*Scratch, scratch*

I am used to be THE queen of everything “infomercial”. I absolutely loved them. And because I absolutely loved them, I’ve got a laundry room-turned-storage room that would make Mr. SlapChop jealous. If you were to open ONE of my laundry room cabinets, you’d see the Magic Bullet Deluxe, Miracle Blades, multiple copies of everything and anything Billy Blanks, Proactive (even though I don’t have an acne problem), Pasta Express - Double Set, Japanese antioxidant extracting socks (or something like that. They are still in the box.), and even the Water-LESS Pet Bath Towels (although I don’t own a pet, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could use it to wash my car. “Thought” is the key word there).

See, before I had kids I would actually sit up all night and watch them on TV. I’d nap during the day so that I could watch them at night. I’d wake up early on weekend mornings so I could get first glimpse of the newest blender, face cream, and workout regimen. But that was over three years ago. Not once in the over three years have I even thought twice about waking early to watch an infomercial.

Until now…*Scratch, scratch*

Just recently I had a booth at the Home/Garden Show. Needing a break from standing in a 10×10 booth for three days, I decided to walk around the Show to smell the flowers and relax to the sounds of the river-scapes that were so beautifully displayed. As I rounded the corner of Isle 7, I ran smack dab into a big red stage with a microphone-and Japanese bandanna-wearing man. Lllaaaauu! Suddenly, the angels were singing, the clouds cleared, and the sun was shining directly on this indoor booth! Amazingly, a greater force stopped me directly in front of his stage just as his LIVE infomercial was beginning. Entranced, I stood there to listed to his presentation…and even laughed hysterically at his bad jokes. Before I knew it, I was literally (no joke!) throwing my credit card at him, discreetly elbowing the 5 people around me, and shaking my leg vigorously.  I HAD to have his SushiMaker. And I was actually nervous that if I didn’t get my credit card to him fast enough, I would lose out on his “special” which included a FREE knife, cookbook, seaweed stuff, and DVD!!

MY SushiMaker! (FREE knife, cookbook, seaweed stuff, and DVD not pictured)

With a spring in my step, a smile on my face, and my purchase in-hand, I walked back to my 10×10. I was so excited to be the proud owner of the SushiMaker. For the last 4 hours of the Show, I dreamed of the endless new and healthy dinners I could make with my new kitchen gadget. I felt so happy. Just the way I felt over three years back, when I bought 3 Minute Legs and AbTronic.

So…I am sitting in my studio now,  staring at my yet-to-be-used purchase. And I can’t help but wonder…would/could having a THIRD baby curb my addiction by putting out the flame that has just been ignited?

*Scratch, scratch*

-Victoria

Today I take control! No more Yo-Yo-ing for me. I’m done. And now that I am writing it for the whole entire world wide web (actually, is anyone reading this other than my mom and two sisters?!), I am holding myself accountable. NO MORE YO-YO-ING FOR ME! There, I said it.

The past few months have been a constant up and down for me. One day up, one day down, another day up, another day down. “In what aspect?”, you (aka mom and two sisters) ask? Well:

Yo #1: The Business. Ok, let’s be honest here. The first half of the last year was pretty stagnant. The business slowly (and I put much emphasis on s-l-o-w-l-y) ran itself and that was about it. Nothing to write home about. But around September I was given the opportunity to become sole owner of the company. My initial thought was to run the other way and just let the business dissolve. But I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to do that.  Anyway, fast forward. The last few months since taking over have been quite overwhelming, with many ups and downs. On up days I dance around the house/office caressing the November 2010 issue of San Antonio Magazine. We were named Top Pick for Children’s Clothes! Toot-Toot! And on down days I fight to stay above water while trying to swim with the big fish.

Toot Toot!

Yo #2: Diet and Exercise. Have you seen Kelly Osbourne lately?! I never have been a real Osbourne fan, but after seeing her on the cover of Shape Magazine, a light bulb went off in me. I have got to get it together! I spent the last year on and off diets and exercise programs (I even tried Insanity. But that’s a whole other blog topic). To give you an idea of just how “on and off” I’ve been, I would watch The Biggest Loser while walking briskly on the treadmill (On)…or would watch The Biggest Loser while eating Chinese take out (Off. Very Off.)

