Our Little Tax Write-Off

This month, we had our family photo day at Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, California with photographer Russell Snider of Snider Photo and Design. We had so much fun and are very excited by the preview of the photos that Russell took that day. He is always a pleasure to work with. He was our wedding photographer and took Jacob’s newborn photos. So obviously, we enjoy working with him.

Valerie and I had never been to this location and we found it to be a beautiful place to spend some family time.

Click here for all of the preview photos

“I’m so cute.”

Jacob is closing in on his first birthday. In just two short months, he will be 12 months old. Yesterday was his 10 month birthday.

Valerie and I are starting to look into ideas for his first birthday. Hopefully it will be something very simple. Just a gathering of family and friends to celebrate our little gift from God. We love watching the wonder in his eyes as he observes the world around him. He finds the strangest things amusing. Mommy’s feet, daddy spitting into the sink as he brushes his teeth, a sneeze. These are all sources of amusement to him and we love it.

These months have passed so quickly. It does not seem like long ago that I was meeting him for the first time.

What is nice is that no matter how bad a day I have had, Jacob’s little smile and laugh can make everything better. We are truly blessed to have him in our lives.

“Yum! Rice!”

Valerie and I had nearly given up on getting Jacob to eat food that is right in front of him with his hands. Yesterday, we decided to give it another shot. So I stuck some sliced bananas in front of him. The positive was that he started grabbing them and shoving them into his mouth. Mom and dad were so proud. The negative was that dad should have chosen something other than bananas because the end result was a banana filled mess absolutely everywhere. Toward the end, he was just playing with the stuff, mashing it and seeing what he could smear it on.

Today, and a load of laundry later, I decided to be a little smarter and made him some pasta noodles to go with his breakfast. While the floor once again hot the majority of it, it was easier to clean and his clothes did not suffer the same banana wrath from the night before.

Jacob and I had lunch with my parents at the Olive Garden and Jacob tried again. This time with some breadsticks (just the inside part so that he did not get the salt) dipped in water after his lunch. Again, he absolutely had a blast eating that off of the table.

After dinner, I threw some white rice from my dinner in front of him, and he was at it again. This one may have been his favorite. We are so happy to see our little man progressing. Better late than never.

So Valerie has been sick. No, no. Really sick. How sick you ask? Well, she has bronchitis, a sinus infection, and pink eye … all at the same time. She is pretty much in quarantine in the bedroom. The couch has been my bed for the week. And to top things off, today was our three-year anniversary. I’m sure this is not what Valerie had in mind when they said “in sickness and in health.” She was probably leaning toward the “health” part.

So what does this mean for the “team” part in “Team Bonilla?” Since Jacob can’t really be exposed to Valerie, he has been without his mother for the week. And since I am the one that is primarily interacting with our son, I have to be very careful as I am trying to take care of Valerie. That means a lot of washing my hands — to the point where they started cracking and bleeding from all of the washing I was doing — and keeping my distance while trying to do things for her. And Jacob misses his mommy. You can tell. He gets so happy at the mere glimpse of her and is often looking around for her when he hears her. Sometimes looking around for her even when he has not heard her for a while and saying “Ma ma ma ma.”

In the meantime, this situation has made me (somewhat of) a single parent. So that means waking up early, trying to get cleaned up before he wakes up, feeding him once he wakes up, packing up his stuff for daycare, dropping him off, then taking care of Valerie while trying to get at least a few minutes of work in (which means no big projects — just answering emails from advertising clients), running errands, doing anything that needs to be done around the house, picking up Jacob from daycare (which really is the highlight of my day), sometimes forgetting something at daycare and having to go back to get it (haven’t forgotten Jacob yet!), giving Jacob a bottle, spending some quality time with my little man, playing toys with him, feeding him dinner, putting him to bed, doing his laundry, cleaning his dishes, and anything else my family may need. I even gave Jacob a bath all by myself tonight. I had never done that alone. All of this has given me an increased appreciation for everything that Valerie does for our family each and every day. She works so hard for us and is an amazing wife and an unbelievable mother.

