We are SO happy to have Gilbert home. Matthew was a completely different child Saturday when he realized that Daddy was back. It was amazing. All he wanted to do was make Daddy laugh, climb all over him, and just be next to him.

My son is getting so good at sharing that he decided to share his cold with his already tired and pregnant Mommy. It's been fun.

I am seriously considering making the blog private. I can track who views the site and I've noticed that I'm getting a lot of hits from people searching for photos on Google and seeing as I do post some details on us here, I'm thinking I may make it private. If I do decide to, I'll be asking for your email address if you'd want to keep up with the site. Just a heads up.

He's finally beginning to understand what the big deal with his Star Wars tent is...



The weather here has been amazing the last few days. Our nights are in the 50's and our days have been in the 70's. We're loving it. That also means Matthew is getting to wear his winter pj's now.





And sweatshirts!



Gilbert took us out on Saturday just for some fun family time. After hitting up the outlet mall we stopped at Jimmy John's for lunch. It was good. Anyway, so Matthew has gotten in this bad habit of begging food off of me. It doesn't matter if his tummy is about to burst because he just ate a large meal of his own... he sees food in my hands and FREAKS until I give him some. This time around he hadn't just eaten but it was nowhere near meal time for him. Well he saw my sandwich and pretty much just whined until we gave him something. So he got his own sandwich roll...







And then he was happy...



So, Sundays are always rough for Matthew and he has decided he's against napping at church... yesterday, however, Daddy managed to get Matthew good and drowsy in his stroller and this is what we got to see... along with some snoring =)



It was so cold this morning that I decided to bring out one of Matthew's new winter shirts. We got this for him with the gift card that Uncle Brian and Auntie Rachel gave him for his birthday. If his jeans were ripped he'd fit right in in Pearl Jam.





Well, on Friday we're finally going to have Matthew's one year pictures taken. It's taken this long because the hurricane threw off everyone's schedules and we're finally getting a chance to get together with Kelly and Marianne to do the shoot. I also wanted to add that Marianne finally posted some of our maternity photos on their photography blog. I know, it's been a year since they were taken but they're definitely worth checking out. I'll also post the link when they post a sneak peak of Matthew's photos. Go check out the maternity photos!

Doctor's appointment on Friday, too. We'll get to hear the heartbeat and schedule our next ultrasound!

Another interesting week in the Saldana house. Gilbert is in Florida for training this week, so it's just me, Matthew, Pez, and the baby in my belly. Matthew has been pretty distracted and for the most part has done pretty well with Daddy being gone. It's hard for him in the morning and at night. The rest of the day is pretty ok. I've been trying to take at least a couple of pictures of Matthew every day to send to Gilbert so he doesn't feel so bad about being away.

The boys were here Monday and Tuesday this week and will be back again on Friday so it's been a nice distraction from how lonely it gets here without Gilbert. They're a handful, so it's a big distraction. Kudos to their mom for having the energy to keep up with them all the time.

Here are some of the pictures I've sent Gilbert over the last few days.













Matthew learned today what it means when I say, "Say cheeeeeeeeese" with a big cheesy smile on my face. Here's a picture of him doing it. It's cute =)





So, Matthew isn't allowed to wander the kitchen for some very good reasons. They include bumps, bleeding lips, and an all around lack of coordination. Against my better judgment, I let him play in the kitchen today while I put some things away. Well, he has a cabinet that has all of the Tupperware and other plastic things in it that he can pull out if he wants to. Today he decided to climb into the cabinet. It was really cute at first and I was standing a couple of feet away the whole time... and then he dropped one of the measuring cups he was holding. He leaned over to get it and managed to fall out of the cabinet right onto his forehead. After picking him up and consoling him I called the pediatrician just to know what to keep an eye out for. They asked me to keep him awake for at least an hour or two to keep an eye on him so my poor little guy missed his first nap and spent most of the afternoon cranky. He seems to be fine now but he does have a nice little bruise right above his eyebrow.











And one more cheesy smile just for good measure. At least he cheered up after all of the trauma.



