Eléa: December and more....

December brought with it many new experiences. Eléa's abuelitos came for a visit and to help out as my arm finishes healing, new teeth emerged, Eléa's first cold/ear infection was experienced, and of course many new tricks were learned.

These days Eléa loves twinkle twinkle little star, ring around the rosie, reading tons of books, running around naked, and her most favorite of all, shaking her head no with a naughty grin. She has mastered the no head shake and has just begun a very vigorous attempt at the yes head nod. We are hearing more whining and cries when something is not her way (though much of that seems to have been attributed to the ear infection), but no full fledged tantrums as of yet. Her sleeping has also been all over the place, but we are desperately hoping it is a result of the ear infection or a brief phase..... Fingers crossed for us. (Update: what we dubbed as the 18 month sleep regression did not go away on its own and required another challenging 'sleep training' experience. currently all seems well, but Eléa likes to keep us on our toes).

She has enjoyed all the attention from her abuelitos and we have enjoyed the help. Sometimes it feels like Eléa's life is a constant musical as one flick of the hand from Eléa results in four adults breaking into song. Eléa did not seem to be the biggest fan of winter and hated her winter coat, hats and gloves, but now she happily puts them all on and loves to walk her baby stroller outside. We eagerly await the onslaught of many words which seem to be just on the tip of her tongue. Not sure whether her first words will be in English or Spanish, but we're taking bets.

The winter has meant more time indoors, which can be a bit challenging. She remains a huge flirt and clown and peppers mami and papi with lots of hugs and affection.... I say it is a good strategy to avoid a 3am strangling.... She also loves to sway back and forth with a very serious expression (her not so cool dancing moves) to the music, and these days wants the music on at all times. She has mastered most of the animal movements, but not yet the sounds. Her cat, snail and kangaroo are particularly entertaining.