We're moving again! Just another day in the life of the Connellys. We'll be in Santiago, Chile for 4 1/2 months. Mike has a temporary work assignment there so Jay, Amaya and I are tagging along. Truth be told Amaya was jealous that Jay lived in a foreign country when she never had the chance, so we couldn't deny her the opportunity when it came up. We're very excited (minus the moving/packing part) and we're very pleased to be missing the HOT Tucson summer here in exchange for a mild Santiago winter. We can't wait to tour the city, take in the culture, learn salsa, ski the Andes and practice our Spanish. New life adventure? Why not! So who's coming to visit?
Jay is at such a fun age right now. He is growing up so fast and learning so quickly! I love to listen to him talk every day and see how he is trying to make sense of the English language. I also love hearing him use Spanish words occasionally during play like "vamanos!" or "claro que si" or "rapido." We hope he'll be using many more once he starts preschool in Chile. He sure is a cutie and we love being his parents. Here are a few of the funny things he's said lately.
A few months back I taught Jay the word evaporated. It had been raining frequently and Jay was always curious about where the water went when it stopped raining and dried off the ground. Well, the other day he and daddy were playing on the trampoline when he looked down at his little kiddie pool and saw that all the water in it had dried up. Excitedly he turned to daddy and said, "Daddy, look the water is all baptized!"
Jay has been trying to grasp the concept of time. Telling him we'll go somewhere in an hour, tomorrow or in 6 months essentially all mean the same thing to him. He often uses the words yesterday and tomorrow as a reference for things in the past or future (whether or not they really happened yesterday or will happen tomorrow). Well, his newest thing is to completely cut out all this past or future talk and just combine them. Now he tells us that things happened "last morrow" or they will happen "last morrow." Such as, "Daddy, we just went to the park last morrow." or "I always did that last morrow" or "We'll go see grandma last morrow, right mom?"
Since transitioning to a big bed boy about 6 or 7 months ago (when we moved to Tucson) Jay still will cry out for us to come get him out of bed before he'll get out himself. He has to be pretty desperate to get out himself (like the 2 times we have forgotten to turn on his monitor and he has come bursting into our room in tears in the early morning wondering why we've abandoned him after, who knows, hours? of crying). He doesn't really take naps anymore but when I really need one after a night of little sleep, he will play quietly in his bed for an hour while I sleep. One day he had been in bed for about an hour and a half while I slept and he was getting pretty bored. Of course he wouldn't get out of bed to tell me it was time to get up, but instead cried out to me until I finally came in to get him. When I opened the door to the room he looked up at me and said, "I just be waiting patiently for you! Sometimes I always be patient." It's true little one. You are very patient.
Daddy has been teaching Jay some new tricks on the trampoline and he's always excited to show them off to me. One day I was in the house when he came running in and excitedly said, "Mommy, look at my new trick!" Suddenly he smacked his bum down on the kitchen floor without trying to catch himself. He had done a "seater". His face was a little stunned and he said, "Owe!" Then he excitedly got back up and came into the living room where he did another seater, this time on the carpet. still didn't feel too good. I guess he didn't realize that his tricks really should just be done on the tramp. Here's a video of his trick on the tramp for those of you who don't know what a seater is.
Amaya turned 2 months old yesterday. I've made it! The 2 month mark always signifies the return of normalcy for me. It feels like Amaya has always been here and we've figured things out to some degree. Of course anyone with kids knows as soon as you think you have a handle on things, something changes to throw it all off again. For now though, things are going well. She's still waking up 1 - 3 times a night (in a 12 hour period) but at least she still goes right back to sleep after she eats. And how can I not be happy to wake up to this little face?
Note that she still loves to stick her tongue out! She saw the doctor today and she now weighs 10 pounds 13 ounces (the 50th percentile) and is 21 1/2 inches long (the 55th percentile). She is a growing girl. She's significantly upped her percentiles from birth. She certainly loves to eat!
Check out that double chin. Her development is right and track and she's growing stronger every day - she's very close to rolling over. She loves to smile and coo at us, especially her big brother.
Of course, Jay's still learning how to be soft with her. Check out the look she's giving me. Really mom? You're going to let him squash my head?
I love it when she smiles at her toys. So cute!
The doctor's visit also brought her first round of vaccines. Poor little sugar. She's certainly not liking the hurty legs that accompany shots.
Luckily she's still pretty happy - even with her owies. She has such a happy, content personality.
I think she learned the moves to "Thriller" somewhere :)
Here are a few videos to get a better feel of what our little girl's like.
So after I watched this I realized that Jay put "plant weeder" (which is weed killer in his vocab) in my drink. ha ha ha! I guess I've been poisoned :) Jay is doing great too - more about him to come soon.
Over the weekend we had family in town for Amaya's blessing. Nona, Nona Great, Grandma, Grandpa and Robbie were here. We had a full house! It was so fun to play together and to share Amaya's special day together (which happened to be Mother's Day and our 7th anniversary too)! Here are some pictures of the weekend.
Poor Jill was sick so she had to wear a mask when she held Amaya.
Jay was thrilled to have his grandparents here!
Here we are at Saguaro National Park.
Eating yummy Mexican food.
Amaya certainly didn't miss out on being held all weekend :)
Here she is in her favorite position on my lap - surrounded by her Nonas!
Kisses from big brother. He's always wanting to give her loves and kisses!
Mike and Rob made us German Pancakes for breakfast on Mother's Day.
And finally the big event! Amaya's blessing. Mike, Rob, and 3 of our ward friends stood in the circle (Blayne Caffrey, Brian Cherry and Dan Reimann). Mike gave a beautiful blessing to our baby girl. It was wonderful to share the experience with friends and family. Jill made Amaya the beautiful blessing dress. Isn't it amazing? It fit her perfectly and Jill made it without measuring Amaya once! She looked like a little princess on her blessing day.
4 Generations of Erickson women :)
Nona made Amaya this beautiful blanket. She knit the entire thing herself. Isn't it amazing? I have such talented mothers!
