Tupperware Party

A certain little someone is approaching her First Birthday, and Mommy and Papa are planning a big party. We debated having a theme - Dora? Ariel? Cinderella? but at this point she's not really into anything in particular.


So Fredo said "Let's have a Tupperware Party, that's what she likes the best." So don't send her toys, send Tupperware. Or toilet paper rolls (with the paper gone, just the cardboard part), she loves those too. Oh, and empty water bottles.

One year ago today

We were celebrating the impending birth of this little creature we had yet to meet. The gang threw us a Soccer themed shower, as it was amidst the World Cup. We already knew it, but this reminded us of how lucky Angelina is to enter this world with such a wonderful group of friends around.


And I can't believe I was actually that big!

Un bateau and a trip to Toulouse

Alas, only Papa went on the trip while Angelina stayed home with Mommy. Frédéric had yet another meeting in Europe, this time in Toulouse, France. We'd hoped to join him, but it just wasn't feasible, so off he went for 8 days. Not a long time, but long enough for me to wonder how single parents manage. It was hard! Didn't help that I started my new job that week while he was eating foie gras and having wonderful wine all week. But the little munchkin and I managed, and Papa brought home a very cool present. Angelina just loves her new bateau. She never wants to get out of the bathtub now.

So she has something from me afterall!

Since she was born, Angelina has had a sort of 'lazy left eye' - this picture is from November (4 months old) but you can see it clearly. At first we thought it might have something to do with the sedation, but then it persisted. Her whole left side of her body was sort of smushed in utero, as her foot was turned in a bit and her arm and lef veered in (hard to explain). Only just slightly, but obvious to us. All of it improved with time, but we've noticed in the last month or so the left eye still drags. She can open it fully, and once open it's not obvious, it's only when she just starts opening her eyes that you can see it.

I got a new ID picture at work, and was looking at it the other day. What did I notice? The exact same eye! My left eye is also 'lazy'. It opens big and wide, but when I'm tired (or smiling, apparently), it doesn't open fully and lags behind. When I got home I showed the ID card to Fredo and just said "look at this" without saying why. Took him about 1/2 a second and said "That's where she gets it! She has your eye!" 37 years, and I never noticed this. I hope she doesn't get any other of my body parts!

One year ago....

We were frantically working on the bedroom so we'd have one room in the entire house that was a 'safe'zone when this then unknown baby arrived. Given that we planned a homebirth, we needed at least one room in decent shape. It was horrific. Thanks to some great friends (Ann, Garth, Kyle, Marisa), we managed to get the house into some sort of order. It's hard to think it's been nearly a year.



Work on the house has slowed substantially, but that's because a certain little someone occupies our time.

New beginnings for Mommy

Another new start for me. Now that Mommyhood is here (and wifedom too), no more world wanderings for me. I confess I miss traipsing off to tropical jungles, but I happen to like being with the husband and kid too :). A couple of years ago I moved from working on international infectious diseases to those a bit more local, with the local health department. Now I get to broaden my horizons a bit. It's not quite international, but one element is. I've been offered a new opportunity with the state health department, a regional office based here in San Antonio, but covering 29 counties, including a number of border counties. That means I get to do some work
on the US-Mexico border. Not the same as the Thai-Burma border, but it'll do.

Helping mommy file

I'm finally trying to organize. Angelina decided she wanted to help...

Santé!

Angelina has said her first word!

We're teaching our kid well. Her Swiss GranPapa will be proud! Last night as we had dinner, Fredo and I clinked glasses and said "Santé!" Angelina smiled (she likes the sound of the clinking glass and the sound it makes afterwards) and said "Santé!" Then she picked up her sippy cup, hit my glass and said "Santé!"

Then of course she wouldn't stop :) (We do also say it when she sneezes, so it's not all wine related!)

Spoken like a true French-Swiss.

And another new friend

Update: Angelina was rather friendly with Juan, they shared mucus :(. Little Juan had a very slight cold when he was here, so his mom, Nicole, suctioned his nose. She wiped off the suction thingy, and was holding it. Well, she must have put it down because before we realized she even had it, Angelina had picked it up, put it in her mouth and was sucking. Great way to transmit bugs - boogers! Sure enough, about 55 hours later, she had a runny nose and was coughing. :( Fortunately it didn't last long and she's fine now.

