Valencia Family Memoirs

Ezra Is 8 Months Old

2012-02-10T00:03:00.000-08:00

At 8 months old, Ezra...

...loves to feed himself and will not let me spoon feed him anything. Ever. I still steam fruits and veggies for him but instead of pureeing them, I just dice them up for him. Still, I've had to get a little creative with how and what I feed him since, 1.) he still does not have teeth and can choke on things that aren't soft enough and 2.) when things are too soft, they are clearly not the ideal finger foods. This means rice cereal is not even an option. Feeding him pureed foods only lasted all of maybe two weeks before he decided he didn't want me to feed him. I had expected to be pureeing for at least a couple of months. Nope. Good thing I didn't invest in any new baby food pureeing kitchen products! Some of his favorite finger foods are broccoli, cooked egg yolk (He loves an egg or two in the morning - LOVES!), cauliflower, prunes, avocado, kiwi, banana and kale (steamed then chopped and rolled up into little balls so he can gum it and swallow - if it's 'leafy' it just gets stuck to the roof of his mouth). He also loves to snack on Cheerios (Apparently Otios are no longer around like they were when Esperanza was a baby - so Ezra gets all that added sugar, salt and starch that Cheerios has to offer).

...poops in the middle of the night. Wakes up to poop. And then wakes up even more when I have to turn on some kind of light to take clothes off and change his diaper in the middle of the night. He does this every single night! At least once, sometimes twice. And no, he's not eating prunes before bed.

...is SO close to crawling. He can get around still a few different ways: the army crawl, a worm crawl (wiggling his butt up and down while legs push him), backwards scoot while on hands and knees and when he's in a sitting position he'll get into a crawl position then back into a sitting position and back to crawl position - before you know it, he's on the other side of the room!

...has finally settled into a fairly consistent and predictable routine for naps and night time sleep. He wakes in the morning about 7 or 7:30, naps from 11-1 (this creates a problem on days I take Esperanza to school at noon), naps again from 3:30 or 4 to about 5 then goes to sleep for the night around 8 or 8:30. He wake several times in the middle of the night to nurse, but drifts back into dreamland easily, most of the time. Of course this will all change now that I've put it in writing.

...enjoys swinging in the outdoor swing, shaking rattles, playing with balls of any size or texture, taking his socks off to chew on, taking baths with his sister, drooling all over himself, laughing and crying in harmony with his sister, nursing in the rocking chair with his super soft white blanket on him and sitting with his sister in the middle of a pile of toys and being entertained by her while chewing on all kinds of tasty things.

Hide & Seek

2012-02-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

I tried to encourage her to hide under the table, behind the curtains or in the closet. She had her own idea though. She really does believe that if she can't see you, you can't see her.

Ready or not, here I come!

3 And A 1/2

2012-01-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

While we were eating dinner tonight, Esperanza was in an unusually good mood, and very chatty. I pulled out the camera, flipped it to video and began asking her a bunch of questions. The video is way too long to try to upload on my blog, but here are a few of Esperanza's 'favorite things' to remember about her at 3 and a half years old (or at least for that moment)...

Favorite Color: Purple

Favorite Place To Go: Rafa's house

Favorite Thing To Do: Paint

Favorite Animal: Zebra

Favorite Pair Of Shoes: Her Light-Up Sketchers

Favorite Song: She doesn't know songs yet, but I was just curious how she'd respond...She started singing, in no particular language. It was pretty funny.

Favorite Stuffed Animal: The Blue Bear She Borrowed From My Moms House

Favorite Toy: Ezra's Dragon

Favorite Food: Pears

Favorite Friend: Lucy (one of her classmates

Her Weight: 31.5 lbs

Clothing Size: between a 3T and a 4T - true to size as she's always been

Love you Esperanza - Happy Half-Birthday!

Winters First Snow Fall

2012-01-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

We finally got snow! It started falling last night just after Esperanza went to sleep and was still there this morning when we got up. It look a lot of coercing to get Esperanza's snow gear on and her outside (remember, she doesn't like the cold). Because the rest of us were going outside, and she didn't want to be inside alone, she finally gave in and came out. Armando set off building a snow man...and then another and another. Eventually he had one big happy 4 person snow family. Esperanza helped put the carrot noses on and I sat and watched, drinking my warm decaf coffee and propping Ezra up in the snow to take pictures. I did put on my snow pants to make a quick snow angel, and failed at trying to convince Esperanza to do one with me. I sure hope Ezra will like cold weather when he grows up so I have someone to make snow angels with in the future.

Jahlani Zaire Roberson-Lopez

2012-01-17T17:29:00.001-08:00

Jahlani Zaire Roberson-Lopez, infant son of our very close and loved friend Monique, passed away last week. He was 2 days shy of being 2 months old. The night before his passing, I had just blogged about her visit with us and meeting Jahlani. I will cherish those memories of that day I met Jahlani, not knowing I would never see him again. He was so small, so sweet and so happy. So loved.

Monique, Dre and their 5 children traveled here from Ohio, all 7 of them in a mini-van. They spent several weeks in Portland, Oregon, visiting and staying with family and friends over the holidays. After another few days traveling across the states back to Ohio, they returned home last Wednesday. Thursday morning, Jahlani passed.

I struggle to come up words to describe how heartbroken I am for Monique's loss. Every time I think of her and the pain she must be feeling, I cry. If it hurts this bad for me, I can only imagine the agony she is feeling. There really is nothing that can be said or done to make this sad time any better, for anyone. The pain of loosing Jahlani will never go away, and niether will his memory.

My Aunt Marti wrote the obituary which was published in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Jahlani Zaire Roberson-Lopez, treasured son of Monique Lopez and Andre Roberson, was born November 10, 2011 passed away at home on January 12, 2012.

During his very brief spiritual visit and travels on earth, he blessed family and friends in Ohio and Oregon with smiles and joy that will remain in their hearts forever.

In addition to his parents; he is survived by his brothers, Enrique, Jullian, Elijah; sisters, Adrina, Zhane, Apache; cousins, Silvia and Isaiah. Jahlani leaves many other family members and friends to treasure and honor his memory.

Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home. Friends may call on Tuesday from 10 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. In lieu of flowers the family requests contributions to be made to the Jahlani Roberson-Lopez Memorial Fund at any US Bank site.

Almost Crawling

2012-01-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

Esperanza didn't crawl until she was 10 months old. I think our little baby boy Ezra might be crawling sooner than that. Here he is at 7 months old getting frustrated and wanting to crawl, getting some of the idea down. Yikes, I'm going to have to start mopping my floors soon!

Say What?

2012-01-11T20:13:00.000-08:00

Between the weekend of Christmas and the weekend of New Years, I had my nieces and nephew over for a couple of days. On one of those days, our good friend Monique and her kids (who grew up with my nieces and nephew) came over for a visit. They live in Ohio but came out to Portland to visit family for the holidays, and I was lucky to get to spend some time with them.

Kids really do say the funniest things when you least expect it. And it's funny to us adults only because the things they say are so pure, innocent and just matter-of-fact. What they say is really how they understand and believe things...even though it isn't always they way it is. Usually I only get the pleasure of hearing funnies coming from my little 3 year old, but apparently, older kids say the darndest things too. Keep going for a picture show and a few short funnies (which, I promise, were really funny in person despite how not funny it might be by reading about it):

Enrique, Antonio, Anycia, Ezra, Apache, Jahlani, Esperanza, Elijah and Julian

I was cooking in the kitchen while the kids were playing amongst themselves in different areas of the house. Angelica and Esperanza were on the floor in the living room doing something and I heard this conversation:

Esperanza asks Angelica "you have a gray shirt on?" Angelica replies with a "yeah." After a short moment Esperanza asks her another question, "you have boobies?" This is where I begin paying attention to the conversation. Angelica responds threw giggle,s "ah, yeeeaaah." Then there was a long and thoughtful pause before Esperanza finally asks "you have a baby?"

Angelica and I burst into laughter and responds, "um, NOOO!". Esperanza clearly knows the purpose of boobies!

Somehow Angelica managed to escape all the pictures. She headed home the afternoon that Moniques kids came over and I hadn't busted the camera out yet so she missed the whole gang photo. Here's another attempt at it...this one, all eyes are on the camera!

The newest addition to Moniques family: Baby Jahlani. He looks just like all her other babies I think.

Apache and Anycia with Esperanza taggin' along

Apache and Enrique stayed the night to spend some time with Anycia and Antonio. While we were cleaning up after dinner we all got into the discussion of race and culture. I don't remember the specifics as to how the conversation got to this part, but here's where it gets funny...

Apache says, "I don't have any white friends." I ask her, "Why not?" She shrugs and says, "I don't know." It quickly dawns on me that she does have a very good friend who is white. So I say to Apache, "What about Anycia? She's white." In unison Apache says "oh, yeah!", while Anycia says, "I'm not white!"

We laugh a little, yet we're all a little confused and curious. So I keep it going...

As I continue to wash dishes, I respond to Anycia, "Yes you are Anycia. You're half white and half Mexican." Anycia very matter-of-factly says, "No, I'm not white!" I have to ask, "then what are you Anycia?" Her response, "I'm half Mexican and half Native American." I say, "But your mom (my full blooded sister) is white and your dad is Mexican." One of your parents would have to be full Native American for you to be half Native American." Anycia's responds "My mom is full Native American."

Family history is, of course, hard for anyone to follow and figure out, especially for a 10 year old. To be mixed cultures, I imagine makes it even more difficult. Though Anycia's comments were comical to all of us, I felt the need to at least attempt to clarify how much of what we have on our side of the family: a little Irish, a little French, a little Native American (I have 1/32...maybe less), a little German, etc. (basically the usual 'white' mix, unless I'm the one who's confused?). Despite my efforts to simplify a complex topic, Anycia is still convinced her mom is full blooded Native American, but confused as to why I am not....to me that was the funniest part. Love you Anycia!

And then Antonio had a good one...

When I came home from picking up Angelica at the train station on Christmas Eve, she walked in and immediately jumped on top of her brother, Antonio, who was on the couch reading. She was messing with him, wrestling around and picking on him. That must be the teen sibling way of showing how much they love and miss one another. At one point, she must have kneed him in a sensitive area because he yelped, "watch it, I have stuff between my legs!" All us girls burst into laughter and Angelica got up off of Antonio. We laughed for awhile and Antonio just sat there and said "what, I got 'stuff' there".

Apache and Esperanza helping feed Ezra

Ezra Is 7 Months Old

2012-01-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

At 7 months old, Ezra has proven to us that he is his own little person with a big personality. He is very attached to me now and has a little bit of a fear for strangers.He has sparked an interest in our cat Lucy. Unfortunately for him, Lucy has no interest in him and has already swatted at him a few times when he's gotten a hold of her hair, tail, ears or whiskers. He'll learn, Esperanza did.

He's has had a bad case of diarrhea for about a week now. I'm changing at least 7 or more green-ish runny horrid smelling diapers every day. I've gone back and forth from cloth to disposable diapers for months but now I'm just doing cloth cause I cannot afford that many disposables! Poor kid, I bet his little bottom (and belly) hurt. Other than being a little more fussy and a little more snuggly at times, he had no other symptoms to indicate a serious illness. Catherine said he clearly has some kind of bug, but nothing to be concerned about and he'll get better soon. I stopped feeding him solid food after the first day of diarrhea and now he just gets mamas milk and a couple bites of solid food a day just so I can get lots of probiotics in him. He also loves drinking water from his mini-sippy cup.

He's not crawling yet but will often 'jump' from a sitting position to try to get to me or something he sees and wants. He will rock when he's in the crawl position but eventually his arms give in and he just ends up in a butt up position, trying to push his body around with his legs...which doesn't get him anywhere but frustrated.

yes, he's wearing an old shirt of Esperanza's which is gathered at the shoulders. He's such a pretty boy!

He still weighs about 18 pounds I think but must be longer cause he's outgrowing clothes quickly again. He wore 9 months for a couple months then I pulled out the size 12 month clothes a few weeks ago and they fit him. Then, overnight he seems to have grown out of them already! So, size 18 month clothesHe's a screamer. High pitch! Really high. Esperanza screamed and cried and whined and fussed non-stop for years...but she never reached the window shattering, ear ringing, almost silent high pitch that Ezra does. He's also a yeller. Just like his daddy. He's really just talking to you with a ton of passion, but you feel like you're being yelled at. If he's not screaming or yelling, he does giggle and make softer cute baby talk too now I guess!

He's still teething, but no teeth. It's really frustrating for me, so I can only imagine how he feels. Now he not only is in a ton of pain on a regular basis, he drools so much all day long. I change his top several times a day because I can't keep him dry. I've tried every conventional, alternative, homeopathic, old wives tale, natural home remedy there is and nothing helps. Nothing. Okay, I haven't tried the Whiskey trick, but thats only because I'd feel kinda wierd walking into a liquor store with two kids to buy it.

Christmas At Grandma Angelina's

2011-12-31T12:20:00.000-08:00

We went over to Armando's moms house to celebrate Christmas with the family on the afternoon of Christmas day. About an hour and a half into Esperanza's nap, I decided to just wake her up and loaded her into the car. Though our Christmas gatherings may sound the same each year (lots of food, family, friends, Santa, gifts, etc), it's the little details, individual conversations and especially the kids that keep it entertaining and fun. This year, I didn't get very many pictures, besides the Santa ones. But here are a few.

Uncle Tony, his 'friend' Teresa and EsperanzaSanta with Cathy and her little ones Tony and Teresa again
Angelina and Armando's brother Quacky (Jose Juan)

Esperanza and Junior danced to the Wii dance game. It was funny, and she was good at it. And here are a couple of videos of her dancing that are pretty darn cute

Santa Clause Visit

2011-12-30T04:50:00.000-08:00

Guess who came to Grandma Angelina's house on Christmas? Santa Clause! And guess who had a change of heart and mind about Santa Clause? Esperanza did!

Santa Clause and three of his little elves walked down the stairs in the middle of our family Christmas gathering on Chirstmas day, surprising all the little kids, saying "HO, HO, HO" and handing out candy canes. He and his elves then made their way to the front room where the Christmas tree was. He sat down on the couch and in front of a huge pile of wrapped gifts. He had quite the following too. Over a dozen little toddlers and young children, including Esperanza, sat down on the floor in front of him, waiting for him to call their name so they could go sit next to him and open their gift. When Esperanza caught on to what was really going on and that each kid was getting to open a present if they went and sat next to him, she made her way threw the crowd , climbed right up on the couch, interupted another kids moment with Santa and asked if he had a present for her. She was no longer scared of Santa!

You can see Esperanzas lil head in the bottom right hand corner...before she figured out what was going onOooh, a big box! Whats in it?Yay! Huggies! Um, Huggies? Oh, but wait, is it really? Nope, something even better A big huge plush pink pillow!!

She liked Santa now, and he had one more present for herBut it was also for Ezra, so he got in on the action tooAfter all the gifts were handed out, and most of the crowd dispersed, Santa sat and talked to Clarissa and Esperanza about his reindeer. It was so cute to watch their faces. They were amazed by the stories Santa had.Thank you Gary....Oops, I mean Santa!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-29T14:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning started off with me waking up, engorged and uncomfortable at 5 am. Ezra had slept threw the night for the first time in months (Merry Christmas to me!)! By 7 am I couldn't take it any longer though cause I couldn't sleep through the pain and didn't have the energy to pump, so I woke Ezra up to nurse. As I was nursing him, Esperanza walked in the room and began crying because she had accidently gone potty while sleeping. Good thing we had a cover over the mattress still, as this was the first time she had had an accident in a long time (and it was only because she'd fallen asleep in the car the night before and didn't go potty before going to bed for the night). After changing Esperanza and getting the bed cleaned up, there was not a chance either kid was going back to sleep. We don't usually begin our day until closer to 9 am. Being Christmas morning and all though, I cheerfully said to Esperanza, 'Merry Christmas, go look to see if Santa brought you presents!'. And so it began...

Esperanza helped Ezra open his gifts
He loved his sippy cup and Sofie the giraffe chew/squeeker toy She got so excited over her hello kitty band-aids

After we opened gifts, Esperanza had fun playing with the cupcake kit her grandma gave her, "HOT, HOT" she exclaimed each time she pulled them out of her the oven with her oven mit on.

We got ready to go over to Armando's moms house for Christmas. Esperanza wore the lovely vintage dress and I put her hair up in pigtails wtih cute little fairies in.
Esperanza helped do some last minute gift wrapping to take over to Grandma Angelina's house

And just before we headed out the door, Esperanza decided it was nap time

Part 2 - Christmas At Grandma Angelina's, to follow...

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T12:49:00.000-08:00

We gathered with my family on Christmas Eve at my moms house. I dressed Esperanza in my old Christmas dress and she loved it, especially after seeing the picture my mom had of me wearing it when I was her age. Tony and Cyndi picked up pizzas from Tony's work, Old Chicago, mom made a delicious salad and I brought those home made sugary treats. We ate, watched Christmas movies and opened gifts. Mary gave each kid a 'love' necklace (Esperanza broke hers the next day) and a wooden flute. Cyndi gave Espernza some stickers and other crafts. Mom and George got Roman a big wooden truck that hauls wooden cars and Esperanza a play cupcake kit. Mom made all of us girls a table runner. I attempted to get a picture of all 6 kids together. Though fuzzy with several pairs of eyes looking in different directions, I guess I succeeded. At the end of the evening, I put my kids' Christmas jammies and as I drove home they both fell fast asleep. I put out our little bundle of gifts and played Santa, then I noticed that the flower bulbs my sister Mary had given me for my birthday had bloomed.

Sugar Love

2011-12-27T01:43:00.000-08:00

Quick sidenote before I get to my original blog post topic: Did you know that sugar gives users a similar type of euphoric feeling as heorin does? Without giving details and getting myself into trouble, I will share that I have a close and personal relationship with 2 heroin addicts and guess what they turn to when they don't have their first drug of choice? Good ol' fashioned sugar cane. Sugar is also more addictive than heroin yet it is handed out to children to show ones love, sold in stores by the pound and considered a normal part of most peoples diet despite it's deadly effects and negative impact on their bodies, attitudes, personalities, teeth, etc. Yup. Bad stuff it is, sugar and heroin. Curious about the comparison as well as the history of how sugar and heorin began, read Sugar Blues - great book.

On the Eve of Christmas Eve I picked up Anycia and Antonio from their dads house, stopped to visit my mom for a bit then headed home where we began an afternoon and evening filled with baking and cooking, with lots of sugar. I had volunteered to do desserts for our family gathering. Typically, I cook goodies with whole wheat flower, honey, some nuts and/or dried fruits and maybe even some cocoa nibs or carob chips. They turn out delicious, yet also very healthy. Something took ahold of me this time around though and I decided to do holiday cut out sugar cookies with neon colored icing and peppermint bark with white and dark chocolate! Oooh, la, la! I think it was the kids, gotta show the love.

2011 Family Pictures

2011-12-22T20:02:00.000-08:00

A grade school friend that I reconnected with via Facebook took family pictures for us back in November. She began a ministry called Simply Olive Photography to provide professional photography for those who cannot otherwise afford it. She does not charge or ask for anything in return! She will however accept donations which go back into her ministry. Not only is this an amazing gift that she provides, she truly is very talented. Professional pictures are so expensive and definately not something remotely close to showing up in our budget any time soon, so I'm forever greatful for her and her gift to us. We hope she will take our pictures again in the coming year when a certain child of mine is in better spirits and the weather is warmer. Here are the few shots that she was able to capture of us in the few moments we had before Esperanza was taken over by her evil twin...Brienne really liked the hat that Ezra was wearing the day we had our pictures done so part of what I donated to her and her ministry were these knitted baby hats for her to use when she photographs babies.

This one fit Ezra. He looks good in pinkAnd this one fit the snowglobe Thank You Olive!

Choo Choo At The Zoo Zoo Lights

2011-12-20T00:30:00.000-08:00

Our first trip to Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo! We met Armando's sister Eva and her kiddos there one evening last week. We had a cloud cover that night so it wasn't freezing, a little drizzle here and there, but for the most part the weather was good for us. It was a school night before the winter vacation kicked in so it wasn't very busy either. Overall, the perfect day for our adventure.Eva's children: Rafa with a big fake smile, Celeste with her eyes closed and Kiko in the stroller distracted and looking at the lights Look at that smile Armando! Wow, thats a first.An outting would not be complete without some tears and drama from Miss Esperanza. I purposely try to get photos of these moments rather than just the 'happy' smiles we all typically attempt to capture on camera. This is truly how our outtings, days and life go. A whole lot of drama with a few good moments in between. I don't want these memories to be forgotten or go unnoticed when Esperanza looks back one day at all these wonderous adventures we have. She'll thank me one day for capturing these pictures of her. Maybe then she will be able to talk to me about how she was feeling.Armando, Ezra and some ghostly fog or something Eva is camera shy, she hides her face any time I try to sneak a picture of her. This is the best I got. Her and three boys...holding Ezra, pushing Kiko and Rafa hanging on her. What a mama.We took the lit up zoo train ride at the end of our zoo rounds. Ezra zonked out just before we got on and stayed that way most of the ride. While on the train watching all the lights, we warmed up and re-energized with some hot chocolate and snacks I brought from home. Eva bought each kid their very own battery operated train with track set from the gift shop. They were so excited about the whole choo choo train expereince. Esperanza spent at least the next 48 hours running around yelling 'Choo, choo...chuga,chuga, chuga...choo, choo' This was my favorite illumination. Esperanza and Rafa with Armando and their choo choo's

Festive Moments

2011-12-19T18:23:00.000-08:00

Holiday Cookies

We baked ginger bread people cookies. Esperanza loved using the rolling pin. She was good at it too It was an improptu baking day and I didn't have anything to use as frosting or decorations (besides those two chocolate chip eyes). Esperanza didn't know any different though. They turned out pretty good.Gingerbread House
During Ezra nap time one afternoon, Esperanza and I put together a gingerbread house kit. I convinced Esperanza that the candy was fake and was not edible despite how closely it resembled real candy. Yes, I'm a mean mama. About 10 minutes into our project though, I instinctively licked some icing off of my finger without even thinking. Busted! The task of putting together a gingerbread house is very messy. And not easy. The roof kept sliding off, the icing was very difficult to decorate tiny windows with and the walls even caved in once. We had a lot of fun putting it together though and in the end, it stood up on it's own.Christmas Jammies

I came across matching Christmas jammies for my kids at a thrift store. THE. BEST. FIND. EVER. I paid 7 dollars for both of them! Perfect condition, gender neutral, Childrens Place jammies, size 12 months and size 3T. They were in different sections of the store and I just happened to find them both. Score! These kids are the best little gifts ever! Oh Christmas Tree
We went and cut down a Christmas tree awhile ago. It was dusk and I forgot my camera, so no pictures of that very cold and uneventful moment. Once home, Esperanza and Ezra had fun looking at all the ornaments and decorating the tree We found a few 'safe' ornaments for Ezra to chew on She wanted me to take a picture of her with each and every ornament

What Christmas tree would be complete without a chili pepper ornament? Not ours.

Food For The Birds
We went for a walk to find pinecones in the neighborhood (off topic side note: we've had the driest and sunniest December on record...my record anyways. It's been delightful!) Put peanut butter on oneThen we added bird seeds
And hung it up outside for the birdies. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we still haven't seen any birdies.

Santa
We took a trip to the mall for the sole purpose of getting a picture of the kids with Santa. I should have known better. Don't go to the mall, ever. Especially during holiday season, not even for a Santa picture. Esperanza was terrified of Santa. Ezra of course didn't care, just another warm lap to sit on. He got his picture taken but we didn't fork out the 25 bucks to buy it, especially since Esperanza wasn't in it. Lesson learned. When we got back home, Esperanza took a nap and I planted myself in front of the computer and put together a personalized Santa video for Esperanza through a website. You answer a few questions about your kid, they plug the info in and wah-lah - you've got a video to prove to your kid that Santa's watchin them. Her eyes were big. She didn't say a word the entire time. She would look away from the screen every now and then only to look at me with huge eyes that were saying 'where the heck did this guy come from and how does he know so much about me?' I chose to put her on the 'naughty' list. The video came to a part where Santa said something like 'I know you want a certain special toy for Christmas, and there's still time for you to be a good girl...'. While he was saying that, the video showed a picture of some generic toy, which was supposed to represent whatever it is she wants for Christmas. After the video was over, I reminded her of what Santa said. Her response, 'Well, thats not the toy I want anyways.' Sheesh! Nice try mama. She did tell me later that evening that she was scared of Santa. Who can blame her. The one special toy that Esperanza wants...and these are her exact words, not mine..."I want a BIG Woody". Toy Story Woody of course.

A blurry photo of her watching her Santa video

Paper Snowflakes

2011-12-13T23:30:00.000-08:00

It had been years and years since I made paper snowflakes, and I can't say I ever really knew how to make a very nice looking one in the first place. Then, I came across a tutorial the other day on how to make paper snowflakes (Martha Stewart of course). It's so easy and fun! Even I was able to get them to turn out wonderful! Esperanza and I made several colorful snowflakes of various sizes to hang up in our window. She had fun cutting up the scrap paper into itty bitty pieces while I did most of the actual snowflake making. Then she unfolded them, put double sided tape on them and hung them in the window. I'm still practicing, but even these first ones turned out pretty darn good I think. Aren't they pretty!? Esperanza is still mastering the scissors. We bought her a pair of scissors that spring open after they are closed to cut. It makes it so she can actually use scissors without getting too frustrated and now she loves to just sit and cut paper with her scissors.

Ezra Is Half A Year Old

2011-12-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

At 6 months old Ezra can sit on his own with no support, he eats pureed foods and is super giggly for no reason other than that he's just a happy little baby. He's still very distracted when he's nursing, even when it's just him and I alone in a dark room during the day. He won't nurse more than a few times a day. He's decided he'd rather nurse more at night so that he can discover the world around him during the day without having to be attached to me for the boring task of eating. So he nurses throught he night which keeps him thriving, growing and healthy. He's quickly growing out of size 9 month clothes and into size 12 month clothes now. He weighs 19 pounds. No teeth have appeared yet but he is still teething and wants to chew on anything and everything he can get into his mouth. A few weeks ago, out of the blue, Esperanza started calling him Buddah. He's such a joy to be around.He loves mamas home made carrot puree. He's a very messy eater too. After each bite, his hands immediately go to his mouth, then to his eyes, hair, ears, and within seconds his entire body is covered in food. I'll learn soon that I just need to wipe his mouth after each bite cause I will not be giving him a bath after each meal. I am afraid though that this is just the beginning and eventually he will turn into an even messier eater where food ends up all over the flood and walls. This is a very clean picture of him, before the hand rubbed the carrot puree all over the place.Happy Half Birthday Buddah!

Duck, Duck, Goose

2011-12-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

We found the very best place to see and feed the ducks. For those of you who live in the area, it's off of 172nd Ave across the street from the 24 Hour Fitness. There are a few ponds right there where dozens and dozens of beautiful ducks await your childs arrival with stale bread. Facebook has various pros and cons to it's existance and uses. One of the things I love about Facebook is the endless ability to share and discover information through other people, groups and organizations. I discovered this place through a Facebook friends photo and am so happy I did. We've been trying to find a good duck feeding place for years! Okay, maybe only 3 years, but still.

While there may not have been any geese, there was this one featherless blue-hatted silly goose along with 30 or more beautiful and hungry ducks. It was a sunny yet very chilly day. Esperanza still despises the cold so she sat in the stroller bundled up, tossing bread pieces to the ducks. Convincing her to get out and chase the ducks around was impossible. Ezra was snuggled in the Ergo watching the ducks and his sister with interest

Eventually she warmed up enough and got out of the stroller. She actually threw a fit at one point cause she wanted to get into the water with the duck. And then, along came another little girl with her mama. Hooray! Esperanza's attitude quickly changed and she ran around with this little girl chasing and feeding the ducks together. Her mama and I exchanged phone numbers and hope to meet up again with our girls to feed the ducks. We'll be back duckies!

End Of The Month Picture Dump

2011-11-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some random pictures and short stories that didn't make the cut for their very own blog post in November. I've posted some on Facebook, but others haven't been seen by most. Enjoy...

Ezra and I took a walk along the Washougal River one chilly and dry day while Armando and Esperanza were off together doing something. Last time we were here, he was in my bellyEsperanza didn't have school the week of Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, I really struggled to find things to entertain her with. For some reason she's become even more needy than usual (I didn't think it was possible, but she proved me wrong) . So I dumped out some beads and buttons, gave her a set of chopstix and told her to pick everything up. She had a lot of fun with it! And she didn't loose interest after only a few minutes. AND, it builds fine motor skills. Another Esperanza entertainment activity: glueing anything and everything onto a piece of paper to spell her name. I told her to go read a book
Playsilks provide a whole new world of entertainment for both kidsHe's pretty wobly still, and needs just a little bit of support to stay put, but Ezra is sitting upright! Geneva and her kids came up for Thanksgiving. I didn't get any pictures of us on our gathering day, but I did get a few of the kids the day after Thanksgiving. Here's Anycia and Esperanza Anotonio, Anycia, Angelica, Esperanza & Ezra - day after ThanksgivingEarlier this month we had a bit of a scare with George. He had a series of siezures. Scary ones from what my mom and Mary say. Ever since his stroke several years ago, he hadn't had a seizure, and his epilepsy seemed to have disappeared. The damage from the stoke apparently had done something to the part of his brain that was causing the siezures he had had consistently since Vietnam. Then all of a sudden, they reappeared a week or so ago. My moms theory is now that his brain has begun to show signs of healing from the stroke (him being cognitively more 'with it' than he has been since before the stroke), his epilepsy has also been returned. He only had them on one day so far. Lets hope it was just that day and no more. Here's Grandpa George with 5 of his 6 grandkids (missing Roman). We gathered with Armando's family the day after Thanksgiving. Again, not many pictures. Here's Marti's little boy Emmanuel - he's is so sweet!Cathy's baby Camerino Jr is catching up to Ezra in size. He's kinda curled up here but he's almost as long and feels the same in weight...and he's 2 months old. Grandma Angelina with EzraEzra wants food. Bad. I started off with giving him carrots. Whole. They make a great teether toy. We've moved on a little bit from there, but here he is with his carrot teether My sister Mary and my mom watched my kids awhile back while I went to the dentist. Mary put make-up on Espernza, snapped a photo, then took it all off before I got homeWe had some family photos done earlier this month. Everything and everyone was great until the moment the shutter went to work. Esperanza lost it. It was bad. To top it off, it was really, really cold outside. Esperanza cannot stand cold weather for some reason. She clams up no matter how many layers I put on her. Fortunately, our amazing photographer somehow managed to still get a few decent shots but I don't have them yet. Here's a picture I snapped of Esperanza, mid-tantrum. I'll share more pictures when I get them back, but here's a little preview. Cold or not, Ezra is one happy boy!Good-bye November, hello December! Bring on the holidays and cold weather. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Painful Photo

2011-11-23T18:33:00.000-08:00

I don't even remember the whole story behind this photo. It was taken a month or so ago when we were visiting some friends. She wanted to go home really bad, but it wasn't time to leave yet. I was actually trying to get her to sit on the couch with my friends' little ones to get a group shot. She wanted nothing to do with that, instead this is what I got. It hurts me so bad when I look at it. Had to share, but mostly save for future memories.

November Rain

2011-11-22T19:43:00.000-08:00

Wasn't that a Guns -N- Roses song from like 20 years ago? Anyways, it's also a good description of our day today. This morning I woke to rain drops pounding loudly on my window and my first thought was, 'we're gonna go stomp in mud puddles today'. Unfortunately, Esperanza wasn't as giddy as I was about the idea. A few hours later though she said she was ready to go play in the rain. Yay!

Big tree stormdrain always brings up lots of questions and deep thinking as she processes the answers My feet

Vintage Clothes

2011-11-22T18:30:00.000-08:00

Vintage sounds better than 80's. Esperanza is in a phase where she wants to wear dresses ALL the time now. Which is great because she just happens to be the perfect size for some dresses my mom handed down to me awhile back that once were worn by my sisters and I when we were little.

This was my dress given to me as a Christmas gift by my Grandma & Grandpa Gill the year I was 3 years old. Sooo glad I tried this on Esperanza because I was just thinking that I needed to get her a Christmas dress. Not any more! Love it!This dress was my little sister Mary'sAnd this one was Naomi's

And look, I even found Ezra a cute lil' vintage outfit. My mom doesn't recognize these overalls, but for some reason I do. Why do I think they were Tim's? Not sure where they came from or whose they were for sure, but they're old, hand made by someone and was packed away with all the other stuff my mom gave me a long time ago. And, yes, those are flowers.

My Little Nursling

2011-11-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

Making Play-Doh

2011-11-22T17:15:00.000-08:00

My bff asked me for a play-doh recipe awhile ago and I couldn't remember all of the ingredients. That was the indicator that it had been way too long since we last made play-doh. So I did some research, found a great web site that has a variety of recipes using all kinds of things from peanut butter to coffee grinds and Esperanza & I began making play-doh. We did the cream of tarter one, like always. I know it works great and that we like it...and I had all the ingredients. Rice was part of lunch, not part of the play-doh...thow it might have added a neat texture - hmm

An Autumn Day At The Park

2011-11-20T18:19:00.000-08:00

Don't you wish you could just squeeze this little guy! He, he - I get to every. single. day.

5 Month Old Baby Ezra

2011-11-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

Ezra is 5 months old! He's getting so big & strong, becoming increasingly more playful and is very vocal. I plan to wait one more month to introduce him to solid food, but he constantly stares at my food with his big brown eyes when I'm eating and even tries to grab at food if it's close enough to him. I feel so bad not letting him eat, but of course know better! He is getting over his first cold. It was passed around the house from Esperanza to him and now me. Somehow Armando has been able to avoid it. So Ezra has a little bit of a lingering cough but is pretty much over it. He gets very distracted while he's nursing now. If there is anyone around or any noises he won't nurse. Or he'll just take a few drinks then he's done. This might explain why he prefers to nurse more at night, which means, we're sleeping less. Even with our sleepless nights, he is such a good baby! I'm always expecting him to fuss and get upset when I have to wake him up from a nap, stop a nursing session too soon or have to set him down right after I pick him up (for reasons that usaully have something to do with his big sister)...but he rarely does. He just goes with the flow, and is almost always happy.

Teresa & Oscar's 25th Aniversary

2011-11-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

Armando's sister Teresa and her husband Oscar celebrated their 25th year wedding aniversary last weekend by renewing their vows and having a party...pretty much another wedding.

Tony walked Teresa down the isleThe same pastor that married them 25 years ago. Also the same pastor that married Armando and I.Good for another 25+ yearsTeresa had just turned 17 when she got married 25 years ago. This is her now. I didn't know her 25 years ago, but I don't think she's aged much! She looks so youthful. Reception These are all the Padrinos (friends and family who contributed to the wedding and party). Armando and I were the padrinos for their limo. Somehow we missed the memo that said we were supposed to wear purple and black (oops) so we avoided this line up. Armando's sister Aurelia holding Ezra I gave Esperanza her very own disposable camera to keep her entertained. She had so much fun running around taking pictures of peopleI didn't have high expectations for the pictures Esperanza was taking. I was however disappointed that I had turned the flash on for her cause every picture is overexposed. They may have had a chance if it wasn't on. Here are some of the 'best' pictures. After looking at the cost of the camera plus the cost of getting the pictures developed, I am so thankful for digital cameras now. Film is spendy! Especially when it turns out like this. And then there was cake Twirlin in another Mexican dressThese 3 are Trouble Marissa & Ezra Bride and Groom of 25 years

Spinning Dizzy

2011-11-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

Esperanza likes dresses again, at least for the moment. She went a little over a month refusing to wear dresses. Now, she not only will wear her normal every day casual dresses, she loves all the fun 'dress-up', not so casual and Mexican dresses that fill her tiny closet. So much she wants to wear them to bed and to school. Maybe school, but to bed, I don't think so. Last night she was wearing the skirt/top outfit Eva brought her back from Mexico like 3 years ago. She's worn it a lot since then but it actually fits her perfect right now. It's also perfect for twirling and spinning in, which she did a lot of last night.Ezra watched her with such awe! I think if he didn't have that darn binky in in his mouth, his jaw would have been dropped & drooling while watching her. He couldn't take his eyes off of her and that skirt!Here is a video of her about 20 or 30 minutes into her spinning frenzy. I had taken a couple videos with my phone which are actually cuter than this one, but I had the phone flipped the wrong way so the videos are sideways and I can't turn them (darn-it). By this time, in this video, she is super dizzy ~ I should have actually kept it going because a few seconds after I stopped she crashed into the wooden toy boxes because she was so dizzy. Silly girl.

Halloween Apples

2011-11-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere that kids in Canada used to go door to door saying 'Halloween Apples' instead of 'Trick-or-Treat' and they'd get an apple. I'd trade in our tradition of candy giving/getting for apples in a heart beat! Until then, sugary treats it is. I told Esperanza from the beginning that any chocolate she collected that night was automatically mine.

During the day on Halloween, Esperanza got to dress up for school. We never did find a blue colored costume for Esperanza so we used costumes and dress up attire we already had around the house this year. Fortunately, she was in a happy fairy princess mood Halloween morning. So Fairy Princess she was for school.

Don't let that face fool you, she loved her outfit...just not sure if she should be Grumpy Fairy Princess...Or Happy Fairy Princess.Princess Fairy brushing her Brother Boo's hairMy BooLater in the day, we headed over to a friends house for dinner then some trick-or-treating adventures. Since being a princess isn't very warm, Esperanza wore a Carebear costume we dug out of a bin in the garage. I think Val gave it to me a couple of years ago, and this year it fit Esperanza perfect! There were a few other kids Esperanza's age that went out with us, as well as some older kids too.

Sunshine Bear wearing Daddy's hat, ready to go out on the town.

Pirate Gavn - AaRrrggKisses Ezra in his tiger costume...he wore it for about 5 minutes before he got too hot.
We tried to teach Sunshine proper trick-or-treating etiquette (don't run threw lawns, take only one piece of candy, no cutting in line, etc), but it might take a few years before we see any results.About an hour into our door to door adventures, Esperanza said she was done. Armando tried to convince her she wasn't done, there was still alot of candy to be had! He's a kid at heart with a sweet tooth. But if Esperanza says we're done, then I say we're done...so we we're done. We went back to our friends' house before all the others and relaxed for a bit. Esperanza was happy with her little pile of candy (which is still big, but nothing compared to the other kids').

Esperanza's First Hair Cut

2011-11-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

We had to cut Esperanza's hair. The hair from the pigtail that got caught in the mixer the other night really got mixed up. I spent hours trying to untangle it. It was a massive swirl of tangles, dreaded basically. It was a small section of hair, but significant enough that I couldn't just cut it out and hope it blended in. After tons of conditioner, peanut butter, coconut oil, various different brushes, combs and techniques...not to mention a lot of tears shed from Esperanza, I gave up. As I've mentioned before, Esperanza has wanted her hair cut. I, on the other hand, couldn't bear to let go of her long ringlets of hair. I'd been defeated though. Over the past few weeks she has gotten gum and silly putty in her hair but I desperately managed and was able to avoid cutting it. The longer her hair got, the curlier it got, and I love it (loved...sigh). When I gave up and asked her if we should go get it cut, she said yes. I cried. Maybe not at that exact same moment, but I did cry. I wanted to be happy while we were at the salon getting her hair cut, so I got it out before we left. And, I'm seriously fighting back tears as I write this. When her teacher saw her hair for the first time after the hair cut, her mouth dropped, then she softly asked in a very sad voice, 'Whyyyy Mami'. I almost burst into tears again. I miss those locks so much. That whole mixer event is definately a lesson for me more than it is for Esperanza.

Before After

We went to a hair place just for little ones. She got to pick a car to sit in while she got her hair cut and chose the Barbi Jeep. She also could have picked her own movie to watch while getting her hair cut too, but she said she didn't want to watch one. She did however end up watching her neighbors Winnie The Pooh movie.

Snip, snip - snivel, snivelNo more long, beautiful ringlets They gave us a keepsake First Haircut Certificate as well as a lock of hair, and I requested to keep the big dreaded lock of hair too.Long day I guess...and look, there's one lil' ringlet left! The rest of it is pretty straight with a little bit of a curl on the bottom. Esperanza doesn't really have much to say about her hair being short now. She had no attachment to it like the rest of us did. Now she can easily run a brush threw it herself, and when I brush it, it takes seconds rather than forever. She looks so much older now too for some reason. I guess it fits her new big sister role.

Octobers Kitchen

2011-10-29T16:38:00.001-07:00

I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen regardless of the time of year, but when Fall comes around, even more time is spent there. The preperation and cooking time for cold weather meals are not the same as it is for foods we eat when it's warm. The fixins and process of simmering soups & rising breads keeps a cook lingering around in the kitchen much longer than a salad or sandwich does. And with the smell & sampling of these Fall foods, who wants to leave the kitchen anyways? The weather and our diets began it's change around the beginning of October. The leaves began changing color, the days were noticeably shorter, evenings began to cool down quite a bit and the wind picked up. At that same time, and with Esperanza's help & Ezra's watch, we've been cookin up lots of soups, breads, muffins, hot cereals & stews in the kitchen.

Rainbow Soup

A delicious veggie soup with a yummy spice combination of paprika and tumeric

It had been awhile since the last time we made bread in the bread machine (mothers day I think) and when I went to make a loaf recently I discovered I was missing an essential part to the bread machine. I was determined to have home made bread rolls to go with the crock pot stew that had been cooking all day. So, Esperanza and I made some bread the good ol' fashioned way, with our hands.Esperanza loved kneading her little bit of dough. She was very quiet and mesmerized by the process of making bread. It was very therapeutic for both of us. We did a 'quick' recipe so it only had to rise once then cook. Great for little ones that want things now.

Aaaaand then there was yesterday, the day we made pumpkin muffins (I call them cupcakes which makes it more appealing to Esperanza). This pumpkin cupcake making day is particularly memorable. This was the first time I let her help me add ingredients into the electric mixer and watch it swirl around and around.
Here's Esperanza 'reading' the recipe from the book

Here she is getting ready to add ingredients into the mixer bowl. As we began to mix the honey and butter together she was so excited about what the mixer does. She looked at me and said, 'Mama, I LOVE this'. It was cute. I turned my back to grab another egg out of the fridge. In that split second I wasn't watching her, she had leaned in to get a closer look and one of her pigtails fell into the mixer. It was quickly swooped up and swirled tightly around the spinner. Stopped it completely and the machine just hummed. She didn't make a peep. When I turned back around, her head was tilted sideways, head and machine touching. I quickly turned the mixer off, called Armando out to the kitchen to come help and we eventually were able to unwind her hair from the mixer. It took awhile. I almost just grabbed the scissors, but I couldn't. She was scared a little but not hurt a bit. Her hair is pretty thick and the fact that it was the whole pigtail and not smaller sections of hair probably helped in that department. Either way, it was scary and could have been a lot worse. I had failed to warn her to keep her distance. I hadn't even explained that there was any reason to be safe around the mixer and I had allowed her to stand much too close. I'm thankful nothing serious happened, things could have turned out really bad. Amazingly, the whole incident only set us back a few moments before we were back to making the muffins...only this time, with a whip and a plastic bowl - back to basics.

Putting pumpkin themed muffin cups in the mini-muffin pan. She really is a great helper!

After they baked, we made a healthy frosting to top the 'cupcakes' with. They were delicious, even with the few hairs and part of an egg shell we found in them.

While all this excitement does on in the kitchen, Ezra is usually sitting back, watching us from his high chair with a grin on his face. A friend gave me her sons old high chair recently and it has been so nice to have 2 arms free to cook & still have a happy baby close to me in the kitchen. He often has a chew toy or binky in his mouth. Recently, he pulls on his socks, stretching them all the way up to his mouth to suck on. Silly kid.

Today, I made this yummy Egyptian Red Lentil Soup. Mmmm. It's color and consistency very closely resembles the contents of the diaper I just changed - sorry.

Happy Fall/Festive/Seasonal/Holiday baking and cooking! Be safe with those kids while you cook.

Today, Which Was Yesterday

2011-10-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today was Esperanza's first day back to school after being sick for the past week. She caught a really bad bug and for a minute, I actually thought she had Pertussis. Funny how as moms we sometimes worry too much and do some serious research that convinces us our child has the symptoms of something much worse than what really is. A friend of mine convinced herself last week that her 2 year old had a brain tumor, but it was just a bad flu bug. Before I got too worked up over the Pertussis thing, Catherine convinced me otherwise and then finally Esperanza got better. She went to school dressed in jeans, her light up princess shoes, her favorite blue hat and her favorite red t-shirt with the blue horse. This t-shirt will fit her for several years, so you'll be seeing it often. One of the very few benefits of her being sick and having to stay home for the past week was that I didn't have to wake up Ezra from his nap to drop off/pick up Esperanza. He's kind of starting to settle into a routine...I say that with hesitation, seems as though the minute I open my mouth or put something in writting, it changes. Hoping for the best. Armando was home today during the time I take Esperanza to school so I was able to let Ezra stay asleep one more school day.

While Esperanza was at school, I hung out with Ezra and had some one-on-one time. We nursed, changed diapers, played with some toys, chewed on some toys, cried a lil and laughed a lil. We also discovered that Ezra can sit up comfortabley in the Bumbo by sister Cyndi loaned us.

Tummy time doesn't last long these days...

He rolls right over onto his back

After I picked up Esperanza, we came home and played Candyland. Esperanza has her own rules for board games. Sometimes I let her have fun with it her way, and other times I try to teach her the correct way to play.Eventuallly, it became nap time again for Ezra so we decided to go for a walk so he could crash in the Ergo while Esperanza cruised the neighborhood on her trycicle.When we got home, I laid Ezra down to finish his nap, started cooking dinner & daddy came home early. Yay. Now, I'm up late, transfering files and programs from one computer to the other (and blogging in between). One of my kids will surely wake up as soon as I lay my head on my pillow, so why even try?

Placenta Encapsulation

2011-10-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

The above picture is Ezra's placenta moments after I birthed it. I love placentas! Well, moslty just MY kids' placentas. They are beautiful. Look at that tree of life with the cord attached to it. This is what provided nutrients and sustained the life of my baby boy the entire time he was in my body. It was part of me, part of my child. I had burried Esperanza's placenta along the banks of the Washougal River after she was born. Ezra's I would encapsulate and put back into my body.

A few months before Ezra was born, I came across information about encapsulating placentas for the purpose of balancing hormones after birth. For some people, the idea of eating a placenta is either way too far out there to even consider, or, it simply makes sense. There's probably a middle ground for some too, but for me, it made perfect sense. I was concerned about the possiblility of postpartum depression or 'baby blues' setting in for a couple of reasons. First, though I'm fortunate to have never had to deal with it so far, clinical depression (Bi-Polar/Manic Depression) has plagued our family for generations, so I am at higher risk for postpartum depression as well. And second, I had felt more emotional and sensitive during Ezra's pregnancy than I had with Esperanza, which worried me that it could get worse after birth. Besides, what could it hurt, virtually all other mammals eat their youngs placenta, why not me.

The thought of eating Ezra's placenta raw though did not settle with me. Blended in a placenta smoothe? No thank you. Seasoning then dehydrating it and eating it as jerky didn't appeal to me either. Baking it at a low temperature to deydrate it, blending it into a fine powder, pouring it into tiny capsules and swallowing them like I would a vitamin sounded perfect! My only dilema was how to get it encapsulated. I knew I wouldn't be up to doing it right after giving birth. And the cost of hiring someone to come into my home to do it was more than I wanted to pay, though there are people that do it for a hefty fee. I pondered the idea for awhile.

At my 38 week check-up with my home birth midwife Catherine, I asked her what her thoughts on placenta encapsulation were. She immediately perked up and said, 'oh sure, we'll do that for you'. There has been little to no research or studies done on the topic of placenta encasulation to prove or disprove it's effects and/or benefits of it. It is well known though that placentas contain various hormones & nutrients, the same ones a womans body becomes depleted of after child birth. I also read a lot of personal womens stories on their experiences with eating placents, in various forms, and the benefits they gained from it. Catherine also gave me her personal thoughts and experience with placenta encapsulation. Women whom she had cared for which experienced post partum depression, the capsules help tremendously, for those that did not experience any depression, the capsules didn't do much more than maybe give a small boost of energy. So there you have it, my decision was made, I would encapsulate and eat Ezra's placenta.

After I birthed the placenta on Ezra's birth day, Katie, Catherine's assistant, brought it into the kitchen and began prepping it. I don't know exactly what she did to prep it but I'm thinking she must have rinsed itoff in the sink and cleaned it up a bit.
After cleaning it up, she put it in a steamer over the stove and steamed it for a few minutes. Here it is after the steaming. It shrunk.

Then it was cut up into strips and laid out on a cookie sheet to cook/dry out at the lowest temperature in the oven (the alternative was to use a dehydrater but I don't have one). After this step, we were given instructions on how to complete the process. We were told to let it cook in the oven for 12 hours. After about 8 hours though it looked pretty well done so we took it out. You can see the umbilical cord in the front corner in this picture. Dried in a spiral shape and with a string attached to it later, it'll make a beautiful Christmas tree ornament to treasure and keep forever.

After the cooked pieces of placenta cooled off, we put them in the fridge for awhile so we could all rest. The next day, my sister Geneva began the process of grinding the pieces of placenta up and filling the vegetable based capsules. The 'jerky' look-a-like placenta pieces are in the container on the counter.It was tedious workShe used my coffee grinder to grind up the pieces into a fine powder. The next time we ground up coffee beans and made coffee, I think we all drank a bit of placenta. Filling the capsules with the encapsulating kit I had

Dosage: 2 capsules, 3 times a day for the first 3 days after birth. Then, take them as needed - when feeling down or tired.It has been 4+ months since Ezra's birth and I'm happy to report I have had no depression issues. The capsules lasted me about two months. I stopped taking them consistently after the first month, then just finished them off here and there because it seemed like the right thing to do. I really can't say one way or another if they helped or not but I'm glad I did it. There's no way to predict if a woman will experience post partum depresion or not. I encourage anyone, concerned or not about it, to encapsulate their placenta just in case. I've heard that you can freeze them and they can be taken decades later to help balance hormones during menopause too!

Contents of Esperanza's Purse

2011-10-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

Esperanza has half a dozen purses. A few hand made by grandma, a couple questionable purses and then the one she loves. The Hello Kitty purse her Uncle Tony gave her for her birthday is her favorite. Why? Because it's the last one I'd have chosen for her to fall in love with, thats why. She carries this thing around everywhere she goes! I don't let her take it to school or into peoples houses, it stays in the car. Every now and then she'll find a little trinket or something small that she decides would fit very nicely in her purse. At the moment, it's close to maximum capacity. Here are it's contents:

A shark figure

A monkey head plastic ring

A blue container of bubbles

Sunglasses

An empty silly putty container

A wind up Nemo bath toy

A paint brush

Chapstick she talked Val into giving her a few weeks ago

A white mini-truck

A pink doll comb

A see threw container with blue rocks in it (music toy made at school)

A plasitc S for Superman ring

A princess figurine

A cow figure

Half a bag of Annie's honey grahams (they've gotta be stale)

MY Burt's Bees lip gloss (there it is!)

A green piece of candy she found on the floor at my moms house. To avoid conflict and compromise, I told her she could put it in her purse but NEVER eat it.

Toy Story Woody figure

A blue head band

65 cents

3 tiny hair rubber bands

Date and Month pieces to a calendar we have

A mirror

This was the first time I've dumped her purse out to see just what was in it. I can see the benefits to doing this on a semi-regular basis as she gets older. And I just had to share that so we can look back one day and take a look at some of the things that are most precious to her now.

Thirty-Two

2011-10-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Esperanza had her very first field trip scheduled for Monday, October 17th, my 32nd birthday. Every month Esperanzas class has a theme. This months theme is farms so the kiddos took a field trip to a local farm and pumpkin patch. Parents and kids met the teachers at the farm and we all went on a tour where the kids got to run threw a hay maze, pet farm animals, climb a tall tower of hay bales and took a tractor ride to the pumpkin field where they all got to pick their own pumpkin.

Runnin in the maze

Farm animalsEzra loved the field trip tooEsperanza with a couple of girls from her class, Lucy & KingslyGreat action shot of Esperanza jumping off of the bales of haySoft landingPumpkin fieldBirthday girl and her babeHunting for that perfect pumpkin There it is! The only green one in the entire field!And this was the last picture worth sharing before she lost it...after that, she was done with the pumpkin patch and field trip.
Later that day my bff brought us dinner. We all ate Thai food then the cake I stayed up baking the night before. It was a german chocolate layered cake with coconut pecan filling. It may not have gotten an A+ for appearance, but it was delicious.A few days before my birthday, Armando had stopped by the farmers market and got me some flowers. Here they are sitting with Esperanza's green pumpkin and a birthday card from my favorite aunt.

Ezera Rolled Over

2011-10-14T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ezra rolled over the other night. From belly to back. I was several feet away from him when he did it the first time and said in a surprised tone 'Ezra just rolled over'. Esperanza took that tone as if it was a bad thing, ran over to him, said 'don't do that' and rolled him back to his original position. I explained to her that it was a good thing, him rolling over meant he was that much closer to running around playing with her. That got her going and before you knew it, she and I were both hunched over him, laughing and cheering him on to roll over again. And he did, again and again. I was able to capture him rolling over on video a couple of times. I couldn't pick between the two, and even though they take forever to upload, I had to share both. I could watch each of them a hundred times and laugh all the same. Both of my kids are so stinkin' cute and equally amazing. Watching them laugh together is the best feeling ever.

In this one notice how Esperanza says Ezra's name 'Ez-er-a'. I correct her all the time but Ezera it remains.

Good job baby!

Miss Opinionated

2011-10-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

It was inevitable. Yet it happened a little sooner than I expected or hoped. Esperanza, my little fire ball, is opinionated. Very opinionated. On so many different levels. One example is her clothing. I can no longer pick out an outfit for her to wear without it becoming a battle. She has her favorite articles of clothing. Some of them go together well, some of them don't. She likes to pair things that I wouldn't. But, it usually isn't worth the effort to convince her my style is better than hers. So, as long as what she's chosen is weather appropriate, I let her make part of the decision on what she wears each day. It's usually a compromise. This is the result of yesterdays compromise.

An oversized t-shirt with a blue horse on it, blue pants and pink light up princess boots.Cute? Of course! Arguabley cuter than the outfit I had picked out for her.

Esperanza loves animals and her obsession with the color blue is only becoming more and more dominant. If an item of clothiing happens to have a blue animal on it, like that handy-down shirt pictured above (thank you Geneva & Anycia - I can barely get it off of her), it's a sure winner. Anytime I am shopping for clothes for her, I look for things in any shade of blue. Sometimes I can get away with a greenish blue. Otherwise, I risk buying something and her not wearing it, which has already happened several times. Currently, I'm on the look out for a blue winter coat, blue stretch pants and blue boots. Used, cheap and preferably from the girls section, but thats just me being opinionated, I'm sure Esperanza wouldn't care. For Halloween, we're considering cookie monster, smurf or a blue cat.

Oh, and don't forget that hair. It's a mess! It keeps getter longer and longer and longer. I'll admit, on days that we plan to just stay home, I sometimes opt out of brushing it. Yes, it makes the next days hair combing process that much harder, but so worth it. Esperanza really wants me to cut it. I think she's serious, so I'm considering it. On this such day, we hadn't planned on leaving the house, but then Grandma showed up for a very brief visit and I suggested she take Esperanza home with her. Off she went, ratty hair and silly outfit. When I picked her up a few hours later this is what I found...

The outfit just got 10x better and Grandma did the horrid hair task. If I had suggested a yellow dress with pink polka dots over an already questionable outfit (which I never would) she'd have turned her chin up and ran away from me. Because of Esperanza's firey attitude and opinionated personality, I'm quickly learning that the less rules I have, the easier life is for everyone. I kind of feel rebelious allowing Esperanza to do things I instinctually would never consider. All I do when she asks for something, before saying no, is to think of a good reason why not? Amazingly, most things she wants to do are harmless and I can't come up with a good reason to say no...so I've been saying YES a lot more often. Some examples:

"So, you wanna take the paper off of every single crayon, go for it! And break them into two? Great, you'll have twice as many crayons."

"You want blue nail polish huh? Well go grab a blue washable crayola marker and paint those nails blue!"

"Go ahead, drink the bath water after I've just washed both you and your brother in it."

"You don't have to use a spoon if you don't want, go ahead and drink your yogurt out of the container."

The other day I sent Esperanza outside because she wanted to sing very, very loudly in a playful, yet 'not so indoorsy' tone. While she was out there, I heard our neighbor girl ask Esperanza if she would be quiet. Twice. Esperanza didn't stop & I just laughed.

Of course some rules stay. I have things that I don't want broken or ruined, nobody should get hurt & there are a few 'baby' rules she has to follow. The house, clothes and bodies can always be cleaned. Hopefully my relaxed attitude about this will keep us happily entertained this fall/winter.
Before I end my opinionated review on Esperanza, I have to share a little conversation we had the other night.

I was sitting down nursing Ezra and asked Esperanza if she would go get me a glass of water. She said "say por favor mama". I smiled at her and said "por favor". She ran down the hall, stopped halfway, ran back and said "say por favor ______________ agua". I was speachless. I didn't know what she said, or what she wanted me to say because she said it in Spanish and I only understood the first and the last word. I stared at her confused, on the verge of laughter. Instead of laughing, I responded with "por favor get me some agua". That worked and I got my glass of water.

Guess what shirt is under that blue sweater?

Ezra is 4 Months Old

2011-10-10T22:23:00.000-07:00

Where did the last four months go? It flew by so fast. All of a sudden my once tiny baby boy is now a big squirmy bundle on the verge of becoming mobile. He's not quite rolling over yet, but once he does, the days of him staying in one spot are forever gone. He is very strong. He's been able to lift his head for a couple months now, but the amount of time he's able to keep it up is increasing.Ezra is a very easy going baby. He's calm and comfortable during short periods of time in his bouncer or swing, following me around with his eyes. When he does cry it's when he's hungry, tired, because of the occasional fuss over teething or tooting discomfort, or just to let me know it time for him to hang out in my arms, on my lap or just on the floor with some interaction. Basic needs. He is usually very happy, even when I am constantly waking him from his naps and moving him from one place to the other to go places and do things. He still wakes with a smile, ready to do whatever. Poor kid is having a hard time getting a consistent napping schedule down because of Esperanza's school schedule though.

He likes it when I sing to him, but he usually laughs at me (I have a lovely voice). He loves to be talked to and played with. He will now grab teethers, toys or other interesting things when they are put in front of him and will of course immediately put it into his mouth. His teething hasn't let up any even though I've yet to feel or see any shiny whites. There are times it really bothers him and he's screaming in so much pain. It has messed up his sleeping habits too. At least thats what I'm blaming the no sleep situation on lately. As soon as I started to brag about how well his sleeping habits were, he began a new pattern of waking more often at night and no longer sleeps for very long stretches of time. He also doesn't just sleep anywhere any longer because he's become a little too distracted of his surroundings. It was nice while it lasted.

Sometimes when he's fussy and he won't fall asleep by nursing and/or rocking, I'll set him in the swing and he'll instantly calm down, take focus on something and drift off into dreamland. It's amazing and certainly easier than taking him for a car ride in the middle of the night (something I did with Esperanza all too often to get her to fall asleep).

And as far as car rides go, they have become much more tollerable for Ezra and everyone else in the car. When he is upset in the car, he'll usually take a binky and that keeps him distracted and happy. Other times, he'll fuss for a few minutes and then fall asleep. If he's already happy and Esperanza isn't next to him to entertain him, he sits in his seat and talks to himself. It's so cute.

It's such a joy to watch him grow. We all love Ezra so much.

Esperanza's Paintings

2011-10-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

Esperanza loves to paint. She asks to paint all the time. Unless we have something else important going on, I let her paint whenever she wants - though I limit her to 2, maybe 3 paintings per sitting. Not only does that mean she uses a lot of paint and painting paper, it means that I have a ton of paintings that continue to add up! I have one framed, several on the fridge, a few displayed in the media room and then a huge stack of them on the book shelf in the living room. I need to come up with some creative uses for them rather than just keeping them piled up. We've used a few as cards when we go to birthday parties. Unless I come up with another idea on how to use them, I think cards are the way to go.

Does anyone have other ideas on how to use these colorful keepsake pieces of art?

Purple Hat

2011-10-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

I knit this purple hat for Esperanza a long time ago. It was the first hat I made for her (2nd hat I ever knit) and it turned out wonderful. Esperanza fell in love with it and wore it ALL the time...until it became too small for her. I actually had to hide it from her because she still really wanted to wear it. A few weeks ago I pulled it out of hiding and began re-knitting it, bigger with the same yarn. After just a few days, she's got herself a new 'up-cycled' purple hat - Yay!

Oh, and here's Esperanza having a bit of a laugh attack after she posed for the purple hat pictures...

Lion Jammies

2011-10-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

Ezra is wearing clothes that are in the 9 month age range these days. One of the pairs of jammies he wears have lions on them and were also worn by Esperanza when she was a baby. I knew she had to of been a little older than him when they fit her because they have a little food staining on them. I didn't realize how much older though until I came across this picture the other day of her wearing them. So here you have an interesting comparison of the two in the same jammies.

Esperanza 10 months old &

Ezra at 3 1/2 months old with big sis

These two are so adorable

Summer Neighborhood Kids

2011-09-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Now that summer is over and school is back in session, it sure is quiet. A few days out of every week this summer we had half a dozen or so little neighborhood kids playing in our yard with Esperanza.

Ring around the rosies

The sad part is, some of these kids would be over for the entire day without a parent checking on them or even knowing where they were. I never once met a parent or even heard anybody call their kids home. They would usually go home on their own when they wanted to. I'd feed them, give them water but send them home if they needed to go to the bathroom. Keep in mind, these kids' ages range from 4 to 7!!!

Zoey & Esperanza Having a Picnic

The very wonderful thing though was that I was able to provide a safe and fun place for these kids to spend a good part of their summer. Esperanza had kids to play with & I had entertainment for her while I tended to newborn baby Ezra. It really was perfect for everyone. They mostly played in the front yard/porch but when Armando was home, he'd take them all out back and push them on the swings and let them play in the playhouse or sandbox while he supervised.

Goopy hands

Aianna & EsperanzaOkay, Carter is no neighborhood kid, but he had fun with everyone this day tooI hope these kids have some good memories, I know Esperanza does.

Camerino The 4th

2011-09-29T00:22:00.001-07:00

Sorry to those of you who got this in an email twice...I tried posting from my phone and apparently it isn't as smart as it thinks and turned all the pictures sideways. Won't try that again.

Meet my new nephew, Camerino. He was born September 24th, 2011 to Mando's sister Cathy and her husband, you guessed it, Camerino (we call him Nino). I am so thrilled that Ezra has a cousin his age! Isn't he precious?

Camerino the 3rd with Camerino the 4thHe might be a Mendez, but you sure can't take the Valencia out of him

Coast & Back In Under 24 Hours

2011-09-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

When we went to the coast for Jason's wedding last weekend, it was a very quick trip. We were there less than 24 hours. We went to the wedding Saturday, stayed the night in a cheap motel, got very little sleep then packed back up to head out when the sun came up. The weather changed over night and it was cold, windy and wet. So instead of our original plan to spend a couple of hours on the beach, we went to the Cheese Factory in Tillamook. Once Esperanza found out they made ice cream there, she forgot all about missing the sand and water on the beach.

Unlike Esperanza and I, Ezra slept like a log Oh my, look at that face!
With the excpetion of Armando getting wedding party pictures taken on the beach the day before, this was the closest we got to the beachLast stop before heading home was the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We toured the place, sampled cheeses, bought some goodies to take home, and got some ice cream cones. Miss Esperanza got Bubble Gum flavored ice cream!

...and she loved it
For drives longer than 20 minutes, I pack some mamas milk in a bottle to keep Ezra happy and his belly full.Before long, both kids were in dream land and our trip was over

Ezra Chatter

2011-09-28T20:59:00.001-07:00

I Do's In September

2011-09-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

Two of Armando's friends tied the knot with two amazing women this month.

Jeff & Jasmyn

Jeff and Armando have been friends for as long as I can remember. He started dating Jasmyn several years ago, had a beautiful baby girl sometime after, got married in Vegas last year then recently held a more formal ceremony and reception for friends and family here at home. Sadly, we walked into the ceremony just after they said "I do". I used to always be promptly on time, if not, early to everything. Now, poopy diapers, temper tantrums & unexpected naps (kids, not me) make me late for just about everything. We were still able to enjoy the reception and congratulate Jeff & Jasmyn on their marriage.

Jason & Awna

Armando and Jason have been good friends since high school. Though Jason and Awna went to high school together, their romantic relationship and life together has only just begun. They had a small, intimate ceremony which was held outside on the Oregon Coast. Armando was one of the groomsmen and we were honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of their very special day. Esperanza and Samone (Jason's niece) followed Awna around like they were lost puppy dogs. Esperanza kept calling Awna Princess.Ezra enjoyed being held through all of his naps

Say Cheese

2011-09-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

Armando recently got a job where he needed a phone with more reliable service. So he switched services and got a new phone. Lucky for me, he decided to get me an early birthday present and got me one too. Whoo-hoo! Besides it doing what a phone is supposed to do (which is new for me), it also takes neat pictures...here's a preview of some shots I've taken of the kids.

Cute naked baby Strawberries are still going strong!
Love this picture!I can't get her to quit picking her nose! The other day I asked her "you don't pick your nose at school do you?" Her reply, "No, only at home". Oh, Lucy Sleepy baby
Could he get any cuter?
Esperanza running with Maddy & Daisy at moms Corn field behind moms houseMy two favorite kids in the world I finished knitting Esperanza a blue hat she's been asking forever for. She loves it, and her blackberry milkshake. I moved Ezra's carseat to the middle the other day when we had another person in the car. Instead of moving it back later, I left it. I was hoping Esperanza wouldn't try feeding him something, or wake him if he was trying to sleep. As it turns out, the opposite was true. She holds his hand to try and comfort him when he's crying & she giggles and laughs with him when he's happy. A few days ago I asked her to try to give him a binky when he was really fussy while we were driving and he took it from her! Then today after I picked her up from school and he started crying on the way home she said to me in a very matter of fact kind of way "mama, I need his binky".

Ezra Is 3 Months Old

2011-09-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

~He coo's and chats up a storm when you get him going. He loves to have deep intellectual conversations. ~He despises car rides. He can be all happy & giggly and then once he's in the carseat (or even just seeing the carseat), he starts to cry, and often continues to cry until we get out of the car. He especially doesn't like it when we run errans and I'm taking him in and out of the car every few minutes.

~He giggles and smiles all the time. Often he'll start kicking his legs and squeeling with delight. He'll sometimes even give you a crooked half smile~He's starting to settle into one morning nap and one afternoon nap. There are still the occassional cat nap here and there, but they are becoming more predictable. And he'll take naps almost anywhere.

~He is teething already. For now, all that means is he's a little fussier during the day and he drools a lot. I'm expecting there will be some sleepless nights soon, but for now, nights aren't a problem. He's not yet old enough to hold onto anything to put in his mouth, but he has recently discovered his fist and will knaw on it very intently, screaching with discomfort at times. At the same time I discoverd he was teething, his bowel movements became less often, even skipping a day or two. Not sure if these two things are related or not.
~He weighs 16 pounds

~He has an unusual pea size ball/lump on his right heel. I have an appointment later this month to get it looked at since everyone keeps commenting on it. He also breathes kind of raspy so we'll get that looked at too.

~He's still sportin' the mo-hawk ~He still sleeps wonderfully at night time. The other night he slept 11 hours without waking! I of course woke up drenched in breast milk and went to check on him to make sure he was still breathing. Sometimes he'll wake in the middle of the night, and I can hear him on the baby monitor cooing and making soft noises. I'll wait for him to start fussing before I get up to get him, but usually he goes back to sleep within a few minutes.

I'm one lucky mama to have such an amazing baby boy!

Big Sister, Little Brother

2011-09-09T18:51:00.001-07:00

While I am hoping I'll have the first baby that stays a baby forever, Esperanza cannot wait for Ezra to grow up. She's constantly saying things like, "when he's bigger, he can swing with me" or, "when he gets bigger, he can eat a popsicle with me". Tonight while we were getting ready for bed she said, "when he's bigger, he can have acidophilous like me!".

For now, she enjoys dancing for him, helping change his diapers, taking baths with him, showing him her toys, putting blankets on him and talking to him. The other day they were both on the bed while I was hanging up some clothes and she said to him, "watch this brother". Then she proceded to do a summer-sault...right on top of him! I know she didn't do it on purpose, but it definately shook him up and irritated me. He loves watching her play and run circles around him. He follows her with his eyes, smiling and kicking his legs as if he wants to be running around with her. All in good time, all in good time...

I think she was mad at me for some reason here...but stilll lovin her brother and holding his hand

Butterfly Catcher

2011-09-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

We planted a butterfly bush in our front yard last fall, so we've seen lots of Monarch butterflies this summer. Esperanza has been trying to catch one for months. She hasn't gotten even close, but she has fun, and thats the point. She must have thought the turtle water floaty would attract the butterflies

August Wrap-Up

2011-08-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

August was a busy month! Tons of birthday parties, a baby shower, lots of trips to rivers, visits with friends and family, Esperanza starting school, Armando starting school as well as a new job, me trying to get everything and everyone on a schedule...I just don't have the time or energy to blog about it all in detail, so here's a little wrap up of August...

Eva threw Cathy a wonderful baby shower. Cathy's baby boy is due in a few weeks and we're all so excited to meet him Armando's cousin Lucy's baby girl Isabella This was actually a mistake. Not even sure how it happened, both kids napping at the same time and in the same place. Sounds like a dream come true but it wasn't. Esperanza doesn't nap any more and on the rare occasion she doess, like on this day, she's up all night long. Not worth it. Still a cute picture though. Is this normal? Babies sleep? And in a swing? After Esperanza, I'm convinced that I have a miracle baby this time around. He even sleeps in a crib, in a seperate room at night, 6-8 hours straight!!! I love this babe. Sadie and Andy turned 4. Hot potatoe anyone? Super cutie! Esperanza's animal collection continues to grow. I think some may take a trip to the Treasure House soon. There's just WAY too many. Rafa, Esperanza and Armando having fun in the Lewis River Clarissa turned 5 and Kiko turned 2 Quaks turned 38 - here he is with all his kids2 month old Ezra with his 4 month old cousin Estevan. I can't help but point out the obvious...Ezra is half his age yet twice his size! And only half Mexican yet twice as dark. My perfect baby. Geneva helped Esperanza give Ezra a bottle of some mamas milkAngelica turned 17 and Antonio turned 14 this August. Here's Angelica and her boyfriend Allen cookin' up some freshly caught crawdads from the Washougal River for dinnerAlso, George had yet another surgery in August. The stump from his last leg amputation wasn't healing very well and when the doctors gave it a closer look, they realized they hadn't gotten all of the infection. So, we went in and had the leg taken up a little farther, above the knee. He is home now and doing well. George just had his 62nd birthday too.

Spanish With Sarah

2011-08-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

This week Esperanza started preschool at a place in Camas called Spanish With Sarah. It's a Spanish immersion school so the teacher speaks to the kids only in Spanish. The school year started the beginning of August, so she missed the first two weeks. Though it wasn't a last minute thought to put her in this preschool, it was a last minute decision because I hadn't realized they started as early as they did. I scoped the place and website out about 6 months ago and kept going back and forth on getting her in this year or waiting one more year. I talked with Sarah last week about the program and got some questions answered. They just happened to have an open spot in the preschool class too. We went and toured the place last Friday and met Esperanza's teacher Gabby, a young woman from Guatemala. Then, Esperanza started her first day of preschool just this past Monday.

Esperanza in front of the school house

I was so surprised and relieved at how well the first day of drop off went. Neither Esperanza, nor I, broke down crying! I'm sure they've seen it all at the school, but I envisioned an embarrasing and awkward scenario of Esperanza screaming and crying, throwing herself on the floor, holding onto me for dear life & begging me not to leave her there. I had my own seperation anxiety with just the idea of dropping her off at a new place with new people. When the moment of truth came though, she gave me a hug and kiss, said 'bye mama, pick me up later' then turned around and ran off to go play. I almost froze with shock but then quickly left before she changed her mind. Lets hope every day goes as smoothly as that first day!

Esperanza just before we left the house on her first day of school!

Tourists For A Day

2011-08-16T23:59:00.000-07:00

We live in the most amazing part of the world. In just a couple of scenic driving hours we can be walking along the beaches of the Pacific Ocean, camping in a rainforest, hiking next to an active volcanoe, playing in the snow on Mt. Saint Helens or doing whatever people do in the desert. We also have the Columbia Gorge. With the exception of Multomah Falls on the Oregon side, the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge has one of the most spectacular scenic driving experiences there is.

The other morning, Armando suggested we drive up the gorge for the day. Being the spontanious person that I am (ha, ha - that was a joke), I agreed it was a great idea. Several hours later, we were on the road heading East with no specific destination in mind. We pulled over at look out points to take in the amazing views, stopped at fruit stands, went over the Bridge of the Gods, went to a farmers market, drove down roads we'd never gone before, picnicked on a grassy beach on the Columbia River to watch the wind surfers, walked around the cute little town of Hood River window shopping and made plans for future adventures up the Gorge since we couldn't do it all in one day.

The first and best scenic viewpoint heading east up the gorge. A classic view we so rarely stop to enjoy

Eating some Gorge grown cherries under The Bridge Of The GodPeople come from all over the world to wind surf and kite board on the Columbia River in Hood RiverYou have no idea the pain and suffering that went into getting this girl to finally eat.Brother Blue loved being out of the car and laying in the warm breeze

We had many challenges with both kids at various different times. Ezra is not happy in the car, and seeing as it was a lot of driving, he cried a lot. I had pumped milk before we left so it did help a little to have the ability to feed him while in the car. Esperanza had several major breakdowns throughout the day. We almost dropped everything and headed home because of it, but decided we weren't going to let the reality of having two little ones get in the way of having a good outting. We did have a great (and memorable) day, but someone please tell me it gets easier as they get older?! Please...

Day At The Fair

2011-08-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

This was the first year that Esperanza has been tall enough to go on the rides in the little kids section at the fair. Last year she only got to go on the horse carousel, over and over and over again. At 36" tall exactly this year, she just barely made it. I'd have been happy if she was only 35" and we stayed on the horses one more year. But I'm just the paranoid mama.
We went to the fair with some friends and their kids last weekend. One of the kids, Gavn, is Esperanza's age, so they went on the rides together. Before they got on the very first ride, I overheard the carni guy tell the kids that if they got scared, to raise their hand and he'd let them off. Esperanza didn't hear him so I told her, and reminded her again just before she got on, to go ahead and raise her hand if she gets scared. Big mistake, big.

The teacup ride started off good...A few minutes into the ride, up goes her hand. I began laughing, and was close enough to holler at Esperanza to put her hand down, that she was fine. She put her hand down. A minute later, her hand was right back up in the air. The carni guy asked me if he should stop the ride. I said no, still laughing, knowing right away it was my own fault for planting the fear, and telling Esperanza she could do this. Then Esperanza started screaming, not crying, screaming. I think the carni guy thought I was a mean mom. He stopped the ride and let her off. She really is just a drama queen, and I had set it up for her to perform the perfect dramatic moment. My fault.
Hand in the air

When she got off, I told her if she wanted to go on any more rides, she wasn't going to have the opportunity to get off - so either get on and stay on, or don't get on at all. Needless to say, she had fun on all the other rides.

The boys and their strollers

Esperanza and Gavn on the train caboose She loved the goats

And the Llamas

5 Kids In My House

2011-08-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

I was hesitant at first, being the responsible adult for 5 minors, even for just a few days. I'm still making the adjustment from 1 kid to 2, and then all of a sudden I get the idea that I can handle 3 more. The thought was kinda scary, but once I had them all here things became much easier than I'd imagined. Maybe even easier than just having my own 2. At least for that short period of time, and with that age span: a 7 week old, a 3 year old, a 9 year old, a 14 year old and a 17 year old. They kind of all entertained themselves and I just had to provide food, water, a place to sleep and a little screaming here and there. I'm not even close to considering having a few more of my own though, I'll stick to borrowing them, then giving them back. I'm pretty sure it turned out so smoothly only because the 3 older ones weren't mine. So, it all turned out wonderful and I kinda miss all the noise as well as the help from my nephew Antonio and 2 nieces, Angelica and Anycia. They stayed with us for a few days last week and it was nice to see them and spend some good time with them all.

My sister Mary, Angelica and Esperanza in the water at Hathaway Park. I was trying to convince them to play ring-around-the-rosies, but they didn't wanna 'fall down'.

You'd never guess that 10 years ago these kids loved having thier picture taken. This photo took a lot of begging from me. And look, I even got a smirk out of them! Better than an eye roll, but definately not a smile. We all got our hair cut earlier that day too. We can see Antonios eyes now!Toga party at the riverAntonio and Anycia digging for treasures I kept meaning to get a picture of all 5 kids together. After going threw my photos though, I discovered I made a lousy effort at making it happen...this is the best I gotAnycia Anycia & EsperanzaAngelica made a wonderful house wife!

2 Months With Ezra

2011-08-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

Ezra is 2 months old now! Babies change so much in the first few months. He's so different than we was even a month ago. As he gets older, his personality is beginning to show, his habits are forming and we're getting to know more about him each day. He's also growing very quickly. At our 6 week check-up, which was a few weeks ago, he weighed 11 lbs 10 oz, was 23 inches long and his head measured 30 cm. My guess is he's gained another pound or more by now. He's also all but one of the baby hats I knit him.
He's a mover and a shaker! Very squirmy, kicking his legs all the time and moving his arms around.

He has a sister that loves to play with him already. She can't wait until he's up and running around with her.

He still grunts and snorts often but has also added cooing and screaching to his many playful, happy noises. He's a choker too. All too often he gets too much milk in his mouth while nursing and begins to choke. So, choking is a common 'noise' he makes as well.

He wears mostly 3-6 month clothes with a few 6-9 month items already.

Though I did think he was close to rolling over awhile back, he really isn't that close I guess. He is very strong though and can kind of do a tummy crawl and move himself a few inches when he's lying on his tummy. He can also lift his head with ease while on his tummy to move his head from side to side.

He loves being talked to and will usually 'talk' back as if a real conversation is going on.

I've gradually started to introduce dairy foods back into my diet. So far (fingers crossed) it doesn't seem to have a noticeable impact on him.

