20 Months!

Jack is 20 months old!  I have a toddler running, jumping and twirling around my house!  I love it!  Just when I think my word count of his vocabulary is accurate, he starts saying something new, but he has about 23 words that he regularly uses these days.  They are words like, “hot, cheese, juice, uh-oh, mimmy (mommy), dada, ga ga (galleta/cookie), a-ta (agua), je-sus (Jesus), gra gra (gramma), suz (zapatos/shoes), meow, moo, no no, two and several more. 

Lately we wake up and I put on Praise Baby while I finish having time with Jesus.  We both need our time with Jesus to be happy!  He LOVES Praise Baby and Boz (Boz the Bear – a modern day, Christian Barney, but cuter)...and the iPad apps.  At 1.5 he can slide the iPhone arrow over, scroll through the pages and find the icon that withholds all his baby apps.  A-Mazing.  Kids and technology.  A true phenomenon. 

He is such a boy – hitting things with his bat, climing up the door (literally), jumping on the furniture and loves dirt.  Once we finish Praise Baby, we will begin playing with toys or jumping off the couch or the bottom stair (did I mention he likes to jump off things?)  He will look at me with a mischevious grin and say “two” and jump.  He spent a week with my parents and there he would climb on my parents bed and they would say “One, two, three...jump!” and he would do as told happily!  Funny how just “two” stuck with him, but that means he is about to take a leap. 

Within hours, Jack will be found pulling on the freezer door yearing for a popsicle.  He LOVES pedialite popsicles and we obliged him pretty much every day... at night...it’s good for him, right?  Whenever Dada comes home, it’s all about him!  “Mimmy, mimmy” is left in the shadows for dada’s great fun, tickles and yogurt.  I love that he adores his father.  It truly brings so much delight to my heart to watch my son look at my David like he is looking at a hero! 

So thankful to God for an energetic, loving and fun little boy!  

Jack's First Birthday Party! A Monster Bash!

My little wittle baby turned 1!  It's been the longest and fastest year of my life.  It's been the most challenging and most rewarding.  It's brought me more worry and also more joy than I could imagine.  I have learned more in this one year than in any other, even my crazy semesters at the University of Michigan.  Overall, this has been the greatest year of my life. 

More on one-year updates soon, but I wanted to post some highlights from Jack’s monster birthday bash!  So, I started with a little monster inspiration and then over spring break just kept thinking of more and more ideas!  This was a lot of work, but I started early and thoroughly enjoyed it.  And in true Hispanic culture, the first birthday for my boy was indeed a hit!  I must give some credit where credit is due: Pinterest (LOVE it)!  I took some ideas as is, tweaked some, and came up with a few originals myself J 

Inspiration: The invites.

Party Favors: I bought some felt and took a little pattern and made about 25 of these little guys!  The best part of sewing monsters is that they less perfect they look – the better!  As the kids left, they all “Adopted a Monster.”

Party Hats: Monster eyes.  Everyone participated in this, such fun!  Cheap headbands from the dollar store + pipe cleaners + googly eyes (thank you to JoAnn Fabric’s sales!)

Activity 1: Toss bean bags into monster buckets.  Buckets from the dollar store and I glued eyes onto them.  My mom made the bean bags.

Activity 2: Pin the eye on the monster.  I took big pieces of paper and created this little guy.  We had a piece of plywood in the garage and I had David cut it for the base.  I gave each child an eye and they tried to tape it on the eye.  Such fun. 

Activity 3: Pinata.  At our parties we like to blindfold our kids, make them dizzy and watch them try to complete some sort of task (put a piece of paper in a specific spot or swing a large stick at an object) and we all watch and laugh.  Ha.  Good times, good times. 

Activity 4: Monster Tattoos.  I ordered these from Land of Nod.

Activity 5: Color a Monster.  I found these free printables online and wa-la. 

