Baby Friends and Mommas Friends....Vital part of our life!

For those of you who have been following Nico's life...you know how important BABY FRIENDS and MOMMA FRIENDS have been to us on this journey/adventure of parenthood. Surrounding myself with people that understand what I'm feeling, have similar needs, expectations, and *schedules, has led me to make strong connections with women that I feel so lucky to CALL MY FRIENDS! From when I was preggers, I reached out to pregnant momma friends.

Then once Nico joined me, together we set out on a quest to MOMMY DATE and we were so fortunate to find some AMAZING mommas in AUSTIN...who we still keep tabs on and follow up with on their BEAUTIFUL journeys through motherhood and now even motherhood of TWO =).

When we moved to LA....Nico and I set out to get our fix of MOMMA/Baby friends which we started to slowly find until we built an amazing group of baby and momma friends that we MISS SO MUCH right now.

And so now that we've moved to Miami....Nico and I are back on that quest! We are on the prowl to meeting Momma Friends. Miami's been a little different. Mommy's haven't been as open to talking to "strangers'' as in the other 2 cities we've lived in, but we'll find those mommas that want to have a good time, make new friends, and share the joys and stress of LIFE on MOMMYLANE.   Mommy friends are the people that:

• don't mind getting your kids' spit up on them
• don't mind having INTERMITEN converstations...that usually don't end anywhere near inteneded due to TIMELY distractions.
• Who understand what you mean when you say that you need a LIFE EPIDURAL.
• who hug you went there is nothing to be said
• who listen to you complain about your child w/o judging your conviction
• who pour you a glass of wine and make you laugh when the going gets tough and you find yourself alone
• make time to enjoy time with YOU and your baby
• make the journey of motherhood that much more enjoyable, memorable, and special!!!

I love and miss all my momma friends in LA, Austin, Winter Haven, Malaysia, and those other ones scattered around other places!!! (No pressure Miami...lol).

TODAY, We met up with a friend from PRESCHOOL and her neighbor! She has 2 kiddos (Tyler and Adrian) and her friend has a little girl, emily and a little boy on the way..... Before we knew Nico and I were in our FIRST PLAY-DATE in MIAMI with Emily(2 1/2), Tyler (1 month older than Nico) and Adrian (5 months old).

I had forgotten how small babies were!!!

And then we came home to play with our neighbor's kids...who arn't so little 10 and 17, but Nico had a blast anyway...Especially when Sebas (10) read to Nico the COLLECTION of LIGHTNING McQUEEN STORIES! It was adorable to watch Nico listen intently and repeat words he recognized, gasp a moments in the story, and imitate how Sebas  used his finger to lead himself while reading!!!!

I would be lying if I said that moving here has been easy and all fun and games, but truth is  I know many great things await us in this new chapter...remembering that on the difficult days is key...and often hard to do, but I'll keep looking for those hidden treasures that Miami has in store for us.
Here's to NEW BEGINNINGS and 'new' friendships! 

Night Night

WEEKEND FUN, Visitors, Toma's Party

Most recent Family Portrait:

From 1104 Laundry-Tomas's Bday

We had a lot of activities this weekend---more than the usual hecticness.

I'll start with Friday-

We biked over to Happy Hour in Santa Monica to meet with my friend Brittany Love from UF and Tio Charlie. Brittney and her husband (Ryan) just moved here a couple weeks ago.

It was great catching up.

Saturday I ran 8miles while Peter got the bikes ready for our tour with Logan---who is in town for a couple days for work (NI).

The bike ride was lots of fun...and I caught most of it on camera. We all planned on going out but Logan and Charlie bailed...cause they were too tired. We ended up meeting up with Brittany and Ryan---AND HAD AN AWESOME TIME at a little CLUB in Venice.

From 1104 Logan's visit-Nikki's night out

Check out the pictures here if you don't see the slideshow below .

Sunday was a LONG DAY, LOADED with Fun and Friends:

Early Sunday morning we had Tomas' Birthday Party. We got to meet some new little ones, meet a NEW PARK in our area, sing happy birthday, and eat some yummy food! Nico played chase with a little boy name John, went exploring around the park with Peter, and played with buckets and the other kids before he went down for a nap.

From 1104 Laundry-Tomas's Bday

Check out the pictures here if you don't see the slideshow below.

Laurel, Tim, and MILE'S visit

After the party, I went to pick up the Stelzer Family at LAX!!! We hung out around the apartment, in the sand box at our complex, went for a little bike tour with the two kiddos in the bike trailer, had a great dinner, and then I sent them on their LONG journey back to their temp. home!

Nico had his first play date ever with Miles. In August, Nico's Playmate and my running buddy left to Malaysia and we haven't seen them since. Because Laurel keeps a great blog, we have kept tabs on all the things that they have been up to...so there was a strange, surreal, de ja vu, feeling when we were hanging out in person.

Here they are at 2 weeks old-Miles, and 3 weeks old- Nico.

Here they are at a playdate at Monica and Dylan's house in Austin--around 5months old.

This past weekend at 14months of age.

Nico and Miles took sharing to heart! Nico took a bite, offered it to Miles, and then fed it to him.

They also shared some milk and cheerios in the Bike Trailer as we toured the different parks in Venice:

I chatted with Laurel today and found out that Miles behaved great on the 10 hour flight to Hong Kong--sleeping 8 of those hours and then did well again on the last stretch of the trip to Penang. Glad to hear that their great trip ended so well.

It was so nice to hang out with such special and inspiring people. They're adventurous spirit re-energized Peter and I, reminding us to not be scared to embark on our own mini adventures.

Tim said it best: Having a child is like growing old. There are old people that are always complaining about the things that they used to be able to do, the energy they had, and all the things that were different-----And then there are those who physically age but are always young at heart, staying active, sharing their wealth of knowledge with others, and doing "a version" of what they have always loved to do; That's the type of parents that Tim and Laurel are--the well aging kind!

I look forward to seeing what other great places in the world our play-dates and friendship will take us.

Check out the pictures here if you don't see the slideshow below

Happy Birthday Miles!!!

Miles, one Nico's friend from Austin, turned 1 yesterday.

Happy Birthday Miles!!!

Hope you had a great day!!!!

Congrats Laurel and Tim on making it through the first year successfully. I see you all had a great time celebrating with Miles' new friends.

Nico asked me to post this for note he wrote to his friend:

1/23/11

Dear Miles,

I am really excited that I get to see you in a couple months, even if it's only for a couple hours! My mom is really excited too! Lots of stuff has happend since we last talked on skype. I hear you are walking? How's that? I've looked into it but I'm not really interested right now...you should see how fast I get to things when I'm crawling!

I've discovered this amazing thing my mom calls sand! It is AWEEEESOMEEE. I mean this is better than warm milk! My mom takes me to play in it all the time and I LOVE IT. When you come visit I'll tell her to take us to it. If you don't have any in malaysia, let me know...I'll have my mom email some to your mom.

Hope we can play with our blocks again soon on skype! I was thinking about you yesterday but didn't have a computer handy to write you this note. Happy 1st birthday dude! Welcome to the club!

Love,
Nico