Dr. Seuss life lessons

So I woke up this morning angry and sad and mad. I was TIRED, I missed my old school and my old kiddos and I wanted to GO HOME to my own little house and my familiar surroundings and my friends and family and my short commute to work, etc., etc. I didn't want to get up so early only to have a long old drive to work that would make it so I wasn't even there super early. I couldn't find the bra I wanted to wear, and then Zeus told me to turn on the TV as I was walking out of the room this morning and to leave the door open (I always forget so he groggily growled it) and I burst into tears. My sweet husband lifted up the covers and made me get back in bed with him so that he could hug me and tell me everything was going to be alright. I really am so blessed.

Further, yesterday was Dr. Seuss's birthday so we are dressing up all week and reading lots of Dr. Seuss books. The one I picked up today was one that I'd never read before called, "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" and it was a perfect reminder to me to not be sad and to be glad for all that I DO have. Here are a few exerpts from his book in case anyone else out there also thinks they are having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, teary day too.

"...When you think things are bad,
when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad...
you should do what I do!

Just tell yourself, Duckie,
you're really quite lucky!
Some people are much more...
oh, ever so much more...
oh, muchly much-much more
unlucky than you!

...It's a troublesome world. All the people who're in it
are troubled with troubles almost every minute.
You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot,
for the places and people you're lucky you're not!"

Thank you Dr. Seuss for your great words of wisdom that cheered me up and helped improve my outlook on this not-so-terrible, not-so-horrible, not-so-no-good, not-so-very-bad, not so teary day!

wedding and baby celebration - Austin, TX

Some of the great ladies at Zeus's work wanted to have a dinner in our honor, celebrating our wedding and the upcoming baby. Such incredibly sweet and thoughtful ladies! We both feel so greatful to have the opportunity to work at jobs with such wonderful people!

These great ladies (Barbara, Jan and Rosie) sent out invites and made us go register (which actually turned out to be fun!) for some wedding and baby stuff. The big event was held this last weekend, Saturday, February 27th at Jan's home. There was a fabulous turnout and everyone had such a great time! Special thanks to Jan and Juan for opening their home to everyone for the party. Besos y abrazos to all who helped out and also to all who were able to make it!

Rosie, her sister, Me and Jan

You can see my prego belly in this one - this shirt accentuates the pregnancy a little more than some of my other shirts. lol Rosie, Jan, and Barbara are the FABULOUS ladies who threw the celebration dinner for us. Thank you so much ladies - YOU ROCK!!! Poor Barb was in the hospital and couldn't make it, but was most definitely there in our hearts! Hope you feel better soon Barb!

Stacey, Me, Lisa, and Carrie - three great gals from my work who were able to come to help us celebrate. Stacey and Carrie are two of my other first grade team members, and Lisa is the teacher who is trusting me with her first grade class as she moves on to being an instructional coach. Such fun ladies! I feel blessed to have such great new friends and team members - such a blessing!

Freddy (Zeus's nephew), Danny (Zeus's baby brother), Bertha (Zeus's sister), comadre Hilda (Danny's wife and our sister-in-law), and comadre Lupe (sister-in-law)

Michelle, Nathan and I - oh, and you can see Mia hanging out in my belly in this one. As I said before, this is one of those shirts that I actually look pregnant in and you can see my "baby bump"! :)

Rosie, Juan, Jan, Stacey and Lisa

Juan and Jan surprised us with a toast to Zeus and I - the happy couple. Cheers!

Zeus and I opening gifts and reading cards. Carlos and Rosario helping out.

Everyone was so kind and generous - it was quite overwhelming! It was also great to meet so many of the important people from Zeus's life. We are really enjoying being able to add so many new friends to our growing extended Texas family!

Being buried in gifts by our cute nephews (DJ and Carlos) and niece (Rosario) who were SO excited to help hand us the gifts.

Zeus and I opening the gift from Mish, Jeff and Nathan. I had to post this one because the adorable blanket style is called Mia Rose. We loved the pinks and browns in the blanket and when we saw it had Mia's name on it, we just HAD to register for it. :) Thanks Mish and fam! It was so fun registering for all the cute little baby girl things with ruffles and bows!

Tummy Pics

Here are a few tummy pics for those of you who've been begging for them. :) I haven't kept up on the week by week tummy pics because I think it took FOREVER for me to look prego - probably because I started out pregnancy not super svelte. :)

Here's one at 22 weeks. I think that depending on what I'm wearing I look more pregnant or not. The other day at work, the one parent who knows that I'm pregnant said, "You don't even look pregnant yet!"

I haven't told my kiddos yet, and even though they are super observant, they haven't said anything about it yet. Guess they are too polite to ask why my tummy is big. lol

I use to could suck it in, but now it's starting to get in the way. Can't imagine what it will look like in 4 more months!

