Late Night Movie

The boy LOVES to eat onions.

Bubeaner helped make dinner, fish stew, today.  He loved naming all the ingredients, smelling and, the best part, tasting them.  Of course, some he liked so much that he decided to snatch them up.  He was particularly fond of the onions.  Bubeaner ate 1/4 of a sweet onion...RAW... and enjoyed it.  Eeck!  Of course, this should not be a surprise coming from the boy that dipped his apple in the menudo during breakfast.  But at least he's eating.

Bubita just loves to eat ANYTHING she can get her hands on these days.  Bubeaner helps her out.

Bubita is also a pretty good eater.  We still can't figure out what she's allergic or intolerant to it does not appear to affect her appetite.  Officially, she's still nursing for all her meals.  But she's having a slight snack and then some cereal between her last two meals of the day.  Although that does not take into consideration Bubeaner.  Bubeaner keeps sharing with her his food.  Today he shared his Kix.  Yup, we are not sure how many she ate.  We've also rescued raisins, veggie straws, and chips in the past. 

It was wonderful to have peace and quiet even if he was watching TV.

Dadda had to work later than usual today.  We were left on our own for the evening.  And in desperation, Momma and the kiddos were obviously not feeling well, we watched an animated movie.  It worked well enough keeping the kiddos quiet until they mellowed out.  After the first 15-30 minutes they watched on and off while they played.  But they were in a much better mood.

Most of the evening they spent playing together.

Bubita went to bed without a problem at her normal time.  Bubeaner, well, he tried to milk it.  We read three books plus our prayer book.  And we even rocked and sang songs.  He was still fighting it 30 minutes past his bedtime.  Thankfully, he was not crying.  Bubeaner would just sneak back into the living room dragging his lovey behind him.  It was adorable, but not acceptable.  So back to bed we went 5-6 times until he fell asleep.... and Bubita woke up.  Sigh.  Thankfully, she fell back asleep soon afterwards.

Publish Post

Bubeaner sitting on the walker as they both stopped to watch a scene in the movie.

Three for Three, Baby!

Yup, Bubeaner is three for three in the potty department.  No, we are still not officially potty training just taking him whenever he asks or mentions he wants to go.  This morning he did wake Momma up asking to go, but sadly by the time Momma woke up enough to understand what was going on and untangled from the sheets it was too late.  Bubeaner was NOT pleased.  He was, in fact, pretty upset about it.  We still praised him for telling us.  And went about our day.

Yes, we took another celebratory picture.  Bubeaner looks so "thrilled" about it.

But then as we were walking to the nursery after bath time he suddenly said "pee potty".  Panic ensued.  Momma, who was holding Bubita wrapped in a towel grabbed his arm while trying to reach the potty on the opposite side of the house while Dadda literally dropped his computer bag (he had just walked in) and was trying to get past the child-proofing locks behind which the potty was found.  Needless to say, we were sure we had missed our shot but still sat him down.  And then we heard the most beautiful tinkleling sound to a toddler's parent's ears.  He had been able to HOLD IT!!!  Bubeaner was thrilled and even allowed another potty picture to be taken along with a round of celebratory phone calls.  Yay, Bubeaner!!!

"Momma!  Do you HAVE to take my picture NOW?!?"

That was the best way to close a good day.  It's always a good day when Bubeaner and Bubita have a good day.  Bubeaner was past whatever was bothering him yesterday.  He played most of the morning with Bubita and Meme'Licia.  He ate a good lunch and enjoyed a good, long afternoon nap.  He did wake up in the middle of it due to Bubita's fussing.  But was able to go back to sleep almost as soon as Momma laid next to him.  (It's hard to say no to a sleepy baby boy asking "Momma, night-night?")

We even managed to take a short stroll to the park and played for a little while in the playground.  Bubeaner met a new friend, Austin, while we were playing.  Austin is a little older but he was pretty patient with Bubeaner.  They laughed and managed to discover new ways to get up to the slides.  And Bubeaner over came some of his natural caution and even attempted some of the (big boy) stunts Austin was doing.  It makes us wonder if maybe Bubeaner would really enjoy school. 

Peace in the tub.  Doesn't happen often but we enjoy it when it does.

School, and when to start, has been a topic for discussion at home.  Bubeaner has not done so well at the church nursery during mass (at St. Philips) and women's group (at St. Michaels).  In fact, he would panic and meltdown.  That's one of the reason we stopped taking him.  He was so freaked out and traumatized afterwards it really didn't seem worth it.  We may start it again and see how he does now.

Bubita was pretty good today too.  The older she gets, the more we notice how much she enjoys the alone times to play, interact and even just cuddle while her brother is sleeping.  Today she really fought nap time because she was enjoying playing too much.  Hey, it's nice when no one is taking the toys away from you at every turn.  Although, she doesn't usually complain.  Thankfully, Bubita just moves on to something else. 

Bubita was delighted to have caught the cup from her brother.

And even though she fights taking naps, once she's in her crib Bubita tends to sleep without much of a fuss.  At least that's the case during the day.  But unfortunately, Momma has gotten her used to falling asleep while rocking her at night.  Tonight she refused, absolutely REFUSED (90 minutes) to fall asleep until Momma rocked her.  Bubita was asleep within 30 seconds.  Momma may have created a little monster.  But how does she know that she has to fall asleep without fussing during the day but fussing at night?!?! Kids!

Our little Snow White princess with her dark hair.  It looks like it might be black.

She's now asleep in her crib.  And soon we are sure to hear the little shuffling of feet into our room.  We have read the books, watched the interviews with psychologists/neurologist/pediatricians, and been advised by friends and family.  We know the theories.  But after much soul searching and discussion, we have decided that we are not going to fight it.  We both used to sneak into our parents' beds as children....  And eventually, we stopped.  One day too, our kids are going to grow up.  They are not going to need us, well, at least not the way they need us now.  So for now, we are going to enjoy the drool on our bed, the unexpected kick or punch, and the bed-hogging.  Some day they will be all grown up and all we will have will be the memories.

The Craziness Comes Out Sometimes

Well, there were no pictures taken today.  It was not because of lack of cuteness.  Bubeaner was quite dashing in his outfit and cool boots.  And Bubita was so adorable with her brown and pink outfit with matching brown headband and huge pink flower bow.  But even with all that cuteness, they were just difficult today. 

The original plan was to visit aunt Pau at work taking her some balloons and flowers and possibly even eating lunch with her.  We started trying to leave at 9a.  By 1030a, we had given up hope.  There was crying, whining, dressing and undressing, packing and unpacking of the diaper bag and just plain difficultness.  Bubita did most of the crying.  Bubeaner took care of the rest with his fair share of whinning and crying. 

This if from a few days ago, but pretty much the look he had all day.

On the bright side, Bubeaner used the potty again this morning.  We are 2-2!  We are still not officially potty training, but just letting him tell us when and if he wants to try the potty.  In the morning it works.  In the afternoon, he was caught squating obviously "working" on something.  He was pretty clear about his response when asked if he wanted to use the potty: "No, mmm, no, no potty." 

Bubita did manage to roll off the trundle bed in the nursery.  She only actually fell less than five inches.  How she managed to fall was the confounding thing; the trundle has a little ledge.  But then again, we should not be surprised.  The girl has been a rolling maniac the last few days.  Whenever she wants a toy or something that catches her attention, she will roll to get it.  She then rolls back to where she was or towards another toy.  She does not appear interested in crawling at this moment.  Rolling works just fine.

Bubita has such a beautiful smile.

We did enjoy a nice little afternoon walk around the neighborhood.  Bubeaner really perked up and relaxed during the walk.  Bubita was just thrilled to people watch.  We followed this by a relaxing warm bath where we let them play longer than usual.  However, even that was not enough to avoid a little meltdown at dinner from Bubeaner.  He didn't even really eat dinner.  It was just crying, crying and crying with a dose of whinning.  His bedtime may need to be pushed back... though he has not had a problem the previous nights. 

