Phone Phun

I don't always have my camera around to capture precious shots (if I was supermom I would, but it's just not possible), but I do happen to have my phone 98% of the time. Luckily my phone has an ok camera and allows me to capture some pictures "in the moment". These phone pictures are so important to me because they capture the here and now (or the there and then), whether Vince is acting silly or just playing away. Most of the time, these pictures just stay on my phone, ready for me to show off to the random co-worker, but I thought it would be fun to post the recent ones.. especially since I don't get to the home computer much to download the actual good pictures I take.

Here goes my phone stories...

Picture 1: Swim school / tonight. We enrolled in swim class again. We went to this same class when V was 7 months to 13 months old. He did very well then and I think he remembers because he did AMAZING tonight. He couldn't stop dipping himself in the pool (he must trust me with his life to pull him up each time!) He consistently went under for 6 seconds at a time (long seconds... one one thousand.. two one thousand). I'm so looking forward to the next 4 months of swim class. I'm glad to because it's hard to get all our gear ready and get our butts there after work/daycare!

Picture 2: Our house / this past weekend... I kept telling David the past few weeks "Vince needs a small table because he has no where to play with his playdoh" .. I really wanted a place that he could sit comfortably and play/draw/eat. So we finally made a trip to Ikea to buy this little table on Friday night. Saturday morning David had to work so I got up with Vince, put the table together, and let Vince play with his playdoh! I was so surprised on how well he played and how clean he was with it!

Picture 3: Our house /A couple weeks ago at bathtime... when V didn't want to take a bath, I told him we had to wash his butt because it was dirty... about 5 minutes into the bath he stood up and backed it up... I figure this picture doesn't show anything so it's ok to post! To me this was Hilarious!

Picture 4: Cooks Children's Hospital - one month ago. Vince got tubes put in his ears due to constant ear infections. It required a quick hospital stay. We had to be there by 6 and we were out by 8:30. I have to say the hardest part of it all was not being able to give V anything to eat or drink after midnight. So far, I think the tubes have helped tremendously. I would recommend them to anyone who has a child with a lot of ear infections..

Picture 5: Our bathroom / a few weeks ago... he fit himself in a little tub!!!

Picture 6: on the plane / I think heading home from Cali during Thanksgiving... little dvd players are a godsend sometimes!

Anyways... I love my phone pictures... and since I don't download pictures from the camera much, this is all for now!! However, we did just get a new video camera (Vince broke our last one) so hopefully I'll be able to upload some videos in the near future!

Then and Now

At the Gaylord a couple weeks ago I tried to recreate a picture that we took one year ago... so here we are.. Vince and me Now... Xmas 2009

Vince and me Then....xmas 2008

Now why couldn't I get that smile in the recent one? I think it's because he's smarter now... we can't fool him anymore by people making funny faces in back of the camera... Now that I look at the different pictures, I see they changed the sled! And here I thought I was on the same sled...

New Years 2009... or is it New Years 2010

Wow... I just realized I didn't post this blog... so here goes..

David, Vince, and I spent NY's in Laredo... I never know if it's NY's 2009 or NY's 2010. Anyways, my parents both grew up in Laredo and I still have a lot of extended family that live there, including my Grandma, mom's mom, aka Vince's only living Great Grandparent. Maria del Carmen Alvarez is her name and here she is with my mom, me, and Vince... it's our generation picture...

It was a cool night in Laredo, but that didn't stop us from hanging out outside a majority of the night. Vince had a grand old time playing with his cousins... or my cousins' kids... so I'm not sure what they are to him... second cousins?

Vince had his first experience with fireworks. He loved looking at them and wondering what exactly they were.

David is showing him what to do in this next picture. Not shown is other pictures of David getting carried away with fireworks... he's such a big kid. Did I mention fireworks are illegal in Laredo? You wouldn't know it by the bag of fireworks that my uncle brought in. I haven't really seen home fireworks since I was a kid so it was fun to watch them. The firecracker in the first picture is actually one of the bigger ones they did!

My mom with 2 of her sisters and her sister-in-law is pictured here with my grandma. The second one to the left is my aunt Rosy... she's the one with the party house..

And here are 5 of the 13 cousins on my mother's side of the family. We always have such a fun time together.

Next is David and me... with my cousin Freddy trying to get in the picture..

and this is my cousin's daughter who took a liking to David all night... David told me he was ready for a little girl... then retracted his statement and said, not yet! In the 2nd pic she is hanging on his leg!

All in all a good time was had... we are looking forward to a wonderful new year with family and friends... Happy New Year!