Happy Birthday Peanut!

and ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! too

Wherever does the time go...
Love you Peanut.

Peanut for Peace

You may remember her first film.

Or perhaps you were bigger fans of her dance video.

Now she puts it all together with the moves and the song.

Presenting, Peanut for Peace.

Mmmmmm!

As I mentioned in my last post, Peanut eats pretty much anything you put in front of her.

A few things before your viewing pleasure begins:

• Though it does not come up in this video, I would like to note that Peanut has gotten very good at saying a polite and calm "No" if she doesn't want what is on the menu or she has had enough of something (which is nice because she used to just open her mouth anyway and then spit everything back out which was a lot ickier). 

•  She has also gotten pretty good at using her fork as you will see, though hands do still play heavily into the mix depending on the meal options.  

• Though my 7th grade pre-algebra teacher taught me that the 11th Commandment was "Thou shalt not divide by zero," I think Peanut might argue that it is "You cannot blow on your food enough, or even on your fork enough frankly." It is probably more likely to show up in a biblical interpretation rather than in an actual translation.

• We did in fact save the absolute best for last. Nothing makes a mama feel better than a big old "Mmmmmmm!"

Video Viernes

As you know, Peanut really likes her books. She likes to read all of them, but one particularly stands out because it is actually a book and song combined - a little bit-o-heaven. The book is called Snuggle Puppy of Mine and is by Sandra Boynton. The song, as it is written in the book, goes:

Ooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine. 

Everything about you is especially fine. 

I love what you are. I love what you do. 

Fuzzy, little, snuggle puppy, I love you. 

I say, Ooooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine. 

Everything about you is especially fine. 

I love what you are. I love what you do. 

Oooooooo, I love you. *Kiss!*

It's complicated. I know. But it turns out that when you are reading the book, it does feel very odd to say the things Ms. Boynton has clearly defined as a song. However, she does not actually provide a score which one might feel compelled to follow. It's freestyle. 

Well, it turns out that Richard and I sing very different versions of this lovely song with our daughter, so we thought we would share them with you. At the beginning you can hear that Peanut say "Ooooooo" because she can now identify this book by its cover (Judge it? Who knows...). And so we present: 

Snuggle Puppy, Act 1.

And Snuggle Puppy, Act 2.

What we are making here is art people. Art.

Video Viernes

Oh, and I forgot to mention one teensy detail.

Peanut is walking...

4 - Words

Peanut talks a lot. Every day she looks out our window and jabbers and waves (sometimes to people, sometimes to buses, sometimes to dogs, sometimes to the city itself). Sometimes she speaks with great forcefulness such that while I have no idea what she is trying to say, I am clear that she believes very strongly in what she is telling me. Language acquisition is always a bit of a tough thing to chart, but I think it can be even more challenging initially for kids in a bilingual environment. We talk to Peanut most of the time in Spanish, but we talk to each other most of the time in English. Others in Barranquilla talk to her in Spanish, but everyone on the computer (yeah for skype!) talks to her in English. It is bound to be a little confusing.

Still, we have sussed out four words that we think she says pretty clearly and regularly. 

1. Mama

Now, this would warm my heart a little more if the word Mama referred only to me. However it seems to refer to photographs of any sort (regardless of whether I am in them), and it is a general filler word in between other currently indeterminable phrases. Funnier yet is that it often gets put fairly close together with a word that sounds  a lot like Mamie, so then it comes out Mama Mamie. As if the kid had another Mama...(or as if I would let her get away with calling me Mamie). 

Still, when I get a Mama that is clearly about me - well, there ain't nothin' better.

 

2. Papa

This has some eerie similarities to the usage of Mama. Not that she gets us confused; Papa definitely refers to Richard, but it can be other bright, shiny objects as well. 

For a while Papa seemed to get thrown out in fits of irritation, but that has subsided. I am sure it will return at age 13, but that is for another time. In the here and now we will pretty much take it any way it comes. 

