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