The First

Amalia's first birthday.  After a year of so many firsts, this amazing child is one year old.

Dear Amalia,

One year ago (and a few days now), we finally evicted you from your snug womb and welcomed you into our arms.  My feelings at your birth were pure amazement and love - one of the best times of my life.  Similar feelings, in fact, to how I felt on your birthday, amazed by this little girl who has so blessed our lives.  I love you so much, sweet darling.  Happy First Birthday.

You have the silliest personality.  You love to laugh and make us laugh.  You wrinkle up your nose and laugh out loud.  You love to pull up shirts and tickle belly buttons.  You flirt with everyone you meet, giving kisses and high fives and giant happy grins.  You also love potty humor and get the silliest laugh when you are dirty.

You are learning so much.  You try to climb into everything, and are very persistent.  We watched you try to mount one of the child chairs, failing, failing, and trying again.  You figured out what didn't work, and kept trying until you found a way that finally got you on top.  You then tried to sit on your bottom, and while trying to turn, you tipped the chair over.  Though you bopped your head, you did not fuss, only got up and tried again.  You love to talk and are so very vocal.  You copy everything you hear, and have many actual words.  You say hi, bye, Mama, Daddy, Papa, Grandpa, guau-guau (Spanish for a dog barking), cluck like a chicken, baa like a sheep, uh-oh, poo-poo (for when you have dirty pants), muchacha, respeta (complete with finger point).  You also have many words that we don't understand, but it is obvious that you are saying something important.  You love to explore, to try things out.  You brush your hair with a brush or comb, put phones to you ear and say Hi, and even blew out your candle on your first birthday cake.  Then you ate the wax.  It was apparently delicious.  

You adore your sister.  She is starting to get more jealous of you now that you can crawl and always want the toy she is playing with and often pat her vigorously or pull her hair or knock her towers over.  Sometimes I allow her to go to her room and shut the door to play without having her set-ups destroyed.  You will still follow, then sit outside her room trying to call her.  You just love to play with her.

You have many favorite foods.  Just about any food, actually.  You can't have eggs, though, making baked goods difficult.  We concocted your birthday cake with banana instead of eggs, and it was delicious.   I think you approved, too.  Bananas are still your special favorite, but you also drop just about anything for a big carrot or a cherry tomato.  You love pasta and cucumbers, black beans, rice, chicken, and pumpkin soup.  I don't think we've found anything you've refused.  Nursing is still one of your favorite things to do, and you get so happy and excited every time.  I love nursing you, too, and I think we'll continue for awhile.

Your teeth are growing, changing your gummy grin to a toothy one.  You have this adorable space between your front teeth (which appeared in July - the left one before the right one).  Around your birthday, the teeth next the top teeth broke through (the left before the right), making your tooth count six.  With those six chompers you can eat just about anything.

Amalia, this year has been incredible.  I'm love every day with you, my love.  You are the happiest, silliest, lovingest, smartest, greatest baby.  I am so very blessed to be your mommy.  I love you so.  

Love you to the moon and back,

Mama

A Whole Handful

My little baby turned five this week.  She gets to hold up a whole hand when asked how old she is.  She starts kindergarten in two weeks.  She's five.  I remember so clearly the instant she was born, and how she grabbed my hands and looked in my eyes, how perfectly she fit into my arms.  My beautiful baby, a five-year -old, a school-aged kid.  Oh, how I love her so.

Dearest Sofia,
Happy Birthday, sweetheart!  You love your birthday more than any other day in the year, and were planning this one back in February.  I love how excited you get - it is infectious.  You get that excited about lots of things, most of them much more mundane than birthdays.  You jump up and down and get your true smile stretching clear across your face and radiating through your body.  You get that excited about things like picking fresh garden tomatoes or that Amalia is playing with you, or that you get to take a bath.

You are so loving, my dear.  You always want to be on my lap, holding my hand, being as close to me as you can.  You give great hugs and kisses to Mommy and Daddy and Amalia.  You can be quite picky about who you give your love to and when, however.  Sometimes, you just don't want to say hello and be polite.  New situations and people you don't know very well always take you a bit of time to adjust, time when you like to be quiet and hiding, studying and gaining confidence.  Usually, if given enough time to warm up, you love people, especially in small groups or one-on-one.  You love to play and invent games and squeal and giggle.  You tend to get close to a particular person and want to spend all your time with them.  In Venezuela, you absolutely adored Julio's cousin's 12-year-old daughter Natascha, always playing happily with her.  You love to spend time with people you know well.  You are not as fond of visitors you don't know, even if they know you.

