Peace on Earth!

Being Christian’s Mom brings so much joy to my life every day. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing son and incredible husband. Rick was the greatest husband and Daddy this weekend, making me feel so loved and appreciated! He had to work on Mother’s Day (of course! lol), so we celebrated on Saturday. Rick and Christian woke me up in the morning with a beautiful pair of earrings! What a sweet surprise! They have great taste! Then, we went to brunch at our favorite spot in Manayunk. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm, so we sat outside for brunch. Sadly, I’m so pale that I started getting a sunburn on my shoulders. That is some serious encouragement to get a little more Vitamin D this summer! Christian obviously knew it was Mother’s Day because he slept through brunch until I finished my meal (he’s so thoughtful already). After brunch, we strolled along the river and Main Street.

Since the weather was so great, we took the party down to Rittenhouse Square, enjoyed some froyo and hung out in the park. On Sunday, Christian and I went to church in the morning and then had lunch at HUP with Daddy. I couldn’t have asked for a better first Mother’s Day!

Christian wore his first pair of sunglasses without velcro! I’m in l.o.v.e. with his little baby Ray Bans! He kept taking them off and putting them in his mouth. I persisted to put them back on every time and he finally gave up! got used to them!

Christian had so much poop fun that he needed an outfit change!

Just days after his 6 month birthday, our little man started crawling! The day of his 6 month doctor’s appointment, he was sitting up, and then a few days later he was crawling! Our little man is getting big so fast!!

6 month stats
Weight: 16 pounds 5 ounces
Height: 26.3 inches

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^^ Click on the hyperlink to see the video.

Well, our next trip to Florida came sooner than we anticipated. Christian and I turned around and went back a few days before Easter. Mimi took us to get some adorable Easter pictures of Christian! He’s too cute for words in the giant Easter egg!

Rick’s much needed vacation block finally came up this month. So, we took a trip down to Florida to visit our families! Christian and I flew down 5 days ahead of Ricardo. The flight was quick and easy and Christian did great! I learned from our trip to Puerto Rico and had everything packed and ready to go way ahead of time! Christian loved the warm weather, spending time with the grandparents and meeting so many new people.

Kristen and Brian held Liam’s first birthday party, along with their nephew Eli’s second birthday party, in Jacksonville. At 5 months, our chunky monkey is almost as big as Liam!! It was great to see how much Liam is growing and to watch him start walking. Of course I loved seeing Kristen, Brian and their sweet families too!

The Lugo’s treated us to a Magic game where the Magic beat the Heat (obvs)! My mom took us to {finally} see Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. It was amazing! We spent some time with my dad and also got to see Danielle and Ann Marie.

Thanks to the Lugo’s for letting us stay in their beautiful beach condo, we also took a trip to the beach where we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at The Garlic {yum!}. And with Javi about to graduate from law school, we took advantage of our last chance to visit him in Miami before he moves to Indiana!

Our 2 1/2 weeks in Florida flew by! We had a great time and are excited to head back soon!

Our little man is already 4 months old! We had fun taking his monthly photos. This one was more challenging because he did.not.stay.still! He was reaching for his cute little toes, trying hard to crawl around and looking every which way. He is so much more aware! Now that he is rolling over and scooting around, we can tell that he will be crawling around before we know it! {Must start baby-proofing!}

Little C Man weighed 14 pounds 11 ounces (46th percentile) and was 25 inches long (64th percentile) at his 4-month check-up. He always feels run-down after receiving his vaccines, but he did so well! Between the vaccinations and 2 colds this month, we’re both exhausted! Hopefully this just means his immune system is getting strong.

Ricardo has been working hard and received the good news that he passed Step 3! {Woohoo!} Now we’re looking forward to his upcoming vacation and a trip to Florida!

We have heard your requests to update our blog! We’re still here, we’ve just been busy! Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone and Happy Birthday to Abuelo Jorge! Here is our cutie patootie at 3 1/2 months saying “BE MINE!”

We had so much fun making crafts, taking pictures and cooking for Daddy. Here are a few more or my favorites.

I just can’t get enough of this little guy! ♥

We worked hard to make a yummy dinner for Daddy who was on call until so late! We made some of his favorite foods: tostones, arroz con gandules, churrasco with chimichurri sauce and chocolate covered strawberries. Check out our feast and the gorgeous bouquet of tulips the hubster brought me!

See how exhausted our little munchkin is from all of the cooking and picture taking? We had a wonderful day and hope you did too!

