Well it was another exhusting weekend. This time it was Joey that was sick. We thought he had pink eye, but well pink eye does not hurt that much or blind someone. Joey was in a lot of pain all weekend long, but he was a trooper. He suffered through my driving, and a house full of family. Of course we LOVE to have family over for the weekend. On saturday night we had Rosie, Tommyma, Ouie (w/baby Larry), Luis. Chone, Elaine, Patty and JZ at our house. Eveyone but Pat and JZ stayed the night. Sunday was spent getting ready and taking the girls to get pictures done. Elaine had bought them matching dresses months ago and we were waiting for Phi to grow into hers. The timing was perfect because Phi had just turned 9 months old and The Chone had turned 6 and a half. The pictures came out okay. I dont think we will be going back to sears though. The quality of thier pics has really gone down hill.

Well on Sunday night I couldn't stand Joey's pain (or whining) anymore so i missed work to take him to an eye doctor. They fit him in yesterday morning and we found out that he has "Irisis". Thats when the iris of the eye is swollen. The doctor prescribed him steriod drops and I had to go to 4 different pharmacys to find one that had the drops in stock. He has to put a drop in his bad eye once every hour. He is slowly starting to feel better.

In good news we have an official date for Phi's baptism. She will be baptized on April 22nd. Pat and I are planning on a nice brunch for anyone who decideds to make he trek out to celebrate with us. My mom already told me that my nana and tata want to be there no matter what. Now my nana can stop asking everybody "when are they going to baptize that baby?"

And in even better news, we have found a sippy cup that Phi will use!! Nuby's Rules

Moving Along

I'm going to Hawaii! I am going to Hawaii! We have booked the Honeymoon. And we decided on 7 days. Actually Tommyma peer pressured me into 7 days. But its booked and we are going! I am getting excited. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii and I can remember when we were first dating we were talking about Hawaii and how I had always wanted to go. Joey said he would take me one day. And here we are.

Invites have been ordered. Can I tell you what a pain that was. You would think that invitations would be easy. Picking the design we wanted was easy. I fell in love with a design right away. It was the wording that was so freakin hard. First I wanted to include Sophia in there somehow. Once I figuered out how we wanted to do that I didnt like how formal everything sounded. Joey and I are not formal kind of people. Then after we "unformalized" the wording I wanted to have a quote at the top. Oh man it was so tough finding a quote. First I wanted a quote from a song. After listening to the Something Corporate CD a few times I decided I wasn't going to be able to find a song quote. Then I wanted a quote about love and laughter. Nothing. I finally found one that I like. It fit well with our beach wedding.

We have ordered the wedding cake topper. (pictured below) and I have ordered the molds for the favors. I think I am going to put the deposit on the tables and chairs on Monday. If I can get the caterer to call me back we are in business.

9!

Happy 9 month birthday to the Phi!!

(oh man, only 3 more monthes until the big o-n-e!)

An Imposter

Bet you thought that this dog in the picture was Roo. (But if you know Roo you know he doesnt use a leash that well!) The same thing happened to me this morning. I went home about 9:30 am to pick up Phi. As I was driving down the street I saw "Roo" playing with this big dog in one of the neighbors yards. Shaggy yellowish hair, small size, pink collar. See we have had some problems in the past of Roo getting out. So I see "Roo" and I am freaked out because he likes to growl at big dogs and well, he could get hit by a car or dog-napped. And I don't even need to tell you how devistated I would be if anything happened to my Roo. Especially now because we bought him doggie body spray and he smells like calming lavendar these days. With the new neighbors moving in there are new dogs wandering the neighborhood. I slowed down and rolled down the window to call "Roo". It looked just like Roo, pink collar and everything. The more I looked at this imposter I thought 'That might not be Roo". So I pulled into my driveway and walked in the front door and there was Roo, the real Roo. Doing his freak out dance.

