When I wrote the recap for May and June, I realized I hadn't written one since the beginning of the year. So here it is:
March:
Ha! I don't even remember what happened on January and February, other than being sleep deprived thanks to the newborn/toddler combo.
So, March:
The first week of March, we drove to Northwest Indiana to visit Tim's parents, and then drove to St. Louis to visit Tim's sister and the extended family. Patrick has a memorable picture with Tim, his dad, and his grandfather, making it a 4 generations of Williamson men. Now that Robbie has joined the family, we had to get the 4-generations picture again.
4 generations!
Patrick being silly with Great Grandpa Williamson
We took our dog Lobo on the road trip with us, and he was surprisingly very well behaved. It was also the first snow experience for Robbie, here is a video.
The kids with daddy and Nana
Patrick enjoyed eating the delicious desserts that grandma "nana" baked for us. We all put a few pounds on.
Tim was a best man at a friend's wedding, who also happened to be the best man at our wedding. The wedding was in Indianapolis and we had a really good time. The kids stayed at the hotel with the grandparents and their aunt.
I grew up in a small town called Lagunas, in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico. Lagunas is one of those cities that are built after a company settles there. The cement factory Cruz Azul settled there in the 1940s, and since then began to build a city for its employees. Houses, schools, churches, stores, recreational areas... about 95% of what Lagunas is today, was built by Cruz Azul. My family works for the cement company (as does about everyone who lives there) so I was born and raised there. Cruz Azul has a soccer team. Soccer is big in Mexico, and Cruz Azul happens to be one of the big teams there, often making it to the finals. I mention all this because I used to play soccer (middle school through university) and I miss it so much I can't wait for my kids to be old enough to play with me. In the meantime, we are content to just watch the matches every now and then. Cruz Azul was in a couple of tournaments this year, winning one in April, which was the perfect excuse for everyone in the house to wear their jerseys!
Team Cruz Azul!
Other than that, we were pretty much at home busy with the 2 kiddos, and every now and then with 3, as I have been babysitting a friend's baby. He (yes, another boy!) is just 3 weeks younger than Robbie, which is perfect because they play together, and Patrick loves having him around, too. We get to see him once or twice a month, so at least every month we get our baby Sam dose.
Planning a strike?
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If you are here for the developmental delays info and such, stay tuned for my next post, this is my last family-related story in a little while.
We celebrated Robbie's Baptism. The Ceremony was held at St. Louis Catholic Church, and the reception was held at the Stone Mansion. It was a good time. We were specially happy to have my parents and brother (coming from Mexico) and Tim's parents and sister (coming from the Midwest) joining us for the celebration.
Robbie in his Christening gown
The proud grandmothers!
Have I ever mentioned that the first time I came to the U.S. was as an Au pair? It was almost 7 years ago, right after I finished college. As an Au pair, I had the blessing of taking care of two adorable children. They and their parents are truly wonderful people, and despite that I only lived with them for 1 year, they treat me and mines as their family, so to make it more "official" we asked the mom, Melanie, to be Robbie's Godmother*. From Tim's side, we chose the Godfather*, Mike, who is one of Tim's best friends. I have probably mentioned him and his nice family a number of times on my posts, when I refer to "our friends from New Jersey" (also Patrick's Godparents are our friends from NJ). Robbie's Godfather and his family will soon become "our friends from PA" as they are moving to a beautiful house there in the next few weeks.
The Priest, Tim, Melanie, Mike and Robbie.
After the Baptism, we drove to Orlando with my parents and brother. They wanted to go to Disney and we couldn't say no, of course. I've been wanting to go to Universal Studios to check out the Harry Potter castle and all, so the first day of park visits, that's where we went. There was nothing for Patrick and Robbie to enjoy there, because they are too young, so it was more of a park visit for Tim and I than for the kids. We will make sure to take them back to the Disney parks when they are at least 6 years old.
Mommy and Patrick about to get eaten
We stayed at the Orange Lake Resort (a good friend of us had time share there and was kind enough to let us use it). The cabana was spacious and the hotel was huge, but the best part was the lazy river, where Tim, the kiddos and I spent the second day (while my family was at Epcot -Tim and I have been there before), with breaks to eat and rest at the hammocks. I know, I want to go back like... tomorrow -today is not a possibility since I still would need to pack everyone's suitcases.
Robbie is underneath the white hat!
My kiddos chilling... Jeez, I can't believe I have two boys!
The third day we went to visit some family members in Tampa, while my parents were at Magic Kingdom (of all parks, they said this was the best by far, so now I can't wait to visit) while we were in Tampa, we ate at Columbia, a Spanish restaurant that claims to be Florida's oldest Restaurant. The food was great!
