New house, (another) new job, and a fresh start

I have completely neglected my blog this summer, because so much has been going on!  Not only have we been busy, but I have personally been doing a lot of soul searching.  I have been feeling very unsettled for a long time now, and I am so happy and excited to say that I finally feel peace about the direction we are headed.  First, we have sold our house (well, we are under contract and out of the option period), and we are buying a house in Southlake!  I have felt very strongly for a long time that our family belongs in Southlake, and I am so happy that we are making this move.  I was growing extremely frustrated that our house was lingering on the market for so long, and just when I was starting to give up hope, we received multiple offers, including the one we accepted.  Miraculously, we have made it through the inspection and option period with no issues, and I pray that things will continue to go smoothly.

Once we had a contract on our house, we had to move quickly to find a house to buy.  Frank has been somewhat apathetic about the entire home selling/buying process, and he urged me strongly not to buy a house impulsively and to wait and make sure we found something we would love for a long time.  With that in mind, Southlake's market is crazy, so I knew we would have to make an offer quickly, and most likely at full asking price, to have any chance of getting the house we wanted.  My top choice house had already received an offer, so we went out that Thursday to check it out.  I loved the house, and Frank hated it.  I started to think we may not ever agree on a home and I started to panic a little bit.  That weekend, I went with my sister to look at 7 additional houses, and we absolutely fell in love with one of them.  I was afraid to get my hopes up because I had no idea what Frank would think, but luckily he fell in love with it too!  This house had been on the market for 11 days, and it had already been under contract once, but that contract fell through the night before we went to see it.  I really feel like we are destined to be in this house.  The iron gate on the driveway already has a "B" on it.  The address is 926 Emerald Blvd, which is so crazy because my first AOL screenname was Emerald629.  And the house came back on the market at the exact perfect time to allow us to swoop in and take it back off the market.  The house is on a huge corner lot in an established neighborhood in Southlake with big trees, gorgeous detailing, and a pool!  We are so excited about this home, and we are hopeful that it will be a wonderful place to watch Frank and Lily grow up.

In the midst of all of this house madness, I have quietly resigned from my current (and still very new) job and accepted a position at another firm.   I start the new job on August 4th, the same day that we are set to close on our house.  This job will be less hours (about 75% of full time) and more money--I simply couldn't pass up this opportunity.  I am very excited about this change, and I hope to stay at this firm for a long time.  

There are a lot of changes going on in the Bernardo household, but they are all positive changes, and I am so excited for the next chapter in our lives.

Liliana & Frankie update

We took Lily to her one-year checkup last week with her new doctor, and praise the lord she is healthy! Her ears look good, she is gaining weight, and for the most part, her development is right on track.  Except for the fact that she is not standing/pulling up/walking.  The doctor was concerned because she is not pulling up to stand and she really does not like to bear weight on her legs at all.  She referred us to a physical therapist, so of course I am worried.  Frankie was running and jumping by now, and she is not even trying to walk.  She also still mostly scoot/crawls instead of regular crawling.  I am hoping she is just a late bloomer, but only time will tell.

She now weighs just over 18 pounds (between 40 and 50 percentile) and is 28.5 inches long (40 percentile).  She has had a major growth spurt in the last two months!  She loves solid food and whole milk, and she is a fantastic little eater.  It amazes me that she eats eggs, beans, and almost any kind of meat.  She is now growing out of her 9-month clothes and wearing exclusively 12-months.  She is still in size 3 diapers.

We had a follow-up appointment at the audiologist today, and her hearing is back to normal, yay!  I am so happy we did the tubes.  She has not had a single ear problem since she got them.  I think her speech is getting better too.  Her words are dog, dada, doll, banana, mama, no, and all done.  She babbles a ton.  Mostly, she has such a sweet, gentle, and loving disposition.  She is very curious and into anything she can get her hands on these days.  She will pick anything up off the floor and try to eat it, so we really have to watch her these days.  Her brother loves her to death, and her two favorite playmates are her brother and her dog.  She also loves books and her baby dolls.

Frankie is having a blast this summer.  I think he is finally settling into a routine at home with Ms. Kiersten and Lily.  He is getting to do a lot of fun art projects and go to a lot of cool places during the day.  His main activity this summer has been his swim lessons.  We tried group lessons earlier this year, and they were a complete disaster, as he would not even get in the pool.  So, we put him in private lessons up at the Four Seasons, and he has been doing great!  I am so proud of him.  He started the summer terrified to be in the water by himself and refusing to dunk his head or go in the pool without his floaties.  Now, one month and eight lessons later, he is jumping in the water and swimming from one side of the pool to the other.    I am so happy we made the decision to try these private lessons.  They are expensive, but they are worth every penny.  He is still a bit obsessed with cleaning, but it is not as crazy as it used to be.  He is now very excited about playing pretend, and he can actually occupy himself for awhile now, which is nice.

His behavior has improved dramatically in the last month.  We are not having nearly as many huge meltdowns or tantrums as we were, and he is not waking up with night terrors anymore.  Now, the biggest issue we have is putting him to bed at night.  He stalls and then gets out of his bed and comes down stairs over and over and over every night.  

Take me out to the ballgame

Last weekend we took the kids to a Rangers baseball game!  We had taken Frankie once before when he was super young, but this was the first time he was old enough to understand what was going on, and this was Lily's first game.  Frankie complained the whole morning and told us he did not want to go to the game, but we *knew* he would have so much fun, so we pushed it and went anyway.  We were SO EXCITED to take him, and we just figured he would get excited when we got there.  I absolutely loved going to baseball games as a kid, and I was really looking forward to sharing this special sporting event with Frankie.  Alas, Frankie made good on his word and promptly started misbehaving once we got to the game.  He was hot and uninterested.  Lily and I lucked out with some shaded seats, and she was loving being outside, getting to clap and people watch.  We stuck it out for about four innings before calling it a day.  Frankie told us later that he was excited to go back to the baseball game someday and that next time he really wanted to get ice cream and cotton candy.   Anyway, at least Mommy and Daddy had fun!  I hope there are many more family baseball games in our future.

Just a little prayer

Today I put my faith in God to carry me through adversity, grant me patience, and open my eyes to the blessings in my life.

I pray to not take myself or my responsibilities too seriously, but to make my role as Wife and Mother of paramount importance.

I pray to learn from my mistakes and have the discipline and courage to stand by my convictions.

I pray to appreciate the home, the life, the job, and the family I have been blessed with.

I pray to cherish and treasure every single moment of Frank's and Liliana's childhood.

I pray to find healthy ways to alleviate stress, and to eliminate all unnecessary stress from my life.

Dear Lily,

Liliana Mae, my sweet baby girl, you are one year old today!  That means you are no longer a baby (but you will always be MY baby!).  You are getting so big, and yet in so many ways you are still so small and dainty.  You are an absolute joy most of the time.  You are easygoing, happy, and sweet.  But when you are not happy, you let everyone know it!  This is usually when you are tired or hungry, or when your brother keeps bothering you.  I always wanted a baby girl, and God truly blessed our family when he chose us for you.  I am so excited for the years to come, and the adventures we will share.  I have decorated your nursery with images of Paris, and I cannot wait to take you there.  I can't wait to show you the world and teach you that you can be anything you want to be.

You are not in a rush to get big and grow up like your big brother was.  You are taking your sweet time to learn new things.  Your new skill is pointing, and you point to things that you want.  You are mobile, and you do a hybrid scoot/crawl maneuver to get where you want to go.  You have absolutely no interest in standing or walking yet.  You are perfectly happy sitting, rolling, and scooting around.  You do things on your own time, and you find pleasure in the simple joys in life.  I believe you are going to be our free spirit, our dreamer, and I love that about you.  I cannot wait to see what you become when you grow up.

You are the perfect piece to our family puzzle, a true beauty, and a sweet soul.  I am so blessed to be your mom, and I love you all the way to the moon and back.  Happy first birthday baby girl!  Love, Mommy

Princess Liliana's 1st Birthday Party!

Tomorrow, my baby girl turns 1!!! I cannot believe it.  She still seems like such a tiny baby to me, which makes it even harder to believe.  We celebrated Lily's birthday on June 1 with a small brunch party at our house. I think her favorite part was the balloons and wrapping paper!  Kiersten made a bunch of her beautiful party decorations, which I really appreciated.  She wasn't too sure about the cake, but she did eat a few handfuls of icing.  We had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends, and Lily got a lot of fun new toys and beautiful clothes.

Here are some pictures from Lily's BIG first birthday party!

Showering Baby Rylie

Two weekends ago, Ashlee, Kristin, Gina, and I hosted a shower for my sister and baby Rylie!  We decided to do Allison's baby shower and Liliana's birthday party the same weekend to make it easy on our families, only having to come to Dallas for one weekend.  The morning of the shower was super hectic trying to get everything ready and also get the house in order for showings.  I decided to take Lily to the shower with me, and it was a horrible plan.  She did not nap in the car on the way, so she was exhausted and miserable the entire shower, and she wouldn't let anyone hold her except for me.  It sucked because I felt like I missed a lot of the shower, but Allison had a great time and it was really nice to see all her friends and celebrate baby Rylie! She got a ton of cute stuff!  Our aunt Barbara and cousin Kim flew to Dallas for the shower, which was super nice.  Kim had never been to Dallas or even met my kids before, so it was so great for her to come out.

I am so, so, so excited for my sister to have a baby and to become an aunt!  Only 9 more weeks!

Here are some pictures from the shower: