birthday boy

Just like to wish my grandfather a very happy birthday today. 89! Happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you serious?

There´s a Starbucks about a ten minute walk from my house and I pretty much go there on a daily basis.

I think I´ve mentioned before that I´ve even been upped to VIP status and am awarded free coffees for my diligence (and adorable daughter).

Tonight my world was crushed when I found out they are closing their doors on March sixth. Wait, what? How can that be possible you are CLOSING Starubucks? My one tiny extra glimmer of happiness during the day? The place that I can ALMOST feel like I´m at home while I´m there? I mean, Nora was practically raised there for Gosh sakes, what do you mean you are CLOSING?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This HAS to be a mistake. Call someone, anyone. Who do I need to call? I will strike. I will place a bomb on my chest and strap myself to the expresso machine if need be. You can do anything you want to me. Rip out my nails, pluck my eyelashes out one by one but I beg of you PLEASE do not close my Starbucks!!!!!

Apparently new owners bought the place (it´s located inside of a mall) and they only want CLOTHING stores in the mall. They must just be stupid idiots. What mall doesn´t have any sort of food and Starbucks, I mean, it´s just heavenly.

God, Hi, it´s me, Sara. Remember me? Obviously not since you are allowing THIS to happen!!

Just kidding......but STILL God, I need me some Starbucks please! Thank you.

healthy monkey

I am so incredibly thankful to God for a healthy baby! Nora had her one year apt. today and all is well. I really don´t know the pediatrician that well considering I never see her. Hard to believe but Nora didn´t have to go see the doctor (besides scheduled visits) at all this year! Yee ha! I credit it to breastmilk and lots of sleep. I am so freaking proud of myself for breastfeeding her an entire year and I plan to continue until she´s twenty five. Ok, maybe eighteen months, but still, GO ME! (patting myself on the back).

Today I was feeding her and as I was carrying her to her crib she latched on again right when I was going to lay her down. I laughed so hard I woke her up. Oh Nora, you are too freaking hilarious.

Ok, back to the doctor. She said Nora is literally the size of a two year old. I credit that to her American genes. She is around 27 lbs 31 inches. Holy bigness. Apparently I gave birth to a giant. Didn´t you know the BFG is her real daddy? (above percentile 95% on both) Anywho, just wanted to share. :O)

just breathe.

Phew, We made it through party mayhem. Due to lack of a nap and over stimulation Nora pretty much had a breakdown at both of her parties.....which makes for a quick exit..bath and crib!

I have to admit, she was AAAAAAAAAAdorable in her tutu today and I think she did have a good time even though she had no idea why people were looking at her, giving her presents, why her mom allowed her to eat cake and why everyone was singing the same song over and over again. Success! Cheers to a great year and many more to come! Thanks to all of our friends for coming out to celebrate and for bringing N lots of new fun clothes to wear:)

best friends.

Dora and I are pretty much best friends at this point. Plus, she's a great listener.

Nora turns 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nora!

Today you turn one and are weighing in at 27.5 lbs. You seem to have leveled off a bit..thank goodness!

I really don´t even know where to begin! I am in shock that this year has gone by so fast and keep remembering our journey at the hospital like it was yesterday. The first time I saw your face, held you tight and kissed your lips will forever be tattooed in my brain. You were so tiny and helpless and now just a year later you are running around, waving, ¨talking¨ and laughing up a storm (all 27.5 lbs of you!)

You love to walk (almost run) so therefore have lots of bumps and bruises pretty much all over your body! You still love music and your abuela claims you were ¨dancing¨ Sevillanas the other day in the living room. She said you raised your hands and twirled around twice. I´m not sure about that...but I think something music related is definitely in your future! You love animals and other kids and you love to explore. I call you nora the explorer.

I found a baby swing this past month and you LOVE it. You giggle the whole time we are pushing you and you never want to get out. I also went to another playgroup this month and you loved seeing the other kids and relating with them. We are going to have to work on gentleness..you are a bit of a bully!

It´s amazing to me how happy go lucky you are and you literally make everyone smile around you wherever we go. You are soooooooooooo sociable and are not afraid of anyone or anything. Future president?

You love to eat anything in sight and you are still a very good sleeper. You are starting to copy things that we do and understand how things work. Today the doorbell rang and you ran straight for the door! You´d never done that before. It´s like you store things away that we aren´t aware of and then BANG you act on them. Smart lil cookie.

You like me to read to you and this past month we got you a giant Dora book. We are also having a Dora birthday party. I hope you like it little monkey!

Nora, I´ll be honest with you. Before you were born I wasn´t sure about all of this motherhood jargon. I wasn´t sure if I would be good at it or even if I would enjoy it. (I´m not sure if I am good at it) but I sure do enjoy it. You have changed my life and the lives around you more than you´ll ever know and for that I want to thank you. Thank you for allowing me to learn and grow with you, to make mistakes with you, to be silly with you, to play with you, to tickle you, to be myself with you and to love you. You make my sides hurt from laughter numerous times a day and take away all my cares. A free therapist!

365 days.....it´s only the beginning and each day we love you more. Happy Birthday Princess. Here´s wishing you many..many...many...more. Love you with all my heart.

Mama


¨Heaven blew every trumpet and played every horn on the wonderful, marvelous night you were born.¨

Bruised -sage.

So, A got me a massage for V tines day at my gym. Nice guy. Terrible massage. I felt like someone struck me with a baseball bat several times over and I have the bruises too. I´ve decided that getting massages are just awkward...you walk in..the undo your bra, they are rubbing your ass.....and then to top it all of if hurts! Ugh!

I was asking the guy if he´s ever walked in and the ladies have been standing there naked and he said YES! How funny is that?! I should try it next time........ha!

363 days

My baby girl turns ONE on Friday! Hard to believe!

Divine Valentine.

Your Divine Valentine
A Valentine may play a love song for you, but God sings you the sweetest love song in the universe.
The Lord your God... will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

A Valentine may give you flowers, but God sent you the most beautiful rose of all. Jesus.
I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
Song of Solomon 2:1

A Valentine may bring you chocolate, but God provides you with something even sweeter, His Word.
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103

A Valentine may love you for a lifetime, but God loved you before you were born and will love you for all eternity.
Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love...with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3

Praying you're blessed by the wonderful love of God this Valentine's Day and always!

......

It cracks me up how social Nora is. We let her go and she finds kids and laughs hysterically. I think she likes having someone the same height as her! Can you imagine just looking at knees all day? Prob not too fun.

Today this man had a remote control car and would get it close to her and then when she would bend down to pick it up he´d move it. I almost peed my pants it was hilarious! She couldn´t figure out where it was going...also another little girl had bubbles. Those are kind of cruel really because every time she went to grab one of course it popped! I´m so glad I have my own little entertainer.

Birthday boy.

A shout out to my dad.......HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love u;O)

Old Glory

I was in the kitchen doing some things and Nora was gone for quite some time. This usually means she´s getting into something she shouldn´t be getting into! I was just about to go on the search for her when she walked in waving a mini American flag I had on her dresser. Hilarious! What if she would have been like ¨USA; USA!¨ Now THAT would have been amazing!

The other day I was getting her ready for her bath and decided to let her walk around naked a bit. Of course she falls still quite often and the floor was so cold I´ve never seen her jump up so fast. I about wet myself!!!!!

She´s quite the copycat these days and she makes any sounds that we make. Lately it´s the ¨wow wow¨of a dog. (that´s what dogs say here!)

It has been absolutely gorgeous weather here lately and yesterday I had a great outside lunch with some girlfriends! one is prego and due any second and the other has a two month old. It´s fun being the experienced one!!!! :)

A is going to a soccer game so it´s just N and I. The new spring collection is out in all the stores so maybe we´ll do some shopping. I love Saturdays!

changes.

I´m thinking about doing some interior decorating changes. I need some spice in my life.

too close

Seriously, stop cutting in line! It´s happened to me twice this past week and it´s really getting on my nerves. I didn´t know I had to bear hug the person in front of me so no one would cut. Jeeeeeeeeeeeez! It´s called personal space people, personal space!!!

Today I almost WENT OFF on this lady...but luckily I had Nora with me so I didn´t want to have her witness a beating right then and there. Next time I´m not so sure!

checklist

I've always been a person to keep lists and I LOVE the feeling of crossing something off that list. Lately I've had a few things written down that I wanted to accomplish and this week it feels good to cross two things off my list.

