Incited by The Short-Sighted

Today, a father questioned whether or not he should quit his 9-5 job to go back to the "easy" life of dealing drugs and taking vacations at will. This incited me to think of my responsibility as a parent and also as a citizen of the world. I feel sorry for a person like this father whose sight is so short. Does he have any expectations of his own child? Is he satisfied raising a career-bartender or worse? Does he at least realize that going back to selling drugs to the public is, at best, just perpetuating the status quo? Am I special because I think my own life and the lives of my children are destined for greatness? I thought everyone felt that way. Does not everyone feel their lives are special?
Every chance I get, I make sure I am not raising bitches, bimbos, douches, snots, assholes, wallflowers, doormats or dummies. I fully believe my daughters have the potential to be powerful, influential, creative, inspiring, philanthropic leaders. To me it goes without saying that all parents must have this same opinion of their own children. But I'm probably wrong.
When I was a kid, my dad used to say I could be president. I never wanted to be the president of anything but hearing him say that and be genuine about it was good for my heart and ego. As far back as I can remember, I have always felt like someone special; I'm meant for something important and some day I'm going to find out what that is.
I feel the same way about my kids. They're going to be great adults. I raise them with this in mind constantly. Kids are not just mindless whippersnappers who like to ruin your day and piss you off. This is just part of a parent's obstacle course. The REAL job is teaching them the concept of respect. I believe this is where it all begins. One way to instill this concept in them is to never make fun of people in front of your children. This is obviously not a priority to some folks, which is evident when you encounter a bully in public. I'd bet $100 the bully's parents are bullies themselves. These parents have no idea what monsters they're creating by disregarding the concept of respect. Disrespecting others in front of your children is one of the worst things you can do to them. If you think this isn't a big deal, you're dead wrong. You are disrespecting your own progeny when you forget to teach them respect and they grow up without the option to be respectful because YOU failed to be a good example. You will give your child no choice but to be an asshole. That is, until someone teaches your child a hard lesson or two.
If nothing else in my life, I hope to raise my children to be great adults. This is my mission.
Thanks for reading.

Had a Birthday, Got a Job...

Grandma, this blog is for you.
I had a birthday in February. About 15 of my friends joined me at the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale for a little rollerskating party. Most of us hadn't been rollerskating in a decade or two; some fell, some fell more than once but ALL seemed to enjoy the evening very much. I would actually like to go rollerskating every weekend if I could. It is good, fun exercise.
For school this semester, I am only taking one class. It's a history class and our term project is to write a 12-15 page paper about a grandparent, including a family tree and images from their time as a child. When I saw this was our major work of the semester, I had a big smile in my heart. I knew exactly who to write about and I think it should be quite rewarding.
I started a part time job a couple of weeks ago. I won't say who I'm working for because I don't want to associate them with my blog at all but I will say I'm enjoying it for the most part. Being on my feet all day and smiling all the time can be exhausting. Who takes care of the kids when I'm gone? My husband, who makes his own hours and organizes himself around my work/school schedule, thank goodness.
I got to go on a kindergarten field trip to China Town last month with my daughter's class. We all took the Metrolink and spent a couple of hours there. I got several cute pictures. This is one of Raquel and her best buddy.
Raquel went to Big Bear with my dad for a 4-day weekend in February. I hear she got homesick the first night but after that she enjoyed herself. We missed her and were glad to have her home. I'm thankful she has grandparents and great-grandparents who adore her and make her life so wonderful. Speaking of, here is Grandma (Raquel and Maxine's great-grandmother)
Little Maxine is about to be 20 months old. We bought her 2 pairs of nice shoes from Stride Rite last weekend and, to my surprise, she is taking to them quite well (for a chronic tip-toer). She used to hate shoes. Now, she seems to like them. It is a big relief to me to see her take this next step.
Maxine picked up a fork at a restaurant and taught herself how to use it. Nobody helped her or told her what to do--she just took it and ran with it, so to speak. She is looking so grown-up and talking all the time. She mimics us, even counts and says the alphabet but of course it's in her own dialect and isn't exactly correct.
I'm going to end this post now. Whatever I've forgotten will be included in an upcoming post. Maybe I'll do an all-pictures post.

It's Been So Long!

