We loved NOLA! We love DayCare less...

We had so much fun in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago! We even got to stop and see Jason's Great-Grandmother in Lafayette on the way. She says Jason is a "fat little bugger". I have to agree, but he is adorable! However, Liz (who saw him on Saturday) says that he has actually grown since two weeks ago, so his fat is redistributing already :)

Microsoft's WPC conference was a lot of fun, especially the closing party JazzFest. I learned a lot about stuff related to my job and how I will be expanding into new areas. The Convention Center was a great venue except it took *forever* to get from one side to the other. My feet really hurt by the end of the week.

Alberto and I went to Mulate's and Harrah's the Sunday before the conference and then went home to a fabulous dinner at Stephanie's house that night. It was a whole family dinner too, with 2 of 3 of Steph's kids joining us, along with their significant others. I also found out my oldest nephew is engaged! Congratulations Travis and Andrea!

Jason had a fabulous time with his Aunt Stephanie all week. She made some homemade toys for him (which he has been unable to part with to this day), and they had a great time playing together. She was determined to get him crawling by the time we went home - he didn't make it, but he has made leaps and bounds toward the goal! Now he rolls himself right up onto all fours and then just rocks back and forth - a lot - hoping to get somewhere. When he does move, it's in reverse, so he's going to have to work on that! :)

When we got back from New Orleans, Jason's Tia Meyda came for a visit for a few days. Once again, our house was transformed into a homestyle Mexican restaurant, with tons of different meals coming out of the kitchen, courtesy of Meyda's delicious cooking. MMM-MMM it was fabulous!

DayCare hasn't been so fun - Jason got sick the first day he was there, and after having a runny nose for a week it has now transformed into a full blown ear infection - in BOTH ears! Our poor little boy is having a lot of trouble swallowing and breathing through his nose, which just makes life tough for a kid his age. We've been trying to give him extra love and snuggles to make him feel better.

Jason still cries every day when I leave him at DayCare - I am hoping this will taper off in the next few days, as he starts to realize all the fun things he can do there. Every day they do story time, singing time, rhyme time, and they'll also do other fun activities like finger painting and playing with water and bubbles.

Summer here is Houston is as hot as ever, and we are spending 99% of our time indoors and out of the vicious heat. Can't wait for fall!

At long last - Jason Dominic Serrano has arrived!

Alberto and I are ecstatic to announce that our beautiful son has finally arrived!

Jason Dominic Serrano arrived on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 8:12 pm.

He was 7 lbs 3.5 oz and 19 inches in length.

Here is a picture of him after getting his footprints taken, alongside his parents' fingerprints:

We had quite an eventful day on Tuesday the 9th. I was continuing to have intermittent contractions after the post made on Sunday December 7th, but they kept going away only to come back in the middle of the night.

But on Tuesday December 9th, there was no turning back. Mom and Stephanie, having been kept updated throughout the process, decided to go ahead and head into Houston on Monday afternoon in anticipation of a delivery in the near future. We all wokeup on Tuesday morning and started counting my contractions at 6 am.

I had a doctor appointment that morning anyway, and at 9:30 am Dr. Behrmann measured me at 4 centimeters dilated. She recommended that with the new dilation and the contractions, that I should come back later in the day for a recheck and then she could evaluate if it was time to head to the hospital. We made arrangements for me to come back at 2 pm, and Mom, Steph and I headed to lunch.

Between 11:00 and 1:00 things really got interesting. The contractions were starting to come closer together and pretty intense. Our waitress at Luby's kept coming by the table to check on us and make sure that I was going to be ok! I am so glad I had such a good lunch at that time, because that was the last opportunity I got!

After lunch we decided to go home and pack our hospital bags into the car just in case we'd be going straight to the hospital from the doctor appointment. Well, by the time we got home, I'd already progressed to the point that I decided for all of us there would be no doctor visit. It was straight to labor and delivery for me! We called Alberto and within 10 minutes he had joined us at home.

Alberto, Stephanie and I arrived at the hospital to find that there were no labor and delivery rooms available. Must have been a busy day! Alberto and I did the slow dance in the waiting room for about 20 minutes until there was one available and met our labor nurse, named Jennifer. Mom and Elizabeth joined us there a few minutes later, and every started to get settled in for the wait.

Once I was situated in my hospital gown and bed, I was rechecked, and I had dilated to 6 centimeters. Things were really coming along! I had also made the critical decision to go ahead with an epidural, and the anesthesiologist showed up about 20 minutes later with the blessed cocktail.

I say blessed cocktail, and I mean it! I was incredibly thankful for the pain relief. The doctor did a great job of administering just enough to get rid of the pain, but I could still feel the contractions and know when to push during delivery. I will never doubt the wonderful properties of the epidural again! :)

At 5:15 I was 10 centimeters and ready to push, and everyone was shooed out of the room except the doctor, nurse, Alberto and me.

Everything was going great with the delivery with one exception - the baby was in a sideways position and didn't want to turn!

It took almost 3 hours to get him out, and some extra effort from Dr. Behrmann to encourage him to rotate. Every time we had gotten him rotated a bit, he went right back to his sideways position. This kid was not ready to leave his nest!

Finally, at 8:12 Jason Dominic arrived and he looked great!

He is a really beautiful baby, with dark brown hair and cobalt blue eyes. He is the spitting image of his Daddy, though Alberto says he has my nose and chin. He has long fingers and toes and is incredibly strong! We have all marveled at how this days-old baby is already able to lift his own head, and practically rolls himself over!

Our stay in the hospital was fine, though we were all exhausted, even the baby! Check out this great photo we got of him, as if to say "Wow, what a day I've had!"

We went home on Thursday night, December 11th, and have been getting adjusted to life with baby ever since.

I have had a bit more difficulty recovering than the baby has, which is why it has taken so long to get this posted and to start calling friends and family. I apologize for the delay, but it really was necessary for me to get back on my feet.

I am still in bed most of each day, just trying to heal, but we anticipate being able to start receiving visitors to meet the baby next week.

Thank you to everyone who has been so thoughtful and kind to send us flowers and well wishes and gifts! We feel very blessed to have such a wonderful network of friends and family and we love each of you as well!

Holiday Season 2008 begins and baby updates

I guess we've officially entered the holiday season - the mall traffic definitely indicates as much! Alberto and I took a long 3 hour stroll around the Galleria last night, trying to see if we could kickstart the baby's arrival. I am 39 weeks today and my due date is 6 days away!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year in Houston. I was really happy to be able to spend time with friends and my sister too, and grateful that Alberto enjoyed himself as well.

We had a small Thanksgiving dinner at home with Elizabeth and our friend Erik. I cooked Cornish game hens again, and this time I did it Cajun injector style. I had no idea what I would end up with, but everyone agreed that the birds were juicy and delicious. Erik was also sweet enough to send flowers after the weekend to thank us for having him over. Thank you Erik for spending the day with us! We really enjoyed your company.

That night, Alberto and I went to see Bartek and Edyta for their Italian-themed Thanksgiving party.

We met some really fabulous people as well, and hope to be able to hang out with them some more.

They were friendly, gracious, and fun-loving, and we had a super time!











We also celebrated Edyta's birthday which is just around the corner, since she won't be able to celebrate here in Houston.
















A week later, it was my 33rd birthday on December 3.

Quite different from last year, I firmly stayed put at home! I am way too pregnant to be going anywhere fast, even on my birthday! :)

My sisters were so cool to commemorate the day too! Stephanie sent a lovely bouquet of flowers and Elizabeth showed up after work with a decadent chocolate cake. Thank you ladies!




Also on my birthday, Andrea's baby finally made his big appearance! Dylan is adorable, and takes after Andrea with his dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin. He is going to be a ladykiller.

In between and after all of this, Liz has tried her hand at some photography with me. I asked her to take some maternity photos before the baby comes and I must say she has done really well! A few of the unedited photos are below. We'll be choosing our most favorites to touch up and print. Thank you Liz for your hard work! Everything is beautiful.












So, where does that leave us? Waiting for the baby!

Like I said at the beginning of this post, we are looking for ways to encourage Baby Serrano to make his debut. I have been working on the exercise ball and finding ways to squat down for things (thanks to a timely tip from Andrea! :) ). We also did our 3 hour walk around the Galleria last night.

By all indications, it's beginning to work! But since this period of time is totally unpredictable, I'll have to leave it at that.

The next post you see from us should be post-delivery!

Von Bodungen Visit, week 2

Did you miss us? Things got way too busy to sit down and write about it. Here's where we left off:

Steph and I spent the next few days sick as dogs

and mourning all the fun and happy moments

we should have had in San Francisco with Amanda.

In truth, it was probably good that we were resting anyway, we had done quite a lot the week before!

We took it easy, and just went out one morning, to stroll on the beach and explore what was happening at the Oceanside pier.

We saw a guy giving surf classes to a mother and daughter, and lots of people fishing on the pier as usual.

It was a very breezy day, almost chilly, but it felt great to get out of the house and clear the cobwebs from our brains.

When we finally did feel better we went to Jazzercise, and you know the first thing they told us? Lots of people have been getting sick that go to that studio. All of a sudden the light bulb came on for us - Jazzercise

was the only thing that we had done without the guys, and had to have been where we got whatever our virus was. I made sure to wash my hands after working out that day, just to be on the safe side.

With Mark back in New Orleans and Alberto back to work, Stephanie and I set ourselves about painting the kitchen and planting flowers in the back yard.

The boys had done the perimeter work with the trees and the bougainvillea, and it was time for us to fill in the middle.

Stephanie joked that our hill looked like a cemetary because I had placed all the potted flowers right where I wanted them to go in the ground - what do you think?

I found that a little creepy, so I was happy to finally put them in the dirt!

It was a great sense of accomplishment to get it all in the ground!

Here we are, celebrating being finished!:

That weekend, Steph and I were back at the beach to catch some rays, and drink some mudslides!

It was a beautiful day at the beach, and we really enjoyed just doing absolutely nothing after climbing up and down the hill in the backyard, and bending, reaching and stretching to paint in the kitchen.

We saw a lady with an iguana, and she was taking him into the surf! We decided that the iguana didn't like that too much, because he writhed around like he was trying to survive in the cold surf!

Then I found out from Keith that there is one breed of iguana that has adapted to water and actually enjoy the ocean. Did you know that?

Last stop before Steph went home was Balboa Park. We took Dudley with us too on his first real afternoon excursion. Dudley loved it, but we wore him out!

Steph and I were a little worn out too after a few hours of walking all around the park and peering down into some of the hidden trails.

I took Steph to may favorite part of the park, right in front of the Botanical Garden, and we got a picture of her and Dudley:


Then it was back to New Orleans and the real world! Well, almost at least. I still had a few more days before I started my new job :)

N

family visit, week 1

Steph and Mark came to visit starting on 4th of July, and we are already exhausted. It has been a good week so far, but a jam packed week and also has a little bit of bad luck mixed in.

Wednesday -
Steph and Mark got bumped from their flights out to San Diego on the 4th. They had to wait to get on 3 other planes, and finally made it into San Diego around 1:30 (originally scheduled for 10:30 ish). This meant we couldn't go to the Temecula Wine Valley on the 4th of July like we wanted.

Oh well! We ended up having a relaxing day instead, and when I picked them up from the airport we had lunch in Ocean Beach where Mark tried his first ever fish tacos (Wahoo - yum!) and washed it down with some Moose Drool beer. I had fish tacos too, but Steph decided to stick with carne asada. Then we headed up the coast for the long drive home and met up with Alberto to have cocktails and relax. That night, we watched fireworks in the sandy shores of Oceanside, as they were launched off of a barge near the Oceanside pier.

Thursday -
Stephanie and I hit a Jazzercise Step class the next morning where we saw none other than Miss Judi Sheppard-Missett in the back of the room, also taking the class. Stephanie is a Jazzercise instructor in New Orleans, so she was very nervous and excited about taking a class at the 'home base' of Jazzercise, and equally as nervous about seeing Judi! We had fun, and we decided we should go again, but to a regular Jazzercise class next time.

For the rest of the day we really didn't do anything! It was just a relaxing day at home with nothing on our plates.


Friday -

On Friday we took a walk around the wildlife refuge trails near my house. They enjoyed that, and Dudley came along as well so we got him nice and worn out so he slept the rest of the day.


Afterward, we headed down to Old Town so Mark could see some of the history of California, and we could have a good lunch too! There we ate at La Pinata, which is said to be the oldest restaurant in town, and then we saw a hawk hanging out on a golf course nearby.





We also bought corresponding cook books from Old Town that we are going to use, and then trade, to see what the best recipes are!






We also visited the first schoolhouse in California, and got to read about all these crazy rules they used to have for teachers

(one example was no teacher shall engage in any unpure act such as marriage) and a ledger of how many lashings children receive for a variety of bad behavior (boys playing in girls' areas and vice versa warranted 4 lashings - playing cards on school grounds called for 10!).

Saturday-

Since we had already done the work Steph and Mark were coming to town to help us with (hanging kitchen cabinets), we decided to all tackle the hill on the backyard and start getting it into shape.

2 1/2 hours and $300 later, we walked out of home depot with a pile of stinky manure, potting soil and peat moss, and a few lime trees, avocado trees, and bougainvilla to put in the ground. We didn't get even close to finishing it, but I feel that we accomplished a huge amount.


While Mark dug holes for trees and planted them, Alberto fixed the irreigation system once and for all and Stephanie and I pulled up weeds. In the midst of all of this, Mark dug up some tiny little lizard eggs, so Stephanie and I reburied them, hoping most were still viable.

Of course, Dudley supervised, alternating between sticking his nose in the middle of what we were doing, and finding a shady spot to nap in.

At 3:00 the proverbial end of work whistle blew, and we all got showered and prettied up to drive down to Puerto Nuevo for a lobster dinner.

It wasn't too bad driving into Mexico, in fact I'd probably be fine with doing it again except for the return trip wait - over an hour at the border to get back into the U.S., and trust me, it feels like closer to 2 hours! That was certainly a buzzkill, and I slept most of the way home after that.

Sunday -

Off to the Temecula wine valley,

to do what we couldn't do on Wednesday!

First stop was Wilson Creek, the same winery Stephanie and I decided was our favorite five years ago when I first moved out here. The winery has really grown, and there were 4 tasting stations instead of just the one we remembered.

One of them was 'in the back' of the building, and was among all of the huge floor to ceiling barrels of wine they maintained back there. It was great, and we spent a long time there.

By the time we were done there, we only had one more winery we could visit before things started shutting down, so Mark picked the one on the list that said it had a bistro (so we could have a light meal). This was Keyways Winery, off of Rancho California and down De Portola.

Well, we discovered there was no bistro (it hasn't opened yet), but we loved our wine pourer Jesse, who took care of us and didn't care one bit about how many tickets we had left. As long as our glasses were empty, he kept pouring us whatever we wanted. What a deal!

We liked the vibe of Keyways, and by the time we left (almost 3 hours later), Steph and I had both decided we might like it better than Wilson Creek.
It had a very homey feel, and the live music they provided was a nice touch.
Another plus is that it is the only woman-owned winery in the entire Temecula Wine Valley, so now I have another reason to support it! :)
After we left we decided (after much discussion) we needed an appetizer in the wine country, so we stopped at Plantation House Restaurant at the Maurice Car'rie winery.

This restaurant had a Hawaiian/Polynesian feel, and we sat out on the porch of an old plantation style house with deep wicker chairs and tall, stemmed water glasses.


We ordered two appetizers to share, macadamia nut brie (with fruit and toasted baguettes) and little polynesian ribs. YUMMY. Definitely try this place if you are in the area.

That night, we grilled the ribeye steaks we had gotten a few days ago, and washed it down with the Keyways Syrah that Stephanie decided was her favorite. Boy, what a luxurious life for us!

Monday -

More bad luck. I woke up really sick that day. Not sick like the flu, sick like a virus. This was not good for a number of reasons - it was Mark's last day before he flew home to go back to work, and also Stephanie had booked plane tickets to fly to San Francisco the next day to see Amanda for a night. After a variety of drugs and a small amount of food, I ended up sleeping through most of the day and getting up just long enough to have dinner with everyone.

While I slept, everyone teamed up to get more work done in the yard (thank you!) and now we have the bougainvilla and jasmine planted in front of the installed lattice.








We went to bed early that night, since we had such an early morning the next day.

Tuesday -

TODAY - Even more bad luck! We got up at 4 am because Mark needed to be at the airport at 6 am for his flight, and I discovered that Stephanie had gotten sick overnight with what I had the day before.

There went our flight. After driving Mark to the airport, we decided that we weren't going to be able to make it, cancelled our reservation, and headed back home to sleep.

After apologizing to Amanda for mucking up our whole excursion (sorry again Amanda!!), we decided we'd see how we felt tomorrow, and then decide on if we can still go up there a little later in the week.

That is where we are now, taking it easy and hoping all of this will pass soon. I am not as bad as I was yesterday, but I am certainly not in any condition to be out and about at the pace we were at over the weekend. Steph is sleeping and we hope that a nice homemade pot of chicken soup, courtesy of Alberto, will help us feel much better.


Mark got home ok, and was only bumped from one flight this time (woo hoo!). Steph will be here one more week, until Tuesday July 17.