Super 88. Yum.

One of the highlights of our trip: dinner at Super 88 with Auntie Sarah, Uncle Dave and Cousin Lilah. Why oh why can't you get decent Chinese food in Spain? Still wondering, given the significant Chinese ex-pat community in Madrid. Super 88 not only has Chinese food, but Korean and Vietnamese...and maybe more, too. I like the supermarket, but we didn't get a chance to go in this time. Aurora and Lilah shared their love of noodles, and all of us in our love of good eats. Can't forget dessert: tapioca bubble shakes (mine was blueberry smoothie with "mega" bubbles).

Home again.

Catnaps on the Isenberg couch are hard to beat.

Our trip to the States was tinged with some of the tough stuff: death, fear, sadness -- and while it wasn't the trip I had hoped for, it's hard to dwell too long on anything when the stuff of life is happening so intensely to you with your, ahem, toddler.

How will we ever be able to thank wise Emily enough for dragging us to the Cape?

You forget about death, for example, when your toddler throws up during dinner on the plane ride back. The tough stuff you fear gives way to worries about the death-wish looks that your nearby passengers are giving you, and the discomfort of dampness and smelliness that you know you are fortunate enough to be able to remedy in a matter of about six or seven more hours.

Aurora lost her Abuelita, her father's mother, while we were away. Lucy Bulliet, a fantastic friend of the family, died in early March and our trip made me wrinkle with sadness about not having been able to say goodbye or introduce her to another smart, witty woman who changed my life (Aurora). The rest, well...there is more, and maybe we'll mention some of it in a later post.

This video is lovingly dedicated to my sister, Aurora's "Auntie Sarah."

And I can't help but include a YouTube gem yet another wise woman sent me a while back: Priscilla put a smile on my face and some groove in somewhere when she sent me this.
 
Let contagious toddler giggles and dance parties get us through all of this and the stuff to come.
 
 

Day before first haircut of her life. Not sure if *I* want to go through with it! It's taken so long to grow this much, and this long in the back. It's still very, very fine (baby hair-like). Her dad's was this color (lighter than his now) but super curly when he was her age (17 months), and mine was just like hers but blond. Apparently mine also had a cute little curl tendency at the ends like hers does -- my mom used to twirl my pigtails with her finger and they'd stay in ringlets all day! Anyway, seems Aurora is a combo, at least in the hair department.

Any thoughts on baby hair, first haircuts and/or sentimentalisms?

Carnaval and FIRST STEPS!

Kids in Spain go to daycare and elementary school with costumes to celebrate Carnaval. (On a side note, it seems like kids here are always going dressed up for some occasion or other -- this from my still-somewhat-an-outsider point of view!) Aurora's daycare center announced a party for Carnaval, costumes optional. We didn't have a lot of time or energy to invest in the whole thing this week, but I rummaged up a sort of costume for her...I couldn't bear to pass up the occasion to dress her up as something and see if she thought it was fun. She did.

And this afternoon, after a long day of partying and downing a reported two hot dogs (plus veggie puré and yogurt for dessert) at daycare, Aurora took her first step forward. Twice. It's official. (Run for your life!)

Good Times

Hope you're all having a good time, too!

Avocados

Aurora is 14 months old, as of two days ago. I've had in mind for quite a while that I should post a list of her favorite foods. Here's one: avocado. She'll eat half an avocado for dinner, and would probably eat more if I let her. Last night she also dined on (after the half an avocado, I mean): cured cheese, ham and fresh clementines.

 I would like some more of that splendid specimen of avocado, please.

Other favorite dinner items include green peas, clementines, ham, whole-wheat pasta and, in general, anything we might be eating. On Sunday at a restaurant with Leo, Cristal, Leo Jr. and Natalia, Aurora downed her first shrimp (battered and fried) and her first anchovy (smoked and on a tiny piece of mayo-laden bread).

 

Avocado brand peek-a-boo. 

Aurora now says three words: "Papa," "Momma," and "hola". They first appeared in that order. Everything else is still in a language we do not yet understand. Ah! She also occasionally nods. This happened for the first time last week. Until then and since sometime in July she would only shake her head.

It's so good I can't stand it.  

After avocado-ing, we had bathtime. Bathtime seemed like terrible torture until around Aurora was about 3 or 4 months old. Now it's a veritable and nightly fest.

Enough for now. We anxiously await your comments.

Unhappy holidays.

This will not be our holiday photo for this year.

Fruit Eating.

Two teeth

Aurora is six months and one week old, and last week her first two teeth came in! They've been a long time coming (heavy salivating started at around three months), but arrived just in time for her six month birthday. It's pretty much impossible to see them in photos, so you'll have to take our word for it, or catch her smiling in person to get a glimpse.

Many of you have seen our super baby carriage, which we consider the Porsche of babymobiles. We got it second hand from a nice family in Malasaña, my old neighborhood in Madrid. It's great for long walks around the city, for having next to the table at a restaurant or outdoor café, etc. -- Aurora's up high where she can check out all the action at the table.

It's not great, however, for lugging up the two flights of stairs to the shed outside Aurora's daycare center every morning. So after my usual in-depth market study including best-online-price search, we acquired a Smart for Aurora: a Silver Cross Fizz. At 5.3 kilos, it's a whole lot easier to get up those stairs and into the shed. (The Stokke weighs near 13 kg, if I'm not mistaken....)

The Fizz certainly doesn't have the ride that the Stokke has. The worst part, however, is getting used to not being able to see Aurora's face while you're pushing her. Up until now we'd been using a front carrier to carry her to and from daycare, and it's especially good for conversations. ("I need you to eat your veggies today, okay?") Alas, we're becoming experts in the pros and cons of baby gadgets and gear.

We sure have lots to tell since the last post, but the rest will have to wait. Hopefully I'll get the next one done before two more teeth come in.

4-month checkup

Today Aurora is FOUR MONTHS OLD!

As seems fitting, she had her 4-month checkup this afternoon, complete with four vaccines. She now measures 62 cm (49 at birth) and weighs 6 kilos (2.8 at birth). The nurse said everything looked great, except that she needs to sleep on her side for a while -- otherwise the flattish place on the back of her head will just get worse!

She seems to love it when we sing to her. Unfortunately, I don't remember the words to nearly anything.
Some I've considered (or hummed or invented words to) in the past few days include:

"Yellow Submarine"
"Yesterday"
"Edelweiss"
"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" (Paul Simon)
"Some Days Are Better Than Others" (U2)

How about some suggestions? What song would you sing to her? What songs have your babies/nieces/nephews/brothers/sisters etc especially liked?

Daycare & First Sniffles

Tomorrow Aurora will be 4 months old. She's come a long way, even sleeping 12 hours at a time some nights. (These are very good days, indeed). Last week she started at daycare in the mornings, so that *I* could adapt to our being apart -- I began work again yesterday!

Last week I took her a couple of hours a day, Monday through Thursday...and Thursday afternoon she showed some clear signs of a cold. Her usual sound effects were snuffled by congestion.

She still has the cold, it's gotten worse although there's no fever. Last night our little sleep machine woke up 5 times -- a true sign that she's uncomfortable. For the past month or so she's been showing her López-Olivier colors and sleeping all night. She's smiley when we go to get her in her crib in the morning.

More on her day-to-day: Aurora drinks baby herbal tea! It seems to settle her stomach and has some sugar in it, so she drinks it happily.

And here's one last photo, a classic Aurora sleep pose:

Hopefully we'll all get some sleep tonight.

Sunday Afternoon Excursion

Look who's enjoying the Baby Bjorn with Daddy!

Best Napping Spots

These spontaneous baby naps are maybe what I'll most miss when I go back to work next month.

Your Wish Is My Command.

(This wish, at least.)

Here's one of the few pictures of me with Aurora. Truth be told, most of the time since late in my pregnancy I don't feel in any state to be captured for posterity. I'd better go ahead and start requesting pictures whenever I feel halfway presentable -- if I don't, I won't have any from the first part of A's life.

We'll try to get snapping this weekend.

Happy Year of the Golden Tiger

Happy Chinese New Year!

As some of you already know, Sunday was the first day of the Chinese New Year. This is the Year of the Tiger, and is also referred to as the year of the "Golden Tiger," "Metal Tiger" or "White Tiger."  Aurora was born in the Year of the Ox, specifically the Earth Ox.

Our celebration this year was none too elaborate, but Aurora and I did wear red, which is supposed to bring good fortune in the upcoming year. In fact, Aurora wore red through three changes of clothes. She is a stain machine.

And while our pre-New-Year cleaning stint lacked intensity, we were all too glad not to clean on Sunday. Cleaning on the first day of the Chinese New Year might do away with your luck!

Here's a look at red outfits number one and two of Sunday:

Note her long, thin feet. Our little hobbit. Frodita.

A Wet Winter

Aurora has had more snow and rain in her first winter of life than I've ever experienced in my 10+ years in Madrid. Apparently, the rain we got the last week in December (coinciding, unfortunately, with an otherwise delightful visit from Sarah, Dave and Lilah) was historic -- the most in more than 20 years?

So I've pushed the carriage through slush and through rain to get in our daily walk. Today is perhaps the first day I haven't been out with her...it's snowing and looks entirely unappealing. Also, Aurora is pretty different than during her first weeks, and we know each other better now than we did then. It's much more fun even when we're around the house most of the day.

For those of you who haven't met Aurora in person yet, here are some keys to her personality:

- Makes some crazy sounds. Do all newborns do this?
- Seems to be over her male-pattern-baldness phase (new hair coming in strong on top of her head).
- Gets mad when I talk to other people (or on the phone) while she's breastfeeding.
- No longer cries at bathtime.
- Flashes her great, toothless smile more in the morning than in the later part of the day.
- Is wearing a mix of 1-3 month clothing. Some things marked "newborn" still fit, though.
- Weighs in (as of last week) at 5.37 kilos (11.84 pounds). We celebrate her weight gain (unlike mine)....
- Needs to get out of the house before too late in the day or begins to wilt (just like her mom).

A big CONGRATULATIONS to Aurora's Aunt Shivaun, who gave birth yesterday to her son Adrian. We can't wait to meet him.

I'll try to put some pictures up tomorrow.

Who says newborns don't smile?

1 MONTH OLD!


Today, Christmas Eve, Aurora is exactly one month old. It’s not the best day to be blogging, there are lots of extra things to do (in all that spare time you have with a newborn, especially when breastfeeding on demand)…but a short entry is better than nothing, right?!

When Aurora was born, she weighed 2.845 kilos and measured 49 cm. She went down to 2.600 while we were still at the hospital. Yesterday at the pediatrician, we got good news: after a month, she now weighs 3.650 kilos and measures 52 cm!

Here's a picture of Aurora in her first week (still at the hospital) and a picture today:

Right now Aurora is sleeping in her Hug-a-Bub. I just put it on for the first time, and while it doesn’t look as nicely tied as in the video, it’s pretty comfy and A seems to like it, too. Surely with a little practice I won’t be flopping the cloth ends around the living room like ten minutes ago.

Must go and prepare bottles for night feeding. This is new and will hopefully bring us slightly more restful nights: now we’re doing a combined system of breastfeeding and giving A breast milk from a bottle. Her little stomach isn’t entirely regulated yet, so sometimes she asks for food as often as EVERY HOUR.

Tomorrow will be our first Christmas with her.

Awake

This is a test, this is only a test. It is currently 6:35 am, I am completely and miserably awake. Today (or really, yesterday) I reached week 28 of my pregnancy.

I hope I can get some sleep before Aurora is born.