Back in the U.S.A.

Lilia are I are back in the U.S. for summer vacation. We arrived June 24 and won't be leaving until September 1 so we have a nice long vacation ahead of us. We've been up to lots of things lately!

Some of the family at my and Jamie's Hawaiian luau themed birthday.

The past two weekends we have gone out to Lake Sinclair in Milledgeville and it has been a blast! We've gone boating and tubing and have been enjoying the hot Georgia sun. This weekend we're headed off to Uncle Dave and Aunt Michele's house in Charlotte, NC. I'm excited for Lilia and her cousin Julia to play together for the first time since last year. I can't wait until they get old enough to actually looking forward to seeing one another!

Lilia all ready to go on the lake.

Lilia asleep on the boat.

Mother daughter matching toenails!

Lilia and her cousins passed out in the van coming back to Atlanta.

Lilia has enjoyed hanging out with her grandparents as well! I'm happy to be home and have some free babysitting! haha. We spend most of our days relaxing and hanging out and it's a nice change of pace from the busy and hectic Madrid life. Although Lilia misses her daddy and I miss Quique too. His work schedule has been really crazy this year and we're about 90% sure he's not going to make it this year to the U.S. :(

Lilia has been getting so big. She's actually got a little bit of hair now. The weird thing is her hair is curly. If you have seen my hair you'd know why curly hair is weird on Lilia. I have stick straight hair that could never hold a curl. I guess she gets it from Quique. She's walking and running all over the place and feeding herself "big people" food. She's saying a lot of new words which is so fun to hear. I think the first word she actually understood was "no". Now she says all sorts of things! In Spanish she says "agua" for water, "hola", and "wawa" for dog (children in Spain say "wow wow" for the sound a dog makes so lots of kids call dogs wawa). She also says "shoes", "bye bye", "night night," "caca" for cracker, and "ma" for mas or more (mas is more in Spanish), not sure which. I know I'm forgetting a few, but they're not coming to me now.

Lilia is a mommy's girl all the way. She is my shadow everywhere I go. She can be completely distracted by playing with a toy and the second I walk out of the room she'll drop whatever she's doing and follow me. If I'm on the computer she will crawl into my lap, turn around, and face me. If I'm cooking dinner she will cling to my legs until I pick her up. Sometimes it's frustrating, but it's also cute that she wants me.

She is developing QUITE the personality as well. I think the terrible two's may start early with this one. She used to be great in the car, but on our last few drives to Milledgeville the last half hour is unbearable. She cries and cries and gets so angry. Last time we were driving back to Atlanta I gave her a water bottle when she was upset. Instead of drinking out of it she crushed it with her hands then dried to rip the top off with her teeth. Lilia's cousins affectionately called her "baby-zilla"! She was so mad! She has also gotten really picky with her eating and her independence with eating. Now if I try to spoon anything in her mouth she will refuse. She has to do it herself. When she doesn't want what I put on her plate she will throw it off and say, "No!" All in all though she is still a sweet baby. She gives kisses all the time and likes to put her head in my lap. I will try to remember those times when we make our 4 hour drive to Charlotte...

What's in a name?

Lilia updates and pictures to come soon, but I'd like to start something new with the blog. I'm going to try and do more frequent updates than the typical once a month huge post. It's so much easier to do smaller posts (and more motivating). I think I'll also be able to fit in more Spanish culture, what's going on with me and Quique (besides ALL Lilia), and just give you a better look into our lives here. It's a win-win situation. And now onto the post.

Even though Lilia is now almost 17 months old I thought I'd do a quick break down of her name for anyone who's interested.

Lilia Helena Mallen Latty

Lilia- Quique and I took forever to decide on a name for Lilia. Night after night we would sit down, read through books, look on the Internet, and just generally discuss what we thought would be a good name. Some of the candidates: Maria Helena, Kylie, Eva, Julia, Blanca, Katie... yeah. All over the place. Do you know how hard it is to come up with a name that sounds good in both English and Spanish and that your relatives on both the Spanish and American side can pronounce? Not many. Quique was a fan of the cute little girl names (Kylie, Katie) and I was a fan of the more elegant Spanish names (Eva, Blanca). I kept pushing the name Lily (although not an elegant Spanish name I suppose), but Quique wasn't sold on it and it sounds really silly with a Spanish accent (Leelee). So I said, "What about Lilia?" It's simple, pretty, and I could call her Lily for short. And so a name was born...

Helena- My grandmother on my mother's side was Helena (Helen for short) and both Quique and I loved the name. For a long time we were convinced Lilia was going to be called Maria Helena. Quique even wanted to call her Helena Nicole at one point to which I laughed because I have two cousins named Helena and Nicole who are sisters. I told him if we named her Helena Nicole we would be accused of a serious lack of creativity. We also love the name because Elena (no h) is a very common name in Spanish and if she wanted to sound less foreign (because Lilia is not a Spanish name) she could just go by Elena.

