Happy 12 monthday!!!

Amalia, Sunday was your 12th monthday! I was reminiscing with a co-worker about your embarrassing and hilarious birth story, and I really can't believe it has already been a year since my water broke in the middle of a fake trial and the trainer went around to all the courtrooms announcing that I had gone into labor in the middle of our case. I still say that if I had been mistaken and I just peed myself, I would have faked your birth and not gone back to work because I would have died of embarrassment. Luckily for me, you really did want to come out on June 21! The longest day of the year. If I was more poetic, or more of a hippy, I would have insisted we name you Titania or Puck, or at least something pagan, but we stuck with Amalia Mafalda and I still think it fits you like a glove.

We just had your one year doctor's appointment and you continue to be off the charts in size and cuteness.
Length: 31.5 inches
Weight: 27 lbs 3 oz
Head circ.: 18.75 inches


King Kong has nothing on you.

Yes, you are a big baby. Even though you are not walking yet, I'm not too worried about it. You are very motivated to move around, and can get around while your hands are free to pick things up, so you just aren't super motivated to get up and walk. That and it is a lot of mass to get up off the ground!
Of course, you are still eating like a champ. You don't eat baby food out of a jar any more and now eat everything that we do and love it. You are drinking whole milk now since the breast milk stock pile is completely gone. You still nurse at night and early in the morning before you hit the "snooze" button and go back to sleep for a few hours. We'll just have to see for how much longer this continues.


We turned you around in your car seat, only to read an article the next day that it's better to leave you rear facing until 2 years, or 35 pounds, and you should get there in the next couple months, so rear facing you go again!
You are becoming such a social little girl. You love playing with your cousins and watching other kids. You smile and wave and clap, and the best thing you do that I haven't been able to capture on film is dance! You will scoot around in a circle and "raise the roof" with your arms in the air when there is music playing that makes you move. It is so unbearably cute, I need to get a video before you stop doing it.
You are still very clingy with me, and are a little shy with strangers, but you will wave and smile shyly before burying your face in my shoulder.

You still adore, and are adored by your big brother Domi.


It is a source of never ending delight for me to hear you guys crack up at each other for no reason that anyone else can fathom. You have secret jokes, secret smiles, and so much love for one another. It is just the best thing ever. Not that it's always a love fest over here. Domingo still yanks toys away from you, you smack him and grab them back, he throws blankets over your head, you rip them off again and we try to survive the "games" you guys play, minimizing the tears. You have totally become your brother's champion, when he cries because I've turned off the t.v. you look at me and complain loudly like "why did you turn that off, he was watching that!" Or when he gets an "esquina" for what ever reason, you scoot over to where he is and try to comfort him, or get him out. You just want to be with him, and are already a much better sharer than he is. I'm hoping he'll learn some from you.

Amalia in 12 short months, that you have gone from this:





to this:

is nothing short of a miracle. I'm so lucky to have been here with you to see it all.
Love,
Mama

Bjorn Borg family at home

This is my new favorite thing ever.

I just want to celebrate!

For lots of reasons!!
Mostly, Amalia turns one on Sunday. We had a really fun party at the Abuelo's house this past weekend. We (of course!) didn't have our camera, just the video, so I don't have pictures. Hopefully some of you who were there will forward your photos to me so I can post some soon.
But even MORE important that my second child turning one, I am DONE PUMPING!!! Oh my that feels good to type, and to say, and to think. Amalia will still nurse in the morning and at night as long as she wants (or as long as I can take it!) but I'm done nursing and pumping during the day!! We are using up the last remnants of my meager stock pile and mixing it with whole milk, and she has no problems drinking that at all.
The fact that I'm done, in all likelihood forever, pumping does not bring me even the slightest bit of wistful nostalgia. I am tempted to make a bonfire with my pump in style as the tinder, but I'm way too superstitious for that. So I'll just pack it up and put it away, somewhere I won't have to see it ever again!
I am pretty proud of the fact that for the second time I have fed my baby only breast milk for the first full year of her life. I don't want a medal or anything, but I just needed a minute to pat myself on the back. Don't worry I won't strain my arm.
The weaning process (which I know has already begun when she started solids) will continue and I'm sure be harder than with Domingo. For one, she doesn't seem to be as verbal as Domi was. She is doing lots of signs, but still only says mama and papa. And two, with D, I think ending nursing happened mostly because I was pregnant with Amalia and it was much more work for him to nurse then to ask for "leche en vaso". He was 16 and a half months and he was talking enough to very plainly ask for leche en vaso not leche mama. So we'll see how this goes, I'm sure there will be false starts, and I'm not under any illusions that the over night nursing will end any time soon, but the fact that there is an end somewhere in the not too distant future is something to celebrate!

