6 Months (2 Weeks Late)

I never realized how much I use the Internet until I didn't have it.  Last week, I was sitting here minding my own business watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D(viva agent Coulson!) when they shut my Internet off.  Of course, we told them to, but I didn't remember that until about an hour later.

Now that it is back, I am back to blogging.  I always say this, and it never comes true, but I should be blogging more often.

Duck face

 Bryan is getting to be so much fun.  Some days more than others, but I still find that each day, I am more in love with him more than the last.

 He is smiling way more, and oh does he have a smile.  Sometimes he smiles at nothing, other times he smiles because he has silly parents.  My favorite has to be when he smiles mischievously to a comment I make about something he has done.  Like when he farts, or wont take a nap, or kicks his pant off when I'm trying to dress him.  Oh and we mustn't forget the big grin on his face when he sees Daddy walk in the door.  One of those truly heart melting moments.  Today, we were smiling and giggling about mommy dancing. (He loves his 70's music)  

  His fine motor skills amaze me.  How he can pinch my collar bone so hard is incredibly painful.  Seeing his hand eye coordination improve has been a wonder.  He has way better aim now, when he tries to shove things in his mouth

 We have also done away with bottles.  He never really used them to begin with, but since I became a shm and he stopped taking one on a regular basis, he has started refusing them.  He loves his sippy cup though.  He will drink from our cups too.  The hubby has to give him water from the regular cup because I spill it every time.

 In celebration for Halloween tomorrow, here is My handsome baby in his cute spooky shirt.  I'm still not sure what he will wear tomorrow, but I can tell you this, it will be adorable.

Easy Cherry Cupcakes.

I decided that today, there will be a post.  After baking banana bread, making the base for horchata ice cream and arroz con leche, and taking care of the little man, by the time I had some time to myself, and sat down, I realized that I needed to upload some pictures.  Too bad I am too tired.  The next time I get up from here will be to go to bed. 

 Bryan and I haven't spent much time at home lately, which means he has been extra crabby for me. (Cutest little crab ever)  Who knew that just one cranky baby, could be so exhausting.

I am also getting up early to help out at a fundraiser for breast cancer. (Think Pink!)  I'm not doing a Scentsy booth, or selling bows(something new that I am starting.  More to come) but just lending a hand to a good friend of mine...

Back to the point.

Because of my laziness, I am taking this opportunity to share my new favorite baking tip: Adding flavor to cakes.

Cherry Cupcakes with Cherry Buttercream, filled with coconut cream

My new secret? a box.  That's right.  I just use a box of white(or yellow) cake.  I am sure I heard this tip somewhere, but in all honesty I don't remember where or when.  All you do, is take whatever flavoring you want, in this case, fresh cherries(put through the blender of course), and substitute that, for some or all of the water the mix calls for.  The more you put in, the more flavor you get.

I did the same thing with oranges, except I juiced it in our juicer so there wouldn't be any skin in it.

The buttercream was done similar, except I added a larger amount pureed cherries than my buttercream recipe called for liquid.  I wanted a big cherry flavor, but in the end, The icing was too sweet.  It needs some more experimenting.

Both my cherry and orange cakes turned out great.

 of course there are still pictures of my cutie pie. He was a month and a half in these pictures.  The day he was blessed at church.  Isn't that little outfit darling?  My mom made it.  Funny story.  She kept going on about how much she loved babies wearing gowns for their blessing.  Had us worried.  So happy she made this little tux (that he pretty much was too big for the next day) 

 Those toes are so cute it kills me!  Do we look exhausted or what?!

Gilroy Gardens

About a year ago, one of my best friends, Catherine, moved to Utah. (Insert sad face here)  Then a couple months ago, our other good friends moved up to Gilroy. (yet another sad face)

Well a month after they left, we found out Catherine was coming down for a wedding.  Where would she be?  No other place than Gilroy.

So, since we already had tickets to Gilroy Gardens from a scout fundraiser, we planned a  little day trip.

 With Bryan, there wasn't too much we could do, which was fine with me.  This trip was before my shm days.  It was the week after I went back to work, and I was totally happy watching everyone go on rides and snuggling tight with my little guy, whom I hadn't gotten nearly enough of the whole week.  It also may have been my age, but I also really just wanted to go for the sights.

 We took a bunch of pictures by this waterfall.  We were told by our friends, that went the week before, that we would get a little wet going under the tunnel to get there. How about a LITTLE understatement!  So glad I had covered Bryan.  It was nice and refreshing, though, for such a hot day.

 The story of how the three of us became friends is rather simple.  They started out as my visiting teachers, Though Anna and I had known each other since before both of us were married.  They came over, and we just sorta clicked.  We started doing dinners, Family Home Evenings together, and a couple girl nights.  Catherine and I started ditching going to a health class together.  We had so much fun together.  I miss them a lot.

 So this little show about fruits and vegetables was cute.  Honestly, I was a little too excited to see it.  As you can tell from the lettuce, they all had eyes, sang and, made fun of the poor little onion.  I was hoping that it was going to be an educational thing, since that is what Gilroy Gardens claims it is.  Unfortunately, all I know is that oranges like to sing California sun, and, while tomatoes taste good, they are very mean.
While it wasn't very educational, there is one thing that I did learn.  Gilroy smells fantastic!  Honestly, I would consider moving there just for that wonderful aroma of garlic everywhere.

One of my favorite parts of our trip? Catherine came home with us.  We went to church in our old ward and had a skip-bo night with my mom and sister.  I loved getting caught up with her.  It was fun to see her and Bryan.  This was back when he wasn't the happiest of babies, but he lit up when she would talk to him.  It was one of the first times he had warmed up to someone other than us, and he did it immediately.  

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend, with wonderful people.

Picture catch up

seeing as I went a whole 4 months without posting anything, then didn't really do much the whole month after that, I still have so many pictures of this cute little guy to share. Plus a little more updating to do.

Bryan makes the funniest expressions sometimes.  It's one of those things that is different between being an adoring mommy, vs doting Aunt.  Watching my nieces and nephews grow, I  don't think I noticed all of the different faces they made as babies.  I remember the bigger actions, like Sarah grabbing her feet, but I don't remember the look of concentration as she attempted to grab them (or grab them and pull down the umbrella with them.)

I recently chopped all my hair off.  It was getting pretty long. and in the way.  Before we said bu-bye to that long braid, we snapped a quick pick of what could have been Baby's Mario Bros. costume.
B also loves his little chairs.

 He really does like that saucer.  A lot.  It gives him full access to watch me do dishes, and watch the pups play.
 I discovered is that B prefers to chew on the back of his pacifiers.  I have a theory connecting it to teething. He rubs the hard plastic on his gums.

Something that really melts my heart is watching my family with him.  Especially the boys.  My brothers are so sweet with him.  Sometimes, just sometimes, he is even sweet back.

The ultimate, though, is watching my husband grow into his new title of "father."  He works hard so that I can stay home and do the thing I've wanted most, then comes home to play, sing songs and take some of the night time shifts with B.  He also doesn't get mad when I go crazy mamma bear on him for feeding baby the wrong thing.

Nothing hotter than a father.

This is a newborn picture for my Aunt Heidi.  See the diaper

Whew.  All caught up...I think.

I know you enjoyed the adorable pictures.  I know that I catch myself staring at them often.  Though, lucky for me, when he wakes up, I get to see the real thing.

Food, Glorious Food

We finally made the jump to solids.  After weeks of Baby Grandpa watching us eat and drooling over our food, we started him up on rice cereal. We use Earth's Best organic rice cereal.  Mainly because my SIL gave us cereal from the same company.   I like to keep things the same if I can.

 It was definitely different for him.  Even though the box of cereal says to start out thin, Bryan hated it.  Which, in my opinion, if it is going to be thin, why not just give him breast milk on a spoon.  After trying it thinned out, I added a little more.  Turns out, the thicker, the better with this guy.

 He decided he was done early the first time, but was still trying to eat daddy's hand.  I tried again five minutes later, while they were skyping with his Abuela, and he ate everything.  That itself was pretty great because she got to see him eat.  I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but she lives in a different country.  Any thing she gets to see is a big deal.  (Really makes you think and appreciate the little things)

The final verdict is:

Next stop: Peas

5 Months

Time keeps getting away from us over here.  We had a crazy couple of weeks there but, now that things are simmering down,  I have been able to just sit and enjoy motherhood.

 Crazy that our Baby Grandpa is 5 months (I know it will just get crazier the older he gets)

Look how big he is next to Ollie.  Though his size isn't the only thing that has changed

 His hair and skin has gotten so much lighter.  With the pictures side by side, I can finally tell that he was a bit yellow.  His eyes are now completely brown, though a lot of people in our family are hopeful they will turn back to a blueish color.  It is hard to see the changes day by day, but he looks like a completely different baby now.

 He is almost always smiling now.  That smile completes my world.  Our favorite things to do are playing and giggling together.  Play "Ride-a-Horsey", sing songs, and love rolling around on the bed.

please excuse the mess in the back

 Though there is a little less rolling than that implies, we still have a blast.

I love my little stinky bum.

The Woes of Colic

I had mentioned that Baby Grandpa was colicky.  While he has been doing so much better, the last couple days this week have reminded me a lot of the first couple months.

Any one with a colicky baby knows.

This poor baby was so gassy he cried almost 24/7.  He only slept being held because, once we would put him down, the gas would start moving and wake him up.  He would wake up every half hour, grunting and crying.  It was heart breaking.

I got so tired, at about 7 in the morning, I would give up on trying to put him in the bassinet and just cuddle with him.  Then I finally started putting him in my bed at the beginning of  the night (*gasp* we co-sleep, oh no.) just so I could get a little sleep myself.

He likes to play in the crib

but never sleep

 My poor baby was always in so much pain.  His Dr. said to give him gas drops, but that didn't really help.  People had suggested that I cut things out of my diet, so I cut out chocolate, peanuts and cut back my dairy (I couldn't cut milk cold turkey.  I love milk) Then I started staying away from wheat.  Nothing worked.  At our two month appointment I talked to the pediatrician.  His advice? Colicky babies are just colicky.  Some people blame foods, most of the time, it is just how it is.  I was told not to worry about cutting things back and to just make sure to rock him and burp him and to not get frustrated.

What did I do when I got home?  That's right.

I ate a giant piece of chocolate cake with a large glass of milk.

Then, no more colic.

ok, so I got him to sleep in it twice. But he hasn't let me put him in it ever since.

 What?
I'm still trying to decide if  he just grew out of  it, or if all he wanted was some chocolate.

We love our snuggabunny swing. A.K.A. nap-time

While dealing with a fussy baby was so difficult, we are really lucky that it only lasted 2 1/2 months.  I have heard of some mommies that have had to deal with it for 9 months.  I am also glad that even when he is fussy, now it is usually just because he is tired, and not because he is in pain.