GOOD TIMES WITH LUCA...: February 2009

Saturday, Feb 7th, 2009... Hooray - Hooray, What a Happy Day!!! This was a very special day for us...Luca's 1st birthday was more than just a celebration of a regular birthday for us, it was the celebration of health, love, solidarity and the closure of one MEGA year for Luca!!! Not many children get to experience what he did and go thru SO MUCH during their 1st year of life...

We had a great time at his party and were blessed and so happy that so many wonderful people came to celebrate and share with us such an important milestone... THANK YOU EVERYONE!

When we woke up it was raining quite a bit...

Then the rain stopped for a while and the sky opened up enough that we could see the gorgeous mountains behind our home covered in snow.... SO BEAUTIFUL... We love to look at them in the winter...it's such a relaxing and peaceful sight...

The prince's throne was ready...

Some of the tables were already taking shape.... Elmo, Elmo, Elmo everywhere...It is not recommended for a baby younger than 2 years of age to watch tv... BUT...we had to do what we had to do, given the circumstances with Luca this past year and to keep him calm especially during his hospital stay....therefore, we let him watch Elmo DVD's and now he absolutely loves Elmo... whenever he sees Elmo he opens up a great big smile.... SO, his party had to be ELMO related! ;o)

Some of our 1st guests started to arrive... Nonna Miranda Rafo and Isabella Pestarino are here with me and mommy in this picture while I was having my late lunch...This was around 2pm...

Here we are with the Spangler Family... Missy, Carolyn & Lance Spangler... We cannot say enough great things or even talk enough about this wonderful family... They are the ones who initially helped my parents when they were a "bit" lost with the news about my heart situation... Their beautiful daughter Missy (here now 11 years old) was born with a different heart too...She also had her corrective surgery at CHLA and she has the lovely Dr. Jackie as her cardiologist as well... The Spanglers were the ones who told us about CHLA and the outstanding team of doctors and nurses that they have over there...THANK YOU MISSY, CAROLYN AND LANCE... You gave us SO MUCH light during such a dark period that we were going thru... we will be eternally grateful to you guys and you will live in our hearts forever! Thank you for all your constant love and support!! :O)

Here mommy is with Tia Selma Saucerman, Tia Christina Katouli, and Vovo' Sonia Francozo...

Zia Den & Zio Nano Pestarino, and daddy...

Uncle Greg and Auntie Cheryl Baumeister...and mommy... They are the lovely parents of my great twin friends Abby and Cooper... who unfortunately could not come to the party because they were sick...Mommy and daddy met The Baumeister Family during the pre-natal classes they went thru before I was born...

Here we have Danielle Fisher with her 2 boys, Andrew and Jeremy... They also live here in Corona and her husband Tony used to work with daddy at Husky...

Our great neighbors Steve, Lynn and Christian Bergantine...

Lydita Zepeda and Sofia Katouli...

Here I am crawling up the wall with my red ball... beside me I have Missy Spangler and Nicole Zepeda...

Mommy and I are here with the beautiful Manzi Family...Ed, Rana, Luciano and Marcelo...We also have so much in common with them... We've met thru an online support group called 'California Heart Connection'... their little boy Marcelo is another one of my friends who was also born with a different heart...yet different from mine and from Missy's... So many ways hearts can form it's amazing...anyways... Marcelo is my new great heart-buddy for life now... he was approx 13 months old here so we are very close in age...and like me, Marcelo also had a very intense 1st year of life! THANK YOU GUYS for coming and for sharing so much of your experieneces with us during the past few months... you also helped us A LOT!!!

Friends, friends... what would we do without you??? ;o) We LOVE ALL of our special friends...

Uncle Abdi Katouli, Uncle Diego Zepeda, Daddy, Uncle Jake Kaufman and Uncle Tony Fisher...sorry, in Brazil we call everybody "aunt and uncle/ tio e tia"...eheheh....

Tia Selma, Tia Ligia Apparicio (mommy's cousin) and Vovo' Sonia....

Isabella had created a little accident on Zio Nano's shirt...ehehhe....it happens... ;o)

Auntie Danielle and her beautiful baby girl Abigail Fisher...

Daddy... you look like a nerd here but that's ok... we love you! :O)

Marcelo, Rana and Luciano Manzi... Marcelo, I love that Elmo hat, thanks for wearing it! ;o)

Vovo' Sonia and Tia Selma with me...

Here the bigger kids were in the garage preparing for the 'Carnaval Parade'... An activity that Nana Silvia (mommy's mom) suggested all the way from Brazil...she was SOOOOO sad that she would not be here to participate and celebrate my b-day so at least she participated with her great activity idea! OBRIGADO NANA SILVIA, TE AMO!! All the kids had to dress up with crazy costumes, name the costumes and then go around the house on a 'parade' with Brazilian carnaval music showing their creations to the adults who would vote on the best one...then we had prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places... actually everyone got a little something at the end so nobody would feel bad... ;o) The kids had a lot of fun and so did the adults...This was perfect since the real Brazilian Carnaval was coming up later in the month of February...

Nicole Zepeda!

Lydita Zepeda!

Sofia Katouli!

Andrew Fisher!

My friend Christian started dancing to the samba beat here just like a real Brazilian... so cute...we all had great fun seeing him dance!!! GO CHRISTIAN... ;o)

I had to participate too, you know... my mom quickly put this crazy yellow boa on me which I did not like at all... What were you thinking mamma, boas are for girls ;o)

Everybody was watching the samba fun... ;o) Tia Angelis, this is the only picture that you appear for some reason... I feel so bad that I don't have a photo with you and Andrew...

Still dancing... ;o)

What a nice HAPPY FAMILY!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSS indeed... ;o)

Ohhhh, how sweet, I love your kisses daddy... I look like a porcelain doll here...

OK, now it's finally cake time... I've been waiting for this moment for one entire year...

WOW, what a GORGEOUS ELMO CAKE... Uncle Abdi got it from an Iranian bakery... it was white with strawberries and bananas inside.... SO YUMMMMMMMMMY.... Thank you KATOULI FAMILY for giving me such nice and delicious cake... It was perfect!!

Tia Christina & Sofia Katouli baked and decorated this outstanding cake for me with all their hearts... SO BEAUTIFUL, SO DELICIOUS AND SO PRECIOUS.... Thank you for putting all your love into this cake... I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!! As you will see below.... ;o)

I am such a lucky little guy... I always have very pretty girls around me...

Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday to you... Happy birthday Dear Luca, happy birthday to you.... AND MANY MANY MANY MANY MORE........

Since our guests and audience was multi-cultural we sang Happy B-day in English, Italian and Portuguese... very democratic and eclectic!! ;o)

I was not smiling much but I was happy... ;o) I am just not used to all these people singing for me...ehehe

Can I touch these little guys on my cake?

I will and we'll see what happens...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...that was hot!!!!!!!! Mommy tried blowing these little candles as fast as she could but I still managed to touch them while they were still a bit hot... but I only cried for 3 seconds...

Now I'm off to picking out Elmo, Big Bird and Cookie Monster... they are so nice to touch...

I might taste these guys too...why not...

Here I am surrounded by my great friends, mommy and daddy...

And that's when I started touching my cake...

And eating it...

And having some on my nose...actually my mom did that...she was mean...

Yummy....

Fingers taste good too...

Yack, my hands are dirty...

Ok, now the piece of cake ended up on my bib...

Wait a minute...maybe there's more cake behind this plate...Peekaboo... I see you...

Quite a pair of sticky hands I've got! ;o)

Uncle Jake, you were brave to approach me...

Enough with the hat, I just wanna lick these hands now...

Finally Tia Christa and Tio Will... poor Tia Christa was taking a bunch of pictures as usual...just because she's a photographer we never give her a brake!! THANK YOU Tia Christa, you are awesome!! ;o)

Elmo and more Elmo everywhere...

After the mess, a great soul rolled up my sleeves (my mom does not know who helped me with that...thank you, whomever you are!!). Then I was off to play with my girlfriends...I was trying to touch baby Abby's hair...she's so cute!!

And with Isabella... she's another cutie!!

My 2 girlfriends together here... Abby Fisher and Isabella Pestarino...

Isabella was not too happy here...maybe she wanted to go home already...

Everybody left now... this was our front door...

All the Elmo paraphernalia that we had around for my party...

This was my "messages in a box" stuff....my keepsake box... where everyone kindly wrote me a note so that we can keep on this box and only open when I am much older and can read and understand the notes on my own... THANK YOU to everyone who left their sweet notes here...

Table with gifts...Again, THANK YOU to everyone...all of you guys spoiled me so much with all these wonderful gifts!!! ;o) ;o)

Me after the party touching my gifts and cards...but I was too tired so we did not open anything that evening...

I was tired but very happy with the great party that we had and ALL the SUPER friends that came to celebrate with us...

Next morning eating breakfast with my Pizza Elmo...

In the garage the next morning while my mom was cleaning it up...

The garage after the party... My parents tried fixing it the best they could for my b-day since it was such a rainy day... it actually turned out good and worked out fine...since we don't have basements here!

My name is Luca... I live on the 2nd floor... ;o) Just kidding, that's just that song, I actually live all over my house now since I am crawling like crazy... eheheh

Playing with my giggly Elmo...

My hair is long or what??!! ... Split in the middle like this it looks quite silly.... ehhe

Finally opening gifts... we had to wait for daddy to come home from school...

That's a whole lot of Elmo....

And more Elmo.... enough of Elmo for a WHILE!!! ;o) Thank you for reading all this and for looking at our pictures! Again, it was such an important date for us as you can tell by the amount of pictures we took... ;o) To those of you who could not come and be together with us on this day, no problem... many more b-days will come sooner than we think!! ;o) Kisses and love to all...