He smiles often and will even let out a little giggle every now and then.His favorite sleeping postion is on his tummy. He sleeps really well at night time with at least a 6 or more hour stretch of sleep before waking to nurse then goes back to sleep...unless Esperanza has a restless night and wakes him up, then things get rough. His naps during the day are still often, most of them short cat naps with a few 1 or 1 1/2 hour naps here and there. They are beginning to cluster together though with longer periods of being awake in between the naps.

This kid will sleep almost anywhere!He's beginning to stretch out of his 'fetal' position. Before he would often stretch, but then curl his legs back in. Recently, he'll keep his legs stretched out even while sleeping sometimes.

He does of course have his moments. I've bought every type and brand of binky imaginable and he won't take to any of them. He is beginning to suck on his hand a little, but not enough to become a 'soother'. He will sometimes take my pinky finger to suck on and be content with if we're in the car, but that only works if Armando is with us and driving. If I could bottle up any moment right now to save and re-live again in the future, it would be that moment right after nursing Ezra. Rocking in the rocking chair with his head cradled in my arm, as he drifts off into dream land. His lips move as if he's still nursing. His eyes make quick movements under his lids. Eyes flutter open exposing his brown eyes which roll up, following some kind of dream. Smiles come and go from his lips ever so quickly. And the irregular breathing pattern. The instant just before I question when he's going to begin to breath again, he breathes in a deep long breath, accompanied with a soft squeel. And then, a deep sigh, followed by his body muscles relaxing and arms falling. Thats the signal that I can either lay him down to sleep alone so I can get back to my dirty dishes...or I can fall asleep right there with him in my arms. Oxycocin overdose or not, it's such a sweet moment that can't be captured by a video camera, words cannot describe it and even a good memory can't compare to the original experience.

I'm loving & savoring every moment of Ezra as an infant, yet at the same time can't wait to watch him grow up and see who he becomes!

Alishaphoto Photos

2011-08-06T22:31:00.001-07:00

My friend/doula/photographer Alisha took some photos of Ezra a while back. I'm in love with the pictures! Ezra was 2 weeks old and I'm so thankful to have those last few moments of him as a newborn captured. It went by so fast, and even though it wasn't that long ago, I love looking at these photos and remembering him this tiny. Here's a peek at some of the pictures...

Thank you Alisha!

It's My Party...

2011-08-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

...And I'll Cry If I Want To!

If we'd have had a theme song for Esperanza's birthday party, that would have been it. She's my drama queen. In her defense though, Esperanza did have a very long day to get through. She didn't sleep good the night before, got up earlier than usual, didn't nap and ate mostly junk. She did have a lot of fun in between her many breakdowns though. Mando had the idea of doing a 'taco bar' instead of grilling. Great idea and it was a hit among everyone. I made bon-bon size cupcakes which all the kids loved. And of course we had a pinata and a bunch of friends and family to celebrate with.

Even with a present in front of her ready to be opened, it still hurt her to smileVal, her daughter Annabelle and Ezra Grandma and Angelica

Adelaide's first time hitting a pinata!
The Pirate and his wife Make a wish!
Roman and Esperanza 'playing'

Rock Star

2011-08-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

With a mohawk...

His hair won't lay flat and sticks up into this mohawk without me even touching it.

Pretty darn cute if you ask me

Remember Me At Three

2011-07-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

This might be 'Esperanza overload' since I still have to blog about the birthday party. I really have to journal a few things about Esperanza though so I can look back in the future and reminisce. She's growing up so fast. I feel like everytime I blink, I miss something. Here's my Esperanza at 3 years old...

~Her best friends include my best friend Val, her cousin Rafael, our neighbor girl Lili, Grandma's dog Daisy & Woody from Toy Story. It changes by the minute but Rafa is a constant and forever best friend.

~Though she had been potty 'learned' for several month, ever since the arival of her brother, she gradually started to need to wear diapers again. Now, she's in them full time! Aaarrrg! We'll be starting all over again sometime soon and I don't wanna talk about it.

~Esperanza loves stuffed animals. I'm not going to count them, but I'd guess she has over 60 stuffed animals. Half were gifted to her and the other half came from those 50 cent toy machines that are next to every grocery store entrance. Armando wins every time! Esperanza will sometimes start pulling each stuffed animal out of the chest and asking me where it came from. Amazingly, I know where most of them did come from, but there's quite a few that I have no clue how they got inside my house.

~She can count to 20 in English & Spanish but will never do it on command and always skips 4. I keep teasing her that we're going to have to skip her fourth birthday if she keeps skipping it while counting.

~She's still a very picky eater but does have her favorites which include blueberries, yogurt, trail mix, oatmeal & of course cake.

~She weighs about 28 pounds and is roughly 3 feet tall (give or take half an inch or so).

~Her shoe collection is out of control and consists of at least a dozen pairs of shoes which include: 1 pair snow boots, 1 pair rain boots, 1 pair salt water sandals, 1 pair of Keens, 2 pairs of fake crocs (different styles), a pair of light-up princes sneakers, a pair of shoes from Mexico, a pair of Adidas and a few other random pairs of shoes.

~Her favorite books to read at night before bed include any Clifford book, a book we have from the library called Tiger Trouble and a book we have called Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See.

~Anytime she get hurts, small or big, I can kiss her wherever it hurts and it's all better. If by chance that doesn't do the trick, I'll ask her if she wants some medicine and she perks up. Medicine can be anything from Arnica cream to Calms Forte tablets or even just a simple bandaid with Cookie Monster on it...she loves medicine!

~I think Esperanza might become a sleepwalker. My sister actually brought up the possiblity of it happening and I blew it off like there was no way. Then, the night before last, she sat up in bed a few different times. The first couple of times her eyes were closed. I laid her back down, thinking she was just restless but then, she sat up again and this time her eyes were open. Wide open. But no one was home. Best way to describe it, creee-py! I kept asking her questions and trying to wake her up but she wasn't respnsive, yet her eyes were open. Then I asked if she wanted some juice and she snapped out of it. I really think had I not been right there she would have gotten up and...well, who knows what she would have done.

~Anytime she goes to the park, all she wants to do is swing. We're are trying to teach her how to move her legs back and forth to get and keep herself going. She's learning but it doesn't compare to under-doggies or how high her dad will push her.

~When we're at home, she does anything and everything to take my attention off of her brother and onto herself. She is jealous. Extremely. The adjustment from being the baby to being a big sister will take some time. When we're out in public though, she's very protective over Ezra. If someone she doens't know very well is holding him, she gets upset. I suppose it could be just another way for the attention to get back on her, but I'd like to think it's because she's looking out for him.

~The concept of time is still beyond her. When we talk about past tense events or happenings, she always says it happened 'last night'. I say after her the correct time it happened so she knows that not everything occured the night before - this morning, yesterday, earlier, before, last year, when it was winter, a while ago, the other day, etc. She'll catch on.

~She loves these snow boots a friend passed down to us recently. Snow boots and sun dresses, how appropriate since we get very little of either here in the NW.

We love you Esperanza!

Birthday At The Beach

2011-07-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

For Esperanza's 3rd birthday we took her to the beach and stayed at a condo just steps from the ocean. It's been over a year since Esperanza was last there so I didn't know how much she would remember. I told her the beach was like a big sand box. Once we were there, she kept saying 'I wanna play in the big sand box'. During our stay, we spent lots of time on the beach, we visited the aquarium, played games in the arcade, went on the horse carousel and had a ton of fun. Armando wanted to take Esperanza on a helicoptor ride! They went to check it out and found out that there had to be a minimum of 4 people going and I wasn't about to take my 6 week old baby on. Another time maybe. As strange as it sounds, Esperanza kept asking to go home. Then of course, once we headed home, she wanted to go to the beach. Sheesh!

First day at the beach - once we got to there, I stayed at the condo with Ezra to nurse him and let him nap. Armando took Esperanza to the beach where she stripped her clothes off and ran in the ocean and played in the sand. Then they came back to get Ezra and I and we all went and enjoyed some beach time.At the aquarium Esperanza got to hold a live star fish, see a real live octopus along with many other sea creatures and she got to feed the sea lions.2nd day at the beach - Esperanza wound't eat her sandwich so we decided to feed it to the seaguls. We fed them, walked on the beach, flew the kite, played in the sand and Esperanza of course swang on the swings. Ezra seemed to enjoy the beach too. He didn't cry once while we were outside on the beach even though the wind was strong and cold. They love each otherWe had a little birthday party for Esperanza on her birthday. Complete with blue cupcakes, candles, a happy birthday song and a couple of gifts. Esperanza has been asking for "Jessie" - the Toy Story movie character - for many, many months now. She has seen other little kids with her and of course watches the movie way too much. So, we gave in and got her Jessie. She's in love!

We ♥ Blueberries

2011-07-28T23:02:00.000-07:00

Can you survive off of eating just blueberries? If I had to pick just one food to have to eat for the rest of my life, it would probably be blueberries. Avacados would be a close second choice, not at the top because they don't grow around here and would be kinda hard to come by...and they don't freeze very well either.

Anyways, our yearly blueberry picking event is pictured below. The freezer needs a little more, and my belly could use another dose of fresh ones, so I'm hoping another trip to the farm will happen next week. We found a new place, closer to home that isn't 'certified' organic, but still clean and oh so yummy! Surprisingly, Esperanza helped a lot with the picking Shouldn't all you kids be picking berries instead of hanging out? Ezra drank his share of blueberry flavored mamas milkEsperanza's newest best friend, Blanca & Lee's daughter AllyLove blueberry fields!Ezra slept almost the entire time Sisters, and my nieces, Marissa & Jissel with Ezra

Mando's brother Chili with his son Zeke Don't let that full bucket Addy has fool you, I didn't see her pick a single berry (unless it was to eat) Jissel holding Ezra...and thats Esperanza's finger on the lense
And just for the record, Esperanza went all day without eating anything but blueberries today

River Trip

2011-07-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to the river, on a hot day. We've had very few, and even farther in between hot days, this so called summer. After a long day at the Vancouver Farmers Market this past Saturday and then an exhausting trip to the store to get some things, we came home to a really hot house. We stayed just a moment to pack a few things then headed down to the Washougal River at Hathaway Park. So many childhood memories here! It's kind of exciting to know that my daughter will have memories of this place too. Here's our first, and hopefully not our last visit to the river this year...

The War Is Never Over

2011-07-24T23:23:00.000-07:00

George is home again. A little over a month ago, just a few days shy of the one year anniversary of his right leg amputation, George had his left leg amputated. It's pointless to go into details about how devestating it was, and is. He lives this reality while the rest of us can only imagine. Fortunately, he has come home healthy and in high spirits after just a few weeks of recovery! He looks and feels better than he has in years. Having that second leg taken off was like getting rid of a sickness that for the past several years had taken over his body and mind. Watch out, cause this guy is as sharp as a whip now!

We had a couple of gatherings recently to welcome George home. Here are some pictures I took.

George holding Ezra

Group shot - why didn't I do auto camera to get Cyndi and Mary in these?Having way too much fun Mary & EzraCyndi & RomanCyndi with all the kidsMom & Ezra Mary with the BBQMary & Esperanza went for a walk in the field out back and returned with some beautiful wildflowers for George - here's Esperanza giving them to himGeorge is recovering well from this major surgery, yet he still has many other illnesses that he continues to struggle with on a daily basis. The title of this post came from my favorite Grandpa. Grandpa Al, who is a WWII Veteran, said this in an email to me recently in regards to George and the health issues he has had to live with since Vietnam..."the war is never over for so many", I can't agree more. Since the sad truth of it is so real not just for our family, but for so many others, I had to share.

Welcome back George. Stay home for awhile will ya.

Bug Off Oil Recipe

2011-07-18T15:00:00.000-07:00

There are various types of chemical & Deet-free bug sprays on the market these days. You can even find some varieties of what looks like good bug repellents at conventional grocery stores. I bet they work great. But if you ever get an itch to make your own bug repellent, try this recipe:

First, choose a carrier oil - Sweet Almond, Jojoba or Olive oil are good options (Olive is cheapest, Jojoba is amazing! Almond is a fair middle choice)
Second, get your essential oils. I always start with the same first 4 or 5 essential oils in each batch. Then I get creative and add different ones depending on which ones are calling my name at that moment. Pennyroyal, Citronella, Tea Tree, Cedar Wood are the 'essentials'. Then I might add lemon, pine, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, rose geranium, orange, cinnemon, castor...there might be others but you get the idea. I don't just pick and choose from any essential oil, these ones deter bugs in one way or another. I'll let you do your own research if you so please. I will, however, add one piece of advice - DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE TOUCH, BREATH, USE, COME CLOSE TO OR EVEN SO MUCH AS LOOK AT PENNYROYAL IF YOU ARE PREGNANT...unless you have a death wish on your unborn child. You'll have a heck of a time buying Pennyroyal also. Stores don't carry it because of it's toxicity. You might get lucky and find it someplace, but I ordered mine online. If you can't get it, just use more of the other essential oils and it'll still work fine.Third - Find an empty spray bottle that holds about 2 or 3 ounces. It doesn't have to be a spray bottle, it can be a small baby food or canning jar, a container with a doppler in it or whatever works for you. I've found that this stuff doesn't really 'spray' very well, yet I still prefer a spray container.

Finally - fill your container almost full with your carrier oil of choice. Add 5-10 drops of the first 'essential' essential oils. Then add 3-5 drops of any other essential oil you want. Put the lid on, give it a gentle shake to mix it up and lather it on the skin and watch those mosquitos fly right past you.

I've been making my own bug spray for a number of years now. Over those years, I have acquired a huge following and demand for this stuff as well as the recipe. The ingredients are kinda spendy if you just want to make one batch. I usually will give away a bottle to someone as a gift when I hear they are interested. Though there was that friend of my moms who bought a bottle from me for $5 a couple years back. Since it's that time of year and I'm beginning to get requests again for the recipe, I figured it was time to share.

Oh and as far as my opinion goes for how well this stuff works, I really think it depends on your own individual body oils/chemistry in combination with whichever essential oils you pick and choose...as well as the breed of mosquitos/ticks/fleas/other pesky bugs that are around that year. There was a year that the batch I made for myself didn't help at all (maybe my blood was extra juicy or something), but then every other year it works. Some people I've made if for say it works, some say it didn't. Everyone still loves the smell and the way it makes their skin feel. My mom recently got a tip that Listerine repels mosquitos - and now she swears by it. Hey, it's alot cheaper.

Enjoy!

A Back Yard Day

2011-07-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

I often get caught in a time warp, trapped inside the house trying to accomplish the simplest of things like brushing teeth, going potty, getting everyone dressed and fed - you know, the basics. It seriously takes all day! Before I know it, the day is almost gone and we haven't even stepped foot outside, let alone had any fun. I wouldn't feel so bad if it was winter, but it's not. So, occassionally I just give up. On this particular day last week, I gave up and we made it all the way to the back yard for some sunshine, fresh air and fun!

Esperanza playing in her sandboxHe wouldn't nap in it, but he did enjoy laying in the moses basket for short periods of time This is how Esperanza 'helps' Ezra nurse. She really feels like she's helping, it's cute. She kinda wants to be a baby again I think. And who needs a healthy lunch when you can fill up on snack crackers in a bag?
She LOVES to swing!!! And it does't take much effort for me to sit in a lawn chair, nurse Ezra & push Esperanza in the swing at the same time. It's taking some time & small steps, but I'm starting to figure this two kid thing out.
Playing on the deck of the playhouse
Brother & Sister chillin' in the backyard together. Before I know it, these two will be pushing each other on the swings, having a ton of fun playing together...and I'll wish they needed to me.

A Comparison

2011-07-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

The first of many blog post comparisons to come...

Esperanza at 3 months old & Ezra at just over 1 month old.

Esperanza has a cloth diaper on, making the outfit a little tight on her. Ezra on the other hand is wearing a disposable but it's still pretty snug and wouldn't have fit at all in it with cloth

1 Month With Ezra

2011-07-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

Ezra at 1 month old It's hard to believe that Ezra has been with us for an entire month now. It seems as though time speeds up with each kid...think I'll stop at 2 and enjoy the ride. We are all so in love with our new little guy and we are continuing to get to know him and get used to our new family member. Esperanza has her moments of jealousy as expected, but is adjusting well and mostly adores him. He's getting so big. His precious newborn look has been replaced by a chubby cheeked, wide-eyed baby. Though it'll probably take me awhile to complete the process, here are a few things we've learned about our baby boy over the past month, as well as some catch up photos ~

Ezra smiled at me for the first time yesterday! Twice.

He burps, snorts, farts, grunts, snores and makes other similar sounds all the time. I just have to say that these are most definately 'boy' noises. Esperanza would coo and let out soft pretty sighs when she was a newborn - not once did she snort or grunt. Seriously, boys are kinda gross!

He wore newborn size clothes up to almost 3 weeks old. He fits into 0-3 month clothes perfect right now, but I would bet he'll be out of them and in the next size real soon. He's a chunk!

According to my home weighing method, he weighs about 11.5 pounds...that means he's gained 4 pounds in 1 month!

Though he hasn't rolled completely over, he is close. I already have to make sure I don't lay him down too close to the edge of anything cause I really think he's going to roll over sometime soon. It seems kinda early for him to do this, but he's a strong little boy. He's been able to lift his head up for a few weeks already too.

For the first 2 weeks he slept REALLY good at night. So good that it was usually me that woke him up to nurse. Now, he still sleeps good at night, but wakes on his own to nurse and then goes right back to sleep.

His startle reflexes are out of control! His arms often flare up and wake him up for no apparent reason. Sometimes I'll swaddle him really tight at night time so his arms stay put and he stays asleep. During the day though, since his naps are still so sporatic and unpredictable, he is rarely swaddled. So, I've started lying him down on his tummy for day time naps to prevent his startle reflex from waking him every time I lie him down. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.

Though we called him Blue while he was in my belly, I rarely if ever refer to him as that anymore. Esperanza on the other hand gets upset if we call him anything 'but' Blue. On several occassions, I've heard Mando call him Sancho, Shanchi, Papi, Hector or some other off the wall name. I even caught myself referring to him as Pancho once! Sheesh. No, none of these are becoming nick names, it's just funny.

How did I get so darn lucky? Cousin Angelica holding EzraBlue haired Aunt Mary with 'Blue'Cousins Clarissa & Brandon with Ezra 1 week old Dimples AND a double chin! Doesn't get much better than that A bulky but kinda neat travel contraption we got to stroll 2 kids around in. On our way to the farmers market.He'd sleep forever if I just kept him in the moby Esperanza loves her brotherShe even shares her stuffed animals with him What baby doesn't cry?

Baby Bath

2011-07-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

I forgot how insanely awkward it is to give newborns baths. Babies that flop around are hard to bath! Fortunately, Ezra is one strong guy and probably won't be floppin around too much longer. Here he is takin a bath in a little baby tub on our kitchen table.

For The Fourth

2011-07-05T01:49:00.000-07:00

The day started off with some fun in the sprinkler...

Then we ventured over to Armando's brothers house for the Fourth of July to gather with the family, light off fireworks & watch the neighborhood firework show. Esperanza had so much fun with her cousins and Armando who is much too casual with fireworks and kids (they are all lucky no one got hurt - seriously). Ezra on the other hand spent the majority of the evening sleeping since there were all different sets of arms available to hold him while he dreamt away. Once the sun set, the big loud fireworks began so he and I stayed inside while everyone else enjoyed the show.

Here's Kiko playing in the dirtTeresa & Ezra
Dream on
Hannah helping her little nephew Emmanuel learn to walk

Fire dancer!

I had to snap a picture before I yelled at her to stand still with the sparklerAracele & Ezra Grandma & Ezra

Front row seat for the show. Who are you smiling at Esperanza?

Looking at this picture, I can hear Esperanza saying in her cute lil voice, "Rafa's my best friend"

Sleeping Beauty

2011-07-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

I love you Esperanza

Strawberry Patch

2011-07-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

We've been getting loads of delicious strawberries from our little patch in the backyard for about 3 weeks now. Esperanza loves to go out and pick them, I just have to constantly remind her to only pick the red ones. I expect to continue getting berries for a couple more months still. Last year they were still flowering in October with green berries that never ripened in November! Everbearing strawberries are fantastic.

Ezra At 3 Weeks

2011-07-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

Ezra had a check up yesterday with Catherine and he's growin like a weed. He's already 9 lbs 2 oz and is 21 inches long! Not much time for stories these days, but I will catch you up with a few pictures I took today.

3 Week Check-Up

2011-06-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Ezra had his 2 week check up with Catherine today, a day shy of him being 3 weeks old.

Ezra weighs 9 lbs 2 oz! Yeah, I'd say he's getting enough milk.

He's also 21 inches long! Yup, growing like a weed.

He's already 'batting' at things too! Like this blue toy here.

With Child

2011-06-24T15:36:00.001-07:00

I am so happy to not be pregnant any more! I know my blog readers would probably rather see more pictures of baby out of the belly, but I wanted to get a few of these maternity pictures up here before too much time passes. My friend Alisha with Alisha Photo took these photos of me when I was about 37 weeks pregnant with Ezra.

Ezra Azul Valencia

2011-06-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much of a desire to stay connected with the outside world lately, via phone or computer. I might even duck and hide if I see someone walk up the driveway. Baby and I will come out of hiding soon. And when I do, I'll post more details and pictures about the birth, our new baby boy, big sister Esperanza and everything in between. I promise. For now though, here are the basics:

Ezra Azul Valencia (Azul is Blue in Spanish)
Born at home on Friday, June 10th at 3:21 a.m.
Weight 7lbs 4 oz
Length 19 1/2 inches
Healthy, happy & perfect

Getting checked out by the midwives about an hour after birth

Big sister Esperanza with her 2 day old brother He's a wonderful sleeper so far! Please let this last Hello world! He finally opened his eyes on the 3rd day

Pool Time Pictures

2011-06-05T20:34:00.000-07:00

I sent Armando & Esperanza to the store to buy a pool today. While they were out, our neighbors just happened to set theirs up in their front yard. I'll set ours up in our back yard on the next nice day, but for today, Esperanza got to play with Lily in her pool. Since I kinda had to sit out there to watch her anyways, I took a ton of pictures. Good ones!

Miss Lily & Esperanza"I gotta go potty!" And then there's the close up facial expressions Esperanza gave the camera today...

Just Cute The TongueThe Laughing TongueThe SneerThe 'tried to hard to sneer' SneerAnd my personal favorite...the face that says it all. She had fun today.

Random Happenings...

2011-06-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

Geneva & her kids stopped for a quick visit recently. She brought some fresh raspberry leaves so we sipped on tea while she and Esperanza french braided hair. Esperanza slept her first night without a diaper last night We borrowed the Taco Bell dog again for a few days We went to our niece Addy's 13th birthday party. Here's Kiko, Rafa and Esperanza eating cake Some kid ran into our carAnd yes, I'm still pregnant

Daddy's Birthday Day

2011-06-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

About a week before Armando's birthday (which was May 30th), I made the mistake of telling Esperanza that it was almost Daddy's birthday. All day, every day, for the next week, Esperanza would say 'it's almost Daddy's Birthday Day'. I have no idea why she added the extra day to it. We held a little party at the house for his birthday for friends and family. Val commented that she hadn't ever seen so many people at my house at one time. True that - twice a year I might have a big gathering - Esperanza's birthday and Armando's birthday (which I plan to combine with Blue's in the future).

Pictures will tell the story yet again...

A bunch of nieces Burnt out on cake, I made blue and chocolate rice crispy treats instead ring around the rosies....we even fed all the neighbor kids And we found a snake

Now, Esperanza is saying, 'it's almost my birthday day'. I keep tryna remind her that it'll be her brothers birthday day first. I hope so anyways.

Maricela & Amador's Wedding

2011-06-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

Our niece Maricela Madrigal (previously Jimenez) got married yesterday. Here's a picture story of the day...

Baby Emanuel (Mari & Amador's son) Blue cake! Esperanza's reason for living...her finger print is on the bottom left tier! Okay, you do get a short story... ALL day Esperanza had been asking for cake. This girl has a rather serious sugar addiction (specifically when it comes to cake). I had told her several times she could have some cake if she ate good. And she did, twice. This was a very big deal to Esperanza. As the evening was nearing it's end for us though, they still hadn't cut the cake. After a long day, we were all ready to pass out, so I really didn't want to wait any longer just for cake. We don't always get what we want, right? I was okay with her screaming in the back seat of the car on the way home for her 'blue wedding cake' until she passed out. But, being the daddy's girl that she is, she got just what she wanted. Daddy stopped by Safeway on the way home and got her her very own blue cupcake! Crazy, I know! But guess what, she ate the cupcake before we even got back in the car and was fast asleep as soon as her head hit the carseat.
She's such a Daddy's girl

Prenatal Home Visit

2011-05-25T08:03:00.000-07:00

Catherine made her home visit with us last week. Like Regina, she confirmed baby is head down and ready to go. She even predicted a weight of about 6 1/2 lbs, and gaining. It's usually just Esperanza and I at the appointments, but this time both Armando & my sister Mary were around. I got Mary to snap a few photos. It didn't occur to us until it was too late that we should have done a video recording to record the hearbeat - darn it! Maybe next time if we make it two more weeks.

Esperanza got to put the gooey stuff on my belly She also got to help Catherine measure my belly

When Catherine walked into our home that day for the first time, she commented on how warm & inviting the house felt to her. Though I don't recall the exact words she used to describe it, she got a very positive sense of family and warm energy from the home. I explained to her that indeed it is and has been a family home for many years. Armando grew up in this house with all his siblings. Over the years, many of those siblings have returned (like us) and lived with their kids in the home as well. It truly is a family home! I was humbled by the fact that my midwife who will be here for our son's birth, felt and appreciated the history & warm welcoming our home has to offer. If only I could pick it up and move it out of the neighborhood.

Showered With Love

2011-05-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

With the help of my mom and sister, my best friend Val threw me a baby shower this past weekend. It was short and sweet with just a few friends and family, some yummy snacks and fun games.

Val and her kids baked the cake

Mom made Blue a blue quilt I didn't look at any of the pictures being taken throughout the day to make sure my camera was set right. I was playing with the flash features a day or two before, completely forgot about it and had failed to set it back to the one I know works best. So, with the exception of this picture, none of the pictures taken of me with people turned out clear enough to share.
A huge thank you to those who came to celebrate the upcoming birth of our new baby!