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Catching Up

One of the thousand to-do's that I had for myself in the period after I stopped working and before Michaela was (supposed to be) born, was to get the blog postings up to date. We've actually packed a lot into a few short weeks since we've been home. A few pictures below ...

Juan, Colin and I had a family vacation to Cape Codin early June. We stayed at a wonderful resort and had a lot of fun. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and after days of blazing hot sun, the weekend we traveled was wet and cold. That didn't seem to bother Colin though and we went to the beach anyway.



Colin played in the water a bit but mostly liked digging in the mud.

Colin and Mumma

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to a Cape Cod League baseball game. We had fun despite the intermittent sprinkling (spent more on raffle tickets than the admittance!). Colin even sat still for a couple innings to watch.

Colin makes waffles for Daddy for Father's Day

Maeve's Baptism was also on Father's Day. Here's Erin's family with godparents.

Baby Bro Bill with his new baby - Manasi.


All the Seymour kids, spouses and children (and children-to-be) celebrate the baptism at Erin's house.

More Michaela Pics

Far from the best picture I've ever had of myself, but I guess if you can't look like crap after giving birth, when can you? And I love this first picture of me with my children. (Plural! Still hard to believe)

Heading home from the hospital. Michaela is in the same car seat and duckie going-home-outfit as Colin was in when we brought him home. Although the brown bear snowsuit that he wore in December made him look much bigger in the seat.




Another parallel - We have Michaela in the same bouncer in which Colin spent so many hours as a newborn and infant.

Sweetest picture so far I think :)

Hello Michaela!

Ready or not, here she is! Michaela Rosa Flores was born happy and healthy, albeit a few weeks early, last week on June 22nd at 6:37 pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz and is 20 inches. After a bit of a scramble to get mumma to the hospital, daddy back from NYC, Colin picked up from day care and Trish and Dad Seymour to the hospital to be with Roberta in the interim, we had the best possible outcome ...our wonderful baby girl.

Michaela sleeps ...a lot! We figure that she's probably resting up for many, many sleepless nights around the 1 month mark. When she is awake, her eyes are bright and she takes it all in.

Colin adores his little sister. (Pronouncing the name Ma-Ka-Ka) He gives big hugs and kisses and is always on the watch for her eyes to be open so he can put his face right up to hers.

Saying Good Bye to Madison

Earlier today I was rereading my posting from about 2 years ago. The sadness and trepidation with which I initially set out to Madison after 6 months home with Colin is now nearly rivaled by the sadness with which we return home. After 2 years in Wisconsin, Colin and I can claim not only a very successful project delivery but good new friends and many, many wonderful memories.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Baby Flores #2 !!!

We're excited to share that Colin will soon have a baby sister! We are absolutely thrilled and can't wait to welcome her in July.

In the meantime, Colin was his usual clowning-around self trying on the pregnancy pillow while I tried on maternity clothes.

Snowtime in Madison

We all went out to enjoy what was hopefully the last real snowfall in Madison. Colin loves his bu no-neut (aka blue snow suit in Colin-speak)

Halloween

Have I really not posted anything since July? Shameful. I have no excuse only explaination - work has been really, really, really consuming.

I will start with Halloween and catch up later. We had a fun Halloween with Colin this year. Once again we were in Madison and went to the mall's indoor trick-or-treating. It's safe and warm. Mostly Colin liked to run (true to costume) and watch the older kids. Most stores gave out tootsie rolls and other hard candy, but some had stickers and Colin was just excited to play the "please put something in my bucket" game. We're in an apartment now (not the hotel anymore - more on that another time) so I was excited to have kids come to the door later, but no one came :(

Off to Daycare

We've all been enjoying our time in Massachusetts (imagine! a whole week at home!). We had a good 4th of July with family on the South Shore, complete with lobstah :) Colin wasn't quite able to stay awake for the fireworks but maybe next year.

Juan and I always struggle with care for Colin while we're home. Generally it's a combination of taking time off from work, tag-teaming in between meetings and help from grammie Carla. This week we decided to try day care for Colin for 2 days. our company offers a backup care plan which does all the work for us to find and schedule at a facility and we only pay a small co-pay. Despite mommy's initial misgivings, Colin seemed to really enjoy his time there - sooooo many new toys and people and things to explore. The only quasi-difficult time seemed to be nap time where the toddlers are on mats already, not cribs.

Ready to go to day care - complete with sack lunch

Summer fun with Colin

Yes, I realize that half of Colin's pictures are with him in a swing....but he really does love it! Here are some of my favorites that Jenn has taken of Colin over the past few weeks.