Decorations

Jack’s Outfit:  I couldn’t help myself.  Not to be prideful, but come on!  How cute is that? (My good friend Jeni, from MI, always makes her son, Kal, a shirt with the number of his new age for his birthday.  I stole this idea from her – thanks, Jeni!) 

Banner: Okay, so I do work at my part-time job, but I did have an extra half hour one day and they do have a great tool to cut out letters....wouldn’t you?? (So, the wind wasn't working in my favor for pictures of it)

Centerpieces:  Tweaked this idea from pinterest.  I had these old jars from my teaching days. 

Pillow: I wanted to make Jack something for his birthday and so this came to mind.  I sewed a little “1” on the bottom to remember the birthday I made it.  Each year I *hope to make him a gift.  I’m sure he’ll think it’s a really cool idea when he’s 15, don’t you? 

Cups and Silverware Containers: Thanks pinterest! Took cleanex boxes and covered them with paper.  This was actually the most time-consuming and annoying project.

Food: Monster soda and Monster goop.  Yum yum

Cupcakes: I had this really intricate idea for decorating the cupcakes and making each one look like a different kind of monster...and then the day of the party came and I ran out of time.  I dyed my frosting, got out my decorating bags and tips and went at it!  I glued the eyes on the toothpicks during my spring break, so they were ready to go.  I had planned to use them for the fruit and other food, but they worked out perfectly here!

Lemon Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry filling

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate ganache filling

And I made a special large cupcake for the birthday boy!

First time eating sweets!  At first he didn't know what to do, but we helped him out!

No more thumb-sucking and snuggles at bedtime!

Jack has never been a snuggler.  I wasn’t sure if it was because I never really allowed him to sleep on me much because I feared he would not be able to soothe himself to sleep or if it was his nature.  Whichever it was  - it has changed!  The past two weeks, Jack has snuggled on me every night before bed and I absolutely LOVE it!  He lays on me and we just stare at one another.  Sometimes we play this little game where he makes a noise and I imitate it and we go back and forth for a while and then both end up giggling (heart = melts).  He has also stopped sucking his thumb!!!!  As much as I would NEVER wish a sickness upon my child, he has had a cold for two weeks and therefore, was unable to suck his thumb (due to a super congested nose).  It was the cure though – he seems to have forgotten just how much he loved and needed that thumb (oh did he ever).  I am thrilled because I would see it happening and have horrible flashbacks of my younger days having to have an expander (twice), braces and invisalign because I sucked my thumb till I was like 7 and shifted my bone!  I would imagine the difficulties of trying to get him to stop when he’s 2-3ish.  But, now I don’t have to!  (Let’s pray he doesn’t pick it up again!)  He now finds comfort in the silky edge of his blankie.  It’s funny how kids do that.  It just happened.  He just started holding it and putting it up to his face and calming down.  I love being his mommy and I love bedtimes with him.  

A New Look!

Okay, confession time: I have seen countless CUTE blogs and have never figured out how to make mine cute...and personalized!  Until today (thank you, Pinterest!).  The following blog helped me with my blog (oh I love blogs). http://blissfullydomestic.com/life-bliss/geek-life-bliss/how-to-make-a-blog-header-for-free/66333/

I tried other tutorials that used Picnik and other non-user friendly photo imaging programs.  Alas, my very own Picassa was my tool of choice!  I'm not computer savvy, but I felt like "okay, if they can do it, I can do it!"  Finally.  I have a few little tweaks and bugs to work out to make it exactly how I want, but here's the start.

Isn't it cute?

A new year

Three months later, here I am again with lots of updates! 

First – Jack is ALMOST 10 months old already!  He is pulling up on furniture, starting to cruise (walk along the couch), babbling lots of syllables like (baba, mama, dada and some other delightful gibberish), eating a great variety of food and has one little tooth that has poked up on the bottom (and one more coming in on top…but it’s not a front tooth – if these two come in he will look like a little pumpkin).  Oh, how could I forget?  He climbs up all our stairs now..and quickly! 

