Life with Lila

One challenge we faced with this birth is that labor was too fast for me to get the antibiotics I needed because I tested positive for Strep B.  We didn’t know this until later in the day when the nurse came in and told us that they had to take the baby to do some blood tests.  Then they came back after a couple of hours and said that they were going to have to give Lila two rounds of antibiotics since I hadn’t gotten them in time.  They would be given over the course of the next 24 hours several times.  So, the first day, poor Lila spent most of her time in the nursery.  And she was poked several times before they could get a good IV in. 

Then on day 2, she started looking a little yellow.  Hector noticed it first.  We asked that they test his bilirubin level, and sure enough, she was high for her age.  So we had an awesome night nurse, named Joni, who helped me pump and syringe feed Lila extra colostrum to try to flush out the bilirubin.  Well, they tested her the next day, and it appeared that her numbers had leveled out, so they sent us home.  Unfortunately, the next day, they went up, and we got the wonderful home bililight again.  I’m not complaining though, because even though we had to do that for a few days, we didn’t have to go back to the hospital to put her under the big light!   

Since we’ve been home, things have been great.  Especially after we were cleared of the jaundice.  One thing that’s very different about her from her brother, she loves to eat!  She’s far ahead of schedule for weight gain.   We took her to get a sonogram last week, and it looks like she has reflux just like her brother, but that’s ok.  We’ve been through that once, so we are better equipped to handle it.  Things definitely seem to run smoother with #2.  She eats and sleeps better than Ben did.  She eats a lot more than Ben did!  One interesting difference is that she just now is willing to take a pacifier and does so very sparingly.  Ben loved his.  Hopefully that means separation will be easier down the line.  For now, it means she’s a little more difficult to please when it’s not feeding time.  Actually, for the first couple of weeks, I fed her pretty much any time she fussed.  Thus, the overweight issue.  So, we’ve toned the feedings down a tad.

Overall, we love being a family of 4.  Hector has been a life saver.  I don’t know how I would have done this without him.  He’s taken 6:30AM morning duty with Ben, and has taken Ben to do a ton of fun things, like Six Flags, the Zoo, and the Dallas Vigilantes, not to mention swimming just about every night.   It’s been a wonderful summer so far.  We are so blessed to have our baby girl here.  Ben loves her as much as we do.  His melt downs have definitely gone up a notch, but at least they’re directed towards us instead of her! 

Thank you Lord for the perfect family you’ve given us.  Hector and I are so humbled by the honor of raising these two precious children for your Glory!  Please continue to guide our steps. 

Lila Grace Santiago has arrived!

OK.  So, I'm obviously not very good at this blogging thing, considering my last post was four months ago.  In my defense, I've been a little busy.  So, I'll do my best to sum up what's happened since my last post.

As I've mentioned before, this pregnancy was really hard on me.  My poor husband had to deal with no cooking and very little cleaning for the second half of it.  I was exhausted all the time.  It's like I had a bad case of mono.  I don't know what I would have done without my mother.  Thanks to her, my son remained in one piece, and groceries stayed in the house!  Any home cooking we did get was from her or one of the sweet ladies from church.

At 32 weeks, I went on modified bed rest.  I was supposed to stay on bed rest until 37 weeks, to try to prevent Lila from coming earlier than Ben did, since the second often comes sooner than the first.  I didn't change much at first, but at 34 weeks, my body really started telling me to stay down, so I did.  That is until 36 weeks and 3 days.  That was the day Ben was born in my first pregnancy.  So, I thought to myself, this one is going to be different.  I had actually convinced myself that I was going close to full term this time.  So that day, we went out to Lewisville for Hector's mom's 60th birthday.  We went to Chili's for dinner, and didn't leave until about 10:30PM.  We were standing outside saying goodbye to his family, and I finally told him that I was exhausted and had to go.  On the way home, I told him that if he wanted me to go into labor, I just needed a day or two more like that!