Christian is trying to say something, but his triple chin won’t let him.

We took Christian to see the Christmas Village at Love Park on Rick’s day off this weekend.

He enjoyed the view from his stroller!

Then, we had dinner in Manayunk with our friends Brian and Thais. Christian did so well at the restaurant. He was so quiet and slept most of the time. Check out the Florida apparel in the photos on the wall. Go Gators! haha

Christian hit a big milestone this week – he’s 6 weeks old!! We are amazed by how quickly he is changing and how fast he is growing. He is getting stronger and starting to hold up his head. His eyes focus more on our faces and he looks towards our voices. We are definitely amazed by everything about him! We’re in love, to say the least!

I took some shots of Christian at 4 weeks. We will take these pictures each month so that we can see how he’s growing and changing. It’s hard to believe that he’s already outgrowing his newborn clothes! He weighed 9 pounds 13 ounces at the doctor’s this week.

At a perfect 7 pounds, 4 ounces, our firstborn entered this world on 10/20/11! He gave us a little bit of a scare by getting his shoulder stuck and having the cord wrapped around his neck, but thanks to the fast-acting HUP doctors, he made it out unscathed.

Since leaving the hospital, we have been loving every moment with him, despite the sleepless nights and massive loads of laundry we now do.

Today, I had my 35 week appointment with the doctor. The appointments are usually pretty quick at this point. Today, they listened to the baby’s heartbeat (which was perfect in the 140′s!), did the Group B strep test and that was it! From here on out, the appointments will be weekly. We’re getting into the home stretch!

I’ve finally reached that point in the pregnancy where I’m starting to feel uncomfortable. Dobby and I went hiking today and by the end, my back was really hurting! Moving around to make dinner and get stuff done around the house took a lot of effort after that. Another unfortunate side effect of the third trimester is that I now seem to need to keep a bucket by the side of the bed. {Gross, I know!} Twice in the last week, I’ve woken from a dead sleep to have to lurch out of bed throwing up. It’s rather unfortunate. :-/ The baby must be squishing things around in there because he’s running out of room. At least we just have another 5 weeks to go at this point!

Last week, we had an ultrasound of the baby! He was so cute! Rick was rotating in oncology, so it was tough to get away, but he managed! It was SO nice to have him there!! The ultrasound technician was really nice and looked at stuff that wasn’t very exciting (like measuring amniotic fluid) each time Rick had to step out of the room to take a call, which he got about 5 million of. The 3D pictures were so amazing to see! We can already tell that the baby is going to look a lot like Ricardo! Baby L seems to have his nose and heart-shaped face. He’s so cute already! Check him out flashing the peace sign!

Our moms threw the BEST and CUTEST baby shower for Baby L! They clearly worked very hard on lots of tiny details to make the most elaborate shower I have ever seen. So many friends and family came to celebrate our baby, including my sister from California, family from Puerto Rico and Kristen, all the way from North Carolina. I was so glad they could all make it!

Rick actually – prepare yourselves for this shocker – had the weekend off! So, he came down to Florida for the weekend and went off with his dad and brother to do “guy” things during the shower. You know they secretly wish they were at the shower too! ha!

We received so many sweet and thoughtful baby gifts. Now we’re making room in our apartment for all of our baby swag! Our little one is already so spoiled!!

Here are several pics from the shower. I haven’t been able to upload to the picture gallery since I dropped my computer (let’s just call it a casualty of pregnancy). I’ll have lots of uploading to do once I get the gallery installer on my new (Rick’s old) computer!

We made it through Hurricane Irene last week! Rick got an email before the hurricane telling him to come in Saturday morning and be prepared to stay through Monday. After some begging, citing a pregnant wife, Rick was allowed to come home after his shift on Saturday. He of course had to go back in to work on Sunday and Monday, but it was so nice that we go to ride out the storm together!

More baby gifts have arrived for our little one!! We love opening little baby presents! We received the cutest little stroller blanket and an adorable quilt that is part of the bedding set. {Swoon!} (I’ll post more pics eventually when I can upload to the gallery again. Hopefully soon!)

Over the last weekend, we hung out with Rick’s friend from UCF, Camilo and his girlfriend, Karina. Camilo took some cute baby bump pics for us in Rittenhouse Square! Everything is still going great with the pregnancy and Baby L keeps kicking away!

