think he's playing me for a fool. Does he look sick to you?

Giraffe Fun Facts:

Their heart is 2 feet long and weighs about 25 pounds

Ancient Romans and Greeks thought that the Giraffe was a mix between a camel and a leopard. This is where their scientific Genus name of "camelopardalis" comes from.

Mom Giraffes form a type of daycare for their young. One of the females in the heard will stay behind and baby sits all of the youngsters while the rest of the females go out foraging for food.

Our Choo Choo Day.

My little boy loves trains. Nothing else goes through his head but “choo-choos” and how he can make a gazillion of them (he lines up items in a straight row and says, “Choo-choo” to each one.) Since Saturday was about running errands and having grown up time with friends (that’s another post), Sunday would mean Choo Choo Day for my mini family. We packed the stroller, his mini back-pack, and our bags—off to the Sacramento Railroad Museum we went. Thank goodness we took the stroller (my best friend with moments like this) because when we arrived, Michael was knocked out! We placed him in the stroller and went inside anyways—soon he would wake up, right?

These trains were carved out of wood.

The first Transcontinental locomotive.

Second Floor: Toy trains. This area also had “hands on” section.

Second Floor: Children’s play area.

This is outside of the Sacramento Railroad Museum. It’s Old Sacramento. Quite beautiful.

This also goes with our Toddle Along Tuesday weekly link:

Better late than never…

When we found out we were pregnant, we talked about a lot of things, including who we would like to have as God-parents for our unborn child. Since names were being thrown out left and right, we thought that maybe we would wait until our child was born, so we did. It was still quite hard to pick just two people, so we decided to see who (without telling anyone about this plan) loved him like no other. Again, hard. Then finally we got the bright idea to see if Michael had a special relationship with anyone—my brother Luis. Those two are like Batman and Robin. My brother loves Michael as if he were his own and Michael loves Luis like he loves his Papa. So that was that. Since day one, those two shared an unbelievable bond and that my friends, sealed the deal.

 

 

 

Thankful

 

These past few days have been quite cautious. My grandfather had a stroke Friday morning that turned my family upside down. The majority of my family was on a mini get-away for a wedding and so only a few of us were left behind. Luckily we were still here to rush him to the hospital. We were all so scared that he could have gotten some brain damage from the stroke, luckily it was a minor one.

 

I’ve been playing with Photo-a-day for the month of October and yesterday’s image was “Thankful.” This couldn’t have come at a better time—I am thankful for a second chance with my grandfather. Thank you.

Quarterly Top 5

On Wednesdays I like to do some sort of link up, so I thought I would do two. This one I got from Erica over at Mi Todo blog. I fell in love with her blog and I think you should head on over and read it. Her link up is from: Amber @ ClickPrayLove.com | Ashley @ Ramblings & Photos | Sarah @ SarahHalstead.com.

 

The link-up is about posting your top five favorite pictures of your children since June. This one is going to be a tough one!

 

This picture was taken on the Fourth of July. It’s of my dad, my nephew on his lap, and of Michael. I love this picture so much.

 

 

Another Fourth of July photo. He was looking at me and kept saying, “Chez!” (cheese.)
You can see his split lip from when he fell.

 

 

Another favorite! This one is of my own grandfather. I love this one because this way I have a memory for him of his meeting his Great Grandfather. Something both my husband and I don’t have. (August)

 

 

This one is of Michael at the beach. His first time. He loved it. We are going back next year. (Sept)

 

 

I love this one because it’s a recent on of his face. His face has changed so much. Taken the same day with my grandfather. (August)

 

 

 

Family.

 

 

I have a confession to make:

 

These past two weeks, I have been having loads of fun. Seriously! All with family. However, I always forget to take pictures and or post. See, my grandparents (maternal) have flown in from out of the country and I am trying so hard to get in some quality time with them and have Michael love them as much as he can. He won't remember them at this age, but if I take a ton of pictures and tell him stories of when he met them, then only then will he be able to cherish the memories he made. Life can be beautiful and it can also be cruel. I thank God that he was able to give Michael the chance to meet his Great Grandparents, have pictures with them and have my them get to know my son. I only have one faint memory of my Great Grandmother (paternal) and all I remember is when we were all in the family car, she came up to the window and talked to my dad. I remember asking him who it was, he said, "That was my grandmother. Her name is 'Micaela.' Or like we like to call her, 'Miki' " Maybe that's why I fell in love with "Michael" who knows, but I want more than just faint memories for my son, I want pictures and stories. Something physical and emotional he can hold on to.

 

So forgive me for being MIA right now. I hope you guys can understand.

{What would you do?} How to react to a child bulling your child.

I’ve backspaced, deleted, and even paused trying to figure out how to write this entry. I don’t know where to start or how to start this post, so I figured I’d tell you the story of what happened and let that tell you what I mean:

 

Earlier today we took my mom to visit her mother, my grandmother, at my aunt’s house. My grandmother was in town from Mexico visiting. While we were there, Michael, my son, was playing with his cousin’s toys while he was out. After a while, said cousin came home and was playing in his room with some toy trains. This little boy is 4 years old. Michael saw that his cousin was playing and wanted to join in for a bit. He wanted to play with his cousin. When my son approached his cousin, he was greeted with a “No!” and pushed him away while snatching a toy train from Michael’s hands. I picked up Michael and said, “Let’s be nice (kids name.)” and walked away.

After a half an hour, Michael was in the living room playing by himself when all of a sudden, said cousin run in and pushes Michael to the floor in front of all of the adults. Mind you, Michael is only 16 months old, a few months shy of being a year and a half. I once again picked up Michael before he cried (especially since the back of his head hit the floor) and said, “No ____.”

