Family of Bicyclists

Yesterday I got into work early and got off work early to meet Eric at home when his flight landed. I was so anxious to see him after his trip to Illinois for five days. I rushed to my mom's to pick up Jarem and then rushed home and beat him by less than five minutes. The timing was perfect! After lots of hugs and kisses and playing and cuddling with Jarem, we had the BEST dinner! I had gone to Costco and picked up some fresh steaks for dinner to celebrate us all being together as a family. Eric cooked them perfectly (honestly, the best steak I've had in a LONG time) and we feasted on steak and rice. Then we played some more with J and enjoyed some family time before heading off for a family bike ride. Believe it or not, we have not been bike riding together once in all this time that we've been together.

Well a couple months ago, Eric asked my Aunt Stef and Uncle Dale if we could have their old bike trailer that they used with the girlies that was in their garage. They graciously passed it on to us (THANK YOU!) and we took Jarem for his first ride in it last night. It was so much fun seeing him in the trailer and being out as a family. We usually try to go for walks since Jarem loves being outdoors so much but the bike ride was so much more fun! It was a change of scenery since we usually just walk in our neighborhood and last night we rode our bikes all the way over to my mom's house in her neighborhood. SO FUN! Jarem passed out soon after we left Karen and Uriel's house (our first pit stop on the trip) and stayed asleep until we got home. I guess he was pretty peaceful in there.

We're going to try and go for a family bike ride after work a couple of times each week. It was so awesome getting out and enjoying the wonderful evening air after being at work all day. Here are a few pictures from our adventure...

Sleeping boy!Wearing Korina's old helmet. It was all we had that fit. Safety is what matters most! Right? Just lounging in his new favorite place. :) ... Full Post...

Missing Daddy

Okay so this could seriously be my favorite video of Jarem to date. I took this on Friday evening while eating dinner and sent it to Eric in Illinois. I didn't really know how cute it was at first but after watching it a couple times this weekend and again this morning, I LOVE IT! The new face he started making just cracks me up. The squinted eyes, teeth showing, wrinkled nose, LOVE IT!!! Plus, it shows how Jarem has started to blow kisses (in his own way). I am so in love with this baby boy! Enjoy


Sorry for the poor picture quality. I took this with my cell phone.
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Looooong weekend...

Well this weekend seemed to last an eternity. Usually that is a good thing, but not when Eric is out of town. He left on Thursday afternoon for Peoria, Il to visit his brother Kenn. He had an amazing trip (excluding the cold and snow) and really enjoyed the quality time with his brother. That being said, here's a rundown of my side of his trip.
Thursday evening was my first time spending the night alone with Jarem. It was a little weird but I was so tired that I slept pretty good in the house alone. Jarem on the other hand has not been sleeping well. With his ear problems, teething and growing, he hasn't been sleeping too well for a couple weeks now. But with Eric out of town, Jarem REALLY hasn't been sleeping well. I let him sleep in my bed with me, mainly so I wouldn't have to go back and forth to his bedroom while home alone -- SCARY. Well Jarem was up at least an hour each night if not longer. I miss sleeping...

Friday I actually got to work ON TIME! That means I also left work ON TIME. This is a big deal because lately we have been leaving a little late in the morning which means we have to stay late in the evenings. I went straight home and picked up Jarem from Jen. When we got home, it was really early and I had so much time to just play and hang out with Jarem at home. That was so nice! We went for a little walk and then I pulled some weeds while Jarem sat in his stroller and watched me as I sang every nursery rhyme I could think of to keep him entertained. Our neighbors next door have twin girls that are a couple months older than Jarem. They came outside and played a little in the rocks with Jarem. It was really cute.

I did a little cleaning around the house, played with J, made some dinner and then let Jarem fall asleep on me while I laid in the recliner and watched a little TV. Thursday evening was really windy and I noticed that our TV was having some problems. I assumed it was cable issues with the wind. Well Friday evening our TV was still having problems. It's like every couple of channels doesn't have volume. It's so frustrating cause all the good channels have no volume. Grrr! And of course, Eric is out of town so he couldn't fix it for me. Oh man!

Saturday (after getting only a little sleep) I again started the day off with some cleaning. I thought it would be nice to get a lot done around the house and do some Spring cleaning for Eric while he was gone. I'm sure he'll love coming home to a clean house after being gone for 5 days. So instead of missing Eric and watching a TV with no volume, I focused most of my attention on playing with Jarem and cleaning. Saturday afternoon my mom took Jarem and me to lunch at San Tan Flat. YUMMY FOOD! I was surprised when we sat at our table cause the women's NCAA games were on and a girl that went to my high school was playing. Sadly, her team lost but she's probably going to play professionally or internationally somewhere. She's an amazing girl!

Then when I got home from lunch, Jarem finally took a nap. He really needed it! He slept for 2 1/2 hours in his swing. While he napped, I was Tasmanian devil and cleaned so much! Wiped down the cabinet fronts, cleaned the wall behind the stove, sorted Jarem's old clothes into labeled boxes, etc. I did all the projects that I usually put off or can't seem to bring myself to get done. It felt so nice to get so much done! When J woke up we went to our good friends' house. Uriel had work so it was just Karen and Raf at home. We had a girls night (with the baby boys) and ordered pizza. Then we watched Sex and the City while the boys slept. It was a great getaway from the cleaning and loneliness of our home. I love hanging out with Karen. We get along so well and I really like that I can bring Jarem and be myself. Raf and J are starting to play together more so that's so much fun to watch. It was such a nice evening!

Sunday I went to my mom's for breakfast and hung out with her and my Aunt Tresa for a couple hours. Then they babysat for me for a couple hours while I went home and put the finishing touches on our beautiful home. I mopped all the floors, did some laundry, etc. I went back to my mom's for lunch and again enjoyed the company. It was just a relaxing and peaceful day. When I got back to the house with J we played for a while and cuddled. I love how snuggly he has been while Eric was out of town. I think it was obvious how much Jarem missed Eric because of how clingy he was to me. We went to church last night and then my mom came over and I cooked some dinner. It was a nice end to a looooong weekend.

The highlight of the weekend was talking to Eric each evening and letting him talk to Jarem. Jarem loved listening to Eric on the phone. Usually Jarem attacks the phone, grabs it, pushes buttons, etc. But this weekend he would just sit there still and listen to Eric's voice. He even babbled back like they were having a conversation. It was so heartwarming to witness. I love my boys!!

To sum up the weekend, this is my realization. Eric and I are a team. And the Bailey team was missing a star player. Eric is such an amazing daddy. He brings so much happiness into our house. It was hard not getting to share Jarem's cute faces and silliness in person with him. The hardest part was the evenings. I am so blessed to have a hubby that takes on the nighttime head on. Eric has always been the nighttime enforcer. He did all the sleep training and gets Jarem in the middle of the night when he wakes up. He is amazing! I was such a grouch not getting to sleep all weekend and he does it day in and day out with a huge smile on his face in the morning. I missed my hubby and all the hugs and kisses he gives me. But I really felt his absence when dealing with Jarem. It showed me how important being a team is and how much Jarem needs BOTH of us. I cannot wait to give him the biggest hug and kiss possible this afternoon! I love you, E.
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Portrait Time

On Sunday we went and got portraits taken for my dad's birthday with the family. It was crazy that we were able to get a picture taken where all 12 people, including 3 kids, were smiling. Here are just a few of the portraits from Sunday of the kiddos. More after the jump



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Spaghetti for our Meatball

Last night we had spaghetti for dinner. Eric made a really yummy dinner and Jarem definitely enjoyed it! He's had spaghetti before but last night he went all out! Just before we took this video, he was rubbing his hands on his chest and literally painting the sauce all over. He loves touching himself when he knows his hands are dirty. We got a little worried though when he started tugging at his ears and got sauce in there. He did really good at bath time though and let us scrub him from top to bottom and back up again for good measure. We used quite a few Q-tips in his ears to get all the sauce out of there. I think there's still some in there but we didn't dig very far so it will probably be coming out for a couple of days at least. Thanks for such a yummy dinner, E! Jarem and I really enjoyed it! Good entertainment
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Giggly Boys

This video is from Sunday evening. Jarem and Eric were playing like mad men and crawling all over the house together. Jarem thought it was so much fun having daddy chase him. It was adorable! I love how hard Jarem is laughing

Here are some other pictures of Jarem and daddy playing at the park.




These are from Saturday. Jarem is in his stroller and Eric was taking him for a morning walk.

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Date Night!!

Saturday Eric and I had the most amazing date! We were away from Jarem for almost 12 straight hours!! We dropped him off to my mom around 2pm. Then we caught a 3:20 movie in Tempe. We saw Duplicity. Cute movie. Not great, not bad, just cute and funny. Then we went to dinner at La Fonda and it was SO YUMMY! Then we headed over to Gammage for the highlight of our date -- RENT! Two of the original cast members were touring and you could tell they were the originals. The voices of all the cast members were phenomenal! We were both so incredibly into the show. We had an absolute blast! Our friends Karen and Uriel came along with us on the date. Uriel had never been to a Broadway type of show before (outside of high school shows) so I don't know if he expected what he got. It is just such an original show - Rock Opera. LOVE IT! They seemed to have a good time though and we loved their company with us. They're a really great couple and so fun to hang out with! After the show they went home to relieve their babysitter while we went out on the town. We went dancing at Axis Radius in Scottsdale. We love dancing so much and stayed on the dance floor for almost the entire hour that we were there. We were on the VIP list and got in free which is always a nice. All in all, the date was so much fun. I love Eric so much and really enjoy those special dates we get to share. We have so much fun together everyday. It's fun carpooling and spending at least two hours alone together each day on our commute. But getting all dressed up and setting aside special time together really made the evening a blast. Here are a few pictures
The happy couples...

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Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here are a few pictures we took of Jarem on St. Patrick's Day. He looked so cute in his green shirt!!






Happy St. Patrick's Day!
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Can you hear me now?

Attention all blog readers, Jarem's ears are healthy!!! hehe This past week has been fun with Jarem. He's been slightly feverish, a teeny bit whiny and having troubles sleeping. He's also been batting and tugging at his ears quite a bit. All the symptoms of another ear problem brewing. Well yesterday was Jarem's follow-up with the Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist. I about fell over in shock when the doctor told me Jarem's ears looked great. Not only because that's the first time we've heard that in months, but also because I was stumped as to why Jarem has been having such a rough week. I guess I'll have to jock it up to the old teething excuse. But we're beyond excited and extremely hopeful that we will have no more ear problems with Jarem. He will go back in about three weeks for his hearing test and another exam. I am hoping it's more good news then. In the meantime, we'll just keep playing and loving our happy and healthy little boy. I am more hopeful after last night because Jarem stayed in his crib the entire night and slept for eight and a half hours straight. YAHOO!!! In any case, we're excited for this weekend together as a family and time with our healthy boy.

Tomorrow we're going to Rent. We are so excited!!! Eric's generous Aunt Linda got us tickets and our friends Karen and Uriel tickets too for Eric's birthday back in November. We've been looking forward to seeing Rent ever since then. We're really excited that it's finally here. We're going to have an adult date and leave the boys (Jarem and Raf) with babysitters at home. It is bound to be an amazing evening! So far we're planning on an afternoon movie, dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant La Fonda (maybe even a few margaritas), Rent and then some late night dancing. I'll post more on Monday after our fun-filled weekend. ... Full Post...

Fakey Bakey Laugh

Jarem has been doing this super cute fake laugh lately. He looks at you, opens his mouth, chuckles, closes his eyes, and then gasps for air. It is so stinking funny to us! We're not completely sure where he got it but we love it. We encourage it by doing it and then me imitates us. This morning on the way to drop him off at Jen's house I was in the backseat with him. He kept doing the fakey bakey laugh and we were cracking up. I tried to catch it on video. This is the best we have so far. Enjoy the new laugh. We definitely have been!
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Spanish 101: MEATBALL

So my nephew Braden says the funniest things sometimes. This week, he has been saying things like meatball. Now that may not sound very funny to you, but let me add the context. Jarem was playing in his exersaucer while Braden and Emma were playing in the backyard. Bradley was working on their new salsa garden in the yard, too. Bradley overheard Braden saying, "Hi Meatball!" Braden repeated this quite a few times so of course, Emma started saying it too. Curiosity finally got to Bradley so he decided to ask Braden what he was saying. Braden again repeated, "Hi Meatball!" When Bradley asked Braden why he was saying that, Braden quickly replied with the cutest look on his face. (Braden makes this side smirk with eyebrows raised look when he's trying to explain things to you.) So with that face on, he told Bradley, "Daddy, that's how you say Jarem in Spanish." LOL!!! Love it! Meatball is Jarem in Spanish. Who knew?!? Kids really do say the darndest things. In any case, Jarem's new nickname is meatball. Not because his belly is round and looks like a meatball, but because that's how you say his name in Spanish. Duh! hehe I love my meatball. (And my adorable nephew.)" ... Full Post...

Cousins Train

On Friday we stayed at my sister's house for dinner after picking up Jarem. It was fun getting to hang out and watch the kiddos play together. Emma and Braden are so good with Jarem. They love to teach him things and play with him. We are very lucky to have the kids grow up so close to eachother. Well while playing, we were having Jarem practice walking. He took a few steps on his own last week and really seems to be making some progress. Well while walking Jarem we noticed that Emma is the perfect height to walk Jarem. He holds on to her waist band of her shorts and off they go. She is very careful with him and goes nice and slow. This was just too cute not to share!

Make sure you listen to how smart Emma is, too! We ask her Jarem's name and she perfectly says, "Jarem Xavier Bailey!" Love it!!!
I know the end of the video sounds like they fall with us yelling "NO!" but nothing happened after the video ended. ... Full Post...

Fun with Uncle Bradley

Well I know we talk frequently about how much fun Jarem has with his Auntie Jen and cousins all day, but I don't know that we've talked about Uncle Bradley much. He is a teacher and also tutors so he doesn't necessarily get to spend a lot of time with J in the evenings after work but he usually does at least once a week. Well here are a few videos from this week of Jarem playing with Uncle Bradley.

I love the part in this video where Bradley imitates Jarem's walk. HILARIOUS! We love you, Bradley.


We had just gotten to their house so that's why this drumming video got cut short. But it was so cute having the kiddos drum on the table together. Bradley taught himself to play the guitar and is REALLY good. Maybe Jarem will learn to play the drums and Emma can be lead singer in their little band. :)
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How to occupy Jarem...

Okay, when our DVD player is on pause for a while the screen saver turns on the TV. Well Jarem loves watching the emblem bounce around the TV screen. He stands on the piano at the base of the TV for that little extra boost to reach the TV. Then whenever the emblem is on the bottom half of the TV he reaches up and tries to touch it. We think it is so cute and are impressed with his hand eye coordination. We took a quick little video of him doing it. So funny


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Pictures!!

Okay, I was going through my Jarem folder under My Pictures on my computer and just had to share these. I don't even know if I've posted them before but I just loved these pictures and decided to share them. Enjoy
One of my all time favorite pictures!

I love the mirror pictures, too.

Eating in the car. He was having prunes when he blew raspberries and it went EVERYWHERE!

Valentine's Day outfit that he never got to wear.

Oops, the pants didn't fit!

Love the big eyes!!!

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Have you met my cousin Josee? (UPDATED)

Before her school talent show.

Well, some of you may know my cousing Josee already. If you don't, you'll probably see her name on either Broadway or American Idol within the next couple of years. She is such an amazing singer!! I just had to make a quick post about how much we love listening to her sing. She sang in her school talent show last Wednesday and then tried out for the Diamondbacks to sing the National Anthem this past weekend. A couple weeks ago we watched her sing in her school play, Annie. She has so much talent! She is honestly like an angel when she sings. Her voice is just beautiful. In any case, I wanted to start spreading the word now on her so you can all vote for her when she is old enough to be on American Idol. Josephyne Maree Santos. Love you, Josee! Check out Josee's performance in her talent show and some pictures here
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Ear update

Well our poor little Jarem is sick again. He started showing some cold symptoms last Wednesday. I had hoped it was just teething but he got worse as the week came to an end. By Friday he had a full blown cold. Runny nose, cough and of course, ear pain. We watched the entire weekend as Jarem seemed to pull or hit at his right ear more and more. I was hoping it was just because the tubes were bothering him and he was still adjusting from the surgery. But listening to our better judgment, we decided to call the doctor. Jarem’s two week post-op follow-up was supposed to be on Wednesday. So we just asked if we could move his Wednesday appointment to Monday. Being that we have such an awesome doctor now, they easily switched our appointment. Eric kept Jarem home with him all day since he’s on Spring Break this week and had no homework to work on. Then we all made the long drive up to Scottsdale to see Jarem’s Ear, Nose and Throat specialist.

Dr. Josen looked in Jarem’s left ear first which is the ear we were less worried about. He cleaned it out a little and got a good look at it. Jarem was such a good boy! He laid there as three people held him down and his poor little ear got poked in. Eric was daddy of the century (again) by singing nursery rhymes to Jarem in order to keep his attention off the doctor digging in his ear. Jarem lay there perfectly still and enjoyed the awesome show his daddy was putting on. Dr. Josen finished the left ear off with a few drops in the canal. After the left ear, we moved to the right ear.

The right ear was worse than the left. After a preliminary inspection the doctor decided he needed to clean out Jarem’s ear more thoroughly. He used an ear vacuum for lack of the technical term. It is the equivalent of what a dentist uses to suck the spit out of your mouth when you get a cleaning. It’s loud and annoying but quite useful. Jarem wasn’t a fan of this part but still laid there like a tough boy. The doctor cleaned out Jarem’s ear and then put some drops in this ear, too. From there it was all cuddles and smiles from our baby boy.

What Dr. Josen told us is that basically since Jarem is so congested, his mucus membranes are full. The tubes were doing their job by pushing the fluid out of his ear. In this case, the fluid was mucus. No wonder Jarem was batting at his ear all weekend! I can’t imagine having snot in my ears! Dr. Josen gave us the drops to continue at home and also prescribed a steroid for Jarem. It’s not an Incredible Hulk type of steroid. It’s a mild steroid to help clear up the congestion and mucus from his system.

We go back to the doctor next Thursday for another follow-up with Dr. Josen. Since Jarem had mucus in his ears, we didn’t do a hearing test yet. I’m excited to do that when he’s all better to see what effect the tubes have had there. All in all we left the doctor feeling blessed. Blessed that we have such a great little boy that is tough yet still let us know he was uncomfortable. He didn’t scream uncontrollably or stay awake all night; he simply played with his ears a little and asked for extra cuddles from mommy and daddy. We know Jarem is a great baby and that we are so blessed with how tough he has been through all of this.

We also left the doctor feeling validated as parents. We felt validated that we trusted our judgment and called the doctor. We felt validated when the doctor told us we did the right thing and it’s a good thing that we came in. We felt validated that Jarem still loved us even after putting him through all these darned doctor’s visits. (But can you blame him? We are pretty lovable. JUST KIDDING! Hehe)

And last, but most importantly, we left feeling blessed that we have a great doctor that cares for Jarem and is helping us get him healthy. Thank you God for keeping watch over us always. We appreciate all of our blessings…


Here are a couple pictures Eric took yesterday before leaving for Jarem's doctor appointment.
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Farmer's Market!

Our little hometown of Queen Creek is getting a Farmer's Market! http://www.qcfarmersmarket.blogspot.com  For those who know me, I'm sure you're wondering why I even care. For those who don't know me, I am not the biggest fan of fruits and veggies. Not that my parents didn't try to feed me right, but I just have never really been a fan of green things in particular. :) During the pregnancy I ate more salads for Jarem's sake. Luckily, Jarem seems to have gotten Eric's taste buds so far and loves veggies! We've started buying more types of fruits and veggies for him to try now that he is really getting into solid foods. How exciting to take him to the Farmer's Market and pick some organic, fresh fruits and veggies! As he gets older I picture him walking on the farm and picking what he wants to eat. I know this probably sounds silly but I'm way excited! This weekend is opening weekend for them so hopefully we'll have time to stop by and get some goodies. Be sure to stop by if you're in the area, too!
http://qcfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/
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What great weather!

