I Like to Move It, Move It

You can't sit still, child! You're like the Energizer Rabbit. (Ask, we'll explain that one.)

You're out of your chair, off the bed, pulling up on everything. You give true meaning to the song "I get knocked down, but I get up again..." As soon as we sit you down, or lay you down you're scrambling to get back up. I can truly notice the difference in our energy levels (to not speak of age) as I try and keep up with you in the afternoons. You just keep moving...

You enjoyed your first Thanksgiving - pureed pumpkin on Thursday, then a taste of the real thing on Sunday night - pumpkin pie custard. It was one of the first things your Mom tasted when she was a baby, so we had to keep up the tradition. It was a hit. Of course it was, sugar, milk, eggs, all the things you're not supposed to eat - but just a bit of each, and thankfully, no reaction.

On Friday night we had dinner at Irunu and Jim's and you especially enjoyed the musical interlude - from your front row seat. Then you revelled in visiting with all our guests on Sunday night during our belated Thanksgiving feast.

Such a busy, busy girl. Right now it's all good, it's all fascinating, and you want it all - right now!

We are so thankful for you, Emma.

Nov. 23 - 29

Happy Birthday Uncle Randy

Uncle Randy's birthday week continued with a cake at DeCandido's and a party at the house. You seemed to enjoy all the festivities as usual.

You also tried out a new face this week, spent a day at the pool with Mom and had a serious photo session for Christmas pics. We attempted to get a birthday-wishes photo of you with a birthday balloon, but you were only interested in eating the prop. Fact is you're interested in eating almost everything these days.

Nov. 16 - 22

Look at me, look at me, look at me now!!

You're now sitting by yourself, and quite proud of it all - although you don't yet know how to get up to or down from that position on your own.

You're also raising your arms up to be picked up, cooing to yourself in the mirror, squirming all over your play area - still more reverse than forward action - and mastering the use of basic kitchen utensils as your keep me company in the afternoons.

Seeing as you've mastered sitting, it seems you want to pull yourself up to standing. It's your new goal. You can slow down a bit now, love - sitting is fine. I'm in no rush for all that crawling and walking. You hardly leave me time now to write. Besides, Give me some time to enjoy you just as you are.

Nov. 9 - 15

So many changes -

Five months bring a host of changes. You are now staying home with me in the afternoons. You've become a bit too active and vocal to stay quietly in your chair at the travel agency, and I can connect to the office from the house, so I don't miss out on much. You really want to move around and are on the brink of sitting up by yourself. No more of that reclining rocker which you have loved for most of your short life. You wiggle around to get your toys, and you want them ALL at once. I admire your energy.
I put an old quilt down in the TV room so you can move about as I work on the computer. No matter how big it is you always manage to get off onto the floor, but at least I don't have to worry about you falling off the bed. I've been taking pictures of everything, so your Mom knows what we are up to.

We went to Lluba and Hernan's on the night of the World Series final game and urged the Yankees on to victory. You were appropriately attired, as were your Uncle Randy and your Mom. You also got to acquaint yourself with Bandido and Ramses, Lluba's dogs. Seems you are especially interested in dogs this week.

Oh yes, another first. Since you are now five whole months old, your Tio Luis decided you were sturdy enough for him to pick you up, and suprised us all by taking you out of your crib when you cried a bit on Sunday.

Nov. 2 - 8

Your First Halloween -

As with most holidays in this family, your first Halloween tended to take over most of the week.

On the 31st you dressed in your pumpkin outfit to go to spend the afternoon in the agency.

Then on Saturday you donned your friendly ghost apparel for the Halloween party at the club.

And on Sunday (once more a pumpkin) you were visited by a PowerRanger and a green-haired witch, among other friends. You seemed to enjoy the whole thing almost as much as your Mom enjoyed dressing you up.

You filled the rest of the week with bouncing, trying out your new sippy cup trainer - experiencing your first car-jacking - and going to church for the Sunday service. Never a dull moment.

I know, I know, too many pics. But which ones would I eliminate??

Halloween

Oct 26 - Nov. 1

A Busy Social Calendar -

You didn't stop this week. On Monday you helped play hostess to Grandpa's "viejitos" who came to have pizza at the house.





Later in the week you dressed to the nine's to attend a "piñata" where your Mom got to reconnect with friends from high school...





... and on Saturday we shuttled back and forth between a lunch at Lluba and Hernan's and Jim's birthday celebration where you were suitably impressed with Paloma's ability to enjoy birthday cake. Just give it a few months more and you can join in, too.


Oh, yes. You also sported your Crocs for the first time. (They were a real hit.)

Oct 19 - 25

You started your 5th month out with an international getaway. You and your Mom accompanied Tia China and Tio Luis to Orlando, visited with Dad and your two madrinas and had your first merry-go-round ride. A busy week. On the way back you and Mom were on your own - a big first. You did fine, already a seasoned traveller.

The Saturday after you returned your Mom attended an all day conference and so you spent the day at home with me. She ran home at noon to feed you, and back as soon as the afternoon session was over, but after being on top of each other for a week while travelling it was a stride towards independence for you both. You accompanied me happily around the house and we set your swing up in the kitchen for the first time so I could get my Saturday chores done while you hung out with your pals, "Abu" and "Octo".

Seemed to be your week for hats. Sophia played dress-up with you in Miami and Uncle Randy lent you his "blanco y negro" when you returned.

Oct 6 - 18

Four months old -

We stayed home for your four month anniversary and had a quiet celebration. You are presently fascinated with glasses and the idea of drinking - or scratching your gums on the rim.

note: no alcohol was actually consumed while taking these pictures.

Happy 4 months, Emma, my love.

Oct 5

Catching up -

I have been falling behind on my posts. It's just more fun to play with you and watch you grow and learn than it is to write about it.

The last two weeks of September were a time of fascination with "Pepto" the pink pig; of visits to Nina's, Irunu's and Rosanna's; of accompanying Mommy to the office in the afternoons; and enjoying the company of visitors on Sunday nights.

You also made your first political statement - influenced a bit by your Mom., of course.

Sept 21 - 27

Sept 28 - Oct 4

New shoes -

New shoes, new shoes,

Red and pink and blue shoes,

Tell me, which would you choose,

If they'd let us buy?

Another favorite poem from my childhood - your Mom liked it too. I've been reading it and others to you at lunch time from my old books. You seem to enjoy the rhythm and rhyme and you like to touch the colors on the pages.

When your Tia China and Nina and Tia Baby went away this summer your Mom said - "no more clothes, but she could use some shoes..." So of course you got clothes anyway, and toys. But you also received a collection of footwear to replace the pretty white shoes you'd been wearing with almost everything.

Not much red and blue, mostly pink, of course. But you do have quite a selection.

The ones that fit you best at the moment are pink with flowers.

And, oh, yes - you do have some footwear which we'd been saving for just the right occasion which now fits - and they're not pink.

Other firsts this week included your first picture with your Tio Tito (we're still waiting for Tio Luis to hold you), and your first splash in the swimming pool - feet only for now. You loved the water and probably would have jumped right in.This week seemd to be all about feet somehow.

Sept 14-20

On the 8th of September you celebrated your mother's birthday for the first time. We were a small group - most of your Mom's friends and all of the family were travelling. The first week of September in Venezuela is the last chance for vacation before school starts on the 15th. But your padrinos, both Israel and Enrique, and Monica, your madrina Hilda's sister were in attendance. Your mother was still on a restricted diet for your skin alergy. She could have wheat now, and sneak in an egg occasionally, but no milk yet, so the cake was a bobka, without creamy icing. Your Uncle Randy wasn't really convinced that this was a birthday cake ??

Happy Birthday Mommy!!

Sept 7-13

Shades of RLS -

Every evening (to the utter amazement of many of our Venezuelan aquaintences who are aghast at the thought that we bathe you at night) when we put you in your tub for one of your favorite rituals of the day I am reminded of a poem I loved when I was a child and when I read it to your Mom and your uncle. If we take a little liberty with the words it suits you to a T -

I have a little shadow

Who goes up and down with me,

And what can be the use of her

Is more than I can see.

She is very, very like me

From my heels up to my head

And she always jumps before me

When I jump into my ....bath.

She's been sharing bath time with you since you came home to Savanna from the hospial. You have come to expect the company of this "baby in the mirror" and smile and coo at her all through your bath. I think perhaps a good part of the complaint that we suffer each time your bath ends is due to the fact that we are taking you away from your "shadow".

I can't wait until you're ready for the rest of A Child's Garden of Verses. Few people have captured the reality of childhood as RLS did in those poems.

Aug 31 - Sep 6

Just who are you going to look like, child? You're changing your hair (losing is perhaps a better word). Your eyes haven't defined themselves yet (the doctor says by 6 months we should know what color they will be). Your face gets fatter, then thinner - and every day I see shades of someone else in you. I guess you are just a happy mixture of shadows of us all and we will just have to wait and see how they blend together as you grow.

A New Routine

Your Mom has been helping out at the travel agency while Tia China and Tia Baby are travelling with 92 15 year-olds. ( Just wait for 2024 - you'll be one of them)

So after a lazy morning at home and a good lunch we all head out for work. We leave Uncle Randy at DeCandido's and you and your Mom at the agency. You visit with employees and customers alike all afternoon, and come home exhausted.

Time for a good book and a favorite toy.

Aug 24-30

The days after your baptism held no major events, no vaccinations, no other reasons why not, so your Mom and your Madrina Hilda took you to have your ears pierced. Now we just have to wait a month before you can start showing off all the pretty earrings you've received so far.

On Saturday night we were invited to Irunu and Jim's house where you showed off your new pierced ears and enjoyed the cuatro music.

Aug 17-23

Your Baptism

You were baptized Emma Victoria, in Christ Church Maracaibo on Sunday, August 16, 2009. Your godparents are Maria T. and Israel Carruyo, Hilda Zavala and Enrique Rincón. Four or five generations of friends and family accompanied you and you behaved beautifully.

Baptism

Baptism Party

Traditions

An infant baptism is a tradition of welcoming and inclusion into the religious community. Our congregational family welcomed you and promised to support and instruct you so that you may fulfill the promises made for you by your family and godparents. The greater celebration of your baptism was also built on traditions.
The dress you wore was first worn by my Uncle Louis in 1917, then by my mother, your Great grandmother Catherine, in 1919. I wore it for my baptism in 1950, followed by my sister, Marjie, in 1953 and my brother Andy in 1955. Your mother was the first of her generation to use the dress, in 1976. Then her cousin Bryan wore it in 1978, your Uncle Randy in 1980, cousin Katlyn in 1982 and cousin Erin in 1984. I had embroidered each name and date on the slip and will add your name now. Just think - my grandmother dressed my uncle in this dress almost 100 years before my daughter, your mother, put it on you. Hopefully it will serve more babies as well in the years to come. Who knows if you will put it on your child one day.
The favors we gave to your guests were also steeped in tradition. Aunt Belén has been making cloth rosebuds for family celebrations for years. I remember as far back as your Aunt China’s wedding. I have a collection of several of her flowers in a vase in my bedroom. (We’ll add one of yours.) So it was only fitting that she made the tiny cloth rosebuds for your baptism favors. Your mother chose a pocket cross token and had the poem printed to go with it. She and I both carry a cross in our pockets that your great grandmother gave to each of us years ago.

On the sweets table we had traditional Venezuelan “dulces”. Belén made “cocadas” and “dulce de leche” and “mantecadas”. Nina made you “suspiritos” which she still makes by beating the egg whites with an old silver fork – no electric mixers used here. And the silver candy dishes which held the almonds and the M&Ms with your name belonged to your great grandmother Catherine.
And what could be more traditional than Harold Zavala – your godmother’s father – playing the piano. Harold played for years each January for a joint anniversary party which your Grandpa and I had with Tia China and Tio Luis. There is a legend that your mother and Tia Hilda first met in a crib at one of those parties. His music has been part of iimportant events in our family ever since, and it was just right that he was here to play for you.

You took it all in and enjoyed yourself, passing happily from the arms of one to another, sleeping for awhile every now and then. It was a perfect day. We have so many pictures, from so many cameras. Someday you will remember this day through those pictures and those traditions which you will re-live many times in your life, and you will know that you were welcomed, accepted and cared for by so many people.

I almost forgot one of our more modern family traditions - Tio Luis' videos on YouTube to record important events:

The church

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxgVMnp5hJ4

The party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyysUzu3e_M

The singing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN4T3lpIzP0

A Lull

Not only was this a relatively quiet week between your two-month celebration and your baptism. As you've learned by now we never go too long between festivities in thi family. But you also seemed to slow down physically. You've truly started to sleep straight through the night - often to your mother's discomfort in the mornings - and you've stretched out your feedings to every 4 hours or more. It's a good thing. You had been eating constantly and getting so chubby!! But now you seem to have stretched out and lost a lot of your tummy and one or two rolls around the neck.
You are fascinated with putting your two hands together, and often both of them in your mouth. It's getting harder and harder for me to take your picture because you are almost never still unless you are asleep, and even then you move yourself around the crib, wakng up in a different spot than you went down.
I spent every night during the week preparing food for your baptism party. We got the church programs ready and your Mom and Padrino Enrique worked on the cards. Your Tia Hilda arrived on Thursday and Maria and Israel were supposed to arrive on Friday, but their plane was forced to land in Jamaica due to mechanical problems and they didn't arrive until Saturday night - to leave again on Monday morning. Maria brought a whole suitcase of plates, napkens, plastic silverware, and the cross tokens for your baptism. Your Mom was up late putting the favors together. I finished up the food on Saturday, ironed your dress and the table cloths. We set up the house and then collapsed into bed. Tomorrow is the big day.

Two Months

On August 5th we marked your 2nd month. Nina, Belén and Tia China and Tio Luis came over. Tio Luis spent the evening putting up a shelf in your room - and Uncle Randy's DVD racks in his. Your Mom's friend Mariana came by with her twins Amanda and Esteban to help celebrate. It was a low key event and by the time we got around to the cake you were already in your pajamas. But I did sneak you a little taste of the icing.

Two nights later you had a visit from Paloma (along with her parents, Anabel and Francois). Paloma is an older girl, already 5 months old. She tried out some of your equipment and showed you how it's done. You're not quite up to grabbing directly for what you want like she does, but by the end of the week you had worked up to sufficient arm thrashing so that you occasionally hit the mobile and the octopus danced around. Maybe not as smooth as Paloma just yet, but you were quite pleased with the results. And we're pleased, too. I love watching you concentrate on things, cooing and trying again and again to control your hands. Each day is a new accomplishment, Emma, my dear. Congratulations on your second anniversary!

Aug 3 - 9

Settling In

Your furniture finally arrived!! We all got busy putting together the crib, changing table and swing and setting up your room. Your crib arrived just in time. You were outgrowing the little bassinet. Your feet reached to the bottom and the last few nights the lack of room seemed to make you uncomfortable. Now you look tiny again. Just a small babe in a large crib. You only sleep well at night if you are securely swaddled in all that new space.

Nina's birthday celebration on Thursday night was another highlight of this week. As usual, you were the center of attention and everyone wanted to hold you.

Tia China returned from London on Saturday and brought you a new friend - a musical Tooth Fairy. She's there in the corner of your portable crib - which served so well as changing table and bassinet while we were in Savanna. It has now been retired to Nina's house so you have a comfortable space when you visit there.

Another week of changes, but we did make progress getting you settled in here in Maracaibo.

July 27-Aug 2