Daddy Day Care

Amelia has one last week of work, the grands are either back at work or getting ready to attend a Mohawk Convention in the glamorous city of Dayton, Ohio. That left me, daddy to stay with Maria. To add to the madness, construction begins today on our new sliding patio door and the amazing deck that Amelia designed. We also had the maid service coming (thanks again Aunt Patty, they are awesome).
 Tim Luna of All-Tex construction came by at 8:30 and began scoping out what work and materials he needed for the job. Tim is awesome, we had him put in our Crestview door. We had to wait 3 months to get it installed, but it was worth the wait. Tim is the consummate craftsman who pays attention to the details. After we confirmed the details of the job, he left to get the new door that we had ordered from home depot.
 I decided to leave the cleaning ladies to their work and Maria and I went to take Amelia some lunch.
I find it interesting that I when I go out alone with Maria, women are always so nice.  I am not sure if they are impressed that I can handle a baby on my own, or if I look like I need a lot of help.  I got lunch from the Spec's Liquor and fine foods by our house. If you haven't ever eaten there it sounds crazy to eat at a liquor store, but their deli is awesome!  I got quite a few interesting looks cruising around the store while I was waiting for our sandwiches, with a 3 month old. I felt like saying "Damn the diapers, I just want the beer"
We traveled up to TXDOT and had a nice lunch with Amelia.  We ate in her office and Amelia got to play with Maria for a little while.  Most of Amelia's coworkers came by to see Maria.  I think leaving is bitter sweet for Amelia because she has many friends where she works, but getting to spend time with our little bug makes it worthwhile.

Maria Master of the Maracas

When Parenting is Fun

catch up!

last bath with grandma

alright- time to catch up! i went back to work a week after gall bladder surgery. during that week i went back and forth whether i would keep my job or not. chris and i talked about it- a lot. i decided to quit my job to stay at home with maria. it was a tough decision but it is so hard working and having a baby. i seriously don't know how working moms do it. so to all the working moms out there- you are the true heroes of the world. when i think about going through basic training and ait and then spending a year in a iraq versus a week of working and taking care of maria- i'd rather join the army again!

four generations of the jones

other news- my parents have spent the last 2 weeks here taking care of maria during the day while chris and i went to work. i really enjoyed spending some quality time with my parents. i think the first couple of days might have been a little tough for them but they survived! they even joined in for game night this monday at our house! we played secret tijuana death match and zombie dice. i never thought i'd hear my parents say things like "i'm betting on el motho!" and "i'll hold on the 2 shotgun blasts and take my 3 brains". it was hard to see them leave today- this is the most time i have spent with them since i lived at home- 14 years ago! since i had today off from work (lbj's birthday- state holiday) i followed my parents up to temple, tx to see my grandfather. he is currently residing in the veteran's nursing home. it was nice to papa. he was really happy to see maria- it was the first time he had seen her. i'm glad maria and papa got to meet each other.

lunch with the grandparents in temple,tx

the funny thing that happened today- maria snorted with laughter when i was changing her diaper this evening. i think this kid might have a pretty good sense of humor.

she really likes swinging and grabbing the monkey!

pix

i think we owe someone some pix.

jim henson's terrorist babies or another reason why i will never live in houston ever again!

gwanma!!

well, i had to go back to work today. it was tough waking up that early. i made it though. i spent the entire morning recounting all the details of gall bladder surgery and recovery to my coworkers. i made it extra gruesome to see if i could gross out anyone. it didn't work.

my parents are on maria duty this week and next week. tonight my mom was making maria really laugh out loud. i mean this was a full belly super happy giggle laugh. of course, when i got the camera out to record it she stopped. her face at the end of this video made us full belly laugh.

mysterio!

chris was bored on saturday and wanted to get out of the house so we went to whole earth provision company and central market. it is so hard to not look at kid stuff for maria when we are out shopping. we couldn't resist getting this shirt for maria at whole earth. we had no idea what mysterio would predict for maria's future. in fact we let maria pick out which bag we should get. some how i doubt the accuracy of the her predicted profession.

we also got her an ugly doll. she thinks it is tasty!

maria reads her first book!

ok- maybe she didn't read the book but she is getting really, really good at grabbing things and making noises. this kept her and us entertained for a good 30 minutes!

Bug Life: Month 3

hi buggy! today you are 3 months old!

what a month it has been. you are sleeping all the way through the night, you are holding your head up, grabbing for things, you want to sit up but you aren't there yet and you drool- a lot!!! you love playing bee and teddy bear blanket with daddy in the morning before he goes to work. we took you swimming at the neighborhood pool a few times. you seem to like the water- at least you don't dislike it.

you have grown so much! you are now wearing size 2 diapers. we had to retire a bunch of your little onesies and jammies. it was difficult to pack away the jammies because you are so cute in them. even though it was hard to pack away the old clothes, the new bigger clothes as so cute and plentiful! you pretty much wear something new every day!

we have established a bedtime routine for you- around 9pm-ish we change your diaper and put you in jammies and then you get a warm bottle of milk. we give you a bath on tuesday and friday nights. we've made it to a couple of monday game nights and you did a great job of letting us play with our friends.

