Poor baby!

Sweet little Frankie is sick...AGAIN. This time, he has a double ear infection and bronchiolitis, which was most likely caused by RSV. He was up Saturday and Sunday night with a horrible cough and a lot of congestion, and then Monday night he had a low-grade fever. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday morning, and the doctor heard him wheezing a little, so she had him do a breathing treatment with a nebulizer. I have never dealt with asthma or any other breathing problems before, so I was completely unprepared for the breathing treatment. She put the little mask on his face, told me to hold him because he "might fight me and will probably cry," and then left the room. The machine blew medicine in a mist in his face, and he screamed, and cried and writhed and tried as hard as he could to get that thing off his face for the first five minutes. Then, he suddenly stopped fighting...and stopped moving at all. Of course this scared me even worse. It was like he fell asleep! I was just totally freaked out. The doctor finally came back about 15 minutes later and of course he was completely fine. She told me a lot of babies fall asleep during breathing treatments because the sound of the mist is soothing to them. She rechecked his breathing and said that he sounded better. So, we now have a nebulizer and are supposed to do these breathing treatments 3 times a day until his cough and wheezing are gone. There is about a 50 percent chance that he will have asthma, which really sucks. Hopefully this is just a one-time illness! He did seem to sleep much better last night, and his cough seems to be a lot better, so I hope that he will be feeling good by Christmas. I am leaving tomorrow morning to fly out to New Jersey for my uncle's funeral, so I am leaving Frankie with Frank until Saturday evening. I am sure they will be fine, but it is hard to leave when my baby is sick. Please continute to keep my family in your prayers.

Prayers

Today, my uncle unexpectedly died. We still do not know the cause of death--they are performing the autopsy today. He was 59 years old. He is my first close family member to pass away since my grandpa died more than 20 years ago. He was also my godfather. I already miss him so much.

Today, I pray for my cousin who will never get the chance to have her father walk her down the aisle. I pray for my aunt, who has lost the man she has been married to for more than 30 years. I pray for my Mammy, who has to endure the worst pain imaginable--losing a child. I pray for my mother who lost her older brother, and I pray for every single person in his extended family who has to deal with questions of "Why?"

My uncle Mike and my Aunt Barbara were some of the biggest supporters in my decision to go to law school. They came to visit me at Georgetown frequently, and I spent some holidays with them because they were so much closer than my parents. They came to my graduation, and they have always been extremely supportive. Please keep the Kevil and Proesch families in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Weekend with Mama

Frankie and I are in the middle of spending another weekend together without Daddy. It seems like we have far too many of these. We had a blast today playing at the play ground, going shopping, and playing lots of catch-me-if-you-can and hide-n-seek. Here are some pictures of Frankie hiding behind the chair in our living room. He is not supposed to go back there, but he thinks it is soooo funny when he does.

you found me Mama!

hey there bright eyes

I still see you

peek-a-boo

Like Mommy

Frankie is obsessed with my cell phone. He has a toy phone that he plays with in the car, and I gave him one of Frank's old phones to play with, but he REALLY wants the real deal--Mommy's phone. I only give it to him when I really need to distract him or when nothing else seems to make him happy, because he usually messes something up on it. Tonight, I was trying to get a picture of him in front of the Christmas tree, and he picked up my phone and started pretending to talk on it! I thought it was so cute. I never did get that Christmas tree picture, because he was too busy running around. Frank is out of town again--I am having flashbacks to 6 months ago when he was out of town all the time, and I DON'T LIKE IT! I will be happy to have him back on Sunday.

Someone had a traumatic weekend...

First a haircut...then pictures..and now Santa. As you can see, Frankie was NOT too thrilled to be sitting in Santa's lap. I took him over to Southlake and we waited in line, in the cold, for about an hour, before it was finally his turn. He was fine the whole time, until we put him in Santa's lap. I think the haircut yesterday traumatized him for life. Hopefully he will do better next year!

First haircut

Yesterday we had Frank's one-year photos, so we decided to take him to get his first haircut before we did the pictures. Despite my better judgment, we did not take him to a special kid's haircut place and instead took him up the street to Supercuts, where Frank gets his hair cut. It was a disaster! Frankie HATED the hair cut. He cried and screamed and squirmed the entire time. Luckily, the stylist was quick, and it only took about 5 minutes. And his hair looks so much better! It was getting a bit out of control. Next time I am definitely going to take him to a specialty hair place where there are cartoons, toys, and a much better chance that we can make it through the ordeal with no tears! Here are some pics of my little guy before, during, and after his first haircut. We did not get any during the meltdown, because both Frank and I had to hold him and sing to him to try and keep things under control.

pre-haircut

this is not so bad...

getting a little concerned

pre-meltdown

yay! all done, so handsome

No more bottles!

