San Antonio: Part Two

So I'm finally getting around to posting more pictures from our little trip to San Antonio.

While we were in San Antonio, we took Sofia on her very first trip to the zoo. We went with Robert's sister, her husband, and their two adorable kids. At the zoo, there's an area with lories -- these crazy birds. The zoo provides nectar for a price to its visitors so they can feed the lories. It's kind of neat and fun for the kids to see the birds so close. They're pretty birds, but the birds are also kind of crazy when they see the nectar. Sofia kept her cool and just kind of looked on

but her cousin was terrified! I love this photo.

We also saw lots of other animals like leopards and tigers and stuff.
It was lots of fun.


During the week we also made it over to my sister's new house. She and her husband just bought this amazing house. I couldn't wait to see it. We visited and had a good time. Here's my sister and Sofia.

That's really all I have. Oh, I guess I should post a picture of Sofia eating because really it was during this trip that she decided solids are really not the enemy. So here you go. Isn't she adorable?

Crazy (whine, whine)

Well, I've been meaning to post, but (wah, wah, wah) I'm going crazy because I have too much to do. And then this past week, I lost my my wallet and my keys. Not kidding. The morning I discovered my wallet was missing I had to go into work at 5 am, and I was already running late, so I REALLY felt crazy. Luckily I found it later that night (under my bed, of all places). My keys were missing all week, and I got locked out of the house one day because of it. Then? they miraculously show up in a place I know I already searched about a thousand times. And last week I lost my bank card. Thankfully, I realized it soon after and called to deactivate it. And Robert went out of town for work for a couple of days last week too, so I was super exhausted having to both take Sofia to daycare and pick her up and do all the shit I already have to do to get ready for each day. Sometimes I feel like the universe is playing a cruel joke on me.

My schedule has been so erratic lately with me running to meeting after meeting at work that I find myself pumping in the car (driving to meetings or before work because I won't have time to pump at work). I never realized the extent to which I could multitask until I started pumping in the car. I can drive, pump, AND talk on the phone. Imagine that. Of COURSE, I use a headset with my cell phone. You think I'm crazy? Well, yes I am crazy. And I'm sure the people who see me hooked up to a breast pump while I'm driving think I'm crazy too, but whatever gets the job done.
Somehow I've managed to keep my child solely on breast milk and I'm hoping I can keep it up until she's a year. I have a love/hate relationship with my breast pump.

Speaking of breast milk, has anyone seen this article on mothering.com? Breast milk to treat warts? Whaaat?

Next week I have to go into work at 3:30 am two days. We're doing a flight simulation for one of the next Shuttle flights, and I know it will be CRAZY. Oh, well, that's life.

Aside from losing my keys, my wallet, and getting locked out of the house this past week wasn't too bad, I guess. I got to work at home on Friday, which was great. I love being home with Sofia, and since Robert is off on Fridays I actually get some work done.

I really don't PLAN on whining when I start these posts, that's just how they come out.

Eight Months

Dear Sofia,
At 7:06 pm tonight, you officially turned eight months old. You were crawling around the living room floor, looking for things that you could shove into your mouth. Sofia, I cannot believe you are eight months old! I really can't. You have grown so much it's amazing. And you are SO HEAVY. You weigh 20 lbs, 6 oz. You are very difficult to lug around now.

I never posted when you turned seven months, my love, and I'm sorry. During your seventh month you were on strike against solid foods, and you perfected your crawling technique. You practiced by rocking back and forth on your hands and knees. I thought I would fall over because you were too cute for words!


We visited San Antonio just after your seven-month birthday and had you baptized. We visited with your grandparents, you met your great-grandparents, visited the zoo for the first time, and played lots with your cousins. It was during this visit that your tastebuds miraculously came alive and you decided that solids are not so bad after all! Now you will eat cereal, oatmeal, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and all kinds of fruit! You still aren't a fan of green beans or peas, but you'll eat them reluctantly. We sometimes give you the mushy part of French fries and you love them. Please don't judge us when you are older. I know grease and salt are probably not a good idea for you, but we don't give you much. Oh, you also like mashed beans.

I cannot believe how well you crawl, Sofia. You are FAST. Your dad and I are trying to figure out how to best baby-proof the areas that are accessible to you. Just this past week you started PULLING UP on stuff!
Yes, we noticed it when we put you in your crib one day and the next thing we knew, you were standing! And you didn't stop there. You enjoy pulling up on the coffee table too, which scares the heck out of me because there is always so much miscellaneous debris on it, as well as all kinds of papers. And as soon as you get something in your beautiful little hands, you shove it into your mouth to explore. I don't know how you chew through things so fast with only two teeth. It looks like more are on the way, which may be why you go through some extreme whiny spells. You have also mastered the crawling to sitting transition, and it's so cute! You crawl and crawl and stop and pop up onto your little bottom.

You have more patience for books now, actually looking at and touching the pages when we read you a story. We read you Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar a lot. You recognize the purple cat every time. Your dad and I are convinced that you try to say "kitty cat". Every time you see our cats, Buxy and Whiskers, you start saying, "kkkkkk...kkkkkk". And of course, your dad and I cheer you on! I can't wait until you say your first real word. You say a lot already, like "dadadada" and "tata...ta...tatata". Sometimes we can hear you talking to yourself in your carseat while we're in the front of the car. We giggle about it. We love hearing you talk, Wee!

We lost one of our cats this past month, Sofia. Her name was Trouble and she was a beautiful gray tabby. Someday we'll show you lots of pictures of her and tell you all about how wonderful she was.

