Pizza Bites

When Matt and I were in high school, every Friday was pizza day. Once a month, they would serve these pizza dippers; cheese and pepperoni encased in bread with a side of marinara.

This morning, we were contemplating what would be a quick meal that wasn't frozen and wasn't macaroni and cheese. I remembered seeing a post on Pinterest about making pizza bites out of crescent rolls, string cheese, and pepperoni--all things already in our fridge. We were out if marina sauce, so I decided to substitute with Ragu (the roasted garlic kind) spaghetti sauce.


Makeshift Pizza Bite Dippers

Crescent Rolls
String cheese halves
Pepperoni
Spaghetti Sauce

Lay out the crescent (croissant) roll dough and slather in spaghetti sauce from the wider end to about an inch away from the narrow end (so the dough will still stick together). Place several pieces of pepperoni on top of the sauce. I would recommend layering the pepperoni, as a layer one piece thick tends to disappear in the taste of the crescent and sauce. Place half a piece of string cheese on top and roll it all up. Place in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or so. Serve with a side of the same sauce for dipping.

It all took about twenty minutes total, and comes with husband approval!

Christmas Time

We celebrated an early Christmas with my mom and sister on Thursday. It was a lot of fun, and Mathias got to open his first presents! Of course, he enjoyed the tissue paper and stealing everyone's phones/cameras most, but it was very sweet. He's a silly boy.

Look at that hair!

My sister, mom, a clapping Mathias, and me

Investigating the book Auntie D got him!

We'll be celebrating with Matt's side of the family on Christmas Eve, and then on our own as a family on Christmas Day. Three Christmases this year! It will all be a lot of fun, especially with our little crawler here.

Nakey baby headed for a bath!

The Christmas Spirit

The Christmas spirit is strong in this little boy. He LOVES the tree. We're debating on waiting to put out the gifts for fear that Mathias will just rip the wrapping paper off for fun. Babies love to rip paper.

I keep trying to spell "rip" with a "w" at the beginning. Mommy brain is weird.

In other news, the crib transition is going very well. It still takes a good 30 minutes for Mathias to fall asleep, but once he does, he sleeps like a champ. I had still been bringing him into bed with me after his night feeding, but the past few nights, he just tossed and turned. So, last night, after an hour or two of tossing and turning, I returned him to his crib. He fell asleep before I had pulled my hands away. Clearly, I was far more attached to sleeping next to him than he was to me!

The Long-Awaited...

Mathias' first Halloween was a success!

So, I have presented you with the long-awaited Halloween picture! Look at that chubby little dragon, all ready to go forage for some treasure. At the end of the night, he actually slayed Matt with his own sword. Just kidding, although we both did get a few good whacks to the head! But what else can be expected of a feral, rampaging baby dragon in dire need of a nap?

Our big boy was in excellent spirits the day after he was a dragon

Now, on to the seriousness and the real reason behind this update: our sleep. As many of you already know, Mathias has slept in bed with me and my husband since the first night we brought him home. Our plan had been for him to sleep in the bassinet beside the bed, then eventually his crib in the nursery. However, that first night, despite being in a fleece sleeper and swaddled in two blankets, Mathias got cold. So, we brought him into bed with us and tucked him under our covers. For the first several months, I would get up and take him into the nursery for the night feedings, partially in fear of waking up Matt and mostly because I hadn't quite figured out how to nurse lying down. Once the latter was mastered, neither of us left the bed until morning.

While this was very convenient, it was also a mistake to a certain degree: Mathias became accustomed to nursing throughout the night, and up until a week ago, had somehow managed to INCREASE his nightly feedings to every hour and a half or so. That made for one tired and grumpy mommy, I'll admit. One morning, after a particularly rough night, I asked Matt to get up with Mathias when he rose for the day at about 7 AM. Matt obliged, of course, as I hadn't asked him to do so in several months. However, when I got up, he not-so-gently mentioned that Mathias' wonky sleep schedule was my fault, and that perhaps he would sleep better in his crib.

Now, I'm very attached to Mathias being in bed with me. Matt is not home three nights a week, and having that little warm body in bed next to me is very comforting--not to mention how sweet it is to wake up to a smiling baby face in the morning. However, I sort of saw his point. Mathias had been inadvertently conditioned to wake every few hours and nurse, without any real need to do so. To add to it, I couldn't sleep train him in bed at this point, because he would just crawl off the side if not attended to. Cue the weeping mother; this meant no more co-sleeping, at least for the duration of the so-called "sleep training". 

Mathias needed to start sleeping in his crib.

I put together a quick schedule that day after browsing several results from a google search of "10 month old sleep schedules". Here is the schedule I've come up with:

7AM -- Wake up, nursing session

7:30 AM-- Breakfast

9:00 AM-- Snack

10:00 AM--  Nursing session followed by nap

12:00 PM-- Lunch

2:00 PM-- Snack

3:00 PM-- Nursing session followed by nap

5:30 PM-- Dinner

6:30 PM-- Bathtime

7:00 PM-- Bedtime

The actual time of sleep, so far, isn't until 8 or later. Seven is when the bedtime ritual begins (minus the bath): brush teeth, go to nursery, read a book. After the book is read, I turn on the night light, turn off the light and lay Mathias down in his crib. I then sit next to the crib and sing a lullaby to him while he a) cries (the first three nights) and I stroke his head / rub his back to comfort him, or b) stares off into space (the past two nights). 

These past two nights, after about 10 minutes or so of space staring, he stands up and grabs at my hair. I then move a couple feet away into the rocker, close enough to reach out to him, but far enough that he can't reach me. He then whines at me for about 15 minutes, alternating between half-crying and babbling (almost like he's telling me off), at which point I cave and stand beside his crib, snuggling his head against my stomach. At his point, I've been able to lay him back down and he falls asleep within five minutes while I again stroke his head.

I have always been against the "cry it out" method. To me, this is not that method. I ensure that Mathias is fed, hydrated, and has a clean diaper. I am right there to comfort him with words and touch, and if it at any point he seems too worked up, I will not hesitate to pick him up out of the crib. However, so far, this seems to be working. He falls asleep more quickly each night, with less effort on my part, and stays asleep several hours longer than he did while cosleeping. For example, he wakes up once at 2 AM now, as opposed to going to bed around 9, waking at 10:30, at midnight, at 2, and at 5.

It has only been 5 days so far (counting tonight), so I'm hoping to see even more improvement (especially in how long it takes for him to fall asleep) over the next couple weeks. My main goal is to get him comfortable enough in his crib that he doesn't feel the need to cry if I am not right next to it, patting him through the slats.

And my main goal for myself is to stop caving at the 2 AM feeding and bringing him back into bed with me, of course. Baby steps for both of us.

Mathias playing with a toy in my lap while I'm playing a video game

The Baby is Crawling, but Time is Flying

First thing's first: Mathias Michael is CRAWLING as of October 24th. It was the sweetest thing--one moment, he's sitting on the floor in front of me, just hanging out like usual. Then, he plops forward into a crawling position, and tentatively moves his knees forward.

Ever since, I've been hovering over him as he explores the main floor of the house. He is EVERYWHERE. I will never go to the bathroom alone again until he goes to school. I can't let him sit in the middle of the living room floor while I open the front door to grab the mail, because by the time I turn around, he's already right there behind me. Sneaky little handsome.

And the coolest thing? He was pulling himself up to stand just days before he crawled, and the night before he crawled, he took two steps. My son walked before he crawled! Yaaaaaaaay, Mathias!

So, besides that HUGE milestone, the past month or so has been pretty eventful.

My dad came to visit for a couple days at the beginning of October, so we dragged him along to pick out Mathias' first pumpkin(s) and to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Mathias has been to the zoo before, but he was so young then (three months old, maybe) that he didn't really care to look around. This time, he was completely captivated by the giraffes, semi-interested in the monkeys, and asleep by the hippos.

Glennpa cherishing some cuddles from his grandson

Baby Mathias, all ready to go to the zoo

 I have some amazing pictures of Mathias interacting with the giraffes, but they're on my phone. Oops. 

Also, this month, my poor boy got Roseola. For those who are unfamiliar, Roseola is a virus that is recognized with a sudden, high fever (for Mathias, it was between 100 and 103) that lasts a few days and is followed by a rash. Mathias was MISERABLE, as he was also cutting a couple teeth at the time. He woke up every 45 minutes the first night. The lack of sleep was fine, I could deal with it. Having such a grumpy little guy was the rough part. Mathias is usually a good tempered kid, so to see him so inconsolable was heartbreaking. The good news is, he probably won't get Roseola ever again. Our pediatrician assured us that if he doesn't get it again by the time he's two, he's pretty much immune; it's reportedly rare to see it in children older than two. Thank goodness.

When your baby is sick, it almost seems harder on you than on them. There's only so much you can do to console them, and you have to accept it (or at least try).

Some Kind of Wonderful

Mathias Michael is eight months old today. It's ridiculous. Time needs to stop.

There's just something about my husband that breaks cars. His car has been parked on the street in front of our house since May--unable to stay running for more than a mere thirty seconds at a time. As long as I've known him (nearing six years now), something is always going wrong with that car.

And now that we're a one car family, it only makes sense that my car (which is fairly new, being a 2008 model) would suddenly decide to have all these problems. It's been slow to start for a few weeks now, and this morning, it wouldn't start at all. Matt had to have a friend give him a jump in the parking lot at his work.

So, what is it about my husband that deters cars from running correctly?

I'm guessing it has something to do with that electric shock I get every time we kiss ;)

Belly laughs

This kid is getting so incredibly FUN! And he is officially CRAWLING! Although the crawling thing will probably come to a standstill again for a couple more weeks; he just crawled over Matt this morning in an attempt to catch a glimpse of his arm tattoo. However, right now, he's rolling all over the floor and tugging on my arms in an attempt to get to the computer.

Seriously, you want to keep a baby entertained for an indefinite amount of time? Let them play with a computer. Or a baby toy mimicking a computer, rather.

He went to his first wedding this past Saturday (not counting our own). It was a very good success of a night; there were LOTS of other babies there, and I daresay Mathias was the most well-behaved. And well-received. Oh, the compliments this little boy got. "Oh, he's so handsome!" We make some good looking babies so far, I must say.

And as a plus, Matt got that Saturday off from work, which is the first day we've been together the whole day in MONTHS. It's rough, but I have so much respect for him. Working 12 hour graveyard shifts three nights a week and doing 15 credit hours (that's five classes) at the university. I feel overwhelmed sometimes, and I'm only taking two classes! Two classes with minimal homework, not counting the reading. Two incredibly fascinating classes, albeit. And on Tuesdays I come home to Matt, who hasn't slept yet since the four hours or so the day before, gleefully playing with Mathias / feeding him / rocking him to sleep.

Sometimes I have the audacity to ask him to do some trivial chore after, as well. And he does it. Then I feel like a dick. A jerk, I mean.

I need to brush up on my child-friendly language now that Mathias is learning so quickly.

Here's another huge thing: HE KNOWS WHAT HIS HANDS ARE! Matt and I will hold out our hands to him, say, "Give me your hands!" To which Mathias will ponder for a moment, then place his little baby hands in ours, then we usually pull him into a sitting/standing position. Which he loves.

Now that his third tooth has finally arrived, he generally loves everything. It's the Return of the Happy Baby, and we are taking full advantage of it. This little boy is giggling at the dogs' wagging tails, gleefully yanking on my hair when I hold him, and screaming with excitement when he shakes his favorite rattle (which is actually a container of mints). Not to mention how happy he gets to feed himself those melt-in-your-mouth puffs (which are delicious, by the way).

What am I going to do when our baby boy starts walking and talking and running? And playing sports, which are accompanied by sports injuries? Can't I just keep him at this stage and snuggle him forever??

Birthday and Teeth and Stuff

Every day, my son looks less like a baby and more like a toddler. It's so incredible. I don't even know how to describe it--those who haven't seen their own children (or nieces or nephews or baby siblings) grow just wouldn't understand. It all goes by SO FAST.

I am so incredibly thankful to Matt that he works to support us, so I can stay home and raise this little boy. Even the thought of not spending all of my days with him (minus those six hours a week that I'm in class) is upsetting. Sometimes, it baffles me that parents can put their children in daycare after that initial maternity/paternity leave. It must be so hard at first, so heartbreaking.

So, what's going on over here? Let's see...

• Mathias has finally gotten that third tooth in.
• HE IS MOBILE! Not crawling, but rolling and scooting and pushing around his walker.
• I'm finally no longer a teenager. Seriously, I've been 19 this whole time? Whaaaat?

 Onto another topic:
When are my husband and I going to have more children?
Now, I understand this question is asked with good intentions and a healthy curiosity.  I would love to give you all a definite answer, but that it between me and my husband. When we choose to try for another baby, it's not exactly going to be advertised all over Facebook and all that good stuff. There are many uncertainties about baby-making. What if it takes much longer than expected? If we have difficulties? If there are losses? It's not something we would want everyone to know, to talk about, to ask us about. And also keep in mind that Mathias is still just a baby. I want to soak in every baby-moment with him, appreciate them before they're gone. So, when Matt and I decide to have another child, most probably won't know until that child already exists--until I'm past that first 12 week period of uncertainty. The information of when we decide to start trying and when we're successful won't be withheld out of spite or with bad intent; it'll be to protect our family and our privacy, should anything... unexpected occur.

Picture Spam

Aren't baby Halloween costumes the cutest? Unfortunately, my little lion won't be a lion come Halloween; the costume is already almost too small! But that's okay, we still got to enjoy it anyways!

Also, I think you all should know... MATHIAS IS 7 MONTHS OLD as of yesterday. Whaaaaat? Didn't I just take him home from the hospital like yesterday? And now here we are, playing on the floor while he watches Happy Feet Two and scoots backward until his legs are all squished against mine. He'll be crawling in no time.

The Moments You Missed

Life around the Minjarez household has been busier than usual these past couple weeks; we helped my sister-in-law move into her new place, took Mathias to his 6 month appointment (did I mention that already?), started class, and a bunch of other things.

What amazes me now is Mathias' newfound coordination; he's picking up things and passing them from hand to hand, turning them over to examine them, and NOT always shoving them straight into his mouth. And, oh, the babbling! His favorite is the "b" babble. Ba ba ba ba ba. Not to mention the mouth fart trick--that's another favorite. On the food front, we've started giving him a few new things: tiny pieces of fruit, apple juice, and cereal puffs. He adores them all, although he apple juice always elicits a confused face at first.

I've turned into one of those mothers who opens her own mouth while feeding her baby, walks around the house saying, "Bababa," and crawls in circles around him, hoping he'll learn from observation (which he will). It's one of the funnest and most rewarding experiences of my life. I've seen this boy turn from a ever-sleeping newborn into an infant with a rapidly developing personality--a little boy who smiles when he sees his pets, who laughs at his daddy's silly dances, who puts his arms up when he wants me to hold him.

May

August

As far as classes have gone, mine are excellent! One of my classes got cancelled, so now I have just two night classes a week. The good news is the homework is limited to reading assignments. I've really lucked out! In fact, I don't believe there really is any bad news about my classes so far. I'm very pleased with them. For those who were wondering, I'm taking Educational Psychology and Intro to Anthropology. Both are incredibly fascinating so far, and it's only been a week. We did have a bit of problems with Matt's financial aid situation and had to pay the college a fair chunk of his tuition last week, which was a pain. My advice to students--fill out your scholarship applications! And your applications for financial aid as well.

And now I will spam you all with our pet cuteness.

Camera Action

This is just to say that Mathias has acquired a new skill: SMILING FOR THE CAMERA! There's a catch; the flash has to be on.

Here is my proof:

TGIF V.4

Thank goodness it's Friday thankfuls:

Thankful Number One: Family! It's so exciting to see Mathias interacting with his aunt and cousins, even if it is just a hair tug here and a, "Oh, let me just chew on your fingers!" there. You can tell he delights in the attention (most the time), and even delights in watching the puppies give them attention.

Thankful Number Two: Quality baby food! Mathias seems to adore the organic Happy Baby brand of food, which has some great flavor mixtures, including pear + mango + spinach, which was today's choice. We mostly feed him the popular Gerber foods, but he seems to enjoy the Happy Baby brand more, so we may start incorporating that into his diet more often. The fun containers are also a plus.

Thankful Number Three: Baby medicine; don't get me wrong, I'm pretty against medicating my baby and use it as a last resort, but sometimes I don't know what I'd do without baby Orajel. There was one day this week where Mathias cried for two hours straight, and nursing/bottlefeeding/bouncing/achangeofscenery wouldn't calm him down. He had no fever and a clean diaper, so I realized perhaps he's teething again. A bit of Orajel calmed him down enough to nurse, and then suddenly he was a happy baby again!

In Other News:
For all of those who keep asking, YES, I AM GOING BACK TO SCHOOL! I registered for three night classes this semester. Each class is three hours long and just one day a week; so, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I will spend all day home with Mathias, and then once Matt gets home, I'm on my way to class where I will remain from 5:30 to 8:20. I'm really excited, due to the fact that this is the longest I've ever been out of school since I started going 15+ years ago. That, and now all those concerned with me ruining my "potential" by taking more time off won't need to fret!

I do understand that everyone is concerned that having Mathias and having taken time off from school may have ruined my career prospects. These concerns have good intentions. However, I am no longer my priority; my son is. My husband is able to provide for us at this time, so if I need to delay my education to take adequate care of our son, I think it's in my family's best interest to do so. I'm trying to do a form of "attachment parenting", which requires that I be available almost constantly to meet the needs of my child. This means that even though daycare and babysitters are an excellent option, I would like to keep them at a minimum. Mathias is our son, and Matt and I will be the ones to raise him. I can't imagine a life where his daycare employees or babysitters spend more time with him than I do. I don't mean to bash those who send their children to daycare of have babysitters watch them regularly; I understand the decision and the intent. That is just not the right option for my family and my method of parenting.

Half a year

Mathias Michael is SIX MONTHS OLD today. I can't believe that it's been half a year since he came into my world! And now here he is, sitting right next to me and trying to grab my fingers as I type this.

Sweet potato face :)

Six months ago, Mathias was just a little newborn whose only trick was sucking on his knuckles. Now he sticks out his tongue, sucks on his bottom lip, babbles, and his favorite: fake coughing. I cough, he coughs. It's like a game, a cute one, until he coughs for real from all the fake coughing. My playful little guy.

He's also forming a special relationship with these puppies; they adore him, covering his face in kisses whenever I'm not paying attention. And he adores them, gleefully grabbing fistfuls of fur and they walk past.

I've been going through six months worth of pictures today, getting very nostalgic.

January 30th, 2012

I know this post is mostly pictures, but there's really nothing else I can say to show how in awe I am of this little man blossoming before my eyes every single day.

What am I going to do when he starts crawling, walking, talking? Kids grow up too fast!

