Mother's Day in Denver

We spent Mother's Day in Denver this year. Daddy had a conference so we absolutely had to take advantage of the free "under 2 year old" flight once again. Southwest still tops Karol mommy charts as far as the best airline to fly! Again, we got three seats both ways!!  LOOOOOVE that!  Seb, if you are reading this, Mother's Day was absolutely awesome with you!  You make my day everyday and you're the best kid ever!  Thanks for being an awesome travel buddy. I think you definitely have the traveling gene in you.  :)

Holding onto earbuds and watching Sesame Street

Passed out!

The trip was extra special because we got to spend it with Grandpa and Grandma Maki. (they drove down from MT) They even bought a brand new shiny Jeep Liberty while visiting and drove it back home!! What a weekend full of adventure. We celebrated Mother's Day by going to the Denver Children's Museum. To date, that makes 5 different Children's museums that Seb has visited. (the others are: Dallas, Monterey, San Jose, and Austin of course!)  He had a blast playing in the bubble room, checking out the train set and just running around like an 18 month old!  Afterwards we headed to one of the oldest hotels in Denver, The Brown Palace. We had a Mother's Day dinner there and Seb ate one of his favorite foods: FRENCH FRIES!

Gimme them fries!

Our feet in front of the hotel

New wheels!

Denver is a beautiful city with great weather this time of year (mid to upper 70s). Dad had to work on Tuesday so we headed on foot to a nearby park from our Marriott Residence lnn.  Another company I love! Let me explain why: free breakfast, free happy hour cocktails, free shuttle to take you wherever you want to go within a 5 mile radius, suite type rooms, spacious accommodations, and lastly clean baby play pens!  No vomit smell this time (hooray!) We were lucky enough to stay in a downtown hotel so there was so much to see and do. The park was so quaint and in the middle of several downtown lofts and restaurants. Check out Seb rocking out on the horseys!

After Seb's nap, I took him to the Denver Aquarium.  He absolutely loved it! If you remember, he didn't care for the Monterey Aquarium so much. I think it was because it was soooo crowded and very dark for most of the exhibits. There were just a few people at this one and we were able to get up close and personal with most of the fish! He loved the stingray and kept making dolphin sounds (EE EE EE) all the way back to our hotel. By the way, you may be wondering how I transported Seb in the shuttle since I had no car seat. Well, let's just say vacation makes mama Karol a little adventurous. No car seat, no problem for the shuttle drivers! They didn't care! I just plopped him right by my side and held on for dear life! It was actually quite liberating.  Sometimes, I think the car seat manufacturing lobby pepes really have it out for us moms and dads. They scare us into thinking that we can NEVER EVER transport our kid without one.  Don't get me wrong, I think there's definitely a place for car seats. HOWEVER, we all survived, didn't we? And quite frankly, I can't remember ever seeing a car seat until I turned at least 20. Take that car seat lobby people!  Viva la revolucion!  (for shuttle transport anyway). PS. please don't call CPS on me. That's all.

Shark jaws in the background

The newest addition to the aquarium-flowing jellyfish

Stingray!

Aqua tunnel

18 months equals two pregnancies

It's weird to think that Sebastian has hit the 18 month mark. It seems like it's been soooo much longer yet at the same time feels like it flew by with a wink of the eye. He had his well check appointment on Thursday and Doctor Cheng gave him a clean bill of health. He are his stats:

Weight: 27 lbs 6 oz   60% percentile - he's getting leaner!
Height: 33 inches - 75%
Toddler Attitude: Spot On  (read on)

To my surprise, there was a survey I had to complete while there. It's something called the MCHAT or something like that. It is a screening for Autism. Some of these questions are down right confusing. For example: "does your child gaze off and stare at objects"  or even better, "does your child seem to be deaf"

Ummm, yeah! He's a toddler. Yes, he spaces out at times and he most definitely "plays" deaf like everyday, ok?!  He's my baby doll but he definitely doesn't feel like listening to his mommy these days....especially today in music class. This sweet, first born child of mine was absolutely thrilled to be going to music class today. HOWEVER, once we got there he was not at all involved in any of the musical activities. He was running around everywhere, jumping on the church chairs (music class is held in a Methodist church), playing hide and seek all the while acting as if I were his personal side kick/homie (meaning, chase me mommy! I'm the boss!).  It all culminated when he was running around and accidentally bumped into another mommy and ricocheted off her thigh and slammed into the hard floor, head first. I really should have taken a picture, it wasn't pretty and would've made for some good laughter (in like 20 years). However, for the moment, my mommy instincts turned on and all I could think was sooth, sooth, sooth. It was a hard hit, definitely at least a 6 on the mommy Richter scale. Needless to say, we headed home once the wailing stopped.

Back to the doc appt.  When I questioned Doc about the spacing out and selective deafness, he laughed and said, "Seems like we've got a real toddler on our hands."  Yep that's my boy! He's becoming more and more independent (aka tantrum central) everyday!  I love you precious monkey boy!  And happy happy half birthday!

Here are some pics of late:

"iPhone to my right, iPad in my hands...now if I could just open this thing"

"I may have blonde hair but I'm very dark and mysterious when I wear my shades"

"I'll be back" -Terminator

So happy to be outside

Daddy + Sali = Heaven on Earth

Bashion

Seb's name for himself is Bashion. Funny how it rhymes with fashion. Maybe he will be some kind of fashionista one day. The boy definitely does NOT mind getting dressed. In fact, I would venture to say that he enjoys it!  He hasn't yet started to choose what to wear but when the day comes, watch out world!

He said his name for the first time last Thursday. Pat and I were calling him because dinner was ready and he wouldn't come. Instead, he kept playing in his guarded off playroom (aka corner of the living room), pretending not to hear us.  It went something like this: "Sebastian, dinner is reeeeeeady".... As to which he replied:

"Baaaaashion, Bashion, Bashion"  At first we didn't notice him even saying anything but then it dawned on us that he was saying his own name! Wahahahah! Clever boy! You still gotta eat!  His appetite has somewhat decreased of late, but tonight it seemed to magically reappear. He scarfed down his chicken primavera dish so fast, I didn't even have time to cool down a second helping before he began to sign for more, more. Just remember baby doll, carrots and green beans are YUMMERS for life!

Last week's update

Last week daddy was out of town for business so Sebastian and I hung out on our own. This was the very first time since Seb was about 4 months old that I let him sleep with me in my bed!  It was so sweet. Poor thing woke up at midnight and was up crying for about an hour before he went back down. He woke back up at 5 am and again, couldn't go down. I laid him next to me and he calmed down right away. I just couldn't put him back in his crib. He was so cute just laying there, sucking on Sali (his lovey that we nicknamed because of all the saliva that's always on it).  When we both woke up at around 8 am I went to change his diaper and to my horror I found the WORST diaper rash. I came to realize that Seb had pooped in his diaper probably before I put him down for bed and was laying in that the WHOLE entire night! No wonder he was in such distress!  This diaper rash was like nothing I have ever seen before. It even went down his leg???  Didn't even know it could do that. I called his doc and the nurse said that she could make an appointment to see Dr. Cheng.  I asked her a few questions, one of them being, can diaper rash extend past the butt area? She said yes. That eased my fears so I told her that we would wait to see if it gets better. Yay! Mom saved $25!  It did get better since I let him roam around half naked the better half of the day. Fresh air really does clear diaper rash up SO quickly!  He's feeling much better.  (needless to say, I didn't snap any pics!)

Our pool opened a few weeks ago, so it's been calling our names ever since. Seb's pal Oliver came over to hang out.  There was no one there! Oh! I am going to miss these days before school lets out. Our pool gets extremely crowded once summer begins! Oliver is about a month old older than Seb...you can see they are very similar....they both LOVE the outdoors and are little engineers in the making:

Oliver, Check out this knob!

Trikes are cool

The Wednesday pool tradition has begun! Carla came by this week as well. Check her out!

I love beach entrances!  There's even a shovel in here!

This past weekend, Niva came over for a dinner party. As you can see, the kids did anything BUT eat (except, of course, for dessert: yummers! Banana pudding ala Anuva)!   Thanks Anuva for the pics from your fancy cam!  Niva, you are a party animal! These kids were sooooo hyper! It was hilarious. They were running after one another back and forth from the kitchen to the living room nonstop. They're not even 2 yet!?!?!?

Rar!!! I'm a lion!

Niva:  "Seb, you gotta put your arms out like this!"

"Save me some of that cookie from there will ya?"

Ok, we'll behave now!

And in other news, Seb FINALLY got to wear his Buzz Lightyear pajamas courtesy of Sarah. "No socks but I don't care!"

I'm not a Power Ranger! I'm Buzz Lightyear!