Happy 5th and Halloween!

Sheesh! i've been trying to keep up with this blog but once i start getting into the swing of things, it's time to feed Mos again. This every 2 hour feeding bit is difficult.... Melon has already known this so why is she acting like it's a surprise? Also, why am i referring to myself in 3rd person? Lack of sleep will do strange things to a person.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to Leelai! I love how the simple things in life make a child happy. She didn't want a huge party nor did she want any major gifts. A simple trip to Chuck E Cheese with a few loved ones is what she really wanted... thank goodness.

I have to say, on top of having a solid supportive family, we have the bestest friends in the world too. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy weekday schedules to come out and celebrate with us!

For Leelai's actual birthday, we dressed up in costumes, ate spaghetti and pie, and went trick-or-treating. This gets more fun as each year goes by. I remember last year, the kids attention spans were at zero after only about 3 houses. This year, they walked up to each house by themselves and were willing to do more. Unfortunately, my old ass was already tired and wanted to just eat more pie.

The costume plan for this little guy was suppose to be "Baby Moses in a basket".... get it? I couldn't find a Moses basket in time so we just let him be the sleeping bandit instead.

Getting ready to Trick or Treat!

SuperGirl and a LadyBug!

As i usually do, you can see the rest of the pictures i took of the fabulous events by just CLICKING HERE!

He's here!

Yay! Our little Moses is finally here! Before anything else let me give you his stats.

Born: Oct. 11

Time: 8:21 pm

7lbs. 15 oz.

19 inches long

He has a mix of both Leelai and Jam's features with Papa's hands and feet.

Let me just share the events that led up to this guys birth. Saturday morning I felt like my water may have broke but as the morning went by, I didn't have any signs of going into labor or any more fluid leaking. After talking to Bina and Mitor (with the help of Krista also) I decided to just go to the hospital to get checked just in case. Plus, i tested positive for Strep B which means I would need to be treated with antibiotics for at least 4 hours prior to delivery. So, if my water was broken, i should have already started on these antibiotics. My parents watched Leelai and Jam while I drove to the hospital. I was really hoping that everything was still intact and that they would just send me home. So, i get to the hospital at about 2:30 pm and they checked me and tested to see if my water was leaking. After the test was done, the nurse tells me that my bag of waters is still in tact, BUT i was having contractions every 4 minutes and each contraction was lasting about 1 minute long. She then checks my cervix and said that i was 3 1/2 - 4 cm dilated already. I was like "WHAT!" i totally did not feel any contractions going on. On the other hand, I was a couple of days overdue and feeling a constant achyness in my pelvis so i probably couldn't tell the difference between the two. So now the nurse hooked me up to an IV, started the antibiotics, and moved me on to the delivery room. My contractions were progressing but i was hardly feeling anything! At 7 cm, the doctor decided to break my water. The nurse kept asking "on a scale of 1-10, what's your pain level?" i was like "uh.... 2, maybe 3". I was trippin that the contractions were hardly anything to me! But from that point (after they broke my water), I switched positions onto my side and things started to really move along. I would probably guess that i had maybe 5-7 contractions from that point until i had the baby. The first 2 felt like regular contractions that I had to breathe through. The 3rd contraction, I started to feel pressure on my lower back. By the last few contractions, I was screaming like a real woman in labor. It was really intense and happening so fast that i was yelling "IT'S COMING OUT!!!!". Right then all the lights turned on, the room filled with all these nurses, the bed i was resting in all of a sudden turned into a chair-like contraption with stirrups and handles. Instruments were out, the baby warmer was out, and the nurse kept telling me to just breathe and to take control of the labor. I could have kicked her in the face. All we needed at this point was my doctor!!! The nurses were scrambling to find him and in the meantime, i'm still yelling "IT'S COMING OUT!" .... along with other profanity that i can't say on here. Finally my doctor comes in and says "Okay, push if you need to push" as he washes his hands and puts on his doctor gear. After a painful episiotomy (the numbing shot didn't kick in fast enough) and a push, out he came. The BEST feeling ever! The whole event (from when i went in, until he was born) all took about 5-6 hours.
Things are great here at home. Poor Jam is so confused about the little guy. She seemed so little before Moses was born, but now she looks like a giant amazon baby. Leelai is wonderful big sister and just loves to hold him. So now, pictures! The uploader is acting funny on this thing so for the full album, just click here!

So what's new?

It's been real busy these past few weeks. Leelai started Kindergarten and has been totally loving it! Silly me thought i had pictures of her first day of school, but (blame it on the pregnant brain) there was no memory stick in the darn camera. I think my dad has a few pictures i can steal. All i can say is that she is adorable in a school uniform and she's not bothered at all that she has to wear one to school. She's also started soccer and loves it too. And for someone who's had basically no experience in soccer, she is doing so well! Again, my wonderful dad has some great pictures of the team in action. So far, they've tied their first game and won the second game.... even though we're not suppose to keep score cause it's only a U6 league.

Jam has been through many changes herself. She is as silly, as silly can get... sneaky, as sneaky can get..... and naughty, as naughty can get. She's a hand full and we love her for it! Her newest thing is throwing tantrums but they never last long. She'll just sit down and scream for a few seconds and then she's over it. And i know i'm always talking about her teeth but man... does she have teeth! 16 in fact! And she uses them like a pro. She'll try to eat everything from pen caps to Cody's dog food (gross).

Well, this is us in a nut shell! For now it's just waiting till #3 comes along. And speaking of which, i had a doctors appointment yesterday and all he could say was "the heads down", "baby sounds good", and "see you next week".

I took this pic of me this morning. Hopefully next week i'll have the baby out of the belly and over into my arms.

Legoland!

This place is the best! Let me just say that i'm 8 months pregnant, i didn't get to ride any rides, i forgot my sunglasses at the hotel, i needed to pee and take breaks every 20 minutes or so.. and still, this place was waaaaayyyyyy funner than any other amusement park we've been to by far!
Lolo, Lola, and the Juarez gals were able to join us on our trip. Thank God for that cause i really believe Leelai had soooo more fun than if she had just been by herself.

Mini-manny enjoys Miniland.

I know the faces look small here but this is good ol' Lolo n Lola taking the kids on Coastersauras. The ride looked pretty fast but the kids loved it! They are way more daring than we were when we were their age. Jill takes the cake when it comes to daring. She was down to do whatever Jackie wanted to do and she barely made the height limit on some of the rides.

The baby with many chompers enjoys the scenery. (update on Jam: she's walking , babbling, and has 12 teeth)

I'm gonna try something new. I uploaded all the pictures onto Shutterfly so you can see them all here. But on this blog i wanna share all the video clips. Hopefully it goes well cause this thing uploads real slow.





This clip is of Leelai and Joie driving. They did so well at avoiding traffic jams and slow drivers. When their turn was up, they got out of their cars and spent 2 minutes hi-fiveing each other.

The professionals got their license!

The girls all locked up. I've never felt safer around them.

This is of Joie and Leelai waiting for the little bucket to splash water on them. The water area was definitely the best part of the whole park.

Okay, Jackie and Jill are in this structure somewhere. This is the biggest splash i have ever seen! Manny and I wanted soooo badly to jump in on the fun.

This is a classic! Look at Joie in this one (sitting on Lolo's right side). She looks like she's about to toss her churros! I didn't catch it in the clip, but in the end, she opens her eyes and raised her hands in the air as if the ride was a piece of cake. Crazy Jill and Mar, on the other hand, had the time of their life! Leelai actually cheated cause she rode this ride already with her Papa so she knew what to expect.

All in all, we had a blast! In the end, we all went back to our hotel for some Chinese food, cookies, and milk.

The last week of being a preschooler

Honestly, when did time decide to fast forward all of a sudden?


This week is the last week of Leelai going to pre-school. I'm gonna miss those crazy teachers, but not for long cause next fall, Jam will be old enough to start going there! I know that sounds early but that's about the same time Leelai started going to that school... which was about January of 05. Let me show you comparison pictures.

June 05 Concert

June 08 Concert

I remember first bringing her there and she was one of the smallest fries in the school. The big 4 year olds intimidated the hell out of me. I use to think "they better be carefully around her or i'm kicking some 4 year old butt!" Now, she's the 4 year old that looks like a monster kid next to the tiny 2 year olds. This past June was her last Concert and Pre-school Graduation. She and a fellow classmate recited a short bible verse, and she really sang her heart out unlike her first concert where she mostly sat there and shyly looked around.

"teach me God what is good, and I will do"

Receiving her diploma

Eating fruit with a couple of homies

Her pre-k teacher Ms. Mary

Her old crazy crack-head teacher Ms. Krys (we love her!)

Genetics is a hell of a thing....

Twins... i love it!