Here are some ridiculous pictures I took in our failed attempt to go to the free day at the Shedd Aquarium yesterday. Annie Leibowitz I'm not.
I should have know something was up when at the parking lot, where they usually charge you 16 (they just raised it from 15! Darn city!) was changed to $19 cash only, and a red laser-lights scrolling sign blared out "NO REFUNDS! Expect long lines at the Shedd". Long lines, I assumed were 30-45 minutes to get in, waits for the dolphin show etc. No, these were 2 and a half hour lines to get IN. We decided, much to Domingo's disappointment, that 2+ hours in the (finally) sweltering Chicago humidity with 5 little kids was not going to happen. So we'll try again another day. I wonder what the lines look like today...

Amalia enjoys being a girl. Although she doesn't have enough hair to hold in her barrette.


Domi adores Charlotte. The only reason he didn't leave the park outside the aquarium in a fit of rage was because he and Charlie were holding hands chasing birds. Wait, actually, he did leave crying, because he had to give back a book of Charlotte's and because of extreme overtiredness!


Taking a break from chasing birds.

Combo 32 and 33 monthdays!

Happy belated 32 and 33rd monthday Domingo!
These past two months have not been all that terribly news worthy.
The biggest thing in our little universe is our sporadic attempts at duh duh DUH... Potty Training. It's capitalized out of respect.
You actually are doing better than I had expected, but we are going about it very gradually and not at all systematically. I read the books, and I think as we get closer to the start of school, we might try the "potty party" and going completely cold turkey with the diapers. Although, Esther's attempt at that resulted in a very smelly couch cushion that took a bottle of febreeze, upholstery cleanser, and a spin through the old wash to get back to normal. So it was a short lived but memorable attempt.
Other than that little gem, we are slowly but surely preparing for you to start preschool in the fall. I kind of don't want to think about it quite yet, since the weather isn't even all that warm and it's JUNE! But think about it we must since the first in a series of meetings about school was last week, and we've been filling out papers, making copies of birth certificates, and generally being in a tizzy since then.
I know that we'll get to have loads of fun this summer, and when school does start, I'm sure you'll be very excited and do just fine. We talk now about school, and teachers, and playing with other kids and sharing. You are eager and enthusiastic about it all except the sharing. You are nothing if not consistent.
You are still such a good big brother to your sister Amalia. You wake up before her and ask your Daddy, if you can play with your "baby sister". It's very sweet. You are also such a good big primo to your newest little prima Lucy. It is really adorable how you "share" your toys with her, showing her puzzle pieces and animals and getting that same crazed look you would get when Amalia was that teeny, like you want to just squeeze her with love. But you are always gentle and sweet, although I know it's hard to keep all that excitement inside. I know as you all get bigger and grow up together, you'll always take care of your little sister and cousin. You are just the sweetest, stubbornest, most willful and adorable boy I've ever known.

Here are some pictures from the last two months. You got to go twice to your favorite place ever, the Field Museum, once with Esther, and once with me. Although, once again when you were with me, you were way more interested in the toys in the gift shop than the exhibits! Only the buttons in the dinosaur exhibit could hold keep you from throwing a fit to get to those dinosaur toys. But you had a great time, got a dinosaur toy, and had hot dogs and chips for lunch. Pretty much a perfect day.
Love,
Mama

I had to include the face of lederhosen induced misery.


MUSEO!




So happy he's kissing the taxedermied animals.