Baby

So even though all babies pretty much look the same in ultrasounds, I'm still going to put up pictures of mine. Because it's mine. And I can.

So here's the announcement that we are having a baby! Just in case you didn't read the previous posts. Due November 8th (or so). These images are at 20 weeks

Funny that Luis and I can tell a difference between Manny's pictures and this unknown name baby's. Manny's maxilla/upper lip stuck out a lot more. We'll see how he looks when he's born.

More baby
More baby

And finally, just in case anyone had any doubts what the sex of the baby was going to be or is

Pretty sure it's not a girl.

Dirty Teeth, Spiders, Tattoos, and Baptisms

Manny is a little bit particular about things. Often things have to be a certain way, but I think that goes for every child. Every kid has their own "quirks."

One night we had stayed late at Luis' parents' house and Manny fell asleep on the way home. He was still sleeping when I brought him in the house (which is very unusual. He usually wakes up as soon as we take him out of the car). So I figured I would just put him straight to bed. In the middle of the night I wake up to Manny crying and crying. I think, "Oh no, he's wet the bed." I walk into his room and ask if there is water in his bed (that is how he describes it) and try to say it's okay. But he tells me there is no water. Then what's the matter? What could he be crying for? "My teeth are dirty!" he cries and then asks me to clean them. Ha! Ha! Guess all the brushing and flossing I have been doing on him have taught him good oral hygiene. We'll see how long that lasts.

Here are some cute bath pictures.

Manny has figured out how to draw spiders. And really likes to draw them. We were drawing with chalk and that is all he would draw. I didn't even know he could draw a spider!
Notice the nice circle, the legs and the eyes.

He wanted me to draw with him so I tried to draw a flower. He said no, that I had to draw a spider. So now we have about 20 or so spider drawings outside our door and down the sidewalk.

Manny has been really into the fake tattoos again. And funny that we only have some old Halloween tattoos right now. He doesn't care. Everyone gets one. Mama, Papi, his uncle, probably even his abuela. He also insisted that his brother have a tattoo. He picked one out and placed it right on my stomach. Sorry for the tummy picture, but it really makes me laugh.

I love that Manny is excited to have a brother. He talks about him all the time and still loves to talk to my tummy and touch him. I hope it lasts when he is not in my stomach, but we'll see.

And here's a picture of us after a baptism. We went to a wonderful baptism of a family who had been investigating the church. It was nice to go and talk with Manny about what was happening and why. I didn't think he was really paying attention, but apparently he was. The next day his Nursery teachers were telling me how smart he was and how impressed they were. Their lesson that day was about baptism and he was the only 2 year old who answered the questions. He told everyone about how baptism is when you go under the water, he pointed out John the Baptist (and even knew his name) and Jesus, etc. Ha! Ha! I told them we had just gone to a baptism the day before, but still...at least now I know he pays attention to me sometimes.

Little Athlete

Manny has turned into quite the little athlete. He wants to play sports almost all the time. And he is quite good at it. I obviously haven't trained him in anything.

Manny's two favorites right now are soccer and baseball. I didn't get any pictures of him playing soccer, but plenty of baseball. Since these pictures we have had to have quite a few talks about how we don't play baseball or kick balls inside the house. I let him a few times, but then realized what a terrible mistake that was. He was bad at first, but now he is good and can be dangerous. (Although I don't think Luis keeps to these rules when I am gone.)

Manny would come up to me and say, "Let's play baseball," and then would hand me a dragon. Apparently that was my bat and he would throw anything (like a Little People) at me and expect me to hit it. Again, after another talk about no throwing or kicking balls/toys/anything in the house we later saw this bat for $1 and I figured I should buy it for him to help him out. He was trying to play with dragons, for pete's sake.


And these picture were taken while I was throwing the balls, so maybe not the best quality, but you get the idea.

Another funny story was that today we were playing baseball outside. Then all of a sudden he just HAD to have his baseball hat to keep playing. I said, "Fine, go and get it." He soon came out wearing his bike helmet and a tie! Not sure what a tie has to do with baseball, but who knows. What a weird kid.

New Camera!

So, thanks to Jessie, we have a brand new HOT pink camera!! Yay!!! I am really enjoying taking pictures whenever I want to. And Manny is really liking it, too. He really likes to have his picture taken (but often when he chooses). I have heard a million times, "Take a picture of me doing.......fill in the blank. Here are ridiculous pictures Manny has asked me to take.

"Take a picture of me playing with my dragons!"

"Take a picture of me running!"

"Take a picture of me eating my cereal!"

I won't bore you (well, maybe a little), but I hear that phrase all the time.

P.S. My favorite was , "Take a picture of my spoon!" But that one was too boring a picture. No funny face to look at.

P.P.S. He has also realized that I can record him singing and then he gets to watch it on the camera. As soon as I figure out how to upload videos from the camera I will share some really funny songs.

Seriously?

So apparently I might be a little huge. I have had multiple people tell me that they thought I was at least 6 or 7 months pregnant (when I was only 4). And just today I just had someone ask me if I was having twins. For serious? I am only just barely 25 weeks. That means 3 1/2 months to go (almost 4 if you count a month as 4 weeks). I might die a little. Okay, maybe not. I was thinking I was doing pretty good because I saw pictures of another girl and we were about the same size. Then I found out she had some weird condition where she had twice as much amniotic fluid as she was supposed to and that was why she was so big. Nice.

Oh well. I am very happy to be pregnant and it's most likely because I am short that I might look a little larger than others. But seriously, twins? I am definitely not THAT big.

This picture was taken a little while before the twins comment. I'll try to get a picture from today.

Safety First

I forgot to tell funny stories about Manny's first night in his own room.

Luis is a very cautious guy. Maybe a little paranoid. He thinks things like, "If a bullet were to come through our bedroom window, where would the safest place be?" And that is where we have to place our bed. I'm not sure where he comes up with this stuff, but the examples are endless. He always likes to be prepared.

So, I am getting ready to put Manny in bed. Don't worry, I tried to find the perfect place for his bed to go (not close to the window, in case a stray bullet wanders in, not where the airconditioning is blowing right one him, etc). Luis comes in and looks through his toys and picks up a deflated pool floatie. "He might choke on this." What? Okay, we can take that out. But is he really going to shove his face into a floatie and not move until he chokes? And then we had to close the bathroom door, just in case he falls in head first. Again-really? He's almost 3 years old. If he somehow got his head in the toilet, I'm pretty sure he could get it out. Luis wanted to leave his door open, but I said no way. I tried to convince him by talking about fire safety. Doors should be closed--harder for a fire and smoke to get to him. I think it worked. Kind of. And lastly he wanted to fold up a blanket and put it by Manny's bed, just in case he falls off. Sounds nice, but is it really necessary? Manny's bed is just a crib mattress on the ground (maybe 3 inches off the floor). And we have carpet.

We amazingly made it through the night without any problems. I went to go get him in the morning so we could drive Luis to school. His bed was empty. I thought, "Oh, great. Luis' worst fears are coming true." (He also worries about someone coming to steal/kidnap Manny through the window.) Then I thought, "Stay calm. He has to be in here somewhere." His room isn't really that big. I tried calling his name. Nothing. I looked around and didn't see him. Then I saw his small pop up tent and looked inside. There was Manny curled up, sleeping. I laughed super hard and tried to take a picture. For some reason he had decided to sleep in his tent. This all happened in a matter of seconds, but you know how your mind works super fast.

I actually am very lucky to have such a cautious and caring husband/father for my children. I just think it's really funny and don't want to forget these details.

More Manny

More funny things that Manny has been doing and his accomplishments.

Luis has been trying to teach Manny that there is a baby in my tummy. So now Manny likes to try to peer inside my belly button and say, "I see you!" or stick his finger in and say, "He's touching me!"

Manny loves to sing. All the time. Mostly Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and often he comes up with other words or sounds to replace those words (the most ridiculous being "Mama Squatty Pants." Not quite sure how he came up with that, but that's what he sang super loud while we were at Wal Mart. At least it was Wal Mart, right? I've seen worse things there)

Since we have moved and things are not quite put away nicely Manny has insisted on watching some movies that he finds. His latest favorite is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He is not allowed to watch all of it (especially the part at Potiphar's house), but he loves it. For serious. And he walks around singing the songs. His favorites are " Go, go, Joe, Go go Joe, Go go go Joseph!", "I closed my eyes, drew back the children (he has since learned that the word is curtains, but those words are easily confused, right?), Any Dream Will Do," (and this one is complete with the ahs sung by the children audience), and "Jacob, Jacob and Sons." Makes me laugh everytime.

He also gets upset if he can't reach a note. He has a pretty good sense of tune (for an almost 3 yr-old) and gets really frustrated when he starts singing too low and can't sing the tune how it is supposed to go. I have been trying to tell him to try starting a little higher, and surprisingly it usually works, he actually does it.

Manny is really sensitive to smells. He notices everything. If we are walking and he smells something bad he almost cries. I tell him we have to walk fast (past the dumpster, or a random bad smell on a trail) and the smell will go away. This also includes tooting. Even with his own toots he gets upset and yells, "Something's stinky!" I have recently taught him to wave his hand really fast and maybe it will go away faster. Very funny to me.

Manny is doing super awesome with the potty training. I can only think of one or two times I have had to change wet underwear and only one time poop (just a tiny hard turd, thank goodness) out of underwear since we officially started in May. And now he even wears underwear to bed, now that he is in his own bed. I was always afraid to just leave him in underwear since he was sleeping with us. Changing queen-sized sheets is a lot more annoying than changing toddler-sized sheets. Which brings me to my next exciting news.

Manny sleeps in his own room! It has been a long time and with a lot of hard work, Manny included, he goes to sleep on his own, in his own room (which he will someday share), and in his own bed.

On a side note--am I the only moron who can't figure out spacing on this blasted blogging site? I can't get it to tab, I can only sometimes get it to leave spaces between paragraphs, etc. I'm just trying to differentiate between paragraphs and tabbing and spacing is all I can think of, and it won't let me do it.

