Family reunion, what?

The Martinez clan is in da house! Kenny and Karen’s house, that is. Approximately 14 adults, young and not so young descended on Chez Platis/Martinez for a whirlwind, impromptu family reunion with our Miss E as the draw.

The weekend began with a solo trip from Spokane with me looking like a Sherpa making her way down the jetway. Elianna was strapped on my front, on my back was a car seat carrier, stuffed with extra contraband that was too much weight for the luggage tucked inside, on my shoulder was a diaper bag stuffed to the gills and I had my largest purse filled with jackets, food and oh yeah, my wallet. Elianna was a champ on the flight with only a few squawks of protest when I wouldn’t let her toddle down the aisle during takeoff but she contented herself with moving back and forth from seat to seat in our row that we had to ourselves (heaven!).

The reunion itself was wonderful. While I know Elianna was the excuse it was fantastic that almost everyone was able to arrange their schedule to get together for a few hours (which is really all it was!). Elianna took to all the new people with her usual aplomb. After a few minutes of sober study of the situation, she allowed herself to be passed from person to person with nary a peep. She learned new words (Nana, Poppa) and tried to learn others (GG for my Grandma Mary), ate new food, and gained several new admirers (Christina, Corinne!).

The trip back was relatively easy. Despite being tired, Elianna was only slightly cranky and she tried to make friends with all around her. After meeting 13 or so new people, she appeared to think everyone was family; all newcomers were greeted with a, “haaaaaaah” (Hi) and a wave. I've also discovered she knows how to flirt; she was doing it all during the trip with the boys in the seat behind us!

So we are back home, getting over a cold that I'm sure we contracted on the airplane but it was totally, totally worth it. Our family isn't the best at keeping in touch, at following each others' lives but we did this time and I'm proud of us.

What we have heah, is a faylyuh to cuhmmunicayte

For sure! Elianna is talking up a storm these days. To the uneducated ear, much of it sounds like 'dada' and some uninformed souls will finish her sentences assuming she's looking for Mike. But if one hears these sounds day in and out there are subtle but distinct differences. 'Dedn' is a popular sound but I have no idea what it's supposed to be. 'Desses' is possibly 'glasses' but could be 'circles'. Dahndahn is another unknown and the list goes on. She's very emphatic about what she's telling us so you know *she* understands what she's saying and thus far, seems content to have merely passed the information on; it seems to be *our* problem that we don't understand.

Another issue is that she will sign words to us and immediately sign the opposite ('all done' and 'more' being notable examples). Kind of makes us wonder if she really does understand what she's signing or if she's just messing with us: Hmmm, how can I make Mommy and Daddy spin around like a top? Heeeee!

Walking is coming along swimmingly; sometimes she even looks like she's trying to break into a run. Stairs are an issue again; she refuses to go down backwards, will instead scoot to the very edge, do a squat until she's sitting on the next one down, and repeat. Alternatively, she'll reach for our hands and just walk down, one giant step at at time. Either way makes Mommy very nervous!

She's always blowing kisses and sometimes drops these wet, open mouthed besos on us...so cute! She's also so sweet; she'll give a kiss and then snuggle her head on my shoulder. Way to turn me into a big puddle of goo, kiddo!

But I still want to know what 'dedn' means.

Yeah, so?

Had to the be title of this post, if only because the picture screamed it. I should get used to this expression because I'm sure it will live on her face when she's a teenager.

So it's all just happening too, too fast. She does something new every. single. day. and it all shows how smart she is. I had a friend and her 9 month old daughter over yesterday, was talking about what signs Elianna did and didn't know and as I was saying them she was doing them. All of them. Even the ones I said she didn't do or know. Maybe it's not showing how smart she is but more that she's been paying attention. Remember last post (a week ago) when she had to crawl over to a wall to stand up? No longer, she stands up on her own. Still a bit tippy but getting more and more stable as the days...no, hours go by.

So this is supposed to be slightly food related as well so I'll talk about what we had for dinner. Now Mike and I are hardly vegetarian; we will eff up a steak in good fashion like nobody's business. One of our favorite restaurants in Vegas is Cut and although their pretzel bread *is* to die for we do actually go for the beef. That being said, we have been embracing our inner vegetarian and tonight's Ethiopian lentil stew was one of our forays. Red onions, red lentils, garlic, ginger all served over brown rice with cilantro and Greek yogurt....you're all jealous aren't you? It was really good though. The merlot we had with it was awfully decent as well.

Okay, who am I kidding, you all just want more Elianna, right? Now that she's a year old there's a whole shelf of books I get to pack away until the next (theoretical) one. What to expect the first year, Baby 411...all those are no longer applicable. We've got ourselves a toddler We are also having quite the Martinez family reunion coming up and we can't wait to see you all. Hasta next post!

Crawling is so last week...

Yup, Elianna has decided walking is where it's at. She still can't stand up on her own (which strikes me as curious) so she'll crawl over to something that she can use as a prop but then it's all walking, all the time. She's so proud of herself, too. She'll yell out, pump her little fists up and down and smile, smile smile.
She's definitely talking a lot more and some of her words are actually comprehensible...to us at least. A list: one (said in response to, "Elianna, how old are you?" and with one finger held up), teeth, water, hot....yeah, that's it. You can tell she's trying to say a lot more: quack, dog, eyes but it all sounds the same. She understands way more than I originally thought too. I'll say something and realize she's signing the word I just said, or recognize something in a book I've mentioned just a few times. Still no signing 'mama' or 'dada' but 'bath', 'eat' and 'dog' are on the most played list. It's so cool to know she's putting it all together in her little, but growing brain.