This week we had an unexpected surprise, an earthquake! I was at home getting ready to go out and all of a sudden, it seemed like the whole apartment just shook and the table in front of me moved. It felt really unsettling! The thought of an earthquake in Philly just didn’t even cross my mind. My thought was that I must be feeling woozy from the pregnancy, that maybe I was dehydrated and should be drinking more water! lol So, I sat down and was thinking, maybe I shouldn’t be driving right now! ha! Rick called right away and said that the whole hospital shook and he wanted to know if I was ok. I said, “you felt it too?” We figured it had to have been an earthquake! Obviously it was small if I mistook it for a little dizziness. Dobby never even shifted from his sleep on the couch. Now we can say we’ve felt an earthquake! Philly has been full of surprises already!! haha

In baby news, we are 30 weeks as of Sunday!! Baby L is about 3 pounds now and I can really feel his growing size! My stomach pokes out now when he kicks and I can see his little body parts poking my stomach out through my clothes. It’s definitely not a feeling I think I’ll get used to, but in a good way.

We are now seeing the doctor every two weeks and go back for another visit on Friday. We have been so blessed that Rick has been able to make it to every appointment but 1 so far! I’ve started having occasional contractions, but the doctor said that it isn’t anything to be overly concerned about. My body must be getting ready! Last weekend, I went to an all-day childbirth education class where I learned that I still have a lot to learn! lol

Here is a photo from last week. I haven’t taken any good bump pictures lately, but we’ll try for one later this week!

Not to leave out our fur baby, here he is hanging out with me in the nursery as I work on getting it ready!

It’s hard for me to believe that the third trimester is already here! I’ve gained about 14 pounds and am now fighting the inevitable swelling. While my engagement ring is still on, my wedding band has come off! When I gained 4 pounds literally overnight and my fingers swelled like sausages, I felt a little concerned. Thankfully, my fingers un-swelled, but it’s a constant battle. I’m trying to stay out of this heat wave (temperatures have been reaching 100+ lately) and am now being uber careful about what I eat. Poor Rick has accepted that he will not eat another Puerto Rican dish for a while (holy salt!!). When he looked at the amount of salt in Adobo and bullion cubes, etc, he understood.

Getting out of bed is beginning to look more like a circus act – I may need a crane to help with this task pretty soon! Sometimes, when Baby L kicks, we can see my stomach push out! It’s pretty cool to see! At 27 weeks, he should weigh about 2 pounds already! HOW CUTE!! I think I have been feeling Braxton Hicks contractions, but I’m not sure. I’ll get to ask the doctor about it next week.

Over the weekend, we picked out and ordered baby furniture. Our choices weren’t what we expected to go with, but we fell in love when we saw the pieces in the store! We tried out the paint samples I brought home last week and started painting the nursery. It will be a work-in-progress for some time. I still need to order a rug, which I’ve already picked out, and need to decide on a rocking chair. Abi and Abu sent our first shower gift, a pack ‘n play. We were SO EXCITED to get it!! It was one of the items on our registry that we wanted most and we will get TONS of use out of it!! Our baby is already so lucky to have such a wonderful family!

Rick meanwhile is on his medical icu rotation at HUP. His days are LONG! We are now aware that there are two 5:00s in the day (who knew?!). We wake up super early to get him to work at 6. His day lasts until 7:00 p.m., but tonight he is “on call” and won’t get home until much later. I feel so sorry for him just thinking about his schedule! He is working so very hard! Rick already had his 1 day off this week on Tuesday. Baby L and I LOVED getting to spend the day with him!! Now I’m counting down till September when he has 2 more weeks of ambulatory (hello 9-5!).

^^ A lot can change in a week!!

We had Monica come up to visit us in Philly last weekend. She made a stop over in NYC and then made it back to spend a couple of days with us. It was great to have our first visitor from Rick’s side of the family. Since we are still finding our way around the city, we spent some time getting lost, but we also got to see some sights that we had yet to visit!

On Saturday, we walked around Rittenhouse Square. There was a small sort of farmer’s market going on at the park. I will have to go back sometime to get some fresh produce! We joined several of Rick’s co-interns who were meeting up at Reading Terminal Market. The market was definitely worth visiting, especially for Bassets Ice Cream. Yum! =P We stopped at Love Park to take pictures in front of the love sign. Then, after seeing the Rocky statue, Rick and Monica raced up the steps of the art museum. It is definitely wedding season because we saw about 4 different weddings throughout the city!

Since we keep talking about Manayunk, we had to take Monica to check it out! So we ate brunch in Manayunk on Sunday and spent some time walking around Main Street.

Brunch on Main Street

Rick and Monica in front of the Manayunk Canal