In the midst of all this hustle and bustle, Christian continues to grow at warp speed with a personality that is all his own and a set a conversation skills that is out of this world. We both agree that he has hit a mental growth spurt that we are fully taking advantage of by constant exposure to new words, languages, colors, letters, environments and enrichment. Sometimes having kids is just like a classic novel. You learn to read them and understand them at one level then you graduate to another level and realize there's a whole new meaning to it.
I stil maintain the position that raising a toddler presents its challenges but that the root of all toddler evil is lack of patience. Nothing feels greater than to be able to sit and wait on him to come to his senses, at the same time letting him know that mommy and daddy don't have nothing but time. I used to hear my parents in my own voice, growing up and becoming wiser but ironically, as a parent, I see myself in them now. They have done things and continue to do things exactly as I would. There are some contemporary deviations but I have stuck with their tradition which is essentially what parenting is all about;
to be able to say, "take your time, Son, I'm not going anywhere." I love that.
Thank You, Tom Thumb, for making grocery shopping such an incredible experience for us kids and parents! The motorized Handy Manny shopping cart with the built in TV and viewing selections that included Handy Manny and Micky Mouse Clubhouse was AMAZING!
Sincerely,
Grateful Tom Thumb Customer
Taking full advantage of mommy with "Please, please, please, please!"
Despite winning me over with chocolate plea, all good things have to end and since we could not take the kart home Christian originally requested, mommy had to be bearer of bad news.
Making a wish at the wishing fountain for Children's Hospital (go UTSW!)
Giving his wish an extra special kiss
And away it goes!
We let Christian put this in his shopping kart but when the Mickey balloon rang up to a whopping 12 BUCKS, we had to be real with our son. Thankfully, he was in agreement that the purchase was frivilous.
Die hard "pinkles" fan
Enjoying some good eats at the best Mediterranean grill in town!
Introducing Granny to Mama Pita!
A gift card to Mama Pita is a great peace offering if you ever rub me the wrong way.
Just saying.
My big boy
On the way home with Papa
Taking Rudolf for a walk
At one of the fav spots - Milk and Cheese (aka Chuck E Cheese)
Getting into SpeedRacer character
SpeedRacer Take 2
Having a blast at Target in our PJs!!
Go COMETS!
On December 18, 2010, Damion graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in Arts and Technology with a job ready to receive him. All jokes about how long it took him set aside, very few people understand that while he had every excuse in the book to fail, he simply refused to. Despite his falling four-hundreths of a point short of graduating with "honors," Christian and I assured him, he earned this distinction many moons ago.
On our way to the big show
Ready to see daddy graduate!
There he goes...
Proud Granny
And proud mamas!
Anxious Christian :)
Some of Daddy's biggest fans :)
The graduating class of 2010
Yay Daddy!
Good buddy and fellow classmate
Waiting a loooong time to walk this stage :)
The conferring of the degrees
Before
After!
Granny proud of her baby :)
Father and son
Cousin Zna and Granny
Damion with Mom and Dad
Us
The graduate with Ma and Papa
Proud Tio and Tia
Javon Lou aka Blaq
Good buddy, Joel
Sister and dear friend, Denise
Cousin Midori and Auntie
Damion opted for a non-traditional graduation cake! The great TRON legacy lives on!
The fam
More fam
Geek 4 Life!
Yay Daddy!
Baby Ema and Mama
Mama Bear and the graduate :)
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
Our December family outing to the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord was great!
The kiddos
Beautiful displays
This has got to be the world's largest snowman
Tio and Tia sportin those fly parkas! Lol!
We had to visit Snoopy of course
And even took a picture in his house!
I had to.
The exhibit got a big approval from Christian
Simply amazing
Christian about to tackle the mini ice mountain!
Right about here he is thinking that I am gonna slide down with him. Only if I told him I couldn't, he would never go. Sooo....
Mommy had to give him a little "push" down the mountain!
Tio and Tia
Even though the whole time were were there, Christian said he wanted to go inside, we all had a great time!
We tried to take the cool picture on the sled but alas,
... Christian tends to save the best smiles for the impromptu moments.
Ma and Papa had better luck :)
It's Tamale Time!
Getting ready to mix up some great tamales from scratch - Great Grandma's recipe of course :)
Get in their guys! Put some elbow grease in there!
Christian had way,
way,
way,
WAY,
too much fun in the masa!
What a guy!
You can't tell by how nice we're smiling that we were about to get into a big...
TAMALE WAR!
Making a total mess!
But great times :)
Amanda and Martin
Cousins Martin and Fernanda working that masa.
Silly goose
Joey has been doing tamales every year since she was a itty bitty thing. She is by far, our highest producer!
The O.G.'s of tamale-making - the Tias!
