paper or plastic?

we've cheated and let antonio open a few presents a little early this year. it's been so much sitting him down with a present in front of him and watch his little face look up at us saying "now what?". it took a few tries, but he's gotten really good at ripping the paper open. of course, once he rips open the paper it goes straight to his mouth. he actually cries when you take it away from him. i was talking with a woman at the bookstore and she said to me "oh, but don't let him eat the paper because it's toxic". and i thought to myself, these days, i don't know if the toys are any better!

bearing gifts

to keep up with antonio's appetite, i've starting pumping in the mornings. monday morning, i set antonio down on his back in his activity gym, surrounded by his toys. then i get myself set up. it's been a couple minutes and i look over at antonio, who is all of 10 feet away from me. well, much to my surprise i see that my son is quite contentedly chewing away on....the dog bone. i guess cornflower felt like sharing and brought the bone over for him to play with it. and the worst part is, i actually hesitated and pondered whether i should just let him chew on it another minute so i could finish pumping. he looked happy enough and he actually looked kind of cute. but don't worry, i quickly realized that letting your infant son chew a nylabone is not such a great idea.

will he forgive us for this?

Big Smile

This morning when I went in to wish Antonio a good day and say goodbye, he suprised me with a huge smile. I had expected him to be asleep as he normally is. It was like he purposefully had woken up and had been waiting for me to come to his room. It was definitely a good start to the day.
-Andrés

a very merry unbirthday

happy 6 months antonio!!

i can't believe my baby boy is already halfway to his first birthday. the time has flown by. every day he seems to do something new as he grows into his own little person. i miss the days when he was just a few days old, but i look forward to what he'll do tomorrow.

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"