Reason 13,009 for returning to Spain

A rainy afternoon...

Footage

Caminadora

So I've made up a new Spanish word to capture Sullivan's newest feat: She is officially a "Walkin' girl!" Yep, my little "supah dupah caminadora" is walking on her own completely and is loving it! I even had trouble finding her in our small house yesterday as she was moving so quickly on her two tiny feet. She has been taking a step here and there since 15mos, but greatly preferred crawling and basically refused to work on walking (held up her feet as we held her arms!?) when we tried to entice her. She is fiercely independent and I am quickly noticing that everything has to be on her terms and when she is ready. (My mom says she comes by that honestly, as I was quite a little pistol myself.) Needless to say, we are so happy for her newfound freedom. Go Sullivan, go!

No!

This morning when I walked into Sullivan's room to wake her for our school day, I asked her as I often do, "How are you this morning?...Did you sleep well?" And she looked up at me (scrunched nose, with her hair a total mess) and simply said, "No."

She has officially learned it! Uh oh! "No" is now part of her vocabulary and although she is simply stating it and hasn't yet used it as a weapon of strength or in defense as of yet, who knows what is to come.

Lee and I have recovered well from our bug and are now looking forward to a long weekend with a babysitter-date night on Saturday and lots of family time. He is even off on Monday, which is great as my birthday is Sunday. It should be a very nice weekend and I hope that you have a great one as well!

Polar opposites

I have two extremes to report:
1. Lee and I have had a terrible bout of food poisoning (or some other equally as vicious GI bug) and have been sadly draped over couches, chairs and floors today yet,
2. Sullivan has clumsily but successfully fed herself with a spoon for the first time (a full dip of the utensil and cram into the mouth!) as well as taken more steps independently than ever before. Toting items while walking has been of particular interest...

So, although Lee and I feel like zombies, our angel girl is soaring sky high. For this, we are grateful. For Lee's call night tomorrow, we are a bit less appreciative.
Pictures and video to come as soon my energy returns. I do hope that you and yours are healthy and happy!

Back to school!

Sorry for the delay in posting! We are back in the swing of things, going to work and school! Whew! Last week was a bit of a struggle...getting up again at 5:45a, waking Sullivan 1.5hrs earlies than usual, 3 new back teeth emerging, getting used to being on my feet teaching for 5hrs a day = one very tough week! Transitions are always challenging and perhaps the teething and night wakings just put me over the edge. I was just so very exhausted all last week.
Today we are off to a better start and I think we are on our way towards re-establishing Sullivan's school schedule, with going to bed a bit earlier and getting up earlier. Those summer days sure were relaxing, though!
Sullivan continues to progress and take more and more steps walking! So fun! And also, we are loving Jack's Big Music Show off of Noggin on Demand. She loves the music and dancing, I'll have to video it soon!