Winter Solstice monthday!

Amalia, your 18th monthday/half birthday is today on the shortest day of the year! I realize that the posting over here has been pretty light recently, but I promise there is a really good reason. We've been working hard trying to get your new house ready for you to move! Well, all of us will be moving, I don't want you to think that you are getting your own place quite yet.
I kind of didn't want to post about the place until we were ready to move in, but it just doesn't make sense to keep NOT mentioning the reason we've been so busy lately! But soon enough we'll have lots of pictures and a brand new house from which we'll be updating!
But despite being super busy, we've still kept some tabs on what you've been up to, a little.
So! Developmentally, you are plugging right along. You are officially a little parrot. You now repeat everything we say. I have stopped counting all your words, but there are many. Your absolute favorite thing to do is sing and listen to music. Your favorite song is the theme from Totoro, and still, Home on the Range reigns supreme. You started liking that song since I would sing it when reading "Cowboy Pequeno" or as it's rightfully called, Cowboy Small. There is a page where Cowboy Small is singing Home on the Range to his fellow cowboys, and you always would ask for mas, mas, mas! when ever I got to that part. It became kind of like your lullaby, and it remains your favorite song before bed.



Your Cowboy Pequeno homage.

You are still growing like a weed, and LOVE to eat and drink more milk, or "all gone" as you still call it, than any other baby I've ever seen. You are more of a milk lover than even your brother was when he was your age, and that is quite a bit!
We haven't taken you to your 18th month check up for the official stats, but my back tells me that you weigh at least 30 pounds.


Delicioso!

And everywhere we go when people ask how old you are, they follow up by asking if you are really tall for your age. You are quite tall and I suspect that you are still off the chart percentagewise in all categories.

You are still obsessed with "Omingo" although you do fight with him a lot more than before. You are kind of a brute. You hit and push and grab and fight, sometimes with Domi, other times with Mommy! We are in the process of really trying to get you to be a little more "suave" as we say over here, but it is a very hard lesson for you to learn. But, with a little patience, we are definitely learning it together.

This coming month we'll have a lot to look forward to, Christmas, seeing tio Gustavo, playing with primos and primas, and hopefully moving into our new house.
Amalia, thank heavens the days are going to get longer, so we'll have more time to spend together. Happy half-year birthday sweet girl.
Love, Mama.

Happy Delinquent 17th monthday!

Amalia, these last few months have been super-crazy busy rather than their usual just super-crazy. You are quite nearly 18 months, a year and a half! But I would be remiss if I let last month go by undocumented.
You are really coming into your own in the talking department the past month or two. I was dutifully noting all your new words (like PIE!) and then realized that I've stopped keeping track because there are so many! Just to show you I'm not totally shirking my documentary duties, some new words you've pick up are more/mas, apple juice/jugo, cabeza, nariz, boca, pie-meaning foot in Spanish, as well as pie the food, bump, owie (those were learned together) hi/hola, and Domingo, which you pronounce "ingo"or "omi". I must say it's very sweet. So you definitely will have 20 words at 20 months, so I can stop worrying about language in general and start worrying about something else, like your Spanish. Unlike Domingo, you are speaking both Spanish and English pretty equally, if not a little heavy on the English. So let's try to work on the ol' espanol chica.


You too senor giant boca.

I think the fact that you can FINALLY get your point across makes for a much less frustrating life experience. You did not really take to the baby signs very much (except for MAS!) so now that you have some vocabulary at your disposal, I think you are less likely to throw a tantrum, or at least I'm less likely to feel bad about it, because, dude, I know you want m&ms, I hear you, I feel your pain, but you are not getting m&ms (at least not any MORE m&ms).


You may, however, have more pasta with a giant spoon.

You are such a quirky, funny, beguiling little girl. You love reading (EAD!), playing with babies (your absolute favorite is "your" baby, cousin Owl), and singing. Your favorite songs right now are Totoro and Home on the Range. It is really hilarious how you kind of mumble the melodies, and then yell out the last words of the phrases in those songs. I have to get a video of if some time, but we usually sing before bed or in the car. Yes, your favorite lullaby is Home on the Range, I said you were quirky.


This month (or two) has flown by, it's starting to get colder, it snowed for the first time, and we have a whole bunch of new stuff to look forward to in the coming months. But first there is this:

Oh Amalia, please don't ever change.
Love,
Mama

That which shall not be named...

Of course when the camera wasn't on she was screaming PIE! at the top of her lungs, and when I turned the camera on her, she became a petite demur flower. I must admit I find it pretty amusing that one of my children is so adamantly in love with the dreaded P word. Pretty soon she'll be asking me to pass the chips and you know what.