15 MONTHS AND COUNTING

Mi Loca
Que rápido estás creciendo. Ya eres todo una niña, se me están yendo de las manos tus días de bebe, talvez por eso te sigo amamantando porque solo en esos momentos siento que sigues siendo una bebe dependiente de mamá!! No sabes como gozamos papá y yo de tenerte, eres lo máximo, pasamos tan tan bien contigo y te queremos muchísimo. No nos podemos imaginar nuestra vida sin tí!!
So you are almost 16 months; 22 pounds and 32 inches. I feel every month goes faster and faster and I honestly want to put a stop. It is wonderful to see you grow, change, develop and become a more independent person by the day; but sometimes I just want to hold time still.
In the last 3 months you have learned so many things. One day you just decided it was time to walk. It happened a little bit after your 1st birthday and from one day to the other you stopped crawling and started walking. At the beginning you were a bit unstable and fell a lot but every day you gained some stability and confidence and soon enough you were running around. Your latest motor skill development is expert climbing;you love to climb on the benches and table at our dining room, and since you have a strong character it is hard to convince you to do something else. The other day your nanny Melida went to the bathroom and when she came out there you were on top of the dining table pretending to be a center piece. I have tried everything to take your attention from it but you are determined to get up there, I hope that soon you will grow out of it because we get all very nervous about you falling down.

Maybe your major development has been language. I heard that kids at bilingual households have a little bit more of a challenge with language development since they are learning 2 languages at a time, but in your case it has been the opossite; you talk a lot!!.. and lately you are repeating every thing we say to you. Your favorite words are Cacuu which means Cat, Thing, dog, duck and Shoes, Agua, mama, papi or daddi, calle (you love to get out of the house), baby, and tete when you want milk. You also know some of your body parts like your eyes, nose, head, hair, hands (you love to say mano too), feet, and your favorite body part is your belly button and you love to show it to everyone; you lift your shirt or dress, point to it an say PUPO!!! During the past weeks you have also learned to say Bravo and clap at the same time, it is so adorable to see you do that; you also say carro for car, bououou or avo for plane and barco for boat; you get very excited when you see a plane flying by or a boat on the water, you usually wave at them. And your latest language development is your maternal grandmother´s name; thanks to your nanny´s patience and teaching ability you now know that your abuela is Toto and you say so when you see a picture of her. Now we have to learn to say Granny when you see a picture of your Grandmother Judy and after that we´ll move to learn your abuelo and granddaddy´s names.

You are extremely friendly and independent. You love to wave at people at all times and when we are out and about you have now problem exploring the surroundings on your own, you also have no problem becoming friendly with people you don´t know. The other day at Starbucks you were playing with a guy who was buying a cup a coffee and a very nice old lady said you will live long, because you know how to flirt just like her!!!. It really amazes me how independent you are at your short age, you just seem so secure of what you are doing. I remember at a child development class I took a few years ago we were discussing if co-sleeping is beneficial or detrimental to children. Some argued that parents who co-sleep and practice attachment parenting with their children are hampering their kid´s sense of independence and security; one of my classmates argued the opposite. She said that her 1 year old with whom she co-sleeps and applied all the principles of attachment parenting is the most independent, secure little girl. At that time of my life I could not really pick a side; both arguments seem to have their pros and cons; but now I can certainly say that attachment parenting and co-sleeping does foster security and independence and I love it. Some nights I just look at you sleeping next to us and I can only thank God for giving me the opportunity of having you next to me. Some people ask me when I am going to get you out of our bed but I know that before I am ready to give that up you will be telling me you want your own bed. So I might as well enjoy these priceless moments that will happen just once.

During the last 3 months we enjoyed the summer going a lot to the beach, taking walks, playing at the park and playing at the fountain which you loved to do. Both your Abuelos and Grandparents visited and we had a great time with them.
We also took a short trip to Jamaica and you had a great time, it was your first time on a catamaran and you even got a chance to snorkel with mommy but I am not sure how much you liked that, you were really annoyed with the life vest but I had to put it on for your own safety.

It has been a lot of fun having you with us and we can only look forward to what is to come. It is true it seems that your babyhood, toddler hood, childhood is just slipping through my fingers, and yes I wish I can make time stand still.. But it is wonderful to see you grow and I am sure that every phase of your life I am going to enjoy it more and more.

We love you so much

1 year old!!

Mi reinita adorada
Ya vas a cumplir un año y no lo puedo creer. Como voló este año pero que maravilloso ha sido. Verte como cambias cada día y como vas aprendiendo más del mundo ha sido increible. Tambien verte como te vuelves una personita más independiente, aunque de cierto modo a mi me pone un poquito triste ver lo rápido que creces es también algo maravilloso. A ratos quiero que dejes de crecer, que el tiempo pare, en parte tengo miedo de que en un abrir y cerrar de ojos vas ha estar lista a irte a la universidad, casandote y viviendo lo que yo estoy viviendo ahora. Ojala pueda ser la mamá que tu abuela fue para mí y que tu bisabuela fue para tu abuela para que crezcas feliz, segura y llena de amor. Te prometo que hago todo lo que está en mis manos para que así sea.
Well now we will switch to english to recount these past 3 months.
You are a master crawler and can do it really fast, you can definetely beat me when it comes to crawling especially if it is over tile. It really hurts mommy on her knees and I was a bit worried if it will hurt you, but I learned that babies do not have knee caps, or if they do they are soft and that is why it is so easy for you to just crawl away even on the tile. Isn't it amazing how perfect the human body is!
During the past 3 months you definitely perfected your crawling, standing and cruising abilities, you also learned to climb. You can now climb up the stairs and you love to climb on the little rocking chair Aunt Eddie Mae gave you. It is really cute to see you climbing over it but a bit scary when you decide to stand up on it and rock, so daddy and I decided to make the chair available only when we are around; you want to climb over everything that seems climbable to you. You have also mastered the skill of getting off your Bumbo Chair, so we can't use it much any more since you don't really enjoy sitting on it and can get off pretty quick.

You are eating almost everything now. I have still kept you away from red meat, and the foods that you are not supposed to try yet (peanuts, shellfish, candy, fresh berries) but besides that you have liked almost everything. Mommy was a bit paranoid about you chocking so I was a bit slow introducing you to chunky food. Since I really worked on pureeing your food you didn't like chunky stuff at the beginning and will gag to anything that was not finely pureed. Thanks God some persistence paid off and now you can eat some soft chunky stuff. You can master cheerios and you enjoy pear chunks, chicken chunks, sweet potato fries, mango chunks, avocado, egg yolks, etc. I still puree a lot of your food but I am trying to introduce mostly normal food to you.
It will be 1year in a few days from the day that you were born and I am happy to announce that we made it!!!! Next Tuesday you will have nursed for a complete year and guess what I am not ready to give it up yet!! and I hope you don't want to give it up either. I stopped pumping at work a few weeks ago since you will not be drinking milk during the day after we are done with the milk I have frozen; but I want to keep nursing when I am at home (morning, night, to go to bed, on the weekends, the days I don't have to go to the office, etc). I have to thank you though because you were such a good sport on the nursing field. You never gave me any problems and always liked mommy's milk. Thanks so much because it has been such an amazing experience to be a long term nursing mom. I hope that I was and will be able to give you all sorts of good stuff through my milk.
At the end of April we went to Birmingham to visit Granny J and Grandpa Mackey and for Uncle Bill's trip to heaven ceremony. He was daddy's great uncle but more of grandfather to him and a great grandfather to you. The few days he spent with you over Thanksgiving he was so happy and excited to see you and hold you, he was such great person and will be missed. Rest in peace Uncle Bill.
You took another trip to Ecuador a few weeks ago. We went to visit mommy's family and friends and we had such a great time. Every morning we'll go visit Papapa (your great-grandfather) and you loved playing with him, you learned to do so many things around him (blowing kisses, hand games, smiles, sounds, etc) for some reason some of the skills learned from Papapa have been forgotten but I hope you pick them up soon. We also went to Machachi (Grandma's Toto's farm) and it brought so many childhood memories back to mommy. I was so happy I was able to show you this beautiful place, you rode a horse and we spent a great day there; I hope that maybe next time we go to Ecuador we spent some more time in Machachi. We also celebrated your first birthday with a little party at Grandma's house. Your cousins, your mom's friend's kids, your great aunts and your great grandfather were all there. We played in the yard, had some contests for the older kids, had a piñata, blew the candles and had cake. I baked you from scratch carrot/apple cake with cream cheese frosting (Aunt Dani's recipe). You didn't seem to care much about it although you did take a few bites. You loved the animal crackers though. We are going to have another party for you here in Miami on the 14th along with your BFFs Sarah and Sadie who will be turning one this month too, and I will give it another try to the carrot cake.
You still wake up sometimes at night. Some days you go for longer stretches than others. Although I would really appreciate a full night sleep, I do like picking you up in the middle of night and just snuggling with you on the chair; sometimes I have fallen sleep and woken up hours later without knowing what I was doing in your room. In spite of the craziness it is wonderful and I am sure you will snooze through the night soon when you are ready. You love to sleep on your tummy with your butt up and surprisingly for you that seems very comfy.
Anyway, to say the least it has been a wonderful year. Thanks for being so great, Daddy and I love you so much and are so excited for many more fun years of fun with you.

March 31, 2009

Today you pulled up to a stand consistently. You have been doing this but today you did it over and over on your crib, at Faith's class and the last one was on the coffee table. You are moving so fast with everything. I am not sure if I want you to grow so fast!!! I love it though. You are so much fun!!

9 Months......

My dear Peanut
I wanted to keep this blog updated every month to track your first year of life, but I have been lazy and this is just the second time I do it. I remember though most of the dates of your milestones so I am going to list them here so that we have a record of when each thing happened.
-June 14th, 2008.- You lost your belly button. I always wanted to have the kid who will reach milestones at the front of the pack, but not this milestone (if it is even considered one). I freaked out and for some strange reason thought you were going to bleed out from your belly button; but everything was fine. As fast as you wanted to come out of mommy's belly you also wanted to loose the last thing that was evidence of being connected to me.
- At about 4 weeks I offered you a bottle (with mommy's milk) and you took it without any hesitation about it. In a way it broke my heart. I wanted you to put a fight; a bottle can never be as appealing as Mommy!! but you took it. I was afraid you would not want to nurse any more but I was wrong. You did just fine nursing and taking the bottle when needed. That made it pretty easy when mommy returned to work. Thanks for being so wonderful!!
-July 26, 2008 .- You consciously laugh for the first time. You were sitting on your bouncy chair and I was trying to get a good picture of you and you just laugh. I got the perfect picture!! Thank you!!

- At about 9 weeks you rolled over for the first time. I was so excited and proud of you. I think it was just an accident though because you never did it again until of course you were ready for it.
- October 24th, 2008 you took your first plane ride and you did great!!. We went to visit your great grandmother Mamama who went to heaven after meeting you. Thanks so much!! You made her so happy the last few days she was with us!!! And you made us all happy. Your uncle Diego Jose who is not that into babies complained at 7pm that he had been waiting all day to hold you. Thanks so much for being so great and bringing us joy on those sad moments when were saying good by to Mamama. Life is such a paradox!!
- Nov 3th 2008 you rolled over, and it was not an accident!! you were conscious of what you were doing and you were enjoying (finally) being on your tummy
-Nov 8th, 2008.- We did our first 5K together and we got 3th place on the Key Biscayne Residents division!! Good Job!!!
- Nov 18th, 2008 you sat without support for the first time. We were at the baby class I take you to at Mercy and I decided to experiment if maybe you were sitting up and you did it!! I was so proud of you. You were not the first kid to roll but you were definitely on the front on the pack when it came to sitting without support.
- Nov 27th, 2008 you sat for the first time on a high chair during Thanksgiving lunch. You even had your own name tag at the table.
- Dec 12, 2008, The Dr. gave us the green light to start giving you solid foods, you were 6 months old. We started with Sweet potato and you took it well. Not too excited about the new texture but after a few tries you became the sweet potato master eater. After a few days we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Mantilla in Ecuador and you tried a whole variety of sweet potatoes, parsnips and squash during our visit. You did great!!!
Some time during December you also started babbling!! It is so cute to listen to you "ma..ma...ma...pa...pa...pa..etc".
-Dec 21, 2008 .- You got baptized in Quito. You looked so beautiful that day and all of mommy's army of cousins, aunts and uncles wanted to hold you. You did so good being nice to everyone.
-Dec 24, 2008.- First Christmas eve!! You dressed as Santa Claus and looked adorable.
-Jan 2009 By this time you were about to turn 7 months and I was expecting you to be crawling, but you showed no interest on that. Rolling will get you everywhere and it seemed to be a lot easier than getting in all fours and trying to coordinate hand and leg movement.
I always wanted you to be the in the front of the pack when reaching milestones but I was learning that each baby goes as its own pace!!, and I was loving it too.
- Feb 2009 You got your first tooth!! it was the middle lower tooth and from one day to another it just showed up in your mouth. It didn't seemed to bother you much so I thought we were through the teething problem.
- March 2009.- You are close to crawl, you can sit up from being on your tummy and you can get on all 4s and move your little butt back and forth, you just need to move forward.
- March 6th and 7th, 2009 You had your first fever :( . It was so sad see you so uncomfortable. I don't know if it was teething or a bit of a cold but you started to feel warm Friday. Friday evening that we went to visit Aunt Rachel you were really warm. I took your temp when we got home and you had 100 which is not technically considered a fever yet but it scared me enough to give you some Tylenol. The next day you had a low grade fever all day but you were not feeling good. You wanted to be with mommy all day long. I didn't mind and enjoyed holding you all day, taking naps with you and sleeping with you at night. Daddy had to go to the other room. By Sunday you were fine, enjoying again your beach walks and playing as always. I felt so much better!!! oh and you got another tooth (at the bottom) and I can see there is one on top wanting to come out as well.
- March 15th, 2009 YOU CRAWLED!!!!. On this "milestone" you were maybe at the back of the pack, not the last one but close to. I was so excited. Out of nowhere you started moving forward on all 4s. After a few "steps" you will get tired and decided to slide on your tummy but a few days later you were crawling like a champ and a week later you were getting out of sight in no time. We had to child proof the house and make sure it was safe for you to move around. You do prefer though to go for those few "non child friendly" places we have like Daddy's computer and the bikes.
-March 22nd, 2009 Mommy and Daddy went on a date and you stayed with your Godmother. You did so good, never cried, went on a walk and played with both of your Godparents. Your Godmother decided to style your hair with some gel!!!! I didn't like it, I love your puffy hair!!
This week you also started to consciously wave good night to daddy. You have been waving and clapping for a while now but this week it became a conscious effort. You clap when you are happy and you wave good night to daddy.
- March 29, 2009 This weekend you pulled yourself up to a stand!!! so we had to lower your crib to make sure you didn't follow your cousins in trying and being successful diving out of the crib. You also fell off my bed :(!!!. It was early in the morning and I was trying to get a few extra minutes of sleep, you were playing between daddy and myself and neither of us realized you had crawled to the edge and kept crawling out of it. I heard a big BONG!! and heard you crying. My heart stopped but Thanks God you were fine, just a bit scared!!! I promise I will be more careful the next time and wake up to play with you!! I am so sorry you fell.

I promise to keep better track of the milestones you keep reaching, in the past two weeks it has been so many things and so fast that it is sometimes hard.

You are still a nursing baby and I love it!! I plan on nursing you through your first year of life and more if you want to. It is our alone time and it is awesome!!

I am looking forward for the next 9 months, we are going to have so much fun.

Enjoyment

I would have never imagined that it will take motherhood for me to realize how enjoyable a run can be. When I started running 8 years ago I did it as something that will make me feel good after wards but not something I will enjoy or look forward to. I did it because I knew it was good for me, I felt great after a run and awful when I didn't do it. I kept signing up for races to keep myself motivated but only on very few occasions I was able to reach that runners high experienced runners usually talk about. I was always running against time trying to beat my pace per mile and stressing out way too much the days that my body just wanted to go slow; and I think that is why I was not being able to find true enjoyment on a run.
Once I became pregnant and afraid that motherhood will keep me away from exercising the first item I put on my registry was a jogging stroller; I wanted to make sure I had the tools to keep training the same way as before the baby; little did I know that my whole perspective on training and running will shift once I had my little one in my arms.
I started walking a few weeks after having Corina and slowly got myself into running again. It was hard since I didn't run while pregnant but slowly after a few weeks I was up to 3 to 4 miles at a time. At that point I still felt that I was running because it was healthy and good for me but not because I was enjoying or having a lot of fun while doing it. I will wake up early after nursing the baby and run out before she woke up for another nursing session. Once she was old enough to ride on the jogging stroller I started taking her out on the runs with me and the sole act of running became a lot more difficult but a lot more fun too.
I signed up for a local 5K and I really loved not being worried about beating my previous time and trying to PR I just ran with Corina on the stroller. I enjoyed every step of the way, every bump of the road and every cheer that came along the way from the few runners I was able to to pass. We even got 3th place among Key Biscayne residents.
Today we went for a 4th mile run along the beach and it was then when I realized how enjoyable a run with my little one on the stroller could be. I was not about beating my pace anymore, I did not even took a watch with me, but it was about enjoying a time with my daughter. I even stopped, took a break, to show her the beautiful things we saw on the way: the ocean, the beach, the sea gulls, the sun rising on top of the water.... maybe she will never remember this but I will never forget these precious moments I am sharing with her when it is just the 2 of us listening to the pounding of my feet in the ground.
I do not see my runs as something that has to be done anymore but as something I want to do. I look forward for the next run maybe the sunrise will be even brighter............