Jimmy at 14 months

Jimmy Barttels, you are such a stud. At 14 months you are just about the cutest thing ever.
You:
Fold your arms to pray
Say the words "mama, dada, sister, baba(bottle), cheese, shoes, bird, nana(banana), ball, book, night night, bye bye, hi, milk, me, mine, no, ya"
You sign "all done, more, hungry, please"
Give raspberries
Fetch diapers from your diaper basket
Get/put away shoes from the shoe basket
Give hugs and kisses
You love love love going on walks& runs-if you see the stroller you climb right up& yell to me like"MOM! I'm ready!"
You love your sister. You follow her around, you love to hug& kiss her& WRESTLE her. When you see her you get sooo excited!
You dance to any music and clap.it's hilarious.
You climb on everything. Couch, ottoman, boxes. You have mastered the art of climbing into kitchen chairs& into my table. Sweet. Not!
You love to wash your hands& HATE having sticky dirty hands.
You love books. If I'm sitting on the ground at all, you run to get one& do this cute thing where you run up& turn around& do a little scoot walk backwards & sit your bum right down on my lap.you hand me the book& then lean back& settle in. I love it. I love so much that you& your sister both love to read!
You eat everything in sight. Literally. A normal sized breakfast is a adult-sized bowl of oatmeal, a whole banana, some of my smoothie, and then crackers and fruit an hour later, acting as if I haven't feed you anything!
You are my "ping pong kid." Literally you NEVER STOP MOVING. No wonder you need to eat so many calories!!
You still only weigh 25 pounds. You've been the same weight for 4 months. You are getting taller& skinnier& looking more like your sister at this age. Your fat rolls are getting thinner...sad :-(
If you are hungry you are a big. huge. mess. Like throwing yourself on the floor, screaming, throwing things at me, on the floor, wave your hands around, swinging at my legs. Seriously ridiculous. BUTTTT if I'm on top of feeding you man portions every 2 hours, you're just darling& sweet& happy.
You are more happy, more predictable, silly and learning something new everyday!!
I can't believe you are so big, but so grateful at how much you are growing& learning& how much we love you!!

Sometimes being two is awesome!

Faye has been asking for spaghetti and meatballs for breakfast for the past 2 weeks.
I should have videotaped her reaction last night when I told her we were finally having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner...
Yelling for joy! Hand clapping! Hugging my leg!
"You got spaghetti& meatballs for me! We not have some and YOU GOT SOME!"
Sat right down & ate, happiest kid on the block.
Some moments are worth being two!

We have a walker!!!!

Oh, boy. Seriously? 8.75 months, huh? Couldn't even wait until 9 to get moving?! It seems the hypothesis that you were a horrid baby bc you couldn't move, and the more you move, the happier you become, is proving to be TRUE.
You are going to run away from me fast... probably next week. I'm toast!!
p.s. I love you. You are becoming such a joy to me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhJYSu3A7-I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

A Quiet afternoon

Today was a rushed morning out the door late to work, a worried phone call from the nanny about a temperature and complaints about ear pain, rushing to get home in time to rush to last available doctor appointment, rush crying hungry kids through a desperate drive-thru so they would make it through the trip to the target pharmacy, getting home and realizing everyone is resisting naps and having hours of work to finish.

Sweating.

Today, the sick toddler gave in and took a 3.5 hour nap, and the mom gave in and held the baby who wouldn't sleep anywhere but her chest. Instead of an afternoon of work, or Netflix, she snuggled on her bed. And in lieu of a blanket, a warm, snoring baby. The only sounds- wind through the blinds and the turn of book pages. Hours of quiet. Peace, calm. Cool Autumn air, warm drooly chest.

Perfection.

