Bath Time!!

Here are some pics of Jacob at bath time. I added some pics of his first bath and his most recent bath. Notice how he's changed and grown!!

Here's my baby looking at the really cool burb rag the Latimers gave him.

Today was a really exciting day for me. I hit my quota for the quarter!!! It's the first time since I've been on a regular pay schedule, and since I was out half the quarter on maternity it was especially difficult to reach. I'm so happy to have met it!!

On to other things. Xochil started this week and so far she's been great. She's really good with Jacob which is by and large the most important, PLUS, she's helping out with household chores. That alone is really great since it allows us more time to spend with the kids in a nice clean house! She has a daughter, Itzel, that she brings with her. Itzel is 11 months old and really really well behaved. I'm really happy with the way she treats Jacob. She holds him close and she uses such sweet terms of endearment. I think she's going to work out really well. Listening to her stories of how she ended up here just make me realize how easy we have it here.

I know that I posted earlier about a job that Mark was really interested in before he was offered the job with Fireman's Fund. Well he was called about coming in for an interview this week but we have [happily] decided that he will decline it. Although it pays more, it requires a lot of overnight travel, 21 nights at a time to be exact. We just can't risk having to leave the boys with someone we don't know and trust so we decided that we just can't have him going out of town for such long periods at a time. I remember being so absolutely miserable when Mark was away too. I just can't be without my sweet hubby. One thing I really want to remember always, and that I want for my sons to do for their wives too, is that Mark turns my side of thebed down every night. I'm not sure when he does it, but every night when I tell him I'm ready to go to bed, he walks with me to the bedroom and my side of the bed is turned down, nice and ready for me to get in and sleep! It might sound stupid and minute, but it means so much that he does that for me.

Happy Birthday Miguel, Preston, and Logan!

Every year on March 25th I think of these 3 people because they share a birthday!

Happy Birthday Miguel! I can't believe you're 6 today. I'll never forget the day you were born. Tio Carlos and I drove from College Station to Temple for your birth. Honey and Granddad were there too of course! And we watched American Idol from the waiting area. You were so cute, and I'll have you know that your mom and dad didn't have a name for you until you were born! I think you were a week or so early, but Tio Carlos and I wouldn't have missed it for anything!
John Thomas really wanted to be there for your bowling party, and I'm so sorry we missed it. We miss you so much, and you know what? Whenever I want for John Thomas to eat something or do something I always tell him that it's your favorite! He thinks about you a lot and has your soccer picture next to his bed. I hope we can see you soon! Maybe you can convince your parents to come and see us so we can go to a Cardinals game! We love you Miguel!!

Happy Birthday Little P! We hope you have a great birthday and hope that we can see you soon too! We still remember when we scolded John Thomas for making a BIG mess in his playroom and he said that you and Parker had done it. We wondered how you had come from so far in the middle of the night without your parents knowing...

Happy Birthday Logan! Logan is my dear friend Roni's youngest son. I wish he and John Thomas could be buds, but unfortunately we live across the country! We hope you have a good one!

Dinnertime Update

Please note that in order to understand the full severity of tonight's events, you should first read the previous posting.

Dinner was the worst ever tonight which I thought was somewhat ironic considering the previous post of the seemingly perfect dinner routine. Mark made hamburgers, scalloped potatoes, and broccoli and cheese and John Thomas threw a fit because it wasn't chicken (nor could we disguise it as such). I hope tonight isn't one of those Mommy Dearest nights he'll remember forever with his mother trying to stuff food down his throat. I told him that he wasn't going to have anything else to eat tonight and that his dinner plate would sit there until he went to bed so that when he was starving and asked for fruit snacks, his cold dinner was all he'd be able to have. I threatened, I yelled, and I used angry, angry faces that I hadn't pulled out since my days as a 1st grade teacher. He finally took the one bite of his hamburger and one bite of scalloped potatoes, both doused with shredded cheddar cheese at his request, after a long hour and a half of tears and screams (from both he and I).

After it was all said and done and I had had time to feel really bad about my CPS worthy performance, I caved completely by promising more "chicken" tomorrow night and allowing an unlimited amount of cheese sticks and grapes in bed. And I wonder why these dinnertime disasters continue. His cold dinner? Hannah ate it.

