the things we do for our children

for the past 10 weeks we have been taking antonio to a weekly swim class at our local YMCA. he absolutely loves the water.

the kicker is that it takes us just under 20 minutes to get there, i spend about 20-30 minutes afterwards getting him showered and dressed, and then another 20 minutes to get home. totaling about 70 minutes.

the class is a whopping 30 minutes long.

sometimes i wonder if it's worth it. it seems like such an ordeal for a measly half an hour in the pool. but then we get there and i see his big smile and hear his laugh upon getting into the pool, and it is more than worth it.

it amazes me every day the things we find ourself doing just because we love antonio so much.

the amazing race

several weeks ago we had to make a last minute trip to el paso. while trying to find tickets that were not outrageously priced, we found some on american airlines. we couldn't believe our luck at finding such a decent price at the last minute. well, unlucky for us we were flying out the day that all their cancellations began for plane inspections. we were supposed to leave tuesday night. we got bumped to wednesday morning. find out wendesday morning our connecting flight in dallas had been canceled. next available flight got us in at 10:00 pm on wednesday. this wasn't some leisurely vacation. we HAD to be in by 6:00 on wednesday. so here we are, 10:00 AM on wednesday, begging the ticketing agent to find ANYTHING. visions of contestants on the amazing race went through my head as we kept telling the lady "earlier, faster, this is very important". we had called my in-laws to see if they found anything online. it was 10:05 when they called back saying they found something that left at 11. the ticketing agent was doubtful that we would make the flight, but we insisted and ran across the airport to the delta counter. we begged for people to let us cut in line so we could check in. but we made the flight! we got terribly confused in the kansas city airport. then we had to run through denver to make our 30 minute layover. but we made it el paso at 5:30 on wednesday. and shortly after we landed they closed the el paso airport secondary to high winds. we really had our guardian angels looking out for us making sure we got there in time.

so claudia, submit the tape. amazing race would be cake.

the best 10 minutes of my day

are those few minutes after antonio wakes up from a good nap and is perfectly content snuggling with his mami. we just sit in his glider and cuddle and he tells me his dreams. i savor every moment of those 10 minutes because someday, probably sooner than i'd like, antonio will outgrow snuggling with his mami. it's a big world out there and he won't want to spare a minute of exploring it.

Another Breakfast at Tony's

I was able to enjoy another Breakfast at Tony's this morning. Although it was really early when we got up, Antonio was in a great mood. He accidently poked my back while I was in the middle of a nightmare, causing me to jump at 4am, and of course didn't want to go back to sleep. So we went downstairs and he told me all about his night while I made my breakfast. As we were eating he beckoned Equis over & scracthed his spot & was actually able to get Equis to do his pompi dance (which I believe is Antonio's first time doing so). Although it is only 6:45 in the morning on my bus ride to work & I am already tired (as I am sure Julia is too, since Antonio & I ended up waking her up when I jumped this morning), it was a great way to start the morning.
- Andrés