Visit to the Sacramento Zoo!

This is turning into a yearly tradition. Every year, the Sacramento Zoo has a "Thank Zoo" day, the day after Thanksgiving. There is no way you'll catch me shopping on Black Friday, so I'd much rather go to the Zoo for free, which is what "Thank Zoo" day is all about. So for the second year in a row, we went. We missed, Tat, my brother, who was with us last year. But he got to spend this Thanksgiving with Milli, so that was cool.

So the pictures show Christopher (22 months old) as a kangaroo, with Mama and with Papa at the zoo. I think his favorite animals included the penguins, any type of monkey/orangutan/gorilla, and a really big turtle that was close to the Giraffes. It's so fun to see him interested in the world around him. :-) He's learning so much!!

I know that I am writing this a few days before Christmas...maybe by Valentine's day I'll have the Christmas and New Year's posts up!! :-)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a very Happy and Blessed New Year 2008!
Coppelia

Christopher's first visit to the dentist

Another milestone!! Yay!! Today, Monday, November 5th, 2007 was Christopher Jean's first visit to the dentist! He is 21 months old and enjoys using his orange toothbrush with a green Shrek. Particularly, he enjoys the tiny amount that mom or dad give him of the yummy toothpaste (pasta). I think that will be one of his first words. In fact, I think I heard him say "pasta" the other day. He certainly points at the pasta and flat out refuses to even hold the toothbrush in his hand (let alone bring it near his mouth) unless the toothbrush comes with "pasta".

Adam and I had our 6 month cleaning/check up last week. Christopher came with us and we showed him that the dentist is really COOL! I don't think he bought it, but they did have a cool magnetic table that he played with, so at least that was cool.

Now look at the picture. Do you see that cute little smirk? (Not the one on Adam's face, the one on Christopher's!) It's the face he makes when you ask him to show you his "dientes" (teeth)! Ask him "Christopher, donde estan tus dientes?" (where are your teeth?)
And that's the face he makes everytime!
It's SO CUTE!
Adam and I were hoping with our encouragement, being really excited about the dentist and the whole "dientes" game, he'd be excited, too!

Well, guess what?! He did GREAT! When they called his name, he walked "solito" back to the dentist area. He looked a bit apprehensive at all the equipment, but happily sat on Mami's lap. Papa was cheering him on from the sidelines. The dentist and assistant (both ladies) were smiling, friendly, really nice. He didn't like the bib, ("cause, Mom, I don't wear bibs anymore!") But after an initial resistance, he was ok with it, especially because we turned on the TV and found Sesame Street!

Christopher loved the little mirror that the dentist used to look at his teeth. He especially loved the "pasta" that they used with the really cool electric toothbrush-y thing-y at the end of the cleaning. And then he was happy with the little toys and balloon they gave him at the end. The dentist and her assistant were really happy and proud of him...and needless to say, so were we.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us such an amazing blessing in the shape of a boy named Christopher Jean.

Christopher is 19...wait, almost 20 months!

Is that crazy? Christopher Jean (as in Jean Claude, not blue jean) is almost 20 months old! And he is getting cuter and cuter and cuter and more fun every day!! Almost every day he walks over to two different DVD racks and he points to either Cars (Pixar) or Adam's paintball DVDs. And then he points to the TV until you get the DVD going! There are countless Elmo DVDs, Disney DVDs, and all sorts of other DVDs, but those two are the ones he likes. :-) Also, he doesn't seem to like being inside. He LOVES playing outside in the patio. And if the playing involves water, even better!

The picture I posted shows Christopher and Kaynen. Just today, my good friend Wendy dropped off her son Kaynen on her way to Jury Duty. (side note: I'm so glad she got excused. She's 8 months pregnant!! She doesn't need the stress of jury duty!) So Kaynen and Christopher are about 6 months apart and they had a blast playing in the patio today! They were splashing around, laughing and everything was great until I dried them off and brought them back inside. Then they saw the building blocks and the world was great once again.

Christopher is definitely into his toddler stage. He knows what to do when I say "subete el pantalon". He's working on that. He loves trying to put on his shoes or socks with Mom's help. He has his electric Shrek toothbrush which he just shoves in his mouth while it's moving (and then mom or dad help to actually brush the teeth) and he LAUGHS all the time. It's so fun!! He's just a really happy baby. And i remember thinking that when I was pregnant. I just "knew" he'd be a happy kid. :-)

I do mornings & breakfast and Dad does bedtime & naptime. Whenever Adam asks if he's tired and he is, Christopher just walks right up to his crib and waits for Dad to lift him in. He seems ready for a toddler bed, but not yet. He seems content when I get him in the morning. And when I walk in the room, he gives me his little Baby Jesus board book (thank you, Stacey!) and we read it together.

We are blessed.

Christopher is 18 months old!

Time to celebrate another little milestone!

Christopher is 18 months old and he's the funnest little guy around! This past Sunday we had friends from church over for a BBQ. It was so much fun! We had Wendy & Tim, Eli & Celest, and Bob (Amy was at a softball game). And, in turn, they brought Kaynen, Avery, Noah and of course we had Christopher here. The cool part was that all 4 of us (Wendy, Celest, Amy and I) were pregnant together (we went to the same church) and our babies, i mean toddlers, are just months apart.

It was a blast to see the toddlers huddle around the ice chest, grabbing the root beer bottles and imagine them doing this in about 18 years with their school buddies! What a blast!! Even funnier was their hands, mouths and noses were bright red from the cold! They insisted on playing with the ice, sucking it, holding it, etc. And then we remembered that we had sprinkled salt on the ice to make it last longer!!! Salt lick!! It was all hilarious!

So here's my little "milestone" chart for Christopher. It has both milestone-type things and just plain old fun things that he's been doing recently.
Every morning he has breakfast with mommy (usually cheerios)
He feeds himself just fine, thank you, with milk dribbling everywhere...all the way through to the last drop which he feeds himself by picking up the bowl and drinking it!! Some days he'll have a banana or raspberries this particular week and he'll eat it all and then some. Wonderful appetite so far!

On most days we'll watch a few Disney shows (Little Einsteins, Mikey Mouse Club House, Handy Manny, The Doodlebops) or my other favorite PBS Kids (Curious George, Clifford & Sesame Street). I love it when he interacts with the charactes (he'll pat with Little Einsteins, wave goodbye at Mickey, or get excited with Elmo or Bert & Ernie!)

Adam and I usually pray before meals (:-) and Christopher wants to eat as soon as that food is in front of him! But every now and then, he folds his little hands together and pray...and then we all throw our hands up in the air as if to say "Woo Hoo"!! and say Amen! :-) It's so fun to watch him do that

Adam, Christopher and I are also big right now on floor wrestling, rolling around, tickles and more! One of our favorites is "hooey!", where we poke someone's belly button and it makes them jump and say "hooey"! It is hilarious! Especially when Christopher pokes Adam! :-)

And the sweetest part of all is the kisses. Adam and I love it when Christopher give us "besos". We'll ask him to kiss us and we know he only does it when he wants to...not always. So when he does want to, it's the best thing ever! :-)

Yeah, having Christopher is fun! So for now we're happy as a family of 3. We'll see where we go from here. :-)

How many "life-plates" do you have?

By life-plates, i mean those pages that we fill up on the web with personal information, pictures, surveys, etc. Is there too much on your life-plates? As if we already didn't struggle to manage our lives, now we have to manage life-plates like Myspace, Facebook and, yes, even this blog. Like with everything, there are pros and cons to life-plates. I love re-connecting with my friends, staying in touch with my family more than I used to, and getting to know more about them than I did before. You can find out a lot about a person from their life-plates. I hope my life-plates reflect a little bit of who I am...that i am able to bless someone through them, and i hope we can all learn to appreciate one another more for what makes us unique. I think life-plates are almost like fingerprints. It would be hard to come across one to be exactly like another...even if they share the same background or layout.

What I like about you

What do you like about yourself? Do you think you are the greatest person ever or do you sometimes doubt your value?

This question came up for me during a recent Small Group meeting. If you are not familiar with church small groups as you read this, it's just a few people (usually between 4 and 8) who meet to discuss the Bible and have "fellowship" (which is nothing more than "hanging out" & eating pizza) :-) Yum. Although I'm liking the home cooked meals better. :-) Yum, Yum.

Recently, we were discussing prayer...and confession. Part of the Christian life is confessing sin and moving on without it (go and sin no more). As I thought about what I could possibly be struggling with that was not completely evident to me...I thought that I had been struggling with what I'll describe as self-hate. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it's true. And I got even more confirmation on the fact from my husband when I shared how I felt.

Over a period of months (dare I say years), I have put myself down much more than I have felt good about myself. And I have a lot of things to feel good about, so what's the deal?!

I like a lot of things about myself:
I like my hair & my eyes
I like mornings (waking up with Christopher, nursing, breakfast, playing, waiting for Daddy to come home [he works 4 to 9am] and playing some more!
I like having lunch with my posito on most days
I like my job & ministry (singing & radio)
I like living in California and being from Puerto Rico
I like having great old friends that I'm still in touch with &
I like all the new friends I've made in California
I like laughter and having fun
I like thoughtful conversations, hearing from friends (via phone or e-mail), and vacations
I like having a great relationship with my family, Mom, Dad, Millita, Tat, Mamin, Joshua, etc...Love you all!!!
And I could probably list more things that I like!

I have a lot of things to be grateful for. I am grateful for my family's health, both husband and son and our extended families. That is one of the most precious gifts we could ever receive. And I am especially grateful that we have eternity to look forward to. It does not end here. Friends (and family) are forever, when the Lord's the Lord of them.

I should keep my eyes on that...it's much better than putting myself down for no good reason.

I like blogging. :-)

Coppelia

Fotos!!

Fotos!! This is my family, my awesome, amazing, patient and cool hubby, Adam (aka "Posito") and my cute, sweet, demanding, fun and happy son, Christopher Jean (aka "Chincho"). Life is good, God is great and we are so blessed! We are Boricuas, born and raised in Puerto Rico. About 2 years ago, I got a job offer and we left "la isla del encanto" for Rocklin, California. Now, we LOVE living in California! I especially love that we can go down to San Francisco in about an hour and a half! And I am looking forward to future trips to Tahoe (everyone tells us it's beautiful) and Napa (wine weekend!) Hopefully soon! Come visit us sometime! :-)