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here we are...spending a nice quiet morning together, like we always do when dad is already at work. we usually wake up at 8.30, which is perfect, not too early. Pilar goes to bed between 8pm and 9pm so she is getting her 12 hours of sleep. and the best part, she now sleeps in her crib until about 6am! then she comes to bed with us for a few hours of cuddling and warmth.
breakfast always starts the same way...I keep a glass jar of her favorite gluten free cereal, nature's path whole o's, and I open the jar for her, and she sticks her hand inside and splashes a handful out onto the table, she loves doing this! then I make our toast with crunchy peanut butter, and feed her apple sauce, sliced oranges, and usually a fruit smoothie with blueberries and strawberries. she is crazy about smoothies! LOVES them, me too.
we sing along to some of her favorite sesame street videos, the fav is feist's 1.2.3.4. we bob our heads back and forth and sing along, well Pili gurgles along, she doesn't know the words yet. after some singing we play with some toys, she likes little cars right now, you know hot wheels etc, leftovers from my childhood. but things aren't complete without some office supplies, she is the office lady after all. here she is with my calculator. I actually had to scrub this clean recently because it was covered in goop and food, I actually scrubbed off the calculus formulas I had written on it (yes I cheated, sometimes...) now at least Pili will never know I did!
good morning!
tonight pilar and I watched the olympic ice dance competition finals, and we got inspired, and did some dancing of our own, twirls, jumps, and kicks. she's a natural! sorry no photos of us dancing, but here she is eating dinner...pretty in pink. don't mind the food on her face, she doesn't!
well here is Pilar showing you her current favorite place to hang around...the fridge! and why not, it's cool (literally), has lot's to touch and feel, and of course eat. she can't open the door herself yet, thank god, but she scoots in just as soon as the door opens.
she actually knows that when I'm making lunch or dinner, she will probably be able to sneak in here, and that's what she does. she pretends to be playing in the other room, like the fridge is no big deal, then when I'm standing at the sink and not looking she sneaks in, and I mean IN, she sits on the bottom ledge as you can see in the photos! she spends a lot of time sorting through all the veggies and fruits. she points to each thing and I tell her what it's called. milk. water. juice. mustard. peanut butter, etc.
while we are on the theme of food, let me list off for you some of Pilar's favorites:
raisins, chicken, apples, salmon, crackers, bread, and blueberries.
you can also see her new juicy leisure suit, thanks nic!
this day Pilar was in an extra silly mood. our old coffee table broke so it happened to be off to the side of our living room leaving a rather generous (for an apartment) open space that felt fresh and new, different, you know? well Pilar certainly noticed! we chased each other around, and she is starting to get the hang of running, and she loves it. of course I was IT the whole time, with her squealing and chasing me, but never catching me, but almost, and she loved it!
I finally brought out the camera to capture these silly moments and she knew exactly what was going on, she knows it's a camera, she knows that the images on the screen are her, and she loves to see them, so she actually poses now for the camera! it was really cute, it's the first time she had done this. I took a few, and she would run over giggling to see them, then she ran back to pose for a few more, then hopped back to see the next ones! when I ask her 'who's that'? she points to herself. amazing.
as well as learning to move faster than a speeding bullet (well faster than her stuffies) she is also trying desperately to jump up and down. this is hilarious! she doesn't actually do it, but she bends her knees rapidly, and it really looks like she is jumping, but isn't! the last time she went to the community center she saw this is what the 'cool' kids were doing in the bouncy castle, and she's been trying ever since. and sometimes this takes importance over everything else, like she might be walking to the elevator, but she stops suddenly, holds the wall, and tries jumping. it's just so cute.
she is also fascinated with blowing her nose, with a tissue, like a lady (grandma), but you know, can't quite do it. isn't the sweatshirt so cute? strawberry shortcake! thanks Mel!
o yeah, she's also still our little resident office lady, she LOVES my little voice recorder!
here is Pili, being silly. look at her smile, I am totally in love with this little creature. every time I look at her I get butterflies in my tummy, you know like when you have your first crush, but this is different. this is ever-lasting.
she is so smart, and funny, and kind, and genuine. she waves to everyone she sees, even strangers who don't wave back to her, or even notice her, she still waves. if only they knew what they missed, if only they had turned around to see her little hand and smile waving to them, they would have felt happy all day long because a little girl who doesn't know them or their story felt they were good enough to send a wave and a smile.
yes life with Pili is blessed, I am so blessed.
a while back I mentioned Pilar's new kitchen that we got her from Pottery Barn Kids, well here she is cooking up a storm! well not really, but she loves playing with it, and as you can see many of my kitchen items have migrated to her kitchen, my bowls, strainers, etc. these pictures were taken one night after dinner, before bed, you know, the time of day when she has the most energy, and is the funniest, and silly.
she plays with her spoons, the bowls, steps on the strainers until they are flat, sits on the coffee table and swings her legs, swing swing, her grandma taught her that. she loves doing it too! isn't she the cutest?
well Pilar has officially been on her first date, and it was very cute to say the least! my sister Robyn's ex-boyfriend from high school's sister ( did you follow that?), her name is Jen, had a baby on August 24th, 2008. that was actually my due date for Pilar. well Jen has the cutest little boy named Elliott. Robyn has been following Elliott through facebook, and always tells me how cute his, he's so similar to Pilar, they'd be such cute friends. so finally Robyn arranged an introduction.
last weekend me and Pilar, Robyn, and my mom (grandma never misses anything) went to the Riley Park Community Center to meet Jen and Elliott. we hadn't been to this drop in gym before, and it was fun. Pilar and Elliott hung out and ate snacks, played in the kitchen, and did their thing. you know climbing, walking around just cuz, riding the flintstone cars, and checking out the other kids.
it's funny, neither of them talk yet, it seems Elliott's favorite syllable is 'ma' and Pilar's is 'ma-ba'. I think it's destiny, they speak the same language!
hi there! it's a new year and so I thought Pilar would like a new header on her blog, something simple, sweet, and spring-like. I have used butterflies in two colors, yellow and grey. I got the color inspiration from lovely design's november pattern. I used the font Mr. Sheffield, which for a man is actually quite feminine. I thought this font represented Pili well, it's girly, but simple, no extra frills, just like her.
I have some good news to share too. we had her tested recently for celiac disease and thyroid dysfunction, both of which I have. well today we found out she has neither! I am so relieved. these are usually hereditary conditions, and my disease has not passed on to her. I pray that if we have another child we have the same good fortune.
here is a photo of pilar lounging in our eames chair with our new Ikea pillow, which we both love!
so it was my mom's birthday a few days ago, and we decided to take Pilar to Pottery Barn Kids to play with the toys etc. we didn't go there with any intention of buying something, but well you know how it is, we did leave with something! we got her this little classic kitchen oven/stove/sink combo, with a miniature environmentally friendly tea set, and a microwave. she is in heaven! she loves to open and close the oven, turn the knobs, pretend to wash her hands and wash dishes, she makes tea, plays with her spoon collection, and microwaves all sorts of goodies.
as you can see in the photos Pili enjoyed many other things in the store, but you can't buy them all, especially here since it's rather expensive. she played with a mini Meinhardt's shopping cart, filling it up with various items, she loved the baby strollers, the dollhouse, the dollhouse furniture, and of course the kitchen. the kitchen in the photos is not the one we bought, this one is fun, but come on...$299 per piece is just ridiculous. The one we bought was on sale and we got it for much less.
the store is close to home, free to enjoy, and the best of all, Pilar actually got to play with the kitchen here all by herself. it was a rainy Monday morning, and there was nobody here. sometimes it's nice to play alone. Pilar doesn't mind sharing, but the other day she was playing at the kitchen at the False Creek Community Center gym, and a boy came over and pushed her to the ground for no good reason. she didn't cry, but my heart ached for her. I know this is just the beginning, she'll encounter many more meanies in her life.
anyway, my mom had a great time with her, happy birthday grandma! we love you!
well, like i said in the previous post, pilar is walking now, at long last! she started on january first, what a great way to start a new year, quite a big accomplishment! she had been testing her abilities for a few weeks, taking steps between me and sergio, you know one two three, catch. one two three, catch. sometimes she would take up to seven or eight steps, but she was always expecting someone on the other side to catch her. we actually stopped this game for a while to see if she would just do it on her own, and it took a while, she didn't seem interested in walking too much. I mean she was an excellent crawler!
then one day sergio and i noticed her in the corner of our eyes (we were in the middle of discussing something) suddenly stand up, and just walk across the room. we asked each other "did she just WALK across the room?" I think she did! when we realized what she had just done, it was too late, she had already ducked back down to the floor like nothing had happened, and crawled away to the kitchen. we saw nothing for a few more days, then suddenly we were at kate and mike's and she decided she was ready, and spent a good hour walking back and forth across the room between sergio and I, and even walked to mike a few times (mike is the chosen one, she doesn't let many people touch her or pick her up, thank god, she's not too trusting).
anyway, now she's a pro. she almost never crawls. in fact she spends hours and hours walking around our apartment. she walks around and around the kitchen, up the hallway, in the bedroom, and back again. but her favorite, is walking up and down the hallways of our building, knocking on everyone's doors. she is obsessed right now with doors, she knocks, and tries to reach the knobs. it's so cute.
here are some walking action shots!
happy new year everyone!
ok, seriously, I am neglecting this blog way too much, but I thought recently maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself, I mean I do have a young person demanding most of my attention, a husband who demands a little attention, and well, there isn't a whole lot left for me at the end of the day. I work too, and I have started another blog (sorry pili) which has taken a lot of my attention, it's about living gluten free in vancouver, started with my sister robyn, check it out if you are interested.
So the last post was about pili turning one, well now she is 16 months old! and a lot has happened in these past few months, some of the highlights are: she has four first molars, she sleeps in her crib without crying, she weighs 23.5 pounds, she is 31 inches tall, and she can WALK! that's right, she's upright! and she loves it. so do we, we no longer have to carry her everywhere, or watch her crawl on supermarket floors. she has gained a whole new sense of awareness with this leap forward. she notices way more things, and generally acts more like a kid than a baby. well, actually she is not a baby anymore, sniff sniff.
she is crazy about dogs, she adores her grandparents, has stared warming up to her aunties heather and robyn, and her friends kate and mike, which is excellent because we are going to havana in march with kate and mike, and it will be so much easier now that she is comfortable with them. we are all very excited for this holiday! I am especially excited to see pilar in sergio's environment. and it is additionally fabulous that for the first time, i will be in havana and not have to leave sergio behind. we have come a long way, a hard way for sure, but now it all seems worth it.
here are some random photos from the past couple of months, enjoy!
