This one´s for you my love!

One day you will come across this blog and grasp a glimpse into the profound impact you had on your Father and I.

As you dissect each post, my hope, my wish is that you will understand how much we love you. I´m documenting your milestone's, your important firsts, your growth, and what life is like with you in it.

One topic I've yet to discuss is the impact you've had on your father. Before you, your father was not a big fan of "pink clothes" for baby girls. To your Father, "pink stuff" was almost banned.

Oh, how you changed all that. He became a different person right before my eyes. You changed him, Micaela. I wasn't surprised though. I realized he was changing even before you came into this world. The way he rubbed my belly with you in it, the way he took care of me while I was pregnant. You softened him, made him more patient, compassionate, even happier.

You are his Baby Girl and he (and I) loves you as deep as the ocean, and deeper. You made him a better partner to me than he already was, something I didn't think was possible.

Early mornings, as I get ready to play with you, I watch the both of you sleep and I say a little prayer. I thank God for you, your Daddy, and for our little Family.

When the time arrives and you find yourself navigating your way through this here blog and you look at your baby pictures and read about what cute new things you did, I want you to also know that you made your father and I better. Better individuals, better partners, better people. And please never forget that we love you more than you will ever know.

Always and forever.

Before I was your mom...

Okay, I should first start by saying that I found a post similar to this one on a very nice mommy-blog and  I loved it so much that I decided to adapt it to make it my own! :)

Before I was a Mom,

I never tripped over toys or sang lullabies every night.

I didn´t worry whether or not my sockets were protected...

I never worried so much about electrocutions!

Before I was a Mom,

I had never been puked on, pooped on, chewed on, peed on, or drooled on...

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts and I slept at least 8 hours :)

Before I was a Mom,

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple and yet so complete smile.

I never sat up late hours watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn´t want to put her down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn´t stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone the way I love you.

I never knew I would love being a mom, your mom!

Before I was a Mom,

I didn´t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

I didn´t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn´t know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn´t know that someone so small could make me feel so important and happy.
 

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night just to make sure everything was okay.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment, or the satisfaction of being a mom.

I didn´t know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was your mom.

May you always, my beautiful princess, be overwhelmed by the Grace of God rather than by the cares of life. 

 

 

Odd, but YOU!

I just had to write this post...

It's about one of those things that we will remember about you forever, but when we try to tell you about it - say, when you are 12 - you will look at us like we have grown three heads and say "Mother, I have NO idea what you are talking about." (By the way, you are never allowed to be that rude, hear?)

You have a thing with statues. While driving down the road, you can spot them at about 200 yards, and they just make your day. You laugh, smile and wave to them, and then immediately start looking for the next one on our route. I'm not exactly sure when it started. But it's a hoot. Daddy and I took you to the "Pentagonito" the other day, and you must have thought you had gone to Statues´ Heaven. They were everywhere, and it's a good thing you didn't give yourself whiplash trying to see them all.

We have theories as to why you have such a thing for them, but only you know the answer to this mystery.

Who knows. But it's fun to watch how thrilled you get when you see one!

So here's the proof. One of these days you will outgrow your obsession, and we have it written down so we can remind you and most likely embarrass you. :)

My odd hope for you

This is going to sound a little funny:

I want you to have a weird childhood!

There, now it's out there, and now I have to explain myself. I had a "weird" childhood growing up, but I think it has made me the person I am today, and not trying to sound snooty or braggy or anything, I think I turned out pretty dang well-rounded.

By "weird" childhood I mean the fact that I did things, heard things and played differently than other kids I knew. I grew up traveling to my great grandpas´ farm in Arequipa. Your papapa and you abu sometimes took turns to drive all the way there and I must say that all the experiences we (Ka and I) had there are just priceless! We got to feed the animals, milk the cows, ride donkeys and play at the river.

And since we grew up doing this, we had tons of outside space in which to play. Outside we learned from papapa about all the animals and plants around us!