Ah, sharing boogers!


Angelina is used to being the 'baby' and the star of the show. She had to share the spotlight this weekend with little Juan Manuel, our friends' 2 month old. Angelina was quite intrigued by little Juan, but not sure he felt the same. She did really well, even though the concept of 'gentle' doesn't mean much to hear yet.

Angelina has a new friend

Although Chakapu isn't so sure....

Our neighbors went away for 2 weeks so we took care of their cat, Perseus. Now, we know Perceus well as this is the cat we brought home from the babysitter, then gave to the neighbors. Percy often goes outside and plays with Chakapu, he even comes in our house. Chakapu normally doesn't care. That was until she had to put up with him overnight. Chakapu was NOT happy. We awoke often to crashes in the night from two cats fighting.

Perceus, however, is excellent with kids. He's used to the two older kids (2 and 5) playing with him. Chakapu, on the other hand, had not been so interested in Angelina. So when Perceus let Angelina "pet" him (more like grab his fur) and was clearly getting lots more attention, Chakapu started coming closer to Angelina and letting Angelina grab her fur. Chakapu still isn't so sure about all this, but Perceus could care less, he was having fun with Angelina.

Our little Beauty Queen

She thinks she's a model. As soon as the camera comes up, she flashes her eyes and smiles.
However she doesn't like hats. No matter what I do, she'll rip them off immediately. This one she actually kept on for a few minutes!

The little stinkypoo

That's my new name for our little stinker. No, not because she stinks, because she's too clever for her own good (or at least ours!).

She's never been a big fan of bottles, and the only one she'd take was the Playtex "drop ins," the kind with the disposable bag. (Actually, it wasn't the bottle but the nipple that mattered). Fast forward 7 months. She takes the bottle fine, but she prefers using it as a weapon.

She grabs the bottom end, aims it around the back of the car (I usually give it to her on the drive home), squeezes the bag and squirts milk all over the back seat! The babysitter said she does that at daycare too, but she aims it around the room. It's a big game to her. She just think it's hysterical.

My kid. She won't crawl, she doesn't *quite* have the pincer grasp down and seems to be lagging a tiny bit on some motor skills. But figure out how to use her bottle to take aim and squirt everyone? Yeah, she can do that.
(not quite squirting here, I couldn't manage to get a picture of her in action)

Let's just hope she doesn't take after mommy and find a contaner of tar.

My First Mother's Day

Thank you Angelina, for giving me a chance to celebrate it! I've waited a very long time for this, maybe not all 37 years but a good chunck of that time. Words can not express how excited I am. Not because we have anything particular planned. We'll do something fun, for sure, but it's not that. And yeah I'm exhausted and worn out and could surely use some 'me' time. But what do I want for Mother's Day? I want to hold my daughter and kiss her to pieces and play silly peek-a-boo games and make funny faces and just love the little creature who is responsible for this day.

I feel like the luckiest person on earth!

Here's a picture from her first few weeks, in her favorite position.

Our first - and hopefully ONLY - trip to the ER

We are still not sure what happened,but Angelina was weilding a large weight, er splint, for a few days. On Tuesday evening I noticed she wasn't using her left hand to eat, which she usually does, but thought nothing of it. She had been cranky all day at daycare, we figured she was teething and just in a bad mood. Then Wednesday evening Fredo noticed she wasn't picking up toys with her left hand. We tried to lift her arm and she screamed. Otherwise she was happy as a clam, but if you opened her clenched fist or moved her arm she let out a piercing scream. The babysitter said she hadn't seen anything happen, and we didn't notice any particular event.

Worried it was broken, we were off to the ER. We know this hospital all too well, and would prefer not to see it again for awhile. I figured since we were out of flu and RSV season, it shouldn't be too crowded. WRONG. It was packed. 4 hours, multiple X-rays and one splint later (and telling the 'story' umpteen times), we still had no clue what was wrong.

The doctor thought it might be Nursemaid's Elbow, but she didn't hear the 'pop' when she tried to manipulate it, just lots of screaming. Of course by then it was nearly 10 pm, so of course she was tired. Still, she was happy as can be when you didn't touch her arm. So they settled on putting it in a splint (her hand was SOOOOO stinky from having been clenching it/sweating for so long) and suggested a follow-up with the pediatrician in 2 days, not after scaring me by suggesting a possible neurological issue (unlikely because she had pain, but the mere mention freaked me out).


