Brief update

I know I need to do a post all about this summer and what SA is up to these days, but I don't have time for all of that at the moment! I did want to get some pictures up for my mom! So here they are in no particular order:


This is Santiago under the table while out to eat a restaurant. He often ends up here, and since he isn't disturbing the other patrons while there, I let him stay.


This is also the exasburated look that I get whenever I ask him to do anything. ANYTHING.


This is Santiago wearing his monkey costume during the Camping Halloween weekend. The bribe of chocolate worked for approximately 23 seconds. Then the hood was off.


Fake smile picture. He feels if he shows all his teeth it's the equivalent of a smile.



This is the boy on Halloween night. He was basically without a nap and with an extreme hatred toward costumes, we were in for a fight. This is honestly the best picture we got of him that day.



Modeling the sassy look on the 4-wheeler this week. He and his father have been raking almost nightly...and the yard is about 1/2 done. Seriously need to consider chopping down some of these trees! Or hire a hot, young gardener to take care of it. ;)

This past weekend we stayed with our good friends Emily & Cory and their daughter, Jordan. She is not yet 2 and is bigger than SA! I think he was intimidated, as shown in the photos below.


Trying to get Santi to hug Jordan when we were saying our goodbyes. Yes, she was crouching down to be at his eye-level. Notice SA's father urging him to take the affection of the adorable girl in the pink!


Trying to get him a little bit closer...and Jordan is bracing herself.



Jordan is starting to become unsure of this whole situation. I think she was starting to get the hint that he wasn't comfortable with her entering his bubble of personal space.


But wait! Santi finally makes his signature move! The classic peeking-out-from-my-dad's-legs!


And Jordan comes in for the kiss!

Jordan is doing a little dance here to celebrate her conquest. Mental note to keep these two far apart during the teenage years.

I'll post again soon with info from the summer and brace yourself for news of the potty-kind!

Nursery, Finally....

I know you'd rather see pics of the boy, but I'm without a camera cord and a good friend has been asking for nursery pics. And since she's going to have a baby girl in a few months, I must oblige!

Most of these are from a while ago and I've done a bit more work, but have to finish putting stuff on the wall. So where there is open white space on the walls, it'll shortly be filled with other stuff. Here they are:

Some pictures are now between the S-A-N-T-I-A-G-O and the monkeys.

The curtains I sewed. And yes, I did sew them!!! With someone else telling me what to do, of course.

The Andy Warhol picture. I love it.

The changing table my dad made. It's beautiful! And you can see some of the dresser handles on the left. They're monkeys, zebras, tigers and hippos.

Elephant hamper used to hold extra blankets.

Crib, obviously. Will be turning into a toddler bed shortly, with a siderail.

These were post cards that I got at the Botero museum in Bogota (famous Colombian artist). They'll go up on the same wall as the Warhol poster.



The Snake, Ants, and Nest...

Tree, Iguana, and Ants....



Giraffe and Ocean. Tree and Nest were definitely the worst, but they're done, so I don't care!

And that's the nusery in a nutshell. We did most of it when we didn't know what gender our referral would be, so we went neutral. We did the nursery for very cheap, getting the bookshelf and dresser at an auction and painting it, my dad made the awesome changing table (love you, Dad!), and we got the crib on sale. The rocking chair was Ryan's grandfather's which we repainted and had the cushions recovered. I love it and it's nice to have parts of our families in there, as well!

I had my first full weekend away from both hubby and child last weekend.....and it was AWESOME!!! Got to hang out in the big city all weekend and eat at fancy restaurants, drink wine with my best friends, and....well, I'd like to say sleep in, but unfortunately Santi changed my internal clock so there wasn't much of that. While of course it was fun to get home to my boyz (I'm trying out the slang - does it fit?), it was refreshing to get away for a bit. I'm taking SA to visit the fam this weekend, then we have my best friends and their families coming up this month, so it'll be packed full of fun!

Santi's vocabulary is incredible these days and he's putting two and three words together frequently. It's so nice to be able to have a simple conversation with him! While of course we still don't always see eye-to-eye on things (I still haven't caught on to the idea of a banana-only dinner, and he's not pleased), it's still mostly positive. ;) He loves hitting anything with a wooden spoon (like hockey on the carpet) and reading books, as usual. He's got lots of SASS and still refuses to let anyone by Ryan or I touch him other than at daycare. When we're away for more than 5 minutes he's fine, but otherwise you better watch out. He's a riot and loves to dance, point out buses on the road, and bumping fists.

OK, I'll get back on with pics of the cuteness next week! Hope everyone else is as excited for summer as I am!

Kate

Surprise Update!!!

I thought I'd surprise y'all and post an update less than a month after my last one! Got ya, didn't I?!?!

Thought I'd post some pictures. It is weird to think that this time last year I was in Colombia with SA. He wasn't even legally a part of our family yet. That is strange to think. So, just because he moved from 7 teeth to 12 in the matter of a week (yes, it was a fun weekend, thank you) I thought I'd post some year-later pics.

Prepping for his St. Patty's Day party attire.

Another party-prep picture

This is Santi eating cereal with a big-boy spoon. He loves acting like a big boy, including playing floor hockey, saying "Oh Geez!" "Oh NOOOOOOO!" and "Oh Boy" about 1,000 times/day. He also loves watching his father play Guitar Hero (he cheers extremely loudly when Ryan wins).

We also have to blow bubbles for him to pop and "karate chop" everyday. He loves to chase them around the living room while giving a verbal description of his every move. Unfortunately we can't understand the vast majority of what he says at this point.

Now these are in my 3-5-08 picture file. Look at that little munchkin with his Papa!

On the floor in our room. He couldn't even get into crawling position yet. That feels like years ago!

He loved the musical cat part of that activity mat. My mom has looked for months to find that same toy that plays the same music! It was a catchy tune that she still can hum to him and he stares at her fascinated!

I guess the neverending teething battle had already started. I, being an uneducated parent, didn't realize that teething would consume the first half of his life.

He still had that "deer-in-headlights" look everytime the camera came out. He was such a little ball of chub that didn't move very much. What a difference a year makes! He now makes a "Cheesssssseeeee!" face!

We already started booking all of our camping trips for the summer. We will be gone a lot but it's something we all love so we're super excited for the weather to get nicer!

Hope you're surviving the winter and are excited as we are for spring!

Kate

This is our first anniversary as a family. Our first “Gotcha Day.” Or “Family Day.” It’s a big day for us.

Here are some pics of SA when we went for our overnight celebration. To make it short - He hates. HATES. hates. indoor water parks. We luckily got the jacuzzi suite so he had fun in that. Besides that it was hell and I'd rather not talk about it.

Yet he's still adorable in a swimsuit and Crocks.Here are a couple pics of tonight, our actual anniversary. Even though I am the most unorganized of mom's ever, I luckily had the camera in my purse for dinner out at Mexico Lindo tonight (our favorite place with our favorite staff). Here he is making his usual cheesy faces.

This isn't a pretty one. He looks rather psycho. But I swear he was just excited for the salsa. I swear.

This is the more usual "cheese face." He can't stand to see a camera without doing this face. Doesn't he look like a toddler. I refuse to face the fact he's growing up. REFUSE.

Wearing Papa's sunglasses and IGNORE the piles of dirty laundry behind me. Honestly, ignore it. Cuz his Mama can. Waaaaaaayyyyyy tooooooooo easily.

This has been the most wonderful year of my life. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t always think that I was cut out for this job. I really did. But he is an amazing child (as I’m sure all people think that, but I SWEAR he is J). And not that I'm a great parent, but great kids have a way of making you survive....and I am ever grateful for that!

To my dearest husband - who could have ever thought we'd make it through a date, much less over 8 years together. Thank you for believing in me and having an endless reservoir of patience. You are what makes us tick as a family.

To my child - Wow, where to begin. You are funny. And too damn smart. We love you so much that we have no idea how to discipline you. You make me question myself constantly and I love you for it. You can already give me looks that clearly show "You have no idea what you're doing" yet will follow it up with a "I love you and need you" look that saves me. I would have no idea how to be a parent without you showing me how. All of that is such a paradox that only a parent could understand.

Santiago, I love you and am blessed to be your parent. I know your birthmom misses you and I thank her every. single. day. for the sacrifice she made. I promise to do my best to raise you as abnormally as possible and love you as much as possible so you can find your way in life.

I can assure you, Santiago, that your parents love you to an absurd level. And we always will.

Kate & Ryan

I know it's been far too long since I last posted, but free time has been hard to come by lately. I have some stuff going on at work that is requiring a lot of my time and we've had some car/home issues that have left us looking for a new vehicle and needing to deep clean our carpets. Don't worry, I won't elaborate and bore/gross you all out.

The Kiddo has been doing great, other than STILL being stuck at just 7 teeth. We have his 18 month appointment coming up soon, so we'll ask about it then. For those that have had kids, tell me - Did your child go months between teeth coming in?

Oh, and the nursery pics will be saved for another day. I'm still looking for input but they'll take a while to organize.

On to pictures of the cute one...

This is Santiago eating dinner on Christmas Eve night. We had a nice, peaceful night at home with just the three of us. We were spared a lot of running around on the holidays thanks to both our families being flexible (we love you for it!). We got to lounge around the house, have a delicious dinner, and wake up refreshed the next morning to watch Santi experience his first Christmas morning as part of our family!!! It was a very special time - one I know Ryan and I will never forget.

This is just a cute one of him grinning that night. He had the "Ho, ho, ho" down pat when Santa was mentioned. (Side note: I didn't take ANY pictures of our Christmas morning, just video on the camcorder that I don't know how to upload. So I did capture it, just in a way that no one will ever see because I'll probably never figure out how to get off the damn camera.)

This is one of him opening his big gift from Grandma Linda on Christmas Day afternoon. Once he realized it was something he could fit into, he didn't want to finish unwrapping it.

We got it unwrapped enough to show what it was - a sled! He has spent much time sitting in this thing.

Here he is looking very king-like, sitting on top of one of the snowbanks in front of our house. SA is very shy when it comes to interacting with adults other than Ryan and I (those that know him know not to take offense, I hope!) yet he has ZERO fear when it comes to going fast or throwing himself in the air.

Here is Ryan pulling him around in the sled, on a leisurely stroll of sorts.

Santi has being having trouble with a bad diaper rash lately, so we've been trying to "reduce chaffing" as much as possible. Because of that he's been practicing for his future at the nudist colony a lot. I haven't been daring enough to allow him to go in the "full buff" yet - though I'm sure that would get me motivated to potty train - so this is a common site around the house these days. A very simple, yet elegant, ensemble.

The crazy hair is growing back! I'm so excited!!!

Oh, and just to prove that the sledding wasn't all serene and peaceful, I've tried to attach a little video I took. Let's hope Ryan's lack of coordination doesn't rub off on Santi.

I think you all know that I would never qualify for any "Mother of the Year Awards." I classify my way of parenting as "overly-strict-bohemian-fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants," if that makes any sense. Anyway, I think the above video (and the fact that I shed tears laughing each time I watch it) seals the deal that "Wife of the Year" is also off the table. That's okay. I'd rather watch that and laugh my ass off any day.

I hope you all had as wonderful a holiday season as ours!

--Kate

P.S. Other than some pride, no one was injured in the making of this video. Love ya, babe.

Update in pictures

Since it's been a while since I last posted, I figured I'd have pictures of Santiago fill up this post.

Super excited and showing off his 7 teeth! He's been stuck at lucky #7 since early fall. When, oh when, will new teeth come in?

Playing outside in the fresh snow. He loves it and throws a fit when it's time to come in!

Looking cute in his Packer jersey, but with the wrong type of ball!

A shot in front of the Christmas tree. We had to go basic on the tree this year as Mr. Sticky Fingers isn't to be trusted...

This is from when we were trying to get a good picture of him for Christmas cards. Since I'm a bad mom and forgot plan for professional pictures to be taken, I relied on good, old fashioned hard work - and an airplane ride.

It was at this point that I realized he could care less if I got a good picture for the cards...

This is Santi watching his dad plow the driveway. He watches the entire time and waves at him almost constantly. Can you say "Daddy's Boy?"

These are in no particular order, mainly because I'm not very good at using Blogger yet. So, here's the Cheese Face in front of the Christmas tree.

SA is into walking around with any sort of bucket on his head. As long as he has a captive audience, that is.

This is what is known as "The Snarl." This is the look that is thrown at you if you tell him "No" to anything. He crinkles up his nose like this about three times in a row while glaring at you (usually out of the corner of his eye). The best part??? When his dad tells him no, I am still the one that gets the dirty look. Explain that.

And this is a preview of the next post. Get your typing gloves out as it's going to be interactive, so I know if anyone is actually reading this crap. I'm working on finally finishing Santiago's room (which was supposed to be done before his first birthday party - can you tell I procrastinate?) and need some feedback. I painted these letters painstakingly over weeks, and spent waaaaay too much time on them. The reason? I am not artistic. Really. I'm not. But I got this idea in my head while in Colombia and was determined to do them myself. It made me remember why I am willing to pay creative people to do what they do best.

Santiago has been great the last few weeks. Prior to that we were going through a challenging phase, and I'm glad we've moved past it. It was a time when "No" suddenly changed meaning to "I dare you." Everyone with kids I'm sure knows that type of stage.

Our angel of a daycare provider asked all of the kids to spend the night this past Saturday for a Christmas party, which meant we had a free babysitter for the night! We took advantage by going to dinner with friends, but went home at a decent hour due to the weather. But the ability to sleep in the next morning was the best early Christmas gift I could have gotten... :)

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Kate