Baby Dominic.

A week ago today our little man entered our lives! Dominic Pedro Alvarez was born on 7/24/12 at 9:27pm weighing in at 8lbs 10oz and 20.5 inches long! We went in that morning for an induction and let me tell you it was a long day! Here I am that morning - do I look ready to have a baby? :)

The labor was really slow...I wasn't dilating very fast at all so they kept adjusting my pitocin (what starts contractions) up and down. Finally at about 7pm there was some progress and then suddenly he was ready to come out! They even had to page the Doctor stat because he wasn't planning on waiting! When he came out Robert and I both thought he looked so much like his sister, except for a ton of black hair!

While all this was going on Big Sister and the Grandparents were patiently waiting outside! :) (I think Elena was excited and ready to take some pics of her new baby brother!)

They all instantly fell in love too!

 Robert and I with our son!

 Our Family of four!!

Uncle Jim, Grandpa and more Mommy cuddles.

We also Skyped with Robert's family because they were unable to make it up from Texas - gotta love technology!

Elena is a very proud big sister and adjusting very well so far!

 More visitors and more cuddling.

Check out our little man!

Ready to head home!

Elena was pretty excited to have someone hanging out in the back seat with her. It was so weird seeing two kids back there!!

After we showed Dominic his new home he was ready to crash! Whew, what a day!

We are so glad that he has finally arrived! He is the sweetest thing ever and is doing a fantastic job of eating, sleeping and pooping!

If you are wondering where we got his name, it is from two very important people in our lives - Pedro was Robert's Dad's name and he passed away a year before our wedding, we know he would have loved to meet both our kiddos and would have been an amazing Abuelo to them (This is also the only grandchild that will be passing along the Alvarez name!) We thought the name Dominic sounded really great with Pedro - it is strong and masculine and just happens to be my Grandfather's name. What a perfect fit. :) 

Nursery Inspiration.

I found an adorable rug at Target and have decided to use it as a starting point for the little guy's nursery. Mind you, the nursery is no where near being finished! (maybe by the time he turns 6 months!-lol) But I think we have a good start on decorating it when it is ready! I decided it would be fun to let Elena help with some decorating by doing a couple paintings for the walls. She was pumped!! And now wants to make some for her own room! The 3 main colors I wanted were green, orange and light blue - so instead of ending up with brown, I decided to break them up and only let her do one color at a time. Worked like a charm! ;) 

 She is so proud of her paintings!

And here are a few other things for the nursery, including the rug I was talking about as well as my Mom and I's 1st attempt at a quilt! (More to follow on that little project!)

Less than a week to go!!! And with the forecast of many 100+ degree days coming up I think I am even more ready for this little guy to be in my arms instead of my belly!!  

Less than 2 weeks!

My goodness! I am literally in shock that this little guy will be here in less than 2 weeks!! Unbelievable the difference in baby #2 vs baby #1! Besides the entire pregnancy flying by I feel so unprepared for this guy! No nursery ready for him yet, but Elena's was done with months to go til her due date! No clothes washed/hung up ready to be worn yet - I better get on that! (at least the newborn sizes) Need to check and see if I even have any newborn size diapers! Bags for baby and I at the hospital need to be packed. Car seat, swing, changing table, diaper genie, highchair, little baby toys - all need to be ready to go! Sheesh! I think this time around I just know how much of that stuff actually gets used in the first couple of months - hardly any! So I am not too stressed, just starting to get a little antsy and realize I need to get on the ball! I also haven't even had time to think about getting maternity pictures taken of the bump (in fact my little monthly picture log stopped at about 20 weeks - whoopsie!) So here is an updated pic with Miss Elena to show you just how big this little guys is getting!

 

I am so excited, nervous, happy, anxious for my son to get here (it is going to be so hard to get used to saying that!) I just know how much our life is going to change with his arrival. I know in a couple weeks I will say how hard it is to imagine life without him but for now it is so hard to picture what our family of 4 is going to be like!  But I am so, so ready to welcome him into our family! Elena is definitely ready too - she has even started referring to him as "her baby" :) I can't wait to see her as a big sister!

Massive May Catch-up!

 May ended up being one of the busiest months ever!! So in the effort to catch up I am going to summarize all of the busy-ness in pictures! At least up to Memorial Day Weekend, then I should be back on track! May included ~

Cinco de Mayo - :)

Start of the 3rd trimester!! We are getting so close!! Had a final sonogram and he looks like he will have very large feet with long toes - just like Daddy :) He is also already approximately 4.5 lbs with 9 weeks still left to grow! Yikes - he might be a big boy!

Mother's Day - Love my homemade gifts from Miss Elena!!

Last day of preschool!!!

A very long business trip to the Cincinnati area ~ I passed a huge test that I needed for work! Whew! So glad that it is over!! (This little trip also included bad weather and an unexpected overnight stay in Chicago - with no luggage!)

A good friend's wedding - including a penguin as a party guest! (Elena even got to pet him!)

Sofia's 1st Birthday!

Fun with friends at the lake ~

and with Grandma too!

Getting to hang with my Newman softball teammates for dinner!

A couple of back yard projects for Daddy and his little helper!

(More to come on these!)

and of course I can't leave out The Month of Lindsay...

Now you can see why it was pretty much impossible to blog! :) I must say that I missed having time to blog and am glad to be (almost) caught up!

20 weeks!

Believe it or not, I have reached the 1/2 way point in this pregnancy! Woo - hoo. Too bad the next 20 weeks will probably be hot, hot, hot! :) I've been taking pictures with Elena every 4 weeks to document the bump...I just wish I would have picked a room with better lighting, or even outside, to take these pictures but now I really want them all in the same place so I guess they will just be a little grainy. Here is my 20 week picture:

 I'm not sure what happened this past week but I feel like my belly doubled in size suddenly!! I have also started to finally feel him move! :) I'm getting really excited about buying baby clothes (just ask my friends and family - they think I'm crazy!) and looking at ideas for decorating the nursery. I'm leaning towards a orange, aqua, brown theme right now! Here are the rest of the pics so far...hoping for a cute little collage for the little guy's room by the end.

Another 20 week milestone happened for Miss Elena this week too! She hit 20 weeks of dance classes and got a perfect attendance trophy! It was the cutest thing ever. She was so excited and said,"Look Mom, I got a trophy! I'm going to get a whole bunch of these, maybe 10!" :)

It's a...

BOY!!!!

We are so excited that there will be a little boy joining our family this summer!! Elena was a little upset that it's not a girl but she is warming up to the idea of a baby brudder. :)

Valentine Fun.

We had lots of fun for Valentine's Day this year! I picked up this cute mailbox last year on clearance at Target and brought it out for Elena to decorate. She loved it!

 

 We did this a week before Valentine's Day and each morning she would get up and check her mailbox and I had a fun little surprise in it for her! They included princess rings, a Hello Kitty pez dispenser, a Snow White shirt, mini plant/flower kits, bracelets, and of course a princess tiara! :)

 She got to do Valentine cards to give to her classmates this year and I asked her if she wanted to buy them or make them. Of course my little project lover wanted to make them! So I got out the construction paper, glitter, jewels and markers and she went to town. She even wrote her name on each card all by herself! 

We continued our tradition of heart shaped food by making pizza and cookies this year (Check out all of last year's Valentine Fun). I had to be out of town for work this year on the 14th so my Mom came over the weekend before and we celebrated a little early! The pizzas are so fun and Elena has a blast helping! (oh and they are super yummy too!)

and who doesn't love heart shaped cookies?? 

 This is what happened when I let Elena do sprinkles by herself! A little too much, even for her! Ha ha!

Besides eating the cookies, I think E's favorite part was playing with all the flour that was left on the table after all the baking! What a mess!  

 Valentine's Day finally arrived and my Mom made sure to take pictures for me of her little class party. :) She said Elena loved handing out her Valentines, she was so proud! And her teacher was very impressed that she made her own!

They did a really cool project with contact paper and tissue paper pieces. It made a wonderful stained glass like heart that is hanging in her window and she just loves looking at it! What a great idea!

What better way to round off the party than with cupcakes? Yum! Whew, what a busy love month!

Oh and one last thing about Valentine's Day - it marked 16 weeks for this pregnancy! (Took this picture a couple days after the 14th but you get the idea - starting to get quite a little bump already!) This pregnancy is flying by, soon we get to find out if it is a boy or a girl! I can't wait!!