Potty Training 101

Elena decided last week that it was time to potty train. We sort of knew it would be on her terms. Once she had her first successful pee, there was no looking back. Anna did an awesome job with her on Thursday and Friday- only one accident Thursday and none on Friday. Mom and dad had big shoes to fill, but saw a huge success Saturday morning with a successful #2 and an accident free day.

Today she got to put pants on... so far so good. We'll see how this goes. What a big girl.

We've Got a Sitter!

From nothing to mastery in 24 hours. Little man learned to sit today!

His change in perspective has made him inspect all his play mat friends in a new light.

Super 'Nena Starts School

Whirlwind decision, but the stars aligned and we were able to enroll Elena in preschool this week. We toured the school on Monday morning and it became apparent that if we didn't enroll immediately she wouldn't get a spot. So she claimed the very last spot the two year old class. Today she strapped on her Elmo Pack Pack, and marched right up to the front doors.

She is going to Streetlite Christian Child Development Center right here in Federal Hill. She'll go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30- 11:30 am.

If you ask her what she did today she'll tell you she met the kids, and they color-colored, sang songs, had circle time. I think she may be sad when she realizes she doesn't go back until Thursday.

Goodness when did she get so big!

Eat, Roll, Jump

Busy week for little man. First, he had his first bites of real food. Mom's having a hard time keeping up with his demands and he was telling us it was time to add more to his diet. We tried some green beans, but decided to pull it back to oatmeal. He seems to like that a little better.

He has officially mastered rolling as well. Front to back, back to front. Rolling around the room. He just gets upset when he rolls off his play mat and onto the hard wood floor.

His new favorite place to hang out is the saucer. He'll stay in there forever. As he works on his army crawl and jumps around in the saucer he was having traction issues with his socks so we bought him his first pair of shoes. They are pretty spiffy.

The Nutcracker with Nana!

Nana kicked off a new tradition with Elena this year. On December 5th, Nana, Mom and Elena rode the Charm City Circulator up to the Lyric Opera House in Mount Vernon to see the kid friendly version of the Nutcracker. One hour, with narrator. Perfect for kids. I think that Nana may have enjoyed it more than Elena did.

Daniel Meets Nonna Belardo

Daniel and Elena took a trip to Pheobe Home in Allentown to visit Nonna Belardo this weekend. Nonna had been staying there for a few weeks nursing a broken pelvis. Daniel's smiles brought cheer to all the residents there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving with the Vargases! It was a team effort to pull together a delicious feast at Felix and Cinzias house. We ate delicious food and celebrated Dad's birthday too!

Daniel's Baptism

On Saturday, November 20, Daniel was Baptised at Holy Cross Church in Baltimore. Uncle Felix and Caroline served as godparents, and he wore a Nana Swaintek Original, made from Mom's wedding gown.

Elena was in full blown binky withdrawel and insisted that no one else could hold "Mommy's Daniel". The ceremony was on hold until I took him back from Caroline.

We celebrated with a feast at Amicci's in Little Italy.

Two Months Old!

Time Flies! Daniel is already two months old. Check out those cheeks.

Here are the stats:
14 lbs, 95th Percentile
23 inches long, 50th Percentile

A Tribe of Monkeys

Happy Halloween! Our two little monkeys had a blast. Mom took Elena to Boo at the Zoo. All week long, Elena was talking about the monkeys and the girraffes and the elephants and how excited she was. We got there and she kept saying, I LOVE Girraffes, Mommy! I LOVE Elephants, Mommy! I LOVE Monkeys, Mommy!

Without fail as we got close to any of the animals she covered her eyes and squealed in fear. I'm fairly certain she saw no actual animals.

We took the tribe out for some trick or treating in Federal Hill in the Monkey Mobile. Elena got lots of candy that mysteriously disappeared.

Happy Halloween!

The Vargas Kids' First Political Rally

Rally to Restore Sanity happened on Saturday. We packed up the kids and took them to the national mall. We completely underestimated the number of people who would be there so it turned into more of a people watching, sign reading experience.

I've posted all the pictures here.

Little Man Smiles!

Little Man started smiling this week. My heart melts every time I see it.

Every day I think, wow these two couldn't be any cuter together. Every day they prove me wrong...

Little Man Sleeps through the Pumpkin Patch

This weekend, we returned to Showvaker's in Manchester Maryland for what is becoming a Vargas Family Tradition. In case you weren't aware, October is hands down Mom's favorite month of the year and she forces the family to take part in all things Autumn.

Elena was slightly frightened of the animals in the petting zoo. She was ok looking, but definitely wanted nothing to do with the petting part of the zoo. After hitting up the animals, we passed a wooden train play structure. This proved to be Elena's very favorite part of the day. I believe there was bribery involved to coerce her into moving on to different activities. She particularly liked the engine car. "Choo Choo".

Next we played in the corn bin. Think sandbox, substitute corn for sand. As you can see, Daniel was captivated. From there we took a bouncy bouncy hay ride through the tree farm. Elena had a nice picnic lunch on the hayride and Mom tried to keep Daniel from bouncing around too much.

Elena and Dad hit up the apply launching station and Mom and Daniel tried to stay away from swarming bees.

All in all, we had a wonderful afternoon, and made it home in time for Sunday afternoon football.

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Daniel David - The Early Days

Happy Birthday Elena!

In the midst of the hub-bub that comes with a new baby, we also got to celebrate Elena's 2nd birthday. She started the day with a big present from Mom and dad...

