Day 8-A place you've traveled to

I took this pic myself!!!  I would love to go back one day ....ah Paris....

Day 7-Favorite movies

I define a favorite movie as one that I will ALWAYS watch when it comes on TV, I throw in the DVD when I am sick, and I can't wait to show my kid!  There are 18 here...can you name them all?

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Family traditions, like our Christmas tree make me so happy!

Day 5-Your siblings

Siblings- wow why can’t I articulate what I need to say here? I can give you the stats, I have 2 brothers and 1 sister, 3 sister in laws and 2 brother in laws. They are all my “brothers and sisters” to me and I can’t deny the love I have for my siblings no matter how/when they came into my life! I couldn’t choose just one or 2 pics so there are a lot! I could write another novel here but I will keep it concise and just give ya’ll a rundown!

James- he is my oldest brother, well he is really my ½ brother but I have never liked that label, he is my brother. We are 7 years apart and he was raised with us until he moved to AZ after high school and still lives there today. He is married to Dindy and together they have 5 kids and 1 grandkid. He is wicked smart especially when it comes to mechanics, and machinery. He is a self made man, successful in life and in love.

Christy- she is my ½ sister but once again with the labels- she’s my sister, we are 4 years apart. She moved to AZ when James did when she graduated 8th grade. She is married to Joe and together they have 4 kids and 6 grandkids! She has the most loving and giving heart and she is a wonderful mother. I don’t get to chat with her as often as I like but when we do its for hours and hours. She has the most amazing heart and she loves with all her being.

Ray – what can I say? Ray and I are 2 years apart exactly. Our birth dates are 5 days apart so we had lots of celebrations together. We were not so close as children but when we hit high school our sibling relationship became a friendship. I think he just liked dating my friends and I liked dating his hahaha! He has always been there as a protector and I know he will continue to do so for the rest of our lives. He is an amazing salesman; he is street smart and a great father. He lives in Brea with his wife Christi and their 2 kids. I get to see him a lot and really enjoy our friendship.

Miaza and Mike – Maiza is Gus’ sister and together with Mike they have 4 children. They also live in AZ, we get to kill a lot of birds with 1 stone when we make a trip out there! They both have been amazing in inviting me into their lives as a sister, friend and Auntie! I am so blessed to have them in my life!

Day 4-Your parents

 

I have been truly blessed with my parents and an amazing mother in law as well. As I begin to write this post I know it can be pages and pages long but I am not writing a novel here, although I know I could.

My Mother-In-Law ~ Silvia Lombardo
She is a wonderful mother to my husband and an amazing grandmother to Taylor. She wants to teach him Spanish and comes to visit him as often as she can. She was named Grandma Nicky by Gus’ nieces and nephews because her dog is named Nicky and that was the easiest way to differentiate her from the other grandparents. She will always be grandma Nicky to our kids too! I am so glad I can call her and she will be there for our family at the drop of a hat and she loves to spoil Taylor. She is an amazing cook; she makes delicious empanadas, pasta, chicken and so on. She is a wonderful mother, grandmother and friend.  Thank you for loving me as a daughter Silvia, I love you!

My Parents
They have been married for 35 years and together they have 4 children. They were both married once before they married each other and my dad brought 2 wonderful kids, James and Christy along with him. They had 2 together, my brother Ray and then lastly me to complete our family of 6. My mom always said she would have had 12 kids if she could have, I’m thankful that didn’t pan out hahaha! Together they have 10 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. I have learned so much from them, how to be a daughter, friend, wife and mother, how to laugh, forgive and love.  Even though they live over 2 hours away they still come up on the weekends to see the grandkids, I only wish they were closer so I could see them all the time again.  They introduced me to Jesus and instilled a love in me that I strive to grow and pass on to my family. I only hope my marriage is as successful and filled with love as theirs is!

My Mom ~ Sharon Lynn Shafer Martinez
She is truly one of my best friends, you know in the face of a crisis the 1st person that comes to your mind to call? She is it, I call her for everything. She is smart, loving, logical and an amazing listener. I can tell her anything and I do! I think we talk, email, text or FB every day. She is very organized, clean, fun and loves adventures. She is my roller coaster buddy, not scared of anything. We really want to go sky diving together and we have been saying for years now that we want to do the Amazing Race, we would totally win! My favorite story to tell about my mom is the time she took my Uncle’s sand rail over a 50 foot cliff, we were driving behind her and then poof, she was gone. I think the 1st thing outta her mouth after that was - let’s do that again! She was there all night while I was in labor and was the one I could lean on while awaiting the arrival of Taylor. She was supposed to be in the room when he was born but as you may know none of us were “there” for that. She did help light a fire under the midwives butt to get him out when his heart slowed to almost a stop and I am thankful every day that she was there fighting for me and Tay. She moved in with us for a week after he arrived and I cried so hard after she left. Not because I was alone, or because I was a new mother, I cried because I was going to miss her and spending everyday with her. I can’t wait till we have another child and she comes back again. I’m crying now as I write this so that’s about all I can get thru, I love you mom!

My Dad ~ Raymond Martinez Sr.
My dad thinks he is a comedian. He loves to laugh and make people laugh in turn. He is an AMAZING singer and when I was little he sang at several churches around SoCal and I used to sit in the front pew and sing along with him. He still sings in church today and I love to see him when he has a solo performance. I had the pleasure of working with my dad for 2 years, and I loved our lunch dates. I miss being able to walk down the hallway to his office for any reason whatsoever. I can call him for anything and I do! He likes sports, I wouldn’t say a fanatic like my little family but he does like to watch. Since moving to SD they are Chargers and Padres fans and I love going to games with them. Can’t wait for some this season! My dad is deathly afraid of heights- sorry dad had to share – hence why mom and I haven’t gone sky diving yet. We love to watch Sneakers, Hudson Hawk, Murder by Death, and a few other old movies and laugh together. When I hear a certain phrase I tend to break out in song, any song containing that phrase, and I totally got that from him. He is a great cook, whenever we go to SD he makes us yummy food and delights in our pancake breakfasts together. He is a wonderful grandpa and does “Tick-Tock” with all the kiddos. When Tay was born he said to me “I can’t wait to do Tick Tock with him” and it made me cry.  I could have never asked for a better father, I love you Dad!

Day 3-Your first love

Chocolate Chip Cookies – yep can’t deny it and neither can my waist line!!! I have been in love with these little devils since I was a little girl. Even today nothing cures my bad days like a trip to Mrs. Fields for a CC cookie with walnuts to make me smile.

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

When I first thought about doing the blog I really considered my audience.  It was 2009 and there wasn’t many fun things going on to announce to the world at the time.  Work, husband, family, gym, friends, repeat.  I struggled for about a month and decided to go for it.  I knew that within 6 months Gus and I were about to start on the greatest adventure of your lives so starting to journal at the beginning seemed appropriate.  The most exciting thing we had going on was our 2 baby kittens Michaela and Jordan who were 6 months old at the time.  If you look back a lot of posts are about them, PT~ Pre Taylor hahaha.  When naming my blog I wanted something that I wouldn’t regret later, something that represented us and wasn’t cryptic at the same time.  I am not good at slogans or anything so I went with the obvious with a twist.  At first I considered using Tails, but thought that later on that wouldn’t fully encompass "us" when the posts about the cats became less and less.  So I went with Tale and I love this definition  of “Tale” ~ A story that narrates strange happenings in a direct manner, without detailed descriptions of character.  It makes me laugh and I thought it defined our life and the purpose of the blog perfectly, so we became Lombardo Family Tales!  

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

I think I can sum up my introduction and facts all together, most are already posted in my "about me" section, I revamped and updated a bit but some are worth repeating ~ I narrowed down to 15 and elaborated on some...

I:

1. believe in God,
2. am in love with my husband Gus,
3. love being a wife and mother, 
4. am amazed at the life we created in Taylor, and I am truely blessed to be able to have him with me every day as well as get my job done!
5. have learned to live and let live,
6. love being a friend,
7. speak the truth in love,
8. have been a Dallas Cowboys fan since I was 6,
9. have no sense of balance, Gus has an amazing sense of balance so we are hoping that Taylor lands on his end of the spectrum and not mine there,
10. both my cats sleep on me and in a queen sized bed with hubby that makes little room for me - and I LOVE it,  
11. I have this strange obsession with numbers - I count everything, stairs, steps to the fridge from the coffee maker, how many times I stir something in a bowl, the seconds clicking away till I can play with Taylor after a nap, I even have to have the volume on the tv counter on mutiples of 5, 25 not 27, 30 not 34 and so on.  I thot I was a little weird until my Dad told me he does the same exact thing, apple didn't fall far from the tree.
12. like paying bills, I have these really fun spreadsheets that are color coded, I know I'm weird!  
13. have my own DVR for my random shows and to watch them I have to be on the treadmill, lately there are a ton piling up since I don't have too much time to get on there, I think I have about 30 Law and Orders on there....one day
14. hate doing my hair, don't get me wrong I love my hair and I do it every day, but I hate taking the time to do it.
15. hate bananas but love banana pudding,  it's a texture thing.

My Swaddle Bug

Taylor absolutely loves to be swaddled. The second you wrap him tight and give him his paci he turns his head as far as he can to the left and conks out. It's the cutest thing ever and I love that he goes down in 2 seconds like this but the problem is as soon as he can break loose he wakes himself up. This leads to Daddy getting up more than once to give him his paci until I trot in there and reswaddle him and he's out again. We have been trying to break him of the swaddle habit and most naps he does pretty well, but we still swaddle him at night so he can sleep thru. Can't deny what works right?

One way to get him to sleep with his arms loose is to keep his hands occupied without distracting him. So I put 1 paci in his mouth and he took it out with his hand, so I stuck another in his mouth and he took it out with his other hand, so I stuck a 3rd in his mouth and he was satisfied and went right to sleep. I had to take pics to show Daddy!

Today at work I put Tay down at 1:15 ( a little early) swaddled and we sat around the lunch table and listened to him giggle and talk for 30 minutes. This being highly unlike my child I went in to his room and low and behold this is what I found....

My child the escape artist.

He broke out of his swaddle, scooted up to the top of the pack n play and turned sideways. This being a 1st I was laughing so hard I had to take a picture of him. He is just so cute!  ~and yes the bumpers are now out of the PnP since he tore them apart...safety 1st!

4 Month Appointment

This smile didn't last too long! Taylor had his 4 month appointment last week and he weighed in at 16 lbs 5 oz, what a chunk! He had a huge growth spurt, so much that they had to measure him 2 times because they thot the numbers were off. He is very tall for his age ~ hmmm wonder where he gets that from?!?!?!?! He got his 3 shots and screamed so loud and had his little shriek that said "why are you doing this to me?" I almost cried because his little whimpers made me think that his feelings were so hurt that I took him there to get shots. Kaiser was so kind to let me have the room after and nurse him for 20 minutes to help keep him on schedule and help calm him a bit. We changed Dr's offices since our last appointment and I LOVE his new Dr. She was so excited to meet him and loves his sweet smile. She said he is cutting teeth and by his next appointment he will have a couple coming thru. I can't believe my baby boy is growing so fast! I love seeing him learn new things everyday and watching him grow, I swear he grows every time I get him up from a nap!