alicia keys

lei just sent me a link to alicia keys' blog and even though i've always loved her, reading this made me love her more!... she wrote...

"Every moment is beautiful; delicious even! Every moment I'm learning and living in a way I never have before. Being present in a way I never have before. Existing in moments I never have before.

Never have I felt so calm, so purposeful in taking the time to truly observe the world around me, to live in it fully and watch it, discuss it, put time toward it. It feels really incredible - so peaceful, so complete and long overdue.

I'm grown, I'm confident, I'm secure, and so blessed to be these things.

I'm most enamored with anatomy at this point. The miracle of the human body. The ability to create all these small amazing machines of veins, capillaries, digestive systems, eyes, ears and noses. I can spend HOURS looking at one little EAR! Have u ever noticed how complex just an ear is? A tiny maze of art. It may sound silly but it's so true. Or a heartbeat? Everyday we wake up and in some way, take for granted the fact that this beautiful pulsating organ in our body is the reason, and yet now that's all I can think of...

And breath; invisible as it may be, how necessary!

Ain't it true that things we really can't see are of the greatest importance?

I've never seen a more beautiful face in my LIFE! The most perfect eyes and beautiful nose, the sweetest lips and skin so soft and kissable!

Never have I felt such disbelief, such awe, humility, godliness, such strength, power and possibility.

I've never believed in greatness and the never ending Higher Power more than now!

And I can't believe he's mine!"

Sunday pictures

Sunday was spent playing on the grass

sitting on the grass

eating the grass

being really cute (on the grass)

meeting new creatures

touching them

following them around

LOVING the turtles... not so much the rabbits

until realizing how soft they are

Little Kian is not so little anymore.

Dear Kian, last week you turned 10 months old. 10 is such a big number. and it's so close to 12. 

i'm not sad about you growing so fast, i'm amazed, surprised sometimes. but i'm not sad. and i'm not scared either. i love watching you grow. 

you have such an awesome personality. you're calm and content most of the day, but you also know how to let us know when you're not happy about something. when something doesn't go your way you throw your arms up and down but you're also very easily entertained and we can make you forget what you wanted on the first place just by showing you a toy or trying to tickle you. you're so ticklish. under the chin and neck are the best spots to make you laugh.

another thing about your personality that i love is how serious you get sometimes. and you give this look that is so grown up, so mature. and i can imagine you in 20 years giving me that very same look.

i love how curious you are. and i know all babies are curious by nature but i love watching you explore things, touch them, analyze them... i love how you tilt your head to the side or how you turn your head when you're following something or someone with your eyes. 

you're getting into everything these days and it's getting a little hard to keep up with you but i think you understand the meaning of "no". i just can't wait for the day that you stop putting everything you find in your mouth. 

10 months came with new teeth and new moves, you recently started to pull yourself up and dancing to music, you're also crawling with your stomach off the floor (although i loved your army crawl, your clothes don't get so dirty anymore).

this month also came with a big change, you suddenly stopped breastfeeding. and it was pretty clear that you wanted to stop. and you know, it was so easy and natural how it all happened from the beginning that it also had to end like that. 

kian, you're so much work but you're so much fun, and love, and laughs, and cuddles, and smiles, and happiness. 

i love you more every day.

desde que empezó a gatear si nos distraemos desaparece...

Hace unos días empezó a levantarse solito...

and he does this really funny laugh that sounds like a dolphin...

me encanta cuando los bebés descubren como usar sus dedos y señalan o tocan todo con un dedito.

so sleepy...

last night was the longest night EVER. before the first 2 teeth cut through (a couple of months ago) kian was a little fussy but it wasn't a big deal. now he's getting his top front teeth and he's in PAIN. last night he kept waking up crying and screaming... poor baby. paul and kian are taking a nap now... i need one too!

weekend

weekends have a new meaning now. they used to mean sleeping in and endless naps. kian doesn't know the difference between week days and weekends so he still wakes up around 7 am. i still love weekends. i love seeing kian a little surprised to see paul having breakfast with us. i love when paul takes kian with him and i get to stay in bed a little longer.

this weekend: on saturday we went to have lunch at the anello-gates' where paul spent the afternoon playing wii, gogo (or something like that) and soccer:

franco is wearing glasses now (only to watch TV) and he looks even older... he's gotten so big. everytime i see him and sebas i can't stop thinking that i'll blink and kian will be as big as they are now. 

on sunday we went to a small town called porongo (!) and on the way there we stopped by a "lake". (wait, what's the difference between a lago and a laguna? this was supposed to be a laguna) 

bolivia has beautiful places and amazing landscapes but i guess none of them are that close to santa cruz.

and last night i received a belated birthday gift from laila (my awesome sister-in-law) who gave me tickets to go see alejandro sanz!!!!! it was the best surprise ever. i didn't expect it at all and i got so excited i felt like a teenager again :D  the concert is on the 21st. i can't wait!

baby zoolander

ayer

aunque no parezca le encantó esta comidita. era remolacha con zanahorias y pollo. terminó todo de color rojo asi que aproveché que hacía calor y le di un bañito afuera en la pileta...

más tarde fuimos a comprarle algunos juguetes porque todos los que tenía eran para bebés más pequeños asi que fuimos en búsqueda de unos un poco más interactivos o entretenidos que sirvan para algo más que solo morderlos. hablando de juguetes, en algún momento pensé que me gustaría que kian solo tenga juguetes hechos de madera o tela y artesanales que los encuentro mucho más bonitos que los de plástico. ahora me doy cuenta que es medio imposible principalmente porque no se encuentran, y si hay, son mucho más caros... de todas formas también creo que los niños no necesitan decenas de juguetes para entretenerse y además pueden jugar con cualquier cosa que se les de. por ejemplo a kian le encanta jugar con botellas. anyway... aunque no me gusten tanto los juguetes de plástico tengo que reconocer que me encantan los little people.

racimo de estrellas

mientas kian y yo estábamos en los estados, unos días antes de nuestra llegada, paul arregló todo el jardín y puso estas plantitas abajo de la ventana de la cocina. ahora estan llenas de florcitas con forma de estrellas (o así las veo yo). cada vez que las veo me dan ganas de sonreir.

showing off his teeth

2 pictures and some predictions...

lua and kian chilling

they have the same hairdo

the other day i read the cutest letter written for a one year old... his grandmother was making predictions about what he would be in the future... it was pretty funny.
of course i had to think about kian and his future profession... these are my predictions:
1. a chef: many times paul has taken him into the kitchen and sat him in his stroller while he cooks, explaining step by step what he's doing... kian seems pretty interested.
2. a physicist: he seems pretty fascinated by the law of gravity. you give him a toy, he looks at it, throws it to the ground and watches it go down... you give it back to him and he throws it again... and again and again.
3. a professional swimmer: he loves the water, the swimming pool and when he's on the floor he kicks like he's swimming.
4. a soccer player (or a soccer fan but that's not a profession!): he's been exposed to soccer games on tv daily since before he was born. hmmm... maybe a sports journalists?
5. a pilot or a flight attendant: he's not even a year old and he's already been on 6 flights and he loved every single one (or at least he didn't mind them)
6. a soldier: he crawls like he's in a war zone.
7. a model: just cause he's so cute!

i can't think of anymore right now... whatever he becomes i hope it's something he loves! (ya tenía q decir algo cursi...) aunque ojalá no sea ni el 6 ni el 7! jaja

another move

as of yesterday kian can get himself from laying down on his tummy to sitting! i love watching every one of his moves.

letter to kian: 9 months old!

dear kian, yesterday you turned 9 months old. time goes by fast and soon you'll be one year old. i keep daydreaming about a birthday party for you. i've always done that, look forward to things... it used to drive me crazy how it was so hard for me to focus on the present because i was always looking forward to what will happen in the future... i like to think that's one of the things you're helping me change... you're making me enjoy the moment as it happens. i still think about the future a lot, but it's mostly because it's fun to imagine what will happen, where we'll be, what we'll be doing, and i do have a very active imagination. but i'm a lot more present, a lot more conscious of the right here and right now. this is it. and i'm enjoying every second of every day.
i had no idea it would be like this. before you were born i had no idea how natural motherhood would be. i find it a little strange how people have been doing this for thousands and thousands of years and somehow everything has become so complicated that most people are actually scared of being parents. and they let fear and insecurity take over. when in reality being a parent is the most natural thing in the world. perhaps i'm over simplifying things but that makes it easier than over complicating things... ha!
i guess what i'm trying to say is that i hope i always feel this way. i hope we always have this bond. i hope we keep things simple. i'll always be your mom and you'll always be my son, my first born. i love you and i loved this past 9 months. whatever the future brings... i'm totally enjoying your babyhood right now. happy 9 months!

life with kian...

has been a busy one! he's going to be nine months old next week and i can't believe how fast time goes by and how fast he's growing and learning new things.
our trip to costa rica and the us was amazing. he did so much better than i could have expected... i was really nervous about flying with him but every flight was great and at least one person (specially flight attendants) in each flight commented on how well behaved he was. one of them said that in his 10 years as a flight attendant he had never seen a baby so quiet and content as kian... i was so proud of him! he only had a hard time on a bus ride (7 hours from paso canoas to san jose) but it was probably because he had a cold and a bad cough. he was also great meeting new people and being around a lot of new faces... i wish he could remember this trip in the future, but at least we'll have the pictures and we can tell him about the first time he went to the beach, the first he got in a swimming pool, the first time he met aunts, uncles, and cousins and how much love he received from everyone.
as soon as we got back his first tooth came out and i was so thankful that it waited till we got here to come out cause poor baby was in pain. the second tooth came out after a few days so now he has two bottom teeth... they look so cute.
he's been eating a lot! especially after his 8 month check up when the doctor told us to give him more food. he's weight is fine (10 kg.) but he was definitely ready for more solids. his schedule (most days) go something like this: wakes up around 6:30 am (when paul wakes up) nurses a little and goes back to sleep, gets up around 7:30-8 has breakfast (fruit, cereal or yogurt), plays for a while, snack around 10 (fruit), nurse and short nap, lunch around 1, play some more, another nursing session and nap around 4, dinner around 6:30, bath, nursing and bed time around 9:30. he got used to sleeping next to me during the trip and waking up in the middle of the night to have some milk so now we're working on getting used to going the whole night with no milk like he used to do before the trip... so far it's been 3 days of sleeping through the night with no interruptions... although this morning he woke up at 5 am. :s
these past few days he's really started moving around a lot. he kind of crawls... he still can't get his tummy off the ground yet but he can definitely go from one place to another. paul put a big carpet on the living room where we put some toys for kian to play with... until today he would stay on the carpet... today he started going from one side to the other and realized the floor is more slippery than the carpet so he likes that better...
what else? so far (or as far as i remember) he's eaten fruits (apple, banana, pear, guayaba, papaya, melon, tangerine, mango), veggies (squash, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, spinach), cereals (rice cereal and cereal puffs) and lentils, and yogurt.
while i was in california i got a baby book and i'm proud to say i already filled it up. it was a little hard going through thousands of pictures and picking favorites but it was a lot of fun going back and seeing how little kian used to be and how much he's changed in just 8 months.
sometimes i can't believe how much love i have for this little guy and it makes me a little nervous thinking about (sometime in the future) having another one... would i love them just the same? how can so much love be possible?? but i'm sure that just as our hearts grew a little bigger to make room for kian when he was born, they'll grow a little more for the next one too. right? sounds good to me.
ok...time to go to bed!

sharing

en las mañanas Kian se despierta y lo traigo a nuestra cama... a veces se vuelve a dormir, otras se queda despierto y nos quedamos ahi conversando.
hoy agarró su chupete y lo puso en mi boca. me reí y le dije, no thank you, and he gave me a cute toothless smile.

a proud dad :)

"If Kian isn't the best baby in the world, he's definitely in the top five." -Paul

el tiempo pasa...

un mes en la vida de un bebé quizás sea como un año en la vida de un adulto porque aprenden y cambian tan rápido... Kian sigue creciendo y cada vez lo conocemos un poco más. ya sabemos cuando está cansado, cuando tiene hambre, cuando está aburrido... ya reconocemos sus miradas y los ruidos que hace. aunque también al mismo tiempo que crece, cambia... ya no le gusta mucho estar acostado, prefiere estar sentado o parado (con ayuda, obvio), incluso cuando necesita un poco de ayuda para quedarse dormido.

en las mañanas, casi siempre, se despierta de buen humor, sonríe y conversa. duerme siestas durante todo el día, a veces de 20 minutos, a veces de 2 horas. al llegar la noche se pone más serio y muy pocas personas pueden hacerlo sonreir. a las 10 generalmente es su última leche y se duerme hasta las 6, 7, u 8.
creo que le encanta salir a pasear, se distrae y está más tranquilo generalmente. creo que a veces se aburre de estar todo el día en la casa y ver las mismas dos caras. a veces se pone inquieto, especialmente si tiene hambre. todavía le encanta bañarse aunque estas últimas semanas que ha hecho frío ya no lo bañamos todas las noches.

cada vez se interesa más por los juguetes que le ofrecemos. por ahora lo que más le gusta son los links que eran de keilani. los agarra, los mira, se los pone en la boca...
 a veces cuando está muy cansado o no puede dormir y llora le canto la oración "is there any remover of difficulties save God?" y se queda en silencio escuchandome. que bueno que todavía no diferencia una voz desafinada de una afinada!
obviamente que es mi hijo y me parece el bebé más hermoso y más bueno y más todo del mundo! pero de verdad agradezco todos los días que sea como es, que muy pocas veces he sentido frustración/impaciencia/desesperación/impotencia.

algunas cosas que han pasado desde la última vez que escribi algo acá:
-le sacamos carnet de identidad y ya está en proceso su pasaporte americano y birth certificate
-festejamos el cumple de su primo Franco (y mientras veía a unos 10 niños de entre 8 y 10 años corriendo por todos lados pensaba que no quiero que Kian crezca!!!!)
-festejamos el cumple de su tía Laila
-su primer corte de pelo (en realidad un mechoncito que Paul le cortó pq se le había hecho un nudo enorme)
-su primer pic nic
-estuvo de visita su tía Zay

y no se me ocurre que más!

another moment i don't want to forget

hoy por primera vez kian se rio a carcajadas. más de una vez. por un buen rato. estabamos en la casa de nadia y willy. primero mientras lo cambiaba, después con willy. increible pensar que fue la primera de millones de risas que ojalá tendrá en su vida... ojalá que su futuro esté lleno de risas!
just when i thought he couldn't be any cuter... he proves me wrong :)

Abril

Este mes se cumple 1 año desde que Kian llegó a nuestras vidas. 8 meses en mi panza, más 4 meses fuera, son 12 meses... 1 año! Qué rápido pasa el tiempo...
Lo mejor del embarazo fueron las noches, cuando sentíamos sus patadas. Nunca dejó de sorprenderme cuando se movía. Pero a pesar de lo bonito que fue el embarazo, nada se compara con tenerlo acá afuera!

Hoy mientras manejaba de vuelta de la U estaba pensando en las cosas que me encantan de mi hijo (todavía me parece raro decirlo), una lista que se seguirá completando seguramente toda la vida... (estaba pensando eso porque la otra vez vi el blog de una señora que escribía las 25 cosas favoritas de sus 4 hijos adultos y me pareció re tierno) anyway... una lista incompleta:

- cuando se despierta de sus siestas en las tardes y se queda en silencio mirando alrededor, como esperando a que alguien se de cuenta que se despertó
- sus sonrisas
- su seriedad
- cuando levanta una ceja
- cuando (cree que) conversa
- como me mira a los ojos mientras le doy leche
- cuando termina de comer y sonríe o "dice" algo y yo imagino que me está agradeciendo y le digo "you're welcome!" y sonríe
- que le encanta bañarse
- que duerme toda la noche (desde hace como 1 mes)
- cuando se ríe a carcajadas dormido

me encanta su pelo suavecito y desordenado!

control de crecimiento (ayer fuimos al doctor)

Recién nacido:

• peso: 3.510 kg.
• talla: 51 cm.
• cabeza: 34 cm.

1 mes:

• peso: 4.010 kg.
• talla: 53 cm.
• cabeza: 37 cm.

2 meses:

• peso: 5.845 kg.
• talla: 58 cm.
• cabeza: 40 cm.

3 meses:

• peso: 7.090 kg.
• talla: 62 cm.
• cabeza: 41 cm.

a quote

"While they are at your side, love these little ones to the uttermost. Forget yourself: Serve them; care for them; lavish all your tenderness on them. Value your good fortune while it is with you, and let nothing of the sweetness of their babyhood go unprized. Not for long will you keep the happiness that now lies within your reach. You will not always walk in the sunshine with a little warm, soft hand nestling in each of yours, nor hear little feet pattering beside you, and eager baby voices questioning and prattling of a thousand things with ceaseless excitement. Not always will you see that trusting face upturned to yours, feel those little arms about your neck, and those tender lips pressed upon your cheek, nor will you have that tiny form to kneel beside you, and murmur baby prayers into your ear.
Love them and win their love, and shower on them all the treasures of your heart. Fill up their days with happiness, and share with them their mirth and innocent delights.
Childhood is but for a day. Ere you are aware it will be gone with all its gifts for ever."
-George Townsend

(found here)

letter to Kian, 3 months

Dear Kian,
i love you! you're only 3 months old and can't read my words but you probably already know how much i love you. I say it about a hundred times a day and even when i don't say it, those words are in my mind. Sometimes it's hard to believe how generous God has been to me... first i found your dad, and he found me, we found each other, became friends and soon realized we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together... a few years later you came into our lives, we made you "from scratch"... God made you for us... you're this brand new soul, perfect in every single way and you are ours. i get to spend my days watching you grow, feeding you, kissing your little feet and chubby cheeks, being amazed by you.
if that's not pure generosity, i don't know what is...

happy 3 months little one! 

2 months, 2 weeks, 2 days

in the last few days Kian has started to talk. his favorite word is agooooo and he has the cutest little voice. he also says things like aaahhh, and ooohhhh... it's pretty entertaining. he's awake for longer periods of time during the day and he's starting to smile at us.
we already put away his newborn clothes, they look so tiny now.
my classes started so a few nights a week Kian stays with Paul, and 2 mornings a week, he stays with Laila.
he's growing and changing really fast and i'm really thankful i can stay home and be with him during this time. i have to admit it can get a little boring some days and sometimes i really need to get out of the house, but it's all worth it... i can't wait for Kian to get a little bigger so we can do more activities together (aunque seguro voy a extrañar que duerma tanto que me da tiempo para hacer otras cosas).

this is what i come back to on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (i go to class from 7 to 9 am)

check out his hand! and his eyes! he's actually noticing toys now

still loving his baths (and the tub is getting small for him)

 

my boys!

sleeping like a baby

Last night Kian slept from 11:30 pm to 6 am. The best Ayyam-I-Há present for me! Usually he wakes up to eat around 12 am, 3 am and 6 am... that's when i usually get up and he goes back to sleep until 9... he definitely loves to sleep as much as i do, but he's got to eat too!
at night he always sleeps in his crib and on his back. but during his daytime naps, he usually sleeps on the boppy pillow and he gets a little more creative with the sleeping positions...

He likes to have company too...