Happy Birthday from the Monsta and us of course.  I have Ben on video singing Happy Birthday to Abuehito but I couldn’t figure out to embed the file.  It just didn’t translate properly. 

You know he loves you when he stops eating his oatmeal and raisins to sing.  Consider yourself lucky! 

 I’ll show you the clip tonight at Jules.

Last night I attended a Parent/teacher meeting to prepare THE PARENTS for school today.  It went fine but I didn’t sleep at all because I kept thinking of all the scenarios that would go down today.  Last month, Monsta had his first orientation and when we dropped him off, he totally cried.  It was rough to leave him but we did and when we picked him up, he was fine and happy.  He has been talking about how he cried for a month.  He even told me that he would cry when I dropped him off today (heart dropping).  Well, we went in and everyone was so friendly.  He spotted an Elmo workbench right away and started playing.  I introduced him to one of the Teacher aides and she asked him to go over to the magic wall to hang his balloon.  I asked for a kiss and told him that I would be back soon and left.  I never looked back but as I was walking out, my hearing turned Bionic.  I was listening for some type of cry or scream from my baby.  There wasn’t one.  There wasn’t a peep or wimper.  I walked out feeling a BIG relief.  I went shopping at an Italian Specialty shop to pick up some goodies for dinner tonight.  Dropped the stuff off at home and then started thinking again that, Oh My God, he probably started crying after I left the building.  How come my Motherly sense didn’t pick that up?  How could I be out buying freshly made ravioli and marinated flank steak while my little boy needed his Mommy?  I pulled it together and set out to pick him up.  When they opened the doors, it was like I was the three year old trying my hardest to get in first.  Everything was quiet and all the kids were standing holding a butterfly they had painted.  I saw Monsta scanning the crowd for me and when he caught my eye……well, it might have well been the 4th of July.  He was beaming!  He ran to me and showed my his bootiful butterfly and said he just ate a chocolate chip cookie that was delicious.  Could I be more happy?  I asked everyone how he made out and they said that he was completely fine.  Not a tear shed.  He then told me how his favorite part was playing outside and the cookie.  I can’t tell you how I feel right now.  I am busting, I’m so proud.  On top of that, the teacher aide I mentioned before, turned out to be one of my best friends from Junior High School.  I couldn’t believe it.  I picked a great school with great people and I have a great kid that had a great day.  YES!

Sidenote – When I dropped Monsta off, I got into my car to find this little guy crawling on my hood:

                                                                  It is something special to see today of all days.  In memory of my Uncle’s Stuart’s Birthday.  We love you!

Dropping Monsta off at Grandma and Grandpa’s today.  I will then set out to meet with the guy that will make my seat cushions for the livingroom.  I have to bring him the fabric and the measurements.  Then off to buy the supplies needed for my remaining pillows.  Go to Trader Joes to do some much needed shopping then UH, I forgot all the other things.  I better make a list.

What you don’t see….

Originally uploaded by earthandskye

is 2 huge jalepenos. They were hiding.

This was just picked from my garden. I get a nice bounty every two days. My family and friends love it because everytime they come over, I send them home with a garden goody bag.

OT: It is freakin’ HOT out!

Most of  you know that I’ve been trying to redecorate the living room for quite some time now.  Today I started my first project of making throw pillows for the couches.  I looked at many videos to figure out how to put piping on.  That is the chord around the edges and if done properly can make your pillow look really professional.  Well, I can’t say that I did it right but I am really pleased with the final product.  I know mistakes that I made that I can fix on the next three pillows so that is good.  The one problem I ran into was that I left too small of an opening to stuff the pillow in and I worked like a freaking lumberjack to try and push it in.  I was absolutely sweating for over 30 minutes.  If anyone was filming me doing this I swear I would get one zillion hits on youtube.

Total cost: $13.00  (not bad)

                                                                           If the sun is out, we are in the pool around here.  It is heavenly and my favorite thing to do.  Monsta has been really awesome in the water.  He goes out in his tube like nobody’s business.  My Father came last week to swim with him and he did great.  Short swim lesson but LOTS of time spent pouring water on Abuelito’s head.  Check out the scene…

It’s been about 3 1/2 years in our house and I’ve yet to decorate.  Sounds pretty ridiculous but it is true.  When we moved in it was March ‘06 and I had the Monsta in May.  Life was so busy with a newborn and then after that it was one excuse after the other.  Well, now I’ve finally got my livingroom underway.  We had a wall unit built that was designed by my Aunt and now she is helping us with the rest of the room.  We have picked out fabric that I will make pillows with and a window treatment.  I’m really excited.  I’m also working on a collection of photographs that will hang above our couch.  It is a huge wall and I decided to do four 20 x 20 prints.  The accented colors are red, yellow and orange.  Thinking about some flower shots.  What do you think of this one?  

Does it work well together with this one?

I’m not sure about it, I totally need advice…….

My friend Bea called today and asked me if I would be interested in going to see Jason Mraz at Jones Beach tonight.  She just so happened to have free Box seat tickets.

 My answer:  uh derrrrr, YES!

p.s. sorry I’m bailing on girls night but Jason Mraz, box seats uh derrrrrrrr.

Ben and I spent the better part of today in the pool.  Why not, right?  It was totally gorgeous out.  Mom also stopped by for a quick sun/monsta fix.  Today’s pool lesson was….What if you fell in the pool?  He knows now to turn around and get to the side and yell for HELP!  Can he turn around by himself? No, not quite.  But he had fun yelling HELP one zillion times.  Afterwards, when the sun was just starting to go down, I gave him a bath outside.  He had so much fun.  The sunlight was beautiful and I took lots of pictures.  Here are some that I wanted to share:

suds and splashes

rinsing off

ahhhhhh, squeaky clean