No Longer A Baby?!

My how time flies! My mom is already asking if we have plans for Emilia’s first birthday (a little over a month from now) and last night we had dinner with a few other couples with babies—a five-month old and twin four-month olds—and someone commented that Emilia is “not really” a baby anymore. What?! Where did the time go? Actually though, she’s really at a fun age right now. She has several “words,” including mama, papa, do (dog), baba (bottle), bebe (baby), and ba (ball). She uses most of these rather indiscriminately, although baby is the one she uses most frequently and appropriately. This is because she has a doll (see photo above) we refer to as ‘baby.’ When I have my hands elbow-deep in dirty dishes and Emilia is attempting to open the still-not-baby-proofed cabinets, I say, “Where’s baby?” and she takes off in search of her baby. Can you really be a baby when you have your own baby? And last night she kept looking at the other little ones at the dinner party and saying “bebe” (pronounced beh-beh).

Anyway, here are a few pictures. My friend who works in children’s publishing sent us several bilingual board books (thanks again, Ann!). I think Emilia can read better than we think. Here she is eating the book entitled ‘Vamos a Comer!’ (Let’s Eat!) and throwing ‘Vamos a Disfrutar!’ (Let’s Have Fun!). Curious irony, no?

Downward Dog—Emilia now practices yoga daily.

And here she is acting innocent. Hmmm....

Emilia's Gets De-Tongue-Tied

Today Emilia had her first surgery. Thankfully it was a minor one. She was born tongue-tied, which means that the piece of skin that attaches the underside of her tongue to the bottom of her mouth extended almost to the tip of her tongue. Until Emilia was born, I never knew tongue-tied was a real medical condition. Anyway, it wasn’t causing her any problems (often tongue-tied babies have trouble breast feeding because they can’t latch right), but we were told it could cause speech impediments in the future and she wouldn’t be able to do things like lick an ice cream cone. So, because Agustín wants Emilia to be able to roll her Rs like a good little Spaniard and because it seems virtually impossible to be considered good parents by children’s standards if we deprive her of the ability to eat ice cream cones (not to mention it’s what the Ear, Nose, Throat specialist recommended), we scheduled her for a frenulectomy, and today was the big day.

So I packed Emilia chock-full of milk early this morning, then she had to fast for several hours before being put under anesthesia. Later we took a trip to the children’s day hospital where Emilia got all decked out in the cutest little hospital-blue pajamas I’ve ever seen and then had a ball playing with all the new toys in the patient waiting room. They gave me the option to be with her or not while the “sleep team” did their work, and I opted to stay with Emilia. She sat in my arms very calmly as they put a tiny plastic mask over her face and she nodded off.

I was whisked away to the family waiting room, where I guiltily indulged in a little non-academic reading for the first time. But before I even got half-way through my first ‘In Touch’ magazine (honestly, more Hollywood info than I ever needed), the doctor came in to tell me everything went great. He’d done a little clip and put in a few dissolvable stitches to prevent re-growth. Emilia was a little sad and cranky coming out of the anesthesia, but has been improving throughout the day. The doctor said the pain level will be like having a canker sore for a week or so. Thankfully Emilia is a big fan of grape-flavored Tylenol—the only thing that she doesn’t like about it is that the dosage is not nearly as much as she’d like.

I don’t have any photos from the hospital, but these are a few cute ones from the past week. Recent highlights include Emilia’s ability to clap and wave bye-bye (when she feels like it).

Emilia Reaches Double Digits!

This week Emilia reached the double digits—that’s right, she’s now 10 months old. Today she started swim lessons with grandma. Agustin and I were in favor of taking her to the pool and teaching her ourselves (after all, we both spent years competing with swim and water polo teams, as well as lifeguarding, not to mention that I also taught swim lessons in college). But we told grandma she was more than welcome to spend her money if she wanted to have this special bonding time with Emilia. Emilia cried through most of the first lesson, but we assume she’ll enjoy it more in the future since she has enjoyed our informal visits to the pool. It wouldn’t hurt if she put on a few more pounds for insulation.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this past week. In this first one, Emilia is checking to see if the bathroom is occupied. In the second one, she’s apparently practicing her gymnastic skills (a new favorite pose) while waiting her turn.

Emilia models her new fall coat:

Grandma bought Emilia her first pumpkin, and only six weeks before Halloween!

Discovering the World & Goodbye Devin!

Tonight my immediate family enjoyed our last family dinner together for awhile (where we took the photo above). On Wednesday my brother Devin is off to Washington DC to begin life after college. After many years with all of us spread out over the world (Thailand, Spain, Cuba, Czech Republic, Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas, Wisconsin, Colorado, etc.), it’s been great to have the whole family in the Twin Cities for the past several months. Good luck Devin! We’ll miss you! This picture is a little old, but it’s a great one of Emilia and her uncle Devin. Now you know where she gets her eye lashes!

This week Emilia made several new discoveries, including two pictured below. First she discovered the spring doorstop and had a ball pinging it back and forth.

She also discovered lunch meat, which has quickly become a new favorite. She is really starting to favor table foods that she can feed herself over baby foods. She eats up the turkey almost faster than I can rip it up. Can you find the lost piece of lunch meat in this photo?

September is Birthday Month!

Last week we celebrated the birthdays of my mom, brother (Jordan) and grandmother. Jordan made a great salmon dinner for our immediate family on my mom’s birthday and Agustin, Emilia and I hosted a Sunday dinner for a larger group. These pictures are from the first celebration. Happy birthday tomorrow to Agustin’s dad and my good friend AnnMarie!

Emilia is now crawling all over the place and getting into anything and everything. Why is it that we spend all this money on toys and babies seem more attracted to things like cell phones and their chargers (or pretty much anything with a cord), the TV remote, and their parents’ important papers? Here’s Emilia exploring her surroundings.

Our Anniversary & Emilia on the Move!

Can you believe it's already September? On Friday, Agustin and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. Emilia stayed with grandma (or vice versa, depending on how you look at it) while we enjoyed a night on the town. As can be expected of new parents, we're so busy taking pictures of Emilia these days, we completely forgot to take the camera with and record any memory of our anniversary celebration.

In other news, Emilia is really starting to move! She can now sit up from lying down all by herself and has also started crawling. The other day I went in her room and found her sitting in her crib (instead of napping)--she'd untied the bumper from the railing and was shaking the two bumper ties like she was driving a horse and buggy. Here's a picture of one of her early crawling attempts.

Here she is helping mom fold the laundry. Aparently she thinks we're "number 1"!

And here she is enjoying what might be the last swim of the summer (unless this Minnesota heat keeps up) with grandma at the lake.

A Visit to the Farm

Yesterday we visited a local farm with one of the play groups in which we participate. This was Emilia's first experience with many of the animals and she seemed very intrigued.

Here's Ava, Liza and Ethan (left to right) checking out the chicks.

Cole, Ava, Connor and Wyatt (a.k.a. "the big kids") with the baby goats.

With help from mom and Liza, Emilia managed to pet the baby goat without pulling its hair (she has recently become a big fan of grabbing other people's hair).

And here's Emilia just checking out some of the roaming birds.