Decisions Decisions

So Joey and I are going to Hawaii for our honeymoon and we debating about how long we should go for. He wants to go for 7 days and I want to go for 5. Here is my main reason. This is the first time that we will be leaving Sophia for more than a few hours. She will be staying with my parents but I know that on Wednesday or so of our honeymoon I am going to want to come home and see my baby. I know that 4 more days away is going to be too much. I know that everywhere we go we are going to see things she would like to see and even worse other kids that may or may not resemble her. I know that I am going to miss her. Shoot, by the end of a work day without her, even after seeing her at lunchtime I miss her so much. So we thought we should take this dilemna to the masses and see what people think. So should we go for 7 days or 5?

Trapped in a house with a sick baby

What an awful weekend. I HATE when Phi is sick. Last Wednesday she threw up pretty bad at work. By Friday she was pucking and had bad diarrhea. She puked at work about 4 on Friday and that was it. I called her doctor and they sent up to Extended Care. Joey left work early and we all headed to the doctor. They were worried that she maybe dehydrated but the doctor said she wasn't, but told us to put her on pedialyte and gave us some suppositories to help with her nausea. Although you know you have become parents with the KY-Jelly is used to help insert a suppository in the kid. Joey worked all weekend and I was stuck in the house changing diapers all day long. Cleaning puke (off of myself) and trying to get Phi to drink water and pedialyte. Not fun. Not fun at all.

Beep Beep Neon

So we sold the Neon for $300 today. A friend of Joey's came and bought it. See the Neon has been sitting in our driveway since April. On April 4th of last year some freakin idiot pulled out in front of me and a car crash ensued. My poor sweet neon was totaled. (I was also 8 months pregnant at the time.) The damage was not that bad, but because it is a 98 Neon that car itself wasnt worth much and was deemed totaled. I really have hated pulling into my driveway and seeing my car all crashed up. The insurance company would not take it off our hands so it just sits in our driveway. Well today it is going bye-bye. As I write this Joey is cleaning it out. For a few reasons I am upset by this. One: I bought this car brand-new in 1998. It has been with me for many years and it has been very good to me. It has taken me all over. I remember my road trip to Stanford, the many many many trips to San Diego, all the trips to Hollywood for shows, the communting from Camarillo to Santa Barbara, crusing the parking lot at CSUN looking for parking, so many trips and memories. I am sad to see it go. Also because for 5 years I made my car payment. $223 every month for 5 whole years. There were times that those payments were a struggle and I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt to send that last payment and know that I had payed off the car. And now for just $300 its gone out of my life. Its a sad thing.

**Update: Went home for lunch and the Neon was g-o-n-e. I didn't even get to say good-bye!**

Rumors are Flying

So Phi was home all day with Dada yesterday. I got a call at work about 10am-ish. It was Joey telling me that when Phi woke up in the morning she was whining in her crib and he heard her calling "mama". I leave the kids side at not more than 4 hours later she says Mama. Of course she hasnt said it since.

A Cool Elmo Doll?

So I have never been a fan of the Elmo dolls. Not the Tickle Me Elmo, not the Chicken Dance Elmo, not the YMCA Elmo or any other Elmo. Well on Valentine's Day, (after a "romantic" dinner at E-Bar where Phi was being a pill. Dropping everything on the floor and whining when it did) we headed to our favorite store in the world, Target. Joey had told Phi she could pick out her V'day gift so we cruised the toy aisles. We came across the newest Elmo doll in the long long line of Elmo dolls. My sister Elaine is a little too old for the Elmo crave (oh but did she love herself some Barney) The Chone was just the right age for the Elmo crave but was not that into it. I never had to sit through hours of playing with tickle me elmo. And I am thankful for that because just the commercials drove me crazy. Now I had heard around the mommy internet watercooler that a new and best Elmo doll would be coming out. I heard this a long time ago and of course didn't pay much attention because I had no inention of buying Phi an annoying Elmo doll. Okay so this new Elmo doll was displayed at Target. It had a whole big computer thing with the display. Now this Elmo has thousands and thousands of names in its memory bank. We used the computer to find 'Sophia' then tried the demo. Elmo came alive and said. "Hi Sophia" Apparently is plays a bunch of personalized phrases and is even on a timer that will let the kid know when its lunch time, nap time or bed time. This Elmo has a usb port that connects to your computer and you tell it the kids favorite things like color, toy etc. It was so cool. And you should have seen Phi's face when Elmo said her name. Her big eyes got even bigger. I think this may be a must purchase.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone (even Rosie)

What a wonderful excuse to tell people that you love them! Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day and get to spend some time with those you love. I am having dinner with my two favorite people in the world. My Joey and My Phi!

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord

Sunday was one of those days that seems like it was 2 days long because we did so much in one day. Phi and I were ultra productive. We were up by 8:30 and Phi had cereal and veggies and I had coffee. Then while Phi had some cherrios I did my pilates. Then I showered and got ready, then got Phi ready and we headed to church. It had been a long long long time since I have been to a regular mass. We made our way up to the baby room and got comfortable. I was concerned about how Phi was going to act. I brought her some quite toys to play with. She loved church. All the singing and clapping and the other kids and people to look at. I surprised myself when I remembered all the prayers and responses. We introduced ourselves to the priest. I am going to try to take Phi (and Joey when he can) at least 2 a month. After church we headed to Puma to visit Dada. We all went to lunch and after Phi and I headed to Ross to buy some things we needed for Dada's Valentines Day gift. We came home and worked on his gift for a good hour atleast. Man working with the diva Phia was difficult. I was envisioning her sitting up holding the signs between her hands and giving her squinty smile, of course she was not cooperating so I ended up with what you see below. I think I like this better. We printed the pictures and put them in a frame with 4 slots in a row. It looks like a sentence. I am happy with how they came out. I just hope Joey likes it. Then I did all of Phi's laundry, bathed her and out her to bed. I was pooped by the end of the day!

The Best Baby in all the Land

Joey had saturday off and like all his weekends off we take full advantage and we headed out to Costa Mesa saturday morning. We went to the Orange County Market Place which was basically an OC version of a swap meet. It was freakin awsome! We loved it. It was huge and tons of great stuff. Phi made out like a bandit and got a few new blankets, a new bib, some new socks, and a Curious George doll. It is strange to watch her play with this doll. It is the first time I have seen her really 'play' with a doll. She carrys him around and pats its head when they laying down for a nap. Its cute. We spent between 4 and 5 hours at the swap meet and them we headed to The Block in Orange to meet up with Patty, JZ and Rosie. We had an early dinner at the Alcatraz Brewing Co. Phi had her lunch and some snackers, this time most ended up on the floor. (Thanks for cleaning that up Rose!) We walked all over the mall, went into a bunch of shops, stopped for ice cream and Phi was content the whole time, just kicking it in her stroller. She slept the whole way home. Got home, put her in her pj's and she was right back out. Amazing. We couldn't believe how good she had been. Not even a whimper all day long! This kids loved to be anywhere except the office.

Tooth Watch 2006

The second tooth has finally broken through the gums! We have 2 teeth. Now I have to remember to write this down in the baby book! And these new teeth are coming in very handy. Phi LOVES to eat Cherrios and Gerber Fruit Puffs. As soon as they go down on the tray she attacks. Its nice because a handful can keep her quite for about 10 whole minutes! (*that pic is NOT of Phi, she won't let me get a good picture of her teeth*)

Joey's Valentines From His Biggest Fan

Honeymoon Registry and Website

Well I have finally accomplished something on my wedding to-do-list. We are registered at www.honeymoonwishes.com. We also have a wedding website up. Its kind of cheesy but it was free. http://www.honeymoonwishes.com/Wedding-Website-5772-Elissa-Gomez-Joey-Lerma.html

Yes..its Friday

This week has not been too bad. It has moved along rather quickly. Work has been busy, but at a nice pace where there is always something to do, but not stressful. Phi and I did a little Valentines Day shopping and mailed out our cards. We still need to find something for Joey. Any suggestions? Last night Uncle Matty and Sam came over to hang out and eat pizza. It was so nice. When Matt lived with us, we use to do this all the time. Just eat Palermo's pizza, laugh and joke and just hang out. Matt, Sam and Joey miss it too. I want to congratulate Sam because today he graduates from his Mercedes course at UTI and will be starting a job with a Mercedes dealer ship in Orange County in a week or so. GO SAM! YOU ROCK AND WE ARE SO PROUD!

Also this week, I received some great news from my friend Jackie . She is having a baby! I am so excited for her and her husband. I can't wait to hear all about her pregnancy. I didn't have this blog when I was pregnant (although I wish I did!) but most of my entries would have probably been complaints. But now that I can look back being pregnant was a very interesting time and special time in my life. It is a truely amazing experience and is so surreal. Your body goes through some amazing changes in such a short period of time. By the time I was 9 months pregnant I felt like my body was just unhuman.

Last night while waiting for "The Office" (the best show on TV right now!) I was reading one of the many baby magazines I get. In it was an article about some parents who do not feel an immediate love connection with their new borns. It was an interesting article and really made me think. Todays media really gives an ideal view of what newborns are like. Tiny sleeping little bundles and the well rested parents and the already skinny Mom. Oh man, that is so not how it is. They were talking about "the moment" where you connected and feel in love with your baby. For some of the parents it took until the baby was talking that it happened. I will admit this, the moment Sophia was born I knew that I loved her. From the first time that she looked up at me I was hooked, but I was surprised because it wasn't has strong as I thought it would be. Maybe it was because there was so much going on and all the lights and people and equipment were overwhelming me. One thing I do know is that everyday i love Sophia more and more, everytime she smiles at me, everything she accomplished something new, everytime she dances to music, everytime I check on her while she is sleeping, everytime I see her laughing with her Dada. And once in awhile I feel that overwhelmed feeling of love for her that kind of just sweeps over your whole body.

Blocks and Doggie Mints

After dinner last night we all got comfortable on the floor to enjoy the Grammy's and to play with some blocks. We made big towers and then Dada made this pyramid for Phi. It took him a long time so by the time he was done she was cranky and ready for bed. So we left it assembled so she can play with it today. Last night was also spent trying to get Roo to eat these doggie mints we had bought him. Roo is a spoiled little picky eater and would not eat the stupid mint. I tried tricking him but he was too smart. He can't learn to sit, but he knows how to avoid eating a mint surrounded by dog food. I finally got him to eat one by putting a little bit of peanut butter on it. Then I notice he is suppose to eat like 3 at a time. This will never work and my emo dog is destined to have stank breathe.

The Sharing Song

We rocked the Curious George CD at work today. (Man I won't shut up about this cd!) I had to share the lyrics to this song. It is so cute.

"The Sharing Song"

Its always more fun

To share with everyone

If you have two

Give one to your friend

If you have three

Give one to your friend and me

Its always more fun

To share with everyone

If you've got one

Here is something you can learn

You can still share

Just by taking turns

If you've got a ball

Bounce it to the gang

If there is a new kid

Invite him out to hang

If you've got a sandwich

Cut that thing in half

If you know a secret joke

Tell it and share a laugh

If you've got two drumsticks

Give one to your friend

Make one beautiful rhythm

Share a beat that never ends

And if you're feeling lonely

Share time with your mom

Share some milk and cookies

And sing the sharing song

Its always more fun

To share with everyone

Target

It is official. We are not just target-shopper, we are target-lovers! We freakin love Target and we are there so much that last night an employee recognized us. We went to Target to buy Phi's Curious Geroge soundtrack. As we were walking out the door sensors went off and a lady came over to check us out. She asked if we had bought any electronic and we showed her the CD. She demagnitized it and handed it back to Joey and goes "You guys were here last week for this weren't you?" Now Target is a big store with a lot of employees and we are there so much that we are now being recognized!

