Happy Birthdays!

This is probably the longest time I have ever gone without blogging, and one of the most eventful moments.  I guess that is why – too busy and too much going on to blog.   We've had birthdays, Grandma and Grandpa visit for a week, Juan is in Argentina, and a lot of fun outings.  I turn my blogs into books, so I can’t leave anything out, so get ready, it’s going to be a long one….

Mateo turned three on September 12^th.  Unbelievable to us still – time has flown by, but in a lot of ways I feel like he was already 3.  He’s acted older than he is for awhile, so I tend to think of him as older than he is.  We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa in town for a week, so we had a small birthday party with just the family.  Of course Mateo was so spoiled with presents, and we had a Spiderman cake, so he had a great time.  Mateo had his 3 year checkup and weighed 35 pounds, and was 39 inches tall which is 80% on weight and 81% on height.

His new stick horse, that is currently "missing".  He has used it more as a baseball bat than as a horse.  I keep telling him it needs to go live in Lady's barn.

Hot wheels and tracks were the big hit this year.

He got lots of jigsaw puzzles.

A happy Aggie



Mateo got a new cowboy hat to go with his boots and horse.

His new Radio Flyer.  Although his feet wouldn't reach the pedals so we had to shove some pillows between him and the seat.

Spiderman birthday cake!

Spiderman cupcakes for his school party.

Playing cars with Daddy.

Birthday dinner.

What is going on with Mateo:

• Football, baseball, and any other sport.  I can see Juan’s eyes light up when Mateo is watching or playing sports.  Mateo went to his first Cowboys game (in a suite) with Daddy, and went to his first Rangers game with Daddy this week, and we went to our first high school game the other night.  He loves playing baseball, can hit “homeruns,” has a great pitch, and is getting really good at catching too.
• Racecars.  For Mateo’s birthday he got 3 Hot Wheels tracks.  I don’t get it, but I’m not a boy.  But he has never played with a toy the way he plays with his Hot Wheels.
• Ellie.  Enough said.  His “girlfriend” at school since he has been there has been Hannah.  This week he came home and said “I don’t want Hannah to sit by me.  I want Ellie.”  
• Imagination play.  This is so cute to me.  He just served us dinner – cereal, pizza and milk.  Mmmm.

• Big boy bed.  Mateo has been in his big boy bed for over a month now.  He has always struggled with putting himself to sleep at night.  Despite our strict bedtime routine for the past 3 years, he has almost always cried himself to sleep.  It is torture for us – even though he only cries for a few minutes, it still feels like torture.  We started a sticker chart recently and it has been going well, so hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this phase. 

• Anga.  This is our star that we named that we look for every morning on the way to school.
• Pre-K.  Mateo is in the Pre-K class at school now.  This has meant another adjustment with new teachers and friends. 

• Coloring on the wall.  This happened two times in one day, and I believe that it is blog-worthy.  I've always read about kids coloring on the wall and thought "how could that happen if you are keeping an eye on your kids?"  Well, it happened.  Mateo woke up this morning and we went into the kitchen to get his milk and snack.  While  I was getting his milk, he found a crayon and went to town on the pantry door.  He did the same thing to the freezer in the garage.  Now I am "that mom."

Juan was teaching Mateo how to be sweet to Mama the other night and telling him what to say.  He told him to say “I love you Mama.  You’re the best Mama ever.  I’m so lucky.”  And Mateo put his head on my shoulder and said “I love you Mama.  You’re the best Mama ever.  I’m so YUCKY.” 

Here are some random Mateo pics:

Playing on Paw Paw's tractors

This is what happens when you fall asleep on our couch!  Sorry Grandpa!

His new chef coat and hat from Nana.

Daddy took Mateo to see Nemo in 3D and then out for ice cream for doing a good job going to sleep at night on his own.

This is a video from Juan doing magic with Mateo.  Mateo likes to close his eyes and say "abracadabra" and make stuff happen.  I can't decide if he really thinks it is real or not.  But it so funny to see how excited he gets.  Well, Juan took it a little overboard one night, and made some crazy stuff happen!  And Mateo is hilarious because he starts wanting to make everything disappear.

