It’s December 10th and in thirteen days, Daniela Lucia should be here with us. Unless of course she decides to join us sooner rather than later. It has been a busy beginning of the month just trying to organize ourselves between work and doctor’s appointments to make sure that everything is going well.
Daniela’s Haven
Today we stopped over at Raul’s grandmother’s house, Doña Lydia and Tio Irving (Tito) to help them out with an issue. Upon sitting and talking to Great-Grandmother Lydia, this is her relationship to Daniela, she called Raul over to the other side of the house. I suspected something was going on but did not give it much thought. On various visits, Great-Grandmother Lydia had asked if we had purchased a bassinet or “moises” for the baby. I told her that we had not and really didn’t think we would need one. Raul came over to me and said that his grandmother wanted me to go to the other side of the house. When I looked for Doña Lydia, she was standing next to a beautiful bassinet. Of course I got emotional because outside of the belly that consumes my body these days, this made it seem real that within several weeks, a little girl will be sleeping in this bassinet.
Two birds and a Little Labrador
Just so you can get an idea of what type of pets Daniela will have around her, she will be listening to a Black Faced Grassquit named Nemo. A parakeet name Obi Wan Kenobi. And finally but not least the bark of a Black Labrador named Juan Gabriel or JuanGa for short. How did we acquire these family pets you ask? I shall tell you a little story about each.
Obi Wan Kenobi came to our family as the first pet Raul and I welcomed to our home. Our friends at Tropical Bloom, Jennifer and Osvaldo invited Raul to talk about how to use Social Media for Small Business at the Mayaguez Mall October of 2009. As a thank you for coming to speak, we were given a parakeet. I was going to name him Osvaldo, but Osvaldo human was not too excited. He then suggested his nickname Obi Wan instead. So that is how Obi Wan got his name and came to our home.
P.S Sadly Obi Wan died while I was writing this post. (11-16-2010)
Nemo was found the day after we got Obi Wan. I was outside walking around the yard to see if any palm trees had fallen when I came across a small fledgling that was sitting on the ground. Since we had many cats coming into our yard, I was afraid one might eat the poor little bird. I told Raul to come downstairs and pick it up. When we saw that he needed food, Raul went out to get some baby bird food. Raul made a birds nest and everyday there after we would put him outside. We noticed that the parents would come and feed him. But after two weeks or three weeks that he still wasn’t flying, the parents stopped coming to feed him. He should have been doing this on his own. We decided to keep him and Raul named him Nemo because of his bad wing.
UPDATED JUNE 30th: Sadly, our poor little Nemo died on June 15. He was almost with us for two years. I will miss his early morning singing.
JuanGa or Juan Gabriel was purchased after two days after Christmas. Raul had wanted a dog for some time and had been looking for a while. He would stop at a gentleman’s road- side pet shot to see what type of dogs he had available. On the way to mom’s house, Raul checked to see what dogs the gentleman had stopped and saw three black Labradors. He signaled me over and saw the labs in a cage. I also saw a little Chihuahua but Raul wanted a big dog. I told him to think about this new commitment of having a puppy. And so we left without taking him. On our way back home from mom’s we stopped in at Wal-mart to pick up a few things. Raul told me he would be right back and when he came to me, he had doggy shampoo and puppy pads. We made it just in time to the pet stand and I asked Raul how he would pick out a puppy. He said the first one that comes over to me is that one that goes home with us. Sure enough, JuanGa being male and the biggest of all three stepped over his other siblings to get to Raul’s hand. Raul checked the sex and told me it was a boy. He asked me if I wanted a girl but I decided that it would be best to have a boy. We took him home, cleaned him up, and he has been with us every since.
Juanga Vs. Our Cleaning Assistant
In prep for Daniela, we are currently trying to facilitate our lives by delegating some tasks. So this week we got a companion for Juanga and a cleaning assistant a iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot
So far the iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot
I hope you enjoy the video. We will keep you posted on the iRobot 330 iRobot 330 Scooba Floor-Washing Robot
How Daniela Lucia got her name.
When I found out about the pregnancy, one of the first things that popped up into my head was ” What the heck our we going to name this baby?”
I would look everyday at different names from different cultures. I wanted something exotic and different. If it was going to be a boy, I had decided that we would name him Irving, after Raul’s uncle. That name was squared away. As I began my search for girl names, I had always like the name Luna. I wanted a middle name that coincided with the month of the baby’s birth like Noelle. So what a perfect combination Luna Noelle. When my sister Veronica came with her son Vaughn and my nephews, we went on a family trip to San Juan.
The discussion on the way back home was baby names. I told everyone that the no matter what name they suggested, the baby would be called Luna Noelle. My nephews Daniel and Michael had different suggestions along with my mother. We laughed every time someone mentioned a name and then someone else would say who the name reminded them of and provide a reason why the baby couldn’t have that particular name. My nephew Daniel finally says, “Just name her Daniela.” To which Raul replied, “I would name her Daniela before Luna”.
The day we went to find out about the baby’s health and my gestation date, we also were going to find out the sex of the baby. We had been told by some people that the baby was going to be a girl. That is a whole other story and post. We had to get up early and get in line to wait for our turn. I was nervous all day and had my headphones on while we were waiting. When it was finally our turn to get the sonogram, we were waiting for the doctor to finish up with the patients ahead of us. From the conversation we were hearing, the doctor was hilarious. When it was our turn, I was asking questions a mile a minute and Raul kept on looking at me like, give the technician a chance.
Once the doctor came to check out the results, he asked us if we had an idea of the sex of the baby. He also asked us if we had baby names. I told him that if it was a boy, it would be Irving. But the girl name I wanted, Luna was not what Raul liked. He said, “Luna. That is a pretty name. I think my neighbor’s dog is named Luna.” He proceeded to tell us that the baby was going to be a girl. At that point, Daniela or Liana was going to be the baby’s name.
Once he answered all our questions and provided us with accurate information for my doctor, I breathed a sigh of relief. The following day, we decided that Daniela would be her name. My nephew Daniel was still in Puerto Rico and I called him at my mother’s house. Once I told him that there was a good chance the baby would be named after him, he proceeded to dance. My mother got on the phone and told me he was dancing because of the news that his name was chosen. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that we agreed Lucia would be her middle name. Lucia was my grandfather Osvaldo mother’s name. Raul did say that if we ever get another dog, I will be able to name the dog Luna.