Super Bowl Weekend

Joey had the entire weekend off so we headed to Santa Barbara for a Super Bowl party at my parents house. We left Banning Friday night and got to SB about 9:30pm. We hung out with my parents for a while and let Sophia stay up way too late. We went to bed. My parents has set up a bed for Phi complete with a pillow barrier so she wouldn't roll all over the floor at night, She tends to be an active sleeper.




We woke up at about 9am. Well Phi woke us up at 9am. We fed her some breakfast and were debating what to do for the day. We were either going to go to Solvang, or take Phi to the SB Zoo. Since Joey wanted to be back by 7 for a pay-per-view UFC event we decided on the zoo. So we packed up for the afternoon and headed to the zoo. We saw a lot of animals and even though Phi was very distracted by all the kids (she loved to watch kids) she did seem interested in a lot of the animals. We even stopped and fed her lunch on a patio overlooking the elephants. It was a really nice little zoo trip. (Check out the flickr page for all the pics.) This is the stuff I love, taking my daughter to the zoo. I cannot wait for her to be even older where she can really enjoy the zoo and all the animals. When we can teach her about the animals and all that stuff.



Sophia and the elephants



We found this cute baby elephant


Checking out the Big Ol' Gorillas (looks like Tata!)


This is Sophia's new smile. Cute huh!



Here new shades. She would not keep them on!


We got back to the SB House and Sophia knocked out. While she was sleeping my sister Ouie, Luis and The Chone showed up. Tommyma showed up a little later. We all hung out and watched the UFC pay-per-view. Again Sophia stayed up way too late. And even got to munch on some crumbled up chocolate chip cookies courtesy of her Nana.


On Sunday we got up got ready for the party. Joey and I made a spinach/artichoke dip, and chips and salsa. My sisters brought ready-made trays (lazy asses!) People started showing up at about 2:30 or so. It was a smaller crowd but it was really nice. We all could watch the game in the same room and the kids had the game room all to themselves the whole day. There was a ton of great food. My Tia Angie never, ever disappoints with any of her dishes and this overstuffed sauce-less pizza's were excellent. My Tia Mary made these stuffed mushrooms that I was addicted to all day. And even though I didn't get to sample it until the next day, my Tia Concha made some really good ceviche. My Tia Grace was the party saver because she was the only one who brought dessert! Even Sophia got to sample some of the foods. My Tia Angie let her gum a ritz cracker and Tommyma gave her some lime to try.



Joey the cook with the pink oven mitts



The cousins. I am loving Chones new bangs!

So we did one of those pools with the squares and Tommyma bought one and then bought the remaining 4 right before the game started. He commented on how he never wins those. Well he can't say that anymore. He won the 1st, 3rd and 4th quarter. But Tommyma being the swell guy that he is uses his winning to treat everyone to Coldstone's ice cream. What a great guy. My sisters stayed after all the Tia's left and we hung out for awhile. Elaine has been working on this family tree project and she is using her creative skills to make this great little photo albumn with picture of all of us. Before my sister took off back to Moorpark, we took one big family photo (mikey was the only one missing)


The Gomez Family

Tommyma stayed up with Joey, Me, Phi, Mom and Dad and we hung out in the game room and talked for a few hours. Again Phi stayed up way too late. Do you see the pattern? We will pay for this later!


The No Teeth Twins!

