Monday, January 31, 2011

8 months almost 3 weeks late!

Dear Andrew

You have been 8 months for a bit now, but there are so many cute things you are doing i had to write about it.
 You are definitely a free spirit.
You like to do stuff on your own, but of course your attached as well to momma and daddy.
You are standing like a pro, and RARELY are you just still.
You crawl super super fast and you like to get into things you are NOT suppose to.
You and rocky chase each other around the house. Its cute, he likes to lick you, but i have to stop him cause its too much sometimes :)
You like to eat fruit and still enjoy your garden vegetables.
You like blueberries and mangos.
Avacoados and potatoes have been new to you this month along with lentils.
YOu also had baby yogurt and you kinda liked it, but since you were BEGGING, and by begging i mean screaming when daddy and I ate some i wanted you to try some.
You love to eat kiwis and bananas of course.
You are SCREAMING and making all these adorable noises!
When i say YAYYY you say YAYYYY.
We are working on spanish all the time. Sometimes mommy forgets and blurts out in english, but I am trying. We WILL KNOW SPANISH ( or else grandma will kill me)


I love you baby boy!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Friday Fotos ( the spanish way ;) )

latley the rocks and babes have been chasing and "hanging" out more together.
Not that i LOVE the idea of rocky licking his ear * i caught him this morning licking his ear hard core* GROSS> but they are cute together. I love them

Also a RARE happy moment in his car seat.





Thursday, January 27, 2011

The screams and love and logic

It's that time in a childs life where he is now starting to understand what "no" means.
He is a veryyy stubborn and willful child. Meaning he wants what he wants and if he doesn't get it this face happens.
Well he has to learn to NOT scream when he wants something.
I guess its pay back.
Most people who met me would never think i was such a spoiled only child ( for 9 years)
So hence i threw A LOT of tantrums, and I am DEFINITELY getting pay back already with my 8 month old.
He is clearly an only child right now, and it may or may not be this way forever. I hope we can find the right techniques to control this.
I am currently reading Love and Logic, its kinda weird for me so far.
I feel like its to "liberal" for me.
Its basically you give your children 2 choices, both those choices require them to do what you requested in a good and bad way.
For example if you want them to put their coat on and they say no you say" you can put your coat on inside your warm house or put it on in the car"
If they chose to put it on in the car you have to let them go out in the cold and learn their lesson.
The book is all about letting children choose positive things in life through learning experiences so when they grow up they know how to make decisions and such.
I guess its strange for me because that is not how i grew up, it was you do it now orrrrr elsee...
which i DO NOT like either.
So we will see how i incorporate these ideas. I like their Fighting and Thinking words part, which totally makes sense.
I clearly wasn't able to learn with words i had to get spanked.
I'm not totally against spanking, but at the same time I want to try 1037048 methods before spanking occurs.
So as of now i talk to him like a little adult telling him
"andres do you want to get hurt playing there or do you want to come play here with me"
He is learning, sometimes i see his attitude change, its nice.
Its scary because now true parenthood is occuring.
The part  in which you are responsible for their behavior, for their actions, and for guiding them in the right path.
With a lot of prayer and support from the hubs we will get this discipline down.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The post about race.

This is going to be a very emotional post for me. As you can tell I am married to a black man and I am a hispanic woman, thus we have a "mixed" baby.
I never ruled out any race as a young girl. At the same time I wasn't attracted to a "certain" race. In high school I liked a white boy and he liked me. It was nice to know that I didn't have to "Stay" within my race.
My family isn't racist in any way, but at the same time NO ONE in my family has ever "Mixed" everyone married someone from ecuador and thus I was going to be the one to turn my family around.
They grew up in ecuador, so of course they are going to find someone of their race and culture.
I grew up in America. In my whole life i've had SO Many friend of different races and I NEVER just hung out with spanish people, in fact I have a few spanish friends, most of my friends are white, black, or mixed.
My best friend she is half korean half white, and maybe something else, since her mom was adopted from korea when she was 3 years old. She was adopted to a BLACK family in the SOUTH in the 40's. Yeaahhhhh.
When I went to college, my university was quite diverese. I ended up having a black,white, and hispanic roomate my years in college.
It seemed that black guys were attaracted to me. I don't know why they just were. I in return became interested in them as well. I never really thought about the color of their skin really. I just knew that i also liked them.
Finally my freshman year i met Andrew ( my hubs now). He was a dark skinned black man. It wasn't love at first sight * i don't even believe in that* but it was like at first sight.
He and I formed and amazing friendship. He was such a gentle and sweet man that I just fell for him.
We started dating my sophomore year and i was SO nervous to tell my parents.
See, i know my parents were not going to say YOU CAN"T DATE A BLACK MAN!, i was just scared to a. tell them i had a bf ( he was my only bf) b. bring someone of a different culture home.
They first met him at my birthday when i just told them he was my "friend". HA, they KNEW right away something was up between us.
Finally i told them, he was my boyfriend. They didn't say anything, they just wanted to get to know him more and see how he treated ME.
I was SO SO happy. I knew it was going to be okay, but at the same time i had no IDEA how they were going to react . Remember I'm the ONLY one to bring someone different to my family.
Finally they got to know him and they loved him. To me color wasn't an issue, it never has been. But of course my mom made the point to tell me how important education is to people of color so that NO ONE can say anything bad to them. she told me my kids have to do better than us and even more because the babe was going to be 2 minorities.
I was bothered. I HATE HATE HATE that the world has to be this way. I HATE IT.
Why does it matter what color skin you have?! why!!!
Why do I feel like i have to defend my husband and my son.
AND i have to defend myself too.
I'm a hispanic girl, and of course there is stereotypes and it bothers meeeeeeeeee.
I love my family i love my son.
When our son was born he was VERY VERY LIGHT.
I knew he was going to come out light. Even black babies come out light at first, and since he was mixed i knew he was going to be light.
What hurt at the hospital is that everyone ignored my husband. The doctors the nurse they all ignored him. I WAS MAD.  I HATED That just cause the baby was light that they had to ignore my hubs.
He didn't take it to heart he said he has to be "used to it", which made me MORE MAD! Why do you have to used to it??! WHY!  you shouldn't feel like you are treated a certain way because of your skin color.
I told him its okay they probably think your the nice black man who took me and my son in and i was the whore. haha.

Anyways things have been interesting thus far. Our son is fairly "light" in comparison to my hubs, BUT at the same time he looks sooo much like the hubs there is no denying they are father and son.
Of course people look at us.
Tell us how cute he is
Ask me stupid questions like "is he the dad"
most of the time i wanna slap them but i just say " of course"
I know people are always going to ask, but i just wish in the future thing keep improving with race.
I know we have an interracial president which is amazing, but that by no means eliminated racism in this country. We have to strive to keep teaching our children respect for other cultures and people.
I remember watching that CNN thing in which they asked kids of different age to show who they thought was the "bad" child and they pointed to the black kid. That bothers me. Of course they learn these behaviors at home, kids hear things, comments made about certain races. I keep hoping one day racism will be gone, i know it won't but i hope this new generation is more tolerant of others, and that everyone lets their child fall in love with whom ever they want.

Monday, January 24, 2011

The sleepless monster

So at 6 months we decided to finally sleep train our son. We went with the cry it out method but not in a harsh way. We followed the nightly rules and the first night the total crying time was 30 minutes. After the first night he only cried 5 minutes then he was OUT. He slept from 8 pm to 8 am. I could not believe it.
He had been co-sleeping with us becuase it was the easiest thing for me to breastfeed.
3 weeks of blissful easy sleep and then he started up again.
YOu know waking up once a night.. to now he is waking up every hour.
I don't know if its cause he is teething.
But its been almost a month.
Last night we let him cry for an hour * while going in every 10 minutes to comfort and putting him back down*
and he FINALLY fell asleep.
I was hoping this was it and he would sleep the whole night.
wrong.
he woke up an hour later.
And i just gave up and brought him into our bed.
MOstly cause i feel bad for my neighbors and their kids.
oh gosh. I know he is only 8 months and kids are like this. Which is fine. I just wish it wasn't every hour like it is right now.

Anyways I'm looking for a new place to live for next year when we move to michigan.
GAHH.
i really wish we could stay in our nice apartment that we have here.
I guess we can't :(.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Birthday Time

Okay so his birthday isn't until may but I am now seriously looking in to it. It seems that all the babies born in 2010 have had some sort of "owl"influence to it. It doesn't help that target was selling a whole woodlands creature theme. I know because i have a travel system and play pen along with a bouncer and swing, all dedicated to the "woodlands" creature and owls.
So thus I want an owl themed first birthday. Too bad its not SO popular in party stores so it seems like if i want to get plates and such i have to order them online. which means more money. sigh.
its okay its his first birthday, and i DON'T care when people tell me " he won't remember" hello pictures? hello just him knowing he was loved so much from the start * not that money and parties show love*
PLUS its such a blessing to reach a year old, you know how many things can happen to a baby during that first year? I think its worth celebrating.
so now im looking into everything owl and woodland related.
although i may or may not change my  theme.
its hard not to with a bajillion options out there.
Although to be honest none of them has my heart more than the owls.
Funny in real life i think owls are creepy.
And there is one now "hooting" outside my window.
creepy... maybe it knows I'm talking about its species... who knows.
Its late i need to go to bed.
Adios !!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Friday rainy day

Mostly its sunny about 90% of the time here in Florida,but when those rainy days come i love them.
I love waking up to hearing rain and my son still sleeping because it so soothing ( makes me want a sound machine asap).
But i also feel like im not "missing" out to much during the day. Since im home ALL the time and we have one car it makes it difficult for me to go out. I ALWAYS have to wait for the hubs to come home.. the good thing about that is that it FORCES us to spend family time together ;).
Sigh, im so tired lately.
For 3 weeks once we started sleep training at 6 months he slept through the night. now he has reverted back to his old ways. haha. im not stressing seeing as I KNOW sleep is not going to happen again until he goes to college ( if im not dying worrying that he is ok) but you know i just wish things were easier and he wasn't so stubborn.
Alas, such is live and he is a baby and babies will be babies.
SO next year we are moving to michigan. yes the cold artic.
my hubs is going to graduate school and i also went to the same university for my undergrad.
The on campus housing SUCKS BAD. I mean i haven't heard ONE good thing about it.
But it is affordable and the rent includes ALL utlities. gahh
we'll see.
we are going to be on a SUPER SUPER tight budget next year. like SUPER tight.
I have to just go with it. I know my husband will make his son proud with his masters and hopefully one day his doctorate.

Lets NOT forget about me.
I need to get my masters and start working since im going ot be making more than my husband once i start working.

for now i will be happy in my life and being able to stay home with the little boy i love so much. even if it means no going out to eat or none of that stuff

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I have a computer..for now

Somehow my husband magically fixed our old computer... i don't know how long it will last but i hope long enough until we are able to get a new one.

Oh my goodness this week feels like its been going on for everrrrr
I was able to see an old friend yesterday and she took me out to sushi. YUM. it was he first time i've had REAL sushi ( as in eating raw fish). Usually i get some sort of vegetable sushi and I'm happy with that, but the tuna was yummy.
My husband is obsessed with football. Like crazy. I didn't grow up with an american father or an american household for that matter so honestly i didn't even know what football was till i was maybe 15 or 16 ( crazy huh). Of course life has it that i marry a crazy football lover man.
Its cool. I'm happy cause my bears ( yes they are mine now) are in the playoffs! So excited and i HOPE they make it to the superbowl, it makes it fun when your cheering on for your home city.
Speaking of which i truly miss chicago, but i will enjoy my time in orlando till then.
Seriously i can't complain its 77 degrees right now and sunny.
Its weird I've gotten used to SO MUCH SUN sometimes i just want gloomy days so my son can sleep longer. When its dark and gloomy he slept for like 3 hours straight. it was amazing.
 My son is suffering with ezcema. DAMN IT.
i have it badly and i have asthma and allergies i was PRAYING to God he would NOT get any of those conditions. If he has ezcema thats fine as long as he doesn't get the other nasty things.
Have asthma SUCKS as a kid... and as an adult i just feel like a sickly woman.
I mean i shouldn't complain because it could be worse, even if he did have asthma. I just didn't want him to go through it.
I play the flute and that helped my asthma go away for YEARS.
Then it came back during my last year in college and during my pregnancy it was BAD BAD BAD. i was in the emergency room like every month. I didn't want to take steriods but i had to in order for me to breath and the baby to as well.
So next month is our 9 month check up and hopefully he will be okay.
I usually give him a bath EVERYDAY because its been our "routine" but i'm going to stop that cause i KNOW it aggravates ezcema. Ill just do the lotion massage and all that and hopefully he'll know that means bed time too.

Monday, January 17, 2011

i need a computer asap

okay so we still dont have a computer and its killing me. typing this on a phone sucks. like mucho. aunyways today is mlk day and i just felt a need to write about race.
so i am an ecuadorian girl who fell in love with a black man and we had a mixed baby. when i read mlks speech about how he hopes one day his children can hold hand in hand with other children it makes my heart glad. it makes me happy to know my son will be able to have friends with whatever race and that he will feel free to love whoever he wants. ill write a nicer post later about my husband and i when i dont have to type on my phone

Thursday, January 13, 2011

first time

okay so my computer offically died..like no more computer :[ its awful..im not sure if this post will even go through since im typing it on my phone.
ahhhh.
this week has been interesting..still no tooth and still very fussy.
i miss home
i love twitter. add me kargabs7
i love morning cuddles/mommy wants to stay in bed time
i love florida and the lack of snow.

also i just feel blah lately. i want to be prego but at the same time no.
the first

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Why didn't i discover this earlier?

Okay so i always though twitter was dumb... well maybe not dumb but at the same time i didn't really want my IRL friends to know whats up.. haha Facebook is enough.
Also my hubs is not a BIG user of facebook- he has one.. he checks it and maybe once a MONTH he'll status it up.
So yesterday i set up a twitter because of all the awesome mommas i've found through this blog! and i am HOOKED. I think its cause i get to see what other moms are up to and its fun to have this little nook of the world to me and other moms. I think thats the fun of being a mom is being involved in groups. Of course i'm still new to all this blog and stuff so moms have thier friends that they have been tweeting for awhile! but so far i've been welcomed nicely and i love it!

My hubs asked me what are you doing today.. and i said tweeting.. he said "what" i said YES IM ON TWITTER... and he was like.. okay gaby.... i ALWAYS say this back to him " i never say anything when you do your football fantasy ALL DAY LONG" hahaha that made him quiet. awesome.

So yes, i'm trying not to tweet every 30 min... becuase you know my life is SO exciting. but its fun to tweet little things that bug you or going on in your life without your MIL or former teachers knowing your REAL complaints ! haha..

So i love twitter now. Now i understand my sisters obbession. Of course for her its to follow justin bieber and what he is up to.... which brings me to me other point of following my favorite celebs. Yes i feel so lame. and i am a mom. great.
Also i love Kendra and keeping up with the kardashians.

Enough of my trashy tv confessions.. there is more.. but i don't want to confess anymore ;)

Friday, January 7, 2011

An Itch

Okay so before i found out i was pregnant and i was so excited scared out of my mind possibly crying out of mere shock, i never thought that i would ever want more children.
Let me explain.
I've loved children, like working with them and all the stuff but i always THOUGHT i would be okay without them. I honestly thought if my hubs and I never had children then i would be okay just the two of us, lets just say i never craved to have children. Which might seem so selfish of me considering some people try so hard to have children and seriously my heart aches for them.

But my son changed those feelings of children FOREVER. I mean when he came into our lives everything changed. I loved my pregnancy- i never threw up.. it was great ( other than my asthma flaring up 200% and not breathing) but once it was controlled it was awesome.

Now he is 7 months old, and i have an ITCH for a girl, a baby girl. Sigh... I just want to dress her up in tights and headbands galore.. I sound like a 15 year old on maury who say then want a child to dress them up as if they were dolls.. but thats not my case, i really do want another child.. sometimes... other times i know we can't afford another child.. other times  i think i would be content with just my chubs. Im obviously confused and with my current BC i don't worry about having a child "accidentally" for 5 years ( yay mirena?)

Sigh... till then all you women who have girls go ahead and dress them up to your liking no matter what other people say. I love my baby boy, boys have their own things to them, they are and will be mammas boys.. mine is.. i accessorize him with hats and shoes..lol not nearly as fun as the million and one things there is for girls.. seriously i get upset ( in a good i want a girl kinda way) when i go to childrens store becuase 75% of the store is dedicated to girls and 25% is left for the boys.. i know i know there isn't much to a boy.. tshirt.. jeans.. sweaters.. but still...
H&M had the CUTEST boy caps and i got one for my chubs for 4-6 months and now it doesn't fit :( and we went to the H&M here and there was no more :( I hope they bring them back cause it was my absolute favorite. We bought him another one from childrens place not NEARLY as cute...

anyways, now everyone knows my itch for a girl.but it must wait for a bit.. if it all..

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

goodbye 2006.. we need a 2011

We seriously need a new computer. I mean BADLY. My toshiba has been dead since the summer and so we are only using my husbands 2006 compaq with a 55 gb.. seriously ipods have more gb than this computer. I'm not even gonna complain TOO much before this computer dies on us. My parents were wonderful and gave us some money to put towards a new computer.. but i want my OWN computer.. i hate sharing... seriously since im home all day i get the computer all day... then at night my husband gets to use it. Its awful cause its at night when i actually have time!
So now im trying to find a way to convince my husband for each of us to get a computer.
my friend wants to sell me her old laptop... ahh i wish she would sell it to me cheaper. I can't ask for too much.. but again i just want MY computer ya know..

I need a round baby gate... what have you moms felt helped when your child was being mobile? a gate? you know those round ones that look like a big play pen...

anyways.. I want a new computer... so i can download my videos from my new camcorder becuase there is no way in heck that this can handle 4 gb of video... oh did i mention that the power cord is so messed up i have to bend it a certain way and barely breathe in order for it to charge...ya its that bad

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The biggest loser.. while eating pudding

Sounds gross. right?
Last night i was eating one of those crunchy oat bars ( healthy right?).. and now i have a piece stuck in my throat.. i feel it scratching.. im coughing.. AHHHHHHHHHHH I REALLY hope it goes away soon cause i can't handle it anymore.
Also why am i here watching the biggest loser and eating pudding... ugh.. i love watching this show but then i feel like i need to lose like 100 pounds in 6 weeks... AHHH...
why is losing weight so hard?
and then i had a baby.. and i've been trying to lose weight since i was like 15. geez... im going to put the "having more babies" on the back burner for sure until i get myself the way i want to be.
Clearly at this point im doing it for me.
All these biggest loser are like 20, 21.. i'm only 23.. and no i don't weight 400 pounds but im not in a healthy weight.. i know that!
And its not like we eat unhealthy here at my house.. we don't eat eggs,meat,milk,fried things... which has helped me keep my weight steady neither gain nor loss, which is GOOD but now ineed to go to the next level to LOSE.
Okay thats enough of that!
A friend of mine is pregnant again and she mentioned how fun it is to be pregnant and you can wear whatever you want and stick out your belly... oh the joys of not worrying how your tummy looks.. ect.. your pregnant enjoy it.

now to drink a gallon of water before bed hahah ( kidding.. maybe)

Monday, January 3, 2011

In a funk.

Its a new year, but i feel like its still the same. I think its because I am in florida. Its always warm * most of the year* thus i feel like its still August. Its weird. I'm used to seasons and changes and when there isn't any of it - im kinda lost.
I must admit i adjust easily to new environments. Of course I HATED orlando at first... but now i like it. I love the weather, I like living in big cities, and I just like not having to wear shoes... like boots or socks. I HATE SOCKS! the sad thing is i have to wear them to sleep in the winter or else i get allergies.. without fail... its weird..
my house looks like crap. there is toys everywhere, clean laundry on my kitchen table and i just hate putting clothes away. When did a family of 3 produce 4 loads of laundry in a week?.. i don't even wanna know what a family of 5 produces a week... sweet goodness...
I miss Chicago .. a lot.
I can't wait to take my son downtown chicago this summer when i head back. I want to take all he cliche tourist pictures with him, because hey.. it is his FIRST time.
My hubby thinks i'm crazy but he needs to understand.
When will these fireworks end? seriously people new years day is OVER ... STOP WAKING UP MY SON! * stab*
ugh.. okay this is a horrible post.
adios

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The first of the year

I figured that I should write a blog for the first of the year!
Today has been a ROUGH day.
My parents visit was wonderful. Too wonderful.
We had a great week, going shopping, to the beach, disney world, my mom and dad spoiling both me and the baby.
I got to eat out almost everyday ( something not possible right now)
Its okay i'm fine with not going out to eat as long as I get to stay home with my baby.

I'm so so sad. They left today. Of course it was a afternoon filled with tears and sometimes my hubs thinks we are ridicilous for crying so much, but he doesn't understand how much i miss my family and the bond we have.

Okay enough about this. I've been reading, watching, and just hearing moms and their experiences. I've also been watching 16 and pregnant and WITH OUT FAIL i cry during the labor part.. why.. i have no idea..
I feel so blessed to be a SAHM. Seriously I know its not a possiblity for ALOT of moms and even though andrew and I live modestly we have what we need, and for that I'm thankful.

I love every moment with that boy. He is my life.
I was told today im totally going to be a horrid mother in law. I'm not going to be, i want to be as good as I can..

I'm just a scatter brain today.
My son still has NO teeth.
He's being irriatble at night. Waking up every 3 to 4 hours . Hes been just sleeping in our bed at night.
I'm hoping that this is just a stage of his teething.

I want a baby girl. I do. We just really can't afford to add another memeber to our family right now. Also at times I think i'd be okay with just my chubs.

I made no resolutions this year. I mean kinda in my head but nothing major. same resolution i've made since i was 14. lose weight. Meh... this year im not going to stress too much about it. I do want to lose weight but this time to be healthy, not for looks.. its for me.




Alas i will leave you with some pictures of our week and new years.