Technology was not something that was part of our growing up. While we lived in Paraguay we only had two or three TV channels on our television (four or five if we watched the Argentinian or Brazilian ones). But we had one another and a big yard to play... Great memories. Now we are surrounded by tech stuff, you are more exposed than I ever was as a kid. I remember I was about 14 when your I used the computer for the first time! I want you to be at least 7 before you become computer-proficient, and I don´t want you to have any game consoles until your are 13 or so... but this is something that daddy and I will talk about and compromise on...

I want you to play pretending that you are a travel agent, a supermarket owner or even an accountant (one day I will demonstrate how to do it... for now I know I just sound nuts), and learn how to entertain and occupy yourself with just the world around you. I want you to be able to ride your bike around and have fun by doing it... In other words, I hope that one day you can look back on all of the weird and random stuff that you did as a kid and notice how much it has shaped you into the woman you have become.

Oh God! One day you will be a woman... I better get to work on those memories now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mad skills

I had a moment the other day as we were driving home in the car from somewhere. I looked at you in your car seat at this TODDLER that was clapping along as I sang "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops...," and I couldn't remember the baby that you used to be. Carrying you in my belly seemed like forever ago, and I had to struggle to remember what it felt like to have you do a slow somersault under my heart. The memory of you as tiny as a loaf of bread seemed so distant.

True, you weren't exactly the most interactive when you were a newborn, but I can remember a lot of the little things that, when they happened or I noticed them, that I wanted to keep in my mind and heart forever. So, here you are, almost one year and a half old, and I absolutely LOVE the stage of life in which we are now. The world is new and exciting, and watching you grow and explore thrills me. I want to remember everything about you and everything you do and "say" at this moment, so here's this post of things about you and the things that you can currently do so that way we can always have them.

* As of now, you STILL have four teeth, but I can see numbers five and six, so I know it wont be long before they make an appearance.
* You give hugs and kisses, although now you first say "no" (your new favorite word) before you do so.
* You can CLIMB!! The other day you climbed up three stairs on our staircase (with supervision of course!), and you can almost get up on the sofa.
* You dance whenever you hear music. :) It's more like a bob, you bounce up and down, and move side to side but it's funny and cute to watch. And you like watching those around you dance as well.
* You can clap your hands and stomp your feet.
* Linguistically, you are expanding your vocabulary. Some words you can say: "papá" and "mamá" of course, "Ka" for Kathy, "Co" for Nico, "Jo" for Jose, "Aul" for Raul, "Abu" for grandma and both grandpas, "papapa" for your great grandpa and "mamama" for your great grandma, "da" for objects you want or anything else that needs a name, "Baba" for Mara, "ñam, ñam" for food, "ugo" for juice, "gur" for yogurt, "agua" for water (you say that one pretty well), "ba-ba" for bye bye and some other words I can´t think of right now.
* You love the car, specially if you think you are driving it! and when you want to go somewhere by car you say "brmm, brmm." Really cute :)
* Animals make your day. All of them!

* You can roll and kick a ball, play doctor, scribble, build small towers with your legos, turn on and off the TV, turn on and off the DVD player, turn on and off your CD player, among other fascinating things.
* Your independence is growing, too. You much prefer to feed yourself than have someone feed you.
* Food preferences are also starting to emerge. You like all kinds of fruit but are not a big vegetable lover yet (and I say yet because I really expect for this to change!), you like lentils and beans, pesto spaghetti and you love nuggets. You like your food to have texture and seasoning. Thankfully, and so far, you like Mommy's cooking.
* You can stack one thing on top of another, and you can put toys or blocks in boxes.

