Christmas must be hard on the landfills!

Christmas morning was a storm of paper and ribbon at our house. Scarlett liked the boxes more than the actual gifts (at first, anyway) and she definitely thought my gifts were awesome!







The white stuff on her face is lotion... S had a little rash on her cheeks, we think from the central heating.

Oh, also, a Christmas surprise! Scarlett had been standing on her own for awhile, but on Christmas day she decided to take her first step. She went from the coffee table to the couch just as easy as you pleased. Since then she's moved from one step to two, but she's kind of frozen on that level. It's okay if it takes awhile!

family pictures

In case you didn't see these yet on Shana's blog or Mom's blog, these are our family pictures:




Can you believe that this time next year we'll have THREE more babies to add to this picture? And not a single of them is coming from me!! :)

Christmas photo shoot

Before Christmas, I sat Scarlett down in her pretty Christmas dress and attempted a photo shoot. Pictures were a lot easier before she was moving, that's for sure! Anyway, so here's a random sample of the pictures that were taken. I love the patent leather shoes!!

Where'd my camera go?

Since Thanksgiving, the Valdes house has been pretty busy! And no, there's no pictures of all the busy-ness. (Should be spelled business, but oh, the confusion it would cause...) I've been a terrible picture taking Mom lately! I'm due to post a whole bunch soon, though. But it doesn't help that Scarlett thinks it's more fun to attack the camera then to actually pose for it.
Here's just a quick update, for all those who have waited patiently:
The semester at Woodland Community College ended, and so now I have a nice long break. The last week was an absolute logistical nightmare. I don't know why they expect English teachers to be able to handle paperwork and technical computer systems because we've been immersed in a book our whole lives. Anyway, so that all got sorted out and now I can offically kick back with a box of chocolates and blogging.
What's that? Oh yeah, except I can't! Scarlett is a mover and a shaker. She crawls so fast she can keep up with most walkers. It's pretty cute, her little butt shaking in the air as she scoots down the hall, but I'm looking forward to her walking. Speaking of which, she's now cruising (a term I don't like, but is generally accepted in baby-speak, so I'll use it) around the furniture and can even transfer from one piece of furniture to another one-handed. She's actually been able to do that for awhile. She can stand on her own, but there's really nothing else going on from there. Why walk all wobbly and risk falling when crawling is just so efficient? But hopefully soon she'll be walking. She's ten months and my mom says that my brothers and I all walked at eleven.
Scarlett has also discovered that unwrapping gifts is a lot of fun! She likes to snag the gifts we have around and rip open the paper. (My own fault for buying the cheap stuff.)
I guess that's it. Photos to come!

9 mo. checkup

Scarlett had her 9 mo check-up yesterday. She's healthy and feisty, weighing in at a whopping 19 lbs 15 oz (really, a wet diaper would have pushed her on to 20 lbs)and 28 inches tall. That's 66th percentile for weight and 70th for height. (Not that it's a competition, right mom?? :) )

Oh yeah, yaay for 9 mo checkup. No shots!!

Thanksgiving, Part 1

This year, Juan and I flew to sunny Tampa, Florida for Thanksgiving. Scarlett got to spend time with her aunts, uncle, grandpa and cousins. It was a blast! The plane ride wasn't even as excruciating as you'd think-- mostly because Juan and I were able to score third seats (we flew Southwest) for all legs. We had three days of Thanksgivings, Wed. nite at Juan's father's house, Thursday at a restaurant, and Friday at a cuban restaurant. (Natch.) Overall, a wonderful trip! Gotta say, nice to be home in good old California. The warm weather in FL was disconcerting. Thanksgiving's supposed to be cold!


Scarlett enjoying a little bread, Cuban style

waiting for her mashed potatoes and squash!

Thanksgiving at Grandpa Julio's

The whole family (almost. it's minus Juan's brother Pablo and sister Migdalia. But pretty close!)

Thanksgiving, Part 2

Blogger will only let me upload five pictures at a time, so these pictures are actually from the first part of our trip. It was a lot of fun spending Thanksgiving at the beach!





Scarlett singing along with her grandpa's musical instruments!

Scarlett, her aunts, and cousins!

Cousins

Chloe and Scarlett have gotten to spend a lot of time together, thanks to a neighborhood proximity and a common babysitter! What lucky girls!

no way!

Just thought I'd post about something exciting that happened in our quiet little lives... Saturday night Scarlett was cruising around the coffee table and found a pencil (I know, not safe! We took it away from her.) While holding on and investigating the pencil, she took her hand off the coffee table and stood--all by herself! Very little wobble even. Of course, then she saw the look on our faces, started to cry and dropped onto the floor. Hopefully we'll be able to capture in on a camera soon! This is all happening a little too fast for me!!

the sweetest butterfly on the block!

Halloween, my favorite holiday! Scarlett was a butterfuly, even though most people thought she was just a bug. We went trick or treating with Shana and Chloe. It was fun, but we didn't make it very far. No, it wasn't the girls who got tired and cranky. It was the moms! We were pooped! But how fun to dress a baby up! I'm going to hate it when she starts having opinions about what she should wear!


What a fatty!

barely able to fit into her car seat! Look at how much the belt is stretched!



all ready for trick or treating!

pumpkin patch princesses!

The day before Halloween, Shana and I took the babies to a local pumpkin patch. I just love these pictures. They show how the girls are starting to play together and we couldn't have planned cuter outfits! (And we didn't plan the color coordination!) What a fun warm-up to Halloween! (Scarlett's shirt and bib are courtesy of Auntie Mariposa! Gracias, tia!!)

visitors

We've had a whole stream of family visits lately! Here are a couple!


Auntie Marila came to visit!

This is Juan's mom, Pamela, and her awesome boyfriend, Bob!

One of our favorite workers, Mike Reed! Scarlett really thought he was the cat's pajamas!

These are Scarlett's aunties, Migdalia and Janine. (Janine in the background!) Migdalia is Juan's sister.

moving around like crazy!

Scarlett's really getting the hang of this moving thing. Pretty soon she'll be climbing and walking. Aieee.

Weekend in San Francisco

Scarlett's in jail!!



Dad and baby visiting Mom in jail!

us in front of the SF skyline


Juan and Scarlett in front of the cells. They were TINY.



Last weekend, Juan and I decided to go to San Francisco and do all the touristy things. So often we go there for reasons other than being a tourist and we always regret not getting to do the fun stuff! How lucky we are to live so close to a city that is so much fun. We stayed in our favorite hotel and spent Saturday going out to breakfast, shopping in Union Square,(and having coffee at our favorite little hidden cafe in Maiden Lane!) playing in Golden Gate Park and checking out the DeYoung Art Musuem and then ending up in our favorite restaurant, Max's, in Union Square for a delicious dinner! It was sooo much fun!! Of course, for all of this, the camera sat in our hotel room, so the only pictures of the day are in our heads! However, the next day we went to Alcatraz and we got plenty of pictures of that! I told you we were being tourists!!

Scarlett's favorite activity

Don't worry, we have vaulted ceilings!!

soooo behind

Sorry for all the fans who have been patiently waiting for an update! A lot has happened since my last post, too much to even post pictures of! So here's a quick run thru: My cousin Marila visisted from San Diego, Juan's mom and her boyfriend visited, Scarlett's aunts Migdalia and Janine visited, we went to San Fran to see the Blue Angels (Scarlett didn't like it-- she thought it was too noisy), we had my mom's birthday party here, and Scarlett's just as cute as ever! Why did I list these, you might ask? Because posting pictures of each event will take too long! (not too mention awhile ago I did a whole post and then it froze! arrrgh!)
Anyway, so that's a quick catch-up.
Oh, Scarlett's moving around now like crazy! She's crawling really fast. If we look away for a second, she's across the room. She can also stand up and hold on to something with only one hand. She's also learned to sit back down after standing up, which was a nice development because she no longer stands up in her crib and cries because she can't get back down.

Leaps and bounds!

Another big step in a little life!

advice needed

I thought I'd ask all the moms out there for a little bit of advice... Scarlett's crawling all over the house now, and unfortunately plugs and cords are usually her objects of interest. I know to put the little plastic things into the unused outlets, but does anyone have any good ideas on how to hide the cords for lamps, phones, radios, etc? She likes to tug and chew on them and I'm afraid they're going to topple on her head or worse. I'm wondering if there's a good product out there to use. Thanks, amigas!

Day care

Our house has become a psuedo-day care center and we love it! My mom (a saint! although I know she's reading this, so don't let it go to your head, mom) watches Scarlett MWF while I'm at work and on Mon and Wed Shana brings Chloe over. Scarlett and Chloe have a great time together, mostly because Scarlett doesn't mind when Chloe takes her pacifier and Chloe doesn't mind when Scarlett pulls her hair. Ahh... enjoy it while it lasts, right?
Funny note: If you click on the pictures, Chloe has one of S's pacis in her mouth and one in her hand! She's obviously not agreeing with her mom's assessment that it's time she's weaned from them! (ha, shana!)

Now that she's crawling...

these are the only times I get any peace!


the best exersaucer on the planet! You can't drag her out of this thing!

Playpen... a mom's best friend

This picture's actually a little older, but I thought it was funny. Can you believe this is the same baby who used to scream if she wasn't swaddled 20 hours a day??

cow hat

I found this cute outfit at Gymboree a while ago and Scarlett wore it last Sunday. It's so much fun. When can you wear a cow hat, if not when you're a baby?

Biking around

Juan and I have picked up biking again. We used to do it a lot in chico, but somehow when you live in a town with busy streets and intersections you forget that it's fun! It's a great way to enjoy the Fall weather, even if we do have to stay in our own little neighborhood. Luckily we have lots of aunts and uncles in the neighborhood to go see. Last weekend we also went to the American River parkway and rode and that was a lot of fun.

Critical (or not so much) Updates

So I haven't posted in awhile... and my fans are getting a little restless, I know. (I.E., Mom) I'm at work so I can't put on cute, adorable pictures but I can't give a little update on our lives and what Miss Scahhhhlett (as my mom likes to call her) is up to.

Since I'm lazy and not nearly as creative as I should be, it's going to come in the form of a list. Transitions and segueways are too hard for me right now! (PS did you know that "segueway" may not be a legitimate word? Weird, because I've been using it for years!)

1. Work is going good. I like the students, they like me, I went out and bought a bunch of professional looking outfits and heels and I think they're kinda won over by it. Not that my lounge pants and sweatshirts aren't dynamite, either.

2. Scarlett is crawling, with most of her belly off the ground, although she sometimes flops back on to it like a fish.

3. She's also trying to pull herself up on things, but then usually falls and blames me for it. I'm not sure about this whole baby that moves thing. Seems like a lot of work.

4. Scarlett has two teeth-- one that pretty much has broken the surface and one that isn't quite there. She is such a good baby, we didn't even really know she was teething until we saw a tooth. And a moment to brag... Juan and I have gotten SO lucky! She goes to bed at eight thirty, pretty much sleeps until eight AM or so. And not ONCE has she ever cried herself to sleep. She hits the crib and it's lights out. No Ferberizing needed!

5. Juan and I have taken up biking and Scarlett is soo cute in her little trailer and helmet. I got a new cruiser which I'm just gooey about.

6. Our home re-model-lite is done. Taking a wall out is not as easy as it sounds!

7. I'm addicted to buying baby clothes. The poor kid has so many special mtg outfits and it's still 3 weeks away. And she couldn't care-- she'll just spit up on it anyway.

8. Favorite foods are oatmeal, prunes, sweet potatoes and chicken (pureed together. Gross!) She doesn't like applesauce or macaroni and cheese that much.

9. Late for class! See ya!!

Creeping along!

Friday night we went over to my parent's house for pizza and volleyball. Scarlett decided to show off for everyone and started creeping across the floor for the first time! It was really exciting! Shouldn't be too long until she's crawling. I guess the easy breezy parenting days (plop the kid on the floor, she can't go anywhere) are over!

Well, It Ain't SO Bad!

For those of you who haven't been around me lately, you don't know that I've been complaining about work a lot lately. So, in order to defend myself against the vicious charge of whiner (and, coincidentally, in order to not grade papers) I will now make a list of reasons why work ain't so bad:

1. No one poops on me.
2. No one cries when I need to take a ten second bathroom break.
3. I can tell my students, "I'm not your mom. That's not my problem."
4. I can have a conversation about something other than slow-flow versus fast-flow nipples and Ferberizing.
5. I can surf the internet during "group-work." (Group-work is a teacher's best friend!)
6. I can stop at the store on my way home and not have to pull a two hundred pound car seat out and try to hoist it on a cart that doesn't quite fit it, so that it continually slips and I have to walk down the aisle with one hand on the carseat and one hand steering the cart.
7. I can wear shoes with heels and put mascara on.


See? Now I feel a little better!

Old cousins (well, not so old!) and new cousins!

Last week one of my favorite cousins, Aaron, came home to Sacramento from North Carolina. (And we're all trying to convince him to move back!) Scarlett had a great time meeting him. She really wanted to grab his nose!



what a catch!! he cooks too!



This is Scarlett's new cousin, Parker William. He's very new and very cute!