As the days go by it does get a little harder to write on the blog because Daniela is awake more often than not.

Last month we had a visit from Grandpa Tito Raul’s dad, and the interaction between her and Gramps was amazing. She sprouted at the same time her bottom ones. She also lived through her first hurricane named Irene. We didn’t get any damage but she was awaken by the thunder as we all were one morning.

This month we took her to the beach and stayed at a hotel where she was in the pool. She loved the water so much that she feel asleep for longer periods of time. Raul thinks we should take her to the pool more often.

We left our dog JuanGa at the vets for boarding and he did very well.

Sad news that happened was that our bird Nemo died. Raul’s grandma is very ill and every moment she is with us is precious to the family. Raul went to visit Great-Grandma America in CT to spend some quality time with her. We did do video chat with her and I had to stop the emotions from flooding through the screen.

Daniela can:

Feed herself with the pincer grip and shoveling food like bananas, avocado, papaya, broccoli and basically anything I can put in her site. This month she is looking at our plates and wanting to eat what we have. Thank goodness we all eat the same thing and we can share with her.

She sits and turns around in a complete circle. She also rolls to wherever she wants to get too to grab toys.

She feeds JuanGa and so he enjoys that very much.

Says mom, dada, da for dog which is JuanGa and sometimes it sounds like she is saying Ga for JuanGa. While Raul was away in CT, we did video conferencing and everytime I opened the laptop she would say DaDa.

When she wants something and doesn’t get it she throws herself back and is as stiff as a plank.

Don Tito made her say mama and it was the funniest thing. She started doing hand motion when he sang “Linda Manito”

She does talk alot when she sees Uncle Irving aka Tio Tito. Yesterday he was going over the vowels with her and she was repeating sounds.

She loves sleeping with my blanket and pink robe.

She also loves playing with the iPad! She does have  a little book our friends and adoptive Grandparents Nellie and Tomas gave her called Jenny’s house. If you ask her where is Jenny or Adonde esta Jenny, she will open up the little window on the book and point to her. This leads me to believe that she is listening and learning both English and Spanish. We just need our Indian friends to teach her some Hindi.

I am still breastfeeding her and don’t plan to stop anytime soon. She is drinking more water out of her sippy cup and we have discarded the bottles all together. I just bring sippy cups for her or she loves to drink out of our cups that are filled with water.

We are in the process of transitioning her to her crib. She is taking naps and playing in her crib. But when it comes to night time, she is waking up. So I find myself bringing her in the bed again. I know she needs to get used to it.

The other day when Raul was packing to go to CT, she was sitting on the bed and started climbing into the suitcase. I was amazed. She is standing up with assistance and I think with the crib she will start pulling up more. She has already begun.

She loves rocking back and forth as she listens to us hum or sing.

She loves giving open mouth kisses or besitos when she feels like it. Sometimes ill be breastfeeding her and she will stop open up her mouth towards me and give me a slobbery kiss.

Her eye color is settling to be a light brown almost like Raul’s. And you would think that all these months breastfeeding I would have noticed that she had a tiny birthmark on her left cheek. I thought it was a speck of dirt and it wasn’t.

The older she gets the more she looks like Raul’s mom when she was a baby. We saw a picture of Raul’s Grandfather Irving and his mom Sylvette. It was the weirdest thing to look at because it was like looking at our daughter.

Well that is it for now. Ill post pictures soon I promise.

 

 

Wow The little Lady has been rolling around all over the place. August was a month that was filled with lots of ups and downs. We found out that Raul’s dad was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer. Since he hadn’t seen Daniela, it impacted us a bit more than it would have normally. So the exciting thing was that he did come to visit and she also got to meet her Great-Grandfather Nacho, Don Tito’s dad.

 

So the baby and Don Tito hit it off splendidly. He made her yell ma and the dog JuanGa was in heaven. He finally had someone to throw the ball around with him. It was kinda of magical seven days for our family. We got to speak to Don Tito about what was happening with him, he helped us out around the house, and bought Daniela’s high chair. Mom’s back was definately paying for it by bending over feeding her in the bumbo.

What are the new things that Daniela does:

She rolls over and over to get things that are at a distance from her.

She scoots down in between my legs and propels herself upward to move forward. She is not crawling.

She has mastered the pincer grip when it comes to food. She loves avocado, beans, pasta, and quinoa.

It sounds like at times she says dog by saying da to JuanGa. Or sometimes I hear her say ga. She does say da and ma.

When you sing to her, she looks at your lips. She also moves her tummy back and forth like if she was dancing.

She does give open mouth kisses if you tell her to give besitos.

We noticed that she was growing two teeth at the same time towards the end of the month. They bothered the heck out of her so we opted for carrots. And when we saw that the carrots were not soothing her, it was panadol for baby’s. She is holding her own frozen carrots that I cut about 2 to 3 inches thick. That was on August 24th.

She started doing movements with her hand and so we started singing La Linda Manito.

She is so into gadgets like the computer, iPad, and phones.

We are still breastfeeding and she is eating everything under the sun. She will take water in her sippy cup and loves all types of fruits.

She will feed JuanGa whatever she doesn’t eat. So of course JuanGa is standing at attention all the time.

I have documented all of the fruits and veggies we have been giving her on since the beginning of the solid foods stage. We also had a bit of a misunderstanding with Raul’s grams giving the baby a small piece of cake. It was microscopic but it bothered us. So Raul had to let them know that we are not giving her any sweets because she doesn’t need them.

We also went through our first major hurricane Irene with the family. Thank goodness that nothing happened just some thunder that would scare her out of her sleep but that was about it. I know I sound non-chalant but she would go back to sleep.

Overall we had a good month. Onto month number nine so fast. I can’t believe it. Ciao for now.

 

 

Today Daniela celebrates her seventh month into this world with  bang or should I say lots of crying! But she can’t be happy all of the time.

This month she met my aunt and uncles Lillian, David, Albert, and Robert who were visiting my grandmother for her 87 birthday. We only got to see them for a few hours because we do have a small business to run. And the day we could have gone to see them, was a day that some proposals for the business had to go out.

Here is what Daniela is doing this month:

Eating Solids! We were given the green light to give her solids and she started with rice cereal but that constipated her so she is know eating barley cereal in the morning. That seems to be just fine with her tummy! The first vegetable she ate was Sweet Potato and she loved them. She even took the spoon away from me to feed herself.

Fruits she likes are apple, mango, papaya, pear, and apricot. Vegetables she likes are peas, green beans, potatos, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. Legumes such as lentils. She hates hates hates pumpkin.

We are still breastfeeding her and she does take the sippy cup better than the bottle. This is something that is normal for breastfed babies to do.

She turns completely over in both directions and keeps rolling.

When I put her down she puts her elbows back to try to stay up. She does try to lift herself up from sitting buy using anything that she is propped up against.

Everytime JuanGa is in her presence, she is touching him and rubbing him. If he goes away, she cries.

When I leave the room for any reason, she cries bloody murder even with Raul holding her. Yes we have played peek a boo with her but it doesn’t work. She says what we think is Mum under duress.

She loves the computer and phones while her latest gadget is the remote control.

She sits up perfectly with out any help but does loose her balance when she is trying to reach for a toy. So she still needs someone sitting next to her with supervision.

She sings while I have her standing on my lap.

When her great-grandmother Lydia sings Tortita de Manteca, she hits her hand against hers.

She waves to herself and loves playing with boxes, spoons, and measuring cups.

Well I am going to cut this short for today. Pictures will be up soon.

 

 

Yes half a year has already gone by and Daniela is doing great. This post should have been written two days ago, but on Daniela’s Happy 182.5 Days old day, she was Cranky McCranky Pants because her gums are bothering her. We were given the green light yesterday by her doctor that she can eat solids. I have been breastfeeding for six months and I have to say that it was the best decision I made. One day Raul and I were sick as dogs. Because I was breastfeeding, Daniela did not catch what we had.

The first solid she ate today was Sweet Potato. The doctor also recommended a rice cereal to give her the extra vitamins that she needs as she starts to move more, roll over and over, and eventually run. She loved the sweet potato and the excitement in her eyes was priceless. I made my own and will continue to do so. I think it’s going to be cheaper for our pockets than buying baby food.

Her favorite toy is a rattle that our friend Eudeliz gave her. She can be stone cold asleep and won’t let it go. If I change her diaper, she has a kung-fu grip on it. Another favorite is a piano and multitasking table. She loves to bang on the keys. She is also into blocks and a left over tub of margarine.

She loves JuanGa and every chance she gets, is petting him, trying to grab his feet or any part of his body for that matter. They both love carrots and that is what I have been using to soothe her gums; frozen carrots. She sucks on them and JuanGa drools as he waits for her to finish.

She likes wrapping herself in my pink robe that I bought when I was in the hospital having her.

What she is doing this month:

Sitting on her own with out assistance. We still have to be careful with her because she does topple over.

Drinks Water. She likes playing with her water bottle but on occassion spits out the water. The only time we have seen her drink a lot of it was yesterday at her Great Grandma’s house because it was hotter than hades.

Sucks her thumb. Yes she is my daughter. I was a thumb sucker until I was twelve.

Grabs everything in sight.

When I am laying down and I have her on my tummy, she will put her head on my chest. It’s the sweetest thing.

She also yells and says ahhhh like a monster when she can’t grab something or put it in her mouth.

Pulls on my bra-strap while nursing and don’t let Raul say a word. Her head turns so quickly that I end up spraying breast milk all over us.

I think the one thing we have to be careful with is making sure we watch her all the time. Since she is rolling over in both directions, she will continue to roll if we don’t stop her. I of course get scared when she positions her hand wrong but Raul he has that under control.

She does say Mum when she is extremely upset and crying. She is talking lots of baby talk within these last couple of days.

We will post other pictures for this month soon. It is just been a bit crazy. So If you are reading this, we have launched several sites, such as www.veglatino.com and www.papaheroes.com. Check them out when you have a chance.

We are down to one pet, JuanGa. Our Black Nosed Grassquit died on June 15th. Today JuanGa took off on me on my way out the door and he went out the gates of the housing area and almost into the street. Thank God Raul caught him before he crossed the road. It was the scariest thing ever. So I have to really cross every t and dot every i when it comes to baby and JuanGa.