The Babe

Yes, another post about the amazing Aaron. AKA "The Baby". "Give the ball back to the baby." "Be careful around the baby." "Don't make the baby cry."

He is growing up right before our eyes. Well, not growing so much as developing, I guess. He is 11.5 months old and in 6-9 month clothes, which he has been in since he was 5 months old!!

Anyway. He is pulling himself up on everything and thinks he is so big!! He also tries to mimic words. He "says": cat, ball, dadda (that one he actually says!), bye and hi. He is also starting to manipulate his lips to make different faces, like a who who sound with those cute little lips!!

Apparently the only thing growing on this kid... is his hair!! He went from losing it all around 3 months... to needing a haircut, bad!! I'm planning on just waiting until he is officially one, but I don't know if I can make it that long!!!

He likes to play with his brothers, usually torturing them and seeing what he can get away with, being "the baby". But some times he does try to put the blocks together. He watches his brothers build with legos and then picks up two blocks and tries to make them stick together. I am convinced he is a genius, despite the late, weird crawling and the most likely late walking :)

Oh, he also waves and claps.

And is a total daddy's boy! He has been from the beginning, and I love to see him throw himself out of my arms and try to get to his daddy. (See, I am secure knowing that he still loves me :P)

Oh, and STILL NO TEETH!!!!

Co-op Day at the Garcias!

A few months ago, some friends and I started a babysitting co-op. It is the greatest thing ever! There are 5 of us, so we each take one morning a week where we are home and available for the others to drop off their kids. For each kid that is left we earn tickets, which we can then use to drop our own kids off on the other days. Some days I end up with all the kids, and others none.

This day I ended up with 12 kids through out the day, but only 10 at one given time :)

At one point, there was a boys room, a girls room, and a baby room :) This was the boys room, if you can't tell, by the boys and the cars and the mess. The sweet little curly headed girlies were reading in the boys' bedroom. They had books everywhere and were so cute and completely enjoying themselves. Not sure why I didn't get a picture... probably had to attend to one of the little ones in the baby room.

I am so grateful for all the wonderful mommy friends I have (including those not in the co-op!) and all their wonderful little munchkins.

Here's hopping for another full co-op day this week :)

Isaac is FOUR!

He's been planing his party since April, when Roman had his. He settled on a Mickey Mouse theme. I was going to make a pinata (because once you start the pinata thing, a party isn't a party without a pinata... whether it works or not) Instead I caved and bought one.

I did make the cupcakes though... brownie cupcakes, yum. I was nervous, because none of the directions tell you how to make them as cupcakes, but I just watched them and took them out early... I think they turned out (too) yummy!!


The boys got to decorate the cupcakes with little Mickey Mouse toppings. I used little cookies for the head and Milk Duds for the ears. The boys liked helping, and they turned out really cute.

This last week has been ridiculously hot. In the 100s!! Last week there were threats of rain and being in the 70s.

I thought I had been smart, and planned the party for the late afternoon, to beat the heat of the middle of the day. I planned the party before this wicked heat came out of no where.

Unfortunately, as we started to decorate around 230, temps were still in the high 90s. With the sun beating right down in the backyard.

Isaac fell asleep in the car on the way home from some last minute shopping. I let him sleep in the car until he woke up, and then he transferred to his bed. Which he NEVER does, so he was obviously tired. I tried to wake him up slowly, before people started coming, and he was a CRAB! He actually left his own party for the first ten minutes or so :P

So there I am, sweaty and tired, with a grumpy birthday child and feeling horribly guilty for subjecting my friends to this heat.

As the guests arrived they were given their goodie bag to color and we had a few games to play. I lost the attention of most of the kids because they knew where our very fun toy room was. It was actually about 5 degrees cooler inside, so I couldn't blame them for wanting to be out of the sun. I figured I should just go with it. So I actually got to visit with a few of the parents, that was nice :)
Once the food was ready: hot dogs, Mickey chicken nuggets, fruit and pretzels, I had enough ammo to lore the kids back out side. We had a nice little picnic... and then it was craft time.

When the kids had first arrived, I had taken their picture in front of a Mickey banner. Ben printed them and cut them out. The kids then got to glue them on foam stars and decorate them with sequins and Mickey and Friends confetti. Then they finished it with a magnet. It was really simple, and the kids liked it.

After the craft... it was Pinata Time!! For Roman's b-day, I had made an indestructible pinata. This time, as I filled the pinata, I was sure that it would break. It had those strings on the bottom that you can pull one at a time, and one opens a trap door. It is for the little ones that you don't trust with bats (which possibly should have applied to this crowd...). I didn't plan on using that feature, that was just the cuter of the 2 Mickey options. Well... as Ben was taking it outside to hang up... Isaac pulled on a handful of strings, and sure enough, opened the trap door!! So we duct taped it lightly and started with the little kids. About the 4th kid or so, things started leaking out with each turn. After 8 or so kids, I gave up and just emptied it out. A few of the kids didn't get to hit it.... but I think that was forgiven as they all dove in to fill their bags!!!

