Dashingly Handsome Little Fellow

My mom bought a white tux for Pedrito's baby blessing. Though it was obviously a bit too big for him, my mom. sisters and I sure had fun playing dress-ups and taking pictures before returning the suit. Poor kid was such a good sport.

The Education of New Parents: Kissy poo face & typing one-handed

Now we know that when our sweet son makes what we first called his kissy face, he really is just letting us know that a dirty diaper is on its way. So, now this particular face is called the kissy poo face. I love it when he does the kissy poo face with his eyes crossed. It wouldn't win any "cutest baby" contest, but it sure wins a mother's heart (and laugh).

"Come on, Mom, can we be done with the photo shoot already?"

We are learning more about his personality, too. With his main baby needs taken care of, he is a very calm baby - as long as he is being held. This kid does not like to be put down. Even when he is fast asleep, he wakes up after five or ten minutes in his bassinet, bouncer, or swing. I don't know how he knows. So, if anyone has any ideas for helping a baby learn to be okay not in someone's arms, please comment and let me know. In the mean time, I'm getting a little better typing one-handed.

The Education of New Parents: SwaddleMe aka life saver

This post is dedicated to Pedrito's Great Grandma and Grandpa Miles. Thanks for the cute book, A Baby's Guide to New Parents. We used the gift money to buy additional SwaddleMe wraps, AN ESSENTIAL FOR ANY NEW PARENTS, only slightly less important than diapers.

As new parents, Pedrito is giving us quite the hands-on learning type of education. The first week of his life we learned the SwaddleMe wrap is a new parent's best friend. The second week of his life we learned that swaddling a baby often requires four hands to get him in tight enough so he doesn't wiggle his way out, but without great communication, parents risk injuring each other. Daddy and I bumped heads trying to wrap this kid tightly.

Happy Two Week Birthday! and photos

Wow! Has it really been two weeks since this hungry little miracle joined our family? We love him so much!

Why Tzion and other thoughts from Mom

This will be a slightly long, but very meaningful post, so stay with me.

The Middle Name "TZION" (pronounced Zion).

Sometime during our engagement, Pedro let me know how important it was to him that we name our first son after his great-grandpa, grandpa and dad - the family tradition. Pedro was really close to his grandfather, who passed away while Pedro was on an LDS mission. So, before we were even married, I agreed to name our first son Pedro Puga. However, I figured since Pedro and tradition got to pick the first name, I should get to pick his middle name.

Because our son would have a name already made into an identity by three other men, I wanted him to have a middle name that was all his own - a name he could give identity and meaning to in his life. As his arrival grew closer, I realized some of the names I liked best were names that already had some meaning, such as names from prophets in the scriptures or modern-day apostles such as Gideon, Aaron, Joseph and Maxwell. I hope that when he thinks of his name, he will think of the examples of those who share his name and choose to follow examples of goodness. As his arrival grew even closer, I thought about the most influential men in my life and their examples of righteousness and love: my husband and my father. Well, our son was already going to get my husband's name, so I wanted his middle name to honor and remind him of his grandpa, my dad.

My dad is amazing! If you asked me to describe a nearly perfect father, I would just tell you about my dad. Why? He has his priorities in the right order. Putting God first helps him put his family nearly first. He works hard and smart and plays hard and smart.

My dad loves the mountains. With his love of family and love of mountains, we spent many family vacations enjoying God's magnificent creations of height and grandeur, and I also developed a love and appreciation of mountains and their potential for symbolism in life.

So, back to the name game. I searched for names meaning "mountain". I found several, but one of my favorites was Tzion, meaning "sunny mountain" or "highest point" in Hebrew. And, since it is used somewhat interchangably with Zion, which has so much significance for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I liked it even more as a name that would honor and reflect my father. Zion is the ideal where people live Christ-like lives with the priorities of faith and of family guiding every decision. This is how my dad strives to live his life.

So, Tzion it is. A lot of meaning in one name for one little boy. But, he'll grow into it.


Other thoughts:

One of my dear friends has a very adventurous, world-traveling, famous people-meeting, super cool opportunities fall into her lap type of life. I love her to death and get a kick out of reading her fun blog posts. I used to wish I could share her exciting adventures. Though I "knew" before, now, more than ever, I KNOW the greatest adventure and the most joy I could ever have is being a mom. Nothing compares to seeing your 3-day old little boy make a funny face that means he is hungry and being able to relieve that hunger in such an intimate, tender way. Nothing compares to watching him fall asleep as he nuzzles his head on your chest as I brush my lips across his fine dark hair. Nothing compares to hearing his father make up a song about his heritage as he tries to soothe him to sleep with a Spanish lullaby.

The beautiful red roses Pedro gave me brought the sweetest scent to our hospital room. And, the lilies (my favorite) in the other bouquet he gave me matched the picture of a lily on the wall - kinda fun. He knew I knew he would get me a bouquet of flowers, so as a surprise, he gave me two beautiful bouquets. I love my husband.

Pretty much all and any food (even hospital food) tastes great after giving birth. So, no I didn't mind the hospital food; what bugged was that they woke me up an hour before each meal to ask me if I wanted the chicken or the soup. I don't care. Let a sleep deprived new mom sleep!

Random tidbit my little sister will appreciate: David Archuleta had a concert in Minneapolis the day Pedrito T was born. We thought about going, but . . . .

I am so grateful for the delicious dinners our friends in the Relief Society have brought this week - especially the chocolate chip cookies and homemade whole wheat bread.

Pedrito's Birthday Pictures

Pedro Tzion Puga

Announcing to the world! Pedro Puga was born Aug 8 2009 at about 4:40 am. Coming in at 7 lb. 14 oz. and 21 in. Pedro made a showing after 5 hours of intense labor. We nicknamed him rocket man (for his cone head). We love him. Both baby and Mom are healthy. We are grateful for all of our blessings. More info and pictures coming soon.

the doctor's fault we bought a little barbeque

After a 20-minute doctor appointment turned into a two-hour appointment over lunch time, Pedro was determined to barbeque shrimp and vegetable shish kabobs.

So, we went in for a 40-week visit. They were running late, so I was really glad to have Pedro keep me company and keep me laughing while we waited. My favorite quote from our goofy conversation is: "The doctor is going to come in with a cup of pitocin and say 'Drink up.'"

She didn't give me a cup of pitocin, but she did hook me up to a monitor just to make sure baby was fine - then she forgot about us (we think). The baby is just fine, just stubborn. Afterward, we paid Wal-mart a visit and got a cheap barbeque with the baby gift card from Uncle Joe. I'm sure the baby will appreciate a barbeque eventually.

The kabobs were amazing! We also enjoyed the fruits of our labors - from the garden: cherry tomatoes, spaghetti squash and zucchini. Yum!

the Last Week (i hope)

Today is the big day - the DUE DATE - when we find out if Pedro Jr. will start out his life punctual or if he will follow the family tradition of being a little late.

Hopefully, this is my last week of pregnancy. It's been a pretty good week. Pedro and I spent lots of time together. We attended the temple. I observed a family court trial with him at his judicial externship. We walked among the trees and ferns at beautiful Afton State Park.

We cheered with the fans at a Twins baseball game in the big covered Metrodome. We left at the top of the 9th inning because it was so late in time to discover a torrent of wind and rain pouring down outside with our car about 6 - 7 blocks away. We stole a couple of big, clean garbage bags and Pedro made a genious wrap for me. A couple behind us said he was making their make-shift covers look bad. I was very grateful to have the protection as I was tense enough with contractions (the deceptive kind).

So, it's been a nice week - part relaxing, part preparing (the laundry and dishes never end), part playing. But, we are ready for our little guy to make his debut.