Bon Voyage!

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Talkin' on the phone

Oh, I was doing so well...but then had to eat it!

You won't hear from us for a few days because Diego and I are headed to California tomorrow! We are visiting my dear friend, Asawari in San Francisco and my godmother, Brownie in Palm Springs. The unfortunate part is that Ricardo won't be able to join us, but he is excited that we're able to take the trip. Diego being the lil' explorer and busy bee that he is, I'm hoping the flight over will be ok.
Here is a video for your viewing pleasure. Diego is asking for a strawberry in sign language. He uses the sign for "more" when he wants to eat and then of course, when he wants more of whatever he is eating. I love how he flips back through the pages looking for the strawberry. Right after I took the video, I jumped up and brought him a strawberry and he was thrilled!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3823305163728334899

Happy Monday!

Here I am standing up on my own! If I have a toy in my hand, I can last for longer, otherwise I squat down pretty quickly. And there I am with my buddies, Mara Kate and Micah. They came over for a play date today and we had lots of fun. Mara Kate and I wore lil' Micah out and he fell asleep in the swing. They are both such cuties!

What about Mami and Papi?

We went on a date for Valentine’s, which was a blast. In past years we have usually stayed home to cook a special dinner, but in the past year we haven’t had many chances to get out on our own (except for when Grammie and Mima visit – they always gladly volunteer to babysit!). So we had Wendy come over to babysit Diego and we headed out for a night on the town. We went to a place called Loca Luna. It's a cool tapas place, with an outdoor feel, and they were playing live bossa nova. We had lots of fun and even danced a little. Diego did great with Wendy and even went to bed before 7:00pm because he was so tired.
We’re excited that today is Friday! Not for any particular reason, but just to know that the weekend is here! We have a tradition for Friday nights that we’ve been doing for a few months, when we can. Ricardo makes an amazing tomato sauce for pasta so we have pasta and play cards. My mom taught us a game called Hand and Foot and we’re hooked! It’s a great way for Ricardo to unwind from his busy weeks at work – cooking helps him to get his mind off of things, but he never gets a chance to do it. And of course I love the treat!

I'm a baby with a busy agenda!

Putting a puzzle together at the children's museum

Playing the drums with Papi

How musical am I!? I can even play the piano!

What a work of art!

We had a really fun week last week and great weekend, too. Ricardo attended a leadership course all week and had a room at the Intercontinental Hotel downtown so we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. We packed up our bags on Sunday, checked into the hotel on Monday and stayed until Friday. Diego and I carried on with our normal activities - bible study, play group, errands, etc, but used the hotel as a base. Diego had fans in every area of the hotel - lobby, housekeeping, lounge, restaurants... Everywhere we would go the people would say "Hola Diego, Hola Diego." He always greets everyone with a smile so people are naturally drawn to him. We didn't get to see Ricardo that much, but it was important for us to be together as a family in the evenings and mornings. On Saturday we drove two hours to Chattanooga, Tennessee to meet up with our dear friends, the Cifuentes family. They are from Colombia and we met them at HBS. They have two daugthers, Veronica is 3 and Daniela is 10 months. We had a great day with them. We arrived a bit early so the three of us went to the Children's museum which was a blast. Diego loved exploring everything. From there we met Luis, Diana, Vero and Dani for lunch and then on to the best part – the aquarium! Diego’s room has a sea-life theme so he loves fish because there are 5 big metal fish on his wall. As soon as we entered the aquarium and he saw the pictures of fish on the walls, he was happy! He had never seen real-life fish so we weren’t sure if he would understand, but he totally did. He LOVED the fish tanks and would put his nose up to the glass and his eyes would follow every move of the fish – it was so much fun to see. We always take the stroller with us on outings, but Papi doesn’t put Diego in it because he loves to carry him. And Diego is SO content in Papi’s arms and doesn’t make a peep. Even when we’re at home – if Diego is fussy and Ricardo picks him up, he’s as happy as can be observing everything Papi does. He gets clingy with Ricardo in the evenings and weekends which is great because then they’re able to spend quality time together. Yesterday Ricardo was cooking breakfast and Diego held on to his pants and walked with him everywhere he went around the kitchen and wouldn’t let go – like a little monkey!
We think this lil’ guy may be walking soon. Yesterday he stood on his own more than ever and
took half a step two times.

12-month checkup

Keeping busy with the train set

Diego's very favorite book

Learning how to eat an apple!

Not quite over the "everything in the mouth" stage

Diego had his 12-month check up last week and, thank the Lord, he is in perfect health! He weighs 21 lbs and 3 oz and measures just over 2.5 feet. We really like his pediatrician and she is great with him. She did the whole exam while he sat on my lap so he was totally happy. Except, of course, when it was time for the shots (more to follow on that). I keep a file on the computer where I have a log of questions that we want to ask the doctor for each appointment so this time we had about 10 questions – mostly pertaining to nutrition. I was happy to hear that there is no need for him to eat meat. We don’t plan on raising him vegetarian, but we don’t see the need to give it to him if it will not offer any nutrition that he can’t get elsewhere. He loves eggs, yogurt, cheese and all kinds of beans so he is getting plenty of protein. Today he tried tilapia for the first time and thought that was pretty good. I also asked how much salt and sugar is ok since we’ve never added any to his foods up until now. She said that he can now eat exactly what we eat and should follow our diet, since it is a healthy one. Being a vegetarian, I put more emphasis on eating fruits and vegetables and wanted to make sure that is ok for him too and she said that’s great. Of course he needs a lot of complex carbs and proteins, but a lot of his diet can be made up of fruits and vegetables. He loves pasta, rice, cous cous, oatmeal and every fruit and vegetable we’ve given him thus far, except for tomatoes – he wasn’t too crazy about those. I want to wean him onto cow’s milk and he’s not too thrilled about it. He does not like the taste of the milk and spits it out when he gets it in his sippy cup. He loves to drink water from his sippy cup, but not milk. The doctor said to give him less water so that his thirst drives him to drink milk – we’ll see! Another question was regarding shoes. Stride-Rite shoes are all the rage for babies/children these days and she said “don’t buy them!” She said that babies should walk barefoot whenever possible and when they do need to put on shoes, they can wear anything because the purpose of them is to simply protect their feet – they don’t need to offer support of any kind. I was happy to hear that after seeing that stride-rite shoes cost $45.00 and up! Oh ya, the shots! Oh, it was terrible! The nurse made me hold him down, pinned between my legs while she gave him a shot in each arm and one in his right thigh. He SCREAMED! He was crying so hard and was so upset and the tears just kept rolling down his face. After the third shot I gave him his blankie and he sucked his thumb and calmed down very quickly. He only gets his blankie at nap time or bedtime (and it causes instant thumb-sucking) so it was good for him to have it then and there because he was able to soothe himself. He is slowly expanding his vocabulary. The last two mornings he has woken up saying “Pa-pa, Pa-pa” and of course Ricardo LOVES it! He says “Ma-ma” and “Be-be” (Spanish for baby), he tries to say “duck,” but can only get out “DU.” He can also bark like a dog and roar like a lion! His very favorite thing to do these days is flip pages in books and look at the pictures, especially pictures of animals and babies.

A glimpse at Diego's first year!

One minute old

Three days

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

ONE YEAR!

Diego turns ONE!!!!

Diego’s birthday was on Friday and it was a really special day. We decided to make it a Diego-centered day and to only do things that he loves. Whenever we go to the grocery store he goes crazy over the balloons so of course we had to have balloons in his room when he woke up. He thought that was so fun and pointed at them all day long. He says “ba, ba, ba” when he sees them. The Spanish word is “globo” so I’m not sure where he got “ba” from. We always have music playing, but only our music, but since it was Diego’s day, we played Spanish kids’ CD’s all day long and he loved it. He was groovin’ all around the apartment. For breakfast he had a cheese omelet and banana pancakes and gobbled it all up. He opened a couple of presents and then it was bath time. He always had his baths in the inflatable tub (see pictures from previous post) so this was his first time in the big boy bath – and he loved it! He crawled all around, stood up, splashed with his arms and legs, blew bubbles, laid on his tummy and played with his new toys. He couldn’t believe that he had so much room! After bath time papi had to go to work so Diego took a nap for an hour and a half. When he woke up it was lunch time and papi was back home! He didn’t have much of an appetite for lunch, but had some of his favorites – avocado, black beans and cheese. But of course he had room for chocolate cupcakes! He was slow at first, but dug right in once he discovered it was all chocolate! He liked the feeling of the gooey chocolate because he thought it was funny to blow kisses and smack his face with his hands dripping with chocolate. We quickly cleaned him up and headed to the park before it was time for his afternoon nap. We turned his car seat to face forward and he loves that he can now see everything, especially mami and papi in the front seat! It was a beautiful day so we had a really nice walk in the park and he loved seeing the doggies. He’s learned how to bark so he barks when he sees dogs and it’s SO cute. It was pretty chilly so we had him all bundled up and he liked being cozy. Grammie’s job was to keep him awake in the car ride home so that he would take a nap in his crib, but once we got home, he wanted nothing to do with his crib. He definitely knew something was different about the day because he always takes an afternoon nap. So we took him out and let him play and explore his new toys. We made home-made mac and cheese for dinner with peas and he loved it. He had a little bit of cupcake for dessert and was ready for bed, but not before another big boy bath! He only takes one bath a day, but since he had so much fun in his morning bath, we wanted to repeat the excitement. This time he got to bathe with one of his birthday balloons which he thought was really funny. It was wonderful to have Grammie here to celebrate the special day. He had a blast showing off all his new tricks for her. And we’re glad that he had a birthday party in Miami in December so his family there could celebrate with him. Now we’ll just have to have another one in April in El Salvador and he will have celebrated with (almost) everyone!

This past year has been full of blessings and Diego has brought an abundance of joy to so many people, strangers and family alike. We are so proud of our little guy and everyday is a celebration of his life.