Special Visit from Boston

On Friday we had a special visitor from Boston...my Titi Arlyn came in at 11:30 PM on Thursday, visited all day Friday and left at 9:30 pm! All because she really, really, really wanted to see Sebastian!!! We are so glad that she made such a special trip to meet such a wonderful little boy!

Sebastian with Titi Arlyn.

Daniel and a happy Angelica.

Make your own pizza night with Titi Arlyn and family.
For the past two/three weeks Sebastian has been very interested in trying to climb up us. He will do anything to be in the standing position. He is not too interested in crawling, but if it involves standing up he wants to do it! He is incredibly strong...

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Now for some new videos! We haven't taken many recently, but here are two. Just last week he discovered how to say ma ma ma ma ma. Now, I don't think he associates this with me, as in Mami, but that's okay, I'm thrilled anyways! It's very had to catch him on camera saying it so this is the best we got for now. He is also on to saying ba ba ba, ah ah ah, wa wa wa and working diligently on da da da. =)

This video shows a quick view of his crawl/slither/scoot that he does. Notice he is headed to the vacuum. Maybe he'll be handy to help with the housework when he gets older...

Thanks for all the prayers for our friends Betsy, Steven and Baby Andrew. Today, they took him off the ventilator tube and he is breathing on his own! Praise God and thank you for all the prayers! Please keep praying for his health and recovery. We know that he is a miracle from God!

Please pray for Baby Andrew

Please continue to pray for my friend Betsy, her husband Steve and their baby son Andrew. He was doing very well last week and they even began to wean him from the tubes and medication, but yesterday he had a serious set back and he is once again connected to the machines. You can keep up with them on their blog - link is on the right hand side under 'The Page's'. We believe in the power of prayer and I ask that each of you that read this remember this young family and lift them up to our Lord. It's amazing that our lives continue with such regular events when there is so much heartache so close - yet unimaginable...

Epiphany - Fiesta de los Reyes

Yesterday, the final day of Christmas, we celebrated Dia de los Reyes. Los Reyes (The Kings) left Sebastian 3 great presents! He got a submarine bath toy (he's really starting to like the whole bath thing!) and...

He got this cool Tonka Truck ride-on and push toy. It's pretty cool and he seems to like it although he looks very serious in this picture.

He also got a "big boy" car seat! He's outgrown his carrier-style car seat and he hates it too, so we found the best car seat around. The thing is a monster and takes up like half of our backseat, but those are the things you do for safety I guess! The good news is he should be able to use this seat until he's like 5 years old. Again, he looks very serious in this photo, but he really seems to like it so far. There was not nearly the amount of crying in the car seat as usual.

After church on Sunday, the Hispanic Ministry hosted a Fiesta de Reyes. We had a great time with some good parranda (Puerto Rican Chrismas Carols) music, great food and a visit with gifts from the three wise men - Fr. David, Luis and Nandy! Paul got asked to be a wise man, but he turned it down - he would have looked great in that long beard and turban...darn! Actually, he couldn't because we had to leave early to meet up with my former Lockheed Martin friend Amy that was visiting from New York. Anyhow, so the wise men gave gifts to all the kids and Sebastian got a cute stuffed Donald Duck. I think it's his first Disney item! Not bad for a Florida native! Us and part of Donald Duck in the lower left. =)

Sebastian's first parranda (kind of...). Video - turn up the volume.

Also, Sebastian is definitely on the move now. He isn't actually crawling, but he does this slither, scoot thing and can get to where he wants to go. Sometimes I let him go exploring on his own around the living room as I watch him from a distance. The other day he slithered over to his exersauser and I watched him very carefully crawl himself half way underneath the exersauser. to grab his toys. Then it was quite comical because he couldn't figure out how to go in reverse to get himself out. I missed the moment with the photo, but it's the best I could do since I was making sure he didn't hurt himself and also trying to get him out from under there. I took this one right before he got "stuck." Kids just get into the most interesting places! Getting into trouble...

Happy Birthday Paul & Happy New Year!

Okay, this is the end of playing catch up for the past few weeks. In 2008 I vow to be more timely with my blog updates (right, wishful thinking!) I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve.

In this New Year, we will have many changes for our family: Sebastian will keep growing up and turn one year old in May, my brother will become a married man in June and who knows what other exciting things 2008 will bring. We also ask for your prayers in 2008. As you may or may not know, my parents (Cristina) divorce will be final in January. It's going to be a tough month and year for all of us and we all need your prayers, especially my parents.