3. Baby // Bebé

This is clearly for another baby. The way Peanut says it is actually sort of a cross between baby (English) and bebé (Spanish). I can't quite explain it to you, so I will let you see it in action. The first book is from Tía Shannan and has lots of good words in it. The second one is from Tía Laura and Tía Jess and is called Global Babies. Peanut loves it because it is chock full of babies (of course). She opens it up, points to a picture, says "beby" and then gives the baby a kiss. Love it.

4. Gato

Okay, this may be a word she actually has, or it may not be. 

Gato is the word for cat in Spanish, and as I mentioned two days ago, Peanut became encantada with Carlotto the Cat while in Bogotá. (Hey, that sounds like a children's book...) Every time she saw him she would squeal with delight, and if we said, "¿Dónde está el gato?" ("Where is the cat?") then she would look toward either of his two favorite spots with eyes wide and hopeful. Since then we have heard a lot of things that sound like "ato", so we have basically just decided she is saying gato and chalking up word number four!

Piscina y Playa

With all the notes up about the first days of school, I thought we'd post a little our our summer fun!

We hit pools on our patio and in a fancy hotel here in Barranquilla as well as beaches in Puerto Colombia and New Jersey... What a summer!

Ever Just Had THAT Kind of Day?

In case you have, we just wanted to be in solidarity.

You Oughta Be in Pictures

Sometimes it is just odd having a Peanut here in Colombia. I wrote about this a bit on our other blog, but I cannot possibly express to you the amount of attention we get. People in Crepes and Waffles know Peanut by name as do the ladies at the park corner who sell cellular phone minutes. I try to remember to oooh and ahhh over other kids just as much, but sometimes I am honestly just trying to keep my head down and keep going because it can all be overwhelming.

One fun (albeit still bizarre) result of the fact that everyone is encantada with Peanut is that she has recently starred in her first music video. Oh yes, you read that right.

 

Peanut, star struck.

It was nothing super professional - a school endeavor for a communications major who happens to also have a great singing voice and chose to put that all to use in her final project. She is a member of the church we attend, and she pitched the idea to us saying, "I just want the perfect looking baby. You know, one that looks just like a doll...like Peanut!" Had we not known her, I'm not sure what we would have said/done, but because we did know her, we decided to go along with it. Plus she promised she would get us a DVD copy of the video when it was done so we can have it as a keepsake. Of course we can share it with you all, our adoring fans. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that we were in it too? Well, someone has to hold the cutest kid on the block, right?

Sometimes you just gotta ham it up between takes

And the Nutter was a champ. She was up well past her bedtime, but she kept it together for the camera, and she got us the heck out of there way before anyone else. Way to go kid.

I'm done people. That's a rap.

Come on Baby, Do the Locomotion

I have heard that some children sit quietly. Legend has it that there are children who sit in your lap and snuggle. I evidently did not order that model.

Peanut is a woman on the go. Even if she is not actually moving from one place to another, she is moving her hands or kicking her feet, or making her chair bounce, or something. If she is taking a bottle, she is swinging her legs at the same time. If she is on our bed she is examining the thread count and seeing if our sheets are scratch and sniff. And now that she can throw things down on the floor? Let's just say that Jillian Michaels and her workout routine "The Shred" have nothing on Peanut's dedication to rebuilding my abs.

Come on Pooh, there's always room for one more!

A few months back we bought the Nutter a caminador so she could "walk off" some of that energy. It took her about 6 seconds to figure it out, and though it started a little jerkily, pretty soon she could maneuver herself through the space between our trunk and our couch, get under the dining table, and even do a wicked ninja spin move I think you have to see to believe. (Why do you never have the camera when you need it??) She has loved the mobility and the freedom to go where she wants to go without having to rely on those dreadfully slow padres to figure out where she wants to be. Of course two months later I just read that the American Association of Pediatrics does not recommend walkers. Actually, to be more accurate, in bold type and italics it said, "the AAP strongly urges parents not to use baby walkers." Oops. Too late now. In theory these walkers actively rob your child of her will to walk. My thoughts on that at the moment? Praise.be.to.God.

