Baby Boy Wish List

Greetings from San Antonio! The playroom, to be exact. I had never understood the importance of a room designated for toys and lounging, but it has been such an asset for us these past couple of days. Coming from a two bedroom condo, this house has been a luxury for us. With so many rooms to visit, Austin hasn't gotten too cranky or bored. He loves exploring and crawling after his cousins. The playroom is where we come before the rest of the house wakes up in the mornings. The toys in here are mostly for toddlers, and the abundance of pink is comparable to Victoria's Secret- but Austin is having a blast. In fact, we all are! Visiting family for the holidays is truly such a blessing, we don't want to leave! Thanksgiving in Texas has been my favorite one yet, and I couldn't have imagined a more perfect first Thanksgiving for this little turkey. I hope everyone had a blessed day full of yummy food and many thanks! I will recap our Thanksgiving day soon- anyone still enjoying leftovers?? Yum!

Time to talk Christmas Wish Lists. Santa has just received another wish list, and for an extra good baby boy. Austin's first Christmas is right around the corner! I have been so excited for this day since we found out we were pregnant! The pictures... the baby presents... the fun kid things that are socially acceptable for me to take part in again... it's the most wonderful time of the year! I can almost hear Santa's sleigh bells and feel the snowflakes! Before you get on my Floridian case, we will be enjoying a white (post) Christmas and New Year this year! We are headed up to North Carolina the day after Christmas to go skiing- bring on the snowflakes!  

After watching Austin take such an interest in the train table at Barnes and Noble, we've decided we have no choice but to add it to his wish list. Whether we build it or buy it, this little babe has to have it. With his little reading nook that I've put together, it's going to be like a mini Barnes and Noble in his bedroom! Someone open up a Starbucks down the street- or you know, in my kitchen- and we will be all set! Speaking of coffee, because of Black Friday and pure family fun the past two days, I am running (literally running after this speedy babe) on 7 hours of sleep. Pour me a tall one. Cheers!

Thanksgiving Plans

The Thanksgiving countdown begins! With Thanksgiving just days away, I had originally planned to leave my Fall decor out... but you all know how it goes. You just can't help but start setting out Christmas decorations here and there. You just can't. Our Pandora is officially set to the Christmas music station, Austin's jammies drawer is now an explosion of red and green, and the tree is up in the Town Center. It's time. And let's be real, if I knew of a Christmas tree farm in Jax that was already up and running, we'd have a tree and be well on our way to rockin around it.
Or crawling around it.

I'm hoping that by the time we leave for our Texan Thanksgiving all of my Christmas decor will be up! Wishful thinking, right? Coming home to  Christmas decorations would be amazing. I see some homemade garland in my future... festive fun, can't get enough! Can you?? Oh yes, and I mentioned a Texan Thanksgiving, that's right! We leave for Texas on Tuesday to visit some of Juan's family. I am beyond excited. It will be Austin's first airplane flight. Any suggestions, mamas? I'm kind of picturing the worst case scenario, Austin starts cutting a tooth mid flight, then releases a day's worth into his diaper amidst the Fasten Seatbelt light. Cue mommy meltdown. We will be that family.

Juan, Duke, and I spent 6 weeks in Texas last summer and I will tell anyone that I was less than pleased about it. I was miserable. I can't even tell you exactly why- I just had a bad attitude the entire time. I was pregnant, hot, and too scared to drive anywhere by myself. A hot, hot bitter mess. This week it will be cold and it's Thanksgiving- there is absolutely no excuse to be anything but pretty freaking excited. Speaking of excitement, San Antonio will not be ready for us Friday morning. Black Friday is basically another holiday in our book. Stuff ourselves full and then shop it off- now that's a damn good time.

Last Summer in Texas- 15 weeks pregnant. Maybe that awful beard had something to do with my bitterness ;)

This will be Duke's first Thanksgiving without us. Last year, Duke traveled with us to our midnight madness Black Friday shopping in Orlando. He guarded our purchases in the car while we shopped until we my pregnant butt dropped. It was pretty chilly out and lazy bones was parked in the jeep on a giant comforter, comfortable as can be- windows cracked. This year Duke is going to a friend's house for the week- and we've been promised many pictures and a doggy Thanksgiving feast. Bone Appetit, Dukie Martinez.

I spy four little teeth! How awesome will it be for Austin to be able to actually enjoy his first Thanksgiving!? He is an expert grabber and chewer- not the least bit picky. He has proven himself a food lover, indeed! From time to time he gets in that sassy mood- you know, throwing everything in arms reach onto the ground, purely to watch it drop and then have it handed back to him. The sassy mood that drives me crazy, the one where I am so tempted to dump my entire plate on the ground as well. Fingers crossed for a sweet gentleman at Thanksgiving dinner! I'm so ready to spend this wonderful holiday with this little love bug, surrounded by family!

Happy Thanksgiving week!  

10 Month Favorites

Double digits! Austin hit the big ONE ZERO in months this past Tuesday, big boy! The past couple of months brought serious milestones over night, it seemed. I remember Austin woke up one day and decided to crawl, then stand. Nothing huge this month. He is now walking around holding onto different objects, and yesterday he let go and took a couple of steps on his own! This milestone is a process, unlike the others that just kind of happened. I guess that I would be a bit surprised if my crawler just up and walked across the room to get his toy. The process of learning to walk has all but given me a heart attack. The kid rearranges my dining room chairs, causing our small living room to be mistaken for a messy auditorium. This afternoon he crawled up to Duke and leech latched with a grip that would have scared the you know what out of anyone. I can't even blame Duke for freaking the hell out and taking Austin on the wildest ride of his life. It was both the scariest and funniest thing I have ever seen. Of course it ended in his impromptu unlatch and head bang, but within seconds the tears were gone and the daredevil was back at it. Bring on the gray hairs. 

Last weekend we enjoyed the kick off for Christmas in the Town Center at the Holiday Spectacular event. Is this babe not the sweetest little reindeer in town?! Needless to say, this really encouraged the Christmas decor to put itself up, and the Pandora Christmas station said it was here to stay, and I'm not complaining! 

Everyday Life

Our every day life is pretty unpredictable. Or so unpredictable that it becomes pretty predictable. I'm not even sure which one. When the husband is at work, Austin and I take full advantage of lounging at home in our jams all day. Tis the season to be cozy. But when Juan is home, I feel like we're always on the go. Either to St. Augustine for the day, or to the grocery store for the third time that week. We're always somewhere. We like to move it, move it. We've been frequenting Publix like it's the damn zombie apocalypse and we're all going to starve if we don't buy 3 pounds of Deli meat. I'm slowly... slooowwlyyy... getting into a cooking groove. Today my crock pot made pot roast and tonight my KitchenAid will whip up some cupcakes. Juan was beside himself with giddiness over not eating a ham and cheese sandwich. It also seems we catch Austin in his most fashionable outfits while we are grocery shopping. Gotta show them off somewhere, right bud!? Waste not!

One piece of cheese cheek and 22 pounds of ham, please. Hamming. It. Up.

Barnes and Noble is another recent favorite of ours. It's always been a favorite for Juan and I- we used to go on "dates" to Barnes and Noble and sit in the aisles playing those "I Spy" books ;) It is a newfound favorite now that we have a curious little George. We like to take Austin here at least once a week- he loves it! We grab a Starbucks, park ourselves in the corner, and let him go to town. And go to town, he does! Look at him, he runs that town.

