1 year old!

Lilia celebrated her first birthday on December 5th, 2010. She's one year old!

Today I had her in a long sleeve onesie and some khakis and she looked so old, just like a toddler.

Lilia's party was lots of fun and very low key. We'll save the petting zoo and ponies for birthdays in the future! We invited some friends over: Esther, Roberto, and their son Sergio and our other friends Ale and Vero. Roberto and Ale are coworkers of Quique. I didn't have any round cake pans so I made cupcakes instead. They were vanilla with cream cheese frosting. Mmm. Quique may have eaten those cupcakes for breakfast the past two days... We also bought some miniature pastries for everyone. Lilia played on the ground with Sergio while the adults talked and then we started the cake portion of the night. We put Lilia's cupcake in front of her and sang happy birthday in Spanish and then English. She loved sticking her fingers into the icing, but Quique had to break it apart a little bit for her to really dig in. Needless to say, she loved it. After eating we all sat down and talked again while Lilia played with Sergio.

There were no gifts for her at the party because we ordered it online and it hasn't come in! We got her a Leap Frog Musical Table. Fingers crossed that we found a toy that will keep her occupied for a long time.

Now onto the updates! Lilia stands up on her own all the time now and can squat and stand back up, but she hasn't taken any steps. I think it will be another month before we see any steps. She's been saying "Dada" a lot, but without knowing what it means. She is such a MOVER. She hates to sit still for even a minute. She's constantly on the move cruising on the coffee table, crawling down the hallway, or stacking books on top of each other to reach the lotion on the second shelf. Yes, I caught her doing that today. I looked up to see her little body reaching as far as it could just so she could grab the lotion bottle all while toddling on her unstable book mountain.

Schedule-wise Lilia is eating 4 times a day. This is how all Spanish people eat (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner). Dinner is so late (around 9 or 10) that you need to fit a snack in there. She takes two naps a day. She's between waking up once a night and sleeping through the night. She sleeps about 13 hours going to bed at 9 p.m. and waking up at 10 a.m. We're finally starting to get a lot of sleep in this house.

Personality-wise Lilia can be such a hoot. She often will hold something out to you so you can grab it only to quickly pull it back as soon as you reach. Then she laughs a ton. If she's doing something she's not supposed to I'll say, "No, Lilia!" and she will look at me, smile, and then cautiously continue what she's not supposed to do. She also loves to be chased. I'll say, "I'm gonna get you!" and then run after her and she'll laugh and squeal as she tries to crawl away. Lilia loves to get into EVERYTHING. She likes to pull books, cds, candles, Christmas decorations, and anything else out of the bookcase. She loves the straps on her high chair and the tags on her clothes and blankets. She also loves to open up boxes and look inside a bag to see what's in it. I'm lucky because she at least doesn't put everything in her mouth. Some things she will, but not everything.

Physically, Lilia has two teeth and there are a few coming up. She has never really seemed grumpy from teething. She's getting a lot more hair including a little curl behind her right ear. She won't be needing a haircut for awhile. She's still got a little potbelly which I love. She's on the low end of the weight scale. She only gained 160 grams since her last visit at 10 months. The doctor thinks its because she's gotten sick a couple of times since being at day care, but now her weight should pick up. We've scheduled an appointment for next month to follow up on her weight. She's now allowed to drink regular whole milk instead of formula. I am SO glad we don't have to pay 12 euros every two weeks for her formula now.

Last month Lilia celebrated her first Thanksgiving, actually her first two Thanksgivings. I hosted a Thanksgiving with some of my friends the weekend before Thanksgiving and then we went to El Puerto the weekend after Thanksgiving to celebrate with Quique's parents. Thanksgiving food is the best! Lilia had a taste of pumpkin pie, but I don't know if she liked it or not...

This past week has been a long weekend for us so we've been trying to decorate for Christmas. Quique and I bought a fake Christmas tree and decorated it on Wednesday. We went to a "tree farm" to get a real tree, but that was a bust. First, the "tree farm" was in a dark garage where all the trees were piled into a corner with the branches already tied up so you couldn't see what it looked like. Second, the trees looked like sticks and the one that looked somewhat decent that I liked was 70 euros. No thanks! I'll spend my money on something that looks nicer and can be used again and again! Christmas decorating has always been my favorite. After Lilia went to bed after her birthday party, Quique and I were setting up the tree and afterwards we had some hot chocolate by candlelight while listening to Christmas music. It was so nice to decorate for Christmas and celebrate our one year anniversary of being parents. Hardest and most rewarding year of our lives!

Morning birthday song:



Happy birthday to you


Sergio, give Lilia a kiss!

11 months!

My baby's almost one year old!

Lilia is getting so big. Sometimes I'll be holding her in my lap and just be amazed at how long and big she has gotten. This month she has gotten one new tooth coming in on the top. I thought the other bottom tooth would pop through, but it's still a no show. She doesn't seem to be showing any signs of teething as far as fussiness goes so I'm really thankful for that. She's been standing for 10 seconds at a time lately with no hands, but no walking yet (really grateful for that too!). She claps her hands all the time now. I love those chubby little hands! Lately to get my attention she will look at me and start laughing. She knows I'm a sucker for those laughs so I immediately look up from whatever I'm doing and start playing with her. She is also sleeping through the night at least for the past 5 nights. It's a step, but I'm not counting on this becoming a pattern quite yet.

Right now Lilia's got a really bad cold which she decided to share with me. We've both missed daycare/work to be home and take care of each other. She had a really high fever of 104.2 on Saturday so we took her to the emergency room, but she just had a really bad cold. The doctor who attended us was the doctor that brought Lilia over to Quique right after she was born.

I'm trying to plan her birthday party. It won't be too big, but it would be nice to have a few friends over to eat cake. December 6, 7, and 8 are holidays in Spain so it will be nice to have all those days off to celebrate with Lilia. We'll have to plan something special like a trip to the mountains to see her first snow or at least a trip to the park.

School is going well for me. I enjoy a lot of my classes and the days always seem to fly by. I just wish I didn't have so many levels of classes (15 different levels). I feel like I could do a better job if I just focused on three grade levels so I could follow exactly what they were doing in class and not have to refresh myself on what they're learning for the one or two classes I teach every week. One thing I really enjoy is that during any holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) I get to do lots of fun activities with my kids to teach about those holidays, especially the ones they are not familiar with). For Halloween, I did lots of different crafts with my younger kids like make a mask and make hand ghosts (trace your hand and then put it upside down. it looks like a ghost!). I also did Halloween Bingo with the 3rd through 6th graders and a lesson on the lyrics of Thriller with my high school kids. That week was a lot of fun and in just a few weeks I get to do it all over again with Thanksgiving! It really puts me in the holiday mood!

Below are some videos. The first is of Lilia and her friend Sergio at the park. She really wanted that ball! The second is of me trying to get Lilia to clap and then wave byebye. The third is me teaching a Zumba class! I did this about a month ago. The guy to my left is the instructor and the people are British travel agents. They were in Madrid for a conference and Zumba was on the agenda for their break time. I think I did a decent job considering it was only the second time I had done that song (I learned it two days before I had to teach it).

And of course some 11 month old photo outtakes:

8,9, and 10 months!

So I finally have the last months photos updated! Yeay!

Lilia has grown so much over the past few months it is incredible. Although she´s gotten huge it´s really her personality that´s blossomed. She´s learned so many new things. Now when we say, "Where´s the light!" She points up and when we say ¨Bye bye!" she waves her hand and sometimes both. She has also learned to dance! The other day Sue decided to play the piano with Lilia on her lap and Lilia started swaying back and forth.

The week after we got back to Madrid Lilia started daycare. She loves it! She´s always excited when she gets dropped off and according to the caretakers she´s very social with the other kids. She apparently likes to steal toys from the other kids (okay so she interacts with the other kids, sometimes in a positive way other times not...). Her caretaker, Maria, told us that one time Lilia kept trying to steal a toy from another baby so they gave the other baby a new toy and let Lilia keep the one she wanted. She then dropped the toy and went right after the new toy that the other baby had! We´ll probably start some lessons in sharing soon...

Physically Lilia has developed so much as well. I´m not sure how much she weighed at the 10 month appointment so I´ll have to look at the paper later where it says it. She now sits up easily, has been crawling for months, pulls up to standing, cruises a little, can now stand up and sit down with no hands as long as there is something in front of her that she´s able to grab onto if she needs it. She hates her playpen and prefers to always be crawling all over the floor. I call her my "free-range chicken" because she hates to be penned up in her playpen and is always crawling all over the apartment. She´s also eating finger food whenever we make it for her. She´s had chopped up carrots and peas and some cheerios when she was in the U.S. I´ve never seen Cheerios in Spain. She finally has a tooth! Right after she turned ten months that first little tooth appeared. She was a little bit grumpy before it came through, but not too bad. Enrique calls her "ratoncita" or "little mouse" because of that one teeny tooth.

We´re feeding her about four times a day: breakfast, lunch, a snack, and dinner. She normally goes to bed around nine. I can never say how often she wakes up during the night because it´s always changing. Normally it´s once a night, last night it was 5 times. Yes, 5 times...and I worked this morning too. Oh the exhaustion. She has a cold from daycare, which I´m pretty sure she´ll have until she leaves daycare, and because she can´t breathe she´s constantly waking herself up in the middle of the night. It´s no fun.

Okay so here are a lot of videos and pictures for you to enjoy. The first video, is of Lilia swaying back and forth to the piano. Her first "dance moves". I guess she does take after me! The second is of her completely passing out in her playpen (you have to turn your head left). The third is pointing to the light. The fourth is of me attempting to get her to eat peaches. As you can tell, she´s not a fan. The fifth and final one is her playing with her toy. I added lots of videos since I haven't done it for months!

Back to the Grind

Quique, Lilia, and I arrived back to Spain on September 26th and we haven´t stopped since!

I inaugurated my first week back to Madrid by becoming a working mom. Man this stuff is hard! I work in a Catholic school in the south of Madrid. I work almost full time and I teach students from 3 years old to high school. I really like this new school, but I feel stretched thin between all of my classes. I´m constantly changing hats from singing the "Hello Song" to my three year olds to teaching advanced grammar to my high school students. Of the three schools I have worked at this one is the one where I have to plan the most. In the other schools I would ¨help¨the teacher where as in this school I often teach just like the teacher or I will take half the class.

When I get home from school I pick up Lilia from daycare and start my second job as a mom. Quique works nights normally so we have alternating schedules. It gives Lilia more time with us than with daycare, but it´s tough when you come home and you´re the sole caretaker in the house. How do single moms do it?

Lilia LOVES daycare. Whenever I pick her up she gets so hyper and excited. I think she has a blast being able to crawl everywhere and play with toys and her friends. She is in a class with about 6 other children. They sing songs and do crafts in the mornings, but I have no idea what crafts she´s doing since 10 month olds aren´t too coordinated. We´re supposed to bring leaves in next week for them to do a craft. I´m just worried she´s going to try and eat them. Picking her up from daycare is my favorite part of the day.

On the side I´ve been practicing for a small Zumba job. So far I don´t have anything permanent, but I´ve got a little "gig" on Saturday. A Zumba instructor here in Madrid was asked to teach a Zumba class as a fun activity for British travel agents during a conference in Madrid. Since his English is not very good he asked me if I could do the songs with him and translate everything and do a welcome speech. The money is good and I get to do Zumba so I´m happy! Last night I went to his class and taught a song of my own. I was so proud! I never thought two years ago that I would be a certified Zumba instructor teaching in a gym to Spanish people in Spanish. At the end of the day I was exhausted though! I worked 9-5 then went home, to turn around 15 minutes later and head to the class. I didn´t get home until 8:30 that night where I immediately gave Lilia her bath...where she pooped. The day was exhausting but rewarding.

Well Lilia is waking up from her nap and I´ve got to walk back to the daycare place to pick up the diaper bag that I forgot! The work of a mom is never done!

More updates about Lilia soon!

Communicating in her own way

Thought you guys would enjoy a video of Lilia "talking" to Grandpa. I think James taught her this. Otherwise I have no idea why my child talks like a duck.

8 months!

More updates to come soon! This video is of Lilia waking up from a super long (3 hours!) nap. She was so happy and rested!

7 months

I've been telling myself for the past MONTH that I need to update my blog and I am finally making myself do it today! Lilia and I arrived to the U.S. on June 30th where my dad and siblings met Lilia for the first time. At first Lilia just stared at everyone trying to take in all the new faces. Since then she has gotten comfortable with everybody and is having a great time!

She was great on the flight over here! We first took a 2 1/2 hour flight from Madrid to London where she sat on my lap. The 15 year old girl next to us on the flight was nice at first while Lilia tried to grab her purse/leg/hair. After awhile Lilia started staring at the girl (her favorite thing to do with strangers) until the girl felt so uncomfortable that she turned her back to us. Gotta work on those social skills. She slept most of the time during our layover in London. The flight from London to Atlanta was 9 1/2 hours!! We sat next to the bathroom so she enjoyed staring and playing with all the people waiting in line. Even though she did great I was glad when we finally landed in Atlanta and my dad picked us up.