Houston, we have a problem...
Tia Karen showing off her exemplary masa spreading :)
All the hard work paid off!
Even Grandpa got in their and showed everyone how it's done!
Happy Birthday, Jesus!
Mission Happy Birthday Jesus was a success and if we accomplished nothing else in 2010, we can feel great kno
wing that Christian recognizes him at a primitive but critical level. There's much to be said for that in the life of a toddler. Maybe Christian will begin to understand just who exactly we are talking to when he knows he's out of control and mommy and daddy just look up at the big sky, close our eyes and mumble a few words.
Even though we can't capture the essence of Jesus in a pretty bottle we can grab at the mall, and we can't wrap him, we can always make time to sing him happy birthday. And to a 2-year-old, this makes the most sense. So we capitalized on Christian's love of birthdays, the candle, the song, the whole shabang and broke the whole story down for him. I'm sure I've heard it somewhere before but it didn't matter; hearing a child, our child, sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, is warmer than any cup of good cocoa. And so we made our cake and with all his little cousins, sang the good song. He must have sang it about 20 times over the course of Christmas Eve and well after Christmas Day but it didn't diminish its value. As an added bonus, our family mealtime prayer was changed forever as Christian added "Jesus' birthday" on our short but sweet list of reasons to be thankful. What is cooler that than??
We do things BIG in Texas! Thanks to Grandma, this awesome, HOMEMADE and personalized stocking was made with lots of love just for Christian. There's plenty of space to add patches each year he grows. What patches will be added next year, I wonder...
Yayyyy Grandma!
Making cookies for Santa. Ssshhhhh....
Christian put his special touch on this one :)
We were just baking our little booties off this holiday break!
If you look up close, you'll see the reindeer! Christian scarfed this one down!
Ready for Christmas Eve with the familia
Christian sporting the awesome antlers he made at school
Grandpa flexing for the occasion
Christian would have made an awesome elf - he's such a great helper :)
Tio and Tia and of course, Baby Cousin
Tia and Baby Cousin, as Christian has affectionately named his cousin-to-be :)
Last year's ornament. LOL!
Cheesing with the girls
The highly anticipated, most extraordinary, and totally appropriate annual tree topping!
Me and hubby sneaking a pose
Cousin Maddie is ready for Santa
Some of our beautiful teens :)
Me, Em, and baby Stella
Kids being kids - so cool
Getting revved up for Santa
Ready for Silent Night :)
You've gotta love this time with the family
Uncle Frank feeding us from the Good Book
Cousin Nana all hugged up with Santa (aka her hubby)!
Santa throwing up the deuce!
Who is that??!!
It's Santa!!
aka Diego's Daddy!
Dishing out the good stuff to all the kiddos
Never too big to pose with the big red guy
Next Christmas will be a whole new world for these folks! Cheese Baby Cousin!
The Guillens
Some more Guillens
And there you have it folks. The most incredible pair I know tucking another great year under their belts as amazing friends, a successful couple, awesome grandparents, and the best parents.
Christian and his Ma
Posing with Rudolf
And of course...
... there will always be...
...good eats!!!
Do we look ready for Christmas or what?!
Our Santas :
R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S
We always try to get at least one person crying at Christmas!
Tia was the victim of a heartfelt card :)
The card responsible for making her cry... not the cover, but the words inside!
Christian loved his new tool workbench from tio and tia!
My baby
Look mommy! It's Thomas!
Tio is out for the count
Getting some work done while everyone relaxes
Yay Thomas!
At Granny's house with the gals
Cousins (minus Dada)
And here's Dada :)
Cousin Zna trying to look grown
Me and momma
Hubby and I
Daddy's little girls
Cousin Fel all the way from the West Coast!
Cousin Mel making some homemade goodies :)
Yummy!
Auntie and Mama
Da girls
Me and Fel were the only ones that put on our diva faces for this pose!
Hangin with Cousin Mar
What's more exciting that welcoming a new addition to the family in the year to come? God, watch over Baby Kai and instill everything good in him. Bless the mommy and daddy-to-be as they prepare for the ultimate gift.
In closing, I could write for days and still fall short of what 2010 brought me. I reached a point of being blessed this year that not only can I no longer count them, let alone write about them, I just became overwhelmed. Year after year, we ask and we receive. From being able to continue to raise a healthy child, to stable employment, education, a constant and loving family, a place to call home, and even blessings to spare - I couldn't have created a better wish list if my life depended upon it.
This Christmas I thought a lot about not just the beautiful baby-in-a-manger mainstream story we all know and love, but as a motherhood success story. And it brought me to tears on more than one occasion. How did she do it, I thought. For it to be decided FOR you that as a woman, you were chosen to bring a baby into the world that would not only change it forever, but that you would watch him grow into a man and suffer for a cause that would save millions of people you would never know? To be a poster child for sacrifice. And her sacrifice was our gift.
Most of us will sacrifice anything with the understanding that our loved ones will remain protected. But God asks us everyday to have back what we have borrowed - time, money, energy, health, our loved ones and even our children. Many times He is well within his right to just take it. And even though we're supposed to, without hesitation, give any of it back when the time comes, life is essentially what happens as we learn how to do just that. Thankfully, God grades on a curve and understands that it is humanly impossible to develop an immunity to what plagues our everyday relationships - lack of time and understanding, selfishness, complacency, and regret. The idea is to do it better - with each year that passes, with each child that we bring into the world, and with each breath that we take.
Goodnight, 2010.
*Deep breath*
On the Camera Roll
A Special 2010 At a Glance
JANUARY
Chillin 
Peaches n Cream
The infamous $12 Elmo balloon. It was for charity, but $12 nonetheless...FEBRUARY
Master Chef in training
The Sesame Street craze began in February
Sesame Street Live at the Nokia!
The boys
Ruff Ryder daysMARCH
It snowed 5 inches in March in 2010. Texas. Go figure.
All about the bubbles
St. Patty gear
Mardi Gras!
Tio and Tia surprise Christian with the WHOLE gang!
Muggin
Popsicles on a fine spring day
Meet Joe Cool
Chillaxin with Papa
Ready to catch some eggs!
Giving praise with Granny at church
The kiddos - Easter 2010
My little cure
Posing with the Gramps at Relay for Life 2010 (SMU)
God Bless Grandma
God Bless Abuelita
Thank you Jesus!
The cat pushin the kitten, as Granny would say :)
Synder Tiger 4 life homie!
Great times
April baby shower with the girls
Three ladies and a gent
Swim classes!
For some strange reason, Christian started wearing this box on his head and called it his helmet... 
Precious times with DaddyMAY
About this time and right before he turned 2, Christian had these night spells and would wake up around 3 am like clockwork for a few weeks straight. This is what Big Bird looks like at 3 am. 
My awesome Mommy's Day gift he made me at school :)
The monster truck craze began about this time
Soaking up some CNN over a bowl of cereal with Grandpa before heading to school
All by myself
In love with cake by this time :)JUNE
We took him to see his first movie for Father's Day weekend. We spent nearly the last half of the movie near the stairwell standing up but it was quality time nonetheless.
Happy 31st Birfday Daddy!
My baby and me
Uncle Nap and Tia Yoyo's Golden Anniversary - the first in our family.
Seems like yesterday that he turned 2
Attempting to blow his birthday candles
We did a construction zone theme and Christian loved it
Hangin with the boys the morning after his first sleepover :)
Too grown for his own good
Another summer stroll with Grandpa
Great times
Tia Rosie and some of her great-nieces and nephews
Happy 4th! As you can tell, this is not Christian's favorite holiday.
Cousin Ignacio in full holiday spirit aka under the influence!
The dreaded infant survival swim classes we subjected him to. You live and learn as parents and even though mommy and daddy disagree about how it traumatized our son, we do agree that he can float like no other baby!
Chillin like Daddy
Christian doesn't like fast girls but Miss Daniela did not care! LOL
For weeks, people called Christian Little Jaden (as in Jaden Smith aka The Karate Kid)From now on, he'll get braided every summer.
Just too cool
Sushi for the first time. Ever! YUM!!
Tio Jojo's Big 3-6!
Making wishes
Just tickled
My little monkey
Christian's first Circus!
He started honing in on his football skills during the summer. We're starting to think it'll be his sport of choice.SEPTEMBER
My favorite
HULK SMASH!!
Lakeside with the Gramps on a beautiful fall evening.
We took advantage of our last opportunity to feed the ducks before the cool fall came around. 
On an outing at the Frisco Square
The annual balloon festival we have officially added to our fall calendar 
Acting up with the boysOCTOBER
My baby
Tia's Big 3-1!
Christian's masterpiece
Pumpkin painting with the boys-check! Bravo Daddy, Tio Jojo and Christian!
Family fun day at the Arboretum
Christian and Tink-Tink
The Halloween crew and our Little Giant
Tia and Baby CousinNOVEMBER
My baby
On the photo set with Tio and Mommy!
And the Toy Story craze began!
Grandpa and Grandma are the best
Daddy's #1 fans
This is what Christmas is all about
Our Santa was from the hood
Can we say, first born?
All tamales are NOT created equal...
Having too much fun in the masa!
Masa wars!
Our monthly family outing to the ICE exhibit was great!
Full of holiday spiritOur little reindeer
A prelude to 2011 :)
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