Happy Birthday Annie!

Today Annie celebrates her first birthday as a mother. At 31, Annie is as beautiful as she's always been, if not more beautiful. Motherhood has certainly brought out the best in Annie this past year. Of course she's super over-protective of Isaiah, but I guess that's a good thing right? The lack of money this year has put a damper on the many wonderful things I would love to do for Annie, but Isaiah and I have done our best to make this day special for her.

Plans for the 31st birthday include dinner tonight with just the three of us. Annie's family will celebrate with her this Friday night with delicious tapas (yum yum!)We'll finish off the birthday extravaganza with my family celebrating next week on a mini family vacation destination (details to come if we make it out).

Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife. I hope the day is as great as you want it to be. I love you, Isaiah loves you, we love you. Yay you!

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Tooth be told

After weeks of non-stop drooling but no tooth to show for it, the tooth has finally poked it's way through. Annie found it the other night while Isaiah was chomping on her finger. I was called over to put my finger in his mouth and feel for myself. Although it hurts, it's truly an awesome feeling. Our little boy keeps growing up!

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Duck watch at the park

Made a trip to the park last week and enjoyed the fresh air. Isaiah has this thing about trees. Wouldn't be surprised to see him grow up to be a botanist. Anyways, we took lunch with us, played on the blanket, took a nap, and ended with watching the ducks and turtles swim by. Fun day!

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Ziggy Phelps

Finally gave in the other day and decided to take Isaiah to the pool in our complex. I've been fighting with this for quite awhile now for a number of reasons. One being the use of the public pool and the cleanliness of it. Two being the post baby weight that I'm still carrying which prevents me from having the desired swimmers body I would like to have. So what made me give in?



Well Annie had the day off and we had planned to go to the beach. Woke up late, got lazy, and didn't feel like driving all the way to the beach by the time we did get ready. I also got tired of telling Annie "no" everytime she would ask to go to the pool.














As much as I kick and scream about Annie's crazy ideas (remember that I would stay indoors all day if I could), Annie really does have the best ideas. We had a blast! Isaiah loves his baths so why wouldn't he love the pool? He's a natural. Already knows he needs to kick in the water. Isaiah wore his swimming trunks that Aunite Rosie and Uncle Gabe bought him for Christmas. Looked adorable! Annie also had the crazy idea to run out and buy him a floating harness for him to sit in. Again, brilliant idea. The three of us had so much fun and I'm glad Annie dragged me into going with them. Looks like we'll be spending more summer days together at the pool.

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Laughter

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"Take Zig out to the ball game"

Although it wasn't his first baseball game, it was a special one indeed. On Monday, June 29th, Isaiah joined the Valtier Boys for a night out at the ballpark. We had the opportunity to see Manny Ramirez in his rehab stint with the Inland Empire 66ers. With all the hype surrounding his rehab in the minors, it's no surprise that the game was sold out and crowded. On this given evening, the 66ers played our hometown team, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. Who were we to cheer for? It was a tough call but we fell victim to the excitement surrounding Manny and cheered for him and the 66ers along with the rest of the crowd.

Isaiah had a blast and so did I. It was great to be out with my son, my dad, and my brother enjoying a "guys night out". Of course with the IE 66ers being the single A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, this allowed the perfect opportunity to dress up the baby in his Dodgers outfit. Thanks to Uncle Oscar and Auntie Yayo, Isaiah was the cutest Dodger baby in attendance.

Yes mommy was missed. The baby missed her and so did I. This was my first outing with the baby on my own without Annie's help. I wasn't so scared at first but as we got closer to the evening and I saw how sad and scared Annie was, I began to feel nervous. Annie's list of things to pack in his diaper bag could have easily filled a truck, but that's just how Annie is...prepared.

Long night for the boy, long night for the rest of us too. IE won the game that night in the bottom of the ninth inning with an RBI single into right field bringing in the winning run from second base.

As for Manny? Well much like the rest of his rehab stint in the minors, he went 1 for 3 with two strikeouts and left the game in the 5th inning. See what steroids do to ones game? Say no to drugs kids!

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