Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Christmas 2012

Where did 2012 go?  I can't even remember how life was a year ago, but I know it was a lot different than it is now.  Aiden is now 6 months old, Michael will be 3 years old next month, and Amada and I have been keeping extremely busy.  Aiden is rolling around with ease now, and I assume he'll be crawling some within a month.  Michael is becoming slightly more independent and shows off his skills by doing puzzles on his own.  He asks "why?" about 200 times a day (not exaggerating), and when he does or sees something new he likes to ask "Is that good?" or "Is that funny?" to learn.

We missed our annual pre-Christmas trip to New Orleans because I had a fever for 3 days, but we did go last weekend instead to visit with some family and friends.  We were able to make it to Zapata the weekend before Christmas, and then celebrated Christmas at home.

For New Years Eve we had a quiet evening at home with a bottle of wine and enjoyed Amada's very tasty menudo.  I begged her to let me go to sleep before midnight, but she said no  :)

Aiden had his 6-month doctor's visit today, and it went very well.  Just like Michael around this time, he's around 25th percentile in height and 75th percentile in weight!  We make chubby babies.  Aiden weighs 20 lbs and Michael is 36 lbs... it's not easy to hold either one for very long.

Video of Aiden and Michael getting tossed in the air

Video of Aiden eating solid foods for the first time, on Christmas Day

Video of Michael feeding Aiden


Free pictures with Santa!  In fact, taking them to Bass Pro Shop was like free admission to a children's playground!





Very proud of his belt buckle handed down by Alfonsito


Future cowboy

Sequence for Kids!  He loves this game now!!
After Christmas Eve mass -- a family tradition

Milk, cookies and a letter for Santa.  I heard Santa really enjoyed those cookies!!

Christmas morning
Aiden sure seems to like Amada's new mug with 20 pictures of him on it

This breakfast tray has worked out sooo well

Up until their first playoff game this year, the Texans were winless since I got this shirt.  Those Rosetta Stone dvds in my left hand come packed with 250 hours of learning fun!



Michael found this unwrapped present in my closet about a week before Christmas... so obviously this present was from Mami and Daddy ;-)

A mirror!  All babies love mirrors.





Learning the rules of Sequence.  He can get through 2 games usually before he needs to run around some more.

Kickboarding it up

Skyping with the Wellmans on Christmas morning

Preparing for his first taste of cereal


Michael going to town on his first corn on the cob

¡Hola!

Alien putty

Holding his own water
 



Sweet potatoes!  Other organic fruits and vegetables he's had to date: bananas and avocado.


Michael finished his snack and then put his bowl on his head to be funny.  I took a picture of him because it immediately reminded me of the toy below...


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Plenty to be thankful for

It's easy to find things we don't have that we want, but there are very few things in the world that could make me happier than I am already.  Blogging is a great way to share some stories and pictures with friends and family, but I mostly do it because I love re-living our family moments so much.  Here are the highlights from our fabulous, week-long Thanksgiving trip in the San Antonio area.

Not pictured is Aiden rolling over again, for the first time since he was 3 weeks old.  It's about time, young man!  And the timing and circumstances seems appropriate because Michael rolled over for the first time on a family vacation too, as he personally recounted in this old blog!  Of course Aiden's delay in rolling over is understandable as we don't give him as much tummy time as we gave Michael, partly due to irrational fear from his stomach surgery and mostly due to him being much more prone to spitting up.  And then just yesterday Aiden rolled from his tummy to his back three times with me.  Amada saw the third time and asked why I wasn't taking a video -- apparently all the other times had been from his back to his tummy (my bad).  But once the camera started rolling, he was done.  Maybe we'll get video of him rolling over again before he's a year old.


Video of Michael singing about an ostrich during the safari car ride

Video of Michael at the petting zoo.  Classic line: "bye bye ... this animal!" because he doesn't know its name

Video of Aiden laughing at Michael





I hope Aiden wasn't still sitting between Tio Jefe and Nathan when this picture was taken!  And check out that tangle of legs.


















Michael, we said to pet the animals... not your cousins!




Thanksgiving Dinner, the way it's meant to be
 

3-point stance.  Aiden is ready to tryout for the Texans




 




Michael turned out to be a big fan of all the rides.  He rode a few roller coasters too and loved them!