We Are Back!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!! We are back from Miami and very happy to be home. While we were there we got to see many sights including South Beach, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. We had a WONDERFUL time in Miami visiting with Miguel's extended family. Susanna was able to meet many of his relatives for the first time and SHE LOVED EVERYONE!! You should of seen her face the first time Noni (Miguel's grandmother from Venezuela) spoke Spanish to her. She looked SOO CONFUSED and really was trying to figure out what was going on. But very quickly she was adjusted to the new sounds and having so much fun.



Susanna got to spend a lot of time with her Grandad and GiGi Gonzalez. She was definitely spoiled by all their attention!





Christmas Eve was the night of our big celebration. We went to Clara's house (Miguel's Aunt) and enjoyed family and festivities. Susanna wore her favorite red dress and was the most beautiful at the party!


When Susanna changed from her party dress to her PJ's we tricked Noni. We brought Susanna out in her diaper and a Santa bib and pretended it was her PJ's. It was REALLY funny and Susanna liked playing tricks on everyone :)

The traditional Christmas dinner is Hallaca (pronouced ayaca) which is corn meal dough stuffed with raisins, olives, pork, spices and wrapped in banana leaves. It is VERY DELICIOUS and a wonderful treat to eat. Everyone kept saying how the hallaca's were extra big and needed to eat only half... but I ate a whole one myself bc they were soo good!! YUM YUM :)
Around Midnight we passed out presents and received many wonderful gifts.



You may be wondering how Susanna managed to stay awake until Midnight for presents.... well she didn't quite make it. She fell asleep on Miguel's shoulder and missed everything.

We had a wonderful time and hope to see everyone again VERY soon.

Susanna was GREAT the whole trip. She did amazingly on the plane, even laughing and smiling during take-off! Her whole nap and sleeping schedule was COMPLETELY off and she adjusted and went with the flow.


We are both sooo proud of how well she did. Last night was our first night home and Susanna slept 12 hours and after only 2 hours of being awake this morning she was ready for her morning nap. Obviously she is super tired and is catching up on all her missed sleep!

Susanna is REALLY crawling now and getter faster every day so we are off to buy baby gates and other baby proofing items today. Our little girl is growing up soo fast!! Check her out climbing on on box after opening presents...

Miami

We are off to Miami tomorrow morning to visit with Miguel's extended family from Venezuela. This is the first time they meet Susanna and even the first time I meet some of them. We are really excited for our trip :) I am sure we will have a great post of our adventures after we return. Right now we are busy busy busy packing and preparing for flying with a 9 month old.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Santa

Susanna met Santa today!!! She of course had no idea what was in store for her but both Miguel and I were super excited for this first meeting.



As soon as we got to Santa's Village she saw him and started staring him down. I couldn't tell if she thought he looked fun or scary. Miguel sat her on Santa's lap and at first she seemed confused and unsure. No crying and she never looked scared... just like she was wondering why she was sitting there and why does this man have such a long beard! As soon as the happy elves started jingling bells and being silly she smiled and we got a GREAT SHOT!!

After all the pressure of a good pic with Santa was over she took a good long look at him. I could tell he was talking to her and whatever he was saying really had her attention.

When Miguel took her from his lap he said "She never told me what she wanted for Christmas" and Miguel said "I think she wants more teeth" SOOOO CUTE!!

I missed my mom a lot today. I remember her always dressing Joey and I in matching outfits to see Santa... wonderful memories!! Watching Susanna with Santa and seeing her great picture really overwhelmed me. I just feel so happy and proud of her and can't believe how much she has grown already. She looks like such a big girl in her picture, WHERE DID MY BABY GO???

ALMOST...

We are ALMOST all back to being healthy and over our sickness. Susanna and I had it the worst and with the exception of some lingering congestion and runny nose we are doing MUCH better. It has been a rough 2 weeks and I am happy things are going back to normal. She is getting her appetite back and is in a phase now where she only wants to feed herself.



It is making mealtime a bit more complicated and I definitely have to be more creative. Most days she will clamp her mouth shut and GRUNT at me if I try to feed her from a spoon. So I am dicing fruits, small veggies, cheese, puffs, small pieces of meat anything I can think of that is age appropriate for a balanced diet. If anyone has good suggestions I would LOVE TO KNOW!!!

It is ALMOST Christmas and we are VERY EXCITED!! I tried to take some holiday photos with Susanna in front of the Christmas tree but she was kinda mischievous. I cant blame her... I did place her in front of a shiny shimmery tree with all sorts of sparkly ornaments just SCREAMING to her to be grabbed. I got a few cute shots...





Susanna is ALMOST crawling. Every day she is getting better and better at her creeping around. She LOVES to go after the doggy toys or try and climb into Sissy's bed. This time I helped her out and SHE WAS REALLY HAPPY!

Sad Susie

Susanna is sick again :o( The doctor thinks she has the same virus that I have been fighting off all week. Friday night she woke up at 1:30am SCREAMING and Miguel and I went to check on her and she was soo hot. She had a fever of 102.2 and with meds and some extra cuddles and snuggles we were able to calm her back to sleep. It was a rough night and in the morning, after the meds were starting to wear off, her fever was coming back so I decided we better go to the dr just in case it was her ears. Her ears are fine and the dr confirmed it was probably just the same virus I had. The dr said her throat was really red which explains why she starts to cry whenever she trys to swallow her solid foods, so sad. Last night was a little better but she did have a high fever (102.9) in the middle of the night again. I am hoping we are over the worst and she will be feeling better soon. I hope this happy smiling face returns to our house very soon.... she is sooo cute!


In other news, she is starting to perfect her army crawl and getting around even more. She is pulling herself forward soldier style, with her belly dragging on the floor. This was her first adventure onto the hardwoods!

I think her chubby budda belly might just be too much to lift off the ground just yet!! However, with her rolling and army crawl she can get herself across the room... just not too fast! Of course anything that she isn't supposed to touch (cords, electronics, plastic wrapper, trash, paper, etc) are what draw her attention the most and SHE GOES FOR IT!!

Last week Susanna had her first baby play date at our house. We invited our friends from Johnston Mommies to join us and all the babies had a fabulous time. I just love watching the little ones roll around together... they really do have a lot of fun! I don't want to post pics of other babies without their mommies permission so I will just post Susanna playing...