Feliz Navidad

This was our first Christmas as toy assembling parents. Miguel is shown here, after an evening of church and dinner at my godparents' house (Miguel's favorite meal of the year thank you Uncle Terry) assembling a wagon. When he said, "I feel like a real dad now." I had to get the camera. This was taken at 1:30 am and it was still assembled perfectly. Great Job Sweetie!!!


Watching Miguel assemble the wagon and me do laundry, get everything prepared for the Senior Picos to come to breakfast made Zorro very tired.
This is how the front room looked at 2:30, when we went to bed to get 4 hours of sleep. We got cheated out of a long winter's nap but I think it was worth it. Again, everyone working really wore the dog out.
Isa was so cute on Christmas morning! Here she is admiring (gently) a snow globe given to her by Grandma Mary and Grandpa John. She loves the lullaby it plays and she also likes to help shake the snow up from the bottom.
Here she is playing with her stocking stuff. I made the soft book of nursery rhymes but the biggest hit was the set of play keys that make noise when you press the keychain.
Here it is! The finished product with the cutest cargo ever! She loved the wagon and practices pushing it all over the back room. Miguel's parents were furiously snapping photos and Miguel got the camera and nailed about 4 of the most darling shots of her I've ever seen. It goes to show you to leave it to the pros when it comes to stuff like pictures.
Our big girl! She is walking so much that sitting still is no longer an option for her. She's so busy that she can hardly sit still for her adoring fans! Miguel got this shot and I think the expression on her face is so naturally her. She has this look a lot and I love it.
In the afternoon we go over to my mom and aunt's house. Here Isa is sitting on Grandma Jill's lap admiring the bracelet given to her by Auntie and Joel. On it are 3 charms, an angel, gingerbread man, and ladybug. All of which stand for important things in her life, her baptism, first real Christmas, and first birthday. She really loves bling.
In addition to bling, Isa got a baby doll. Pictured here is Isa and her baby both with matching tie on collars in princess pink. How lovely! Thanks Grandma Jill!
How did Isa spend Christmas Eve? While mommy cooked, cleaned, got everyone dressed, bathed the dog, scrubbed the bathroom, did laundry, and ran errands, daddy cleaned, did bills, went on an extensive holiday oddessy of commerce, and helped out the neighbor she played with her barnyard (birthday present from Grandma Jill) and lounged in her pretty pink ballerina jammies.


Merry Christmas everyone! We liked having dinner at Uncle Terry's and Aunt Teresa's house. We enjoyed having John, Mary and Diego over for breakfast. We had so much fun playing games and opening presents at Grandma Jill's. We were so relieved to get to Scott and Andi's for some r&r after such a busy day. Thanks to everyone.

Little Miss Merry Christmas

This morning before church I had Isa in the cutest outfit. FBK of course! She loved the fur on the sleeves and she also loved waving at the pastor the entire time. I think church may be one of her favorite places, everyone there loves her and she loves all the new friends she makes every Sunday. (there are candy canes on the tights in case you can't see! Thanks Kathy!!)

Holiday Elfiness

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

First Birthday Outing

Every once in a while people come into your life and touch it in a way that you never expect. I am of course referring to my godparents. Aunt Teresa and Uncle Terry have loved me like any parent would love their own kid my whole life. They have NEVER once missed a birthday, graduation, party, annual college visit, and the list continues. They have seen me at my best and worst, happiest and saddest, most proud and humbled and have stood there holding my hand and offering praise and comfort like nobody besides my mom can do. I'm only their godchild, not related by blood but you'd never guess by the way they love Miguel, Isa and me.

That mushy stuff being said I just spent the most delightful 2 1/2 hours with them at the mall where we got Isa's picture with Santa taken. She was a little scared at first, but then Santa let her sit in his seat and she took a second look at the naughty list to make sure she would still get her wagon in a week. It was so relaxing to have another 2 sets of eyes to watch her while Miguel and I got to eat, and she loved helping them push her stroller and waving at all the people in the stores.

I was packing up clothes and bottles today missing my baby so much and still so proud that she has grown into such a big girl. I can see why birthdays are such bittersweet times for parents, it's so easy to concentrate on the time that has passed and all the growing that's already been done. Looking forward to an event like a birthday party and seeing Santa helps me look forward to another year with undoubtedly the biggest blessing to Miguel and me. Thanks for the suggestion of doing this Aunt Teresa! It was your best idea! Merry Christmas!!!

More Birthday Pictures

We feel so blessed to have so many people who love our little girl! There were so many presents! She got everything from pajamas to outfits to tons of toys! Thank you so much everyone.
Mom and Kathy with the birthday princess. Isa is sporting socks knitted for her by her Grandma Mary.


The cake mess was awesome! My friend Koren had given me that bib at Katie's first birthday party and I had no clue it would be the exact pattern as the invitations I chose for Isa.

Auntie got the cake for us from Schnucks, I loved it, it was exactly like the invitation and it turned out so well.

