Happy Mothers Day!

I am so happy that this little boy made me a mommy! This picture was taken in Phoenix at the Phoenix zoo, where they have this amazing fountain area for kiddos to splash in and get wet. Jeremiah LOVED IT! And I love him... oh so very much. I really do think he knows that it is a special day today. My little man is a very busy boy who spends more time exploring and playing than giving hugs and kisses (kisses are VERY VERY rare) but today he's been SO affectionate. Yesterday he spent the day with Daddy while I had a girls day out- having a very fast lunch with my gals, then we went to Paul Mitchell beauty school in Costa Mesa to get our hair cut and colored. I was gone for a good 7 or 8 hours- and when I came home he was thrilled to pieces and would not leave my side. Now, Daddy has been his "favorite" lately- everything is all "di di dada daddy daddy daddy!" all day until he comes home and plays with him. So it was very sweet and much appreciated that wanted all the attention from me when I set foot in the door =) I LOVE HIM!

I also love sleeping in. You may not think sleeping in til 9:00 is really considered "sleeping in," but when you wake up at 5:30 most mornings to babysit, and your toddler wakes up at 6:15 on the dot- 9:00 is like sleeping til noon. Louis got up with Jeremiah so I could stay in bed, and when I got up they gave me the cutest card and a Barnes and Nobles gift card! B&N.com is my new obsession. There isn't a borders or a barnes and nobles anywhere near my house so I love shopping online- especially when orders over $25 get free shipping. I'm really into collecting cookbooks lately- I think my Grandma Arlene's genes are kicking in because she had quite the collection herself. Then, in an hour we are leaving for a nice champagne brunch at the Sheraton hotel in Pomona. We took my mom there one year and I loved it. Afterwards, we are going to see my mom and then my mother in law. Busy busy day.

To answer the anonymous blogger if I"m done blogging- I"m not. I have a 3 1/2 week break from babysitting so I will have way more time and energy to blog. I usually blog during Jeremiah's naptime, which is usually when Sydney takes her main nap too, but for the past two weeks she wouldn't fall asleep until right before he woke up. And come the end of the day, like I said in my last post I was way too tired. I'm back.

Happy Mothers Day to all the wonderful mommies out there!

Exhausted

I have had absolutely no motivation to blog lately. To my faithful readers- I'm sorry! I don't know what it is about the past week and a half of babysitting Sydney but I am more exhausted than normal- which, considering Sydney's grandma wanted to watch her two days last week I am surprised at. Although... a teething six month old and a genious toddler who has recently learned how to turn the doorknobs to open the doors is enough to make anyone want to take a nap! But alas, I'm forcing myself to write right now, because I know how frustrating it is to constantly tune into your favorite blogs and not seeing an update for what seems like ages!

The countdown is officially on for my brother and Lindsey's wedding! 18 more days until I gain a sister! I'm hosting Lindsey's lingerie shower on Friday (if I get more positive RSVP's than just her mother!) and am looking forward to it =) Another thing I"m excited about- I put an ad on Craigslist expressing my need for a suit for Jeremiah (he's one of the ring bearers!) because I didn't exactly want to fork out lots of $$ for a suit for him that he would be wearing once. Someone emailed me back today saying that she would sell me her son's brand new tux, in Jeremiah's size, for only $10! Her son wore it once for her wedding. Now if only I can lose a few pounds so I can zip up my bridesmaids dress I"ll be a happy camper....

The week after Joe's wedding Louis and I are going to Vegas for another wedding! I'm sooo excited- especially since it will be a mommy and daddy only affair =) Jeremiah will be staying with his Grandma Bertha. We will be gone for 3 nights, leaving Thurs. May 28th after Louis is done working so that we will be in Vegas friday morning for him to work (yes the laptop has to come again). I don't mind though because while he's working I"m hitting the pool! Because we're getting to Vegas late on Thurs night we're going to stay at a Motel 6 that night and then Friday morning we're off to the LUXOR!! I've never stayed there, but have always wanted to, and it's Louis's favorite.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. On Saturday I made ranch chicken, one of the many things that Louis's aunt cooked for us in PA =) Sooo easy- dunk your chicken pieces (we use breast tenderloins at our house) in ranch dressing, and then again in unseasoned bread crumbs, and bake at 350 for 40 min. YUM! Then last night I made taco soup for the first time- another amazingly simple recipe. The most difficult part of that recipe is browning the ground turkey and shredding the cheese. Everything else- just open up cans of lots of goodies and boil! Louis has definitely been enjoying all of these new treats coming out of our kitchen, and I have to say that I am enjoying it as well. Hence the need for me to shed a few pounds.

Jeremiah is growing by leaps and bounds. When we were on our trip his level of chatter has exploded. Before he carefully chose if and when he would want to speak- now it's all day every day! Most of it is still babble but he is trying so hard to talk! Precious. Plus there's his new found hobby of opening doors with the door knobs, which is making us double our babyproofing and supervision. He loves to color, and his appetite is growing also. He is still primarily on stage 2 and stage 3 baby food but is starting to show a slight bigger interest in "big people" food- animal crackers, bannanas, and granola in addition to his bread, crackers, cream of wheat and cheese.

Once again I apologize for the lack of blogs as of late, and for how boring this post turned out to be. I'm kind of in a bit of a blogging rut- there is just so much going on right now that the mere thought of blogging just exhausts me! Show my blog some love though and I promise, if you do that I will blog more!!

Vacation Part 1: Virginia and Washington DC

Okay okay I know I have been really bad about blogging lately! But to my defense we did just get back from our trip on Monday, and I have been busy babysitting Sydney since Tuesday, plus getting the house back in order and Jeremiah back on a routine. So blogging has taken a back burner!

Rather than do one huge entry about our trip, I will just blog about the first half of it right now- Virginia and Washington DC.

First of all I have to mention that I am SO PROUD of how well Jeremiah did on the flights! We were so blessed to be able to use his carseat the entire way to Baltimore, and from Baltimore to Phoenix. He was incredible. Of course there was some moments of fussing but it was NOTHING compared to what I thought might happen... or would have probably happened had he been forced to sit on our laps. So in all the flights were uneventful...as was our first night in Baltimore. By the time we got our rental car and made it to our hotel it was almost 6:00 pm and we had been on the go since 3:30 am. I was beat... but I still had to take Jeremiah to Target to get his diapers and food supply that I didn't want to lug. I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the 6 percent sales tax (vs the nearly 10 percent it is here now!) Went back to the hotel, ate dinner, watched Survivor and attemptd to go to sleep. Jeremiah would not have any of his play pen that night, so he crashed with us, falling asleep to some prison documentary. Don't ask why but we always wind up watching prison documentaries or Cops when we are on vacation. We don't plan on it; it just happens.

Friday- drove an hour and a half to Leesburg VA to my Uncle Ken (Dad's brother) and Aunt Jeannie's house. Pretty much stayed there the whole day; Louis had to work. I hung out w/ Aunt Jeannie and my cousin Kyle, explored their gorgeous condo and took Jeremiah on a walk.

Saturday- rain! We were going to go to Washington DC but obviously didn't want to go in the rain. So we went to the Air and Space Museum instead. I"ve been there before and yes it was just as boring this time around as last time, but Louis enjoyed it. Then the rain cleared up and we went shopping at the outlet mall w/ my aunt Jeannie. Truth be told I wanted some "adult" time w/ her but Louis insisted on tagging along. I left him to shop w/ Jeremiah and my husband went to town... not only for himself but for me as well so I can't complain =)My husband has stellar taste and I am always pleased w/ what he chooses for me =)

Sunday- Easter! Kyle took us to Washington DC and played tour guide w/ us since Uncle Ken and Aunt Jeannie had to work (they are managers at different Bed Bath and Beyonds). It was bitter cold but a beautiful day. I keep joking that Jeremiah's future home is going to be the White House as the first Mexican American president (or half Mexican American!) Out of all the things that we saw in Washington DC Louis's favorite was the bohemith (sp?) which was a huge sloth at the museum of Natural History. My favorite was still the WWII Memorial. I can't get over how proud of I feel to be an American citizen every time I go to Washington DC (this was my third trip) and stand in the monuments. I feel so small yet a part of something so big. Obama is like a celebrity over there; I can't even tell you how much memorabilia there is around town of him, including cookies w/ his name on them at Starbucks. There was NOTHING like that for Bush when I went five years ago! Then we went to dinner at Aunt Jeannie's sister's house.

Monday- Last day! Louis and my family all had to work, so I went to Mt. Vernon w/ Marissa, her friend Meghan and Meghan's adorable daughter who is Jeremiah's age. We ate at this nice restraunt there and tried their famous peanut soup, which pretty much tasted like warm peanut butter, but I liked it. Then we went on a tour of George Washington's mansion. I can't even begin to tell you how gorgeous the property is and how beautiful the Patomic river is! I didn't stay there very long because I wanted to be on the road in time to beat the awful traffic, so most of my visit to Mt. Vernon consisted of eating lunch and waiting in line to enter the mansion.

Tuesday morning- said goodbye to Aunt Jeannie and Uncle Ken to drive up to PA... will continue w/ that later =)

Sorry I'm not going into too much detail; I'm so exhausted right now. I went to Disneyland this evening w/ Michelle, Braden and Jeremiah. I needed to get out of the house; Louis is away with his mom in AZ for the weekend for some Mariachi festival. I'm lonely and completely freaked out about staying here overnight by myself. I swear I can't sleep if Louis isn't here. Luckily tomorrow night I"m staying w/ my mom, and Sat. he should be home. I"m putting most of my pictures into an album on Facebook, but for now enjoy the few that I posted on here. Goodnight!!

Almost Home

Louis, Jeremiah and I have had a WONDERFUL vacation. It was so wonderful, in fact, that it was extended by an extra two days. We were supposed to be home last night (Sat.), however God had other plans. We made it from Baltimore to Phoenix, where our plane had a "stop over" (no getting off for those continuing to LAX). The connection from Phoenix to LAX was wide open when we left Baltimore but filled up completely while we were in transit. So, we were bumped off the flight- and told that if this were to happen that the following flight an hour later was also wide open. Yeah that one filled up as well- along with EVERYTHING until Monday morning. Praise God for us getting stranded in a city where I have amazing family! All I had to do was call my cousin Stacy and she and Mike dropped everything to come pick the three of us up, bring us to their house for the weekend and give us a heck of a good time. We loved it!

Now if we don't get on the 7:05 am flight tomorrow morning I'm going to cry. I'm ready to be home. 11 days away with a toddler is a LONG time. So yeah, please pray for that- along with our tickets. The boarding pass collector in Baltimore didn't give us back the proper documentation we as buddy pass holders needed for a possible transfer, so after half an hour of moaning and groaning about it not being our fault in Phoenix, we were given some sort of vouchers that may or may not be honored tomorrow morning. There are notes in the computer system about what happened but who knows how easily it will be taken care of. Thank you so much!

More updates to come... tomorrow =)

3:00 AM

• That is the time my alarm clock went off this morning, much to my dismay, seeing as I didn't make it into bed until nearly 11:30. Right now I am sitting in the airport, waiting to board our flight (which leaves in an hour). God has been SOOOO amazing! We were able to get on our flight just fine (standby tix, remember?) AND... this is what I"m most excited about... Jeremiah doesn't have to sit in our lap after all! There are enough empty seats that allow us to strap him into his CAR SEAT!!! PRAISE JESUS!!!!
  
  Anyway, the shuttle picked us up this morning at 4:30 with two suitcases (one of them a backpack style suitcase), our stroller, playpen, carseat, back pack, duffel bag and lunch pail in tote. Oh yeah and Jeremiah's child harness. We couldn't forget that! . We got to the airport around 5:15, went through security and ate breakfast. Apparently Jeremiah's milk was a matter of national security because we had to get it inspected and tested. Our flight leaves at 8:15, has a stop in Las Vegas (that doesn't require us to get off of the plane) and we land in Baltimore tonight around 5:15 eastern time. We are staying in Baltimore tonight rather than put Jeremiah through an additional hour and a half car ride down to my aunt and uncle's house in Leesburg VA. I'm rather excited about our hotel... we're staying at a Motel 6 (we were going for cheap over comfort) but the one we booked is brand newly remodeled complete with a 32 inch plasma tv. Looks like we'll be watching Survivor tonight!
  
  We don't have too many firm plans yet as to what we are doing when, but we are staying in VA until Tuesday and are driving up to Carlisle PA Tuesday afternoon to stay with Louis's aunt and uncle. My amazing friend Marissa is going to be in VA as well, around half an hour away from us this weekend. We are planning to get together Monday and go to Mt. Vernon. I am looking forward to finally meeting her high school friends from when she lived in Germany. I have been hearing about them for the past 8 years since I met Marissa in college and it will be nice to finally put a face to the name.
  
  Please continue to keep us in your prayers for a solid flight booking on the way home! I swear these free tickets were a blessing but a stomach ache at the same time. I dont' know if I would fly with them again if given the opportunity. Have an amazing weekend and blessed Easter- I will update you as I can!!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

This post will have to be a quick post like my prior post, so hopefully I will get everything in that I was hoping to write about before Jeremiah and Sydney wake up from their naps =)

I suppose the most important thing to write about is that next Friday (Good Friday- April 10) Louis, Jeremiah and I will be taking our first vacation as a family of 3! We have a 6:30 am flight going from LAX to Washington, DC! We will be staying with my Uncle Ken and Aunt Jean in Virginia til Tuesday and then driving up to Carlisle, PA to stay with Louis's Aunt Martha and Uncle Phil! Virginia is one of my absolute favorite states that I have been to, and my trip back east 5 years ago with UCO was one of my favorite ones ever. Louis has never been to the east coast, so I can't wait to show him all my favorite Virginia and Washington, DC spots =) Marissa will be in VA as well the same time we are, visiting friends that live rather close to my uncle's house. We are planning on meeting up one day to go to Mt. Vernon or Williamsburg. We will be gone 8 days, coming back home Sat. the 18th. Our tickets are free standby tickets that I won on a CafeMom contest last year, so if you could pray that our flight reservations are able to be kept I'd really appreciate it! So far the flights we chose are rather empty but you never know what could happen in a matter of a week.

My laptop is currently broken. You think being married to a man that runs a computer business, it would be fixed by now- but no, Louis is quite busy fixing other ppls' computers, so I have to make do w/ using the desktop when he's not busy using it for work (hence what I'm doing right now).

Jeremiah had his first trip to the zoo on Monday w/ Jenni (roommate from APU) and myself. For being at the zoo most of the day he did quite well, and even got in a nice long nap =) I was very excited about this outing with him at first, but after half an hour there I came to the conclusion that the zoo is a good place for older toddlers- not 16 month olds. They can't really focus in on animals that aren't overly huge and hidden. He liked the zebra and the gorilla, but that's about it. He loved being able to explore when I took him out of his stroller,t hough =) It was awesome seeing Jen- and finding out that she's extending her stay til next Wed., so I will have another opportunity to see her before she goes back to Idaho!

Since Im going to VA I will not be going to visit Kappie and Steven in Sacramento. I was going to use our free tix to go see them, back when Louis didn't think he could take time off. Now that he is able to we want to take that bigger vacation instead. God is amazing- our tickets expire in a few weeks, and Louis's time off coincides perfectly with when we need to take our trip, along with my time off coming up from babysitting!!

Thats about all I have time for- I have a million other little things to do before the kids wake up from their nap. I'll update more with pics when I can!!!

PS: To the reader with the crock pot tamale recipe- I'd LOVE it!! Thank you so much! You can email it to me erin.e.castillo@gmail.com

A Quick Update

I'm hoping to squeeze a quick update in before Jeremiah wakes up from his nap and I have to run to my mom's office.

My two week break from babysitting is coming to an end. I start up again next Tuesday for a week, then I have another two week break! I wonder how Jeremiah will take to seeing Sydney again? I have certainly enjoyed having my days of freedom back with my son, and going to my mom's office a few days a week.

On Saturday is Lindsey's first bridal shower! I'm very excited about it, seeing all of our family and celebrating my brother's upcoming wedding, and especially since I can start unloading some of the many presents that I have been storing for the past few months. Then on Monday, Jenni will be in town! I have missed my wonderful friend for the past 15 months since I saw her last (when Jeremiah was just a few weeks old). I'm happy that she's loving her life in Idaho with her amazing husband (who won't be joining her), but I miss her. We're going to take Jeremiah to the zoo with her friend and friend's children, then Jen will come back to m y house and spend the night =) Tuesday's activities are kind of up in the air, but seeing as I'm her source of transportation, I have her at least until Rayna comes to pick up Sydney at 3:30. Jenni was one of my most treasured APU friends, and a roommate for first semester of our senior year (until she graduated early).

I have been having LOTS of fun with my 101 list! I purchased my DVD player, finished reading the "Jon and Kate" book, well into "Bringing Up Boys," called my grandparents, bought yeast to start to make bread, and started taking Jeremiah on our nightly walks. I have been doing very well with my daily tasks- vitamins and reading to Jeremiah, but have determined for the daily and weekly goals that there HAS to be some room for error. It is unrealistic to think that I didn't accomplish my goal because I forgot to take vitamins one day (such as yesterday) or didn't get to read to Jeremiah one day. For the daily and weekly goals (that are to occur for the entire 1001 day period, not for a short period of time) that a 95% achievement goal is a good goal to strive for. That equals for roughly 50 days of "error" and still have quite a nice pass rate. For the goal of reading to Jeremiah, I have also kind of bent the rules to where if I wasn't able to read to him one day, I have the option of reading to him twice the following day for it to count.

Well i can hear Jeremiah now, so I better go! Thanks for reading and show some love if you can!