Every time I come home I seem to always discover new things about myself or my family, here are a few I picked up on whilst home this time around:
I truly miss the El Paso weather. It is miserably hot during the day but it always cools off at night. Also,--and this NEVER happens--it just so happened to rain while we were home this time around and if you've never experienced a desert thunderstorm it's really a beautiful sight...and combined with rain? WOW. I told Jack, I think the best smell on the planet is wet earth... Jackson really enjoys swimming with his mom and dad, but his all-time favorite person to splash around with? Achilles. Two peas in a pod... Jack gets more work done in my dad's office than he does anywhere else. Which was actually the reason behind our visit... The food tastes better. Well, except for Chico's which STILL makes my stomach hurt... My dad is seemingly a big fan of Mr. Urrrrsher...but apparently NOT for his musical talents... Burrito is a much happier pup at his grandparents house. His allergies go away, he's the boss of two big dogs and he gets to sit at the head of the dinner table...Also? his inner cat seems to come out on a regular basis... AND...Mr. Jackson seems to prefer his El Paso crib to his own at home. Look how happy he is! SPOILED ROTTEN!
Saturday was a big day for our sweet angel! Jackson Clayton Zinda was baptized in front of friends and family and most importantly in front of God at St. Theresa's Catholic Church here in Austin.
The day started off like any other with his regular feedings, naps and playtime. I let him hang out in his pj's all day so that he could be nice and relaxed for church. As we were going upstairs to get ready we sat down and had a little chat about what was going to happen and that he had to be on his best behavior because all eyes would be on him. He promised he would be good and told me he was really excited about his day. We got to church extra early because I'm usually running late to absolutely everything and we actually ended up having a few minutes to sit and breathe before it all went down. As soon as the priest walked in we got the boy dressed in his baptismal gown and took our spot right next to the pool.
Jackson's AMAZING Godparents: Grandparents: Proud Momma and Poppa Bear: With his uncles... Jackson did so great during the entire process and was being especially chatty when the priest was giving the blessing. My brother (his Godfather) thought the boy would cry when the water was poured over him but the cub ended up thinking it was hilarious and smiled a whole lot. The theme of the baptism was 'little lamb of God' so everything from his invites, cupcakes and even his party favors that his Godmother Sophia got him had lambs on them. His Aunt Regina even got him a stuffed lamb that gave him loads of kisses for good luck! After the beautiful (and short) ceremony Jackson asked me to take him out of his 'girly' dress and put him into some real clothes so we obliged by putting him in a cute linen short set. We then headed to dinner and then straight home because after such a special day our boy was especially exhausted. Many thanks to all of our friends and family who made this day that much more special with your presence. From the bottom of his little heart Jackson thanks you and Jack and I feel truly blessed and honored that our son is surrounded by so much love.
Recently we took the gordo to his first park. Now that he's old enough I thought he'd have a good time on the swings. Looking for a park and even more so a park with baby swings turned out to be quite an adventure. While we drove around for almost an hour and in a too large radius of our house we finally ended up finding one literally within walking distance of our casa.
Our search for the Holy Grail of parks was not in vain however, Jackson ended up having a blast as I thought he would. He took to those swings like a duck to water and I just know this place will become one of our little hideouts as it gets cooler out. Right now we lasted all of 10 minutes and that was with Daddy hosing us off with his crazy personal mist machine he is so proud of.
Here is the little guy swinging about in his awesome onesie his Aunt Monica bought him:
This past week was quite a whirlwind for the boy and I. We started off the week visiting with Dr. Diaz-Davalos in San Antonio because Karla was feeling a bit lonely and we thought she needed some cheering up. We went up Tuesday, spent the night there and drove back early Wednesday morning because daddy missed us. While waiting for Karla to get out of work we decided to take a dip in her awesome complex pool because it has a 'beach' that dips into the pool itself and there are loads of umbrellas to keep us safe. This was a last minute decision so I of course didn't have a bathing suit, floaty, or even a swim diaper for poor Jackson so I just put him in his regular diaper. Since I am usually unprepared during our swim adventures this happens to me on a regular basis and I don't know if any of y'all have ever measured the amount of fluids a diaper can actually hold (if you have, get a life...seriously) but you'd be surprised. I now thoroughly enjoy putting him in regular diapers during swim time because the diaper ends up so saturated that it creates what I call a 'diaper bomb'. When we are home I like to throw these 'bombs' against the siding of our house. I think its hilarious. Jack just thinks I'm weird. meh.
If you ever get REALLY bored I suggest creating your own diaper bomb they are fun! but I digress...Thursday we cleaned house and got ready for Gigi to come visit, she stopped in so that we could head out early to Houston the next day. Jackson was so excited to see her that he asked if we could wait on our doorstep for her... We packed up all our stuff and were ready to head out to Houston Friday afternoon but not before Grammy and Jackson's great-grandaddy stopped by for a visit. He had a blast playing with his great-grandaddy and Grammy brought him back the coolest hoodie from Jackson Hole, WY that he is excited to wear this fall/winter. I'll save that picture for a later post because it still fits him a little big, but its SUPER cute! When we finally got to Houston Friday night we were exhausted and hungry and as we all sat down for a delicious family dinner my mom asked if she could give the boy some soup from the beans that were made. I told her that I thought it would be ok thinking he would spit it out like he does all of his other savory foods but guess what?!?!? THE BOY LOVES BEANS!!!!!
Can you believe this? Of course my family thought this was hilarious and said that he truly is Latin.
Saturday my dad watched the boy while I went to my sister-in-law's bridal shower and Jack went on a St. Arnold's brewery tour. Jack came back with his brother Stephen so Jackson got to hang out with his uncle Stephen for a while as well. Annnddd Sunday as we were leaving town we stopped by to say hello to Jackson's friend Collier and his parents. I absolutely LOVE seeing those boys together, they are too cute.
When we finally got home we were able to catch the last of the women's USA soccer team match and Jackson got in the spirit by chewing on a soccer ball that was intended for his brother, Chaucer but now we've deemed it as the boy's. Jack and I like to think that if the boy is truly Latin then he WILL be unbelievable at soccer. Besides God didn't give him those thunder thighs for nothin' right?
I've recently discovered this website that allows me to put outfits/rooms/anything-design-oriented together. It's dangerous. However, now you all can see them and they won't just stay in my head.
Since having a baby, we've received more kids birthday invites than we know what to do with. Jack and I joke that all of these kiddos are seriously coming out of the woodwork and we didn't even realize we knew some of these people. Unfortunately we've had to turn down all of our birthday party invites thus far though because they are either in a different city (a lot in El Paso) or we were out of town.
We lovvveeeeee socializing our little cub though so when we were invited to our little friend Anthony's birthday party we jumped at the chance and decided we'd mark this as, 'Gordo's first birthday bash bonanza'. Always one to impress the crowds, the boy wanted to be as dapper as possible:
Then we realized this party had a mini splash town in the backyard (I of course forgot to read this part of the invite) and since we didn't have a suit we improvised with a swim diaper. After swimming for a bit Jackson hit a wall and went into meltdown mode. We knew this was going to happen because he had skipped his morning nap so we quickly dried him off and he took a nap on the floor in the guest room. You know, every party needs a pooper and the pooper here was our son. Party pooper!!! He slept through the hot dogs, the piñata, and even the birthday cake! When Jackson finally decided to wake up from his nap it was just in time for birthday presents... A boy after my own heart--I love gifts, he loves gifts, I take gifts, he also takes gifts. Presents make the world go round, didn't you know? We managed to take the toy car out of gordo's death grip by offering him a party favor bag instead. He loved the bag even more so it all worked out for the best. First birthday party down. Great Success!
So recently we've learned that Mr. Jackson does NOT like his vegetables. Well at least not sweet potatoes, peas and definitely NOT carrots. I've tried everything to make them taste better--butter, brown sugar, expressed milk. Nothin'. He just won't eat them and not only does he NOT eat them he likes to spit them back out at me. Y'all may think it's funny but it's getting a little old...
You'd think this kid would get tired of eating mangos all the time but he seems to really enjoy them! Along with applesauce, bananas and watermelon (well we don't know this one for sure he just kind of mauled it over the 4th holiday). I've decided to stick to fruits because they obviously make less of a disaster in the kitchen and keep the boy in the minimal of 'hot mess' category.
