Let's play some catch up...

I only download pictures from my phone occasionally. But now that I can take video on my phone, it seems I've got even more "someday-I'll-post-this-on-my-blog-so-everyone-can-see-it-and-be-delighted" moments to catch up on. So, here goes...

The latest trend...climbing.

She's loved climbing into cupboards, closets, shutting herself in places (dark places in particular....??) repeatedly. She gets a kick out of it. She is also quite a confident climber and loves to climb on things she's not supposed to climb.

BUSTED!

She's also still a good eater. Pediatrician asked at her last appointment how she was eating and when I said "fine--she eats anything" he said great, but then proceeded to tell me that she's at the age where appetite will drop and pickiness can begin...if it hadn't already. I hope not, because we've been wanting her to keep gaining weight so we can turn around her car seat!!

Peas remain a favorite...(yep, she ate 'em all)

And blueberries, of course!

We went to the Arboretum one Tuesday when they had some kids activities, including a petting zoo. Since she hadn't ever been near any of these animals before (only my parent's puppies), I did the wise momma thing and held her outside to look at the animals first. But no, she wiggled right on down, and headed inside without even waiting for me to park her stroller. She touched every animal, and then walked right back around and petted every animal again. She moved so fast, it was hard to take pictures!

Have I mentioned she loves to climb??

It's finally starting to cool down here, so there will likely be less half-nakey baby pictures. Although she really loves to roam around the house in a t-shirt and diaper. Especially if it's one of mine or Ricardo's t-shirts...I have to put a rubber band around part of the neckband, but other than that, it's a great fit!

And now onto the videos. Remember when I said X eats anything? Here she is eating chips and salsa with her papa. She first tried Jalapeño queso at about 11 months old...she ate a BUNCH of my dad's ají last month when we went down to Houston. Apparently she likes spicy.

She also (rarely) falls asleep while eating....

And, she loves to color. And listen to music while she colors. When the music fades, she has to touch the remote to bring it back. If you listen hard, you can hear her singing along with the song :)

Cooking with Mama

Our friends Keren and Charlie posted about how they cook together...and it made me curious as to whether or not Xaris was ready for some serious adventures in the kitchen with me.

We decided to find out!

I only had my iPhone handy, and we don't have great kitchen lighting so the pictures aren't the best. But they serve their purpose in documenting the event, so we'll keep 'em!

We pulled up a chair to the butcher block and began the experiment.

Starting out...putting pears in the bowl...and then tasting them. I started to wonder if we'd have enough for the dessert! And then I started wondering what affect this would have in her diaper later if she continued to eat so many! We had to switch jobs for a little while :)

Next job: Emptying raisins into the bowl! She was so exuberant in her shaking the boxes that they also fell (flew?) into the bowl. No problem, we just pick them back up and begin again.

Next up: Smashing. Possibly the favorite of all the steps to this dessert! It was easier to just give her a baggie and the pestle, instead of dealing with the mortar (and keeping stuff inside). She's smashing granola, which I use instead of a nut mixture.

Stirring...maybe tied for favorite, or a close runner-up!

Finished product, ready for the oven! I've been experimenting with phyllo dough, making different pastries and baklavas :) This one was honey-pear. Yum.

We like cooking together! Plus, we are really really cute in our aprons. The one she is wearing was my grandma's--my mom made it for her, and it has outlines of my hands from when I was 21 months old.

penguino

I just uploaded all my iPhone pictures to the computer...I had trouble trying to hold Xaris, the penguino and the phone to shoot some video--I ended up cutting out half of X's face for part of it, but here's part of the process of learning to say "penguin"

stubborn?

Last post I mentioned how X won't identify the characters in her Buenas Noches Gorila book, even though I've been reading it to her and showing her each animal nightly for months now...well, today we found a book that we hadn't seen or read in a LONG while: La Oruga Muy Hambrienta (the Very Hungry Caterpillar). I was so excited that we found it, I plopped down to read it to her, open to the first page and point out the sun, the moon, the caterpillar (oruga) and what does she say? "O-U-Ga". And proceeds to flip through the rest of the book pointing out the "O-uu-gas" on every page, and then spends about 10 minutes looking out the screen door pointing out "pio-pio's" (birds) and asking for "O-uuu-ga?".

she's asleep...work or blog?

It's been so long--primarily because X thinks the computer is hers and anytime I'm on it she likes to come hit buttons. Her favorite is the power button (not dissimilar to her friend Nory), and the space bar is a close second. Most of my work needs to happen once she's asleep, which means I'm doing work when I'm ready to drop also. However, a quick update since the last post:

She has doubled (or more) her vocabulary...sometimes 5 or 6 new words a day this week, it's crazyfun having a conversation with her. Along with the new words, some of the old ones have gotten pushed out (or out of order). She's started calling Ricardo "mama", along with "papa"...which he doesn't mind at all, but for some reason I kind of do. :) I get to be mama.

Her animals and animal sounds have also gone a little helter-skelter. Puppies now say Meow, and everything is a "pio-pio" (the noise a bird makes). We read "Buenas Noches Gorila" multiple times a day, and while every time I point out all the animals repeatedly, she has yet to point to one and say it's name. Today though, she found the globo (balloon) on each page, even when it was tiny, halfway off the page and squealed "bobo!" every time. We've never hunted down the globos in that book...and she's never said it before today...such a fun learning curve to watch. She's starting to put more together in phrases too. A few nights ago she fell asleep saying "Amomama" (I love mama). The best night ever so far!

She's trying out new words all the time, my favorite for the moment is "penguino" (guess what that means). She says something that begins with "ben" and eventually ends with "no", but there is no consistency or limit to the amount of syllables might occur in between.

benbenbeeeeno

be NEEE no

ben ga na neee no

bebaben nee no

etc.

Not all her new developments are as exciting though. She has a toy teapot that she loves that just recently (a few days?) starts crying when one particular song plays on it. It plays 5 or so songs, and has lots of other sounds and words, and it's only this one song that makes her all sad-faced and she starts wailing. Familiar to anyone else out there? So random.

We went to play for a little bit at the arboretum today...they have their pumpkin houses and pumpkin patch out. Since she learned how to run and climb, it's harder to get her to hold still enough for a picture!

I love this picture--mostly because she was distracted by some "big kids" romping in the hay maze so she sat for more than 5 seconds.

Inside a pumpkin house

There are giant frogs that spit water into a fountain/play area. As soon as she saw they were on, she took off running for them. I caught her long enough to strip off her clothes and put on her sandals. Lest you think I'm a horrible mother, it was 89 degrees here today.

"OOOOOOOOH!" (She kept saying it. Water is so exciting)

Learning about giant toads

And ombligos (belly buttons)

Keeping up with X is of course the majority of life right now :)

She still goes with me to work, although hopefully soon the church I work at will be opening a preschool so I can enroll her for a couple days a week. Those will be my "I-have-to-be-super-efficient" days. Ric's job got all crazy on him, so poor guy has a lot on his plate. We're training for some 5Ks (me) and half marathons (him), but get to do that together (because I can walk 3.1 miles in the time he can run 14 or so...) Turkey Trot, here we come!

And hopefully another post soon(er) rather than later!

X words

I've been wanting to make a list of all Xaris' words...to someday put in her baby book or something (I haven't started her baby book. It's all in a box waiting for me to put it together one day).

Since I haven't made the list yet, I decided that a good place to document the words and phrases she can say is on the blog...and then I at least wrote them down and they will be remembered.

Some of them are pretty cute!! I love conversations with her.

At 16.5 months old, here are her words/phrases/sentences:

1. Mama (mama--me!!)

2. Papa (papa--Ricardo)

3. Apeeee (pie--foot)

4. Mami or mamo (mano--hand)

5. Am-Bee-Go (ombligo--belly button)

6. Wow Wow (guau guau--what a dog says. she calls most animals and some people "wow wow")

7. Mi, or Mi-A (mira--look!)

8. Pio pio (what a bird says)

9. Pa-wo (pajaro--bird)

10. Ga-jah (gracias--thank you)

11. Mah (mas--more)

12. Eh-way (Se fue--it's all gone, or it left)

13. Amo (amo--love)

14. No (wanna take a guess at what this one means?)

15. Na na (nariz--nose)

16. Cah-gu (carro--car)

17. Am-o-ah (vamos a orar--we're going to pray)

18. La la la (one of her favorite books, or what pigs say)

19. Wow (wow)

20. Ah wah (agua--water)

21. Che Che or Tse Tse (leche--milk)

22. Ka Ki (kakita--poop or bum)

23. Bay bee (baby--or any of her stuffed friends)

24. Che chi (changuito--her monkey)

25. A-meen (amen)

26. um nummm num num num (I'm hungry, or the noise she makes sharing her milk with story book characters)

27. Dey (ten--here, or take this)

28. By-byeeeee (bye)

29. Ah yah (hola--hi)

30. No ma (no more, usually with a wave of her outstretched hand in the "stop" position)

31. Meee owww (what a cat says)

32. Dee-oh (Adentro--inside. Usually when I'm asking her to put her clothes in the laundry hamper)

33. Ba bo or ba bee (basura--trash. Similar to Dee-oh, only referring to throwing trash away)

34. Ay-yah (alla--over there)

35. Ah kee (aqui--here)

36. Way-veee (huevito--egg)

priorities

We were trying to get X to say some of her words while we recorded...she was only interested in one thing. :)

And it does appear that we have a nearly-naked baby nearly all the time...keep in mind that it's still in the upper 90's most days here...b.l.u.h.

for real

10 on 10!!

It's about time, I finally accomplished another 10 on 10. It's been so long since I managed it, here's a reminder of the project:

Take one photo every hour for 10 consecutive hours on the 10th day of each month.

I have a new app on my ipodphone (term stolen from Judy) that I wanted to play with, so all the pictures in this ten on ten are taken with it. It worked well, it made my full day of boring and errands appear more interesting and artsy.

Good Morning

late bagel breakfast date with Katie

There just happened to be a convenient stop in between breakfast and my office...

Concentrating on lunch

Saltwater sandals!

Dry cleaning...

One of the dawg's tennis balls. Normally you can't tell they are tennis balls, they are so dirty, brown and chewed up. The torrential rains we had (notice the silt and muck surrounding?) washed and bleached out all these tennis balls that were once hiding in our back yard. Now we see them!

Dancing with Papa

(this one's extra, just because she's cute when she dances)

Dancing turned into climbing.

Which turned into sleepy girl!