Gosh, I haven't blobbed in a while! I have so much to say but will limit it to the most interesting/pertinent items.

We have just been informed that Raquel will be receiving a "special award" on October 30th at her school's awards assembly. I am so anxious to know what it is! We are not supposed to tell her about it. She's going to be so surprised! I cannot wait to attend my very first awards assembly as a parent and my own kid is getting an award! I'll be showing off her pictures this weekend.

Also this Friday is Raquel's school's Halloween Parade. The children and their parents will actually be walking the block around the school, in costume, and then returning to their classrooms for Halloween snacks and treats. The problem is the children are not allowed to wear their costumes to school--rather the parents have to show up a half an hour before the parade to get the kids gussied up in their respective classrooms. I can imagine how chaotic this will be! I'm not sure how I'm going to get Raquel ready while Maxine runs around the classroom. So, this Friday I have the awards assembly at 10:20am and then I have to show up again at 12:30 to do Raquel's costume. A busy exciting day!

Maxine is growing up in leaps and bounds. She signs the word "Eat" when she wants to eat, though she can verbally say the word, too. Other words she can verbalize are "hi", "Dada", "baba" (bottle), "sissy" (sister), "soss" (socks), "hat", "eyes", "bubble", "tickle" and she also says a very enthusiastic, "Ooooooh!" when she sees something interesting, like yummy food or a bird in the sky. She is extremely sweet and affectionate. Her favorite activity is putting random objects into drawers and into the bathtub. We finally have her drinking whole cow's milk now that her little tummy is ready for it. She enjoys getting her teeth brushed and actually has her first molars now. Hind sight being 20/20, I think the reason she was waking up at 3am last month almost every night was probably because of those big molars cutting through her gums. She now sleeps through the night every night. Also, she hasn't gotten car sick since we stopped using a formula called "Nedo", and she actually behaves pretty well when we have to drive around running errands. She still hates shopping, primping and waiting for anything.

I'm doing well at the half-way point of my college semester. I got an A on the one midterm I had and in my other class I have gotten all As on the writing assignments except for one B. I am really enjoying my Art History class but glad to be moving on from Renaissance art to more interesting art (in my opinion). There are over 100 students in that class!

Last weekend Raquel and I did volunteer work at her schools' Beautification Day. The PTA provided coffee and breakfast treats and we picked up trash, raked leaves, dug up sod, transplanted dirt, all kinds of sweaty dirty work. I was the only one there with a camera, which I had brought to document our work for a presentation I have to do at the end of this semester. The lady in charge was really glad to have me to take pictures of everything--I felt really useful. I will be emailing them the best photos. They have since recruited me to serve hotdogs and popcorn at the upcoming "Movie Night" at the school.

Jose works nonstop, just about. I hardly ever see him. I miss him. I also miss being able to leave the girls at home with him while I run errands.

The end!

Maxine's New *Trick*

Look what our baby girl did tonight {click me}

<--She gets tired after walking practice.

Our Baby at 12 Months

12 months is such an exciting age. Maxine does something new everyday. And she is so sweet. Here is an update on what she is like now.

She still takes two regular naps a day, usually 2 hours at a time. Her bedtime lately has been 10pm and she wakes up at 8am. Sometimes she wakes up at about 3am and cries but more often than not she will go back to sleep without us having to do anything. Raquel sleeps through everything!

Maxine is a fantastic little eater. She eats everything I put on her tray. Grandma Emma had given us a bunch of tomatoes from her garden and Maxine LOVED them, I mean, she kept shoveling them into her mouth this one time and that night, she vomitted in her crib--we think she probably had too many 'maters. I can't help but compare my two kids--When Raquel was this age she scared me because it looked like she wasn't eating anything. That worried me so much!

Maxine is showing a sudden interest in walking. This is big news. She has been so happy crawling for so long now. For some reason she loves to be up on her tip-toes--I think she's going to have to learn how to flatten her feet before she can walk unassisted. It's funny though because I see her up on the balls of her feet constantly and it makes me think she was made to wear high heels.

We still have Maxine on formula instead of Cow's milk. Her stomach is sensitive and the cow's milk was making her get car sick. Poor thing: both of her parents were car sick kiddos long ago and now we've passed it onto her.

As you know, she LOVES to dance!

A couple of days ago, Maxine and I were playing quietly in my room when suddenly she pointed to my eyeball and said, "Eye" clear as day. It really took me by surprise. This is not a body part we have practiced very often, like tummy and teeth. So for the past two days now we have been having fun saying "Eye" and pointing to eyes.

Maxine adores Raquel. And Raquel knows exactly how to make her baby sister crack up. When Maxine cracks up, we all crack up. She has such a funky laugh! It's definitely not a dainty or pretty laugh!

If you saw Jose playing with Maxine you might be frightened for her. He plays kinda rough and talks in a gruff voice with her, but guess what--she digs it. She is all smiles and giggles with Daddy. When I hear him drive into our driveway, I say, "Daddy's home!" and she stops what she's doing to look out a window or go towards the front door.

I have probably forgotten to mention something but the stuff I've told you is pretty cool, right?

Oh by the way, in the picture up top she had just eaten her dinner of teriyaki brocolli and chicken and I gave her a whole strawberry to try for the first time (they say a baby has to be 12 months old before they can have strawberries). At first she looked at it and didn't know if it was food or not. Then she sunk her teeth into and I think the juice she tasted surprised her, that's what she's doing in the second picture. She ended up loving it and ate the whole thing.

The end.

Backpacks Are Unfashionable

I just don’t want to look like a turtle, OK? But after my first three days of school, carrying a folder, a dictionary, a big text book, a notebook, a journal, a sweater and my purse, and walking to and from my car parked at least 4 blocks away from campus (on purpose for exercise) I went and bought myself a bag (not a backpack) I found on clearance at Target. I can’t wait to see how it feels to walk all that way and have fairly free arms and hands.

School is fun, so far. I’m just taking an English class right now for that’s all that was left by the time I registered. It is transferrable to any university, not a prerequisite or a just-for-fun course, so that makes it feel even more worthwhile. I have to admit, I am surprised at how remedial the work has been these first three days. Yes, we have had homework every night and we also do writing assignments in class daily but it’s all easy stuff, like a high school class—“Ok, partner up with someone and answer the questions on page 248” (ugh, I’m not a fan of partnering up in class), or “Who would like to read the next paragraph?”. We answer tons of true-or-false and multiple choice questions, as if the teacher only wants to know that we’re reading the passages she assigns. Just like high school. The class is only five quick weeks long and I can’t help but wonder if and when it’s going to get challenging. Maybe this is exactly what I need to ease myself back into studentry.

(that's the Pasadena Public Library)
Since when does it cost $14 for a paperback novel? It seems like yesterday I paid about $4.95. Those days are over. Well, I’m not paying that much for a paperback. Thanks for my new library card, Pasadena! By the way, this library reminds me of the one in Ghostbusters! I want to start spending more (alone) time there. Raquel is spending the week at her great-grandparent’s house. I dropped her off on Monday. We had a nice visit before I left and I also brought home a giant zucchini from their lovely garden. It's as big as a newborn baby human... Maxine is such a sweet thing. She does a lot of dancing now—twisting, bouncing and bobbing her head. She has a favorite commercial, too. It’s an El Pollo Loco ad about their chicken sliders (I think). Maxine suddenly is afraid of some things: the face of James in the Thomas and Friends series and also the little Collie statue next to Grandma Emma’s piano at her house (see picture above). She laughs and shouts funny things all the time but she has not yet said a real word. She enjoys feeding herself and wants nothing to do with baby food but I actually enjoy being able to give her pieces of what I’m eating now that her digestive system is ready for it. Oh, a funny thing: if your feet are in her reach, she lays on them, like she’s snuggling or kissing them. I think it’s because we have always kissed her feet ever since she was born. She’s returning the love. Jose is still looking for work but I’m confident he will find something soon. He knows a lot of people, people who can help him find what he’s looking for. We’re living on our last bit of cash but I have to say it’s been nice having him home since his restaurant closed down last week. He’s very supportive of me going to school and I am grateful for that support.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Sudden Improvement!

Yesterday I made something that required egg whites which left me with a couple of homeless yolks. So, remembering that egg yolks are something a baby Maxine's age can try to eat, I made her scrambled yolks with a tiny bit of salt, pepper and chili powder. I tasted first. They were notably delicious. She tried them. She liked them. And she did not choke on them. So I put several tiny pieces on her tray and let her feed herself. She did this successfully for about 20 minutes while I finished what I was baking. I was thrilled. She really liked egg yolks!

So, suddenly I have hope that Maxine is going to get pretty good at eating semi-solid foods. Something I can't quite control yet is the way she feeds herself a bottle. Her new game is this: I hand her a bottle, she sips it for about a minute, then she pulls it out of her mouth, turns it upside down and bounces it on her tray, like a bingo marker, getting milk all over the tray and her clothes. I tell her not to do it, she giggles. I give her another chance, she does it again. I put the bottle away and say, "All done baba." She giggles and goes on with her life. It seems she only drinks a bottle when she's really super hungry or wants comfort from falling and bumping her head (but she only gets a post-injury bottle if I know it's been a while since she's had one. The typical post-injury comfort is lots of snuggles). I know this is the age to introduce a sippy cup but I tried that when she turned 9 months and she was obviously not ready for it. Now that she is 10 months+ I could introduce it again but I see how she plays with her bottles now and I don't think I should. I don't know.

Raquel was with me in the kitchen for a while yesterday while Maxine ate her egg yolks. She was helping me make cookies. I think she looks very mature here in this picture, scraping ingredients off the mixer attachment...

Maxine: 10 Months + 1 Week

I cannot believe Maxine is going to turn 1 year old next month. I'm so thankful she has been healthy and normal all this time. Besides her bout with teething at the age of 5 months, she has been very pleasant and easily entertained. It is usually pretty easy to put her to bed, although lately when I put her in bed she gets right up and stands holding onto the crib rail, jumping and talking it up. Then she eventually gets tired, whines a little bit (I listen from another room) and falls asleep. When I'm sure she's sound asleep, I quietly enter her room and cover her up with her blankets.

Her Uncle James is hardly ever around but just last Saturday he came over and played with Maxine for a while and we both heard her say her first word: "Ooh-ka". I must explain... When Raquel was a toddler, she used to call James "Ooh-ka James" as she could not pronounce the word "Uncle". We all started calling him "Ooh-ka" on a regular basis. Now, when he comes over, I tell Maxine, "Look, it's Ooh-ka!". So, last weekend, I said this to her and she said, "n-KA!" James said, "Did you hear that?!" So we tested her by repeating "Ooh-ka" and she'd respond each time with, "n-KA!" It was so funny! But the thing is, now she's saying, "Ka!" all the time when she tries to say something. I think she liked the excited response she got from us when we thought she was trying to say James' nickname and now she just uses "Ka!" for almost everything. It's still something. Now that I know she can recognize certain words and sounds, I am always annunciating key words, like, "bath", "daddy" and, "night-night" in hopes she will try to copy me.

Maxine seems to have a sensitive gag reflex and still cannot eat solid food, not even semi-solid food, like a tiny piece of bread, without gagging or choking a little. At this age, Raquel was already picking up half-pieces of Cheerios and feeding them to herself without a problem. Maxine does do the pincer grasp and is able to pick up very tiny objects but she's definitely not ready for the responsibility of feeding herself with her fingers. So Maxine and I just practice a little everyday with semi-solid food. She has 6 teeth and does chew with them--I really don't know why she so often gags/chokes. It makes me think of when she was a newborn and scared me so often by choking while breastfeeding or bottle feeding. Makes me wonder...

Maxine Refuses the Spoon

Thank goodness I looked this up; I feel so much better...

At this stage, your baby may not have a big interest in eating. (click for the article)

Maxine is crawling everywhere and also pulling up onto furniture, the latter being still a challenge for her. Ever since these knew abilities showed up a couple weeks ago she has only wanted bottles, no veggies, fruit or cereal. This had me worried. You always think you're doing something wrong and not only do you worry about your kid but also what your doctor is gonna think of your parenting skills. I'm relieved to know this refusal to eat is totally normal!

In the above photo, Maxine is enjoying her new favorite activity: pulverizing an organic teething biscuit. This is exciting for her but the end result is a huge, crusty mess. She never eats the whole thing. It kinda looks like a well-used salt lick when she's had her fill. Her highchair requires vacuuming, too.

