Welcome to our family blog

Lots of fun events lately....

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 22:11:13 -0600

I just added some photos and a video clip from Halloween and Max’s fall celebration at school. We had a lot of fun! Max really loves to be around other kids, and its always so fun to see him at school.
As much fun as all these special events have been, tonight was just one of those regular nights that mean so much. After dinner, Max and I went downstairs to play and ended up watching the beginning of the Little Mermaid. He was snuggled up next to me on the couch, questioning what everything and who everyone in the movie was (he’d never seen it before). It was just one of those perfect moments.

So much has happened.....

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:53:52 -0500

Wow, its been ages since I’ve updated the website. Its been a really busy few months. The basement is finished, and we’re enjoying the extra space. I keep forgetting to take some pictures to post, but I’ll try and do that soon. I finished my first sprint triathlon (400 m swim, 1.5 mile run, 12.5 mile bike, 1.5 mile run). I was really happy with how I did. I never stopped moving and finished faster than I thought I could in 1 hr, 56 mi. I can’t wait to do another race. Sal is busy training for his marathon in January. He’s doing great. I’m sure he’ll be ready for the race.
I had my board exams in early August ( I passed! :> ) and finished residency in September!!!!!! My last day was September 10, just before my birthday. After I finished, the three of us headed back up to Chicago to visit the family. After a few days at home, Sal and I headed back to Nashville and then on to Gulf Shores for a few days at the beach. We had a great, really relaxing time, but we missed Max a lot. He had fun staying in Chicago and spending more time with his Grandmas and Grandpas and the rest of the family. After we got home, I started my new job as an attending at the VA hospital. Its going well so far. Its definitely a switch from residency. My favorite part of the new job is how much more time I have with Max and Sal. Its especially nice having weekends off.
Max is doing great. He is talking all the time now, in full sentences. He learns new words at an amazing rate, and is always amazing us with the things he knows. He loves to dance and sing. I swear he never stops moving, which is probably why he’s so skinny. He’s still about 50% for height, 80% for head size, but only 16% for weight. We’re not worried about it though, I think he’s just a lucky boy who inherited the Ortega metabolism. He has a teddy bear that he started taking with him everywhere. He named him Hot Dog. Hot dog does everything with Max. It is so sweet to watch him with the teddy bear. He sits him at the table in his chair and insists that he get a plate and cup too; he’ll put him to bed and cover him up with a blanket, and of course gets buckled in to his seat in the car. Max lets us know when Hot Dog is tired, hungry, or happy. Amazingly Hot Dog’s moods almost always seem to match Max’s. ;> While I’m writing this Max is laughing like crazy trying to get Hot Dog to ride in his little tikes car with him.
We took a great trip to Cincinnati last weekend for Amy Holmes’ wedding. We got to see our friends the Turners and the entire Ortega family was in town. We went to the Cincinnati Children’s Museum on Saturday. The kids had a great time, and so did the adults. The wedding was really nice. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries shortly into the reception, but Amy should have more pictures from the party. Max and Gabby were hilarious. They were so wired you would have thought we gave them Mountain Dew in their sippy cups. They raced up and down the hall at least 20 times. Max was up until 10 p.m. and Gabriella was awake until about 1 a.m. They have so much fun together.
Happy Halloween from the Ortegas!!

Shoes?

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 21:59:58 -0500

Hello everyone, greetings from Nashville.
Max is doing great! He’s talking more and more all the time and is constantly amazing us with the new things he can do. He’s still pretty shy about the talking in front of people he doesn’t know well though. It usually takes him a day or two before he’ll start talking around new people, but he babbles constantly at home. He’s also starting to put 2 words together some. Mostly please and then whatever he wants or Mommy shoes/Daddy shoes/shoes please. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to see him when he was back in Chicago, the boy is obsessed with shoes. If you are barefoot or just in socks, he’ll search the house until he finds you a pair of your shoes and keep following you around the house until you put them on. We joke that he’s going to be a podiatrist. That’s okay with me, I don’t think podiatrists have to do a residency.
Max is definitely all boy though. He loves trucks, wrestling with Daddy, being outside, digging in the dirt, playing in water, and any sort of rough and tumble activity. Did I mention he loves trucks? He doesn’t watch TV (Mommy likes that), but he’ll sit down and watch the construction trucks at the park for 20 minutes. Diggers, diggers, diggers. ;> He knows his body parts and is learning his colors. He’s really getting good at matching games and loves puzzles and books. He’ll have the occasional toddler meltdown, but overall he still has the same sweet laid-back temperament as when he was a baby. Sal and I know we’re really lucky.
June was a very busy month for us. I was busy at work training the interns to become residents...was I really that young only 3 years ago? Speaking of young, as of July 1st the hospital is full of wide-eyed, terrified, interns in their brand new white coats. In case I never mentioned this before, you really don’t want to go the hospital in July. Now that the replacements are getting trained up, my class is ready to hit the road. I had my senior dinner/graduation this month. I know, I know...how many is that now. But this should be the last, because I’ll be starting my real job as an attending anesthesiologist in September. My parents and Sue came down to attend the dinner and had a great time with Max. He got so many new toys you would have thought it was Christmas around here. ;>
Sal has started training for his marathon in January and I’ve started training for my triathlon in September. We’ve been doing pretty good juggling training schedules with work and taking care of Max. I like the bike the best of the three events, and the running the least. I don’t know how Sal does it, running all those miles. He makes me tired just watching him. I’m really proud of him. He’s winning medals in every race he enters lately. At least one of us is fast. :>
We went back home to celebrate Gabby’s 2nd birthday and to see everyone. We had a great time! There are pictures posted from our trip. Gabriella has turned into quite the little girl since we saw her last. She’s speaking in short sentences and acts so much more grown up. She and Max had fun “sharing” their toys. ;>
This will probably be my last blog entry until August. I have my board certification exam August 4th, and I have to study, study, study until then. Have a great summer everyone.
P.S.- since I know Amy will probably be one of the first to read this, Max started saying your name yesterday, sounds like mAmy. :> He’ll also say “Wob” for Rob, and could already say tree. So far no luck with Andy, Jim, Kevin, Erin, or Lauren though. We’ll keep working on it though.

Max is so much fun!

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:09:45 -0500

Hi everyone! As usual, its been a while since I’ve written. Maybe once I’m an attending I’ll be able to keep up with this blogging thing better. Yeah, I think its unlikely too. ;>
Max has become such a big boy over the last few months! He understands almost everything we say, and is starting to learn a lot of new words and, his favorite, animal noises. He can tell you what a duck, sheep, dog, lion, cow, pig, monkey, and dinosaur say. All together he probably has about 25 words/animal noises and several signs right now, although I doubt anyone who didn’t know him could decipher much of it. He washes his own hands, brushes his teeth and hair, helps put on his clothes, and loves to help clean. Kyla is shedding like crazy right now, so everytime she gets up she lives some fuzz behind. Max will point at the dog hair and then go point at the closet where the vacuum is. He’ll stand there doing his sign for please until you vacuum up the dog hair. We think he inherited the vacuuming gene from Grandma Ortega. My family has been down a few times recently and we had fun visiting with them and doing fun activities like going to the zoo or park.
We were also back in Chicago for Robert and Lauren’s graduation recently. Go ILLINI! It was fun to see everyone. Max and Gabby got to see each other on Saturday and had a good time. Gabby was a good cousin and taught Max some very important things: how to say “mine”, that its more fun to sit on the ball than kick it, and that digging in dirt is fun. He has definitely put these lessons to good use back in Nashville. :> For some reason the video of that didn’t upload from the camera, but I’ll try to post it this week.
Sal and I are doing fine. Sal got 1st place in his age division in a 5K we ran on Memorial Day! I was very proud of him. As for me, lets just say I didn’t come in last. ;> I’ve got a pretty bad case of senioritis, but I only have 3 months and 10 days left...not that I’m counting. We started the construction project on the house, which is a whole new stress. Its going fine, but I’ll be really glad when its over and the playroom/man cave is completed. ;> We’re about overrun with toys, so the extra space will be great. We’ll also be able to have a guest room again, which will be great. Max is so cute he naturally attracts a lot of visitors, so now he’ll have somewhere to stay.
Well I better go, Max just woke up. Talk to you later!

Easter

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:49:14 -0500

Happy Easter everyone! We hope you all had a great weekend. I know that we did here in Nashville. I had the entire weekend off, and we definitely made the most of it. We went to the zoo on Saturday for their Easter egg hunt. Max was in the 2 and under category. Talk about complete chaos, but it was fun. Despite some serious competition from those 2 year olds (“they’re so fast Mommy”) , Max is proud to report that he managed to get 3 eggs. He only put 2 in the basket though; the other egg he carried all over the zoo. We walked around and saw a lot of the animals before having a picnic lunch and heading home. Max was so tired after all the fun that he took a 3 hour nap!
Later Saturday evening, we colored Easter eggs. It was fun, but what a mess. He figured out that he was supposed to put the egg in the cup. Unfortunately he also figured out it was a lot more fun to do that by dropping the egg from high up and watching it splash. I think his hands are still red and green.
This morning we went to Church and then out to breakfast as a family. After Max’s nap, he found his Easter basket and eggs. He had a great time with all of his toys, especially the grass in the basket. He also got a new rocking puppy to play with outside, a book, and Dumbo. Thanks to everyone who sent him cards and presents for Easter. We really appreciate it.
Hope everyone had a great day, see you all soon!