15 months!

`

Lilia turned 15 months on March 5th (picture to come soon). She´s developing such a little personality!

Here are some updates:

• She loves to be chased, especially by Quique. She´ll start crawling away from him and then start laughing and screaming like he´s chasing her even though he isn´t. Of course once she does that he can´t help but chase her!




• She´s developed this new "head whip" technique. She turns her head so she´s facing away from you and then really quick whips her head around and gives you a big cheesy grin. It´s her new favorite game.
• A couple of times we´ve seen her bounce up and down to the music on her LeapFrog music table.
• She now gives us kisses! She leans in towards our face with her mouth wide open.
• She loves when we say "Yeay!!!" and then claps for herself. She always gets such a proud look on her face when we do that!
• Sometimes while I´m in the middle of feeding her she´ll shut her lips really tight and then look up at me with laughing eyes. She´s so cute and bad all at the same time!
• Lately, if she has anything in her hand and nothing to pull up on she´ll "walk" all over the living room on her knees.
• Lilia LOVES small spaces. She´s always trying to squeeze herself into the space behind her playpen and the wall or under her high chair or between the window and the coffee table (which we are trying to get rid of because it´s a hazard!).
• The daycare people have told us that Lilia is very "observant" and will watch the other children before joining in to play with them.
• She goes to daycare about 3 times a week for 4 hours at a time. Every once in awhile she will go for more days or more hours based on Quique´s and my schedule.
• Lilia is always taking off her socks.
• When she eats anything that isn't pureed she just puts it in her mouth and swallows. No chewing. So we make all her bite size food veeery small.

Some physical updates:

• She is in the 10th percentile and weighs 8.750 kilos (19.3 pounds)
• She is 74 cm (2 feet 5 inches, or 29 inches)
• Today she went to the doctor and got 4 vaccinations and she only cried a little. Little trooper!
• She is walking a lot more now and a lot more confidently. Before she had this weird balancing technique that we called "ninja arms" because she would put her arms in this really weird position in order to keep her body from falling backwards when she walked.
• She carries a bucket with these little blocks and will often stop to take them out and put them back in again.



• She has finally started sleeping through the night since about a month and a half ago. It is so nice to be able to go to bed and know I don´t have to wake up in the middle of the night.
• While she sleeps well through the night sometimes she will stay awake for 45 minutes before going down for a nap or sleeping for the night. She will just sing and talk to herself the whole time.
• She got a stomach bug a few weeks ago and that was no fun! I thought I heard a funny noise from her room one night around 11 while I was making dinner (we eat late!), but then she went right back to bed so I didn´t worry. At about 1 a.m. I checked on her just to make sure she was well covered and there was a puddle of Lilia´s lunch on the floor. One hour, 2 baths, and 2 vomiting episodes later she was finally in bed with clean pj´s and a clean bed. She got a lot better after that.
• She has 7 teeth and her molars will be here in no time.

As a family we have done a few things the past couple of months. A few weeks ago we went to a city called Alcala de Henares, which is about a half hour away from Madrid. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. Alcala de Henares is fairly small and we had a good time walking around. I´ve also taken Lilia to the park several times. It´s a lot easier now that she can walk and I don´t have to carry her around the playground. She really enjoys being out in the sunshine and watching the big kids play. This past weekend she tried to play with a little girl (mainly because the little girl had a piece of bread in her hand) and a little boy who had a ball. I think it´s time we´re going to buy her a mini soccer ball. After all, she IS Spanish!

Alcala de Henares

Watching the big girls play at the park

Quique and I got to enjoy a day off for Valentine´s Day. I had a great friend of mine come babysit Lilia for the day. Quique and I first went to lunch and then we took a ride on the "teleférico" of Madrid which is like a little tram in the air that slides along a cord suspended over a big park. After we did that we walked around the park and headed on home. It was so nice to get to reconnect as a couple. We don´t get many date nights (normally when we go to Sue´s house every few months is when we get date nights) so that day was great!

Walking around downtown


La Almudena Cathedral from the park


Teleferico



We are both enjoying our jobs. I´m gearing up to teach the kids at school about St. Patrick´s Day next week and Quique will start studying soon for a test he´ll need to take next year to get promoted. We´re both thinking about a year and a half left in Madrid (December 2012 maybe) and then we´ll head down to El Puerto. We haven´t ruled out the U.S. yet though.

I´m starting to plan for our trip to the U.S. this summer. We´re thinking end of June or beginning of July to the beginning of September (for me and Lilia at least). Quique will take about 2-3 weeks in the U.S., but we´re not sure when exactly. I have lots of things I want to do when we get there and this year we won´t be planning a wedding!

Last thing. I just realized that on February 28th Quique and I celebrated 6 months as a married couple! How romantic is it that I didn´t even notice until 3 weeks later? I expected that later in the marriage, but not now! haha. Doesn´t seem like it´s been 6 months since the wedding. It was such a great day and we had so much fun with all our family and friends!

I hope everyone is doing well!

Stuck!