OC Fair.... oh, how I love thee. We almost missed it this year. I can't really explain what I love about it. I hate crowds and the summer heat. But when it comes to the OC Fair, I'll suck it up because it's a tradition. I have so many memories from that place that I go just for nostalgic reasons. P and I have been going every year since 1999. We did miss one year for reasons I can't remember. But that was the only time!! I even went last year when I was 8 months pregnant!! My feet ache just thinking about it. I spent the entire time in line for the restroom. One time, the line was so long that I had to use the men's room. So. Gross.
We usually go at night, when it's much cooler. Of course, with W, that's not really possible. It was fun, nonetheless. He was such a good little boy, taking in all the fair had to offer. He even got his silhouette done!
Cute, right?! She was quick with the scissors and quite talented, too. W was moving around like crazy looking at all the people walking by. I love his double chin!
I know he won't remember any of this, but hopefully one day he'll appreciate how excited we were to continue this fun tradition with the newest member of our family. Being a parent now, I am constantly reminiscing about my own childhood and what memories stand out in my mind. Both my parents worked (and STILL work) very hard and long hours. There wasn't time for the typical kid stuff like after school sports and clubs. I remember taking ballet classes at night! And even that didn't last very long. I do remember going camping quite a bit. Pitch a tent? No problem! I can't wait to make W his first s'mores!
In line to get tickets. He looks excited, no?
You can see all of W's crazy hairs. I guess he takes after me. They grow in every direction. I LOVE it!
Is your mama a lama? Sorry, had to say it. I bet he's thinking...wow, that's a huge doggie!
Look, it's Bambi! I don't like that movie cuz the mother dies. Boo.
This goat got a little too close to W. I think he wanted to nibble on my baby's meaty arms and legs.
Here's Uncle C, unable to resists those ample cheeks.
You know where those fingers are going, right?
Straight into W's mouth!!
You are like this little chickie, cute and soft.
Airplane!!!
I'm not sure what Uncle C did, but W in some sort of a trance. He was just calmly laying in his arms, staring up at him. I think it was the goatee.
Don't worry, we didn't forget to take the required photobooth pictures.
Next year, W will get to enjoy some of the fine cuisine that the fair has to offer. Maybe not fried KoolAid, but I know he's gonna love the corn!
Bug needs lots of love. Especially these days. We're not sure what happened, but he's acting a little gimpy lately. Perhaps he overdid himself on a recent hike. Or maybe the slippery stairs are finally taking its toll on him. Who knows...but regardless, our little Buggie isn't a happy dog right now. :(
Poor guy is so neglected that he's even willing to get stepped on by W while he's jumping in the jumperoo. Any means of touch will do, I guess.
Maybe he'll pet me this time. I should do something cute.
Look! I'm flying upside down!!
Hey!! He's petting me!!! Finally!! He's...
Nevermind.
Bug-tipping is fun :)
This new home is great for us, but it's missing one thing that made Bug really happy. A view to the outside world. There are no cars or people visible from the one window he can look out of and it's terribly boring for him. No sun-bathing lizards or squirrels to bark at. No people walking their dogs. Nothing. The only time he ever barks is when our neighbors come home. And even that, I think he's getting to. Oh I can't forget about the flies. We got plenty of them! Buggie is pro at NOT catching them but we let him go crazy as a means of exercise.
Get em' boy!
We're not complaining about this major decrease in barkage, of course. Not at all. But it sure would be nice if there were something about W that was entertaining to Bug. So far, W is only interested in grabbing Buggie's legs and his shiny dog tag. No petting just yet. Sigh. Poor Bug.
Remember how I said there would be "before and after" shots of the home? I didn't forget. We're just not done unpacking and remodeling yet. Not sure we ever will be. LOL!
Can I just take a moment and talk about how much I'm loving our home? It may not be big or new or fancy...but who cares! It's cute, cozy and it's ours and we're finally free!!! The privacy, oh the privacy! There isn't a day that goes by where I don't thank God for that. I've never lived alone my entire 30 + years until now. P doesn't count because I don't have anything to hide from him.
But the truth of the matter is, I'm a very private person. I don't like people going through my stuff, poking around. I didn't even like it when my mom did it. What business is it of hers? I know I give off that bartender impression, where you can tell me or do anything, as if I'd seen it all before. And for the most part, you can. But stay away from my stuff. I had a friend go through my purse once. I almost punched her. If I wanted the contents of my purse made public, I'd have carried one of those tacky plastic, see-through bags that Coach tried to make popular once. Fashion fail. No. Keep your hands on your lap and your wandering eyes on the television, thank you. And we won't have a problem.
Right now, I'm wondering how to protect all my belongings from W. He's already tearing through anything he can get his hands on. He broke my phone the other day(it's okay now). It was my fault for letting him play with it, but still! And he loves LOVES books! I do, too! Only he loves chewing on them and folding the pages. A big no-no to a book lover like moi. How can I teach him that books are luxury items to be handled with the utmost respect? Too early? I think not.
No. Not the ACTUAL high school reunion. This was the reunion of us girls...women...no, wait...mommies. O. M. G. I never thought there would ever be the day when all of us were in a house filled with babies. Lots and lots of babies. It was a beautiful madness and I still have a smile on my face. The last time we were all together...we were fawning over our friend's daughter, G. She was the only kid in the circle. Now she's the eldest of six!!!
It's still incredible to me that we all ended up having babies at the same time. What the #@*$%!! Right?! It makes no sense except that God has a plan. There were those of us trying for years. Those of us who weren't. And those of us totally not planning at all. So this baby boom is just a big mystery to me.
This is G. The big sis of the group. Sweet, no?
And this is cutie E, who in so many ways is like W's twin. Welcome to America!!
Here's little M, holding on to his monkey. How cute is that!
We all know little B. He's a good boy.
And the baby of the group, precious K. Look at her holding her head up like there's no tomorrow!
Don't worry, my little man. I didn't forget about you. He loves his auntie K.
It was nuts. So many babies around, crying, pooping, wipes of all brands, and a collection of diaper bags big enough to open our own store. I loved every second of it(except when W fell back and hit his head. Poor guy). These guys get funnier and funnier as they get older. Wait until they start baby talking to each other. Do babies have inside jokes?
Look at my cellphone, it's soooo cool!
Oops. Nevermind.
\
Don't look at me. I didn't do it.
Thank you Auntie B for my microphone. How did you know I wanted to be a singer?
The gang. Look at W and E crying. Told you they could be twins. LOL!
It was only a few short hours we got to spend together. But let me tell you, each of us could've used a nap by the end. As we all took turns feeding our babies and changing dirty diapers, I got this overwhelming feeling of fulfillment and joy. I still remember passing notes in class, gossiping about boys and stressing about our AP Bio quizzes. Can't believe it's been over 10 years!! I won't say the exact number so don't ask. No matter how different our lives are, we're all here together as sisters, sharing this new chapter of mommyhood. I'm one very lucky girl.
Man, next time, we might have even more kids on that couch. You know what that means, right? Time to get a bigger couch!
Lunges. I do a lot of lunges. W is constantly trying to crawl away from me and I spend my day chasing him, picking him up and repeating this process until it's time for his nap. I love how happy he gets because he can get around on his own now. He gets this huge grin on his face when he's on the move, leaving a trail of drool behind. Love it!
You know who doesn't love it? Bug. Poor Bug. For some odd reason, W keeps crawling to Bug's doggie bowl and it's really stressing the poor dog out. He eats like 5 times a day now! He's so paranoid that W is going to eat his food, he just starts stuffing his face even though he's not hungry!! Any solutions? Is our dog going to blimp out? I'll keep you posted. Even though it drives Bug nuts, I love watching the baby crawl there. He knows he's not supposed to so he tries real hard to get there fast and sometimes, he beats me. I'll admit it. He's dipped his little fingers in Bug's water bowl quite a few times.
He loves trekking over from his room into ours. And when P is in the bathroom, W turbo crawls. Then he just watches his daddy get ready for work.
I hope I have as much hair as you do, daddy.
Help!! The baby is coming towards me with a mouth full of drool!!!
Yes, you may use that sock to wipe your face. In fact, please do.
I shall climb and conquer this mountain of mommy! (pls ignore laundry in the background)
I AM THE MASTER OF THE CRAWL! RAAAAARRRRR! YOU SHALL NEVER ESCAPE ME NOW!
It's a little scary now because W keeps pulling himself up to stand. Most of the time, he can sit back down on his own. But sometimes, he just gets this blank stare going and then he'll let go of whatever is holding him up and CRASH!! And as we all know, his noggin is not little. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Poor guy. That reminds me, gotta buy some pillows to put around the house.
My hands have been busy, trying to make as much as I can for his birthday. Don't worry, I'm not going overboard. It's just that I want W to have a great party and if my two hands can make that happen, I'm going to do it. Besides...I love making stuff. All kinds of stuff! So this is right up my alley. We splurged on the photographer but that's about it. Everything is made with paper and glue. LOL! My only regret is not having started this much earlier. I wanted a themed party at first. And I thought Star Wars, baby!!! It's perfect!! P's a huge fan and this would be such the "circle of life" type of thing, but W is too young to appreciate it, so it'll have to wait. These awesome cookies will have to wait as well.
OMG, only two more months!!! Ahhhh!! Where's that glue gun?!
I wasn't sure how he'd handle the water. I have photos of me as a baby, crying my eyes out at the beach when my mom took me in the water. To this day, I don't like being in the water. I don't hate it, but .... I could name a couple hundred other things I'd rather do first, know what I mean? So, I was really surprised to see W having such a great time :) P was real good about warming him up to the water. Eventually, we ended up with a happy water baby!
I bought this floaty thing at Babies R Us. Cute, right? But sooo poorly designed. All the air is in the front if the baby leans back at all, he'd probably flip over!!
Here's our solution. I hope W riding in the back seat of the police car isn't indicative of future events.
He was totally fascinated by this group cannonball. One day, my son. One day.
This year is going by too quickly!! And there have been too many distractions, like moving into a new home. I won't complain about that because it's too exciting. But one horrible, terrible, devastating event occurred recently that literally left me feeling handicapped. We broke our camera. Actually, we're not sure "who" broke it, but it doesn't matter because what's done is done. We were at Angel's Stadium, the security guard checking our belongings before letting us through. And that's when it happened. CRACK!!! We filed a report, as if we had witnessed a murder. That's what it felt like to me anyway. We went without our precious camera for a couple of weeks before borrowing one. Sigh. RIP 30D. You were good to us. We'll miss you.
It's getting more and more difficult to get clear shots of W. He's constantly on the move, making all our photos a big blur. I guess we'll have to take more video to compensate.
It's been forever!!! How the heck are ya?! Well, as P mentioned in the last post, we've been busy. We bought a home and it has been a nonstop whirlwind of boxes, renovations and headaches. To be completely honest, I started a number of posts about our new home but had to stop because I was so overwhelmed. But there's no avoiding it now.
First off, the good news. W is on the move!!! Finally!! After months of our little guy rocking on all fours, he's finally figured out how to get his arms and legs to work for him.
It's sooo freakin cute!! He just loves LOVES our laptop. That was the biggest motivation to get him going. I was a little sad thinking about the possibility that W may skip crawling all together. My mom said that I only crawled for a few days before I started cruising. I love watching him concentrating on alternating his arms and legs, his little tooshie wiggling as he goes. Sigh. Does it get better than this?
So I guess I should add "Buy baby gates" to my long TO DO list. A list which I have officially renamed I DON'T WANNA DO list. Ugh. My cell phone has become an electronic notebook. I have lists for Lowe's, Home Depot, groceries for W, groceries for us, home renovations we can do, home renovations someone else needs to do, IKEA, Costco...etc. It's a long list of lists. Save me.
I was going to recap in painful detail the first couple of months of being a homeowner, but I'm not sure I want to remember it. What was supposed to be a joyous and monumental event in our lives has been...well, a nightmare. Long story short....
We bought a home. YAY!!!
It was a shortsale with tenants renting from the sellers.
They didn't want to leave...and by law, they didn't have to.
(WTF!!? Yeah, I know.)
Short escrow became a long one.
They finally left...and renovations started.
Over budget and took much longer than expected.
In fact, they're not done.
The kitchen is coming along. There were tears, and lots of migraines.
The floors look good but are not good. You have to see it to understand.
We moved in anyway.
We still need some key pieces of furniture. Our cabinets aren't finished. There are boxes everywhere still. Most of our clothes are on the floor until we fix our closet. We need window treatments. Oh, and new windows would be nice. There is so much crap in the garage that we can't fit even one car in there yet. And it's starting to heat up. Having a second story makes this heat wave a little challenging. Our home is generally nice and cool. But half way up the stairs, it hits you like a mack truck. Thank God for central air.
There are a bajillion other things I'm not mentioning because I'm over it. I'm tired of being frustrated with what I know to be a very common story when renovating a home. So I don't want to waste anymore time complaining. I'd rather think about what I love about our new home.
It's ours.
We're finally free!!! We have the privacy we have been wanting for so long!!!
No parents!!!! I can finally wear what I want around the house. I can walk around the house at 2am without worrying that I'll run into my dad. There's no one to tell me what a mess I've made. That's my job now. No more worrying about whether they will wake W up with the noise they make. I actually know where things are for once...because I put them there. No more guessing who just got home. Since W can't drive yet, process of elimination says it's P. LOL! I love the size our home. It's spacious without being big. Perfect for out little family. :)
We live in a nice neighborhood for once. So we can actually walk the dog at night!!
We have a brand new kitchen! Glossy and white. Including an oven!!! My mom's oven doesn't work so you can imagine how much baking I have to catch up on. I love it!!!
One fun thing is I finally got to open up our wedding gifts. You know, from our wedding THREE YEARS AGO! All our plates, cookware, sheets, even towels....they were just sitting there in the garage all these years.
Most importantly, W seems to really love it here. We were worried about how he'd adjust to the new home and his new room. Other than his crib, everything else in his room was different. So you can imagine how nervous we were that first night. He'd been doing well, sleeping 12 hours straight. It could all go down the drain he didn't like his new room. But he did beautifully! Went down at 7pm like usual, and slept the whole night. Phew! What a good baby!
He's also been practicing his pincer reflex. He gets frustrated at times but his determination to eat that little cracker is unwavering. I guess if you put a slice of chocolate cake in front of me and told me I had to eat it with my feet, I wouldn't give up so easily either. Not a pretty picture so we'll move on. I feel as though not much has changed in the way of W, but I know this isn't true. We've just been too busy to really celebrate each milestone. One thing is for sure, he has a future in wrestling. Holy majolie! Every time we change his clothes or his diaper, it's like wrestling a crocodile!! His twists and turns are so strong, we literally have to hold him down to get a sleeve on. I'm breaking a sweat just thinking about it. Dreading a poopy diaper is one thing. Dreading the possible smears of poop all over you and the room is a whole nother story. And with the solids he's been eating...those poops smell worse than ever!!
It's all fun though :) You just have to laugh about all the difficulty that comes with parenthood. Otherwise, you'd go nuts. And the most important thing to remember is, it could always be worse.
In conclusion, we're very happy in our new home. I'm looking forward to all the memories and traditions that will be made within these walls. Our walls are bare right now, but I'm sure they'll be covered with framed photos, crayon graffiti and dried up boogers soon enough.
\
