Of course I love toys!?!?

Last Wednesday Thomas had a box arrive in the mail. This box contained two toys, which Jenn had ordered for Thomas, per Teta's request. The toys sing songs about numbers and colors and shapes... and it's all in Spanish. Now Jenn knows Spanish and she wants Thomas to know Spanish, and I am pretty much alone in the dark when it comes to any language besides English. The extent of my Spanish ends somewhere between burrito and taco? You could say that Thomas already knows more Spanish than me!

When the toys arrived, I laid them in front of Thomas so he could get a good look!

Thomas the next day with his toys. One is a caterpillar and the other a frog... pretty cute!

Jenn took this picture of Thomas. Clearly Daddy isn't very good when it comes to taking pictures... or at least Mommy is way better.

I will keep everyone posted as to when Thomas starts saying, "Hola, mi nombre es Thomas. Hablo español mejor que mi padre."

Yeah, now who's glad they speak some Spanish?

Are you hungry for more?

Last week, Jenn and I thought it would be a good time to introduce Thomas to a little rice cereal and see if he likes it, and then grows like 2 feet over night (or however kids grow?).

This video is from that first experience, which I must assure you has improved since that time. We followed rice cereal directions and so it's something like 10 parts milk and 1 part cereal (that means it's going to be soggy stuff), but we followed directions like good little Mommy and Daddy. The video is a little funny because you can tell that whether Jenn is feeding Thomas or I'm feeding Thomas, none of us knows what's going on. Which is a pretty special little moment when the whole family can just get together and make a mess on a Saturday morning.

Since we fed Thomas that first day we have been up and down with the whole eating cereal 'thing' (stop reading here if you're not super interested in details), and currently Thomas is really getting to be an expert when it comes to cereal. After the first two days of cereal, Thomas' stomach started hurting him and things got a little backed up. We called the good pediatrician and he said to stop the cereal for a couple days and give Thomas a little apple juice to help clear things up (which it totally did, wow!) So almost a week later (this week), we tried cereal again with much happier results, and as the days have rolled by, Jenn keeps taking away more and more milk so that the cereal is a little thicker. And Thomas has really taken to it, and seems to get excited about eating and so far, so good. I think our feeding schedule/guide thingy says that this next couple weeks we can start adding other fruits and veggies and things, but that might be over the course of the next couple months. I honestly don't know much about taking care of my son, but I follow Jenn's lead and just try and keep Thomas smiling, which I figure means that he's doing all right.

Hope you enjoyed the video and I'll try and keep our video camera rolling!

Daddy Day 2009

Well this past Sunday was Father's Day, and as I had told many of my family members, it was the best Father's Day I've ever had! Several weeks ago I started joking with Jenn and family about what I wanted to do for my Fathers Day. I told them that I wanted to spend the whole day eating candy (preferably gummy bears), and play lots of video game (until my eyes hurt), and then get sick from all the candy and video games (in the scenario, Jenn would stroke my hair as I held my head in a toilet).

Turns out my Fathers Day plan fizzled (which is actually really good), for obvious reason. Sunday we woke up and went to church and breakfast (Leia, Uncle and the Peralta's joined us), then came home for some presents. The presents were pretty good, I received several cards, and Jenn and Thomas got me some new flip-flops and tickets for a Lego exhibit down at the science center (pretty cool). But the surprising-ist present of all was a quick visit by our good friend Ernesto. Ernesto is Laura's boyfriend, but to me, he's much more, because he walks in and is like, "Hi Don, here are some video games!" Yeah, just like that, he hands me two video games (which he got for free), and so I was like "WOW!" So that's been cool, because now Jenn and I have been playing them the last couple days.

As Ernesto was getting ready to leave, we got another visitor, it was Kelsey, she came over because we asked if she would babysit (no Father's Day is complete with some time away from your child... right?) So Jenn and I went out to a movie and Kelsey hung out with Thomas, and all people involved had a great time.

