like mother like daughter

my girl is crazy. love her!

sing along

So, Nora has this toy that has farm animal sounds on it and some songs. This morning A was playing with her and the song ¨The Farmer in the Dell¨ came on. He was singing along happily saying ¨The Farmer in the Hell¨ What the?? I almost wet my pants and then told him it was DELL (whatever that means?) He was like ¨oh¨ poor guy. I think for the sake of our daugher he should just stick to Spanish!

Spreading her Wings

It looks like we have a social butterfly on our hands. I keep reading about this ¨separation anxiety¨ that babies are supposed to have and I´m pretty sure Nora has never had it nor will she, ever! Every afternoon we go to this cafeteria to have a coffee with A´s mom, aunts, and cousins. If they don´t see Nora on a daily basis they FLIP out and it´s the end of the world, so I try to make everyone happy. I swear, 11 months later each day is still like the first day they´ve seen Nora. It´s getting kinda old, but it´s also kinda cute. I know they love her terribly. She´s the first baby in the family since A´s brother and his brother is now thirty two!

Anywho, so there really aren´t very many people there while we are there so we just let her roam around and practice walking...the tables that are full she marches right up and and starts pointing at them and ¨talking¨ up a storm. It´s hilarious. I usually don´t let her linger too long at any given table because you know those people are like ¨damn kids¨ ha! I have to remember not EVERYONE thinks my Nora is as adorable as I do!

I´m just happy that she isn´t afraid of people and that she makes others smile. I can´t even count the number of times she makes me smile on a daily basis. What a lil social butterfly!

lovey

nora´s never really had a lovey before...until now! she´s obsessed with a little dolly she got this past summer. this afternoon she woke up from her nap crying and crying and she was just roaming around the house crying and then she walked into her room and tried to grab the dolly from the outside of the crib. ah, the dolly! so i gave it to her and she hugged it and immediately stopped crying. cutest. thing. ever.

over the top

So, I just got back from the gym and I do a butt, thighs, abs class. This girls thong was hanging out the whole time. Really? First of all I do not want to see that..second of all..how the heck do you work out in a thong? That takes some serious talent! How can she even find that thing when she´s done? It has to be so far shoved up her arse that it might possibly be a new apendage or something. Intense.

Also, I hate when people leave total skid marks on the toilet and all I have to do is pee. I come out and you KNOW the person going in next thinks I left the skids......but I DIDN´T! It WAS NOT ME! I SWEAR! It´s funny how I get embarrassed about things like that and I didnt´even do anything. And I will never see these people again so who really cares?? But still...skids, gross.

scratchy

I saw her yesterday. She actually looks really put together and I could smell perfume on her as I walked by. I was pleasantly surprised.

If you just saw her in a room you would have no idea that she´s the ¨scraper¨ of the neighborhood. Everyone knows her or they´ve at least heard of her. Oh, THAT lady.

I have no idea what compels her to be the the ¨scraper¨ of the neighborhood and it´s just so weird and silly.


Anytime she sees any sort of sticker or announcement attached to a light post or garage or any sort of surface she SCRATCHES it off and talks to herself while she´s doing it. It´s SO annoying because when Antonio and I were looking for a garage space to rent we couldn´t find any phone numbers to call because she had scratched them all off. One day when we were walking around the neighborhood looking for some numbers we saw her ¨scratching¨ away! We were going to say something but figured she might snap and scratch our eyes out.

I always wonder why she seems quite normal and how she developed this scratching habit along the way. What could have happened to her to cause this drama? Would it be mean of me if I just went on a sticker rampage and just started posting stickers everywhere? At least it would give her something to do!

cleaning!

I finally had some time to organize Nora´s closet today. It was looking like Carter´s threw up in there. It´s always sad when I have to put clothes away that don´t fit her anymore. As I folded each outfit I remembered who bought it for her and where she wore it etc. Stop growing monkey! At least at this stage we can dress them however we want. My mom said that when I got older I was very adimant about what I wanted to wear and I kinda remember it being a raggedy ann blue sweatsuit. (hot). I´m enjoying it while I can!!

She is walking around like a crazy lady! My mom found my baby book and said I didn´t start walking until 16 mths. I´m glad my daughter isn´t lazy like I was.

I to the K to the E to the A

I freaking love Ikea. Our whole house minus our bedroom is Ikea and I love everything! We went tonight and of course I got a few more things. It´s just cheap, cute, and amazing! Thank you Ikea for rocking my world!!!!!!!!!

I saw this one couple that I just can´t get out of my mind. Here there´s a group of people called ¨pijos¨ and they are the people that wear polo sweaters every day and the men have long side burns and slicked back hair and the womena are like trophy wives. They dress their babies in incredibly expensive clothes and they use those strollers that are gigantic and look like they are from the 20´s. This just seems like it would be so hard to maintain. 1. so expensive. 2. so uncomfortable. 3. so hard to wash the clothes. Nora is fine in her Carter´s. ha!!!!!!

eww

I guess the cold from IN has made its way here...it´s a bit colder today but nothing like there! So, on our morning walk I thought a leaf fell on Nora´s hat and it was totally bird doo. Gross-town. Thank goodness for wipies!

TOYS!

I'm kind of a stickler about buying too many toys because at this point in time I think they are kind of ridiculous as Nora can have twenty around her and she'll go for the plastic cup or bag near her instead. I was looking up some toys online and I came across this article about toys over the years. Man, it brought back some memories and I'm sorry but the toys of the eighties rocked the house out! Hungry Hungry Hippo..Fireball Island, Alphie, Cabbage Patch Kids, My little pony, Pound puppy...need I say more?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I need to find my old toys ASAP..stupid garage sales! Why did we ever think that stuff was junk?!



To show you just how much toys have changed over the last 50 years, here’s a guide to the bestsellers of each decade.
1960s

Toys got safer in the 60s, as strict guidelines restricted the use of celluloid, banned sharp edges and toxic dyes. And plastic was king, giving rise to a whole new range of toys, including the iconic Barbie doll, launched by Mattel at the New York toy fair wearing a black-and-white bathing suit.
60s toys

Toys in the 60's - Action Man, Sindy, Scalextris
Other big hits included:

* Scalextric
* Twister
* Etch-A-Sketch
* Spirograph
* Action Man
* Sindy
* Hot Wheels
* Thunderbirds
* Dr Who and the Daleks figures
* Corgi’s James Bond Aston Martin

1970s

This decade saw a global backlash against conflicts like the Vietnam War, so toy weapons stopped being produced. This led to more innovation by manufacturers – for example, Action Man became more of an adventurer and less of a military character, as well as getting nifty eagle eyes. And Danish toy Lego became hugely popular.
70s toys

Toys in the 70's - Spacehopper, weebles
Other bestsellers included:

* The Space Hopper
* Klackers
* Airfix’s Weebles
* Movie spinoff action figures from Star Wars, Jaws, Superman and The Six Million Dollar Man.
* Dungeon and Dragons board games
* Atari’s Pong, the first-ever video game
* It's for the kids... really.. the top ten kids toys for dads

1980s

Although the 80s saw developments like child-sized domestic appliances and the first plastic lunchbox, video and computer technology dominated every child’s leisure time. Games like Atari’s Space Invaders could now be played on handheld consoles, while interactive speak and spell toys made learning fun. These included Alphie, the Electronic Robot, and Vtech computers for pre-school kids.
80s toys

Toys in the 80's - Rubix cube and cabbage patch doll
Other hits included:

* Fantasy toys like Sylvanian Families, My Little Pony, Care Bears and the Smurfs

* Cabbage Patch Kids
* Action Figures from Masters of the Universe and Transformers
* Rubik's Cube
* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
* Mattel’s Big Yellow Teapot

1990s

In the 90s, ethical, environmental and ecological concerns began to be taken seriously, as did toy safety. At the same time, the sale of CDs, computers and computer games rocketed – by the end of the decade over half the toys sold were video games. Nintendo’s Game Boy was a massive seller, as were cyberpets like Tamagotchi.
90s toys

Toys in the 90's - Teletubbies and Power Rangers
Other bestsellers included:

* Buzz Lightyear action figures from the Toy Story movie

* Thunderbirds’ reissued and revamped Tracy Island
* Beanie Babies and Polly Pocket
* Teletubbies
* K'nex construction kits
* Pokemon trading cards
* Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
* Ten films you'll enjoy with your kids

2000s
2000s toys

Toys in the 2000's - Robo Sapiens and Bratz

Today’s kids are lucky enough to be able to choose from traditional teddy bears, games, trains, prams, building kits and rocking horses, plus a wealth of newfangled recreational and educational toys. Video games continue to dominate, with high-powered new consoles like the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 bringing previously undreamt-of control and realism to gaming. Handheld consoles like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS mean kids need never be without their games fix, while iPods and mobile phones are de rigueur for kids from eight and up.
Other hits include:
Thanks!
Loads of thanks to the Museum of Childhood for their help with this article, and give them a visit - it's free to get in!

* Bratz dolls
* Ultra-lifelike dolls like Baby Annabell
* Animatronic toys like Robosapien and Roboraptor
* Hi-tech remote control toys like the Flytech Dragonfly
* The ever-popular Top Trumps
* Geomag
* Kiddie computers like the Dora the Explorer Laptop
* Electronic puzzle games like 20Q
* Old-favourite board games like Scrabble and Monopoly
* Merchandise from the Harry Potter films

ham!

Nora totally cheeses it now when I take out the camera. Of course I think it´s beyond adorable.

Yesterday Julia bought her her Feria dress for her birthday. Oh. My. Gosh. You´ll just have to wait until April to see pix but man...she´s edible!!!!


Sounds like it´s pretty cold in IN at the moment...It´s fifty seven degrees here today. Our winter has been non existent...which is fine with me!!!!!!

,,,,,

Last night when I was in my bed I thought of something awesome to write about today..and now I can´t remember what that something was. So, I´m just going to write about random stuff that pops up in my head! Sounds like a good time doesn´t it?

Yesterday on our walk two people called Nora a boy which kind of...ok, it always annoys me. Don´t you see her earrings people? It´s a battle I can´t seem to win.


I´ve worked in three different academies and today I visited one to show them how big Nora has gotten since it´s been awhile. They were surprised at how big she was and how skinny I was. Thank you very much! Everyone told me it would take a year to get back to my regular size and they were right. Right around the eleven month mark. I finally weigh the same as before but that doesn´t mean my body looks the same. Things have shifted in flight. Oh well! It also really doesn´t matter how big your belly is during pregnancy. That´s not a way to see how big your baby will be cuz mine was HUGE and my baby was smaller than most of my friends. Did you see that Orlando Blooms super model wife had a nine pound twelve ounce baby WITHOUT drugs? Wow. Stupid? Absolutely.

I think Spanish women are freaks of nature..seriously. I need some of their genes. I went for a walk today and I saw at least ten women with three month old babies or younger and they all had their high heels on with their rockin bods..it amazes me every single time. How do they do it? Seriously. I want to know. I´m on a mission to find out!

We take a walk every morning and every evening and Nora loves the street. Maybe she´ll choose to be homeless when she gets older just so she can be in the streets. ha! As we walk the same paths I wonder how many times have I actually walked the same street? five hundred? one thousand? Crazy to think about. I also live in Seville, Spain.I see a cathedral every day and live in a city where people go on vacation. WEIRD! It´s been almost six years which is unbelievable to me and to be honest I´m kinda proud of myself for being able to stick it out here and raise a daughter in a different country! Kind of funny for an Osceola, IN girl to say! I was the kid who didn´t even want to spend the night at my friends house when I was little cuz I would cry and want to go home. Now I see my family twice a year if I´m lucky. It´s tough! It kills me that my loved ones only see Nora once a year!! Oh the sacrifices we make for love!

I need a new job. What am I going to be a retired ESL teacher when I´m fifty? It´s year four and I´m so over it. I WANT an American job that I can do from Spain like translation or writing. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I might go crazy. I´m pretty much a stay at home mom at this point which I LOVE and I think it would be awesome to be able to do computer stuff from home. I need to be creative and I´d like to work a little and be w Nora most of the time. Sometimes I feel like just being w Nora isn´t enough..I need to do more! Am I going to be a retired stay at home mom???

Now that Nora is rounding the year mark it´s time to think about baby number two. ..or is it? How far apart should we have our kids? I really want another kid but I do not want to be prego. ick!How many kids should we have? Do moms ever really feel ¨done¨ or is it just circumstances that cause them to be done? i.e. money, space, etc.

I miss my friends.

Ok, that´s all that´s popping into my head at the moment. Write to me. I´m lonely!

11 months

Dear Nora,
Today you turn 11 months old and you are weighing in at 27 pounds. You are not gaining a trillion pounds a month anymore since you are A NON STOP CRAZY BABY! This month has been wild and you have changed SO incredibly much I can´t even believe my eyes. It seems like each day that passes you are less and less like a baby and more like a little toddler. You are thinning out and unfortunately losing your baby chunk! You do have some nice thighs though..I´ll take it!

This past month you celebrated your first Christmas and Three Kings day and I´m pretty sure you could have cared less about either. I went to IN this past month and left you for an entire week with your abuelos and daddy. I missed you SO much but they did a good job of taking care of you. When I came back and you saw me you kind of let out this cackle laugh. It was hilarious! I was afraid that you would forget me and not be able to latch on anymore, but all is well and it was like I never left. I convinced everyone not to buy you a million toys so you don´t get overly spoiled and to my surprise they all listened. Between your abuelos and nana and pa I think you got three toys. Not too shabby and and this point in time you would much rather play with a plastic cup or a spoon..so why spend money on toys?

We took you to the parade to see the three Kings and while we were waiting you got very impatient so I bought you a Dora balloon. You loved it!!!! You were so thrilled with your balloon that I don´t even think you noticed the three kings. You absolutely love Dora and I bought you a pair of Pj´s with dora too. Everytime I get them out for you to wear I show them to you and you start laughing immediately.

This month you can now do so many things ie. wave bye bye, kisses,point, clap your hands, and you are even WALKING ten steps or so alone. It´s kinda funny to see something so small walking around. You want nothing to do with crawling and want to WALK everywhere..but you are speed racer and get ahead of yourself so you fall down quickly. If you would just SLOW DOWN I think you could walk a lot further. I´m trying to teach you a few signs like ¨more¨ and ¨finished¨ so we can communicate better. So far you just laugh hysterically at me when I try to teach you. I think you think I´m crazy. Now you know where you get it from!

You are such a good eater and sleeper and we are so lucky. You recently tried fish and I was waiting for the ¨eww¨ face and it never came. You ate it right up! You pretty much eat everything on the menu now from chicken to turkey to fish to lentels and of course fruit and cereal! I hope you keep this attitude up! I think your favorite food is cheese...you LOVE it! You sleep 11 to 12hours a night and are taking two naps during the day. I hope you keep this up too!

You still have eight teeth and you scrunch up your face and make the ¨old lady face¨ as they call it here. It´s adorable and I want to squeeze your face off.

You have never really gone through separation anxiety and you love strangers and other kids. I think you might do something with music because you can´t get enough! Your new things is ¨bouncing¨ or ¨rocking¨ in your stroller and I think the wheels are going to come off. I guess you´ve discovered that you´ve got rhythm girlfriend.

It seems like you are so fearless. You love animals and your abuelas Boxer Chiqui. You like to pat her and play with her. Yesterday we took you to the park to feed the doves and they were on your stroller and everything. Instead of being scared you were TOUCHING their wings. Thank goodness I had wipies!

You did have a small cough this past month but luckily it was nothing major. You´ve only had about two colds in your life and we thank God daily for your heatlh and for YOU! Happy 11 months monkey. We love you so much. Thanks for making each day better than yesterday.

Love you,
Mama

?

Wow, why do people feed their babies and kids junk? Americans and Spaniards...it kinda makes my blood boil. I figure Nora has her whole life to eat junk food I might as well attempt to give her healthy foods as long as possible... is my take on the whole thing. I can´t believe people give their one year olds McDonalds and sweets. Here it seems like every single day I see SEVERAL babies in their strollers with bags of cheetos or some sort of chips. Is this normal?

However, I feel like Spain has WAY healthier choices for kids to eat. In America it´s all crap..hot dogs, pasta, pizza, chicken fingers, french fries. Here it´s like lentels and fish. ha! Anywho, just a rant and I´m kinda glad Nora will grow up eating healthy! The first time she will have sweets will be on her first b day and I MIGHT give her some cake.......if she´s lucky.

I was also thinking today about how all of the crap that they say that you HAVE to buy for baby and it is is so all about marketing. Nora didn´t have any sort of walker or bouncer or swing or anything like that and she´s already walking at ten months. Just goes to show you...it´s not necessary!!!! So suck it marketers!

Back to basics is my motto when it comes to parenting. Did Jesus have an exersaucer? I think not and he was walking just fine! (He even walked on water!) Did Mary use a nipple shield? Did Jesus have a pacifier? Did Joseph have a baby Bjorn?

Back to basics mamas! Back to basics.

clean as a whistle

I usually clean on Friday´s. Good news is..it takes me like a half an hour to clean our whole place since iet´s so small. How about them apples? I like to be clean...I like to smell good and I like our house to be clean and I love doing laundry. I literally get excited when the laundry bag is full. Yipee. However, I do not like to iron and cook so I leave the cooking up to A and I rarely buy things that need ironed i.e. blouses.

Today I realized I´m a terrible deep cleaner. Surface cleaning..amazing..deep cleaning..not so much. Dang! I need to get better at that. I´m thinking it´s because I´m too lazy..but not lazy enough to actually clean..just too lazy to SUPER clean if that makes sense? jeez.

On a side note..my friend who is a Physical Therapist looked at my knee yesterday since it´s still hurting after my bike incident. I have a really badly bruised ligament and I need to keep massaging it and exercise will help. yes!

The weather is ridiculously nice here..it´s been 65º the past couple of days. This month are the ¨sales¨ in Sevilla and I got Nora some really cute things at H and M. When you have kids you no longer want to buy for yourself but just for your kids. I even spend MY gift cards on HER. But I love it!

Tonight we went downtown because A is on the hunt for some new shoes and some random old ladies stopped and were talking to Nora and they were carressing her hands..this drives me insane..some strangers touching my daughters hands..do´nt you know that´s the first thing that goes in her mouth?! Ugh, so I always have to like towelette her when people leave. ha! It just freaks me out..do´nt touch other peoples babies!

I think it would be hard to be a street performer and or begger. Just thought I´d throw that out there.

Whats this about new zodiac signs? I´m the new one and I can´t even spell it. Weirdness.

Ok, these are all my random thoughts for today. TGIF!

slow down sally

Holy crap...nora is like...walking. at ten months. please stop! she´s taken about ten steps alone so far and at the moment she is so anti crawling it´s ridiculous. she will grab on to anything and everything just so she doesn´t have to get on the floor and if there is nothing to grab onto she goes it alone...until she falls down. she´ll be walking before the year is up!

smoke free

is the way to be!!!!!!!! i am so incredibly happy that things are smoke free here in seville! it´s way illegal to smoke in bars-restaurants now and if they catch you they will slap you with a big ol fine. YES do you know how HUGE this is? talk about life changing event. this changes EVERYTHING for us. there are sooooooo many places that we could not go into because of smoke and there is nothing worse than coming home smelling like a smoke stack. so yay. happiness all around.

and on another happy note..the scale officially tells me i´m at my pre nora weight. officially. yipee. this means i can start trying for another one. ha!

tough love

Nora just hit my open eye with a plastic cell phone and I cried...and she laughed. Should I be worried? I have an evil child!

hp baby

i´m in love! l.o.v.e. love! we just got a new hp notebook and i might have to marry it. it´s six am and i´m sitting here typing this because i missed my lil hp! i have a dell laptop that i have had since 2003 and we have a computer that´s equally as old so we decided to use our x mas money and get this. my mom got the same one over x mas and i had small love affair with her hp then. it´s great because i can use it in any room of the house and this is amazing especially with skype. since the computer was in nora´s room i couldn´t use skype past nine thirty...three thirty IN time so i could barely talk to anyone. now i´m a talking fiend. yessssssssssss

i love you hp! can´t wait for the many wonderful years we are going to spend together.

spain is like ten years behind the times as far as cell phones, computers etc so i feel like i´m back in the loop again!

Fin

Well, the holidays are finally over. I kind of get an extension every year since the three kings is January sixth. The tree is put away, decorations are in their boxes and I'm anxiously awaiting next year. I hate when Christmas is over. So much build up and then boom, a few hours and it's over. It'd kind of like your wedding day.....SO much planning for a few hours and that's it. Over. Hopefully not until next time! HA!

Here are a few pix of Nora when we went to see the three kings floats. She was honeslty way more excited about the Dora balloon that I bought her than she was the float. I'm excited for when she gets older though...I think she's gonna love it! Spoiled monkey..Santa and three kings!

Only eleven and a half more months until Christmas!

This is question week or something

What are your thoughts on spanking? Not that I would spank Nora.....YET....but I've been reading about it...interesting stuff.

Also, what do you think a good age gap between kids is? Nora will be one soon and I can't decide if I want my kids 2 years apart or 3. Thoughts?

hair

here's two pix...one of me now w my hair blonde and long and one a few years back where it was short and dark. which do u like best?

hmm

Nothing too new around these parts. A and N were sick when I got home so guess who they gave it to? Moi. We're all kind of just cranky and under the weather. My chest feels like I have a house on top of it.

Today is the parade for the three kings and tomorrow is Three Kings Day. Christmas is extended around here and it lasts until Jan 7th so I'm on vacation until the 10th.

Here's a little about Reyes........

In Spain, and some Latin American, including Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, and other countries Epiphany day is called El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings), i.e., the day when a group of Kings or Magi, as related in the second chapter of the gospel of Matthew, arrived to worship and bring three gifts to the baby Jesus after following a star in the heavens. This day is sometimes known as the Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (The day of the Three Royal Magi) or La Pascua de los Negros (Holy Day of the Black men) in Chile, although the latter is rarely heard. In Spanish tradition, on the day of January 6, three of the Kings: Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Europe, Arabia, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. Children (and many adults) polish and leave their shoes ready for the Kings' presents before they go to bed on the eve of January 6. Sweet wine, nibbles, fruit and milk are left for the Kings and their camels. In Mexico, it is traditional for children to leave their shoes, along with a letter with toy requests for the Three Kings, by the family nativity scene or by their beds. In some parts of northern Mexico the shoes and letters are left under the Christmas tree. The shoes may be filled with hay for the camels, so that the Kings will be generous with their gifts. In Spain, children typically receive their presents on this day, rather than at Christmas. In Puerto Rico's variation on the custom, children take a shoe box, fill it with fresh grass and put it under the bed. The three kings will then take the grass to feed the camels and will leave gifts under the bed as a reward.

ah!

Three out of my four best friends are prego. What's in the water?!

step by step

Little Nora took two steps today and will be walking in no time. EEK! Crazy big girl!

Holy whirlwind trip to the usa!

I'm back.......was I really there?! Insanity!

Let's start with pumping on the plane...and in random restrooms. That's always a good time! I got to Chicago Thur night and stayed with my friend downtown. Can't beat Rosebuds for dinner and being downtown Chicago at X mas times brings back so many memories. My parents used to take my bro and I every year on the train.

It was good to see as many fam and friends as I could pack in the short five days and my nephew Charlie just turned three so of course there is always something magical about having a child around for Christmas. He was surprised that ALL of the presents under the tree were not for him!

There just wasn't time to eat all I wanted, see who I wanted and Do things I wanted, but at least I got a taste of goodness!

On the way home I was freaking out in the airplane because it didn't have plug ins this time? So, they let me go to first class whenever I needed to pump...and there was practically no one there! How tempted was I to just STAY in first class? Um, VERY! I am a good girl though, and headed back to the hog trough of smelly armpits and stinky farty smell "normal" class. I did, however, possibly take a bit longer than I normally would to pump. Hey, can you blame me?

It was great to see Nora again and she kind of let out a cackle when she saw me! We have latch on again so that's good too. Nothing to worry about afterall.

She's even almost walking and today I saw her take two steps! Eek!

A and N both have colds so I joked I should have stayed a week longer! I think it's great for everyone to have time away from their kids if they can, even for a day or two. Helps you appreciate them more, that's for sure.

I hope I get my suitcase today!!!!!! It's lost somewhere out there!

Happy New year! Thanks to Nora for making 2010 the best of our lives so far and here's to many many more!