2!

Ok...so I'm a little behind,like 2 months, but who's counting. This post has actually been just sitting awaiting the pictures that I cannot seem to locate on my computer...boo.  But anyways...




On April 1st my little man turned 2.  I can't believe how quickly these past two years have gone by.  There have been many times that I have thought to myself--which I would never say out loud--"what is wrong with this child?"  Well, maybe I have said it out loud, but only in moments of distress, and in the most loving mommy way possible!  


Adam is an amazing child.  He is completely different from Ava, but they both make my life so wonderful and my heart so happy.  AJ is loud, daring, not afraid of anything, and loves to test my patience.  He is the one who makes me freak out daily as I watch him take dives off the chair onto the tile, or climb the shelves by the tv.  He pushes my buttons and knows exactly how to get a reaction out of me.  And although he makes me crazy at times, I completely adore this child.  He is just Adam--and he fits me, and our family, perfectly.
  
A little over two years ago, we were a family of three.  Ava was self sufficient, things were very easy, and the stories that people told me about their own kids made me cringe.  Ava was a very laid back, easy going child.  So I thought that everyone else was crazy.  Why would another child change anything?  He will be just like Ava and we will just jump back into our lives with no problem.

HA!  Boy was I wrong.  

The day he arrived was amazing.  April 1, 2009. I had a scheduled c-section at 7:00am and he was here by 8:12am, all 8lbs. 12oz of him in his little 18 1/4 in self.  He was so good.  He slept, ate like a champ, and loved to snuggle.  It was an amazing experience.  Day 3:  we go home and all is not as good as it seemed at first.  He screamed from the moment we got home for hours, maybe even days, possibly even months.  The first few months with him were rough.  I thought I was losing my mind, Ava was not her normal self as she was adjusting to life with this very loud child, and I kept thinking about all the stories people had once told me about boys and second children--wow...they were right--what have I gotten myself into.

But then things got better every month.  Ava become settled in her new role as big sister and our new routines.  We have had some tough times with him, but made it to his first birthday and now his second.

He is still the loudest child I have ever met, but his smile is heart warming and his laugh is contagious. I love his snuggles and his silliness. He is really, absolutely what our family needed. I know that he was given to us for a reason, and I am so grateful--he fills my heart with happiness. And although he makes me crazy sometimes, he is my little man and I love him to pieces! 



Napping in his crib-1 week old

7 months



 






1 year






13 months-first haircut



18 mos.-pumpkin patch

 2 years-being silly with his pants up high

2 years old-hugs with Ava after his birthday cake...chocolate of course! 

Adam likes:

• reading books with mommy and daddy at bedtime
• playing with Ava
• any type of food
• playing outside-no matter what the temperature is
• listening to music
• watching Nick Jr.-wonderpets & fresh beat band are his top picks
• tormenting his sister
• taking baths and running around naked
• giving kisses and zerberts 
• getting dirty
• loud toys
• laughing and being silly

Adam dislikes: 

• going to sleep on most days
• being told "no"
• sitting in time out, or refusing to sit in time out, so then he has to be put in his crib
• certain shirts-his choice is always a mickey shirt, a buz lightyear shirt, or a dinosaur shirt-I fib to him often about all those being "dirty"
• "dirty" things--which is odd bc he loves to get dirty--maybe it's the word that he dislikes
• Ava being somewhere that he is not







weeks of randomness

Is randomness even a word???


Anyways, these past few weeks have been full of random and amusing times with both of the kids.  We have finally cleaned up and put away everything Christmas and all the new toys and gifts have found their new homes in tubs and containers.  It's not spring yet, but I'm in the mood to clean/throw out everything that isn't being used !!!  Watch out kids--you better hide your things or start playing with them all immediately.


Adam and his most recent activities:
-Adam has become very good friends with "the corner".  His newest way to get out you ask? He takes off his socks and screams "leelo" which is in his language is "socks on".
-he loves the word no, rephrase...he loves to tell us no
-thinks it's hilarious to get into trouble
-falls off of chairs, tables, furniture, bins...anything he can climb onto at least once a day
-loves to get kisses from mommy when he gets hurt--he will even walk inside to show me his "owee" and get a kiss that always makes it better
-loves to torment ava--pulls her hair, bites, scratches, hits and then runs becausec she now has been giving it right back to him
-hates to go to sleep, but loves to be rocked (btw the rocking before bedtime is my favorite part too)
** last but not least...most accomplished activity...he has been bringing me the things/food he finds and says "ew...yuck" instead of eating it...yay Adam!



Ava and her most recent:
*I'm folding laundry, washing dishes, and doing laundry while the kids are playing.
Ava:  Mom, you're just like Cinderella because you have to do lots of stuff, like cleaning.
Me: Yeah, I know.  I sure could use some help Ava.
Ava:  (continuing to play with her dolls) No mom, Cinderella does it all by herself!
Me: (Darn those Disney Movies!!!)

*Mom I can't wait to get bigger like you.
Why is that Ava?
Becaust then I can hold a cup with two hands and eat with a big fork!


*Me: Ava, honey, can you come here for a minute?
A: Um, mom...you can just call me adorable and I'll still listen
Me: is your name adorable now?
A: No, my name is still Ava, but I'm adorable, so you can just call me that.


*Me: (thinking to myself while folding laundry) wow, they're being so nice to each other..and they're so quiet...wait something must be wrong.  "Ava what are you guys doing?"
A: Nothing
Me:  (Awww, hell...they are really doing something bad) Where are you?
A:  Under the cabinet
Me: open the doors please
A: hi mom
me:  what are you doing? Adam what are you eating? Ava what does he have in his mouth?
A: oh, um, a chip
me: we don't have chips.  what is that?  (mouth swipe) AHHH...IS THAT GUM????
A:  oh yeah
me: where did he get that?
A: I gave it to him bc he wanted it
me: Ava you can't give him gum.  He is a baby and he will choke on it.  Do you understand me?
A: Yes.  I'm sorry.
...10 minutes later Rolando asks me, "Hey, where did all this gum go?" 
Uh...what gum?
The whole pack that I just bought last night.  There was only one piece left and now it's all gone.
Me:  Oh my goodness!  Are you kidding me?  AVA!!!!
Did you feed all this gum to Adam?
A:  Uhhh...not all of it...I ate some too.
Me:  You ATE some? How much?
A:  2 pieces.
Me:  So how much did you give your brother?
A:  8
Me:  AHHHHH! SERIOUSLY??? I'm throwing all the gum away. (A drawer full of gum fo all you who are wondering.) I probably looked like a crazed monster, but I was beyond upset and could think of nothing else that would truly make her understand how serious this was.
A: (tears)
Just a side note:  This child has been chewing gum since she was 2.  She has never had any accidents with the gum, only swallowed it a couple times, and has up until this point been pretty responsible with it. 

But now she is in gum rehab and hasn't had any since then...It has been 2 weeks.

FUN TIMES!!!

diagnosis confirmed

For the past 5 months we have been on a journey with Adam.  From the time my little man was born he was small, well not his weight, but his height.  He started off in the 25% and gradually went down to the 3-5% from there.  I knew from the very beginning, actually while in utero, that something was different.  I saw his little legs on the sonogram and noticed his measurements, but no one seemed to see any cause for concern.  When he was born his legs were so short, but otherwise seemed "normal".  I asked his pedi every visit about his height, but he wasn't too concerned until his 18 mo check up in August.  He started to plateau on the growth chart, and was no longer on the curve.  Now his pedi was concerned enough to send us to the endocrinologist,  who totally freaked me out, and then sent us to a specialist.  The specialist visit eased some of my fears and did some tests-bone scan, bone age, and DNA testing to look for a mutation in a specific gene. 

Today, 5 weeks later, I get a phone call from the genetic counselor.  The genes they were looking at came back normal-no mutation, but the xrays/bone scans were sent to Cedars Sinai hospital in California where they specialize in bone disorders.  The specialist there did agree with the diagnosis of hypochondroplasia, which is a bone disorder that affects the growth of the long bones in the arms and legs.  What this means is that Adam will be small, like me.  He will develop normally except that his arms and legs will be of disproportionate size/length compared to his body. 

Although I have always know that he was different as far as his size goes, it is hard to think about all the challenges he will face.  As a child, I was always the shortest in my class, but it didn't really bother me because I am a girl, and being small is acceptable for females.  Not so much for males.  I just hope that he will continue to keep his happy little personality and not allow these things to interfere with his life.  I will always feel a little heartbroken for him, but will never allow him to see this.  No matter, he is perfect just the was he is!

Our next steps are to continue to see the doctors on a regular basis to follow up on his growth, have bone scans/xrays every couple of years, and live our lives as we normally would.  Ava is next in the process because she is small as well, and then me.  I know that I am the carrier of this disorder.  My parents are both average/tall-dad 5'11-6'0, mom 5'8, brother 6'0, and me 4'10--quite the discrepancy.  If we choose to have more children they have a 50/50 chance of inheriting this disorder as well.  Another thing to think about, but we will cross that bridge soon enough. 

No matter what, I know that we are blessed to have beautiful, healthy children (and I wouldn't trade that for the world!)  They are just packaged a little differently!

Oh Christmas tree...

Have I mentioned how much I LOOOOOOVE Christmas time!  Every year when I was little my family would venture out to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our tree.  Well, since having our own little family, we have only had a fake tree.  So this year we put up our fake tree and then decided to go get another smaller tree. 



Adam off exploring on his own.



Ava making sure he is okay...neither of them
are really interested in the tree finding or cutting



Very content with his new sticks.
That's what we were there for.



Off we went to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm, with bells on.  The kids had fun cutting down our little Charlie Brown tree.  But, they had the most fun playing with sticks in the dirt and sword fighting with the sticks that they just had to bring home.  Really???  We have sticks all over the back yard and you are throwing a fit to bring the "special sticks" home.   Adam decided he would follow another family around for a little while and hang with them.  Ava did not like that one bit.  "Adam Joseph, you better get over here right now or you're gonna be in big trouble!"  His response to this was a "you gotta be kidding" look, a very assertive "NO" and ran away in the opposite direction of Ava.  She was honestly just trying to be motherly to him and keep him with us, but he wanted to be his little independent self, so off he went.  She was almost in tears, so I got him back on track with us and they played with the sticks and dirt some more.

Another fun moment. There were signs all over "Please watch for stickers and fire ants".  And even though we specifically said not to sit down on the ground...they did...and we were in screaming sticker city. Both of them at the same time.  They had stickers everywhere...on their butts, shoes, shirts.  Man those things hurt.  So our last few minutes in the tree area were no fun, but that was easily forgotten by the hay ride back to the front with our little tree.

The tree they picked is somewhat of a crooked little tree, but it's their tree and it's going in their playroom.  Okay, it is totally crooked, but I just try not to look at it so much. I really had to put my OCD thoughts aside and allow them to choose their first tree. 

Afterwards, since we were in Elgin, we went to eat some bbq.  Yum!  Nothing like a bunch of greasy meat to end our day.  Then the kids had some ice cream to solidify the fat they had just ingested.  Hmmm...what could be considered vegetables or at least somewhat nutritional in that meal?  At least they had something that consisted of milk.

We had fun, and I hope to make this a tradition for them as it was for me growing up. 

YEAH CHRISTMAS!!!

P.S.- does anyone really know the words to the song "Oh Christmas Tree"? I haven't a clue.



Ava picked the tree.



Ava and Daddy cutting down our tree.











Our family with our little tree.





Hayride back with our tree...Adam is not impressed



giving thanks

Ava what are you thankful for?
A:  Well...my movies, my toys, my roxy (her dog she has had since she was born) and...
(she smiles and pauses)
Me: Is that it?
A:  mom, I'm just kidding.  I'm thankful for Adam and Daddy and Mommy and Nunny and Nonno Tony and Nonna and Nonno and all my friends.
Me:  Ava that's really sweet.
A:  Yeah, I was tricking on you.
Me:  Oh yeah! Well you're pretty funny.  It's okay to be thankful for that other stuff too. 
A:  I know, but I have to be thankful for you guys because that's how I get all my other things.
Me:  ...awesome. 

So we had a great Thanksgiving.  It was much more laid back and relaxing than years past.  We went to his mom's house and ate lunch, then came back to our house to get ready for dinner.  We usually head over to my Nonna's house, but her and my Nonno were both sick.  So my dad came over in the morning to get the turkey going at our house.  We came home, my mom came over, the kids took a nap, and when they got up dinner was ready.  We ate,cleaned up, watched football, and then ate pie.  Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but my pie's were sooo yummy...pat, pat, pat.  I would say the best I have ever made.  Lemon meringue, pecan, pumpkin, and apple.  Oh yes, on Thanksgiving I am a pie makin' fool.  It was all delicious and we had a great time together.

I am very thankful for my beautiful, wonderful children.  They make me laugh and smile every day.  I'm so thankful that they are healthy and happy and that they have each other as siblings.  I'm so thankful for Rolies, who is so laid back and caring.  He always puts the kids and our family first, and I couldn't ask for a better husband.  I'm so thankful for my family.  They are so supportive and wonderful.  I could not ask for more or anything better!

THANKFUL...GRATEFUL...BLESSED...ALWAYS!!!

I can hardly contain myself

Holiday, celebrate...

So it is a tad bit early, but I can smell it in the air.  It is the sweet smell of the holidays.  I have always loved holidays, but since having children, my love for this has grown and changed in many ways.  I do enjoy Thanksgiving.  Totally love being with all my family and eating turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, pie--well, I'm kinda getting off topic here and becoming increasingly hungry as I sit here picturing this yummy table of food.  But my number one pick for favorite holiday is...CHRISTMAS! 

Christmas, Christmas time is here...can anyone else hear the Chipmunks singing???



I love seeing the very first colorful shine of lights on the day after Thanksgiving, bundling up on chilly nights with the family to walk around the neighborhood searching for the house with the best light set up, making endless trips to the mall and toy stores to make sure that I have the perfect gifts for everyone who was "nice" on my list, taking the kids to see Santa (this year should be interesting),singing Christmas songs with Ava over and over and over again, and like a friend reminded me--getting all the different holiday cards from family and friends.  

This does remind me of another thing...oh my goodness...it's that time again too.  It's time for the annual Vasquez family Christmas card.  Oh no, there is no sarcasm here.  We love having to take dozens, make that hundreds, of pictures to make sure that we have just the right picture for our photo card that we send out yearly. 

It started off in 2006 with my beautiful baby girl.  A couple of pics, and done.  She was adorable and had the card all to herself for 3 years in a row.  It got a little tougher as she got older, maybe because she's so darn cute or possibly because she is hard headed and only wanted to smile when it suited her. Either way '06-'08 were great years for cards.  Now, 2009 changed a bit.  My beautiful baby boy was born and added a whole new light to taking pictures.  We wanted the perfect family picture...ha ha ha.  The children had other plans.  They decided to make this a challenge...one that I was willing to accept and win.  Although it took HOURS to get a decent picture, looking back I think it was worth it.  The card was great and no one had any clue the agony that we went through to get it done.

So, here we are again--Christmas card time.   I was totally searching the web for the cutest holiday photo cards when a friend pointed me in the direction of Shutterfly.  If you have kids and you take pictures, I'm sure that you know of them.  They have the best selection of Christmas/Holiday cards.  I have spend hours already, trying to pick out the perfect card.  It's really hard with their huge selection, but I think I've narrowed it down to the few contenders.

Okay, so it wasn't so easy, and I don't have our Christmas/Holiday card picked out just yet. And for everyone out there who knows me, you also know that I am indecisive and want things to be perfect.  If anyone can check out this site once and pick out a card, then I am jealous. Check out their holiday photo cards here. 

They also have all kinds of other items and gifts for the family.  Although I thought it was a tad bit much at first, the photo calendars are really cute.  A friend had one made for my Nonna and it was so adorable. Check those our here.  If my grandma loved them, I'm sure any other family members who may not live so close would love to see the little ones and the family every day all year long.  They also have the mini desk calendars here, which are smaller, but still super cute.

Oh...FYI to bloggers...Shutterfly has an awesome promotion here.  They are giving out free holiday photo cards.  Yeah!

I'm so excited.  Now, I have an unspoken rule, which tends to bite me in the biscuits every year, but I never start Christmas shopping until December.  I tried it once and it didn't work--it stressed me out to hang on to the presents for so long.  So I still have about a week and a half to choose the perfect Christmas card...then I will be off and running with the other holiday shoppers.

I can't wait...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...(I would go on, but I don't know the rest of the song...so I'll just keep repeating that part and making up the other words in my head)

october fun 2010

Although October has come and gone, here are a few things we did during this fly by month.

We took a trip to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm/Pumpkin Patch.  I have to say that I like Sweetberry Farms in Marble Falls better, but we opted to not drive for over an hour, and still had a good time for the most part.  It was quite warm, which let to some minor melt downs, but snacks seem to make everything better. We got some pumpkins there which quickly rot and got tossed over our fence.

We also decorated our Halloween cookies which went a little like this:

Kids:  yeah, yeah, mmmm...icing

me:  no, stop licking the spoon. we can't give away cookies if you lick the spoon.

kids:  (icing cookies nicely and then licking the icing off the cookies)

me: gross

 

 

FYI-If you did receive cookies from us, they were the "safe" ones.  I only let them decorate a few cookies, which turned into the kids devouring 1/2 container of icing...sick.

Then we went to another church pumpkin patch where we picked out many pumpkins.

Then came Daddy's birthday...so excited for cake!

Last, but not least...Halloween.  Ava dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, and Adam was a puppy.  He didn't give us many options.  We had to choose a costume where everything was attached b/c he was not too fond of dressing up in anything.

Ava as Alice, Adam as a Puppy, and Nonna-on her 78th birthday-as a genie,or as Ava referred to her "Princess Jasmine"

Wow...what a busy month!