Since she is not interested in being spoon-fed at the moment, I'm going to let her try some finger foods: soft-cooked noodles, egg yolk omellette with mashed veggies mixed in, fish. She has four teeth now, all the better to eat with!

Maxine is Mobile/Jenny's Baby Shower

(I bought that walker for her for $8 at a yard sale a couple weeks ago)

She started crawling fluently this week. There is a big difference between dragging yourself with your arms (mopping the floor with your belly) and actually moving palm-knee-palm-knee (belly completely off the floor). She goes where she hears voices. She goes where she's never been. She is very curious about the laundry room and 1/2 bath towards the back of the house but she seems to know she's not allowed over there.

Also, on Monday, I walked into the living room and was startled by Maxine doing this:

She pulled up onto that coffee table to reach a toy she spied. She got it. This marks her first time pulling up onto furniture. After five minutes in this position she cried because she realized she couldn't get herself back down to the floor! This means we have to take the crib apart and lower the mattress. Why they make it such a hassle, I don't know. But she pulled up holding onto the crib rail this afternoon so it must be done. Last weekend, the girls and I attended Cousin Jenny's baby shower in Grandma Emma's backyard (my favorite backyard in the world). I brought Maxine's walker in case my arms needed relief but as soon as I put her in it she threw a fit. Grandma came and picked her up and she stopped crying. She stayed on Grandma's lap for a long time, talking, grabbing buttons and beads, nibbling her little shoes and being plain adorable. The affair was catered by Brent's Deli which is WAY better than Subway--not even comparable. So I ate lunch while Maxine played with Grandma and then we switched. Later, Maxine also spent a lot of time on Grandpa's lap, equally at peace and equally playful and adorable. She already knows and likes her great-grandparents, huh?! Raquel at this age was the opposite--she couldn't stand Grandma. It brought a lot of joy to Grandma that Maxine was so happy on her lap.

Here's Max trying out the grass in the front yard. She tried to eat it.

Cousin Mary made Rainbow Sherbet Punch that was so pretty! I didn't try it but Maxine did, hehe! Grandma was giving it to her and she liked it so much she tried to pull the cup to her mouth for more! She didn't get a sugar high or a tummy ache, just so you know.

Raquel socialized with everyone and played all the shower games. Grandpa gave her a mini agriculture lesson in the vineyard. I took several shots of this. I don't want Raquel to forget these things.

Sorry, Mom!

My mom just emailed to say she misses my blog updates and pictures of her grandbabies. I do, too! Issues with my camera must wait, though. Other priorities are higher on the list. I will now tell you what I've been doing all week.
I had a wake up call this week. Realizing that living here is too expensive for us and wondering how to get us out of this situation, a light flicked on in my head: Sarah should get a good job in a town with lower rents. So I searched CA.gov for jobs with the state. There are many. Soon, I noticed I am missing only one qualification: a college degree. Many of the jobs require either a degree OR a few years experience in a specific field. I need to go back to school! I thought. My next idea was that I should study something that is in demand and has the potential for growth and of course, something interesting.
So next I researched "best careers" and then narrowed that down to "best careers to get with an Associate's Degree" and I looked at a few on the list. In California, Skincare Specialists are number one on the list, which projects growth of 60% in the next 8 years. That didn't interest me, though.
A few numbers down I saw, Environmental Engineering Technician. I know "Technician" is one of those terms that sounds fancy but it really isn't, just like "Administrative Assistant". I found out what kind of work an EET does. It's kinda vague but I get it. This is something I am interested in and I know I can do it. Investing two years or less at a community college to get into this career seems pretty fair.
Then I found this school: Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, Ca. No other community college I've seen so far in California has such an attractive-looking program in Environmental Science. Check this out. I feel strongly that this is where I'm meant to go.
If I'm broke, how am I going to pay for school? My grandma said she's help me pay for it. She has made a lot of things possible for me in my life. I'm grateful for my grandparents and the great relationship I have with them.
Of course, both Jose and I are going to have to get regular old jobs up there in the meantime, which is what he does now, anyways. He does real estate, too, but that isn't producing any income for us at all.
Oh! Also, the college offers childcare for around $100 per month! I would just have to enroll in some little parenting class and volunteer 1.5 hrs a week in the childcare facility on campus. That is wonderful!
Can you tell I'm a little excited and maybe even hopeful?

