TMI Kathy!

Ok, I know this might be a little TMI for some but I had to blog about it!
I have officially stopped breastfeeding!!!! I had to blog about it because I think it is a huge accomplishment! After 9 months and 1 week, as well as 8 (!) teeth I finally called it quits. Ceci had been sleeping horribly and gnawing on my nipple to get back to sleep and i couldnt handle it anymore. So one night I decided "no boobie for you" and boy was she NOT happy! But we managed to get through the night, and she managed to fall back asleep.... after 3 hours of complaining!
So have have been worried about how I was going to get her to sleep, because the ONLY way I have been able to get her to sleep was to breastfeed her. I have always wondered how Leto's mom (and sometimes sisters) get Ceci to go to sleep, and now I know.... Not only does she rock Ceci to sleep, she bounces my 25lb baby to sleep! When Ceci was a new born baby I didnt want anyone to bounce her to calm her down, because I didnt want her to get used to that. I think I even barked at my mom a couple of time "DONT BOUNCE HER" while my mom was helping us out. Little did I know that this was my MIL's method of choice for putting her to sleep. Now this is all just speculation, I havent actually asked my MIL how she gets Ceci to sleep, but my experience over the last 4 days has been: the ONLY way she will fall asleep is if I bounce and sway from side to side. And not just little bounces, they are full squats! At least I am getting a workout. Did I mention she weighs 25 POUNDS! Thankfully I only have to do this bouncing swaying thing for about 10 minutes and she falls asleep.
No more complaining, the last 2 nights she has slept from 10-630! Yay, finally! 
I remember in the beginning of breastfeeding I didnt think I would last a month, let alone 9 months! I am very proud of myself! Yay Me!
 I remember it was the second day and my raw nipple stuck to my shirt and tore some skin off when i pulled it away. I didnt notice I was bleeding and stuck my boob in Ceci's mouth. She sucked a little then pulled away and her mouth was of full of blood! She looked like a little vampire! I felt so bad. Wow that seems like a lifetime ago! (again, I know, TMI!)

Ceci is 9 months old!

Our baby girl is nine months old! She has been out as long as she was in! I dont know what seems longer the pregnancy or her first nine months of life... Her first nine months have been a lot more fun than the 9 months of pregnancy!

Sunday August 12th was Father's Day here in Brazil. Ceci got Daddy a new watch. We had our typical lunch at Leto's parents and took a nice family photo with everyone! Its hard to get all of the Depintors to stay in one room for more than a few minutes!

We have had a lot of birthday parties and a baby shower to go to. Our average weekend here includes at least one party (birthday or otherwise) on Saturday, and then Sunday lunch at Leto's patents followed by soccer watching at our apartment. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes it gets old, and I long for an adventure or two once in a while. Hopefully as Ceci  gets older we will deviate from our routine a little!

We took Ceci to her 9 month check up last Friday. She is almost 11 kilos (almost 25lbs) and 75.2 cm (29 in) long. She is over the curve for both weight and height but she is proportional (along with her giant head) so there is nothing to worry about.

Ceci has been sick for the last 2 weeks. It is only in her nose, but it has been pretty bad. Last night I only got about 3 hours of sleep because she couldnt get back to her deep sleep. We are hoping it goes away fast and her sleeping gets back to normal. Another reason she is up so much is because she has discovered how to pull herself up in her crib, and she LOVES to do this! If she wakes up a little and rolls over she wants to pull herself up, and then wont go back to sleep if I just leave her in the crib. So i have to take her out and get her back to sleep. Not fun! She is adorable, standing in her crib, even when it is 3 in the morning. She always has a smile on her face!

The weather here in Sao Paulo has been amazing for the past 3 weeks. It makes we want to go to the beach, even though I am FAR from a beach body! My over indulgence in California has been harder to shake than I thought it would be. Probably because instead of working out when Ceci is at Leto's parent's, I am catching up on missed sleep :-/

Leto's 34th birthday is tomorrow. He is not much of a birthday person, and when I say not much I mean not at all. We have a 1st birthday party to go to (big shocker, its saturday and we have a party to go to) and then I think we will find a nice restaurant to have dinner at.

Here are some recent pictures! 

 

Carlao's Birthday

Toni's Birthday

Ceci loves to play with her toys! 

Dani's Birthday

Father's Day

Carlao and Sis's Baby Shower. Ceci loves to "walk" around

All our love

Kathy, Leto and Ceci!

The rest of our Cali trip!

Here is another LONG blog update. I just copied and pasted from my journal, so its not going to be very good writing... 


Wow I sucked at keeping up with my blog. I have to go back and look at the pics to remember the order in which we did things! So after July 12th we went to Chuck E Cheese with my friends. It was fun. Ceci loved the little kid rides. She was so cute!

After that we went bowling. The Yads came and we got to meed Yadda's new boyfriend. He is nice. His name is Mark but they call him Buddy. It was fun, and I think everyone had a great time!







On Saturday the 14th we drove to Redlands and took the family picture. It was actually a lot less painful than I thought it would be. It was great to see Monica and Melissa and her family. We ate lunch and left not too long after. It felt like Christmas with all the kids running around. Charity, Melissa's daughter is a doll! Ceci was, of course bigger, than her!

After lunch we drove to San Clemente to Ang and Ryan's BBQ. I am in love with their house! I am so jealous that they bought this cute house with a huge backyard 3 miles from the beach for a great price. Amazing! I am so happy for them and jealous at the same time. The party was fun. We got to see everyone, Nic, Ali, Lauren, Kelly, Bobby and Lindsey and lots more people! It was great to see everyone and catch up quickly, but I wish I got to talk to Ang and Ryan more.



Sunday we went to the OC Fair. It was great. We ate a lot. I had fried avocados and fried zucchini and a hot dog on a stick and a cinnamon roll. It was delish! Ceci enjoyed it too. It was a hot day but we stayed in the shade and drank beer! I cant wait until Ceci is older and we can take her on rides!






Monday we met Ang and Ali at the beach. Ceci loved it. We put her feet in the cold water and she loved it! She was scared at first because it was a little cold. She was tired and fell asleep in my arms... but she doesnt like that so i put her in the stroller.













We drove back to Indio on Monday night and went to a Palm Springs Power baseball game on tuesday. We were supposed to meet up with Bren's friends but they all flaked. It was $1 draft night so we had fun anyway. After we went to Beer hunter. It was good. Mom watched Ceci for us and I guess she was unhappy the whole time and finally fell asleep on the floor... poor baby...





The next day was the 18th, Ceci's 8 month b-day. So we had a little party with a little cake. Patrick and Bridget put on a little show for her and she loved it! I can believe my baby is 8 months old! Her 2 top teeth started to come in. It makes breastfeeding more painful... Her sleeping was horrible the whole trip. She woke up at least 2 times a night, and always ended up in our small bed.

The night of the 18th we had another girls night. We went to Neil's. Everyone was there except for Sherryl. It was so much fun. Another great night with friends!








We had another swim day at mom and dad's. Ceci really loved when Patrick would jump in the pool and splash her. She loves the pool! 









On Saturday the 21 we had Ceci's open house. Leto and I make pao de queijo, brigadeiro, bejinos and bolinho de chuva. And we put out a bunch of candy. People started to arrive. It was really fun, and great to see some people that I havent seen in years! Like the Prestons, and Mel Hallinan, and Jeff and Debby, and Scotty. It was great but hardly anyone took the goodies home :-/ boo. They dont know what they are missing.

On Sunday the 22nd Brenda and I left really early for wine tasting in Temecula. We arrived at the hotel and got on the tour buss. At the first winery we had 9 tasting! I was feeling pretty buzzed. It was super cool. The wine wasnt that great, but it was fun. The second winery we ate lunch and only had 3 tasting which brought my buzz down. The third winery had wine-a-rita, which were super yummy and great for the hot day, but didnt have much alcohol in them. The fourth winery was really small and we were done by then. They had cool wine glasses that we got to keep so that was nice! We got back to the hotel and checked into our cool room. Then we drove to Red Lobster and had 1.5 lbs of crab each! Yum! Then we went back to the hotel and went to the casino. Sadly we had to pay for drinks... so that drained my money! We sat a lounge and watched a cover band. They were actually pretty good. We decided to gamble and I won $80 then $150. It was awesome. We went to bed and I slept all night... no baby to wake me up! It was nice, but not as nice as i thought it would be... Then next morning we woke up and I won $40. I love Pechenga! We went by some more winerys to pick up some of Brenda's wine. They were really nice winerys. I wish we would have gone to those. We ended up having lunch at Old Town. It was nice and we bought a bunch of candy at the candy store. We drove home to our families. It was great to see Ceci. I missed her of course.

 The next day we had a carne asada dinner. The next day we went to Cabazon. Leto found a bunch of clothes, my mom drove us. It was nice to sped a day with her even though we didnt really talk too much. On Wednesday we went to Good Stuff pizza with Shelley and Sherryl. It was nice to see them one last time!

 

Thursday we drove to SD to meet up with Laura. Her boyfriend, Greg, has a boat so we went around Misson Bay on his boat! It was super cool, we even got to see part of the Sea World show. We buckled Ceci up in a little life vest. She was so adorable! She loved the first ride, but hated the second ride because she was so tired. Thankfully she fell asleep after i fed her ! After the boat ride we went to the hotel and cleaned up, and went to the Gas Lamp for dinner at Yard house with Laura and Greg. We were in bed before 10!

The next day we went to the zoo. It was a long and hot day, but fun. Ceci slept for a lot of it. We ate dinner at Islands and had FroYo for dessert.









We watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and I held Ceci upside down to begin her career in gymnastics!
















The next morning we drove to Del Mar Race Tracks for the food truck day. It was cool. We ate at the Ragin Cajun, which was on the Great Food Truck race. Their jambalaya bisque was amazing! I also had a tornado potato with a spicy sausage and then a Snoop Dogg which was mac n cheese with a chicken breast deep fried and covered in syrup and powdered sugar. It was surprisingly good! We watched one race and headed to Costa Mesa.

 

Sunday we went to Balboa and saw Grandma, Bob and Marcy. It was so nice to see them all. We ate at Pizza Petes and had our character drawn with Ceci this time! It is cute! We will get it framed and hung in Ceci's room. Brenda and I went to Goat Hill. It was nice to go out with her. We only stayed until 11.

We met Bre the next night and Met Ang and Ryan briefly the next night.

Rol and the kids left after lunch on the 31st. Patrick was so sad and crying as they drove away. He is sad that Ceci wont remember him or remember how much she likes him. Poor guy. Brenda left a little later. I was sad and cried. I hate leaving my sister. But at least we got to have one solid solid month of sissy time! I really loved every second of it!

So the Super Shuttle came at 315 am, and we went to the airport. We checked in and went to our gate and got on the plane. We were sitting together. Ceci slept about half the time. The connection in Mexico was A LOT better and having her in the car seat was a big help. The flight from MEX to GRU was LONG!!!! Ceci didnt want to sleep that much and was talking A LOT and very loudly! We got to Sao Paulo through immigration and customs with no problem. Wa, Leto's brother, was there to pick us up. They dropped Ceci and I off at our place. It felt really weird to be "home" not a great feeling but i think the jet lag had more to do with it than actual feelings. We went by Leto's parents house in the evening. They all loved seeing Ceci. Friday I tried to unpack and Saturday too. Ceci's third top tooth is coming in so she was awake for 2.5 hours in the night, then awake at 700 so Leto took her to his parents.  We had Carlao and Toni's birthdays on Saturday so we got to see practically all of Leto's friends in one day! It was a nice night.
So the trip was pretty amazing. It does make me long for a suburban American life for me and my family.  But i know that is not possible now and I have to be happy with what I have, and  make the most of it for me and my family!


Well that's our trip!
All out love!
Kathy, Leto and Ceci