Okay these two months have gone by so fast that it is now October 3rd and you will be three soon. Lets start with the month of August.

Your Grandma Sylvette came to visit but we hardly saw her because we were busy working on Nick’s food truck Uncle Gussy’s. You had various play dates with Riccardo our neighbor and I even let you stay with him and his family for about an hour. Yes the first time mom let you out of her site that was not with your dad. I have to say that in that time, I was able to cook, and do some stuff for Papa without interruptions. But all the while I was thinking about how you were getting along without me. Carmen, Riccardo’s mom, Roberta his aunt and uncle Angelo, said you did fine and behaved. This leads me to believe that you will be okay without mom someday.

We also spent two days with my friend Iris who came to visit from Connecticut. It was great to see her and her boys along with her niece. You spent the time in a pool of water that accumulated at the top of the sand because the ocean was very strong. Iris and I talked for hours like if we always saw each other. When you get older, make sure you find a friend as loyal and smart as Iris. She is really a grounded person despite all the things she is going through at the moment.

You’ve become fascinated with Disney movies and Tangled, the story about Rapunzel. You are talking so much in English and Spanish but more English. Your pronounciation is really good and Papa makes sure you respond in Spanish to him.

Your hitting has gotten better and as long as we remind you to use your words, you are okay. But every know and again when you don’t get something, we get frustrated and the Universe goes into a tailspin. But your dad is there to bring us both back from catastrophe.

In September the water’s were so much calmer than we remembered from last year that we were swimming lots of days. We started doing more arts and crafts and you are recognizing letters all over the place. We saw dolphins this month and in August you and I saw a stingray jump straight out of the water.

We are truly blessed with how much you are growing and learning. Your singing and dancing have not stopped and you master the iPad like a pro. You are hooked with clay and painting with brushes. I have tried to get you to use your hands again but you prefer the brushes. One day I caught you putting paint in the palette and you were getting ready to paint something. I told you  you could not paint without my help and you cried all the way to Papa. You love mixing all types of colors and we are big on painting rocks and seashells.

Your lacing paper and beads is improving and I am trying to incorporate more natural materials in our work time. Cirene and Liz continue to find materials for us to use in our work. One thing you did at the end of the month that scared both mom and papa was that you put an allspice ball in your nose. It was the first time you had done anything like that and just before we were leaving to Aibonito to see Freddy your doctor, you sneezed the ball out.

You love skipping by the water and pretend you are drinking salt water. You also accompanied your dad and JuanGa on walks in September. You even held the leash while pop held JuanGa by his harness. You are also a smarty pants and answer back but we try to minimize those occurences. It doesn’t always work so we try different techniques with you. One thing that i do is give you a consecquence and once you see I am not backing down, you quickly say sorry. Dad on the other hand caves a little quicker than I do but he is also more patient with certain things that you do than I am.

You are into a routine of making sure you get our spoons and knives and forks for when we eat. Goodness forbid that we should get our own spoons you through a fit. So we try to remember not to get them. So many little details that you do make us laugh and make us nervous. You are a risk taker that is for sure just like your dad with certain things.

We noticed in late July into August that you were foregoing naps. Since you were getting up earlier, not napping, you started falling asleep earlier like 9 and not even asking for tete. This is only giving when you have not been feeling well like when you back moler started coming in August and you were screaming your head off one night until about 12 midnight even with tete and meds, it made you restless.

You also talk in your sleep. Sometimes you ask for rice, or you tell someone to stop. Sometimes you are a morning person and sometimes you are not. This year has gone by so fast, it seems like yesterday you were in my belly. Your laugh is infectious and we love to hear it. You are a little independent being and I know that the more the days go by, you won’t need me for many things. I am able to walk JuanGa without you crying so much. You will stay with your dad and watch videos on the iPad or watch a movie.

Liz bought you a mermaid costume and your dad pre-ordered the little mermaid movie. I can see it now, you wanting to put on the dress to imitate arial. You already do that with the pink dress from last year and Rapunzel. Your attention to detail is what really makes go wow. You imitate choreography quickly and we need to put you into something where you can hone in on that skill. Anyway this is it for now. Will write again at the end of the month to share how Halloween went. Love you lots. Mom

This month Daniela was still hitting like a maniac but with some reading and encouragement to use her words, she has significantly stopped hitting every moment. With our patience and understanding, we have turned a corner with her. I also read that my reaction to her fuels her fight or flight. I choose everyday to calm down and when I am raising my voice a bit louder than need be, Raul is there to let me know to bring it down.

We met up with our family Maribel, Lillian, Mary, Theresa, David, Milta and Jayda at my mom’s house. They were here celebrating my grandmother’s 90th birthday. We were busy with work and thankfully had a good month. We met Elena and Nick who were great to be around during the fourth of July. Milta and Jayda spent some time with us in Isla Verde and we had a goodtime swimming and playing in the sand. Jayda drove our dog nuts but it was fun to spend time with her.

Daniela charmed everyone in my family. We also had Grandma Sylvette visiting Ponce. We went down to see her once and since she is still around will go back down to say goodbye.

Daniela read two letters in the sign Doral which is a bank we go to and were passing by. As we were stopped at a light, she said, “Momma, O, A” And when I looked at what she was pointing at, she was definitely recognizing her letters thanks to Agapita videos and myself.

Daniela had her first dentist appointment and she did great. She helped the Dental Technician brush her teeth. It went smoother than what I thought.

She continues to sing and dance to the Disney movies we buy her. And she has such a great memory for learning. Her uncle gave her a puzzle of the states and she has put that puzzle together a dozen times. She knows where CT is in the New England states piece.

She has been going to the gym with Raul which gives me a break to do somethings around the house. She is writing with all sorts of utensils pens makers and pencils. And added a new design to our new bedsheets. LOL

 

 

May Highlights

Even though we were battling ticks in the main bedroom, we had a good month. For Mother’s Day we made our favorite mom’s in the building gifts and to our mom’s and grandmother’s photos of Daniela. We did have a good day at my mother’s because we got to see and joke around with Grandma Generosa.

Daniela and I spent a few days alone with JuanGa while Raul was in North Dakota. We walked down the avenue and had lunch at the El San Juan and really had a good time eating at the booth. As long as Daniela is running jumping singing and dancing there is not point for hitting.

We are breastfeeding less and only doing it at bed and nap times.

Low point Daniela has been hitting more and it is making us batty okay me batty. So we are working on that with her.

June Highlights

Daniela continues to improve with her language skills, painting, counting, and loves singing and dancing. She is getting more daring with getting into the water. She painted on canvas with acrylic paint as a gift for her dad. She also learned about using pastels. We made black and white pictures of flowers one day.

She is speaking lots of English and Spanish. It is amazing how much she knows.

Uncle Javi, Tio Tito, and Christopher came to visit and during those days Daniela started just going places with Raul by herself without me. I had a moment and Raul decided to give me a break. He took Daniela to the gym and to pick up the family. She went fine without me. She is growing independently from us but at times still needs us.

She went to her aunt’s wedding with out me and had a good time dancing that she did not want to stop. I did not go and it was kinda of weird not having her or dad around. But sometimes even mom’s need a little break. But of course when I saw that it was getting late I had to call.

Daniela had a play date with Ricardo our neighbor who has an Italian mom named Carmelina and David who is Puerto Rican.

Low points Daniela’s hitting. Man we have been reading and trying to get her to use her words more and avoid meltdowns. It really comes down to how we react to her more me than Raul. He does a good job but he is only human and we have both had our moments where we needed to get away from the tantrums.

She is 2 1/2 so as I read about how to be a better in control mom, we move on to the rest of the year. We love her so much and at times can’t believe how much she knows.

She tells us when we are naked that we are showing our butt butts and our tetes and totos even Raul has a toto lol

If we break her out of little routines, she becomes upset and sometimes we remind her that it is okay to have things go differently. Creatures of habits start young. We could focus on all the fighting and tantrums but this is just part of her becoming independent and trying to let us know what she wants. We are praising her more when she tells us what she wants followed with please and thank yous.

I need to do a better job with staying in control and as I read about this age, I wonder how people do it with multiple kids and children around the same age. Daniela has a strong will but a soft heart. It is great seeing her growing up and enjoying life.

We will see what the next half of the year has in store for us!

We have been taking it easy on the craft side of things this month and started to garden. We planted cilantrillo and basil. Today we observed the plants and they started to grow; a tiny leaf we saw and Daniela was excited. She said. “Oh Wow” and somehow it reminded me of my sister Milta who always says, “Wow”

Grandma Sylvette left on the 11th of April so she got to spend lots of time with Daniela. When she left, Daniela was asking for her. Prior to Sylvette leaving for CT, she spent time in Ponce. When Daniela woke up the next day, she was in a routine of getting three big spoons for breakfast and her spoon. She asked, “Y Sylvette?” and we told her that she was with Abuelita Lydia. She basically asked for her the entire week until she came back. But when she left on the plane and she asked where her grandma was, we explained that she went on a plane and back home to CT. She had this weird look on her face one of understanding, sadness, and full of questions. Throughout the month she had been doing so many things with Sylvette, that she got used to her being around. It was a little sad to see her face process this information because she was not going to have her grandma around to talk with, play with her dolls, and dance with her.

Her talking in English and Spanglish is getting clearer and she is having full conversations with us. Back and forth. Sometimes its scary to see how much she is processing and how she feeds off of our energy. If both of us are having a bad day, it rubs off on her. Raul had an incident at the store with a cashier and the baby then acted mean to the cashier when she wanted to scan the soap and daniela refused to give it to her. On another occassion I asked her to eat, and was very negative about her not eating and she talked back in a mean voice to me. So we need to work on how we react in front of her and tone of voice. Okay I need to work on this more than Raul but I do spend more time with her, so she will act the way mom acts if I don’t do something about my reaction to her not doing something quickly.

We started learning about triangles and did a neat thing with tape and contact paper. She learns so quickly it is scary. Another thing we started to do was weaning of breastfeeding. She can only ask for Nene or TeTe if she is going to take a nap or go to sleep for the evening. We are giving her almond, soy mik, almond chocolate milk, and apple juice along with water. She sits with us at the big girl table and uses her little table to paint or put her snacks on. She has her routines that if we break them, she has a fit about them.

She is relating new experiences with familiar experiences. We celebrated Raul’s birthday with the neighbors and even made cupcakes for our neighbor who celebrated her birthday two days before Raul’s birthday. She loves all the musical movies we play for her and one day was doing choreography from King and I. Raul just bought Sister Act and she is hooked with watching the musical numbers.

We even put on Captain America and she liked the Rockeets scene in the movie. We also put on Star Wars Attack of the Clones and she was asking about the different types of beings she saw in the movie and the space ships. She was mesmerized by the action and light saber fighting.

She plays independently with the dog and by herself lining up her little animals. Reading her books in her tent and playing with our neighbors granddaughter Iman. She will be returning to Florida so we will wait till Ricardo who is in Italy with his Mom to come back and coordinate more play times together. We also have to start putting her in swim classes. She is starting to get more confident with jumping in the water, lying down, and getting up quickly before a wave comes on shore. She really likes listening to the birds in the morning and was even talking to some bugs that came in the house one day flying ants or something like that.

We could focus on her tantrums at times but I would rather focus on all the little beatiful things she does. We met Gene and Odilia, a couple Raul and I met through an online group. The spent some time with us and Gene took these awesome pictures of Daniela. I think we are doing Mother’s Day Gifts of those pictures to our moms.

 

Funny Stories I forgot to mention last month;

CaddyShacked: Daniela was having fun passing gas while we were in the tub. She did it so much that she pooed in the tub. We were both shocked and I did not want to scare her that I had to laugh afterwards. This happened while Raul was away in Texas.

Conversations: She is starting to have these conversations with us and her dolls made from cloth and her stuffed animals. If we stub our toe or bang ourselves and say ouch, she will come over and say Estas bien? Te duele? She will rub our sore spots and give this concerned looked and it’s not until we say we are okay, that she goes on her way.

Another time I told her to look for the ball in order for her to play with JuanGa and She said Its over there. I told her to go get it and she said I can’t find it. Another time I told her to go and tell her dad Breakfast. She told me she was estoy jugando bubbles con Juanga meaning don’t bother me I’m busy

She is also associating many things with previous experiences. She sees something and will say como xxxx and I will say yes.While cooking she associates making circles in her oatmeal with circles on paper, she recognizes shapes everywhere, and we do drawings in the sand.

Her relationship with JuanGa is cute! They chase eachother around and blow bubbles together. She feeds him and they really have a great bond.

She is singing Do Ro Mi Do a deer a deer deer deer and she tries to sing the rest of the song as well.

She loves her books, pom poms, and books! She also tries to keep things in order so she can find them when she wants to play with them. One day she saw Raul’s undies on the floor in the bathroom and she looked at me and said momma esto and I told her to put it in the basket. It was a look like hey this does not belong here and she told Raul exactly what I told her Ropa no en el piso Canasta solamente.

She is really a whipper snapper.