Light Bulb Light Bulb!

Yo-Yo no more! Today I take control. No more little fish and no more Chinese take out for me. I will keep you (you still reading mom and two sisters?) posted on how things progress.

Adios, Yo-Yo.

-Victoria “Big (but trim and healthy) Shark” Herrera

*Cue “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Theme Song*  Now, this is the story all about how my life got to where it is now. And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there, I’ll tell you how I became a wife and mother of 2 in a town called SA. In Austin, Texas, born and raised. In the living room is where I spent most of my days. Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool til I finished college at St.MU school. Then I met my husband, he was up to no good, started calling and calling me until I said “I do”. We had three little weddings and my mom got scared but she couldn’t send me to live with my Uncle in Bel-Air. …(fast forward)… We have two little kids, one 2 and one 2-months and we yell to each other “Yo homes, your turn to change the diaper!”. I look at my kingdom, I am finally here, to sit on my throne as the….(no clue how to end this song!). *Cue end of song*

*Cue normal voice. Just me talking* Anyway, I just realized that it has been THREE months since I last blogged. Hence the need to re-introduce myself. Since we last spoke, I had a baby. Alejandra Gloria (Gloria is a family name, my mom’s) is now 2 months old and is an absolute doll!!

Things have been a bit hectic but we are enjoying the challenge of raising a king and a queen. Last night, for example, was tough. Alejandra was awake every few hours for her nighttime feedings. And just as I got her back to sleep after her 2 am feeding, Ilan woke up screaming and crying. He was up at 2 am and never went back to sleep. Needless to say, we are a wee bit exhausted and could use a nap. So, although I would love to sit and finish typing this blog, my nap is calling me. Both kids are asleep right now so I am going to take advantage of that and do as they say…”nap when the baby naps”. *Cue nap time*

-Victoria

Last week a friend of mine, Patrice, came over to visit with her 16-month old daughter, Mia. I hadn’t seen Patrice or Mia in over 6 months so this was supposed to be a nice opportunity for us to catch up. Instead I spent the whole time completely and totally embarrassed by my sons behavior and have no recollection of what Patrice and I chatted about!

Ilans toy corner of our house has gone untouched for months. All of his toys are old, boring, and no fun for him anymore. He instead plays with everyday household items that are probably on the American Pediatric Associations “Do-Not-Let-Your-Child-Play-With” List, like plungers (kinda gross, I know) brooms, candles (unlit, of course!), pillows, etc.  So when Patrice told me she was on her way over I was excited for 2 reasons. 1, of course, was that I would get to catch up and see Mia. And 2, because the toys that we have spent the equivalent of a mortgage on were about to be played with! I did a quick dust-off and spray down of the toys with my ever-so-handy Clorox Anywhere and waited for the door bell to ring.

The moment Mia walked in the front door Ilan went into “mine-mode”. For the entire next hour I was battling with how to react to his inability to share the toys that he hadn’t played with in months. While Ilan was literally yelling “Mine”, “No Mia!”, “That’s My Truck”, and “Mamma! Mia My Toys!”, he quickly grabbed his Radio Flyer Red Wagon and filled it with anything and everything Mia touched. I wanted to disappear and let someone else deal with his behavior. My mind raced with a range of emotions. I laughed. A big part of me thought it was funny that he was behaving so terribly and SO out of character.  I tried to reason with him. “Ilan, let Mia play with this truck, you have an extra large Pottery Barn wicker basket full of 32 different trucks you can play with.”. I tried to be stern. I ever-so-gently ripped puzzle pieces out of his tightly gripped hand to give back to Mia while I got down to his level and sternly told him that he needed to share. I tried it all different approaches. And nothing worked. Although Patrice kept saying to me “Don’t worry about it, they will work it out” and “It’s ok, Mia can play with something else” I couldn’t help but wonder where I had gone wrong.

