Jugando

This is Eliana's new playmat, which she absolutely loves!  She's actually quite fond of her bouncy seat as well, but as this is newer and offers more challenges, it's the favorite.  Best 25 dollars I've ever spent, thank you Target clearance.  She will play with it for 20 minutes or more, which I think is amazing for such a little baby.  But we've definitely conquered grabbing things now, especially a ring shape because they're so easy to grab.  She's even grabbing things with both hands, although the left hand is nowhere near as dextrous as the right.  I think I can already say she's not a lefty.  She's also figured out that shaking things makes other things move, both on her bouncy seat and the playmat.  Also, if you wiggle in your bouncy seat it makes the toys jiggle and jingle and then you can get Daddy's attention too.  She's clever this one!  We always have the bouncy seat on the table during dinner and she loves to get Daddy to talk to her and the best way is to wiggle frantically creating such a noise from her toys that Daniel looks over and coos at her.  Of course she tries to extrapolate this to other situations and it doesn't always work.  Like when she's lying on the bed next to Joaquin and wants him to notice her.  Wiggling her legs frantically doesn't help much there.  The playmat is also good for tummy time.  She's deigned to stay on her tummy for much longer while on it.  Today she even tried to move around while on her tummy, pulling her legs up under herself and trying to push forward.  As her head was lying on the ground it wasn't very effective, but she did scooch(sp?) an inch or so forward and several to the side!  It's so cute to watch her learn to do things!  She's so serious about it, focusing very intently on her play, like she knows this is how to learn.  She gets excited about her toys already, once I was picking her up from the floor and as we moved near her bouncy seat she grabbed for it with both hands and made excited noises.

 

Zapatos?

These are "barefoot sandals" from Etsy.  I love that they're masquerading as some sort of shoe, I think of them more as feet decorations.  Whatever they are, they're certainly adorable and even more so on Eliana's sweet little tootsies.

Hermanos

 Joaquin is, in his own estimation, an excellent baby holder and as evidence I will say that Eliana never appears uneasy while he's holding her.  However, I don't think I would enjoy sloping at this angle, even for a Joaquin kiss.  These pictures are them dressed in their cute but unmatching sibling shirts.  (It was actually hard to find shirts that say big brother, etc. so finding something sweet and matching was basically out of the question.)  Sometimes it's actually easier to get a good photo of Eliana because laying on the floor next to Joaquin makes her happy.  Joaquin is developing a serious camera grimace in lieu of a smile and he doesn't always want to spend whole minutes looking in the direction of the camera, but I think these pictures turned out good.  There's one where they're both looking at me and smiling, and then one where you can see what their shirts say.   Big brothers do rule, just ask this this little sister.

3 meses y 64 meses

Eliana is 3 months!  And Joaquin, as his sign will inform you, used to be 63 months but is now 64 months! :)  Eliana is still an amazon baby, in the 95 percentile for everything.  She can grab the toys dangling from her bouncy chair as well as my hair and shirt while nursing.  She likes it when people talk to her and standing on my lap looking over my shoulder.  She grasps her hands together to calm herself down when she falls asleep.  She makes lots of little chatty noises and actually gets really excited by her toys.  Joaquin is into numbers, especially multiplication lately, and Angry Birds. 

Dormiendo

So Eliana has been plagued with a cold recently.  Fortunately it's been very mild, but it did destroy her sleep patterns for awhile.  So here's a few pictures of her sleeping cutely since it's been rare recently.  I like this one, "It's good".  And this other one is her trying desperately to keep a pacifier in.  She only occasionally takes a pacifier but when she does it's very important.  

Pascua 2012

Happy Easter everyone!  Christ is Risen!  Aren't my boys sweet?  We had an exhausting but lovely Easter morning.  I had to sing three services, and Eliana accompanied me to church at 7 in the morning, dressed in her pajamas.  But after rehearsal we dressed her up, isn't she beautiful?  And she was surprisingly good throughout the morning, managing to fall asleep on Daddy when he and Joaquin came.  Then over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter lunch.  This picture of the four of us is our attempt at an Easter family portrait.  We all look awful but I like it because Eliana looks hysterical!  Very wide-eyed.  Joaquin and I had made some special cupcakes in actual egg shells.  (This was surprisingly easy)  This made for some very entertaining table talk since Uncle Matty was a little nervous about them, but Joaquin and I enjoyed making them and they tasted fabulous.

Caza de Huevos de Pascua

 Since everyone was in town and we have our traditional Easter buddies the Gregsons, we decided on a huge Easter egg fest.  We dyed eggs and then hunted them.  There were nine children, seven of them mobile and able to particpate.  Whew.  We had a great time actually, despite the chaos, and ended with dinner at Chick-fil-A.  If I could convince Kara and Rachel to come home next year we could make this a tradition!

And they're off!  We let the little guys start first, but there was still plenty left for the big kids to find.

As you can see from Joaquin's basket, even his share was ridiculous.  We had an obscene number of eggs, all filled with candy.

Fred with children.  (I'm being very nice here, this is the best picture of everyone else, but a hideous one of me; what am I looking at?)

All the egg hunters.

Eliana and her special buddy Maggie, they're only about two months apart.

After hunting eggs it was time for crazy playing!  Jonah and Allie soon found out that Joaquin's Uncle Bryan is super fun!

Heather gave Joaquin a stuffed Angry Bird for Easter and it was the hit of the century.  It became the centerpiece of a crazy game where various people where the pigs and the Angry Bird would hit them.  This was apparently fabulous fun.

Viernes Bueno

When you receive a lot of hand-me-downs, you get a lot of pretty dresses.  After all what kind of clothes get the least amount of wear and mommies really want to see worn again?  So Eliana has a variety of dresses, many of which could be a beautiful Easter dress.  So we mixed it up.  We had a very pretty dress for Palm Sunday and this particular charmer made an appearance at the Good Friday service.  Fortunately she looked adorable because she did not enjoy the service.  She was happy while everyone was singing, but when that stopped..... oh well, it's not a happy occasion anyway!

El Parque con Amigos Viejos

Lucky us, Easter time brought both Rachel and Kara plus their respective children.  Woo-hoo!  So of course we had to have some play dates with all the kiddoes.  Since several of them were sick, we spent Thursday together in the park (under the theory that the open air would dilute germs!)  It was very cute to watch Jonah and Joaquin be very boylike together, they played with ants and worms and sticks.  Although Allie, being raised by Shiloh, was also interested.  The mommies got a little time to talk in between running after the kidlets and being shown the various bugs nad sticks.  Eliana decided to eat in the open air and then take a nap.  Apparently she has an internal schedule and whatever we choose to do doesn't affect it!

Dormir Afuera

So our friend Marc came to visit (well mostly to do some research stuff with Sandia, but we got to visit too).  He came without his wife and son which was sad, but it did mean he got to sleep outside, something he loves to do when in Albuquerque.  So Friday night Daniel and Joaquin joined him.  Here they are camping out under the stars.  (Eliana didn't want to sleep outside, so Mommy stayed with her.)  By all accounts it was fun times.

Chica Grande

Well Eliana is definitely getting cuter.  Check her out in this little lacy number, I can hardly handle it!  But she is also getting better at playing.  This video is of her playing with the rings hanging above her bouncy seat.  She manages to catch them on a regular basis and even tries to put them in her mouth now.  And if you listen carefully, you can hear her cooing.  She makes the sweetest noises!  What a big girl!