My little mermaid

We just returned from a great end-0f-summer trip to the beach at Emerald Isle, NC and what a week it was. Elisa is fearless when it comes to the ocean and she only hesitated a moment before attempting to eat a mole crab. Yuck! Here are the best photos of the week with the promise to blog all about it soon...but tonight the bed is calling.

A day at the park

I guess at some point this week I have come to the realization that life again has changed. Elisa is walking and there is no doubt about it. She stumbles and falls, but always gets back up and her distaste for crawling is all too apparent. I guess I knew this time would come, but considering the suddenness with which it's upon us, I can't help but feel a little nostalgic for her babyhood. It's over.

Now she's a toddler and her enthusiasm for all that she can reach and run to and grab is paramount. She loves exploring and greeting people which is on constant display at the park. Today was a nice autumn day with plenty of sun and a cool breeze in the air. Here she is buzzing about without a care in the world. For the first time I found her walking straight ahead, yards and yards away without so much as a glance back at me. Hard to believe a year ago, Nacho and I were two bleary-eyed zombies wandering around the neighborhood with a cute little vampire who nearly tried to eat my soul. Yes, things change. Do they ever.

But even as she changes, there are some things that remain. Her smile and her laugh are still as infectious as always. And in many ways, I feel like I'm only beginning to scratch the surface of her personality. Every day brings a little more...and in another year, I can't wait to see where she's running to next.

My favorite girl

Elisa is my girl. My favorite girl, as I like to call her. She will always be my little girl--even when she's not. I like to tell her that even if I have another little girl someday, she will always be my girl. At least I'm telling her now, before she remembers it and can taunt a little sister with that knowledge. So here she is playing around with me on a rainy old day. She even let me pull her hair back and didn't try to take the rubberband out at all. That's my girl.

Blogging is weird

It's always sort of a surprise to me when someone comments on the blog. Whether by leaving a note or mentioning it to me in conversation or email, I remain stupified that yes, there are people reading this and watching our little videos from time to time. I guess I started this as an extension of my old diary habit (which began with a Hello Kitty diary in 3rd grade), but with an intention to let family and friends in on the life of our little girl. Why then that I'm surprised by any of the attention is a bit strange, but true nonetheless.

Perhaps it's because I read so many other blogs and websites on all sorts of topics and I never really think that I'm part of their world. It's voyeurism pure and simple. My favorite motherhood blog right now is www.dooce.com which the amazing Heather Armstrong writes. I don't know how I only found out about her this year, but she's had the website up and running through both of her pregnancies and has the best way of bringing such truth and candor to all things. And profanity. She is pretty hilarious sometimes. If you want to really enjoy a peek into first time motherhood, go back to her posts around January 2004 and read on. I did and I was crying with laughter and nodding to myself for a good hour today (while Elisa napped, naturally).

I guess the difference between that kind of blog and this (other than the fact that it's national media and Ms. Armstrong is #26 on Forbes most influential people in media list) is that with Elisa, I feel like people who read this are a part of her life because they are seeing and experiencing the same things I am. And even though we may not see them it's nice to know she is a part of their lives as well. My friend Lisa who writes a great blog called Dear Hugh Laurie (I would add a link here, but I have no idea how to do that) just crossed a blogging line by visiting a blogger she reads who lives in Sweden. It was fun to read along as she made it into that virtual world and beyond. Of course, I don't expect any strangers to come over and hang out in Elisa's room with us, but there is something kind of cool about using this medium to share and make connections. Many of my neighborhood mom friends have started or shared their blogs with me after reading about us on Elisa's Baby Blog. I love that it's something others are inspired by or feel moved to read. There are so many choices out there for us to nourish our brains that sometimes I forget to even look at the news because I am so immersed in this virtual playground of blogging.

Since my mom's good friend Karen enjoys reading along on here (and especially our videos), I'll end with this latest clip of Elisa dancing around the room. She's quite a mover and shaker, you know.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day is the official "end" of summer in most parts of the country and with the almost fall-like weather here in New York City, it sure felt like things have changed. We opted for a picnic in Central Park and a chance for Elisa to try out her new walking moves in Sheep Meadow. Here are a few pics from our lazy Sunday...

The moment we've all been waiting for...

It started with a few steps in Spain and then suddenly this week, Elisa really took off. She isn't exactly running yet, but each day she tries more and more consecutive steps. Of course, being a multitasker, she has to try to carry things or drink from her bottle while talking and walking as well. Here she is in all her newfound walking glory.

One year, two weeks and counting...

After a year of blogging about this wonderful girl named Elisa, I somehow managed to miss a posting on her actual birthday. But considering that she had been sick for a week, we were leaving for Spain that day and I had to run into the office to tidy up some things before leaving, I guess I'll give myself a break. So, here are some photos of our trip to celebrate Elisa's birthday with the familia.

Elisa's birthday party at Tia Pauli and Tio Ignacio's house in Encinar.
Sitting with Abuela and Papa in Toledo.
Nacho and I celebrating an evening out with the family and our 6th wedding anniversary.
Elisa chugging some sidra at Casa Mingo--my favorite restaurant in Madrid--where the chorizo is divine and the roasted chickens so juicy you have to soak your bread in the plate!
Our last night out walking around the palacio and having a late night of tapas in front of the opera house. It was quite an end to the 2 weeks of fun. More photos to come!

The mac is back...kind of

Just when I thought there was no hope for the laptop, we took it to the Apple store and lo and behold...it started. It's definitely a bit tricky typing on a sticky keyboard and there's a weird flickering of the screen now and again, but hey, it's on. It might not last, but for now it's worth riding this out until I'm ready to surrender $800 to the Apple Gods to fix it. So, without further ado...here are some photos of Stacey's week in NYC with Jordan and Mia, and yes, Grandma.

We took these at Central Park one evening after eating a delicious dinner at the UWS Shake Shack. Those burgers with their old fashioned pan-fried greasiness and potato bread buns are the BEST. And yeah, the shakes are pretty good too. Even Elisa was getting in on the action, eating bits of burger and fries like a champ.

Of course there was a lot of packing and unpacking and cleaning and making messes all week. Luckily I had some extra hands so Elisa made it out to the neighborhood park with her cousins and they did a great job of entertaining her at home too. I think she had more ice cream in one week than she's had in 11 1/2 months! And no, she wasn't complaining.
And now that they've all left, I know why Elisa was having such trouble napping that week--she didn't want to miss a thing!

A great lady

In honor of Lillian Price (October 24, 1917 - August 6, 2009)

Last week in Kansas City, my Nana passed away at the age of 91. Until recently, she had lived on her own in her well maintained home, continuing to cook for herself and do her laundry down the steep basement steps. She was an original. We liked to spar on political issues of the day, talk about current events and share photos and travel stories (mostly mine) around her large oval dining table. As a child I think Nana's appearance came off as rather proper and well, stern. But through the years, I got a better understanding of her as a woman and as a grandmother. She was a plain spoken and religious person from a farming background. Though her worldview was not as broad as the one I had grown up and into, Nana still found a way to connect with me despite our very different perspectives. When I pulled into her driveway with a Darwin "fish" sticker on my car during a road trip in college, she laughed and said "what will my neighbors think?"

Waking up at Nana's meant reading the Kansas City Star over a cup of coffee and powdered sugar donuts (my favorite) while we chatted about the weather. She liked her scandal too and sometimes offered a bit of gossip about a neighbor or some strange happenings in the city. She spoke with a slight "Missour-ah" twang and tossed around the word "kid" with a kind of wake-up-and-listen tone. When I was pregnant, I made a surprise visit to KC to reconnect with some old high school friends and I hadn't wanted to work her up about me dropping by in case I couldn't make the flight. So when I landed, I called and shocked her with a "what are you up to this afternoon?" query and she happily took me in for an afternoon of food and good conversation.

We ended up digging through her cedar chest, rummaging through old family photos and she described different scenes and people to me in stunning detail. Her mind was so sharp and her recollection of those times like a window into another lifetime. For Nana, it had been over 25 years since she'd lost her husband and over 70 since her wedding, and yet we talked about her wedding dress (a long deep brown tunic) and their lives starting out in California after the war as if it was yesterday. She was a rather stoic lady but her emotions could run very high. She told me of an aunt who had made a rather disparaging comment about my grandfather's Native American heritage which she never forgot, nor apparently forgave. It was the kind of wounding that stings most when you love someone. I think at that moment I realized how much she loved my grandfather and how much I wished I had known him better.

Having a daughter of my own now has made me appreciate my ties to family and to the history we all inherit. I only hope that Elisa will have the chance to know her grandparents well and to see them as the complex and loving people they are.

The wonders never cease

There were supposed to be some great photos here of my sister's visit to NYC, complete with Mia and Jordan (and Grandma). However, earlier in the week we fried the new mac laptop. :(

Let's just say I was disappointed. It was one of those accidents involving/caused by Elisa and though not exactly her fault, I still had to stop myself from thinking that babies are the devil's agents. I'm sure she didn't mean to knock the whole cup of coffee over on the keyboard, right? Well, on a lighter note, our new camera isn't broken (yet) and the pictures we've made so far seem to justify the purchase. Here are some test shots of the week. Enjoy!