Wordless Monday...

Olivia's birthday party...

Even though Olivia's 2nd birthday is not until July 17th, we celebrated it today to prevent issues with my due date (July 23rd). Iggy and I decided that it was best to have the party ahead of time so that Olivia wouldn't miss out on it because of her little sister being born, considering this will be the last party that will be exclusively for her. Since baby Gaby will also be a July baby and they are so close in age, we probably will end up having shared parties....

So...the party was held at Busy Bee Kidz, an interactive play area that we frequent, and it was great! It was Mickey/Minnie themed and everything turned out so beautifully. Olivia had a blast with all of her little friends; all the kids played, enjoyed the party and ate tons of yummy food.

Also, Olivia got wonderful gifts and was fascinated by people singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She blew her candles and was so proud of her accomplishment. It was such a great party and I'm happy to know that Olivia will have great pictures to look at when she can finally understand what a birthday is all about.

Isabella's 2nd Birthday!

After the baptism this morning, we went to the Miami Children's Museum to celebrate Isabella's 2nd birthday. Isa turned 2 on June 20th and her birthday party was held today, along with a celebration to commemorate the baptism.

Olivia had tons of fun playing at the museum and spending time with her good friend Isabella and her cousin Erika, who also attended the party. I also had a great time talking to my friend Rosanna and all her family and friends. The food was great, the cake was delicious and the party was so much fun for everybody!

Happy Birthday Isabella! We hope to share many more birthdays with you!

Here are some cute pictures from the birthday party!

Diaz sisters' baptism

Today we attended Isabella's and Alessandra's baptism at St. Edward Catholic Church. These two little girls are the daughters of our good friends Hugo and Rosanna Diaz, whom I have known for quite a while.

The ceremony was held this morning at 10am and although it was brief, it was very beautiful. I thought it was so cute to have both sisters baptized on the same day. Isabella is 2 years old and baby Alessandra was born about a month and half ago.

All family and friends were very happy to share this moment with the Diaz-Salvioli family.

Thank you God for all your blessings and for these two new catholics! ;)

Michael Jackson dies at age 50!

Today, the world is certainly shocked by the death of Michael Jackson, one of the biggest pop icons, who was found dead at his home in Los Angeles. I was in the car, listening to the radio when the news came out that Michael Jackson had just gone into cardiac arrest. I was shocked to hear about the heart attack, but even more shocked when minutes later it was announced that he was indeed dead.... I couldn't believe it..

I immediately called Iggy (who happens to be a Michael Jackson fan) and he was speechless. He couldn't believe it either....he checked online and discovered the news to be true....

All news channels are talking about Michael Jackson today and how the "King of Pop" died at such a young age and so unexpectedly. Rest in Peace Michael. The entertainment industry will sure miss you!

Today, actress Farrah Fawcett also died after a long battle with cancer... that was also a sad story!

Wordless Monday...

Father's Day weekend...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend, which we spent in Naples, FL, hanging out at the beautiful beaches and enjoying the great weather. Iggy, Olivia and I left on Saturday morning and spent a great day sun bathing and enjoying the water. After a long day at the beach, we stayed at the Hilton hotel and spent a while by the pool as well... it was so much fun!

On Saturday night, my parents, sister and niece joined us and we went to have dinner together. This morning we all had breakfast together and spent some more time at the beach. It was so good to get away for the weekend and even better to spend time together. Happy Father's Day to my dad and to my wonderful husband! I love you both!

Olivia is 23 months!

Our sweet baby girl is already 23 months, so in just one month we'll be celebrating her 2nd birthday... it is just amazing to see how fast she has turned into a little person with a mind of her own. She is unbelievably smart and funny and makes my day every day.

Olivia talks so much, she can compose 3 and 4 word phrases and can have a conversation with me. She is very good at pointing out what she wants and knows how to get it too. Olivia is such a happy child; she is always smiling, playing and just being funny. She is also very athletic and loves to exercise. Her cartoon idols are Mickey Mouse, Barney and Dora; it is so cute to see how excited she gets when she sees this character.

This year, we will be having a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party, which we'll celebrate a few weeks before her actual birthday due to the fact that my due date is right around that date and Iggy and I don't want her to miss out on her birthday party. The party is scheduled for June 28th and we have invited a bunch of friends and family.

Olivia is also getting better at accepting the idea of being a big sister. She rubs my belly and kisses it all the time, and when I ask her "who's in there?", she says "Gaby"... it's too cute. Also, she starts screaming "Gaby, come out!".. I will get that on video on post it soon.. it's so worth watching! ;0)

We are so blessed to have such a good child in our lives and thank God every day for allowing us to be her parents!

Wordless Monday...

Olivia's new haircut

After giving it a lot of thought, we decided to cut Olivia's hair. I thought it looked horrible and messy and I finally convinced Iggy to let me take her in for a much needed haircut. She looks so cute with her short hair and it looks so much cleaner on her.... I think it was a good decision! I've attached a picture of her being silly and showing off her new do!

Dinner with the Perez-Viloria family

Tonight we were invited to a dinner party with Iggy's aunt and cousins. They happen to be visiting from Venezuela and are staying in Palm Aire (about 30 min from our house). Iggy's aunt Graciela, and two of her daughters (they are 6 siblings) are here shopping for wedding stuff since one of them is getting married this coming September. They are the daughter's of Iggy's uncle Ricardo, who is also Iggy's godfather. We had such a wonderful time and ate some yummy food. The girls were fascinated with Olivia and they had so much fun seeing her play around and be funny....
It was a great night and it's always great to get together with family.

Olivia meets Barney

Today was a special day for Olivia since she "finally" met Barney... Busy Bee Kidz (an interactive play are, where I usually take Olivia) was having a special Character Day and the guest of honor was Barney, who happens to be Oli's idol. Barney came out and sang a few songs and the kids were able to dance along for about 1/2 an hour...it was so much fun, even for the adults that were present.
Olivia felt like she was dreaming and kept wanting to be close to Barney; she got to kiss him and even took pictures with him. The pictures didn't come out that great because I was focused on Olivia having fun rather than taking pictures. I added a couple anyway...

Olivia update: she's feeling better!

For those of you who have been following my blog, I wanted to report that our baby girl is doing much better! I'm so happy she's finally over the worst part of her cold (or whatever she had)... She no longer has a fever and is slowly getting back to her old self...
She is still on antibiotics for another 6 days and she's also taking a decongestant daily. She has been sleeping very well and her face looks happy again! She's still a little whiny, but that's slowly coming to an end as well.
Also, her appetite is getting back to normal; this morning she drank her bottle and even ate some blueberries and fish crackers.
The decision about daycare is now definite.. she is NOT going back for now... maybe in a couple of year! ha ha!
Thanks everyone for your concern and for asking about my baby... I'm so happy now!

My poor baby is sick!

Well.. I should say my poor baby is STILL sick since this is day #6 of her not being herself.

It all started with a little fever on Thursday, which I sensed right after I picked her from daycare. On Friday morning she was feeling better and didn't have a temp anymore so we took her to daycare. When I picked her up she felt warm and then really hot! I took her temperature and it was about 103+ degrees, which is pretty high. I gave her Tylenol and it went down; she had an "ok" night...

Saturday morning, she was hot again, this time about 102 and I could tell she was not feeling well. During the day, she seemed to get better and even played with her cousin for a couple of hours but then that night, she got very sick again and the whole day Sunday she felt like crap, even refusing to eat or drink anything; her eyes were glassy, her cheeks were red and so were her lips... it was bad! I even thought of taking her to the ER, but then we spoke to her doctor and he said to wait until the next day and come in for a consult.

So yesterday morning we took her in to see her doctor and he immediately detected a very bad throat infection, congestion, fever, etc. Olivia was crying the whole time and I felt so bad seeing her suffer like that. She was prescribed antibiotics and a decongestant, which is supposed to make her feel better within 48 hours...she seems to be reacting well to the medications...

