Enchanted Rock

Maybe not my best idea ever.

Angelina does best when I get her out of the house for a bit in the morning. Then, my previous non-sleeper (she hadn't napped for us in 2 years), is generally ready for a nap of say 2-3 hours (only since Lenaïc was born). Nanny is here visiting, and she always likes hikes. So I figure, why not go to Enchanted Rock? It's only about 1.5 hours from here, and we don't have to hike to the top, can just wander around the bottom. Angelina loves hiking/nature. And we can go to Fredericksburg for lunch and maybe wander a bit there. Then head home at nap time, providing a car ride nap for both kids.

Great idea!

Except, best laid plans and all that....we started the morning opening a gift from a dear friend in CA. Legos. VERY SMALL PIECES and tons of them. Wonderful gift, but Angelina would not budge until we had built at least two of the trucks (dump truck and bulldozer). That, getting kids ready, nursing, getting me ready, nursing some more....we didn't get out of the house til almost 11. So much for the morning hike.

So we started off with lunch in Fredericksburg with a hungry and tired Angelina (i.e. cranky). Survived that. I almost gave up and drove home, given the nap and all, but decided no, we said Enchanted Rock and MUST do it. And it was a gorgeous day.




So off we go. 75 yr old Nanny with a sore foot, 3 yr old wild child, and 6 week old baby in my ergo carrier.






Despite all my efforts, Angelina would NOT be deterred from summiting the Rock. It's not the easiest climb - sheer rock face at some points. Totally walkable, but for a 3 yr old? And a mom with a baby? She kept running up ahead of me, as I was trying to stay slow to make sure Nanny was doing ok. Finally, Nanny called it quits and took a break mid-way. And off goes Angelina, just as it gets steeper. And windier. Did I say she's only 32lbs? The wind was very strong. She was doing fine, I was starting to get scared. I could hike fine, even with baby, but I couldn't chase Angelina and if she fell and slipped down.....





Well, she didn't fall and slip down. She forged on to the top, all the while going on about Enchanted Rock and "I MUST go to the top. I HAVE TO!" We make it, spend five minutes, the wind kicks up so high she has to grab my leg to hold on.





And she says "Mommy! I don't like Enchanted Rock! I want to go down!" Finally. Is it bad I'm glad she finally got scared?

This time, she's willing to hold my hand the whole way, as I gently lead her down a very steep slope...at least it's steep when you have a baby on your chest and a 3 yr old at your side, ready to blow over in the next gust of wind.

We meet back with Nanny, make our way back down to the very bottom. Angelina turns around. "I want to go UP Enchanted Rock."

um, kid, you already did!!! She has a short memory.

As for Lenaïc, he slept in his carrier the whole time. Gotta love the ergo! He woke just as we got to the bottom and nursed. And nursed. ANd nursed some more.

By now it's almost 5pm. We head off. He starts screaming....he's hungry again. We make it to F'burg. Stop, nurse some more while Angelina and Nanny go exploring. Head off. More hunger screams. Make it to the highway (now 6pm). Stop at a gas station/McD's, nurse some more...finally head off at 7pm. more screaming. This time I don't stop and we push on home. Arrive at 8pm, more nursing. Little guy was hungry after all that hiking I guess. So much for making it home by 3pm and heading to Friendly Spot (my original plan), which has it's own little climbing wall....

(I try my best, but taking pictures in the blowing wind, with a baby on your chest and trying to stand still...not so easy)

Be Careful What You Wish For

There was a time when everyone seemed to be worried about Angelina's lack of development. Given her problems at birth, and though she showed no sign of having lost oxygen, the heavy sedation did have its side effects. So when at nearly 18 months she still wasn't walking and talking, it seemed everyone under the sun was concerned.

Well, except 3 people: Papa, Nana (her babysitter), and her doctor. Though the latter did suggest an evaluation by Early Childhood Intervention just for reassurance. Everyone else though, were convinced something was wrong. Random people would wonder at her age "She's not walking YET? She's not talking YET" Nooooo.

And then, at just about 18 months, it all began.

And now? Well, let's just say NOT talking is certainly not a problem. No, this child talks NON-STOP. As I picked her up today and she, as usual, rattled on constantly about something, I asked Nana "Is she like this all day?" "Oh! Gosh!" she said "Angelina NEVER STOPS!" Talking? Oh yeah. She has that down no problem. The question is now, how do we get her to stop, at least once in awhile?

As for walking, she has two speeds: snail and cheetah. She's either moving inch by inch, taking in all the world around her, or she's racing down at lightening speed as we all try to keep up, out of breath.

I can't believe I ever worried about either. One thing is clear, she's Mistress of Her Own Destiny. She will decide what she'll do and when she'll do it - a challenge for us now (which is why she's still not 100% potty-trained), but should serve her well as an adult, provided she learns proper personal controls and all that.....

I shouldn't be surprised. It was pretty clear from birth that she had the stubbornness of a mule (or an Allegrini or a Rohr.....).

For now, she's Hurricane Angelina and we'll figure out how to, um, appreciate our little whirlwind. In the meantime, she makes us laugh and laugh and laugh.

Our Little Hiker

We were a little slow to make use of an REI gift card we got for our baby shower almost two years ago from Ann, Garth, Kyle, and Marisa. Until now we've carried her in the sling, which we still like, but she's getting a bit heavy, which makes hiking difficult. So we FINALLY found a backpack carrier we really liked. We lucked out at REI that day as the Kelty rep was there and could really work with us to get the right one (for Frederic, really, since he's going to do most of the carrying!).



Clearly, she was quite comfortable in it :)


Thanks Tormeons and Peebles families!