Typically I went to bed around 9PM.  That night, I didn't get to sleep until midnight.  And guess what happened at 1AM?  Yep, you guessed right.  My water broke!  It was the strangest feeling, because it woke me up out of a dead sleep.  I jumped out of that bed so fast that I didn't get a drop on the sheets.  Go me!   You would think that the second time I would be much calmer.  But I wasn't.  I ran to the bathroom.  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  After weeks of saying that I was so ready for her to get here, I kept saying to myself, I'm so not ready yet, I'm so not ready yet!  But I knew it was time.  So this time, instead of yelling at Hector from the bathroom.  (My water broke with Ben at 8AM while I was on the toilet.  Very clean way to do it!), I crawled up next to him in bed and gently woke him up to tell him.  His response was the same as it was with Ben - "You're kidding.  No you're not. Stop lyin'.  Don't mess with me." The only difference was, this time he didn't think I was just saying that to try to get him up for church!

So, we called Mom and Dad to come over and watch Ben while we went to the hospital.  The story continued just like Ben's.  When the nurse checked me, I was only 2 CM dialated.  At first, she couldn't even tell that my water had broken.  Lila was blocking the flow.  (Sorry to be so graphic).  We she finally saw that it had, they checked me into a room and put me on Pitocin.  Last labor, Pitocin and I didn't get along.  I didn't think I would need it this time, because I was having contractions on my own once I got to the hospital.  But get this.  The nurse said my contractions were too close together, so they needed Pitocin to stabilize them.  I told her I would be fine with Pitocin if she promised to give me the epidural as soon as I asked, even if I hadn't dialated past a 2.  She agreed.  And sure enough, my labor wasn't progressing and I needed an epidural at a 2.  My anathesiologist was awesome.  My epidural was perfect.  I could still feel my legs and even lift my hips, but felt no pain for most of the labor.  Several hours past and I was still at a 2.  When she checked me at 7AM, I was still at a 2.  Then I told her, I was feeling pressure, so she checked me again about 8:30, and said "let me recheck to make sure I'm right".  I thought she was going to tell me that I was still at a 2.  Instead, she tells me I'm complete. I said "huh?".  She said, "Well, about a 9 1/2".  No one but Mom and Hector were at the hospital at that point, because everyone including the nurse and doctor thought I would deliver around lunch.  She mom got on the phone to get Dad, Ang, and Sav up to the hospital asap.

Everyone made it in time.  Lila Grace Santiago came into the world at 9:01AM.  She weighed 16 lbs 15.8 oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.  Delivery was fast.  I pushed through about 3 contractions with the nurse and then about 2 with the doctor for a total of about 15 minutes.  My epidural had worn off some, but I was glad it did, because I felt the delivery which was really cool, even though a little painful.  No bruising, no trouble breathing.  A healthy baby girl!

OK.  What happened after delivery is going to be in a separate post.  This is getting ridiculously long! :)

Another Mass Update including potty training, Ben's big boy room, it's a girl, and Hector's job update

So, the further along i get in my pregnancy, the further apart my blogs get.  Any extra time I have I spend sleeping.  So, I have a lot to catch up on.  I'm now 26 weeks pregnant.  I look like I'm about 34 weeks, but that's ok.  I was big with Ben too.  Before I got any bigger, I had two goals:  to get Ben potty trained and to move him into his big boy room.  I knew potty training would be physically hard on me, and I wanted him to have plenty of time in his new room before the baby came.   I'm thrilled to say potty training is completed, and Ben is loving his big boy room. 

Hector did an incredible job on it.  He definitely went above and beyond. We converted the guest bedroom into his room, so the baby can have the nursery.  He painted a different sport on each wall.  We have a basketball court, with a real rim.  A baseball wall, with Ben's name in wooden letters (customized with Ranger decor), and a poster of the ball park, along with a huge painted baseball. Another wall is a football field, with the yardage marked and everything.  It also has a huge score board customized with a clock and a "Ben" vs. "Them" chalkboard score area.  The last wall doesn't have a lot of room because of the closet and the door.  So Hector did a basketball, football, and baseball, and then did shadow figures playing soccer with a really cool soccer ball in the middle.  Then on the back of the door, he did a tennis court.  It looks awesome.  Now we just need to add a scripture to the wall, and we'll be set.  We plan to put "This is my son, whom I love.  In him, I am well pleased!"  I love the thought of him receiving that every day.  Hector worked so hard, but I think it was totally worth it to see how proud Ben is of his awesome room.