 He is my delight.  David and I always take a week to pray and fast at the beginning of each year to reflect on the past year and get vision for the upcoming.  I was looking through prayers and words God spoke to me about Jack and remembered that God said he would be a delight.  He really is.  Of course children are a delight to their parents, but this characteristic really stands out.  Last year was the best year of my life and I am so thankful to God for it.  It was a year of rest, clarity and air (I was actually able to stop, take deep breaths and enjoy life)!  It was amazing.  I am looking forward to another great year. 

We did a major overhaul on our home and are actually starting round 2 right now – I stripped our bathroom and guest bedroom wallpaper (ugly!) and we are priming it today.  More details to come.  It feels good getting this done and I LOVE having David around this January to help!  On one hand it’s hard that David doesn’t have lots of work each January (no one is thinking about landscaping right after Christmas in the coldest month), but it’s fun spending lots of time together and working on the house.

To end on a heart-note.  I was reading the word this morning and I want this verse to mark my life this year: “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.” Psalm 4:7  I desperately want God’s joy in my life to be far greater than enjoying anything on earth…wow.  Let it be!  

The adventures of the new fort on Fort

My mom arrived on October 22 to hopefully help me begin doing some renovations to our new home.  We haven’t closed yet, but are awaiting news to close VERY soon.  Everything looks good on the loan, so the owners let us get in early to start painting.  Where to start?  With 10 projects in our heads, we just started upstairs.  In two days we painted 3 bedrooms, 3 closets, one hallway and one ceiling!  (lots of wall, trim and carpet taping....that part takes the longest I think!)  Whew! But, we are “get ‘er done” type of women. 

Jack has been a great trooper (or should I say napper) these past few days.  We’ve gotten a lot accomplished in his nap times and get our errands run during his awake times.  He’s just great! Pics to come!!!!  Now, off to bed because tomorrow we finish painting the trim in my bedroom and start taking down A LOT of wallpaper....oh yay.  Can’t wait. 

Jack Update 6-7 Months Old

Jack 6.5 Months! (I wrote this on Oct. 11, but am just now posting...oops)

-Jack started crawling (well, scooting – getting on knees, making a little leap frog movement, flattening out and then getting back on knees.  Somehow he seems to get from from side of the room to the other.  Now, he does it quite quickly....although he still doesn’t look like a “real” crawl...it’s definitely considered crawling in my book.  He can even turn around and come back the other way....especially if he sees the compter in front of me...like now.  He just loves to try to get his little fingers all over these keys. 

-He doesn’t quite sit up on his own yet though.  I try to work on this, but he just leans sideways or back and wants to get movin! 

-He started eating rice and oat cereal at 5.5 months and loves it.  Just last week I started feeding him peas and green beans...oh and some prunes...for the same reason we all eat prunes..ha.   it worked. 

-He giggles more and more

-He sleeps great at night – a consistent 10-11 hours!  Still napping 3 times a day, he gets tired out easily – like his mom I guess.

-He can easily grab things, pass items from hand to hand, put it in his mouth, drop it and pick it back up. 

-I feel like he’s been “teething” for a few month: drool, fussiness, biting on things, etc but no teeth to show for it yet.

Jack 7 Months (Oct. 25)

-          Jack sits up on his own now for several minutes.  I still need to be nearby, but he takes the face-plant falls like man...that’s my boy J

-          He crawls all over – and getting faster each day! and likes to take a few "steps" on his hands and feet (see pic below).  

-          Jack snuggles into me when I kiss his little neck and it’s sooo cute.   I love it.

-          Today he took two long naps...here’s to hoping we transition to two good naps a day, instead of 3 that are a bit shorter.

-          Jack talks and blabs on and on.  Music to my ears.  He is getting close to saying dada...on purpose. 

-          He is eating all sorts of foods, like green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, spinach and even some organic puffs for a snack.  And he loves eating!