Category: Alaethia

At the Doctor

We (Alaethia and I) are at the doctor’s office right now and I figured I’d keep myself busy by updating. We got here 14 minutes late and the doctor still wasn’t in.

Speaking of late, Alaethia only let me sleep about 4 1/2 hours last night so I was dragging this morning. After getting the boys ready for school and making sure they got to Elda’s, I laid on the couch with Alaethia to rest my eyes. When I opened them it was time for Mario to leave to work–only I hadn’t woken him up yet, or ironed his clothes, made him breakfast, or packed his lunch. I’d been asleep for half an hour. I did everything in 10 minutes, except for breakfast, and he left. I hope he got to pick something up and got to work on time.

After he left I only had 25 minutes to get Alaethia and myself ready for her appointment. At least she’s grown enough to wear one of her pretty dresses. Too bad she has to get immunizations!

[edit @ 12:00pm] That took forever. She didn’t get any shots though; her immunization was an oral one, the Rotateq, or something like that. She weighs 9 lbs. 6 oz. now and is still 20 1/2 inches long :).

Little Milestones

I’ve been writing this on and off all day, through cleaning, bathing/feeding/burping/changing Alaethia, picking up the kids and eating a quick bowl of cereal for lunch (yes, lunch). I think that’s how I’m going to have to start updating, by leaving WordPress open and typing a few lines when I can. If not, I’ll probably never update again. I don’t know how other blogging mamas do it to update almost-daily, or to update several sites at once! I don’t know how I used to do it when Jaylen was newborn and Eenan was a toddler. But then again, at that time neither of them went to school so I had more time on my hands. Now I have three of them–two of which need to be picked up at various times and all three nap at various times (or not at all, heh).

The boys are a big help, though, I have to admit. Jaylen loves to feed her and Eenan loves to hold her. He surprised (and scared the hell out of) me the first time he (Eenan) wrapped his arms around her and lifted her out of the bassinet. I can always count on Eenan to hold her while I get something in the oven or get laundry in to wash and Jaylen’s always willing to bring me a diaper and some wipees. They’re excellent big brothers :). Jaylen always says, “Mom, you and Alaethia look like angels.” My, how he will charm the ladies ;).

I thought we’d hit the sleeping-through-the-night-jackpot Saturday night/Sunday morning. Although we didn’t fall asleep till 1am, Alaethia slept for 6 full hours and didn’t wake up till 7am for a feeding. I felt much more energetic that morning than I have in a long time, not like the usual tousle-haired zombie I usually am. After I fed, burped and changed her diaper we slept for a while longer till I had to wake Mario up for work. Too bad that Sunday night/Monday morning and last night she was back to her old tricks. Last night was worse though: she was up every hour from 12:30am to 3:30am. After that she slept till 6:45, when I had to get up to get the boys ready for school. I didn’t bother sleeping “again” with her from 9am to 11am like I usually do since I had major chores to do. Now the house is clean but I’m going to be nodding off in about an hour.

Alaethia smiled for the very first time on Sunday night. Not one of those smiles while they’re sleeping or gassy, but a genuine, parent-induced smile. Mario was holding her and we were both baby-talking in high pitched voices and she just lit up and smiled. I literally screamed, “OH MY GOD, SHE’S SMILING!” which scared her, so she immediately stopped and stared at me, silent and wide-eyed. She must think I’m crazy; she’s always looking at me like that LOL.

She smiled again yesterday when I was talking to her and laughing. She smiled about 3 times and then I got nothing LOL. She smiled again today when Noelia was talking to her. I can’t wait to hear her laugh when we do something funny or tickle her. I think Eenan laughed around the same time Jaylen did. I clearly remember the first time Jaylen laughed: it was the 4th of July in 2002 when he was almost 3 months old. Mary, Mom and I were in Mary’s kitchen making a 4th of July cake and Jaylen was in his bouncer. Mom was being goofy and started jumping up and down. He cracked up while she was doing this. So cute :).

Alaethia’s now out of Newborn diapers and has moved on to Size 1. I’ve got a few newborns left, so I’m using them up before I open up the 1’s. She’s filling out her wrinkly skin which is so exciting to me. I love healthy, squishy babies. Not fat, just filled out and soft :).

And a quick-ish summary of the days I haven’t updated:

Thurs. Mar. 1st – went to a tile place I hadn’t checked out and got some 2×2 tiles for the project I want to do in the bathroom. They’re not the cute 1×1 tiles I wanted, but they’ll do. Gotta return the huge bag of $13 grout they sold me for something smaller and cheaper from Home Depot.

