New Year's Eve Playdate

I invited some Mommies over for a playdate at our place! Last playdate of the year! Heike and little Audrey and Spencer and little B came over to play. It was an all-girl playdate!

Mila loves her friends!

Mila likes to carry her favorite toys around... and here she is trying to pick up B! She kept coming up behind her and trying to lift her! It almost looked like a little hug! Sooo sweet!

Mila trying to pick up B again!

Mila showing the girls around the house...

Caught! (Audrey & B)

Adorable little troublemakers! :)

Baby This Week: 50 Weeks

Babies typically start walking sometime between 9 and 18 months. You may be surprised at the reactions this milestone causes in you. For example, don't take it too hard if your baby refuses when you offer to hold or carry her. She's not rejecting you. Odds are, she's simply excited about practicing walking. To prevent any injuries, keep a close eye on her when she takes off, and make sure to install safety gates to block off stairs and unsafe rooms if you haven't done this yet.

If your baby isn't walking already, she's likely to take her first independent steps soon. (If not, don't worry. Some perfectly normal babies are 17 or 18 months old before they start walking.)

As always, make sure your baby has a safe environment in which to practice her new skills. Follow standard childproofing guidelines and never leave your baby unattended. And keep the camera ready!

Around now your baby's play will probably start shifting from mastering her fine motor skills (she's got that thumb-and-forefinger grasp down pat) to exercising larger muscles. Some children this age have an attention span of two to five minutes for quiet activities — though your baby's favorite games may not be all that quiet.

Your baby probably thinks it's fun to push, throw, and knock everything down. She'll give you a toy as well as take one, and she likes games where she can put things in containers and dump them out again. This works well with blocks in buckets or boxes and with pots and pans, which she can nest inside one another. She'll thrill to the loud sounds of those pots and pans banging together, too.

- BabyCenter.com

Mila's First Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I can't tell you how excited I have been for today! Mila gets to open her gifts! What did Santa bring her?

Yummy wrapping paper!

It's a tv remote for Mila! Yayy! Now Mommy and Daddy can get theirs back!

Santa also got her a toy cell phone and a guitar. My uncles, aunts and cousins also sent her lots of fun toys and clothes. Grammy's gift got a little delayed, but we made sure Mila knew it was on it's way!!! 

Some instruments from Mommy & Daddy. 

Some toy food from Aunt Blanca... Mila loved this!

Mila likes to store her new stuff under the couch, LOL!

Abuelito was trying to get a hug from Mila all day but she was too busy playing with her toys... but he finally got one! Hugs for Abuelito!

Christmas lunch with my mom, dad, Cathy and Blanca. We missed my sister Cindy and Justin this year! They just moved to the island of Dominica last month where Cindy just started her lifelong dream of going to medical school. I'm so very excited for her, but I miss her dearly! Thinking of you!

Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends! We miss you and love you! 

Christmas with Bisabuelita

Growing up in my family, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with a nice dinner and we all open gifts at midnight. But since we're an hour away, it's just not ideal for Mila to be up so late and then drive home at that hour. So we decided to stop by earlier and enjoy some time with them and celebrate a little earlier.

So at my grandmother's house Mila was sitting on my lap and she started clapping out of nowhere! Mila's been hanging out with her fun Aunt Blanca for a couple of days, and it kinda looked like she'd picked it up... but I wasn't sure, I only saw her do it a few times. But today she was clapping all day! See her clapping for my grandmother? I couldn't believe it!

And clapping some more!

Catching up with my cousins Carlos & Glenn

Mila loved the book her Abuelita gave her!

She's also fallen in love with her burp cloth... she takes it everywhere she goes now. Thank God I have a ton of these!

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! 

And tonight Santa's coming to town! Yayyyy! Can't wait for tomorow!!!

Family Christmas Project

For the last two years, I've been doing a family Christmas project as a Christmas gift. I love making something useful and meaningful, instead of just buying something random that they may or may not like. For Christmas 2008, I made a family recipe book with all of my grandmother's recipes in it. I printed a copy for everyone and they loooooved it! 

For Christmas 2009, I packed up my laptop and my giant scanner, drove down to Miami and spent the whole weekend scanning all of my grandmother's old pictures. I made a CD of over 1,400 pictures of my mom and my uncles and aunts' childhood. I chose one picture for each one and framed it and gave it to them with a copy of the CD. They were blown away.

This year, I've been so busy with Mila, I hadn't really planned anything and then at the last minute, I was inspired by my friend Gaby who made Mila a gorgeous family tree, and thought I could give it a shot. Here's a picture of what they'll be opening up tonight!

I love these projects! I love making something that is useful and family oriented. What will I do for 2011? I have an idea brewing... we'll see next December! :)

Christmas Party Playdate

Heike and Scott invited us over last night for a Christmas Playdate. The daddies finally got to meet! We had such an amazing time... Heike and Scott are such wonderful hosts!!! Scott cooked an absolutely amazing meal - Heike's got quite the keeper there!

I love our little group of Mommies, babies and daddies. I'm so very blessed to know them. :)))

Heike & Audrey, Spencer with Liam

B & John

Keyan, Vanessa and Baby Julian

Mommies with babies... except for Heike and Audrey, who was taking a nap!

Daddies with babies, and Scott holding a "stand-in" baby for Audrey

Spencer, John and B!

Mila playing with Audrey's toys

Heike, Scott with Liam

Dan & Claudia and Liam

Mommy, Daddy and Mila

Baby This Week: 49 Weeks

Your baby understands more than she says, and she's aware that everything around her has a name. Help satisfy this curiosity by pointing at familiar objects and naming them: "Ball." "Truck." "Airplane." Few 11-month-olds are ready to say these words, but they file them away for future use. Soon you'll be able to say, "Where's the ball?" and she'll show you. If her first words sound strange, she may be repeating them the way they sound to his ears: "da-ee" for "doggie," for example.

