Mimsy's Birthday, splashes, and goodbye swing!

This weekend was great! Friday night started off with a yummy dinner at Rosie's with my cousin Zach and his wife Lea. They are always tons of fun and we all laughed til we hurt. Saturday we celebrated my moms birthday. Our birthdays are one week apart so this weekend in many ways really resembled last weekend which was fine by all of us! I got up super early to pick up my Mom's petit fors at Victorian Tea room. I quickly realised that I should of ordered a cake instead. They were just really not what I expected. We have always been SUPER happy with their yummy cakes in the past but I guess it just wasnt my day. So I went ahead and purchased them anyway as I was really pressed for time. Then I did the only thing I could do. Drum roll.....................I purchased a cake from Wal-mart. I know, whats the freaking big deal your thinking? Well....my Mom is a cake snob..BIG TIME....we are all very down to earth people but I suppose everyone has their thing...mine is photography from my modeling days ..I hate crappy or even mediocre photography...then as I've mentioned theres Chris with his Hallmark card snobbery lol its all kind of funny...anyway..I found a seriously adorable polka dot cake from wal-mart ..so I just prayed and went for it. I figured we could start with the two dozen petit fors first then move on to the "normal" cake afterwards and pray she didnt know it...My mom is a funny woman , I love her to pieces shes sometimes harsh but its very endearing and she wouldnt hesitant to ask me "What the &%$% is this ^%$#?? LOL I headed home to get my hubby and baby ready. Chris and I decided to spend some time cleaning and moving furniture around in an effort to be officially rid of "the swing" dun dun dun...by night fall. This past the time nicely and before we knew it we were headed out the door for Mom's Birthday.We decided to try a new Mexican restaurant this year and were super pleased. The food was fab and we had entirely too much fun posing like the pictures on the wall. We filled up on fajitas and petit fors and never even cut the cute infamous Wal-mart cake. We all decided that we would go for a swim at Aunt Shanes afterwards. Chris loves to swim and hasnt goten to all year so I was glad that we were going even though I'm not ready to be in a swim suit yet I enjoyed watching Kal-el get to put his little feet in the water. Zach and Chris were so funny in the pool. I have hysterical pictures to prove it but my husband threatened my life if I post them. After swimming we dropped some furniture off at Zach and Lea's new house. I'm so happy for them their first home is really neat! Then it was time for us to head back home. Mom, Dad, and baby were way tired :) When we got home we fought the urge to put fetch the swing from storage and put the dang thing back together but Chris pulled a super parent stunt and was like "no we must do this tonight's the night". So we gave it our 100% AND ..a need another drum roll here...........................KAL-EL SLEPT IN HIS CRIB ALL NIGHT!!!!!!! Ok so he got up 3 times but we couldn't be happier ..he woke up scared we took turns walking into sooth him and he finally got the hang on it ..in one night. My hubby is awesome for being so determined I may have given in had it not been for him. Needless to say we are both very pleased and Mommy is getting a new bookcase in our bedroom b/c now there is NO pack-n-play and no swing and plenty of room. What are great place to store my culinary mysteries like the Fudge cupcake murder and the keylime pie murder. Shut up. Life is great :)

Birthdays, Bumbos, and Baby food

This weekend was great! I only wish it were longer. Saturday we had an early celebration for my 27th Birthday which is this Tuesday. When we have a birthday in our family we almost always go to Fiesta Mexicana and have Victorian Tea Room almond birthday cake! This year was no exception to this tradition thank goodness lol..I always love spending time with my family and this year we have an extra member..Baby Kal-el. He has brought so much joy to all of our lives and I'm so proud to be his mommy. He had a great time socializing with all of us. I feel so blessed that all of my family esp my grandparents are alive and well. I'm really treasuring these times. I received such thoughtful gifts. My husband almost always gets me a beautiful new pair of heels for my birthday. I adore shoes but i don't splurge on expensive ones but every so often so I look forward to July every year. The heels he got me this year were super HAWT toe cleavage and all lol! And of course it would not be a birthday without cards from him that ALWAYS make me cry. I think he does this on purpose! Sometimes Chris can be of few words but he is such a card snob. Its hilarious. He will only buy Hallmark and it MUST read perfectly for the situation. But the best part is the heart felt words that he writes in them. Melts my heart into little pieces. This year I cried an eyelash off b/c he also wrote an extra card from Kal-el to me. Too sweet. After the birthday dinner we headed home and watched some movies.

     We got Kal-el something this weekend that he loves and I think we will get alot of use out of. It's the Bumbo chair. It helps babies learn to sit up on there own. He is already really indepenent and ahead of the curve in a few things we thought we would see if he would like this little chair. He sat in it for a long time yesterday and was still not ready to be taken out but he was starting to slouch so we removed him. In food news my sweet guy now eats and loves apples. This was his baby food of choice for the entire weekend. Well he has only had two kinds but I kind of think he digs the apples a little more than "nannas". Don't even ask me about the imfamous swing and how the transition to the crib went. I'll plea the 5th! LOL Lastly I was reminsing on some old photoshoots that I've done over the years and I ran across one that was totally Birthday appropriate ..enjoy!