Dadda read him a few bedtime stories and sang to him before putting him to bed.  He was asleep almost before Dadda walked out of the room.  Bubita was not far behind.  For now, they are sleeping peacefully.  Let's hope for a better day tomorrow.

Potty! Potty! Potty!

Someone used the potty for the first time today!!!  As we were getting ready for the shower, Bubeaner came up  and said "Momma, pee pee!"  We immediately dropped everything and sat him in his potty.  After a few seconds we heard the tell tale tinkling!!!  Bubeaner was not shy to recognize his endeavor demanding a "bravo" for his feat.  And he got one... actually, he got a lot of bravos and screaming in joy and calling everyone to share the news.

Bubeaner on his potty with his "iPad".

A couple of weeks ago Bubeaner started asking for underwear.  We bought him some but with the clear understanding he would have to use the potty in order to wear them.  He agreed.  Then promptly told us he would NOT be using the potty when we got home.  So the underwear was put away.  We are not stressing about getting Bubeaner potty trained; we'll start worrying if he's 4 and still wearing diapers all day.  Our theory is that he will let us know when he's ready.  Maybe he's ready.

They looked so cute in the cart together. (Double children seats on carts are AWESOME!)

There was a slight miscalculation. In the excitement of getting him on the potty and followed by the celebrating, we had left an undiapered Bubita in the middle of our bed.  We were watching her the whole time so there was no fear of her rolling to the edge without us noticing.  We just sort of forgot about the diaper....  Needless to say, we had to wash the sheets.  It was a good thing all (ALL) the beds in the house have the waterproof mattress covers.  The little minx didn't even give us a hint of what she was doing.  Sigh.

Bubeaner started his nap early.

Bubita looks so peaceful napping.

 We did manage to go shopping today.  We were in desperate need of diapers, diaper wipes and other necessities.  Bubeaner was well behaved.  Of course, he was enjoying the samples at every aisle.  And since he was with his aunt Pau, he got away with eating almost everything.  Bubita lost her patience halfway through.  It was mainly because she was hungry.  Can't blame the girl for complaining.  Thankfully, we were able to remedy that fast.  Although the best part was the peace and quiet in the car on the way back.  Ah, silence is so beautiful sometimes.

Bubeaner insisted Bubita wear her camo boots too.

Bubeaner loves his boots.  He learned to put them on...though we are still working on Left versus Right.

 The rest of the afternoon was a blur since Momma took a nap trying to get rid of a bad sinus headache.  Thankfully, Meme'Licia was able to entertain the kiddos when they woke up from their nap.  Once Meme'Licia left, we spent the rest of the afternoon playing.  Bubeaner really enjoyed working on his new farm animal puzzle.  He would call out the animal name followed by making the animal sound before placing them on the board.  And he was doing it in both English and Spanish.  He also spent some time working on a puzzle uncle Ivan got him.  It's a little more advanced for his age, but he's getting better every day.  It's a little hard because he wants to do it himself without help.

Both babies in their highchairs.

 It is so much easier to prepare and enjoy dinner now that Bubita also has a high chair.  Before she would either be in the walker or the jumperoo while we prepared/ate dinner.  And we used the Bumbo to feed her.  But she would always end up on someone's lap.  Now, she sits in her chair playing and talking with Bubeaner across the table.  She's also able to enjoy some snacks too.  It was a good feeling to have her join us at the table during dinner.  It still amazes us to think that three years ago we didn't even use our table.  And now, it's full.  We are blessed.

Bubita enjoying a snack.

Bubeaner enjoying a strange concoction: cheese pizza dipped in yogurt that was mixed with pizza sauce.

Birthday Celebrations

We appear to have settled into a new Saturday routine.

Coach Morgan, Bubeaner's swim instructor, moved all her classes to Saturday due to school conflicts.  So now, Dadda is in charge of taking Bubeaner to class.  It's a good opportunity to spend some quality time together.  And Dadda is thrilled to be able to participate in Bubeaner's activities.

