SINGAPORE DIARY - DAY 3 (Crazy Day)

What a weird day.... Left early and stay late at work, hate it when that happens..... Didn't spend much time with Giulia today but we did get to go to our neighbor Dorothy's and Miss G. was the hit of the party, as expected. The kids loved her, played with her, wanted to hang with her... She is so amazingly cool, it is my absolute pleasure to hang and sspend time with my daughter. Giulia, you rock!

John, honey, you are now on an airplane, on your way back to us and we simply can't wait to see you. We love you so much and since you left, we've been quite empty.

Singapore - DIARY - day 2

Interesting day.... many changes happening... The one good thing is that you may be coming home soon...

Singapore - DIARY

John left yesterday for a TWELVE day business trip. Giulia and I promised to write him a daily log between now and when he gets back.
Tuesday 6/2:
I worked in the office until 3:30. At lunchtime I stopped in Gymboree (had gotten a call that everything was an extra 30% off) and purchased some summer items for Gi. Got 4 pairs of socks, a hat, capris, a bodysuit, 4 tank-tops and a pair of boots for $28. How? Well, with the exception of the boots, 1 tank top and the bodysuits, EVERY OTHER ITEM was less than one dollar! We did pretty well here, ey? :)

Came home and spent the rest of the day / night with Ms. Gi. It was a beautiful day and she got to spend it outside with Santana. At 7ish Gi went to sleep. At 9ish she woke up and we hung out until 10ish when she went to sleep. At 6:00AM she woke up and despite my efforts to have her go back to sleep, Giulia was up for the day!

I worked all day, went grocery shopping and came home. This is what was awaiting me....

Newsletter: Month 13

Giulia, yesterday you turned 13 months old. This has been a crazy month for mommy and daddy because we have been negotiating for a job in Seattle for the past month, so our anxiety level has been high.... Mommy in particular doesn't do too well with uncertainty!

The weather has turned for the better in the last few weeks so you have begun to play in your princess pool. You are reluctant when getting into the pool but once you are in you seem to enjoy it.

You are also becoming more secure in your walking and have been exploring new sounds. Your books have become very important to you. In particular you like the small Baby Einstein books and love to have Mommy, Daddy and Santana read to you. Your favorites are the Brazilian book you always chew and the Baby Einstein book with the pop open flaps.

Mommy has been working with you on petting Charlie and Daisy. She has been trying to teach you not to grab and pull their fur but to pet them. You love Charlie and Daisy very much but at times can be a bit energetic with them.

Lately you have become a bit needy with Mommy and Daddy. You love to be held and carried around the house. You get upset when you are put down or when you are given to someone else and you have begun to hug more. We can't tell you how wonderful it is to get a hug from you.

Your sleeping is still an issue and you are still teething. Lately you have been waking up in the early morning and not going straight back to sleep. Mommy and Daddy made the tactical error of bringing you into our bedroom and feeding you a bottle to get you back to sleep. We are now having a difficult time transitioning you back to your own bed. Mommy and Daddy cherish our time with you but is sure makes our work day a quite trying.

Even though our anxiety levels have been up do to the pending move our love for you and each other has kept us grounded. You constanty remind us of the important things in life which are our love for each other and you and the esance of our family.

Newsletter: Month 12

Giulia, today you turned one year old. I’ve been thinking of what I wanted to say to you when you reached this milestone, and I decided that I wanted to start with even before your father and I got pregnant with you… even then, we already wanted you so, so much. As soon as your dad and I started dating, we would have conversations about one day soon, having kids. Then on April 14th 2007 we secretly eloped and got married. Well, as soon as your dad and I made it “legal”, we decided that this “one day” should be immediately! Luckily for us, it took us one try and a month later we found out that we were expecting you.

On Saturday August 25th, three days after my period was supposed to start, your dad and I took a pregnancy test and it was negative. On the 26th, your dad drove me to the airport and I left for Asia on a business trip. During my 1st night in Singapore – I’d been lying awake pretty much all night, unable to sleep / get adjusted to the time difference – so, I decided to call your dinda Bruna to chat and while we were on the phone debating whether if “drinking wine and eating raw fish could harm the baby, just in case I had taken the pregnancy test too soon thus getting a false “negative” result”, I decided to take yet another pregnancy test, “just to make sure”. This time, the result was positive and I just can’t describe how incredibly happy I felt when I saw the double pink line. I hung up with your dinda and called your dad to tell him that our life as we knew it was going to change forever! Needless to say, those were the longest 2 weeks ever – I so desperately wanted to be home with your father and celebrate and share every single second of this pregnancy with him and no wine or fish for me!

And Gi, here you are now, a year after the nurse handed you to me in the hospital and you reached your little hand out to me. The love that I instantaneously felt for you and the overwhelming desire to protect you and to make sure that you had the best possible life was and still is the most powerful thing I’ve ever felt in my life.

You are a totally different baby then when we brought you home. You are so happy and independent and you know what you want and what you like and you make sure that everybody is aware of what that is! You like to play with your new toys, your big thing now is to talk on the telephone, untwist caps, put things into something and take them out, you love books and babies (neném!) and you are starting to stand on your own and to babble quite a bit. I love how excited you get at bath time when you play with your toys in the big girls tub and when you look at yourself in the mirror. You still love to watch Xuxa and to sing along with her and you love to watch the new DVDs that vovó brought to you from Brazil. You’ve become such a cuddler of late and when you give us the absolute best and biggest hugs, your dad and I simply melt in your arms...