Just call her Imelda Marcos

This child has a love affair with shoes. I can't count high enough to count the number of times per day she changes her shoes. Thanks to cousin Olivia (whom I think inherited many shoes from cousins Hannah and Caroline), Angelina has more shoes than she knows what to do with. They don't all fit her,but my attempts at hiding away the larger shoes failed. She found them and insists on wearing them.

And it doesn't just stop there. She tries to change our shoes all day too!

And of course she likes to wear our shoes too, and gets mad when she can't walk in them.

All this from the child who, until about 16 months, refused to have ANYTHING on her feet. She pulled off shoes the minute you put them on and would fight and fuss. Now she pulls them off, but only so she can put on another pait.

Ready to work!

Just give her a hammer and she's ready...



It was yucky out today so we didn't do any work on the house, but Angelina sure wanted to. She found my hat and gloves, put them on and proceeded to strut around the house looking for projects to do. Alas, with the big gloves she couldn't pick anything up and got rather furious about that...

A Mind of Her Own

She's an Independent little thing. I know one day that will be a good thing, but right now, well.....let's just say it's a challenge.


She loves, LOVES being outdoors. These days when we get home she refuses to go inside. She wants to walk around the yard, over and over again. But our yard doesn't have grass, it's dirt and leaves and nails and roofing material and wood and assorted not so safe things. So that means Mommy and Papa are following her around like a hawk hoping she doesn't fall on a nail or pick up something that will hurt her. (Yes, I know, we need to get it picked up, but we've either been away or sick every weekend since we worked on the garage).

Tonight when we were outside she heard the kids next door inside, so she walked over to the fence and babbled on til they came out to say hi.

She Walks!

or make that - RUNS!

Yes, I know she's incredibly 'behind', or at least that's what everyone says. The reality is, according to just about every baby book I've read (and that's a lot), though the average is 12 months, the normal range is 7-18 months. That is, her doctors (and officially me) were not going to worry about her lack of walking until she was 18 months.

Well, on Christmas Eve, at 17 months and 21 days, she took off and we haven't been able to stop her since.


She started pulling up in October/November, by Thanksgiving (16.5 months) she was walking with help. It wasn't til Christmas Eve, probably because she wanted to chase around her cousins, that she really began to go for it on her own. Until recently she was still resorting to scooting if she really wanted to get somewhere fast, bt thanks to her babysitter who wouldn't let her scoot when she showed she could walk, now she just runs. She still wobbles a bit, but now at almost 19 months, she's a real walker!

Mommy can stop worry now.

And today she said "See you later!"



(I can't figure out how to change the orientation of films, sorry)

Starting to walk

Finally, Angelina has decided that if she stands, she can reach more things! So she's loving standing and now trying to walk.

I didn't realize how easy I had it before. Now she's really into everything.

Squirrel Update: we gave the squirrel to a lady who does wildlife rescue. She guessed he was about 6 weeks old and very scared. As much as I was ready to toss him back outside when we found him, I'm glad Fredo insisted we help him.

We gave birth to a Texan: She doesn't want to walk!

Angelina is 15 months now, and she's *just* beginning to pull up and stand. She's fought it for so long. She could do it, just didn't want to. If we tried to stand her, she'd lift up her feet so they didn't touch the ground. We officially have 3 more months before we need to 'worry she's behind.'

I came to the conclusion that she's just a Texan. See, Texans don't believe in walking....even though San Antonio was voted the 'best walking city in Texas.' I think that means walking 20 feet. We live downtown for a reason: we like to walk. It's so great to be able to walk to restaurants, around town, see the sites (unfortunately there aren't a lot of shops, so we have to drive for that). I was describing a location on the Riverwalk recently and was told that was "too far to walk." Um, it's about 5 blocks. Recently I took a work trip and had to insist I didn't need to rent a car, even though my hotel was all of 0.8 miles - in the city - away from the meeting location. We live across from a small church. I haven't seen this for myself yet, but my next door neighbor tells us he's seen our other neighbor, 3 doors down, get in his car on Sunday morning, drive the 100 or so feet to the church parking lot, pull in, and go to church. 100 feet! (if that much!)

So I figured Angelina is just living by her birth right - why walk?!

(Update: we've been encouraging her more lately, as has her babysitter, and though she's not actually walking yet, she's enjoying standing much more and holding our hands as she moves forward. Scooting on her bum is still her prefered mode of transport, but she's getting there)

Our brilliant but lazy daughter

Ok, so "lazy" may not be the right word. Angelina is 9 months today and is not crawling. (btw - that means she's been outside of me as long as she was inside me!) Given her issues at birth, I'm always just a bit nervous about her developmental milestones. She wasn't rolling over until recently, then she just attacked it with a vengeance. She sits up fine,but started a little late (7 months).
She also seemed really skinny, not gaining a lot of weight. She eats solids, but until recently wasn't that interested, and otherwise she's breastfed (and takes minimal by bottle at daycare - she likes it from the tap, apparently).

We had her second appointment with the developmental pediatrician. This is a follow-up from the NICU. I was a little anxious, worried she was delayed in development and also that the nutritionist would push formula (she seemed incredulous last time that she was only nursing). His verdict? She's super smart, she just can't be bothered to crawl. She puts the rings on the stick, she stacks the blocks (or tries to) - things she shouldn't be doing for awhile. She watched him for a minute then did the same. But crawling? She just gets pissed off if we leave her there for too long. He suggested putting a pillow between her and the toy, making her crawl over it. What did she do? After getting annoyed, she shoved the pillow out of the way and scooted on her belly to the toy.

hey, that's my kid, she'll find a way to do it, but don't force her to do something she doesn't want to do!

As for the nutritionist, she wasn't too bad. Angelina's gained a lot of weight in the past couple of weeks, so she's doing fine.