Saturday morning

The three of us are watching a movie. In reality, Belen is sleeping on Jen's shoulders. She was a bit cranky earlier but she has finally gained some sleep.

Last night, after the Rangers beat the Yankees in game 6 of the AL Championship, the three of us drove to the Flores's and watched a movie.

Mocha is wanting to crowd Jen as Jen rests her back on the couch that I'm sitting on. Belen woke up. I watched the first part of this movie last night but then I fell asleep.

I woke up early this morning around 630am. I walked into the garage to check on the rat trap. (no rat) I said my morning prayer then I read part of this month's Ensign. Around 700am, I heard Belen wake up. I placed some water in the microwave to heat up so that I could heat up her milk.

I changed Belen's diaper then I placed her next to mommy. I prepared Belen some sweet potato and after mommy finished feeding her, I brought some milk. When Belen finished eating, Jen fixed us some French toast; we enjoyed the yummy toast and enjoyed watching Belen attempt to eat finger foods(chredded cheese) for the first time.

I began watching the TX/Iowa game but Jen insisted that I finish watching the movie(The Backup Plan) with her and Belen. I'm recording the game.

I love Jen. I love Belen. I love my life. even if I am unemployed and sometimes feel like a failure...

Evolution of Belen

These images were taken on: Feb 23, March 12 and April 01.

Evolution of Belen

Feeding Belen

I fed Belen rice cereal for the first time. It has been great being a daddy and I hope that there will be many more great days ahead. Today at church, during the third hour, after I fed Belen, we sat on the couch in the lobby and both took a nap. Brother Cook woke me up.
We spent the day at home; we watched Mission Impossible II (Jen and I started watching part I last night, but both fell asleep. We finished watching part I today) and are now watching the tail end of the Emmy's. I read an article about a bishop shot dead in Visalia. That is some sad news.

What is going on with us? Jen started working last week. Belen and I are staying home; We have been working on the Robarts home. We are remodeling their kitchen. The front part of the kitchen sink, the countertop was deteriorated, the floor in front of the sink was sinking in, and the plywood sub-floor was scraping off. Overal, the kitchen seemed like it was falling apart.

We spent Thursday demolishing the kitchen. Friday we continued on the work; We framed in the morning and in the afternoon, we spent time at Home Depot gathering material. Sister Robarts, her son David, Belen and I drove to the ReStore to look for a kitchen sink. There were several sinks there, but none were to her liking. They enjoyed the tour of the place, were amazed by the variety of materials and extremely impressed with the low prices. They will return at a later date for more shopping.

This summer, Jen, Belen and I travelled to Clearlake CA and spent time with the Dowds. One hot Friday afternoon, we rented a boat for three hours and simply had an awesome time in the middle of the lake. We spent time at Jen's parents, her grandparents in Hyampom CA and camped with friends Union Valley Resevoir. The highlight of our camping trip was the surprise visit from a bear with a sweet tooth.

Yesterday, we visited Bannister Park and met up with Ben Kenealy and his family. He's the Elder's Quorum President. It is a shame that only us two families participated in the 3rd Annual Hike.

Belen is growing so much. On her last stop at the doctor's office, the 9th of this month, she weighed 15.6 lbs and measured 24 inches long. She is in great health. She smiles and laughs often. Her diet consists of 6 to 8 oz of formula, she poops and pees on a normal routine, takes naps about an hour or two after each meal and at night, Belen will sleep a good eight hours per night. She will wake up around 1 am, but a simple caressing and quiet whisper will soothe her back to sleep.

The past two weeks she has been sleeping in her own crib. We have been laying her in her own crib since we last visited the doctor. A couple of times, I woke up in the middle of the night to tend to her. For the most part, she sleeps through the night. Jen puts her to bed before 9pm and she will sleep well til about 6 or 7. We will usually wake her up before 7am, change her and feed her. She is doing great.

Jen and I are so blessed. I am amazed with Belen's growth and I simply love having her. I enjoy having her sleeping on my chest. She will cling on to me and will sleep comfortably. She simply takes my breath away.

Tuesday, June 1st 2010

Belen and I spent the day working. I take her to work with me everyonceinawhile; she stays on the car-seat and I carry her all over the place. Today, we stopped at Noel Cantillo's home. We met up w/ the sub-contractor whom I hired to do the foundation and framing on the home addition.

She stayed at Noel's while I drove to the building department and fence company. I am working on obtaining a building permit for the room addition at Noel's home. I got back around 10:30 am, then I fed Belen. Most of the times, before she eats, she will get a diaper change.

Belen and I took a nap at Noel's and around 11:30 ish, we drove to the store to get bread at SaveMart. We got back home, I ate a sandwich then we drove to a fence company to get an estimate on fence material for Susie Castillo's home.

Lately, I have been busy with getting estimates for small projects. Taiko and Susie have kept me busy at their homes with landscaping projects. At the moment, each have an estimate which I hope will turn into work. I will be juggling those smaller projects, if they are accepted, while I project manage and work at Noel's home. Time has become very valuable and I am having to manage it as best as possible.

I am amazed with my daughter. Having her with me is a delight. Her company is priceless. When I have an opportunity to hold her, I simply want to hold her as close to me as possible and simply want to hold her forever. Knowing that that is not possible, I soon find myself placing her back inside her car seat.

Jen works most of the day. She wakes up around 5:30am, and depending on Belen's needs, she will either breastfeed Belen or pump. She leaves for work around 7am and is home by 5pm. Today, I woke up around 6am and fed Belen. She is starting to eat around 5ounces per meal(every 3-4hours) then she will go back to sleep. During the day, she will stay awake for an hour or two before she decides to fall asleep.

We are learning to adept to having Belen home and we simply love having her here.

sleeping on my arms

priceless.

a note from mommy

After seeing all the posts Lucio has written, I thought I better write something! I am not as verbose as he, so we'll see how long this gets...

It's Sunday and Belen and I are home while dad is working. Unfortunately he has to work most Sundays now, but at least he has some work. Belen is making all kinds of weird noises, but I'm pretty sure she is still sleeping. Oreo and Mocha are outside sunning themselves. I offered them a chance to come inside, but apparently they prefer sitting in the dirt catching some sun. It is a lovely day outside. If Oreo were better on the leash, I'd put Belen in the baby carrier and take them for a walk. Yesterday Lucio took them to the dog park and I took the baby over to walk around. I put her in the baby bjorn thing...it's nice and she seemed to like it. Mocha is a pretty good frisbee catcher except that she doesn't bring them back to you.

I have been back to work for 3 weeks now. The time has flown by. I went back to work while Belen was still in the NICU, which kinda stunk but was probably a good thing since I didn't have a chance to feel guilty about leaving her for work. And now that she's home, I still don't feel that guilty cause I know that Lucio is doing a great job taking care of her. In fact, I wonder if I could handle staying home all day taking care of her. Last weekend, when Lucio was at work and it was just me and the baby, I was getting a little frustrated, tired, lonely... I suppose if I were at home, we would figure out our routine and it would be alright.

School is ok. I'm grateful that I still have a student teacher (Marlaina) working with me to teach first period. That gives me time to do other work and then I teach 2nd and 4th periods. 2nd is great, 4th is crazy. And Marlaina is more than a student...she is capable of taking over the classes when I'm not there, which is what she did while I was out on leave. The best thing about school: we'll be done in about 6 weeks. =)

I am just starting to get used to this mommy thing. It's so weird...I'm a mom. yikes! I love my little Belen. I love to hold her and kiss her and feel her little fingers around one of mine. She is a cutie! Weighing in at 8 lb 1 oz as of Friday 4/23, she is quickly gaining. She eats a lot and consequently goes potty a lot. Last night she woke up about 2 am. I went to pick her up. When I sat back on the bed I felt something wet on her leg. Pee, I thought, but then I smelled my fingers and it was poo! Then I looked at my arm...a big poo glob! I woke up Lucio so he could wipe me off then I wiped Belen off, put a clean pj on her and fed her. She slept until about 5:30 and I fed her again.

We went to church for the first time altogether today. I had to go to the mommy room and change Belen-another big poop that almost leaked. Then I fed her. I listened to all the talks from in there.

When I put Belen to sleep around 12:30 this afternoon she had a full belly. When I went to check on her a few minutes later I found her belly contents all over the cradle mattress and on the floor. Projectile vomiting had occurred. I quickly picked her up and wiped her off 'cause her head had been sitting in that pool of nastiness. She was tired after that, but didn't want to sleep by herself, so she slept on my stomach/lap with the help of the boppy pillow (love that thing) while I slept too. Now that she's been in her bed for a while, she's starting to wake up and I'm gonna have to get off the computer.