Robbie with his third cousin, Carolyn
Patrick is a people's person (specially if they are blond)
Having both sets of grandparents in town during the Baptism weekend, we decided to get some professional photos by Peter Stepanek at the Glenview Mansion. It was a good time and we got many cute pictures, here are a couple of them.
The whole family!
Auntie Cath with the kids
My boys
It sure was a busy end of the month!
*For Church purposes, we can only select one Godfather, and one Godmother. Traditionally, someone chooses one from the mom's side, and the other one from the dad's side. However, we consider both sets of couples as Robbie's godparents (so for us, he has two Godfathers and two Godmothers) we did the same with Patrick.
Sorry for the loooong silence. The end of May was busy, and June had a broken laptop, but now I have a number of posts on the work that will be all posted on July. I will make up for my June absence, I promise.
So, happy father's day, dear daddies. We often praise (yet not enough!) the hard work of mommies, but hardly ever talk about the amazing job that daddies are doing around the globe. I'm not talking about working and bringing the money to the house... that's like praising a mom for cooking and feeding the kids. No, I congratulate the ones that go the extra mile.
One thing (of the many) that I admire about the American culture is how involved are dads in the raising of kids. When I came to the U.S. for first time, I was quite shocked to see that many men here loved making the family meals, and gardening, and taking the kids to their extracurricular activities. I married one of them, which is great considering that I kill all plants and if it was left to me, my kids would only eat Mexican food (my menu is not that long either.) So if we invite you to dinner one day, and you think our garden is beautiful and we have shepherds pie and delicious home made bread pudding, you will have to thank my husband for it.
But going back to children-dads relationship, about everywhere we go with the kids, there are dads with their kids. Unless is during the day, during the week (when dads are usually working) children's places are filled with dads. It's not rare that we will take Patrick to the soft room at the RECenter, and there will be more dads than moms. It was not a coincidence that Patrick's first swimming class had more dads than moms. The pediatrician office is often outnumbered by dads. When we go to museums or playgrounds, I notice that moms usually step back to take care of the babies, while the dads are hands on, running around and playing with the older kids. Having a family where both mom and dad are involved in their children's development and education, is the best we can do for society.
Patrick's first swimming class
So let's talk about the dad of my children. Have I said that I'm overjoyed to have a son that loves me more than anything? Robbie loves me more than anything on this world. That's right, Patrick loves his daddy more than he loves me*. But, thinking about it, how couldn't he? Daddy is in the backyard working which means Patrick gets to run around in the yard; Daddy is fixing something in the house, which means Patrick gets access to a whole world of super cool tools that mommy has no idea how to use; Daddy likes to play Rock Band, which means Patrick gets to play Rock Band (please don't tell him his guitar is not on) and most importantly, Daddy is not home all day long. This is important, because when is nap time, daddy isn't there to fight the battle, when is crazy throwing things time, daddy isn't there to fight the battle, and when is hitting the baby bro time, daddy isn't there to fight the battle neither.
So Patrick loves his dad more than he does mommy. But, Daddy made this possible, too, by being a great dad. I do have to harass him every now and then about spending some quality time with the kids, but I believe this is quite common. The important thing is that he does respond to that harassment, and doesn't complain one bit. I take it as if he just has to be reminded that sometimes we have to put work aside to enjoy the kids. He loves his children as much as I do, and that is all I want for my kids. He is a great example to them and I know Patrick wants to be just like him, because he imitates him on EVERYTHING he does, and I'm not even exaggerating (good thing he quit smoking awhile ago!)
Tim has been on board in all the things I have tried (from therapies to vitamins, to toys and family outings) to help Patrick in his developmental delays. He has even suggested to try a few new things to help Patrick, which have been a great asset and which I will talk more about in a future post. That support is the one that makes this journey easier, and for that, we thank you!
Oh, and nothing much happened in June to write about, other than Patrick's new gig as a Rock Star. He has this new desire to play the guitar (and every now and then, the drums) and sing songs for us.
He isn't shy to play the instruments in front of other people
He got a beautiful singer to join the band
It's absolutely cute, and this is one more thing he is imitating daddy on (no, Tim is not an actual Rock Star, unless he is playing Rock Band) so here is a video we made for him on Father's Day.
*UPDATE: After reading this post, Tim said that Patrick doesn't love him more than he loves me. I do have to admit that when Patrick gets scared, is sick or gets a boo boo, I'm the only person that can bring him comfort. So I guess that counts for something. But the other 80% of the time, he prefers his daddy.
Happy New Year! (It's still January, so it still counts, right?)
A number of things happened this past December but right now I just want to talk about the most important one: Our baby Robert Louis was born.
On the 23rd, my sister and nephew came from Mexico to spend the holidays with us, and as we went to pick her up from the airport, I posted on my facebook page "On our way to the airport to pick up my sis and nephew!! BTW, no baby yet, due date is tomorrow but doesn't look like is going to happen soon..."
Patrick's birthday is November 24th, which means every year it will fall on Thanksgiving day or close enough. Which means the poor little thing can't have a party on his birthday, so we celebrated Patrick's birthday party the weekend before (17th) at the same place we did last year. It's a Mexican Restaurant near our house that has good food and great service. We had lunch and cake at a private area, and the owner was kind enough to even let us break a pinata, Yay! I love the idea of having pinatas at my children's parties, and I was thrilled that Patrick loved it so much this year! He even cried when his turn was over, so he ended up having like 3 turns. Here is a video of that.
Aside from the cake, he gets a special cupcake just for him. This is the second year... I guess we have started a tradition in our family!
Below, the cupcake from last year... he has grown so much!
Here are a few pics of the party:
Once at home, he didn't care much to open presents, but his friends Jackie and Charlotte couldn't wait to find out what toys he received, so they helped out.
Of course Patrick loved his gifts once they were out of the boxes.
A weekend with friends:
Jackie and Charlotte's parents live in NJ, so we don't get to see them as frequently as we would like, but when we do, we have a great time. They came to celebrate Patrick's party and it was great for the kids to spend time together. But not only the kids had fun, the dads went to play some golf (and have a few drinks) while the moms watched the kids. When the dads were back, the moms went out to have a nice dinner, while the dads watched the kids and put them to sleep. It was nice to go out without the kids (and husbands), although somehow our chat was mostly about them hehe.
Here are few pictures of the kiddos since they were babies.
Charlotte has now a 4 month old baby brother, Patrick will have a baby brother any day now, and Jackie will have a baby brother or sister in April. We will have a new set of pictures then! Patrick's actual 2nd Birthday and grandparents visit.
Patrick's grandparents live in Indiana, so we don't get to see them much. This is the 3rd year, however, that Thanksgiving is celebrated at our house with them (we have to thank Patrick for this!) They were here almost a week. Patrick was very shy the first day but he was fine by the next one.
Everyone had good reasons to be tired enough to cook Thanksgiving dinner (I was almost 9 mos pregnant, Tim had been traveling for work and the grandparents had just arrived) so we went out to eat. As a matter of fact, we went out to eat a lot when they were here, many good places around here!
For Patrick's birthday we had a chocolate cake and we were out shopping. Also, we broke the news to them that Patrick's little brother will be named after the grandpas.
Good morning! I'm 2 today!!
Grandma makes the best cookies ever. Patrick had the cookies for first time and he liked them so much that in one of those moments when nobody was watching him, he climbed on to the dining room table to eat some more!
I'm the cookie monster!
The grandparents enjoyed a tour of Mt. Vernon. Totally worth the visit if you are ever in this area!
And they also helped us put the Christmas tree up!
What's new with Patrick?
Patrick had his 2 year appointment with the Pediatrician. He weights now 24lbs, and he is 34 1/2 inches tall. Surprisingly he was scared of the doctor this time. He also doesn't want to be checked because he doesn't want to stay put for more than 2 seconds. He just wants to be out and about all the time. He can climb on anything now -as you could judge by the cookies photo. Considering the things he does now, I can't believe it's been only 2 months since he learned to walk. He has tried to escape from the house a couple of times, and is constantly trying to run away from me at public places.
Escaping from the house - Wish I had taped from
the very moment he opened the storm door and got out!
His dad has been working on house projects, and Patrick is enjoying "helping". It is just too cute to see him spending long periods of time trying to help Tim. One day daddy went to the attic, and Patrick dared to follow behind. Tim had to ask for help and when I came I saw Patrick climbing the ladder half way up to the attic. As I approached, he reached the top. We have no picture of this, please understand it was a very scary, dangerous and crazy moment - no time to look for the camera! He is very curious, and too brave... a little too much I would say. Funny how he is so scared of the doctor but not so much to climb on a tall ladder!
I'm trying to use this Blog to talk mostly about Hypotonia and Oculomotor Apraxia. However, I understand that some of my readers are just friends and family members that don't have a child with any of those conditions, but that occasionally read the blog just to see what is Patrick (and the family) up to. So I have decided to start writing a "recap" with the highlights of each month. Here is what happened in October:
