The Dirtiest Diaper

So some of you know that we have begun cloth diapering.  Emily has extremely sensitive skin and so we have switched over to cloth in hopes that the lack of chemicals and bleaches in disposable diapers would clear up her chronic diaper rash.  I made the purchase on Amazon--the cheapest diapers I could find at about 6 bucks a piece.  I bought twelve and since for some silly reason they wouldn't ship to Spain, my mom brought them to me when she came.  So it's been about a month and a half with the cloth diapers and so far so good.  I wish I could say they worked miracles and her diaper rash went away for good, but alas, that isn't so.  We still struggle with a pretty nasty rash although for nearly a week now her little bottom is looking better than ever--not even a red spot!

Anyway, it's been a month and a half of diaper washing for me.  Being nearly 100% breastfed still, her diapers are pretty easy to wash and not really even too stinky.  I liken it to when your dog licks you: you don't mind, 'cause it's your dog...but someone else's dog kinda grosses you out.  Same with poop, it turns out.  I don't really mind washing her diapers, but I'm sure most of you can't even stand the thought! ;)

Spaghetti selfie! Bon appetit!

Things have become interesting on the diaper front since we've begun introducing solid foods.  And by solid I mean actually solid.  We are not giving Emily blended baby foods at all.  She eats what we eat, or a version of what we eat.  The interesting thing is that it seems as though nearly all of what she eats passes through unchanged!  I find bits of carrot, pepper, tomato, etc. in her diapers daily and I am amazed that her little digestive system doesn't do a more effective job of breaking this stuff down!  It turns out that teeth and chewing really are an important part of digestion!

But I'm getting off track.  Except for bananas, it seems as though most everything else changes very little on it's trip through her intestines and therefore her stool has continued to be the trademark liquid yellow of a breastfed baby.

Yesterday she had spaghetti.  She loved it!  I will post a video in a minute.  It was adorable how she sucked down the noodles!  Angelines, of course, was worried she'd choke and wanted to pull the noodles back out, but I insisted that she leave her be--I am an expert at swallowing whole noodles (see Ramen post from a few weeks back!) and know that there's no harm done so long as it's going down the right pipe.  Sure enough, Em was fine and slurpped down noodle after noodle. :)

It was all fun and games until she went to the bathroom today!  I haven't washed a dirtier diaper in my short experience of cloth diapering.  Talk about full!  I will spare the details...but let's just say I won't be smiling quite so much the next time spaghetti's on the menu.

...But the pictures are pretty cute, right?  This family certainly knows how to have fun with food!

For some reason Bela has begun taking more of an interest in the baby lately... ;)

Between Bites

Once again, I am eating and blogging.  It seems that weekends, when Angelines is at work and I've put Emily down for the night, are really the only time I can squeeze a blog in!  Aside from a quick video here or there. ;)

And once again, I am working on my project...or rather taking a study break to eat.  This weekend has been very productive, I'm happy.  I know I haven't really blogged about my topic so you're all in the dark as far as what I'm working on is concerned; all, that is, except my mom who's been my sounding board from the beginning. :)

So the short answer to the question: "What's your capstone project about?" would be: it's a lesson plan.  The longer version would be something along these lines: It's a lesson plan grounded in research that uses CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) to combine the teaching of arts edcation with English as a means of furthering personalized education.  Whew!

Way back when I was hemming and hawing about what I should do for my project, I decided that the most practical was to do a lesson plan (of sorts) pertaining to English teaching, since it is very likely that I will be teaching English and can perhaps someday actually put my plan to use.  Not all of the capstone projects are so practical.  Some are purely research based, some are original research, etc.  And although you might be thinking that it's obvious that I would choose English, you're wrong.

I decided to go back to school to get my degree in Elementary Education here in Spain primarily because I decided I loved teaching...just not teaching English!  I suppose that's not entirely true, but the fact is that I am a curious person and love learning about lots of things (thus teaching a variety of things).  Limiting myself to English education just seemed too boring.  I wanted to be able to open up the posibility of teaching science, art, math, or language arts.

In choosing the topic for my project I was going back and forth as to whether or not I should even deal with English at all!  But the more practical side of me won out and so here I am; however, you'll note that I am combining it with arts education to spice things up.  In fact, CLIL is really about teaching content through an additional language so it's right up my alley. :)

I have dcided to focus on photography--a long-time love of mine--and the manipulation of images through new technologies (Photoshop, etc.).  Surprisingly there are some parallels between my current project and my thesis from way back at Pacific on ficcion vs. fact in literature.  I have chosen to work with the art of Catalan photographer, Joan Fontcuberta who plays constantly with the line between what's real and what comprises fiction.

His most famous photographs are part of collections that are entirely "false" so to speak.  For example, in one show he worked with another artist as well as taxidermists to create an elaborate farce about the astounding Darwinian discoveries of a Dr. Ameisenhaufen, a German zoologist from the 50's.  The alleged doctor discovered many fantastic creatures such as a centaur-like animal with the body of a monkey, flying elephants or legged snakes.  All of these discoveries were documented along with the "original" sketches of Dr. Ameisenhaufen.  The re-discovery of these amazing documents was displayed in a show called "Fauna".  After viewing the show, they found that 30% of visitors between 20-30 yrs, with university training believed the photos to be true!

Many of his shows run along similar lines, challenging the idea that so many of us have of photography as an objective reflection of reality.  When really, the truth is that even when there is no manipulation per se, all photography is subjective because of course we only take pictures of exactly what we want others to see...  And so in my project I am using his work to introduce the idea of photo-manipulation and challenging the students to look critically at the images that surround us, particularly in advertising.

The final product is due the 26th of June.  As some of you know, I will be in Philadelphia with my dearest friend Miriam at that point so the due date for me is a bit earlier.  So far I have finished a first (very rough) draft of the theoretical framework grounding my lesson plan and am plugging away at the acutal classroom application part of it all currently.  We must include all the worksheets/presentations that we mention as materials in the write up, so I am not only writing, but drawing up powerpoint presentations and worksheets like crazy! I would like to turn in the first draft of my actual lesson plan tomorrow, but I'm not sure I'll have all the materials made.  As it stands now, I am pretty much finished detailing each session, but I have yet to make up some of the materials.  We shall see.  Perhaps it will have to be Tuesday.

Wish me luck.  I'm back to work. ;)

A Li'l Drinker!

Another day in the life of Emily's lunch-time adventures!  Although most days she's very interested in her food, she still isn't great about getting much of it into her mouth.  Today's meal was a bit of rice, boiled carrot, squash, pico and a slice of nectarine.  She was pretty interested in the rice; so much so that Angelines couldn't help herself and began feeding her from her own fork.  Emily loved it!  I think she stuffed herself on rice!  But the highlight of the meal was by far when she took it upon herself to drink from her glass.

They say that you needn't give breastfed babies any other liquids, although it's a good idea to offer water with food.  Angelines has been giving her water in a glass for several weeks now.  The truth is she drinks really well.  The times we've tried a sippy cup it just hasn't worked at all...and I'd just as soon she not get used to a bottle even this late in the game.  Today after helping her drink a little, she seemed like she wanted to do it herself, but wasn't quite sure how to grab the cup.  She kept wanting to do it with just one hand like she does her food.  Angelines helped her do it with two hands once and that was that!

Here's a quick video for you all--so cute!




Just to clarify, the first time there was nothing in the cup; and she had been doing much better than you see here before I thought to grab the camera.  Pretty good, huh?

Mother's Day

Selfie at the airtport: Grandma's here!

I'm not one to post sentimental things on facebook.  It just doesn't seem right.  I don't see the point in telling all the world, especially the majority of my FB "friends", about how I feel about this or that or about my dog, or if I'm having health problems or if my grandpa passed on, or how much I love my mom.  I don't mind that other people do, of course, that's a private choice, but it's just not for me.  That said, I do not love my mother any less for not having posted a photo of the two of us on facebook and written a nice little dedication.

Perhaps it's hypocritical, but I feel that my blog is more personal than facebook even though in theory the whole world can access it and FB is only open to my "friends".  There are very few of you who read my blog and all of you are only my closest friends and family.  Somehow I feel it's preferable for a complete stranger to stumble upon my blog and read this than one of the people I might have felt guilted into accepting as a friend on FB.  Complicated.

Anyway, as I was saying: I love my mom.

Just three weeks ago my Mommy came to visit.  It was very brief, but she found a deal on Norwegian Airlines and couldn't pass it up.  So for 10 short days she was here cooking, cleaning, helping me with class prep. and most importantly playing with her grandaughter!

A most appropriate birthday picture: caught in the midst of a diaper change!

Unintentionally, her visit coincided with my birthday and it seemed only right that I celebrate my first birthday as a new mom with my own mother.  After all, exactly thirty two years ago on April 18th, she became a mother for the first time.  People tell you, that some day you'll really appreciate your mom... I like to think that I've always appreciated my mom, though perhaps I haven't alwasy expressed that appreciation; but it is true that becoming a mother myself has made me reflect upon my own upbringing and my own mother in a new light.

Siesta with grandma.

I am grateful that I have such a fantastic role model.  If I am a good mommy to my little Emily, it is only because I've been raised by such an amazing, energetic, fun-loving, caring, attentive, strong, capable, loving, adventurous woman myself.  My mom has done the most incredible and difficult job ever: raising me (and my sisters, of course) to be independant, confident, thoughtful, people.  Because of her (and let's not for get my dad--parenting is definitely a two person job as I am discovering!) I trust that I will be capable of doing the same for my daughter, although I do admit the task is a daunting one.

My mother has taught me to learn from my mistakes--"nothing ventured, nothing gained".  She has taught me that going out on a limb to achieve your dreams it the most important thing you can do in life, but more than the end goal, it's the learning process along the way that really counts.  She has always trusted me: trusted my judgement and my abilities, and she was somehow able to guide me to become my own teacher.  That is the most important job of parenting: protecting and assisting our children just enough for them to learn to be their own people, without smothering them into dependancy.  No small task.

When I look at my little girl, I hope that I will know how to help her love herself the way my mom has helped me.

Thank you, Mommy.  I couldn't ask for a better model of motherhood.  I love you.

Playing with grand-dogger and grandaughter!

It seems that becoming a grandma is just another perk of motherhood. :)

Some Quick Pics

How has a month gone by without a post from me?!  I have mentally posted several times, but somehow, actually sitting down at the computer to write (and not working on other, more pressing tasks) seems to be quite a challenge.

My capstone project is plugging along...slowly and somewhat unsteadily, but I am working on it.  I will be so glad to have it done.  Finishing it is the only thing that motivates me to keep working, honeslty. 

I really do want to sit down and write a more in depth post about the past month (much to to share), but just to send you all something to drool over before I get down to that, I decided to make this a picture post. :)  

You can see that 6 months (the last few pictures) look good on little Em.  She ages well. ;)  We have begun experimenting with solid foods, too in the past few weeks.  Emmy sits down at the table with us at lunch and plays/sucks/eats everything we give her.  I guess she takes after me!  So far the list includes: red pepper, green pepper, carrot, tomato, assparagus, potato, apple, pear, banana, bread, bread sticks and some rice.  We give her bits big enough to grab and she feeds herself.  It's pretty fun to watch her explore with food, and it is amazing to see how quickly her motor skills develop as she's getting so much practice!

Anyway, here you have her:

My favorite bunny.

Her first bath in the big tub with mamma.  She's old enough to like her bath toys now! 

Emmy LOVES Sophie Giraffe! :)

...And Sophie developed a penchant for cerveza at the beach on Monday!

"Hey, you have a hat like this too?!"

A belated Mother's Day at the beach. :)  Emmy cried when we dipped her feet in the water.

She was really groovin' on the banana.

...though I'm not sure how much she swallowed!

Siestas with Mamma are still a favorite. :)

Ramen and Rioja

It's just one of those nights.

My mom left some Top Ramen here over the holidays and my lack of culinary inspiration has led to my first bowl since sophomore year at Pacific!  My roommate and I used to buy huge costco packs of Ramen--your cooking options are limited when you've only got a hot pot to work with; don't judge.  It was a perfect late night study snack, right up there with peanut m&m's... (And I wonder why/how I gained so much weight in college!)  Of course, back in the day, a wine pairing wasn't legal, and honestly maybe it shouldn't be (!); but tonight it feels right to be sipping a good Rioja with my bowl of chicken flavored Ramen.  I've spruced it up a bit with carrots, onion and green pepper.  This is getting downright gourmet!  ;)

When I was a kid the super-long noodles in ramen soup were something that enchanted me!  Emily and I loved to play with them: we laughed at each other's noodle beards, slurpped up them up like Lady and the Tramp, we even swallowed them halfway and then pulled them back up our throats (extra points if the noodle didn't break in the process!).  I'm tempted to give it a try right now, but those things just aren't as much fun withough an audience.

Anyway, Angelines is at work and my baby's down for the count.  I have work to do, but I couldn't miss the chance to reminisce a bit over my hot soup before digging into reading for my capstone project--reading and Ramen...just like the good ol' days.

Cheers!  Hope your dinners are healthier!! ;)

A Crazy Week

Semana Santa is here again!  

Starting Wednesday, Angelines has been working from the early evening (4:30ish) through the wee hours, so Em and I have been on our own.  Although, as many of you who have visited me this time of year know, the number one tradition during Easter Week is to be out and about.  Staying at home is hardly an option. 

Things began on Palm Sunday when we met up with tita Toñi at the procession and then headed to the bar to see Mama.  Of course, we ran into friends and ended up staying for a drink.  Even Emiy joined in and fell asleep on the breast!

We had a little respit at the beginning of the week, but it's been go,go,go since then.  We got dressed up and went out Thursday, visited Mama again and then had dinner over at a friend's house.  Emily is a true little champ about all this being dragged all over kingdom come with me.  Of course, as long as her teta is handy, she's pretty much set.  She was getting tired (read cranky) by the time we arrived for dinner around 9:30, but we settled down on my friend's couch and nursed and things were fine.  She fell alseep and until around 11:30 we didn't head home.  

Keep in mind she's used to being put to bed when she falls asleep between 8-9 every night and then wakes up to nurse between 12 and one at which point she climbs in bed with me and there she stays eating and sleeping until around 7am.  Being out and about hasn't really changed her "schedule" (if you can say she HAS a schedule) per se, but it's true that she has been noticeably more tired in these past two days.  It's a lot of noise and a lot of stimuli for a little one.

We went out for a mid-day beer yesterday and my poor baby just broke down when we were about halfway in to our first round.  I offered her the breast and she nursed some, but the racket and the music and all the people were just suddenly too much to take.  We threw back our drinks and headed for home in a hurry; but there are those who say, that's not the right thing to do: "she needs to get used to the noise!"...  Excuse me??  

(Aside: I have found that EVERYONE, regardless of whether or not they have children of their own, is an expert in child-rearing and will gladly share their wisdom unsolicited.)

I agree that she needs to be well-adjusted and ready for anything.  She certainly needs to get used to noise if she's going to live in this country!  But I also think she needs to feel safe and secure and know that her mothers are looking out for her well-being above all.  If she cries, it's not because she's trying to ruin our fun or because she's "not used to" the noise or being out and about; it's because she's scared or she's tired, or she's hungry or she just wants a little peace and quite.  Don't we all sometimes?  

You or I can pick up and leave when we get sick of being with people, and if we leave it's not beause we're not "used to" people; but my poor little girl is dependant on us to get her out of uncomfortable situations.  I'm not about to let her cry.  A baby gets accostumed to being out and about and in the middle of the noise and hubbub of life when she feels comfortable and safe, not when you leave her crying in the stroller while you have another beer.

This morning we met up with my sister-in-law and Angeline's cousin who's in town for a pre-lunch beer and tapas.  Little Emmy started rubbing her eyes--tell-tale sign that she's tired and on the verge--I whipped out her booby (they must think I only feed her when we're out!) and she was asleep in about 15 minutes.  She continued to suck and sleep until we were just about ready to leave; but she was happy and safe in the midst of loud Spanish voices, children running to and fro, parents calling after the kids, loud orders for more beer being called, strangers oggling her... In my opinon, THAT is how you get a baby used to being out and about.  When she woke up she sat contented for a while observing everything and then we picked up and came home for lunch.  Not asingle peep from her!  She's a trooper.

Today is the last procession here in town and I was originally planning to just stay home and not interrupt my little girl's habbits again, but we've been invited to dinner at another friend's house and I think unless she gets really sleepy/crabby right about the time we need to leave, I'll plan to feed her there and let her take her first few hours of sleep "in the street," so to speak.  So it looks like Emily's first Semana Santa will be celebrated to the bitter end. ;)

And now the part you all REALLY care about: pictures! 

Thursday we stopped by to see Mama at work.

The cutest nazarena in La Roda!!

Those of you who have visited will recognize her outfit: she's a little penitent!  Her Auntie Toñi couldn't resist making the tiny robe and cape for her so she could dress up for Friday's procession.  She made quite the spalsh when we went out.  Everyone was duly impressed, and when we met up with la tita I just had to say goodbye to my baby for a bit because Toñi was bursting at the seems with pride and I was practically running behind them to keep up as she whisked my baby off to be shown off! ;)

A very proud Auntie was showing her off to anyone who'd look!

As the evening wore on, Emmy got more and more tired, and as is the case for all of us, it's just harder to put on a good face for people when you want to go to sleep!  She will cry at the smallest thing when she gets so tired and it's no time to be passing her from person to person.  Baby holding was limited to her very small circle of intimate family--Mommy, tita and abuela.  They couldn't have been happier knowing that she was comfortable enough with them not to cry despite her sleepy state.

Grandma looks like she's about to burst with happiness. ;)

Jesús Nazareno practically knocking at the door...