After the visit, my mother scolded me and said that I should have just picked Michael up and walked away from his cousin. Said I shouldn’t have told the cousin’s mother about what her son did. I told my mother that I wasn’t going to just stand by while my kid was being bullied. Not only did he bully my son, but he also tried to bully my brother’s 9 month old little boy.

 

Now that you guys know the story, what would you have done? Did I do wrong by letting the little boy’s mother know about what her son did to mine? Should I have listened to my own mother? Chime in.

 

What would you do?

A secret friend.

Remember how I had mentioned that I was always a little sad over Michael never having possible playmates? How all of his “of age” playmates are either too far away, too young, or just never around? This past weekend that wasn’t the case. My inlaws hosted a babyshower for their youngest daughter and during the festivities, one of my other sister-in-law decided to join us (she rarely ever makes an appearance.) This resulted in this!

 

              

Best Friends Forever

I love hearing babies babble. Especially these two! You can hear these two doing just that. It’s hilarious how these two can talk up a storm and telling the other jokes –usually it’s Michael saying “Dah. Dah. Dee-ler. Deeler.” and Gabriel just chuckling away. These two crack me up!

 

I always wondered how Michael would get along being the only baby within our families. The youngest baby before Michael is only a month older than he is, yet we rarely see her. On my side, well, Michael is the first grandchild/nephew, that was until 6 months into our pregnancy did we learn that my brother would be becoming a father. Then there were those awkward months where these two couldn’t interact until now. Now they play, giggle, and talk in secret baby language,

 

Right now we are off for 4 days for the holiday weekend. This means that Michael won’t see Gabriel for those few days. You can tell that he gets lonely and bored without him. Sure he has many adults right now willing to hug, tickle, and play patty cake, but it’s not the same when your BFF (best friend forever) is gone for a few days. Especially since you get used to seeing him every day at 8am every morning…right when you wake up.

 

This just reaffirms my idea of wanting to enroll him into daycare once he is 2 years old. I want him to be social. I want him to share. I want him to play with other kids his age. By joining daycare for only 2 days a week, I’m sure he can get those skills he will need for pre-k. This, his playing with Gabriel, is just a small step. An important step towards daycare. Wow. Day care. Am I really talking about that? I guess time is flying by….

after the rain, the sun comes out….

 

My life is a little crazy right now. Somewhat seems like there’s this grey cloud always looming over our heads and sometimes feels like we can never get things right. The weather has matched my mood exactly these past two days and today, after the rain left, the sun came out.

 

We initially were going to go and grab a copy for Michael’s baptism (I wanted him to be familiar with his Godfather before baptized him. I wanted to see the relationship before asking if he would do us the honor) but by the time we got everything ready, it was too late for today. Instead we opted to run errands for Michael’s sake (Walmart for food goodies like juice and snacks) and then a walk right after. That walk was much needed. Felt really good to just get out and breathe the fresh air, especially after the rain. It smelled so sweet. Plus it didn’t hurt that it was much needed after our Chinese food dinner—love the cuisine, but it’s always somewhat greasy.

 

I have to remember that everything isn’t always so doom and gloom in my life. That there are small blessings everywhere and that’s where I have to keep my focus on. For instance, how wonderful is it that my little man loves my dad?! It’s amazing how he is squealing and smiling when he sees him walking up the driveway. I had always wanted that growing up because my dad was quite awesome when I was a kid. Really! I couldn’t have asked for a better dad. I remember waiting for him after school and looking through the laundry room window waiting for the truck to come through beeping. That beep meant “Daddy is home!” My brother Carlos and I would run to the door, waited for him, and then pounced on his feet once he came in. My dad carried each one of us on each foot and carried us all over the house. I know that once Michael gets to that foot carrying age, that he would do the same. My dad is basically the only Abuelito he has. Those are the blessings that I should focus on. Those little ones that are quite big in my heart.

 

Michael’s First Birthday

You know, I had this giant idea of what Michael’s First Birthday would totally be like. Did it happen that way? No. Did everyone attend? No. But you know what? All of those people who mattered did, and that is what is really important. I didn’t get to enjoy my son’s first birthday because I was so stressed out over every single detail and getting everything so perfect.  I should have just followed one of the Golden Rules in life—Keep It Simple Stupid. There are reasons why cliches are always around….because they are true!

So how did it go? According to everyone that did go (and by that I mean our usual group of friends and our immediate family members, which I should have just planned for like I normally do), it was a blast! We had cupcakes, and old fashion Carne Asada, jump houses, balloons, birthday songs, goodie bags, and a game of Apples to Apples. After all of the “grown-ups” left (and by that I mean our parents, ha ha!) the drinking commenced and that’s when we played Apples to Apples---twas fun! We even had a round or two in the bounce house which was loads of fun.  Maybe that was my lesson this weekend, to always remember that keeping it simple works!

 

Here’s us in the bounce house enjoying our time.

 

The Birthday Boy.

 

A lot of this was going on.

 

See?

 

My husband consoling Michael after we sang and clapped to “Happy Birthday.”

 

The mommy <3

Family Time

Steve has been working so hard these past few weeks that it's been almost impossible to have some family time. Today I let him sleep in for almost 10 hours (I would have let him sleep in longer but I needed him to watch Michael so I could make lunch) that he woke up in such a great mood that we ended up taking a walk after lunch. We decided to walk to the main street and then see where that led us--a park. I've seen the park before but I've never actually visited it before today.

Getting ready to head out.




About to head down the slide.

I've also added some random pictures from earlier in the week for fun. :)

Michael and his cousin Gabriel


My mom and her two grandchildren.


Every time I see this, this lyric pops into my head:
"They see me rollin', they hatin' " LOL