It's a BOY!

Yup. Diego is having a brother! I am going to be so outnumbered! Marcelo knew it was a boy. I had no idea. I had the ultrasound yesterday, on my birthday. I'm really excited that it's another boy because Diego really needed to have a boy his age in his life! He's surrounded by girls! All of his cousins are girls. Well, except Nunzio but he lives in Pennsylvania.

I won't lie, though. I'm scared now that I'll never have a girl. The next time around, I'm going to be praying for a girl for sure. And if I don't get one, you better believe I'll be adopting one.

My mom was positive it was a girl. So she's like, "Are you sure?" Yes. It's 100% a boy. We saw his boy bits. Now the stressful part begins: picking a name. Marcelo is sooooooooooooo picky.

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!!!!!

Allergies

So, we've discovered that Diego is allergic to milk. I am soooo sad about this. It sucks. He can't drink milk, eat cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, nothing. He's also allergic to eggs. I don't know if it's egg whites, or egg yolks, or both. We found out when we gave him some milk and he threw up several times immediately after drinking it. He throws up cheese, too. And with eggs he breaks out all over his face. It's so sad! I hope he grows out of it. It's possible! When I was little, I was allergic to canned fish like tuna and sardines. And I grew out of it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed. What kid can't eat macaroni and cheese???

Bummer

We were supposed to be getting back from New York today. But there was a change in plans.

On December 29th, I was the maid of honor in Julie Hickman's wedding. That morning, Diego started breathing really weird. He seemed like he couldn't catch his breath. My instincts told me to take him to the doctor, even though I totally didn't have time for that. I really needed to get ready for Julie's wedding. The doc said he was wheezing and had bronchiolitis and possibly pneumonia. Grrrreat. Marcelo had to take him to the hospital to get a chest x-ray. I felt like the world's worst mother, because I couldn't go. I had to go to Julie's wedding! It was sooo hard to see Diego like that and not be there by his side. Marcelo said it was a good thing I didn't go to the chest x-ray because it was pure torture. They had to put Diego in a little machine with his hands straight ut by his head, and only his face was visible through a little hole. Marcelo said Diego just screamed the whole time. The poor kid was terrified.

The other thing the doc said was that flying was not a good idea. Well, on the 30th, we were supposed to fly to New York, so we could spend New Year's and my grandpa's birthday there with my family. Sadly, we had to cancel the trip. I was really bummed out about that, but obviously, we were going to do whatever was best for Diego and his health.

So here we are, still in Florida. We spend New Year's with Marcelo's family, which was nice. At midnight we were at home, all alone, and Diego was asleep. It was the first time I've ever had such a quiet little New Year's.

Diego is still on medication, and we have to use the nebulizer on him. It's not fun, but it seems to be making him better.

Oh, having children is tough work.

Happy Holidays!

Diego's first Christmas is over! Time is just going by way too fast. We spent Christmas with my in-laws. It was really nice to have Diego be with all his cousins. We took pictures of all the grandkids with my in-laws. The girls all wore matching outfits, and Michelle made Diego a little matching vest. It was soooo cute!!! She was so sweet to do that.

Diego totally didn't care about opening presents. But it was fun for me and Marcelo!