Fri. Mar. 2nd – Mario woke up early due to Alaethia’s screams and let us sleep in. Picked up Jaylen and Eenan from school since they were sick and needed to go to the doctor. Came home to get Alaethia’s things together and Ricci stops by. We chit chat and she makes some calls about a job she’s waiting for. She has an interview on Tuesday and we make plans to get together that day after her appointment. She leaves and we head to Burger King for some lunch and paid the majority of our bills then took the kids to their doctor’s appointment. After an hour at the doctor’s office we find out Eenan is coughing again due to his respiratory problems (dates back to his bronchial tube problem he’s had since he was 2 months old) and Jaylen has sinusitis. Two hours later we finally get their prescriptions filled at the new pharmacy and we’ve spent a whopping $63. Next stop was buying them some new shoes which we found at Mervyn’s (some sage green Sketchers skater shoes). Spend the night bar-b-q’ing with the family.

Sat. Mar. 3rd – Spent most of the day home and finally tackled the Spring Cleaning I’d started earlier in the week. Got a lot done, especially in my bedroom. Although it was something I’d been wanting to do for a while, I also wanted to go visit Gramma since she was having a procedure done on Monday to determine what was keeping her from swallowing correctly. John had borrowed the Sentra and didn’t get home till 6pm. Grr. Couldn’t go anywhere once he was home since we were celebrating Sammy and Cat’s birthdays. The whole family was here and we had some great bar-b-q again and cake!

Sun. Mar. 4th – Mario had the day off. Get up and he, Jaylen, Alaethia and I go to Sullivan to see his cousin’s 3 bedroom, 2 bath house which is in the process of being built. He decided to be his own contractor and his house, which is very nice and spacious and has all the modern anemities, is coming out to–get ready–$55,000. Mario asked him if he’d help us out when we’re ready to build ours. He said yes. I didn’t think it was even possible to buy a house for that little.

Eenan gets home from church with Mary and we have lunch at Jesse’s. Great food, wonderful people. We always get VIP treatment since Mario goes there quite often with the guys from work since he works near there. It’s always a great experience (especially with the live mariachi singers) and the kids love going there.

We had a few more stops to make and then came home. Mario went to Eddie’s where he helped him with a system, or something like that, so the kids and I stayed home. I just watched HGTV and TLC for the home shows, which I’ve been doing a lot lately.

Mon. Mar. 5th – After picking Jaylen up from school, Jaylen, Mom, Alaethia and I headed over to Gramma’s nursing home so that Mom could accompany her to her appointment at the hospital. Her transportation would be departing at 12pm. We got there at 12:01 and they’d already left. So I had to drive all the way to the hospital to drop Mom off. Find Gramma, nice old couple can’t stop talking about how cute and alert Alaethia is for her age, spend some time talking to Gramma and then my kiddos and I leave since Alaethia was hungry and was beginning to scream. Feed her in the car with Jaylen’s help and we stop by Mario’s. Go pay storage, pick up Eenan, eat a late lunch of Jalapeño Tuna, get in car with kiddos, pick up John and take him to cash his check and drop him off at home and then we leave to pick Mom up from the nursing home. Talk with Gramma a bit and then we leave. Stop by Mario’s to pick up our JC Penny personal bill. He sends me to get ice cream for he and his coworkers. Drop it off then pay the bill. Did you know the JC in JC Penny stands for James Cash? James Cash Penny–it’s almost as if he was destined to be rich, huh?

As for today, well, like I mentioned before I spent the whole morning cleaning. Ricci didn’t visit after all, but I sure hope she at least made it to her interview. It seemed like they really wanted her for the job. It would be a shame if she didn’t get to make it for some reason. I took the boys to get their hair cut since they were looking shaggy. Mom and John accompanied us. Poor Mayra had pink eye and was about to close when I called her. She kept the salon open just for us; I felt so embarrassed. Eenan was being a goofball. He makes this weird face where he crosses his eyes all funny. When she was done cutting his hair he made the face and said, “How do I look? Lemme see…I look nice” all while making that strange face LOL.

We went to H-E-B afterwards. Only John and I got down while Mom stayed with the kiddos who were watching a movie in the car. John was being a total dork as always and was making me pee my pants while we were shopping. I could hardly breathe and was weezing up a storm on the way home, which happens when I laugh too much.

And now I’m here, waiting for Alaethia to fall asleep so I can get a shower in before bed. I don’t think it’s gonna happen though and Mario probably won’t be home till late since it’s Tuesday and all. Wing Night. Grr >_>. I might just take a chance and take her in there with me while she’s in her carseat like I did a few weeks ago. She’s really happy and quiet right now, I’d hate to ruin it by sticking her in the carseat :(. She’s been smiling at me all night, I love it! I say “Hi Baby!” and “Helloooo” really high-pitched and she just smiles her gummy smile. I can’t wait to get in bed and cuddle with her. Let’s hope it’s a good night.

1 Month

Darn Internet Explorer. I was just writing about how lazy and unmotivated I’ve felt to blog or be online in general and it goes and dies on me when I’m halfway done with a post. That doesn’t exactly make me want to update more, now does it, Internet Explorer?

Not only have I felt lazy, but having a 1 month old baby doesn’t really give me time to update or read my favorite blogs, either. I’m only doing so now because Mom’s feeding her at the moment.

I guess I’ll rewind to Saturday, when Alaethia turned 1 month old :). We had a horrible night that night and the morning wasn’t any better. It was awful and I’ll never forget it. The only thing that made it better was hearing the little, high-pitched tired wail she gives when she’s tired of crying. It’s the cutest sound ever, and no matter how sleepy and frustrated I am from lack of sleep it always makes Mario and I laugh.

We luckily got to sleep in a little late once all the drama was over, since it was Saturday after all, and Mario had gotten the day off for the funeral. We got up around 11am and I took a shower while Mario rushed to JC Penny to buy a new black dress-shirt and belt. I ironed everything, left my hair curly since I didn’t have time to flat-iron it, and once Mario was done we left with Noelia to the funeral home. I was going to take Alaethia with me, but since it was already in the high 80s by noon I figured I’d leave her with Mom and the boys.

We didn’t make it to Tia Alicia’s final viewing but at least we made it extra early for the Mass. It was so depressing and sad, as funerals usually are, but Mario at least got to see relatives he hadn’t seen at all while they’ve been here. The procession made its way to the cemetary and we stayed briefly since it was too hot for the rest of the kiddos.

We came home and Mario and Noelia went to Star’s and ordered for everyone. We ate and then went to Tio Tavo and Tia Gloria’s house, where all the relatives were meeting. We chatted with everyone and I was complimented several times how nice I looked for Alaethia being one month old. Most, like Lisa, Tia Aurora and the group that was sitting at the kitchen table with Jennifer said it didn’t even look like I just had a baby. It’s nice to get compliments like that, especially since I was already starting to feel flubbery. I get no time to exercise and I haven’t exactly been watching what I eat so I need to get on the ball. I’ve only got 3 months till I have to pick out my Matron of Honor dress for Noelia and Andy’s wedding. I don’t want to look like a badly-packed sausage :(.

Mario was planning to stay behind with Jorge and Annie for a while longer but I needed to leave since I was already late to Ricci’s party. I gathered the kiddos and picked Mom up when I get a call from him that he’s on his way and he’ll be accompanying us. Awesome! I didn’t expect him to go at all.

I’m so glad he went, since Ricci lives pretty far and I can’t see down that road at night since I’m still adjusting to these darn glasses. We arrive and there’s already people there. Ricci brings us probably the best Frijoles a la Charra (aside from Taqueria El Molcajete) that I’ve ever eaten. They had little chunks of bacon, or fat, whatever you want to call it LOL. She served us huge plates of food and the kids had a blast running around the house looking at the goats, chickens, turkey, piglets, cows and whatever other animals were behind the house. Alaethia was an angel the whole time we were there and only fussed for a few seconds while I prepared her bottle when it was time for her to eat.

Rachelle looked like a little princess in her dress. I can’t believe I only haven’t seen her in a little under a year and she’s grown so much! After all the kids had broken the piñata, gotten candy bags and had cake the boys needed to go to the bathroom so I took them. When we came out all hell had broken loose. Goyo’s sister had picked up Kylie, Ricci’s 6 month old daughter with Goyo, because she was sick and they were going to either take her to the doctor or buy her medicines. Well, it had been hours so Ricci was getting worried and called to see what was going on. Apparently Goyo was saying he wasn’t going to take her back so of course Ricci was livid. She was still distraught when we were leaving so I wished her the best, but he did end up returning her and she was fine. Grr. They do that crap just to see how much drama they can stir up. To see how pissed or scared they can make Ricci.

