Thursday, September 17, 2009

Whack!



Mariana got a big stuffed dog for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves it by the way. She also loves the stick from the xylophone that Aunt JoAnn bought her. We call it the "scepter". She wanders back and forth wielding her scepter and whacking anything and everything in her path. How does this tupperware sound when I bang on it? How about this table, or the wall, or Daddy's face? In that same spirit her jackass father thought he would have fun too, using the scepter to whack the little plastic eyeballs on her stuffed doggie. A few hearty whacks and pop, one of them breaks off. Go figure huh? Well, it's a black eyeball on black fur, hopefully Hilary won't notice. 2 weeks later I get a distressed phone message- "Joe, the eyeball is missing from the dog! I think she ate it! Shit, what are we going to do now?! I'm calling the Doctor, maybe she needs an xray... just call me". Whoops, sorry! I had to call her and fess up to my Michael Vick-like treatment of the dog. No need for xrays or doctor trauma, just my stupidity, so no worries.









Mariana hates having her face and hands cleaned like most kids I imagine. Here is a video of me making a game out of it. I soak the towel so it splashes all over the place. I think she enjoys it because it still feels like making a mess which is still priority #1.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

MJV walks

I still can't get over it. Man she is cute. check out this video of her walking at home last night:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVb--TMHAUE

Also wanted to say a get well for my Mom. We look forward to seeing you play with Mariana next weekend at your house.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Official Walker

Contentment. We spent the weekend upstate with friends at their house in Kent, NY. We so appreciate their sharing it with us. Only 1.5 hrs north it's a wholly different world. It makes me wonder about our life, the city life. It's what we both always wanted. Day to day we love being in Brooklyn but what does Mariana want? Sunday afternoon she and I played in the kiddie pool on the grass in the sunshine. Their house is far enough off the road that you can't see any cars or even any other houses for that matter. It was extremely relaxing. Are we ready to move out of the city? No, not by a long shot but the thought isn't as remote as it used to be.
Yesterday saw Mariana take her 1st official walk! Only 4-5 steps but momentous nonetheless. Hilary walked with her, holding her hand all the way across the living room and kitchen towards me by the laundry room. Then she released her hand and we held our breaths as she stumbled the last few steps on her own into my arms. It was quite a rush to see this beautiful little creature that could barely sit up on her own when we met walking to me, her Dad. One of the numerous reasons we adopted from Colombia was because the babies were on the average a lot younger than from other countries. For some reason I thought it was really important for me to see my child's 1st steps and hear her first words. I guess I felt like those were such huge early milestones that I'd forever be sad if I missed it. I'm not sure if I still feel that way- so many of my apprehensions about adoption have been unwarranted but I am very happy to witness these firsts.
Speech update: she can now say pee pee, and beep beep. baby steps folks, baby steps...