This has been the best year of my life: I have never learned so much about life and compassion and love. You have taught me so much already... I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, one through the magic of your eyes. Our world has so much more color since you’ve been in it and now everything makes so much more sense and we feel so complete since you’ve become a part of our lives. There has never been a more peaceful moment in my life than when I go into your room and watch you sleep, breathe, to hear your life in the air. I thought there was meaning in my life before you came along, but in reality, I didn’t even know the meaning of meaning.

Stats:

Weight: 23 pounds - 75%

Length: 31.5 inches - 97%

Roseolla

Roseola (roseola infantum) is a mild illness caused by a virus. It is generally harmless and is most common in children 6 months to 2 years of age. It is rare after age 4. Roseola is caused by two common viruses. The viruses that cause roseola are spread through tiny droplets of fluid from the nose and throat of infected people when they laugh, talk, sneeze, or cough. It is thought that the viruses are spread by someone who has not yet developed the symptoms of roseola. There is no known way to prevent the spread of roseola.Roseola often starts with a sudden high fever [103° (39.4°) to 105° (40.6°)] that lasts 2 to 3 days, although it can last up to 8 days. The rapid increase in temperature may be the first sign of roseola and often occurs before you realize that your child has a fever. The fever ends suddenly.After the fever ends, a rosy-pink rash may appear over your child's entire body, starting on the torso and spreading to the face, neck, and arms. The rash is not itchy and may last 1 to 2 days. The rash may appear without the fever. On rare occasions, a sore throat, stomach ache, vomiting, and diarrhea occur.A child with roseola may appear fussy or irritable and may have a decreased appetite, but most children behave almost normally.

Poor bunny...

Happy Birthday, my Beautiful Princess!

Sunday, 4/19/2009

Someone is....

standing up all by herself (started a couple of days before Easter) and as of a couple of days ago, taking tiny steps....

I don't think it will be long before Giulia starts walking!

Newsletter: Month 11

Dear Giulia,

On 3/30 you turned 11 months old. This letter will have a bit of a different format than previous ones, because you’ve developed so much this month that I want to make sure that I capture as much as I can here, so that when you have your own babies, you can show them how advanced, smart and extremely cute you were as a baby (qualities, which I am sure you will continue to have for the rest of your life):

· We are still working on having you sleep in your crib by yourself: sometimes it works, but most times it doesn’t. You have, however, begun to let go of our hand in less and less time, once we put you in your crib. Part of the problem here is that your daddy and I love it so much when you hang on to us, so even though we know that we "should" be letting you sleep on your own, we just love it when you cling on to us and don’t let us go. I have a feeling that, consequently, this process will continue to develop slowly...
· You are standing on your feet more and more – you’ll be walking any time now. In mid-March you stood in the big girls tub all by yourself. You are letting go of our hands and trying to walk on your own. When you crawl, you do a funny crawl/walk, because I think that you can't stand not being able to walk yet!
· You are really enjoying bath time again and are doing great in the big tub.
· Santana brought our Pilates ball upstairs and she has been playing with you by rolling you on the ball. One morning, as I was going down the stairs to go to work, I heard the most contagious laugh coming from downstairs. I stood by the room where you 2 were playing and Giulia; you were laughing so deliciously hard and having so much fun, that I couldn’t stop looking at you amazed at how happy you are. I thank God every day that you are so incredibly happy - it's contagious, really.
· You started eating real apples, home-made baby food, yogurt melts (you can’t get enough of them), crackers…. You have graduated to real food now, little one.
· You are quite vocal and you make the funniest sounds. You have said: mama, dada, papa, esse (“this” in Portuguese), you will say: eeeeeeeeeeey!, trrrrrrrrrrrrra!
· You blow kisses, wave good-bye, make fishy-mouth.
· You clap hands, you sing, you play with Charlie and Daisy. It took this long, but now Charlie actually loves to play with you! I know, our puppy was jeaulous of you at 1st, but now, he can't get enough of you - as we knew he would.
· On weekends, the 2 of us have been going out on mommy and daughter trips: we go to the stores, supermarket, walks… and everywhere we go, people can’t believe how happy, smiley and beautiful you are. .Daddy still loves to put you to bed at night and is spring loaded to run into your bedroom when you make the slightest peep. In the morning you are typically waking up before us so we go and get you and cuddle with you for 10 or 15 minutes before you start your day. This is the best part of mommy and daddy's day.
· When we come home from work at the end of they day you are always very happy to greet us. We can't tell you how wonderful the feeling is to see your smiling face after the workday.
· You are staring to understand what 'no' means. Since your baby teeth (you have 6 of them now) came in you can no longer chew on our hands without hurting Mommy and Daddy so we have begun telling you 'no, that hurts Mommy (or Daddy)' and you usually stop when we say this to you.

OK, my little genius. Mommy is planning your 1st birthday party and part of me can’t believe how fast this time flew by and I feel nostalgic about my little baby that was so tiny, only 11 months ago, but the other, more prevailing one, feels so lucky and so blessed to have had the best – almost – year of my life. You and your father have made me complete.