In reality the following video does not do justice to her moves, but it has other fine qualities I think you will appreciate...

Caminador from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

Tag to the front, like all the cool kids do.

Then, when our friend Joann Lee came down with a delegation earlier this year she brought Peanut a Jenny Jump-Up (yes, they do now make them gender specific...as with everything it seems). The bad news is that we have no door frames. The good news is that Papi is an engineer and rigged up something that I am sure is also not approved by the AAP, but it works and we like it. (Remind of all this very kindly please when I am fretting later that Peanut takes our rules more like guidelines...). The funniest thing about the Jenny Jump-Up has been to see the various ways Peanut makes use of it. She prefers to sit in it backwards so she can grab and eat the tag. She uses it as a way to practice her ice-skating moves since we don't have much ice on hand around here. She does the standard jumping, but she also does this sort of jump/walk forward thing that quite honestly makes me think of the contraption Dolly, Jane and Lily put on Dabney Coleman in the movie "9 to 5". Unfortunately every video I have gets posted sideways...have to figure out how to change that.

And finally (for now), Peanut is officially crawling. She started out with ranitas (little froggies) - forceful hops in which she would push off with her legs and then throw her arms back landing, essentially, on her chest and face. We tended to keep her on the bed in that stage (for fairly obvious reasons), but that girl could make some serious progress in fairly short order. It took her a while to figure out how to move her arms along with her legs (rather than just getting them the heck out of the way), but now she has it mastered. What I love is that if I go to the kitchen to get something, and she is not interested in being alone in the living room (there is a peek through so I can see her...no hyperventilating please...), she does not cry but rather shuffles her way around the corner to come see me. Think you can get rid of me that easily mom? I don't think so...

So now we are on to full-out exploring, pulling up, and generally upping the workout intensity. Maybe we'll snuggle next year. :)

Loca

It's true, she's crazy.  But we like it.

Loca Dance from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some laughs, some smiles - all for the folks back home!

Happy Thanksgiving! from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

We love you all, and are thankful for all you have brought to our lives!

And the Oscar Goes To...

She is downplaying her fame here, but for all of you who have been hoping for live action shots...here ya go.





Peanut's Video Debut from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

G.I.T. and the Corral

My dad came to visit this past week.  He now signs his emails G.I.T. - Grandfather in Training.  He was only here for a short time, but he too brought a boat load of things down (okay, an extra suitcase, but these suitcases are jammed people) courtesy of a lot of pre-shopping done by my step-mother Libby.  I am now suited out with all the accouterments for breast feeding and pumping, my fair share of Combos and protein bars, first-aid supplies, and...of course...Cheerwine.

We took dad to church, to our grocery store, to the Museum of the Caribbean, and of course to the office on the grounds of Reformed University, but mostly we just hung out.  Dad loves to observe and people watch, so he was pretty content wherever we were, whether it was waiting for lunch in the food court, checking out the patrons of Crepes and Waffles, or marveling at the differences between north and south Barranquilla.  We were really sorry that Libby, Rob, and Jean could not make it down with him, but being a G.I.T. is tough work and there was some pretty heavy lifting going on.  It might have been safer for them at home this time. 

Here is the evidence...

G.I.T. and the Corral from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

¿Niño o Niña?

So Mamie has mentioned that it is strange, very strange, to not want to know the sex of our baby here.  I'm currently back in Bogotá, and with the great chance to see folks from the church up here, everyone dutifully asks about Mamie, and the bebé.  I think five people just today asked me if we now knew if we were having a boy or girl. Still, alas, we don't.

But that doesn't stop the guessing.  So for your viewing pleasure, here is one way to determine if we are having a ¿Niño o Niña? - boy or a girl.  In less than two months, we'll be able to tell you its accuracy...

Nino o Nina from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

The Better to See You with my Dear...