It's a good time to introduce your baby to the concept of helping out. Though she won't be able to get it just yet, by the time she's a toddler she'll be excited to assist in putting toys away and picking up spilled snacks. Emphasize "please" and "thank you" and you'll set the stage for her to repeat these words back to you someday!

Though at this point his vocabulary likely consists of only a couple of words besides "mama" and "dada," your baby can probably babble short, fully inflected sentences that sound like she's speaking a foreign language. Act as though you understand.

Your baby may be able to respond to simple questions and commands, especially if you give her some clues with hand gestures. For example, ask "Where's your mouth?" and point to it. Or try "Hand me the cup" and point to the object. She may even answer you in her own way, using her own gestures, such as shaking her head for "no."

Because she's receptive now, it's a good time to begin to teach your baby how to help out. Emphasize "please" and "thank you," and make toy cleanup time fun by turning it into a game. Though she probably won't get the idea just yet, it's not too early to start. Break the task into very small parts. At this age, he'll need you to work with her by her side.

It's up to you to help your baby make connections between objects and their names — the more you do, the faster your child's vocabulary will grow. 

Keep talking to your baby and labeling things. Count stair steps as you climb them, and point out the names and colors of the fruits and vegetables at the grocery store. Read your baby a picture book and ask her to point to or name familiar objects.

 Solicit her opinion once in a while: Ask her if she'd like to wear the red or the blue socks, or if she'd like to play with her blocks or his stacking rings. Give her only two choices — both of which are right in front of her. She may not answer, but then again, she may surprise you.

- BabyCenter.com

Happy Belated Birthday to Padrino!

Last weekend was my uncle Ricky's birthday! He is also Mila's padrino (godfather). With all of last weekends events we didn't get a chance to see him, so we went over this weekend and took him and Martha out to lunch. It was so nice just the 5 of us! When there's a lot of people at the family get togethers, we barely get a chance to talk. It was great for Mila to get some one-on-one time with them.

Mila loves Tico!

Saeryn's First Birthday

Today we went to Saeryn's first birthday party at Lisa's house. It was jam packed with Miss Tracy from our Baby Class that came to sing and dance with us. She's so much fun! The kids had a great time!

Birthday girl with birthday cake!

Spencer, B, Mila and I

Mila and I with Lisa and Saeryn

Mila Meets Santa

Today we took Mila to meet Santa for the first time! It was so exciting! We took her to the Galleria Mall near us and I was so happy to see there was a very short line. There were other kids there all dressed up waiting to see Santa. I had thought about dressing her up, but we kind of decided to go last minute so I just left her in her outfit. She looked cute anyway!

After seeing several friend's Santa pictures with the babies on Santa's lap screaming their heads off, Jorge and I had decided ahead of time that we weren't going to put her on Santa's lap, instead, we would be in the picture too and we would hold her and he'd just be next to us. I was concerned she would still cry, but we let her see him while we were in line and she could see the other kids with him.

Before I knew it, it was our turn - we sat Mila down and she did great - no crying! That was all I was hoping for. She clung to Jorge's shirt  for dear life though! The photographer was really nice and was making goofy faces to try to get her to smile. After he took several shots, and made us blind with flash in the process, we got to talk to Santa. In some places, they just move you along because Santa's so busy, but here we actually got to talk with him for a few minutes! He was so sweet and warm. We told him what a good girl Mila had been all year. He even gave Mila a little toy elf, but we made sure he knew what she really wanted for Christmas - some instruments, a guitar, a remote control like Mommy and Daddy's and a cell phone like Mommy and Daddy's. He said he'd make sure to get it for her.

Here's the picture we decided to go with - it was the only one where she wasn't clinging to Jorge's shirt, and there's even a half-smile! After we bought it though, it occurred to me that perhaps the better picture would have been the one where she was clinging to his shirt because it was so adorable. Oh well! I'm happy with this one too!

Baby This Week: 48 Weeks

Chances are good that your baby's grown attached to a certain blanket or toy. Transitional objects may help your baby weather potentially stressful experiences -- such as a doctor's visit or an overnight trip -- more easily. You may want to buy a duplicate of that "lovey" (or cut the original in half, if it's something like a blanket), in case you need to replace a lost one or take it away to clean it.

Your baby probably enjoys looking at books and leafing through the pages, though she won't always turn them one by one. Indulge in great picture books, like Anno's Journey, by the great Japanese artist Mitsumasa Anno, Tamara Hoban's Is It Red? Is It Yellow? Is It Blue?, which introduces primary colors through photos of everyday objects, and The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs, a full-color cartoon book about a snowman who comes to life. Or stick with sturdy and inexpensive board books that can stand up to small fingers.

 To add variety to your baby's reading time and to find out what appeals to her the most, try your local library or the kids' section at a family-friendly bookstore.

Your baby has probably been wrestling with bouts of separation anxiety during the last several months. This is natural: She loves and depends on you, so she's distressed when you leave. 

To ease departures, make them short and sweet. Be matter-of-fact when you leave your child at daycare or with a babysitter at home, and don't prolong the agony with extended goodbyes. Your baby's tears will subside soon after you're out of sight.

You can help your baby feel more independent by not hovering over her all the time. Of course, she still needs to know that you're around and dependable. So if she toddles to another room, wait a couple of minutes before following. If you go to another area of the house, call to her when you're in the next room — but don't come running every time she squawks.

- BabyCenter.com