Finding a frog by the pond

Smiling because she sees a baby in the distance

Popsicles at Meckauer park, Bethel CT

Papi and Ethan at the City Fair

Our handsome boy

Ethan and Francie, they really love each other

The prettiest picture of Eliana

Eliana is 18 months old today! She's such a big girl now. She did not talk for the longest time, not one word, not even mama. But then all of a sudden a couple of months ago, she started saying stuff. Mama, papa, milk, water "wa wa". Now she has a lot of words, lots that start with "B", bird, ball, bye bye...She says hi and night night and tries to say a lot of what I say to her like "grandma" and "grandpa". She started out as our very quiet baby and now she is extremely loud! She screams a lot which we are trying to nip in the bud now but I know its just because she gets frustrated or annoyed and doesn't have any way to express herself. So when Ethan takes a toy for example, she will let out this ear-piercing scream that makes us all shudder. We are hoping this phase passes soon. She and Ethan have a lot of nice moments together and a lot of scuffles as well but I guess this is just something to get used to. Ethan is going to be five in October and is growing up so fast. He is a chatterbox and loves to sing a dance. In the car he especially likes "Life is a Highway" and "Real Gone" from the CARS movie. We all like to sing and dance to that one.
I have been trying to get them outside as much as possible this summer just because they need to release all that energy. We go to the park around the corner which they always like. And there are a couple of other parks we go to, one in Bethel that is nice and big. I also took them both to the zoo the other day in the evening which was a nice time of day but a bit too crowded.
I am enjoying the time with the kids. We love summer although I need to think of some new things to do. But the weather has been great. A lot of rain but not very hot which is just fine with me. Today was the first day that I felt uncomfortable and that's just because it was so humid.

Eliana, Nov '08

Ethan with Francie, Grandma's and Grandpa's dog

Eliana playing at the mall, Nov 08

Halloween 2008

apple picking on Ethan's birthday

The fam in MA, Oct 2008

Ethan turns four! October, 2008

Best of Friends

Ethan and Eliana, August 2008, NH

August 2008, Kent, CT

Eliana is 10.5 months old now and is really getting around. I am really enjoying them at these ages right now. I always get a bit sad looking at pictures of when Eliana was really tiny because I still can't believe how fast they grow. It's already been almost a year! Her personality is so different from Ethan's. I think she is more like what I was like as a baby and my mother tells me that I outgrew my shyness by age three or four. Eliana is very cautious and it is really hard for someone she does not know to get a smile out of her. It's hard for Moi and me to even get her to laugh or smile, forget about a stranger. At church, people will just talk and smile at her trying to get her to crack a smile, but she just stares at them, dead-panned. It's funny. But then when she sees Nora or Grandma or Grandpa, she smiles right away so she clearly is happy around family. And I have also noticed that when we are here at home, when we walk in the door, she is just happier. I guess she is a homebody.

Ethan is her favorite person in the world right now. He makes her laugh just by looking at her or making a funny face. In the morning, she can't wait to see him and if he is not here, she looks for him and then is so happy when he returns. She adores him even though he sometimes is not so careful around her. She can't get enough of him. And usually she is happy to roll around and play with him unless it's too rough. Right now, the problems happen because she is all over the place and touching all of his stuff, like his train set, she will just rip it apart. So I have to try to keep her away from that but then she just wants to play in that room with him. I'll just have to keep helping them share and hope that the concept eventually sticks.
Ethan turned 4 in October which was a lot of fun. He is a real big boy now and very sweet and funny. He makes me laugh on a regular basis. He loves to read and a lot of the time likes to take all the books and read them himself. He is learning to write his name. He can spell it out loud and he can copy the letters when I write them so he is on his way.

He loves to play with his train sets and lately he has been enjoying folding laundry and vacuuming! It's great that he loves to help. He really is very helpful and kind. He is extremely energetic so sometimes it is hard to get all that energy out, especially now that it is getting much colder and we don't go outside as much. He has a lot of pent up energy and he can get wild. But we have been going to the library on Mondays, another day we'll go to the mall and ride the coin-operated rides, the carousel and walk around. Wednesdays and Saturdays we go down to my parents' house and on Thursdays we try to do something together if we can when Moi is home.