She celebrated the big day with a Dora themed party. Her aunts and uncles came and she even got to invite her (boy)friend Liam.

Of course with birthday's comes the check in with the doctor too... She weighed just shy of 30 pounds and was 34.5 inches tall- putting her in the 75th percentile for wieght and height.

Announcing...

I promised myself I would document child #2 with the same fervor that I documented Elena's first year. Nine months later I say better late than never.

To start, we got our positive pregnancy test on January 4th. From the beginning, this pregnancy was NOTHING like my my first pregnancy. It didn't take long for the morning sickness to hit with a vengeance. I struggled to keep down any food from weeks six through about week 16 or so. Juan was amazing through the entire ordeal. He totally took the lead with Elena and the house and taking care of me. It was all I could do to make it through a full day at work and get home. Elena time consisted of a lot of cuddling on the couch because it was all I could manage.

We had a few weeks of happy second trimester fun and soon we found out we were having a little boy. Juan was like a kid on Christmas morning when the ultrasound technician gave us the news. Our family would be complete! One little girl and one little boy.

Anyone who looked at me could tell that I was carrying this baby very very high. By early June, Baby V was consistently kicking my right rib cage. Our future soccer player was kicking so hard that he actually bruised the cartilage. Nothing I did made me comfortable. It took acupuncture and a course of prednisone, and finally 8 weeks later the baby dropping for me to get any relief.

The third trimester treated me to the hottest summer on record in Baltimore. I had to stay indoors just about all summer. By mid August I was having non-productive contractions daily.

They say tough pregnancies mean easy deliveries and in my case this was 100% true. As labor day weekend approached, we headed daily to Arundel Mills Mall to walk laps. On September 4, we did two laps (two miles) with no contractions. Disappointed by the lack of progress, I treated myself to a pedicure. With no contractions coming, I went to bed.
At 1:00 am on September 5, I was awoken by a strong contraction. 15 minutes later, another. From there they picked up. At 3:00 am I woke up Juan and took a shower and we started timing the contractions. By 5:00 am they were coming every 7-8 minutes. Juan headed out to get me food as we knew as soon as we got to the hospital I wouldn't be able to eat. At 7:00 am Elena woke up. Every time I had a contraction she got worried and said "Mommy OK?" So mommy had to pretend everything was OK during each contraction. By 7:30 am, we knew it was time to wake up Anna to watch Elena and call the doctor.

We headed to the hospital a little after 8:00 am. They put me on the monitors and checked me, and sent me to walk for an hour. When we came back from walking I was dilated to 3 cm and contracting every 5 minutes. We decided to have the doctor break my water to get things going. From there things went quickly. I got my epidural about 30 minutes later and didn't feel any more contractions after that.

At 4:47, I was feeling that something was happening. They came in to check me and asked me to do some "practice pushes" so we could see what would happen. After only two practice pushes they yelled at me to stop- the baby was ready to come. The doctor rushed to get the room set up and I was asking if I could push as they were finishing. Literally 3 pushes later, Daniel David was here. He came into the world at 5:18 pm weighing 7 pounds 13 ounces. He was given apgar scores of 9 and 9. We immediately fell in love.

Happy October!

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I want to ride my bicycle!

Check out Elena riding in her new bike seat! Its the coolest way for a baby to get around Baltimore.

One Year Stats

Elena brought in 1 with a bang. Tuesday night she was crankier than we've ever seen her, and she woke up approximately 50 million times before the night was over. She ended up spending a good part of the night in bed with Mom and Dad.

Turns out she was coming down with Roseola! Wednesday (which was her birthday) she spiked a fever of 104.6 and dad rushed her to the Doctor. Our little Laneybug spent the next three days curled up with either mom or dad on the couch, cuddling with her bunny and watching Sesame street. Poor little Laney!

Friday was her "well check" for 12 months. They gave her a full work up, but no shots because she was too sick. We get to go back in two weeks for her shots.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 22.8 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 30 and 3/4 inches (95th percentile)
Head: 46.5 centemeters (90th percentile)

Laneybug Turns 1!

Sunday, September 20 Elena celebrated her 1st birthday with about fifty of her closest family and friends. We had a great celebration at Riverside Park (right by her house). Nana and Pop-Pop, Ita and Ito and Babi and Dzia Dzi all were huge helps as we go everything together on Saturday and Sunday. Dzia Dzi, Pop-Pop, Dad and Aunt Becca even found some time to head to Camden Yards to see their beloved Red Sox.

Sunday Morning after church, Elena was allowed to open some of her presents. Her Uncle Dave sent her hands down the cutest outfit of all:
Aunt Becca gave her a Juniata hoodie so she is all ready for family weekend at the end of next month, and Mom and Dad gave her her first American Girl Doll, Bitty Baby.
Elena went down for a nap and everyone got to work getting the food together and getting Riverside pavilion ready for her birthday Fiesta.
When Elena woke up from her nap, Nana got her dressed in her special birthday outfit (a Nana Swaintek original) and she headed up to the park to get the party started.
Elena's guests spent some time decorating bug jars and then they went on a bug hunt (more pictures coming). Elena's next door neighbor Rachel won the hunt with a grand total of 26 bugs.

Everyone gathered around and we sang Happy Birthday to Laneybug....
...then Elena enjoyed her very first cupcake.
Thank you to everyone who spent this special day with us!