*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

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.

Ok, so maybe I need to relax a little. But I can’t help it. When someone tells me not to be “alarmed” I become “alarmed”. It’s as if someone were to take me to Amy’s Ice Cream, lock me in there for an hour, and tell me I can’t order my favorite Mexican Vanilla ice cream with Reese’s Buttercup crush-ins. Not going to happen.

Anyway, I’ve had a chance to research further on the toxic tub topic and have great comfort in what I have found. The research was not reversed, but I did find a list of alternative bath time products that do not contain carcinogens. Just what I was looking for!!

Below is the link to a website that lists a safety guide to children’s personal care products. Just scroll down the page to see all product categories. I did the leg work for you on this one…I hope it helps! And for the record, I am no longer alarmed now that I have alternatives.

{Click here for link}

-Victoria

I am alarmed. Cancer really scares me. And now there is a report that some baby shampoos and lotions contain trace amounts of carcinogens. Some of the biggest brands on the market, like Johnson & Johnson and Maby Magic Lotion, tested positive for two chemicals that are believed to cause cancer. The chemicals are not said to be intentionally added to the products and are not listed among ingredients on labels. Instead, they appear to be “byproducts of the manufacturing process”.

Of the 48 products tested (bubble baths, shampoos, lotions, etc.), 32 (gasp!) contained trace amounts of 1 chemical, 23 (gasp!) contained trace amounts of the other chemical, and 17 (gasp, gasp!) tested positive for both chemicals. When I first read the report, I thought, “Oh, that sucks. But there is no way that MY sons products are on that list. I did my research long ago.”. WRONG. Here is the list. I bet you’ll have the same reaction I did.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says they do not intend to “alarm” parents by releasing the results of their study. Mission not accomplished. I have so many questions that need to be answered…Should I throw all of our products away? What exactly does “trace amounts” mean? Where is the complete list of safe products?

Will someone from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics PLEASE call me at 210-255-1097. I. Am. Alarmed!!

-Victoria

There are many things I said “I would never do as a parent” that I am now doing. When my older sister had her first child seven years ago I remember thinking that her chosen sleep method was SO out of touch with modern pediatrics. She went with the co-sleep method and I just couldn’t understand how and why she wouldn’t just let Frankie, her first child, cry himself to sleep. Had she never heard of the “Ferber Method”?! Fast forward to six years later and look at me now. “Ferber” is a foreign word to me and the thought of letting Ilan cry and cry and cry and cry until he falls asleep just does not sit well with me. I couldn’t do it. And although I said I would never rock my child to sleep, that’s what I did.

I also said I would not let my child watch TV. The television corrupts the brain. We would read books, do arts and crafts, dance, learn Spanish, play outside, go for walks. There would be no time for TV! Fast forward to six years later and look at me now. TV is the ONLY thing that entertains hims long enough to allow me to take a shower and get dressed each morning. The TV, specifically, Sesame Street, is fabulous. It gives me short-lived freedom. And if it weren’t for the TV Ilan would never, and I mean never, have on a clean diaper. Diaper changes are a full-on battle between the two of us unless I turn on Sesame Street. I still don’t think TV is good for children, but I use it when necessary. And for me, diaper changes, showers, and some “down time” every now and then happen to be necessary.

There are many more examples of what I said I would never do but am now doing. I could write for days about it. But let me cut to the chase. Becoming a mother has taught me two very important lessons:

1) Never say never, and

2) Never judge others parenting styles.

Do so, and in seven years (or seven months, even) you will be saying the same thing I am tonight…”Look at me now!”.

-Victoria