Mia turned 6 months old, and she amazes me every day.  She has her two bottom teeth now!  Teething was a breeze, one day they weren’t there and the next day they were - and I am not exaggerating.  She is sitting up on her own now, she likes to hold our hands and stand and take steps, sleeping on her belly, she moves around her bed so much for a baby that can’t crawl, bouncing in the jumper, still smiling, wearing 18 month old clothes, eating cereal, green beans and peas, and sleeping!  She recently had a double ear infection, upper respiratory infection, and double pink eye, so that really messed up her sleeping, but since she’s been feeling better she has been sleeping through the night (I pray this won’t jinx it).  This child loves to sleep, and at night when I give her a bedtime bottle, when she has had enough she very dramatically turns her head and throws it back and throws her arms out to the side as if to say “Enough – Put me to bed.”  She doesn’t want to be rocked, she doesn’t want a pacifier – she just wants to be put in bed.  And now she flips over, burrows into the bed and is out for the next 12 to 14 hours.  She definitely got her sleep habits from your truly, and I hope she keeps them!  At her 6 month checkup she weighed a whopping 20 pounds (98%) and was 28 inches (97%) and 50% on her head.  She is still outweighing Mateo at the same age.

I count my blessings every day, I am so lucky to have such an amazing family.  I think that having a second child puts things into perspective, because things go by so fast, that you really learn to appreciate every little thing.  And when I see the bond that Mateo and Mia have I just pray that it lasts forever.  He is so sweet to her.  He wants to hug her all the time, gives her kisses to bed at night, and she watches every move he makes with such intensity.  She tries to grab his face and he lets her, pull his hair and he lets her.  And I swear they have some kind of connection.  Our alarm clock starts going off at 5am, of course we snooze several times, so Juan and I were both laying in bed half awake.  Our baby monitor cycles between their rooms, and at exactly 5:27am, they both started coughing.  It’s just bizarre and not the first time for this.  They will both stir, or cough, or wake up, or talk, or roll over at exactly the same time. 

Here are some recent Mia pics:

For Mateo's birthday we sent these to school in the little goody bags.

You can see her new teeth!

Getting ready for bed, her favorite time of day!

Sitting up like a big girl with her favorite giraffe.

Eating some green beans!

Yummy!

At the high school football game in her first velour jumpsuit.

We have similar pics of Mateo in this same position.

We’ve had a few interesting outings to discuss.  We thought about going on a “real” family vacation early next year, a Disney cruise, but I wanted to test the waters first, so we planned a weekend getaway at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine.  It is an hour from our house and they have a Shrek package, so I thought it would be a good test.  We failed.  

Well, it was successful, because now I know that I don’t want to invest in an expensive vacation just yet, because I don’t really think Mateo is ready.  Mateo had fun while he was being entertained.  The first night there was a Shrek character parade that the kids got to be in with all of the Shrek characters, a marching band, and fireworks.  He really enjoyed this, although he was too tired to make it through the fireworks.  I have decided that anything that takes place after his normal 8pm bedtime will not be worth it.  Then the fun began – Mia wouldn’t sleep in her playpen, so she was on one of my arms in bed, and then Mateo wouldn’t sleep and wound up on my other arm in bed.  Mama got no sleep listening to both of her boys snore all night and with Mia on my arm and Mateo woke up for good at 4am.  When it’s too early for the hotel to be serving coffee, you know something is not right.  

There was a breakfast with Shrek, which Mateo really enjoyed, where he got to meet all of the characters.  And then we headed out to the water park for the day.  The water park was really nice, I would love to go back….without sleep deprivation.  All in all, Mateo had fun - and that is what matters.  But it also talked some sense into me and made me realize that we need to take baby steps in terms of “vacations.”

Last weekend we went to a hot air balloon festival in Plano, a good hour drive from our house.  We woke up at 4am, so we could leave at 5am and be there by 6am when it started.  We got there with everybody in a happy mood and ready to watch the balloons launch.  This was quite a sight and we had a really good time.  The balloons were really pretty when they lit them up before dawn, and Mateo enjoyed watching them take off.  They had a nice kids area with games and bounce houses to wear him out. 

Mateo is lucky to have a Daddy that gets nice perks from work.  Mateo's first Cowboys game was not only free, but was in a suite with a parking pass.  Here are some Cowboys pics:

Here are some pictures from the Rangers game that Juan took Mateo to this week.

Taking a break from the game to watch some cat in the hat.

Of course he came home with a new bat and ball.

We are lucky that the teachers at the daycare take lots of pictures of the kids.  Here are some recent school pics.

This is one of Mateo's old teachers, Ms. Diana.  We love her and she is constantly sending us pictures from school.

Mateo still likes to wear his cowboy boots to school.

This is Mateo's best friend at school, Hannah.  They've been in the same class since he's been at that  school.  We say she is his girlfriend, although he has recently started saying that Ellie is his new girlfriend.

Playing in the bouncer at school.

Even at daycare Fridays most of the kids have on their gameday attire.

These are a couple of Mateo's friends, Tyson and Ellie.

Mateo ran into Ellie at the costume store.

One of my favorite things is to stare at the sleeping angels at night.  Juan installed real nightvision survellience cameras in the kids' rooms so we get good night pictures.  (The benefits of being married to a gadget geek!)

The cutest bum ever!