Her pedi pooh-poohed the suggestion of anything neurological, and suggested the X-ray procedure, which accompanied a great deal of screaming, actually popped the nursemaid's elbow back into place. So he removed the splint and suggested just watching her. By Friday night she was using her left hand again. She still favours her right, and will leave the left hanging at her side for a bit, but she's back to grabbing toys with both hands.

And she's happy as can be.

(side note: in my work I have to tell hospitals to evaluate their surge capacity in the event of an outbreak of pandemic flu. They need to consider using non medical rooms for treatment, such as conference rooms, offices, and yes, closets. Apparently this hospital has already done that: the room they put us in was very clearly a closet, but it worked!)

Crazy Days in Texas

It was quite the exciting day today. You'll have to check out the link for that. Here's the little munchkin practicing her modeling:

9 month check up (a few weeks late)

17lbs, 14 oz (8108g) - 75%
27.5 inches (70cm)- 50%
43 cm (head circumference) - 25%

So I can stop worrying about Angelina being underfed! Until last month she was on the skinny side. No longer. All that great mommy's milk along with all the good food Papa has been making for her. She got two shots today, but actually screamed more when the nice doctor was just looking in her ears. My kid does not like to be fussed with!

On another note, she has consistently had a small head. I don't get it. If it's so small, why did she have such a hard time coming out of me?!

Whose child is this?

I know she came out of me. I *saw* her come out of me. So what happened to MY genes?



Everyone has said she looks just like Frèdèric, and while I could see some resemblance in the eyes, when I look at him I see a big hairy guy. Not my dainty little girl.




Alas, now I have seen pictures of him as a baby, there is no doubt. Angelina is Frèdèric's "mini me", apart from a few key parts...


Here's Tonton Philippe with Fredo, and the female version....



What scares me is this: does this mean she's going to have my character? If so, I'm in trouble!

Switzerland!

We spent 8 days in Switzerland (well, 10 total, but we had a day of travelling on either end). Following is a play by play. Now we have to make it to CA and OH.

She's a great traveller, although we could have done without the re-routing, or the delay due to the Nor'easter in Newark.

Day 9: A day in Etoy with the Allegrini Clan

After a lazy morning in Yverdon, we spent our last day in Switzerland just hanging out with the family in Etoy. The weather was still gorgeous, so an apero in the garden was the order of the day.









We had a light meal back in Yverdon, but it was so warm inside, Angelina was sweating like crazy so we just took off her clothes. Then she was so much happier!

And then it was back to San Antonio on Sunday. None of us were too happy about that....

Day 8: Adventure Parc avec Le Familie Gloor

Friday the 13th

Friday was our day to spend with Frèdèric’s other goddaughter, Alba, the daughter of one of his childhood friends, Jean-David and Sonia, and sister of Gabriel. Alba is an amazing little 6 year old who can speak French and Spanish fluently. She knows I don’t speak French, but can manage a bit of Spanish so she very kindly speaks to me in Spanish. I think she thinks I know more than I do….

They took us to the Adventure Parc in Signal-de-Bougey. It’s this huge place for kids with a stunning view of Lac Leman. On one end are rope bridges and tree climbing things, which we avoided as the kids are a bit small for that. On the other is an area for the smaller kids with loads of fun things to do.


And for slightly bigger kids -






They also have a farm area with a horse, goats, rabbits, pigs, and likely some others we missed. There was a sow – bigger than I’d ever seen – with her 8 piglets less than a week old. We also saw a goat who’d just given birth, with its tiny baby struggling to get up. The place is enormous, and FREE, a rarity in Switzerland! It was a Friday and packed with kids (Easter holiday). I can’t imagine how many kids are there on the weekends. Oddly there were many American accents to be heard, perhaps due to it proximity to Geneva.

Angelina is usually a bear in the car, but Alba rode with us on the way home, and Angelina laughed the whole time. I asked Alba if she could drive with us everywhere!


We ended the day with raclette and wine at the Gloor home, a great spot overlooking the Orbe River.