Bye Bye Abuelita

After 4 weeks of lending us the most invaluable of help, my mom went back to California. Gosh, we were all so spoiled. Santi enjoyed her kisses and hugs every night, Mati had a steady play friend, Nico had a frittata everyday of the work week, different desserts for dinner, and I had ... my mom. But all good things come to a sad end ... We'll now have to adapt to life as a family of four and we'll start counting down the days until Christmas!!!

Santi at One Month

We took Santi in for his first month checkup and our little guy is doing very well.

Here are his vitals:
Weight: 4.200kg (9lb 2oz) - the doctor paid his compliments to the chef, aka MOM!!
Height: 56cm (22in)
Head Circumference: 38.1cm

Brotherly Love

Mati mistakes Santi's hunger-driven sucking of the cheeks for kisses - since he enjoys Santi's "kisses" so much, we don't tell him otherwise. As you can see, he gets really excited and happy to be interacting with his brother!!

Why?

A recent conversation between Mateo and Nico.

Mateo: "What are they doing?"
Nico: "They are cleaning the sugar cane."
M: "Why are the cleaning the sugar cane?"
N: "Because it's dirty?"
M: "Why is it dirty?"
N: "Because it was in the earth?"
M: "Why was it in the earth?"
N: "Because that's where it grows."
M: "Why does it grow there?"

So to conclude ... Mateo has entered WHY land. So far, it's been funny. I wonder how long we'll think this??????

Mateo ... The Next Michael Phelps??

Mateo has been enjoying the pool a lot these days. Since he first started his swim classes, scared of the water after a small accident with Nico, he has made tremendous progress. Not only is he 100% confident in the water now, he has started to learn the basics of swimming (like a dog), floating, retrieving objects at the bottom of the pool, etc. This video is from 2 weeks ago; everything you see him doing here, he has improved: he floats on his own for a count of 10, can swim further distances and can stay under water longer. His teacher is now working on getting him to use his arms more and to learn to lift his head while swimming.

A Day in the Life of Santi

Wakes up, feeds, burps, poops, feeds again, poops again, sleeps. He sometimes stays awake for a while, absorbing the images and sounds around him, especially during bath time. Santi relaxes a lot in the water and it's clear he enjoys it more when his big brother isn't around screaming his head off because he doesn't want to bathe!!

Unfortunately, the little fellow has been experiencing periods of gas or colic (already!!), especially in the early evenings. My mom usually takes care of him during that time, patting his back and his booty and patiently waiting for the gas to come out. But otherwise, he's a pretty mellow baby, just like Mateo, and has me over the moon in love with him!!! (Same goes for the other boys in my life!!!)

Mateo's first day at school

Mateo with his "delantal"..uniform..

Mateo started at the French School today and Daddy (the only brave one in the family...) took him there. Mateo of course cried when Daddy left (the bribe for not crying was a chocolate cake but he said he didn't care, that he was going to cry..) but was apparently very happy when Mami picked him up. He said he wanted to go back and was a little disappointed to hear that there was no school tomorrow...So all in all a very good day...all relieved...