Chillin in the Bounce House

Last night we went to Hector's teacher picnic. Ben is typically pretty serious when he meets people but then warms up fairly quickly. Last night, there was no warming up. People tried and tried. He was just plain crabby. There were two other babies his age there, and they were both smiling away. Ben didn't care. He kept his frown on the whole time. I think we cracked a semi smile once or twice. And of course these are people that Hector sees everyday, but Ben and I only see a few times a year. Oh well, we got some really cute pictures, even though Ben wasn't smiling in most of them. One picture in particular reminds me so much of my baby pictures. I used to make that same exact face. Let's see if you can guess which picture I'm talking about!

SUFC - Santiago Ultimate Fighter Club

So, Caleb came over the other night to hang out and swim. And as you all know, Caleb is a martial arts king, so Hector and I decided to take him on in a little Ultimate Fighting challenge of our own. We started out strong, but then things got ugly. As you can see by the pictures, Hector and I needed some serious help, so Ben had to step in and save the day! Then he decided to put daddy in an armbar just for fun. Such talent at such an early age. Randy Cotour, watch your back!

Day at the Museum

We had another great day as a family. This time we went with Ellie and Noah to the Fort Worth Museum of History and Science. It's actually closed for renovation, but they moved the kids portion over to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. It cost $8 per person to go, but when we got there they told us it was Family Free Friday from 3-7, so we didn't have to pay anything. We got there minutes before 3 and were the first in line, so it was perfect. Very quickly however we discovered how many people take advantage of this great deal. So we didn't stay long because it got packed quick. But we were there long enough to get some great pictures of the boys. I think Ben's a natural cowboy. How about you? Hector got a kick out of the rice maker picture. He said with Ben being Puerto Rican he better learn how to do that! My favorite is the teepee picture where the boys are both like "what the heck"! Anyway, fun times!

Trip to the Gardens

Today was a great family day. Hector wanted us to get out of the house and decided to drive to Fort Worth. First we visited the Water Gardens. Hector and Ben had never been there. The first garden was more like a bunch of sprinklers. It wasn't very impressive to Ben. But then we moved to the main garden and he was mesmerized. Hector walked him down in it and we got some great pictures. He just starred at the water the whole time. He liked the third garden because he actually got to touch the water! It was hot and sticky outside but it was a lot of fun. The only bummer was that there was a memorial of where the 4 people had died in 2004 when they drowned in the garden. 3 of them were kids. So sad.

Then we left there and went to the Botanic Gardens. None of us had been there. It was incredible. We only made it to the Rose Garden and Native Forest Area because Ben had had enough. We are definitely going to go back to see the rest. We plan to make a day of it and bring a picnic lunch. Our favorite part was the pond in the Rose Garden. They had huge coy and turtles all over the place. We fed them Ben's puffs and they ate them up. I don't think i've ever seen a turtle that big. And it wasn't very friendly looking. I think it was one of those snapping turtles! Hector loves turtles, but after his last ownership attempt, we won't try that again. Maybe fish when Ben get's old enough to appreciate them!

Anyway, I'm so thankful to have a husband who makes these kind of days happen and makes sure we have the camera to document it. Sweet memories!

Take me out to the ball game

We just got back from taking Ben to his first Ranger game. Mom got Dad tickets for his birthday and they were kind enough to invite us! It was so much fun. We got Ben all decked out in his Jersey and cap. We even packed his baseball to take with him. After driving around for 30 minutes trying to figure out where we were allowed to park, with mom and dad entertaining Ben in the back seat, we finally parked right where we almost parked initially but thought we weren't allowed to, go figure!

Anyway, it was a great game and Ben as always was the perfect baby. We stayed from the first pitch to the last and he never fussed once. With how much he loves to people watch, he was in heaven. We splurged and let him enjoy ballpark food, so he chowed down on a hot dog and a little bit of lemon chill! He didn't even care that it was about 100 degrees outside until the 7th inning! The only minor problem we had was that Ben loved to chew on the handheld fan that we brought. So when we would turn it on, drool would fly everywhere. The guy sitting in front of us really appreciated that one!

It was such a neat memory to create together as a family. Thanks mom and dad!

Shake what your mama gave ya

Shake what you're mama gave you!

 OK, so I learned something new yesterday. My son has a natural gift of dance! We had some friends over last night for dinner, they have a daughter a couple months younger than Ben. The two of them were playing in the floor, and every time they hit a button on one of the toys where music began to play, Ben would start moving back and forth and shaking his head. It was the funniest thing. He was dancing. Once the music would stop, he would stop.

So tonight, he's playing on one of his toys that he loves, and he's standing up doing the same thing, but a little less gracefully. And fortunately, we caught it on tape. Be sure to watch the whole thing, because the end is the best part. This may very well be YouTube worthy.

Another new thing he's doing is making crazy faces. They are cracking us up, but we haven't been able to capture them on film yet. As soon as we do, I'll post it I promise. But he looks a lot like I did when I was little.

I'm amazed at how much he's changed and developed even this week. It's unbelievable. He's a different kid than a month ago. As challenging as parenthood can be, it's far more rewarding... an indescribable gift! Ben makes life more fun!

Hearing test.. No hearing test

So we took Ben in this morning at 7AM for his hearing test to make sure that his jaundice didn't do any long term damage. We knew going in that he was going to have to be sedated and taken back where we couldn't see him. I was pretty stressed out about it. And he couldn't eat the morning of, so we knew we were going to have to deal with a crabby hungry baby.

Well as always, our child is perfect. He was a little fussy towards the end of waiting, but a nurse came in at one point and said "Does your baby ever cry?". We said not too often. So 8AM rolls around, and they come to take him back. But before they do, they check his ears to make sure there's no fluid, especially since yesterday he finished his antibiotic for an ear infection. We knew that if there was still fluid that we would get a bad reading on the test, because fluid causes temporary hearing trouble. And of course, there is fluid. So no test after all. All of that drama for nothing.

The audiologist said that it sounds like Ben is going to need tubes and his adnoids out like Harris said. We went home and immediately scheduled an appointment on Friday to meet with the ENT doctor. And we took him in today to get his allergy testing done. By golly, we're going to get to the bottom of all this sickness!