Pictures and Videos from Miami and San Fran

Nico and I have been in Miami for a couple days now and we have been having a great time! We have Gone to the beach, run, met up with friends and family and reached another milestone in Nico's LIFE! He started crawling today at Abuelo Pete and Vivi's house in the presence of his great-grandma (Eneida), all 4 grandparents, Tio Tony I&II, Tia Manuela and Pebbles!

He's been rocking back back and forth for a couple weeks now and everyone would tell me...he's gonna crawl any day now....AND HE FINALLY DID!

Look and my little man go!!!

From 1008 Kellys Wedding

From 1008 Kellys Wedding

From 1008 Kellys Wedding

Here are some more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/vflores.hearts/NicoVisitsMiami810?locked=true&feat=email#

Daddy is working in California this week and has gotten to see and do a lot of cool things too. He even ran across the Golden Gate Bridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHICH I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO!!!!!!! But it's okay...I'll get my chance one day =)

Nico's Baptism

The last details for Nico's Baptism were finalized yesterday morning:

When: Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Where: Paroquia Santa Teresa de Jesus; Santagueda, Colombia

What time: 5pm

By whom: Padre Luis Eduardo Loaiza

Godparents: Manuela Rodriguez & Anthony Flores

The whole family is on Trips!

We are in Miami!
We've only been here 1.5 days and we're drained....so much so that Nico actually slept all night last night!!

We have visited family, family and friends have come to visit us, we've gone to the beach ($1.50 toll, $8 to enter Crandon Park, Key Biscayne...pretty ridiculous), and gone to Tropical Park to run(luckily free...for now cause they are soon going to start charging $5 for parking)!

Tonight we have a big Night...Nico's great-grandma, Florence (Peter's Grandmother), has an art show! Nico is the guest of Honor. Mommy has already picked a super cute outfit for him to wear!!!

Peter is on his way over to the WEST COAST as we speak...=( for work. He needs to take lots of pictures and bring back a full report, since he is entertaining some offers for sales positions in Cali.

We're off to do Miami things =)

notifinder.com update

Hey friends, this is Peter and I wanted to write down some links and figured I would share them.

www.notifinder.com is a project Ashish and I have been working on at nights. It is meant to help you find things on craigslist by setting up searches and receiving updates in your email. It is very simple and easy-to-use. Try it out!

We published the site about 6 months ago and now have about 500 users and over 1,000 active searches. It has been really fun to watch it grow. We have also recently received some press coverage:
Techie Buzz review
makeuseof.com review
another review
A twitter post
feedmyapp
A video review!

We are international!

Let me know what you think!!!

Playmate and running buddy leave!

On this blog, lots of you have read about the adventures that Nico's friend, Miles, and Mommy's friend, Laurel, have been on in the past couple months.

The time for their trip has come! They are moving to Malaysia next week. Since Nico and I are going to Miami, we said our good-byes yesterday over lunch....which was delicious by the way thanks to the homemade bread Sarah brought, and homemade pesto Laurel brought...and my yummy Bean/walnut/chicken salad.

Laurel and I met through another friend, AnneMarie who I met when I moved out to Austin last Septmeber. When I met up with AnneMarie, she told me about Laurel, who was also pregnant, and also a runner. Overwelmed with excitement, I met up with them at Town lake for a little jog. By then I was already 6 1/2 months pregnant and running was a lot more difficult....but I still tried running with them. Laurel was able to run for longer than me...but soon we could only walk/jog together and then eventually just walk..slowly..lol. We had more than our pregnancies and love for running in common....both our husbands worked at NI, and all 4 of us loved to travel! We were also in Bradley Classes (not the same class) and wanted to have our babies naturally, wanted to breastfeed, and wanted to get back into running soon!

This picture was at my babyshower here in Austin where Laurel and AnneMarie gave me an awesome massage certificate which I used the last week of my pregnancy.

Who would have thought that in our bellies we would have such good friends!

Though they were supposed to be 3 weeks apart, Nico came 1 week late and Miles came 1 week early, so they only ended up being 1 week apart. This was the first time they met out-side the belly. Though Nico looked a lot bigger at that point, Miles soon caught up and passed Nico!

We started going to Mommy Circles at Sarah's house...where Miles and Laurel got to meet the other mommies and babies that Nico and I knew from our Bradley Class.

We spent lots of time at Town Lake: walking at first, then getting in the pool (deep eddy), and lately running with the boys in the strollers!

We watched out little me grow from infants to little men and the weather slowly warmed up!

We also got to see them find their hands, feet and discover each other, interact, even "play" together.

Laurel and Miles:

It was so nice hanging out with you two in the past couple months...Thanks for joining us on this roller coaster ride we've been on....supportive on the not-so-good days and celebrating with us the great days and NIGHTS..hehehe. Laurel, you have been an inspiration and have helped me relax and try new things with Nico. You have also helped me tremendously on my road back to running. Knowing someone else who is going through the same struggles but continues to go out there at 5:45am...has helped me to STOP making excuses for myself.

We will be keeping up with you guys on Stelzer Family Blog . Have a great time on your Family Adventure! We will miss you!!!

Love, The Flores Family

Interview Today!

Peter and I decided that Mommy should go to work. A couple hours after that discussion, I had an interview lined up. I know that I want to work somewhere temporary that allows me to be close to Nico, but that gives us a little extra income.

This morning I had an interview at Stepping Stone School. There are a couple positions open near our apartment and the best part is, Nico can go to school with mommy! There are openings available to Nico-aged kids at the same and other locations.

When I get back from Miami I have to go Observe the school where I will possibly be teaching and then I will have a follow-up meeting to discuss, start-date, salary, Nico's enrollment, and other such details. I am excited to see where this road may lead.

One of my first childhood memories of school are sitting my parents down next to all my lined up toys and dolls (as if in a classroom) teaching them whatever I had done for homework. I would then quiz my parents to make sure they were paying attention. Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, this didn't change....maybe the toys were replaced with classmates, but I studied by teaching...one- to make sure i knew the info, and two- to help others understand.

To this day, I enjoy teaching, mainly because I see the look of satisfaction on children as well as adults' faces when they have UNDERSTOOD. I had never considered teaching full time, especially kids, but with Nico now...things have changed. He has tapped into a different side of me....my focus has shifted from Bigger scale things like-making a difference in the world (Peace Corps, law, global studies, health professions) to smaller scale- making a difference in little peoples' lives (teaching)...especially my baby, Nico. It's not to say that I will do this forever, but I feel that working at these schools will give me heads up as to whats coming in Nico's development and will better prepare me to teach Nico more things! I still have my whole life ahead of me to make a difference at a larger scale like I initially planned on.

I know I have the energy and the willingness to learn and adapt to this new job and the obstacles it brings to the table...however, I know it will be lots of fun!

I hope everything works out.

Boating with Friends!

Yesterday Nico and his friends invited us parents to go boating with them out on Lake Travis.

It was soooo much fun! All the parents took turns jumping in, catching some rays, and chillin with the boys!

From 1007 Boat and Pool time!

Everette was there with him mommy and daddy: Meagan and Kevin

Dylan was there with his Mommy and daddy: Monica and Tom

And Nico was there with US!

From 1007 Boat and Pool time!

They were picking up chicks left and right!

From 1007 Boat and Pool time!

After we got off the boat, Mommy swam to a nearby slide and slid down...even though the Lifeguards were beeping to her to GET OFF....Mommy broke the rules!

From 1007 Boat and Pool time!

Nico and daddy waited for mommy to get back...

From 1007 Boat and Pool time!

Thank you Monica and Tom for a GREAT BOAT DAY!