Back on the trail

Last weekend the Crespo family got back to bike riding on the West Orange Trail. Jaime and I use to ride the trail practically every Sat and do about a total of 22 miles (there and back), but we haven't been bike riding since I got pregnant and I'm embarrassed to say that I was tired after 2 miles. Whew.... I had no idea how out of shape I was. We rode to Chapin Station park (which is one of my favorite parks) and had lunch there. Cristiana really enjoyed sliding down the big kids slides and swinging on the baby swings. After all that play Cristiana was tired and we headed back on the trail and back home (can't believe we actually did 10 miles total on our first jump back). She was a bit of a deer in the headlights at the beginning of the ride, I mean, new seat, helmet (which she did not want on her head), a ride on a bike, and constant moving surroundings. It was a bit much for her to take in at first, but she seemed to like it on the way back. We'll hopefully get back into riding almost every weekend which will make for nice family outings.

Happy Birthday Gabriela!

On Saturday we helped Gabriela celebrate her 1st birthday. She had a ball pit for the kids to play with as well as a Radio Flyer Trike that was a big hit for everyone, especially Cristiana. Gabriella had a really cute smash cake as well as a beautiful big people cake which were both done by one of Sonya's friends. They looked really professional. Gabriella was sporting a super cute birthday dress that was made by Cyndi (great job!). Gabriella seemed to really enjoy the icing on the cake but didn't dig in (she was also a lady as many others have been). We really enjoyed celebrating with you Gabriella.

Happy Birthday Gabriella!

I'm a BIG girl Now!

In the past few weeks Cristiana has transitioned into a few big girl items. She is no longer in her infant car seat any more; she now has a booster/combination seat in both mommy and daddy's car, and is now able to see where she's going and even likes to point out the window. The car rides have gotten a little more pleasant since the change but Cristiana still hates being restricted so after a while she usually starts to fuss but not as quickly as when she was facing backwards in her infant seat. We've also retired the ducky tub. She still fits in it, but Cristiana has been trying to climb out of the duck as well as out of the tub for a while now and we figured that bathing her just in the tub would make it easier for all of us.

Happy Birthday Jack and Charlotte

Last Sunday was a busy party day for the Crespo family. Cristiana had 2 birthday parties to attend and luckily we made it to both.

First we went to celebrate with one of the token males of our baby group Jack at Barber Park. It was a really neat park (they even had a little roller hockey rink). Daddy put Cristiana in the beach volley ball sand and she freaked out! I guess we'll have to introduce her to different textures because the other day she freaked out walking barefoot in the grass as well. Cristiana later took a long walk along the little lake with her stroller walker. I thought she would be pooped but she wanted to keep walking after wards. Jack did seem to REALLY enjoy his cake. He was a bit hesitant at first but as you see in the pictures, he had no shame after he had a real taste of the yummy cake. Thanks for having us Jack! We had a loads of fun!
Happy Birthday Jack!

Charlotte's Birthday Party was at another park in Maitland. It was a beautiful park with huge trees that canopied the entrance. The babies had tons of toys to play with including a little bounce house/ball pit. Cristiana had fun being pulled around in a wagon and of course crawling all over the mulch (that seems to be her favorite part of vising parks). Erin's mom baked the cutest bunny cake for Charlotte. Charlotte even petted it, that's how cute it was. Charlotte seemed to love looking at it and dipping her fingers in, but never dug in, such a lady (Cristiana was the same way). Thanks for inviting us Charlotte. We love you!
Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Giving Rider a Push

On Tuesday, Cristiana and I went to Mommy and me to hang out, and unfortunately found ourselves to be one of only 3 older babies that were there. The group has changed sessions and therefore most of the mommies and babies of our group no longer attend. We did get the opportunity to see Ramena and Mimi which we haven't seen since the Christmas Party at mommy and me and of course it's always nice to hang out with Melissa and Rider. Cristiana now is pushing EVERYTHING around and she spent most of her time pushing one of the walkers at the mommy and me (I had to keep her from running over the younger babies). She later decided to push Rider around the room (it was really cute). Since then she has been pushing her little Nemo car around the house which I was very surprised she could since the wheels are so slick and it could slip from right underneath her, but Cristiana can keep up with it with no problem, even wearing socks (that don't have non-slip on them) on our tile. I think we'll have a full fledged walker pretty soon.

( Thanks for our super cute shirt Allison!)

Fun w/Ava

Last week, we went to hang out with our friends Ava and Kristin. The girls were so cute together, as usual. Now that they're both so much more mobile, they will actually follow each other around and of course get into mischief (these girls are going to be trouble together as they get older). Ava and Cristiana decided to go and play in the office with some thank you cards Kristin had. They spent most of their time eating or playing together in the play room. Kristin and I were enjoying watching the girls so much that we forgot to break out the cameras and only ended up with 2 shots at the very end of the play date (in which both girls look very tired). We had an awesome time as usual and Cristiana got herself a good workout!

Cristiana's favorite past time

For the past week Cristiana has found another fun thing to do around the house. She likes to push her learning table up and down the hallway really fast as she presses the buttons to play music. I guess she likes to hear music as she strolls along the house. It's really cute. This usually goes on for quite a while until she either gets tired or something else catches her attention.

These hallway marathons have been the first time we've seen her push things around, attempting to walk. Cristiana is the type of girl that doesn't try anything unless she KNOWS she can do it. Hence she doesn't really step step behind it in an attempt to push it, she runs with it because she knows she can. She did the same thing when she first pulled herself to stand, no shakiness there, it was right up. I guess it's time to buy her a walker to push around.

Make sure to press the pause button on the music player at the bottom of the page before you watch the video.

Happy 4 year Anniversary Hunny!

On Wednesday Feb 4th was Jaime and I's 4 year wedding Anniversary. Cristiana and I took daddy out to lunch to celebrate. Who would have thought that the guy I met at a party at UM 9 years ago would become my wonderful husband and the best father to our little girl. I love you hunny and I thank God everyday for
putting you in my life. You are the best husband any woman could ever ask for (well, most of the time anyways (just kidding))! I look forward to all the years of happiness we still have in store for us and for all the children we will be able to share that with.

Cristiana feeding daddy

Happy Birthday Amelia

On Friday we helped one of Cristiana's good friend, Amelia, celebrate her birthday. The day was quite cold so Monica moved the party indoors which was a great idea to make sure the little ones didn't catch a cold. We had a great time hanging out with some of Cristiana's other friends as well as Monica and Jason's families. Like Cristiana on her birthday, Amelia seemed to enjoy mostly the icing on the cake. She enjoyed it so much that she made sure to get some in her hair. It's great to see the "west side" girls interacting at this age. What a difference! They are so cute together and Jack had all the girls to himself (lucky guy huh?). Thanks for inviting us Amelia and for letting us play with your really cool Elmo! We love you!

Happy Birthday Amelia!

1 year old!

We had our 1 yr doctor visit last week on Wednesday. Doctor said she looks fabulous and is doing great. Cristiana now weighs 20 lbs, which puts her in the 35-40% (compared to her 1st few months which she was in the low 5%) and measures 28.5 inches, which puts her in the 40-50% (compared to her first 6 months which she was in the low 10%), so our little monkey has definitely grown. Cristiana has become such a great eater, I mean she will practically eat anything you put in front of her and it almost seems as though she is a bottomless pit , she NEVER stops eating. I'm hoping she will continue to eat as well as she does and never becomes as picky as I am. She no longer is doing the army man crawl, she has finally picked her belly off the floor and crawls like an expert (thank goodness, less dirty clothes). We call her Speedy Gonzalez because she is soo quick. She pulls herself to stand up with anything she can grip onto (she even pulled herself up at a friends house using their Christmas tree, luckily nothing fell). As for walking, she will take steps with you holding her hand but she's still not confident enough to let go, but I'm sure it will happen in no time. Her repertoire of words include, mama (not used as often anymore ???), papa, baba, and uty (which means Rusty when she's calling the dog). She'll even say "hey" when she's pretending she's on the phone, which she does A LOT. She will actually grab random things and put them to her ear and acts like she's on the phone. She's grabbed remotes, socks, shoes, toys, her own hand (it's really cute). Once she laid down on her side with her play phone and pretended to talk (boy, is she a girl or what). She loves to hug all her stuffed animals and also mom and dad and says awwwww while she's doing it. She loves to feed other people her food, mostly her leftovers of course. Her new thing these days is clapping to everything. She claps to music, to the tv, after she takes a bite of food. I guess she's excited because she can actually clap hard enough now that she hears it. She still loves to make a mess and of course throw things over her shoulder with great disinterest while she's doing it (especially mommy's diaper bag). No, she's still not sleeping, I don't know when she will and yes, she still hates diaper changes and now doesn't seem to like sitting in her hook on chair for meals. She is definitely a firecracker and knows what she wants and we love her to pieces!

Weight 20 lbs (30-40%)

Length 28.5 in (40-50 %)

Happy Birthday Little Monkey!!!

On Sunday, we had Cristiana's big 1st birthday party at Phelps Park in Winter Park. God blessed us with such a gorgeous day (I had been worried that it would either rain or be too chilly for the park, but it was PERFECT!) The day started out as a crazy mess (as celebrations always seem to in our family)icing cupcakes and Cristiana's smash cake, cutting up cheese, fruits, and little sandwiches (Thanks MOM), picking up spanish pastries (thanks sis and brother in law), making sure Cristiana had a good nap, finishing the centerpieces (thanks family), and then running to the park to decorate (thanks hunny and Eric for exposing your inner Martha Stewart :P), but in the end it turned out better than I could have imagined! I expected Cristiana to dive right into her cake but I think she was a bit overwhelmed by everyone staring at her. She even cried a bit when everyone clapped as she dug into the icing (she doesn't seem to like being the center of attention, which I'm not sure where she got that from). She ended up eating mostly the icing but eventually did have a few pieces of the banana cake mom made for her.

I can't believe this day finally came. It seems as though it were yesterday she was still in my womb. Time flies so quickly and she's growing up too fast.
Thanks to all our friends who came out to celebrate with us and thank you so much hunny, Jackie, and Eric. You guys were an amazing help. Words cannot express how appreciative I am of everything.

Happy 1st Birthday mi Cha-Cha!

Congrats Reixa and Jack

This past weekend was a very busy one for us. Not only were Cristiana's festivities in the midst but my very good friend Reixa that worked with me at Boone also got married. Since the family was in town, we decided to go on our own to the wedding. Can you believe that this is only the 2nd time we have been out alone together since Cristiana was born 1 yr ago? Crazy. Though Cristiana is still going through a bit of mommy separation anxiety (she was very nervous and complaintive the entire time I was getting ready, she knew I was going somewhere) it only took her about 1 min. to get over it, and why not, I mean she had 3 babysitters (grandma, auntie, and uncle). It was a beautiful wedding held in a lakefront property which created a great romantic atmosphere.

I Love you Reixa and wish you and Jack nothing but the best. May God bless your marriage with happiness and love (and tons of kids too!).

Celebrating at Magic Kingdom

On Friday the family (My sister, her husband, my mom, Jaime, Cristiana, and I) went to Magic Kingdom to continue celebrating Cristiana's birthday. This was Cristiana's 1st trip to Magic Kingdom and you could definitely see the difference in her reaction at this park compared to her normal behavior at Animal Kingdom (when we went in October). She seemed a bit overwhelmed by all the sites, colors, and sounds at Magic Kingdom. Cristiana rode It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, the Carousel, and the Buzz Lightyear ride which she did NOT seem to like very much. The best part of the day was her interaction with Daisy Duck. This was her 1st real character interaction since she really didn't do any at Animal Kingdom in October. It was SOOOO cute. After greeting her while she was in my arms, Daisy got down on the ground and I sat Cristiana in front of her. For the past week or so Cristiana has been hugging all her dolls and stuffed animals and while she's hugging them she says awwwww.. Well, she touched Daisy's feathers and I guess she noticed she was soft like her animals and then proceeded to hug her and say awwwww like she does with her all stuffed animals. It was SOOOO DARN CUTE. I could have melted! She also gave Daisy a kiss on her bill. My sister caught it on camera just look for it on the slide show below.

Another great day to celebrate our little angel's birthday.

Celebrating at Chili's

My mom, sister, and brother-in-law all arrived on Thursday to spend the weekend with Cristiana celebrating her big 1st birthday. We started the weekend by going to Chili's to eat dinner. Eating with Cristiana has gotten more interesting lately since she doesn't seem to want to sit still in her hook on chair any more. She prefers to try and stand up and reach across the table to grab whatever it is the other person has. She spent most of dinner trying to grab everything that was around her and of course we spent dinner trying to take and keep things away from her. We did have the waiters at Chili's sing Cristiana her 1st birthday song and they brought her a little cup of ice cream with whip cream which mommy and daddy were very happy to eat for her (we haven't introduced much dairy to her because of her reflux). Cristiana even had her first taste of soda (completely not my doing since I don't even drink soda myself), my sister handed Cristiana her straw which had a few drops of soda still in it and can I say Cristiana gave a few HUGE smiles as she sipped up the few drops that were left in the straw. Don't get use to that missy, we're not soda drinkers!