Monique's Tribe

Long time family friend Monique showed up in Portland recently with her family. They were able to come out to our place one evening to visit for a few hours. She & Dre have 4 beautiful, energetic children: Enrique, Apache, Julian & Elijah (not sure if I spelled everyone's names correctly).

4-9-11

Just some photos of Mary, Armando, Esperanza & I out and about recently...

Somewhere Around 32 weeks

Have I mentioned there isn't an actual due date? Baby will come sometime around the end of May and beginning of June. Both ultrasounds I had gave me completely different due dates and I wasn't keeping track of things myself. So there's an open window of a couple of weeks that Blue will arrive. I kind of think thats a good way to think even if someone did give me an exact date, give or take a week or two from a certain 'day'. With that being said, and because it's just normal to have an answer when someone asks how far along you are, I'd say I'm currently around the 32nd or 33rd week. Here's a couple pictures of the belly thats getting bigger and bigger by the day.

I looked at a web site just for fun to see the development info in the womb for this time frame and here's what it said:

In the latest womb reports, your amazing baby has now developed sensitivity to temperature! Which means you’re likely to get a swift kick if you put a hot pad or bag of ice on your ginormous belly. For the Elton John lovers out there - baby’s got blue eyes. Actually, even if you're too young to know who Elton is, all babies have blue eyes at this point. This could easily change after birth (or even between now and labor), but for the time being, blue it is. Thanks to their recently matured lungs and a strengthening immune system, over 90% of babies born in their 32nd week survive! So - go ahead and throw a mini-party right now because it’s pretty much a done deal - you've got a human-bean that's going to make it! That's not to say you actually want your wee womb-squatter to pack their bags and move out now, because they'd still end up in the ICU for a good while, rather than in your arms at home. Babies are best when fully baked!

Just one more reason to call him Blue!

Chop Stix

We went to eat at PF Changs recently for our 5 year anniversary. As usual, our sitter didn't come threw so Esperanza joined us. Along with chop stix, crayons and the childrens menu, they gave her a little plastic tool. It works amazingly well at keeping the chop stix together so the user (child or adult) can actually eat. Esperanza loved it and I was able to get a couple extra to take home. Here she is at home, eating lunch with them.

A Real Spring Day

As I write this, some very dark clouds are dumping loads of hail outside. And the thunder that literally just shook the house will likely wake Esperanza from her afternoon nap. Spring in it's idealistic form, still seems far off in the distance most of the time.

Yesterday, however, we had a nice little tease of warm & sunny Springtime weather which lasted the entire day. A bright & pretty Spring dress found it's way on Esperanza then she and I spent some time outside soaking in some real vitamin D (the drops just aren't the same). She picked some flowers and ran around barefoot in the grass. We listened to some very happy birds singing from the trees. I eyeballed my little veggie garden and noticed the peas I planted the beginning of March finally sprouted. All it took was a whole lot of rain and a little sun. Later in the day, Armando, Esperanza and I took a walk around the neighborhood together. Esperanza picked some flowers that we later put in a vase and set on our nature table inside. She had so much fun running up and down the sidewalks and in random open fields screaming & laughing with joy as the sun shone down on her (and I thought she loved the rain - watch out Summer!). For dinner, we had hot dogs and brussell sprouts! The sun convinced me that the pellet stove would be most useful as a table over the next six months so I re-arranged my living room to accomodate all the baby stuff that will likely be taking over soon. Even the tote with all the wool hats, scarves & gloves made their way into the garage. I looked threw all the veggie and herb seeds that have been waiting for me to plant them, then decided to put them back in the basket until next year when I'll have two extra sets of little hands to help with the garden. This year, I'm growing something different.

Picking flowers I tried convincing Esperanza to go ahead and poop on the grass outside. Hey, it would have been a step ahead of the diaper thing...no luck though.

Notice the dandelions in her pigtails - so cute!

More Princess Pictures

Here are a few of my favorites...

Okay, too many favorites. Looks like I'll be digging up some change to buy a print or two.

Still Lovin' The Rain

I think it's been about 6 or 7 months since I announced our love for the rain last fall. With very few sun breaks since that time, we do still love it, but we sure are looking forward to some sunshine. Until then, the rain boots stay on.

Birthday Parties

'Tis the season...for birthday parties that is. Last month we went to Gavns 3rd birthday party as well as Sofies 3rd birthday party. So far in April, we went to Esmeralda's 12th birthday party and Brandons 9th birthday party. I'm already partied out and it's not even summer yet! I only took pictures at the first two parties.

Esperanza and Gavn playing with baloons at Gavns b-day party

So thankful Mando suggested I take off her sweater before she ate this cupcake. Sofie had a Dora themed birthday party. They had face painting, beaded bracelet making, a pinata, Dora everything and of course a colorful cake.

Birthday girl and her pinata

Come June, we'll be sending birthday cards instead