I sometimes am lazy and let the days go by without writing things on this site. But I must remember to post at least once a month for Daniela to read this when she gets older.

February was all about Musicals: We purchased several movies for Daniela that included Happy Feet, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, Sound of Music and The King and I. I shall say that Daniela loves dancing and singing so these were right up her ally. One funny thing that happened while watching all of these dancing moves was that she tried to imitate choreography from Mary Poppins. She flipped right over after us telling her to not try and do a handstand. We were all astonished.

In February Daniela started developing Papitis; everytime Raul would go to the gym it was a crying frenzy. Well I started walking with her or doing a craft. Even the neighbor helped one time with giving her a treat to help us out with her crying. I try not to give Daniela food when she cries because I don’t want an emotional eater on my hands. Something I had to tell Raul to stop doing everytime I stepped out to walk the dog.

This month of March Raul went to SXSW and I started taking Daniela with me to walk JuanGa. At night, Sylvette who came in February and had to leave early in due to health issues came back to help me while Raul was away, would hold up Daniela so she could see where I was at with the dog.

Daniela is using her imagination which is great. She takes calculators, her little fake phone, and even clay phones to pretend she is talking to someone whether it be her Grandpa Tito, Grandma Maggie, Uncle Javi, Zuleyka or Pepe, she has long conversations with them.

Daniela is speaking both languages and counting to ten in both languages. She sings the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle, London Bridge, Five little Monkeys, Sapo Sapo, Do Re Mi (just the beginning) . She is counting up to 13 in English and up to 11 in Spanish. We count up to 20 with her in both languages. We read books to her in both languages and surround her with folks who know both.

She plays with Iman and our other neighbors when they are on the beach.

She loves painting and crafting and immerses herself in picking up pom poms with her tongs. She does so well with the tongs that when we went to the sushi restaurant, she did really well picking up tofu. She even had tea for the first time and second time at a Turkish restaurant.

What we love about living in the metro area is that we get to take Daniela to all sorts of restaurants to eat all types of food. They are vegetarian but they are still delicious.

She loves Quinoa mixed with veggies and loves sushi! She is a banana freak and will eat blackberries when we buy them. Kale Chips are her thing too. Someone did give her a lollipop and she licked it once and gave it to me. For mama she said. She loves the dark chocolate that we by at the health food and so for Valentines week we went to the mall and we bought dark chocolate truffles for her and I. Since they were not vegan, Raul did not have any but he did have a dark chocolate bar from Godiva.

Daniela cuts mushrooms, tomatos, she “cooks” oatmeal, she is learning how to pour from one glass to another. She is also pointing and counting to items. Today she saw a little hear on my Victoria’s secret bra and the one on my necklace and said one two corazones in Spanglish.

This month has been a crafty month with clay, fingerpaints, attempts to paper mache, water colors, coloring in a chick, and so many crafts that we can be here all night. We are lucky that our nieghbors love her so much that they always leave her some type of material to play with whether its newspaper for her table or butterflies to decorate with, we are fortunate to know Cirene, Resat, and Liz. Amaury and Maria always give us food from their other place and Melvin also remembers Daniela.

We are still breastfeeding more when she is teething and not feeling well and when we keep her busy she doesn’t even mention it until I sit down. That is the trigger. I have also had to breastfeed her zebra, frog, teddy bear, and baby dolls. And then after I do that she says and Nene for Daniela. It is a trick to get me to breastfeed her lol . She is drinking apple juice, frappes made at home, and water. Last month she had her first congested cough. We cured that with Echniacea and Elderberry syrup.

She has also been hitting ugh! The good the bad and the ugly tantrums are the worst. Sometimes we will be singing and wap in my face. Other times things escalate and she wacks Raul and I. We are reading up on how to handle these situations and one thing I read was to hold her hands and gently speak to her about hitting. I have been trying this more than the angry don’t do that speech.

Everytime we see baby pictures of Daniela, I look at the 27 month old in front of me and say damn time flies so quickly. We have started potting training but lightly, she still goes barefoot to GreatGrandma Lydias and they still get on our case about her taking her shoes off.

Daniela did meet Jonathan this month and since his visit with us was very short, 30 minutes, we were not able to see them interact. Another time then.

