Oh to be young again.....

I know many of you are like "shut your face Lina!!! Your 22." I am talking about real young like when we had no responsibilities and our main "job" was to just be a kid. I remember wanting to always be older than what I was. When I was 5 I wanted to be 10, when I was 10 I wanted to 15, and when I was 15 I wanted to be 20. There are so many times I can take back things I did to make myself grow up quicker. For example the time I stole my mom's razor and shaved my legs at age 11 or when I threw away all my barbies because I thought I was the only one that still planned Ken and Barbies wedding down to what color linens they had. There are times I wish I could just go back and be a kid again. I used to live for the Toy's R' Us jingle "I don't wanna grow up I'm a Toy's R' Us kid!" I sometimes think I still do because in all honesty life would be extremely boring if we all got rid of our inner child. What kind of parents would we be if we were always serious.
The reason for this post is because I had a moment with my husband yesterday while we were shopping for Zack's birthday party that is this Sunday. We went to Party City and having sooooo much fun with all the goodie bag toys and then we moved on to there clearance Halloween junk and you can only imagine the shenanigans we got into over there. After we finished there we decided to take a look at the toys in Toy's R' Us. There is just something about that place that can bring out the inner child in us all and sometimes in unfortunate cases the worst in us. Steven and I ran around playing with all the toys and we even almost got talked to by the manager for pinching each other with these claw toys but I diverted her by going mom style on her and asking where the new Alphie toy was. After we finished with our errands we raced to the car (Steven won by luck) and we went to pick up Zack. We are no way shape or form super serious parents but I don't think we would have acted the way we did if we had him with us. Normally we go to the stores, get what we need and get out. But it was nice to have an afternoon of silliness with my husband.
With Zack's 2nd birthday coming up on Monday I have been watching him change and he is turning into a little boy. He still has baby moments but he more aware of what he wants and who he is as an individual. I just want him to grow up and be a kid for as long as he possibly can. We will continue to tell him Santa exists and that the Tooth Fairy is the one that leaves money under his pillow. We won't scrutinize him for playing with action figures until he's 13. I just want my baby to know as he grows that being a kid isn't all that bad because I don't want him to miss out on those important years. The one's where we look back and can't believe how silly we were or how much fun we had.
Okay sorry I was having some mommy moments because I can't believe that little Gremlin is already two here is a picture I took at this time two years ago. I was very pregnant and Steven was on deployment. That little nugget whom we all love to death was still nice and cozy in my tummy. We all love you Zack! I know you can't read this yet but we love you very much. Ever since you were born you have stolen our hearts you are truly a remarkable little guy.


P.S. As Zack's Mom I have the right to post emotional stuff this weekend because I don't want him to get any bigger than the cutie pie he is and I am a little emotional right now.

In our world

Well on Monday I started the wonderful world of culinary school. I have to say I am so happy with my decision! Even though my actual cooking class isn't until Saturday at 7:45am(yuck!) I am very happy with the school in general. My student success skills course has only about 9 people in it. This makes me pretty happy because the instructor knows each of us already by name. I have also made some friends in my class and have even set up a car pool with one of them.
The biggest downside with all of this is I really miss Zack when I am gone. We are both going to just have to adjust to all of this. Steven seems to enjoy the extra time with Zack though. This really does make me happy because normally Zack is attached to my hip. So this gives them some good old fashioned male bonding.
Zack has been okay about it actually I have noticed a lot of changes in my little boy. He gets shy with new people and hides his face in my chest or behind my leg. He's just changing so much it's fun to watch. I will be posting pictures soon!

Culinary School! Here I come!!!

As most of everyone knows I am going to Culinary School. I officially start tomorrow at 5pm. It would be an understatement to say that I am excited. I feel like I am finally going to be doing what I love. Well I will be doing what I love. On Thursday last week I got my uniform for school and it all seems so real now. I have been pondering the idea of joining culinary school for years now. I didn't think I would be good at it like for some reason I had the stigma that I would have to already be an incredible cook to join culinary school. Well thanks to my sweet husband he made me realize that this is my calling. Sorry to get cheesy on you but I am really really reeeeeeeaaaaaaalllllyyyyyyyyyyyy excited about tomorrow. My cooking class isn't even tomorrow it is on Saturday starting at..here it comes....7....45.....AM. In Norfolk, which for anybody who doesn't know that is about 20- 30 minutes from where I live depending on traffic. Also for those who know me. I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON AT ALL! Never have been and never will be. I am a good at being a night owl actually I am great at it. But this is school and I will be there 15 minutes early like a good girl because like the great Ricky Bobby once said "If you're not first, you're last."
I will leave you with that.

HALLLOOOOWEEEENNNNN!!!!!

Trick or Treating was a hit for Zack. He got a lot of candy that mom and dad were sure to test each piece before giving him any of it ;). We went with our good friends Nick and Emily Froman and their sweet little girl Taegan who was dressed like a little ducky and their newborn baby boy Eli. We had such a good time and I think Zack started to get the hang of it. We are already excited for the many more Halloweens to come while he grows up. There are only a few more years where we get to choose his costume so with that said next year he will be Mario....

Pumpkins Pumpkins and Zack

As most of you know Zack was a pumpkin for Halloween. He was in fact the cutest pumpkin I have ever seen. We took him to a Pumpkin patch before Halloween just to get pics of him in his pumpkin costume with all the other not so cute pumpkins in the patch. He had so much fun that we ended up bringing home some pumpkins for our home. He had a great time picking out the pumpkins on his own and when we got to the baby sized ones he was so happy he could actually pick them up. Here are the pictures from the trip.

