Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This was our Christmas card this year. Except I didn't really get around to sending it out to people. Oh well. At least I got to enjoy it. :)

Terrible Twos

I should totally be working on the calendar I'm making for my in-laws, but I just need 5 minutes to breathe. Writing is always therapeutic for me, so here I am.

Diego is getting to be such a terror. I mean, he already was a terror, but in a good way. He was just active and into everything. He loves to explore things, be loud and crazy, and run run run. But now, when I say he's a terror, I mean he doesn't listen to squat, he sounds like a broken record saying, "No way! No way!" I have no idea where he learned that. He is becoming increasingly defiant. For instance, today, I asked him if he wanted to go to the naughty room (which up until this point had been working great) and he said, "Yes!" Then he proceeded to walk towards the room while he looked at me and said, "Bye bye! Bye bye!" Which is what I say when I'm threatening him. Like if he won't come to the door when it's time to leave, I'll be like, "Okay, fine. Bye bye, Diego!" and act like I'm leaving without him. So he threw it back at me. Then later, he was being good for a little while so I promised him we would go play outside. I was like, "Okay, let's put your shoes on so we can go outside." Being outside is his favorite thing ever. But he's soooo stubborn, so he was like, "No way!" and ran away from me. I usually start threatening him or bribing him at this point, but today I was just too tired to fight it. And the way I saw it was, hey, he's the one who wants to go outside, not me. So I just went about my business and cleaned up the living room. He totally didn't care. Whenever I came anywhere near him, he ran away. Then if he noticed I wasn't paying attention to him, he ran up to me and was like, "Woosh, Mommy!" (Shoes, Mommy.) I would say, "Are you ready to put on your shoes?" And he'd say, "Nooooo!" And run away again. Twenty-five minutes later, (and a much cleaner house later) I was like, okay, either we're going outside or we're not, but I'm not going to play this game anymore. So I sat down with his shoes in front of me and said, "Diego, let me put your shoes on you so we can go outside and play." He just sat there across the room. So I said, "Three..." and he inched a little closer..."Two..." and he stopped moving all together..."One..."and he ran and sat in my lap.

Really? That's all he needed? The 3, 2, 1 threat?

I'm sure I'll laugh at all this later, but today it's not so funny. He's a smarty pants, though. I'm really proud of him. He knows all his colors, he knows A, B, and C, he knows the name of every form of transportation immaginable....car, truck, plane, boat, train, motorcycle, bicycle, etc. Today (when he was being nice) I asked him, "How do you say 'water' in Spanish?" He said, "Awa!" (Agua). I asked him, "How do you say 'duck' in Spanish?" He said, "Pato!" "How do you say Airplane in Spanish?" "Avooo." (Avión) He knows so many words in Spanish now. I should really talk to him more in Spanish. He's mostly learning from my mom.

The child does not want to speak in sentences, though. He'll be 2 in February and I'm dying for him to start stringing words together! But so far, the longest sentence he'll say is, "Mommy, ah you?" (Mommy, where are you?) He's also big on possesives. He loves to say, "Mommy's car" or "Ama's ouse" (Grandma's house). He puts so much emphasis on the S. Like, Mommysssss. Oh, the best is when he says applesauce. Let's just say it sounds like he's saying apple booty, but in a not so nice way.

Despite the tantrums, this age is fun. I guess for the next year or so, we'll be going back and forth between the Terrible Twos and the Terrific Twos. It's a rollercoaster.

Okay, back to work.

Mastitis Blows

Mastitis is the worst thing ever. Aside from not being completely numb during my second c-section, this is the worst pain ever. I'm going back to the doctor tomorrow to demand that they fix me.That's all I have to say.

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween was fun. Dressing up the boys was sooo much fun. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

We were a family of skunks!! I have to give my mom credit for the idea. She found the skunk costumes and fell in love with them. I made mine and Marcelo's to match the kids. I'm happy with how everything turned out. For trick-or-treating, though, it was too hot, so Diego was Rambo. He loved trick-or-treating with his cousins. He just loves being outside. It's a shame he can't eat hardly any of his candy because he's allergic to everything. Oh well. More for me. Muahahahaha. Here's Rambo.

And some Halloween pjs:

Marcelito

Marcelito is a month old! I took the same picture of him that I took of Diego when he was a month old just so I could compare. I think they have similarities, but they don't look a ton alike.

Things are going well. He sleeps pretty good for a newborn. Wakes up after 5 hours, and then every 3. My mom thinks he looks just like me. Sometimes I see it, but not always. It's way too early to tell.

Nursery

Diego is 18 months old, which means....nursery time!! I've been counting down waiting for him to be old enough. I was getting so sick of trying to keep him calm during church! But I have to say, I am a little sad. So far, I've been going with him to nursery, while he gets used to it, but it's hard because I'm the Relief Society president and feel like I should be in RS. Oh, yeah, by the way, I'm the RS President. I haven't written about that in here. They called me when I was just a few weeks away from giving birth to Marcelito. Yeah. I thought they were crazy. I still do.

Anyway, so far he seems like he's going to do okay. Well, once he gets used to Bro. and Sis. Wardell. They're really nice. And I told them all about his allergies, so they're going to be really careful about what food they bring in for everyone. They're not going to give the other kids food unless Diego can eat it, too. That gives me such peace of mind because I was just envisioning him grabbing a handful of someone else's goldfish crackers and then throwing them up everywhere.

Okay, he's waking up from his nap and yelling, "Momeeeeeeeeee".

Allergies, Allergies, and More Allergies

Well, Diego is now 18 months old, so we got him tested for allergies. And surprise, surprise, he's allergic to everything.

Here's the official list:
Milk
Eggs
All nuts, including coconut
Cats
Dogs

Yup. He's a little nerd boy. It's so frustrating. I never thought I'd have to deal with this since I didn't think it ran in the family. But apparently it does, somewhere. So I will spend my life reading labels and make him separate meals. I've pretty much given up on him out growing this because when they tested him, the milk allergy was the highest it could be. I don't see that going away any time soon.

Ugh, the way they tested him was awful. They had to fill like 27 vials of blood, while we held him down. Okay, it was really 6 or 7, but it felt like a lot more. It took forever, and he just laid there crying and screaming. It was horrible.