Monday we got up and headed out to State Street with Mom. We looked at some beautiful diaper bags from Petunia Picklebottom. But at $180 a bag I am going to have to wait on one. Joey and Phi got some new kicks at the State St Puma store. That kid has 4 pairs of Puma's! Then we hit to road to have dinner with the Lerma Grandparents and Grandpa Gabriel. We had a nice visit. The girls always love seeing Phi. We got home at about 10pm and put Phi to bed. She had been soooo good all weekend long. But all the late nights and being off her bed time schedule caught up with her and she cried, well screamed really, in her crib until almost 1 am. It was awful. So on Tuesday morning we were all tired. I mean just look at Phi. She is exhusted!




Alright, one last picture of Phi's new smile. (she learned this from her Dad) If you look close you can see her one tooth!

Music for Phi

Yesterday while at work I stumbled upon VH1.com. There are previewing the Curiious George Soundtrack. It is all new songs by Jack Johnson. I am a big Jack Johnson fan so I checked it out and loved it. It is a wonderful, mellow CD. It has a White Stripes Cover of the song from the opening credits of Napoleon Dynomite. A great song about sharing and about recycling. After lunch Phi and listened to a few songs. I even caught her rocking out. (She rocks back and forth and bobs her head!) I was so excited about getting her a copy of the CD that last night at Target I was so disappointed when they didnt have it. Turns out the CD doesn't even come out until next Tuesday. This is going to be a great bedtime CD for Phi and I can't wait to get it for her. Until then we can only listen to it on the internet.

Corn Party

As Phi gets bigger and becomes a better eater I get to introduce her to new foods. Just recently she became a carnivore and began eating meats. Pureed versions of turkey and noodles and chicken with apples. Today at lunch at the office Phi had corn for the first time. as I fed her I told her aboout the Corn Parties we use to have.

As a kid, my Tata always had a "parcela" (not sure if i spelled that right. And in it her grew rows and rows of corn. We lived about a mile from my grandparents at the time and I can vividly remember visiting my Tata while he worked out in his corn field. By the time summer started there was a ton of corn ready for picking. Now my Mom is 1 of 9 kids and there are about 30+ grandkids. There was usually a birthday party, or holiday celebration to attend. But during the summer, if there was no reason to celebrate and get together we would have a "Corn Party". My Nana would take this huge "olla" boil up a ton of corn and we would help ourselves and hang out for the day. I was so happy sharing this story with Phi. And then it made me so sad because my Tata's "parcela" days are on hold for now. Between all the doctors appointment, the diabetes and eye surgery he doesn't have the strength the spend an afternoon walking through rows of corn. I wonder if he misses it. If he misses working to grow something that would feed and bring his whole family together.

Sicky

Sorry for the lack of posts these last few days, but I have been sick. And it is crappy being sick when you have a baby to take care of because you can't nap when you want. This kid is all over the place these days and will put anything and everything in her mouth. We had been in the house for days so last night, since we were in desperate need of diapers, we headed out to Costco. Now this fact is debatable. Joey believes that Sophia has been in a shopping cart before but he couldn't give me an exact store or time. I believe that this was her first shopping cart experience. Besides trying to eat the bars in front of her (notice we have them covered by a blanket) she did very good! She has become such a good sitter. Now if she will just crawl already.



After Costco Joey was craving Benihanna. So Sophia had her first Japanese, cook in front of you, experience. She loved the birthday song and tamborine that the waitresses sang. Everytime the song would start she would stretch her neck all over trying to find where the song was coming from. She wasn't too entertained by the cook, but he wasn't that great. The best part was when he tossed a shrimp tail in his hat and pocket. At the same time!! Nice to know that those cooks are striving for more difficult and more entertaining tricks. Here is a picture of Phi and Dada. She isn't looking because there was some ice cream within her reach.

How cute is this car! Red mini-cooper with a red and white checkered top. Love it. I really want one. We were at an Auto Show a year or so ago and I got to sit in a mini. It really is small. I was pregnant at the time so it was really really small. The trunk is ridiculously small. I don't think we could even fit Sophia's stroller. Not practical but sooo cute.