Life Changing

It's been a loooooong time since I've written a real entry in here. Since Diego was born, I've pretty much just written brief little updates with some pictures. But today I feel like really writing again.

Having a baby is so life changing. Everyone tells you your life is going to change, but no one can really describe to you exactly how it's going to change. It's one of those things you have to experience for yourself to really understand. In this past year, my life has changed so much. I feel like my heart has grown to 3 times it's size to fit all the love I have for Diego in there.

Here are just some of the ways my life has changed:

1. I'm much more vulnerable. My heart could break into a million pieces if anything ever hurt Diego.
2. I'm a lot less selfish. Having a baby doesn't leave room to be selfish. I have to put him first.
3. My relationship with Marcelo has changed for the better. There's just a different bond when you have a child together. I see a different side of him when he's with Diego and I love it.
4. It's a lot harder to just get up and go. Getting in and out of the car, shopping with my little monkey, going out to dinner...all of that is different. He makes quite the mess at restaurants.
5. I'm a lot less vain. I'm so much more comfortable in my skin. I used to focus too much on my appearance. Of course I still want to look nice and present myself well, but a bad hair day isn't a big deal anymore. It's actually quite common, haha.
6. Life is put into perspective a lot more. Having a baby makes you worry about the little things a lot less. There are much bigger things to focus on. Like the beautiful sound of his giggles. Or his big hugs.
7. I'm a better person. I know that sounds incredibly pompous, but I am constantly aware that I have to be an example to him. That makes me think about the things I say, or how I act, and has just made me do better in a lot of areas.

I love that having him in my life has made me focus a lot less on myself. I was getting quite sick of myself. I don't mean to make this sound like I am now just an amazing person. I'm not. I still have a lot to improve. But I am better than I was before he came into my life, and I'm soooo grateful for that.

Utah!

Diego took his first plane ride! It was pretty bad. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still, it was bad. He cried a lot when he was trying to go to sleep, but besides that, he was okay.

So where did he go on this plane? To Utah!! We took a week long vacation to Utah so Marcelo could go snowboarding. And because Irv and Andrea were going to be there. And just because I love Utah and I wanted Marcelo to go there so he could love it, too. We really didn't mean to go at the same time as Irv and Andrea, but it worked out because we all stayed in the same house (with Naomi and Marcos, too) and it was cheaper for everyone. I didn't get to snowboard because I'm pregnant. I was bummed about that, but there will always be a next time. I did get to go tubing with Diego, though. He thought the snow was pretty weird. He looked so cute all bundled up in snow gear!







We had a ton of fun, and I reached my goal of making Marcelo love Utah! He said he definitely wants to go back in the future. Yay! It's so beautiful. We went to Temple Square and did the tour, and to the Church History Museum, which was awesome. My favorite part of the whole trip was seeing the Joseph Smith movie. Man, I cried like a baby. It was so good. I can't wait until I can buy it. I've always had a strong testimony of Joseph Smith, but this made it even stronger. I don't think I'll ever be able to hear the song "Praise to the Man" again without getting emotional.

Another good part of the trip was the food! If you know me, you know I looooove good food. My favorites were a Brazilian restaurant called Rodizio, and a Mexican restaurant called Cafe Rio. Ohhh how I wish we had both of those here. Cafe Rio was delicious.

The bad part of the trip was being the only couple with a baby. That was hard. We felt like we were dragging everyone down. Hopefully they still had the vacation they were hoping for. Poor Andrea got hurt a ton while snowboarding, though. I wish I could have snowboarded with her on the bunny slopes and helped her. Not that I'm a pro; I'm totally not. But it probably would have helped her to have another beginner there with her.

My only regret was not getting to go inside the Temple. I really wanted to do that. Oh well. Next time.

Happy Birthday!

Diego is a year old! I can't believe I have a one year old! We had a jungle themed birthday party for him because, well, he's a monkey. And his room is jungle themed. This is the invitation I made for the party:

I did it in photoshop. I've become addicted to digital scrapbooking. Too bad I didn't pay better attention in my graphic design class a few years ago. It's so fun! I worked really hard to digiscrap his first year by his first birthday so I could display the book at his party. It took forever, but I'm so glad it's done.

The guests at his party were my immediate family, Marcelo's immediate family, Tio Carlos and family, Irv and Andrea, Andres, Angelita, and Sofi, Chris and PJ, and Juany and Jerry. Yeah, it was a ton of people. My mom went NUTS decorating. This was the back porch:

She made those little monkeys to pass out the party favors. The party favors had animal crackers in them, as well as jungle stickers, candy, and I don't even know what else. My mom did it all. I made the cake, though. All by myself!!! I'm soooo proud of myself because I had never done anything like it and didn't know if I was capable. But it was really fun, so I look forward to doing his cake for future parties! Here it is:

Man, I'm still so proud of myself, haha. My friend made this for her little boy and I fell in love with it, so she told me how to make it. I was really happy with it!

Anyway, Diego had fun. He had no idea what was going on. And he didn't like the cake. Because of his allergies, I had to make him a separate little cupcake with no milk. He didn't want to eat it, so I had to be a bad mom and smear chocolate on his face just so I could get this picture:

All in all, it was a success. I didn't want to make it such a huge deal, but my mom got so into it and I just let her run with it. Why not? She had fun. I told her I don't want to go nuts like this again next year, though. Anyway, my baby is ONE!!!!!