13 Months

Diego had sort of a rough 13th month of life. He was pretty sick for over a week, and the crankiness seemed to really linger, until Eddie and I figured out he was having trouble with cow's milk. We switched him to Next Step Formula and he is back to his happy-go-lucky self! We'll bring back the milk a little later, apparently after having stomach illness kids can have trouble digesting the milk for a while, which can cause further upset stomach. For now, we're good with the formula instead. Diego is such a happy boy! He is all smiles and giggles and is mimicking everything we do. Even if he can't say the actual words we say, he makes the sound. He squeals with delight if we chase after him, or if he chases after us. He even enjoys the company of the dog a little more now, although she still thinks of him as her own personal playtime buddy and licks his face and ears constantly, which promptly annoys Diego! They are getting better though. We've taken him over to the new house several times and he LOVES it! Of course, right now its still pretty much empty so we just crawl around playing with the toys over there, but its fun nonetheless. He also loves the stairs! We will definitely be investing in some good baby gates, and if any of you momma's out there have some recommendations on which gates are best for stairs, let me know!

When I took Diego to his 1 year well child checkup, the Doctor asked me if he pointed at things. I was a little dumbfounded and said no. I had never witnessed him pointing at things, although had recently noted other babies around his age were pointing at various things. When I said no, the Doctor said we would have to recheck at his next appointment, so what does a first time mother do? I freaked out about it! Talked to all my friends, family, looked it up on the internet, looked it up in "what to expect the Toddler years", etc. Well, a month later, he finally points! He points at the ceiling fans and says "fan", he points at random things just to point...I am happy and my mind is at ease. Now, I'm just waiting for him to walk. Although I'm sure once he does, I'll be wishing he still was just crawling. :)

Right now, Diego's favorite bedtime story is Goodnight Moon and his favorite part of the story is "the quiet old lady whispering hush". Everytime I read him this story he smiles, kicks his feet and says "hush" when I read that part. He will even pick it up and say hush while he looks at it himself. He really loves to look at books and magazines, turning pages is his favorite! He also just learned how to point to his nose when asked "where is your nose?" Too cute!

All in all, we are so lucky to have such a blessing in our lives. Diego adds so much to our lives and we have so much fun together! Soon we'll be in a new house with a big yard to explore, can't wait for spring and summer!

SOLD!

We've had quite a week. In the midst of all three of us being sick, we received news of two possible offers coming in on the house. Talk about thrilled! After having only 1 showing in the first month on the market, we lowered the price of the house by $5,000 and within the next week we had a few calls! The first expected offer didn't come in, however, the second one did...and we accepted! They actually offered just above what we were asking and we are paying NOTHING out of pocket for the closing...can you believe it? We are so excited to move and so happy with how everything has worked out. We are so blessed.

Here is a picture of the front of the new house! I found this picture on the county assessor's office, so I think its at least a few years old, so the plants in the front are much more mature, but its a beautiful house and we are so excited! I'm hoping to get some pics of the inside soon, before we move all our junk in!

Homemade Pedialyte

Homemade Pedialyte

1 qt Water

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

4-8 tsp sugar

Why would I need to know how to make homemade pedialyte? Well, my poor child started throwing up last night around 11. It is truly and completely heartbreaking to see your child throw up. I cried right along with him. I knew something was up. He hasn't been himself for a few days now and last night he had a really hard time getting to sleep, which really frustrated me. After he had been in bed for 2 hours, he woke up coughing and crying so I went in to get him and snuggle in my bed with him. Eddie had just come home from work and while he was walking around our room getting ready for bed he looked over and realized Diego was awake and had a strange scared look in his face. A few seconds later he was sort of gagging and then started throwing up. The poor little guy. I can only imagine what could have been going through his head as he started feeling nauseated or when his dinner started coming back out. Not sure how it happened, but I didn't care one bit that he barfed all over me. I guess its part of being a Momma. Then I felt really guilty about being frustrated that it took him so long to get to sleep. He never saw my frustration, but I still felt guilty. He just didn't know how to tell me he wasn't feeling good. He wasn't upset when he was trying to go to sleep, he just couldn't. He woke up again at 3 am and acted like he was hungry or thirsty, so I tried to give him a bit of a bottle and he got sick again. Then again at 7:30 this morning. I called the Dr and after they asked their series of questions, determined that it wasn't necessary for me to bring him in but I needed to give him pedialyte, or make my own. Then they proceeded to tell me I should give him 2 tsps of my homemade pedialyte every 2 minutes, yes 2 minutes. Seemed like a lot to me, but I did it. Sometimes it was 4 or 6 minutes but as long as he wasn't sleeping, for the next 8 hours I gave him the mixture. He was a really good sport about it and since he was snuggling on the couch with me most of the day anyway, it wasn't hard to give it to him. We read books, we played with some toys and he slept for about 4 hours. The Dr had said to avoid giving him anything but clear liquids until he had gone 8 hours without vomiting. After he woke up from his nap, I decided to give him a cracker, cause it had been 8 hours. The little man was hungry! Usually when I give him a cracker he crushes it and makes a big fun mess, but he took tiny, meticulous bites and went through three crackers leaving nothing but a few crumbs on his tray! And thank goodness, he kept them down. He also drank a ton of water and then actually played for a while on the floor before having more crackers and a bit of yogurt. He was asleep by 7 tonight, and hopefully tomorrow he'll be a bit more like himself.

Birthday Party!

The Guest of Honor



The Decorations

The Invitation

(made especially for Diego by Stephanie of Creature Bug)

The Cake (its supposed to be a caterpillar)

Our Two Happiest Little Guests

(my Nephew Jagger on top, and Reed on the bottom)

The day before the party, I decided Diego needed a fun birthday balloon for the party, so he and I went to party depot and I picked out a big mylar balloon that says "Look Who's 1." We brought it home in the car and took it into the kitchen. It was naptime, so he took his nap and when he woke up we went to see Rachel's new house. When we returned home from that trip and came inside, all of a sudden he was PETRIFIED of the balloon. I pulled it down from the ceiling so he could look at it and he clawed into me like it was a big monster! I had to take it into another room so he couldn't see it while we ate dinner. The next morning, as Eddie and I were getting things ready for the party, Diego was playing with his toys and every once in a while he would look up to the ceiling and cry and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I remembered the balloon was up there and so grabbed it to move it to the back bedroom and out of sign. Well, this apparently came across to him as the balloon was going to get me and he just lost it! I came back and picked him up and he just kept crying. I took him down the hallway to his room to change his diaper, crying the whole way, and he peered into the hallway like the balloon might jump out and grab him, but then he realized it was out of sight, yet still he was clearly upset by it. Now, even when I say the word balloon, he looks up to see if its around. Hopefully he will forget about the darn thing soon, and maybe I'll forget about the $9 I spent on it as it sits in our back room waiting to be deflated and disposed!!

Eddie and I were really worried because after the whole balloon incident, Diego refused to take his morning nap. We were just sure he would melt down during the party, but he did GREAT! He had so much fun and not a peep out of the little guy. He had friends and cousins to play with and tons of new toys. We served Taco Soup lunch for everyone, followed by opening presents (mostly me, Sawyer and Jagger with very little help from Diego) and then cake. Diego had fun eating his cupcake and didn't make too big of a mess!

(You can't see his shirt very well here, but his party shirt said "Chicks dig me.")

Happy 1st Birthday Diego!

Here is Diego on February 24th, 2008... Welcome to the world baby Boy!Here he is today... Happy 1st Birthday Baby Boy!One year ago today, I spent 29 hours in labor so we could welcome this sweet child into our lives. Every minute was worth it (and bearable because I had an epidural!) and when he arrived we were so excited. Before he was born, we didn't know if he was a boy or a girl...although deep down I knew he was a boy the whole time. This made his entrance to the world all the more special to us. We have had the most wonderfully blessed and challenged year. We enjoy watching each new skill and milestone and all the everyday wonderful things a baby brings to the family. Things have changed from the day he was born, of course. We are used to having him around and even though there is something new everyday, I think we can finally say we are comfortable being parents and confident in our ability to raise him into a loving child. Diego is an absolute joy with a very fun personality, a little giggle that makes us both laugh along and a cry that has made us cry along with him too. We love you Diego, Happy Birthday!

We spent the day together as a family today. We went to iHop for breakfast (incidentally today was Free Pancake Day, BONUS!) Diego really wanted nothing to do with eating breakfast and for some reason didn't even like pancakes today, not even with syrup on them! We came home, played with some new toys, took a nap and then we made this craft project together. All three of us were involved with it. Its adorable! The handprints aren't as good as I'd hoped, and this was our second attempt, but its good enough and I am glad we did it today, on his 1st birthday!

Rock-a-bye Baby

I have always enjoyed rocking babies to sleep. I was 11 when my oldest nephew was born, and I think I started then. Every child I've ever taken care of has been rocked to sleep by me. Rocked in a rocking chair, rocked by swaying while I was standing up, every sort of rocking you can think of. Now that I have my own baby, I love it even more. I look forward to nap time and bed time every day (for this reason and the obvious reasons. :) ) and I just rock my sweet sweet boy to sleep. After he's asleep I take a few minutes and just watch him. I love every minute of it. I love holding him in my arms. I love that he gets sweaty from the warmth of his Momma's arms. I love that when I put him down, I have an imprint on his ear on my arm. He has grown so fast, I'm enjoying every second.

Sweetness!

My little guy is so sweet! A few days ago we were eating lunch and he grabbed a bit of his grilled cheese and reached out to me and when I opened my mouth, he gave me a bite! He has given me bites of his food at each meal since and after I take the bite, he claps. Its so sweet. He is figuring out how to share and that Momma has a mouth too. He has also recently discovered he can stick his finger in his nose, and mine too. As funny as it is, when he catches you off guard with a finger in your nose, its not too comfortable! Diego is very ticklish, but if we want him to giggle, we tickle his palms. Isn't that funny? I just love it. I've been trying to teach him to blow kisses and each time we try, I tickle his hand and he just giggles away. Diego has also had a really hard time with teething, especially with the top teeth. He has been trying to get them since November and so far only one has popped through. One of the eye teeth, so funny! He looks like a little snaggle tooth. I think the front teeth are close to popping through the gums, but so far he's just a little snaggle! I love this sweet baby!