Poem

My mom emailed me this little poem . . . you may have seen it already. I have it posted on my fridge - it definitely helps keep things in perspective, especially when my "Type A" tendancies kick in and I stress about not having time to keep my house clean, read my work emails, etc. . . Thought some of my fellow "mom" blog readers would like it. :)

*Just for this morning, I am going to step over the laundry, and pick you up and take you to the park to play.
*Just for this morning, I will leave the dishes in the sink, and let you teach me how to put that puzzle of yours together.
*Just for this afternoon, I will unplug the telephone and keep the computer off, and sit with you in the backyard and blow bubbles.
*Just for this afternoon, I will not yell once, not even a tiny grumble when you scream and whine for the ice cream truck and I will buy you one if he comes by.
*Just for this afternoon, I won't worry about what you are going to be when you grow up, or second guess every decision I have made where you are concerned.
*Just for this afternoon, I will let you help me bake cookies, and I won't stand over you trying to fix them.
*Just for this afternoon, I will take us to McDonald's and buy us both a Happy Meal so you can have both toys.
*Just for this evening, I will hold you in my arms and tell you a story about how you were born and how much I love you.
*Just for this evening, I will let you splash in the tub and not get angry.
*Just for this evening, I will let you stay up late while we sit on the porch and count all the stars.
*Just for this evening, I will snuggle beside you for hours, and miss my favorite TV shows.
*Just for this evening when I run my finger through your hair as you pray, I will simply be grateful that God has given me the greatest gift ever given.
*I will think about the mothers and fathers who are searching for their missing children, the mothers and fathers who are visiting their children's graves instead of their bedrooms, and mothers and fathers who are in hospital rooms watching their children suffer senselessly, and screaming inside that they can't handle it anymore.
*And when I kiss you good night I will hold you a little tighter, a little longer. It is then, that I will thank God for you, and ask Him for nothing, except one more day. . .

All dressed up and no place to go :(

It's game day!!! We are dressed in our purple to support our K-State Wildcats today. Unfortunately, it's about a 17 hour drive to Manhattan, KS, so we aren't able to make it to the game. ha ha. We just have to watch the score periodically scroll across the bottom of the TV screen. :( However, we usually get to see a few games a year on TV here at home. And, there is a KSU almuni group in Charlotte that gets together for the games . . . one of the members manages a bar in downtown Charlotte and is going to show any K-State games that are broadcast there, so hopefully we can make it to watch a couple games with the group and get acquainted with some of the almuni. Oh, and here's something random . . . the guy that lives across the street from us went to K-State, and his mom used to own the American Restaurant at Crown Center in Kansas City. Small world, huh?

High maintenance baby

Here are some pictures of our little buddy today. While we have child-proofed our cabinets, there is one cabinet that Cass can still get into. He loves to make the biggest mess that he can out of what is in there. Fortunately, it's just ziploc bags, so he can't cause too much damage. :)

This it the typical view I have of Cass. It is the view looking straight down. He pulls himself up on my legs and grabs on to my shirt until I pick him up. He is quite the mama's boy . . . he always wants to be held!

See? He got what he wanted (after I changed the shirt that he had soaked with water, as you can see from the previous picture). I don't mind holding him all the time. I know that a year from now he'll be too busy to let his mama hold him, so I take advantage of the time I have now!

Kansas City

Cass took his first airplane ride last week when we went to Kansas City. Our friends Jacob and Mandi always rate their son Mitchell's behavior on a scale of 1-10 on airplane rides (10 being the best). If we were to do the same thing, Cass would have received a 4 on the trip to Kansas City. He actually did very well during most of the flight (because he was sleeping), but then screamed bloody murder for the last 30 minutes during the landing. I'm sure it was because of the pressure change hurting his ears . . . I kept nursing him and trying to get him to drink juice from a sippy cup, as I've heard this helps. He got to the point where he had drank so much that he wouldn't drink anymore. Then, when Chris picked him up to carry him off the plane, Cass peed through his shorts and all over Chris!!!! Needless to say, Chris vowed that we would never fly with him again. The trip back was a little better, but still not great - I rated him a 6. We'll definitely be driving next time!!!

Cass got to meet his cousin Gabriella ("Gigi") when we got to Kansas City - she is 2 months and one day older than Cass. Here's a picture of them playing.

Here's a good picture of Gigi - look at those beautiful eyes!!!

