Momma's Boy

Oh my goodness! I never thought I'd see the day...my son has turned into a momma's boy. People said that sons and mothers have a special bond, but since the day he was born, he has treated Eddy and me equally with love and affection. We're not sure if it's because I'm with him all day taking care of him or if it's just "that" bond parents of boys tell us all about. Who knows!? But I'm eating it up!

As he becomes more mobile, he has the opportunity to distance himself from me as much as he chooses (or as much as I'm willing to let him). He seems to think that when it's time to put on his pants, he needs to crawl away from me as fast as humanly possible all while cracking up. BUT, nothing melts my heart more when we're hanging out in our big living room and the only place he wants to be is in mommy's arms.

I absolutely love praising my son and giving him all the affection I can. However, I will not become that mother who tells his son that he is a king all so that he can never be satisfied by another woman again (Oedipus, much?!) I will however, hopefully, raise my little man to be a confident young man who respects his momma and other women...

I want him to have "cojones" so that he can stand up for himself, but I don't want him being a machista either. Too bad there wasn't a Hispanic Freud...to dissect the human psyche of Hispanics.

Birthdays

It's been a while since my last post. First came my bday (the 9th) and then came Alex's (the 19th). Alex had a stomach virus that kept me too busy during my bday week to post any blogs and this past week had me planning a little family get together in honor of Alex's big day. The past two weeks have been hectic to say the least.

But now that it's over, I feel a mixture of emotions. I spent the last year waiting for this moment, and it came and went. We had a great week and a very nice time with our family today at the house. I guess it's just the bittersweet feeling parents get watching their baby grow up right before their very eyes. I'll stop being a completely mushy mom, but I feel very thankful to have all of our family and friends. Most importantly, I feel very thankful for having such a wonderful husband and amazing son. They are my world.

On another note, we had some setbacks with the bottle weaning due to Alex's tummy bug, but Eddy and I decided to be the big bad bottle weaning police and took it away cold turkey. We've had some fussing, but so far so good. 2 days without a bottle and counting! WOOHOO!

Happy 1st Birthday to My Love

Potty Potty Everywhere

I have decided I am getting payback for my potty humor by having potty situations with Alex. It started off a couple of weeks ago when he took off his diaper and the poopie was everywhere in his crib (read my last blog), and this weekend his hand reached into the poopie that seaped out of his diaper while sitting in his car seat. We were driving on I-10 when Eddy and I smelled a horrific smell from the back. We thought Alex had just given us a big surprise in his diaper when we realized that the surprise wasn't such a surprise after all...it was all over his hand. Anyway, in order to spare you your lunch, Eddy managed to pull over and we cleaned up the situation quickly and efficiently (minimal wipes, no mess left). Eddy took my car to the car wash, and my car now has a nifty strawberry-scented tree hanging from the rear view.

Needless to say, we were horrified and amused all at the same time. It made me realize just how much our lives have changed since welcoming Alex to our family. Last year at this time, Eddy and I could carelessly make dinner plans, date night plans, movie plans, etc...now, we spend our Saturday afternoons at the flea market looking for junk and then cleaning up a potty filled car and baby. HA!

Bottle weaning update: 2 bottles down, 1 to go. WOOHOO!!!

Bottles bottles go away

Bottle weaning started off somewhat smoothly, or rather, not as bad as we expected....and then it became worse than we expected. Now, we're doing better than we thought we'd be doing. I just don't know what to expect anymore with this bottle weaning stuff. Being the "planner" that I am, I can't help but try to anticipate the level of difficulty I might face when trying to overcome any obstacle. I'm the patient who insisted the nurse give me a general timeline for how long I would be feeling as horrendous as I was feeling following my c-section...I'm the person who gets anxious about being anxious. If there's one thing I'm learning being a parent, it's that I'm going to drive myself nuts trying to plan everything with a child.

I am slowly starting to, in the words of my dad, "lighten up" when it comes to all the things I'm picky about...a clean house, organization, schedules. For example, when I organize Alex's toys in our living room, which is his general play area, he lovingly finds joy in taking everything out of place. He will happily ignore his blocks if they are out of their container. But he will stop throwing all the books around the floor if I start trying to put them back where they belong just to come and throw them out again. I sometimes think it's God and my mom acting through Alex to teach me to find joy in my son and stop being so neurotic. :-)


Before Alex



After Alex