1. Finding a playgroup for Nora.

My daughter is eleven mths old and has never been to a playgroup. (gasp!)

Mainly because they don't DO that here...Americans are just weird sometimes. It seems like everyone has a playgroup at home. Will my daughter not know how to play if she doesn't have one? Will she be a crazy lady? Will she stop growing? Will the world around her crumble and vanish? What will happen?! Oh no! No playgroup!!

I am part of the American Women's Club and they do indeed have a playgroup once a week...the only problem is it's FAR away from my house. Nevertheless, I convinced A to take us this morning and I thought Nora would really enjoy it because it's a "music" playgroup.

Nora did love it. She loves other kids and she loves music so of course it was a total success. For her at least. I'm really just not that convinced.

First of all it just seems like playgroups are for moms to compare their kids to other kids. "Oh, she's walking already? When did she start? How many teeth does she have? How many naps does she take? How much poop is in each diaper? (enter sarcasm here)" Each baby is a different world so to compare is stupid. But of course each mom wants to think their kid is Einstein so the comparing starts...

I'm really not a germaphobe but wowzers...at playgroups I am. It seemed like every kid there had snot running out of their noses and they were coughing all over Nora. I kind of wanted to whip out a spacesuit or something and just put that on her. Why don't you just wipe your snot in her mouth? And of course Nora puts everything in her mouth. AH! Don't get my perfectly snot free baby sick please!

I'm also not sure if you are aware of this but I don't really like kids. I'm Miranda on SATC all the way. I like MY kid but other kids...eh, I could do without them. They are loud and annoying and snotty nosed but not MY kid.

Since I'm not around other kids and moms all that much I just don't know what the "rules" are. I feel like I'm constantly apologizing for everyhing. "Sorry she's using your legs to stand up, sorry your toys are in her mouth, sorry she got slobber on your floor, sorry she bit your daughters nose off" You know,things of that nature. What are the rules? Stress!

All of the other kids were quite a bit older so they were much more apt to "sit still " on their moms knee and play along with the songs etc. Ya, not Nora. She was NOT HAVING IT! Again, "sorry my daughter doesn't want to participate?" She's eleven months old and I have to apologize for her? Plus, the other moms just weren't that friendly. So you see, these are the reasons why I, the mom, am not as convinced that playgroups are all that. But, to take one for the team I will probably go more often than not for the enjoyment of my child. (See, I'm not a bad mom I promise).

To top it all off there was a mom with a kid hanging off her tit pretty much the whole time and the girl was like four. And yes, I said tit. This is a tit situation here. "Boob" or "breast" just doesn't cut it.
This has reminded me that I need to stop breastfeeding soon because to be honest I don't want Nora being all like, " ta tas" and SQUEEZE in public...or in private for that matter.

Ok. on to number 2. Church!
We are not Catholic so it's really hard to find a church when 99 percent of the country that you live in is. This has been SO hard for me because church has always been a huge part of my life and I dream of Nora growing up in Sunday school etc. Anyways, there is a church close by our house and it is indeed Catholic but we went anyways. It will have to do for now. Again, it's not my ideal church but God doesn't care where we go. So there you have it. Check and Check. Now if I could just buy a bigger house and get a better job?!

crazies

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So, for the past ...oh, forever, I´ve been looking for baby swings around the city. They are impossible to find...until today! I really wanted to put Nora in one because I knew she would just LOVE it...and sure enough..she did! It was so cute I wish I would have had my video camera with me. She was laughing hysterically the whole time she probably peed her diaper! Next time I´ll try to have the camera with me. Oh the joys in life!

For you, Amber.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xUSjftm04

......

Just sitting here watching "American Dad" it seems like one of the funniest shows on TV.

Do you have any products that you feel are never ending? I swear I've had the same thing of floss for like......thirty years. How is that possible? It is NEVER ending!!!!!!

All that snow that's heading to IN seems kinda scary. Glad I'm in sunny Sevilla where it's going to be sixty degrees tomorrow! YES!

Enclosed is a pic of Nora w her dolly. It's her new best friend.