Magic Eights

Dear Jimmy,

Hello you fat, happy little guy! We fondly call you our Fat Jimmy, our Fat Guy, Tiny Man, Baby Brother and Baby Doggie. You crawl super duper fast. You walk super duper fast along furniture. You stand on your own anytime you can. You have taken a couple steps with the walker, but prefer the faster mode of transport. You expertly walk between couch, ottoman and kitchen chairs. We call you Baby Doggie bc you crawl after us all over the house begging for food. Or carrying things in your mouth. I love it.

You are a titch over 22 pounds- your weight gain has slowed down bc of your activity & being sick with roseola for a week. My arms and back thank you, sort of. It still KILLS me to carry you around with out the Ergo, which you HATE bc you want to be moving. Catch 22 for me. You are 28ish inches tall (standing at the couch while i put a measuring tape behind you, very exact). Everything 12 month is just right or getting small. Most in the booty area. Skinny jeans can't handle your thighs, dude.

You LOVE Faye. You let her beat you up. You follow her EVERYWHERE. You think you are two and can do everything she can. You talk to each other in the car. It's so cute!!
You LOVE Daddy. You literally jump our of my arms the moment he walks in the door. He can't put you to bed bc you just want to play & talk to him & pull his mustache. You don't settle down AT ALL. As soon as mom snuggles you, you fall right asleep. You talk to your dad more than anyone else...

ANNNNNDDD we have your first "word" - DADA. The score is now 2 for Dad, 0 for Mom for "first words". You have a very specific, sharp, quick DaDa sound when it comes to your pops. You hear his voice on speakerphone, you say it. You see him walk through the door, you say it. You ONLY say it when he's around or holding you. It means Daddy. Your dad EATS IT UP. You light up like a Christmas tree when he walks through the door. I can't wait til he can teach you to play baseball & football. Good times a'comin'.

You are SO OVER baby food. Only proper table food will do. You also seem to hate formula somedays. Uhhhhh... problems. You can't give that up until 1, so get over it, kid.

You sleep okay. Being sick messed you all up. We're working on getting you back on schedule at night. During the day you have 2nd child syndrome, which means if we need to go somewhere for big sister, you sleep when you sleep. Sorry, dude.

The day you turned 8 months I caught you standing at the edge of the couch munching on paper. I said "Hey! Don't eat that!" and you smiled a huge sneaky smile, giggled, and "ran" as fast as you could along the couch away from me. I'm in for it.

Love you baby,

Mama (say it? mamamamamamama)

7 months

In the past month you have:
Gotten 6 teeth
Sat by yourself
Crawled like a worm
Crawled like a real baby
Stood in your crib holding on
Stood up against any surface without having to hold on
Walked? awkwardly along furniture
Climbed on top of anything you can-bags, luggage, toys, piles of laundry
Stolen toys from sister
Gotten toys stolen from you(you notice now& get mad)
Crawl super fast to escape through any open door
You freak when people walk out the door& close the screen& don't take you with them
You took over a 3 hour nap.once.this has never happened before...or since
You eat everything. I give you everything.You love cottage cheese, yogurt, applesauce, any baby food, peaches, pears, apples, cereal, puffs, rice, lasagna, avocado, bananas. Once we even gave you a bread stick! You went to town (and we had to keep you from choking.)
You hate sitting at church.you fight sleep.
You are IN LOVE with your dad. You stare at him non-stop.everything he does you follow.
You think it's great when Faye beats you up, tries to pick you up, etc....but within reason.

Honestly, you smile all the time. you move constantly. you play by yourself for hours. you are a joy&a pleasure to have around.
If you would've told me 4 months ago you would be the happiest, most roly poly, sweet, smiley, giggly baby...I would not have believed you! Poor Faye is in a bad place being 2 right now, so you are a HUGE element of the happiness of our home. I can't believe it!
My sister has a theory that I buy into. You came to earth with this happy wiggly, ready-to-go spirit& you were stuck in this tiny, boring body you couldn't control or move& you were mad. The more you move, the happier you become.
You are snuggly,fat, happy & so cute& happy! Happy 7 months, you fantastic little man, you!
Also, you wouldn't sit still, this is as good as I got.