As for Baby #2... according to one of my books, today is the first day of my second trimester. I can't believe it. I'm not really "showing" yet but my body is definitely changing. I didn't start seeing changes like this with Matthew until about 16 weeks but it's common to show earlier with later pregnancies. There is a noticeable difference between my 12 week picture and the picture I took today. I'm not as tired as I was and I'm still not really craving anything. I have a check up on Halloween and I'll make my appointment for the "big ultrasound" =)

Matthew and I have been enjoying a relaxing day together. We went to the store this morning because my wonderful son has decided he wants nothing to do with fruit purees anymore and I had no fresh fruit to give him for lunch. He enjoys going to the store, though, because it means he gets a balloon to play with. The only bummer was that it was raining this morning. We've been enjoying the rain here for the last couple of days. It means Gilbert doesn't have to water the lawn =). Since our outing this morning we've been watching some TV and doing lots of laundry. Matthew had a good time today with his lawn mower and a big gift bag... those pictures will be at the end of the post.

Our friends Jimmy and Mari bought Matthew his first remote control car for his birthday. It's toddler friendly so the remote control only has one button to push to make the car go. We decided to show him how it works and he was scared of it at first...





But he seems to be getting better about it. He thinks the car's fun as long as it stays about 5 feet away from it and he doesn't seem to understand that when he pushes the button it moves. It's a learning experience.

I have no idea how this piece of turkey ended up on his eye...





Watching the rain from the window



Ok, so this is what my dining room looks like on a good day...



This is what it looks like now that my toddler has realized he is strong enough to move the dining room chairs around...







The two chairs in front of the doorway are actually strategically placed by Mommy. It makes me nervous to have him wandering the kitchen so I block him out of there most of the time. With good reason, too. He has a tendency to fall on his face when he's in the kitchen. He fell and bit his lip yesterday... that was fun...



This was after lunch, which is why he's not wearing a shirt. Now that he feeds himself, the less clothes he's wearing while he eats, the easier clean up is. Plus, I think it really brings out the Hispanic in him to be mowing the living room shirtless.



I think then he started to think that a John Deere would have been better than a Fisher Price bubble mower because he tried to ride it...



He also enjoys honking the horn on his car with his bottom



And this is where things got good with the gift bag =)











This one's for you, Dad. My dad asked for some new video and this was the best I could do for now. I'll try to get some good video of Matthew rocking out to his favorite songs soon. Matthew has learned what his nose is and will usually point to it on command. Here's a short video of him doing it.


Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

That's it for now. I'll update again soon =)

Matthew and I have had a busy week. The boys were here 3 days this week so we're a little worn out. 3 days doesn't sound like much but when they're here they're here for 12 hours, so it takes its toll. Matthew enjoys having them around, though, and we're happy he's getting more social interaction than just Mommy, Daddy, and Pez. It's been fun watching Matthew interact with the boys. Especially the little one. He's only three months younger than Matthew but I can already see what a great big brother Matthew is going to be. It's fun =)

Matthew has continued to thin out. I had to tighten the waist band on his shorts because they were starting to fall off. We've never had that problem with Matthew. What happened to my chunky guy?

Matthew enjoys having his friend around so much that this is how they rode in the car when we went to pick up the 6 year old from school. (I left the little boy out of the picture out of respect for the mom. I haven't cleared it with her to share any picture of him.)



Just playing



This is my favorite happy face. This is not the cheesy smile. This is his real smile.



He's been trying to put on Daddy's shoes lately so I helped him out a bit. He didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I think he thought he would.



Showing off his muscles. Carrying a penguin one handed while playing some music at the same time.



As for Baby #2... I'm 12 weeks pregnant today. I'm tired all the time, I'm waking up at least once a night to go to the restroom, this baby has already decided to set up camp on my sciatic nerve, and I have a couple other symptoms that I just don't care to share for the sake of not scaring all of you. Baby is about the size of a lime now and his/her reflexes are developing this week. If I were to poke my stomach now, Baby would probably squirm in response but I probably wouldn't feel it yet. I think I did feel some movement the other day, but I could be wrong. I didn't really feel Matthew kick until I was 18 weeks pregnant with him and they say that it's normal to feel movement earlier with subsequent pregnancies.

I haven't started showing at all yet. I definitely feel bloated most of the time but Gilbert says I never really look any different. I tried on a pair of my maternity pants the other day and it was kind of ridiculous. I could fit two of me in there now. Apparently I was a lot bigger than I remember being. I'm going to see how long I can get away with not buying maternity clothes and just wearing a Bella Band. Doctor's appointment on Halloween. Nothing too exciting, just a check up. I'll probably get to hear the heartbeat and have my belly measured =)

Just for reference, here's me at 11 weeks with Matthew.



And here's me at 12 weeks with Baby #2: