Midsummer night's dream

I know we have been over due for a post for a while. Don't worry, we won't short change you on the photos. The links for the June and July photos are at the end of the post.

So our little boy has grown up a lot over the past two months, and he has also become quite the traveller. We are just amazed at the little person he is becoming...mommy cries on a regular basis because her baby is slowly turning into a little boy before our eyes. It's amazing to hear him explore his voice (you should hear some of the noises he makes and faces to go along with them). And he just keeps getting longer and longer...he quickly moved from 6mon. clothing (which he must of worn for about a week) into 9-12mon. clothing! Needless to say, he's growing into a very healthy boy!

As for his summer fun, we finished off May with a trip to Houston for Memorial Day and for his grandfather's birthday. The weekend ended back in SA with V getting into a fender bender near the house. Fortunately, Pablo was at home with Daddy that evening so no worries about him being hurt. The other driver was at fault and he had insurance so in the end, every body was ok and it was a slight inconvenience for us.

The following weekend we went to Austin to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Hoo Dat Tom (aka Kien Le Tom...Don and Judy's newest addition to the family). Pablo had a great time hanging out with all the Austinites as well as a Californian and some Houstonians who made their way into town. He also learned a new song, which quickly became a family favorite, "Don Gato"!

Then back to SA where Pablo attended his first family graduation. Cousin Robbie graduated from high school and will be attending Texas A&M in the Fall. Pablo slept through most of the dinner like a champ and woke up with just enough time to say hello and congratulations! Congratulations Robbie!!.

The rest of June was filled with visits from Grandpa Jay and Tia Michelle and our good friend, Mary Beth. Pablo loves when people come to visit! Later that month, Pablo returned to Austin where he partied like a rock star at Max and Casi's wedding. Actually, he managed to stay quiet (mostly) during the ceremony, make a huge mess during dinner, then pass out in the bridal changing room with mommy. All in all, it was a successful night. Thanks Max and Casi for such a fun time!

June also brought our 1st Father's Day! I know, I know, not as important as Mother's day, but we still celebrated with some tacos and friends at breakfast. All in all it was a great Father-son morning where we played at the local fountain park in the water. The Mackie's, Karia's, and Tom's all joined us. Good times!

July began with a bang where Pablo moved his show nationwide. I am talking coast to coast. For the fourth of July weekend, we all travelled to Boston to hang out with Fernando, Laura, Izzie, and Leo. After hanging out in Harvard Square with our friend Rhonda, we headed up to Maine to stay at Chez Reese. Lots of mud walking, kayaking, croquet, scavenger hunting, good beer drinking, and general relaxing was had by all. We also celebrated a big B-day for Laura!!! She received a lot of nice gifts, but the best one might have been Izzie's invention of the baby sea gull dance. (I think we have video, but no pictures...). It was great for the Acosta cousins to hang out - definately a summer tradition! At the end of the trip Pablo also visited with Naomi (mommy's old roomie) and Theresa. All in all...a very nice trip...not to mention the beautifully cool weather.

Pablo did great on the plane. No direct flights from SA to Boston so there were 4 flying legs of the trip. On each leg, Pablo was able to sleep for some or all of the time. He didn't make a big fuss at all (although an extremely dirty diaper change on the tray tables just before landing avoided one potential fussy spell) and won the hearts of his fellow travellers with his good looks and his ability to not cry. :)

Since Pablo passed his first long plane trip test, we decided to see if it was a fluke by taking him to the west coast for a mini Rice reunion. BBRAG 2009 was held in Big Bear, California. We met up with all but one of the travellers who were on the Alaska trip in summer of 98. In attendance were, Terry and Arpi (our hosts), Kate and Peter, Carrie and Hutch and Grant, and an unannounced Jeremy and Bonnie (soon to be married). Unfortunately, due to the impending arrival of Hoo Dat, Judy and Don couldn't make it. We also missed Uncle Damien (the lone member of the Alaska trip who couldn't make it).

At BBRAG, Pablo watched Grant's every move with something close to envy. Yes, our little boy can't wait to be able to move around on his own. So far, he has only managed some furniture assisted scooting and a ton of rolling over. He's on the verge of crawling but, really really wants to walk.

He enjoyed hiking and the baby pool, but even though he kept a decent sleep schedule, the time changes were starting to catch up with him a little bit. Pablo did a fair bit of co-sleeping on this trip and Mommy and Daddy knew that some serious schedule adjustments would need to be made once we got home.

There can't possibly be any more weekends of travel in July, right? Well, we actually chose to stay home for a weekend. Since we didn't travel anywhere, friends came to visit us! This was great because Mommy was home alone with Daddy in Tampa. The week started with a visit by the Lastovica's, Aunt Romi, and finished with Zack and Candace who joined us for the last weekend in July. We had a blast!! I am not sure if we convinced them that having a baby was easier or harder than they imagined, but Pablo may have spoiled them since he was on his best behavior that weekend. In addition to all the temporary visitors, Pablo has a new friend to hang out with every day...Frances! Frances joined us for a 12 week internship in SA. Pablo has a little crush on Frances...as he does on most cute girls he meets. It's been great for us to have a friend to hang out with at night and a new friend for Pablo. Welcome, Frances!

So... about that schedule thing. This past week, V and I have been making a concerted effort to get Pablo on a more regular sleep/eat/play schedule. This is especially important as Pablo will be starting daycare or "school" (as mommy likes to call it) in September. And every teacher in our family has told us often how important a good nights sleep is for a good day at school! We have taken all the advice that our friends have ever given us (not to mention all the books we've read) and put together the Acosta method. Basically, we follow the method that Angel outlined for us when they were getting Aiden to go to sleep (Thanks Angel, Roscoe, and Aiden!!) It has been tough on Mommy and Daddy, but Pablo has been able to put himself to sleep each night (with a little crying). Since doing so, he has slept through the night every night. We hope this keeps up, but with less crying (he was down to under 15 minutes of crying last night). He does better going down on his own for naps (usually under 5 minutes and he is out). It makes both V and I sad to hear him cry at night, but we know it is for the best. What we like best about this sleep plan was that although we are not allowed to pick him up, the time intervals are shorter so that we can comfort him more through patting his back and telling him how much we love him. That makes everything so much easier. So far, I have been the one to put him down each night, and Mommy is a little scared to do it on her own. She may need some moral support during my next frisbee trip so be alert for the phone call. :)

That's a brief summer journal for little Pablo. I think he is a silver elite member on Continental at this point. On one of our flights this summer, he was upgraded while V and I were not, go figure. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let him ride in first class alone so he was sent to the back with the rest of us. ;)

He had lots of fun visiting all of his friends and family. Thanks to everyone that hosted us or took us to the airport or gave Pablo a hug on his travels. We really appreciate it.

In terms of baby news, Pablo really really wants to move on his own, crawling or walking. He likes pulling himself up on his play table. He still loves his baby bouncer (which is now on the tallest setting). He is down to two naps a day and has recently been sleeping through the night. He loves loves loves swimming, especially at his Abuelita's neighborhood pool. He loves going to Baby Time at the Library on Monday & Wednesday and can't wait for Music Together to start up again in September. He recently visited one of Abuelita's line dancing classes and he had a blast (mainly because he gets tons of attention from all the line dancing ladies). He started eating strawberries and tears into them like his Daddy tears into Bacon (I'm a little scared to see what it will be like when he actually eats bacon...). He is still a Momma's boy, but Daddy is clearly in second place if you only count humans (fourth place if you count the dogs and I am steadily losing ground to Frances). He loves taking his nightly bath and looking at himself in the mirror. He loves his bedtime story (Goodnight Moon) and another favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear (which we read at least 50 times on one of the flights). He loves getting post cards (mostly he loves eating them - thanks Tia Michelle, Sonny, & Isabella!). Mommy downloaded some cool iPhone baby apps so Pablo now thinks her iPhone is his toy. He rides in his stroller without the baby seat (this is old news, but I am not sure if we mentioned it before). He regularly downs 6 ounces of baby food/rice cereal mix followed by strawberries in addition to all of his daily milk. He likes the whirling dervish dance in Fantasia (hmm, loud fast music, why would he like that). :) He loves typing on a keyboard at the computer. He loves pressing buttons in general. If there is something that you don't want him to put in his mouth, he loves putting it in his mouth (ex. rocks and dirt at SA frisbee pickup). He loves jumping off the edge of the bed and having someone catch him, although he almost immediately tried to jump off even if there is noone to catch him (Daddy definitely did not teach him this trick). Vegetables are not his favorite thing (I am actually sad about this, but we are working on it). He is not sure whether he likes the taste of salt. So far, the answer is no, but he keeps thinking about it. We could go on and on about all our favorite things about Pablo...but you can see for yourself...Enjoy the new pics!

Signed...Pablo's Mom & Dad



June - click here

July - click here