For now, those are the things that stick out in my mind the most about you at the present moment. Every day you do something new or different. It simply amazes me how fast you learn and change. I wish I could remember it all, and I'm sure I would get harassed if I carried a notebook with me all of the time so I could write things down, but it would be worth it. Your grandma always tells me that kids are like little sponges, absorbing anything and everything around them, and this is exactly right. I can only hope that I can keep up and keep giving you good things to absorb. ;)

Sweet, quirky, loveable Micaela

Six days ago was your 15 month-day, and although EVERYONE told me that it would go by fast, I can't get past the speed in which the past fifteen months have gone by. It almost makes my heart hurt. But then I think of all of the wonderful times and experiences to come, and I'm almost ok with it.

During the past 450 or so days, I have gotten to know a funny, happy, lovable little person. As more and more days go by and your personality emerges even more, you show me bits and pieces of the person that you will grow into. I decided to write this post now to record some of your little habits and quirks that have already become apparent, and it will be neat to look back and see how they have grown or changed as you have grown and changed.

Even as of now, you have a funny little sense of humor. You LOVE to laugh and you smile a lot. It just takes a bit of effort to do these things. To you, things are only funny once during a time period. For example, if your daddy blows raspberries on your belly, you will laugh and laugh for a while, but then you're done. It's not funny anymore, and you will refuse to laugh! This cracks me and your daddy up! Oh, it will definitely be funny again tomorrow, or maybe even in a couple of hours, but once you're done, you're done.

You also like to have "Micaela Time." Every now and then during playtime, you will sometimes get a little overwhelmed and just need to step away. At first, I didn't quite recognize your signals for this, and I ended up with a grumpy baby on my hands, but after a while, we got to understand each other. Now, you will just walk away and I know that's your signal for a break. Sometimes I just sit on the floor and you do your own thing while I watch. Other times I will just follow your around the house for a few minutes. When you are ready to play again, you come to me with your toys so that we can play together again. It's neat to see your independence and confidence to play alone growing. You are such a little individual, even this young, and I am proud of your ability to recognize that you need a break. I still have trouble with this skill.

One of your little quirks that I love involves your bedtime routine. Watching videos in the tablet, in particular. We first introduced "the tablet" to you when we were getting tired of fighting you to get asleep. We wanted to help you through that tough time by offering a comfort item that could help you soothe yourself before sleeping. You and "the tablet" hit it off right away. Now when we put you to bed, you ask for some songs, grin from ear to ear and lay right next to daddy to listen carefully. Then when you start to get sleepy, you just turn around, grab your favorite pillow and close your eyes! :)

You love the water, watching soccer games and all kinds of animals. You don't like having your fingernails cut, and your favorite finger food as of now are nuggets (turkey, chicken, fish... any kind will do!). You love to play with your feet while you have a bottle, and grandma and Kathy are still your favorite people on the planet. Books thrill you, especially the ones that have animals in them, and for some reason I cannot fathom, you LOVE to play with our laundry basket.

Such a funny little girl you are, and I am so lucky that you are part of our family. When we first started telling people that we were pregnant, the second nugget of wisdom that people dished out, after "it goes by so fast" was "you'll forget what life was like without her." Well, actually, we do remember life before Micaela; a life of sleeping until noon, randomly going places without having to pack a diaper bag or worry about nap schedules and the like. So with that part, people were wrong. What they should have said is more like, "sweet baby, since you came into our lives you have made us whole, and we can't imagine our future without you."

And the most important thing I want you to remember is that: I loved you before we met, I love you now and I will love you forever, idiosyncrasies and all!

Introducing mommy!

Although I'm your mommy, and we spend practically every moment together, I don't know that we have been properly introduced... and that is why I wanted to make a list of things about me that you may not know, may possibly learn on your own or maybe not know at all. It will also be a way of helping me remember me, too.

So here it goes (I'm going to try to create a list of 29 things about me; one thing for every year of my life...)

1. As I write this I am 29 years old, and typically I don't feel old at all but there are days when I feel younger, and there are days when I feel much older.

2. I have done quite a bit in those 29 years that I never thought I would experience. I have traveled to foreign countries, eaten weird foods, met the man of my dreams, your Daddy, and had the most amazing little girl in the planet, YOU!

