Tuesday 23 December 2008

Christmas Eve Eve

We're really excited for Christmas this year. With kids around, especially our first baby, it's going to be much more lively than it was with just Pedro and me. We are planning on spending Christmas with the Ebarb family - some really good friends of ours from the US who moved here on Halloween. They have two little boys, aged 5 and 7 and their extreme excitement about everything can be contagious.

My Christmas shopping is pretty much all wrapped up. Isabella is getting a bunch of amazing wooden toys and the doll I made for her. I actually love the way it turned out - sort of The Nightmare Before Christmas meets Little House on the Prairie.



This week Isabella added her new ability to wave to her rapidly growing list of milestones. She also stands up alone, does semi-headstands, and has to point at just about everything. Did I mention that she finally learned to clap her hands when we were in Puerto Rico too? She is so good at mimicking sounds that I'm constantly in awe over what she seems to be understanding.

Tuesday 16 December 2008

We're Back! I'm Back!


We're back from PR. And I'm back as a stay-at-home-mom. Today would have been my first day back to work had I continued employment at my job, so I spent most of the day trying to get over the weird feeling that I was doing something wrong by not being there.

I was working at a bank. It was my first time working for a bank, and it was very different from my usual job experience or what I studied in college. And I hated it. After looking for better paying and more rewarding jobs within the biological and environmental sciences sector, this job had the appeal of good benefits, flexible start date, and well, bank hours. As it turned out, I was spending a lot of time in commuter traffic and very little time with my daughter at the day's end. That's in addition to just about every other reason a parent decides to put the resume on hold and take care of a child. My boss was very annoyed that I terminated after only five weeks, because she had me slated for a higher position that she herself was working extra to cover. I felt terrible to be quitting when I felt I had been given such a good opportunity, and I'm still not quite over that feeling. But at the end of the day, some things are just more important - it's better to know that early in life rather than later.

As for our trip, it was great! We got to see family - most of whom hadn't seen Isabella yet (plus we got to meet new baby Victoria) . But alas, it was WAY too short - we even tried to change our tickets to get a few more days, but the penalties were too high. We got home feeling absolutely wrecked after driving ourselves home on a freezing morning from Heathrow. I will try hard to post more photos and a slideshow, but I can't make any promises. I'm in the process of hurriedly trying to sew a ragdoll for Isabella so that it's done in time for Christmas. So far, I'm really wishing I had a sewing machine.

Sunday 7 December 2008

In Puerto Rico

Hi everyone! I'm writing a quick, photoless update of where we are and what we're doing. We're in Puerto Rico visiting Pedro's side of the family. I didn't even think Isabella and I would be able to come on account of my job, but here we are! Pedro's parents, Don Willie and Doña Aida celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday. All of the family flew in for the occasion. They had a formal party, preceded by a bishop-led mass as they renewed their vows. And today, we attended the baptism of our niece, Victoria. Photos of everything will be forthcoming when we get home after the 12th.