Many months have past.

It's only 7 more weeks until my due date, November 15th. On one hand time has flown by but on the other hand I'm ready to have by body back. I think Baby Ruth is taking all my energy! When I was pregnanat with J.R. I don't remember being tired or slowing down but now, 5 years later at age 39 I have offially slowed down. This little girl is bouncing around like a ball in my belly. She's really beating me up, I don't remember J.R. being so rough! We almost have everything ready for Ruth's arrival and I'm looking forward to meeting her and having her in our family. I wonder what kind of changes another child will have on our family. I wonder if it will be easier to adjust to a second child compared to a first child. I wonder if Ruth will be as good as J.R. when J.R. came home he was a perfect little boy, we spent our time worrying about what could go wrong rather than appreciating all the things that were going right with J.R. J.R. always slept at night and was up during the day, he rarely got sick, he rarely cried from my recolection he was SO easy! I think J.R. is looking forward to seeing Ruth, he's getting possesive over her already. I bet he's going to be a good big brother. This morning J.R. told me that he and daddy wanted to help me around the house because he knows Baby Ruth is making me tired. J.R. keeps making us laugh our asses off, he's such a funny kid. He LOVES to dance and boy does he have some moves, he can really move his hips! Tomorrow the Voice begins again and J.R. is excited to watch "our show" believe me there will be some dancing in our house tomorrow night. J.R. started with his same baseball team last week. His first game is in October but practing has begun. This is now the 3rd season with the same team and coach. A few weeks ago we got J.R. is first cleets and wood bat. When he was at practice last week he wanted to bring 2 bats, one metal and one wood because that's what his daddy does. This reminds me of another thing J.R. did a few weeks ago. He came downstairs one morning with his shirt in his hand. I asked him why he wasn't wearing the shirt and he responded well daddy had his shirt in his hand yesterday so I wanted to do that today. I know everyone thinks there kids are the greatest most funny kids around but one thing is true, J.R. has enriched our lives more than words can say. He is the sweetest most caring thing I have encountered. One story that we will never forget was when Tony and I took J.R., my niece and nephew to Lake Mead to rent a boat the day before they left to go back to Tampa. Tony wanted to go to a private cove where there was no one else, we beached our boat and swam for a few hours before we got in the boat to head back to the marina. The boat wouldn't start, we called out mayday on the cb and we were not getting a response. Then over the cb we heard a storm warnig saying 40 MPH winds were coming and take cover. We continued to call on the cb for help and the storm came. It rained horizontal, lighting was striking all over the place and it was getting chilly. We took out a towel and covered J.R. so he would be sheltered somewhat. During the storm J.R. looked up at me with his wide blue eyes and asked me if he was going to die. That absolutely broke my heart, I grabbed him with a big hug and told him that his mommy would always take care of him the best she could and we were going to be okay. After the storm passed a houseboat beached themselves and let us on their boat. It seems that they heard our mayday calls and came to help us. Somehow they could hear our calls but the marina could not. They called for help at the marina and a few hours later they fixed our boat and sent us on our way. It turns our a line in the motor was krinked when we lowered the motor back into the water. They said this was a freak occurance, leave that to happen to us! We were so thankful for the family on the houseboat, if it wasn't for them we could have been out there all night long! Now whenever it storms we say at least we aren't on that boat in Lake Mead!

Smart little guy!

Here's a conversation J.R. and I had on the way to school this morning:

J.R.: Mommy, I want to go to the Mini Grand Prix after school.
Me: We can't go there, it's WAY TOO hot outside.
J.R.: No mom, let's do the stuff inside.
Me: I may take you if mommy isn't tired when I pick you up after school.
J.R.: If you're lazy bones and want to lay around, that's okay mommy.
Me: Mommy gets tired really easy because my body is making baby Ruth.
J.R.: Well when you made me, your body didn't get tired.

Well we ended up making it to Mini Grand Prix after school and when I got home J.R had me exhausted mentally and physically.


This weekend we watched lots of  baseball games at home. We were watching the Rays and White Soxs play and J.R. named 4 players with their numbers and he was correct! J.R. told Tony that Dunn from the White Soxs was number 32 but Tony didn't agree he thought his number was 44. So J.R. turned it into a competition, if he was right Tony had to wrestle with him and if Tony was right J.R. had to not talk for 1 hour. Well J.R. was right! Needless to say I now believe J.R. if he tells me a players number.