Darling dancer

I totally need to post this.... i'm a jerk for not posting them earlier! Leelai had a ballet recital at the begining of summer. The class she took was with the city and the recital wasn't exactly a huge thing, but it showed what they learned during the 10 week session. This was kind of a test to see if she would take the class alone with me not being there with her. I wasn't about to spend all kinds of money and send her to a "real" dance class and have her not participate. I'm so glad she passed! Not only did she participate, but she received a couple of certificates for being a "good listener", and for "ballerina of the day". So anyhoo, enough talk (or typing?) and here are some pictures. We were so happy to have the Juarez clan and Lolo (gout and everything) to come watch her performance.

Ms. Barbie gave a small pep talk before the performance.

They did turns in pairs. She's the smaller one in this picture.

Receiving her certificate of completion.

Getting her many congrats from the clan.

Joie and Mar

And finally, a picture with the girls who inspired her dance career.

Happy Birthday Jam!

Killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Last Sunday, we celebrated Jam's Baptism and Birthday celebration together. It was a wonderful warm day and the baptismal ceremony was short and strait to the point. There were only 2 babies celebrating so we felt really special. Afterwards, we the birthday party at Lolo and Lola's house. Lots of friends and family came to celebrate and we had the best time! Poor Leelai was sick but still hung in there and played with her friends. Jam was so amped with all the festivities that she only took 1 nap and didn't sleep til 10 o'clock at night.

Auntie Cel feeding the Jam puto.

I don't have a better picture of the cake but it was Backyardigans themed. Very cute i must say (thanks Bina!) and it was chocolate with banana filling.... yumm...

I'm gonna try to upload all the pictures to shutterfly and post up the album here.

Patience, one day at a time.

Bina has a really good post about why certain people (in this case, youth) just plain get on our nerves. Bottom line is that they have certain characteristics that you disliked about yourself at that age (or even at your current age). I LOVE my Leelai to death, but there are things that she does and says that reminds me of the little "attention!attention!"/"cry to get what i want" person that i use to be (use to? hmm.). Another thing that i forgot that i use to do was wake my dad up at night to tell him random things. Where is this leading to?
Leelai woke me up in the middle of last night. Here's how the conversation went.

leelai: "mommy, we have to get a cape so i can be super fast like SuperSnap."

me: (i'm thinking "WTF... who the hell is SuperSnap?" but my real word were..) "honey, ask me again when the sun is up"

leelai: "But mommy, we have to stop the robot!"

me: (realizing she's talking about Backyardigans) " babe, Tasha already stopped the robot."

leelai: "No, i'm Tasha!"

me: "Alright then, go to sleep Tasha!"

At this point i remembered Bina's post (and briefly cursed her for it).

me: "honey, we'll get a cape in the morning. here, have my habul for now, and let's sleep."

Summer

There are so many pictures and events i need to share. There was Leelai's Dance Recital, my mom's retirement, my parents new dog named Cody and um, hmm.... other stuff but i can't remember right now. Since down loading may take too long, i'll just create a link to shutterfly for ya'll to see. But that will be the next post. A few updates about the kids:
Jam sprouted a molar and at the same time had croup. She was a miserable mess last week but is almost 100% better now! She's taking steps, but it totally has to be on her own accord. When we try to do the "walk to mama" thing, she'll crawl in the other direction and think it's funny.
Leelai is a little mermaid now! She finally gained the confidence to hold her breath and swim with her face in the water but with goggles though. I stole Bina's method of getting her to hold her breath by dunking her head to see how many finger i have up under water. It worked great and now we have the game of making funny faces at eachother underwater.
We totally love summer!

The funnest freaking party EVER!

Our little ageless Jill turned a whopping 7 this past weekend. God bless her and the beetle she uses to steal youth from others. It was the ultimate Girls birthday party! The gals got there "hairs did", "make-up did", and "nails did". They danced, sang, and ate the biggest cup cakes i've ever seen. And now, the pictures....




Diva's before..

Diva's After...

Mar and Joie did soo well while waiting for their turn to get their hair and make up done. I was really impressed with how well all their hair turned out!

Dance...

Joie was hilarious! She knew all the songs they played and she totally sang her heart out!

mmmm.... cup cakes..... or better yet, Costco cup cakes......

Bina's blog

So i was going through Bina's Blog today and came across this picture. This is just pure madness i tell ya, and the numbers are increasing by the month. It's a 5 foot diameter pool of baby skin. I was laughing at this picture too cause all the kiddies look so old now compared to this picture.... except for Jill! That kid never ages! I can't wait for summer to start. I doubt that all of us can fit into the jacuzzi now. We're just to massive of a family.