Enough to make me quit.

Yesterday, the Animalia was up early. She was playing in her crib quietly while I took a shower and gathered everything for the day. After a bit, she pulled herself up, and I guess I had passed her by one too many times because she started saying Mama! in her very best complaining voice. I had to go through her bedroom one more time. As I passed her yet again she looked at me and said,"Mama. Maaaamaaaaa. Buh bye?"

Seriously. I wanted to call work and say I was never going back. The guilt.

Ta-DAH!

This is my 90th post. Who knew I had so much writing in me? Who knew babies were so interesting?

This weekend was filled with hilarities.

Animalia acts like a puppy sometimes. The other night she was having her favorite: calabacitas and beans. She'd had some baby food earlier and I was just giving her a snack while we ate dinner. I gave her a few grains of rice. She couldn't pick them up like she picks up the beans. She'd pinch at them but wouldn't be able to grab them. I could tell she was getting frustrated. I was about to pick them up and feed them to her. She gave up. She put her mouth down on the tray of her high chair and started licking them up.

Last night, she insisted on going napless til after dinner. She was tired and hungry. I stuck her in her high chair and started feeding her. Instead of refusing the food when she was done, she put her little head down in her high chair. She was tired.

Pobresito Da

The Animalia plays this game with her nana where her nana says "íAy te coje la nana!" and chases Animalia until she catches her and tickles her. Animalia loves it and starts crawling away faster when she hears that phrase and then laughs when she's caught. So I started doing that, replacing nana with mama. Anyhow, her Da tried to play the chasing game with her and, while the Animalia was crawling away, started saying "I'm gonna get you!" Animalia's reaction was lukewarm. She looked at him and kept crawling at her normal speed. He caught her and she got a little irritated at being picked up. He looked at me and said,"It's not fair, we don't even speak the same language."

I felt bad.

Injuries and other fun stuff.

Animalia is so mobile now it's ridiculous. She is not only climbing stairs but learning how to successfully go down them, feet first instead of head first. She pulls herself up ALL THE TIME, using whatever she can to get to standing. Occasionally these things aren't the most stable things, like her drum, turned over on its side, or boxes made of these soft foam squares that we made to occasionally contain her mess of clothes. Once up, she'll stand on her tiptoes to reach whatever she sees and wants. The tiptoes cause a little bit of panic inside me but I resist the urge to grab her every single time.

She's thumped her head a couple of times, mostly startled herself and cried but nothing major. Until a couple of days ago. She was at her Nana's house and had pulled herself up on the wood coffee table. She was doing the tiptoe thing and one of her little feet slipped and she hit her mouth, her two new top front teeth, on the table on her way down. There were tears. There was a tiny bit of blood. There was a hidden panic in my chest. She got an ice cube to suck on and she was fine.

The rest of the day I was privately concerned. What if the Animalia lost a tooth and had to endure childhood as the toothless, dirty faced girl? Should I take her to the dentist? Doctor? Of course, I'm a reasonable person and did none of these things. No major swelling, no fussing, and she's fine now. I didn't have to be crazy.

Wow. Just wow.

As the Animalia gets older and bigger and stronger she is able to do more things at an astounding rate. At least it's astounding to me, her mother, who is endlessly fascinated by her.

Yesterday, during my lunch hour, I was watching her play with a diaper. No worries, it was clean. Anyhow, she pulled herself up to the coffee table and was standing there and "banging" the diaper against the coffee table. I turned around briefly, to pick up another toy for her, and when I looked back at her, she wasn't holding on. She wasn't leaning. She was just standing there, feet firmly planted, waving the diaper around. She looked at me and smiled and sat down WITHOUT HOLDING ONTO ANYTHING! WOW!

Animalia fans, we need you!

Please vote for Animalia on a Jones Soda bottle. This doesn't mean she'll be picked but lots of votes apparently get noticed at Jones.

Not only is she adorable but this picture rocks

http://www.jonessoda.com/gallery/view.php?ID=0000975653

Tell all your friends!

Papas y aguas

A couple of days ago, the Animalia looked at her nana and made the papa sound, which is a whole lot like her besitos. She was hungry. Nana went to the kitchen to get her food and Animalia crawled herself into the dining room where she eats. She was too excited.

Yesterday, her Ata was watering some plants and Animalia, seeing the water, said "mmmmmm A-wa."

The clever girl, she has her priorities.

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Happy birthday to YOU! You know who you are but I'll mention you by name anyway, migfig. The Animalia is very proud of you for reaching this day relatively healthy, happy, and unscathed. Remember this day because one day, the Animalia will use it against you. You'll say, "I remember back in 2008..." and she'll say "2008? I wasn't even one year old." She's a little bit like that.

Also reserved for this day, a new story about the most miracle onesie of all time (that still fits, by the way):

A few days ago, the Animalia decided that she should poop all over the place, including outside of her diaper, on her onesie. It was huge. I thought it was finished for sure. It went to the laundry. Miraculously, despite much concern, it came out perfect, completely unscathed. It truly is a gift from God. Oh, and it STILL FITS!

Overstimulation.

Rough night, last night. For me more than anyone else.

The day was long: baby gym where Animalia kept following another baby around, obsessed with her dress (I think), Target (bought Animalia a toy that she likes very very much), the Nana's house (nap for Animalia, lunch for both of us), the Tucson Children's Museum (her cousins were visiting for the day and we had to entertain them). She really really liked the museum and the cousins. No surprise, she likes museums, but this one actually had things for her to touch. And she likes kids and pulling kids hair so the cousins were a source of much glee as they have lots of hair a la Jonas Brothers. Bonus. So we went back to Nana's after and waited for her Da's cellphone to show up via UPS. Waited, waited, Animalia had dinner, waited. Then we went home where she was very tired and cranky.

I finally put her to sleep around 7:30 but everytime I'd put her down in her crib or bassinet, she'd start screaming. Boo. I was tired too so this was very frustrating. And her Da tried to help but every time he'd try to touch her she'd start screaming. Smiling from a distance was fine, it was the touching that was irritating to her. I think he may have actually tried to play with her just to be annoying. In the end, she slept with me. Because I was tired and defeated. Then she started talking in her sleep. And laughing. Which also woke me up. I'd look at her after one of these giggles or "bababababa" and she'd be fast asleep. She also clapped a few times. In her sleep.

I've known her to practice her crawling skills in her sleep but not clap yet or chat very much. She's also starting to grind her teeth on occasion since the top two really started peeking out. This whole talking and clapping thing was definitely new. I blame the museum.

This morning the Animalia struggled awake, not like her at all, and made some little cries before opening her eyes. We're tired.

Mama anxiety

The separation anxiety seems to be back but only slightly. She suffered it pretty badly around 5 months, seemed to have gotten over it but lately she's started crying when I leave her again. She doesn't go on and on. Typically she'll stop crying when I'm out of sight although on occasion she's launched herself into a minor tantrum with the mama tears setting her off.

Yesterday, I was dropping her off with her Nana before work. She's usually thrilled to be there, thrilled to see Nana and jump into her arms. Yesterday, she wasn't. Her Nana reached out to her and she actually swatted her hand away and turned back into my arms. I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows.

This morning, to prevent a major fit, her Da distracted her from seeing me on my way out. He even blocked her view of me so that I could get my shoes.

The things we do.

Tickle.

Me (hand up in the air, scrunching fingers at Animalia): Ay viene la luna...
Animalia smiles.
Me (hand creeping closer): ...comiendo las tunas...
Animalia scrunches her face and smiles wider.
Me (hand still creeping closer): ...hechando las cascaras...
Animalia starts to giggle.
Me (tickling her): EN LA LAGUNA!

Animalia just laughs and laughs. Then when we start all over again she starts laughing before I even touch her. She knows this one since we've been doing it since she was tiny. She also knows "Los pollitos" and an Animalia-ized version of "Las Mañanitas" and some of our favorite songs that we made up especially for her. We still sing to her all the time. The songs are still occasionally insane, most recently starring the giant stuffed Banana in Pajamas that's going to eat her. She thinks it's hilarious.

Bumps and bruises

Animalia. Lately she thinks she can stand up all by herself. And no, I don't mean let go of the couch after pulling herself up, which she does often. What she does is push herself up like a little crab and then, when she feels stable on her feet, she pushes off the floor with her hands. I'm not quite sure how she expects herself to stand up like that but I can tell that she's shocked when she hits the floor again, a few times with her face. And then there's the crying. The shocked shrieks. So far these tears go away once she's soothed. I fear the real tears, coming soon, since she's the baby with no fear. Like her Tío Tío was, a baby who would try anything and paid the price with scars and bumps and bruises. The Animalia just goes, goes, goes and explores everything. She has to SEE and TOUCH everything.

The other day after her dinner she was still in her high chair and I was sitting in front of her. I gave her a book. She dropped it. Then she managed to tuck her feet under herself and push herself up and over the tray, looking to see where the book had gone. If I hadn't been there she would have flipped herself completely over.