For Richard's birthday we gave him an ultrasound so that that Peanut could send greetings on Papi's special day.  We went to a different place than we have gone before, and it turned out to be a 3D sonogram - and we didn't even have to wear the glasses!  Dang but those things are amazing.  We could count fingers and toes, see eyes, ears, nose, all sorts of stuff  (though we tried very hard not to see some stuff as we are waiting to find out whether Peanut is a boy or a girl until her/his birthday.  I figure, gotta have some reason to keep pushing...).  

It is not common here to wait to find out the sex of your child.  Not only do folks here ask us all the time, the doctor himself could not believe we didn't want to know.  He would stop the Doppler wand in places he seemed to think very telling, but I think we did a mix of not looking and of not actually knowing what was going on.  It turns out that even with clear pictures it is not always evident what you are looking at if you are not trained to see it.  Still, he had to have asked us minimally 5 times if we were sure we wanted to wait to find out, and of course he was kind enough to add how very strange it was that we didn't want to know.  Thanks...  

Given the nature of the Spanish language, it is also challenging to keep the secret because all adjectives have a male and female form.  If the baby is "pretty" it is either "lind-O" for a boy or "lind-A" for a girl.  If fat, "gord-O" or "gord-A."  To complicate things at least a bit (which is helpful if you don't want the big answer), the word for baby is "el bebé" - masculine - so that even if you have a girl the doctor might say you have "un bebé muy activ-O."  I must say that with all those factors working against us, we will not be surprised if someone spills the beans ahead of time, but we are doing our best to not know.

Below are some shots/videos for your viewing pleasure.  Remember, if you feel like you have figured out, we still don't want to know.  :)  

A 3D Peanut at 21 Weeks from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

At week 21 (we think), it looks like Peanut is doing just fine - good spinal column, good cerebral blood flow, very tumbly.  Also already showing us that Dad's traits are strong because after a little while s/he started hiding from the photos.  "Enough of the paparazzi people!"  

(In case you can't tell, Peanut's head is facing left with a hand over the eyes toward the top/middle of the photo.)

So while at the end of our appointment we saw a lot of Peanut's ears, I must say, they are some good looking ears...

Kickin' It in Rio

Yeah, so Rio de Janeiro is WAY cool.  You should totally plan to go there after you visit us.  :)  

Peanut must have also been impressed because the kicking started there, and it ain't never turning back.  It is nothing quite so strong as the picture on our earlier post (which I quite frankly can't decide is real or not), but I have officially seen my shirt move and Peanut even bumped our little computer up and down a few minutes ago.  Wild.  I am not sure this experience reduces the sense of alien being inhabiting your body, but we are just hoping the nutter is more friendly than any movie counterparts.  

We also know that Peanut's ears are now supposed to be in the right place (thank goodness, they were moving for weeks), and the eyes are able to distinguish light from dark.  Dra. Lily (regular doc, not OB) told us that we are supposed to shine a light on my belly through a colored cloth and tell Peanut what color it is.  Thus, not so regularly, we press my shirt on my belly and say, "Esta es ROJA Peanut"  (This is RED Peanut) and proceed to name all the things we encounter regularly that are red.  This is more challenging with purple once you get past eggplants and the color Mama Kit mistakenly died her hair one Easter, so feel free to add your suggestions.  

At any rate, in Rio, on the top of Corcovado (where the big Christ statue is, see above) we decided that if we could tell Peanut what color something was, we could show Peanut what Rio was too...so we have included a small video for your viewing...giggles.  :)

Peanut and Rio from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

PS.  It should be noted that Dra Lily also gave us an actual prescription (written on her prescription pad) to have Peanut listen to Christian music for an hour every day.  We have potentially broadened the definition of Christian music she had in mind, but I don't think Shakira will mind.

Chillin in the 13th Week

Here is our Peanut in his/her second ultrasound.  There is a pretty awesome leg stretch in the video to keep an eye out for, and when things get bouncy it is because we were poking on my belly to wake up the bean!

Here's the video...



13 weeks from Richard Williams on Vimeo.

Watch closely for some serious arm and leg stretching!