The Lunar Eclipse

So, Joe stood outside for HOURS on Wednesday night to capture the eclipse with his camera. I enjoyed looking at the pictures the next day from our nice warm office rather than watch the "live event" outside in the freezing cold.

I took Manny and Makenzie to get their pictures taken this week at JCPenney. They came out so cute! They were playing on the floor and I decided to take some of my own pictures. I wish Joe was home so that the pictures would have been really good (he is a much better photographer than me).

Political Affiliation for a toddler

Today, Joe and I were talking about the election and I asked Manny if he was going to be a Democrat or a Republican? He said, "Pub-ah-lick-in". Hmmm, I thought, so I asked Manny again, Are you going to be a Republican or a Democrat? He said, "Dem-crat".

Joe said to Manny, "Manny, Daddy is a Republican and Mama is a Democrat, which do you want to be, a Republican or a Democrat?" Manny said, "Manny want be a butterfly."

There you have it.

Manny Says...

Manny says, "Macky-Roni" for Macoroni and Cheese.

How to Quiet a Screaming Makenzie

One day last week (I know, I am a little behind), I apparently was taking too long to make Makenzie's bottle and she was screaming louder than anything you can imagine.

Manny did his usual, "Oh, Kenzie, it's okay. Honey, it's okay, let me kiss you". He was doing all the tricks that he could think of All of a sudden from the kitchen where I was trying to figure out why I was taking so long to make a bottle, I heard silence.

I listened for a minute and when I still didn't hear anything I quickly went into the living room (of course I was thinking the worst). But, what did I see? Manny was laying on the floor next to Makenzie and he had put her pacifier in her mouth. He looks up at me and says, "See Mama, she's happy now."

Manny Says....

Manny doesn't like when Makenzie cries and always says, "Mama (or Daddy) pick her up".

I didn't think it was because he was annoyed that she was crying, but I wanted to find out for sure.

I asked him why I have to pick her up? He answered, "because it makes her happy".


What a sweet boy.

Manny says...

We recently purchased the movie Annie (which I LOVE and thought Manny would too, turns out Joe is a bit of a fan as well).

Anyway, Manny has an Auntie Annie and a cousin Gracie who just came to visit after Makenzie was born.

Yesterday Manny was trying to tell me that he wanted to watch the movie "Gracie". It took me several requests to figure out that he wanted to watch Annie, but he was mixing up their names.

When I finally figured it out and asked him if he meant Annie, he said, "Oh yes, yes, yes, Manny watch Annie, not Gracie, mine forgot."

Chocolate Fondue

Need I say more? Not if I am speaking to Manny.


Manny has such a love of chocolate that when he even says the word, he uses a different voice and his facial expression changes to one of adoration.


For Christmas I received a chocolate fondue pot for my yankee swap gift....yay.

Manny's curiosity finally got the better of him and he asked me what was in the box and when we could make the chocolate things that were pictured on the box. So I told him that after dinner we could make chocolate.


His head almost started spinning he was so excited. All day he continued to remind me that we were going to "make chocolate".

Our first visit to GG's

Last Tuesday Manny, Makenzie and I decided to go visit GG (plus GG was quite anxious to see her great-grandchildren :).

Manny Says...

The other day, Joe called from work and wanted me to record the Presidental debates on his computer...on MSNBC. First, I don't even know what channel MSNBC is, so I had to look for that and then I couldn't find where it said, debate or anything Presedential.

I was getting frustrated and said, "Grrr, Joe, I can't even find this". Manny looked at me, laughed and said, "Joe not at home, Joe at work Mama"

Manny says...

We were driving to the mall yesterday and Joe said something to Manny that we almost got hit by a car. Manny replied in a very concerned voice, "no Daddy, don't crash car, there people in there you hurt them"

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When we drove by the hospital, Manny pointed up to the red lights and said, "Mama see those red lights? Those just lights, not Rudolph"
(See http://mannyjenandjoe.blogspot.com/2007/12/whos-two-year-old.html)


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2-week Doctor's Appointment

Makenzie had her 2-week appointment yesterday. Here are her stats:
Weight: 8 lbs 4 oz (50th percentile)
Height: 21.5 inches (95th percentile)

Her jaundice is apparently all gone and the Doctor was very happy with her and was pleased with her weight gain (she was born at 8 lbs 5 oz, but in the hospital went down to 7 lbs 4 oz).

Nothing is as comforting...

....as a pacifier to a Ramos child (apparently). Makenzie is not quite as sold on the idea of a constant pacifier as Manny was (she only likes one in the middle of the night, Manny wanted his constantly).

They both, however, figured out very early on how to keep the pacifier in their mouth's so that they would not fall out. Here is the proper technique:

Makenzie or Madonna?

Madonna circa 1988, of course, not the respectable, calm, British citizen that she is now:

Strike a pose

Strike a pose

Vogue, vogue, vogue

Vogue, vogue, vogue

Pictures from the Hospital

A personal yay for me!

I am just going to take a selfish blogging moment to announce that as of Tuesday, I have officially lost all of my "baby weight" (22 pounds) that I gained while pregnant with Makenzie...

...now onto the remaining 20 pounds that I never lost after being pregnant with Manny (I gained 50+ pounds with him).

Visitors in the Hospital

What else has happened in the last week?

So probably the most exciting thing that has happened in the last week, is of course, the birth of Makenzie Elizabeth. However, many of you are aware of the saying, "when it rains, it pours", well, it literally poured in our house last Thursday.

Apparently there was a leak in the pipes on the third floor that flooded the second floor bathroom (which has been vacant all month as the tenant moves out) and then to our BEDROOM!!!....more specifically our closet.

Joe came home after visiting me in the hospital to find a waterfall in our bedroom. I came home the next day to see parts of the ceiling that I have never wanted to see exposed...pipes, insulation etc....gross.


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I also had a very rough time during the c-section. I won't go into complete details, but they had trouble with the spinal block and I was poked several times in the spine in order to obtain the block, oh yeah, and then the spinal block stopped working early, instead of lasting 90 minutes, the spinal block only lasted about 30 minutes. It was quite uncomfortable to say the least.

I also began having severe headaches right after the procedure. The percocet would not take care of the pain, so they were giving me 800 mg of Motrin, didn't work either. Every time I stood up, I would double over in pain and have to lay back down.

Jessica took me to the ER (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!) on Saturday night and they gave me an IV of caffeine, not as fulfilling as one would think. This treatment did not work, so they said I could come back the next day for a "blood patch". I thought it sounded pretty scary, but anything to be able to stand up like a human instead of at a 90 degree angle.

So I called the next morning to make sure an Anesthesiologist would be there and I wouldn't have to wait, the nurse called me back and said,

"anesthesiologywould prefer if you could come in Monday morning for the procedure because they are under-staffed."

I almost keeled over. Are you kidding? I described my pain once again to the nurse and reminded him that on their scale of 0-10 for pain, I was at about an 8 or 9 with 10 being unbearable pain. He called back 10 minutes later and said they had a doctor to perform the procedure.

I had called Mom and she came down to help out with Manny and Makenzie/take me to the hospital...THANK YOU VERY MUCH. So, I had ANOTHER spinal (not exactly a fun way to start the day, but guess what? A couple of hours later I was able to stand....YAY!!!

Names can be so confusing.

Lately whenever you ask Manny what his name is, he will reply, "Manuel Philip Ramos".

Today he was sitting with me on the couch and asked me what my name was. I told him that my name was "Mama". He looked at me and said, "Your name Mama Philip Ramos".

I tried to explain to him that everyone has a different name etc, but he was not having any of it. Apparently the only person who has their own identity is Makenzie Elizabeth (or Kenzie Wizabef as Manny says), but even she does not have a last name.

He is doing very well adjusting to having Makenzie in our house. I promise I will start blogging about our adventures soon!

Wedging myself into a booth

Last night Joe, Manny and I went to eat dinner at Texas Roadhouse. We were given a booth. Those of you that have been pregnant may remember that being 9 months pregnant and being escorted to a booth can be trouble, especially if the table is welded to the wall.

Well, I wedged myself into the booth, managed to spill my whole glass of diet coke and drop salad on the front of my shirt. *

*as a side note, Manny did not spill anything.

Manny's First Slumber Party

On December 15th Manny, McKayla and Roman had a slumber party. This was a lot of fun, I think the parents were very excited to have an evening "off" and the kids had a lot of fun. The evening started out with McKayla and Manny helping Joe with the fish tank:

Here are all three kids playing with puzzles and toys in Manny's room after we ate pizza for dinner.
Of course, we had to play with the train set. That is the only toy Roman wants to play with when he comes over. I think if we would have let Roman stay up all night, he would have played with the train non-stop.
More legos and trains. I don't know who was having more fun, Joe or the kids.

All in their jammies watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and eating a "special treat" as McKayla called it...popcorn.

Okay, so the slumber party didn't last all night, it ended at about 10:30pm after we called the parents to come get some nervous kids. I think they did a great job lasting THAT long. It was a lot of fun, can't wait to do it again.

"It's landed"

Last weekend Joe and Manny went to Petco and bought some new fish. They bought four angel fish to try to combat the excessive breeding patterns of the guppies and the platies (ie: angel fish are supposedly aggressive and will "take care" (yes, in the mafia sense of the word) the baby fish.

Last night Joe and Manny were looking for the angel fish. They looked and looked and finally

Manny said, "Right there Daddy, the angel fish it's landed, he's broken."

Joe and I looked and there was the fish, lying belly-up on the bottom of the tank.

We wish you a Merry Christmas....

more than a week late. I haven't had time to post any pictures, so here they are:

Our Christmas Tree:

Daddy and Manny opening a present:

Look, we have matching jammies!

Manny says....

Sometimes Manny will shorten our names to "Mom" or "Dad" and we will tease him and call him "Man".

He will reply, "Manny not a man, Manny a kid". No matter how many times you do this, he replies with the same answer. It is really cute.

Today Joe and Manny were heading out the door to go to Best Buy and I said, "Bye boys, have fun". Manny looks at me and says, "We not boys. That Joe and I Manny."

Who's the two year old?

Our Christmas Eve was very busy and hectic. Joe had a chiropractor appointment at 7:30am, we were on the road to Fort Fairfield by 9am and then driving home from Presque Isle by 7pm.


Manny had a 10 minute nap in the car, so needless to say by the time we had started for home, he was quite cranky.

He fell asleep before we stopped at the Houlton gas station and then woke up and started crying. It was that cry that could not be consoled, just a miserable unhappy cry from being over-stimulated, over-fed sugar and over-tired.

As we got back on the interstate Joe and I saw some red tower lights on top of a mountain by the side of the road and we tried to convince Manny that it was Santa's sleigh.

This is how the conversation went:

"Manny, look, it's Santa's sleigh. Do you see Rudolph's nose?"

Manny quieted down and looked, you could almost hear his thought process and he said, "That not Rudolph's nose, that just a light".

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Clause.

Christmas Eve

On our way home from Christmas Eve, I was driving home on the interstate, trying to stay awake for the 3 hour trip home. All of a sudden I looked in the left lane and about 4 feet from our car was a huge deer with huge antlers.

(*note: it might not have been huge, but when it is that close to your car, it looks enormous)


I hear Manny suck in his breath and start laughing, "Santa's reindeer, Mama. Manny saw Santa's reindeer".

When my stomach finally dropped back out of my throat, I said, "Ya, Manny did you see Santa's reindeer". He was so excited.

Manny visiting Santa at the mall

The week before Christmas, we took Manny to the mall to visit Santa. He was SO excited. He wanted to stay all day with Santa and tried to get back in line at least twice.

Then we let Manny play in KB Toy Store and he looked out the window of the store and suddenly he was gone. I followed him and he had seen Santa go by and was so excited to see him again.

Our Christmas Tree

Here's our decorated Christmas tree. It is only missing 5-6 glass bulbs after Manny was done with it...well, I broke 1 or 2 myself :)

Deck the Halls...

With Christmas Decorations....finally.


Here are some of the stockings that Manny and I decorated. He told me the names to write on each one and then we added the stockings to the green garland.

Ok, so ignore the mess in the kitchen. A nine-month pregnant woman can only do so much at once.
Manny decided to add his friends, Kristian, Roman and McKayla to the stockings

Taking the decorating into his own hands

We have had our Christmas Tree for about a week now, but we haven't had time to decorate it together as a family. We have the lights on and the angel, but no decorations.

Apparently, Manny did not think it was appropriate to have an empty tree sitting in the living room.

Look carefully, can you see it?



He added this to the tree. He decorated the stocking all by himself.

We have had our Christmas Tree for about a week now, but we haven't had time to decorate it together as a family.

Apparently, Manny did not think it was appropriate to have an empty tree sitting in the living room.

Child Labor Activitsts....Do not read!

Manny loves to go outside with Joe to help him snow blow the driveway....very exciting, I know. Manny even got to help Joe this time.

I think Joe is just trying to train Manny how to do the driveway so that Joe can sit inside and watch TV.

It's Holiday Crafting Time!

Manny and I decided that we needed some easy Christmas craft projects, so off we went to AC Moore.

Here is the result of our first project:

These projects are great. Everything is included in the package and all you need is glue. I love it!

A+ for Effort, F for following directions

Our mornings go something like this. Joe wakes up at about 6:00am and Manny wakes up at about 6:30am. I like to stay in bed until the last possible second. That usually means me laying in bed talking to Manny or listening to him play with his toys in the living room. I just can't get out of bed until I have to.

This morning I could hear Joe talking to Manny in the kitchen, something about M&M's (most likely Manny wanted some and Joe saying "No". Well, then Joe gets into the shower and Manny comes in and hangs out with me for a while.

All of a sudden, Manny says, "Be right back, Mama". Ok, I just lay there and close my eyes.
Manny comes back into the bedroom with an oreo. I guess I'm not too concerned, figuring Joe had left them on the counter last night and Manny grabbed one. I am not one to obsess over an early-morning oreo, what is the point?

Joe comes out of the shower and Manny says, "Daddy, Manny got cookie all by self". Joe went through the usual, "what did I say...blah blah blah". Joe asked Manny how he got the cookie and Manny said, "Manny get chair in office and climb on counter".

Manny looked at Joe with one of those reassuring looks and just nodded his head, as if to say, "I got it all by myself Daddy".

Joe told Manny that he was giving Manny an A+ for effort and ingenuity, but an F for following directions.

The Food Network Comes Alive

Manny and I were driving to the post office today and as usual Manny was talking to himself, me, really who knows.

I was trying to listen to what he was saying without interrupting his train of thought.

This is what I heard,

"Emeril and Rachel, and Paula at Manny's house cooking for Christmas"

"Manny like Rachael eat EVVVVO (Rachael is always using EVOO...extra virgin olive oil and Manny likes to add a couple of extra V's in there)".

"Bam Emeril"

My outburst of laughter immediately interrupted his train of thought and he looked up at me and said "Manny watch cooking one night wake up".

Is it just me or is it too funny that a two year old watched the Food Network and then has conversations with his favorite chefs?

"My friend Sarah"

Last weekend, my cousin Sarah came to spend the weekend with Manny and I. I say with Manny and I because Joe has been working some CRAZY hours lately and wasn't around very much.

I really appreciated Sarah helping me out, especially since I had both baby showers last weekend. Manny also loved having her around and having her undivided attention.


Joe was getting ready to go to work Sunday morning and Manny was talking up a storm to Joe. All of a sudden, Manny grabbed Joe's hand and said, "Daddy follow me, show you something". Joe followed Manny into the new office where Sarah was sleeping. Manny says, "Daddy, see my friend Sarah?". Sarah, of course was sleeping and oblivious to it all.

Happy Hanukkah

Manny's cousin Ben celebrates Hanukkah and sent Manny a present so that Manny could celebrate too.

This present was opened on Tuesday evening at sunset. Manny doesn't understand anything about Hanukkah, but was very happy to honor Ben and open a present.

A VERY excited Manny opened a HUGE truck that has even more cars inside of it. I cannot tell you how happy this present made Manny. It kept Manny entertained for almost an hour. I cannot thank Ben enough for this wonderful present!

Here's a picture of the truck: