Ooh... growin’ up

Life at the Vargas household is very exciting these days. Little Laney is just about 6 months old, she has 2 teeth, she can sit, and she's just itching to start crawling. She keeps throwing herself forward when she is sitting to try to get from point a to point b. She's also mastered rolling from her back to her belly. She particularly likes to do this when she is sleeping. Then she wakes up, and cries because she struggles getting rolled back over to her back. We've been working on Belly to Back rolls and last night she mastered a few on her own. Fingers crossed this new trick sticks.

She's started doing some very adorable things recently, such as reaching out for mom and dad when she wants us to pick her up. I've also taught her "high five". She's been starting to have her rice cereal almost every night now... that's dad's job since she won't let mom come near her with a spoon. After her six month check up we'll start adding some veggies to the mix.

This past weekend her Pop-Pop and Nana came to visit and she showed off all her new tricks for them. Pop-Pop's scratchy beard even elicited some giggles out of her.

We are all just trying to love every minute of it because she changes so much every day. My little lady isn't so little anymore!

El fin de semana de la familia Vargas

On Thursday night, Elena met her Tia Elidani for the first time. Elidani was in town from Elche, Alicante, Spain to visit with the family and celebrate Ito's Birthday, Emma's Christening and Emma's 1st Birthday.

Saturday afternoon, Juan served as Godfather at cousin Emma's christening. On Sunday we headed back down to Montgomery County to celebrate Emma's first birthday. I can't believe how big Emma has gotten and how big Elena is getting. Elena had the opportunity to spend lots of time with her family, and meet a few second cousins and family members she hadn't met yet.

Lots of pictures have been posted to the Picasa Album

Oh, and if things weren't crazy enough she decided it was time to cut another tooth too... bringing her grand total to two.

Daddy Found Some Teeth!

Here's how it went down...

Juan (sitting on the couch with Elena)- I think Elena is a little warm.
Elena (grabbing Juan's hand and putting it in her mouth)- aagghhaa
Juan- I think she has a tooth!!!

Elena cut her first tooth with a 100.2 degree fever and never made a peep! Ok maybe that's a slight exaggeration. Today's event could explain mom's sleepless nights for the past week.

We'll try to get a picture but she's not a big fan of us poking around in her mouth to see her new tooth.

A Message from Elena

70 Degrees in February?

Must take advantage of weather like this when it comes! The happy family took a walk up to Riverside park and introduced Elena to the swings for the first time. She loved it until the wind started blowing!

Bindy also enjoyed the extra time out at the park. She hasn't seen walks like that since Mom was trying to walk to induce labor and we walked laps for two days straight.

Elena the Big Girl!

Saturday, February 7th was a very big day for little Elena Grace. She had her first taste of organic rice cereal mixed with breast milk. Ok so maybe it was more like breast milk mixed with a little organic rice cereal. It took her a few bites to decide if she liked this concept but we think she decided she did. In the end she ate about a half a tablespoon of cereal.

We think it made her very happy because our super serious baby treated us to quite the giggle fest as well. We had to work very hard for the giggles and I'm sure that if any one walked in they would have thought we were insane.

Finally, this whole "sitting" thing finally clicked with her. As of Friday, she couldn't balance herself to save her life. As of Saturday, she's sitting on her own for minutes at a time.

New York, New York!

Four months old and already a NYC Veteran! Friday night we drove into the city and stayed at Hotel Caroline (thanks to C for giving us a place to stay!). Although it was way past her bedtime Elena woke up to play with Caroline for a bit before going to bed.

It's a little frightening how dead NYC is at 7 am on a Saturday morning. We took the opportunity to take Juan to Times Square (he had never been), and Elena up to FAO Schwartz and were back on the Lower East side before noon.

In case you've never had the opportunity to see it... you should hit up FAO Schwartz as it opens. All of the employees line the entrance way and clap and cheer as you walk in. I have to say even as an adult it was pretty cool... I can only imagine what it would be like for a kid.

Juan hit up the Big piano and we checked out all the toys. Elena was enthralled by all the colors and shapes.

We are excited to go back to visit in the spring and try to find Suri in Central Park.