Dancing Miguelito

Michael and I got to play hooky from daycare and work today. After he woke up from his morning nap, he stood up in his crib and seemed so happy. So I turned on his mobile (which we rarely use now) to see if he'd like to see it up close and if he'd dance to it. He dances all the time now -- to music on the tv or even if we just sing, whistle or clap for him.

This might be my favorite video yet: Miguelito Dancing

You'll see in the video that he waves now. He also likes to clap, and he can keep a beat fairly well.


Children's Museum



Thanksgiving



Mami preparing foods while Miguelito supervises



He never gets tired of water bottles



He can feed himself cereal O's now. He even fed me some today! How nice of him.



As well as teething biscuits

Halloween

It's been a month since our last blog. Our boy has definitely been growing up. He's crawling on his knees now instead of on his belly. He's gone through a couple spurts of teething when he's fussy all the time and didn't want to eat anything besides having his milk. We tried tylenol, orajel and teething tablets with minimal or short-lived success. We even bought a mesh feeding where he would theoretically bite into a mesh filled with bananas and it would feel good on his gums, but he didn't take to it at all. But lately he's been doing great.

He's tried some new foods including asparagus, white potatoes, mango, sweet potatoes, avocado, peaches and egg yolk. Amada has made most of them at home, blending up large portions of fresh fruit and vegetables and freezing them as ice cubes, but I did hard boil the eggs (I know; very hard-working father here).

Amada spent all day with Miguelito on her birthday, and here are some pictures from the park and our yard:





We also went to NASA this past weekend (in his Halloween costume -- see more pics below):



An active participant at ULA. Check out his poker face. He's staring someone down.



He loves water bottles and any plastic. Combine the two and see how giddy he is.



A picture of his 6-month pictures.



He still loves his hats!



Out for a stroll in the jogging stroller with Mommy. I can't believe this pose. Could he be any more relaxed?



Halloween pics! He got to wear his costume three different times so we feel he got its money's worth. I'm not sure he scared anybody, but he sure was cute.






Here are some video links:

Flying Scarecrow

Room Organization

Swinging

We'll get up some other videos soon of him getting closer to walking and playing some games.

Highs and Lows

Recent highs:

Videos of Laughing with Gigi and Talking Up A Storm.

Other fun times:

Receiving Gigi's hand-made baby stitching


Playing with grandparents




First cold day of the year


Having too much fun at dinner time



And one low of having his first fever (taken under his arm)


24 hours later and his most recent temperature is back to normal. Hopefully it stays that way! I got to stay home with him all day, but a fussy baby isn't the easiest thing.

Miguelito Takes Requests

A friend requested a video of Miguelito crawling, so here it is! (2:32) He still pulls himself around with his arms instead of getting up on his knees, but I'm trying to teach him the other way this week. We'll see how that works.


Supporting himself two weeks ago:



His first parade:



Brushing his teeth:



He loves to crawl over things, and often goes on the coffee table bottom:

From crawling to pulling up

Miguelito is trying all of his new "solid" foods and he had been doing fantastic UNTIL we introduced the green veggie...Green Beans! He made the funniest faces but was a trooper through it all and would still open his little mouth to eat them even while making "sour" expressions and shaking his head, haha. He got better by the 4th day of eating them :)
On September 10th, while taking his bath, Miguelito decided to just pull himself up and stand in his tub. Charles and I could not believe what had just happened. He's been doing it ever since wherever he can and we tried getting a video of it but he did not perform for us once the camera was on. We'll try soon and send it so everyone can see his skills. He's a strong little boy...taking after his daddy :)
P.S. He now has three baby teeth (2 bottom, 1 top-yesterday)

Daycare and Crawling

Miguelito started going to daycare last week. He seems to have a really good time there and the "teachers" love him, but it wasn't easy on us. At least we can watch him via 2 web cams while he's there, and they're pretty good about keeping his same eating and sleeping schedules. But they do change his diaper about 3x as often as we do. Lookout diaper bill! He likes to watch all of the other kids crawling and walking around him.





And just two days after starting daycare, he began crawling! He's not fully on all fours quite yet, but he sure can get from point A to B quickly when he wants to. We try to entice him to crawl with his toys, but the things that really make him go: laptop wires, papers laying around, any sort of plastic and tv items. Check out the video of his first day crawling.

Here's another picture of him enjoying his food.


A fun day at home:


Finally, a video of him laughing while eating.

Solids, Here I Come!!

For the very first time, Miguelito ate solid food. He devoured some Rice Cereal yesterday at around 7:00 p.m. He was definitely ready for more than just liquid. The first day I put a little bit too much milk, so today (2nd day) I put a little less and it was the right consistency. He still ate it up no matter what. Watch for yourselves as he even tries to eat the food from his bib!

Also, here's just a cute little video of Miguelito playing and laughing.

Busy Baby Boy

Miguelito has been up to a lot this past Summer and I'm way overdue on the updates.

It starts off with having family over and going to the Houston Zoo. Our nephew, Alfonsito, had been wanting to go to the zoo so when they had a chance to come, they did and he enjoyed it very much. The only thing was that it was way too hot and so we went through every shade possible. Even in the end, we sneaked into the nice air conditioned gift shop while waiting on everyone else to catch up to us :)

In July, Miguelito's Godmother, Karen, came for a visit with his cousins, Molly and Nathan. We all went to the Children's Museum and had fun with the water and up in the Toddler room. Miguelito had fun playing with his cousins and grandparents.



Later that week, we drove to New Orleans to celebrate his great grandmother's, Grandma Pilié's, 90th Birthday.

Recently, Miguelito started drinking water from a straw!! It was so cute. Since he likes drinking water from my glass, I decided I would get him his own cup and he drank from it right away. He moves around like no other and he's even trying to get things that aren't for him like cords from the laptop, and things on the bottom of the coffee table. I can't believe we already have to start baby proofing the house.


Abby, Thomas and Janelle's doggy, came over and Miguelito got some big wet kisses from her and a huge sneeze on his face! Both times he just looked stunned but did not cry or fuss.
Soon he will be going to Daycare (Monday, August 16th) :(
We'll see how he does and how I'll do without my precious baby boy.

Lost in Translation

I just want to let everyone know what I am saying on the videos when I'm talking to Miguelito :)

I am trying really hard to only speak to him in Spanish so that he will be able to be bilingual. In my culture, when we speak to babies, we call them "mamas" (baby girls) and "papas" (baby boys) as terms of endearment for some reason. I don't really know why but that's what I know and what I always heard and so now I do it and it just comes out naturally.

So when you hear "papa", "papito", "papitos", or "papis", I am not saying "puppies" or "puppy dog" like it may sound if you're not used to hearing those particular words in Spanish.

If you have any questions on any other terms or words I say that you want clarified just post a comment on the blog or e-mail me and I'll be happy to translate.

My Daddy's An Ironman

I just came back from my first family vacation, and I had so much fun! My Mommy and Daddy took me to Idaho (wherever that is). Gigi and Grampa came too as well as Aunt Karen and Uncle Jeff. My Daddy raced in the Coeur d'Alene Ironman and he did so well!! He said that the bike hills were tough and that he walked a lot on the run, but he looked great every time we saw him. We were out there cheering for him the entire 13 hours! Everybody took turns caring for me and I couldn't go to sleep at my usual time because of all of the excitement; plus I wanted to see Daddy finish. I wore a special shirt because I was so proud of him, and the rest of my family also wore shirts to support him -- I think it really helped him through the tough spots.



Getting ready for the race was fun too. We made signs for the race and I gave my first interview. Whatever I said, everybody was sure eating it up! And that mic tasted really good too.



Here are some pictures from some short training done two days before the race. I wanted to join in the fun, but the water was too cold for my liking. Where I come from, it's always nice and warm.



I also rolled from my back to my tummy for the first time in CDA. When my Mommy saw me on my tummy at 4am the first morning she got really worried and ran over to me as quick as possible and picked me up. I was just fine though. And now that I've learned this trick, I do it all the time!

After five nights in that beautiful city, we traveled to Vancouver. I had my very own passport. You should see the picture sometime; even though it was taken when I was just weeks old, the document is good until my 5th birthday which seems so far away. We stayed at a nice B&B and I slept in a tent each night next to my parents' bed. I love camping already!

Vancouver was great and I enjoyed the weather. I finally got to wear the jacket again that I first wore on the way home from the hospital.



We experienced Canada Day on July 1st which seemed like a tame Mardi Gras celebration (so I hear from my parents' stories). My Uncle Jeff was being silly the entire time, and he sure made me laugh at this ice cream parlor. We took a dinner cruise for my first boat ride ever, but my dinner was the same as always... they didn't let me try the salmon. We visited a few wineries and we saw some beautiful gardens, but I slept the entire time for that tour. The 2-hour time zone difference and all of the traveling was tough on my schedule so I was happy to nap when I got the chance.

After 3 nights in Canada, we drove back to the US and spent one night in Seattle. It was drizzling so I had on a hooded jacket and was wrapped in a cozy blanket. We saw the Pike Place Market just before it closed. I got to see one fish get thrown and hear some live music. The fish throw happened too quick for any pictures, but here's a little video of the folksy music.

We flew back to Houston the next day and I was really happy to be home again. Vacations are a lot of fun, but I needed some rest! Everybody was impressed I did so well with all of the traveling, and after one flight leg a woman stood up in the row in front of me and was amazed that a baby was behind her for the entire flight. She had no idea. And I got to play frisbee on a road trip stop too... so many firsts! I do miss being cared for by so many people and being held all of the time, but I'm glad that I'm getting to play with my toys again. I can't wait to do it all again!



And here's just a few other pictures I'd like to share from the trip. My extended family took such great care of me!! I hope I didn't stress out my Godmother -- see my Aunt Karen meditating below.




Much love,
Miguelito