November 2011-So much to be thankful for!

November 3rd-8th
Jaime and Hugo hadn't been to Texas for a visit since we were there in May for his baptism, so a trip to Grandma Rosa's was long overdue.  Since the cost of flying to Texas is so expensive, Jaime and Hugo opted to go sans Mom, which turned out OK because I had to spend a few days in Washington DC for work.  Although I knew I was going to miss them like crazy, I know that its important that Hugo gets time to spend with his Gutierrez family.  The first night was rough, but I did get some time to catch up on stuff around here.  In the end, it wourked out well because I was in DC for the SWAN Steering Committee meeting on Monday and Tuesday where I presented "pitches" for new SWAN protocols.  Then, our flights back to DTW coincided perfectly so I picked up my boys right at the terminal!

Sounds like Jaime and Hugo had a great time in Texas.  I know his mom was sooo happy to get to see Hugo (and Jaime, too)!

As usual, he was a great traveler and had a great time visiting with everyone, especially all of his cousins.  Here he is with Samantha, Alyssa, Megan, Alexa and Joey (and then the same crew but plus Frankie and minus Joey). 

Unlike life in Michigan in November, Texas was beautiful this time of year so Hugo could wear his shorts and rompers and enjoy some time outside.  He really liked the buggy car at Grandma Rosa's.

Hugo came home from Texas with a new toy --- an awesome bilingual laptop!  You can tell here he loves it.

Hugo hanging out with the girls - Lexi and Megan.  He's so pretty he almost looks like a girl!

Horsing around with Frankie.  Jaime said Frankie was an awesome big cousin to Hugo ---- wrestling with him on the floor and then crawling with him and letting Hugo "chase" him.

November 10th, 2011
Despite the fact that Hugo (almost) always goes to bed in his crib at night (right around 8:00), he has usually spent most mornings waking up with me.  Because Jaime leaves for work at 4:30 each day, Hugo inevitably hears him getting ready in the morning and wakes up, ready to play.  Me, however, am NOT ready to play at 4:30 in the morning, so to save on sleep (and because I REALLY like cuddling with my little boy), he usually gets pulled to bed with me where after a little bit of bottle and rubbing his head, he falls promptly back to sleep.  I LOVE waking up with him in the morning, especially like today when he was so happy!

Playing around in the evening with his "house".  He loves this thing.  Thanks Tonya for sending it down for us!

Hugo does an amazing job with "raspberries", also known as "making fart sounds".  He has advanced from the baby version and onto full-fledged noise making by sticking his tongue out and making noise.  Here, I somehow captured it on camera.  Sorry, the picture does not come with audio, although trust me, it is quite amusing - even Hugo thinks so!

Tubby time before bed is one of mine (and Hugo's) favorite parts of the day.  He splashes around, plays with his toys and sucks on a spare washcloth (even when its all full of soapy water - yuck)!  I love to shampoo his hair, especially now that he's getting so much of it.  Here, I was able to sculpt it into a mohawk curl.

November 11th, 2011
Tonight I didn't feel like cooking and it was the uber-lucky Friday of 11-11-11, so Jaime, Hugo and I headed to Los Amigos for dinner.  Look at my happy baby waiting for his food.  Man, can that kid pack in the refried beans!  You should have seen him eating them!

November 12th, 2011
The circus is in town!  The Ringling Brothers Circus came to the Palace and so we had tickets to go check it out with the Dunn Family.  It seems that the Circus has changed a lot since I was a kid ---- way less animals and way more acrobatics, tumbling and clowns.  Either way, Hugo seemed to enjoy it.  We had great seats (especially for the price) - right in the front row of the balcony, just behind some plexi-glass.  So Hugo spent most of the entire show with his chin resting on the plexi-glass, staring out at the show in front of him.  These are some of my favorites of him taking it all in.

Hanging out with Daddy and Mommy at the show.

The tigers were a big hit. 

The grand finale!

We had a great time, ate way too much cotton candy and popcorn (Hugo included, who does now, in fact, like cotton candy) and enjoyed hanging out with the Dunns. 

November 13th, 2011
Sunday - hanging out at home, watching football.  Hugo found his new reindeer antlers and looked for some direction as to what to do with them.  He wouldn't keep them on his head (not even long enough for a picture) but instead enjoyed playing with them and broke them pretty quick.

Hugo finally has some top teeth coming in!  Since July, his adorable smile has been characterized by only his two middle teeth on the bottom --- I love it!  But alas, the day has come where his top teeth are starting to come in.  The top middle left one has already broken the skin and the right side on is surely just behind.  After he went to bed tonight, he woke up shortly later and was just SCREAMING uncontrollably.  I tried to rock him, no luck.  Jaime tried bouncing him and it didn't calm him down.  Finally, Jaime said "maybe his teeth are bothering him".  So, I gave him some Tylenol and a cold washcloth to chew on and about 10 minutes later, he was instantly better.  He enjoyed some snuggle time with Dad while he calmed down and got some relief from the washcloth.

November 14th, 2011
Monday Night Football for Green Bay means that Hugo has to wear his lucky shirt!  He was extra smiley tonight watching the Packers crush the Vikings!  Go Pack!

November 19-20th, 2011
Jaime and the boys went up to the cabin this weekend for one of their regualr "boys weekends" so it was just Hugo and I on Friday and Saturday.  We had a great time, but he obviously kept me very busy - I didn't even take any pictures!  On Saturday I took Hugo in to the Flu Shot Clinic to get his 2nd dose of the flu vaccine for this year.  Since he is under a year, the vaccine has to be given in 2 doses.  I wasn't looking forward to this because I'm always the meanie that makes Hugo get his shots because Jaime is too much of a softie to be there for it.  But Hugo was great, he smiled at the nurse when we walked in, didn't cry - not even one peep when she stuck the needle in his leg - and then smiled as we were leaving.  That was easy!  After the shot, we headed up to Howell to spend the day with Nicole and Andrea Owen - we met at Tomato Brothers for lunch and then shopped until we dropped at the outlets!  Jaime was a little concerned when it was 11:00 PM and we were still out shopping - with Hugo - but he was fine.  He was such an angel all day long!

The boys made it back from the cabin in time for Baby Edwards' shower on Sunday.  Lisa and Charlie are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Vincent, and today was their Baby Shower!  It was held at the Ypsi Senior Center and was a great chance to catch up with so many of our friends and for Hugo to visit with his little buddies Connor and Liam.  Funny how gender-segregated these things get.  Check out all the dads and boys club that was going on in the rocking chair corner.  Hugo looks like such a big boy sitting up in the rocking chair all by himself!

Love this picture of Hugo and Jaime.  Jaime was very happy to see Hugo after his weekend away, and vice versa.  Ever since Hugo was a baby, he loves to touch faces....he really studies them. 

The expectant parents to-be!  Looking forward to meeting you, Baby Vincent!

November 23rd, 2011
Like I said above, I LOVE waking up with Hugo in the morning.  So much so that it means I'm waking up way later than I normally would, or should.  Some mornings, however, I have to get up and leave Hugo sleeping while I get ready.  Today was one of those days because I had a dentist appointment at 8:20, so I had to get us moving in the morning.  Here, luckily, he stayed asleep while I got ready - it makes getting ready in the morning so much easier.  He's looking so peaceful!

November 24th-28th, 2011
It's Thanksgiving!  My parents, Tonya and the boys got into town on Wednesday night and were here all weekend visiting.  Gatlin is going through his Marine-Corps phase, and even has an authentic junior-sized set of desert digital cammies to wear.  Here, he's standing at attention.  Love him.

I have much to be thankful for, but Gatlin and Cash are definitely at top of the list.  The two of them bring me so much joy, make me laugh, make Hugo laugh, and remind me every day how wonderful of a father, brother, friend, AJ was.  I'm just so sorry he isn't here to watch them grow up with us.  There are times that they do something that I want to laugh because its so funny and cry because AJ isn't here to see it.

Here, we're getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner and Gatlin and Cash are enjoying their "kids wine" (aka, Sparkling Cider) out of actual wine glasses.  They got a kick of making them "clink" together.

While I (and my dad, surely) were looking forward to Thanksgiving Dinner with Hugo and watching the variety and amount of food in his meal, he actually slept through the entire meal.  While I was tempted to wake him up for his "First Thanksgiving", I let him sleep and it was actually nice that way because then we actually got to enjoy the meal and eat without having to keep him occupied.  Just after we finished dinner, he woke up and I fixed him a plate with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese and rutagabga.  While he ate some of everything, the green bean casserole was definitely his favorite.  (Note: Check out his bib, a gift from Tonya, Gatlin and Cash - it says "Everyone is thankful for me"!  I love it!)

This picture, a self-portrait by Gatlin, made me laugh.

Tonya being silly.  Maybe it was our wine with dinner?

Hugo hanging out with Grandpa.

Last time my mom and dad were here they found these adorable mokey PJ's on sale at Sam's Club and they bought a set of 3 - one for each of the boys.  We decided to play dress up with them on Thanksgiving night to get some cute pictures of "the Boys".  Getting Hugo dressed was easy but Gatlin and Cash were all riled up and decided to have "the Underwear Olympics" before getting Jammied up.  They were in nothing but their underwear, running fast across the living room and then doing some crazy leaps, flips, jumps, at the end.  Hugo was content sitting there watching and LAUGHING.  He defintiely was entertained.  It won't be too long and he'll be able to join in with them!  I wish I could put some pictures up of Gatlin and Cash in their Underwear Olympics outfits but they are a little risque for this public blog.

Finally all dressed --- looking so cute.  Love my boys.

Today was Hugo's 11-month birthday.  I can't believe that this time next month we'll be celebrating his one YEAR birthday!  How can that be!?!  I always try to take pictures on his monthly birthdays and today Gatlin and Cash wanted to be part of the tradition, knife and all.  Nothing says sweet baby boy like my little guy holding onto a knife and machine gun.

More like the pictures I'm used to.  Look at how big he's gotten ---- he takes up the entire changing table and is easily filling out size 18 month PJs!  Happy birthday Baby Boy.  I love you more than you can ever imagine.  The past 11 months have literally flown by.  I love you so so so so sooooo much.

On Saturday, we had appointments at the Sears portrait studio to get an updated set of pictures of the Boys.  Our last batch was from Easter (remember the sweater vest theme) and Hugo had done a lot of growing up since then.  The pictures turned out great.  One pose/outfit was in all Marine gear - gernades and all - and the second was in adorable matching blue and orange shirts.  The "memory making" part of the pictures is that just before camera time, my dad bought Cash a blue gumball, which, of course stained his teeth blue.  It made for great smiles.

The boys wear each other out.  Check out Cash's convenient (albiet surely uncomfortable) sleeping position.

Waking up happy and playing with Hugo nice.  Look at how big Hugo looks next to Cash.  I mean, Cash is a good sized kid and he's 3 1/2 and Hugo isn't even 1!  And yes, Cash and Gatlin pretty much wore their Marine Corps cammies ALL weekend.

Before heading home after a great visit, my mom and dad wanted to get some pictures of them and the grandkids.  Here's to the best mom and dad (and Grandma and Grandpa) kids could ever ask for!  Love you guys!

November 28th, 2011
My family headed home this morning and so we were back to our quiet, mellow house without everyone around.  Hugo definitely missed having Cash and Gatlin around for constant comic relief.  Jaime is trying to make him laugh by tickling his belly.

While I know he missed having everyone around, he was kind of enjoying having us to himself.  He usually doesn't have to share us with anyone!