Thankful: No- Really!

It's been a short two weeks since my father in-law came to visit, and now he is gone. During this time he was able to bond with Diego, visit with his 3 sons, and experience his first Thanksgiving in the U.S. He had heard about this American holiday, but never imagined he would ever actually participate in one.







While he was here, we also got some VERY good news which topped the things that I am thankful for this year (directly below Diego's birth of course!). The day before Thanksgiving, we were able to remove a loan contingency that we had on a house that we are trying to buy! This means the house is practically ours, and we should get our keys by December 10th! While I'm ecstatic about finally living on our own again, I am gearing up mentally for the long hard battle with boxes and packing tape. December 10th is not that far away from December 25th, and my husband and I have one goal, which is to have our new house decorated in time for Christmas, even if it means putting tinsel on cardboard boxes. It's been too many years since we've seen our Christmas decorations, and Diego deserves the BEST first Christmas ever!

The day after Thanksgiving, I was treated to a wonderful surprise: one which I have been taking FULL advantage of these past few days: independent bottle feeding! Diego sometimes always ends up in bed between my husband and I by 3 in the morning. Then, like a clock, he is awake by 6 am. Now that he's got the whole crawling thing down, he has taken to crawling over my head on the bed at 6 am and making his way to the nightstand beside me where a bottle of water or two is always ready, just waiting for its formula (I am lazy and cold to get out of bed).


He grabbed his bottle and proceeded to place the nipple in his mouth and drink from the bottle as if he's always held his own bottle! He's no genius just yet, because it only works if he's laying down. If he's sitting up, he doesn't understand that he has to lift the bottle to get the liquid to come out, so he yells in frustration until I lay him down. Nonetheless, I am taking FULL advantage of this new milestone at 10-months!

This is just another thing to be thankful for! And trust me, my arms and hands are THANKFUL!

10-months! 2 more for a Year!

Dear Diego,

Yesterday, you turned 10 months, and instead of basking in all the splendor that is your tenth month, I realized that I am proceeding to write you off as a 12-month old already. It's true. And it makes sense because I've always expressed being more partial to toddlers than babies. Now when I shop, I'm buying you clothes and shoes for a year-old baby. It probably doesn't help that you ACTUALLY fit them. I'm anticipating the days when you will no longer need to drink formula, and your shoes will require substantial soles (none of this soft-sole, aka slipper, business), and you will be able to chomp on a fortune cookie without choking and sending your momma onto the crazy bus, like you did the other night. So, I thought I'd take this moment to remember that which is my little Diego at 10-months of life:

FAVORITE FOOD:
Just about anything, but since Daddy fed you Pannetone, nothing else is quite the same!

FAVORITE TOY:
Out of all the toys you have, you prefer my plastic coat hangers, and small thin items you can hold in your hand like a wand (e.g., my mascara bottle, your baby spoons, safe kitchen utensils)

THE LAST THING YOU DID TO MAKE ME LAUGH:
Did this funny marching soldier move while your paternal grandfather was helping you learn to walk.

THE LAST THING YOU DID TO MAKE ME SMILE:
Burying your face in my shoulders or chest and acting like you're giving me a big hug. It's usually quickly followed up with a bite, so my smile is short-lived.

THE LAST THING YOU DID TO FRUSTRATE ME:
You've started swatting at your food spoon when you're not hungry, causing your food to fly all over the place. Plus it's rude. But I'm pretty sure you don't understand the concept of rude, so I forgive you, for now.

FAVORITE BOOK:
Those baby books with fake animal fur textures. You really love feeling and scratching things with your pointer finger.

EARLY TO BED?
Around 9 pm

EARLY TO RISE?
6 am on the dot (you're like a clock, and it kills me! Especially on Saturdays!)

FAVORITE SAYING:
"Da-da" (this should really be categorized under 'The last thing you did to frustrate me')

THINGS YOU ARE CURRENTLY LEARNING:

• To stand up unsupported for 10 seconds


• The concept of “No!” – You frown when grandpa says it, and you give attitude when anyone else says it. Hey, I just said you’re learning the concept, actually obeying it is still months out. Maybe never knowing my luck.


• To climb on the outside of your wheeled walker until both feet are no longer touching the floor – momma does not condone this behavior!
  

• That drawers pull open and have treasures inside


• Falling asleep on your own – this is still premature but you did it the other day out of pure exhaustion. 15 minutes of trying to rip apart a plastic bag (supervised by momma) and rolling around (practically doing mostly-unconscious cartwheels in the bed) and you finally found the perfect position and dozed off. It’s worse than when the dog twirls in a circle before he lays in his bed!
  
  

Now please excuse me. I need to go return the boots I JUST bought you that were clearly marked as 6-12 mos, and find something similar for 12-18 months! Damn you've got some BIG feet!

Luv,

Momma

These are the Diaz's of our Lives....