The Swing

We have a small delima here. Kal-el will only sleep in his swing. Which is about to pose a real problem the more he grows. He is almost at the maxim weight for the swing and his little feet are almost hanging out over it. We have tried everything. Chris and i decided that a few weeks after his operation we would let him sleep in his nursery in his "big boy crib". Well that has NOT been going so hot. Granted its only day 4 of this feat but he is really resisting this change. We went to buy him a brand new mobile with all kinds of special features. We found one that we liked really well and forked out more than we wanted to for it in hopes that this was the answer we had been searching for. In addition to this over priced mobile that playes Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, nature sounds and womb and heart beat sounds it also shoots projections of cute animals on to the ceiling in an array of beautiful lights. We also have another apparatus that makes his crib vibrate. Yes, I'm serious. Still, he will not lay in this world of fun for longer than 30 min. He loves it at first, he will lay there and "talk" to all the objects then when he realizes that we are gone and this is all designed to lure him to sleepy land he has a come apart and freaks out. So far in the battle of baby vs parents superbaby has managed to take the victory every night this week. We start out strong but the we get sooo tired of the up and down and not getting any sleep that we end up carrying him back to the trusty swing that sounds like a cross between a groaning beast and squeaky door due to the weight its holding. Not to mention the thing BARELY even swings now. I know that we just need to keep at it. Hopefully this weekend we will get a schedule down then its bye bye swing!

Gone bananas!

We let Kal-el try some banana baby food tonight and he LOVED it. He even cried when we pulled the spoon out of his little mouth! We were really surprised that he was able to get it down so well with him being so young , but apparently he was ready to progress to baby food or at least bananas! He is so funny to watch. His personality is like both of ours. He is not laid back in the least and he's very independent and observant of what all the "big" people are doing. He wants to be sitting up looking at things constantly and gets very angry if we lay him on his back where he cant see the world. He is also babbling more and more and he mimics so well. Now that we know that he really liked one food we will need to keep him on it for a week before incorporating something new just to make sure there are no allergic reactions. Next week.....Apples!

Apples and Bananas..yum!

Kal-el's doctor appointment went really well today. He's operation site looks awesome and Dr. Melvin says you can't even tell that he's had surgery. Music to our ears! In other great news we were also told that we could go ahead and let him try applesauce or banana baby food instead of waiting two more weeks. How exciting! I can't wait to see what his taste and preferences are even though I'm sure the first few feedings will more than likely end up on his clothes, chin, the floor, me, Chris, the dog etc LOL..

I love you!

I talked early when I was a baby. VERY early. In sentences. If you know me I'm sure you have absolutely no trouble believing this. Well for the past 3 days now my baby boy who will be only 4 months old the 20th of this month mimics me saying "I love you" perfectly. There is very little question as to what he is saying. I'm going to try and capture him doing this and put it on video if I can figure out how to post it! You wont believe it until you hear it. It's precious. I've tried other phrases and simple one words like "mama" and "dada" but he only shows a preference for the phrase " I love you". Too sweet. We head to the doctor tomorrow for his post op follow up. Thank God we were able to see his pediatrician here instead of having to drive back to Birmingham. I'm going to ask the doctor if we can go ahead and start him on some simple solids. His 4 month immunizations are on the 23rd of this month and he told us we could introduce some simple fruits and veggies at that time. So I'm kind of hoping he'll give us the go ahead since its less than a 2 week difference and Kal-el already shows interest in food and likes his rice cereal. Can't wait to see how much he weighs now!

Kal-el's first 4th of July

Our family had a wonderful 4th of July. It didnt go exactly like we planned though. Instead of going over to Aunt Shanes house and enjoying the pool we cooked over at our house and ate next door at my grandmothers. Chris is awesome on a grill! We enjoyed the best food I've had in awhile. My mom made her delicious blueberry cake with cream cheese. It did not disappoint. I felt bad for Kal-el who only had yucky formula to dine on LOL. But he got lots and lots of attention so he was more than happy. He wants to be held all the time. We passed him around so much he's probably sore :) I'll be glad when he's old enough to enjoy the fireworks! Chris and I had a chance to go out to a friends for a get together after we spent time with the family. I really enjoyed us being able to have some time to ourselves but we both missed baby K and by the end of the night we were ready to be home! Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th as well!