Baby Mia the Acrobat

We went into the specialist on Tuesday, February 22nd to find out more about how Mia was doing. The doctor last week was worried because they couldn't see the line across the upper lip on Mia and were worried she might have a cleft lip and or cleft lip and palate. Here are the pictures we got from the specialist. It was so fun to see Mia again and to see how quickly she is growing and changing!

At first the doctor couldn't get a look at her little face because she was turned around and had her hands up in front of her face. That seems to be one of her favorite positions. :) It was snowing that day (yes, I am STILL in Texas) and so they were short staffed. Since Mia wasn't cooperating, the doctor left to finish with another patient while we waited to see if Mia would turn or not. Zeus and I were shaking my stomach trying to get her to move around. :) I also turned to the different sides for a little bit at a time and we took turns rubbing my belly. That must have done it because when the doctor got back in Mia had changed positions. We felt a little bad when we saw her new position because it didn't look at ALL comfortable as you can see below, poor thing!

For those of you who have a hard time seeing anything besides static in an ultrasound, this picture above has Mia's head on the right, her bum on the left, and her feet stretched up over her head! We have decided she must be some kind of acrobat and that she has her momma's flexibility. :) Because of the angle to get her profile, you can't see her little arms in this pic, but they are ALSO stretched up over her head, almost like she's playing with her toes. We now refer to her as Mia the Acrobat.

Here's her little face looking directly forward, head on the right and torso on the left.

Here's Mia's little profile picture. In this picture you can see that her little upper lip isn't defined under the bump of her nose. We found out that our sweet baby girl does indeed have a cleft lip and palate. The term for her kind of clefting is called a bi-lateral cleft lip and palate. This means that she has two clefts, one from each nostril. I think we were a little in shock at first at the news. We knew it was a possibility, but to see the evidence and to hear it specifically diagnosed was hard to hear because we wanted everything to be perfect for our little Mia. It breaks our hearts to think that our sweet little baby girl will have to undergo surgeries and be in any kind of pain, but are grateful that so much is known about these issues and that they know what surgeries to do, when to do them, etc.

The specialist also said that with these babies that have the clefting, there can be other things going on with them to - a lot of what they call mid-line issues with other things along the midline also having problems. They checked her little hands and legs, fingers and toes, heart and brain, head, etc. There can also be something else called Trisomy something that can cause lots and lots of problems too. Everthing looked good so far with Mia and we are SO thankful for that!!! We will still go into the fetal specialist once a month too for full scans to continue to monitor Mia and her growth. It will be fun to get to be able to see her so much, because you usually don't get that many ultrasounds. They will also be doing 3 and 4D ultrasounds so we'll have a pretty good idea of what her sweet little face will look like before she's born, and to find out more about the clefting. There will also be a team of specialists to evaluate her shortly after birth who will be able to do a full evaluation. I asked about feeding issues, and the doctor said that quite often these kiddos are still able to nurse, I guess because of the flexibility of the human breast they are able to get the nipple far enough back in their little mouths so that the milk doesn't go up into their sinuses. She also said that it's about the best thing for them too. We're hoping and praying that Mia will be able too. It will be so good for her, and also make it one less thing we have to be juggling. Cross your fingers for us!

Zeus and I have been reading up on things and looking up pictures online and though it was hard to see in some ways, it was so reassuring to see what great things they can do to fix the clefting. The specialist who let us know that it was indeed a cleft lip and palate was so extremely comforting and sweet. As she was talking to us about things and reassuring us, she would keep putting her hand on my arm and rubbing it or stroking it as she told us everything was going to be okay - that she would still be perfect and beautiful and that it was really such a small thing and it can be so easily fixed. She showed us some pictures of what babies can look like that are born with clefts like Mia's to help prepare us for what our sweet baby girl face may look like when she's born. Such a sweet compassionate lady and I feel grateful to have such great and caring doctors! She said that we would be in her thoughts. I really like her.

We're not sharing this so that any one will feel bad for us or our sweet Mia, but to include those we love on this new journey in our life. Zeus and I are SO excited to be welcoming baby Mia into our family!!! We can hardly wait to meet her and to kiss her little face and snuggle her in our arms! We love her so much already and know that our love for her will only get stronger and stronger! We are so greatful that she is being sent to a family where this news doesn't change in the least the excitement level with which we welcome her to our family, in how much we will love or cherish her or in how she will be treated or cared for.

We love you little Mia Angelina Moreno and can hardly wait for the end of June when we will finally be able to hold you in our arms and snuggle you to pieces!!! :)

Not nearly as exciting as the baby...

Not nearly as exciting as the baby, but on February 10th, I officially turned 35. My sweetie Zeus woke up early with me and made me french toast for breakfast. Y U M! It was a great way to start the day and was so thoughtful of the wonderful man that I married. Also in the thoughtful category, my car was low on gas and so Zeus traded me cars so he could fill it up on the way to or from work since there aren't really gas stations that aren't horribly expensive on the way to my work. Unfortunately, I went into work feeling sicker than a dog with a horrible cold and cough that had been lingering for the past week.

