Our First Halloween

I love how into our family Kara is. Growing up, I can remember wondering what the women I married would be like and if she would even want to have a family since this generation seems to be shying away from that adventure these days. All I can say is that I am so grateful for her, and how involved she is with our son. We love Dallin so much and day after day, can’t get enough of him. Sure there are times when he won’t stop crying ( all day), but the moment he looks at you and smiles, your heart really does melt.

He is just about 4 months old now which apparently makes you old enough to wear a Halloween costume. Kara had it all planned out. She found a costume at a store called “The Childrens Place” in Kelowna where there was a monkey costume that she absolutely had to have – unfortunately they had no more in the size we needed. She was kinda bummed about it, until my sister Lisa called from Seattle and said that she had found the costume at the same store down there and wondered if we wanted her to buy it. Kara made the arrangements and we became the proud owners of a Monkey costume.

The only problem with this costume was that there was a head piece to wear, and Dallin hates having things on his head. We were kinda worried about it so we decided to dress him up in it and see what his reaction would be. He was as calm as a spring morning. He seemed to love it! Of course, I had to pull out the new camera and take a million pictures of him in it. He is actually the cutest little monkey I think I have ever seen, and I’m not just saying it ’cause I’m his dad…okay, there may be a little bias but just look at him! The look on his face is what makes the picture that much cuter.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a place called Davidson Orchard up on BellaVista which overlooks OKanagan Lake and area. It’s a pretty cool place. They have turned it into a real tourist attraction with hay ride tours of the orchard, and a restaurant and stuff. It was beautiful.

So, later that evening I was enlisted to hand out candy at the door. I couldn’t make out what half of the costumes were these days. Kids are getting lazy – they just want the candy. I would ask some of them what they were suppose to be, and they would just shrug their shoulders and mumble, “I don’t know” …Nice…

That concludes our little guy’s first Halloween.

Nightmares

If you take a step back and analyze the nightmares you have and more importantly why you have them, you usually find that they are dreams that play on the heavy pressing issues in your mind whether sub-consious or not. What I find interesting however, is how ridiculous my nightmares have become. Before they seemed to carry much weight and would leave me waking up in the middle of the night spooked and cold, and sweaty. Now, they have digressed to much smaller topics such as not being able to ever get my son to keep sucking on his soother. It is a day after day ritual. I put the soother in Dallin’s mouth, and after a couple of sucks, spits it out only to start screaming ’cause he wants his soother, so I put it back in only to repeat the process a million times. I’ve thought about it, and there really isn’t much more to say other than, if your a parent you understand completely and if your not, your time will come and believe me…It’s super annoying!

If I had a dime for every time…

If I had a dime for every time I felt like I should update my blog, well…I would probably only have just a dime. To be honest, for a while, I had no idea why I was even keeping a blog. Like any one wants to hear about me and my boring life. I wake up, I work, I change poopy diapers, I sleep; and the process continues in that pattern day after day. It wasn’t until late last night while speaking to a good friend on facebook, (you know who you are) that I realized that a blog is actually the way to go if you want to keep people informed. So, here goes nothing…or maybe something fascinating – you be the judge. And by you, I actually mean “you” cause you are the only person that will ever probably read this.

The past few months have been crazy awesome/busy. Dallin is growing so much and is developing his personality day by day. He is 3 1/2 months old. He is now smiling up a storm and loves to have “AaaaaaOooooo” conversations with us. He is very attentive and smart which I definately would have to say is becuase of my wife’s drug free delivery. We love him so much, and are so blessed to have him as a member of our family…even when he poops through his diaper and all over our bed sheets. We still love him then too.

Anyways, this is where I check out for now. I will do my best to update this as often as something interesting comes up.

How time fly’s

It seems like such a short time since I last decided to post anything here. So much has happened in that time period that it will be too difficult to remember everything in order to post it here. The main events: Our son Dallin Michael Cirillo was born on July 7th @ 7pm, weighing in @ 7Lbs. 2Oz. Crazy when you think about it. He is the quadruple 7 baby, and to add to it, He was born on my Grandmother’s birthday.

He is precious and beautiful, and we love him very much. I have overcome my fear of poopy diapers (for the most part) and realized how much I love to just stare at him while he sleeps.

The Science behind buying a Car Seat.

