Emilio - 1 Year!!



Emilio,

it is unbelievable that you have joined our family a year ago.... wow, it is amazing how fast you have grown! it is also a little sad, that my little baby is gone, that you are a full on toddler now, and soon you will start becoming a little boy. Despite the sadness, however, I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed this year with you, and that I have (successfully!) made an effort to appreciate every moment. Even when it has been really hard taking care of  you two, I have always reminded myself that in time I will remember these moments and cherish them.

I want to talk about your sleep before anything else and just get it out of the way. Your sleep has SUCKED big time for the last... month? Two months? I cant even remember when was the last time you had some decent sleep, but I don't even really care to figure it out. I know (hope!!) it's all a phase and that you will have to sleep better one day. It is funny that in general you seem to be a much better sleeper than you brother, and still at this age he was already sleeping through the night. You, in turn, are not even close to that. You nap incredibly well (from about 12 to 3), and in general you go down fairly easily, now nursing to sleep again. However, at night (when you sleep from around 8 p.m. to 7.30 a.m.) you have started to wake up tons, and in the last month, you wake up really angry, screaming and arching your back, kicking and rolling all over the bed until I nurse you back to sleep. I think the latter may be related to your 4 molars coming in at the same time... God I really hope that is it! and if so, I know all I can do is basically wait it out.

I have also started to think about weaning you. First I was toying with the idea of nursing you until YOU were done with it, basically because I am in no rush to wean you. However, after meeting with some friends who are still nursing their toddler well into his 2nd year and seeing what that was like...um, I think I'll pass. As great as I think that is for some people, I just don't think it is for me. We will see. At the moment you only nurse once during the day (before your nap) and then before bed, and numerous times throughout the night. So it really does not bother me at all, but it would be nice to have some uninterrupted sleep. Especially when I first lay down exhausted and you wake up because I'm there. For these reasons, I have decided to move you to a mattress on the floor or another sleep surface in an attempt to see if your sleep stretched get longer.

Other than that, now you are:

•  walking everywhere like it is no big deal, although you still prefer to hold somebody's hand while you do it.
• You absolutely LOVE music, and every single song or melody (even the church organ!) makes you dance, bending your knees and waving your arms up in the air, so cute!!
• You have started babbling more and more words. For instance, you now say "Ta Ta" every night , meaning "bye bye", when you go to bed. Or else during the day while waving good bye. You also say "ta taaa" when you mean to say "gracias!", "gaaa" for "Gooool" when you play ball, and "ta ta" for Dada.
• You still eat up a storm, although your teeth sometimes take their toll on your meals.
• You love having baths.
• You most certainly know what you want, and you know how to scream up the top of your lungs when you don't get it.
• You still absolutely HATE the car seat.
• You still smile away at everybody and everything. You have the silliest laughter, and although you've learn to put up a fight with your brother, you still love being with him and he makes you laugh like no one else.

Emilio, no doubt you are the friendliest, happiest baby I have ever seen. You have an amazing temperament and the sweetest smile on earth. Smile on Emilio, we love you so much!

 

Emilio - 9 months

 

 

Emilio, you are 9 months today! Every month it has felt so surreal that you are whatever age you are, and this month is no exception -- time has flown by!!

 

 

 

This month however, it feels like you have all of a sudden become a super baby over night. You have gained unbelievable speed and confidence in your crawling. You cruise holding on to furniture more and more often. You climbed up one whole flight of stairs at an unreal speed, and then down. You have started to coo in more coordinated syllables, and Im even suspicious you may have started to say " hola" and maybe even " no,no no" ( you say " na, na, na" but always in the same context, when you are annoyed or upset"). There is a very obvious sudden fascination with all things tiny, which leads me to think there might be some visual milestone around this age, because all of a sudden you focus on the tiniest things, and therefore have perfected your pincer grip. This is great when you eat, since now you can eat things such as grapes, rice and cut up carrots and peas on your own. The downside to that though is that you find the littlest pieces of who-knows-what in the carpet and take them right into your mouth. You have also started to sit up completely unassisted with your feet bent under your bum.  And the mother of all milestones of the month, today I saw you stand on your two feet alone, while distracted grabbing a fork from the dishwasher door with your two hands. You stood for maybe about 5 second without even noticing, and then held on to the door again.

We have now mastered the poop in the potty now, and you haven't gone poo in your diaper  except for once in the entire month ( the first morning your Abuis arrived from Mexico and she was looking after you) . I am really pumped not to be washing any poopy diapers anymore!!!

Another great thing this month was that I ordered a Little Frog woven wrap from Poland this month. I still use the Maya ring sling a lot, but you have become pretty heavy and you had really outgrown a

comfortable carry for several months now, and that was destroying my back. I had been looking for an affordable wrap when I read about Little Frog. So since I got the wrap I have been wrapping you in a ruck carry every day, first with the help of your Abuis and now I have definitely gotten better at it. It has been a huge success. You look very comfortable and happy in it, and for me it is a world of difference to carry you on my back. The most amazing thing? You fall asleep within 10 minutes max if it is time for you to nap. I just go about my business while wearing you and bam, you're out!

 

 

Some of your favourite things this month:

- playing/ fighting with your brother

- Eating - you just go NUTS over food

- baths

- Itsy bitsy spider ( you now try to follow with your hands)

- emptying the cutlery from the dishwasher

- getting wrapped

- climbing stairs

- turning the TV on and off

Things you hate:

- the car seat

- getting your diaper changes/ lying on your back

I can't wait to see what awaits us this month!

Paulo dice asi.../ Paulo says it like this...

You will find that most , if not all of Paulo's conversations start with a "No!"...ahhh toddlerhood...

Me: "Vamonos Paulo, es hora de dormir"/ "Let's go Paulo, it's time for bed"

Paulo: "No!"

Me: "Paulo, quieres dormir con mama o con papa"/ "Do you want to sleep with mommy or daddy"

Paulo: "No! I want to sleep with the Ipad"

"Tengo una idea!" /"I have an idea!" -- I'm pretty sure he has no idea what having and idea means. I think he think it means something about getting a surprise present or something, because every time he says that he starts searching my purse or doing things like these:

Daddy: "Paulo, stop pulling my shirt from the irnoning board" "No papi!!! It's an idea!!!" Hahaha, too funny, God knows what he's thinking...

Me: "Paulo, estas feliz?"/ "Paulo, are you happy?"

Paulo:"No mama!! estoy enfermo!!"/ "No mom!! I'm ill!!"

(Playing cars)

Me: "Puedo poner el carrito en esa puertita?"/"Can I put the car in that little door?"

Paulo: " No mama, este juego esta muy chiquito para ti / "No mom, this game is too small for you".

Paulo: "Voy a trabajar en el Ipad"/ "I'm going to work on the Ipad" (meaning, he can't be interrupted)

Paulo 2.5 Years

Paulo, hermosho pisioso, bonito, cosita linda, chiquito hermoso, enanito, mune, munequito. You've turned 2.5 years!! and you have changed soooo incredibly much in the last 6 months. I can barely remember the early months, almost as if you have always been this old.

 

You are a tall, skinny, curly little devil, and we are having so much fun at this age. You have been through so many changes since you turned two, it is no surprise to me that you have made temper tantrums part of your daily routine. You definitely are a bear in the mornings and after your naps and I have to tiptoe around you until you're a little bit awake.

 

You have had a tough last few months with our move away from Calgary, your leaving day care, and the birth of your little brother. I am starting to bounce back from severe separation anxiety from being unable to pay 100% of my attention to you 100% of the time. You in turn, have learned to be a bit more independent, and play by yourself for longer stretches of time.

 

It took you a while to get used to your little brother, but you are slowly starting to care more and more for him, which is really cute to watch. You will now randomly hug your little brother and say : "estoy cuidando a Emi" (I'm taking care of Emi"), or give him kisses and bring him things once in a while. That being said, you still almost 90% of the time will take toys away from him, including rattles and other baby toys, haha.

It is no surprise that Emilio follows you with his eyes ALL the time and lights up every time he sees you. You are always on the go, being a busy little boy. I love watching you run around from one place to the other, always in a hurry, with your cute little stiff run.

 

You have become quite strong headed and you must ALWAYS get your way. Everything is a fight with you and sometimes you bring me to tears, it is so exhausting to stretch my patience so much. But I am glad that more and more now we are starting to get have peaceful days and smile more than butt heads.

 

 You absolutely LOVE your strider bike. We go bike riding almost every day now if it's not rainy, and you have now started to go out on bike rides with daddy. You certainly can pick up a great speed and you go around the neighborhood turning heads everywhere you go, you look so ridiculously cute. Other than your bike, your other favorite toys are still balls, cars, and lately the train table we recently got you. Oh, and I should not forget umbrellas...oh boy, your love (obsession) for umbrellas!

 

One thing that has become really obvious to me in the last few months, though, is your mastering language. You are definitely learning more English and becoming more confident at speaking it now that your Nana is at home, and that daddy is making a bigger effort to speak to you in his language. You love speaking English and using all your new words. Your Spanish continues to be amazing, learning new vocabulary every day and starting to sound more and more like me, which I don't know if it is funny or scary. The other new thing from the last few weeks has been your ability to "create" new words in Spanglish, which basically means taking a word in either language and adapting it to sound either English or Spanish. It is very funny, but this is one of those cute traits that I do care to correct because I want you to be able to communicate well.

 

Last but not least, your imagination has sparked and exploded in the last month like never before. I think for the first time in your life, you are starting to use your imagination, mostly with pretend play. You will pretend that you are a cat, make up stories, pretend you are Jake and I'm Captain Hook, and you even pretend you speak a foreign language now, which always makes us both laugh, it is so silly.

 

Paulo, I love you so much I could have never imagined I can love you even more every day. You make me try so hard to be better for you every day, and yet sometimes I am so disappointed in myself that I can't be 100% the mother you deserve. You are such a gift in our life, I will never be able to explain it enough.

 

Te quiero munequito!!!

 

 

Amazing little moments

It has been a while since I last wrote anything to myself about this great experience of watching Paulo grow.

Last night he came to my bed (his daddy is away) and we slept there until this morning. When he woke up with his usual mischievous smile he heard the birds on the tree outside my bedroom window and said "pajarozzz!" (birds!). Wow. It is not that I am amazed at his recognizing the birds chirping, or that he knows the word for this animal (he has been saying "birtzzz" and recognized the word "Pajaro" for a long time now). It just amazed me that he used the Spanish word for the 1st time, and also used the plural form correctly. It is hard to explain, but it is not just the use of this particular word that surprised me (although I must say, my English speaking husband has been trying to say this word correctly for years and still hasn't mastered it!). It is the speed and frequency at which all these little moments are happening. This week there has been an incredible amount of new words he has learned to say and I have noticed he has been using more of the plural forms lately. Like, for instance, the other day he said "delfines" when he saw more than one dolphin. Again, WOW.

This is not to say that MY little guy is a genius. Yes I think he is a genius, but that is the way I feel about ALL babies. It is amazing to see that these creatures are thrown into this world knowing NOTHING about how this universe works, and yet from the very first day they have to learn to eat, breathe, recognize faces, and put together all those pieces of the puzzle that will help them survive. They are learning machines. My baby just happens to be really good with language. Other babies are good at physical things, others at socializing and maybe some others have faced other challenges since they were born, but they all have their incredible milestones. Us parents know that. We know how it feels when your heart half-stops when a moment like this occurs. When my son said "pajarozz" this morning, I just sat there in bed and I swear I must have looked around in the room looking for somebody to acknowledge how amazing that was. If this had happened with other people around I probably would have had to stop myself from telling everybody out loud how exciting this was and would have gotten lots of funny looks.

I just needed to write down how wonderful it is to be a child, and how great it is to be a parent to witness it. It just makes me want to stop everything for a moment, breathe deeply and think to myself what a blessing my son has been in my life.