When I'm not joining the busy bodies in their adventures, I'm in class. All day, twice a week. School this semester has been taking over. I stand firm by my idea that Elementary Education is a simple major to get through in college. I'm sure that's why tons of people pick it. There's no arguing that it's job and a half once you're actually in the field. School has certainly taken up a lot of time for me this semester- but the work is very doable, and actually pretty easy. It's just way too time consuming. Sometimes it gets to be a lot, and even a little stressful, but getting pictures like this in the middle of class makes it all worth it. People have asked me if it was hard for me to go back to school, or if I've ever just wanted to quit. No, I haven't. I could not even imagine not going back, that was never even an option. Being able to give everything to this little boy is so important to us, and deciding to throw away my (half of a) degree would be insensible, in my opinion! Besides, this babe has expensive taste- and not to mention it gets me out of the house, baby free, twice a week! Can't beat that! ;)

A couple months ago we became official members of a church in Jacksonville. It's a beautiful cathedral in downtown Jax. The inside is extremely intricate and gold- my favorite! It's just gorgeous. Juan and I found the most random little hole in the wall in downtown Jax last week after church. And by found, I mean we hunted this place down like it was the Fountain of Youth. We had heard about this new "cronut craze", and Uptown Market is the only place in Jacksonville that sells cronuts. Let me introduce to you the croissant- doughnut. The cronut. It's New York's new big thing, and the owner of Uptown Market has done us all a solid and perfected it for all of Jacksonville to enjoy. Hop on board with the cronut craze, you will not be disappointed!


So there you have it, our recent randoms. We're just all over the place, sort of like this post. What does a typical week look like for you, mamas? Today we joined in on the Christmas fun at the Holiday Spectacular event in the Town Center; Juan just went in to work, and I have a girlfriend coming over to make Christmas goodies and craft! Tis' the season, folks! Cheers!

One, Two, Skip a Few

Okay, file this under the longest overdue post, ever. It's about that time you are starting to wonder if I ever plan on posting the rest of our Fall Photo Challenge pictures. Truth is, the tail end of our challenge was even more neglected than the first half. I will say that, for me, this challenge definitely served its purpose- I got up a bit earlier, spent a little more time getting ready, and even felt better about going out without worrying if I'd be seeing someone I know... those days that we stuck to it. Did I take a picture and follow the dress code each day? No. Obvious. I'm not even going to post the few pictures I took, you'd have random pictures of bracelets and shoes- let's focus attention on this. The sweet matching orange outfits I promised ;)

 

November is just flying by for us! We've had a lot going on, and iPhone pictures have been crazy this month! I can't wait to share some with you! You read about our day in downtown Saint Augustine, and soon I will share with you our latest random outings and more glimpses into our everyday life. I am trying to soak up every moment and make it as special as possible for this first wonderful season with the babe! The awesome Jacksonville weather is here to stay (hopefully, maybe?) for the next few months, and so are our oversized jackets and boots. We thought we'd be thrifty and call it quits with the AC for the next couple months- it worked last year! Holy news flash- I was very large, very pregnant, and very hot last year and you can not expect to be comfortable in a home with the air (heat) turned off and all of the windows open. There are not enough fuzzy socks in the world. Not to mention Austin suddenly went into hibernation mode and cuddled on the couch for a solid hour. He is not a huge cuddler, he'd much rather be terrozing Duke. Major sign that it was wayyy too nippy in the house. Since then, our heat has been switched on, and we're all fairly happy campers- toasty and totally ready for any thing Mother Nature has in store. We're requesting a few magic tricks, snow perhaps. Bring it, mama.

You can always go downtown

This morning greeted me with a baby screaming like he caught Santa and with loads of unfinished homework due at noon. Awesome. The only thing that would make this better was if it was actually Christmas morning. Soon. Instead of camping out in the library yesterday, we went down to St. Augustine for the day to begin Christmas shopping. The library was closed for the holiday any how, so I took that as a telltale sign to do the irresponsible thing. Live a little, right?
Cramming after a night day of shenanigans- bottle in hand and Mickey on the screen. Hoorah!

