The Rodriguez People

John Reuben is One!

2010-05-31T17:45:00.000-07:00

Angel food cake with real chocolate whip cream frosting is our traditional birthday dessert growing up in my family and my mom and I made a gluten free one for John on his special day! Turned out pretty edible, although I think John had more fun smearing it all over EVERYwhere!
John wanted to share his cake with Daddy but Jamin seemed adverse to having John feed him and opted to have his own slice after giving John a good bath. Grandma's tub was covered in chocolate before we were done!
One year milestones:
John cruises like crazy and I can tell he wants to walk on his own but not quite sure how to go about it since he's always had our confident assistance close at hand; Betty and Brandon gave John a walker which he loves to utilize and can then walk on his own. Thanks to this magnificent device he will be running in no time!
So far John's vocabulary consists of "Ididthat" "Ido" "dadada" and an assortment of single syllables. Not sure if he is comprehending much of what he says but he says it with assurance and volume!
Jamin and I both would agree this has been an amazing year and WOW, how the time has flown; seems just yesterday we were bringing our baby home. Thanks to all the fam and their support in showering John with love on his birthday! Much love, the Rodriguez People :)

2010-05-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

John is riding on his blue walker that turns into a car! Almost like his very own batmobile... Dananana..danana...John YEAH! (batman theme song)

2010-05-31T17:18:00.000-07:00

Ruthie and Ben got John his first tractor and he is ready to help Daddy with the yard work. Jamin is building us a chicken house and I started my own tomato garden of 5 tomato plants to gently introduce myself to vegetable gardening this year. So this summer we will be putting that to good use. :) "Let's load 'er up"

2010-05-31T17:13:00.001-07:00

John Reuben and his friend, Victor, after opening presents. John looks dazed doesn't he? :)

John Reuben is One!

2010-05-31T16:57:00.001-07:00

John Reuben turned ONE recently and he is growing into such a wonderful little boy! We celebrated his first birthday in Montana along with Papa's 80th! This is a picture of our pre-birthday celebration at Jamin's parents house before we went to Montana. Nana gave John a turtle pool with this blue lawn chair which I know we will get lots of good use in the yard this summer. John loves to play in the water(bath time) and in the yard too-putting the two together will be heavenly for him, I'm sure, once the weather warms up enough of course :).
He's a big boy now; relaxing in his own little lounge chair!

Bubbles

2010-04-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

John LOVES bath time and Jamin recently bought him some bubble bath which was fun for all of us! John was in shock and awe at first unsure of where his extremities had gone to. Then when his toe would pop up or he'd lift his hand from under the water he'd look quite perplexed and pleased. As he adjusted he even tried to eat the strange new bubbly substance.

Just like daddy with a bubble goatee (not sure on the spelling)!!

2010-04-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

John Reuben is determined to eat with his spoon! He's getting so into eating what we're eating I recently got this great book called Feeding the Whole Family. I love my hand held food processer, we use it daily to grind up noodles, oatmeal, soups, etc.
He's also a huge fan of baked sweet potatos and yams which is fun because Jamin won't eat them with me. He still eats a little jarred baby food which is convenient when we need something fast or are eating out and about.
I love my messy boy!!!

UPDATE 2010

2010-03-08T15:11:00.001-08:00

Here's John on the rocking chair PapaAllison made for him. He's just getting better at sitting on top of it. He's feet can't touch the floor so mostly he falls off alot. I always catch of course; except once. Don't worry he's got a hard head :) John's crawling all over the place and really into pointing at things. He likes to stick his finger into any crevice he might find and so we've been baby proofing the house again. He points at my eye's and nose and mouth and teeth are VERY fascinating to him. Speaking of teeth; John is getting his two bottom teeth now! First ones; I will post a pic of his brilliant smile soon. I'm not the greatest at keeping up with this blogging stuff, but my friend Meagan has inspired me because she said she gets on to check if I've updates periodically and is disappointed to see that I haven't. So that's my new goal among many other things to update my friends and family away from home about our life here in No. Idaho.
I absolutely love being a mommy and excited to hear that Mary will be joining me this October when her little one comes along! John's excited too to have a cousin.
I am starting to recognize a little more of my own personality in my little John-I think he's gonna be a strong willed independent child. He's very good at getting his way, so I'm starting to read up on appropriate disciplining/parenting skills. He's also very determined, crawled early, already wants to feed himself (although not always successful at getting the food into his mouth, but rather all over his little body instead), and loves to talk/sing. He doesn't sleep through the night, but he is a wonderful and pleasant baby boy almost always! :)
Peace out-RodriguezMAMA

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-23T08:51:00.001-08:00

We sooooo enjoyed spending Thanksgiving in Montana and look forward to gettting to visit the family there again. We love the open skys, good food and the BEST company! One of our favorite pit stops around the country:)
We are enjoying this very busy holiday season!! I decided to make all our gifts this year and I'm really enjoying all the sewing projects I've gotten myself into. John helps by fondling his fabric of choice which happens to be anything within his reach as he rolls about on the floor. His rolling sends him all over the room and I can't leave him for one moment without him finding his way to the opposite side of the room.
We are eager for the New Year approaching and one our of goals is to keep everyone more updated through our blog on going ons in the Rodriguez home! Currently John is growing into a regular little chatter-he loves to "talk" and grunts a lot-sometimes we have contests back and forth, he grunts I grunts he grunts I grunt and around we go til he or I give up. Jamin calls it our chewbacka talk; an effectionate understanding between mother and son. John's very close to crawling and rocks on his hands and knees but face plants before he makes the next move.
We are inseparable, our little clan and lovin it!!!
Happy holidays to all,
Alli, Jamin, John Reuben and Samson

2009-10-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

Our little munchkin is getting SO BIG! This little chair Ruthie got from her dad when she was little and Ben recently had it reapolstered to match their living room furniture-we were over there for lunch yesterday and John Reuben was content to sit in his very own recliner. Jamin says his arm over the armrest is the only thing holding him up. Anyway he loves to sit and look around at everyone and he keeps his eye on me constantly-always wanting me to be in site. We follow each other around the house :) We do laundry together-I fold John fondles-he's a very tactile baby, he lays on the bed while I put laundry away, he sits in his bouncer while I use the facilities, we sing and dance and laugh... always together and tons of fun!!

NAP TIME

2009-10-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

It is NAP TIME for John at the moment and I am eager to update you all on our busy life yet oddly it seems many days appear unproductive from an outside glance. My current goal is to accomplish one item everyday outside of keeping my little big man engaged-which is always the highlight of my day. Right now I can hear him in the next room fighting falling asleep. He'll coo a little then grunt and sorta whine then give it up and fall asleep until his little muscles spasm and wake him half up to do it again til he falls deeper asleep and stays down for about an hour these days. He's a light sleeper and still wakes up in the night. But a very good baby when he's fed, pooped and had a decent nap!
This morning I was wiped out and this pic Jamin took after he brought John in to join us around 7am. We love being parents and our little munchkin keeps us truly engaged with him and eachother!

Finally!

2009-09-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings to all our friends and family-
We want to welcome you to the Rodriguez People blogspot! Here I journey to keep you up to date on the goings on of our little family all our own.
I began this blog the week John was born and took awhile getting back to it-as you can see :) But oh, how I love being a mommy!! It definitely gives me a deeper understanding of the love of our heavenly Father has toward us, His children-how truly deep and wide and vast that love is!
So for my first post in our family blog, I am uploading a darling picture of our beautiful baby boy: JOHN REUBEN CRUZ RODRIGUEZ, born 5-22-09! We are excited about this adventure we have began as parents and yearn to be lead by God to raise our child to know Him and be strong in the awareness of who God is and the plans He has for our little guy. For great are those plans!!
Until we blog again,
Yours truly-RodriguezMama