The first cold of the season has hit and we're dying of cold-ness.

The poor baby Animalia has a cold as does her poor mama. It started a little bit gross night before last, just trouble getting her to bed, her having trouble breathing. She woke up several times in the night and I had a sore throat so I knew, just knew. By the time we both woke up the next morning it was obvious. We have a cold.

The Animalia is experiencing runny nose and tiredness and crankiness and not breathing very easily-ness. The nose flows constantly, just flows like the River Ganges. Just flows and flows. And she cries when I wipe her nose because despite the many Vaseline barriers she's been smeared with her little nose is getting raw. Suctioning only helps briefly and then the nose starts flowing again.

Putting her to bed last night was awful. She sounded like she was drowning and I said so to her Daht. Swallow, swallow, swallow, deep breath, swallow, swallow, sniff, deep breath. Babies with colds are so helpless. And yucky.

No really, she walks.

Three nights ago, despite the official first steps coming more than a week before, the Animalia realized she could walk on her own. It's like a little switch went off in her head. I don't need to hold hands! I don't need to touch furniture! I can walk! All by myself!

And walk she did. From one end of our oddly shaped living room to the other. From the couch out to the middle of the room, where she crouched to pick something up, stood up without stumbling and brought it (ok, it was an empty water bottle, she loves to play with those) to me. Back and forth and forth and back til 9:30 pm. Nevermind bedtime, the girl can walk people! Are you hearing this!? She can walk by herself like a big girl. All the while patting herself as a reward, telling herself that she's a good girl.

I thought I was injured.

I wasn't wearing my glasses, I don't know why, and I noticed something on my shoulder. A scab. A long, puckered, crusty scab, right across the top of my shoulder. It was huge. So huge I immediately think about calling the doctor. An unnoticed cut of this enormous proportion must be reported immediately. I touch it gently. It feels disgusting but immediately flakes off. What the?! I rub more off. I smell the flakes. Yes, I smell the flakes. I know, right?! I smell the flakes. It's frijoles from feeding Animalia earlier. I am now officially the kind of mom who has Cheerios stuck to her ass all day and no one says anything. But in private.

BA-BAO!

So we go to the zoo and everything is a ba-bao. Remember, guaguao is Spanish baby talk for dog and the Animalia's version is ba-bao. The pigeons are ba-baos, as are the peacocks. The polar bear is a BA-BAO! The giraffes are BA-BAOs! and she was a little concerned at first when her and her Daht fed them but ended up wanting to pet them. The elephant inspires awed silence. Some animals inspire barking, I think the Animalia thought that they were going to bark back at her. A pato duck inspires a "quack," something that the Animalia hasn't done before or since. She touched a hedgehog, curled up in a volunteer's hand, and jumped when it jumped. She wanted to pet the snake, slithering along another volunteer's hand, but I stopped her. She liked it too much and I thought she would squish it. She was carried by her Daht, he showed her zebras. Her tata let her walk in a grassy area when she wanted to walk around in her big girl high top Chuck Taylors. It was a nice morning. She saw ba-baos. She was tired. We went home.

No to the weaning.

The Animalia, she says no to weaning. In fact, I was trying to take away her lunchtime feeding and her tata told her that "big girls don't eat mama papa." That's what we call it, mama papa, not mama's food, food from mama. So anyway, her tata told her that. And she gave him a dirty look. Then she pushed him.

This is going to be a piece of cake, don't you think?

Awww...

We were reminiscing about the Animalia's birthday when I remembered one hilarious little detail. After the Birthday Song, the Animalia, with a little encouragement, grabbed at the cake. With a little more encouragement, she tried the frosting and immediately realized it was delicious. She licked her hand and said Yum! Licked her hand again and said Yum! She licked and yummed and licked and yummed til the frosting was all over her face and in her hair. It was awesome.

ONE! ONE! ONE!

The Animalia turned one with great fanfare, family and friends on Sunday, October 5, 2008. It was a luncheon affair, with carne asada, rice, beans, macaroni salad, salsa, and tortillas. Also served was a delicious cake from Le Caves, white cake with strawberry filling, whipped cream frosting and a lovely Elmo theme illustrated in red frosting. Elmo was a real presence at the festivities, appearing also in the form of a giant, difficult piñata wearing a zapeta with a chupón in his mouth. The guest list consisted of many family members and some friends, approximately 50 people in all. The gifts were overflowing: clothes, toys, gift cards, etc, plus approximately 300 diapers that will be donated to the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona. The Nina gave her gift early: a shiny silver metal roadster that will last the Animalia forever. No games were played at the party, though a small play house and parachute were set up for the little children to play with and in. In addition to this, for entertainment purposes, the Animalia's Nino appeared wearing a giant Clifford the Big Red Dog costume and everyone laughed, including the Animalia. The last guests left at 6pm even though the invitation said noon til 2pm. We were exhausted.

It was lovely.