PostPartum Fitness..or lack thereof :)

Should of known the minute that I got preggars that the way I like to eat could pose a problem! Let's just say I was more than happy not to deprive "us" of anything! lol This was a joy UNTIL the day after birth I still looked a good 4 months pregnant or more. It was explained to me that this was very common for women who had given birth via C section and I was assured the swelling would go down in 2 weeks. Well much to my pleasure it did however much to my demise at that point I just looked FAT. I was no longer pregnant and had no excuse. I know, I know, I had just given birth and was being much too hard on myself, BUT the whooping 75 pounds I gained during pregnancy on my 5 foot frame made it impossible for me to even feel good must less be happy about my appearance. The first few weeks I decided that I was just going to focus on the most precious gift that God has even given me THEN try to tackle my new plus size girth! I ate smaller portions and breastfeed and lost 45 pounds in the first 2 months without really having to work at it. I was thrilled! I started back to work when Kal-el was 9 weeks old by then I had lost another 5 pounds. So here I am 3.5 months postpartum and I have lost 62 pounds as of this morning! This last month I've tried harder than ever with the diet part..I've been low carbin it, which is how I would always diet when I was modeling and it always has done wonders even though I walk around salivating and wanting to hump bread LOL! I have now decided that to finish loosing the rest of my baby weight and tone up I'll need to incorporate some exercise. I want the remaining pounds off faster and I think this is the only way. I plan on shooting a few more times even though I technically refer to myself as retired. I at least want to do it for fun and having a goal in the near future will help me stay motivated. My mom and I now walk 3 miles a day to together, lots of hills, really kicks my butt. I hope to work up to alot more but there are 3 very steep hills on our walk and I can already tell its helping with the toning process. Last night we carried Kal-el to Delbert Park and walked there. It was great, he enjoyed it so much! Here are some pics of our walk and I picture of where I hope to be back at within 4 months..Wish me luck!

Oops!

So today I realised that I have yet to have Kal-el's three month pictures made. I need to move fast b/c he will only be 3 months for another two weeks. I feel terrible for letting this creep up on me but I completely understand how this happened. The week that he turned 3 months was the week we were in Birmingham with his operation which thank God went very well. We feel so blessed that he hasnt had any complications and has healed beautifully. He had an inguinal hernia, which is very common in little boys but it hurt me to look at it even though the doctor assured me that he was in no pain. I found it changing his diaper one day. I almost fell out. So of course I do what i always do and thats get online and consult web md ...yes i'm aware I'm neurotic ...My husband never fails to let me know this lol..BUT in my defense I rarely misdiagnose with the help of my trusty Internet services...I love all things medical I think I'm in the wrong field...anyway...he's perfectly fine now ..which brings me back to my current dilemma ..WHO IS GOING TO TAKE MY CHILDS PICTURES!?!! Yes I'm being dramatic ...which I'm also reminded of often ...can't help it :) Everyone thats worth shooting with is booked solid for the entire month of July..so do I wait til hes 4 months old? Then do another set at 6 months...or just take cute pics at home until hes 6 mons ...Or lastly take him for the good 'ol el cheapo cheesy mall photos for his 3 mons and again do his professional ones at 6 months!? I'm not sure but I'll have to come up with something fast. He is getting sooo big. Today at lunch i went to try to find him a 4th of July outfit. This child is already in 9 month clothing. I cant get over me having such a big boy! He looks just like my husband...Chris lovingly calls him "white Chris"...it cracks me up..they are soo sweet together! We plan on spending the 4th at my Aunt Shanes house. The whole family will be there. We hope to BarBQ all day and swim. I can't wait to talk more about my crazy loving family...they are all characters esp my Mom who Kal-el calls Mimsy! Well he doesnt call her anything yet but he will lol...Here is Kal-els 4th outfit cant wait to see him in it!

Intro to us

Hey everyone! I'm Lauren Borquez. I'm brand new to the wonderful world of blogging and can't wait to share a little about our life. I been told more than once that we need a reality show. I find the statement a little silly but I'm happy that most days are never dull! I'm a "retired" glamour model, a wife, and a brand new mommy. My husband Chris is from Portland Oregon but we call Tuscumbia Alabama home for now. We are a diverse family made up of various ethnic backgrounds. I'm sure that we do stand out a little in a small southern town but i dont mind it at all. I have a psychology background so I love the differences in people. We pride ourselves on being compassionate and very tolerant of others. My family is my life and I am so blessed to have them. I adore my new title of mother. Our son Thomas Kal-el Borquez was born of March 20th,2009. My husband and I are crazy about him. We are calling him Kal-el. His first name is after his greatgrandfather who I call "Poppa". His middle name is after Superman ...lol yes thats right. Chris had to talk me into that one at first but now I love it. Its unique and it fits him perfectly! He's a big boy weight and height wise. He certainly didnt get those traits from mom! I look forward to sharing our awesome sometimes crazy life with you all. So stay tuned for many updates from mom, dad, and supa baby :-)