It has been quite the physically exciting week. On the Natalia front, when we were at the beach last week she made her first real crawling moves. By today I think that we can say that she is really crawling. At dinner she managed to move from Alayna's chair, to the rocking chair, behind the rocking chair to where our free weights are located. Those yellow free weights were very baby enticing. Can we say another round of baby proofing needs to happen?
Mateo's new move is the jump. He has been working on jumping for months, and he finally has gotten a hold up jumping up with two feet off the ground. He is so proud of himself! We are also just too proud of him.
In the movement side of things in our lives, I have completed my goal of exercising for at least 10 min. a day, six times a week for three weeks! Most nights I did 30 whole minutes, but the minimum to count was 10 minutes. My reward - a massage!
I am noticing that now that I have more energy, it is easy for me to run around with Mateo. This afternoon we went to the park with our friend Caroline, and I played hide and go seek with Mateo all over the park and on the way home, running almost the entire way. Mateo walked/ran the whole way home too.
We are just so proud of our children and have officially entered babylandia! Now off to baby proof. . .
PS: (this is Alayna now) I was just looking back to see exactly when Mateo first crawled and it was at almost exactly the same age. Teo was 7 months and 15 days when he first crawled. Talia is 7 months and 9 days old today. Siblings, anyone?
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Headsprout adventures
For the last three or four months I've been reading with Mateo a few times a week. After he wakes up from his naps in the afternoon, he frequently asks to "look for letters," which means to do headsprout with me.
Headsprout is a reading program that is cartoon-based and online. I found out about it when I was tutoring. It uses direct instruction (one of the most effective research-based methods), with something called precision teaching, (another effective method). I signed up for the program a few years ago, and they gave me five free passes, one of which I never used.
I will admit that at the beginning I expected that we would stop doing the lessons at any time, because he is only 2. . . but as of yet, he still enjoys doing the lessons, gets over 95% correct every time and asks to do them regularly. (The few times he gets less than 95% correct, we redo the lesson on another day. I figure if he enjoys reading the same books over, and over, and over, he would also enjoy doing the lesson more than one time.)
Actually, he begs to do the lessons and gets very upset when I say that reading time is over. Before each lesson we now practice how he will act when the lesson is over. (Now Mateo, are you going to cry when the lesson is over? When it is over, you might feel sad, but you can say to yourself that we can do more tomorrow.)
Here are the words he can currently read: see, van, Vee, San, the, Lee, can, feels, Fran, fan, ran, I, out, and, flips, sand, sleeps, Pip, plan, reef, feel, Clee, shout, fish.
Some of those are character names from the stories. I'm just trying to follow his lead and so far it has been really fun for both of us. It has also changed how I am teaching students at school, which has been interesting for me. It's reminded me that if you focus on the basics in the beginning and take the time to make sure students have a solid foundation, then things will go much more smoothly as they advance.
Headsprout is a reading program that is cartoon-based and online. I found out about it when I was tutoring. It uses direct instruction (one of the most effective research-based methods), with something called precision teaching, (another effective method). I signed up for the program a few years ago, and they gave me five free passes, one of which I never used.
I will admit that at the beginning I expected that we would stop doing the lessons at any time, because he is only 2. . . but as of yet, he still enjoys doing the lessons, gets over 95% correct every time and asks to do them regularly. (The few times he gets less than 95% correct, we redo the lesson on another day. I figure if he enjoys reading the same books over, and over, and over, he would also enjoy doing the lesson more than one time.)
Actually, he begs to do the lessons and gets very upset when I say that reading time is over. Before each lesson we now practice how he will act when the lesson is over. (Now Mateo, are you going to cry when the lesson is over? When it is over, you might feel sad, but you can say to yourself that we can do more tomorrow.)
Here are the words he can currently read: see, van, Vee, San, the, Lee, can, feels, Fran, fan, ran, I, out, and, flips, sand, sleeps, Pip, plan, reef, feel, Clee, shout, fish.
