I'm Still Here!

Little, Peanut and Dada in our new home. Yes Little's pants are unbuttoned, he's been taking off his pants lately.

Yes I promise I am still here, I have not abandoned this little blog!!  We've got a lot going on right now and I want to settle before I start blogging regularly again.
Although I do have a few updates for you:
We have moved into our new home and love it.  We are still moving things around and unpacking but Ill have a few photos when we are finished!
Tia Linda and Squishy moved into a much much smaller place and couldnt bring Peanut with them, so we got to bring him home with us!! We now have more than enough room and were overjoyed when Tia Linda asked us to take care of Peanut!!  I am happy to report that Little has gotten over his small fear of dogs and love's to play with Peanut.  We are all very happy to have Peanut join our little family, especially Dada- he's always wanted a dog!
I still have pictures to share here; New Hampshire, our Halloween, a pumpkin patch visit and many more.  I promise I will return regularly to share our stories and photos soon.  Thanks for being so patient and I look forward to sharing in this little space on a daily basis again!


<3 Mama Chuca

p.s. Anybody else extremely super-duper excited about the holidays??!!

Park Days

November 2010

February 2011

March 2011

September 2011

March 2012

September 2012

As I was looking through iPhoto today, I noticed that we have a number of pictures of our little family at the park!!  When Little was born we had a park literally 2 steps away from our tiny apartment and we took him there often.  After we moved it got a harder to take trips out to a park, which is when we decided to sign Little up for Gymboree.We didn't take photos every time we went to the park, but I wanted to share a few shots of Little from when we did remember to bring the camera along.   The weather is getting more and more pleasant these days so I foresee many more park trips, hopefully I will be catching some more huge smiles from a happy Little swinging in the park in the near future.

<3 Mama Chuca

Life Lately

 Our best friend babies!!

I swear I had a FMF post all ready for Friday and then I went into a meeting, then Monday was busiest workday and didn't get a chance to post again!! My biggest apologies, with tidbits of our life lately:

I think I might have mentioned before that Tia Linda is the head chef and manager of an amazing cupcake place.  Well her location was having a huge birthday bash to celebrate being open for their first year.  As part of this bash that included free mini cupcakes, a cupcake piñata and some sprinkle guessing games, Tia Linda asked me to do some face painting! The kids were all very sweet and nobody asked for anything too crazy: cupcakes, ice cream cones, hearts, butterflies, angry birds, spiderman and a Saints symbol.  I thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and my Midnight Magic cupcake, which I call Chocolate Chocolately Chocolateness.

On Sunday Dada and I took Little to see Finding Nemo 3D!! We always go to the same theatre because its prices haven't jumped to infinity yet and we've had pretty good experiences with Little watching movies there.  So as soon as we turned into the parking lot Little started going crazy!! He started saying, "ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT", it was so cute to see him getting so excited about  this special treat.  He behaved amazingly and loved the movie!! SCORE!

After the movie Little took his nap at home with Dada while he watched the Texans game, so I headed out with Tia Linda who was doing Christmas shopping!!! WHA?! Yes, my sister is getting it done early this year and that might be pretty smart! While going through Toys R Us with her I started to get excited about what I thought our little cousins might like to open.  This year however I believe I will do my best to stay with the 4 Gift Rule for Little; something he wants, something he needs, something to wear and something to read. I said I would do MY BEST.

Speaking of holiday fun, I saw a lot more costumes out for Halloween! I even bought Little a new Halloween book, Happy Halloween Little Critter, to help him understand a little more.  Tia Faith is throwing a big costume party for her oldest son Ray and we're invited, costumes are a must!!  So Im pretty much thinking that Little and I are going as Pugsley and Morticia from the Addams Family, an easy to do costume for Little!

We are moving into the cutest little house!! A friend of the family is in the process of repairing and remodeling a little home and asked my aunt if she knew anybody interested in renting.  My mom then told me to drive by the house and see if it was something we like and it was! Its a 3 bedroom home with hard wood floors throughout, its close to Tia Linda's house and its in a quiet neighborhood down the street from the elementary I went to! Our move in date is November 1st and I can't wait to set up Little's room!!

Dada and I have a date in mind for the wedding.  We're still playing around with the idea and working with our budget, but I think we might go with it.  We even started looking at some venues and fell in love with one in particular.  I don't want to reveal too much too soon, but this wedding is already moving forward! EEK!!

And its barely Tuesday!! Hope everybody has a great rest of the week!!
 
<3 Mama Chuca

Currently

Reading: Im actually not reading anything myself right now, I finished the Frida Kahlo book and started 123 Magic.  Sadly I put 123 Magic down and have yet to pick it up again, I think I still had a book hangover from Frida.  Does that happen to anybody else?? I have to completely process a book before I pick up another or else I can't concentrate on what Im reading.  This may have been passed on to Little, because as soon as we say bedtime he pulls out the same 5 books to read! Maybe he needs to have them each read 100 times to fully process the book.  Newest to the bedtime book line up is Winnie the Pooh (Classic) Grand Adventures.

Watching:  Still watching my fav- Project Runway, although I usually record it and end up watching it on Saturdays during Little's nap.  Its a pretty good season, many great designers and tidbits of drama! Im pretty much rooting for either Dmitry Sholokhov or Sonjia Williams, I feel like they could produce some amazing things if they were to show at fashion week!  Ive also been recording Four Weddings to help me with wedding ideas and to see what exactly goes into a wedding...turns out its A LOT!  We made the mistake of bringing Toy Story 3 home from Grammas and now everyday Little asks to see this!! Aye yi yi!

Anticipating:  So excited for our trip to visit Dada's Family that will be happening very very soon!  Ive been looking up tips and tricks to keep a toddler happy during a first time flight, if you have any please send them my way.  Ive been making lists upon lists of things I don't want to forget, I just need to remind myself to jot it down and not keep it in my head.  Dada and I are sooooo excited!

Laughing:  The other day Dada, Little and I went to the Disney Store to have a look around and they had Halloween costumes out already!  This year for Halloween I was going to try and let Little choose his own costume thinking that maybe since he was little older he might be able to grasp the concept that you can dress up as something you really like.  This is a little harder to explain to a 2 year old, as i learned! I picked up the cutest Buzz Lightyear costume and headed straight for Little to try and explain, this is how that conversation went:

Mama- Look! You can be like Buzz!! Cool right?
Little- *looks at costume then goes back to what he is doing.
Mama- If you put his on then you will be dressed just like Buzz!! Do you wanna try? See here is the helmet!!
Little- *lets me put on the helmet for exactly 5 seconds then gets frustrated and pulls at it like its on fire!
Mama- Are you sure you don't want to try this on? You can be like buzz!!! *shows Little the similarities in the suit and in the picture.
Little- No mama

There you have it, I tried 3 times and nothing! I left him alone after that and Ill probably try one more time closer to the Halloween.  If he still isn't getting into the idea of costumes, Ill most likely end up making something at home for him to wear.  I already have lots of Mama & Son costumes popping up in my head!!

Working: Mostly working on wedding things as of now; budget, list of guests, ideas for centerpieces and invitations.  We want to do a lot of handmade things to make this wedding more US.

Wishing:  Yesterday was a very restless night for us, Little had a terrible stomach virus and couldn't keep anything down.  Although we were very tired,  we were mostly concerned about what to do to help Little.  It is the most unsettling feeling to know that for something like this you simply have to let it pass, we did everything we could to make him comfortable.  This morning he seemed much much better, we let him eat a cup of cereal and drink a little water to see if he could keep it down and he did!! He was in a very good mood and that made us very happy.  How does this fall into wishing? Im sure every Mama you will ever meet will tell you that when her child is in pain the first thing that comes to mind is wishing they could feel that pain for their baby.

Loving: A sleeping Little, yes Ive mentioned this before but its really the only chance I can kiss him or get a good look at him up close without him jumping on me.  He is a very active kid and I can watch him sleep all day. We have been hit with some cool-ER weather this week, not bundle up or even "sweater cool" but anything thats not over 95 degrees is amazing for us!! Finally, I am FULLY LOVING this song and video!! It sums up exactly how I feel about Dada; Home is wherever Im with you.

<3 Mama Chuca

Im Back!!

Little playing basketball at Gymboree!! 

I promise I did not abandon this place!!! I had to take a couple of days for myself to gather my thoughts because I feel like the last 2 weeks have been crazy.  But I do want to catch everybody up on my Little, here are some tidbits of us as of late:

Little is talking so much more now!! He is saying so many new words everyday and is starting to put his sentences together better as well.  There are times when he is trying to tell us something and we can't quite understand what word he is trying to say, for the most part he can pretty much repeat any word pretty well.  At school he has been working on colors, so Dada and I have been helping him by using flashcards (not in a drill sergeant way).  His favorite color, in my opinion, is Yellow because when we show him the color he screams "LELLOW"!!  We're still working on numbers and touch on the Alphabet at bath time, because he has a foam book full of letters for bath time games.

Tia Linda and Squishy have a new beagle puppy named Peanut! He is adorable, sweet and very gentle with the babies.  Squishy who is brave by nature loves to baby and run around  with the puppy.  Little, who calls the puppy Peaput, is still very skittish with him and I think it'll take a while for him to warm up to the pup.

Squishy's birthday is coming up very soon (November), Tia Linda and I have been bouncing around ideas for her very special 2nd birthday party.  Tia Linda has settled on The Lorax theme, which sounds amazing already!! Their are limitless possibilities for an awesome Lorax themed party!! A Lorax Piñata!!  Lorax invitations!! OMGOODNESS YES!!

Dada and I have been getting things ready for our special trip north,  I believe Ive mentioned before that we'll be going to New Hampshire in early October to visit some of Dada's family. I can't wait for Little to jump in leave piles, sip hot chocolate in cool weather, meet family that already adore him and to see him in a cute scarf.  I live in Texas where it is pretty warm 80% of the year, so I imagine Little and I bundled up Christmas Story style while others are wearing light sweaters and staring!

Oh and Dada & I.... are engaged to be married!!!!!! YES thats the big news, 2 weeks ago Dada asked me to marry him and of course I said yes!! Whenever we talked about marriage in the past, we knew it would happen but we never really went into depth about it.  Dada and I have always been on the same page about our family, as long as we all take care of each other and are happy then we feel we're doing a great job.  I honestly didn't think this would happen anytime soon and I definitely didn't think I would have to plan a wedding but here we are!!  I am very excited as is all of our family and friends!!  Details to come in later posts but I just had to let out our big news in my little space here!

Other than this amazingness, we've been pretty much going about our little life like usual! Hanging out with family, wrestling, going to Gymboree and our new favorite- playing with Peaput!  Stay tuned for regular posting again people because IM BACK!!

<3 Mama Chuca

We Love You Austin!

We had an amazing time in ATX with our good friends!! Here are 

few photos of our little trip. 

This is me in the car very excited about our trip! YAY!!

Many small shops to visit and "aaawww" in, except a lot of 

the shops ask you NOT to take photos. BOO, oh well 

I did get manage to capture some shots from the few

 places that were nice enough to allow it. 

 Tesoros was actually my favorite.

Anybody ever seen the movie Deathproof?? Well Dada and 

I happen to LOVE Deathproof (and Quentin Tarantino) so 

of course we had to have margaritas at the same margarita 

joint that was in the film!

This place is called Uncommon Objects  , we were laughing and

 creeped out the whole time we were in there. 

Gotta love a huge monkey in a hat. 

Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds, the tiniest and fullest 

costume shop in Texas (my opinion)!!

We visited quite a few shops, all very interesting.  

Just walking SoCo turned out to be one of the best parts of our trip. 

Quick bite of pizza for dinner at Home Slice, the menu 

reminded me of my Little and Dada. 

Of course we had to get fancied up to head out to 6th Street!!

 Perhaps it was a good thing that we left our camera in the room 

while we had our unsupervised adult fun birthday celebratin' night!

The next day was very cloudy, as you can see, but it only rained for about 45 minutes.  

After it cleared up and the sun was out again we headed down to Barton Springs. 

 Its actually a man-made spring and is ICE COLD, but we were still brave enough

 to take a dip.  We ate burgers and watched other people scream their way into the water,

 was a pretty good way to end our trip.  

We did manage to find a few goodies that we thought Little would love! A plane that

 was completely glued to his hand for a couple of days, he insisted on sleeping with it

 and asked for it in the morning. We knew he would love it, lately he's been asking for 

airplanes every time were outside. Of course we had to get him something animal 

related, so we decided he might be in total AWE with these bad boys. So far we've watched

 a zebra grow. 

This was the day after our trip, always excited to see these 2 happy faces. 

Little is actually saying "cheese".

A few things we didn't capture by photo, but will always be in our memories:

Waiting for our snow cones outside and being attacked by "friendly" sugar addicted bees.  

Sitting on the curb, on 6th st, eating an amazing slice of pizza at 3am.

Riding in the back of a Bike Cab with Dada talking bout Johnny Cash.

Toy Joy, wall to wall toys and kid gadgets. Little would have been in Heaven!!

All the street art was amazing! The second day we were there, we went to a strip full of 

street art but since it started raining we couldn't take any pictures without damaging 

our phones or cameras. But it was there and it was lovely.

Dancing and drinking the night away with good friends. 

Talking to Little on the phone on our way to Grammas to pick him up, he sounded so excited. 

I admit that being away from Little was extremely hard for me, but I knew Gramma would

 do her best to keep his mind off of our being gone.  I did talk about him a lot but Dada 

kept reassuring me that he would be fine and it would be good for us to get away.  As it 

turns out Dada was right, when we returned home we had the happiest little reunion!! 

One day we will have to go back with our Little so he can see the sights and sounds from a very 

unique little city.  Keep Austin Weird!

<3 Mama Chuca

Mama's Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Mama's 27th birthday!!  

Here is a little weekend recap:

Friday

Friday, Little had a Back to School Party at Daycare and as a treat all the kiddies got to take home a cupcake.  When I picked him up he insisted that he hold the cupcake for the drive and since it was the weekend I decided to be a fun Mama for a change and let him.  Well as soon as we got home of course the cupcake was half eaten and the other half was all over the carseat!  Gramita decided to have everybody over for hotdogs as a back to school treat, Little had the biggest tantrum that Dada and I had ever encountered. This was probably due to all my talk in the previous post about how he is starting to act like a big boy and understand me... big mistake Mama!! 

Saturday

Saturday, I woke up on my birthday to an awesomely wrapped present from Dada and baby!  I think Dada did the most amazing job creating this one of a kind wrapping paper.  For my birthday he gave me a book filled with 642 things to draw and a mini shopping spree at Urban Outfitters for an upcoming trip we are taking in October.  The best presents ever!! Afterward we were off to have a big breakfast and continue our special day together.  I didn't get any pictures of us at breakfast because Little wasn't too happy that our breakfast was later than usual, my concentration was focused on keeping that kid happy and eating. 

After our big birthday breakfast we decided to go to the zoo instead of Gymboree as a treat for all of us.

The weather was perfect, the sun was out but there was a steady breeze cooling us off.  Little had a great time running around watching at all the animals, making animal noises and he basically wore himself out.  Later we had a huge family dinner at Carrabbas, it felt great to have my family come together for a special dinner to celebrate my birthday!   Tia Linda bought me a special dessert and had the waiters sing to me, unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of our dinner.  The restaurant was pretty crowded and the babies (Squish, Little and cousin Noah) were very hungry and we were all trying to help them enjoy the dinner.  At home I seriously fell into a food coma! Yes I completely knocked out and I could not wake up!   

Sunday

When I finally did emerge from my food coma, Little and I went to Tia Lindas for a homemade breakfast.  Tia had cousin Rene sleepover for movies and smores on Saturday, so she made a big breakfast for everyone Sunday.  We then went to Target (as you can see from the red cart above) to pick out some cute clothes for Squish's days at her babysitter's house.  We finished off the weekend hanging out with Gramma and eating Papaws shish kabobs.  I had an amazing weekend, a great birthday and the best family ever!

<3 Mama Chuca

Sunday Date

Hello! I meant to check in from Austin on Friday to wish a happy weekend to everybody, but I was very busy having fun!! Yes I had a lot of fun in Austin, of course I missed my Little but it was nice to be able to do a lot of grown up things with friends.  I will have a post about my Austin trip sometime this week with photos and stories.  

We actually came home on Saturday night, I didn't think I could stay 2 nights away from Little just yet and I was right because I was missing him terribly Saturday afternoon.  So Sunday after Dada went to work, Little and I headed out for a movie date.  I let him pick out a brand new book from the bookstore, he chose a Little Critter book called Just Me and My Puppy and I chose 123 Magic (as I discussed last week).  Then we got a balloon airplane from a sweet lady, Little has been loving airplanes lately,  and headed to the theatre.  We decided to watch ParaNorman, which actually turned out to be a very funny slightly weird movie.. not unlike Coraline, a favorite of mine (book and movie). He was very good; sat in his little booster seat, ate popcorn, laughed out loud and "oh noooed" throughout the movie.  We then went to Tia Linda's to hang out with Bailey.  Our very nice Sunday ended with Dada reading Little his new book before bed.   

Im very happy Dada and I were able to get away, but Im especially happy that we came home to a wonderfully happy little boy (Thanks Gramma). 

<3 Mama Chuca