Celebration of Manuel :)

Feel free to boycott my blog for the next week or so if A) you're not a fan of children or B) you are a fan of children, but not of reading about a total strangers children! :) In order to give Manuel his fair "leading up to his birthday blog recognition" (like I did Mia), I'm going to have to overlap some things. Mia's party is this Saturday and you all will be overloaded with pictures, but for now, we are starting my "Ode to Manuel" :)

When I was driving home from work last night, thinking about this series of blog posts it dawned on me that this blog SERIOUSLY lacks my love of Manuel. I've shared his birth story. I've shared hilarious things that have come out of his mouth, but never really in depth things about the great little person he is. Don't get me wrong, I love Manuel more then life itself! Of course I show him this on a daily basis, but as far as those of you who don't know me IRL (in real life), it may appear that I live, eat, breath, and sleep MIA! :) And again, let me stress, that is NOT true! It just appears that way because a child's first year of life is ever changing, ever evolving and each day is something new, so I just happened to post about Mia most often. My love for Manuel runs so deep, he is my first born. My first born that will be FIVE on January 31st and I can hardly believe it! The first half of 2011 is a HUGE year for the Gomez family...Mia turned 1 (1/18/11), Manuel turns 5 (1/31/11), Manny and I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary (3/30/11, eeek, I know! You do the math! ;) And yes, you're right! :)) and I turn 30 (6/2/11)! Lots of big milestones! :)

I wanted to start off by telling you all a little bit about Manuel...

-He has the sweetest soul of any child I have ever met, and I mean that. His heart is super sensitive (almost too much so, just like his momma! :) and I know he will do AMAZING things with his life one day.

-Speaking of his sweet spirit and soul, it's been like this for as long as I can remember. If have a moment, please take time to read this (the 10:18am update. This was right after my sister lost Mateo and Anthony, but before Ian passed away). He talked about the boys for the longest time after their passing even though he never met them. He still talks about my dad ALL the time, even though my dad has also passed.

-He was an early talker, and spoke 5-6 word sentences by the time he was two. It was SO adorable to listen. I have hours and hours of home video of him just talking and talking. Hearing full sentences coming out of such a little person is precious to watch and hear! :)

-He took his first steps during the Colts vs. Ravens playoff game in January 2007, a few weeks shy of his first birthday.

-His first Halloween he was Superman (the cutest, might I add :) His second Halloween he was a duck. His 3rd a Ninja Turtle and his 4th A NINJA TURTLE (by his own choosing, he was the same thing two years in a row! :)

-I took approximately 6,598 pictures of his first 5 years of life (just kidding! I totally made that figure up BUT I do have SOOOO many pictures of him!) Unfortunately, most of those pictures are actual pictures, printed at Walgreens from memory cards and NEVER downloaded to a computer :( (I know, I'm an idiot) and our scanner doesn't work so I can't share them, but I did finally figure out how to log back in to my Myspace account (which I haven't been on in years!) and realized that I do have some much younger pics (not baby, but younger) of Manuel on there that I'll be sharing over the next few days. I do have some "older" pics downloaded on my work computer (where I'm at as I type this) which I will share today.

-He is an AMAZING big brother and really is quite patient with Mia! :)

-He started "school" in January 4, 2010 (it's a daycare center, but they have a licensed, stated certified Kindergarten Preparation curriculum).

-We had his parent/teacher conference last night and his teachers spoke so highly of him. He is coming along wonderfully. Although he has your typical almost 5 "antics" ;) all in all he's doing fabulous!

I know those are VERY random bits of information, but considering I didn't start actively blogging until he was almost 4, those are things you probably never knew! :)

And for good measure...

My sweet little big boy, I love you SO much! :)

Happy 1 Year Mia Grace (the "what you're up to" edition :)/On Cloud Nine

*Post edit: You have officially said your first "real" word (yes, you've been saying "mama", "dada", "baba", "buh" (bye? :)) but today, 1/20/11 you said your first real, intentional word, "kitty cat". Funny enough, we don't have cats, but Linnie does. I THOUGHT I heard you say it this morning when I went to drop you off, but I wasn't sure. Then Linnie called me about an hour ago and told me that you are saying, and it's intentional. When you see the cats, you say, "kitty cat" and when she asked you to say kitty cat to Robert (her son), you said it! :) YAY MIA!!! :) Oh, and you also know put up your one chubby little finger when we ask you how old you are. No lie! You do! Mommy has it on video and if I knew how to upload cell phone videos to my blog, I'd post it! :) AND, I also forgot to say that you know where your belly is and I LOVE pointing it out to people! :)

Mia Grace, yesterday you turned ONE! I can't believe you have been in our family for 365 (going on 366) days! Time flies when you're having fun, that's for sure! :)  I think what I said on my Facebook status yesterday truly sums out how I feel (this might not be word for word, but it's pretty close)...Happy 1st Birthday Mia Grace! May the dreams I have for you and the prayers I pray for you not even compare to the amazing things God has planned for you! I love you SO much! We have your Winter ONEderland party on Saturday and I can't wait! It will be a picture posting extravaganza on mommies blog after Saturday! But only for a day or two because next week has to start "8 days of Manuel" (leading up to his 5th birthday). He can't be left out of the fun! :)
Okay, now down to business...

-Mommy doesn't have an exact weight on you because you don't go for your one year check-up until 1/31/11. But when I took you to the doctors about 2 weeks ago you were 21 lbs 7 oz. I'll get an exact figure next Monday, and also get your exact height.

-You have perfected your "cruising" and get wherever you want to be. You are also a climber! You climb on EVERYTHING, without fear or hesitation! I am posting a picture below of you standing on your own yesterday. You were so excited/shocked that you didn't know what to do with yourself! :) This is a HUGE deal since technically speaking you are "delayed" in your gross motor skills. You took a half a step yesterday but that's about it :) No walking YET! But I have a feeling it's not too far off! :)

-You are still in size 4 diapers.

-You are primarily in 12-18 month clothing, but now more towards the 18 month end.

-You continue to spend your days at Linnie's while Mommy and Daddy are working. You are Linnie's baby and she loves you to pieces. She misses you SO much over the weekend when you aren't there. Mommy and Daddy are SO lucky to have someone that takes such awesome care of you!

-We were supposed to have your 6 month physical therapy follow-up yesterday afternoon, but due to an ice storm, schools were closed and the Patient Coordinator works off of the school systems schedule. We've rescheduled it for next month and I'm assuming that's when we'll decide whether we stop all together or continue with once/month. My thought is that we'll keep it with once/month until you start walking.

-You are regularly sleeping through the night (KNOCK ON WOOD! :) That means you sleep from about 8pm'ish-5am'ish. I know you would sleep in later in the mornings but the second you hear mommy awake getting ready for work, you wake up! :)

-You are still saying “Mama” and “Dada” to the correct parents now! :) You say SO many words that sound like actual words, but I'm not sure :) You "talk" constantly and are literally having conversations with anyone and everyone, but we just don't understand you, YET! :)

-Mommy started last Thursday to transition you off the bottle and you did awesome drinking your nightime feeding out of a sippy cup, but then Friday you got the stomach flu so for comforts sake, I put you back on the bottle. We'll try again in a couple days when Mommy is back to "normal" (I also got the stomach flu and it really put mommy down for the count! :)

-You still eat baby food, Stage 3. I'm not sure if that's "okay" or not, we'll see how your Ped feels about it. You also eat "regular" food too and haven't disliked anything we've given you.

-The reason we still feed you baby food is because you only have TWO teeth! :) Mommy is scared to give you tons of "real" food because you can't really chew yet. But those two bottom, front teeth are the most adorable little things Mommy has ever seen! :)

-In regards to your kidney “issues”…you were SUPPOSED to have your DMSA scan on 11/23 and then again on 12/23 but we had to cancel it this last time because you got sick the morning of it (I think mommy was pushing fluids too much! :( So now it is rescheduled for 2/8/11. HOPEFULLY this time it will actually happen. But I know it's in Gods hands, so whatever He wants.

-You are HILARIOUS! Seriously! You crack mommy up with your little personality. And I love it because you know you are funny, so you act on it to get people to laugh! :)

-You love giving "Awwws" especially to your brother. But really, you'll give "awwws" to anything, even a water bottle! :)

Okay, I think that's all for now. If Mommy thinks of anything, I'll do a post edit. I love you sweet girl! I can't wait to celebrate your 1st year on Saturday! :)

Now, Mommy is going to link up one of my favorite shots of you, from yesterday, to pastor's girl's ponderings, On Cloud Nine

Happy 1st Birthday Mia Grace!

*I almost forgot that I had to pick a winner for my first ever CSN giveaway! It drives me bonkers when people hold giveaways and then don't announce the winners for weeks, so before I forget again :) I picked my winner via random.org. The winner is #2, katychick. If I was more blog savy I would copy and paste the random.org box, but I don't know how (because it's not as simple as "copy and paste" or at least I don't think it is ;)). I hope you all believe me! :) I will be e-mailing katychick shortly to get your $25 CSN gift code. If I don't hear back from you in 48 hours another winner will be chosen. Thank you! :)

Today, January 18, 2011 (at 9:11am, to be exact :)), my sweet little girl turns one! :) I can't believe it was 365 days ago that she came into our lives and turned our family of 3 into a family of 4. I can't imagine our lives without her. What a joyful, amazing, beautiful, wonderful, ornery ;) blessing she has been to our family. Tomorrow I will do my "What are you up to?" post about all the great things she is doing at one, but today, I just want to give her an official blog birthday post :)

We have some running around to do, all while she wears her adorable little "birthday dress" from Macy's :) I'm just glad to be spending the entire day with her. I couldn't sleep (even on my day off) so as I'm typing this it's 5:51am so I apologize for any misspellings or grammatical errors (but, let's be honest, they'd be there even if it wasn't early morning! ;)

Happy 1st Birthday Mia Grace!!!!!

And for good measure...(a few pics from March 2010)...



8 Days of Mia (Part 8)

So I'm going to keep this short and sweet because the stomach virus has overtaken our house and the "mild" bug Mia had on Friday has completely overtaken me and I was pretty certain last night I was going to die! :) I have NEVER had a stomach bug this bad, EVER! In the midst of it all, Manuel started too, UGH!! Thankfully my husband is still well (knock on wood!)

Tomorrow my sweet baby girl turns on. I can hardly believe it! If we are being technical, in 24 hours and 36 minutes (9:11am to be exact! :) Mia will be ONE! I'm glad I have some extra time off with her today (since clearly I can't go to to work in the condition I'm in) and then I had already taken off tomorrow to spend the day with her. I'm just glad all this sickness is happening BEFORE her birthday and party!

Okay, I said short and sweet, so I'll stop typing! :) Enjoy todays pics...(these are all from birth to 4 weeks)

8 days of Mia (Part 7)

Happy Sunday! Unfortunately I am not in the best of moods...my beloved Baltimore Ravens lost their chance at a trip to the SuperBowl! :( I was/am TOTALLY bummed! I know, theres always next year, but I wanted it THIS year (wah wah wah :) Oh well, that's life! :)

Now, on to the important stuff...Mia will be one in less then 48 hours! Here are some pictures of her from her first few weeks at home. Enjoy :)

8 Days of Mia (Part 6)

Happy Saturday!

I'm going to make this quick because Mia had the stomach bug yesterday (I had to leave work early to pick her up from daycare). She is doing better today, but now it's time to disinfect, clean and PRAY that Manuel, Manny nor I get it!!!!! :)

And for good measure...

 LOVE this pic! (Mia screaming her head off and Manuel smiling as if to say, "Um, please-get-her-off-me!" :)

Not sure about the angle of this pic (we'll blame it on sleep deprivation) but it was Mia's first spongebath at home and Manuel insisted on helping! :) 

8 days of Mia (Part 5)

*Post-edit: And in honor of Manuel turning 5 at the end of the month, I will also be doing an "8 days of Manuel" tribute. Although Manuel was born pre-Myspace, pre-Facebook, pre-blog (at least for me) and in the world of actually printing pictures from our memory card, instead of just filling up a memory card and saving it in our fireproof safe so I don't know how many pictures I'll actually have to share. But I can't leave him out! Afterall, 5 is a BIG milestone too! :)*

Happy Friday! I am SO glad that the weekend is here. Tomorrow is a HUGE day in Baltimore as "we" (meaning the Baltimore Ravens) take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. I am SO excited! Like the night before Christmas excited! :) Yes, I LOVE football!!!! The outcome of this game will determine my mood on Monday, that's for sure! :) I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and if "your" team is in the playoffs, GOOD LUCK! (unless of course your team is the Steelers, then I take that back! ;)

T-minus 4 days until Mia turns one! January 18th will be here before I know it and it's very bittersweet. I don't want my baby growing up, but I can't wait to hear that little "chatter" (she is constantly "talking") turn to real words! There is nothing more adorable then when a baby starts talking...the way they pronounce words, etc. I have hours of home video of Manuel when he first started talking. I could sit and watch it for hours! :) But if she could NOT turn one and still talk, I'd be just fine with that! ;)

Here are my pictures for the day...

 Getting ready to leave the hospital (don't mind the LOVELY nursing bra hanging out my shirt and the dark circles under my eyes! ;)

 All ready to go! :) (we had a super adorable going home outfit for and even though it was newborn, it was too big. So we just settled for an adorable brown sleeper sack with hearts :)

 "Goodbye hosptial room! We are going home!" :)

Her first monogrammed gift from her "Aunt" Veronica. This is on the hospital bed right before we left! :)