Maxine's New Skills

I ruined my camera's memory card and have no new pictures to show off. But Maxine is making a lot of progress and I thought I'd share her new "skills".
Maxine has started to realize that just because something disappears from her view doesn't mean it isn't there. If you stand in her way of the thing she's trying to see she'll crane her neck to look around you. It is pretty cute.
She is such a good eater! She still loves the homemade baby food, sweet potatoes being at the top of her list. When Raquel was this age (almost 8 months) I don't think she had a big appetite but then I was feeding her Gerber, not tasty, homemade, unwatered-down food.
Maxine is still not really crawling but she does get around the living room quite well by a mixture of dragging/pulling and crawling. She can also balance her body on one side with one arm in the air and one on the ground to steady herself--this is the precursor to sitting up on her own with the next move in the sequence being using that arm on the ground to push herself up to sit.
She is ultra sensitive in two ways. 1) Music makes her want to bob and bounce, whether she hears it on tv or one of us singing to her. When I sing to her she stares at me like I'm an angel or something. Her favorite song, the first song I ever sang to her inside OR outside the womb, is My Bunny Lies Over the Ocean. 2) She LOVES a good back massage. Her eyes will roll back in her head when you massage her back. I'm guessing her little muscles get sore from learning to crawl. She also responds similarly to light touches on her legs, arms and face. At the mall yesterday, she fell asleep sitting on my lap while I ran my fingers up and down her left leg. I couldn't see her face but her head slowly fell forward and Jose looked and saw she was falling asleep. So cute!
Her favorite tv show is Blue's Clues. It really gets her attention.
She can say "dadadadada", "tss", "babababa" and "ah-ba" but I don't think she's actually trying to speak english yet.
When I'm trying to comb her hair, she tilts her head all the way back to see what I'm doing. So I usually give her something to play with while I do this.
Sometimes she puts her hand in the way when I'm changing her diaper. So I also give her something to occupy her hands when I do this.
She likes to scratch everything, even her own tummy. I am teaching her the meaning of "soft" by placing her hand on my face and saying "soft" while running her hand down my cheek softly.
When I'm feeding her she thinks its fun to spray food out of her mouth by making a "tss" sound after I put food in there. So, she is now learning the meaning of the word, "NO", hahaha. When I say "NO" I have to make sure my face has a certain serious expression, otherwise she thinks I'm being funny and she'll just laugh. :)
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Schoolio!

I know Raquel is smart but she still manages to impress me with new skills. Her teacher was the first one to introduce her to the concept of lowercase letters. Raquel had only known capitals and only knew how to write her name in all caps. Teacher wanted us to practice with her at home so we have been doing that. She has improved so much in just a few days. The picture above and to the left is her first attempt. And a couple of days later she did this. I wrote her name up at the top so she could go by my example. I put a silver star next to the one she did the best.

I have been getting a lot of compliments from teachers at the school on how I make Raquel's lunch. Last night I tried something new: a thin egg omelette wrapped around a small rice ball that I had dipped in light soy sauce. I tied it with nori. It was not easy to tie and didn't look as pretty as the picture in the recipe on Justbento.com but everyone asked me about it today--it surprised them that it really wasn't as fancy as it looks--it was basic foods, nothing Martha-Stewart-y. Raquel ate one but not the other so I'm not sure she liked it.

And here are some portraits I took of the girls over the weekend that I think will make you smile.

That last one reminds me of chimps! Thanks for reading.

Teency Weency Turlets!

We woke up extra early today to take Raquel to her first day of pre-school. I was more nervous than her for sure. She was just plain excited, kinda like a bull in the pen right before they open the gate and he busts out and starts bucking like crazy.I had spoken to the teacher yesterday about what to expect today. She said that a lot of kids cry when their parents drop them off the first time. I told her I was pretty sure Raquel would run away from us when we got there because she is so excited to go to school. Turns out I was spot on. Right when we got there, Raquel flocked to the other kids and the assistant teacher and immediately began participating in classroom activites while Jose and I sat down with the teacher to talk about everything. I watched her from where I was sitting (in one of those tiny chairs) and marveled at how she looked like she'd been there forever. The teacher invited me to inspect the in-class bathroom. Everything was tiny! I got a real kick out of that.My sis in law works in the office at the school. She escorted us to the classroom and said she, too, was nervous and excited! She stayed with us and took several pictures which I am SO thankful for as I wasn't sure I was allowed to photograph anything. She got some great shots.When Jose and I were done with the teacher, we tried to say goodbye to Raquel but she only barely turned her head to say, "Bye!" really fast, couldn't care less that we were even there! I'm SO glad she wasn't like me when my mom dropped me off the first day of school. I was hysterical to say the least.