Busy Busy Busy

I haven't posted in awhile and I am sorry about that. Things have just been extra crazy around here and it always feels like there is not enough hours in the day to get things done. I never thought I would be so busy with school but I am and I can't wait for this term to be over with so I can go back to taking only two classes even though this means I won't graduate till end of 2012 (I hope the world doesn't end before) I just can't handle the stress of 3 classes. I am still working on my 1001 weight loss is my number one goal right now but I am still doing the surveys I am actually about to fill one out right now. If you haven't seen that blog go to linas101in1001.blogspot.com. I am having a lot of fun with it.
Steven has been busy with work as usual he works so hard and makes me proud to be his wife everyday. He will be going back to the ship real soon and I know we will miss the perks of his driver position but not too much.
Zack is his usual self he has stopped climbing out of the crib completely. He knows now that when we lay him down it's sleepy time but we only lay him down if he is really tired. So we have a little more time with him in his crib this I am thankful for. He says banana pretty well now and says dog but only when he sees a dog. You should see his reaction when Steven comes home from work he will watch him from his bedroom window saying "dada" and then run to the door to greet him. It is by far the cutest thing ever. That's about it for the update I promise I will have pics done this weekend and posted.

"Mom and Dad welcome to the Terrible Twos"

Tonight was by far one of the worst nights in all of my mommy days. Now I love Zack with all my heart but since he was 3 months old I had him sleeping in his own bed and falling asleep on his own. He has grown to not only love his bed but he used to get excited at bedtime. Steven and I were planning on waiting until he was 2 to switch him to a toddler bed because we felt that is a good age for him to understand bedtime. As of right now he is for sure not ready for that big of a step into his toddler years. Everything was going well he was waking up at 8am then taking his normal 2 hour nap at 11am-1pm and then we would get him ready for bed with a warm bath, comfy pjs, and a book then on the dot at 8pm we would lay him down to sleep and he wouldn't make a peep (most of the time). And then yesterday happened nothing special about the day just a random day but we will remember July 19th 2010 as the day IT happened. You may be wondering what IT is well watch the video below and continue reading.....



As you can see our little Zacky has learned to successfully climb out of his crib. I must say that I am actually somewhat proud of him for this little milestone. This video shows his strength and how he has learned to do something of this measure but this is NOT a good thing. He is for sure not ready for a toddler bed. Tonight was very difficult I would lay him down and then he would climb out and come after me. I repeated this 12 times until he cried himself to sleep. I am the type of mom that believes in the cry it out method and it works for us but man. Steven and I are not used to this and it'll take some time to get used. At least after the 12th time he got the idea to stay in bed and just fall asleep. I really hope he doesn't hate me in the morning. Hopefully he doesn't wake me up by standing next to my bed in the morning. And I hope he stays in his bed all night. Let's just say the baby monitor is set to high tonight. Well I hope you enjoyed the funny video. I managed to catch him today on camera and it made my day. I am very happy our little Houdini is fast asleep now. So have a safe night and goodnight from the 3 of us.

An oldie but a goodie

This was at sometime after Christmas because as you can see Zack is still drinking from a bottle and he still looks like a baby :( but yes this is probably one of our favorite videos. Enjoy!

Friends, Development, and Play

Zack being typical Zack

They love to explore everything

Zack's first best friend Taegan loves to give him hugs

He was upset because I wouldn't give him the camera

HE loves his overalls

One of Zacks many many funny faces I call this his Elvis

Hello everyone! We have been super busy with so many things. I am taking three classes this term and Steven is working hard for the Admiral. But we are never to busy to take time during our day to play with this wonderful little bear. He is growing up so fast and we trying not to blink just in case we miss something. He says "yeah" for everything and he now knows what "no" means if we offer him some food or whatever and he doesn't want it he will put his hand up and say no. It is the cutest thing ever! I know I won't be saying that very soon about the "no" word but I am enjoying his growing vocabulary everyday. He also has been very good about diaper changes. If you tell him to lay down he will lay down in position for his diaper change. He will also do it if he knows there is something in his diaper I look it as his way of telling us he is ready to be clean. This makes us very happy because that just means he is one step closer to being potty trained. I still don't feel he is ready for that big of a step yet but Steven and I are always watching for the "signs." I was thinking about what we were doing this time last year and I cannot believe how much Zack has grown in such a short period of time. He wasn't walking yet and was still eating baby foods. Now he is running and using a fork (not at the same time). He is so smart and so full of personality he acts a little more like Steven everyday. He is just developing so well I couldn't ask for a better son. We wish we were closer to our family but I hope you enjoy Zacks pictures I will be posting some more later on today of our fun weekend we have been having. Much love
Lina

The Cavemans Cave

Well we discovered something new that Zack is absolutely happy with. A cave or a tent. He absolutely loves when we get a blanket and drape it over is farmhouse door and the couch he will hang out in there all day if he really wanted to. He prefers to spend a few minutes in the cave then destroy it completely. He is such a boy. Today my mom went home and we had a great trip with her. I will be posting pictures from that as well very soon. Have a nice day.

I am sorry

Well I just wanted to start out by saying I am sorry for all the bouncing around the web we've done. I think we needed to try webs to realize blogger is our home for all our blogging needs. The main reason were back is because yes the website was a great thing the problem was they tried to charge us for more space. So I was having to delete videos and pictures just to add more and I did not like that. With blogspot it's all free until we decide to get a domain name which won't be for a very long time. So I am sorry for this bouncing around and I hope you enjoy the new/old blog.