Bubita spending some quality time with uncle Gary and her godfather.

Bubeaner has really been practicing on his swim kicks and blowing bubbles in the tub and ballpit.  Yet, he was too easily distracted today.  Coach Morgan was not able to get much participation from him.  Bubeaner really only concentrated when it was time to put away their equipment.  No surprise there.

Bubita and Momma went off to spend the morning together running some errands.  She behaved BEAUTIFULLY!  Bubita has improved dramatically when it comes to spending time in her carseat.  But even then she does not usually cooperate when she sees people around that could be holding her.  Today, Bubita decided it would be OK to just play and interact with people even if it was from her carseat.

Bubita was literally running in her walker on the wood floors.

Either way, both kiddos were exhausted when they got home.  After a light meal, they both took a nice long afternoon nap.  This was great since we had dinner plans.  And as soon as they woke up we headed over to uncle Gary and aunt AA's home.  We were celebrating uncle Gary's birthday from earlier in the week.

Bubita in her pjs enjoying some cuddling time with aunt AA.

Sadly, with all the holidays and craziness of November and December, we had not visited in a while.  The kiddos were a little shy at first.  It took them a little while to warm up.  Soon Bubeaner was feeling at home again.  We were not sure if that was a good thing or not since he was everywhere and into everything.  Bubita was also running around in her walker.  They really enjoyed their time there.  We actually ended up leaving really late because the kiddos were playing without stop.  We usually judge time (to leave) by Bubeaner's demeanor.  This time WE were the ones to tell him.

Bubeaner and uncle Jeff.

Sunday, aunt Pau and Kyle joined us for church.  We decided to take the risk of sitting in the sanctuary.  Bubeaner did GREAT!  He did move a bit, but it's the first time he has not tried to compete with the priest during the sermon.  Grandma Ellen gave us some finger puppet at Christmas; they were a great help.  And not to be outdone, Bubita was excellent too.  She stayed in her car seat just asking to be held towards the end.

Bubeaner "driving" his godfather's truck.  He LOVED it!

Afterward we went to aunt Pau's birthday lunch.  We learned that Bubeaner really likes steamed dumplings and basil eggrolls.  That's all he would eat.  This was the also first time Bubita sat in a highchair.  She did pretty good.  The only problem was that she thought she could lounge in the chair.  It was so big that she was in danger of sliding out.

Happy Birthday aun Pau!  (Bubeaner looks concerned about the candles.)

While aunt Pau and Momma went to buy Bubita her own highchair, Bubeaner and Bubita stayed with Dadda, uncle Jeff and Kyle.  Bubeaner was pretty well behaved.  Bubita.... Well, Bubita pretty much spent the 2 hours torturing and tormenting the men.  Yes, they suffered.  From the reports, she cried non-stop, only wanting to be held while being walked.  Of course, she behaved beautifully once Momma was there.  Bubita and Bubeaner behaved wonderfully through the rest of the evening.

Helping aunt Pau cut the cake.

They particularly enjoyed helping aunt Pau blow out the candles on her cake. Bubeaner went to bed without a problem even considering all the sugar from the frosting and cake.  Bubita was another story.  She refused to go to sleep.  But she was able to join us to watched Miss America (family tradition) on DVR.  She was asleep half way through; it was all good.

Busy Bubeaners

The kiddos are doing great now that we are settling back into a routine after the craziness of December.  We added up the days we were out of town; we were at our home a total of 9 days that month!  It's no wonder the kiddos had some issues readjusting.

We were quick to start them back on their daytime routine including naps.  Bubita takes two short naps in the morning and evening.  But she is now taking her long afternoon nap with Bubeaner.  That has appeared to have helped with their nighttime routine.  Bubita has slept for 12-13 hours every night the last two days.  Twelve to thirteen hours!!!  A the wonder of a good night's sleep. 

Bubeaner loves his new warm jacket.  

Of course, there has been another change.  We have a nightly visitor to our bedroom.  Every night this week we have heard the shuffling of little feet followed by the "Momma night-night" or "Dadda night-night".  It's not ideal; however, he falls right back to sleep and is now not moving as much when he sleeps.  We have debated using the baby gate to keep him in the nursery.  The concern is that he will cry or raise his voice to get our attention thereby waking up Bubita.  We can deal with sharing our bed so long as we can sleep. A startled-awake Bubita does not allow us to sleep.  Dilemma.  Dilemma.

Poor little bundled Bubita.  At least, she is warm.

We have also resumed our daily routine of a daily walk.  It has been moved up to earlier in the day taking into consideration how COLD it has been lately.  And it has helped a lot with attitude issues.  The kiddos, especially Bubeaner, are in a much better mood if we go for a walk.  Not surprisingly, the only other people we run into on our walks, specially the coldest days, are other parents with young children.

Our two little helpers.  Notice Sandy keeps an eye on them from a safe distance.

 
And Bubeaner has become a little harder to deal with now that he is in his Terrible-Twos stage.  He's still a good kid and pretty easy going.  But there have been changes.  For one, he has suddenly become a really picky eater.  It is a hard transition from Bita's awesome home-cooked meals to Momma's, well, just meals.  But today Momma got the idea of letting him help her make his meal.  He has helped out before while we make dessert and he loved it.  The plan was that if he helped make it he would be more interested in eating it.  It worked!  We are planning on letting him help more often.  Hey, he may even grow up loving to cook, something Momma does not enjoy doing usually.  Although working with the Bubeaner made cooking fun.

Bubeaner is pretty good about putting his things in their place.

We have also been facing a new problem.  Bubeaner does not like to share with Bubita.  That would not be a great problem if he just refused to share his toys.  The problem is he refuses to let Bubita play with her own toys!  Sigh.  We've been working on it a little every day.  Thankfully, he has not taken to hitting Bubita... yet.  Let's hope that continues.  He has, however, taken to "spanking" Momma and Daddy saying "no, no, no".  We are a little baffled as to where he got this since we don't spank.  Interesting.

A happy, silly, Bubeaner.  He's developed quite a sense of humor.

As to Bubita, the girl is determined to be a big girl.  Anything and everything her brother does she has to do too.  The other day she managed to grab a crayon while Bubeaner was coloring.  And she actually looked at the coloring book and then back at the crayon before attempting to eat it.  With Bubita, most things appear to be good snack material. 

Bubita loves her brother, but gets pretty miffed with him at times.

Bubita's favorite past time involves doing laps around the house in her walker.  Now that she has finally mastered walking one foot at a time (before she did the two foot jump), she's getting pretty fast.  Thankfully, she still cannot move on carpet.  That pretty much limits her access to the family room-kitchen area and the hallways.  A lot less for her to get into trouble this way... at least for now.

Chillin' with the homeys.

She is not crawling yet.  But Bubita is now a pro at sitting on her own.  And she wants to be sitting all the time.  It does give her greater access to the things around her.  She's even started enjoying playing with some of her toys while sitting as opposed to just trying to eat them.  At times, Bubeaner even plays with her.  Well, they play together for a little while before Bubeaner decides to take the toys away from Bubita.  But we are working on that.  And he does enjoy entertaining her.  This week Bubeaner discovered Bubita thought it was funny when he accidentally hit himself.  Well, he spent a good 15 minutes pretending to hurt himself (a la the Three Stooges) making her laugh hysterically. 

Ah, the rare occasions of harmony.

A Calm Friday

The kiddos did great today.  Both of them slept decently.  Bubeaner had some talking-in-his-sleep incidents, but otherwise actually slept 13 hours.  That's impressive for him.  But he did sleep in the pack-and-play in our room.  But, as long as he (and us) sleeps through the night, we really don't care WHERE he sleeps so long as he sleeps.  Well, we might care if he is 12 and still sleeping in our bedroom.

Bubita did quite well too.  She did not sleep 12 hours but came pretty close.  She also did not sleep in her bassinet.  What is up with our children refusing to sleep in their beds?  Strange kiddos.  Or maybe just normal....

All that basically meant we had a pretty good, calm Friday.  It also helped that we really did not have any activities planned for today other than Bubeaner's dance & tumbling class.  We actually had some issues with the first part of the class.  Momma made the mistake of taking away the box of raisins, with the last three raisins, from Bubeaner right as we got off the car.  We may have just as well pinched the child for all the screaming and crying.  It was three raisins!  Bubeaner cried in class, refused to participate and at one point even attempted to play with the props.  That's a big No-No for coach Michelle.  We ended up just sitting outside the classroom watching everyone else have fun. 

In a strange way, it was a little reassuring that other little kids that are normally well behaved were having meltdowns too.  Misery likes company?  Or maybe just a reminder that kids are just kids and they sometimes have bad moments.  Bubeaner did participate in the second part of the class.  He did great.  In fact, he actually tried the balance beams several times along with jumping on the trampoline.  Bubeaner is light years away in his motor skills from when we started the class just a couple of months ago.  He even tried, TWICE, rolling on this huge wheel that forced him to do a somersault at the end!  Twice!  Did we mention he did it twice?!?

Well not to be outdone, Bubita decided to show off her mad skills on the walker.  She was doing great moving back per usual.  When suddenly she saw Momma and decided to follow her... moving FORWARD.  We thought it might have been a coincidence so Momma moved 90 degrees to the left and several steps back.  Bubita changed direction and took steps towards Momma again.  So just to make sure it was definitely NOT a coincidence, Momma once again moved 90 degrees to the left and several steps back.  Bubita did it again.  She now has enough coordination and strength to move herself in whichever direction she pleases.  Lord help us, the girl is MOBILE!

For now both little ones are sleeping.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be another enjoyable day.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Every Where

Everything in moderation.  That is a good rule to live by all the time.  Wish we had thought of that before buying 70 pounds of pumpkins.  And it did not help matters that Momma decided it was too much pumpkin to just throw away.  So now, the house reeks (smell is too mild) of pumpkin.  But at least Bubeaner enjoyed helping out preparing them for and the seeds. 

Actually Bubeaner was not thrilled with scrapping the seeds and other gunk.  At one point he actually cried.  In this, he is his mother's son.  Momma was completely grossed out... and she had no problem dissecting a cat in school.  Bubeaner did stick around to supervise our work.  He did enjoy cleaning the seeds.  Well, Bubeaner mainly enjoyed playing with the water.  The best part was that he was helping out.  He loves helping out.  Immediately after, he enjoyed (and needed) a bath.

He was in a much better mood today.  It could be because he actually slept through the entire night!  We are not sure if it was because he slept in the crib or some other unknown factor.  We don't care.  He's sleeping again.  And as things work in our home, that means Bubita did not sleep last night.

Bubita is still doing great with her naps during the day.  However, last night for some reason she woke up at 1a and then again at 6a to eat.  We are hopeful that this may be due to a growth spurt.  She was still in a good mood during the day.  There are few things that really upset Bubita so long as she gets food when she wants.

And thankfully, most of our day was like that today.  Living with children, we are finding out, is like dealing with Texas weather; it changes drastically day by day.  It's never boring.

Deja Vu

So, we took two steps forward and now are taking one step back....

We tried Dr. Z's tips and they worked.  Bubita is taking several 1-1.5 hour naps during the day.  It's wonderful.  And Bubita slept longer, almost 13.5 hours, the last two nights too and in her bassinet!  Previously, she had to sleep in her stroller.  She's also been doing great eating more solid foods.  Bubita has been eating half a container of apple sauce.  She could probably eat the entire container if we let her.  We are starting her on other foods, a different one per week, next week.  We might start with homemade pumpkin or sweet potato puree; we have quite a bit of it at home.

Today was a pajamas day.

 That's usually code for 

not-a-good-day-lets-keep-them-in-pjs-and-hope-for-the-best. 

Of course, some how that inversely correlates with Bubeaner's digressing on almost every aspect.  He had been sleeping so well in his big boy bed, but the last few days Bubeaner has been waking up multiple times during the night crying or wanting to play.  Twice, someone (we rotated) had to sleep in the room with him.  Unfortunately that also meant that parents, along with Bubeaner, did not sleep well.  This makes for cranky parents and REALLY cranky Bubeaner.  He has been acting up a lot.

Boobers (aka Sandy) is the only one not having issues, yet.

Doesn't she look strikingly adorable?

We are not sure if it's directly related, but Bubeaner has also been eating less.  A lot less.  Even his favorites are not working.  Oh, he still eats but mainly one semi-decent meal a day only.  And we have been having to hound him to drink his water too.  Usually, he drinks about 2.5 sippy cups (20+ ounces) a day.  The last two days he may have had one sippy cup a day... maybe.  He has also been complaining of "ouchies" on his head and today his lower back too.  We are not sure if he is really in pain or if he's just using his new favorite word.  (This past week he has been using ouchie a lot any time he has hit himself, fallen, or even for things that cause him discomfort.  He also knows Momma thinks it's adorable when he says it.)  Sigh.

Don't let that cute face deceive you. 

We really wish children came with a manual and translation device really would be useful too.

For tonight, Bubita is sleeping back on her stroller after refusing to go to sleep at 6, 630, 7, 730, 8, 830...  and Bubeaner is back to sleeping in his crib.   Tomorrow we will see what happens.

DEJA VU
(Doesn't it look familiar?)

Click Here

The Wiggle Worm Strikes Back

"Ah, sister.  You were wise to keep her from me."

The stare down continues.  Who shall prevail?

A truce is declared.

Phew, that was hard work.

Love is a CHOICE!

Eight years ago Dad and Momma vowed to love, comfort, honor and keep each other, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon each other our heart's deepest devotion, forsaking all others for as long as we both should live.

 2002

Moving into our first apartment

Since then, we have learned a deeper appreciation of the vows we spoke that day.  We understand them a little better.  We know we have a long way to go still.  We have also learned the importance of putting our marriage first not letting work, hobbies, other responsibilities, and yes, even our precious babies, from devoting special time to our marriage.  We've surrounded ourselves with other couples who help us grow in our marriage.  Because the most important thing we have learned in the last eight years is that LOVE IS A CHOICE!  And every day, we choose to love each other and live the vows we made years ago.

2007

Pre-Babies, enjoying the Irish countryside

And in the end, that is the best we can do for our children allowing them the opportunity to grow up in a family with both of their parents hopefully learning that it is a blessing to find a partner to walk along with you in this life.  But that marriage is a commitment that requires daily work and a conscious effort to love one another.
 

2010

We are grateful for the years we have faced together and look towards the time ahead of us grateful for the many blessings in our lives, for each other, for our children, and for our parents who taught us by example.

Fall's In The Air

We woke up to a nice cool fall day.  It actually helped speed us up this morning.  We were running a little behind getting to Bubita's 2-month appointment.  And that was before Momma realized both car seats had to be reinstalled after Coco's spa day (tune up and cleaning).  For some reason, it always takes twice as long to do it when we are in a hurry.

Someone is feeling a little left out perhaps? 

Dr. Z is going to fire us one day for being late.  We are hoping she's giving us a break since we used to be early when it was just Bubeaner.

Bubeaner did great today.  He was not scared, though he was not necessarily completely at ease with the nurses.  Bringing him in to the doctor's office when Bubita has the check ups has helped ease his anxiety about the place.  Today he even stayed in the room while Bubita got her vaccines, or her ouchies as Bubeaner called them; he was adorable and kissed her afterwards.

Still amazed he can fit his legs in the Bumbo.

Bubita is doing great.  Our little baby is not as little as we like to pretend.  She measures 25.5 inches in length; a little tall for her age since she's in the 95th percentile still.  But she has trimmed some of the extra weight, not that it's noticeable from the beautiful double chin, chubby cheeks and ticklish thunder thighs.  She's now almost 14 pounds putting her still above average in the 75th percentile.  Her noggin is still larger than most at 16.25 inches (75%) but not as large as Bubeaner's.  Everything else looked great: reflexes, eye contact, ears, nose, heart, throat, etc.  We were definitely able to confirm that two little bottom teeth are coming out.  We got a good view of them when she cried during her vaccines.

Ah, his father's son!

He must add salsa to everything.

Dr. Z gave us some tips on getting Bubita to take more naps during the day which we will try immediately.  She also gave the thumbs up on solid foods.  Bubita has already been taking 1/4 of a tablespoon of applesauce for almost a month with her Prilosec.  Now she can have 2-3 tablespoons once a day.  And we can start trying other foods!  Bubita is going to absolutely love it.  She complains every night  after she finishes her medicine.  It will also make it harder when we eat around her.  Bubita already makes us feel bad because she stares at our food and us eating during meals.  But she will probably already be upset with us because of the formula.  Dr. Z gave us some tips on getting Bubita used to drinking the formula hopefully allowing Dad and Momma to take a couple-only little break sometimes in the future.  She suggested we try combining a small amount of formula with breatmilk at least once a day slowly increasing the amount.  Dr. Z said that even if that did not work, Bubita would eventually give in and take the bottle if that was the only option.  We are still skeptical about this.

From her other symptoms, it appears that Bubita may just have some allergy issues rather than full out asthma.  Phew.  That means that for now we only have to worry about the lactate and soy allergies.  And this may be temporary just like Bubeaner who now enjoys eating cheese and yogurt every day, if not every meal.  (And who says God doesn't have a wicked sense of humor?)  This leads us to Bubita's BM problems of the last month.  Bubita now has normal BMs after trying the lactation consultant's suggestion of either pumping 5 minutes before nursing or starting nursing on the same side all day, alternating on the starting side every day rather than every feeding.  It appears she was getting not enough hind milk.  Of course, that still did not explain the green color.... at least it didn't until Dad caught Momma eating a chocolate bar last night and asked about the MILK chocolate she was ingesting!!!

Bubita being tormented tickled by her aunt.

About a month ago, about the time Bubita's problem started, Momma bought the candy for Bubeaner's birthday party and Halloween.  And since then she's been sneaking a piece of candy here and there.  For an intelligent woman who watches every ingredient of anything she puts in her mouth because of Bubita's allergies, this can only be explained as a brain fart.  Meme'Licia was nice and said it may just have been a subconscious block since Momma wanted chocolate.  Why couldn't the block have been over a nice blue cheese crumble on a steak instead.  Sigh.  So, Dr. Z was correct.  It was, in part, Momma's diet.  At least now we know and can address it.  For now no more chocolate for Momma, and hopefully no more problems for Bubita.

Bubita might have cared had she not been feeling poorly after her vaccines.  She gets a low grade fever and sleeps most of the day.  Poor munchkin.  We hate to see her unwell, but we do it hoping to prevent her even more problems.  This is also the reason we debated going to visit great aunt Raquel today.  But her sister great aunt Bani was in town visiting and she leaves tomorrow morning.  We don't know when we will be able to visit her so we made the 40-mile (60-90+ minutes, depending on traffic) drive.

 Now, this is the way to get love.

Bubita with aunt Raquel.

It's during these excursion that we remember how far away we actually now live.  But it was worth it to spend a little bit of time with them.  Bubeaner even behaved a little.  He entertained the aunts with his antics.  At one point he tried and finally succeed in seating himself in the Bumbo!  The boy has scrawny, but cute, legs.  And Bubita was in a pretty good mood too.  It did help that they had both had their baths before we left and were in their comfortable pajamas.  The nap on the way down probably did not hurt either.  Bubita napped for the entire 90 minutes.  Surprisingly it was not that difficult to leave; we were worried about Bubeaner having a meltdown and Bubita crying all the way back.  Bubita was asleep within minutes and Bubeaner was not far behind.  The transfer to their beds once we arrived was pretty easy too with minimal interruptions and problems.  Now, let's just hope for a restful and peaceful night's sleep for all.