6 months!

oh hello handsome man! yesterday you turned 6 months old! it's sure been a crazy half a year of life with you....you keep us on our toes, that's for certain!
you weigh in at 20 .5 pounds (just weighed this morning), and sleep in 12 months jammas and everything else is pretty much a nine month size clothes. we fondly refer to you as Slim Jim, fat Jimmy, Senor Gordo....you are our big fat bowling ball boy!
you are eating everything and anything in sight nowadays, food or otherwise. you love baby food, and anything else we will let you have baby crackers, fruit, carrots, celery, anything you can suck on that is delicious! you are also in the "wanting to eat paper" phase, which I forgot is so obnoxious!
you sit happily in the middle of the floor for a long time playing with toys a lot of the time. it used to be all the time, but now the big news this week is you are crawling... well backwards!! you get up on all fours and you rock as hard as you can and you move your little knees and little hands and you just get farther and farther away from the goal! you get so frustrated, its so darling so cute to watch! Lol I have a feeling in a couple days you'll be scooting  all over my house and we're going to be in big trouble!
you sleep about 8 or 9 hours straight at night, get up and get a drink and then go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. You love your own bed& (just like your sister) would prefer you were just laid down in bed without anybody rocking or snuggling you. this is a nice change from the past!!
you have two teeth in and 4 more coming in at the moment. I just assume that you'd like to continue your fatness and you'd like to start eating more food sooner!
you love your big sister and can watch her all day and laugh at everything she does.you two are becoming thick as thieves! I love that you guys love each other! you also are a huge fan of daddy! the minute he walkes in from work you start shouting and staring at him till he gives you attention and picks you up! you guys can play this "caveman grunting" game and just gruny back and forth at each other, its funny.
you're becoming a real joy in our house! it finally feels after a few months that were all meant to be here together! happy half birthday my little James! We love you!!

Cancer

<p dir=ltr>My co-worker of 5 years and dear friend, Bridget, lost her son(age 24) suddenly in a horrible car accident last September. Shortly thereafter they found out her daughter (age 26) has cervical cancer stage 4. This afternoon they were told she will not survive the cancer. Please keep her and the Quijada (pronounced key-ha-da) family in your prayers. We are all devastated.

Is this sacrilege? Probably.

Getting into car:
Faye "no no! It too hot!"
Me "I can't do anything about that. If you think it's too hot outside tell God to turn it down."
Faye "GOD!! It too hot!! No more hot, God! Turn down, please?"

I love her more everyday. She is so funny & sweet & awesome.

Mothers day 2013

My third mothers day. A fabulous one.

Me & kiddos went to Las Vegas Tuesday night to have a nice long,relaxing visit:

Grandma & Grandpa
Aunt Melissa/Shelly
Uncle Todd/Jes
Cousins
Pool
Not Working
Discovery museum
Many friends
Dinner with girlfriends
Shopping with bestfriend Kelli
Shopping by MYSELF
Watching old b&w movies with parents
Not working
BBQ with old friends & swimming
Family dinner with just adults
Family dinner with many crazy tiny people
Laughing
Smiling
Sleeping
Not working
Happy happy toddler with cousins
Happy happy baby with attention
Time without husband
Time with husband

3 years ago I told Brad I was pregnant on Father's Day-I was going to be Mom! Two little people have come to our home: healthy, happy and full of love. Faye makes me laugh everyday, is my little bestfriend, and is our sweet crazy lady. James is our fat, smiling, bowling ball! I am grateful to be their mother!

Brad totally surprised me with a beautiful book of pictures! Apparently while I was running Ragnar he had a whole photo shoot with our kids!! What a stud. He also went and got my ring all fixed (diamond had to be fixed in band, got rhodium finish, cleaning, the works!) It feels so much prettier on my hand now. Plus a few days away from home? I scored!

So grateful for my mother, my sister, my in-laws, and many friends and second mothers in my life!
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!