We spent the beautiful day in the historic downtown of St. Augustine. I almost didn't even mind that I dressed for 60 degree weather and it ended up being 75. Almost. It was a bit toasty, especially trying to tame the wild monkey that had taken up residence on my hip for most of the day.
Thank goodness for daddy's shoulders, Austin loves his new pilot seat.

We started our day with some amazing popsicles from a cute little shop called The Hyppo. This place had the strangest flavors, Mexican Hot Chocolate, for instance. I ended up getting Peanut Butter Pie and was not disappointed. We also may or may not have ended the day with a second.

We walked up, down and around St. George Street, then shopped a bit. Every year the city puts up a huge Christmas tree in the center, complete with lights and wreaths and all sorts of festive fun- we can't wait to go back and take some of Austin's first Christmas pictures! For now we settle for silly pictures with this beer can bear. Baby noms on the left, beer on the right. Atta boy, babe.

Back to the (home) work grind. Cheers!

Weekend Pictures

We kicked off the first November weekend with the Florida Georgia football game tailgate. It has become a bit of a Martinez tradition to get dressed up, pretend to follow football (Juan, time to face facts), and join in on all of the festive game day fun. This is our third year going together, second year as a family ;) Well, little Gator pants was left at home with his godmother. Saturday was a much needed, grown ups only, day out.

We were greeted with a morning after wakeup call compliments of the teething troll slash diaper drill sergeant. Baby don't care how much fun you had the day before, nor does he pity your lack of sleep. Sunday was spent recovering and enjoying the Fall weather from our balcony. We played hot potato baby, taking turns sipping Gatorade and entertaining these sweet cheeks. Anything for these cheeks.

 And a little entertaining for us, too. We are Monopoly obsessed. We have nine different Monopoly versions, including the Lilly Pulitzer edition and Disney, of course ;) Sunday we played German Shepherd monopoly in leu of going to the dog park. Fair enough.

We carried on our weekend right on through Monday night. Why not, right? We visited family in Orange Park and had a nice home-cooked meal. Maybe it's time we buy some stove burners- we've been here about 3 months, that's about when people start needing them... yeah? Juan may be getting tired of microwaved eggs. Judge me hard.

The Orange Park car ride: Christmas music all the way there.

 Sweet Dreams all the way back.

Halloween

What an absolute Halloween success! We made it a two day special and dressed up the mini on both Halloween and Halloween eve, it was so exciting to show off our not so scary little babe! I had been anticipating this day since Juan and I first found out that we were pregnant. Halloween and Christmas, always Christmas ;) 

I'll admit, Halloween festivities are ten times better without a ginormous pregnant belly and an unopened bottle of wine howling your name. Rewind back to this time last year- me, myself, and Duke spent our night on the couch indulging in scary movies and candy for the trick-or-treaters who never came. I honestly can't even remember if Juan was in the library or if he was actually with us on Halloween night- the candy, movies, and I must have really hit it off. Despite the nostalgia of college Halloweens past, I knew this Halloween would be the best one yet. Halloween is one hundred times better with a baby to costume and share all of the festivities with, not to mention finally being able to open that wine. I was back and forth with Austin's costume, and in the end it was Peter Pan. I love Peter Pan. Have I told you from birthdays five through thirteenish I wished on my candles to fly like Peter Pan? For one reason or another, it never worked out. 

 My sweet Austin, you never have to grow up. Please don't.

We spent Halloween eve at the Jacksonville Zoo Spooktacular event. We had a blast! We didn't see any animals- but the candy, characters, music, and scare zones were enough for us for one night. Austin even took his first ride on a cheetah!

On Halloween day Austin wore his Woody outfit. Juan's mom bought this for him a couple of months ago and we totally forgot about it- what a perfect little Halloween get up, love it! We opted not to go trick or treating with Austin being so young, but we are looking forward to going next year!

How was your Halloween? I am just adoring everyone's pictures and posts of their sweet babes!
Time to break out those Christmas lights, eh, I mean... cornucopias!