We did the 3 day potty training approach at the end of February.  Ben was 28 1/2 months.   It was absolute madness the first day.  I thought I had lost my mind to attempt such insanity.  It basically involved letting Ben run around in his diaper and a shirt, and I was supposed to catch every accident in progress.  Needless to say, we made many a messy dash to the potty.  By day 2 it was a little better.  It actually ended up taking us 5 days instead of 3, and even then, we had to watch him pretty closely.  He wasn't very good at telling us verbally.  We had to pick up his nonverbals.  He's got it down now though.  It's been about a month, and he's only had one or two night time accidents since week one, no day time accidents.  So the program works.  But I would call it Bootcamp Potty training instead of 3 day.  For girls maybe.  For boys, not so much.

Oh yeah, I guess another update is in order... I'm having a girl!! We're really excited.  We would have been thrilled either way, but it's going to be great to have one of each, since we were stopping at 2 no matter what.  Her name is Lila Grace Santiago.  We found out at 20 weeks.  We almost didn't though.  She was crossing her legs tighlyt.  The sonographer said that based on what I had told her about my difficulty in this pregnancy combined with how difficult she was being in the sonogram, she knew I was having a girl.  It was really funny.  Finally, Lila confirmed it.  We got three good pictures to prove her femininity!  Hector was speechless.  It was too cute.  After I helped him out of the chair, he ran out to the car to make calls.  I had to grab a kiss on his way out.  He was a little preoccupied.   We're not exactly sure how we're going to handle this little girl, but we're excited to find out. 

I think Ben really understands that she's coming.  He watches Baby Story with me, and I explain what's going on.  I fastforward through the screaming labor!  When I point to my tummy and say "Who's in there?"  He says "Baby sister".  I say, "what's sister's name?" and he says, "Lala".   It is too cute.  Especially since Dad used to call Aunt Lila "lala".   When we pray with him at night, we ask him if he wants to thank God for anyone or anything.  He almost always starts with "lala".  He's also getting way more clingy to me.  The bigger I get, the more he wants me to hold him.  I think he knows what's going on, or at least that something strange is going on. 

Hector is in the process of painting the nursery.  We had planned on keeping it the same because it's somewhat gender neutral, but when we found out we were having a girl, Hector caved.  He said he had to give her her own room.  So pink and green it is.  Butterflies and flowers.  Can't wait to see how it turns out.  We got her entire set at babies are us for 70% off.  It was my favorite set and just happened to be on clearance.  I think God might have had a hand in that!

Good grief.  Another update I forgot.  We found out in February that AISD was going to lay off all probationary teachers at the end of the year because the state had significantly reduced education budgets for the districts.  Well, that group includes my husband.  It was really interesting though.  When we found out, we were really at peace about it.  Both of us were more concerned about the other.  But God's been so faithful in providing, and He so directly led us to Bailey, we just knew everything was going to be ok.  If he didn't want us at Bailey anymore, we were excited to see where he would take us.  Well, after much debate at the school board meetings and a march on the capitol, things are still up in the air.  Hector is supposed to find out for sure by April 18th.  But it looks like he might get to stay where he is.  He has an awesome principle that doesn't want to lose him.  She's fighting hard to keep him.  Either way, we'll be great.  But it's need to see how valued he is!

God is faithful and He has been and continues to be so good to us.  As I always say, I am completely undeserving but unbelievably grateful!  Thank you Lord for your goodness and your grace.

I'm a wuss

So, I know after you have a baby, you forget all the pain you went through to have him.  That must have definitely happened with Ben, because in hindsight, I remember my first pregnancy as being a breeze compared to this one.  I know it wasn't.  i know I had my fair share of nausea and aches, but nothing like I'm dealing with this time.  In the last 3 years, I've turned into a complete wuss.  This time around, my allergies are outrageous.  My hormones are worse.  And my energy level in through the floor.  I had another day yesterday where I could swear I either had a bug or food poisoning.  I thought I was in better shape going into this pregnancy, but maybe not.  It sure doesn't feel that way.  I'm wondering if that is a foreshadowing of this child's personality.  Is he/she going to be one that likes to shake things up, push the envelope, drive his/her parents nuts.  It definitely seems as though the will of this child is stronger than Ben's.  It will be interesting to see his/her personality when he/she comes out.  I have so much to be thankful for, and this pregnancy is a breeze compared to others I know.  I just have to keep my hormones in check and keep perspective.  Thank you Lord for this life growing inside me and for the challenges I'm facing in bringing him/her into the world.  It will make his/her entrance that much more special!

So much to catch up on

I can't believe September 30th was my last post.  Time has flown by the past several months.  So much has happened that I should have been writing about, but I haven't had any time or energy to do it.  So, today, I'll do my best to catch you all up.

October 12 - Ben's 2nd birthday.  We had a Texas Rangers theme.  And little did we know, the Rangers would be playing in the playoffs that night.  I think it was against Tampa Bay.  This was Ben's family party.  The house was packed.  We set up a baseball field in the front yard and Ben had a great time playing with Paxton and Caleb.  It was a wonderful night.  Ben had more gifts than he knew what to do with.  Hector, Craig, and James had to leave at 8:30 to go play in a softball game the team would have had to forfeit without them.  About everyone else left that same time as well, so Ben and I wrapped up the evening cuddled up on the couch watching the Rangers beat Tampa Bay.  It was the perfect end to the night.

October 23 - Ben's scheduled friend birthday party.  I was so excited about this party.  It was going to be a Fresh Beat Band theme.  We had FBB decorations coming out the wazzoo.  We had a FBB pinata, special ordered, and we had personalized invitations that looked like FBB concert tickets.  The tickets were sent out, RSVPS were in, and then October 14th hit.  We were in New Braunfels for the Life Challenge.  It was our first night there.  Ben woke up at about 1AM throwing up.  He then proceeded to throw up 16 more times through the night.  Hector and I took turns sleeping sitting up so that we could just lean him over when he would puke.  It was awful.  Definitely our worst sick night with him yet.  We took him to the doctor the next day, and he said that the cold he had morphed into a stomach virus and could last up to 7 days.  He gave us phinergen just in case he started back up.  The next night he did fine.  It looked like we were in the clear.  Then Saturday night came, and Dad and I both started puking.  Mind you, we were running this deal.  The next morning was worship followed by our wrap up,  our favorite part of the weekend.  Dad attempted to do the worship but had to go lay down b/c he was so sick.  I had started earlier in the night, so I was doing better than he was (for adults this appeared to be a 12 hour bug), so I did the wrap up.  It went ok, but wasn't the same without dad.  Oh, and did I mention, our friend Kim Avis got sick too, and later we found out two other people from the Challenge did on the way home.  Oh what a child can start!  Oh, and btw, Ben puked again that night.  And then again on the way home, ALL over his carseat.  We had to pull over to the side of the road and it took hector almost an hour to get it cleaned up.  It was nasty.  That started the first of about 6 more nights of throwing up for Ben, and he would throw up about the same time each night.  But after a week, we started wondering what else it could be.  Mom suggested that it might be his reflux.  Come to find out, that's what it was.  His virus had triggered a recurrence of his reflux.  So, the first day was a bug, but every night after that was his reflux.  Since then, he's had to be back on his medicine to keep it under control. :(  So, needless to say, we didn't get to have our friend party.  And it took us so long to recover physically, mentally, and house wise from this junk that we decided not to reschedule.  The family party was plenty!  Ok.  moving on.

October 21st - One thing I didn't realize when I was throwing up at the Ranch was that I was already a couple of weeks pregnant.  I hadn't had time to get a pregnancy test b/c i had been taking care of Ben.  I didn't want Hector to get one b/c if i was I wanted it to be a surprise for him.  Finally, on my way out of town for business with Dad on the 21st, I took a test.  And sure enough, it was positive.  I didn't even have time to absorb the results, b/c we had to get on a plane to go to McAllen.  Once we got there, I took another test just to be sure.  The results were the same.  This was technically an unplanned pregnancy.  Hector and I originally planned to start trying in September because that would make the baby due at the beginning of summer, when he could be off of school.  Because of that, and some issues I was having with my birth control, I went ahead and got off of it.  But then we decided that we needed to wait another year.  We just weren't ready yet.  Well, I think God liked our initial plan better because that's how it happened.  I am now 16 weeks pregnant!  I'm through the first trimester.  Besides extreme fatigue, two stomach bugs, severe allergies and the worst cold I've ever had, I've been great!  Mild morning sickness has been the least of my worries.  We find out in a month what we're having.  We're very torn.  We would love another boy.  We know how boys work.  We're more comfortable with boys.  But we also think it would be fun to have a little girl.  I always wanted a boy first and then a girl.  So really, there's no losing.  We will be thrilled either way!

