Samil l.o.v.e.s. to...

i'm amazed by the things samil is learning to do on his own...

he pulls himself up to stand and walks around holding on to things. recently he perfected the one-handed stand, but really on so that he could munch on some pineapple at the same time... he waves bye-bye, and loves to take things out of boxes. most favorite box? our pots and pans cabinet. and he likes to bang on them.

this, of course, drives the nanny upstairs nuts - she doesn't like a mess and she hates noise - so when she comes downstairs with sara, i like there to be a huge mess in the apartment to see how much it takes to give her a heart attack.

samil also eats finger foods and all the other typical "baby" progress things. really, i'm not the mom who is like "wow, look at what my kid does" when really they are just on a normal development path.

i've come to hate the competitive moms. you know, the ones who tell me, "my kid says 17 words... and he's only 6 months old!" or "my baby was walking alone at 3 weeks!" or my favorite, "our baby already eats pizza and mcdonalds!!!" (this is significant because both pizza and mcdonalds are luxury foods here, things that normal joe schmoe would have to make some sort of sacrifice to purchase. giving it to a baby, besides being unhealthy, is just economically ridiculous). so, i think samil is on the right path. not slow. not super-fast.

the one thing i'm happy about though, is that he is becoming more vocal. happy because i think he's advanced? no. just because i think its really cute. i can't really wait til he starts talking because he's going to say some pretty hilarious things - baby english and baby spanish mixed to gether? i think it will be great. oh, and he's got 8 teeth (in case you weren't keeping count)

here are some pictures of samil with his favorite toys. yep, took right after mommy with the books.

mangopalooza.

i mentioned before that it's mango season. and in case you were wondering what were some of the benefits of living here... i mean besides living thisclose to the beach, never dealing with snow, supereconomic rent, beautiful people...

besides all of that, we've got free, fresh, organic fruit. that's right, free.

and fresh. as in, just off the tree.

my favorite season is mango season, because even here in the city there is a surplus of deliciousness. the school i work in has about 10 mango trees that right now are f.u.l.l. of ripe fruit. and amalio's school also has a mango tree.

we always try to give samil fresh fruit when possible as opposed to babyfoodinajar. not because of preservatives or anything granolamommish like that, i just think fresh tastes better. and well, free is much less expensive than gerber.

that said. samil l.o.v.e.s. mango. almost as much as his dad does. but we've never been generous enough to give him his own mango. always just pieces of ours. until last night.

we received another gift of a sack of mangoes and decided we could give one to the baby. lets just say, i was still mopping this morning.

love at first bite.

i love boxes.

all kinds of boxes. i have a mini-collection that i fill with little things, loose change, junk. things that aren't worth really organizing, but need to be put away.

but what i really love are boxes that come in the mail. i don't care if they're for me or not, but going to the mailcenter to pick something up is exhilirating.

my friend nick sent some boxes down and today i needed to pick them up. twenty minutes before i needed to leave, i opened my email and received a message from the mailcenter. a box was opened and most of its contents lost in the USPS.

sad. but the only thing i could think was "i hope it wasn't the box with the reeses cups"

luckily, it wasn't.

you see, reeses are a commodity here. its the one type of chocolate that in 4 years i've never seen in this country.

so, this afternoon, we cracked open the reeses and dove in.

d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.

bull.

so, the bishop from my home diocese is on trial. for what, you ask? stealing money? no no. beating children? nope.

he's on trial - with the possibility of being "defrocked" (ha, i love that word) - for something that his brother did.

35 years ago.

okay, there's more to it than that. bishop was the priest of a church where his brother worked -- and had a relationship with a teenage girl. (the brother, not the bishop). the brother was 24 and the girl was 15. she claims it ruined her life. it was abuse.

and now, they want to have bishop knocked down because he didn't respond correctly. in the 70s when there was no protocol for sexual "abuse" nor were there rules about that kind of mess.

seriously, if you really want him out - get him on something real... or fire him. let's be adults and stop beating around the bush about the fact that the diocese doesn't want the man - he's draining the bank accounts - and they couldn't figure out a better way to get rid of him.

disclaimer: this trial is WAY more complicated than this. i know. its unfair to post just part not knowing who reads this blog. frankly, i don't care. i think the whole thing is ridiculous. when you put a 75 year old mom on the stand to talk about something that was done (or not done) 35 years ago... and not even by the person who is on trial. if we're that mad, do something about the brother who actually "abused" the girl. thank you.

mango.

amalio and i just finished what can only be called a binge.

our neighbor dropped off, oh, 12 mangoes. and apart from the one we put aside for samil... there are none left.

its almost the end of mango season.
who could blame us?

9 months.

Samil is now officially nine months old. i don't really know what he's supposed to be doing at 9 months, but whatever he does is pretty damn cute.
except eating dirt. i'm not a big fan of the dirt eating. but i suppose he could eat worse.


i got a hair cut this week. the first in a year (wow) and the i had to get some bangs. yep, that's right. bangs. i haven't had them since middle school. but i have a lot of new baby hairs coming in that look ridiculous, so the bangs are my way of trying to control it. so far, so good.

samil got this outfit from aunt lisa. he's worn it three times already. mainly because i think he's cute.
amalio says he looks like a rat.

we're already teaching samil the fine art of teaching. he loves markers. and pencils. and books. i think he might just be a genius.

this is samils "what the hell are you talking about mommy" face. it makes me laugh.

i hope you all had a good week. we've been super busy here, hence the lack of posting. no worries, though, things are good.

home-making.

i'm kinda sick of reading other people's blogs. i'm going on vacation.

i read some random blogs, people i don't know. you know when i can't sleep at night because i'm worried about how clean the house is and if i'm stimulating samil's little brain enough or is my work consuming my life and not leaving time for my family? so, i read. blogs.

of supermoms.

you know the moms who work full time, have perfect hair, perfect makeup and thighs that only ever conversed during pregnancy? the ones who despite having three kids, not only manage to get their kids to soccer practice - on time - but have cut up orange slices for the team? whose houses look like magazine spreads and they don't even have a maid?

yah. them.

its no wonder i can't sleep.