1. I got around to renting a carpet cleaner from the grocery store and steam cleaned the carpets yesterday. Myself.
2. I have made over 40 train shaped lollipops in preparation for Antonio's birthday party this coming Saturday. Last year I made tropical shirt lollipops. This year, I thought about not doing the lollipops since it is a labor intensive. But I decided to make it a fun tradition for the kids' birthdays and when they get older, they can even help.
3. Antonio is 100% pacifier free!! Our dirty little secret is that we've been giving it to him at naptime and bedtime. But on our way home from Helen last Saturday, Antonio was throwing a fit because he wanted his pacifier. We didn't have it so he screamed/cried the whole (hour long) ride home. Amidst the screaming I declared to all in the car, "That's it! No more pacifier, not ever." I had had enough. And we've stuck to it. And Antonio has been just fine without it.

1. We celebrated Antonio's second birthday on Monday. A nice quiet day at home as a family, enjoying some of Antonio's favorite things. He even got to try chocolate milk!
2. Finally got around to some diaper maintenance and bleached them this morning. It was long overdue.
3. Planned ahead and included some "cook once, eat twice" recipes in our menu this week. I now have lasagna and ropa vieja ready for another week. I even made the ropa vieja earlier in the day today so when Andres was alone with the kids for dinner while I saw a private patient, all he had to was heat it up.

Happy Birthday sweet boy

Yesterday, Antonio turned 2 years old.

In the days and weeks leading up to his birthday, I would get sad thinking about my baby boy growing older. He has really starting growing more independent from me. I look at him and I don't see my little baby, I see a little boy. Just watching him you can see him scheming, thinking, problem-solving. You can see his little imagination at work as he plays with his new toy trains. He has his likes and his dislikes. He wants to choose his own shoes when we get ready. He has to have a big boy cup and fork and his own napkin during dinner. It's been such an adventure watching this little person discover who he is.

My little son has taught me so much these past 2 years. So much about living and loving and about what's really important in life.

Am I sad that he's not my little baby anymore? Yes. But I am even more excited about what the future will bring? You bet.

Happy Birthday my sweet Antonio. I love you more than you could ever know.