2011 A year to remember.....

Here is a recap of our roller coaster year. For starters I will remember 2011 as the year my baby began to grow into a little boy. Abel started walking right before the beginning of the year and running by January. This summer he started to talk with a few very silly words..."Hot Dog" was a favorite for a long time! He fell in love with the movie Toy Story in which he quotes Woody and Buzz daily, he spent many days out on the baseball field with Daddy watching him coach and clean up before and after games. Moving into the "toddler" class at school was a milestone. He is very fond of Ms. Kim and his friends Tasha and Braden (he still misses Ms. LaLa in the infant room and must say hello to her daily). This kid loves to learn! 18 months and saying all of his body parts, colors and many other things he amazes me every day! It only took a year and a half but he has finally made friends with Kitty! Kitty had to warm up to this little guy constantly grabbing his tail. Abels new job is to put Kitty in and out and feed him his treats. This year Christmas was the best! He loved Santa, Snowman (no-man), all the lights and the Christmas trees. Elf on a Shelf was a big hit for us, Abel naming our elf Chippy. Santa came early in the Valdivia house this year, we spent Christmas Eve at home......just the 3 of us. It was a great and relaxing day. We went to Santa Rosa for Christmas day and dinner, where Abel loved to show off his dance moves with Gramma and Boompa and his new guitar. The next day we spent in winters with Ito and Ita where Abel was introduced to his new big foot remote control car. What a great 3 days it was! Coming home soon after to celebrate my baby's 2nd birthday. It was a quiet birthday at home with Mommy and Daddy, with a quick trip to the fountains to ride the train and pop in the pet store to see the Kitties. With a birthday 2 days after Christmas it’s hard to plan much. There are so many more good times to recall, I wish I had a machine to freeze time and capture these memories in detail. My baby grows to be more and more his own little character every day. He is smart, loves to sing and dance, loves anything to do with sports, enjoys art, will talk your ear off if you let him and he knows how to tell you "NO". He is as fun loving and stubborn as they come. All of these great and challenging qualities wrapped up into 30 inches and 23 lbs of energy :) For all the fun times we had this year I will remember how incredibly lucky we are, because for each of these great things that happened this year, 2011 brought us a handfull of challenges. Challenges that created a lot of worry but in the end made us strong. Challenges that make us thankful for our happy and healthly little boy! Stay tuned for next post.....