Here is J.R. and his best buddy Elizar on the 3rd of July at school.

Here's a pregnancy picture at 20 weeks. I took this at grandpa's house.



Here is J.R., daddy and Bill having fun at Mary Lou's and Ralph's 4th of July party!



20 Week Picture of Ruth!

Ruth is almost 20 weeks and we got an ultrasound today. We saw her yawn a huge yawn and she is a mover! The last two times we've had an ultrasound both technicians found it hard to get pictures because she was constantly jumping around. I feel her move all the time!

I have a funny J.R. story to tell. The other night J.R. and Scott were working on a project together and I asked J.R. to let Tootsie in from outside. He let her in and she must have wanted to play and tried to jump up on him because he told her, "Tootsie, stop bothering me I have to work!". Tony and I died laughing, Tony uses the same phrase on J.R. but it was so funny to hear him use it with his doggie!

J.R.isms

What is J.R. Zaino like at 4 1/2 years old?

Things J.R. is obsessed with: sports, specifically baseball and hockey, superheros (he has tons of superhero underwear), balls (he took a football to school this week so he could sleep with it at nap time), bugs (he's interested in what they eat and loves to look at them), hummingbirds (we have a hummingbird feeder that J.R. watches every morning when he wakes up), cuddling (especially at night with his mommy, I'll be so sad when that changes), ranch dressing (he will eat ranch on almost anything especially french fries and pizza), traffic signs (he loves to read the speed limit signs and tell me when the red light turns green), talking (this kid never stops, he will talk to himself if we're not talking to him), laying in mommy and daddy's bed (this is a treat for J.R. but he must be in the middle of mommy and daddy), numbers (J.R. loves to write numbers, say numbers and do simple math, I know this is from watching sports on tv), Adventure Time (this show is J.R. and daddy's show they always watch it together) and Tootsie (it's so great to see how much J.R. loves his dog and honestly Tootsie loves him, she use to only sit on my lap but now she'll sit on J.R.'s lap)These are just a few of the things J.R. loves!

J.R. always comes up with the most funny and amazing things. Just in the last few days I tried to remember some of the one liners:

My brain works better than your guy's brain.
Mommy hasn't hatched Ruth yet.
After vomiting: Mommy, I tried to keep the vomit in my body but it had an secret escape plan.
Come over here mom and dance with the party.
Daddy, if you tell mommy sorry, it will make her feel a little better.

J.R. is such a sweet little boy. He cares about his friends they are very important to him. He likes everyone to be happy, if you are sad he'll try to make you smile and give you hugs. J.R. is also VERY competitive. He's even competitive about going to the potty. He always tries to "win" and be the first one done going potty. Everything is a competition with him. I know he gets this from his mommy and daddy since we are both pretty competitive.I love this little boy more than I could ever express or could ever have imaged. I love to sit and talk to J.R. it's amazing to see how his mind works and the amazing and sweet and funny things that he comes up with. I love to lay in his bed at night after reading him a book and listen to him talk and answer his questions. J.R. was worth the wait so far he is one of the best things I've done in my life.

J.R. Happenings

I got a call from Candilhall today around 2pm and they said my little guy vomited after he woke up from his nap. Ms. Gabby said she knew something was wrong because he took a nap today and he never takes naps. He's been at home and only got sick once and has a low grade fever. We are suppose to go to visit grandpa on Wednesday so I hope he has a speedy recovery.

Tonight was the finals of the voice. This is a show that J.R. and I watch together, it's kind of "our thing". He LOVES music. Last week J.R. said the Voice was his favorite show of all time. I have so  many videos of him singing and dancing, they are SO hilarious. Whenever he sees singing on tv he thinks it's a competition and asks who's going to get voted off!

A few weeks ago, J.R. and I were looking at dogs at the the local dog shelter on line. J.R. said that he wanted another dog but I told him we had a baby on the way and couldn't get another dog. J.R. promptly said, "Well when the baby leaves our house then we can get another dog." I had to let him know that Ruth would be staying with indefinitely.

J.R. is happy he's going to be a big brother. He always asks about Ruth and talks to her. Today he was telling me to eat sugar 3 times today because Ruth would REALLY like to taste sugar.We have her room ready to go, well kind of... we have her furniture in the extra bedroom downstairs. We'll see how that works out, Tony thinks it will be perfect while I'm not so sure.

 Last Thursday J.R. finished his swim lessons. He is CRAZY about being in the water right now. Everyday he asks to get in the pool. It's so great to see how comfortable he is in the water, two years of swim lessons have paid off. He can swim the entire length of the pool doing a recognizable american crawl and he's even better at the back stoke.

I have been feeling Ruth move, little flutters. She should arrive in about 20 weeks or so, we're all getting very excited. I just felt her kick and it's 11:30pm, I hope she's not a night owl like her daddy!

Pink Pink and More Pink

We are having a baby girl! When we picked up nana and papa at the airport J.R. wore a t-shirt that said, "I'm having a baby sister"!

I can't begin to tell you all the things running through my mind. I'm super excited but very anxious at the same time. I know about little boys and even though I was a little girl I feel like I have no idea about them! From my experience little boys are so easy, laid back and go with the flow while from what I've seen, little girls are so emotional and high maintenance. The girl scenario is the complete opposite of our household, I think! What are we going to do when everyone in our household wants to watch the Blackhawks or the Angels and we have little girl tugging at our pants asking to watch princess shows? I guess we'll figure it out as we go just like we did with J.R.

I'm also thinking farther down the line all the fun things about having a little girl, now I have a permanent spa and shopping partner! How fun it will be to take my little girl shopping just like my grandma did for me, those are some of my best memories! J.R. and I have had so many son and mommy days doing boy things now I'll have those days with my little girl.

We have decided to name our little girl Ruth, after my grandma. Tony's Aunt is also named Ruth so it's a namesake from both sides of the family which makes it even more meaningful! If my little girl is half as sweet and caring as my grandmother we would have done such a good job raising her. As of today the middle name is going to be Ann. My middle name and my mother's middle name is Ann but this isn't set in stone. Elizabeth is also a possibility for a middle name. J.R.'s name was going to be Elizabeth if he was a girl. This name has no significance, we just both liked it! So time will tell!

While nana and papa were in town we had such a good time. We went to San Diego for a few days and saw some baseball games and went to the Safari Park. J.R. will not leave papa's side, he's papa's little shadow. It's so adorable to watch them interact, he love his papa and nana.

J.R. in San Diego.

J.R. and Papa playing tic tac toe.

In the middle of a Padres game J.R. gets tired and asks to "lay down".

Sunset in San Diego.

Meerkat at the Safari Park.

Big boy.

Little boy.

J.R. helping me make Tres Leches!

Baby Zaino #2

I have been sicker than a dog and updating our blog has been last on my list of things to do. The sickness is welcomed, we're having another baby! J.R. is going to be a big brother! It's been a long road but we are pregnant and the due date is November 15th!

J.R. is so adorable, he talks to the baby caressing my tummy asking so many questions about the baby. What color is it, how big is it, is it a boy or girl. We took a blood test at our OB and it will confirm that everything is okay chromosomally with the baby and also tell us the SEX! I think I'm 14 weeks now, heck I lose count. I already have pregnancy brain, I'm forgetting things like crazy and people's names... forget about it! By the way, they say the baby is the size of my fist right now. We had an ultrasound the other day and it was jumping around like crazy, it was hard to get a picture! Tony got concerned but the technician said it was normal and it's a good thing. The little thing kept pushing out it's legs straight out as far as possible, what long skinny little legs!

This pregnancy is SO different than when I was pregnant with J.R. It was so easy with J.R. and this one holy smokes, it's putting me through the ringer. I'm getting better and the sickness isn't so intense or as often. I have never upchucked (thank you grandma for that word) so much in my life. At one point I didn't know what to do with myself but now I'm beginning to feel like a normal human being, amen! My hips are already widening I can't fit into my pants anymore without the belly band. Wow, that thing saves the day.. day after day! I counted the weeks until the baby's arrival and it's 26 more weeks! It's going to go by so fast now that most of the sickness is over.

J.R. is going to be such a wonderful big brother. He is enamored by babies. He loves touching their feet and staring at them. It's going to be such a hoot when this little thing arrives! J.R. said he would teach the baby how to drink it's bottle and he'll change the pee pee diapers but I have to change the poopy diapers.

We're so excited, Nana and Papa Zaino are flying in today. J.R. has been counting down the days. We have a surprise for them when they arrive. I'll be able to post more updates once they arrive!

Here is baby Zaino #2!

This is now J.R.'s dog exclusively. He informed me the other day!

Playing games on mommy's ipad.



My favorite pictures of J.R. are when he's sleeping.



Smart Little Guy!

I just checked on J.R., as I peeked in his bedroom tonight I saw him laying on his belly staring at his pillow mumbling to himself. He looked so adorable I had to jump in his bed, snuggle and talk to my little guy. I found out through our conversation that J.R. was staring at his hockey sheets, specifically the Blackhawks logo on his pillow. He was debating with himself if the blackhawks emblem was a boy or girl. J.R. was reasoning with me that it looked like a boy but he saw earrings and boys don't wear earrings! After a few minutes discussion we came to the conclusion that it was a boy and we realized boy Indians can wear earrings. I was ready to leave his room and he suckered me to stay in there another 20 minutes with fun and fruitful conversation. After I realized what he was doing I asked him if he thought he was smooth and J.R. responded, "Oh yes, mom"!

I have to admit a really horrible mommy moment from last night. As I put J.R. to bed, he was begging and pleading for me to stay in his room doing everything his head could think of... I was so frustrated that I snapped at him and responded, "J.R. I have been with you since 9am this morning, I've had enough!" and with that I went downstairs. It took about an hour but I finally realized what I had said to my sweet little boy. I should never make my little guy feel like it's work to spend time with him, I'm lucky to spend time with such a sweet little boy. I found myself taking for granted my little guy is healthy and independent, being grouchy towards him making him feel like he's a pain. I know there will be a time not too far away that J.R. will not want to spend time with his mommy and I should cherish these moments.

J.R. is such a smart little guy. I don't remember being a four years old myself but I can tell you I was not doing anything near what he's doing. J.R can write all of his letters and numbers and read some words. As we were going to school on Friday we stopped at the stop sign and J.R. said that sign says stop! He can write his name, both J.R. and James. He can write he's friends names too! J.R.'s memory is SO good which I do not debate, he got from his daddy! Tony and J.R. played the memory game (J.R.'s first time) this weekend. Tony played hard and didn't just give the game to J.R. the final score was 17 to 18, Tony won but it was so close! A few weekends ago, we were watching Best Exotic Marigold Hotel one morning and J.R. saw one of the women on the show and said, " Oh we're watching James Bond". He saw James Bond's boss who was also in this movie. J.R. has only seen one Bond movie once!

J.R.'s passion, besides sports is numbers. He's crazy about numbers. He likes to tell you the score of any game, what inning or period it is and what numbers the players are wearing. He now likes to watch basketball, I think it's because the score is constantly changing and he likes to yell out every time someone makes a basket!

One last thing I have to post. J.R.'s teacher from last year pulled me aside last week and said that J.R. was in a group of kids talking to her about their rooms. They were letting her know the size of their rooms and what they had in their rooms. J.R. informed Mrs. Joann that we have an extra bedroom downstairs and sometimes mommy makes daddy sleep down there because he has the "toots"!

Homebound Weekend.

J.R. loves to stay home on the weekends. He'll leave the house and go out and do things but his preference is staying at home. This weekend we stayed home all weekend, except for his baseball game on Saturday at 10am. While at home J.R. wants to constantly play, he'll turn anything into a game. He was getting on his daddy's nerves today so I told J.R. that we could have a J.R. and mommy picnic. He picked the menu, the place we had the picnic and the games we played.

The menu: angry birds pizza, cheese its and mini cupcakes.
The place, J.R.'s room.
The games, basketball, connect four and angry birds.

As we sat down and started our picnic here's how the conversation went:
J.R.: Mommy, this is a lovely picnic. I love having picnics with you, thank you mommy.
Mommy:  Do you know how to work your mommy?
J.R.: Yes.
J.R.: Would you  say that to your daddy if he had a picnic with you?
J.R.: Oh no mommy, I wouldn't say that to daddy, only you!

This kiddo is so precious to me. Every little comment that comes out of his mouth, I relish and want to remember forever. I see so much of Tony and myself in J.R. He has Tony's mannerisms and looks while his personality shows my tenacity and love of competition.

 When we were at J.R.'s baseball game I stood outside the dugout and watched J.R. He was playing and talking with his friends as I stood there. He looked up and saw me, gave me a huge smile and said, "Mommy did you see my big hit to the outfield?" I thought to myself, there's going to be a day when he stops calling me mommy, he'll start calling me mom and there's also going to be a day when he will look up at me while I'm watching him in the dugout and he won't give me a huge smile and will not want to talk to me.

This last Saturday was J.R.'s last game of the season. His coach gave all the kids trophy's and J.R. got the Babe Ruth Trophy because he was such a great batter! He had such a huge smile on his face. Here's J.R. holding his trophy.

J.R.'s school had a Valentine's Day party where the parents could attend and help our for a few hours. I love seeing him in his school environment. He is learning SO much at school. J.R. can now name and write every letter of the alphabet. I don't know what a 4 year old does, since this is my first child but his mommy thinks he is so smart. I am impressed with him on a daily basis! Here are some pictures of his Valentine's Day party at school.

The night before Valentine's Day, we went to the Harlem Globetrotters. Auntie Ju Ju got J.R. tickets for his birthday and he had so much fun. It took awhile to figure out what was going on but he caught on pretty quickly.

Here are two random pictures of J.R. from the last week. He's always doing goofy things and I don't catch most of them but once in awhile I get a few good ones.

Those lips, I love those gorgeous lips!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am so lucky to have such a sweet little boy, words can't express how much I love my little guy. I enjoy spending time with him, he is so much fun. I would have never thought a 4 year old could be so entertaining.

J.R. and I have a new routine at night, Tony gives J.R. his bath then I go up and read J.R. a book or two. The new "thing" J.R. and I do is talk about our day. Tonight J.R.  started the conversation by asking me what I did at work today. After talking about my day, I asked J.R. about his day. I LOVE to hear him talk and listen to how he puts things together. I found out today that he got a time out at school for saying "booty butt"?? He said that Mauren was sitting on him and he got mad at her so he called her "booty butt". Mrs. Debbie, J.R.'s teach heard him and gave him a time out. I asked J.R., so are you going to say that word again, he responded NO MOM! Tonight after I gave him a kiss and started to walk out of his room J.R. said, "Mom come back, I still have things to say.... I want to talk more." This guys knows how to work his mommy!

Last night after J.R. fell asleep I went to go check on him. It's amazing how fast he's growing, I would have sworn that he grew since I had left him a few hours before. His legs are so long, I have to retire some of his pants, they are now officially highwaters! We have his yearly check-up in a few weeks it will be interesting to see what percentile he's in now.

We have lots of pictures since our last post. Here's some pictures from J.R.'s birthday party. We had so much fun, I think everyone had a lot of fun. We had a bar for the adults and carnival games, face painter and balloon artist for the kids.

Merry Christmas 2013! This was the best Christmas yet! J.R. really got into the holiday and understood so much more. He misses his elf, Sheriff and can't wait until he comes back next year.

J.R. just woke up Christmas morning.

J.R. must have been a good boy if Santa left him all these stocking stuffers!

Here's J.R. at his school Christmas production. He's with one of his best buddies, Elizar. They looked so cute in their hats and santa beards!

J.R. got a leap pad for Christmas. He loves it and spent a few hours playing with it, nothing has ever caught his attention for that long!

Here's J.R. a few hours later on Christmas, what a great babysitter!

J.R. is loving playing on his baseball team. He's doing really well, we put him in "coach pitch" because t-ball would have been too boring for him. He's the youngest on his team, all the other little boys are 1 to 2 years older than him. He looks forward to practice on Thursday and his games on Saturdays.

A few Saturday's ago J.R. woke up, put his uniform on and came running out of his room ready to go to find out that his game was cancelled due to rain. Here's a picture of him looking out the window at the rain. He was so sad, it was heartbreaking!

Check out that swing!

Notice the clay stained white baseball pants. All mother's must wonder like I do, ,why do they make baseball pants white? It takes me a few days to get them white again!

I had to add this picture. We haven't played hockey in awhile but a few weeks ago Tony took him.

This is how we spent New Year's Eve 2013!

We were at dinner with Sandi before she left to go home for Christmas.

This just happened last week, J.R. came home and wrote his name!

Tony and his mini-me!

We had a playdate with two of J.R.'s best buddies, Gavril and Elizar.

J.R. and I went to visit grandpa, HULK SMASH! Grandpa is in the background watching basketball.

J.R. went skiing for the first time. He did so good!

I've always loved J.R. sleeping pictures.. I couldn't resist.

Here's J.R. passed out in our bed.

During Christmas while grandpa was in town we went to a UNLV vs Northern Iowa basketball game.

J.R. holding a talking bear that Nana and Papa sent him for v-day.

Here's J.R. enjoying part of Auntie Lori's Valentine's Day gift, yum!