Dinnertime

We started a new routine shortly after Jacob was born. After we realized that we were spending a whopping $800/mo eating out in addition to $500-$600/mo at the grocery store, we decided that we would try eating at home for the majority of our meals. I'm so proud to say that we haven't eaten out in over 2 months! It was definitely a difficult habit to break, but we just couldn't afford to continue spending that amount of money (and not to mention hidden calories!!) on eating out. We found that we are actually spending the same amount at the grocery store than we were before. I know, so weird. I guess we always had the intention of cooking at home when we went to the grocery store but it never actually happened, so the fresh food we bought ended up going bad. What an absolute waste!! If we could only have those $800 for EACH month back!!

So although it was difficult at first, we started to cook meals at home which posed a completely NEW problem. For John Thomas' first 4 years of life he's been able to tell us what he wants to eat for dinner. Funny thing, not once has he asked for broccoli! So with our new routine we could either cook our meal and heat up nuggets, corn dogs , or fish sticks for him, or we could confront the issue head on and make him eat what we were eating. SCARY. So I thought I would involve him in the dinner process by asking him to set the table. He has taken this chore in stride, and takes absolute pride in it. I took a picture of the table after he set it for us yesterday. I know Mom, the fork should be on top on the napkin on the left side of the plate. He likes balance and doesn't want the right side lonely. We don't let him set knives out for obvious reasons. Also notice that it's a paper towel and not a napkin. Napkins are on our grocery list. Also notice that the placemats are set off center. That's because John Thomas' mind thinks in an analytical way and so he set the place settings directly in front of where the chairs were sitting. Notice one more thing: You can see John Thomas playing outside the window. He had 5 minutes to play before dinner was ready.

I went back and took a shot of the table right before we sat down to eat. Looks pretty good huh!? Um...notice John Thomas is sitting at the head of the table. How did that happen?? Well that's where the prince decided he was going to eat. Also notice Hannah sniffing dinner. I didn't notice her until I downloaded the pics. No, she doesn't get leftovers, at least not when I am watching.

So what came of our efforts to get John Thomas to eat what we are eating? It's an absolute work in progress. He does eat what we are eating every night, as long as it's some sort of chicken. He ate carne guisada, but he thought it was chicken. He ate pork chops, but he thought it was chicken. He even ate some mahi mahi, but you guessed, he thought it was chicken. Every night we have to tell him that the meal he is eating is Miguel's favorite, or Tyner's favorite. We've told him that the more he eats the bigger he gets, and that if he doesn't eat Tyner might be bigger and faster than him when he comes to visit. So the main course (and the crescent rolls of course) aren't much of a problem. It's the veggies that he has trouble with. So he has to eat one bite and we will not get up from the table until he does. He's ended up crying in his room, he's ended up gagging, he's even ended up pleading not to have to take a bite. But we make him do it every night. He has yet to try something and actually like it, but he tries it nonetheless. I just don't know what to do to get him to actaully LIKE vegetables! Hopefully it's a stage he'll grow out of, and hopefully the lack of vegetables in his diet won't stunt his growth! All in all our dinner routine has definitely been a positive thing for us. My family always sat down to eat growing up and I'm so happy to start doing it with my own family. :)

Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves

Today I took Jacob over to Lety's. This is him right before we left. When I picked him up she said he was great, he slept all day! I hope he doesn't decide he wants to play at 2am.

John Thomas not liking having to help.

My heartthrob hubby. Check out the socks. Hot.

John Thomas really not liking having to help.

And John Thomas REALLY not wanting to help.

This is what he wanted to do...play golf.

John Thomas needing a haircut.

Our little Aggie.

Hello!

Lots and Lots of Pics!!

The weather was great this weekend so we took it outdoors! These are several pics from the day. We went to Conway Park, which turned out to be a dog park, and we took John Thomas' bike so he could ride the trails. What we hadn't counted on was the fact that there were several hills that he just wasn't ready for AND the stench of the dogs and the fish from the pond. We enjoyed the walk but left soon after we were through and headed to another park.




This picture was taken after a long photo shoot. Jacob was up for quite a while this morning so I took advantage of it! The next pic is definitely one of my favorites.

Oh what a sweet boy. We went out to Babler State Park later this afternoon and this was Jacob enjoying the natural sunlight.

Now these pictures are of my stud athlete. Maybe my opinion is biased because I'm his doting mother, but I think this kid's talent is incredible. His hand-eye coordination is dead on, and his eagerness to play any sport is just amazing. Albert Pujols is his favorite baseball player and he LOVES his jersey.

Mark is such a good dad too. He relishes every moment he can with John Thomas and will even be helping coach his baseball team this Spring. I'm so excited! I'll be there for every practice, every scrimmage, and every game.

So meanwhile, Jacob was dreaming about cupcakes and rainbows. He seemed so content out there! It must be that he enjoys being outdoors. We really haven't taken him outside the house much because it's been so cold. I think the sun and the fresh air really agree with him, and I think he thinks so too :).

Proud Mama

Right before leaving the park Mark thought he'd try his hand at photography and had John Thomas pose for his baseball photos. They actually turned out pretty good although I was standing behind the cameraman huffing and puffing and ready to go. I love the next shot. I guess Mark had many of his own baseball pics taken back in his day because he sure does know the poses!

And this is how we wrapped up the day. Bath time for all!

Playtime!

Jacob had some playtime on the floor today and tired pretty fast! Dr Arter suggested last week that we incorporate a mirror into his play so we took the mirror from my car on his play mat. I noticed a few days ago that he was looking at himself in the car and it almost seemed as if he had discovered a friend! He looked at it very curiously, and Dr Arter said that it would be a good distraction for him during his playtime. He didn't notice it much today, but he did start to bat at the animals on the play mat. Do you recognize this mat Vero? It's the one you gave me (or loan me at the time!) YEARS ago! Jacob seems to like it and was pretty content for longer than he had been before.







John Thomas is busy today playing with a friend. What's funny is that I went downstairs to get a shot of them and found that they were wrestling over a basketball (mad, not playing) but the second I asked them to pose for the camera, this is what they produced.

Oh look at this cutie.

So Jacob has been giving me somewhat of a hard time this week. If he hears me in the room he wants me to be holding him and it's not always possible. He's so offended when I try to put him in his crib or anywhere for that matter. I was alone with him a few days ago and had to take shower. Well that didn't go down well with the new prince. By the time I got out he was crying so hard he had tears running down his face and he was red as a tomato. So I pulled out the Zuky. It was given to me by my friend Jennifer. It is apparently used in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units to soothe babies. I've slept with it before, so it's supposed to smell like me. I tried to trick him and it worked, but only for a few seconds.

Jacob goes over to our friends' house on Monday to stay with their nanny for a week. Then our nanny, Xochil, starts the next Monday. It's going to be really hard to let go, but we have to do it! Xochil will be coming here everyday and she'll be bringing her 11 month old little girl with her. She doesn't speak much English, so hopefully Jacob will pick up some Spanish! Of course John Thomas stayed with Rebeca until he was over a year and doesn't remember any of it. We are pretty sure we can trust her, and I'm happy to have found someone that can come here everyday so we don't have to get him up and take him somewhere. I know he'll be in great hands this week with Lety though.

So now we're off to bed!

Bumbo-licious!

Oh aren't they cute!?

Well today was Jacob's 2 month check up where he had his first round of shots :(. He did great, but has been really fussy ever since. I had to go get him some Tylenol to relieve the pain and fussiness. We got a weight check too...10lbs 14ozs!! He was in the 11th percentile in height, weight, and head circumference at his 1 month and today he was in the 25th percentile in weight and head circumference and 13th percentile in height! Big guy has little legs!! Everything else was great.

So obviously we pulled out the Bumbo that Nana brought us in January. Thanks for the hand me down Tia Holly! He looks good in purple. He is just so darn cute in that thing. Of course John Thomas wanted to be just as cute. He sits in it and says, "Waaa, waaa!"

Now about John Thomas, and an update on Kindergarten...it's a no go for 2009. They are apparently really strict in Missouri so he won't be able to start until next year. That's okay, he really likes his school and it really is a great program.

Well Mark started his new job yesterday, yay! I'm so proud of him I can scream. He pushed and pushed and never gave up. There are so many people here in St Louis and all over the country that are looking for employment and we are so lucky that Mark was given the opportunity to work for this company. If you ask me though, they're the lucky ones. Mark is such a hard worker and he's so good at what he does. I know he'll make them proud. Things are looking up for us. Maybe we'll end up actually liking Missouri! Not enough to stay though. I think we'll always want to return to our home state of TEXAS.

I'm feeling better about my job too. I've had really great response from my customers since I've been back. I continue to learn about my products and everyday happenings in the cath lab. I just wish I knew it all!

Enough for now.