The Wedding!!!

On the Beach

Colin and Roberta joined Trish, Jon, Syd, Charlotte and Ella at a very cute beach house in Galveston for vacation the week before BnA's wedding. It was pretty hot but a nice wind kept it relatively comfortable and kept the mosquitos away. Colin LOVED the beach and had tons of fun running in and out of the waves. The kids did get a little sick (and most of the adults except Trish) but it really was a relaxing week and we look forward to the next vacation.

Leading up to the Wedding ...

About 2 weeks before Bill and Avanti's wedding, we threw a small shower for the couple-to-be in Massachusetts. Erin hosted at her house and it was a beautiful day. Avanti was totally surprised!

May Day

We had tons of fun on a very windy 1st of May with our $1.50 kite from the grocery store :)

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter in Madison. Colin hasn't been feeling very well for a few days so Church was a bit difficult. However, after a long nap, he was ready for a little Easter egg hunt. We used the open courtyard at the hotel and Colin was about as interested as expected. He found 4 or 5 out of the 2 dozen eggs on his own and daddy helped with the rest. He was especially interested in taking the "found" eggs out of the basket to play with.

It was important for us to have a traditional dinner and avoid a restaurant if possible. We don't have an oven here (just a stove top) so we improvised with a new crock pot and the roast wasn't half bad. After dinner, we took a nice walk to the park (It's been a mild couple of weeks). Some friends from the hotel were flying a kite - Colin also got a kite in his Easter basket so we were happy that he was so excited about it and can't wait to fly his!

This is about 30 seconds before Colin trips into a puddle of water.

But he looked cute in his Easter outfit most of the day!

Colin finds the grand prize - a clown-in-the-box

A look back to Easter 2009

Spring in Wisconsin

Colin has a packed social calendar these days. He enjoys Kindermusik, story time at Barnes & Nobels, painting, playing outside (now that the weather is nice), and playdates. It's much easier going out and about now without the extra layers of clothes, pacifiers, baby food ...

A recent beautiful day in Madison. 60 degrees then it snowed 3 days later. Reminds me of home :)

Fun with fingerpaints

Colin didn't like the Easter Bunny at first, but warmed up when the eggs were brought out.

...and more travel

Colin broadened his horizons a bit more with a recent trip down to Texas. We all went to Austin the 1st week of March to visit Carlos and Krissy (our soon-to-be sister-in-law). We had a wonderful time in their beautiful home, nice restaurants, at parks with choo choo trains ... Then I headed about an hour down to San Antonio for a conference while Juan and Colin stayed in Austin a bit longer.

Juan took many pictures with his phone's camera to send to me while I was away, but most are too grainy for posting. Here's one of the better ones.

My joy that they hung out in a book store is nearly nullified by the pinstripes Juan dressed him in when I wasn't around.

He's walking!

Colin took his first steps right before the new year and now he's walking all over the place.

So much to catch up on!

Oh where to start?!? It's been a crazy train since Thanksgiving with another trip out to Madison, finishing up holiday shopping and preparing for our trip to Elmira. We're exhausted!

First a stop over at Trish and Jon's on our way to NY for Christmas. (We stopped there on the way back too - nice break in the home stretch). The babies don't actually play together, just near each other for now. We're all fine with waiting on the games of tag that will ultimately ensue.

The girls are taking a break from trying to give Colin a kiss

The day after arriving in Elmira we celebrated Colin's 1 year birthday! (Actual DOB is 12/23/08) Colin wasn't too sure what was going on, but he loved the balloons and thought it was great fun to have a room full of people singing to him. He clapped more than anyone at the end :) Lots of our NY family took time out of their busy holiday schedules to be with us - thanks!

The bakery made Colin his own cake - yummy!

Favoritest birthday present

The almost-week between Colin's party and Christmas was busy and fast. We finished up shopping and spent time with the family, both at the house and the restaurant. The large group gathering for the Flores family is Christmas eve. (Clam chowder, sausage and tamales - you wouldn't think these go together but it was awesome!) Christmas morning was wonderful, albeit early with Colin waking 2 hours earlier than usual - imagine how early it will be when he knows Santa is coming!

Colin "helps" cousin Enrique open his present

Colin and Aledia plan with his new xylophone

We rounded out the trip with a surprise 30th birthday party for Juan's brother Carlos thrown by his fiancee Krissy. (And he was surprised)

We had Colin up waaay past his bedtime so he could at least see everyone for the 1st 1/2 of the party. He's very sleepy but enjoys playing with the Red Sox-friendly side of the family up there.

The best baby hair ever Carlos!