The Corona Family: 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.