I think it's official...no more bottles in the Bernardo household! This is the third night this week that Frank has gone to sleep without a bottle. On Wednesday night, I tried to give him some milk in a sippy before bed, and he wanted nothing to do with it. So, I just put him to bed without a bottle, and he did great! I honestly don't think he much noticed or cared that he wasn't getting that bottle anymore which really surprised me. I am so happy to not have to clean those things anymore! That was definitely one of my least favorite of all of the baby-related chores.

Frankie updates

It has been really nice spending so much time with Frankie since we got back from vacation. He is no longer mad at me :) Frank had to work for the reserves this weekend and he is in Houston all week, so we have had a lot of quality time together. Frankie officially started in the toddler room this week. It is so different! He sits at a table, in a chair, and eats his food with the other toddlers off his own plate. He drinks milk from a cup or sippy cup, and he takes his naps on a cot instead of in a crib. He is washing his hands and brushing his teeth. It amazes me how quickly he is growing and changing. We are down to one bottle a day now--the night time bottle--and I am planning to take that away after this week. I am a little worried that he is not getting enough milk during the day, so I wanted to make sure he got that 8 ounces at night at least for a little while, until he shows me that he can drink enough during the day. Assuming he does well this weekend, then we will be off bottles for good!

He is learning and discovering new things almost every day now. He has two new words: baby and uh oh! I love hearing him say "uh oh!" Whenever I say it, he repeats it and will keep repeating it over and over. It is pretty cute. He also just started doing a new thing where he takes all of his toys out of the bathtub and hands them to me. He also likes to do this with his food when he is done eating. He loves taking everything out of a cabinet or a box and then putting everything back in. He also loves his stacking rings from Grambo and Granny D. He is so proud of himself whenever he stacks them up. His favorite game is still hide-n-seek. His favorite hiding place is in the dining room behind one of the chairs. When I am in the kitchen, he loves to run in there and hide behind that chair. He will stay back there for a long time--minutes even--until I go in there to get him. He thinks it is soooo funny.

He is still eating everything and sleeping well. He will sleep from 7:30 until 8:00 on days that I don't wake him up to go to work. He still takes two good naps on weekends, but he only takes one nap during the week at day care. I sure do love this little guy, even if he does wear me out!

Argentina & Uruguay vacation

Right after Thanksgiving, Frank and I left for a vacation to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday. We went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Carmelo and Colonia, Uruguay, and we had a great time! We stayed in three different hotels during our 5-day stay, so we moved around a lot and got to see a lot of different places in a short amount of time. Buenos Aires was a huge, crowded, beautiful, dirty city. After walking around for a few hours, our feet would be completely black when we got back to our hotel room. There are two huge coal plants right outside the city, which does not help the pollution. My throat was bothered immediately, and I felt like I was constantly inhaling smoke. Despite the pollution, BA is a gorgeous city. There were blooming trees with purple flowers everywhere, and there were several parks, fountains, and monuments scattered around the city. Uruguay was a complete world apart from BA. Carmelo was a quaint, rural town in Uruguay's wine county, and Colonia was a charming, historic town with tree lined cobblestone streets.

In my opinion, the highlight of the trip was the food. We had some absolutely amazing food in BA and in Uruguay. My favorites were the dulce de leche helado and the cheese plate at Narbona winery, the filet at The Bistro, the mushroom tart and salad at Social Paraiso, the spinach mushroom croquettes at Herman Giopponi, and the spinach, pumpkin and corn souffle at Don Julio. If you ever go to Argentina or Uruguay, I highly recommend all of these restaurants!

It was wonderful to spend a few days alone with Frank, since we are both so busy and rarely get any time together. Almost every night after Frankie goes to bed, Frank goes into his office to study and I go into our bedroom to work. We are so ready for Frank to be done with grad school so that we will get more quality time together and as a family. It was very hard to be away from Frankie for so long. Our cell phones did not work while we were there, so we could only communicate with my Mom via e-mail. I was so ready to come home and see my baby boy! I am not sure if I want to take another long trip like that without him for a long time.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip:

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Decorating our wine bottle at Don Julio, Palmero

Don Julio

Department of Defense

pretty fountain in Retiro, BA

Recoleta cemetery

Puerto Madero, BA

Tango!

awesome tango show

hotel FAENA for my birthday dinner

obelisk

San Martin Plaza

Casa Rosada

pretty purple flowers everywhere

the woman's bridge, Puerto Madero

Colonia, Uruguay

view from our room, Four Seasons, Carmelo

wine country

ready for dinner

hiking to a hidden beach

sunset

resort pool

Four Seasons--reminded me a lot of our hotel on our African safari, minus the animals

on the ferry ride over

Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

lighthouse

cannon

by the river

cafe where we ate lunch

old city gate

tree-lined cobblestone streets

and finally....the food!

Narbona winery, Carmelo, lots and lots of viognier

best cheese plate ever, Narbona

amazing meal at El Bistro, BA

last night dinner at Don Julio

finally, a steak!

interesting meat, cheese, and egg platter at cafe in BA

dulce de leche cupcake....yummy!

mushroom tart and side salad, Social Paraiso, Palermo