This is why I chose to be a Stay-At-Home Mom

I am having difficulty sleeping tonight (perhaps anxiety regarding my little vacay tomorrow?) and therefore I am catching up on some very neglected recorded TV shows. At the end of the recording was the beginning of the next program which happened to be the daytime news. I decided to watch...little did I know that I would hear a heart wrenching story which occured at a day care and ended in a child's death. I hate to be bad news bears here, but this is why I dislike watching the news. Sometimes I say to myself "hey, find out what's going on in the world; watch the news...you're sorta outta the loop". I turn the news on and bam...somebody left a baby on the side of the road or a police crew just busted a meth lab with baby bottles next to the chemicals. Then, I wonder why I even bothered. I get way too bummed out. And after seeing this clip about a woman arrested at a day care, I am pratically bawling. So, even though I should be sleeping, I am complaining about how depressed the news makes me.
However, I am also patting myself on the back for making one of the best decisions of my life to be a stay-at-home Mom (granted, an easy decision for me). But part of my decision was based on the fact that you can't trust nanny's or day care workers to NOT HURT your child. Sure, there are great people out there working with kids, but I was never going to take the chance. Check out the article (which contains a different clip in it than the one I saw tonight): http://www.kpho.com/news/18477620/detail.html

I'm not sure why this story is making me so upset, but it could be that today has been a little gloomy with the passing of a family member leaving me more emotional than usual. Of course, it could be PMS too :)
Anyway, I just had to complain about how irritating it is to turn on the news. And mention how HAPPY I am knowing my children are always safe at home with Mom & Dad :). Phew!

Our little Jack-O-Lantern

William Jaxon

I realized I don't do enough posts about Jaxon or Javier. So, now I tribute a post to my youngest, Jaxon, who will be turning 3 years old in 2 months. (sigh) Ahh, how time flies by when you are lovin' life :)



Some things you may or may not know about Jaxon:

• He is my sweetest child out of the 3. He is always ready to give/receive a kiss, hug and cuddles. Not just to Javier and me, but to at least a dozen others.
• He is a true "mommas boy" through and through. He still gets upset when I leave and is the happiest when I return.
• He has a very funny personality, always making Javier and me laugh. The picture above when he put on the old lady hat is a perfect example of the funny little things he does throughout the day.
• His favorite TV show is Crashbox on HBO. It targets children 7 years and up and he absolutely goes bananas for the educational program, which makes his parents happy :)
• He loves books and lets me read to him endlessly. What is particularly funny is when I let him look at a few books by himself, he pretends to read the stories to himself.
• He enjoys spending a lot of time playing on the swing set, especially the swings. He can't quite swing himself yet, so we help push him. I imagine him swinging A LOT when he can fly solo.
• He loves having his picture taken and always puts on a nice smile for me :)
• His blankets are his life and he carries them around everywhere with him. Even to church nursery...however, he isn't the only kid with a blanket in there.
• He has several nicknames: Jackie, Jax, Jack, Jack-Jack & Sugar Bugar.

He is a perfect boy for our family and we love him dearly. I referred to him as Jack-O-Lantern because there is so much light in him and he spreads it around. We feel so blessed to have him in our lives :)

Back to Preschool

After many patient months, Marley's pleas were finally satisfied when she returned to Preschool this afternoon. I'm pretty confidant in assuming that she would be a happy clam to have year-round school. So, her teacher this year is Sara and Marley seems to like her...she gave Sara a hug the second she saw her. Sara was a teacher from last year, but she wasn't Marley's teacher until this year. Although Marley's teacher last year was Katie, Marley is so social that she gets to know everyone during the occasional integrated class with all 3 classes.
I just thought: "I wonder if any of the other kids gave any one of the teachers a greeting like that?" There's a saying Javier and I have: Marley is the spice in our family...when she is gone, things around here are just a little bland. She is a very funny and interesting little girl who has her parents busting at the seams left and right. Well, judging from her first encounter at school, she is the spice there as well.

Here are a few pictures of her when I randomly decided to put on a Janie & Jack outfit TiTi (my sister) gave her for her birthday this year. As you can see she is exhibiting a little flare:

Marley is such a girl. She just loves getting dressed up and me fixing her hair. So, when it comes time to show it off, she relishes the opportunity.

We love the things that Summer brings

As one of my favorite summer books, Summer, declares "we love the things that summer brings". Indeed, we do love summer and all the water activities, watermelon and popsicles that go along with the season! (sans the heat, of course)

So, here are some activites we have kept ourselves busy with this summer. Both here at our house and at Nana and Tata's house (they have the pool).

First pictures are of the kids on the slip n' slide at our house...

Christopher showing us how it's done.

*Look at Marley getting into it in the background!Marley only likes to slide on her knees. I guess she is still timid of sliding on her belly.Jaxon just loves to push his Lightening McQueen toy around the slip n' slide.Catching some rays...and saying cheese!

Now, on to the pool pictures...

From left: Christopher, Marley, Geli, Javier & Jaxon.

Christopher and his beloved Badmiton racket.

(A combo volleyball/badmiton set was bought by Carlos for the pool and it has never worked right, so the net is never up)

My love, enjoying himself with our kids in the pool :)

Javier and Christopher~catching some major air. What fun!

Christopher, Marley and Geli jumping into the pool. Marley likes to get a head start on the rest of them!

Most of the time Jaxon likes to float around in this frog the whole time!

Christopher~mid-jump!

(Half way through swimming on this day, he decided he no longer needed floaties and was proving it to us!)

Marley and Geli showing us their moves. Awesome jumping girls!

As the time flew by, Marley swam up to me and said:

"Mommy, my fingers are pruney!"

Me: "Yeah, that's because you have been in the pool for a while now"

Marley: "Yeah, it's time for me to get out. I don't like the pruney!"

What a funny girl!

Here is one of my nieces, Geli, as she gets out for more jumping.

Jaxon, still in his floatie and happy!

Swimming is so much fun!

Christopher's Big Day...

Kindergartener

Well, he's all grown up and that's it for me. No more mothering...lol. I know that's far from the truth and I still have several wonderful years with Christopher here at home with us. When your 5 1/2 year old goes off to Kindergarten for the first time and will be gone for 9 hours, it feels like forever. It also feels like someone else is raising your child. Oh, how I miss him! However, I do know that school has been and will continue to be a very positive thing in his life. Man, are we old enough for this? I still feel so young at heart sometimes and this feels a little surreal. I have had a lot of memories of myself in kindergarten come back to me today and I have to say that I am excited for Christopher.

We are so proud of you and love you very much, son!

Precious Jaxon

I realize that I may find certain things Jaxon does cuter than they really are. Which is probably due to the fact that he is currently our "baby" of the family...not really a baby~he will be 3 years old in December!

A couple weeks ago, we moved Marley and her bunk beds into her own girl room. She was reluctant to go because she "wanted to be with her brothers" and "is scared of monsters in her room (thanks Monster's Inc) ".

The 2 pictures above are the completed rooms. For Marley, we had to completely disassemble & reassemble her bunk beds. The boy's beds were simple since we just had to separate the 2 beds.

Well, during the major move of children's furniture (Javier & I tackled it alone, which in the end took around 6 hours!), we noticed after a little bit (10-15 minutes, tops) that neither one of us had seen Jaxon running around. Neither one of us heard any doors open, but you never know. I immediately went in the front and back yards, frantically, since he's a little mischievous at times. Javier scoured the indoors, while I let my mind get the better of me...worrying he was wondering around our neighborhood...or worse, hit by a car. I came inside to see if Javier found him and low-and-behold he had found Jaxon. After scolding Javier that I wished he would have told me immediately that he discovered Jaxon, he led me to where he was. There he was snuggled in/on the massive amount of pillows on our bed and neither one of us saw him initially since he was sort of hidden. Poor little guy was tuckered out and we got the biggest chuckle out of him falling asleep there. I mean, where is a nappy boy suppose to sleep when both bunk beds are out of commission? It makes sense he would sleep there...probably one of the most comfy places in our house! Ever since then, he will come into our room and dog pile the pillows on our bed (don't these pillows just shout out to kids?). What a silly boy we have who brings us such joy! We love him! :)

Christopher the Creative Cat

I can remember summer vacation as both fun and exciting. I can also remember wanting school to start about 2-4 weeks earlier than it was supposed to.

During these hot (and somewhat boring) days, while a couple of my other kids are sleeping, I engage Christopher in play of his choice. Being the constructional engineer that he is and having such a great imagination, he usually wants to "build" something. This day he picked buidling a castle with his Leggos.

I let him build most of the castle (what fun would it be for him to watch Mom build the whole thing anyway?), but I added a few details so I could interact with him. I just love Christopher's imagination and it helps him self-entertain when needed. He inspires my imagination and that's one of many reasons I love him so much.

We named it Christopher's Chateau! Pretty catchy I think and so...I took a few pics.

Here is the castle with a roof on top...

He immediately decided that the roof carried too much weight and the entire castle would come crumbling down. So, he removed the roof to save his masterpiece, phew...good thinking on his part!

Close up view of the drawbridge that actually slides up and off rather than down and out.

What a nifty little idea, I think. :)

View of the drawbridge sliding up and off...

Final view with the drawbridge successfully removed, revealing the spacey interiors. This thing has a room up at the top, as you can see from this photo. However, what is impossible to capture with a camera (unless, I were to disassemble the castle and take photos as I progressed) is that Christopher's Chateau has a secret compartment "downstairs" with two trap doors. It's actually quite impressive, if I do say so myself :)

4th of July...

tad bit late, I know. A few days after the holiday, I tried to upload pics from my camera and they wouldn't budge. Did I mention that I accidentally left my camera, full of nice photos, in my hot car for 2 days? After that, my camera didn't "know" how to connect to my computer. So, I waited a while and now, I have successfully uploaded them onto my computer, phew!

I made some hairbows that were for Marley to wear on this great holiday. As usual I was running late with getting her ready and I wasn't able to get photos of the boys. So, here she is in her outfit and July 4th Bows...

We went near Rawhide with the Siler Family (Heather's clan), opened up our "trunks" and sat in the back of our cars while watching the fabulous display.

I am actually quite proud of myself for this nice picture!




All of our kids were in awe, screaming and jumping as each one burst into the otherwise silent sky.

Photos are starting to turn crazy in some areas...

Heather's youngest (Ethan-20 mos) wasn't so amused. He whimpered, burried his head into Mom's chest and held onto her arms for dear life! Then he dozed off right then and there! I have to say, that was adorable!

So, this was the first year I had a camera with a "fireworks" setting and I think they turned out okay. However, I was disappointed with a few blurry/strange photos. Take a look at these crazy pictures, all on the same setting of my camera as the above pics!

So, all in all, this was a fabulous evening, spent with dear friends. I am so thrilled that I actually got photos of the event this year...unlike last year when my kids fell asleep before we could watch any fireworks at all!

Things That Go...OUCH!!!

On Friday evening Javier and I had plans to go to dinner with our friend Melissa, who was in town from Florida for surgery. My mother-in-law, Julia was kind enough to babysit, but this evening she preferred to watch them at her house. This plan is nice because generally they fall asleep there and we get a rare opportunity to sleep in just a little. We were minutes from being out of the door, when Marley informed us that Jaxon needed a stinky diaper change. Usually she is correct in her observations, so Javier decided to help out. While Javier took Jaxon off the top bunk-bed, Jaxon was hit by the ceiling twice in the head. One of the hits was right in the center of his forehead and it must have been at the perfect angle because it gave him a decent laceration. I think it's pretty cute that he seems to be pointing to the injury =]

Poor Jaxon and poor Javier (he still has guilt, even though is was an accident) for being in this unfortunate predicament. I know that facial injuries bleed a lot, but oh my there was lots of blood. Jaxon, being 2 didn't want to stop touching his forehead and wouldn't leave a band aid on. We considered taking him to the ER to get stitches or the glue stitches, but within 10-15 minutes it stopped bleeding on it's own. Jaxon actually left a band aid on his head for a record time of 15 minutes and that really helped to stop the bleeding.

Again, with the finger. I love those little hands.

I always take pictures of serious injuries, I guess I find them a little interesting (I'm sure it's part of my medical genes, which I have no interest in pursuing=]). As a result, Christopher and Marley are pretty terrified of getting even remotely close to the ceiling fan, not that I blame them. Jaxon, on the other hand, is still kinda fearless and that makes me nervous. However, both Javier and I are extra, extra cautious while chasing down our cute little troublemaker from the top bunk. Oh, and after I took these photos of Jaxon, he decided he didn't like his scab and yes, he picked it completely off! Gross and OUCH! I would imagine that would hurt, just a little (or a lot)!

I realize posting a picture of the bloody t-shirt he was wearing at the time of the accident may be a little gory, but it's more for my documentation than anything. I apologize in advance if this photo is unsettling, but I had to include it. I'm sure this shirt is ruined (WalMart shirt, oh well), but that's okay as long as he's okay. And that he is...OKAY, Thank God! Oh, and his diaper was clean...

4th of July...a blast or a bust?

The 4th of July was pretty fun for us. It started out that we were going to go to the gym in the morning and when we got there, the kid's club was closed:( So, we changed our mind and took them to a park on 42nd Street & Campbell. There was NOBODY there, we had the whole park to ourselves...it was nice! No worries about "is one of my kid's going to make another kid mad?" or "is another kid going to make one of mine mad?", it was awesome!
Then we came home and Grandma Kathy and MiMa came over to see the kid's in their 4th of July outfits. Marley wore a handmade dress I bought from eBay that was adorable and Christopher & Jaxon wore matching Gap logo 4th of July shirts. They looked very cute and festive in their little outfits and I loved it!

After the kids had lunch, Julia came over to babysit so Javier and I could go to a 4th of July pool party. Stephanie and Phil hosted the pool party at Larry & Kim's awesome salt water pool...full of delicious food including Pesto Scallops and chips w/ guacamole...mmm!
So, Javier had to leave early to relieve his mom from her duties at our house, but he let me hang out longer by the pool. A few hours later, he came to pick me up and while we were driving home Christopher and Marley fell asleep. Now, by this time it was 6:45pm and it would have completely messed up their bedtime if we woke them up. So, we didn't get a chance to see fireworks at all this year!! I can't believe it, I feel so bad...oh, well...there's always next year!

BTW...I took a lot of cute pictures of my kids in their outfits, but I can't seem to locate them and they have been deleted from the camera SD card...bummer:(
If I find them, I will post 'em.