La Fortaleza

 Joaquin and I checked out "If You Give a Pig a Party" from the library the other day and were inspired.  In part of the story the pig wants to build a blanket fort.  After reading it Joaquin wanted to build one as well (If you read a Joaquin a book...... ha, ha!)  Having been a child I had some tips for him.  1. Always use fairly lightweight blankets, they don't pull down under their own weight. 2. Lighter colored or thinner blankets mean you can actually see inside your fort.  3. All forts should be built in your room so that Mommy won't make you take them down at dinnertime.  Joaquin's fort was quite charming (admittedly I ended up 'building' most of it since Joaquin could reach.), we simply hung blankets around his bottom bunk.  Then Joaquin decorated with balloons and streamers and hand made weather things.  (A raindrop, some snowflakes, etc) He even made some paper holders for his weather that were supposed to be easy to break so he could tug on them and make his rain/snow fall in a spectacular effect.  While they didn't really work I thought the idea was very clever.  He didn't get to sleep in his fort (there weren't any sheets on the bottom bunk that day), he and Daddy enjoyed their evening reading time in it.  Gave Daniel a chance to use his headlamp.  Styling!

Cinco Meses

 And Eliana is five months old!  I can hardly believe it.  For some reason four months seemed normal and five months seems so old.  I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be this big.  She's started to roll over - a skill she's not fond of.  She rolls from her back to her stomach mostly and then screams because she's not super fond of tummy time.  Obviously cause and effect is still a shaky concept for her.  She knows a few words that we can tell; her name, hungry, feed you, and toes.  Maybe Mommy and Daddy as well.  Starting to grab any and everything....and then put them in her mouth.  She's turning into a sweet baby now as we get better at sleeping.  She sleeps (usually, unless travel or something else gets in the way) 10 to 12 hours at night and intermittent naps.  And she's usually happy and interested while awake.  Still not a fan of too much time with people other than Mommy or Daddy.  We started really eating this month and she loves it! I can't tell if it's because she loves the flavor or if it's her desire to put everything in her mouth.  Her favorite thing is Daddy kisses - the fuzziness makes her giggle.   Five crazy but fabulous months!  

San Diego 2012

 While Eliana and I had quality time, Daddy and Joaqiun partied it up in San Diego.  They went to cousin Andres' wedding and hung out with the cousins, which by all accounts was a blast.  They also, as you can see, hit the beach.  The weather was almost chilly (I was so jealous!) but my tough guys didn't seem to notice.  Joaquin apparently fell in the water and then just stripped down to his undies to keep dry.  So maybe all this sand burying was to keep warm?  They came back safe and sound on Father's Day, two buddies.

Mama y bebe

So the boys left us this weekend for a family wedding in San Diego.  While I was grateful not to have to travel with Miss Eliana again, they had a great time by all accounts.  Eliana and I were a little more tame, mostly we missed our boys.  However I tried to be an entertaining mommy.  She helped me cook dinner, sampling bell peppers and playing with the basting brush.  Totally brought back memories of Frances, who also spent many dinners playing with it.  Then we took a bath and I tried to take some pictures by myself.  There's nothing cuter than a clean baby in a hoodie towel.  Unfortunately taking these pictures while holding the baby is very difficult so they didn't turn out that well.  You'll just have to believe me that in real life she was super cute.  We did run a few errands in Daddy's truck (the car's check engine light was on) which was entertaining.  A woman with a small baby dressed in a girly pink outfit stepping out of a truck raises a few eyebrows.  We almost started a fan club in Trader Joe's as well.  (She decided to be charming and was duly noticed.) And while Eliana had a lovely morning at church (spent the entire service in the nursery, happily!) and we picnicked in the park with friends afterward, we were quite excited to get our family back together.

Clases de Natación

It's summer and that means swimming lessons around our house.  I signed him up for the first session forgeting that we had vacation bible school the first week.  So he reviewed wave 1 for the second week and had a great time.  Even while Eliana was grabbing my attention I could hear his happy screams.  Eliana is not great at waiting around for swimming lessons to be over.  She gets seriously bored.  However the face she's making in this face isn't actually anger, just concentration as she tries to grab the camera cord.  We have a few weeks off now and then expect many more watery photos of Joaquin.

El Espejo, El Espejo

 My mom has a very cute picture of me admiring myself in the mirror propped on my changing table.  So watching Eliana flirt with her reflection, inspired me to continue the tradition.  Eliana's favorite place to be on her tummy (and really the only place she enjoys it) is her changing table.  It's so much fun to talk to that other baby!  The other plus of these pictures is you can admire the cute flower on her bottom.  She's getting too big for this outfit, so it's good that it gets it's share of camera time!  And she did manage her first rolling over today!  She rolled from her back onto her tummy and then cried hysterically since she didn't want to be there (and she had rolled under the swing, which is a supremly uninteresting place).  But still, she made it!

