1st trip to the Houston Zoo

Entering Zoo

Geoffrey


Looking at the giraffes




Joey reading about the elephants

Striking a pose!


Looking at the Okapi

and the bears

Stealing a kiss

Getting some sun

Peek-A-Boo!

Snack time


Us by the duck pond

Loving the outdoors
(don't look to close... He's not buckled in... Bad momma, bad bad momma!)


Daddy & Joey by duck pond

"OOOooohhhh"


Playing with Daddy

On Daddy's shoulders
(believe me, it didn't last long at all -maybe 3 steps. Joey loved it, but Daddy was too nervous.)

Leaving the Zoo



Can you tell, someone had a good time?


Next day: Going to Grammy's house


Yesterday Richard and I had the day off work and since it was such a beautiful clear day outside we decided to make it a family day and venture out to the Zoo. It was a little on the cool side so we bundled up and headed out. I was thinking we'd probably be there an hour, before Joey would get fussy. Or it would be too cold outside to enjoy it... Or he'd be asleep through it all. We'll was I wrong. We got there around noon, and Joey was asleep for the first 5 minutes. The first animals we went to see were my favorite-the monkeys. Well they were being SOOOooo loud they woke him up. When his sleepy eyes opened, he was looked around like, "Heyyyyyy, I was trying to get some sleep!!!" Then he got this pensive expression like "Heyy, that's a weird sound... Nothing like I've ever heard before... What is that?" I can only imagine what he must've been thinking. But like the new parents we are, we snapped a million and one pictures of his first trip to the Zoo.
Around 3:30 Joey started rubbing his eyes and that's when I figured we better start heading home. Even though he was sleepy, he never fussed or threw a fit or anything. I am so proud of him. He sure proved me wrong. And let me tell ya folks, you better believe he slept allllll night.
It turned out to be such a great day, that we decided that at from now on we're going to take a Monday or Friday off work once a month and make it a Family-Fun-in-the Sun day.
--And I must admit, pushing my little sweetheart in a stroller around the Zoo was a pretty exciting time for me. Definitely another proud mommy moment!

On a side note: Joey got his 2nd tooth Saturday. Two weeks, two teeth!! At this rate he's gonna be a little toothy-shark-boy by his 1st birthday!

P.S. Be sure to check back, I'll be posting the Zoo pics tonight.

1st Tooth *Need your ideas*

At Joey's 4 month well-baby check up in January, his peditrician noticed 2 bumps on his lower gums and told me that he may get really drooly soon, because those bumps are signs of baby teeth starting to grow in. And I've noticed lately that Joey has been extra slobbery, (I mean dripping off his elbows) and constantly teething on his fingers and teething toys... Well yesterday something white in his mouth caught my eye. (I swore up & down that I'd never do this, unless my child was choking) but I shoved my finger in this mouth to feel it and he's just about cut his first tooth! Its not through the gums yet but I can see white where its trying to push through. Joey hasn't been fussy or running a fever or anything, he's just knawing on anything he can get his hands on, including this hands.


UPDATED: Saturday the 9th Joey cut his first tooth. YAY! Bring on the steak & potatoes

This weekend we watched my nephews. We had Lucas (9 months & crawling), Jacob (2yrs 11mths old, he can talk your ear off) and my little Joey (5 months with one new tooth) so Richard and I had our hands FULL! It was fun, we really did have a good time together. The boys were so good, it was just a lot of work. At one point I found myself sweating from all the running around I was doing in the house trying to keep up with them all. I definatly got my exercise that evening. My sister & her husband had a wedding to go to, and I really wanted them to go out and have a good time. Which I'm sure she'll return the favor.


Sunday we went to Church and just so happen to sit next to the lady with the little girl that Joey had his eye on. Little girl was as usual adorable as ever, in her demin dress and white tights. And during the mass (during a down time) I got to talk to the little girl's mother. She told me that "Emily" is adopted, and she got her when she was only 2 days old. She said the open adoption wasn't that hard for them, didn't take that long either, and that she's had contact with the birth mom since she was 5 months pregnant. She asked about Joey, and if we had plans on any more children... After 20wks of bedrest with this last pregnancy, I still don't know if I could ever do that again.... And she said, what we've been thinking of all along, "keep all options open because [our] little girl just may be out there. Pray about it, and the answers will come." So, that's what we're doing. We're going to keep all options open, and who knows, maybe one day we will have a little girl. Only God knows.



New trick this week:

MoMo (my mom) bought Joey an early Valentine. A highchair. So yesterday we strapped him in it (its got a 5 point harness) and he ate cereal in a "big boy" chair.




Ok...

Now here's where I need your help. The March of Dimes, March for Babies formally known as WalkAmerica is coming up in April. We're gonna do the 5k (3 mile) walk, and I'm trying to think of a new team name. Two years ago we were "Erik's Family" and we wore matching baby blue tshirts that had "I Believe in Angels" on the front with a set of footprints for each of my angels. And on the back we had "Erik's Mommy"... Well the others had Erik's Daddy, Erik's Cousin, Erik's Friend... ect. Well this year we are walking in honor of our angels as well as celebrating the new babies we have in our family; my sister and I have 2007 babies. And I've been breaking my head over what our new team name should be. I want it to be something catchy. Something good. But I'm out of ideas. All I can come up with is:


High Steppers
- and do tshirts with baby shoes with wings on them

or


Little Buddies
- and have tshirts with stick figures for all the children in our family,


And on the sleave of the shirt, no matter what design we go with I want stars for each of my angels.


But I'm out of ideas... Please submit your ideas, with or without tshirt ideas. I'm going to type them all out and consider each one. Have fun with it, be creative, anything quarky, catchy, simple, I'm open to any and all ideas... anything would be greatly appriciated.


Need all submissions by Feb 29. Ok?! Ready, Set, GOOOO!

Welcome.

I've got a lot to talk about, and I hope you'll stick around to hear it all.

So MUCH is going on. Well, lemme start from the beginning:
Today Joey is 5 months (4 months adjusted-he was born a month early) and he's doing GREAT! He's growing so fast, I mean almost right before our eyes.

He had a 4 month well-baby check up on Jan.10th and here are his stats:
Weight: 14 lbs 11 oz 33rd percentile
Length: 25" 67th percentile
Head: 17 " 91st percentile - Like my momma use to tell me, "Big head means big brains!" lol


Joey visited his Pediatric Hemotologist (specialist for his blood) at Texas Children's twice last month and all his testing came back good. So good that the Dr. is releasing Joey from his care. YAY!

Joey also went to his Pediatric Neurologist (specialist for his brain) and he has scheduled an MRI to be done on March 25th. I'm praying that all goes well. Joey is growing well, and displaying the ability to meet all the milestones that are age appropriate, and he hasn't displayed anything seizure-like so I'm hoping after the MRI, the Dr. releases him from his care too.

New Joey Tricks: He found his feet! So when I lay him down he grabs his feet, and rolls around. Its really cute.

On Jan. 15th Joey was baptized Catholic. He wore a white shirt, vest and tie, with white slacks, along with a white bonnet style hat. He was the most handsome baby there! He was baptized by my sister-in-law Teresa and brother-in-law Gus. Once the priest poured the Holy water over his head, he looked around but didn't cry of fuss at all. He took it like a big boy! Another one of my proud mommy moments!

And Jan 15th he tried Rice Cereal. He really didn't like it, I'm guessing the texture was different for him. So each spoonful he took in, he'd spit right back out. Peditrician said, give him a week and try it again... So we did, and now I can't feed him fast enough for his liking. He gets all impatient... Hmmm I wonder where he gets that from?! :)

Jan. 27th Joey noticed his first pretty girl. We were in church sitting next to a lady with a little girl probably about a year old, and Joey just couldn't take his eyes off her. I don't blame him, she was a cutie. But she was minding her own business, and Joey kept smiling, and cooing at her. Little girl had blonde hair, blue eyes, and she was wearing a pink top, black tights, shiney black mary janes, and a denim miniskirt. Oh yeah, I was checking her out too, gotta make sure my boy can pick'em good! :)

Feb. 2nd Joey went to his first Quinceanera Dance. We didn't stay long, but he had a good time. He visited with his Great Grandma, my aunts, uncles & cousins. When we got home the first thing we did was bathe him, it was making my skin crawl thinking about the germs he was exposed to --thats the obsessive compulsive-protective mommy in me coming out.

Feb. 3rd Joey "watched" his first of MANY Super Bowls. However he didn't really watch much of it... He played with his Mo-mo & Popo, ate cereal, played on the floor, and napped.

Well. Welcome to My little family blog, I hope you come back and visit us again. Stay tuned, there will be pictures posted soon.