Lucia's Happy Place

Disclaimer: this is a post that will most likely only be interesting to my mom.

When my baby is crabby all day long and I can't figure out what she needs, I put her in the bath.

And then I get this:

Dance Party

We've had lots going on in the month of March. First, we finally put our house on the market. After much debate, frantic cleaning and clearing out, we listed it with a supposedly well respected, big, real estate company. We haven't had a single visitor in three weeks.

Our stake presidency decided that we needed to have an activity just for couples, so Mario and I were put in charge of planning a couples only dance. About 150 people attended (and less than 10 kids!) and we seriously danced for 4 hours without stopping. Definitely a success.

(stake presidency & wives: me & Mario, Cintia & Jose Zacarias, Carola & Cesar Toricella)

These are 2/3 year old sons of the stake presidency. Someone misbehaving at a primary activity?? Probably one of these. Roque figured out Filipe and Gabe go to church together while he goes to a different ward, and he was mighty unhappy about it. I'm sure any primary president is glad they are seperated!

Our stake primary invited every family to make a model of a story from the scriptures or church history, and then we all got together to display them. A great display of creativity and workmanship!

pioneer history model made by the stake primary president.
We created King Benjamin preaching to the people who had gathered around and set up tents to listen to him. Not nearly as detailed as the others!

For a ward activity I planned this month, we had a "foam" dance. All the members were invited to make hats out of craft foam and then we handed out awards. The primary made maracas and learned how to dance the "murga" - or dance that starts carnival in latin countries. In addition, we gave out cans of that spray foam/silly string stuff in the middle of the dance for people to spray each other. Great times had by all, and especially fun for me is that Gabe LOVES to dance with me! We had the best time.

This friday is the farewell party for a kid from our ward leaving on his mission. It's a short fireside, then a potluck dinner, then a dance. I'll miss all the dancing when we're not in Argentina anymore!

Lucia 5 Months

My little lovey girl turned 5 months old on Saturday, and I cannot believe how fast the time is flying.

At her check-up on Monday she weighed in at 16 lbs. 13 oz. and 26.5 inches long. That's the same length at Gabe at this age, but a little over a pound lighter.

She rolls over and then scoots around almost like she wants to crawl, but annoyed that she's face planting in the ground. So we've pulled out Gabe's walker and she's enjoying being upright. She can barely reach the ground so moves a little but not much, and as expected, everything she can reach goes to her mouth. When she can't reach anything, in goes her thumb.

As she learned to communicate from Gabe, she is full of happy squeals and shreeks, especially about 5 am, when we then have to move her basinet out of Gabe's room so she doesn't wake him up. She smiles by opening her mouth huge and wide and has the most adorable laugh. She is very friendly and loves to smile and laugh at strangers.

I gave her her first taste of banana this week, and she gobbled it right up. But her favorite is still nursing, and would just sit and suck for hours if I let her.

She is my absolute love bug, and I cannot get enough of her!

Raising a Girl

I recently had a light work week, so was finally able to get around to a project I've been dying to try - making baby shoes. It was harder than I thought - working with the small sizes, adapting a pattern for what I wanted, and finding ones that would stay on her feet, but I think we had a pretty good first run. She ended up with 4 pairs, and I would have kept going but Mario was tired of the mess all over the kitchen table and some new work projects came in...

I even made leather ones!!! But leather isn't soft and flexible like fabric, so they're too small. But as soon as I can I'm making more!

(Baby Brown, these will be your first gift from Aunt Adri)

Heard Around Here Lately

I am recording these in Spanish because that is how Gabe said them.

G: Mama, viene pichi!!.... (despues que llegamos al inodoro) ah, no viene, se fue a su casa con su mama y abuela.

G: Mom, pee pee is coming! (after we get to the toilet) oh, it's not coming. It went home to it's house with it's mom and grandma.

G: Se enoja piderman (spiderman) si se moja con pichi!

G: Piderman (spiderman) gets mad if he gets wet from pee pee. (re: his spiderman underwear)

Last night Mario got out of the shower and didn't get dressed right away and Gabe walked up behind him and started poking his bum.

G: que es esto? Tu colita? Que tiene? Tiene pichi y caca? Es feo.

G: What is this? Your bum? What does it have? Pee pee and caca? It's ugly.

I tried to tell Mario I didn't think he had an ugly bum, but I was laughing too hard to get the words out.