Playing at the park....

Yesterday we took EJ to CB Smith Park for a bit so he could burn off some energy. The playground isnt that great but its less than a mile from our house and it was between morning and afternoon nap time so it didnt leave us much time. He ran around and played in the dirt. He seemed to enjoy that much more than actually climbing on the toys. He picked up every thing he shouldnt like straws, cup tops, plastic bags so he kept us busy chasing him around to take them away. He liked digging his hands in the sand and ended covered in dirt and all sweaty but he has fun and slept well after lunch when we got home.

We figuredout he loves sandwiches, PB&J and grilled cheese work well. he eats the whole sandwhich. so thats progress. although cutting them up into amillion little pieces is a pain it works. He likes to put the whole piece in his mouth no matter the size so we'll be cutting it up for awhile. but he eats it so thats good. hopefully he'll move on to something a little more substantial soon.

House hunting sucks

3 things to talk about....

so the house we had an offer on was officially denied, they wanted 20K more than we were willing to spend so we passed...it had a huge hole in the roof and needed a whole new one not tomention whatever damage resulted from the hole and water damage. so yeah, 3 months we waited for that answer. nice. we have expanded our search to a little farther north of where we live right now, looked at 2 yesterday. one way out of our price range by like 50K and the other was nice but the main power lines ran right behind it. which isnt all bad sice it gave us tons of space behind the fence to run Es RC cars and play ball and whatnot but living near main power lines has been assiciated with a higher rate of childhood cancer so yeah, that threw that house right out the window. So E andhis parents are looking at a few more tonight. me and the baby stayed home since we had him out way past his bedtime last night just to look at those 2 places.
so i think we decided not to even try with a short sale property as this last one was 3 months of waiting and waiting sucks.....so we are back to square one.
and we would like to be in a new house by february as thats when our fixed rate mortgage turns adjustable and we got a letter the other day saying our payment would most likely go up like $250 a month....and that doesnt include the HOA which also kicks in next feb at another $250 a month and thats to live in a 3rd floor apartment which is quickly turning more ghetto by the day.


and that leads to my next topic. our fabulous community. this past sunday we looked out our windo and there were 2 guys grilling in their driveway. not a big deal on itsown. of course most people do it on their balcony but whatever, so they were grilling chicken and had a tent to keep the sun off. ok, getting more ghetto but not too bad yet. the best part was that they had brought their tv out and run the powere and cable lines outside to watch the football game, while they grilled and ate chicken. ther were 2 of them. TWO OF THEM. you think the a/c inside would be more comfortable but i guess you just cant take the ghetto out of some people. oh, wait, i forgot, WE live in the ghetto now ;) and to add to the swell-ness of our living arrangements i was outide yesterday and kicked something metal on the ground. so i looked and i thought i was mistaken, but no, it really was a bullet casing. yup, you read that right...a freaking bullet casing. now i know there havent been any gun shots here but seriously, why was it on the ground in my parking lot?!?! :) i love my condo community...oh wait, i forgot, its not a condo community anymore, they are renting them again becasie people wont buy here, sobasically those of us that bought before the market crashed are just screwed......

and the third topic....we went for our one year check up. he weighs 19lbs 12oz. hes not even 20lbs yet. that puts him in about the 8th percentile for weight while being in teh 50-75th for height. so we had a long talk with the doctor about his eating. he was eating lots of table finger foods beofer i went back to work but my MIL will only feed him puree. shes afraid he'll choke. adn e is afraid she'll panic. so if he doesnt trust her i definately dont. a little background info: she fed E puree until he was 3. and he drank milk from a bottle till who knows when...7? (but most latin families are like that...even ones that have lived most of their lives here) so yeah, we are trying to feed him table food at dinner. last night he ate like 5 tiny pieces of chicken (if that) 2 pieces of carrot and a few watermelon. pieces. tonight he ate a piece of bread, a itsy bitsy piece of carrot and like two little bites of turkey lunch meat. those two meals together shouldnt even be enough for a snack. so i have no idea how we are going to put weight on him. ???????


other than that things are good. work is great. i love my kids. they have a test thirsday or friday so we'll see how well they do....

Birthday Pictures

So here are the pictures from EJs first birthday. We decorated with Curious George since the only thing he has attached himself to is his monkey....i dont think he really even noticed but thats ok, i liked them :)

Opening presents was fun, his attention span got him through about 2 presents until he had had enough....bedtime was quickley approaching and he certainly let everyone know it!

He was unsure about the cake, watched everyone as they sang and immediatly took the little Curious george figurine off the cake and played with that. He had no desire to eat the cake and even though we put his hands in it he really just wanted to play with the monkey.
Amelia saw that EJ was having trouble understanding what to do with the cake so she thought she would helphim out by showing him that you are supposed to eat it......
and she ended up having more than he did!

The big birthday weekend....

went well. EJ is now "officially" 1! I cant believe how fast time goes and how big he is. he's practically running around the house and wanting to play with everything he shouldnt. Unfortunately I have been super sick since last thursday and that seriously put a damper on the weekend, but my best friend sara and her boyfriend matty flew in from Philly this weekend which was awesome. it was great to have them here. and they brought food for the party and apparently matty loves to wash dishes and washed every dish in our house by hand the entire weekend. it worked out well! :)
saturday morning was spent cleaning and straightening out before the party. people started to arrive about 2:30 and everyone was here by 4. it was nice and low key (13 people) which was good since i spend the first half curled up ion the couch in a fleece jacket and under the blanket wishing i could just crawl into a hole and dissapear. i was upset because i could barely move and i was missing my son's party but then i puked and was able to join everyone else (nice huh?). he opened presents and got a lot of cool stuff and some super cute clothes (thanks sara!). cake also went well although he was pretty uninterested in the actual cake, he was more excited to play with the miniature curius george figure on top. but thats ok, Amelia helped him out with actually eating the cake. she would sneak up to his high chair slowly reach out her hand and then pull a piece off quickly and into her mouth (like she didnt think we would all see her!) it was super cute.
overall a success...and there are pictures to follow.....

sunday we (E, sara, matty and i) went on a driving tour of miami to see all the "important" miami stuff. it was a nice ride and i actually got to see stuff i had never seen before. we ate at fridays as the baby was cranky and we needed a "kid friendly" environment. the food was good i guess but since i got sick i havent really eaten much (i had 2 wontons at fridays). we headedhome and watched some stand up comedy and then i was off to bed.

monday (hooray for long weekends) we drove out to the everglades and "alligator hunting" well not really but we drove down loop road which is a dirt road through the everglades where you can look for gators. we saw a few. apparently it usually only takes about and hour and a half to drive through but the road was flooded over in most places so it was a slow muddy ride. my car was super pretty afterwards!! it still needs a bath.