My New Life

Man, it sure has been a while.  Lots of interesting and amazing things have happened since I last posted on my blog.  Let me just put it out there....Seth and I divorced and I have a new husband.  Before I go on and on about how wonderful my new hubby is let me explain that I am not about to start bashing Seth or even give any kind of reason because frankly thats none of anyone's business but ours.  Now, whew....thats out of the way.

My new husband is Krister Martinez.  He is from Peru and a very lovely man.  He absolutely adores Matthew and Jackson and spoils them all the time with lots of affection.

Matthew is now 5 1/2 and growing like a weed.  He still has trouble eating and finishing his plate so some things never change (see old blog posts about Matthew and our nursing fiasco).  He will be entering Kindergarden in August and I can't believe that he is already that old.  He has my temper but is also a very smart, caring young man with the social development of a teenager at times.  I was so proud that he had a perfect score on all of the pre-K assessments.  Just today he was walking around the house putting post it notes on everything asking me how to spell table, door, and just about every object in our house.  What 5 year old would think to label all the objects in our house??  He is also learning how to swim and doing amazing.  What a lucky mom I am to have such a sweet boy like Matthew.

Jackson is now 3 1/2 and is almost as big as Matthew.  Jackson has never had any trouble finishing eating anything.  I remember nursing Jackson, like hours and hours at a time thinking I was going to dehydrate and waste away.  But now he is eating us out of a house and home.  In August he will be entering a Montessori Pre-K 3 program which will fit in perfectly for him as he is a free thinker and learner.  Currently he is trying to be potty trained, we have our good days and bad days but we are making progress.  Loving is definitely the first word that comes to mind with describing Jackson.  He is constantly asking for hugs and when he gets in trouble he just wants to be reminded that he is loved.  It truly pains him to get in trouble so its hard to stay mad at him for long.  Just the other day we were scolding him for pooping in his pants.....as he was crying he put his hand on his heart like it was breaking.  On the other hand, Jackson can be a rough player.  He loves rough and tumble play, usually making me gasp in horror that he has ended up with a bloody nose or huge bump on the head.  Most of the time he just smiles at me and says, "I'm O.K. momma".

Krister, my new husband, is a sweet sweet man.  As I said, he is from Peru but his name is Swedish as his father went to school in Sweden and ended up loving the names from that country so he chose Swedish names for his children.  Krister is basically translated as Christopher or Christian to English (I bet that was hard to guess huh??).  He has 3 boys (18, 15 and 13) and they all live here with us.  So, yes, I have 5 boys (6 counting Krister) to take care of and I love it.

Below are a few pictures of Krister and I.

Mommy and Jackson!!!

Mommy and Matthew!!!

Jackson and Ethan's 1st 4th

So Julie, Ethan and Jon all came down to visit us on the 4th of July. We had a great time going to the Homestead Motor Speedway's fireworks show.

Here are a few pictures of our outing.



The fireworks must have been so suspenseful that it was a nail biter!!! I love the look on Matthew's face here...he is in complete amazement!!!

Somehow Jackson's 1st 4th bib got all turned around. I love it when that happens with his bibs because I think he looks like a super hero =)

Introducing the future president of the United States of America!!!

Jon, Julie and Ethan, Jackson and me all getting ready for the fireworks to start.

Julie, Ethan and Jon

Nothing like the tired but amazed look on his face...I especially love the pink shaved ice stain (yes, I gave my 6 month old a few bites of my shaved ice)

Ethan...he loved the jumperoo!!!

Oh where...Oh where does the time go

Jackson is already over 6 months old...in fact...Next Friday he will be 7 months old...ack!!! Where has all the time gone???

At 6 months Jackson is growing. He weighes right at 17 lbs and is 25 1/2 inches long. The length confuses me because that is how long he was at 5 months. Who knows...maybe he was laying funny one of the times and we didn't notice.

He is eating some solids...mostly orange veggies. Sweet Potatoes, Squash, and Carrots are his favorite. He didn't care for the green veggies that much. Maybe we will try again soon.

Here are some pictures of Jackson on his 6 month birthday.

Father's Day and playing catch up

OK...so I have been trying to get this silly Father's Day blog posted for about a month now. For some reason...my pictures were not uploading to blogger so I was stuck without a post for a while. Father's day was awesome this year. We had so much fun just hanging out around the house and relaxing with daddy.

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Now for something completely different...Yes, I have turned into a hippy earth loving crazy nut...lol....I have completely switched to CLOTH DIAPERS with BOTH BOYS. I know I know it is as much of a shock to me as to many of you but now that I have I can't ever see putting disposibles on my boys again. Well, Matthew had a bad case of diaper rash today so I put him in disposibles because I didn't have any cloth diaper safe ointment. I love my cloth diapers and thats all I want to talk about.

Here are some pictures of my babies in cloth =)







That's it for tonight....I hope to get back up to date by tomorrow night.

Over the River (The Everglades) and through the Wood (Big Cypress National Forest)

Last weekend we went to visit Opa and Mimi in Naples. Jackson and Matthew are both going to be water lovers as you can tell in these pictures.



This is Matthew at around 5 months old enjoying Opa and Mimi's swimming pool!!



This is Jackson around 5 months also having a blast with Daddy at the pool!!

Jackson is also starting to want to do EVERYTHING his big brother does. He loves watching Matthew play and I think he is eager to join in on the fun. Here he is playing with the Thomas the train set (with Daddy's help).







Matthew was very nice about sharing his toys (except for the Thomas train). Jackson got to play with Thomas about 5 seconds before Matthew wanted it back...at least Matthew shared even if it was only for 5 seconds.

My babies are growing up TOO FAST!!!!

Jackson's BFF

So going to La Leche League meetings is great because you get to meet new moms that are also trying to exclusively breast feed. I met Julie back in January when she was still pregnant with Ethan...and at the last meeting Ethan and Jackson got to meet. Well, Ethan is about 2 months younger than Jackson but they seemed to 'hit it off'...or at least Ethan's mom and I did. We have since met for lunch and Ethan even got to come over to our house last week.

In between nursing, shopping and napping (Jackson didn't but Ethan did) we got these pictures.






I guess Jackson wanted to nurse some more....lol....at least he has a good latch!!!







I can't wait until the boys get together again!!! We had a blast!!!

Bedtime Stories

When I was a kid the most memorable bedtime routine we had was reading a story. We had this big book of all kinds of crazy stories in it and I loved when my mom read one to me. I think these two boys love bedtime stories too.



The last two evenings have been a little crazy. I am teaching 2 summer courses through a local university. Music Appreciation and History of Jazz. Whew, I'm tired!!! The classes meet on Tuesday and Wednesday and it sure would be nice if there was at least 1 day in between them each week.

Jackson doesn't take bottles too easily yet...he is getting better but as soon as I come home he starts crying uncontrollably and will refuse the bottle if I'm around. I feel so bad because I can't even use the bathroom before he starts. Seth says that he does pretty good until I come home and he just goes insane when he sees me or hears my voice. I guess we have to get him ready to be without me before August when I officially start back to work.

Anyway, it's late and I'm tired. Have a good night ya'll!!!