Happy Easter - Buona Pascua!

It's hard to believe that only a year ago we were in Rimini, Italy finishing up our month long honeymoon that included Rome, Perugia, and the Amalfi Coast. It was No Tsu Oh's last year at Paganello. And now a year later, we begin new family traditions with little Pablo. April in San Antonio, is a party - beginning with Easter & ending with Fiesta. Pablo was a champ - surviving both exciting occasions (even if he didn't really attend many events)! This month also marked his first plane ride (SA to Houston and Houston to Austin). Before we get to that, let's catch up on some of the bare essentials such as sleeping and eating. Did I mention sleeping?

Despite what all the books say about finding a schedule for your baby by the 2-4 months, we are well on our way to the fifth month without a schedule. However, in stead of beig struck down by the parenting gods, we have been given warm words of encouragement from our friends and family. All of that being said, we are quite happy with the amount of sleep Pablo is getting. It is just hard for us to have a good idea of when it will occur. We can easily tell when he is tired. We can even predict it. We just don't know the secret combination of actions and environment that will get him to sleep before he reaches the dreaded "overtired" state. He seems to get there on a nightly basis. For now, let's say that his bed time (meaning the time he goes to sleep at night) is anywhere from 7PM to 2AM. After his first sleep, he gets up for a quick feeding and then sleeps for another 3-4 hours. It's amazing how well we have done thus far sleep wise. It's also amazing how much one can write about baby sleep habits. (V made me cut out about 8 paragraphs of really in depth sleep analysis so maybe the amount written here is not that amazing).

Food wise, he is a prima donna. Only mommy's milk (and anything you mix it with) will work. He liked the rice cereal that was mixed with mommy's milk, but the water and formula concoctions received the extreme "YUCK" face time and again. Despite his breast milk preference, he is extremely interested in us when we are eating normal food and I am pretty sure he has already stolen some bacon off of my plate when I wasn't looking (I won't make that mistake again).

Pablo's first plane ride was really easy for Daddy. Daddy stayed in San Antonio while Mommy flew to Houston with Pablo. Way to go Mommy!! Pablo must have inherited his parents' travelling genes because he handled the trip like a seasoned traveller. After their visit with Abuelito Jay, his cousins, and some of V's grad school friends, Pablo and Mommy flew to Austin to meet up with Daddy at Centex. Thanks Punk, Colleen, and Marley for sharing your home with all of us.

After Centex was over, Pablo's attended his first easter egg hunt and it was a huge success. Big thanks to Homie, Molly, Adelaide, and Duli for hosting!!! Abuelitos Acosta made it up from San Antonio. Miguel and Danielle also made it into town on their way back to Dallas. A good time was had by all!! Big props to Pablo for winning the cascaron battle against his Mommy (with Daddy's help). Mommy swore to get even, but it hasn't happened yet and neither Pablo nor I are holding our breath.

We finished the last weekend in April by avoiding all Fiesta related events (mainly to avoid crowds and traffic) and heading to the zoo with Dave, Carol, and Noah Gee. It was Pablo's first trip to the zoo and he promptly fell asleep. Noah loved looking at the animals, but he really loved pressing all of the buttons on the vending machines. Before we left, Pablo woke up in time to see the elephant and the rhino and to say good bye to his new friend Noah. FYI: we are newly minted zoo members so if any of you folks want to visit us in SA and head to the zoo, we are game!!

Things we wouldn't trade for the world:
Pablo talking when you change his diaper
The way he laughs when you tickle him
Discovering a new game that makes Pablo laugh
Discovering that the new game that makes him laugh stopped making him laugh
Discovering that the afore mentioned non-laughing game makes him laugh again
Basically, any time Pablo laughs
The way he snuggles on your shoulder when he falls asleep there
The way he is super happy (usually) when he wakes up
The way he loves to take a bath
The way he is fascinated by new things (which is almost everything)
The way he loves to watch the dogs
The way he loves being outside
The way he loves to play with things using his feet
The way he still grasps onto your fingers
The contented look on his face when he is full
The gallons of drool he produces
And....
The cute pictures