TGIF V.3

TGIF: Things I'm Thankful for Fridays

• Washing machines; I can't imagine spending hours a day hand-washing all of our laundry, especially now that we're feeding Mathias chunks of fruit in his mesh feeder. He loves it, but the juice tends to get everywhere EXCEPT his bib. 
• Farmer's markets; my city's farmer's market is kind of lame, but still an amazing option. I'm a bit upset at myself for using canned veggies and fruit when there's fresh produce so close, the sales of which help out local farmers. Not to mention that the local cantaloupe is so incredibly tasty.
• My neighbor's grapes; our neighbor has grape vines growing all along our shared fence, and this summer, they've climbed over onto our side. Free grapes for us! Maybe I should make a fruit salad using those grapes and the apples from our apple tree.

Speaking of our apple tree; the apples are starting to get close to being ripe, but the majority of them are getting taken over by worms and ruined by hungry birds. I would say at least 80% of our apples won't be edible at this point. Does anyone know a way I can help prevent this next year, or for the rest of this growing season?

My camera is in a different room and there's a baby napping on my shoulder, so you'll just have to placate yourself from the lack of recent photos with a beautiful picture from my wedding instead:

 It's hard to believe Mathias was ever that small! He was barely a month old.

TGIF V.2

Today, I am most thankful that I got to wake up next to my husband and our 6 month old baby boy, safe and healthy. Because, really, that's all I can ask for.

My thoughts and prayers are with the Aurora community after the tragedy last night. So tragic, so close to home.

Giggle giggle Shhh

This little boy isn't "sleeping like a baby" anymore. That is to say, during his naps, he now wakes a lot more easily. It would be a shame, but he generally wakes up in a good mood, so I can't complain.

He's got sitting down as a skill now, I'm proud to say. He still needs a little encouragement and the occasional physical support, but a few "What a good sitter you are, Mathias!"'s and some pillows are easy to give out.

We went for a family walk around the Riverwalk yesterday. The batteries in my camera are dead, otherwise I would have gotten several great pictures. The weather was beautiful, minus the heat. It's the heat of summer that makes me nostalgic for winter, yet it's the layering of clothes of winter that makes me miss summer. Ironic. Mathias had fun looking around for about twenty minutes, then promptly took his afternoon nap while Matt and I were sweating off our lunch and three days worth of water.

Babysitting my niece and nephew today makes me interested to see how Mathias and his future siblings interact. With these older children, they don't quite seem aware of the baby all the time. They shriek and shout quite often, which just doesn't work with a napping baby, but seems to fascinate him when he's awake. Mathias tends to smile at kids more, also, and it makes it even more special that he's smiling at his cousins.

I guess only time will tell. Now we're off to kick my nephew's butt at some Modern Warfare.

TGIF V.1

Today, I'm going to start something new--Thank Goodness It's Friday. Time to list the things you're thankful for this week!

I'M THANKFUL THAT
- My son's teething is no longer affecting his mood! His sleep schedule is still up in the air, but the lack of sleep in my life is much easier to deal with when I wake up to a smiling Mathias
- My husband took last weekend off from work. It feels like I got to spend two straight weeks with him instead of the three or four days a week we usually get. This means ultimate family sleepy snuggle time!
- Our friends and family were able to visit last weekend and early this week, resulting in lots of late nights, a skydiving adventure for Matt, and whitewater rafting for the both of us!

22 years and 5 months

On the 28th of June, my husband turned 22. It's hard to believe, isn't it? I've known him since we were kids. Well, technically teenagers, but looking back, we were kids. And now here we are, five years later, with a kid of our own.

A little boy who is now five months (and two days) old! It still feels like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, and now he's sitting up on his own and has TWO teeth. I've even started to dream about him crawling--which is crazy. Time to do a deep-cleaning of the floors throughout the house. It's such a mess. Animals sure are good at wrecking a house, I can vouch for that.