We got home and Mario spent some time with Jorge before he left in the morning. I put the kiddos to bed and we decided to watch Friends with Money when he came back inside. I don’t like how the movie ended (I hate cliffhangers. I need to know exactly what happens!), but it was a great movie overall. There was a part in the movie where a couple are writing a book together and I tell Mario, “You know, it’s silly, but…nah, nevermind.” He pauses the movie and asks, “No, tell me. What?” I prop myself up with my elbow and face him and say, “I’ve always wanted to write a book. Or a story, doesn’t matter. I’ve got some ideas, but I’m not exactly very eloquent with words. I wouldn’t know how to start or how to make the story flow, y’know what I mean?”

He says, “That’s a great idea, Babe. I never knew that. I think you should. If anything, I could help you. What are some ideas.”

So I tell him of two I’ve had for years and he says they’re both good, although one sounds like something too commonly written about. I told him I’d like to write maybe an autobiography, or a story about our lives and he says, “I’ve always thought you’d do that.” Aww. He’s so supportive I could smooch him. I did, actually. On the forehead.

Sunday night with Alaethia was a little better and we got to sleep in late again. I woke up to an empty house: Eenan was at Mary’s and Jaylen and Mario had gone to McDonald’s for breakfast. When they got back we got ready to leave to town.

We went to Target where the boys took forever picking out a toy each, Mario got something for his Boost phone, we went to Circuit City to buy DVD+Rs and then went to get some meat to Bar-b-q.

We got home and Mario got the fire started while Mom and I went to Dollar General for some chips and salsa. It was such a nice day out for a bar-b-q, warm and breezy.

I think I spent most of Monday trying to clean and organize. I also cleaned the DVDs off my computer. I had, like, 30 movies on there, 15 on each harddrive and my harddrives were full. I braved it and started recording them and it actually worked! It didn’t shut down once in the two days it took me to get them all recorded. I wonder what the heck the problem was before then? The kids have been playing games online and the computer’s been fine, when before it would shut down after 10 minutes of game play. *shrug*

After both the kids had come home from school on Tuesday and had gotten their homework done, John and I left the kids with Mom while we made a quick stop at the tile store to buy some 1 inch tiles I need for the bathroom. Well, it was supposed to be a quick stop. We went to Ferro Block where I found some cute clear frosty tiles. When I asked about them they told me they had no 1 inch tiles at all and those frosted ones I liked? They weren’t working with that company anymore. Great.

We passed by Tile City, which was closed and then went to Lowe’s. They had nothing. I called to Home Depot so we wouldn’t have to make a trip there and they had nothing as well. We tried Michael’s last, where they had some 1 inch tiles but they were dark blue and I want something light. I considered getting the 1 inch mosaic tiles but I figured it wouldn’t be a good idea since the area gets really wet all the time and I don’t know if the mosaics would be good for the bathroom. I’ll have to read up on it. Needless to say, I was really disappointed and wasted 2 hours of my life. And gas, too. Thankfully, I got home with enough time to make dinner and bathe the boys.

Off topic: My God. I’m watching Maury and holy cow! New York’s (Flavor of Love, I Love New York) done bought herself some new boobies O_O. Those things did not look like that on her show!

Anyway, I had my 1 month postpartum check-up yesterday. I’m still at 119 lbs., got the OK to get on birth control, got the OK to be intimate with the hubs (woo hoo!), and got some new meds prescribed; new cold medicine and antibiotics for the horrible toothache my darn wisdom tooth’s brought on. I NEED to go get them all ripped out, even if I have to go to Mexico again :(.

I took Alaethia in, too, since she ended up catching my cold. She now weighs 8 lbs. 11 oz. and is 20 1/2 inches long–she grew half an inch since the last time, aww. Laura, our nurse, said she’s gonna be little like her mom LOL.

We got our prescriptions and headed to H-E-B. I refused to go back to the Saenz Pharmacy since they take about an hour to fill 1 darn prescription. I take the prescriptions to the pharmacy and they tell me it’s a ONE HOUR WAIT. Darnit. Mom and I both needed to get a few groceries anyway, so we shopped around while we waited for the medications. Jaylen, whom I’ve been having a bit of trouble with lately, was an absolute horror the whole time we were there so that helped us waste some time, too. After an hour of walking around we paid and went back to the pharmacy. They weren’t ready. They needed another 20 minutes. Grr. I sit there, waiting, looking deranged since Jaylen was still having his fits in the cart. After a while though, he kept himself busy with a little book he found and we waited some more. We waited for ANOTHER HOUR and when the guy calls me over he says one of mine wasn’t available. I could have slugged him. It took that long to get two prescriptions filled. I understand that they need to count and make sure everything’s right, but my God, two hours?!