She's also liking to push things. Thing is, she's not at the point to where she can stand up and walk behind something that she's pushing. She pulls herself up on a large object, like her high chair, and starts to push it. Only she's using it for support so if we're not very vigilant she'll fall along with the movement of the thing.

She's also liking to climb. I mentioned the stairs before, now it's monkey stuff. Like reaching up to grab her her high chair, dangling from it and trying to climb up the legs with her tiny feet curled around them. Like trying to climb a rope. Like a monkey.

"Come on!"

The Animalia likes to explore, occasionally alone, occasionally in the company of adults. When she's in exploring mode, crawling in the deliberate way that she does, and she wants company, she'll start crawling, pause, sit down halfway and look backward. Then she extends her tiny little arm toward you and then points in the direction that she's going. She'll wait. When you're up and ready to go, she continues on, every so often checking behind her to make sure there's someone there. If you pause too long or get up too slowly, she'll glare.

Yesterday, she did that to her Ata. She started crawling away from him while he was sitting on the couch. He didn't get up. Instead, he waved her back to him the same way she waves people on. She stopped and went back to him instead of going exploring.

Well rounded baby.

Sunday we (me, Nana, Ata) took Animalia to the Tucson Museum of Art for the very first time. We wanted to see the current exhibit of Mexican photographers. She seemed to really enjoy it, oohing and aahing at the right times. She seems to like museums, maybe the lighting or the very defined points of interest? Anyhow, she does this thing at museums and other places. When it's very very quiet, she starts chatting. Loud. She did that and started blowing raspberries at some of the photographs. It wasn't so bad, she was louder at the Art Institute in Chicago. It didn't last too long either. After a floor of photographs, she fell asleep.

Desert Museum is next.

Poor Animalia

Thursday. Doctor's appointment to follow up on Animalia's "problem."

"Constipation," her mother whispered to not embarrass the delicate sensitivities of the Animalia.

Poor baby. It gets better, then worse and back and forth like that in a way that her doctor thinks is slightly abnormal. But not the most abnormal as she continues to gain weight and grow. She's 21 lbs and 30 1/2 inches now. Go baby!

Anyhow, we'd had a rough patch the night before with the "issue" and well, there we were, at the doctor for the 3rd time in a month. Her doctor ordered tests. Fortunately she combined some that are typical at her next regular well baby visit so she wouldn't have to go through the blood draw thing more than once. So we left the doctor and hit the lab where they proceeded to torture the Animalia. They tried to draw blood from both arms and got nothing. The Animalia left with bandages covering the giant bruises forming on her tiny arms. Sadness. We would have to try again in a few days.

I was dreading the second attempt but it went swimmingly. The Animalia only cried when she tried to struggle and she couldn't move from being held down. It was quick and hopefully relatively painless. Then me and her Tío Tío took her to San Xavier for her to ooh and ahh over the santos and touch San Francisco's head. I said a tiny prayer for her health and then we climbed the hill and stared at the nearly empty grotto and the green fields momentarily before our drive home.

Happy 4th!

This was Animalia's first 4th of July and probably the latest she's ever stayed up in a decent mood. Ever.

She met some other babies, some 5 month old twins that visited briefly on their way to another party. They were all put together in the Animalia's crib. I warned the supervising adults but they didn't listen and the Animalia went right for the eyes of one of the defenseless infants. She wasn't trying to hurt him, only pet him, but it didn't quite come off as planned. These twins were small and wobbly and I held one, remembering when Animalia was small and wobbly. Ahhh, the memories.

The Animalia also wanted to play with her cousins, boys who are 5 and 8 years old. They didn't want to play with her either as they were playing with a model plane with thousands of tiny parts. Later they would run in and out of the house and the Animalia would feel acutely left out as she is unable to run.

My cousin carried her around and occasionally disappeared with her, feeding her sweet potato puffs and keeping her happy and away from my uncle, just to be mean. When she finally gave her to him, the Animalia cried because she didn't want to leave her puffs. There was another cry, later, that said that she was tired, and I nursed her but the second I put her down she cried herself awake and just stayed awake despite Nana's best efforts to rock her to sleep. She can't sleep when people are hanging out and having a good time.

The fireworks didn't start til almost 10pm but she was awake, did a few oohs and ahhhs and clapped her approval a few times. The display was a little long though so she ended up distracted by one of the visiting dogs wandering around our yard. Was it worth throwing her off her sleep schedule? Hm. Maybe, maybe not. As of yesterday we weren't quite back to it. On the other hand, it was very cute for her to see the fireworks and entertain the guests with her extraordinary clapping skills, squealing, judgy looks and general cuteness and happiness to be held by many strangers.