The cutest little baby face...

I am over the moon in love with this kid already. This picture alone totally did it for me.


This is a 3-D picture of baby's face taken yesterday at my ultrasound. He (or she, I suppose) is resting the right side of his face on his "pillow" (a.k.a the placenta). The original image is twice as clear as the scanned one. Amazing.

Boy or girl looking face... we're not sure... it could go either way. But, one things for sure, as far as Danyel and I are concerned, this kid looks like a spitting image of his newborn brother.

We have a few more pics. If you are lucky enough to see us in future weeks, we will torture you with them then!

Our little Frankenstein

So, as most of you already know... Carsten fell victim to his inherited clumsiness on Monday. He was running from the living room into the spare bedroom where Danyel and I were calling him. As he dashed into the room, he tripped on his own feet and hit his head on the very sharp corner of the windowsill. Blood was gushing out of the wound and getting all over the place. He was screaming. Danyel and I were panicking. Danyel ran to get a towel to soak up the blood and he was gone for what seemed like forever. He was running around like a chicken with his head cut off trying to figure out what the hell to do. Seeing your child oozing large amounts of blood out of their forehead is quite a frightening experience. He hit so hard that I can still hear it in my head. I am surprised that he didn't pass out or suffer a concussion.

We realized that he was going to need stitches right away. The blood clotted pretty quickly for the most part, but was still slowly oozing. The weather was awful, so I took him down the street to a family clinic instead of to his regular pediatrician's office,which was a big mistake. They ended up putting steri-strips (sticker like stitches) over his wound instead of sutures. They came loose that evening and I had to take him to the pediatrician early the next morning where they did an excellent job at giving him three stitches.

It was an awful experience to watch him endure. They had to straight jacket him down to the exam table. Then, she injected some lidocaine into the cut to deaden it, which was the worst part. He screamed like I have never heard him scream before. He kept crying and saying, "Mama, turn it off!" I tried to stay smiling and strong for him, but I couldn't stop crying. These damn pregnancy hormones.

Once the lidocaine kicked in, he settled down for the most part and was just whimpering. The crazy thing is that when she was done and I let him out of the straight jacket he just went about his business. He even thanked her when she was done. He didn't seem traumatized in the least bit. The P.A. said that he did excellent compared to most kids his age. That's my Bubby... he's one tough cookie.

And, as you can see by the pics, he's moved on.

My favorite pics from our trip

Las Caletas Beach

Sunset over beach at resort... best I have ever seen

My Pookie enjoying the sunset

Los Arcos

Relaxing at Las Caletas

Relaxing at Las Caletas... some more

Baby and me relaxing on balcony at resort

Church in Puerto Vallarta

Relaxing by the infinity pool at resort

Relaxing by the pool... some more

Danyel took this one... I love it.

Lazy Days

Our trip to Puerto Vallarta last week was fantastic. It was full of relaxation & warm, sunny weather... just what we needed. Usually, we prefer more active vacations, but we thought this was the right trip at the right time. We couldn't have been more right. Danyel, especially, has trouble relaxing and sitting still for too long, but I was really surprised at how quickly he adapted to the pace... much faster than even myself. It took me a few days to shake off the Mommy mode that I walk around in constantly, but once I did, it was smooth sailing from there.

This marks the second time we have left Carsten for a week long period. (Well, third for Danyel, but we won't get into that.) The first was almost a year ago when we went to Italy. I didn't handle the separation all that well, to say the least. So, I was a little apprehensive this time around, but I did much better. I still missed him terribly and shed tears every time I thought about him too much, but I didn't let it effect our vacation.

The resort was unbelievable... a very beautiful and serene place. It was all inclusive, which was great, except for the fact that we got tired of eating the same stuff all week. We spent a lot of time lounging by the infinity pool overlooking the ocean. We went swimming with the dolphins one afternoon. It has always been on my list of things to do before I die. The best part was when we got to ride on the dolphin around the pool.... it was amazing! We also went on a boat trip one afternoon to a place called Las Caletas, which is a secluded beach about an hour away from Puerto Vallarta on a boat. We were looking forward to the snorkeling there, but it was a disappointment. The water was not clear enough and we were right at shore, so there was not much to see. But, the beach was beautiful and it was a great place to relax. Other than that, we read three books between us and spent a morning at the spa getting massages. It was Danyel's first massage and he thought he had died and gone to heaven. As he put it, "I felt like I was levitating."

My Romeo

This morning after I finished changing Carsten's diaper, I extended my hand to him to help him up. Instead, he pulled me down towards him and held both sides of my face with his little hands. He pulled my face down right in front of his, looked me in the eye, and said so very sweetly with a grin on his face, "I wuv you Mama. I kiss you Mama." Then he closed his eyes, puckered his lips, and planted a big one on my lips. He was so very sweet, charming, and completely engrossed in the moment. And, like everything these days, he said and did it a million times before he was content enough to move on to the next thing. I relished every second of it and fought back tears brought on by a joy unlike any other in this world.

Today was a perfect day.