Iowa Vacation, New Apartment, etc

I have not really been blogging because I don't have really any pictures, but I shouldn't let that stop me. (Actually it's only partly because of the pictures. Mostly because I'm lazy.)

Warning: Most of this is a log of my vacation, since this is supposed to be my journal, so if you get bored by reporting of events--Do not read. For serious.

Manny and I went to Iowa and Wisconsin for my sister Jessie and Justin's wedding. It was so fun! Manny loved going on the airplane and talking to everyone he saw, especially the flight attendants. The first lady was very nice and gave Manny a nice pair of wings to put on his shirt. And everytime she would pass walk by or talk in the microphone, or even move up at the front, he would say, "There's my airport lady!" This continued on every flight (2 to get to Iowa and 2 to get back to North Carolina).

Most of the trip was just having fun and hanging out with my family. We went to one of my cousin's high school graduation open houses, we went with Sarah's family to the Mines of Spain in Dubuque and had a wonderful time hiking (who knew Manny was such a good hiker. He loved to keep up with his cousins, and even got a piggy-back ride from Uncle Joel. Uncle Joel also taught him to put a piece of long grass in his mouth to chew and look cool.), hung out with Meggie's family, and Uncle Eric accompanied us to all of these activities.

Then it was time to drive to Wisconsin for the wedding festivities. We stayed at Aunt Jessie and Uncle Justin's house with one of their dogs (Dillinger) and their 3 cats. Manny was quite nervous at first, but learned to like them, especially Henry the cat (he even wanted Henry to sleep with us, but Jessie told us that Henry wasn't very smart and would most likely pee on anything that slighlty resembled a litter box, maybe a suitcase for example, if he couldn't find it. Needless to say Henry was escorted out of the room shortly after this information was delivered).

Jessie and Justin were very nice and had a barbecue at their house for us. Then then the party was the next day so they were gone most of the day for the preparations and pictures and such. We only had to show up at 4 or 5 or something for pictures, so we went to Sarah and Meggie's hotel to hang out. It was quite an adventure driving in Milwaukee. There was lots of construction and nobody in our car really knew where we were going (Mom, Me, Eric, and Manny). Lots of back seat driving, people getting frustrated, driving each other crazy occurred. I personally thought the whole experience was quite funny and somewhat of an adventure, but I don't really think Mom thought it was as funny (she was in the back seat and asked us to lock the doors when we got to downtown Milwaukee and saw "scary" people and bars on most of the business windows). Then the driving Moms crazy (Sarah and Meggie and Mom are included in this crazy comment) continued as we got ready for the wedding pictures. Nobody is ready on time, everybody is crammed into 2 rooms, babies are trying to sleep, etc. Again, what a fun adventure, but I wasn't allowed to say that at the time. I'm sure they think it's funny now.

Jessie and Justin's party was the fanciest party I've ever been to, I believe. Waiters walking around with fancy food, a man playing bagpipes, Irish dancers complete with the fake, bouncy, curly hair, etc. They also had amazing food. Delicious. This was followed by one of the best dance party receptions ever (Sarah and Jessie's are some of the only ones I have super enjoyed, where everyone is dancing, they play great music, etc. No offense to anyone's I've been to, maybe it's because it's my family's). Manny loved to be around Aunt Jessie and her princess dress. Manny kept asking throughout the reception to go see Jessie and give her a hug. Addison was an amazing dancer, didn't stop the whole time, and he had some pretty sweet moves. Actually all the boys were pretty good dancers, but Addison was the most enthusiastic. Manny's dancing mainly entailed jumping and playing air guitar. All of the boys looked absolutely adorable in their kilts. And sadly my camera got lost/stolen at the reception, hence the no pictures.

The next day Justin's parents had a great brunch for the out of town family. Eric and I were in charge of the desserts so we made nearly 12 dozen cookies and 2 pans of brownies. We brought them in a couple of tupperware boxes, and were told that we needed to take them over the day before so Justin's mom could be able to set up for the brunch and make things look fancy. Fancy, I thought? How do you make things look fancy? But when we went the next day everything was organized on dessert/cake towers. I was super impressed. Who knew our super ghetto desserts could look so fancy? Almost made me want to buy one. For the many fancy parties I like to throw (actually I don't throw any parties, but maybe I would if I had a dessert tower). Almost.

Jessie looked absolutely beautiful and Justin looked very handsome and we are so excited that he is offically part of our family. We had such a wonderful time visiting everybody and can't wait to see everyone again.

We returned safely and were able to move to a new apartment. Yay! We absolutely love being in Cary, with all it's parks, lakes, closeness of everything, and fun things to do. And great for me is that the temple is only 11 minutes away!!

The weekend after we returned I took a ridiclously nerve-wracking clinical test, and thankfully passed. Took a couple more tests, passed, and am now awaiting my dental hygiene license.

So, it is now July and I still don't have a license or a job. Hopefully things should come together really soon. You'd think I would've done more blogging with all the time on my hands. Ha! Ha!