This has been such a horrible experience, especially since she has never been sick. Iggy and I have decided that it's best to take her out of daycare for now and maybe wait until she's ready for VPK. We will probably be going back to our babysitter, which happened to be awesome! I'm confident that this is the best thing we can do for our baby right now since we really don't see the need to put her through all this sickness....oh well!

Wordless Monday...

Roger Federer wins the French Open!

Today is an exciting day for tennis fans since Roger Federer finally won the French Open title. This is a very historic moment in the tennis world, not only because he has won the title, completing his career grand slam (winning all 4 majors), but also because we has tied Pete Sampras for the all time most majors won, with a total of 14 titles!

It was great to see him win and I really enjoyed every second of the match. It was a very emotional moment for Roger Federer and he is such a great athlete! I just love this sport!

Cirque du Soleil: SALTIMBANCO

Despite the horrible rain and Olivia being sick with a fever, Iggy and I went to see Cirque du Soleil's SALTIMBANCO, the show that's in town until tomorrow. I had bought the tickets a couple of weeks ago and was excited to see the performance.

The show's music was great and the whole thing was very colorful, which was very nice. Also, all the acrobats and gymnasts were very impressive. In addition to it being a great show, I liked this venue a lot better than the one they usually put up in Miami; the fact that it was held inside an actual arena, made it a lot more comfortable for the audience and the views were a lot better. All in all, it was a great show, maybe not as fancy as other shows by Cirque du Soleil, but still very artistic and entertaining.

I was happy to get out and enjoy such a great show....

What a (horrible) week!!!

This week was very rough and I'm just exhausted...

It started off with a horrible mandatory training from work, which was basically a waste of time and ruined my whole Monday. Also, my whole work week was extremely hectic and miserable...

Then half way through the week, my dad was hospitalized for having an infection on his leg called "Erysipelas". Of course my mom was very worried and wanting some help and he was not having fun either! :(

On Thursday Olivia came home with a fever (damn daycare!)...I gave her some Tylenol and laid her down. This morning she seemed to be better, so I took her to her daycare. When I picked her up she was super hot and had a fever of almost 104...very scary. I gave her some more Tylenol and she went to sleep; she's still feeling down and is hot, hopefully she'll be better by tomorrow...

Also, I had to work from my bed today since I can barely sit comfortably anymore; my belly is getting huge and baby Gaby is stuck in my ribs, which makes it very hard for me to breathe...not fun! :(

On top of everything, it has been raining like crazy for the past 3 weeks, which is getting old and annoying. My dad is still in the hospital (hopefully being discharged tomorrow), and Olivia is still sick!....

Hopefully the weekend will bring some good things and we can all go back to having a nice life!

Video: Olivia on the phone!

Our new stroller is here!

Yesterday at around 3pm, our door bell rang... I ran downstairs to open the door and was happy to see the UPS guy with a package! It was our new double stroller...it finally arrived!

I had promised Iggy I would wait for him to come home from work to open the box, so I did. When he got home at night we opened the box together and assembled our new stroller... it is just perfect! It is just what I had imagined and I can't wait to start using it. I think the design is so hip and the stroller is just beautiful! I'm so satisfied with the buy and I'm sure the stroller will prove to be a great investment.... now we just need our 2nd baby to get here! :0)

French Open madness!!

Some of you may know that Iggy and I are big tennis fans! Iggy has been playing tennis since he was 9 years old and even played for college... he's actually really good at it and tennis is his favorite hobby. Ever since I met him I became a fan myself and I love to watch him play, especially since I know how much he enjoys the sport...

Currently the French Open (Roland Garros) is being played in Paris, France and I've been following it every day... it's so exciting!!!

Spanish player Rafael Nadal, who has won 4 straight French Open titles was recently defeated by a Swedish player, I was actually happy to see him lose since I want Roger Federer (my favorite player) to finally win this title; he will make history if he does win.. since he has has won all but the French Open title and I'm rooting for him this time.. this gets more exciting by the minute!!!

Go Roger!!!! You're the best! ;)