As you can see from the video she is now crawling! She started out by scooting, then getting on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth, and finally picking up those hands and feet and getting them coordinated to crawl. She gets faster and faster every day and I go crazier and crazier trying to run after her. I really need a play pen! I think I'm going to lose the last few pounds of pregnancy weight from chasing after her all the time.

Because it took me forever to write this since her 7th month I can't remember all the little milestones except that she weighed 16.5 pounds and was 26 inches and of course that she flew for the first time. She also learned how to sit up all on her own for long periods of time!

My parents love having her here and I love having so many babysitters around me between my sister, mom, and my cousins. Robbie tries to act like he's too macho for babies and the next minute I turn around and he's baby talking to her. James loves to play with her too and always makes a point to spend some time with her when he gets home from work. Helena, Nicole, and Mary Kay (cousins) are always asking when Lilia is coming to visit even if she's just left their house. It's great being surrounded by family and friends!

This past Wednesday Lilia and I went to a Mommy Group with some old high school friends. We had an excellent time eating fondue (me, not Lilia!) and playing with other babies (a first for Lilia). I think she was more interested in playing with the toys than with the other babies. Again, we'll have to work on those social skills!

Alright so I think I owe you some videos and pictures! Here's a video of my dad with Lilia. Not sure who's having more fun!

6 months!

On June 5th Lilia turned 6 months old! My baby is half a year old! Time really does fly. Here are some highlights and milestones for this month:

• Lilia is rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy
• She sits up well if someone is supporting her, but can't do it on her own yet
• She weighs 7 kilos or 15lbs 6oz (25th percentile) and is 65 cm or 25.5 in. long (50th percentile)
• She no longer does her high pitched dog screech. It's now a full out tarzan wail. Every time she wakes up in the morning or from a nap she does the tarzan. Maybe she's just talking to the ceiling.
• She has been eating solids for a month and a half now. She has eaten apples, pears, bananas, nectarines, watermelon, peas, and carrots. She has a weird reaction to apples and nectarines (welts and spots under her left eye). She loves bananas. She doesn't like any food when she first tries it, but after awhile when she's gotten used to the taste and texture she'll eat a little bit.


• After a month of feeding her in her swing we now have a high chair...and she does not like it. I think all the straps plus the tray make her feel cramped. She now never wants to eat what I give her in the chair. At least from this picture you can't tell she doesn't like it!
  


• Lilia loves her spoon. She loves it so much in fact that when I try to put food in her mouth she grabs it from me and continues to chew on it. It's her favorite teething toy.
• She loves to blow with her lips now. She learned this is a great technique for spitting all the food back out that I put in her mouth.
• She can hold something in one hand and switch it to the other.
• She cannot get on a schedule at night! Some nights she'll sleep 13 hours straight (oh glorious, glorious sleep). Other nights she'll wake up 1,2, or even 3 times a night. Imagine the tarzan wail at 3 a.m...
• Her eating schedule is: breakfast: breastfeed and cereal, lunch: vegetable (and now we can start mixing with chicken) and breastfeed, snack: fruit and breastfeed, dinner: breastfeed and cereal.
• She loves strangers. Seeing new faces really entertains and distracts her. I love this because I know when we go back to the U.S. in two weeks she won't be dealing with any stranger anxiety from all the new faces!
• She has learned to put her foot in her mouth and then suck on her toes. It's so weird and entertaining at the same time.
• She LOVES attention.
• This month we've been to the mountains and the park with friends and to the beach to visit family. She is an excellent traveler because the car puts her right to sleep.



• She likes to say dadadada and yayaya
• She has HUGE, ABSOLUTELY HUGE thighs. She has earned the nickname "jamones" (hams) because her legs look like the ham legs here in Spain: http://delariberanavarra.com/images/jreserva.jpg She has also been called "pepona" after a chubby doll that was very popular in Spain awhile ago: http://s3.postimage.org/Pq4h7oJ.jpg
• Finally, she has learned to belly laugh and I love it. Is there anything cuter than a baby laughing?

Here's a video of her with just a diaper. You can see those legs and the foot in mouth I was talking about earlier. This was the day we left for the beach about two weeks ago:

Where I almost pee my pants...

So this happened just last night when Quique got home from work and I had to share...

Me: sitting in the living room on the computer. Quique: in the kitchen.

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

Me: umm are you okay in there?
door to the kitchen slams open
Me: What´s going on?
Quique: Ugh! So sick!
Me: What?! What is it!!
Quique: forms his hands into a large circle
Me: Oh my gosh! What is it? A cockroach?! A SPIDER?!!!!
Quique: Worse. A HUGE moth.
::silence::
Me: (laughing) Seriously?
Quique: It´s not funny! Do you have any idea how huge that thing was? Moths are disgusting! You need to kill it.
Me: (now bent over and laughing harder)
Quique: KILL IT! I´m not going back into the kitchen until it´s dead! It is hiding under the sink and it´s going to fly in my face!
we go into the kitchen together
Quique: (with one foot out the door and thinking I´m going to scare him) DON´T TOUCH ME!! Don´t even play around because I will not come back in!!

For the record, he ended up killing it, not me and no, it was not huge...at all.

Something I just read

I just read this and loved it so much I thought I´d share:

A Newborn's Conversation With God:

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small & helpless?" God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you." The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing & smile to be happy." God said, "Your angel will sing for you & will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love & be very happy." Again, the small child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?" God said "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful & sweet words you will ever hear & with much patience & care, your angel will teach you how to speak." "And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?" God said, "Your angel will place your hands together & will teach you how to pray." "Who will protect me?" God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life." "But I will always be sad because I won't see you anymore." God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me & will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you." At that moment, there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name." God said, "You will simply call her, 'Mom."

:)

Adventures in Solids

This is Quique´s last crazy week so I think the updates will be coming a little more regularly starting next week. I am so exhausted!

So as you saw from the last post Lilia has started solids. She took to cereal like a duck takes to water and was loving it from the very first spoonful. The doctor told us at her 5 month check up that we could start fruits at 5 1/2 months. I decided to start with avocado because I didn´t want her to get used to her food always tasting so sweet (the cereal is pretty sweet). I was hoping I would get the same reaction with avocado that I did with cereal. No such luck. The first spoonful led to a face not unlike that of the "baby Orajel" face from a few posts back. The next day she actually gagged then shuddered. So needless to say avocado was not a success. I was finally looking forward to today when I had waited the recommended few days to try a new food so I went with apples.

I went to THREE different stores trying to buy apples in our neighborhood and because it was siesta time everything was closed. I finally bought the apples, took them home, baked them, peeled the skins off, and blended them. It tasted awesome to me. I was so relieved when Lilia liked it too. About 30 seconds after the first bite she started having red blotches on her face, but I ignored it because she had been crying and had just woken up from a nap. After three more bites the blotches had turned to welts around her left eye. So now I´m pretty sure she´s got Oral Allergy Syndrome which has something to do with being allergic to the pollen in the trees where the fruit grows. So we won´t be reintroducing apples until after the 6 month appointment. We´ll try bananas tomorrow and I will keep my fingers crossed that she likes it AND it doesn´t give her any weird reaction.

Did I mention she loves to do raspberries now? So every time I feed her anything she likes to look at me, smile, and then raspberry all of it into my face. Yeah, that was a blast with the avocado... Did I also mention that avocado is a great moisturizer?

This weekend was a busy one. Saturday, Lilia, Quique, and I all met up with some friends in Madrid´s Retiro Park (think Central Park, but smaller). We had a little picnic of cheese and ham sandwiches with cokes all on a blanket on the lawn. It was great for me to see some friends I hadn´t seen in awhile and hang out outdoors. Afterwards we went shopping at the mall. We were there for about an hour before we had to leave because Lilia was crying and screaming. That was no fun. Sunday we went to the countryside right outside of Segovia which is about an hour away from Madrid. We went to Quique´s friend´s house. It was so relaxing and peaceful there. At one point we all took a ten minute nap on the deck and it was awesome to only hear the wind blowing through the trees instead of the usual traffic of Madrid.

On another note, I have a job for next year!! It´s in a Catholic school in the south of Madrid and I´ll be working there 18 hours a week (counting only hours in the classroom, so that´s like 4 days of working). The school will be contacting me within the next few days so I´m anxious to work something out that will really benefit Quique and I while taking care of Lilia. Because Quique normally goes into work around 5 p.m. we´re anticipating that she´ll only need day care a few hours a day and some days not at all. I´m excited to start working again and since this is the first year the school will have a native English speaking teacher I feel like I have a lot of leeway with new ideas.

I have also started the quest for another job: zumba instructor! Zumba is like aerobics with hip hop, latin, and regaetton music and moves. I´ve never actually taken a class, but once I go back to the U.S. I´m joining the YMCA where they offer it. My aunt Kathy and I signed up for an instructor training course and I´m hoping that I might get to teach a class part-time at the gym I go to now. I´m really looking forward to it because I´ll get to dance, stay in shape, and make money all at the same time. Here´s a web site if you are interested in knowing more about it: http://www.zumba.com/us/

Since I´m typing this on Quique´s computer and he doesn´t have any new pictures updated I´ll put the pictures up that he does have which is when Lilia was born. She was so teeny!

5 months!

Whew! It has been awhile since I last updated! Quique worked an average of 12 hours a day last week so I was way too busy taking care of the nugget to update. Speaking of the little nugget:

Lilia is 5 months old! She is more alert than ever and screeching all the time. Yes screeching. As in shatter-a-dog's-ears-high-pitched screech. She's apparently practicing using her voice and it's even making her go hoarse. I'm hoping that phase goes away soon... We went to the doctor's on the 10th and she is 13 pounds 13 ounces (9th percentile) and 25 inches. She's still on the low end for weight which gets on my nerves, but the doctor isn't concerned so that's a good sign. The doctor also checks to see how Lilia is doing on those milestones (lifting head, rolling over, etc.) so she checked how well she could sit. I had to laugh because when she sat her down Lilia's chest pretty much just flopped right over her chubby thighs. It was just funny to see how the doctor was like, "Okay let's see how well you sit up!....Okay, maybe at the six month appointment..." Since most babies don't sit up at five months I'm not worried.

Last week we started solids! I bought some rice/corn cereal for Lilia. The doctor said to put it in a bottle, but I wanted the whole "solids experience" video to be with a spoon. So we started with a spoon and now we do spoon in the morning and bottle at night. I'd like to document her solids experience with some pictures:

"I don't know about this, mom..."

"Well it is kinda good..."

"I love this stuff! Gimme more!"

So now ever since we started feeding her with a spoon she thinks it's a huge game. I start to put the spoon in her mouth, she looks up at me, and then smiles so big that I can see every grain of rice cereal in her mouth all while she laughs hysterically. Let's just hope this is a pattern with all foods!

On May 1st I walked twenty minutes to the gym to realize that it was closed for a holiday. When I got home I told Quique, "Hey let's go do something since we've got a whole free day ahead." So that's what we did. We went to the mountains surrounding Madrid for the day and it was beautiful! We found the most beautiful spot in an open field right in front of a snow covered mountain and had lunch there. We had to drive about 20 minutes up and then back down a mountain to get there and it was absolutely gorgeous. The snow was still at the top (it was cold!). After we finished eating lunch there we drove through a nearby town and to a lake at the base of the mountain. It was such a relaxing day and perfect for Quique and I because it was a few days after Quique's birthday and a day before Mother's Day.

My first Mother's Day was really nice. Spain celebrated it on May 2nd, a week before the U.S. We went to the English-speaking Mass in the morning as a family. Then Quique got me flowers and made me paella for lunch. The paella was excellent especially because it was his first try. He's such a chef! Hopefully Lilia gets his cooking skills!

This week I'm just trying to get a lot of working out in since I didn't get to at all last week. I did my abs class this week! Ouch! I also bought this cereal because it had a workout DVD in it (I'm like a little kid with the cracker jack box) and I used the DVD for the first time yesterday. I didn't think it would be that great, but my ridiculously sore muscles say otherwise. It's only a 20 minute DVD! I still have a long way to go... This past week I also had a Mexican fiesta with some friends. The food was great and the company was even better. It's nice to have a change of faces every once in awhile.

I need a quick favor if you guys have the chance. I'd really like it if you could leave a message so I know who is reading the blog. I never have any clue if I'm writing to six people or to twenty (if you've added me as a follower than don't worry :) I just want to know who of our family and friends reads this so I can get an idea of my audience. The directions for posting are on the top left of the blog in the about me section (very easy!). Don't forget that at the top left you can enter your e-mail and you will be e-mailed every time I update.

5 month picture outtakes: