Things Roman has put in my boot...

Since its winter out I have my boots close to the door. Roman likes to put things in them. I decided I should start to post more of the little things he does so I never forget. Just now as I decided to write this he walked over to me happily carrying my boot and about to stick the toe in his little mouth. Lucky me, I grabbed it just in time, then he came back with the second one in his mouth. EWW.. gross. He got me. Good job Roman.

The first time this happened it was magnetic letters from the fridge. I went to put on my boot and had to dump out about 7 letters to get my foot in. Today he had put his shoe inside my boot and was carrying it around. He has also put his shoes inside the cereal box. He is our little squirrel. He likes to stash things around the house. He also has a few places in the kitchen that has things of his. One drawer and one cabinet. The drawer has sippy cups and bowls and a few little food pouches that we take on the go. It also has all the pacifiers he would not take. He likes to pull all those out and test them another time, then then end up all over the place.

Those happen to be the boots that Roman loves to play with. I will say that he does like to play with any shoes that happen to be around. This is the same face he made in all 3 photos with Santa. I would have bought all three if it wasnt so darn expensive! I think its wrong how much it costs to take ONE photo with Santa. This is his first since we didn't so it last year but that's okay because he was santa last year.

Roman turned one!

I really am horrible at this blog thing. We moved to Va. Roman turned 1 year old. Tony got a new job. We drove to Va from Tx. Roman started to walk. Roman got his third tooth. Did I mention we moved from Texas? SOO I have some blogging to do about this. I will leave you with a few pictures from his 1st birthday party.

Playing with his new toy car. Seeing Tony the first time in over a month too!

Yes it does look like that candle would be fun to touch..

But its not.

Yes that happened. He was scared but had no injuries from touching the flame.

(I took the picture because I knew his hand was okay but it still makes me frown seeing it)

He recovered just fine

He was still very unsure about the cake. I think I ate more off my fingers then he did.

He would not touch it himself.

Not the first birthday cake experience we had hoped for, but it sure is memorable.

MORE posts to come!

September Update in Photos

since I have not filled in the blog world I thought I would make this post to inform my future self of the past few weeks. I think I made a few small updates, but I will post pictures from the past month now!

Roman took his first steps yesterday! I took video on my phone too and Tony got to see it minutes after it happened. I took a few pics also. We were at a tennis thing for Hunter and we later headed to the fair. He walked to my mom who was holding a chip that he wanted. He didn't get the chip, but he seemed excited about it! We had just been around another walking baby the night before.

Roman and I hung out in a park and took some 11 month pics last week

Took some pics with Grandpa Corona

Said bye to Tony as he left for his new job in Virginia

We also said bye to the Corona family too (and my parents)

He will talk on the phone.. or anything you give him

Romans reaction to the animals!

We went to Oktoberfest in Addison

Tony is so silly

We went to Grape Fest in Grapevine

We went to a bike race downtown Dallas

We saw Dr. Oz there too

We celebrated Tony's Birthday

We practiced walking, but it looks much more intense then it was.

Gotta love those food pouches! He just sucks them down!

We went to Grapevine for a town bike festival

We went to the TCU game at the Cowboys stadium

Update!

Since my eco blog so much has happened. Tony got a job offer in Virginia. He took it and he starts on Wed. He will be driving there tomorrow to get there on Tuesday. He will be working M-F in a training thing till Nov 1. So he wont be able to come back to help us move till after then.

We spent the afternoon at Uncle Joe and Aunt Karen's house saying bye to the rest of the Coronas and my Family. Unfortunately Missy and Chris are on a cruise so they will have to wait till Tony comes back to say bye. I hope they had lots of fun and cant wait to hear stories!

Roman will be 11 months old on the 3rd of October. Everyone else is so good at telling their milestones so I am going to try to remember the things he does.

• Has only two bottom front teeth. No signs of more.
  
• Loves t o feed himself mum mums in banana and veggie and plum organics food pouches which he will suck down in 5 seconds flat.
  
• He is so good at crawling I think he has no interest in walking, but he is so good at it! He walks almost unassisted but if we let go he sits. He stands often alone now and seems to not notice then he sits down.
• He claps, high 5s, waves, gives kisses, points at us when you ask him (where's mama/dada or Elly/Mia) and throws the ball for Elly and giggles at the dogs. He also talks on the phone and loves the remote. He has a fake phone that looks real and he jabbers on it often. He will talk to anything though.. lego, block, ball. He will also hand you things if you hold out your hand.
  
• He can drink out of a cup, a water bottle, a sippy cup, and a straw he can even do the camel back ones too. He doesn't drink much besides water. He will drink out of a juice box. He will also spit it out just as good as he drinks it for fun too.
  
• He loves to play with Elly even when she is not interested in him, he thinks they are playing.
• He loves other babies and points and talks to them in stores
• He is a cuddle bug and loves to hug on me and tony
• He enjoys flap books and looking under the flaps.
  
• He loves to go on walks in the stroller. I think he could stay in it all day long if I could move all day!
• He can say mama, dada, and we think he says ball and dog... but they sound like Bah and Dah. He uses them correctly so we are almost positive that's what he is saying as of tonight.
• He is wearing anything from 6 to 18 months. I would say the 12 -18 months is much roomier but not too big.
  
• Size 3 and 4 shoes but we don't wear them often he only has 2 pairs that he wears and his dress shoes.
• Size 3 diapers
• Still nursing a few times a day mostly mornings and afternoons and not at night.
  
• Sleeps all night from 8 pm to almost 7 am most nights. The past few nights it's been a little later to bed, but still early to rise!
• We are still wrapping him up (swaddling) to get him to sleep. He will go to sleep on his own sometimes. I sometimes worry this is bad and he needs to sleep on his own then we let him cry for a minute (or more) and he is out but its nice to hold him since he is getting big so fast. When he sleeps on his own its so cute because he will stick his butt in the air and tuck his legs under.

Thats about all I can think of for tonight. Tony put Roman to sleep and it will be more then a month before he can do it again. :( Night all!

Happy Birthday TONY!!

Today is my wonderful husbands Birthday. He is away in California at an interview today. He will be back soon. :) We wish him lots of luck and hope he has a wonderful day!

Thank you for being so great Tony. I have spent just about everyday with you the past 6 months and I honestly can say that I never get sick of you. There are times when I am annoyed with you of course, but I never want to be away from you for long. You make me laugh even when I want to be mad at you. I love that I laugh at all your jokes, and not just to make you feel better, its because I really think you are funny. You are so seriously silly. I love watching you with Roman. You are the best father that I can imagine. You love to play with our baby and I love to watch you. You are better at putting him to sleep then I am and you do certain things different then I do and I love that. I love that I have you to help me when I cant do it anymore. I am happy you want to be so involved with our baby. I am so excited for the things to come this next year. We will have a one year old and move to a new home in a new location. I look forward to all the trips we will take together. Hope this year is better then last year for you! LOVE YOU!

Now and Forever babe
Your Loving Wife Crystal

Roman has a TOOTH and other things

Roman listening to Grandpa Corona

He goes under!

He is okay though..

Roman with and a bunny that I had when I was a baby - so its old.

His first tooth came in last week! Its been a long time coming too! Since he was almost 3 months old and had his hands in his mouth I have been hearing how "he is going to get a tooth any day now" from everyone and their mom. My mom and mil included. I honestly thought he would but at 5 months with no teeth I started to stop thinking and for sure at 7 I had given up and thought he would just never eat with teeth and we would have to get him baby dentures. No, but really its just the cutest thing!

He is growing up so fast and I find it hard to believe the past year has gone by so fast. One year ago we were in Germany and today we are back in Texas! Roman has gone from being in my tummy to crawling around and walking and holding my hands. He giggles and smiles at strangers. He claps when we cheer for him. He drops things on the ground and watches them fall. He gives high 5s to Tony! Today he talked on the phone for the first time for real. Most times I try to catch him making sounds but the past two days he was holding things up to his ear and making baby sounds... things like the remote for the TV and a real phone. He loves his bath. He sleep around 10 to 12 hours a night. Depending on where he is and if he hears others awake before him. The other night he slept from 8 pm to 8:15 am! It was great, because it coincided with when I was sick and had mastitis. So I went to bed at 9:30 and it gave me plenty of sleep. He loves fruits and he is now eating veggies without fruits mixed in. He eats 2 to 3 jars of food at a meal. He is nursing still about 3 times a day. He loves the pool too. It has been so hot out and we dont have easy easy access to a pool so we have not been that many times this summer. He is wonderful when we are out and about. I am starting to try to have a schedule. The only time he seems very calm is in the car seat and I worry about that! Today we went to a thrift store and he played with a gross dirty toy that I know is gross and dirty but he wanted to play with it so bad that I just let him do it. I also have made a pledge to buy only used clothes for Roman and try to get his toys the same way. I started out with a cute T and a little button up sleeper/outfit. I will post my finds too! They were $3.50 total!

My update from Germany till last month

This is the post I started last month.

Tony's Grandma Corona, Tony, and Roman

Rena, Brooke, Roman, and Payden.

Noah, Cohen, and Roman

I have been neglecting the blog since we moved back. We got back to Texas on March 30th. It was great to be back and see family and friends. My dad, my little brother Hunter, and Missy got to hold Roman for the first time. (In that order) Our parents were at the airport to greet us and we went to see Hunter at Tennis practice and Missy came over after work. Roman did great on long trip over. He was all smiles when I got him up at 5 am to leave our hotel that we had been in for a few days. He is such a great little baby.

Mid April we drove south to see my grandma Cleo in Alamo, Texas. We stopped in Austin and visited the capital building and saw my friend Hernan too. We went over the border to visit Mexico for a few hours. We went even farther south to South Padre Island where Roman put his toes in the water and walked on sand for the first time. We visited Fort Hood on the way back to Dallas. My mom hosted a baby shower/welcome home party that Sunday we got back. We headed up to Wisconsin the 29th of April. We drove 12 hours the first day and got to Illinois where we spent the night. Roman was WONDERFUL. No tears or fits at all. He slept well in his car seat. He also played very nicely when he was awake, he would play with toys and look out the window or play peek-a-boo with whoever was sitting in the passenger seat. We stopped every 3 to 4 hours to feed him and never a time that day we had to pull over more often. The next day we only had a 4 hour drive to Milwaukee and we did have to stop once. Roman and I met Tonys Grandma Corona. She was wonderful and very sweet. She kept telling us how nice it was to see us and she told Tony I was beautiful and that Roman had a perfectly round head. Those last memories are very sweet. She passed away less then a week after we saw her and because we were in Iowa we just drove back over to Wisconsin for the funeral and were able to see his family again. His parents and sister also flew up. I am thankful to have met her and to have those memories to share with Roman of his Great Grandmother Corona. We spent most of our nights at his Grandpa Hahns House. Diane and I got to watch our shows and talk about Young and the Restless together. It was great to spend time with his moms side of the family. We went on a tour of Lakeside Brewery in the 3rd Ward in down town Milwaukee. They were great, it's a small microbrewery but they made a bunch of beers and on our tour we got to try 4 different kinds each. I think we almost got to taste them all between the two of us. Also it was only $7 and they are right on the river walk so you can sit/stand down and just enjoy the view all you want! Roman was a hit with all the people on the tour of course because he is so cute and well behaved. We went to his cousin Chris and Jarvis house. They have an awesome lakeside home that is home to them and their 50 some animals, including a dog, a cat, some goats, fish, chickens, and a bunch of other different kinds of birds. They are about to move to home with a ton more space and they hope to add some more animals to their family. I can't wait to head back there! We also stayed with his Uncle Ted and Aunt Betsy in our own section of the house they had built for her parents. It is separate living quarters that is attached to the house with its own everything. The Corona side came over for a Tuesday night gathering and it was also great to meet everyone that I had not met before. They are all so fun to be around. Made me feel part of the family. We spent our last night in Wisconsin at his Grandpas lake house and that was fun too! I forgot to mention Roman had his first taste of "real" food at Ted and Betsys. He had rice cereal then at the lake house he pulled himself on the floor "army crawl style" for the first time. I got if on video the second time. He had some more cereal that night too. Then on the way to Iowa we hit up the House on The Rock. All I have to say about that is its CRAZY> a crazy place with the most organized collection of hording I have ever seen. If you have not been it for sure is something else. It took us almost 3 hours to walk through it all and even at the end I was rushing because I had to pee and I think I was getting overwhelmed with all the stuff. So we missed a large part of the doll and gun collection. Darn.

On to Iowa. We stopped at the Field of Dreams, which I hear is about to be sold by the owners. I left Tony to pick a trinket for our collection of travel things - and he come back with a large mini bat. I guess it is the perfect thing, but at the time I am thinking what are we going to do with that!? I still dont know. I guess I like it more now. We spent the first two nights at my Aunt and Uncles house. *(Buffys parents - aka my favorite cousin) Tony met about 30 family members on Saturday night and that wasnt even all of them. The next day (Mothers Day) we went to visit my moms oldest sisters kids and he met the last part of the family. There are still two cousins he has not met but I think he met/saw again almost 40 people of my moms side of the family. That was so nice, its so large but it was great to get people together. One cousin even drove 4 hours with her husband and two girls! She got to see her siblings too. We spent one night at my grandparents house and then we drove to Wisconsin for the funeral and came back the next day. Then the next few days we moved every night. We saw my Dads sister in Bettendorf and she took us on a tour of the Quad cities. Then we headed to Iowa City to visit my Dads brother and his wife. Then we went to the city where I was before we moved to Texas. Tony saw both the houses I lived in in Iowa and we even saw a house my parents lived in on the Mississippi River too. We stayed with a family friend in Ankeny and had dinner at another. It was a whirlwind of a trip but great that we could do it together and we have the friends and family to see and the time to do it.

He is so lucky to have met all his Great Grandparents in the past 2 months. We have done so much. Tony is still looking for a job. Our next trip is to go to San Diego for a Military Academy Job Conference. We will stay with his Aunt Kathy and Mike and I have a good friend in Los Angles that I hope to see too! He has a few leads and he has been networking like crazy the past few weeks. He has been applying for so many government jobs in the past months and we are just waiting to hear things. We have planned for this, but its still weird to be staying with our parents. We are so thankful they have opened their homes to us. It is a major help. So much has happened in the past two months and Roman is just the happiest baby. I hope will adjust to much less travel in our life when that happens. All I know is that he has been amazing meeting all the new people and moving around so much the past 2 months and I couldn't be happier. (I guess if he slept all night that might make me happier, but I can't blame him for that)

I am still nursing him and I don't think the past few months would have gone so well if we were trying to heat up bottles and have the right formula on hand. I don't see stopping anytime soon either. I am so happy we made it to 6 months only nursing. He tried bananas for the first time last week and we will try avocados soon! Then I bought a jar each of earths best organic sweet potatoes and pears. The first two I will just mash up the fruit in a bowl. I want to steam and puree my own stuff. untill we have our own space I might just buy organic baby foods. I haven't been using the cloth diapers since we got back but I do want to start up again. I am wondering how the ones we had will fit him! We have his 6 month appointment and shots tomorrow. So far I think he is still a little over 18 pounds and around 26.5 inches long. I have so many pictures from the past few weeks I will just put a few.

Thats all our stuff

Family Photos at the Arboretum

Roman's First Easter

Great Grandma Montross

goodbye Germany

The time has come for us to leave Germany. It is bittersweet and very unreal. I have said farewell to new and old friends and it just doesn't feel like I might never get to see them again. My time here has gone so fast. I know I have written this before but I just can hardly believe its been almost 3 years. We have also not been home to Texas since last year too. We will be returning almost a year to the day! With our new family to start a new life. We have been staying in a hotel since Monday, when our movers took all the rest of our things and packed them up in those crates. So much has happened since I met Tony almost 5 years ago. July 20, 2005 we met and I knew he was special. I am so very thankful for my life. I have been able to travel more places in such a short time then most people can even hope to see in their life. This only makes me lucky to have had the experiences. I feel like its my duty to document everything in a photo. I love taking pictures. I always have. I was always annoying people to get them to smile for the camera. I have rolls and rolls of film prints to prove it. What ever would I have done without digital! Much cheaper for my hobby. We leave on Tuesday morning and I am almost positive I will shed a few tears. I remember the day we flew over here June 3, 2007 and arrived on the 4th. That day was crazy. Tony had booked my tickets under Corona to be sweet, although my passport still said Montross (*Until just this year). So we had some troubles at the ticket desk and he made it seem like I could not fly. I am pretty sure this is a huge deal, but he changed my name on the ticket. Then my carry on bag was too big and I had to rearrange it while trying to hold in the tears. It was such an emotional day!!! I hope our bags aren't too big this time! Tony thought we had 70 pounds and it turns out its 50. We have many more bags this time, plus a car seat and stroller. We still have to make sure they will all fit in our rental car.

I have a few pictures from our last days here

We needed to simplify... still do

Roman on the floor on moving day

Trash

Watching Tony

Last walk in our town

meeting and saying goodbye to Roisin and Pat

Camden and Roman Playdate