After the movie (The Proposal), Jenn, Thomas, Leia, Steve and myself went out for dinner. I am a big fan of buffets, and I typically don't go out to buffets, but because it was Father's Day, Jenn was like, alright, lets go. We experienced CiCi's Pizza buffet, and let me tell you, that place is dinner and a show for $3.99 Not only are most of the people eating there too large to fit through a standard door way, but they're so hungry for pizza. And there were a lot of kinds of pizza, and bread sticks and pasta... you know I'm realizing a little that it's like the olive garden but without the wine, and waiter and class.

Dad's Day 2009

These are pictures from Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we got a visit from Rosie and the Stewarts (Chase, Stephanie and Hayden), and so we just had to take a bunch of pictures and video of Thomas and Hayden (remember only two days apart).

Hope you enjoyed the videos and pictures, and we will all just have to hold our breath and see if next years Father's Day could possibly be better than this one was!

Tuesday Night Party

So last night, I was riding my bike home from class, and as I came back into the house I heard all these voices and all these people, and it was like a little weekday night party. Don't be alarmed, I won't tell scary stories, but I was surprised to find the Hache family (Eddie, Melynda, Gabriel and Kiera), as well as the Vernors (Steve and Leia), and of course my wife and son.

Here's Kiera and Gabriel, posing for a picture.

How cute are these two little siblings, I'm pretty sure that they are happy and loving 24/7.

Uncle Steve and Tia Leia, bought Thomas a play mat, which Kiera and Gabriel helped try out.

Apparently while pictures were being taken, someone (I wasn't home yet) left Thomas on the edge of a cliff (kitchen table), unsupervised... Hmmm?

Little Kiera and Tia Leia smiling for the photo!

This morning, I took this photo of Thomas and his mat... notice any letter combinations?

Yes, the mat has T-H-O-M-A-S spelled out, thanks Leia!

This picture is for those who like closer view of Thomas. Although he might just have that look on his face because I was standing on a chair calling out his name... perhaps we'll never know?

Uno Tooth

Jenn took this photo Sunday night, just to show all you good people how well Thomas has been holding his head up, and moving around lately. Seriously, how is he not the cutest little boy in the whole world? Although I guess Jenn and I are never going to be convinced that he's not the greatest, but we won't cry if some of you have other opinions.

Both Jenn and I were getting a pretty good laugh from Thomas because he's not crawling yet, but he is rolling to different positions and locations. We would lay him down on his mat, and 2 seconds later he would be off the mat and several feet away.

Also this past week or two has been exciting because Thomas got his first tooth (a sharp little bugger). Surprisingly if you look super-super close, you can see that tooth in this photo (Thomas' bottom right). As I mentioned, we were just taking pictures to take pictures and then realized the tooth is visible in this picture (good eyes Casey).

Guess What We Do

Hello blog readers, we hope you all had nice weekends, and are ready for another week of life! Our weekend was pretty nice and pretty normal, which I'm just realizing is really good. The fact that most weekends we are able to do things and have a good time, and have some stories to share on a Monday blog post, I mean, that's good stuff!

So this video of Thomas on the mat is from Friday evening, when the boys stayed home and Mommy was out with Gramma. Jenn had won two tickets to go see George Lopez perform comedy, and she asked if she should take me with her. I thought about the type of comedy George Lopez would do, and I pretty much was envisioning an entire night of quality comedy and Spanish punch-lines. Since I only speak Taco Bell Spanish (taco, burrito, crunch-wrap), I told Jenn that she might have a fun time if her and Katie went to the show. Ends up they had a really fun time, and about 75% of the punch-lines were in Spanish.

But here in this video I show you a glimpse of the type of things that really interest Thomas.

Saturday night was fun, because I took a break from writing papers, and Jenn and I went out with some friends to a wine tasting. It was fun because the wine tasting was at a friends house, and everyone who came brought a different wine to taste, so Jenn and the other drinkers were sampling wines and rating them on how much they liked it. It was a fun night and also a late night. Tia Leia and Uncle Steve watched Thomas, and so we got home and in bed around 11:30 or 12.

These next pictures are from Sunday morning when we all slept in, and after we finally got up, Jenn and Thomas were still exhausted, so I was making pancakes and pretending to have a productive morning, while these two napped on the recliner. Also I had to take a picture as pay-back from the Don sleeping in bed photos.

And finally one last video from Saturday afternoon. Thomas is standing (with help from Mommy) at the play-table pressing buttons and listening to music. Jenn and I got a good laugh from this because the table has all these lights and music, and so Thomas was just wiggling and dancing to all the excitement. Thanks Eddie and Melynda for letting us borrow the table!

Until next time blog readers, have a good week. We'll keep taking pictures and having stories to tell as long as you keep on reading!

Just Another Friday

Hello Friend & Family! We have been staying busy here. Mommy is working so hard, and I am busy writing papers for classes, and Thomas is just growing like a weed.

Yesterday, Jenn was asking me if I had seen his tooth, and I said, "NO?"

Well sure, enough, he's got a little tooth, so I'll see if he can maybe smile or yell so I can snap a photo of this "1st Tooth". Also I'm pretty sure we don't have to start brushing yet... maybe I'll ask the Dentist in the family (Grampa Dave).

Also exciting was this link to some WeddingPhotos, from Auntie Allison and Uncle Jack's wedding. I just saw this today and I was pretty much like, oohh, do I get to share this with the world?

Also here are two photos Jenn snapped of Thomas and I this morning while we were lounging in bed. Just some information for those who don't know, but I have always been a morning person who wakes up as soon as the alarm goes off. Now that I've been hanging out with Jenn (Ms. Gotta Wake Up Slow), and Thomas (Mr. Feed me at 6am so I can sleep some more), I don't wake up as quickly. Any who, Thomas and I were sleeping this morning and next thing I know there's a flash from a camera going off, so I had to share. PS- yes those are my real muscles and no I'm not taking steroids.

Sunday Swim

So yesterday (Sunday) was a very fun day. We all woke up, and got ready for church, then during church Thomas was in a relaxed coma/half-asleep, which is nice, especially when you hear other babies crying and screaming.

After church we had our usual breakfast with Gramma Katie, and Uncle Mundo, and then we had a break. Don worked on homework for a couple hours and Jenn and Thomas went and did some shopping with Gramma.

Then we all scratched our heads and said, "Now what should we do?" And wouldn't you know it, Tía Liea called and said, "Come over to our house and we can go swimming and play games!"

So here are some pictures and a video from yesterday's swimming episode, which was nice because we had hot sunny weather and the pool was so nice and cool!

Pool Play

Just Play'n

So the last couple days have been nice, quiet and pretty uneventful.  Here is a little video I shot while Thomas was hanging out right before lunch time (you might notice he's not 100% happy).

I'll try and keep pictures and videos coming at you!

Busy Doing... Nothing?

So this past week has been depressing me a little because Jenn, Thomas and I have seemed to be so busy, but it's just with normal everyday sorts of things.  We wake up, Jenn goes to work, Thomas and I read, and play, and eat, and nap, and then we pick up Jenn and we're cooking dinner, and before you know it, the sun begins to set and we're getting into bed.  The time is flying by, way too fast.

Before we flew to Maryland for Allison and Jack's wedding, I started working on a special project with Uncle Tony.  The special project was a rap video starring every one's favorite baby- Thomas.  Since we've gotten back from Maryland, we're catching up on errands and this current week, I've started two classes for school.  The classes are only during this month of June, which is good and bad.  Good because it's fast and I'll have 6 more credits by July.  Bad because it's a lot of work crammed into a relatively short amount of time.

Because it now looks like our super special project won't be done for another week, or two, or three, I wanted to show something on the blog.  So I grabbed Thomas and the camera and I yelled action.  The video is nothing ground breaking, but I know that there are some blog readers out there who enjoy Thomas videos and so I hope this quenches your thirst a little.

I often feel as though I'm not the best blogger because I may only have one post per week, and I wish I could just sit around all day and blog with no other responsibilities, but then I suppose the blogs might turn into boring dribble, and I am pretty sure you wouldn't want that.  

Alright then, until next time!