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!