3. I am terribly obsessive/compulsive, and I am a rule follower; I think things should go in a particular order (even when that drives daddy crazy!)

4. I love to buy presents for people. Surprises make me happy.

5. I love to cover books and notebooks.

6. My favorite color is blue. (just like the color of your beautiful eyes!)

7. I have major fear of spiders.

8. I love to read. When I was growing up, 99 percent of the time, my nose was in a book. This is still true today, but with a smaller percentage of time.

9. I wanted to be an accountant or a banker when I grew up, but instead I became a marketer which fascinates me!

10. I love the rain.

11. I am very good at math.

12. I love all kinds of notepads, pens and pencils. I think it's all that potential for organization.

13. I love swimming.

14. I can´t play any musical instrument, but daddy can!

15. I have a secret passion for teaching.

16. I love mysteries.

17. I am not a very good cook but I do like to try cooking :)

18. I am very patient.

19. I am a big chatter.

20. I am very creative but I am definitely not an artist...

21. I love to learn. Anything and everything I can get my hands on.

22. I love French fries with ice cream, all together (I know it sounds gross but it isn´t, trust me even if daddy says the opposite!).

23. I am an Italian and Mexican food lover.

24. I loooveeee ice cream so much I even had 4 a day while I was pregnant (so I guess that´s why you love it as well) ;)

25. I sometimes worry too much.

26. Daisies are my favorite flowers.

27. When I was working, my work space was always neat and organized. I couldn't function if things were not in their places. Our house, however...

28. I would use the word "dependable" to describe myself. In all aspects of my life. I have always been a good, efficient worker, I am a trusted friend to those who know me, I am a loving and faithful partner for daddy, and I will always, always, always be there for you.

29. I love you more than I could have eve loved anyone in this world and I thank God for bringing you, a bundle of joy, into our lives!

So there I am, I guess, in 29 sentences or sentence fragments. There's much more about me that you will get to learn and discover while you continue growing up...

My favorite auntie: Ka!

Today I want to introduce Micaela´s favorite auntie: "Ka!" And why do I say that she is one of my little girl´s favorite ones? Well... she wakes up and the first thing she says is "Ka!", she calls each and everyone of her dolls and furry pets "Ka!", and even before going to bed, specially when she doesn´t want to sleep the one and only word that would come out of her lips is "Ka!". I just love to see my sister and best friend and my little angel get along so well! And I thank God for the chance he has given Micaela to be able to live near her and therefore see her every day! :)

We love ya too much sis!

Auntie I Can Always Count On You!
Auntie your are the best,
Your nothing like the rest,
You always brightening my day,
I hope you are here to stay,
You will always care,
Whenever I need you,
You are always there,
God has sent me someone like you,
And I love him for that too,
AUNTIE I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON YOU!

Sweet memories of Micaela´s 1st b´day party!

Micaela, you are the love and light of our lives.  We feel so lucky to have such a special little girl to call our own.  You have brought happiness, understanding, and new meaning to everything.  You have changed our lives in so many ways that we could have never imagined and our love for you is on a level that can't even be measured. I always and forever want to be here for you, to protect you, to keep you safe... and even though I know that's not possible, but a Mommy can dream, can't she?

 

What a great weekend!

This weekend we took Micaela to two of the places she looooooveeeeeeeeeeesssssssss! On Saturday we went to the little farm at Metro Chorrillos where she fed the baby goats and baby lambs with this tiny milk bottles and the cow, Florencia, the donkey, and many other animals with some hay as well! Then, today, we took her to the Granja Villa where she fed monkeys, horses, rabbits hens, lambs, goats, pigs, fish, and many other animals! She also rode some mechanical games and even played at the small ville they have for the little ones :D Micaela had such a good time with us and I adore that cute "I´m enjoying this" face! 

Animals, games, songs, new adventures, good food, chocolate & family...  Great times :o)