Here she is about to leave for school, carrying her breakfast to eat in the car. It's an 18-minute drive to school. From tomorrow-on her grandma and aunt Rosy will be driving her to school (since Rosy works at the same school) and I will pick her up.

Here is Aunt Rosy escorting Raquel to her class.Assistant teacher introducing Raquel to her classmates.Jose and I talking with the teacher.Sitting in the front row.When I picked her up after school, Raquel didn't have much to say except that she did not get to play on the computer in class and she didn't remember her teacher's name or what she learned today. She was pretty quiet on the drive home. I guess she had a big day and needs time to think about it.

Maxine's Montage

This is a video I made for Jose. He really likes John Lennon and he gets really sentimental about being a dad. Hopefully this double whammy will bring a little tear to his eye. I also posted it up on youtube where all my other videos are available, http://www.youtube.com/user/pepeYjuana

Almost Crawling

Before Maxine's six-month physical exam last week, I was worried there might be something wrong with her, developmentally, because she wasn't sitting on her own or trying to crawl. All the baby literature I have was telling me she should be doing these things, or at least the sitting part. Our doctor said she's totally fine. And even though it doesn't matter how fast Raquel was at most things, it is normal for us as parents to compare the girls to each other.

The pre-cursor to crawling is usually the "Bucking Bronco". A baby will get on all fours and just bounce without going anywhere, so I've read. Turns out this is true for Maxine. When she got her energy back after being sick she started doing the Bucking Bronco. I was happy to see this and it was so cute to watch!

This morning she looks like she's starting to crawl! This is happening quicker than I thought it would. She starts by putting her palms on the floor with her fingers kinda pointing in towards each hand. This is a brand new development, as before she would only make fists. Then she pulls her body forward with her arms, bends one of her legs and tries to get on her knee, trying to lift herself and move. I'm sitting here watching her do this and cheering her on! I'm so glad my baby has muscles!

Speaking of comparing the girls, Raquel had the strength to crawl but chose not to at this age. I have a picture of her doing the Spider pose at 6 months old but she did not use this as her form of transportation. Instead, she would get herself to a piece of furniture, pull up and cruise (standing up and walking while holding onto furniture). She didn't choose to crawl until shortly before she started to walk. I think she didn't like the feeling of carpet or hard floors on her knees.
When Raquel was still a baby, Jose and I used to hypothesize about our next child. We have always said, "Our next kid is going to have to work hard at things while Raquel will be a natural at everything without much effort." We mean in life, not just in babyhood.

Maxine's Second Tooth

Just before Jose left for work, Maxine fell asleep in my arms to the tune of The Macarena, her new favorite melody (and rhythmic bouncing) that makes her fall asleep. She had her mouth wide open and I saw her teeth. Jose took this picture so we could show everyone. I have read that teeth usually come in fours and I should expect the top two in the next couple months.

She also had her 6-month exam today but did not get her shots because of the fevers she's been having. She will get them next week. She weighed 14.8lbs today, surely due to her lack of appetite from being so sick. The doctor wasn't concerned with her cold but did give us a prescription for eye drops.

*****

Raquel won some money in the football pool for Super Bowl Sunday so on Monday I took her shopping for clothes and a new pair of shoes. We spent $20 on clothes, which included a new jacket, a denim dress and several tops from the Salvation Army Thrift Store on Del Mar in Pasadena. Then we went to Payless and she got some new pink and white velcro tennies. The shoes with laces were a lot cuter but I like her to be able to put shoes on by herself and she can't tie laces yet. I was surprised that the 9.5 size fit her already, as at Christmas time she was still an 8.5!

Thanks for reading. And pray for lots of rain so we don't have to turn on the expensive sprinklers!