We spent a couple nights at the home of our friends Jeremy and Stephanie Genrich. They have a son named Kyler that is a couple months older than Cass. Jeremy and Chris thought it would be cute if the boys bathed together. I'm sure the kids will appreciate this in about 15 years.

By the way, I'm joking about this being Jeremy and Chris's idea . . . I just wanted to get a rise out of them if they read the blog. Of course this was all Stephanie and I - the daddys did not approve! :)

My friend Lindsay Henry came from Manhattan to Kansas City with her twins, Tess and Max, who are a few months younger than Cass. Here's a picture of Tess - she is a little pudge and is sooo adorable! I just wanted to keep holding and squeezing her!!

And here is Tess's brother Max. He is equally adorable - I love those pouty little lips!!!

1st Birthday

One year ago today . . .

Here I was, getting ready to head to the hospital for my scheduled c-section (Cass was breech) . . . I was huge!!! Believe it or not, I still had 8 days until my due date . Whew, I was so glad I had him early!

August 16, 2007 1:19 PM - Casimiro Cruz Garcia arrived, weighing in at 7 lbs 7 ozs. Here we are, meeting the little guy that will change our lives forever! :)

Soooo tiny!!! Look at him in Chris's hands!

One year later . . .

It's amazing how much Cass has changed and what he can do now. His accomplishments over the past year include:

• pat-a-cake (I think this was his breakthrough move)
• waving "hi" and "bye", and anything in between
• "give me five"
• dancing - for those of you that grew up in the 80's and 90's, he does a dance similar to one you are familiar with called the "cabbage patch" :)
• playing peek-a-boo
• learning some baby sign language - making the "milk" sign, but I'm still not sure he knows what it means, and making the "fan" sign, which to him means a fan or any light fixture
• calling a guy in the grocery store "dada", and then realizing several weeks later that this word only pertains to Chris
• saying "mama" (the best sound in the world to me!!)
• saying "dog-gee" when he sees our dogs Norm and Tina
• standing up on his own without holding on to anything (his record is about 15 seconds before he falls)
• walking while holding on to furniture
• shaking his head violently from side to side any time I say "no, no, no!"
• snapping his fingers - we don't remember snapping around him, so we don't know where he picked that up

This past year has been an adventure, and it has flown by! It serves as a reminder that we need to savor every minute with our little man - he'll grow up too fast! We are so grateful to have such a wonderful, healthy little boy. Here are some pics of his big day today . . .

Today the big man turned 1!!! Where has our baby gone???!!! He was very busy opening his presents and would not sit still, so this is the best picture I could get. Great Aunt Linda and Uncle Al sent this adorable outfit with the matching crown - isn't the crown hilarious??!!!

And here is the famous cake picture - it was Cass's first exposure to sugar. He didn't really like it. He played in it a little, and then finally ate some of it. I don't think it agreed with him, because shortly after he ate the cake and drank his milk, it "came back up"! :( Then, he was wired the rest of the day. He was crawling around the house yelling, and after I put him to bed I found him standing in his crib laughing and pounding the crib. He definitely was on a sugar high!!!

First Haircut

Before . . .

and After!!!

When Cass was about 9 months old, I tried to cut his hair, but after I trimmed his bangs, I had to stop - I just couldn't bring myself to give him a complete haircut yet. Now that Cass is turning one year old Saturday, I figured it was time to get his hair cleaned up. So, I stuck him in the highchair this afternoon, and using my secret weapon to distract him (cheese of course, as evidenced by his face in the bottom picture), I clipped away! I think I did pretty good for my first time! :)

New ride

Even though we live in Tar Heel country, I'm going to do my best to raise Cass to be a K-State fan. How do you like his new carseat? Cass loves it! Although he is a little guy and we had one of the larger infant carseats, it was definitely time for us to upgrade him to a big boy seat - he's much more comfortable now!

Teething again

Here are some pictures of Cass last weekend - the spout on this sippy cup is soft, so he was biting the spout and carrying the cup around in his mouth, while he looked out the window . . .

. . . crawled from toy to toy . . .

. . . played with his toys. . .

. . . and smiled for the camera.

Later in the week, I realized why he was doing this . . looks like teeth #5 and #6 are coming in! He had a couple rough nights during the week when he woke up crying. Hopefully the worst is over!

New game

In a prior post, I talked about how much Cass loves to sit in his Pack n' Play and play with his toys. Well, as you can see from the picture, he's discovered a "new game" to play . . . he throws all the toys out, then whines until Mama puts them all back in, and then we do it all over again. And again . . . and again . . . . :)