I know this situation is really tough on Valerie. She wants to spend time with us, but can’t. But she is strong and working hard to get better and it is up to Jacob and I to support her in any way she needs. Not just during this tough week, but going forward. She is 10 times the parent that I am and, even now, I always rely on her for advice and support.

And to say that I have been doing this completely on my own is not really true. We have a great support group. Valerie’s parents are always around to lend some needed support, and they have. It is great being near family.

My time flying solo will eventually end. Right now, it is kind of a blast.  Hard, but still fun. Of course, I don’t know that i would be able to do it long-term. So to all of you single parents who have done it for years, I am so much respect for you. You are stronger than I.

“Foot. Nom nom.”

It is hard to believe that, as of today, Jacob is already 8 months old. Just 4 months away from his first birthday. It seems like just last week that he started eating solid foods, but that was almost 2 months ago. Jacob has spent the past two weeks off from daycare and hanging out with mommy. Today was his first day back. He went to the Aquarium of the Pacific for the first time over the weekend and was fascinated by all of the sea life.

Since he has been home for the past two weeks, I have had the privilege of waking up to his laughter as he and mommy would play in the mornings. Then I would jump out of bed and head over to see him. As soon as he sees me, he will just give me a big smile. It is one of the best feelings in the world to be able to make your child smile like that.

These past 8 months have gone by quickly and I can’t wait to see what awaits us in future months.

We are amazed at how fast our little man is growing and his fascination with everything around him continues to grow as well. He is becoming quite a handful, but is uniquely Jacob. He is starting to put sounds together. He knows “up” when he wants to be picked up. “Mamamama” is usually a call to mommy and means that he wants food or wants to be comforted. I’ll even get a “dadadada” occasionally. He has his likes and dislikes as far as baby food is concerned and he loves Mum-Mum crackers. They are one of the few things that he will hold himself to eat.

Jacob had a great first Christmas. He woke up to find that Santa brought him a new jumper with all kinds of fun toys attached and stuffed his stocking with all kinds of other goodies. Of course, mommy and daddy helped him discover those goodies.

Then it was off to grandma and grandpa Gonzales’ house to open gifts with his cousins and spend some more quality time (he was there on Christmas Eve) with family.

Then it was off to grandma and grandpa Bonilla’s house in Pasadena to spend time with my family. He was once again showered with gifts, ate with the family, went for a walk with auntie Linda, and even got to go see Christmas lights.

After a long day, he returned home to get all snug in his bed and dream of all of the toys he would play with later. It is needless to say that our house is packed full with all of his new stuff. However, we are grateful that so many people love him enough to want to make him happy.

Jacob on Christmas morning with his new jumper

Jacob opening gifts at the Gonzales house

Jacob surrounded by his gifts at the Bonilla house

Our little man is a big 7 months old now. He turned 7 months yesterday and has spent the last few days in a suite at the Red Rock Casino and Resort in Las Vegas. Valerie was here for a work conference so we all tagged along. Sadly, he spend most of that time in the room because he was fighting a cold. He did get to leave the room for our meals though, but he did not leave the resort because it was freezing outside. Literally. Night temperatures were below the freezing mark and day temperatures were not that much better.

He seems to be better now. Much better than his 103+ degree temperature high. Once he felt better, he was his normal happy, smiley, and curious self. He was fascinated by the casino lights and the grandness of the resort. We just love his curiosity and watching him experience things for the first time.

Today, Team Bonilla attended the Ohana Potluck at our church and Jacob had so much fun watching all of the little kids running around and playing. One day, that will be him. We are blessed to be part of such a great community.

And I have been meaning to upload this for ages. For those that were not in attendance, here is a video of Jacob’s dedication from September 29, 2013 at South Bay Community Church in Torrance.

I say “semi” because they are not exactly solids. Last night, Jacob started with a mostly watery mix of rice cereal and breast milk. We will slowly make it less watery and make his way to his little mashed carrots or peas. Other than they fact that it is far too slow for him, he does not seem to mind it. It is messier than his normal feedings, but we all had to start somewhere.

This is a big step for Jacob. So big that we recorded over 8 minutes of video from his first semi-solid meal. Yup. I said over 8 minutes of him just chowing down.

Tonight, he had some more and already fully understand how being fed with a spoon works. Except, once he gets tired of the slowness and inefficiency of eating in this way rather than just out of a bottle, he likes to play with his food by blowing bubbles in it and sending it everywhere.

Tonight is our final night in Kauai. Tomorrow we head back home. This was our first vacation as a family since Jacob entered our lives. Jacob has discovered a few things. He likes to swim. He likes the wind. He can poop just about anywhere (ask us later about the pooptastophy on a mountain top). He is fascinated by chickens and roosters. He’s intrigued by Hawaiian food and even tried to grab it right off of our forks a few times. He likes to sing. He likes luaus. He can get his toes into his mouth. Most importantly, he knows how to attract the ladies. They stop to look at him or talk to him and that is when he works his magic with his smile. One local even said that she would wait for him!

Jacob celebrated his 6 month birthday here. There is no better place to do so than this paradise. Valerie and I learned that there is no such thing as a stress free vacation when you have a baby. It is a lot of work. However, watching Jacob experience all of these things for the first time, building memories, and getting photos and video that will allow us to look back and remember these good times were all worth it.

We look forward to many more trips with our little man.

Jacob’s first tooth is coming in and he is not having any fun with that. Despite that, today was his six month birthday and it was filled with fun. As usual, he woke up early today. Then grandma and grandpa Gonzales, mommy, daddy, and he went into Koloa, picked up some breakfast, a birthday cupcake, and some sandwiches for our packed lunch.

Then we drove up/through Kokee State Park and had a picnic atop the mountain. We sang to Jacob and mommy ate his cupcake. He is way too young for cupcakes. After that, we walked through the Kauai Coffee Plantation. Then we all headed to Kukui’ula Village Shopping Center for gourmet farmer’s market.

We also played a voicemail for Jacob of grandma and grandpa Bonilla singing happy birthday to him.

Jacob is getting so big and becoming more and more curious about the world around him. Each day, he makes us laugh. We smile when he smiles and we love spending time with him. Traveling with him has been tough, but these memories that we are gaining are worth it. We know he will not remember it, but at least we have the pictures to prove he was here in Hawaii.

Well, it’s 5 AM local time and we are all awake. Jacob decided that 4 AM was time to play. The time difference between here and California has thrown him off. We’ll see what today brings.

Anyways, yesterday was his first day on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It was his first day seeing the ocean up close. He was fascinated by the waves. It was his first time putting his feet in the sand too. I’m not sure he knew what to make of that. These are the things that we love. Watching him experience things for the first time. It makes the usual even more special for us.

Luckily, we have an ocean front room so we have a beautiful view of the water from the 3rd floor of the resort. That means that leaving the sliding patio door cracked, we can listen to the waves crash all night and, being Hawaii, it is still not too cold for Jacob.

Our lucky little man will be spending his six month birthday on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Today is the start of his first vacation. This should be interesting and a big test for Valerie and myself. I am sure that the traveling part will be the toughest portion of this trip. It is amazing how much stuff someone so little needs. But our bags (many, many bags) are packed and we are ready to go.

I am so excited to see Jacob’s little face as he experiences new things like the beach, ocean, swimming pools, and the overall beauty of Kauai. I know he won’t remember it, but we will.

Jacob turned 5 months old on Sunday and we are amazed at how fast he has grown. He has a very distinct personality now. Overall, he is a very happy baby and amazingly, can entertain himself by making noises and staring at things like ceiling fans. And then when he sees us and smiles, it is heartwarming. Yesterday, Valerie came home and started holding him and he hugged her as tightly as he possibly could. When I give him kisses, he opens his mouth, not quit knowing how to give a kiss, but trying regardless. Oh, and television. He is fascinated by television. A habit that we are trying to break a bit. But if we are out and he sees a TV, he will stare at it in fascination.

Early next month will be a big test for us all. His first big trip. Jacob will be traveling to Hawaii. Kauai to be more specific. We picked that island because it is one that we are very familiar with already. So that may make things easier. We know that he will not remember the trip, but are excited to take plenty of pictures of him in paradise. He has never been on the beach before. He has seen the ocean from afar in Manhattan Beach, but he has ever actually been on the sand or touched the water with his toes. So we are excited for more first experiences with our little man.

On Sunday, we were so happy to have Jacob dedicated in front of our church at South Bay Community Church. The Bonilla and Gonzales clans were on hand to see our baby boy get dedicated. Some of our friends were on hand as well. We are so lucky to have family and friends that care about Jacob so much.

The dedication was short and pastor Greg led the prayer over Jacob and our whole church joined in. We got to speak to our church a little about Jacob and our hopes for his future. The dedication is more for the parents though. A promise that we will do our part to raise Jacob right.

It meant a lot to Valerie and myself and we were so excited during the days leading up to the dedication. We pray for Jacob all the time and I pray that I will be a good parent and role model for my son. I know that will be easier with an amazing woman like Valerie at my side.

Jacob is now over 19 weeks old. About 4 and a half months. Every day I look at Jacob’s little face and am amazed at how fast he is growing. He is starting to roll over on his own, can almost balance himself sitting up, can support his own head really well, now understands that his hands are for grabbing things (especially dad’s chin and nose), is curious about his surroundings, and loves to laugh. We love him so much.

On Sunday, September 29, we will dedicate Jacob at our church. It is a simple and brief prayer for him and us so that we are able to bring him up right in God’s eyes. And we fully intend to do that. We want him to feel like our church is a big part of his life as he grows up. When he is old enough, it will be up to him to decide which path he plans to follow. Until then, it is up to us to make sure that we guide him the best that we can. I know that there will be tough days ahead. We will just pray and hope that things will work out for the best.

We also want him to know how blessed he is. He will (hopefully) never know what it is like to be homeless, starving, or alone. He is a lot luckier than so many people out there that are less fortunate and he should do what he can to help those people whenever he can.

Jacob is now over 4 months old and he has had the privilege of having Valerie as his mother during that timeframe. He could not have asked for a better mommy. Every day, I am amazed at how wonderful a mother she is and how naturally it comes to her. No matter how much is on her plate, her dedication to Jacob is a priority whether she be healthy or ill. She is the type of woman who, no matter what she is doing, is always thinking of her little man. Jacob is so very lucky to have someone like her always worrying and watching over him. I absolutely love to watch his little smile grow when he sees her and know that even at such a young age, he already has a lot of love in his heart for her.

Today is Jacob’s first day at daycare. It is also mom and dad’s first day back to full-time work. Valerie had started a few half days last week and I have been working when I can get some time in to do so. However, today is the first time we return to our somewhat normal pre-Jacob schedule.

Jacob didn’t seem to mind being there as he looked around at all of the colorful decorations in the infant room. We know he will be fine and this transition will be easiest on him. It’s way harder for mom and dad who are used to always having him around. What is nice is that I am very close by so if he needs anything, I can be there in minutes.

It’ll just take some time to get used to this.

It is so hard to believe that Jacob is going to be 4 months old in less than a few weeks. Time has passed by so fast.

Today was this 15th week in the world and boy did he have a great day. I have never seen him as happy throughout the day as he was today. Grandma and grandpa Bonilla came to visit him. They played with him, took him to lunch, took him shopping, played with him some more, took him to dinner, and just had a ton of fun with their little grandson. And I have never heard him laugh as much as he did today. It was just a wonderful day.

Valerie and I looked at some of his early videos the other day and it is amazing how much he has grown and changed in such a short period of time. Just having him fall asleep on me is so rewarding. I can’t really explain it. Maybe it is the fact that he feels so secure and comforted with you. Maybe it is just seeing his little face as he sleeps.

Being a father is the toughest thing that I have ever done. It is also the most rewarding thing that I have ever done.

Jacob has officially made the transition from a newborn to an infant. Three months ago today, Baby Boy Bonilla was born. And that was his name at the hospital because he would not get his official name until two days later. Seeing him for the first time was one of the most breathtaking sights I have ever laid my eyes on. Watching him grow since then has been equally as rewarding. We love him so much and while he demands the majority of our attention, it is all worth it. Even little things, like a smile when we play with him, fills me with joy.

Jacob, thank you for coming into our lives and making our family even stronger than it was before. We love you so much.

Jacob right after he was born (top left), Jacob at 1 month (top right),
Jacob at 2 months (bottom left), Jacob at 3 months (bottom right)

Jacob cries, and we come running to decipher his sounds and try to figure out what he wants. I mean, it could only be one of a few things (ok, sometimes it could be a combination of multiple things). Either he is hungry, needs a diaper change, has gas, or is otherwise uncomfortable. Despite how demanding our little man is, we love him so much. His little sounds are so cute. His laugh makes us smile. I could stare into his eyes forever — especially when he is just staring at you.

The little things crack us up too. Sometimes he toots so hard that it scares him. Sometimes, I think that he will lift off like a rocket and go into orbit. Sometimes his mom and I just stare at him in amazement after a toot and say, “Wow, that was really impressive.”

Then there are the times, like today, when he lies asleep on my shoulder with his little mouth just a bit open. It is the cutest thing. And then when he is in a really good mood and laughing and trying to speak, but pretty much gibberish comes out — now THAT is adorable. We can’t wait for his first words. So far we have only gotten “hi” when we play with him and occasionally an “ow” after a sneeze. By the way, even his sneezes are adorable.

When mommy lifts him, he stretches his arms out above his head and she says, “Superman!”

This morning, I was changing him after he spit up on his onesie. As soon as I get his new onesie on, he spits up on that too and then starts to laugh. I think he is toying with me.

All of these little things make him who he is and we love him so much. I look at his little face each night after he has fallen asleep and think that it is one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We are truly blessed to have him in our lives and are very thankful.

Born May 6th, our little man is now two months old. Fatherhood is the toughest, yet most rewarding thing that I have ever done. The tough parts are really tough. I mean, I am starting to wonder if there is even a need to iron my shirts in the morning. Odds are that they will get spit up on or pee’d on. Some days you run on 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Val probably gets even less. Sometimes you question what you are doing because he is fine with mommy, but loves to cry with you. Sometimes things get tough and frustration hits you. However, when you see is little face in the morning and he is happy to see you too, it becomes clear that it is all worth it and you know that he has enriched your lives.

Jacob is growing so fast. He was already outgrowing many of his newborn outfits. Hint to future parents: Don’t stock up too much on newborn outfits. You’ll get about a month out of them. Anyways, now, after his latest accident told us enough was enough, he has officially transitioned from newborn diapers to size 1. I am kind of sad to see him grow so fast and leave behind all of his cute little outfits. At the same time, I am excited to see my little man get bigger. Soon he will fit into his 49ers clothes!

Time flies by so fast. Jacob still seems so new to us. It is difficult to believe that he is already a month old. Earlier this afternoon, Jacob got a call from grandma and grandpa Bonilla who sang him a happy birthday song. The rest of the day was spent like the majority of his days. Sleeping, waking up, getting changed, eating, and repeat. After dinner, Jacob joined mom and dad on a trip to Yogurtland to celebrate.

I told Jacob today that he has turned our lives upside down, but we would not have it any other way. He filled an empty part of our lives that we did not even know was there. He truly is a blessing to Valerie and myself.

Today, Jacob is 4 weeks old and doing well. On Thursday, he will be a month old. Caring for him takes up the majority of our time, but he is 100% worth all of the effort. We were at Target today and numerous people stopped to look at our adorable little man. Jacob fills our hearts with joy and we are enjoying watching him grow so fast.