Daddy commandeers the blog!

Amalia is a proud norsewoman! Hurrah!

16th Monthday!

Amalia tomorrow you turn 16 months! Look at how far we've come! There has been a lot going on in your little world this month. Most notably, you've started talking a little more! In fact today when your brother was coming after you trying to give you a kiss and you said clear as day "I don't want to." It was a good time to teach your brother about boundaries.
You are also a big fan of NO! Other words you've picked up are book, up, go, baby, all gone (which you use to mean milk too, since two seconds after I give you your milk it's "all gone!") jugo, agua, and uvas. Sadly, I think you are also saying M&Ms and say it ALL THE TIME, I guess that is to be expected in a potty training house. It's funny to me that you are speaking both English and Spanish where your brother only spoke Spanish for the first nearly two years of his life, but it only makes sense since you hear your father, brother and I speak to each other in English, and only Esther and I speak to you in Spanish.

All Gone! from alice on Vimeo.

You are getting much more into books (which you pronounce ook) and demand to be read four or five before bed and cry when I say it's time to turn out the light. You really love the tactile books that have different things to touch and pull. Donde esta el ombliguito gets an Amalia thumbs up, as do all the "este no es mi" books, the lion one being your favorite.
You can point to many body parts, mouth, nose, head, ears, and belly button of course, and it is pretty obvious that you understand so much more than you can articulate. It is very frustrating for you (and me) to know what you want and not be able to get your way. Sometimes it's because you can't tell me what you want, other times it's because you can't have what you want, but no matter what it's NO FUN. And you have no problem letting everyone know it.



I also couldn't have a month day post without commenting on your growing relationship with your brother. For the most part, I have to say, it's wonderful. You wake up from naps or in the morning and the first thing you do is go and look for him. You smile and laugh when you find him, even if when you first got up you were crabby. That isn't to say it's all sunshine and roses. I've caught little glimpses of what awaits: "stop touching me", "I was playing with that", "That's MINE!!!!!" are sure to feature largely in your future vocabulary. But for now, I'm content to just sit back and watch as you guys figure out your relationship for yourselves, only intervening when I think someone's well-being is at stake.

In other big news, I neglected to mention last month that you are officially weaned! It really was a simple Amalia-led process. When I realized that you were really not interested in nursing any longer, and I was continuing more for me than for you, we stopped. One night I just didn't offer to nurse, and you never made a single indication that you wanted to. So without even a whimper a very significant milestone was passed.
I thought I might be sad or wistful, but I am just happy that you've taken another little step towards independence. When I really sit down and think hard about what the end of nursing means, for you, for me, then it's true, I may feel a little nostalgic for my little babies, for the fact that I will, in alln likelihood never have another little nursling, and my children are now bustling, busy, fighty, giggly little people. I mean, look at you! How did you go in the blink of an eye, from a round little grub, to a scooting scooter, and now to a fully fledged toddler? The walking break through really did happen in a matter of weeks. Now you toddle around from this toy to that, or from one room to another like you own the place. And along with the increased mobility, not surprisingly, you are in fact starting to loose some of your chins!

Another month has gone by, and I have been so lucky to spend my days and nights watching you change and grow. As we play outside and see the seasons change along with you, I'm glad I get to share with you what a very beautiful place this world can be.


Love, Mama.

Give a hoot!

One of Amalia's very few unfortunate habits is her love of wasting the camera battery by turning it on, and off, on, and off over and over until the only picture we get of the awesome time we had a Dolinger farm was of the guy holding the owl. This was our 5th year going to the farm (the first year we went was when the twins were just under a year old!) and it was super.
Domingo was totally wowed, rapt if you will, by the raptor display. SOAR (Save Our American Raptors) brought a horned owl, a peregrine falcon, and a kestrel to the farm to show people, and talk about their organization that saves and rehabilitates wounded birds of prey. It was really fascinating. The owl in this picture is apparently really really small, and her wings and bones are bent because she was kept by a person who found her when she was a fledgling and didn't know what to feed her so she was malnourished and got rickets. All of the "teaching" animals can no longer be reintroduced into the wild for one reason or another. It was a really neat part of a really great day!