When Mia left, Ilan said “Bye Mia” with a huge smile on his face….and his red wagon still sits in the middle of our living room full of all the toys Mia touched that Ilan gathered. He once again, and almost instantaneously, has zero interest in his toy corner and is back to playing with unlit candles and wine bottles. Was this just Ilan being Ilan or have we finally hit the point where Time Out is needed? SUPER NANNY! HELP! I NEED YOU!

-Victoria

I have NEVER EVER wished a fever upon my son…up until this morning. Not a bad fever, just a teensy weensy little bitty bit of a fever. You know, one that was just enough to keep him home from school.

Today was Ilan’s first day of school and although I have been looking forward to this day for months, now that it had arrived and reality had set in, I realized I wasn’t so excited about the day after all. But I knew I had to suck it up, get him dressed, and get him to school. So that’s what Jorge and I did. All was good until we said “good-bye” to Ilan in his new classroom. As soon as he heard the words, he grabbed onto my pant leg with one hand and banged on a drum with his other. From what I could gather in that split second was that he didn’t really want me to go, but at the same time he really didn’t want to let the drum go either. This was my perfect opportunity to just leave, like I told him I was going to do. So that’s what Jorge and I did. We started walking out the door. Then it happened. As I pulled his hands from my pant leg I walked away…and started crying like a big baby. Then Ilan started crying and yelling for me and put his hands out and tried to reach for me, but I was already at the door and I knew that I had to keep going. It broke my heart. And I cried all day.

The first thing I did when I got home was grab my laptop and Google “homeschooling”. I could barely see the keyboard through my tears, but I really truly thought that “maybe, just maybe” I was meant to home school my children. In my whirlwind of emotions I decided that I should once again, suck it up, and just give this “school” thing a chance. So that’s what I did. I bookmarked my homeschooling page, shut the laptop, and went on with my day.

Six long hours later it was time to pick up Ilan. He was very happy to see me and the smile on his face when he saw me made me instantly forget about all the heartache I had been through. In the end, it was all “ok”. Not great. Just ok. I survived, Jorge survived, and Ilan survived. We all survived. Or as Ilan likes to say (thanks to none other than Dora and Boots), “lo seemos”…”We did it!” We made it through Day 1 of many many more to come…

-Victoria

Update: And the winner is…..Cassandra Mata!! Congratulations Cassandra and thank you to everyone for participating. Stay tuned for next month’s give-away…

Modern. Stylish. Bib. Burp. Cloth. Set. Yay

This month Baby Besos is giving away one of our favorite bib and burp cloth sets! Mealtime has never been so stylish with these fun and funky bib and burp cloth sets. How can you win?! All you need to do is post a comment to this blog post. Post whatever is on your mind and your name will be entered into the drawing.

It’s. That. Easy. Yay!

One entry per person, per day, and this give-away applies to US residents only. Contest ends Monday, April 27, 2009 at 5:00 pm CST. Winner will be selected by a random drawing and will be announced after the contest deadline.  Don’t forget to leave us your email address in your comment so we know how to contact you, should you be the lucky winner.

Ok, so maybe it was a little presumptuous of me to think that Dr. Ferreris and Nurse Lori would actually read my blog. After I posted “One Thing is Certain” I secretly expected by phone to ring have have Dr. F or Lori on the other end of the line. Didn’t happen. So I rang their phone instead and made an appointment to take Ilan in for a visit. It’s a good thing I did because after the evaluation it was determined that Ilan may have a mild form of asthma.  He is on breathing treatments and is already doing much better! It’s such a scary feeling to see/hear your child coughing so hard that they are gasping for air. As much as he hates the treatments (he screams, cries, kicks, and pushes) they are worth the fight.

Being a first-time mother, every little cough, sneeze, bump on the skin, etc. sends me to the doctors office. I used to be embarrased to call for an appointment “again”. But now, I say, “so what if my doctors office thinks I am a little speed dial happy!”. Piece of mind and a freely breathing child are well worth the $30.00 co-pay…

-Victoria

I’ve always had the suspicion and have now confirmed that Ilan does not chew his food before swallowing. This morning Ilan and I drove Jorge to work (long story short, his car is in the shop). While rushing to get out the door so he wouldn’t be late I filled a sippy cup with milk and put cut up strawberries in a snack trap for Ilan. I figured I could make him breakfast once we got home. Well, breakfast didn’t happen when we got home…but projectile vomiting sure did! Strawberries, cut up just the way they entered his body, and milk were ALL over him, me, and our floor. It was disgusting. My mind rushed through a million different thoughts including:  “AGH!!!”, “this stinks!”, “wait, these are whole strawberries!”, “what do I do now?”, “who do I clean first: him or me?”.  And my final thought was “what caused him to projectile vomit all of a sudden?!”.

It could be one of two things. My not-so-expert expert opinion told me it was either A) a virus or, B) cough induced. Why virus? Stinky projectile vomiting. Why cough induced? Because he had a coughing spell right before “it” happened. Now, because he has shown no other viral symptoms and has been able to keep down his liquids and foods since then, I am going with guess “B”. My next task to complete is to figure out why Ilan is having so many coughing spells. For the past week he has coughed and coughed, to the point of gasping for air. It happens mostly at night, and occasionally during the day. Is it allergies or something more? Or even something less? Oh, oh, oh, the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

I want the easy way out. Dr. Ferreris or Nurse Lori: If for some ridiculously rare reason you are reading this, please tell me what to do about the cough! Oh, and how can I teach Ilan to chew his food before swallowing?!

-Victoria

Ilan and I took lunch to Jorge at his office today. We decided to go to this little Mexican food drive thru not far from my house. They have great chalupas there and that’s what we knew would make “Dada” happy. Anyway, this little drive thru has true authentic Mexican food. And when I say true authentic, I really mean true authentic…they don’t speak English there. And although I understand all Spanish and can speak “asi, asi”, when I get flustered or nervous I lose all abilities to think and understand it. I guess when I ordered I got flustered and nervous. This is how it transcribed (the way I heard it):

Drive-thru Man: “Bienvenidos a La Siberia. Su orden porfavor”

Me: “Hola. Quiero un orden de chalupas, sin crema”

Drive-thru Man: “Deseas algo mas?”

Me: “Si. Tambien quiero un torta de bistec sin crema.”

Drive-thru Man: “Algo. Trabajadora. Bano. Iglesia. Camiseta. Basura. Policia. Embarazada.”

Me: “Huh? Ugh….No entiendo.” (At this point I decided to just drive to the window and talk to him face to face).

When I got to the window he was smiling, asked me for money, took my money, and closed the window. “Ok.” I thought. “He understood my order. Whew!”. Well, apparently he didn’t understand my order. Or maybe I didn’t say what I thought I was saying. I ended up with cheese enchiladas (sin crema, thank you very much) and an order of Milanesa. ¡Ah Caramba!

Oh well. In my head it sounded like perfect Spanish. And what I ordered sure tasted good!

Today, Conexion, a local magazine publication, came to our home-office to interview us. They are doing a story on Baby Besos and came to see our operation, ask a few questions, and do a photo shoot. We were thrilled to receive the call about the interview a few days ago. And not-so-thrilled today after they left. It was a tough hour!!

This is our first (And only. Boo hoo. For now. Hopefully.) publication that has shown a “real” interest in our business. I was really nervous because I wanted to make sure it would be perfect. And it was perfect at first. The house was clean, our office desk was clear, our inventory was hanging and displayed perfectly. The perfect setting. Then, Clarissa’s son, Tristan, and my son, Ilan decided to turn into the real “mamma’s boy’s” that they are. They wanted to be in the room with us so my mom, Clarissa’s mom, and Jorge (three full-grown adults to two 19-month olds) took them to the toy room to distract them. One thing led to another and before we knew it, Tristan was in Clarissa’s arms crying and Ilan was in my arms crying. Alligator tears on one. And the threat of alligator tears on the other. Needless to say, it was a little difficult to answer the interview questions and be in photos with the boys banging sticks on the doors, drawing on the walls with chalk, or screaming as they tugged at our shirts and climbed in our laps.

I wish I could say they were in rare form, but they weren’t. Clarissa and I were the ones in rare form…unable to give 100% of our undivided attention to our “mamma’s boys”. I just hope the article reflects the perfect setting the interviewer walked into and not the setting the interviewer walked out of. Only time will tell.