You had your first Easter this month too. We went to Sacred Heart Cathedral in Galveston and took you to your first Easter egg hunt after the mass. You looked beautiful in your Easter dress. You liked chewing on the plastic eggs.


We took you out to take photos with wildflowers this month. We took photos in your baptismal gown and your Easter dress. You wanted to eat the flowers.



You still sleep in our bed. I still nurse you as much as you want during the night. You will only be small once, and I love having you so close to me at night. Listening to you breathe. You still love bath time. You always have your pescadito and your rubber ducky with you. You still hate getting dressed after.

My beautiful girl. I still can't believe you grew inside of me for many months. I often look at those pictures we took in the hospital of you so beautiful and tiny. They bring tears to my eyes. I can't believe you are the same little girl growing right before my eyes. Sofia, you are an amazing, beautiful, wonderful gift. I sometimes wonder what your father and I did to receive such a gift. We are so thankful that you have graced our lives. You make our lives so rich and happy. My beautiful Wee, my Sassafrass, my angel. I love you.

Love,
Mama

San Antonio: Part One

When I sat down to write that last post, I had no intention of writing all about Trouble. I guess that's just where my mind was. It's a sad part of life losing a pet. Thanks for the kind words. It always feels good to know people care.

I never wrote about our whole trip to San Antonio, and I really wanted to, so here goes...

Like I said before Sofia's baptism went great. We had it at the same church where Robert and I got married. I felt horrible because we got to mass late! No kidding, we got there about twenty minutes into the mass. The church is closer to my parents' house, but we were over at Robert's mom's house before the mass helping get things ready for the gathering to follow the baptism (this was Robert's mom's idea). Well, of course, we ended up running late because Robert is helping his mom do this and that and all this family keeps showing up (a bunch of his aunts and his grandparents came into town for the baptism) and I'm trying to get ready and get my child ready and then no one knows where the church is so they all have to follow us and...you get the idea. So yeah, we were late, but the important thing is that we made it! We had to put the finishing touches on Sofia in the car because we were so rushed, but that's okay. Robert said Sofia looked like a Quaker with her bonnet.

She cried a little before the actual baptism itself so I had to run back into the sachristy to feed her before we got started, but she didn't cry during the baptism. She was an angel. Here she is right after.

and some pic's of the family and the family and the godparents(and one of her cousins)...


And here's a good one of my angel with her grandpa (my dad).

The gathering after the baptism was really nice! It was all family. Robert's sister, who is Sofia's godmother, came down from Maryland with her husband and two kids (we're their godparents). Robert's grandparents wanted to be in San Antonio for the event so they could see all their great grandchildren at once. It was something to behold. So many generations together. Really awesome. We went out to the Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes the next day (it's a really beautiful grotto) and took photos on the grounds.
Here are a few:

Here are some with Sofia's great grandfather (Robert's grandfather).




So that was the first few days of our visit. I've got tons more photos of the rest of our visit, so more to follow!

For Trouble

My God, I cannot believe it has been close to a month since I posted! Time goes by so quickly. Well, we were about to take our trip to San Antonio when I last wrote. We went and Sofia's baptism was beautiful. We got to spend lots of time with family, which was both good and bad. Robert's mom did drive us nuts like she always does, but it was still nice that Sofia got to see her and her other grandparents. We got to see my sister's new house, we took Sofia on her first trip to the zoo, and she spent lots of time with her cousins from Maryland. She bit her cousin on the foot one night too and will forever be dubbed "the biter", I'm sure. She got a bad rap. After all, she is teething.

My cousin stayed with us the weekend we returned. See, he recently informed me that he would be moving to Houston because he had accepted a job here. And he needed to find a place to move into soon. I told him he could stay with us whenever he wanted to come to Houston to look. Well, he called me while we were in San Antonio and asked if he could stay with us so he could go apartment hunting. I told him "sure" and even offered to drive him from place to place over the weekend. I had no idea how tired I would be, but I picked him up from the airport a mere three hours after we had driven in. Well, the weekend ended up being very horrible. See, when we got home our cat, Trouble, was very sick. She had been suffering from a hyperactive thyroid for quite some time and had been losing weight over the past few months. She wouldn't eat when we got back and was vomiting blood. We were both really upset. We took her in to the vet on Saturday. The vet saw her told us that she was likely suffering from a combination of kidney failure and the hyperactive thyroid. That we could opt for treatment, but she was such an old cat and might not respond. It was horrible seeing her so pained and weak and quiet. After much thought, Robert and I said goodbye to our beautiful cat. She was 14 years old, almost 15. She was born in Robert's old house on his sister's bed. We still have her mama, Whiskers.

Yes, that weekend was especially hard. We had to deal with the guilt from leaving the cats for a week (my friend was coming in to check on them, feed them, and take care of their litter but they usually hide anyway, so he wouldn't have noticed), we had to deal with company in the middle of it all, and Sofia would not stop crying during Trouble's last hours. I had to leave her in the waiting room with my cousin so Trouble wouldn't be upset.

I did most of my crying after my cousin left. It was really hard not being able to grieve the loss of her because we had company. I loved her so much. She was such a good cat. I know that the decision was so hard, but I know that we made the right one. I'll miss her so much. Robert and I keep remembering sweet memories of her. The way she would drink water really loudly -- ridiculously loudly. The way she loved eating bread and tortillas. The way she would "talk" to the birds outside the window. She loved to play, and used to fetch wadded up paper when she was little. She was the sweetest, gentlest cat I ever had. Our sweet little Chubble, Chubba. Our sweet Trouble. We'll miss you.