Mornings with Chunky

The mornings are really starting to fall into a routine. Mariana starts rolling around, googooing and gaagaaing around 6 - 6:30 am. I often wake up and hear her through the monitor. Normally I've got tissue stuffed up my nose to stop the whistling that Dr. Mehta gave me when he "corrected" my deviated septum. Thanks Jackass. My ears are plugged because the neurotic pit bull in the yard just outside our bedroom windows has been squealing and wailing all night. Probably I gave up trying to ignore the noise at around 1am and resorted to the ear plugs. So when I awake at 6 to the muffled sounds of my daughter I feel like I'm in a sensory deprivation chamber, albeit a lousy one. Once I've dispensed with the plugs and nose tampon, I try to go back to sleep with mixed results often lying awake until 715 when I have to actually get up and start our day. I go downstairs, feed the cat, make Mariana's bottles for the day, put away the coffee table, lay out the blanket, prepare my cereal bowl and head back upstairs to get my lil' girl. Sometimes awake already, sometimes face down and drooling she wakes up with a big smile every day. Within 10 seconds she sits up and utters her first word "Cat!". Does she just love the cat or is she just happy to use the only word she knows how to say? Since our cat is completely anti-social and prone to hissing at our new bundle of joy I'm inclined to think the latter. Either way she is always smiley and heart burstingly cute. We go to the bathroom for a diaper a change and then downstairs for a little Daddy/daughter time. I feed her her first bottle which she usually takes and drinks on her own now. It's sort of the calm before the storm. I can stare at her and talk to her and play with her hair and she's occupied with the bottle so she sits still. If the cat should happen to walk by she'll start saying cat with a mouthful of bottle. "grgrcagrat!" he he She's funny.

Next

Mariana likes to play with tupperware, toilet paper rolls, socks, and remote controls. Regular toys? Eh, not as interesting. (Though she does dig the hamburger Aunt Maria gave her) She's starting to learn that when we say no that we mean it. We'll let her play with a cell phone but we won't let her put it in her mouth This doesn't stop her from trying over and over and over. She's just starting to show that it's very frustrating to play with some things but not be able to lick them. Sorry, them's the breaks kid. 
Work has been all consuming at times in the past month. This is very difficult to deal with. It means Hilary has to work overtime too. She has been doing a fantastic job but it's not easy. Yeah the economy sucks, yeah people are getting laid off left and right. I can't help but feel like those days and nights spent at work away from my family are lost. I'll never get back that time with them. The work that I do has so little socially redeeming value that it adds to that feeling. I'm giving up my life and time to help Northface sell more crap? I traded a weekend with my wife and baby for Tropicana? What a waste. 
Mariana is learning little things every day. Sometimes we forget that there are so many things that she has never seen before. Everything is new. I guess that's why she's so curious about anything new; the vacuum, flip flops, the cat's bowl, tissues- and you know that all that stuff makes great kids toys. 
My Spanish still sucks. I try to speak to her as much as I can but I'm afraid if she picks up anything it will be with all my errors. It still hasn't sunk in that someone else is going to have to teach her Spanish.

Also check out these videos when you get a chance. Mariana caught on tape babbling in the park and also her first time climbing 2 stairs. pretty exciting stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDTEzlWcf5I

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

Father's Day

Today was Father's Day. My first as a Dad. It's been a long time coming and it was worth the wait. I have THE most wonderful daughter a man could ask for. 

It's been a while since I wrote and I've traded writing posts for sleep. I'm going to try to start writing on the subway. We'll see how that goes. It's summertime and I've been riding my bike to work when the weather is decent so my plan may be scuttled quickly.

Mariana continues to be the dream baby. The occasional cold leads to a few broken nights sleep but nothing too bad. She continues to make my heart swell. The talking/babbling is in full force now. We try to decipher things she's saying because they often sound close to being right. The only word that's clear that she knows is cat- although it sounds more like "dat". She points at the cat and smiles and says "DAT!" She also points at dogs, animals in the zoo and a gray stuffed squirrel and says "DAT!" She's learning still ok?!

She is crawling a lot and starting to pull herself up on the couch and on the drawer handles. Scary. We still need to do much baby proofing. I came into her room this afternoon after she was supposed to be napping and found her up on her knees, hands on the bars like she was down for her crimes. Very cute but it illustrates how soon she'll be trying to climb out of there.