Mallen Latty- This is where it gets fun. In Spain everybody has two last names. Children's first last name is the father's first last name and their second last name is their mother's first last name. haha confusing right? For example, Quique is: Enrique Mallen Bosler and I am Christina Latty therefore Lilia's last name is Mallen Latty. Mallen has an accent on the e and sounds like my-en.

There you have it. Lilia Helena Mallen Latty. :)

15 months!

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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!

Oh my

Houston, we have a walker.

Christmas, New Year's, Three Kings, and 13 months

I woke up today and told myself, "I am blogging no matter what today!" It's been awhile and I'm sure you guys would like to read some updates and see some photos!

I had two full weeks of Christmas break and it was so nice! I spent almost the entire time down in El Puerto. Christmas Eve we went to Sevilla to Loli's (Quique's aunt) for a really nice dinner. We had some great food and had fun catching up, especially with Mauri, Quique's cousin and his girlfriend Natalia who is also expecting a baby! We're keeping our fingers crossed it's a girl so Lilia will have a playmate! Their baby is due in July. We left around 2 o'clock to head back to El Puerto. We were driving in a 5 seater car with 6 people the 1 1/2 hours back to El Puerto. I sat on Quique's lap and my head was smashed against the ceiling of the car! Quique told me he could barely move his legs when we finally did get out of the car. He didn't earn any points for that one! All in all though it was a really nice night and and it was great to spend time with a big family since I missed my own big family back in the U.S.

Christmas day brought lots of toys for Lilia. Santa brought her a Leap Frog Musical Table and Quique and I got her some books. Enrique had a surprise for Lilia that morning. He had bought her a "Santa Claus" outfit and it was HILARIOUS. We were all laughing so hard at how funny she looked that she started laughing along with us. It was nice to sit by the fire and hear Christmas music on the stereo. I love Christmas time. The rest of the day we relaxed with all of our new toys and just enjoyed doing nothing at all.

New Year's Eve was just as relaxing. We had a really nice dinner that Sue made. In Madrid there is a clock in the main square that chimes twelve times at 12:00 a.m. on the new year. The tradition in Spain is to watch the clock on t.v. (like we watch the ball drop in New York or the peach drop in Atlanta on t.v.) and for each chime you hear you have to eat a grape. I'm always impressed because Quique, Sue, and Enrique are able to eat all twelve grapes. I never even try because 1) I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to eat twelve grapes in 12 seconds and 2) I'm afraid of choking. We pureed some grapes into Lilia's dinner so she could join in the festivities. Afterwards we banged on pots and pans while we ran outside. Sue said it was a tradition she used to do when she was little!

It was so nice to get out of Madrid during the vacation. Quique and I got to go on several dates, something we never do in Madrid. We ate tapas, went over to friends' houses, and just enjoyed having a babysitter for two weeks!

Our last day of vacation we went to Victoria's (Quique's aunt) house in Sevilla to celebrate Three Kings and Paco's (Quique's uncle) birthday. Three Kings is actually bigger here than Christmas and the really big gift giving day here. Lilia got some great presents from the Three Kings and from her cousins and aunts and uncles.

Lilia also celebrated 13 months that night! She does something new every day! Lately she enjoys being chased. She'll sit next to you and give you this sly side eye look and then she'll take off crawling in the other direction laughing her head off because she knows you'll start chasing her. The other day I chased after her and when she got caught in a corner she started belly laughing so hard I couldn't help but laugh along with her. Baby laughs are just too great! She now has 5 teeth with another one coming in. We've started brushing her teeth, but now she's boycotted that and decided to seal her lips shut when I come towards it with the toothbrush. The only way she'll brush her teeth is if she's holding it and chewing on the brush. I'm not sure it's that effective, but it's better than nothing! She's still sleeping through the night and occasionally waking up once a night. The past few months she enjoys rocking herself to sleep. She'll get on her hands and knees like she's crawling and then just rock back and forth while humming to herself. It's interesting, but it works! She's drinking out of a sippy cup occasionally and doesn't put up much of a fight over the transition. She has finally started to say "mama" and "dada" and mean it! She won't say it out of the blue, but she'll repeat it if we ask her to say it. She also knows other words, but won't say them. For example if I say, "Let's go splash splash!" which is our word for bathtime, she'll start to slap her hands down like she's splashing in the tub. If we say, "Bye bye!" she'll wave her hand also. She's also learned how to put her hand over her mouth like an Indian and I think she's also learned how to blow a kiss while she was at daycare. She did that for the first time today.

What? I'm not supposed to chew on your camera cord?

Looking for the doggies on the porch

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: