May Madness

Isabella is almost 15 months now (next week). The list of things she is learning to do is getting ever longer. We are about to make a short trip to Washington D.C. to accompany Pedro on a 5-day business trip (we all have tickets, but the swine flu is making us reconsider...). Anyway, Pedro was remarking on how this is going to be her first trip as a really conscious little person who can communicate beyond a cry and can physically do more that sit unaided. It’s going to be interesting.

Today, Isabella spent the morning whining and driving Pedro crazy as he attempted to entertain her before work, while letting me get a few more minutes of sleep. When I ended up putting her down for a nap earlier than usual, she immediately fell asleep on my shoulder while I sang (it has been a while since she has done this). Then, as I was leaving the room, she woke up one more time to pucker her lips and demand a kiss, “Mmmmm!” Speaking of kisses, her latest passion is the butterfly kiss and she has been known to unexpectedly mash her lips into my eye. She is such a cuddly, affectionate, arm rubbing, leg hugging little bitty!

The weather in England has gotten absolutely beautiful. I got my organic veggie box today and it looked so pretty I thought I would include it in this post, since I don’t have any new photos of Isabella. I'm thinking rhubarb crisp tonight. I'm looking forward to summer more than ever!

Cornwall Trip

We are back from my birthday trip down to Cornwall, in southern England. It's almost a six hour drive from where we live, but it was well worth it. We brought the dogs and packed our jalopy to the rails with our junk, but still could have brought more. We rented a small cottage in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, but managed to be close enough to everything we wanted to see.

We did hikes along the coast and in the countryside, but our favorite walk was from Talland Bay to the fishing village of Polperro. It's not tourist season yet so we got to experience gorgeous weather and beautiful beaches with hardly anyone around.

We made the essential pilgrimage to the Eden Project (click here to visit their website). It was amazing. We actually felt like we were back in Puerto Rico's El Yunque when we were in their huge rainforest biome. I think we were literally the last people to leave. I can't wait to go back some day.

Isabella loved exploring the new territory and as always, she loved being out and about with opportunities to flirt with every stranger who walks by. Her latest thing is throwing a fit when we don't let her walk. Once we put her down again, she resumes singing the song from where she left off and continues on her merry, wobbly way.

The daffodils are everywhere now, the photo you see above was actually taken near home. Their yellow is so bright that you can't even see the detail of the flowers themselves. Isabella enjoyed smelling the perfume-free blossoms.

Overall, we had a great time. England is such a beautiful country and we're very lucky to live here!

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.

Barefoot Contessa

Through my pregnancy I got addicted to a cooking show called the Barefoot Contessa, whose "celebrity" chef is Ina Garten. Her buttery recipes have inspired many a meal. So imagine my surprise to see her at the same restaurant eating at the table next to us! I was in the middle of trying to put Isabella to sleep when the host seated her, her husband (who is also always on the show) and some of their friends. It took me the whole night to get up the courage to ask her for a photo, and when I finally got it...my eyes turned out to be were closed in the photo. Doh! She and everyone at her table said they loved watching Isabella...but then again, who doesn't?


Here are a couple other larger photos I wanted to share that weren't in the slideshow.

the hotel

a cafe near the Champs-Elysees

Back from Paris

One month ago we sold our old house in Georgia, ending the year long battle we had with horrible tenants and ensuing problems that turned the house into the money pit. To finally celebrate, we were planning a short day trip down to Amesbury in southern England to see some relatively unknown stone circles. But on a whim Pedro surprised me with Eurostar train tickets to Paris instead! I've been wanting to take a short trip over there since Isabella was born because the speed train from London takes normally only an hour and half and we wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of flying. So with our neighbors watching the dogs, we were off. We had some trouble with seating on the train on the way there, but nothing a glass of champagne wouldn't cure! Our tickets included a full meal plus wine and champagne - it was SO nice. As for the rest of our trip, we had a lot of mishaps that made Pedro swear off ever going back to Paris again (I, on the other hand, hope to go back many times). In short, we visited the Rodin Museum and the Musee d'Orsay. The rest of the time we tried to relax and enjoy the gorgeous Parisian fall weather. I'm working on a brief slideshow so that should be up soon too.

In other news, Isabella turned 8 months old this weekend! To celebrate I bought her several adorable French wooden toys - (whether it was more for her or me, I don't know...) She is incredibly curious about everything and is quite the social little girl. No teeth yet and still not quite crawling. But once again, she was a very good little traveler.

The Long Trip

Before we ever flew anywhere with Isabella I was nervous about how she would travel in a confined space surrounded by many people. I have heard about and have been witness to many children having prolonged temper tantrums or wild runs on airplanes. Prior to my trip to the US, we flew twice within Europe with Isabella and she did great. The trip to the US was no exception, even though the day we left she officially started teething, and the day we left for our return journey she was suffering from the tremendous cold that I now have (which, incidentally, is the first illness she's had at all). We had a bulkhead seat and I was able to use the aircraft's bassinet so she could lay down for short spells, which was really nice. The flight attendants were attentive to us, but it still didn't quite make up for the ticketing issue we found out about two days before our departure. (American Airlines made me pay an additional and extortionate $500 just to have her in my lap. Flying domestically, it's $0. They also damaged my stroller and the cup holders were torn off. But enough about that unpleasantness, nobody has a good time with airlines these days anyway.) During the flights, I amazed myself with my one-handed abilities - not only was I able to quickly change her in the tiny airplane bathroom, but I could use it myself while holding her in one arm, prevent her from touching any of the nasty walls that were all within her reach AND wash both hands. Dealing with all my luggage and a baby stroller were quite another matter and I had to ask for help wherever I could get it. To all of the kind strangers who went out of their way to help me - THANK YOU.

In other Isabella news - She's teething but still hasn't cut a tooth. She's been sitting up by herself for a month and a half. She doesn't crawl but instead eyeballs her target, then scoots, rolls, and creeps in for the kill. To my horror, she has an affinity for electrical cords and goes for those first. Her intelligence often catches me off guard because she can predict what will happen in certain games we play. And right now, even though her poor little voice sounds like a smoker's, she is happily chatting away with her new surplus of toys.

Agate Hunting on Lake Superior

On this particular day, my mom, brother Aaron, Isabella, Kaitlyn and I all went down to Lake Superior (Duluth's claim to fame is that it is the largest freshwater port in the world - last I heard anyway).


My family are all avid agate hunters (myself the only exception as I have found maybe three agates in my whole life).


Lake Superior agates are prized for their color and marbling and are found all over the Duluth area.


While they all hunted for agates, Isabella and I enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather on the beach and walked the boardwalk ("lakewalk") down to Leif Erikson Park and rose garden.

I'm working on embedding a photo slideshow soon to show more photos from the trip. Stay tuned.

P.S. This is what an agate looks like.

We're home!

Isabella and I are finally home from our trip to Minnesota. Although we didn't get to see everybody we were hoping to see, we stayed very busy seeing quite a few other family members and friends. I really wanted to go out to see my sister-in-law Lucy who gave birth to baby Victoria earlier this week! Congratulations to Jerry and Lucy!

Both Isabella and I arrived home in England with terrible colds and we've been trying to recuperate all day, but it's miserable for a nursing mother and a 7-month old - neither of us can take much to relieve the cold symptoms. Other than that, our return journey went really well because we stayed at a hotel in the Minneapolis airport to get some rest before our 6a.m. flight yesterday. Posts about our trip will be forthcoming, including more photos, but I just wanted to post one quick pic before I turn in for the night.

Isabella & her cousin Kaitlyn in my mom's yard

Toy of 1,000 Laughs

I shot this video on our trip. We bought this toy in one of the street markets they have there and Isabella was going crazy laughing at it. What we managed to capture was her winding down, but it still makes me laugh anyway.

Zagreb

going to the museum of Naive Art

enjoying a fountain à la Michael Jackson

one of the many lovely parks

enjoying breakfast

We’re back from our jaunt to Croatia. We had a very nice and relaxing time. Traveling alone on the plane with Isabella proved to be easy and even pleasant. We stayed in a nice hotel connected with Pedro’s work and I even got a much needed massage out of the deal. Isabella and I spent the first two days on our own, wandering around, playing in the botanical garden of Zagreb, and just living life slowly in the warm weather. In fact, the whole trip was a nice change from our old break-neck ways of trying too see everything. In truth, there aren’t very many must-see sights in Zagreb, as all the main attractions are on the coast. We weren’t really sure what to expect from Croatia since the war – I thought it might be a bit seedy, as I’ve heard much of the Balkans are…it was slightly seedy, but the fact that the city has so many parks and green spaces made up for that.

Llegamos de nuestro viaje a Croacia. Lo disfrutamos mucho y tuvimos un tiempo tranquilo. Viajando sola con Isabella en el avión fue fácil y agradable. Quedamos en un hotel conectado con el trabajo de Pedro y yo pude tener un masaje bueno. Isabella y yo pasamos los primeros días paseando, jugando en el parque botanical de la ciudad, viviendo la vida lentamente y disfrutando el tiempo caliente con gusto. En realidad, el viaje entero era un cambio bueno de nuestro costumbre de tener que ver todo rápidamente. La verdad es que no hay muchos citios famosos en Zagreb, ésos estan en la costa. No sabíamos como será Croacia despues de la guerra – oímos que es típico balcanico, con partes viejos y malos – pero como hay muchas parques bonitos y muchos espacios verdes con fuentes estuvo mejor.

6 months old!!!

blueberry super food stains super badly

There are quite a few new things happening with us this week. First, I got a new job which I will be starting at the end of the year. I have just enough time to accustom myself to the idea of working full time and getting childcare in line. The good news about day care is that the facility is only a few minutes from where I'll be working and I can visit Isabella on my lunch break, which will make breastfeeding easier to keep up, not to mention mitigate my separation anxiety. The bad news is that we're on a waiting list to get in, and it could take several months.

she doesn't stay put under here for long

Second, we got our tickets to travel back to the States for two weeks in September. It's been two years since I've been "home" and I am hoping that I can squeeze in visits with as many people as possible. We leave on the 7th - mark your calendars!

still getting the hang of solids - mastered: apple and banana

Third, Pedro is traveling for work again this week and if we can get someone to watch the dogs, Isabella and I will spend a few days in Croatia on Pedro's tail. This will be my first test of traveling alone on a plane with Isabella. Tips and advice on this are most welcome.

Perhaps the biggest news of all is that Isabella is now 6 months old. It's unbelievable to me. There was a woman with a 3 week old at my postnatal class this week, and I kept staring at that tiny baby, unsure of whether Isabella was actually ever that small. So I came home and watched some home videos of her first days, and sure enough - she was. It's amazing that so much growth happens in such a short span of time - we're already needing to start childproofing certain areas. Well, I have to cut off here - Isabella has rolled across the room and is pooping for the first time in two days. You have no idea how happy this makes me!

Baby's First Big Trip

feeling marble at Siena's Duomo

We spent a few days in Italy over the weekend to celebrate Pedro's upcoming 33rd birthday. We had a wonderful time in the sun and warmth, and the only real downside to traveling the hassle with transportation (Italians love their strikes almost as much as the French!). Here are a few photos - if you'd like to see all of them, let me know and I'll send you an email with the link to my album at Kodak Gallery. PS - The newspaper article was published yesterday - we'll put up a link or copy up here soon.

Pedro's beard is a new fascination

she loved the colors at our hotel room in Pisa

Pisa's Baptistery

one of those famous landmarks...

strolling in Siena

at the Duomo in Siena

Mom and Danny's Visits

Stonehenge!

braving the rain

my mom, with Danny and Isabellachanging her diaper in Cambridge

outside the houses of parliament in London

at the Texas Embassy restaurant in London

strolling in London

in front of Buckingham Palace

My mom went back home to Minnesota two Saturdays ago. My cousin Danny and his girlfriend flew over from Germany to spend a few days with us while she was here too. So we all hopped on a train into London and stayed in a hotel for two nights before we saw them all off again. We had a wonderful time having family around again and now we're all by our lonesomes again!

The weather here has been weird - some days sunny (yesterday was 84 degrees F), and some days rainy and a bit chilly. We drove through the rain to Stonehenge, saw the site, and pretty much turned back for home right afterwards. I showed my mom as much as I could in the 12 days she was here and we really did have a great time - it was wonderful for her to finally see the baby for the first time.

Now it's back to getting Isabella on a routine. She's been sleeping badly for the last several days, which has been a challenge for us. Tomorrow she has her four month vaccinations - yippee! Can you believe it's been four months?!