I know what your thinking. There is no science behind buying a car seat. All you really need to pay attention too is whether or not the thing measures up to Government standards. If this is what you think…your most definately in the same boat as me, and we’re both WRONG! I know, I know…don’t get your panties in a twist, let me explain. The other morning, one of my sisters called me up to let me know that a big box retailer (not Wal-Mart) was having an everything baby sale and that there were car seats and strollers on for really good prices. When Kara got home from work, I told her and we went off to go take a look. We walked through the doors, and I don’t know if it was the portugese in me or what but I just seemed to flow directly towards the boxes that contain the seat and a stroller together for $118.99. Talk about a good price. Done! I’m sold, let’s get the heck out of here. Here was my #1 wrong. You can’t just settle that fast, you need to take a look at the others. We headed back to the baby section too look at the others and take a look at the stroller and car seat I was already sold on. Upon arriving in the Baby section of the store, I heard my wife say something I would never have guessed would be a big deal…wait for it…,”I don’t like the colours of it!” But this is where it gets better, the one she then proceeded to take a look at was a brighter yellow than the noon day sun. It was hideous. You would definately be able to see it from the space shuttle.

Anyways, we finally made up our mind, and bought the portugese set for 118.99 Yippee, one more thing out of the way! That would be my #2 wrong. Upon arriving home, Kara decided to read up on the particular model that we bought and worse yet, read peoples reviews. For me, this is just a big no no when buying things. People get really picky a lot of the times about the smallest things and therefore that product ruinned their pretty little lives. For the most part, people seemed to have good reviews about this particular model, except for one thing that immediately sprung Kara and I back into the search for the perfect car seat and stroller. NO seat belt option.

Our day off rolls around and we find ourselves searching for a new car seat/stroller combination that won’t cost an arm and a leg, meets government standards, is stylish, and has the seatbelt option. Did we find it? We sure Did, and where other than (drum roll please),yup you guessed it… Wal-Mart. Go figure. And this brings me to my #3 wrong. I was wrong to think that we would be able to accomplish this task elsewhere, but the beast that is Wal-Mart got us again. I hate that place. One day I will learn how to not rely on that place for everything. You haven’t had the best of me yet you dirty, loud, smelly, long lined Wal-Mart.

We bought it, brought it home, loaded up the other one, returned it, and that concludes your lesson on the science of buying a car seat…I hope.

Change of Pace.

Since I last wrote, which was actually only yesterday, Kara and I have come to a desicion about the change of pace our near future will bring. We have relied heavily upon our feelings (both gut, and logic) taking into consideration the opinions of family and friends, praying for inspiration with confidence that there were answers waiting for us. With all of these contributing factors, Kara and I feel that moving to Vernon is the right choice for us at this point in our lives.

Though there will be sacrifices (friendships, family, and amenities) This is the largest desicion for our new family that we have had to make outside of having children. Our first big move as a family. Eventhough I was raised for most of my life in Vernon, this will be a new experience for me as well. The only memories I have of Vernon were childhood, and teenage memories. I don’t know how I will respond to it as an adult with a family. I anticipate that things will be the same, but am assured from parents that they will most likely be opposite of what I expect.

Either way, I go with my head up, open to the new experiences and opportunities that are waiting for me, excited to continue the forward march, and embracing what I call, “Growing up Cirillo”.

Off the Radar.

I’m amazed at how quickly, and seemingly effortless it can be to dis-appear, loose contact with friends, family, or associates. You’d think picking up the telephone, or writing an email would be easier than it is seeing as how most people these days have a cell phone in their pocket, a landline phone sitting infront of them on the coffee table usually while checking myspace or facebook on their laptop or desktop computer.

I have made attempts at maintaining a blog before, but never one to talk about me, or my family. This is my renewed attempt at bringing myself back in contact with those who are not with me all the time. This is me forcing myself back onto the radar.

A lot has been going on lately, and by lately I probably mean since the last time any of you and I have spoken . Most of you already know, but for the sake of conversation I will tell you again. Kara and I are expecting our first child on July 16, 2009. This is that grey area of time that you couldn’t picture when you thought about the future as a kid. I used to think about what it would be like to be old enough to get married but the thought of having children never seemed like it would ever happen. It’s happening, and it’s happening fast.

We have been offered an opportunity to save money in order to have a down payment on a house in the near(er) future. The catch you ask? I guess it’s not really a catch, but the details rather, would include us moving again… … … to Vernon. If we decide to go, we would most likely have to get outta dodge before the Baby is born which would be sometime in June when my wife is done work. Part of me doesn’t want to go even though it is an awesome opportunity to save. Part of me wants to because it is an awesome opportunity to save. I think the part of me that doesn’t want to go is the side of me that hates moving and hates change. The part of me that wants to go is…I don’t know actually. Anyways…we have been thinking about it for quite some time now which means that we will most likely have a desicion soon.