We all survived a trip with Mommy being away. I managed with the help of frequent texts with pictures and videos and Mike survived with some help from the nanny. Elianna managed because that's how she rolls. This baby is pretty dang chill; she takes what's in front of her and just deals. This is a quality which will serve you well in life, sweetpea, I'd keep it around.

What a difference a week makes.

It's true. It really seems like since her birthday, Elianna has started to come into her own as a person. She's been developing this personality (I should say showing us the personality, I think she always had it) over the last few months but now she's shown us she is a person with her own wants, needs and desires. Know how I know this? We've had our first tantrum. I'm pretty sure that on the scale of tantrums this was mild compared to what's to come but it was impressive. We were outside, not doing much (at least in my mind but she must have thought differently) and she was headed to the door anyway so I picked her up and brought her inside. At first she just cried so I realized I'd misinterpreted her inclination and brought her back outside. She immediately stopped the tears (and we're talking theoretical...there's still no water coming out of her eyes) and resumed playing. When it really was time to come in, I again, waited until she was headed indoors and finished the job. Oh. My. God. The rage was spectacular. She cried, screamed, banged her fists together (more!more!), started the hitching crying that to the untrained observer sounds like someone just kicked her puppy and she is completely and utterly bereft. About 15 minutes passed before she was relatively calm but even then she had this wounded look on her face as if someone just told her Santa Claus doesn't exist. Thank God we're raising her Jewish.

Her evolving personality isn't limited to tantrums, thankfully. She's discovered there's a whole world out there and she wants to know what EVERYTHING is. She's always pointing at something, asking what it is and she'll try and repeat it. Her words don't sound like words yet but there are subtle differences. Flower sounds a lot like Da, stars sounds like ders, dog sounds like dat....get the picture? You can tell that *she* thinks they sound different which is, I guess, the first step.
Speaking of steps...but that's for another post.

Happy Day Day, pretty girl!

Elianna's cousin coined this phrase for a birthday and it's too cute not to use. So, 372 days ago, little Miss came into our world with a bang and the cliche rings true; our lives have not been the same since. Of course, some of that has to do with a move 1200 miles up north (did yoo know it stays light until 1030 in the summer?) but most is due to her. Looking back, we really were in a fog until about 3 months ago which is just funny because I thought I was so on top of things when she was 4 months old, ha!

So her day was pretty uneventful. We were more into the day than she was. We put a pretty outfit on her, smothered her with kisses a lot and high fived each other that we made it. But the party? It was off da hook! Well, as much as a one year old's party can be with a bunch of middle aged chaperones.

Mike's mom, Marilyn aka Nammy, arrived on Wednesday and she was immediately put to work. With her help we bought dishes and silverware for the party, figuring it was really more of an adult's party that happened to have a couple kids there, shopped out the local grocery stores, decorated and cooked. Man did we cook. Here's the final menu:

Pulled pork sliders with curry mayo and green chile mayo and mustard as condiments
potato salad with smoky bleu cheese
red pepper/sour cream dip with vegies
guacamole with tortilla and pita chips
spanish tortilla, regular and with soyrizo
smoked salmon with rye bread, creme fraiche, capers and red onion
mac n cheese
chinese chicken salad
pigs in a blanket
cookies wrapped around Reese's peanut butter cups
CAKE!!!!! (which I totally forgot to get a picture of and it came out so good! )

It looked like an army was coming to store up before heading out on a week long patrol; there was so. much. food. We could probably eat the leftovers for 2 weeks if it wouldn't go bad. People seemed to like it though. We also had lemonade made from lemons from Marilyn's tree, sparkling and still water, beer and wine. I think 3 people drank wine, everyone else did the water/lemonade thing. I've never met so many people who don't drink wine as here in Spokane. Doesn't strike me as a particularly tee-totaling community but I guess it is. But I digress.

Elianna was a champion. She was a little shy but had no stranger meltdowns, even let a couple people hold her although she kept a close eye on Mike or me. She showed off a few of her steps (next post!) and waved a lot. When it was birthday song time she had this wary look on her face and then realized, ' this is for ME!' and a huge smile broke out. Our little diva.

Overall, a huge success I'd say and now we can start planning for next year. Kidding, kind of.

Almost here...

Her 1st birthday, that is. Craziness, I tell you!
Today was a rough day for some reason. Morning and early afternoon were all smiles and giggles. She woke up from her afternoon nap and she was a different baby. She didn't want to be put down, she'd cry and cry at the slightest frustration and it wasn't just crying. It was the hitching, sobbing, my heart is breaking and you don't care, crying. Poor baby! I ended up wearing her for awhile, just getting some things done (her dinner, packing up to go see Mike at work) and that seemed to help.

So, words she knows: cow, dog, flower, book, daddy, water, more. Words she'll sign to us: more, dog. Words she knows but acts like she doesn't: No, stop, mama.

Oh, swimming! Yesterday was just amazing. She hadn't passed her test the day before because she couldn't make the flip from being pushed off face down to a face up float. Everything else was easy breezy but the one she couldn't do is the most likely scenario for a pool/lake drowning so we're in it for one more week. But yesterday she did it! She was underwater, we could see her trying to flip one way and not get it...I was getting anxious because she'd been under a long time (3 seconds, heehee!) and all of a sudden she flipped the other way and got into her float!!!!! I was jumping up and down on the side of the pool screaming, 'Go Elianna!' Mike was laughing and clapping. It was so awesome to see her problem solve and get herself saved.

Of course, now I understand the whole soccer mom phenomenon but that's for another post.