This was Isaac's first real party, complete with presents. We've been doing Chuck E Cheese the last 2 years (yeah for A/C!!!), but no presents. We have plenty of toys and clothes from his brother. But then I realized that Isaac can't play the "that's mine" card, because none of it is. My boys share very well, but occasionally, I think it is okay to have a special toy that you don't have to share. So I allowed presents for the first time for little Isaac. He LOVED opening all his presents and was delighted with each one. He even got a great bean bag chair that at least 3 of the kids could fit on at once :)

It's been a fun round of birthday parties. I enjoy giving my boys a special day with friends. But next year... I think we'll do something as a family instead of this whole to do!

Misery Loves Company....

... and so does great joy.

I still remember when Jen and I were newly pregnant and went to VT Tiffany, and found out that she too was pregnant. I personally don't like to tell the world until I am at least 8 weeks pregnant, preferably 12 weeks, but when you can't fit in any clothes and are a wretch to hang out with, it's hard to hide. So after suffering alone for a few weeks, it was so exciting to hear others were just as miserable as I was :)

We sat in Tiffany's living room for at least an hour, talking about our similar hard ships and how fun it will be to all be pregnant in the heat of the summer, blech. Meanwhile our 5 older children, all boys! ran around the apartment driving each other crazy, instead of us for a change!

At church there were at least 3 other women pregnant at the same time as us. We would compare swollen ankles and back pain and try to find a way to stay cool. To no avail.

Aaron was born September 15, and the other two in October. All our misery was now oohs and aahs and "what's he doing now?" as we watched our babies grow.

Did I mention that we now have 8 boys between us?!?!

Jen and her adorable family are moving... tomorrow! so on Sunday we snapped a few quick photos of the boys together. I am sad to see them leave, but I have enjoyed getting to know their family better, and I plan on keeping in touch and adding them as a stop along our annual UT trip :)

The Man of the House

Isaac made this trailer all be himself last week while
Roman was in school. He was quite proud of himself, and I
was impressed that he built something other than a tower or sword... both things just being straight stacks of legos :)

I ran to grab my camera to take a picture, to remember the moment, and to encourage his behavior, and this was
the picture I got. Doesn't he look soo big?!? He used to be my chubby little round cherub. Now he is stretching out and becoming a big boy.

He drives me crazy most days, but I really do love this kid.

Cubic Luau 2009

Every year Ben's work has a huge picnic at Mission Bay. I seriously look forward to it every year. Last year they didn't have it because they had just laid off 20% of their employees and didn't think it was appropriate to celebrate. (I just thought they were being cheap and was mad. I see their point now.)

This year was a luau theme... with a special appearance by Cap'n Jack Sparrow... not sure about the connection between the two, but whatever. When I told the boys that Cap'n Jack Sparrow was going to be there, they decided to wear their Pirate ship shirts, so cute.

We checked in at the tiki huts in front, and who was there to help, but Jack Sparrow. I was so excited and thought the boys would be too. First of all, they didn't really know who they were looking for. They only know Jack Sparrow thanks to some Pirates of the Caribbean underwear. They have never seen the movies (of course!) and have little idea of what a "real" pirate should look like. So when they saw a dirty grown man with dread locks... they were scared :P I thought he was pretty cool though. Of course the real Jack Sparrow would have been better, but I guess Johnny was busy this weekend.

The first activity was a giant Tsunami Wave slide. Roman went with Ben a few times while Isaac watched and tried to work up the courage. Finally Isaac had a go at it, and then we couldn't get them off! Wait, I take that back, once we offered sno cones, they were happy to get off and get their sugar drenched ice.

Then (yes, after the first round of sugar), it was time for lunch. They each scarfed down a hot dog and then played on the playground we had parked ourselves next too. As soon as Ben had cleaned his own plate, it was back to the slide and jumpy houses.

Aaron and I stayed behind to play with a friend just a few months older... but much more mobile! Maybe hanging around with some friends who are walking will make him want to try it out. (I still can't decide if I should be encouraging him to walk, or enjoying that he isn't fully mobile yet.)

When daddy came back, the boys decided that it would be fun to try the big water trikes. As I was packing up our stuff, Ben took the boys and Aaron crawled (scooted) across the lawn trying to follow them. It was adorable.

After waiting for a good half hour, very patiently, it was their turn. They scooted around the bay for about 7 minutes and posed for a few pics for mommy and then came back in. They said they had a good time though... I imagine that less than 10 minutes is probably perfect for the attention spans that Ben was dealing with.