I also ask for your prayers for a childhood friend of mine, Betsy, her husband Steve and their baby Andrew. Andrew was born on Dec. 23 with a critical heart condition and has already undergone a major operation. Having a baby now, I can not even begin to image in heartache of their situation and my heart feels for them so much. We continue to pray for his recovery and health in the New Year. You can keep up with their blog too to see how baby Andrew is doing. The link is on the right hand side - they are The Page's.

Here is our final installment of catch-up pictures...enjoy and Happy New Year!

Happy 28th Birthday Paul!

Happy Birthday Daddy!
We went to Sea World for the day on Paul's birthday. Sebastian LOVED the aquarium tubes at the shark exhibit as you can tell.
Us with Shamu. Paul's wearing one of his Christmas presents from Sebastian (haha...).Our family on New Year's Eve 2007.

Sebastian crawling around at 11 PM on New Years.
Sebastian having his first shot....just kidding. It was the perfect size water glass for this little guy! He sees a cup, water bottle, or anyone drinking and he immediately wants a drink too.Sebastian fell asleep at 11:50 PM on New Years. What a trooper, he almost made it.
Running with our suitcases for good luck on the first day of the year. This is a Colombian tradition that I love and we always take part in as a family. We fill our backpacks with items that represent places we'd like to visit in the new year, things we'd like to accomplish, etc. Then you set off and run around the block with them for good luck. Sebastian woke up around 12:15 am to ring in the new year.

Happy New Year 2008!!!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas filled with family and friends. Sebastian's first Christmas was an exciting occasion. Mostly, he loved the bows on all his gifts. And tissue paper was a big plus. He'd occasionally help to open a gift if it caught his attention enough. Overall, he was quite gracious and has really enjoyed playing with all of his Christmas gifts over the past week.

The Giammarinaro Family.

Sebastian Claus. =) He was such a ham!

Happy boy!

We spent Christmas Eve at my Titi Monica's with our family. We have also become good friends with two families from church that are from Puerto Rico and they also joined us. We had great food, lots of parranda music and a good time.

The 3 musketeers. In the center is my god-daughter Angelica with Sebastian and at either side her two new friends (daughters of the two new Puerto Rican families I mentioned above). It's been such a blessing because they all are only children and they are all 5 years old. They entertain themselves and love it!

We attended our parish's first midnight Mass. It was beautiful and also quite an adventure. It was misting/drizzling the whole time and boy was it cold! But it was a beautiful Mass and everyone really felt like family. Sebastian was even up for part of it. He was by far the warmest and happiest of us all in his cozy stroller with an umbrella and blankets.

Christmas morning! Sebastian let us sleep until about 10 am (nice!) and was a happy boy Christmas morning. We opened our Santa presents that morning.

Sebastian doing his crawl/slither on Christmas morning. He's headed for the bows.

Cool present from Santa! Bilingual maracas! Wow, they make some fancy toys now - that makes me sound old doesn't it... He liked them.
Abuelo came over in the morning to give Sebastian his Christmas presents. He loves his Little People airplane.
And he got a serious monster Tonka dump truck too! For now, he fits in it more that he can play with it, but he'll grow into it.
Later Nana, Papa and Corey came over too. Sebastian was very interested in opening his present from Nana and Papa - a music activity center with a big mirror.
He loves it! He laughed and laughed at himself in the mirror and at all the lights and sounds. Here he is sticking out his tongue. He loves to do that now and laugh.
Who is that handsome boy in the mirror!?!

With Nana and Papa.

Titi, Angelica, Sebastian and Angelica's talking baby she got from Santa. A Sebastian inspired gift.

Emily, Daniel and puppy Remy on Christmas.

Sebastian loved his Glow worm from Abuelita.
And my little avid readers loved his Baby's First Nativity Book from Abuelita.

Puerto Rico Part II

Here is part two of our trip...I'm sorry I've been so slow at posting lately. You'd think that with the days off and the holidays I'd have time to catch up, but it sure hasn't been so. Here is the first part of our trip to Puerto Rico.

On the plane...here we go! Sebastian did great on the way there.

In Old San Juan for the day. Here we are eating "Piraguas" aka Puerto Rican Snow Cones. Yummy! Sebastian was not interested...

Walking on El Paseo de la Princesa. Beautiful views!

The spot where we got engaged! It was pretty neat to be there with Sebastian for the first time.

Capilla del Cristo.

With Abu (great-grandma). Sebastian loves his Abu!
Our first night we had to improvise and give Sebastian a bath in the sink. You can see what he thought about that!
Playing with toys.
Family picture at Punta Tuna.