The theme this week seems to be family, both planned and unplanned family time. Thanks to the modern marvels of Facebook, my anti-social a$$ connected with a "cousin" on my mom's side. I should've just done like my sister and rejected the invitation, but I can't do that to "family" [and my sister can, apparently].
Since I accepted her friend invitation, she's been chatting with me every other day. This is annoying because:

1. I'm such a loser because I can't let a chat go ignored.


2. I can barely speak Spanish right, let alone write it.


3. I DO have a job.... A deskjob, but a job nonetheless that I should be focusing on instead of chatting with relatively unknown cousins, watching Youtube videos, and reading blogs.
   

So after weeks of chatting, she tells me that she's coming to San Francisco. 'Oh great!' is the first thing I think in my head. 'Is she going to want room and board?' The answer thankfully (I don't have space right now, and I'm anti-social, did I mention that?) was "No". But she did want to meet up.

"I'm sorry, but my father inlaw is coming to stay with us."

"Maybe he can come...."

"Yeah..... right."

We left it at that. It was a pivotal week at my deskjob, and I was very stressed. I came into work one day and found that she had written me a message. She was here and still wanted to meet up. I meant to write her back, but office stress was high.

I completely forgot about her, until I reached my mother's house to pick up Diego. She tells me that the girl called her twice and was coming over to meet us. The first thing that came out of my mouth was:

"How'd she get your number?! Stalker!!!!"

So I had to stay if only for 20 mins to get to know my stalkercousin. I left, with no intention of ever seeing her again. The next day, my mom said she'd stayed until 11 pm and she asked if she could stay at my mom's house with her husband and daughter for the REST OF THE WEEKEND. I was caught off guard about this, and felt bad that I had bestowed this burden on my mother and father. I may sound cruel, but in my defense I NEVER met this lady, and it turned out that my grandfather's dad had a family before my grandfather that he never knew about, and that's the family that this lady was from. There was some type of drama, and all my mother remembers is my grandfather coming home one day in tears.

Other than avoiding my stalker cousin over the weekend, I was also preoccupied with my father inlaw's arrival. My husband was VERY clear that he wanted to make his father as comfortable as possible, which I understood, and knowing my father inlaw, this might not be an easy feat. We tried to think of everything and decided to keep it a Diaz-only weekend (aka, leaving my family out the first weekend; no problem because apparently they were busy playing host to my semi-cousin).

It was refreshing to see how lovingly my father inlaw acted towards Diego this weekend. His other son and family came over on Saturday and we had a nice lunch. Diego got to know his older cousin, Andrew, while they played the Sony Move. Only one thing was missing, the extremely reclusive, more anti-social than me (and that's saying a lot!) other son. The next day we went to his house, but he wasn't there, and left a message with other tenants. Instead of calling my husband when he got the message, he called ALL THE WAY TO PERU to tell his mother to call us and tell us that he would come the next day to pick up his father for the day.

He had gotten into some drama a year ago with my husband, and although my hubby apologized, things have never quite been the same. I don't think they ever will be. And my husband is hurt at how his brother is dealing with the situation, and it's all he's been talking about this morning. It's like the soap opera "The Days of Our Lives" except these are the "Diaz's of our lives...."

Oh family....... and DRAMA!

A Mouse in the House

Me thinks we may have a cute little mouse in the house. Something is chewing up the crib. It's too bad too. The crib is beautiful. Now it needs to be refinished.

But not until we find the mouse culprit, or he stops teething!

Scary Halloween

Halloween has come and gone, and yet I didn't make a post. I had been so excited about Halloween, that by the time it came, I was literally exhausted! Little did I know, that night before I was in for a long night, and my exhaustion may have been a clue from my body that I was getting sick.

The story starts two days before Halloween on Friday, at my company party. It was a family-friendly party, which was fun and riddled with kids. How could I forget though, that with kids come GERMS?! Fast-forward to Saturday night (well actually Sunday morning around 1 am). Diego gets restless, so I move him to my bed in hopes of coddling him back to sleep. An hour goes by, and he never fully goes back to sleep. That's when the puking started. It got everywhere, on the bed, pillows, on my hair, etc. I was so worried. I just wanted him to get all the bad stuff out. Sunday (Halloween) morning the puking was over and Diego was in good spirits but now it was time for the "other end" to take a hit. I was constantly changing diapers throughout the day. Diego had gotten the stomach flu.

I hadn't gotten any sleep for two days because of his stomach flu, so when I started getting a headache and feeling nauseous, I thought it was because I was simply exhausted. My body was about to tell me EXACTLY why I was feeling this way. One by one this week, each member in my family has fallen to Diego's stomach flu. In order: Me, my husband, my sister's boyfriend, my father, my mother, and finally my sister. This bug was CRAZY!

In case your little ones ever get the stomach flu, the advice nurse suggested a diet of apples, rice cereal, and bananas for Diego, accompanied by some Pedialyte for 4-6 hours. She also said that he wouldn't be back to normal with respect to his diapers for 5-7 days. I'm still exhausted and still waiting for his full recovery. :(

Luckily, we did manage to have a good Halloween. We even carved a pumpkin!