Long Overdue...Emilia at the Zoo

This post is incredibly overdue. But, in my defense, the end of the semester is crazy for any college student, but especially a full-time graduate student with an assistantship and a job as a full-time mom. And it doesn’t help matters that I felt compelled to get out holiday cards this year. I’ll try to keep this short and sweet, but I’m not promising anything.

I just wanted to include the picture above because it captures very nicely Emilia's self-soothing pose--left thumb in mouth, right hand twirling hair.


Emilia has been a lot of fun lately. She’s really into baskets these days (literally). In the photos below she demonstrates how a one-year-old gets out of her toy basket all by herself. Now I understand why she was always practicing that downward dog pose!



Here’s Emilia’s first encounter with snow. She didn’t quite know what to think, although it’s clear she didn’t like having a cold butt.

One belated piece of news to report is that Emilia said her first Spanish word! Most “words” in her repertoire so far either resemble English (i.e. “bah” for ball) or could go either way (i.e. “bah-bah” for bottle or biberón, “mama,” “papa,” “beh-beh” for baby or bebé, etc.). Emilia had learned to clap when we said “yay,” so Agustín decided to teach her to clap when we’d say “ole, ole, ole!” So now she does just that, but she also says “googly, googly, googly!” at the same time, sticking her tongue out just like she sees her dad doing when he says “ole, ole, ole!” It’s hilarious. And it’s also good exercise for her newly-liberated tongue (see October 1st post if you don’t know what I’m talking about).

This past weekend, my parents and Agustín and I took Emilia to the zoo for the first time. Somehow grandma decided it would be a good idea to show Emilia a soft, plush polar bear in the gift shop entrance as soon as we walked in. Emilia latched onto it for dear life and didn’t let go all day long. So her grandma had to buy the stuffed animal for her (“had to” is a bit deceiving if you saw how quickly grandma jumped at the opportunity). See Emilia with her new best friend (who grandpa quickly named Huggy Bear, which seems appropriate given Emilia’s obvious affection toward the toy) in the photos.


The above picture, which I like to call "Emilia with new friend watching fish" is one of my favorites. Here's hoping your 2008 is equally filled with good friends and a sense of wonder!