i went back to work july 30 so your grandma bonnie has been taking care of you during the day. it was hard for me to go back to work but knowing that your grandma is here made it easier. i only lasted a week at work because i had to get my gall bladder taken out- that happened yesterday. i haven't been able to hold you at all today and it makes me sad but i am happy that you got to spend the day with your dad and grandparents!

we love you buggy!
- mom and dad

surgery!

today i had my gall bladder taken out. it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. the doctor was ahead of schedule so it was good we got to the hospital extra early. i spent most of the morning hanging out with maria and the rest of the day mostly asleep. i got wheeled back to the o.r. about 1:45pm and from chris's report i was out about 2:30pm and already in recovery. we got kicked out and sent home about 6:45pm. my parents stayed at the hospital with chris and bonnie stayed at home with maria.

we took some mommy and maria pics before the surgery, you know, just in case something bad happened. . .

lovely surgery outfit

chris thought i looked so serene and saintly- it was just the drugs.

this is a pretty stoopid picture but i thought i would put it on anyway to show us leaving.

maria pix!

purple polka dot cat with mexican rattle

swimming with daddy!

swimming with mom and grandma!

lounging in my robe after the swim

maria at game night

maria at game night

maria throwin' the zombie dice

we had to retire this set of jammies this week. we were all sad.

last smile in these jammies

pickle

catch up

i know this blog is more for posting pictures of maria but. . . . . i thought i would get caught up with the other things that are going on at the tyler house. i went back to work friday july 30. i hate to say this but the first day back to work was so great! it was nice to get up and out of the house and have something to do and adults to talk to. it was an easy day at work so it went by fast. chris's mom is here for 2 weeks to take care of maria while i go to work. the weekend was fun- we took maria swimming on saturday and i played tennis on sunday. monday morning i was up and at'em, ready to go to work. then tuesday happened- i had another gall bladder attack in the morning. i stayed at work 2 hours and went home. i got surgery rescheduled for monday. i decided i couldn't go through another attack. i spent the rest of the week eating lettuce, applesauce and bananas. by friday evening i was super cranky and tired.

on saturday bonnie and i went to hancock fabrics and picked out a pattern for maria's halloween costume. her costume will be top secret until october 31. you'll have to check back to see her costume. i gave up on the lettuce/ applesauce/ water diet and had a super thick, tasty turkey sandwich from spec's. for dinner, chris grilled some chicken and my mom cooked some potatoes and squash. it was all soooooo good. let's hope my gall bladder can handle all of that- i've got a little less than 24 hours before i check into the hospital.

maria news- this is what you really want. i've been holding different food up to her mouth and letting her taste some different things. so far we have tried watermelon, banana, apple, pickle, and avocado. she gives us the same look each time- she pulls her head back, purses her lips and then sticks out her tongue. it cracks us up everytime. it is really cool seeing her taste something for the first time. the other big news is that we are moving up to size 2 diapers! there was no way we could use up the rest of the size 1 diapers so i gave them to a co-worker that has a granddaughter 6 weeks younger than maria.

The Gall Stones Strike Back

The bug woke up at 5:30 this morning. Amelia got to nurse her and then had to dash off to work. Just as I was leaving for work, I got a call from Amelia. Her gall bladder was giving her a great deal of pain. She was calling the surgeon to see if she could move her surgery up to this week. After talking to the scheduler her new surgery date is the 9th at 2:30.


Amelia was in enough pain that she had to come home, after only a couple of hours at work. Luckily, when she got home, Maria was in a happy mood. Amelia and my mom were able to get The Bug to laugh, which lifted spirits, but definitely did not help with the pain.

For some reason Maria decided not to take a nap in the afternoon and was quite the little pill by the time I got home at six. I went out and got Amelia a salad and pizza for the rest of us. Amelia soldiered through the evening. We gave Maria a bath and she crashed after her nine pm feeding. Hopefully, she will be able to make it to Monday.

Re-Return to Game Night

Our adventure today was returning to game night up in north Austin. Our friend Lorielle wasn’t feeling well, so it was hosted at Juan’s place. We played a rousing game of Steve Jackson’s Zombie Dice, which John won. We followed up with an old west card game, Bang.  It is based off the old party game of murder. Basically, there were outlaws, a renegade, a sheriff, and a deputy. My mom played the sheriff and did a great job of fending off the outlaws until I played the Indian attack card. It did her in, and the outlaws were victorious. Bug wasn’t fussy until it was her bed time, so we all got to enjoy the games.

Friends and Family

Another family breakfast, this time we had eggs and biscuits. It has been nice having my mom in town; it gives the family a true multigenerational feel. My mom watched bug and let Amelia and I have a date brunch. We took the opportunity to go to the Alamo drafthouse and see MicMacs by Jean Pierre Jeunet (the director of Amelie). The movie was a lot of fun and an interesting take on a “super” hero group. It is definitely worth seeing; if you liked Amelie you will like MicMacs.


The afternoon was spent with our old friends the Quintinilla’s. They were in town, from Houston, visiting a family member and stopped by to meet Maria for the first time. They have a two year old daughter Josephine that is as cute as a button. When I see Josephine, I can’t believe that my little Maria will ever be that big. Of course two months ago when Maria was losing weight instead of gaining, I didn’t think that she would ever be 11 pounds. I guess that is the way of the world, but I don’t have to like it.