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!