Some of those are character names from the stories. I'm just trying to follow his lead and so far it has been really fun for both of us. It has also changed how I am teaching students at school, which has been interesting for me. It's reminded me that if you focus on the basics in the beginning and take the time to make sure students have a solid foundation, then things will go much more smoothly as they advance.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Natalia's seven month letter
Dear Natalia,
A few days ago, you passed the seven month mark. Of course, like always, we can hardly believe you've been with us for seven months already. Simultaneously, like always, we can hardly believe you haven't always been with us! Here are some things you've been up to this month.
Mostly, you've been working on movement. It's been fascinating to watch you tackle this task, as you've gone about it very differently than your brother did. You seem to want to master each individual part of crawling, and then to master every possible movement combination, before finally putting them all together. You've mastered going to a crawling position from sitting and vice versa. You can easily scoot backwards, much to your frustration. And, this weekend, while we were at the beach, you took your first real crawling steps! You saw something you wanted and took off in hot pursuit...only to realize a few seconds later that you were actually crawling, at which point you collapsed into another favorite pose - the cobra.
You have places to go and people to see and you want to get there very badly. You've repeated your crawling steps a few more times since this weekend and we know it's just a matter of time until you really master it. As much as we thought we wanted a late-crawling second child, after experiencing an early-crawling first, we can't help but root you on. It's inspiring to see your determination to master a new skill. Today, when we were out and about, you wowed the moms of a couple of much-larger 9-month-olds with your zeal to get going.
You still get most of your calories from Mommy, along with a few here and there from pureed fruits and veggies. We've had to cut way back on any kind of cereal, as you have a tendency to get plugged up, if you know what I mean. So far, you love pureed apple, pear, blueberry, and apricot. You haven't shown much interest in veggies yet, and have quite the love-hate (mostly hate, honestly) relationship with avocado. You seem to be growing well and have been remarkably healthy lately (insert knocking on wood here). Let's keep that up, shall we?
On the sleep front, you're holding steady for the most part. You go to bed between 7 and 7:30 pm, at the same time as your brother. For this, we say thank you a million times, as having the evenings to ourselves gives your mommies some much needed recharging time. You usually wake up between midnight and 1 am to eat, and then again between 5 and 6 am. This is pretty doable for Mommy, although she'd prefer it if you could just wake up once - or just sleep all the way through, for that matter. You usually do wake up several other times throughout the night and need your binky to be reinserted, which is Mama's job and sometimes has her feeling like a jack-in-the box!
Let's see, other things - you will sit and play with your toys for longish periods (10-15 minutes) and this is a wonderful thing. You can transfer a toy from hand to hand and seem happy to play with just about anything at this point - baby toys, toy trucks, measuring cups, shoes, stuffed animals, you name it. Everything fascinates you.
Baby Talia (yes, we still call you that), you are just a lovely, wonderful, joyful baby. People are always asking us if you're always so happy and mellow and we say yes, generally. You love to be snuggled and tickled and you also have a lovely ability to play on your own. Who could ask for anything more?
We couldn't love you any more if we tried.
With all our love and then some,
Mama and Mommy
A few days ago, you passed the seven month mark. Of course, like always, we can hardly believe you've been with us for seven months already. Simultaneously, like always, we can hardly believe you haven't always been with us! Here are some things you've been up to this month.
Mostly, you've been working on movement. It's been fascinating to watch you tackle this task, as you've gone about it very differently than your brother did. You seem to want to master each individual part of crawling, and then to master every possible movement combination, before finally putting them all together. You've mastered going to a crawling position from sitting and vice versa. You can easily scoot backwards, much to your frustration. And, this weekend, while we were at the beach, you took your first real crawling steps! You saw something you wanted and took off in hot pursuit...only to realize a few seconds later that you were actually crawling, at which point you collapsed into another favorite pose - the cobra.
You have places to go and people to see and you want to get there very badly. You've repeated your crawling steps a few more times since this weekend and we know it's just a matter of time until you really master it. As much as we thought we wanted a late-crawling second child, after experiencing an early-crawling first, we can't help but root you on. It's inspiring to see your determination to master a new skill. Today, when we were out and about, you wowed the moms of a couple of much-larger 9-month-olds with your zeal to get going.
You still get most of your calories from Mommy, along with a few here and there from pureed fruits and veggies. We've had to cut way back on any kind of cereal, as you have a tendency to get plugged up, if you know what I mean. So far, you love pureed apple, pear, blueberry, and apricot. You haven't shown much interest in veggies yet, and have quite the love-hate (mostly hate, honestly) relationship with avocado. You seem to be growing well and have been remarkably healthy lately (insert knocking on wood here). Let's keep that up, shall we?
On the sleep front, you're holding steady for the most part. You go to bed between 7 and 7:30 pm, at the same time as your brother. For this, we say thank you a million times, as having the evenings to ourselves gives your mommies some much needed recharging time. You usually wake up between midnight and 1 am to eat, and then again between 5 and 6 am. This is pretty doable for Mommy, although she'd prefer it if you could just wake up once - or just sleep all the way through, for that matter. You usually do wake up several other times throughout the night and need your binky to be reinserted, which is Mama's job and sometimes has her feeling like a jack-in-the box!
Let's see, other things - you will sit and play with your toys for longish periods (10-15 minutes) and this is a wonderful thing. You can transfer a toy from hand to hand and seem happy to play with just about anything at this point - baby toys, toy trucks, measuring cups, shoes, stuffed animals, you name it. Everything fascinates you.
Baby Talia (yes, we still call you that), you are just a lovely, wonderful, joyful baby. People are always asking us if you're always so happy and mellow and we say yes, generally. You love to be snuggled and tickled and you also have a lovely ability to play on your own. Who could ask for anything more?
We couldn't love you any more if we tried.
With all our love and then some,
Mama and Mommy
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration day
Today was a great day because we got a new president!
We turned on the tv this morning at 7 am and watched the festivities while we got ready for the day. It was really fun to see all the dignitaries and people we normally read about there and looking all fancy. Sacha eventually had to leave for school and then it was just me and the kids. When the former presidents started to enter the scene, I told them all about who they were and such. I even pulled down the photo of President Carter and Mrs. Carter holding Mateo and showed it to him. He seemed more interested in the fact that Grammy and Grandpa were in the photo, but still, at least he was impressed by something! We think Grammy and Grandpa are superstars, too :) I tried to pretend like we were there even though we weren't. I had us clap when all the presidents came down and we stood up when we were supposed to stand up.
By the time the inauguration actually started, the kids had had enough tv. We almost never watch it at all and when we occasionally let Mateo watch a signing video, it never lasts more than half an hour. Two hours of tv was way too long - the novelty had worn off - and both of them started whining and fussing. They barely made it through the inauguration of the VP and the President, so they can say they saw it. However, Mateo spent part of Obama's speech in timeout having a massive tantrum while Natalia fell asleep on my shoulder and then ended up snoozing in her bed.
Nonetheless, it was awesome to watch. It was really inspiring to see all the millions of people who braved the cold to be there. And I cried like a little girl, as Apa would say, when Aretha Franklin was singing and they were showing the montage of American scenes. I feel more hopeful about this country now than I ever have. Yay Obama!!
Here's what Sacha was up to while we were at home...
Once I got to school, I was interested in watching, but because it was in the cafeteria with all of the pre-school day care kids, it was impossible to hear anything. I decided to pump, and try to catch more after the bell rang.
My first teacher decided that we would have class as normal till 9am. I thought leaving at 9am to go to another teacher's classroom and watch the swearing in was cutting it a little bit close, but couldn't convince her of this. As it was, the swearing in was a bit late, so I was able to see it! I made a conscious effort to not be my teacher self and just be present and stay in the moment and take in whole inauguration.
I also feel so hopeful about our country. I want to find a way to help our country and feel honored to have witnessed and taken part in this day.
We turned on the tv this morning at 7 am and watched the festivities while we got ready for the day. It was really fun to see all the dignitaries and people we normally read about there and looking all fancy. Sacha eventually had to leave for school and then it was just me and the kids. When the former presidents started to enter the scene, I told them all about who they were and such. I even pulled down the photo of President Carter and Mrs. Carter holding Mateo and showed it to him. He seemed more interested in the fact that Grammy and Grandpa were in the photo, but still, at least he was impressed by something! We think Grammy and Grandpa are superstars, too :) I tried to pretend like we were there even though we weren't. I had us clap when all the presidents came down and we stood up when we were supposed to stand up.
By the time the inauguration actually started, the kids had had enough tv. We almost never watch it at all and when we occasionally let Mateo watch a signing video, it never lasts more than half an hour. Two hours of tv was way too long - the novelty had worn off - and both of them started whining and fussing. They barely made it through the inauguration of the VP and the President, so they can say they saw it. However, Mateo spent part of Obama's speech in timeout having a massive tantrum while Natalia fell asleep on my shoulder and then ended up snoozing in her bed.
Nonetheless, it was awesome to watch. It was really inspiring to see all the millions of people who braved the cold to be there. And I cried like a little girl, as Apa would say, when Aretha Franklin was singing and they were showing the montage of American scenes. I feel more hopeful about this country now than I ever have. Yay Obama!!
Here's what Sacha was up to while we were at home...
Once I got to school, I was interested in watching, but because it was in the cafeteria with all of the pre-school day care kids, it was impossible to hear anything. I decided to pump, and try to catch more after the bell rang.
My first teacher decided that we would have class as normal till 9am. I thought leaving at 9am to go to another teacher's classroom and watch the swearing in was cutting it a little bit close, but couldn't convince her of this. As it was, the swearing in was a bit late, so I was able to see it! I made a conscious effort to not be my teacher self and just be present and stay in the moment and take in whole inauguration.
I also feel so hopeful about our country. I want to find a way to help our country and feel honored to have witnessed and taken part in this day.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Big bang
The weekend started out with a bang, literally. I was driving home from work on Friday night, about to go through a tunnel, when I suddenly heard a loud BANG! Simultaneously, the driver's side door window (ie, the one next to me) exploded. It shattered into a million pieces. Also simultaneously, I screamed! It was rather shocking. Luckily, (#1) I was not shot, although I did check to see if I had been, (#2) I kept driving and didn't crash into anything, and (#3) we arranged for the window to be fixed the next day. The only real bummer was driving the rest of the way home with the freezing wind blasting in through the open window while sitting in a pile of shattered window glass.
Compared to that, the rest of our weekend was quite peaceful. On Saturday, Sacha visited the chiropractor in the morning and we spent the afternoon with two friends - one our age and one Mateo's age. We all went to the park and got some yummy treats at a bakery and generally had a lovely time and a spontaneous pizza dinner after we got home. On Sunday, we spent most of the day as a family and got to enjoy Apa's cooking at our weekly Sunday dinner - he made pulled pork. Yum!
Today, we celebrated MLK Jr. Day by going to visit a financial planner. Who knows how these things are related, but she was working and we had the day off, so it worked out. It's rather terrifying to look at our finances in such detail, but we're also really excited to have a plan for the next several decades of our lives. We realized today, and not for the first time, that we may love to plan more than most people when the financial planner admitted that we were her youngest clients by at least a decade. Another such realization came when our student nanny told us she would have to make us a fire escape plan and I was excited because we already have one and she could update it! We are geeks.
Here are some photos from the past couple of days. First photo is of Mateo and his buddy, D, who is a new big brother! His mom got the boys matching jackets and they both love them.
Second, Sacha and Mateo hanging out. Aren't they cute?
Compared to that, the rest of our weekend was quite peaceful. On Saturday, Sacha visited the chiropractor in the morning and we spent the afternoon with two friends - one our age and one Mateo's age. We all went to the park and got some yummy treats at a bakery and generally had a lovely time and a spontaneous pizza dinner after we got home. On Sunday, we spent most of the day as a family and got to enjoy Apa's cooking at our weekly Sunday dinner - he made pulled pork. Yum!
Today, we celebrated MLK Jr. Day by going to visit a financial planner. Who knows how these things are related, but she was working and we had the day off, so it worked out. It's rather terrifying to look at our finances in such detail, but we're also really excited to have a plan for the next several decades of our lives. We realized today, and not for the first time, that we may love to plan more than most people when the financial planner admitted that we were her youngest clients by at least a decade. Another such realization came when our student nanny told us she would have to make us a fire escape plan and I was excited because we already have one and she could update it! We are geeks.
Here are some photos from the past couple of days. First photo is of Mateo and his buddy, D, who is a new big brother! His mom got the boys matching jackets and they both love them.
Second, Sacha and Mateo hanging out. Aren't they cute?
Thursday, January 15, 2009
New year's resolution time
First I wanted to say congratulations to our friends Alesha, Steve and Dascher who just had a baby last night. We are so excited for you. Alayna took care of Dascher for the morning today and I would have thought that three kids would be a bit of a challenge for a whole morning, but she says it went fine! (I think she's amazing. I find two challenging enough!)
I don't officially do new year's resolutions, but I do have some things I am working on this year. I am continuing to work on the speaking Spanish goal. Actually, it has been going really well. Except for when we have our student nanny over, I have been still speaking 90% in Spanish to Mateo. I am really quite proud of myself for that. I know it is just one word at a time. Sometimes I get all stuck in my head about if I can do this forever, and then I try to remind myself that I don't have to make a commitment for forever, I can just start with right now.
My other goals are around food and exercise. Alayna and I came up with some ideas for me on how to get back to my goal weight from before the baby. I am close, but that last 10-15 lbs. don't appear to be going anywhere. So we came up with exercising for 10 minutes a day (or more) six days a week, and not eating sugar after dinner.
My first goal is to make it for 3 weeks and then I am going to reward myself with a massage!
I don't officially do new year's resolutions, but I do have some things I am working on this year. I am continuing to work on the speaking Spanish goal. Actually, it has been going really well. Except for when we have our student nanny over, I have been still speaking 90% in Spanish to Mateo. I am really quite proud of myself for that. I know it is just one word at a time. Sometimes I get all stuck in my head about if I can do this forever, and then I try to remind myself that I don't have to make a commitment for forever, I can just start with right now.
My other goals are around food and exercise. Alayna and I came up with some ideas for me on how to get back to my goal weight from before the baby. I am close, but that last 10-15 lbs. don't appear to be going anywhere. So we came up with exercising for 10 minutes a day (or more) six days a week, and not eating sugar after dinner.
My first goal is to make it for 3 weeks and then I am going to reward myself with a massage!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Little man
Apa got Mateo some big-boy boxers for Christmas and the kid is obsessed with them. He has pretty much abandoned his other underwear options in favor of them. I took these photos of him today when he was busily loading up the clothes hamper with every single one of his toys. I looked at him and thought: he's 2 going on 16!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
This one's for you, Dad
My dad used to do these fun flips with me and my siblings when we were little. He, and we, have tried out a few of them on Mateo and plan to with Natalia, too, when she's big enough. Apa, fountain of creativity that he is, has taken it one step further and has been having a wildly fun time coming up with brand new moves with Mateo. They let me take this short video of them this evening when they were working on a new one. Mateo says, "Look at me, Grandpa!"
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Big brother
It seems that our little guy has recently discovered that he has a little sister. Yes, he is a big brother! He is very excited about this. And, we are newly appreciative of the smallish age gap between the two of them.
For the first several months of baby Talia's life, Teo tolerated her pretty well, but wasn't all that interested in her for the most part. He was much more excited about his toys and going to the park and that sort of thing. This was a good thing, because his sister was a newborn baby and much more able to nurse and sleep than she was to play with him.
In the past couple of weeks, just as baby Talia has mastered sitting and grabbing and has begun to catch the toy fever that has gripped her brother, said brother has begun to relish his role as such. I don't know if it was a coincidence or if he just got more interested in her as she became more interesting, but we're going with it regardless.
He keeps wanting to hold her and hug her and give her pats when she's feeling unhappy. He brings her toys to play with sometimes (and then yanks them away when he realizes she's playing with them and HE actually wants them). Sometimes, he talks to her from his booster seat at the table and she just laughs and laughs.
Then, tonight, Teo was eating dinner and we started telling baby Talia, while he was conveniently right next to us, that her big brother was showing her how to eat like a big kid. We said, look how he's eating soup with a spoon and chewing up his food before swallowing it, and even drinking from his water cup. Look at Mateo, we told her, and you'll learn how to eat food for when you get a little bigger.
You have never seen a prouder kid. His little chest practically puffed up as he carefully ate his soup and pasta and drank from his cup. He was just so excited and proud to be showing her something very important. He wanted to stay at the table until there was nothing left for him to eat and he was just getting the remnants of his soup out of the bowl.
I know they'll have sibling rivalry. They've already had plenty of moments where one of them accidentally bonks the other or Mateo just can't handle seeing little sister play with his toys. But, it was pretty awesome to see how much he cared about teaching her something. And, how she's been responding to him lately. Hopefully it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
For the first several months of baby Talia's life, Teo tolerated her pretty well, but wasn't all that interested in her for the most part. He was much more excited about his toys and going to the park and that sort of thing. This was a good thing, because his sister was a newborn baby and much more able to nurse and sleep than she was to play with him.
In the past couple of weeks, just as baby Talia has mastered sitting and grabbing and has begun to catch the toy fever that has gripped her brother, said brother has begun to relish his role as such. I don't know if it was a coincidence or if he just got more interested in her as she became more interesting, but we're going with it regardless.
He keeps wanting to hold her and hug her and give her pats when she's feeling unhappy. He brings her toys to play with sometimes (and then yanks them away when he realizes she's playing with them and HE actually wants them). Sometimes, he talks to her from his booster seat at the table and she just laughs and laughs.
Then, tonight, Teo was eating dinner and we started telling baby Talia, while he was conveniently right next to us, that her big brother was showing her how to eat like a big kid. We said, look how he's eating soup with a spoon and chewing up his food before swallowing it, and even drinking from his water cup. Look at Mateo, we told her, and you'll learn how to eat food for when you get a little bigger.
You have never seen a prouder kid. His little chest practically puffed up as he carefully ate his soup and pasta and drank from his cup. He was just so excited and proud to be showing her something very important. He wanted to stay at the table until there was nothing left for him to eat and he was just getting the remnants of his soup out of the bowl.
I know they'll have sibling rivalry. They've already had plenty of moments where one of them accidentally bonks the other or Mateo just can't handle seeing little sister play with his toys. But, it was pretty awesome to see how much he cared about teaching her something. And, how she's been responding to him lately. Hopefully it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
random musings
I haven't posted for a while and just had a few things I wanted to write about.
Spanish: I read this book called _7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child_ and it has inspired me to be more consistent about speaking in Spanish. I know I said a while ago that I had a few days where I only spoke in Spanish. Then I stopped, then I tried talking for an hour, back and forth again.
My New Years Resolution this time is to speak in Spanish with Mateo every day. This week I have talked to him in Spanish 90% of the time that I am alone with him. I am still working on not feeling self-conscious when other people are around.
School: I am having a great time at school this year. I really enjoy my job. Of course, like everything, it has its moments. This year I am getting to do two new things. With my first grade class I have a group of 12 students. I have six kids who have scored at the second grade level, and six kids who are behind. I have my high kids reading in partners, while I work with the low kids. Then, I am teaching the high kids to tutor the low kids. It is really fun and finally the high kids are not doing coloring worksheets! They are reading!
My second grade group is going well too. I had a little surprise this week. I was having kids working on writing through this activity called sentence combining. Anyway, they are mostly copying sentences, but it was taking forever. After a few days of this, I asked them to write the alphabet for one minute as fast as they could, to find out how many letters they could write a minute. Surprise, only one kid in the whole group knew the alphabet. Ahh. I guess we have some writing skills to deal with!
My neck: I am having an unpleasant first. I sprained, overstretched, or something with my neck. Thank you Sheila for giving me a mini-massage today. It is still really sore, but I feel slightly better. I am using lots of heat, icy-hot rub and just trying to move like a robot!
Spanish: I read this book called _7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child_ and it has inspired me to be more consistent about speaking in Spanish. I know I said a while ago that I had a few days where I only spoke in Spanish. Then I stopped, then I tried talking for an hour, back and forth again.
My New Years Resolution this time is to speak in Spanish with Mateo every day. This week I have talked to him in Spanish 90% of the time that I am alone with him. I am still working on not feeling self-conscious when other people are around.
School: I am having a great time at school this year. I really enjoy my job. Of course, like everything, it has its moments. This year I am getting to do two new things. With my first grade class I have a group of 12 students. I have six kids who have scored at the second grade level, and six kids who are behind. I have my high kids reading in partners, while I work with the low kids. Then, I am teaching the high kids to tutor the low kids. It is really fun and finally the high kids are not doing coloring worksheets! They are reading!
My second grade group is going well too. I had a little surprise this week. I was having kids working on writing through this activity called sentence combining. Anyway, they are mostly copying sentences, but it was taking forever. After a few days of this, I asked them to write the alphabet for one minute as fast as they could, to find out how many letters they could write a minute. Surprise, only one kid in the whole group knew the alphabet. Ahh. I guess we have some writing skills to deal with!
My neck: I am having an unpleasant first. I sprained, overstretched, or something with my neck. Thank you Sheila for giving me a mini-massage today. It is still really sore, but I feel slightly better. I am using lots of heat, icy-hot rub and just trying to move like a robot!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Stats
Natalia had her six month well baby visit today and weighed in at 15 lbs, 10 ounces. She's almost 26 inches tall and her head is 16.5 inches around. She's coming down in the percentiles as is expected, since she's started moving a lot more and, let's face it, she's probably destined to be rather petite. She showed off some of her new moves, including pushing up into a sitting position from all fours. She stared delightedly at the doctor and took her shots pretty well, all things considered.
I got to take her by myself while Sacha stayed with Mateo and our student nanny, who finally had her first day today. Alone time with either one of our kids is relatively rare and getting to go on an outing with just the baby, even if it was to the doctor, was great. For some reason, I actually look forward to their well child visits. I like to get the official word on their measurements. Baby Talia fell asleep in the ergo before her appointment and we had some nice cuddle time, which is also somewhat rare. She is such an agreeable baby that even me waking her up from a deep sleep, taking her clothes off and placing her on a scale in a bright, foreign room didn't faze her too much. Amazing!
In other statistics, after a friend commented that Mateo looked bigger, we weighed him right before bed. He has actually cracked 25 pounds! After I announced his big new number, Sacha said, in all seriousness, "you know, I thought he must have gained weight because I can no longer see every single one of his ribs from the back." And there you have it. Two growing kids. Wahoo!
I got to take her by myself while Sacha stayed with Mateo and our student nanny, who finally had her first day today. Alone time with either one of our kids is relatively rare and getting to go on an outing with just the baby, even if it was to the doctor, was great. For some reason, I actually look forward to their well child visits. I like to get the official word on their measurements. Baby Talia fell asleep in the ergo before her appointment and we had some nice cuddle time, which is also somewhat rare. She is such an agreeable baby that even me waking her up from a deep sleep, taking her clothes off and placing her on a scale in a bright, foreign room didn't faze her too much. Amazing!
In other statistics, after a friend commented that Mateo looked bigger, we weighed him right before bed. He has actually cracked 25 pounds! After I announced his big new number, Sacha said, in all seriousness, "you know, I thought he must have gained weight because I can no longer see every single one of his ribs from the back." And there you have it. Two growing kids. Wahoo!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Christmas, etc.
Having just had our last guest, Sacha's mom, make it safely home, I wanted to post a few photos of our last couple of weeks. Christmas was particularly memorable this year because of the weather! In the week before Xmas, it snowed and froze and rained and snowed some more and then everything just sat on the ground and became a huge slushy disaster. As a result, Sacha and I both had several days off work and spent lots of time cozied up in our house. As the days went on and the snow stayed and stayed, we started to wonder when our toddler was going to finally lose it from being inside too long...but, actually, we all did just fine. It was really nice to have some time together, especially during the holidays.
And, we were lucky in that all our family members managed to make it into town. My parents just barely made it by taking an earlier flight when their original one got canceled. Sacha's parents drove down and didn't hit any major problems. And, my sister and brother also made it here safely. We managed to navigate the slush between here and my grandma's house and had lots of fun catching up with everyone - although we did have a few close calls! We realized after everything melted that the chains to our primary car, for which we had been looking all over, had been trapped in the trunk of our other car! So, we did lots of sliding around when we did manage to get out. Thank goodness Sacha did almost all the driving and got us home safely every time!
This was the first Christmas that Mateo seemed to get, at least partially. Obviously, he doesn't understand the idea behind it, but he was very accepting of the whole concept of getting presents! His Bubby and Poppa got him a play kitchen that he is completely in love with. He calls it his kid kitchen. Other big winners were a trike from Apa that Mateo has named The Commander (after a bike in a favorite book of his) and a musical puzzle from Grammy and Grandpa.
Last word on Xmas: this was the first year we've stayed in Portland instead of heading down to my family's house in California, and the first time we've ever attempted Christmas dinner. It was actually the first Christmas I have ever spent outside my childhood home. Crazy. Anyway, I think it went pretty well. Thanks largely to Sacha's planning and cooking skills, we did a lot of the prep ahead of time and had lots of help on Christmas day and it all came together quite nicely. We even had tamales courtesy of Apa!
So, here are some photos of Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Sacha's birthday, which was on the 26th. We also had our 8th anniversary of being a couple on Dec. 28th, so it was a jam-packed several days.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Reckoning
I keep meaning to write something reflective about the last year and, now that both kids are actually napping at the same time, I decided I should just do it.
At the beginning of 2008, Mateo was about 15 months old and Sacha was into her second trimester of pregnancy. We were on the verge of finding out that our growing baby was (is) a girl. Sacha was working full time and I was doing the stay at home mom thing with Mateo. We felt pretty stretched at the time. Sacha's pregnancy and resulting drop in energy forced us to rework our daily routines. Looking back, I can see that it was kind of like a practice run for having a second child, but at the time, it felt like we were finally back in a groove after our first year as parents and then things got turned upside down again.
However, as hectic as it seemed at the time to have one child and one of us pregnant, it looks like a walk in the park from this side of things! I'm glad to say that now, at the beginning of 2009, we're finally starting to feel like we're in a groove again, albeit a tenuous one. Nights like last night, in which our son decided to channel his sleeping habits from a year ago, set us back. But, overall, 2009 is looking good so far. I think we both hope it will be a year of stability and steady growth. We need some time to recover from 2008!
2008 was an incredibly good year - we added an amazing little person to our family, our first kiddo grew and thrived, we both started new jobs that we are enjoying, and all sorts of good things happened in friendships and family relationships.
It was also a challenging year. I think something about turning 30 and Natalia's birth in June made me really feel like I am actually a grown-up now. Becoming parents for the second time in two years has been quite an experience. And, Natalia's birth itself was really intense. Six months later, I still don't feel like I've quite recovered from it. It was probably the most overwhelmingly emotional experience of my life, because, unlike getting married and Mateo's birth, it involved panic as well as euphoria.
Then, of course, there was the aftermath of her birth - her first night, in which she was up nearly all night (probably uncomfortable from her rocky entrance and subsequent suctioning) and she and I ended up rocking for hours in the creaky hospital rocking chair, and then two days later, when she ended up back in the hospital for what turned out to be nothing. Whew. And, of course, all the normal newborn stuff, and the parenting of a toddler stuff.
I guess all this is to say that, when I look back on 2008, I feel tired. I am so, so, so happy with our life and am grateful for my wife and children every day. I'm just kind of done with being perpetually sleep-deprived. So, I am really hoping that 2009 will be the year when we finally get back to sleeping through the night!
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