To ad insult to injury, I had a mandatory training until 5 pm at work, which was a huge bummer when it's your birthday and you aren't feeling well and coughing your guts out. At the end of the school day right before the meeting Zeus showed up with a huge Costco cake that said Happy Birthday Mrs. Moreno! Luckily my team and I had a second to grab a huge slice to run to the training with.

I headed home exhausted after the training only to find that my honey wasn't home yet. Perfect timing, so I climbed into bed for a quick nap until Zeus got home. I ended up passing out for about an hour and waking up to Zeus leaning over to kiss me and tell me it was time to get up to head to dinner.


We walked out to get in the car and my car was backed up into the driveway. I was still not fully awake and wondered why my car was backed in because I always pull in forward (it's Zeus that parks backwards). Then I remembered that Zeus and I had traded cars. THEN I noticed that there was something different about my car... Zeus had gotten the windows tinted for my birthday!!!! I've wanted to get them tinted for FOREVER! It was a great birthday surprise! Now we have twinner silver cars with tinted windows. I love my new tint!

We went to Olive Garden and met some of our family there for a yummy dinner. It turned out really nice because since there were 10 of us we had our own little area and it gave room for Nathan and Rosario room to stretch their legs and play a little while the grownups talked and hung out.



Good times at the Olive Garden (from the center clockwise: Jeff, Nathan, Michelle, Eunice, Bertha, Lupe, Rosario, Carlos and me.

After a few hours hanging out eating and chatting at the Olive Garden, some of us headed back to the house for some cake and then called it a night.

Comadre Lupe, Carlos, Bertha, me and Rosario (Chayo) and the cake that wasn't eaten by my first grade team and I before our meeting. :) We improvised and used a tea light candle for the birthday candle.

It's a girl!!!

We went in to the doctor this last Monday, February 15th, and found out that we are having a bouncing baby girl!!! :) We are SO excited and can't wait to meet her and snuggle her in our arms! Zeus said that he had a feeling it was a girl. I didn't really have one feeling or another as to what the baby was, but I remember when I took the Inteligender test and it turned green for boy I was really surprised that it turned green and even felt a small twinge of disappointment. I guess I was kind of thinking she was a girl without even knowing it!

I remember growing up that I always envied my friends that had big brothers and so at the ripe old age of 13 or 14, I planned out the number of kids I would have and always wanted to have a boy first. Ever since finding out I was pregnant though, I really didn't mind what we had and was just thrilled that we would be finally having a baby! :) It was so exciting to find out that we are having a girl, and we couldn't be more thrilled!!!

We already have a name picked out for her! Her first name will be Mia (pronounced me-a). When Zeus and I were talking about our desire to have kids, I asked him if he had any names picked out for his future children. He said he'd always wanted to name his little girl Mia. I didn't have any names that I had picked out because I have so many names coming through my classroom that I didn't want to set my heart on a name and then have a terror-child by the same name in my class that might ruin it for me. :) I love the name too, so we decided that if we had a girl her name would be Mia. For her middle name, we had a few ideas, but when Zeus's mom Lina passed away at the beginning of December we discussed using her name if we had a little girl as a first or middle name. We decided on the name Angelina for a middle name, which is a combination of "angel" and "Lina". So, her full name will be Mia Angelina Moreno. We can't wait for Mia Angelina to make her debut!

Baby girl, we are so excited for your arrival!!!

It finally happened!!!

Updating in retro:

Finally have interrnet and have a minute to blog and I have SO MUCH to catch up on!!! So, I decided to try and back date it. Today's actually 2/18/2010, but I'm writing about a day I have been holding in my memory so I could save it to blog about!

The day was 1/27/2010...

I finally felt the baby move!!! I was sitting at work at lunch and felt this strange movement in my stomach. I was immediately thrilled and froze to see if I would feel it again. Sure enough a few seconds late I felt it again. Since then, I've been feeling it more and more often and the baby is getting stronger and stronger in it's movements. It's been so fun and makes the pregnancy feel more real - there's really a little one in there moving and growing. So crazy! Zeus is so envious and can't wait until he is able to feel the baby move too. He has this habit of putting his ear against my belly to sing and talk to the baby. It totally melts my heart to hear him make up songs in Spanish for the baby about how excited we are to meet them. Lately he swears that when he puts his ear there, he can hear the baby moving and the movement of the water. One time when his ear was against my stomach and I felt the baby move, he swore he heard it. It makes me want to put my ear against my sister Mish's belly to see if you really can hear anything or not! lol Watch out Mish, I have my eye on you and that cute prego belly of yours!