4 hours after getting there, and zero sun screen applications later, it was time to head home. I'm already looking forward to next year, when the baby will be more mibile and we can join in on all the fun!!

My Little Kindergartner!

I've been dreading this day for four years! At Roman's first birthday, I was reminiscing about how fast the year had flown by, and one of my friends decided that was the time to throw in the "and before we know it, he'll be starting Kindergarten". Nooooooo! I wouldn't even touch the subject for three more years!

After a year of preschool, I knew Roman would enjoy Kindergarten and that he was ready for it. Whether I was or not! But then, as we went back to school shopping and started talking about it, I got excited as well!

Today was the day. Roman could hardly sleep last night, and was up around 645, where as he was sleeping until 715 or later during the summer. ( I actually thought he would wake up way before that, so I'll take 645). He came out of his room in the outfit that we had laid out the night before, shoes and all. Grabbed his lunch box out of the fridge, put it in his back pack, and proceeded to wear the back pack around the house.


Parents were asked to stay in the classroom for the first hour of school, so I dropped the younger boys off at my good friend's house and then Roman and I walked to school.

I really think that I was just as nervous as Roman was! There were kids and parents every where! Some old timers who ruled the school, and some newbys trying to look like we knew where we were going!

Roman's teacher is Mrs Tebbetts, who comes with rave reviews from another friend whose oldest daughter had her three years ago. We have heard only good things about all the Kindergarten teachers, but it was an extra good feeling to have a teacher that came recommended.

Mrs. Tebbetts took role and read a story to the kids. Roman raised his hand extra high when she called his name. Some of the kids just looked around when their names were called, and others did nothing :) When Mrs. Tebbetts asked the kids if they
liked to do things, Roman again raised his hand very enthusiastically.

Mrs. T then sent the kids outside to play so that she could talk to the parents. ***Yes, there was a recess teacher out there, Ben was very concerned when I said the kids were sent out side to play so that the teacher could talk to the parents. He's such a good concerned daddy!*** It wasn't the most informative session, but I am excited to have Roman in Mrs. T's class.

The parents were then instructed to go outside and say good bye to the kids on the playground. I went out and found Roman and talked to him a bit. He wasn't really playing with anyone, he was wandering around the outskirts of the playground while the other 100 Kindergartners acted like wild animals (as they should).

I took a few pictures and then hugged him good bye and told him to have fun. He tried to sit on the dirt hill behind the playground, and I told him to get up and make friends! So he got up and went back over to the swings, and I left.

I had to drop off some paper work at the office and then headed back to pick up the other two. As I walked past the playground again, I stopped to look for Roman. I couldn't find my little spikey haired boy in the rock star red shirt anywhere. Then I saw Mrs. T walk across the palyground, and who was that on her heels? Little Roman. He takes a while to warm up to new situations, so I am not surprised. And I know he will make friends when he is ready to. ( In fact, he was building with two other boys and made friends with a blonde haired boy, he didn't remember his name)

Here I am, chastizing Roman for not making new friends right away... I am so bad at making friends. At his preschool I never stayed and chatted with the other moms. But now we are going to be at this school for the next 8 years or so, in theory. It is time to get to know the other moms and branch out a little. I did meet a nice little blonde haired lady, can't remember her name though...

My New Toy

I have been looking for an SLR for a while. Well, watching their price and waiting for the next one to come out so that the current ones price goes down. Finally, a good friend told me that her sister was getting rid of hers and upgrading to take professional pics. So I now have a Nikon D40!




When Tara brought it over to show me, she coddled it and cooed over it like it was her baby. She told me how easy it was and all the great features and how to capture great pics and which of the four manuals to read... I was so excited, and overwhelmed at the same time!

Ben got home that night to see the camera, box, and manuals neatly stacked on our pony wall (where nothing was ever supposed to be put, but it has naturally turned into the place to put EVERYTHING). He asked how many hundreds of pictures I had taken, and I said "none".

I whipped out the camera and just took a few shots of Ben and of the boys. I got brave and changed the color setting... ooohh. I know, I've got skills :P

The next day I took a few of inanimate objects with the close up setting. I definitely like taking pictures of *things* more... it's so much easier.

The last picture is of the baby at Coronado. I love his blue eyes, and am glad I got a good picture of them, because they still could change. The quality of the picture itself, not so great, but the subject is adorable :)

Coronado

With Roman starting Kindergarten this week, my mom wanted to take us out for one last adventure :) We decided on taking the Ferry over to Coronado, doing lunch, a little window shopping and walking in the water. Turns out that this was a first for all of us. Born and raised in San Diego tends to mean there is actually a lot of touristy things that I have never done!

The ferry ride was just 15 minutes, perfect for little boy attention spans :) We meant to take the noon ferry, but seeing as how we always run late, we ended up on the 1 o'clock ferry. So by time we got to Coronado, it was straight to a restaurant. The ferry let us off right behind a pizza place, the Village Pizzeria, so that was where we went. We missed the lunch rush, and by time we ordered, the place was half empty. However it still took 45 minutes to get our pizza. And when it came out, the crust was all thin and limp. I didn't say anything at first, thinking, well, I guess it's NY style. But then the boys' pizza was all fluffy and great. Ben (being the ex-pizza guy and local expert) said that is what happens when the dough doesn't have time to rise. So long story short, I don't recommend that place!

After lunch, we tried to walk through the shops, but the boys just wanted grandma to buy everything, which she would have been more than happy to do if it was left up to her. So we headed down to the beach. Taking the ferry takes you to the wrong side of the island if you are planning to stay the whole day at the beach, but we just wanted to walk in the sand and put our toes in the water anyway. Well, that was what I wanted to do. The boys had different plans. They immediately took off their shirts and got waist high in the water. I think they liked the protected beach with minimal waves, because by the end they were in up to their necks!

After a few hours without sunscreen, it was time to get back on the Ferry back to Sunny SD.

The trip back was not so enjoyable, for me and the baby anyway. Little Aaron has a blanket that he loves and needs to sleep. I forgot to grab it on the way out the door, so he was about 3 hours past due on a nap and not happy about it.

We did get to stop at the Naval Base and pick up a few people on the way back, so that was different. We got to watch as the Navy Security moved the floating fence so that we could get through. And we were instructed over a very old and inaudible PA system that no photography was allowed past the barriers. Nothing too exciting happened, but it was different :P

Grandma did buy them one souvenir each, and they didn't even say anything about Coronado, but the boys were elated! It was a long day, but a lot of fun.

Welcome to the Jungle!!

Ben and I were watching t.v. last Thursday, and I kept hearing weird rustling in the back yard. Naturally, I thought it was a cat burglar, dressed all in black, with the little eye mask. But the cat was outside, and she didn't seemed too bothered about it. When I was getting ready to go to sleep, I had to check it out. I flipped on the outside light and looked towards the back corner of the yard. As I squinted, I saw a big fat raccoon. And as my eyes adjusted and I looked again, I saw 4 babies.

They had been eating our giant figs and had trampled our tree to bits. I opened the screen door and tried to get the cat inside. She had been sitting on the doorstep for a while, but hesitated to come inside. I think she may not have wanted to turn her back on the big mama 'coon. As I persuaded kitty inside, Mama really got on the offensive. She moved closer and took a defensive posture and just stared.















It was quite scary to look into the eyes of a wild animal who would do anything to protect her babies.

We closed the screen door, and the sliding glass door too, and watched the babies make themselves at home in our back yard. They found a wiffle ball to pounce on, and one tried to stand with all four paws on our Mickey soccer ball. Then, I imagine they must be boys, they all decided to wrestle. We tried to get pics, but Ben wouldn't let me go outside to do it, so we have glare and night lighting issues going on. I wanted so badly to wake up the boys and show them the wild life circus in our back yard :)
Every night now I wait to see if I can hear them in that tree again. Ben fixed the loose plank in the fence... but the whole fence is so deteriorated that they will find another week plank and be through in no time.

Good news is.... no more bees :P

Dino Mountain.... Round 3?

We decided to go to Dino Mountain with Dana while Ben was at Young Men's last week. When I told Roman that Dana was going with us, he said: "I know a fun joke to tell to Dana. Let's tell her to stop in front of the spitting dinosaur so that we can take a picture. Then when she is waiting for us to take the picture, it will spit on her!" So cute. Isn't it nice that I am encouraging him to scheme and play jokes on people :)

One poor girl was completely terrified and cried at the first dinosaurs and had to leave. I actually felt worse for her poor sister who also had to leave, even though she wasn't scared. My boys however love the dinos!

Dana is always great company and a lot of fun. We are so lucky to have family close by.

But I think I am done with Dino Mountain for a few years :P

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

Sometime last week, Aaron discovered the cat toys hanging from the cat bed. (Side note, the cat sleeps every where except her cat bed.) He was thrilled when Jillian came over and he could show off his new toy. Jillian also thought the jingling balls where pretty exciting, and soon they were both in the cat bed. Sweet Jilli was good enough to turn around and pose for a few of the pics, obviously she has been well trained :)

The Original Playpen

Not sure why, but it seems that every baby loves a good laundry basket! This was the only way that I could confine him one day while I swept the floors. He had a blast, I debated leaving him in it the rest of the day :P