cuteness!

Just had to share the cuteness from our little playdate this morning.

Joaquin + Lucca + Oliver = Adorable!

Playgroup Camping Trip 2009

Yep, I went camping at 34 weeks pregnant.

My logic was that if I didn't do it, I would always wonder if I should have gone. You know, if I would have enjoyed it and if Joaquin would have enjoyed it. If I went and hated it, well then at least I knew. If I went and had a great time, then great! Well, it turned into a combination of the last two.

It was not easy, not easy at all. I slept like crap Friday night which made Saturday a rough one for myself and all that happened to be near me. I mean, there were good moments, but for the most part I was a big, fat, pregnant grump. On top of that Joaquin did not sleep or eat well so him impulse control was that of a...well, toddler. I just didn't have it in me to deal and I lost my sh*t a number of times.

Just like last year he was wandering from site to site to visit, we also had a few runaway moments. Nothing like a huge pregnant lady chasing after a manic two year old in the woods. We finally had to implement a time out in the car seat...it helped, but I feel like we started doing it too late in the trip.

The good moments were spent wading in the cold and refreshing falls, hanging out around the campsite and of course watching Lila & Joaquin be cute together.

Of course Sunday morning, after be both slept better and had a decent breakfast, we were both doing much better...but by then it was time to pack up and go home.

Oh well, either way, I'm glad I went. It was an experience for Joaquin and our family that I rarely got to experience growing up. It may not have been perfect, but we still had our fun moments.

Because of my mood, I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked, but here is what I have. I'm also going to post some from Iris' flickr photostream because she was a photo taking maniac!

Enjoy!


Joaquin's attempt to wink.


Cheers!


You got a little somethin' on your face...


Papi & Joaquin at the falls.


Joaquin & a very huge Mama at the falls.


Hanging out at the campsite.


Letting our kids make-out.

Bribery works.

For Father's Day today we decided to take an adventure to the Wild Animal Park. I was a little nervous about Joaquin's potty learning, but he totally put me in my place. I brought three changes of undies and shorts, and did not need a single one of them!



We knew after a couple of hours that Joaquin just had to go, but each time we took him into the bathroom he refused. He had not yet gone in a public toilet, so I knew it was difficult for him. What's a mom to do? Bribery usually works. Yep, I promised him a hat if he went pee pee in the toilet, because if you know Joaquin, you know he loves hats. He quickly asked me if he could get a "Helicopter" hat. He's been eyeballing them every time we go to the zoo and he saw one earlier. Of course.

Here he is right after he went in the men's room with Dan...he was saying "I did it!" It was freaking adorable.



After that he went like three times in the restroom with Dan, no problem. Here he is after we finally found his beloved hat.



So, yep. We went ALL day with no accidents, not one. Can you believe it? I can't!

Here are a few more pics from our day including me at 33 weeks and Joaquin giving Dan his Father's Day kiss.









Yay Joaquin & Happy Father's Day Dan!

Making progress.

I had three big transitions that I wanted to help Joaquin through before we had the baby. But after much thought and consideration I decided to focus on just two, weaning and potty learning...I felt like the third, moving him to his bed, along with a number of other factors, was just too much all at once. I'm probably even pushing it with just these two, but so far so good. We've made a lot of progress lately!

We have been completely weaned since Joaquin's little spill back in April. Yep, that was the last time he nursed! He's asked for it here and there, but I've always found a way to distract him or help him through the moment in other ways. I recently bought a couple of "new baby" board books, and one of them shows the new baby nursing...that kind of threw him for a loop, but we got past it. I hope he can get past it once it's the actual baby nursing! I'm also hoping that a good 3-4 months of not nursing before the arrival of the baby is long enough for him to not feel like the baby is taking something away from him.

We also have a nearly full time non-diaper wearer! For a while now, Joaquin has been totally able to go to the potty when he's hanging out naked, but as soon as he put on undies he would get confused and go in them. We've been working on it on weekends here and there, but nothing too consistent and I think it was just confusing him. So, since Wednesday, we have gone cold turkey. He has only been in undies, except for at night and he is totally rockin' it! Of course we have had some accidents here and there, but I think they're needed for him to feel the difference.

We had a big break-through yesterday, waking up in the morning was always a battle to take off that morning diaper. He loved to hold onto it and pee and pee as much as he could. I knew we were making progress when yesterday morning he woke up and tried to pull off his diaper while wiggling that have to pee kind of wiggle. This morning he did the same and his diaper was totally dry! He's been napping here and there with no diaper, but now he can totally make it through, no problem. We've gone out and about with our little potty in hand and he's using it as needed and holding it, for the most part, as needed as well. I'm still putting him in a diaper at night, while I think he could probably make it though, I'm just not brave enough and really don't want to wake up to a puddle of pee!

I know we will still have accidents, but I'm so excited for the progress that has been made these past few days. I'm so super proud of him and he is so proud of himself, it's so super cute to watch him when he knows he's doing well...that huge smile is just priceless!

a day of recovery, potty learning & cookies

I thought I would wake up with all kinds of energy to get all kinds of things done...but I didn't. Instead I woke up with a headache. I moved slowly and had little to no motivation to do anything.

So we stuck around the house for the most part and worked on potty learning. I made these for Joaquin last night and today we gave them a shot.



He picked out the fabric all by himself and I'm hoping the fact that they don't feel so much like diapers will help with the potty learning. He is fine when naked and goes no problem, but often forgets when he's wearing little tighties. He was resistant at first, he has a hard time taking off that morning diaper, but soon warmed up to them.



Here was his potty learning outfit from the other day...it was so cute I just had to get a shot of it. Gotta love the flaming leg warmers.



Anyway, we had to make a quick trip to drop off Dan's car at the dealer for some work and Joaquin made it the whole way there and back with no accidents! He even peed a bit in the little potty I brought with us in the car before we headed home. When we got home I had to lay down and he stayed up with Dan and of course that was when he had an accident...but oh well, they're bound to happen at this point and getting wet is the only way we're going to get through this phase I suppose.

After a nice long nap we made some delish peanut (actually sunflower seed) butter, oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.









I'm feeling a little bummed I didn't feel like doing much, but I guess my body needed some rest. Tomorrow is a new day!

The Last Day of School

So that's it. I'm home. I guess I'm a Stay at Home Mom now? It's for an undetermined amount of time...so does that count? I'll be taking my Maternity Leave and then Family Medical Leave and then Personal Leave of Absence. I may end up back at work by the Holidays or I may stay out the whole year. Who knows, maybe we'll even be able to pull off longer? Only time will tell.

Today is Joaquin's last day of Preschool too. It's all rather bittersweet. I'm excited for this next chapter and also a bit anxious. I hope I can do it. I hope I can be that amazing Stay at Home Mom that I've been wanting to be these past couple of years. Or even just something close will be fine, I just want to enjoy this time as much as possible.

I'll be taking it easy the rest of today, maybe talk Dan into seeing a movie...then tomorrow starts my new "job"!

Spaghetti

I made Spaghetti for dinner and caught Joaquin trying to slurp up his noodles with photobooth on my computer.
Enjoy!

A busy Saturday

Since I'll be home with Joaquin and the baby for a while, as of June 16th Joaquin will no longer be in pre-school. I figure I should do some home preschool type of activities with him to keep up the enrichment he was getting at school. I'm not going to drive myself crazy with it, but want to do something here and there. He has a few obsessions lately, and one of them is firetrucks, so a firetruck theme for the next few weeks it is! I made a list of a bunch of firetruck themed picture books and off to the library we went on Saturday morning to get them all.

I am really embarrassed to admit actually, that we have yet to take him to the library. I haven't even stepped foot in a public library in about 7 years. I know, right? I would have put all the books I wanted on hold to make it all easier, but since I didn't have a library card yet, I had to do it myself this first time. It was kind of hard with Joaquin all over the place checking out all the books while I was trying to search for different authors while hunched over or crawling on my hand and knees...but we managed. I also found a few books on becoming a big brother and we ended up with almost 20 books on our first trip. In the car as we were leaving Joaquin told me he felt happy, when I asked him why, if it was because he had so many new books, he gave me a big nod with a huge smile. Adorable. I found a bunch of activities all themed around firetrucks online and will start doing those with Joaquin once I'm off. I'm looking forward to this next adventure with Joaquin and will be sure to document and blog as much as I can!

After the library I had to make a quick trip to the mall to get a bridal shower gift. I have it down now. I pull up the registry at home, circle my options, walk in the store and ask them to point me in the right direction. It took us a whole five minutes, in and out! With a kid like Joaquin, I just don't feel like dilly dallying in Crate & Barrel! Then we stopped off at Old Navy just because their kids clothes are always so cute. As we were checking out Joauqin saw a giant toy dispenser thing with big high bounce balls. He asked me so sweetly "Mommy, can I have a ball please?" They were only a quarter so I said of course and let him put the quarter in and turn the knob. He was in love. In love with a pink and blue high bounce ball. We got in the car and headed home for nap, about half way there while still cuddling with his ball, out of the blue he said "Thank you for my ball, Mommy." My heart melted, "Of course babe, you're very welcome."

During his nap I snuck off to my bridal shower for a couple of hours and returned to Joaquin and Dan getting ready to head to the zoo. I was already pretty tired, but figured why not. We spent a couple of hourse wandering the new Elephant exhibit and shared a big soft serve ice cream. As we were leaving I had the totally random idea of going to the drive-in to see a movie. So we got home and packed up our stuff and headed back out.

We got there a bit early, but Joaquin had fun pretending to drive the car. We battled the big battle to get his PJs on and I totally expected him to pass out by 9 at the latest. Nope, he was into the dinosaurs as we watched Land of the Lost and didn't fall asleep until the ride home.








I was beat, but days like Staturday are too awesome to complain about. Looking forward to the next!C