six pack

i have nora on the same ab workout plan as me. so far so good. we could be twins.

:(

nora has to wear a brace for her hips for TWO MONTHS. ugh!

another ?

do hollywood stars not want their kids to walk, or what? i swear every photo i see of celebs they are carrying their 5 year old children. let them walk! thats what their legs are for! (katie holmes)

elvis wannabee

umm. i have new sideburn hair growing in and it´s just getting out of control. i´m aware that this is another post-partum treat and it´s just the icing on the cake. it´s just there.....too short to tuck behind my ears and what am i going to do, shave it off?

in the mean time i am often mistaken for elvis and was even asked to perform in vegas. ok, maybe not. but seriously. out. of. control.

patriotic

can´t. stop. laughing.

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule

(thanks meredith)

The house that built me

do you ever hear a song and get chills up and down your spine?
that´s what happened when i heard this song this summer. it just so happened that i had just taken a stroll with nora in the neighborhood that i grew up in until i was 11.

i was tempted to knock on the door and ask if i could walk around. maybe it´s better not to so i can remember it just how we left it.

it´s amazing how you will NEVER forget the house you grew up in and all of the memories you made there. i even have dreams of my old house sometimes.

it´s just so great to grow up in a neighborhood so you can play with all of your friends, ride your bike, rollerskate,play baseball, swim, run through the sprinklers, trick-or-treat, make snowmen, snowball forts/fights, skateboard, tag, hide and seek, and the list goes on and on of the wonderful things we did.

sometimes my heart breaks for nora knowing we don´t live in a neighborhood and they don´t even play baseball here or have any snow and sometimes i just want so badly for her to have the same wonderful memories of her childhood that i have.

but, i take comfort in knowing that she´ll just have different memories, like twirling in her feria dress or learning to ride her bike in the park and walking down the beautiful cobblestone streets of seville. we´re doing the best we can and i hope to make her childhood great!





I know they say you cant go home again.
I just had to come back one last time.
Ma'am I know you don't know me from Adam.
But these handprints on the front steps are mine.
And up those stairs, in that little back bedroom
is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar.
And I bet you didn't know under that live oak
my favorite dog is buried in the yard.

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
this brokenness inside me might start healing.
Out here its like I'm someone else,
I thought that maybe I could find myself
if I could just come in I swear I'll leave.
Won't take nothing but a memory
from the house that built me.

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years.
From 'Better Homes and Garden' magazines.
Plans were drawn, concrete poured,
and nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama's dream.

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
this brokenness inside me might start healing.
Out here its like I'm someone else,
I thought that maybe I could find myself.
If I could just come in I swear I'll leave.
Won't take nothing but a memory
from the house that built me.

You leave home, you move on and you do the best you can.
I got lost in this whole world and forgot who I am.

I thought if I could touch this place or feel it
this brokenness inside me might start healing.
Out here its like I'm someone else,
I thought that maybe I could find myself.
If I could walk around I swear I'll leave.
Won't take nothing but a memory
from the house that built me.

sittin´ pretty

new faces

we´ve started to add some new foods into nora´s diet.

so far she´s had rice cereal, bananas, apples and pears oh my.

the faces she makes are priceless.

see for yourself..

Dependable?

So, during our walk last night I´m sure I was in the middle of a very important story and A gave me ¨the look¨ and kind of pointed with his mouth to this old man. His diaper was hanging out the bottom of his shorts. Outside, of the shorts, hanging out.

Ok, first of all.....wow.
Second of all, how does he not notice this???????

I got very distracted and for the life of me could not figure out what I had been talking about.

Damn diaper.

.......

Last night I could not sleep at all! Maybe it was the full moon, or the coke I drank, or my broken back from my combat class. I kicked and felt my sciatic nerve freaking break in half again. I love being crippled. How am I ever going to have any more kids? I´m too old for this crap. Maybe I´ll have to find a surrogate mother?

I think I get paranoid too like people are going to forget me, or I´m forgotten while I´m here. E mail and skpe are my only forms of communication so when I write people 4 times and they never write back (maybe because they are busy or just plumb forgot) my brain goes into overdrive and I´m thinking...are they mad? what did I do? and so on....it´s awful.

It´s also sad knowing that most of my friends and family will see Nora like once a year....but it´s annoying because when I AM home no one makes an effort to see us! Oh the joys of living abroad. I´m just venting .....blek.

In more important news......I can FEEL Nora´s top teeth. This should be interesting......she has tried cereal and she likes it.......so far she hates bananas and apples.....today pears! Next week some veggies. She makes the funniest faces in the world, it´s hilarious. She does well with the spoon though! These 7 mths have FLOWN by!

poor little lamb

Nora had her first bloody lip today. Prob the one of many to come, but it's always kind of traumatic the first time. I don't know what happened? I set her in her crib so I could go to the bathroom and next thing I know she was screaming and crying...with blood dripping down:O( I think she banged her head on the side of the crib and her bottom teeth cut her top gums. Poor little lambie! She is a trouper though and is doing fine.

......

We went downtown tonight to hang out and sit and have coffee. These Spanish women are making me feel AWFUL about myself. I swear I saw at least 6 tiny newborns and the moms had the flattest stomachs ever and were wearing makeup, dresses, and heals. Who are these people? Some had like 3 other kids and just look SO put together and thin.

I officially hate them all.

7 months!

Dear Nora,

Today you turn seven months old and are weighing in at 23.5 lbs. You have ¨grown up¨ so much this past month I can hardly stand it! The pediatrician says you are the size of a one year old. I proudly attribute this to your American blood. USA!She also said you are perfect and that my milk must be amazing. Thank you Lord for good milky milk! For this reason you haven´t even had any other foods yet. It´s getting so very tricky to feed you as you get distracted by a pin drop and you constantly want to roll over! I´m lucky to get any food into your system at all!

Your hair is getting longer and you always have one strand that sticks over your ear. It cracks me up! I think it might be straight. We´ll see! You still only have two bottom teeth but I think the top ones are going to pop out any second now! You like to play with your toes and I haven´t seen them in your mouth (yet!)

This month you started doing the ¨CHEESE¨ smile where you scrunch up your whole entire face. It´s hilarious! You like to hit, pull, pinch, and punch just about anything and everything. If I don´t have a black eye at some point from you headbutting me or hitting me I´ll be surprised.

You are seriously going to be crawling ANY SECOND and I´m not sure I´m ready for that! We sit you down and you always end up on all fours bouncing like a crazy lady. You are just ready to take off and see the world.

It amazes me at how fast you are at grabbing things and you seem to find things that we didn´t even know were around and put it directly in your mouth. The other day your daddy´s key chain was barely showing out of his pocket and you grabbed it immediately as if it were in plain view!

You love music and we sing to baby Einstein Cd´s. You also like books and we read every night. You love to be outside and just about every person that passes by comments on your fat fat fat legs. It´s great! And you just smile!!! They say around this age babies start experiencing separation anxiety. NOT YOU! I think I could pass you off to anyone and you would be happy as a lark!

When you wake up in your crib you just lay there and play with your dolly and wait for me to come get you. I don´t have to go very far considering you are still in our room. Soon you will venture to your big girl crib, but for now I like having you close by.

You are quite the drama queen and like to fake cry and cough quite often. We are on to you lady!

You are so happy and so good we are just waiting for you to turn ¨bad¨ let´s hope we wait a lifetime.
Happy 7 months monkey. We love u SOOOO much!
Love,
Mama

combat

so, i started a new combat workout at the gym and it is freaking hard....but awesome. we even wear boxing gloves. today seemed harder than last weeks class for some reason. my legs started sweating like five minutes in so i knew i was in trouble. LONG class.

i would also like to mention that i HATE push-ups. and why is it that teacher´s always ¨save¨ push-ups until the end of class when you feel like you´ve been trampled by a stampede of wild horses they want me to do push-ups. that´s just insanity. i say no to push-ups. i´ve got a 23 lb. daughter to carry around. who needs push-ups?

airplane baby

have u heard the story of the lady who gave birth on a plane? so many questions run through my head...

who?
why?
how?

ok first of all i have been in a lot of airplanes and i just can´t fathom giving birth to a child without anyone noticing. apparently this chic gave birth in the bathroom.

again.....how? have you ever been in an airplane bathroom? do u know how small those things are? i don´t even know how she was able to spread her legs. did she prop one leg up on the sink? did she squat? again, i don´t even think there is room to squat!

second of all, i´m pretty sure she didn´t have any sort of drugs....so how she was quiet is beyond me. seriously. how? i wasn´t even quiet and i had an epidural.

apparently this terrible horrible person tried to flush her baby down the toilet. after giving birth. in an airplane. in the bathroom. flush it down the toilet. double you tee eff????????????????????????????????? this is obv. just the work of a nut job because no normal human being in their right mind is capable of doing such a horrifying thing.

apparently they didn´t know who the mother was until sometime later. they should have just done a vagina check at the door. some chic had to have had a torn, bloody vag.

i mean seriously, did she have a shi$ load of pads in her purse because afterwards is a BLOODY BLOODY mess. did she just go back to her seat gushing out blood? wasn´t someone waiting in line to go to the bathroom cuz there is always a line. what if it had been you who walked in after her and noticed a live BABY in the toilet??????? so many questions!

when they did find out it was her she was denying it. again.......vagina check. that´s it. end of story.

poor poor baby. if he survives he´s gonna have one heck of a birth story...¨where were you born?¨ ¨In an airplane bathroom.......¨

pix

ugh

Who knew that babies could be so abusive at this age? Nora is constantly pinching, slapping, kicking, biting or poking me....usually in the face. ouch!

She had her six mth apt today. All is well minus her hips. The doc doesn´t think they look even since her fat rolls don´t meet up so we have to have an x ray next week. Lets pray everything is aok!

cool!

So, I was changing Nora's diaper in the dark last night. why? 1. because i'm just that talented. 2. it was def. not time for her to be awake and she gets too stimulated w the light on. anyways. as i was changing it i noticed the flaps make sparks in the dark! how cool is that???? i just kept doing it over and over again. maybe it was because i was slap happy and so tired...or maybe it's just awesome! try it! or maybe just the spanish diapers do that. haha

i swear nora is like SHERA HE-Man's sister. She can pick things up and push things over that most six months old cannot. she is so big she can probably crush kids double her age. we've got a giant on our hands!

last night we took a nice walk and it was actually cool!! thank goodness because during the day it's still 90 something.

today i'm trying a new workout class. wish me luck!

just for a laugh

what a perfect start

to any day...

nora goes to her first b day party

and stole all the toys!

more pix

sore

i just finished my first new class at the gym and literally the second i walked out my muscles started aching. this is going to be a long weekend...

this was more of a "toning" class which i think is important too. i had to get the bar and put all the weights on the end and we were doing reps for an hour! not to mention lunges, abs, and push ups. let me just say i am awesome at doing push ups. i did like one and fell over. and to make it worse the instructor kept screaming DONT STOP!!!! omg i might die.

....

I forgot to mention the other day that when I went to the dermatologist I was all, "should I take off my shirt?" I'm now offering to take off my clothes in front of strangers. He said "yes" (he's a guy...haha) and I think my nursing bra really impressed him along with my stretch marks and sagging belly.

What is it after you have a baby you become an instant nudist? Seriously. I have to remind myself to get dressed in the morning before I walk outside and one of these days I'm just going to forget...and lets hope you are nowhere in sight because the trauma......oh it would just be too great.

get your fitness on

tomorrow i´m going to try a new class at the gym. i´m kinda nervous. last year i tried ¨step¨ and it was more like advanced dance with a step to tumble over.

i just can´t seem to lose these last stupid lbs. i keep telling myself maybe each boob weighs like 4 lbs and once i stop breastfeeding i´ll lose it. no, nothing?

wowzers

so, we just weighed nora and she's at a whopping 22 lbs..almost 23. she's fatter than 95 percent of the kids her age. i LOVE it!