Cumpleaños Craziness

Last week Peanut was invited to her first ever Colombian birthday party.

Okay...technically that is not true. She was invited to Papi's birthday party first, which he shared with two Colombians who were born on the same day, but since she went to bed before anyone really showed up I am not sure that counts. Plus, his party did not have a jump house...nor live Disney characters...nor boy/girl cupcakes with individual flags in each one for each guest...nor a snack bar with redeemable "coupons"...nor, hold on a minute, I am getting faint again.

You see, last week was a first birthday party - as in a party for a little girl turning one year old. I remain very grateful for having been invited, but the whole experience just about gave me hives. How to explain...

Evidently 1 year birthdays are a big thing here. Quinceñeras (for those turning 15) are bigger still, but, I am told, any other year you can just share some cake with family but the first year and the 15th you have to do more. I am not clear about whether this cause for celebration stems from the fact that making it to one year most likely means you are really going to stick around, or if it has no such serious underpinnings. What I do know is that I am clearly in over my head and may have to hide about four months from now.

The party began at 4:30pm and there were easily 60 people there of all ages. The theme was Mickey and Minnie mouse, with all the girls getting Minnie invitations and all the boys Mickey ones. There were Minnie ears (as modeled by Peanut above) and Mickey ears. There were Minnie party favors, and Micky ones; blue and pink cupcakes; even the ribbon on the aforementioned snack bar items was gender coded.  There must have been 100 balloons in varying arrangements of flowers and festive flair - all pink and white, it was a girl's birthday after all.

We knew we were at the right house because when we drove by there were a ton of people in chairs in the street (see over my shoulder), safe from passing traffic because they were shielded by a lane-wide blow up jumpy castle (sadly not available in pink). Music was at def-con 5, and it was turned down only to do party games with kids that included turns for girls and boys (separately) to dance for the crowd for prizes. If you are picturing silly jumping little beans, you have not been to a child's birthday party recently enough...at least not around here. Eight-year-olds were moving their hips and shaking their butts to songs that I do not want played at my own party. It was nothing that hasn't been put up on YouTube or discussed ad nauseum about the "All the Single Ladies" dance recital number, but it felt different to face it with my daughter in my arms. One day that sweet face is going to look around and think that jumping and moving any which way is not okay anymore because the girls beside her are all running their hands down their sides and pouting their lips, and so help me I will cry that day.

Besides the fact that all this makes me throw up in my mouth a little, I simply do not have the energy to do all that I saw. Nor is it the way I want to spend the money we have, especially on a day she is not even going to remember. The party was a great success. I remain grateful for being included. I am just not sure what to do come September.

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.

Who's that Girl?

Before Peanut was born, Tía Laura gave us a mirror for the crib. Because we never actually got a crib and instead Peanut basically sleeps in a pack-n-play, there was never a way to attach the mirror for her to entertain herself. As a result, the mirror comes and goes which in some ways makes it that much more exciting to play with.

It used to be that Peanut would look at the baby in the mirror, talk to her, and more often than not lean over and kiss her.

Now, she has taken to looking at me in the mirror. She gets down low enough, or angles weirdly enough so that she can see me in the reflection and then she gets a huge grin on her face. I am not sure if it is because of seeing me, or because she is so darn proud of herself for figuring that out. And I'm not sure I care to. :)

I seeeeeeeee yooooouuuuuu!

Happy Mother's Day

Yes, I know it is late, but hey...I wasn't writing blog posts on Mother's Day! I just wanted to include this as a sort of "final installment" to the barriga pictures of long ago. Same outfit, same room, same Peanut...just easier to see this go around.

Love you Nutter!

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. :)