Reflections at 30

Yesterday I turned 30. Despite it feeling like any other birthday, the milestone has caused me to reflect a bit on the past decade of my life, and, I must say, I’ve been pretty lucky. In the past ten years, I’ve lived in two countries and six cities—Evanston (Illinois), Seville (Spain), Madrid (Spain), College Station (Texas), Madison (Wisconsin), and Plymouth (Minnesota). I met Agustín when I was 20, we married when I was 24, and had our first child when I was 28. Amidst all that, we learned each other’s languages and came to appreciate one another’s culture. I earned a Bachelors, two Masters degrees, am two years closer to a PhD, and supported Agustín through an MBA (which he earned less than four years after moving to the U.S. and starting to learn English!). All in all, I think it was a pretty great decade. Sure, there are plenty more things I would have liked to have done—traveled more, lived in another country, etc.—but you can’t do everything. So I have no regrets. And I am extremely excited about my 30s—motherhood, enjoying the friends and family I have come to appreciate so much, hopefully becoming Dr. Harvey (don’t worry—I won’t make anyone call me that), and who knows what else.

Here are a few photos of Emilia in the month that her mom turned 30. It has occurred to me that she will likely never remember me in my 20s, but many of her memories will surely be of our times together while I’m in my 30s. So here’s to another amazing decade!

Marveling at a spinning top I brought home from my last trip.

Anything—like these pants—can be turned into a “hatty.”

Playing in her swimming pool in the backyard with friends Madeline and Anabel.

Emilia modeling her “lellow hamas” (yellow pajamas), which Uncle Jordan bought her in Thailand before we even knew if she had a “man handle” or not (Jordan’s words; ironically, it looks from this picture that Emilia might think she has a "man handle").

I’m leaving town later this week and will be away at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication for two and a half weeks. Stay tuned for a newsy update when I return.

“Up North”

This past weekend we headed “up north,” as we say here in Minnesota, to Grandview Lodge, where we celebrated Father’s Day with my parents and brother Jordan. We golfed, ate way too much, swam in the pool, played on the beach, and just hung out. It was very fun watching Emilia explore the new surroundings. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend.

Emilia loves taking caps off and putting them back on, so the sunblock has become one of her favorite toys (with chapstick coming in a close second).

Whereas she used to baulk at getting her hands dirty, she’s now all for it.

Devouring a “cheesecake lollipop.”

“Helping” grandpa open his Father’s Day gift.

Summer Trip to the Zoo

Above is my electric baby and below are a few photos of our trip to the zoo with grandma earlier this week.

And here’s demonstration of what a daredevil she’s becoming (and how obstinate she is); that's an empty animal cracker container she's standing on.

Sex in the City & Pee Pee in the Potty Chair

Sorry; I just couldn’t help the urge to put those two together in the title. I love a good juxtaposition! Although I’m not a particularly big Sex in the City fan, I went with a group of girlfriends to a Sex in the City premiere party on Friday night. It was lots of fun, although we all were feeling a little old when the movie let out at almost 1am and we realized it was the latest we’d been out in a long time.

Okay, so here’s my attempt to make a transition from Sex in the City to Emilia…. While shopping at Target last week, we passed the shoe department and Emilia started pointing and excitedly declaring, “Sooz, sooz!” (shoes!). I told her we weren’t shopping for shoes and that she had enough shoes. She responded even more excitedly, doing the sign for ‘more,’ “Mo sooz, mo sooz!” (more shoes!). Is this a sign?! Do I have a future Carrie or Samantha on my hands?!

So, now that I’ve made that smooth transition to the Emilia update, I want to report she went pee on the toilet twice yesterday! We just bought her a “potty” because the pediatrician at her 18-month appointment recommended we do so now just so she can start getting used to the idea. Well, our introduction to the potty led to two semi-successful squirts into the toilet. Emilia was ecstatic when music played from the potty in response (and I got one of the most simple potties; you don’t want to know about all the bells and whistles on the higher end ones!). Of course, the potty was not the only place where she peed, but that’s just a minor detail. I fully understand this probably won’t become a regular practice anytime soon, but it still seems like a big milestone. Sorry I don’t have a picture, but I’m sure Emilia will thank me for that one day (or at least not resent me for pulling out a picture of her first pee pee on the potty chair to show her high school boyfriend or girlfriend!).

Emilia Changes Gunther

Lately Emilia has been playing with my old Cabbage Patch doll, Gunther. Today she decided to change his diaper. She pulled a diaper, wipes, and changing pad out of the diaper bag and went to work. Here is photographic evidence of her earliest attempts at motherhood. Or maybe she’s trying to tell us she wants a baby brother or sister? While the finished product could use some work, she definitely has the basic steps down. She could even teach her grandpa a thing or two!

Summer is Here!

I’ve been meaning to update the blog for awhile now, but somehow haven’t found the time despite the fact that I finished my PhD courses over a week ago. Yay! Things were pretty crazy the last two months and especially the last few weeks (see the dining room table below, where I spent many, many long hours), but now the summer should be more relaxed. I’ll be working on my preliminary examination paper, but apart from that, just enjoying the summer with Emilia.

Here are some pictures of all the fun we’ve had since my coursework ended.
Emilia trying on her new Keen sandals she and her papa bought while shopping together.

My purses are a favorite toy for Emilia. Here she is swinging a purse over her shoulder and heading to the car to apparently drive herself to work? We’ll have to teach her you don’t go out into the world wearing your pajamas.

Emilia is apparently picking up her papa’s organizational skills. Whenever I dump the clean laundry on the floor, Emilia picks out all her clothes and arranges them neatly on the kitchen floor.
I just really like this photo of Emilia and her papa.

We scored this great Cozy Coupe car at a local garage sale and Emilia has been having a blast pushing her “car-car” around the cul-de-sac.

Tonight we had dinner at our place with some friends and their two kids—ages five and one. Emilia was in heaven! Here she is with Liza.

Then we got out her flamenco shoes (see January 23 post), which are still a little big. She’s already better at walking in heels than her mom!

The kids had so much fun together (in other words, got so dirty) that we decided to throw them all in the bath together at the end of the night.

Helmet Head

Agustín got a Burley bike trailer for Christmas from my parents that he’s been itching to use with Emilia. Our local fire department sells bike helmets for a reduced price every Thursday evening, so the two of them went up there last week while I was at class to get Emilia a helmet to go biking with Papa. Well, apparently she was not a happy camper while getting fit for the helmet, so when they got home, Agustín got out his helmet and put it on (what a dad!). Seeing that, Emilia happily put on her helmet and didn’t want to take it off. Thankfully, Agustín even thought to snap a few pictures. Now, when Emilia sees her helmet in the garage, she says “hatta” and points to her head. When she did this while we were playing outside yesterday, I put it on her. Then she insisted I put mine on. So there we were, two helmet-headed lunatics with no bikes. If any neighbors saw us, they had to have been thinking I’m an extremely over-protective mother.