My gorgeous boy!

Your 5 years old now and just one of the most awesome people! 

This year you started kindergarten, you are 42" tall, weighing in at 39lbs...your are tall and skinny my love bug. Your a crazy picky eater. You mostly only eat what you call regular food which consists of white rice, plain pasta with cheese, pizza (from pizzeria), Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets, fruits apples, grapes, watermelon, vanilla ice cream, chips, crackers cookies etc...you try new foods aver rarely..we are hoping you will outgrow this stage...

Big boy Benjamin is big brother to Christian & Anabelle...you take this role very seriously and love your siblings. You & Christian play everyday and everything together. 

The big interests for you right now ant Lego themed games, Skylanders, Disney infinity for xbox. Your Gammy has spoiled you and bought just about every character for both game sets. 

You take karate class & soccer & junior engineering. Karate was started at 4 for you.

Here you are with your instructor Jim.  

This the day you got you orange belt

You were so excited! 

CATCHING UP on your 1st year

So mommy has a lot of catching up to do here to share all your milestones with you. Lets see...You had your first real giggle around 3 months old.

Rolled over around 4 months old while we were visiting Tio Dave & Titi Jaime and TJ


Your started Sitting on your own around 6 months old

At six months old Mommy had to go back to work so Titi Ani started taking care of you during the day while Mommy was at work.
She took care of you from from months 6 - 12

Your first Easter!

Went our first airplane ride at 6 months going on a trip to orlando florida with Mommy & Daddy. We took you to SeaWorld.

Enjoying some pool time (another first for you too) you loved being the water ever since

Entering SeaWorld with Mommy & Daddy

Watching the whales with Louisa (Godfather Nino's Mom)

Crawling around 7 months

Going to your first Mets Game at 7 months old

Pulling yourself to stand up on your own around 8 months

Went to Ecuador to visit Mamacita at 8 months old. (She passed away after but you got to meet her and the rest of our family in Ecuador) This was Gammy's aunt who raised her as her own so she was your great grandmother.

Mamacita, Mommy & Benjamin

Martin & Benjamin

Gigi, Andres, Carolina, Martin, Mommy & Benjamin

Ana & Benjamin

Andres & Benjamin

Gigi & Benjamin

Rafaela & Benjamin

Benjamin's 1st time in a ball pit (I think he loves it!)

Mommy & Benjamin

Benjamin, Tio Ferni & Tia Ximena

ITs now about June 2010 - your still 8 months old my gorgeous boy Benjamin, you went the beach for the 1st time

9 months old your getting so big and still unbelievably cute!

at 10 months old Mommy & Daddy got engaged at Mommy's suprise 30th birthday party. (Your Daddy is amazing and loves Mommy in the best way)

 Right after this party We went with Daddy to Arizona to go meet your family over there Tio Joe, Titi Muriel and your cousins Myla & JJ. We had soo much fun and took you on your first boat ride.

At 11 months old we took you to the bronx zoo with your god mother Liz, and your god sisters Victoria, Madison & Natalie. Your and Natalie are only a week apart so you guys do lots together.

A week before your 1st birthday you started walking!

Just in time too for your Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday party. Which was held at your Godfather Ray's Video Game store (Play n Trade). Uncle Ro dressed up as DJ Lance and everyone had a blast!

Your Birth

Benjamin Alan Torres
September 25th 2009
6 lbs 15 oz
20 Inches
8:58 am

It was a warm fall day, your Dad & I went to the doctor 2 days before to check on your progress in my belly.  I had some complications where i was bleeding unexpectedly, the Dr told us everything was fine and asked us how about Thursday? Your dad & I were like what? Thursday? he said yeah, how would like to become parents on Thursday, meet me at the hospital at 3pm and lets have a baby, i will induce you. This is 3 weeks before your due date so we were surprised & excited.  So Thursday rolls around, we head to the hospital and they induce me (meaning they give me some medicine to get you to start wanting to come out).  We wait we wait we wait some more and after about 10 hours they offer Mommy an epidural to help with the pain of contractions.  This epidural works so well Mommy feels no pain for the next 2-3 hours. At around 5:30am the pain comes back but the Dr says no more Epidural, baby Benjamin is ready to come out - come on Mommy push.  So i push & I push & I push some more...Oh my does this hurt, soooo much....I'm crying to Daddy just pull him out of me...they laugh they wont pull you out of me, and ask me for one more big push...OK here we go, it kinda feels like and indian burn to the 100th degree.  I push and i can feel your head coming out, they can see your head coming out then i run out of breath and breathe and you pop back in....oh no...lol...So  here i go again one more big push, i give this one all that i got...i run out of breathe and keep holding it this time and push you out! Ahhhh.....& there you go you....all i hear is your cry WAA WAAA WAAA, its amazing, your so beautiful, (we don't have video but we do have audio)



Holding you for the 1st time after you came out

It still brings me tears of joy to hear.
I love you
But the story doesn't end here...things took a scary turn after this.  After you came out the Dr's & Nurses kept on eye on me to make sure i recovered OK from having you but something went wrong, i wouldn't stop bleeding, IT was a very scary sight. I sent Daddy up to the nursery with you because i didn't want you to be without a parent.  I was in so much pain, i felt like i was still having contractions and i could feel lots of blood coming out of me with each beat of my heart. I was so scared, the nurse went to find my Dr but he had already left and the Dr on duty didn't know what was wrong.  They looked to see if maybe i was torn somewhere inside or if some of the placenta was left behind but none of that was the cause.  The nurse on duty called my Dr, who turned his car around by the toll booth of the Staten Island bridge (we were lucky he postponed his vacation to come back for me).  When my Dr came back (Dr.McManus) they took me into emergency surgery to take a look inside and see what was causing me to lose all this blood.  After 2-3 hours they determined that i had a bad case of whats called Uterine Atony.  This usually causes women to lose all their blood after giving birth & die. There is no known cause for it, and the usual treatment is a hysterectomy (which means they take out all the parts that allow a women to have children) when they told me this i didnt even care because i was so happy i already had you. Luckily for our family, Dr. McManus specializes in difficult pregnancies and was the chief of obstetrics in the hospital and knew a different way to help Mommy without giving me a hysterectomy.  So after surgery and a 2 pints of blood transfusion I was all better. 15 hours after having you and recovering from all that madness, Daddy was able to bring you down to me so that I could hold you again.

Mommy & Benjamin

Daddy & Benjamin

Once we got through that little scare all went smooth as silk from that point on and after 4 days in the hospital we all went home together.