Feeling very thankful...

10 Months, 1.5 weeks

Sadly, times are changing at Casa de Barbosa. Our sweet, friendly, smiley little man has started to get a bit of a shy streak. I'm hoping it's just a phase and luckily it's just mostly turning his head away and no meltdowns. It all started last Saturday at a housewarming party. We walked in and while Brock is always a little nervous the first few minutes around new people, he'll usually smile. Not this time, he just had on his best 'stone face' and kept turning his head into my chest. After about 30 minutes, he warmed up and was watching the other kids, talking to everyone and smiling. He used to be such a friendly little guy to everyone so again, we are hoping it's just a phase!

The biggest event in our house has been patio furniture shopping. It has been so hard!!! We have gone to pretty much every store in town that sells patio furniture and looked online and I just couldn't find what I wanted. I'm being extremely too picky about it. I don't want it to cost too much, but I want it to be good quality. I want it to be colorful, but comfortable. I have found chairs one place, but no table. Or cushions but not chairs. I have been scouring for an umbrella, patio set and rug that all coordinate and not only are functional, but fun. Patio furniture is just so blah - the colors are browns, greys, etc. I know why, it's because they are exposed and get dirty and fade, etc. However, for those of us in the Midwest, we only get to use them part of the year so bright colors are what I was wanting!

After a few weeks of talking about and searching, we finally found a set I felt like I would maybe work with. I wasn't 'in love' with it, but it was a great deal and was functionally just what we were wanting. So Nick pulled the trigger and bought the set while I continued my quest for the right pieces to 'brighten and spice' it up for summer. I finally found a rug that peaked my interest from Wal Mart of all places so that gave me a direction. Then I went searching for an umbrella. Pier 1 (one of my FAVE home decor places) ended up having a great umbrella (ON SALE!!!) that I think will match the rug. I still am not 100% sold until I see it all together -- hopefully this weekend. I'll try to remember to post pics!

Well, as if the search wasn't crazy enough, we decided to start putting the furniture together last night. While I appreciate the secure packing job the wonderful folks at Sears did to keep our set protected while traveling to the store, it was a pain in the a** to unload and unwrap it all. After about 30 mins of unpacking the boxes and getting all the bubble wrap off of it, we finally had all the pieces ready to be put together. However, while unwrapping everything, we had Brock sitting in his new 'big boy' patio chair in the garage. He dropped a toy and while trying to reach it, totally fell out of the chair and hit his head on the cement floor of the garage. It was a pretty loud bang and I was a little worried, so we kept a close eye on him and put some ice (well, as much as he would let me) on it to prevent too much swelling. But it was just a tiny little knot that never even bled. Crisis #1 - averted.

The close call with Brock forced us to move everything out of the garage and to the back deck to hopefully avoid any further injuries. So, we move everything out back and Nick gets to work with his favorite tool (the allen wrench - please note the sarcasm). I start working on the 'inside' part of dinner while his job was to work on grilling in between assembly of the chairs. I come out to monitor the situation and while Brock is sitting on my lap, he bites his tongue to the point it started bleeding. And here comes meltdown #2 in as many hours. He cried harder for that than he did the head bang, but eventually all was well again. Crisis #2 - averted. During the hysteria, Nick goes to start the grill for dinner and what do you know? We are out of propane and therefore it won't start! So dinner inside is halfway finished and the main course is on pause. Nick runs down to the hardware stores, switches it out and Crisis #3 is averted.

Finally, after dinner, all the pieces get put together, the family gets our dinner, Brock gets his bath (which makes his world all better) and then it's bedtime. While I was a little worried about his head and kept checking on him through the night, he woke up this morning and while the bump is still there, it's not nearly as bad as we thought it would be!

At the time, all of that drama seemed so stressful. Typing it all out however, makes me realize it's just 'First World Problems'. We are lucky we were able to buy a patio set, lucky that Brock didn't seriously hurt himself from the fall and lucky we can put food on the table (and propane in the grill). Having a baby certainly changes your lifestyle, but for me, it's made me just overall more thankful. I know there are so many families out there who don't have even the small luxuries we do and I try to never take that for granted.

There are some days I wake up and see Brock and sometimes still just can't believe he's mine! Meltdowns or not, he is my sweet angel boy and he makes even the worst days so much better! My mornings are better because I get to see him when he wakes up. My nights are better because I get to kiss him goodnight every night before bed. My workdays are better because I know I get to go home to him, Nick, Oscar and our home. It's not perfect, it's not big, but it's home and we are making some wonderful memories there everyday!

Meme and Poppy are coming up this weekend for Poppy's birthday so it should be a great weekend!

Finding his words!

10 Months - ummmm, how can that be right?!

Well folks sorry for the lack of post last week, but I'll be honest, for once - ya didn't miss much. The first part of the week was filled with a very tired, fussy, cranky little man! Very unusual for us so I thought it was some teeth coming through, but so far, haven't seen them!!

Over the weekend we went to the St. Patty's Day Parade...well, let me correct that, we were IN the parade! Nick's entire family was in for his aunt's 50th birthday! It was nice weather and it was so much fun! LOTS and I mean LOTS of walking. But Brock was a total champ. We were out there for a long time and I was so afraid we'd lose him to either hunger or tiredness as we were walking during both lunchtime and naptime. We were prepared with snacks and a bottle, however, he just wanted to people watch! He LOVED the parade! He was so quiet and just taking it all in as we walked down the street in his St. Patrick's Day decorated stroller (sorry, no picture!). However, I did get a couple of pics from the day:

Here is Brock with his 'Mom's Lucky Charm' shirt and the headband he really was not fond of wearing!

 Here is Erin and I in our 'attire'. My tutu that I made and the veil I made her...gotta get her practice in for the big day!

After the parade, when we FINALLY got to our car after the longest walk of our lives, we were all starving! Luckily, Brock slept most of the way back to the car in his stroller so potential drama #1 avoided. I was SURE he was starving, but he totally content in the car. We went out for lunch and ordered him some food, but he barely ate it! He just was having so much fun with the day, he could care less about eating! We got home and CRASHED...we were all so exhausted, but it was such a great day, and wonderful memories for Brock's first St. Patty's Day!

Sunday was sort of errand running day and we decided to throw a little barbeque together at 'Brock's park' by our house. There is a small grill and covered area with a table there and we are always saying we should invite some friends down to grill out. We did it on Sunday and Kristin, Brett and Madison and Tracy, Matt, Carter and Marlee all came down. The kids had a BLAST! Madison likes to swing as much as Brock does so we decided to put them in the swing together! As you can see, they were a little confused!!

Cynthia had a family emergency and had to leave town at the last minute which meant Mommy had to work from home for a couple of days. I was a little nervous as he's so mobile now I was afraid I wouldn't get much done. However, I was able to get everything done that I needed and get to spend some extra time with my sweet angel boy!! I cherish any extra minutes I get with him so it was a blast. 

He's become quite the little comedian. He does a 'Donald Duck' sounding voice that is just hilarious. He has mastered 'uh oh' and says it all the time! He also is quite the mama's boy right now. At the parade if anyone else was holding him, he would mostly be ok until he saw me...then he wanted Mama. If I walk by at home and don't pick him up or acknowledge him you'd think I had just taken a bottle away from him! It can be full on meltdown in no time! As much as everyone else hates it, I am loving it! I know this time will fly by and I'm going to enjoy it while I can!!

He can now fully get himself sitting up from pretty much any position. He's gotten a lot better at standing and is starting to pull up on things. Right now it's just to his knees, but sometimes he'll get himself in what Nick calls a 'football stance' where his legs are straight and his arms are straight like he's in a 'V', but he can't get all the way up. It won't be long before he's trying to walk!! I don't know if I'm ready!!! 

When he wakes up in the mornings, he sits up and just plays and talks in his crib. He's such a patient and sweet little man! Eating has been a little hit or miss. Some days he loves everything and other days he just screams through the whole meal. It's a work in progress at this point. I hope we aren't forcing him to eat solids if he's not ready. He just seemed to be 'over' the baby food about a month or so ago, so we switched over to a sort of half and half. Now if I'm making a dinner that's not too seasoned or spicy, I'll make him a little plate. Sometimes it's great, sometimes not. LOL! 

We start swim lessons in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to see him splashing around. Bath time is his favorite thing right now so I hope he feels the same about swimming!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

9 months, 2 weeks

Missed last weeks post, but have lots to catch up on this week!! Brock is now full on crawling, not just army crawl. He still prefers to army crawl, but over the last week, he's gotten up on all 4's and finally this weekend took his first little 'steps' forward! He also LOVES to stand up on his own. If you put him up against something, like a toy, he'll stand there until his legs just give out on him!!

He has started to mimick things we say now. It started last weekend with 'uh oh'. Then over the last week, he's started to slowly repeat more and more things. He shakes his head 'no' when he doesn't like something (or sometimes for no reason). And this morning while I was getting ready for work, he was fussing (for no reason at all) so I turned around, pointed my finger and told him 'Stop'. He pointed his finger back at me and said 'ta' like he was trying to tell me to stop!! It was pretty hilarious!!

He has started to really love cartoons. He'll watch all kinds. Last night we turned on Shrek and he was completely amazed and engrossed in the show. He especially loves to see animals and kids on TV. He seems to recognize them and respond so happily to them! It's so adorable.

Last night, he had his first mommy/daddy meal. Usually, we feed him his own food, veggies, fruit, yogurt, etc. But last night, due to the unseasonably nice weather, we grilled out hamburgers. I made one for Nick and I and a tiny one for Brock. I gave him only about half of the burger, but he also got a couple of baked french fries, peas/carrots and applesauce. He ate the whole meal! Probably the biggest one he has had to date and he seemed to love it all! I found these little mini cans of just peas/carrots and they are perfect. 1 can probably is enough for his dinner for an entire week and they are nice and soft so easily baby safe!

He definitely recognizes us and the dog now. The other day he looked at Nick and said 'Dada', if you ask him where the dog is, he looks for Oscar, as well as says 'da' when he sees him. It's hard to believe he really knows what it all means already, but he's pretty consistent with it!

We put the bumper back into his crib last night. I was a nervous wreck, but I think it will be helpful. It made his bed seem so much more cozy and he can't throw his binkies out in the middle of the night anymore!! He's had a terrible cold/cough the past few days, but while he's been fussier than normal, he's still mostly in a good mood!

This past weekend we went 'park shopping' for a location for his 1st birthday party and found the perfect place!! We are so excited and just praying it doesn't rain! We still have over 2 months to go, but I know it'll be here before we know it!