First Birthday Party

With Isa's birthday being so close to Christmas, I decided to throw her birthday party on the 13th. There were so many people to invite, I had to look for a place other than our house to have the party. Enter our neighbors, the Shawleys. They offered their house up for the party and then proceeded to do almost all the work for the party itself. There aren't words to express the amount of thanks for all the generosity given to us by our family and friends and especially the Shawleys. I think the party rocked and it was all because of their basement!

Christmas Decorations

I love Christmas decorations!! After Thanksgiving dinner is put away, Miguel and I come home and decorate the house for Christmas. We used to do this drunk, but for the past 3 years, circumstances have made us keep our wits about us PLUS, when you're drunk decorating you have to re-do half of the stuff you put up anyway so this cuts out a lot wasted time. Anyway, here is a picture of our tree. We only put up the big one in the living room and the tiny one in Isa's room. Usually we have about 8 trees around the house.



The first picture- The stockings. These were miserable to make but once I got the hang of it, turned out quite well if I do say so myself. A complete labor of love. I decided to do "mom & dad" instead of our names, Claudia and Miguel are just too long!!

The second picture- The big tree. I love this tree. When I was a little girl my favorite part of our family tree was the angel on top. I wanted a tree full of angel tree-toppers when I grew up in a tree that looked like a starry sky. From then on I got angel ornaments, and every ornament on my tree is a gift from someone (mostly my mom & aunt). The tree and the manger scene that Grandma got Miguel and me for our wedding are the 2 things I couldn't live without at Christmas time.

Merry Christmas!! (Yep, I say it, to EVERYONE, regardless of political corectness, religious standing, station in life, or risk of general offense. If someone has a problem with it, they should go to work on December 25th and not reap any benefits of this glorious holiday!)

New Mittens

Today I took Isa to Wal Mart to pick up some stuff for the goodie bags for her first birthday party. On cue for December 1st, it snowed today, little flurries all day but it was cold and windy. Isa has had so many problems with ear infections that I almost always have a hat on her to keep the cold air out of her ears. On the way into the store, Isa took off her hat and threw it into a puddle. Needless to say, it was back to the winter stuff to look for a new hat. I found one that was perfect for a princess complete with little pink and green matching mittens. As soon as I put the mittens on her she started waving at EVERYONE in the store like she was a beauty queen riding on a parade float. I was about to be embarassed, but then total strangers started smiling and waving back. She must have made 50 new friends by the time we got out of the store. She's gotten quite hammy with other people and the camera (see the prevous post), but my little ray of sunshine just shot her million dollar high beam smile all over the place and really brightened up some peoples' day. I'm so proud!!!

FBK

The title stands for "Fashions by Kathy." My mom's cousin works at the Agape house and when donations come in, she picks out little outfits she thinks all these new parents will be able to use. The majority of Isa's closet comes from her generosity and keen eye for child fashions. Every time my mom asks me where I got the cute outfit for Isa I always say FBK. Kathy has turned out to be such a blessing to my little girl, quite honestly when I lost my job I wasn't sure how I was going to outfit my princess appropriately and waiting for me at my mom's house before Isa was even born were 2 bags full of clothes. It was one of God's signs telling me that life would definitely change, but He would provide. In the pictures is one of about 5 Christmas outfits Isa has received from Kathy. Thanks Kathy from all of us!! (please note the scotty dog tights!!)

screamers

I'm sitting here listening to Sam and Isa scream themselves into dreamland for the afternoon. Each day it breaks my heart a little because when I was younger I hated going to bed. I was positive my mom was having a party that started at 8 pm sharp and I was never invited. I laid my sorry little head in my bed and cried for what seemed like hours after I had tried every trick in the book to stay up. I understand now that nap/bed time is just as important for the mom as it is for the kids. I have so much stuff to do while those 2 are asleep I barely get their snack ready before they wake up again. So for now I'm trying desperately to remember that this is for their own good as well as mine and soon I will be able to snuggle and love on my little girl again.

The little big girl!!

Isa took her first steps about an hour ago! We're so excited to have a little walker on our hands. I'm excited about Miguel being home not only to catch such a big moment live but also on video.

Also attached are pictures of Koren's visit with her daughter Katie. Sam, Katie, and Isa all had a blast playing with the piano on Friday. Again, these were the only pictures of all of them together I could get.

The 2 Cherubs

Sam and Isa are so cute together. They talk to one another and crack each other up with all their noises and the things they do. Isa's very into reading right now. She likes to read to her stuffed animals when Miguel and I can't sit on the floor and listen to her. In the picture is her favorite book that she got for Valentine's day. She loves how thick the pages are and all the bright colors. I hope this sparks a love for reading. Miguel and I were read to as children and we both like reading now.

The first picture is the best one of Isa and Sam I could get. They were not cooperating with the camera this afternoon. The next ones are of Isa reading to her lamb and then taking some reading time for herself.

Crafty Mama

OK, last night I had one of the most frustrating experiences that anyone who has sewn anything can completely relate to. For years I have said that I will make Christmas stockings for Miguel and me. I have put this task off because of the time-suck that is being a teacher. This year I do not have that burden so I thought that this year would be the perfect time to do this since I did not have to put my family on hold to make and grade finals and deal with coaching and all that other stuff that goes into working in a school. I bought the fabric and made the pattern and everything. Miguel bought me a sewing machine that does embroidery and I wanted to put our names on the top. I started Miguel's, the font I was using turned out to be terrible, I tried a different font, it stitched out wrong. I moved on to my stocking, I got to the LAST LETTER and all the bobbin thread spun out and I had to take the bottom half of the machine apart to extract what looked like a Sesame Street monster out of the machine. Isa's font was too big for the top of the stocking. At that point I had been working on 3 names (a task of about 20 minutes) for over 2 hours. I took a shower and went to bed where I had nightmares that some thread-laden being was chasing me down a hallway and making my baby cry.

I'm ready to try this again at nap time today but I'm only giving it 1 shot. If this does not work I'm putting it on hold until Miguel can deal with Isa and I have some more patience. The agony of being creative!!! If these stockings turn out they will be awesome though. Here's hoping!

2 Kiddos

When my sister asked me to babysit my nephew I had my reservations. She would be working long hours and Sam would be here A LOT. I had no idea how to deal with a 14 month old child and do my 10 month old child at the same time. The other factor of my nervousness came in seeing Sam's 2 older brothers be older brothers to him. Perfectly natural behavior, but unnerving to the mother of the world's calmest baby. Isa's not a screamer or a cry baby, and when she wants your attention she just crawls over to sit on your lap for a while. There's no battle for mommy time or lap real estate. Sam knows how to push and yell for these things, Isa has no clue.

When he started here I got worried because he wasn't napping well and cried a lot. I'm so happy to say that I think we all are on a new horizon. Sam is taking the same nap Isa does, they're eating more of the same foods, theyr'e both getting along with the dog and the yelling and crying for attention has all but stopped.

I might go so far as to say that being here is good for everyone. Sam is Uncle Miguel's alarm clock and morning greeting committee. He shows Miguel his stuffed rabbit and hugs Miguel's legs every morning before he leaves for work. Sam is my workout. There's nothing like chasing after a kid to really burn off those calories. And he is Isa's playmate. She looks for Sam every day and points to his booster chair when she's eating and he's not there.

I'm so glad this could work out for everyone, but for now...both babies are asleep and I have a huge to-do list today!

My 2 sweeties

It's not often that we get great shots of more than 1 person in our household. Either Isa decides at the last minute to look away or scrunch up her face or one of us looks like we have 2 chins or something else horrible but Lynn caught a couple of pics of Miguel and Isa that I just loved.
The first one is of Isa and me in front of the St. Louis Art Museum, it's one of my favorite expressions of hers that she makes.

The Little Ladybug

Happy Halloween!! This in our front yard. I made the costume, Miguel took the picture and Lynn provided the camera and baby entertainment.

I originally wanted her to be a pumpkin, but a friend of mine said that all little kids are pumpkins for their first Halloween so I got creative with some supplies from the fabric store combined with the re-sale shop here in town.

Last night my aunt and I took Isa to "Boo at the Zoo" we met up with Auntie's boyfriend, Joel. The zoo decorates with jack-o-lanterns and various headstones, animated pirate skeletons, and lights and all the kids dress up in their costumes and trick or treat around the zoo and learn about animals and score some candy at the same time. It was going great until my little ladybug decided she'd had enough and cried to the point of hysteria. After many apologies to Auntie and Joel we decided to call it quits early. Luckily they were calm and cool about the entire thing, I was upset that she was crying that hard though (very out of character for her). I can understand, I guess taking a baby out in a costume at night is so much more for the parents instead of the kids. I'm planning on taking her again next year and having a blast though.

Lastly, hats off to all those who make the costumes vs. buying them. There were so many more creative costumes that were home made and the kids had just as much fun!

Sorry about the break

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for the break in posts. Since the last post, Isa, Miguel, and I have all fallen very ill. I took Isa to the doctor and she got on antibiotics, then just a couple days later Miguel and I started up with the same symptoms. I guess when the kiddo's sick, everyone's sick. Isa's already feeling better as am I. Miguel is a different story, he's healing slowly on this one.

In MUCH brighter news, a good friend who was originally Miguel's but I adopted as mine in our marriage, Lynn, came to St. Louis to visit us. We all had a wonderful time and I took full advantage that Lynn might be a worse shutterbug than Miguel. She took so many wonderful pictures of all of us. I'll post them soon. Fortunately Isa was very well behaved while we went out for Indian food with Mike, Sarah, and Caroline Blackwood on Friday night and she did astoundingly well when we took her to Mizzou's homecoming. We didn't get to go to the game but we did cart her all around Columbia and to Bangkok Gardens. She did have a major diaper that Lynn helped me change but that's the mark of a true friend anyway, will they be there when you need them to be elbow deep in ... Never mind. Lynn you are a trooper!!

Pictures of Isa

Many of you on our email list have gotten these pictures, but for those of you who have not, here are some of the most adorable pictures you'll ever see. I'm starting at the beginning and posting as many pictures as I can so this is about 9 months of collection.

Posed Posse

This is a picture of all of us after church. Those of you on the email list will recognize this.