Merendar

This summer we somehow managed to sign for two picnic life groups.  Don't know how it happened, but we are picnicking with church friends every Friday and Saturday through July.  While I think this is going to stretch my picnic lunch packing skills, it's great fun.  This is Joaquin and his buddy Ben playing soccer.  Notice in the second photo Joaquin has hijacked the ball and is throwing it.  He's not playing goalie, he's just unclear on the rules.  :)  Hey, he got some wiggles out!  Maybe by July he'll get it.

Bebe Hermosa

Tia Lina was in town for about five minutes and managed in her one photo shoot with Eliana to get tons and tons of beautiful shots.  Especially some cute smiley faces!   Yes, she really is this beautiful - and apparently really likes Tia Lina.

Arrollando

The next big milestone for Miss Eliana is rolling over - except she can't quite seem to get there.  Part of it may be motivation, she doesn't get put on her tummy that often because she's so content and playful while on her back.   Mommy can't resist letting her play happily with her toys instead of trying to convince her tummy time is fun.  Besides, she usually spends her time on her stomach attempting to get her knees under her and scooch.  I've tried explaining that she's nowhere near that kind of mobility and she should focus on what she can accomplish, but it's almost like she doesn't understand what I'm saying.  And really, who would roll over on to their tummy?  However, she does love to be on her side.  She actually sleeps on her side most of the time. (Yes I place her on her back, she rolls to the side, if she can roll there on her own, she can roll back if necessary.)  And she will roll onto her side, then even roll her little bottom almost completely over before being stymied by the 'stupid arm'.  (This is a term coined by Daniel for the arm that has nowhere to go when you're lying in bed snuggling with your spouse.  Someone gets to put their arm around the other and that person has nothing to do with their arm.  In Eliana's case the stupid arm is the one underneath her that has to somehow move to allow her to roll over.)  Anyway she does manage to move around quite a bit while attempting to roll.  In this last picture she had been placed in the middle of her blanket, and you can see where she was a few minutes later.  She managed to get her whole self off by the time Daddy got home.  (I was having too much fun seeing what she could do to put her back on it.)

Pájaros Enojados

This is Joaquin's interpretation of Angry Birds, in Duplos.  The yellow triangle is the Yellow Bird sitting on the slingshot, with the blue bird, the red bird, and the black bomb bird ready to take their turn.  And of course the structure on the right hand side is a pig inside a house of wood, stone and glass.  Notice one of the blocks fortuitously has a picture of eggs on it, representing the Angry Bird eggs stolen by the pigs.  There's also a movie that goes along with this, but as it's quite long it is unavailable for viewing.  Joaquin is somewhat obsessed with Angry Birds as you can see, but it's been quite amusing actually because he's basically using it as a theme for various mediums.  He draws (both manually and on the computer) complicated and numerous Angry Bird pictures, writes about Angry Birds and now builds Angry Bird models!  He makes up Angry Bird games of tag and gets excited over Angry Bird shirts and stuffed animals.  He's actually experiencing a sort of renaissance - enjoying so many different activites - as long as he can relate it to Angry Birds.  He spends more time inventing new Angry Birds then he does actually playing the game.  Since we've never been obsessed with Cars or Spiderman or anything, I guess this is the Joaquin equivalent!

Traje de Bañar

So a bathing suit for a baby is quite the most useless garmet ever!  While I'm sure Eliana would enjoy splashing in the pool, I don't trust her not to poo while in.  And I don't want to share a pool with a poopy baby!  No diaper is that good.  So when Joaquin and I go and swim in Great-Grandma's pool, Eliana hangs with Grandma.  But she received a bathing suit as a present and it's super cute, so...... Here she is watching us swim while dressed to kill.  That concentrated stare is because she is very interested in watching us swim.  I don't know if she's nervous about what we're doing, or the water is just interesting to look at, but she's always very intent while we're in there.  Oh cutie-patootie, she's rocking this suit.

Sonreir

This is a slightly crazy picture of Eliana, but the best I have of her smiling big.  She's not the friendliest baby in the world (although she's willing to flirt with anyone from the safety of Mommy's arms), but she has a big happy grin.  I see it every morning when I go in to get her.  She's very excited to see that I'm still around, even after a long night of not seeing me!  And it is a long night, she regularly sleeps 10 to 12 hours.  Pretty impressive for a baby that can be a real stinker about naps.  I guess she just likes to put all her sleep in at once.  Anyway, she's discovered that a huge smile usually receives a smile in return and frequently induces folks to talk to her and play with her.  Now she wields that cute expression like a weapon - you think you can ignore me, just try it!  The one exception is Joaquin.  If he's into something he hardly even notices a little baby smiling at him, frantic for his attention.  I'm constantly saying, "Joaquin, smile at your sister, she's smiling at you." At which point he gives her a cheesy photo grimace and returns to his previous task.  Brothers.  Don't worry Eliana, when you're mobile you can go get him.