December 25th - From the time I found out until now, we've been consumed getting ready for Christmas.  This year was so much fun!  Ben was old enough to really get excited about Santa Claus.  We went to see Christmas lights, watching Christmas movies, read Christmas books.  You name it.  If it had to do with Christmas, we were there.  We saw Santa twice.  Ben didn't cry either time, but the 2nd time he actually smiled!  Both times he talked about Santa for hours afterwards.  On Christmas day, he got so much stuff, mainly in the Toy Story, Wonder Pets, Handy Manny and Mickey Mouse arena.  Those are his favorites!  He would have been content with a fraction of the gifts that he got, but he loved them all!  We actually set a few back because we didn't want to press our luck and have him open up to many and get frustrated.  It actually worked out perfect because for the next several days, he would go to the tree and pick one up and say "present please".  and we'd open up another one.  He was so well behaved and so polite.  It couldn't have gone better.  The Monday after Christmas is when i got my 2nd stomach bug, followed by the worst cold I've ever had.  Ben threw up once too.  Tuesday, Hector had to take him to the doctor, and ended up that he had an ear and an eye infection.  So we're not sure if he had the bug, or if it was just part of his infection.

So, that brings us to today.  I'm finally feeling better.  Ben appears to be well.  Things seems to be getting back to some version of normal.  Oh, one other thing, Hector has started converting our guest room into Ben's toddler room so that he can be out of the nursery long before the baby comes.  Hopefully, that will be done in the next month or so.  He is creating a sports themed masterpiece, so I can't wait to see the finished product!  By March, we plan to have him in his new room and potty trained!  So, I'm sure there will be some entertaining posts in the near future!  Sorry for the length, but there was a lot to catch up on!

Like Father, Like Son

So, this past week, I had the first experience of Ben truly inheriting a specific quirk from his father.  Since I've known Hector, he's always like to have his back scratched/touched.  He always asks me, "please touch my back".  Strange I know.  Doesn't even really care if I scratch it, just as long as I touch it.  And sometime, he's almost panicky about it, not taking no for an answer.

Well, the other night, I was putting Ben to sleep in his big boy bed.  We're moving from the rocking stage to the put your self to sleep stage.  I told him to lay down, which he did.  I sat there next to his bed singing.  Within seconds, he said "back".  I waited.  He said it again.  So I started lightly rubbing his back.  Then after a few minutes, I stopped.  Immediately he says "back", with a major emphasis on the "ck"!  So I did it again.  Then I stopped again, long after he should have fallen asleep, and I hear "back" again!  This time I told him no, that he needed to go to sleep, and he proceeded to try to rub his own back!  Oh my goodness, he is his father's son!  It warmed my heart and made me smile.  I couldn't resist it.  I rubbed his back until he went to sleep!  Right now it's so incredibly cute.  In a few years, it may drive me nuts having two back rubbing crazies in my house! :)

Willy the Wilcat

Last weekend we went to see Sav at ACU in Freshman Follies.  She did great!  While we were there, we decided to catch the football game.  Caleb had never been to a college football game and wanted to go.  We had a great time, hector, me, caleb and ben.  Ben loved it!  Surprise surprise.  He loves football too!  Except he doesn't say football.  He says spit ball.  But he really spits.  I'll post video soon to show you.  It's hilarious.  Anyway, he watched as ACU killed the other team by 40 points at the half.  They are really good this year.  In the third quarter, Willy the Wildcat decided to come into the stands to take a picture with us.  Ben was in awe.  He didn't really want to touch him when he was a round, but the minute he started to leave, Ben wanted to follow him.  He kept saying, "where wiyyi?" over and over.  I finally went down to the front row to get Willy's attention.  He came over and said hi again.  Ben was so excited.  Since then, there hasn't be much talk about the blue dot.  Now it's all about Willy!  "where wiyyi".  "wiyyi home"  "wiyyi ni ni".  So now I need to track down a wildcat stuffed animal to get Ben for his birthday.  That should be easier to find than a blue dot!  More fun memories with our sweet son!

Time with Granny

Now a days, it seems like every day with Ben is something fun and special.  He has developed such a personality and he is now saying three word sentences!  I can't believe it.  It's like he's become this little boy overnight.  We're about to start potty training!  Crazy!

Well, the other day, we had an extra special morning.  Ben and I dropped Hector off at work and went to see Granny at the Waterford.  Typically, Ben is pretty apprehensive when we're there, but this day, he was a riot!  He was all smiles and was playing with Granny so well.  She was thrilled.  I actually got a little choked up over it.  Granny has played such a special role in my life, and I'm so thankful that Ben is getting to spend time with her.  Fortunately, I captured some sweet memories of this morning on camera!

Blue Dot Bye Bye?

So a couple of months ago, we bought tickets to a Ranger game, even though it really wasn't in our budget, because the kid promotion for the game was a chest protector backpack. One we knew Ben had to have! So a couple of weeks ago, we weathered the heat to sit through this afternoon game. The first few innings were brutally hot, but it was all worth it because Ben had his backpack and was very proud of it. It was bigger than he was, as you'll see in the pictures, but it was so cute on him. As the innings went by, the weather got cooler. We were having a great time. A couple of Hector's friends from Crowley came with us. They bought Ben a foam finger and a batters helmet! He loved the foam finger especially!

Then the 7th inning came, and so did the dot race. Ben was sitting in my lap, and I started to root for the blue dot, like I always do. Ben started cheering with me... "Go Blue". Blue won the race! And then all the dots left the field. This was very disturbing to Ben. I kid you not, for the rest of the game, "Blue? Blue? Blue bye bye?" Over and over again. I don't think he saw another ball pitched. He kept pointing to the back entrance that they ran out of. Even driving away from the ballpark he was adamant about going back to see blue. We had to explain to him that the game was over and blue went night night.

So now, two weeks later, he still wants to know where blue is. We've shown him the dot race on youtube several times to appease him. If only there were a blue dot stuffed doll. He would be in heaven!

Tuesday was Ben's first day of school, and he wore his Ranger backpack. It's about the cutest picture I've ever seen. I'll post it as soon as I figure out how to sinc my new phone!

Back to Sanity

I can't believe it's been three months since I've written an update. The summer was great but it completely got me out of my routine. Dishes went undone, laundry stayed dirty, refrigerator was empty, and my blog went unupdated! But we had fun. June through mid July was the busiest our lives have been in years. Trip after trip, and camp after camp. Finally in August we got some down time. Just enough for Hector and I to remember why we both don't stay home all year! We were about ready to lovingly kill each other!

So here goes my update! Over the past three months, Ben has grown so much! He is no longer anemic, thank goodness. He is right on track with his words. Newest additions include pen, paper, chips, outside and glove. His favorites are hot, cold, ball, bat, glove, and ouch! He can also call most of my family by name: dada, mama, yaya, nana, mimi, angie, KK, and sassa (for sassy). Now we just need to work on Hector's family.

He loves baseball as much as he ever did, and he's getting better at it. He now has all the proper equipment - balls, bats, gloves, batters gloves, batters helmets and bases. Notice all of those words are plural. He has more than one of each! He also has mastered the slide. So now every time he hits the ball, he slides and waits for us to call him safe. He chooses to watch baseball over cartoons every time. He also mimicks both the batter and pitcher perfect. He adjusts his helmet, does practice swings, taps the plate, and spits just like the batter! And he holds his glove, hikes his leg, throws and scratches his face with the glove just like the pitcher. It's amazing how observant he is!

He's also moved into a big boy bed. Actually, we converted his crib into a big boy bed. We had to after the 3rd or 4th time he climbed out of the crib and came running into the den. It was a rocky transition. He kept waking up and coming into our room. Finally, we had to put a baby gate on his bedroom door and let him scream it out. More than one night, he actually slept on the floor by the gate after he fell asleep screaming. We felt like such bad parents, but we had to do it for his sanity and ours! Now he still get's up occassionally, but it takes him much less time to go back to sleep. The only problem is, he's established a new wake up time of 6AM. A little early for mom, but at least it gets my day started bright and early!

Another fun thing this summer, Ben learned how to swim. He took 9 swim lessons over 11 weeks (we missed 2) and whoa-la, he can swim. He can hold his breath for 10 seconds under water and swim about 10 feet. It is really cool! He used to hate getting splashed and now we have to put him in time out for jumping in without us being ready.

He has such a great personality. He's pretty intense like his mom, especially when he's playing softball. He's beginning to show signs of the terrible twos. He's developed a growl that he uses when he's really mad. He uses it alot when I won't give him chips, his favorite food right now. If it were up to him, that's all he would ever eat. He loves wrestling with his dad, and working out with mom (who is currently doing P90x!) He does a great push up. It's so cute. When he gets tired of me working out, he crawls underneath my pushup or upward dog if it's yoga!

He starts school next week, so I can't wait to see how much more he develops. It's been so hot this summer we've been stuck inside or in the pool. Can't wait to head back out to the park. Hopefully, the temps will cool down soon.

I don't have any pics because my computer crashed and this is a new one. But I'll post them from Hector's computer when I get a chance.

One last update - Hector's teaching at Bailey Junior High in Arlington!!! Praise God. We are so excited. He had his first day yesterday and it went great. He works exactly 3 minutes from our house. What a nice change from the 30 minute commute last year. Ben and I are so excited to get to support the Bailey Rams! We're very proud of our husband/dad!

Ben's on Track

So Early Childhood Intervention came on Tuesday to assess Ben's progress in verbal, social, and motor skills. The main reason they came was for verbal, but they always do all three when they come. Anyway, they told us what we already knew. Ben is just fine. Praise God.

For social and verbal skills, he scored like a 17 month old. For fine motor, he was a little behind (this includes drawing, etc), but for gross motor, he was way ahead (his baseball skills). For cognitive, he actually scored like a 22 month old. So basically, he is aware of everything and knows a lot for his age, something else we already knew! :) They told us to try to spend more time letting him draw and color to work on his fine motor skills. The problem is right now he has no interest in it. But we'll keep trying. For verbal skills, they told us to make sure Ben is looking at us when we talk to him. They said he is very focused and intense when he's doing something and tends to not look at people. They said that a child's verbal skills develop a lot by seeing your lips move. Very interesting. Anyway, because Ben was a preterm baby, a small delay is expected, so they weren't worried at all. They said that he does animals sounds that a lot of 2 year olds don't do, and they expect him to develop drastically in the next couple of months.

I can't wait! But I also want everything to slow down! Today, he said "hot" and "nose" for the first time. They told me his vocabulary will be expanding daily. Crazy! Since my last blog entry, he also started saying "mo" for remote when he wants to watch his shows, and he uses it adamantly!

He's also started a nightly wrestling routine with his dad. It is priceless. He jumps on Hector like he's trying to pin him. I'll have to get it on video. For such a mellow sweet kid, he's one mean wrestler. Hector has the marks to prove it! :) He's 100% boy, that's for sure!

I'm just as thankful as ever for my awesome men. And I'm extra thankful tonight that our concerns about Ben's development are now layed to rest. To God be the glory!

Look Who's Talking!

Last month I took Ben in for his 18 month check up. Everything went great, except the doctor was a little concerned about how much he was talking. She asked me how many words he was saying. I said, he says "gugar" for sugar, "ba" for ball, and ocassionally will refer to me and hector as ma ma and da da. But that everything else was either that strange sound he makes in the back of his throat or "da". I asked how many words he should be saying, and she said 15-18. Needless to say, he was not even close to that.

So she recommended we have someone from Early Childhood Intervention come out to do a home assessment of his verbal skills. She said while they were there they would also assess his motor and social skills. I'm not at all concerned about motor, but verbal and social I was definitely curious about. She said that if they found that Ben needed any speech therapy or any other support, it would be free through AISD. So we set up an appt that was supposed to happen last Thursday. But Ben was really sick all week so we had to reschedule it for next Tuesday.

Well, I guess he doesn't like the thought of being assessed, because since his 18 month check up, which was almost 4 weeks ago, his vocabulary has expanded a bit. He now says "no" "mo" for more, "ba" for bat, "uice" for juice, "yaya", "nana", "sassa" for Savannah, "uh oh", "bye bye", "side" for outside and "be" for Fresh Beat Band. I'm tempted to cancel the appointment, but I'm going to keep it just to see what they think. It's so cool to see how quickly he's developing. It's also freaking me out a little!

For the Love of Baseball

OK, so Ben has taken his love for baseball to a totally new level. We were at Hector's softball game a couple of weeks ago, and he was just as plugged in as ever. He watched the the whole game. When they were finished playing, Ben insisted that Hector give him a bat and let him hit the ball. He did that for about 20 minutes until Hector had to pick him up and put him in his carseat... with the bat.

Hector went out with the guys, and Ben and I went home. For the next three hours Ben reenacted the softball game. Everything around him was either a ball or a bat. At first I didn't realize what he was doing. He started swinging his shape sorter around and kept hitting his shapes with it. Then when we got in the bath, he used two toothbrushes as a bat and his bath toy as a ball. I would hold the toy like a tee ball, and he would hit it out of my hand. This went on for almost an hour. When I made him get out of the bath, he picked up his recorder, as a bat, and used a megablock as a ball. I don't know how his arms weren't exhausted!

Well that was a couple of weeks ago, and he's still at it. He's used batteries, sticks, forks, pens, you name it as bats. It's like he sees everything through baseball eyes! Every time we go outside, he wants to play. He actually tried to hit weeds out of my hand today! We've been to two more games since then, and he's just as plugged in. Everyone thinks he is so cute! They can't believe how advanced he is. We're looking at putting him in a class called Lil' Sluggers. They start teaching kids the fundamentals of baseball at 2! We'll wait and see if he loves it then as much as he does now! If so, that class will be a must!

Swing Batter Batter!

Ben and I went to see Hector play softball last Thursday night, and it was about the sweetest thing I've ever seen! It was the first time that I've really seen Ben want to be just like daddy. He was plugged into the whole game. For the first few innings, he just starred at the field and didn't move. He watched every play. Then he started yelling and clapping. Most of his yelling happened to take place right before the opponents would swing... oops! I was afraid the ump was going to say something. And every time Hector would walk on and off the field, Ben would wave and/or yell at him. It was so sweet.

Then in the second to the last inning, he wanted to get down. I thought, that's it, he's done. He's tired of watching. But he wasn't. He just wanted to get down so he could stand on the bleacher, with one leg propped on the step in front of him (just like his daddy does) and cheer even louder. It was so precious, and no one was there to see it but me! There were times during the game when he would take my hand and point to different players on the field so that I would explain to him what they were doing. I couldn't believe he was really comprehending the game. I had a major mother moment. I almost started crying.

So after the game, Hector gave Ben a bat and he started swinging it and hitting the ball like it was a hockey puck. He loved it! He didn't want to leave. He started crying when Hector picked him up and made him get in the car. The next day, Hector set up a bases outside in the driveway and started pitching to Ben. He's got a ways to go, but I think he's off to a good start.

Easter Fun

This year, Easter was so much fun with Ben. He is at such a neat age. Every day he seems to develop more of a personality. A couple of weeks before Easter, Mom, Ben and I went to the Dallas Arboretum with Noah, Ellie and her Mom. We had a ball. The boys had so much fun running around and playing together. I think Ben’s favorite was the petting zoo! He didn’t really want to pet any of the animals. For him, it should have been call the starring zoo! That’s all he did is stare at them. But he sure cried when we left. That’s actually when we knew he was really enjoying himself! We tried to get his face painted, but he was having none of it! We also got his picture taken with a live bunny. I thought he would love it! Not so much. As you can see in the pictures, he was doing his best not to touch it. But we got some cute pictures anyway!

We also decided to try dying Easter eggs this year. We thought it would be a disaster, but it worked out great! Ben did awesome. He definitely got his hands dyed too, but that’s about it. He didn’t try to pick up the cups and he handled the eggs very carefully. I was so glad we did it. The only problem is, the other day I got eggs out to make corn bread, and he cried for the eggs! Uh oh.

Easter egg hunting was not really Ben’s deal. His mellow self came shining through. He had more fun watching everyone else. I think Jesse put more eggs in Ben’s basket than Ben did! He sure looked cute doing it though! Easter is the one time of year we splurge on a nice Sunday outfit for Ben! He was totally decked out this year.