Did I say she loves to watch herself sing on video? Yeah she will say Daniela Bailando Videos and just watch videos of herself singing and dancing and then tries to imitate herself all over again. Sometimes she will sleep through the night but very rarely does it happen. It happened two nights in a row and I felt great. But that was short lived.

This month Daniela was also saying “Okay” to everything I would tell her to do and she would continue to do what we did not want her to do. Testing Testing 1,2,3

Today we had a conversaton. I asked her where was JuanGa’s bone, she said Over there (bedroom). I said go get it, She said I don’t see it.

We also spoke to our friend Zulekya about her little routines and how she gets upset when Dad has to take over a certian routine and she suggested little picture books. So we bought some for 2 bucks and I am starting to draw her routines.

She really does so many things independently like picking out her clothes, taking them off to shower, attempting to put them on. She is good for her age at putting things back so she knows where to play with them the next time. If she can’t find something she will say “donde esta…”

She hugs and says hi to lots of people and sings and dances in public. She dances and sings everywhere. Happy Feet is one of the movies she knows some words to the songs and imitiates the tap dancing. We are amazed at how she will concentrate on something and try to repeat it.

So many little anecdotes and sometimes no time to write them down in this place for her to read. Her dad shares his side on his blog and we will update little things on Facebook. Like her learning the names of the chess pieces and running to Raul. She wants to help with setting the table for breaksfast and announces loudly for everyone to eat. She is sitting with us at the big table and sometimes uses her little table for snacks.

We are lucky to have a healthy lady.

Here is a quick run down of the Holidays and end of 2012 for you Daniela. We had visitors Keiko and Scott come from NYC. They were going to have a baby and decided to have their last vacation as a couple with us. You enjoyed cooking with them and I have a picture to prove it.

The night before Christmas we made cookies for Santa and I had you write a letter for Santa. We watched some movies and then you were down for the evening. I put the toys under the tree and you and Dad were resting because you both were feeling sick. For Christmas we stayed home because we were all sick. We did not go down to Ponce and spent most of the day inside. Cirene and Resat, along with Rick Lipsett, Liz, and of course us provided you with little gifts for Christmas. Cirene and Resat helped us greatly to make it a special day. You can read about what happened on your Birthday on your birthday post.

We headed down to Ponce the day after your birthday where we got to meet your great-aunt Lucy who moved to Quebradilla, Puerto Rico with her son. We were all feeling better and spent a nice day with Tio Tito and Great-Grandma Lydia. You danced and sang and recieved more gifts for Christmas and Birthday. I brought down some cupcakes from your birthday celebration because we had tons left over. I exaggerated a little on the cupcakes but nonetheless we had a good time visiting.

On Sunday night 12-30-2012 your dad and his friend needed help with a project and so on New Years Eve, we packed the car and mom went to work for a few hours while dad took care of you in the car. It was an early day and the weather was not too great. We were out most of the morning and afternoon. You did not take a nap during the day and at night, you slept from eight o clock in the evening until about eight the next morning. You woke up because of the fireworks and then went back to sleep. Your dad was beside you because he wanted to make sure he was next to you for two reasons; one he did not want you to get scared because of the fireworks and two we wanted to be in the safest part of the house with windows down in case any stray bullet casings. Unfortunately people like to shoot guns in the air during NY Eve and put other people in danger.

The following day we slept till about one cause mom had too much champagne and we accompanied Melvin to Isabela to visit his family. We took a road trip to a town we had never been too and you enjoyed playing with his nieces. Four days later we decorated a box for Three Kings. We grabbed a patch of grass from the front of the building and you wanted a heart, two cats, a dog and a flower for the inside of the box. You also grabbed a crayon and decorated the inside of the box. You put the box under the bed and the following day, you had some presents from the Three Kings.

You were still receiving presents from Alicia and Maribel and Grandma and Tio Javi during this month. You were also showing your independence by playing with Iman and a group of girls. You did not like when anyone touched you and expressed that you were scared of Iman. Iman is a two year old who is the size of about a four year old. So she towers over you. One time you even woke up saying you were scared of Iman and so I taught you that if you did not or like someone touching your hands in a forceful way, just to say No. Well the next time Iman went to grab your hands, you made sure to stand your ground and said no. Dad had taken you outside and Iman and her mom were there too. Iman got mad but I think she got the hint that you did not want to be grab and dragged around without your will.

You have been hitting and running away from us while we were out and several times your dad had to grab you to tell you to stop. Of course you were made at us for not letting you run around the stores and you cried and whacked me and your dad a couple of times. But we know this is part of you growing up and trying to verbalize how you feel. You are talking in both languages, singing songs in both languages, and counting in both languages. Your grandma Maggie bought you tons of books for your birthday and christmas and you enjoy reading a little book about a dog and Princess Polly.

You also love writing, painting, and coloring with markers and colored pencils. We bought you a stamping kit for Three Kings and love anything that gets your hands dirty. I decided it was time to upgrade from finger painting to painting with a brush. So we bought new paint and some paintbrushes of all sizes and you loved them .

Your grandma Sylvette came a few days before your 25 month day and we have been doing Valentines Crafts with her. Mom also messed up her fingers and she came at a great time to help with cooking and washing dishes. You even helped me in the kitchen with cutting mushrooms and putting food in a pan to help me cook. I have a little plastic knife that you use all time. Grandma Sylvette is leaving sooner than we wanted because she was not feeling well.

Overall your month and holidays were fun. We also donated tons of baby clothes and toys that you were not using to someone who needed the help. We recieved so much for you during the holidays that I even felt bad for being so lucky that people around you made the holidays special. We did lots of cookie baking and you helped deliver all the cookies to people that made our holidays special.

 

Wow this day has been filled with so much emotion for both Raul and I. Daniela you have been watching all sorts of movies such as Babies, Horton Hears a Who, Born to Be Wild, Happy Feet, and Charlie Brown. These movies have been playing non stop since we started putting movies on for you.

Since you were so into Frogs and singing the Sapo Sapo song from Atencion Atencion, we celebrated your birthday with frogs! I cut out lilly pads, we both colored frog cut outs, I made pipe cleaner flowers, I even drew you a frog. My parents, Abuela Maggie and Abuelo Hector came up for the day. We had pizza from Stephanie and Isa’s, Peace N’ Loaf. You only wanted to eat the cheese and you ate a big slice. Abuela Maggie, Abuelo Hector, you and I went to the store to buy ready made frosting for the cupcakes we made this morning. Abuela Maggie helped cover them with frosting and I decorated them to make them look like frogs.

The night before was chaos as I made a mess in the kitchen with vegan homemade frosting and I left the water in the bathroom running after I washed you down. We had water everywhere thanks to mom trying to do a million things at once. Your dad and I had a “talk” earlier about how I try to do too many things at once and I end up screwing something up. Will at about 11:00p.m. we were cleaning up water.

But today was a new day and we woke up to Liz, our neighbor who adores you, to a sign she posted out our apartment door. Over these last several months, Liz, Cirene, Resat, and Melvin are people you interact with daily. Victor and Juan Luis who work at the Water Club are also people you love to see. But Cirene, Resat, Liz, and Melvin have become our extended family and love you too bits. They have become part of our family and as they see it, you have become part of theirs. I am crying as I type this because our families don’t get to see how you have grown this last year.

You have learned so much and are already becoming very independent from us with many tasks such as feeding the dog, eating your own food, wanting to bring things to people, putting away your toys, and clothes. You help with the laundry and sometimes you want to just put the coins in and out of the machine.

You talk so much for your age that it amazed my dad and he was laughing which made you laugh. You played ball with Abuela Maggie who didn’t want to leave but Abuelo Hector wanted to go. They had a long drive ahead of them. But one of these days we will go pick up Abuela Maggie and have her stay with us for a week.

I know this is the time where you will start becoming more indepenedent from us and mom will have to work on her patience and understanding.

We actually sang Happy Birthday to you twice. Cirene and Liz went for a long swim and came up to Sing and Dance the Happy Birthday song with you and us. Tio Tito and Abuelita Lydia did not come up but we will go and see them this coming weekend.

We love you so much! Yesterday you actually played with a group of kids around your age and older on the beach. I was staring at you from the balcony and saw that you were having fun. So I did not go down because you also need your room. I needed to fold clothes because for Christmas I got sick and you were also battling a cold and teething. Dad was also sick and JuanGa was the only one not sick. We relaxed at home and practically slept a lot of the day. But Melvin, Liz, and Cirene along with Rick Lipsett our friend from PapaHeroes site, provided little gifts for you to open.

You are an amazing little dancer and singer! And in Spanish you speak very well. We taught you that you were two years old and you said it proudly to everyone.

May you have many more birthdays my lovely daughter!

 

This month we celebrated Thanksgiving in our apartment in Isla Verde. Raul and Daniela went to the beach we had Thanksgiving lunch and off to Ponce we went with JuanGa. Daniela’s verbal skills have been improving and she is saying colors and counting.

We continue to do crafts and we are now cooking. For Thanksgiving she helped make pie crust and we even made little blueberry pies in some molds we bought her so she can cook with me while I am cooking. After we made them in our toasteroven, we had one of them and they tasted pretty good. We brought one to Melvin and Juan Luis (a friend she has made who works at the Water Club next door).

She loves our neighbors Cirene, Resat, Maria, Amaury, Cirene and all of their pets. At times Daniela will play with their cats and dogs alike. They are gentle with her. Paloma who is a old Spanish Mastiff is too keen on little kids but we do say hello to her. She loves Paco a Weimaraner and Pipa a cat. Mona Lisa is another cat that she plays with and lets just say she loves being around these animals.

She also realized that she is afraid of spiders and freaked out on me one night whiel Raul was walking the dog.

Her memory is so sharp it amazes us. When she was 16 months old we were sent a video link about a song dedicated to Father’s. Just the other day she asked for the song. She amazes us with her love for singing and dancing.

She is also entering her independence days where she wants to run away from mom and dad any chance she gets. She will tell us if she wants to go walking on the beach. She doesn’t like washing her feet anymore from walking in the sand because going up and down the ramp in front of the building is more fun. Of course I freak out because I don’t want her to slip and fall and we end up dragging sand into the tub.

I do give her little tasks like putting dog food in JuanGa’s bowl, putting her clothes away in her drawer, watering plants, helping me wash down the walls. She also imitates us when we vaccuum the floor with her toy lawnmower. She started using it one day and following me around with it so now we make it part of our routine. It is one of the ways she allows me to do some housework although Raul is so much better at it than I am. I end up putting her in the reboso sometimes and carrying her with me.

She hates the sound of trucks and wants to see them while she cries her eyes out. She will tell me “Verlo” when she hears the garbage truck. Raul thinks the reason she says she wants to see it is to overcome her fears. It is a bit of a struggle because since we live near the hotel, there are always trucks or taxis backing up and making lots of noise.

We are still breastfeeding her and probably won’t stop until she decides to. I thought I would be able to just pluck her off and she would automatically stop but she still asks for “Nenene” Or “Tetete” Or “Leche de Mama” We have tried to give her almond chocolate milk and she likes the soy milk. But it has too much sugar so we stopped giving her the almond chocolate milk.

In almost two years, we had a scare with her early in the month with a high fever one night. Of course I breastfed her all night along with giving her medicine and she recovered by the next night. Raul and I on the otherhand not so much. I was knocked out on the floor one day that Raul waited till Daniela got up from her nap, put her in the stroller and went to Starbucks. We also had Raul’s mom here until the beginning of November. She was helping Tio Tito recover after heart surgery.

My sister Veronica also got engaged and then Married this month. Since it was a tough month for us financially and with such short notice on her nuptials at her engagement party, we could not go.

Daniela loves singing and dancing and does little shows for us. She will take a JuanGa’s bone, a rolling pin, or the vaccum extension and sing.

We are amazed at how she connects things with other things also. Just today we were making pancakes and she wanted to mix. So we got her a spoon and I told her that we mix like if we were making circles. And she said, “Circulos como papel” She really amazed me with her comment.

If she doesn’t now someone, she will call them, “People” So if we are walking and someone says, “hello or hola” She will tell me, “People hablando con Daniela”

It is amazing how time flies. Although I have to calm my self down when she gets upset, I am so thankful she has a patient dad in Raul. He really is the best at calming her down and me too. We fed off each other and creat shit storms at times. He reallly has the patience that only a good dad can have.

Songs she is hooked on this month are Jaya by Macha Colon y Los Okapi. She is always hooked with Payasa Agapita and Potoco. She loves the Talking Tom app and the video. She even tries to sing the song with Angela the Cat. I see her watching music videos and listening to songs to try and memorizw the words. Firework by Katy Perry is another one she loves to sing. And went she knows words in the song, those are the ones she sings the loudest and with the most expression.

Raul has a client that made a trade for a website and provided personal fitness services to Raul. One of the trainers has a little girl who is 3. Daniela played with her for the first ever playing with another child one on one with her animal toys. It was amazing to see her interaction and I was of course a little scared. At one point Daniela said something to the little girl and I tried to come over and translate and Daniela told me”Sitting” as in Mom, I am playing go and sit and leave me be. I got this LOL I went and sat down and let her play. The little girl Alana told her to sit and Daniela sat. I was like I need to bring this little girl home with me. It really made me happy and laugh at how well they played together. Hopefully we can do more of this.

Daniela has blossomed over the last two months since we moved to San Juan. She dances, sings, and is more sociable than when we first moved to the building. She takes JuanGA’s bone, my rolling pin, or the vacuum cleaner extension and uses that as a Microphone.

Her friends are Cirene, Resat, Liz, Melvin, Doña Isabel, Don Ramon, Amaury, Maria, and Don Manuel. She knows the names of the dogs in the building along with a few of the other neighbors. For her second halloween experience, this was her first real dress up and go knocking for treats. Our neighbors got together and decided to have  some treats for her. This past month Tio Tito had surgery and Grandma Sylvette was in Ponce taking care of Great-Grandma Lydia and Tio post-op. We picked her up today and she met all the nice neighbors who had little treats for Daniela.

Over the past two months I have gotten to take Daniela for walks along the beach and have gotten to know our neighbors. It was tough for me to move into a smaller space and I was a bit anti-social. But I had to snap out of it because I saw how people were engaging and wanting to get to know us. Raul is always sociable and I just took longer to come around. The hormones are still wacky within me but I think I am okay now.

We are still breastfeeding and also trying to give Daniela other things like natural juices from the market to drink and almond chocolate milk. But she still prefers boobies. LOL. We also hit several milestones with her talking. She finally said Se Acabo instead of TA TA Um. She is putting sentences together such as “Daniela is Sitting” If Juanga tries to eat her food, “JuanGa Comer Avena or Pan” and she will imitate JuanGA’s movements with his tongue.

She will also rat me out to Raul if I tell her not to do something or take something away from her. She races us to our office chairs and now all the chairs in the house are hers. One day our friend Bianca came to the house and she ran over to tell me “Bianca Sitting Chair de Mama” I had to laugh because she knows what is Mama’s and what is Papa’s.

I have her help me with the laundry and while I put the clothes in the dryer or washer, I monitor while she puts the money in the slots. She is still painting like crazy and painting herself more than the paper at times. We go for long walks and end up in the water. I don’t go all the way in but far enough that she gets wet.

She is imitiating our neighbors husband Resat when he exercises outside. And they have taken so kindly to her. It was Cirene’s idea to do the trick or treat and she was the one who bought Daniela the princess outfit. Liz Maria and Cirene bought her a kickboard after spending a few minutes kicking with LIz’s kickboard.

On the day of Daniela’s 22 montday, we had the best beach weather and water was so clear and still you could see the bottom. It was a great beach day because most of the favorite neighbors were outside. And then Hurricane Sandy struck the caribbean and the U.S. You can google that when you get older Daniela to read about what happened.

But now the water is rough so we are waiting for better weather to use the kickboard.

We also took Daniela to her first Rock and Science concert. She loved the music and was fascinated by the lights and was dancing the whole time.

She is also biting and slapping at times and getting mad when she doesn’t get things her way. But we are not hitting and I am trying to remain as calm as possible. But I do raise my voice out of frustration at times and Raul has to remind me that I need to be calmer when I am reprimanding her. He is really good at this and she ends up crying to me when he has to. I still have not found the best way to handle this. I have to remember that she is struggling between independence and clinging to mom. One thing I have noticed about Daniela is that if she doesn’t like someone, she wont’ be nice or even say hi. It takes some time to get on her good side. But she doesn’t hold a grudge for too long and she gets that from Raul.

Titi Veronica got engaged to Rick and so pretty soon we will be hearing wedding bells for them.

As I am writing this, everyone is asleep. But I just couldn’t pass up writing about what a great time you had playing with your treats from Cirene Liz and DoñA ISABEL. I made them each a pumpkin with your handprints.