What a great weekend! Eric had Saturday off of work. Originally he was going to play in a soccer tournament with our church but they couldn’t get enough players together to form a team. Instead we had a family day and what a blast this weekend was! Jarem is feeling so much better. It is incredible how we got used to him being sick and didn’t notice that he was acting differently. He has so much personality and is all over the place! He is all smiles and loves to babble all day long. He is all about playing and interacting. It’s so much fun to see him like this again!!
Thursday evening we gave him his first bath following the surgery. It was hilarious cause we wanted to take pictures of him with his cute ear plugs in and we had a hard time because he was splashing so much. The entire bathroom floor was soaked, not to mention we were soaked, too. But he was having fun and so were we! He hasn’t played like that in so long during bath time. We were cracking up watching him and really loved seeing our baby boy come back to normal. He is just a crack up!!

Saturday we started the morning with a Costco run. After we stopped by to visit my dad. His company was having a model home sale near our house so we stopped by for a little while and hung out. Jarem loved the banana that poppa fed him. He also loved crawling around the big empty model home! We used it as a mini photo shoot opportunity. The lighting was great in the front bedroom and Jarem was having a blast crawling back and forth.

After visiting Poppa we went and picked up Josee for her birthday date. For my cousins, (Josee, Chloe and Korina) we give them birthday dates for their special day. They get to choose where we go and what we do. It’s our special time to hang out with them one on one and have fun. Well eventhough Josee’s birthday was back in December, she got to celebrate her birthday in February for the first time! (Oops, we were really late scheduling this date due to busy schedules!) She decided she wanted to go mini golfing. The weather here has been so nice that it was perfect. While driving there we decided to stop by Native New Yorker for some wings for lunch. Well as we were about to turn into the driveway, Eric noticed Tito and Tita driving right in front of us with Chloe and Korina in the back. We honked and followed them for a half block before we all were able to pull over. They decided to join us for lunch. Josee got the suicide wings. I have never seen somebody eat such hot food. She is AMAZING!!! Chloe decided to try one and then Tita tried one, too. HILARIOUS! We had such a fun time at lunch together.
Once we got to Golfland the real fun began though. I started the first whole with the ball shooting back at me twice before I could even keep it on the green. Eric was pretty stellar the entire time and only struggled with a few holes. Josee had fun and warned us that she wasn’t good. But hopefully she still had fun, we definitely did! Jarem just watched us and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors of AZ. After golfing we played some Dance, Dance Revolution and of course, air hockey. Josee killed both of us on DDR but what a blast! Josee, remember when I let go of the stroller down the ramp and watched it tip as everything fell out all over the floor?!? (DON’T WORRY! The baby wasn’t in the seat…)
Joanna was back in town for the weekend so after golfing we stopped by her cousin’s house where they were having family dinner. We didn’t stay too long because my back was starting to tighten up again but long enough to get some hugs and visit with Joanna and her family. We love having her here in AZ with us!! We’ll keep praying for you, Joanna! Sunday we looked at some houses with Joanna in Gilbert and hopefully, maybe, possibly she will move back. We’ll move her personally!! But in all honesty, we support whatever decision she makes. Just having her in our lives is a blessing.
Yesterday was Miss Korina Elizabeth’s 7th birthday. Aunt Stef threw her a party at the park. We had a blast being the photographers for the day. We took over a thousand pictures with our new camera. YIKES! But it was great watching all the “kids” (myself included) play. The weather has been amazing and I have to admit that I got my first sunburn of 2009. It wasn’t bad at all but I got a little red after being out for so long this weekend. We had an amazing time at the park. Jarem was really into playing on the toys so that was a blast to watch. I love this picture I took of him going down the stairs. He did such a good job! All in all it was an amazing weekend... ... Full Post...