June 2008

Well, time really flies by. Eliana is already 5 months old and so grown up! She likes to sit up like a big girl in her high chair and this walker thing we have. she can't sit up on the floor unsupported but she tries. We can't use the "baby" chair that sits her reclined. She won't have that. She loves to just sit and watch everything. She's so observant and quiet. She's really the best baby anyone could ask for. She is so content and relaxed and sleeps a lot. She has been like that since the day she was born, I love it. She loves Ethan and only really laughs at him, there's just something about his face, all he has to do is look at her. She is also kind of trying to crawl already which is just crazy fast. If I put her on the floor she rolls right over and then pushes up on her feet with her face in the floor and just scoots forward. So even though she's not really crawling, she gets from one place to another pretty quickly. Gone are the days of knowing that she'll just lay in the same place while I go about my business.
From the beginning she set her own schedule which is just great. I think babies can just do that. I didn't have to do anything with her. She has about 1.5 to 2 hours of wakefulness between naps, and she's really predictable. Wake, eat, play, sleep, repeat, it's wonderful.
Ethan is the best big brother in the world. I am so proud of him. I wondered if there'd be any jealousy issues since he and I have always been close but she's just his baby as much as she is ours. To this day still after 5 months, when she wakes up from any nap, he is SO excited and comes running into the room shouting "Eliana's awake? Let me see her" and then he runs over to talk to her and lay next to her on the bed. It is so darn cute. He loves her so much and is very protective of her and always draws attention to her "look at Eliana Papi". And when she is fussing and I am busy, I can count on him to entertain her while I finish. It is great .Things couldn't be better right now. I pray that he is always so loving and nice to her. I'm sure he will be. They are growing so fast.

Eliana March 26, 2008

Ethan has been cracking me up lately. 3 years old is a funny time. He is getting smarter and more aware. He is also very protective of Eliana. We are mostly just here at the house and he will help me with her and tell me when she's crying, (as if I can't hear her), and say "feed her". The other day I went to feed her and he's like "Don't feed her, change her diaper" And when I checked, sure enough, she had a really dirty diaper. I guess he had heard her (anyone with a newborn knows how loud those poops can be). So he takes care of her and lets me know what' up.
At the park the other day a little boy about 18 months came up and really wanted to see inside the stroller which was covered up and I said he could see her. But then he started to grab at Eliana and Ethan became really protective. He had this look on his face like "don't you touch my sister" and he was batting the kid away. I didn't really want anyone touching my two month old either so he did all the work for me:) It was funny. He loves his sister and is really sweet with her.

Yesterday Ethan hurt himself and cried which he rarely does so I knew he was pretty hurt. And after crying for a while he looks at me and says "mommy, cheer me up". I had never heard him say that before and thought it was pretty funny. So I proceeded to tickle him to see if that would work. And of course it did.

Some other funny things he says:
" I want to be hold", "I'm thirsty about water"

And the other day we went to the Kensico Dam Plaza park and had a good time. Later that day he was saying how he went to the park and asked me what the park was called. I said it was called "the Dam park" after thinking that maybe I shouldn't say "dam" but couldn't think of anything else. Then he says "I LOVE that Dam park" which just sounded so funny and made me laugh.

Eliana is great, still sleeping like a champ. She is smiling so much it is so cute. She is really growing, already outgrew all her 0-3 month clothes because she is so long. She's adorable and still so content, rarely cries and just takes everything in. We all love her cute personality.

Eliana turned two months on Sunday March 16, 2008. She is such a great baby I can hardly believe how easy she is sometimes.She almost never cries except if she's really upset or can't settle down. The other day I gave her a bath and she was really NOT happy about it, maybe it was too chilly, I don't know but she cried like I'd never heard it was so pathetic and sad. But other than that, she is almost always content. She sleeps a lot, the complete opposite of the way Ethan was. He used to be up and awake and eating around the clock. Eliana sleeps really well at night, only wakes up once or twice to eat and very rarely stays up.

Today was her 2 month appointment and she is 12pounds. I feel like she's huge. She's 24 inches long. She's in the upper 90's percentiles for height and weight which is crazy because Ethan was always below the 50th percentile for both,sometimes as low as 15th percentile. So Eliana is really different. She must have some bigger genes from Moi's mom's side of the family who are pretty tall.So we'll see. She's really healthy and happy and we are all enjoying watching her grow and change and start to smile a lot more. She's super cute.

Ethan is doing great with her, he really loves her and wants to hold her and help take care of her.

february

This is such a sweet picture Moises took with his phone.

She looks like she's smiling in a couple of these