Baby dance party

5.5

5 and a half months. That's how old you are. You hit the 5 month mark while we were visiting all of the Connecticut side of the family and I missed the chance to write your update then, so five and a half months it is.

It seems this is a time of growth and development for you. We've noticed that you will start something new and will keep with it for about a week before something else comes along. It started with a fake cough. You are learning how to make sounds and a fake cough was one of the first. It was a happy sound, it was a sad sound, it was a sound for all occasions! It was also a sound I wasn't sad to see you forget!

After that you spent a lot of time screeching. It was a loud, sometimes ear splitting noise but you were always so happy when you made it! I'm not encouraging that, mind you, especially not in public, but your dad and I had so much fun watching your face light up with each big noise you made. We couldn't help but smile along with you.

Lately the noise has been "thbbbbt" with your lips. Some people call that a raspberry.  You've been trying and trying and trying, but you still haven't quite mastered it. Watching you try has been loads of fun. You also gum your lower lip like an old man with no teeth. It's terribly cute.

You finally rolled over, from your belly to your back. You did it Novemeber 5th at Maga's house, while we were playing on the bed. Both daddy and I were there to see it and were so excited! But you don't really care about rolling and you've only done it once since (and that was a half roll, really). That's ok. Maybe that's a step you just want to skip over.

Rolling doesn't seem to be your thing, but you love to sit up. You can sit up by yourself for good chunks of time now, but you do eventually fall over. Soon enough you'll get your balance. Until then, we let you practice on the bed. You also love to sit in the bumbo chair, since it holds you up nice and straight.

You've discovered your feet and think they're just about the best thing. You giggle when we touch your toes to your nose and you "help" during diaper changes by grabbing your feet. You also reach out for anything and everything. Those little hands are never at rest right now. You reach, you touch, you pat, you even smack your belly like a little drum!

Your favorite toys right now are your Jumperroo (you love to bounce!), your wooden teething rattle, Sophie the giraffe and of course, your butterfly. Yesterday you decided that you love Ice Bat, the monster doll that lives in your crib. Your great grandpa got that for you (with Mommy's help picking it out) and will surely love to hear that you like it.

You're changing so much that it's hard to keep up with you right now! Keep it up, though. Every day brings something new.

Love,

Mom

Bi-coastal baby

Last week we took a family vacation to visit Jeff's family in Connecticut. Although Hurricane Sandy blew in at the same time we were meant to, we were able to reschedule a bit and had no problems with the weather or the travel. Tara was an amazing kid and had almost no problems with all of the flights.

We wanted to take advantage of some of the fall activities available, so Jeff took us to an apple orchard that he used to visit as a kid. We didn't pick any apples, but instead got lost in their corn maze. I'd never walked a corn maze before and had a lot of fun getting lost. Tara slept. She must have been overwhelmed with the excitement of it all.

 

 Most of the week was spent just enjoying family. None of Jeff's family had met Tara before, so she got lots of hugs and snuggles from all the aunts and uncles, cousins, great-grandmas and of course grandparents, Maga and Papa! 

 

If you've been watching the news at all lately, you know that the East coast received more than it's fair share of bad weather. While we were able to avoid Hurricane Sandy (which didn't hit as hard in that area), we were present for a snow storm the day before we left. It was beautiful! Lots of heavy, wet snow that would have been perfect for snowmen, if we'd had time. Tara wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but she sure was cute!

 We can't wait until we can visit again!

Now and then

When Tara was born my mom brought me a number of items that were crocheted for me by my Vovó, my great-grandmother. She also brought a few pictures of me taken shortly after I was born. In one of the pictures I am wearing some of the hand made pieces.  I had intended to take a picture of Tara wearing the same outfit at approximately the same age, but time flies. So here you have a comparison of me, approximately one month old, and Tara at 4 months. Obviously a few months make a huge difference!

I love the idea of handing these items down to Tara, maybe to her own children some day. I love the way that they connect our past with our present, previous generations with the current. While I don't remember my great-grandmother well, I've been told that I look like her and that she was a prolific crocheter. I also crochet, so it's nice knowing I have something in common with my past and perhaps something to pass on as well.

Happy Halloween!

Tara spent a lot of time picking out her costume this year. It's her first Halloween, so she wanted it to be just right.

First, she thought she might go as a sailor... 

 but she decided that the hat was a little too big.

Then she thought she might go as a pumpkin...

but it seems like all the babies are going as pumpkins this year and she wanted something more original.

So after a lot of thought and some discussion with her dad, she finally found the perfect costume. Tara decided that this year she'll be...

Toad! Tara is Toad from the original Mario Brothers. She had lots of fun getting into character (and her mom had a blast making the costume.)

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Casio rockin', cerca 1986

Oh yeah, you read that right. Today we're taking you way back. Back to the days of neon, bike shorts, big hair, and double layered scrunchy socks. We're headed back to the 80's with a little piece of memorabilia from my childhood.

That little black Casio was mine back in the day. I have fond memories of rockin' out to the Samba and Basa Nova tracks. I love that Tara gets a kick out of it too. The video above was taken the first time we put it in front of her. Since then we've busted it out a few mores times and each time she gets a bigger kick out if it. She smacks all the buttons and manages to turn on the various instrument sounds and rhythm tracks. It's a lot of fun to watch. Now all she needs is a head band, a neon body suit and maybe some lace gloves a la Madonna. Anybody got any requests?

Adventures in baking

When I first decided to blog about today, I had visions of a sweet story to tell you about spending a few hours in the kitchen with my girl, baking yummy food and sharing smiles. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

Now let me tell you what really happened. Two days ago I found myself thinking a lot about my time spent in Argentina and decided to make empanadas, a food that I ate regularly there. If you're not familiar with empanadas, they're the South American version of a meat pie, a pastie, a pirogy, etc. They are made in a variety of styles and they are incredibly tasty. So I picked a nice recipe online (this one: Empanadas Medoncinas), bought the few ingredients I didn't already have, and got set this morning to make them.

The adventure started off so well. I had my ingredients, my bowls and spoons, and my sous chef. We were set.

 

As you can see, we were off to a good start.  After a bit of fun time in her bouncer, she went down for her first nap of the day. When she woke up, it all went down hill. For some reason today she needed my complete and undivided attention. She wasn't happy to sit for long in the kitchen, or do any one thing for very long at all. Then she decided to stop sleeping. She took her first and second naps of the day, but magically stayed up from 3:30 until she went to sleep at 7:30. She never does that. Today must have been special.

Have I mentioned that I don't really cook? Or bake? What I can do is follow a well written recipe. But follow it I must. I have no skills in the kitchen, so I read every step two or three times to make sure I'm doing it correctly, and sometimes look things up on the internet as I go. This makes for a slow process even under the best conditions. Down the line, when I've learned from experience, I'm sure I'll be able to speed things up. But today? Today I started cooking at 10:30 am. The empanadas made it into the oven at 7:30pm. Quick math everyone. Yes, that's right. My adventure in baking took a total of 9 hours! It was mix a little here, chop a little there, change a diaper, change an outfit...

 Of course, I decided to make the dough from scratch. I had all the ingredients and it looked so simple, so why not? I have a 4 month old baby, that's why not!

 

No, that's not what you think. I didn't resort to the bottle to make it through. I reached for the bottle when...

it occured to me that I don't own a rolling pin. I don't bake, remember?

Little by little, the ingredients started to come together. The dough spent far too long hanging out in the fridge and I'm pretty sure my moby wrap is covered in flour hand prints, from the time I was actually wearing Tara while trying to cut out the circles for each empanada, but we got there.

Tara eventually consented to a little more time in her bouncer chair (notice the wardrobe change?) From this point on, I lost track of getting pictures. Jeff came home and was helping entertain Tara, so I started trying to add the filling to the dough circles. It's not as easy as it looked! I was so distracted by babycakes that I forgot to put the egg and olives in half of the empanadas.

Even so, they did eventually go into the oven and we did eventually have them for dinner. They may not have been exactly as I remember, but after 9 hours of cooking, let me tell you, they were delicious! I even made the balsamic chimichurri sauce from the recipe, but I didn't get a picture. By then, we were more than ready to eat.

Yummy success! Note to self: it's probably smart to only try this level of cooking on weekends when Jeff is around. I need all the help I can get!