Growing up fast

Half a year down, half to go. At this rate, I feel like Elisa is going to be ready for school by fall! She's just learning and doing so much these days--and all of it new. Of course, Nacho and I are also both learning and becoming real, live parents and some days that means trying to figure out how we can enjoy ourselves and not let everything in our life revolve around this little girl (as wonderful as she is).

I think one of the biggest changes in our lives since Elisa's birth has been the fact that we don't get out as much or see some of our friends as much as we'd like to. Living in the city is such a blessing when you consider how immediate everything is--there are people to see and talk to right outside our door, the park is a block away, the grocery store 2 blocks, and some of the country's finest museums and cultural offerings are a mere 30 minutes away. But right now, we are taking our baby steps by learning how to incorporate Elisa into all of that. And she is showing us with each month that the future holds much more in store.

So in the spirit of socializing a bit more, I invited a group of friends over to the apartment last night to hang out and play games. Elisa is quite the night owl so I didn't think it would be a problem to have them over late, and I was right. She got a little over-excited about half way through, but after a quick nap, she was back to the living room for her night cap. Although she wasn't much help with Trivial Pursuit, she did provide some much needed singing and entertainment. As you can see above, she does love attention and knows how to work a camera like nobody's business.

The blah, blah, blahs

If the books are right and the appearance of "personality" seems to begin around this time, we are in for quite an entertainer. Elisa has a killer deadpan expression as we've already discovered last month with her grandma game. And so far this month, she seems to be honing in on the noises we all make talking and imitating them to the hilt. The blah, blah, blahs as I like to call them are pretty funny to watch. She started this one night when I was walking around with her trying to get her to sleep. I'm sure my uncontrollable laughing wasn't helping calm her down and the wicked little grin she gave me was a clue that she got it--she was MAKING me laugh. This only egged her on and I found myself crying and shaking with waves of laughter until I had to bring her out into the living room and show Nacho. She hasn't reproduced the same string of blah, blah, blahs, but this snippet is close. Of course it was early morning and she wasn't in true form but she still steals the show.

Fun and games

Elisa has shown us her love of games time and again. Here she is hiding and smiling and pretending she's nowhere to be found.

My Valentine

Solid ground

In anticipation of nearing the 6 month mark in February, I decided it was time to get better feel for the whole solid food thing. For about a month now, Elisa has taken rice cereal with 2 meals a day and seems to be loving that. Surprisingly, it hasn't been too "binding" to put it gently and there have been no weird sleep problems or tummy issues accompanying this foray into the world of real food. So, while abuela is visiting I thought it would be cool to try some verduras and see which ones Elisa likes best. Luckily my phone-a-mom friend Maggie was on-call while I shopped at Babies-R-Us last week when I got the sudden urge to buy a ton of Gerber Organics. I felt somehow guilty about buying the prepared food when I should have time to steam, puree and freeze things, right? Yet something about the newness of it all seemed a little overwhelming so the $1.27 price tag eased my mind and I started with some foods I thought she would like. To date, we have only tried the squash but the results were positive--this kid is a born eater, as my mom likes to say.

Big blue eyes

As we approach the 6 month mark, one thing seems certain--Elisa's eyes are only getting bluer. The idea that she might have green eyes seemed appealing to me at first. It would be cool to see them change color and for her to take after Nacho. But now that I see they are blue (like mine), I have to admit I like them even more.