You are so smart, sweetie.  You are reading books now.  You ask such insightful questions, that I don't usually know the answer.  You want to look it up, to know, to understand.  You are so very curious, so anxious to find out how the world works.  You want to know why, always why.  How?  Your knowledge of the natural world, and of words and sounds are far beyond most kids your age.  I love how you always want to know, and always have a question.  More than one question, actually, and most of them are fantastic.  I can't wait to see how you do in school.  You loved 4K, getting to know other kids your age, playing on playgrounds and with friends and reinforcing knowledge that you already had.  According to your teacher, you did wonderfully in the classroom, but are a little bit slow.  Pokey Parra, in fact.  Not a surprise, as you do the same at home.  You always find something new to interest you, and can be easily distracted.  We registered for kindergarten on your birthday, and get to meet your teacher and see your classroom next Thursday, in preparation for your first day of school.

This year, you learned how to be a big sister.  Just nine days after your fourth birthday, you became a big sister with the birth of Amalia.  From day one, you have adored that role.  You always want to hold her, to hug her, to play with her.  You are enjoying now that she can respond and play with you, though that also makes it harder.  You are having some issues with jealousy now that she can share your toys and is starting to walk and talk.  Sometimes, you wish you were still a baby, though I remind you (and you remind me) that you are still and will always be Momma's baby.  I really love how much you love your sister, how you want to be helpful, and how much the two of you love each other.

You are my star, my first-born, my joy, my frustration, my pride, my darling.  I am so blessed to know you, to love you, to call you my daughter.  Happy fifth birthday,  honey.

Love,
Momma

Placeholder

It is now August I don't even know except that it is past the 16th and before the 25th, and I have not written Sofia's fifth birthday letter.  I will do it, and before Amalia's birthday, but I am much too tired right now.  We arrived home on Wednesday the 15th at 1 pm after leaving Venezuela at 6 am on Tuesday.  Thursday the 16th arrived very early.  She was spoiled with balloons and cake and presents and a birthday breakfast of strawberry pancakes and whipped cream (to which she brought a basket of cherry tomatoes, leaving her pancakes untouched).
Until tomorrow (hopefully tomorrow), when Sofia will still be five.

Earthquake

and now, it seems that there has been an earthquake and heavy rains, closing both ways into Merida.  As in, no traffic in or out.  Ay, Dios.  They are hoping to open at least one lane today, so hopefully by tomorrow, when we need to get through, roads will be open.  All I know is that we HAVE to be there by Monday night, and we HAVE to leave Tuesday morning.  For reals.  No more rain.  Not more earthquakes.  Open roads.  Please, please, please.

Travel Week

Things in Venezuela didn´t exactly work out as planned, as often happens.  To make a long story short, we decided to come home in August so that Sofia could start school at home and for Julio and I to get back to work.  That day in August is coming fast.  Tomorrow, in fact, we begin the journey home.  It will be several long days of travel, with each leg needing to go just right, until we arrive at home on Wednesday, August 15.

Tomorrow, August 10, the four of us will leave Maturin at 5 pm on a bus headed for Barinas.  If all goes well, we should arrive there at about 9 in the morning.  This may seem long, but to us it seems short.  When we came, we took a bus that left at 10 am, arriving in Maturin at noon the next day.  With two kids.  In Barinas, we will take a smaller bus that will bring us to Merida in a trip that should take four hours.  Fingers crossed.  We should have Saturday night, Sunday, and Monday to rest, pack, and prepare for the rest of the trip.  We´re giving ourselves an extra day just in case.  Bright and early Tuesday morning, a man Julio´s sister knows will drive us to Cucuta, Colombia, stopping on both sides of the border to stamp our passports.  If all goes well, we should be at the airport by late afternoon.  There we will wait until the plane leaves at 8 pm (fingers crossed again).  We should land in Bogota, at before 10 pm.  Our plane will then leave from Bogota  at midnight, landing in Miami at 5 am.  We then fly to Charlotte, NC, and with any luck at all, finally land in Chicago at 1 pm.  With two kids under five years old.  We must be crazy.  Hopefully, my parents will be there to pick us up and take us home, another four hour ride, three of which I plan to be asleep.  Then, when we wake up, Sofia will be FIVE YEARS OLD.   If things don´t go as planned, we´ll be travelling on her birthday.  Gosh, I hope not.

It has been wonderful to be able to spend so much time with los abuelos, being part of the household for so long.  We are so lucky to have such loving families in both of our countries.  It was a trip we had to make, and I´m glad that we did it.  I am so ready to be home, though.  Ready for our routines, our comfy bed, our lives.

Ready, set, here we go!