We’re on our way home and I get a call from Noelia around 2:30. She says our door was wide open and that she closed it for us! I’m so glad she was home–who knows if some stranger would have, for some reason, come around my apartment and seen the door open! I don’t know how long it was open though, so I could imagine the flies and bugs that probably flew in, ick.

I eat a quick lunch because I was starving, feed Alaethia and then Mom stayed with the kids while I picked up Eenan and Brandon. While I was waiting for them I get a call from Ricci. She says she’d stopped by to see me but we weren’t home and that my door was wide open. This was around 1:30! She says she used my bathroom, and I go on and on expressing how worried I was about how long the door’d been open. I ask her how she’s doing and my heart sinks when I hear her sobbing. She’d stopped by her Grandmother’s after she’d left my house and they all treated her badly. They laughed at her. She said she needed to talk but she was on her neighbor’s phone since hers is still not working so I offered to go over.

I made sure Eenan did his homework because he’d forgotten it the previous day. He’d forgotten it 3 times last 6 weeks and finally got his act together when it came to his compositions and made All A Honor Roll again, yay :). We couldn’t find Brushka’s kittens all morning and while I was talking to Mario on the phone I swore I heard a meow. I looked in the closet in the living room but found nothing. A few minutes later I heard another meow so I reached my arm as far back into the closet as I could and felt my fingers brush something soft. I grab it, and it’s a gray kitten LOL. Brushka must have taken the opportunity to bring them all in while the door was open! All of the kittens were in there. The last one I got out was the white one, the one who’s father is most definitely Artemis. He’s fluffy and looks like a huge bear LOL.

I packed Alaethia’s things up and we get ready to leave. The boys, of course, didn’t want to go with me and I figured if I wanted to have a quiet talk I should leave them with Mom. Mom tells me to have a good time and drive safely.

I get to Ricci’s and we have a good, long talk. She gives me more of a backstory on everything that happened between her and Goyo and goes into detail about what happened at her Grandma’s. She’s upset and crying and asks, “Why are they like that? Why do they have to be that way?” and I tell her, “There’s just evil people in this world, unfortunately. That’s what they are, Ricci. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. It’s not anything you did.” She realizes that hey, maybe I’m right. Maybe they are just like that. I tell her I want to see her succeed and rub it in all their faces and that she better not ever take that dumbass back. I hope she can get the job she wants. I hope she can better her life for her and her girls. And I hope, that no matter what happens between Goyo and Ricci’s aunt (the one he left her for), no matter if he goes crawling back that she refuses to take him back. He’s the damn reason she changed last year. He’s the reason I had to be the one worried about her missing school and driving her around–because he could have given two shits about all that.

I got home and we had a quick dinner of sandwiches. Mom had already set the shower for the boys so they were nice and clean by the time I got home. Mario got home and watched the George Lopez comedy thing after the boys were in bed. Alaethia had gone to sleep too, so we found it the perfect opportunity to spend some alone time together ;). I was so giddy–I felt like a teenager all over again LOL.

As for today, I’m feeling really…blah. I had about four hours sleep last night due to Alaethia’s screaming. I did get her to sleep in the crib, but it was for a very short hour and a half =\. I was too exhausted the rest of the night to bother putting her in it. I swear it’s like she’s 5 months old already. She spends all day awake and still doesn’t sleep for long at night. How do other mothers do it?! I’ve had what seems like 5 month old newborns with all my kids!

I’ve felt the same laziness with my Spring Cleaning (and basic, every day cleaning) as I’ve had with blogging. I’ve completely lost the motiviation to continue with my decorating and organizing. I have all these ideas, all these things I want to do and I’ve done zip since Monday. I went through most of the stuff in my closet and although I did get rid of a lot of stuff, all the stuff I decided to keep that goes on shelves is strewn all over my bedroom floor. As much as I don’t want to, I need to get to that today. When Ricci’d told me she came in to use the bathroom I instantly felt so embarrassed–I have clean laundry that needs to be put away draped all over the back of the futon >_<. Other than that, the house is clean, but still, clothes everywhere makes any place look messy. I should eat some lunch since I have to pick Eenan up from school in a bit. See how lazy I feel? I don't even want to make myself anything!