the Guamaso » baby

Best part about being a Dad…

JuanO — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:51:50 +0000

Best part about being a Dad…

Jonas’ baby announcement e-card.

JuanO — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:56:00 +0000

Jonas’ baby announcement e-card.

Created with Photogene on my iPhone, which explains why I didn’t catch that spelling error. Doh!

Jonas Isaac!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

JuanO — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:24:12 +0000

Jonas Isaac!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

The Adventures of Izzy-Monster: Enter the Toddler

JuanO — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Is it always this way with youngins’? Do they just pick up a new task and run with it? In the past few months, Izzy’s capabilities for learning new things has dramatically increased. She learned clapping in moments along with what “ouch” means. Not only does she learn through repetition and teaching, but she now shows that she can absorb via osmosis.

If music is playing in the office, she comes by and turns the volume knob (she won’t do it if music isn’t playing.). She does the same to my beloved Yamaha Receiver downstairs, she enjoys listening to the music in “Jazz Mode,” I know this because the next time I turn it on it is set to this mode.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, peeps. The little friggin’ twerp is walking. Yes. It’s a brave new world for all that dwell under this roof. No longer are we in the baby stages (at least until Jonas graces us with his presence) and we are now well into the Toddler era. It wasn’t something that she gradually learned, either. Two days ago, she decided to take her first four steps from the receiver to the coffee table. Today, nothing is safe. She still prefers crawling just because she’s quicker and more experienced at it, but if she’s standing, she’ll walk to her destination without fear or hesitation.

Ciri says this is a good thing. Ha. Ha, I say. When Jonas is born, Izzy will be able to move on her own without help from Mom. That’s helpful when you have a little baby blob that needs food every few hours. But I can see that whole deal getting really old when Izzy demands the attention she feels is deserved. Hmm. We’ll see if it’s still a good thing then!

Oh. Hai.

Another great behavior she’s learned in the recent weeks is climbing into things. Boxes, buckets, drawers, and bins oh my. Seriously, she climbs into things and sits in them or stands in them or dances in them. That last one has me a bit worried. I’m sitting on the couch watching her climb into the drawer and I can’t help but wonder what goes on in that cute little brain of hers.

“Let’s see, if the drawer’s volume is X and my volume is also X, than I should be able to fit in the drawer. Volume is a measurement mainly used for liquids, but for arguments sake, we’ll go with that statement. Now, if I take into account that my bone structure is mostly comprised of cartilage, then I should… uh oh. He’s staring at me. I should do something cute.”

And there she goes dancing again… seriously. Should I be worried?

An Introduction

CiriO — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:15:16 +0000

An Introduction

I’ve never considered myself a writer. When pressed, I can usually turn out a well written assignment. Writing for fun? Never. However, I’ve realized that our little nuclear family has been separated from the rest of our extended family for almost five years. Weekly phone calls aren’t much of a connection. Izzy is almost 15 months old, and her grandparents haven’t seen her since Thanksgiving. So, in an effort to keep everyone in the loop, I’m taking up this blogging thing. We’ll see how it goes. Even if no one reads these, I will at least have chronicled some of the small stuff that is so easily forgotten. I am going to begin with the present (why not?) and wander through memories or past things as I remember them.

Right now, Izzy is just waking up from her morning nap. After changing her diaper, she likes to stand on her changing table and play with the dimmer switch. She’ll pull the switch up or down and look at the light when she does. What makes it really cute is that she whispers, “Wow” in a serious voice as she does this. As we move into her playroom, there are toys galore scattered everywhere. She plays with some of them, but really likes the adult things. The car charger for one of our old cell phones is a particular favorite. Don’t ask me why. She’ll crawl around with that in her hand forever. The remote control for the TV and Juan’s old TiVo unit. She can turn both things on and mess with settings I can’t even access! However, when she wants to watch a movie, fix whatever she messed up, or demand something in general, out comes the Tim Allen impression. You know, the ,”Huh?” that he made famous? Well, imaging that about three octaves higher in pitch coming from a 15 month old dictator.

The “huh?” coming out of her mouth is a request (demand). It is up to us, her minions to figure out what it is and cater to her. She graciously gives us about five seconds to figure whatever she wants from us out. Than the “huh?”s become louder, higher pitched, and closer together; “Huh? HUH? HUH? HUH?!!!!” No pressure or anything. Right.

Speaking of the Baby Dictator, some pretty insistent “huh?”s are paging me to her room that she has been quietly destroying for the last five minutes. She probably wants me to open the closet door because she’s pulled everything out of the drawers and needs new order to destroy. Until the next installment. . .

Ciri

Five minutes later: Quick update: I actually found her in our bedroom. She had pulled the clean laundry to be folded out of the basket, climbed in, and was awaiting transportation in the Royal Chariot. Obviously, I should have used my mind reading powers to deduce that she was expecting me to shuttle her around. Oy. The Royal Chariot(s) deserves its own post though. I’ll make it the subject of the next update.

The Adventures of Izzy-Monster: Birth+365 days.

JuanO — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:49:52 +0000

One. 12 months. Wow.

I’ve watched her grow from a little blob to the crawling, babbling, smiling little kid that she is today. I’m amazed at how much she grew, mentally and physically, in the last year. Months ago I was holding a this little infant that really lived only to eat and poop. No smiles, no giggles, nothing except excrement. She was still the cutest little baby I ever laid eyes on, but today… wow. Today she is an energetic little talker. I gotta say, I am completely taken in by this whole miracle of life thing.

So, we celebrated her birthday last Friday night with dinner and a couple of gifts. Saturday we had Grandpa and Grandma over to celebrate again. They also came to build us a vegetable garden in our back yard. I had plans to build one, but my research wasn’t complete the day Grandpa asked if he could build it for us. The garden is awesome and I can’t wait to start harvesting some herbs and vegetables from it.

Izzy and Ciri spent some time together in the sun while Grandpa and I built the garden. It was a real fun day. Here’s a bunch of photos and a video of the weekend.

Izzycast #3: Destruct-o-baby

JuanO — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:10:41 +0000

Here’s the little monkey trying to eat, destroy, or otherwise disrupt everything in sight – or at least reach.

I was actually trying to get her to talk, but she had other plans.

Destruct-o-baby from Juan O on Vimeo.

Eating Dirt: A Milestone

JuanO — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:49:50 +0000

I swear, if my plant isn’t getting pissed on by dogs, it’s getting eaten by cats. More recently, the poor plant was toppled over by a crawling adventurer, who then saw it fit to stuff handfuls of dirt into her mouth.

I didn’t even think the plant was within range of her crawling, but when I heard the tell tale baby “nom-nom-nom” sounds, I knew what had happened.

I looked down and there she was digging a hole in my toppled over plant. I picked her up to clean her, but the sudden movement made her gag. Her open mouth revealed a massive ball of dirt and pumice! Oy.

I look forward to cleaning a diaper with mud-poo.

Oh, sorry, no pictures on this misadventure. I was too busy trying to keep her from swallowing any more dirt.

Gawww. My poor plant, man.

The Adventure’s of Izzymonster: Return of the bed bugs

JuanO — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:00:21 +0000

At eight months, baby’s begin to realize permanence; they understand that when Mommy or Daddy leave the room, they are alone. Getting the Izzy-monster to nap during the day tries my patience every time. She’s fine until I close the door behind me – that’s when I hear her blood curdling yells.

There are some days when she will lie down and fall asleep almost instantly. Other days she will fight it, fall asleep for a minute, then wake up screaming.

A couple of weeks ago, she kept us up until midnight, until Ciri finally placed Izzy on her stomach and patted her butt until little Z’s started coming from her head. It worked, thank goodness, but the damage was done; we were so tired the next day.

Izzy, about one month old

Apparently, this sleeplessness is a common phase among 8 month (ish) olds. Well, that’s not very helpful to know >:( , reassuring, maybe, but not helpful.

Knowing that Izzy is just going through a phase, though, does give us something to hope for – a light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. One day it will pass and we’ll get to fall asleep at a normal time and stay asleep through the night.

On the other hand, this phase forces our bodies to become accustomed to operate with little rest. With baby numero dos on the way, this “skill” is favorable.

As for Izzy’s little problem, we’re trying to avoid some common mistakes. This includes not bringing her to our bed or giving her a bottle for comfort. I know she’s not hungry, and she can’t get used to coming to bed with us. Scary nightmares are one thing, not wanting to sleep is another. We’ll save the comfort of mommy and daddy’s bed for the age of nightmares and boogie-men.

Instead, we’re trying to keep the house quiet after her bedtime. We also try and finish the day with some quiet activities like reading, or a warm bath – things like that. Sometimes our little underhanded tricks work, and sometimes she sees them coming.

More often then not, the tricks work – and my sanity is grateful.

Hopefully, these fits will end soon and I’ll be able to sleep through the night again. I feel so tired even though I get about 8 hours of sleep. Goes to show that uninterrupted sleep is important in order to function at peak performance – or any level of performace for that matter…

“Does the line mean your pregnant again? Really?”

JuanO — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:41:56 +0000

Required Reading

Yup, I am excited. Ciri, in between morning sickness, is excited too. You know, 2008 has been a whirlwind of a year! Izzy comes early. I quit my job. Thanksgiving in California. Now, Ciri is preggo again! I’m not complaining, I love my little growing family, I’m just saying it’s been busy.

So, yes, we are now expecting a new baby, hence the Baby Egg Timer widget. Ciriana and I are a little weary this time around, mainly because Izzy was born early. We discussed way back when about having more kids – we dodged a bullet with Izzy, I mean, things could have been way worse. The doctor’s explained to us what they think caused the premature birth, and they explained that they have a better chance of preventing it the second time around. There were many factors that we believe contributed to the preemie-ness, like stress and late nights at work, so this time Ciriana is not taking any chances. She has already explained that she wants to be released from the military and the sooner the better. She is also not doing any exercise during PT in the morning that she feels is too strenuous. Last time they had her running in the cold rain, so you can understand her bitterness.

Anyway, aside from the fear we have, we are very excited. We’re both hoping for a boy this time. A girl would be nice, too, though. We still have a lot of clothes that Izzy never had a chance to wear. We’ll see if the right mini-me broke through.

Some thing I didn’t get to do last time was thoroughly chronicle the “Preggo Experience” on this here blog. Granted, she was only preggo for seven months (the first one never counts, making it six months of total quality preggo-ness). This time, I’m starting early and, hopefully, we’ll make it to, at least, full term.

Ciriana’s first appointment was this past Monday, but they rescheduled her to today. So, we’ll know more about her medical situation then. Her thyroid condition was never properly diagnosed – again – so that will force the doctors to classify her as “high-risk.” Like they need the thyroid thing to tell them that, all women with at least one premature delivery, I believe, are high risk.

We’ve already begun discussing names and bedroom decoration. We haven’t decided on anything yet, except that we’re going Winnie the Pooh on this kid. He/she will get the guest bedroom when he/she graduates from the basinet, and it will be decorated in Winnie the Pooh stuff.

Last time, Izzy got a tree, so I am trying to think what I am going to do for this one… maybe a fountain? Maybe another tree. If it’s another girl, I’ll do a veggy garden – I like that…

the Guamaso » baby

Best part about being a Dad…

Related Posts:

Jonas’ baby announcement e-card.

Related Posts:

Jonas Isaac!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

Related Posts:

The Adventures of Izzy-Monster: Enter the Toddler

Related Posts:

An Introduction

Related Posts:

The Adventures of Izzy-Monster: Birth+365 days.

Related Posts:

Izzycast #3: Destruct-o-baby

Related Posts:

Eating Dirt: A Milestone

Related Posts:

The Adventure’s of Izzymonster: Return of the bed bugs

Related Posts:

“Does the line mean your pregnant again? Really?”

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