wish list?

it's that time of year again. the shopping malls are decorated, you hear christmas music in the stores, the air is getting crisp. i love the holiday season and i can't tell you HOW excited i am to put up our tree with antonio this year and start our own family traditions. of course with the christmas season comes the christmas shopping. people keep asking me what i want and if i have a wish list. and this year i'm really struggling to answer that. it's just different now that i'm a mom. what could i possibly want for myself when i have antonio? i've already been given the greatest gift of all.

my new motto

i've been baking cookies like a madwoman the past 3 days. and andres will testify that i'm a bit of a disaster during the baking process. usually the cookies come out pretty good but the process of making them is another story. well now that i have antonio i'm trying not to stress over it TOO much. so i have a new motto for when:

- you add almond extract by mistake to your tricolor spumoni cookies that you've spent an hour on already
- when your cookie gun explodes trying to make orange spritzes because your husband is the only mexican in the world that doesn't eat chocolate
- when you're halfway into making chocolate mint cookies only to find that you have no peppermint extract

i just shrug my shoulders and say "qué se va a hacer"

my latest obsession

children's books!!!! my goodness, it is sooo hard not to go crazy at the bookstore. and even though antonio is only 5 months old, i'm already starting to find favorites. the current frontrunner: tomie depaola. i remember the story of strega nona from when i was a kid and when i looked him up i found several other titles, including a mexican cinderella story. i love his illustrations in particular. fortunately, andres has been able to stay a step ahead of my obsession and yesterday we went to the library as a family where i ended up getting tons of books to read to antonio over the next few weeks. i'm looking forward to each and every tale and picture. what an adventure!!

typo

so when i found out i was pregnant i joined babycenter.com and found a group of women online that were also due with their first child the first 2 weeks of june. over the past year we've become good friends and i've been fortunate enough to meet a few in person. one of them's name is christi. i was posting a comment to her the other day about another group of us getting together again. however, i made a typo in my post. the result: i asked our Lord and savior if he wanted to go to ikea.

the best medicine

i am convinced that if i could bottle antonio's laughter and sell it, there would be a lot less disease in this world. it is impossible to feel anything but joy when you hear that sound.

sense of touch

sometimes i co-sleep with antonio. he just falls asleep in my arms, both of us on our sides, facing each other. as he falls asleep, he reaches out his little hand and strokes my face. it's like he's learning my face with his hands, to feel his soft little hand moving over my lips, or squeezing my nose, or brushing my cheek. it is just the most wonderful touch in the world!!

old saying

whoever started the saying about not crying over spilled milk had not just spent 15 minutes using a breast pump to get said milk.