2 Months Old

It feels like time is flying by. Emily turned two months old on December 21st and she's already changed so much. Arves and I decided to list a few of the things we already miss and new things she's doing that we absolutely love.

Things we miss:

• Her grunts - When we first brought her home Emily grunted all night long. She still grunts but definitely not as much as she used to which, makes for a more pleasant night although we still miss it.
• How little she was - Emmy was born at 6 lbs 12 oz and now I realize how tiny she really was. She's much bigger now (10 lbs) and starting to get those lovely rolls on her thighs, we can't wait for more!
• The way she would scrunch - Whenever Emily woke up from a nap she would strech arching her back and moving her legs up to her tummy as she moved her face from side to side. She still stretches now but not as curled up.

New accomplishments:

• Smiles - Emily definitely has those down and is quite a delight to see her face light up when she looks at us, or at the fan :)
• Coos - She's starting to coo more and more these days and makes the cutest little sounds.

• Laughs - Every now and then we get lucky and get a laugh out of her. She has not mastered this yet but is getting better and better every day.

From day one Emily has been good at tracking and following objects and at tummy time. She can already lift her head and part of her chest. She's always been such a happy little girl and we love her to death!

Sam and Anya Do Austin . . . Scavenger hunt style

For Thanksgiving Sam and Anya flew in to meet Emily. Well that, and eat some turkey. In honor of their visit we put together a photo scavenger hunt of Austin including a few of the images below. They did an outstanding job and found all of the clues. Here's a few example images

First things first you must take a picture with the cutest thing in Austin . . .















This famous mural is on the side of an interesting art studio that sells vintage looking, neon-highlighted signs and canvas drawings. It's definitely a good place to start an Austin tour . . . and possibly use the bathroom.













The Eiffel Tower:


Best view of Austin (and Austin's favorite Blues singer)


Yes, Austin is an eccentric place . . . take this cow for instance


Largest metropolitan bat colony (both the bats and the colony in this instance)












We needed a little help in climbing the moon towers



















It was great having Sam and Anya here and we can't wait to see them again soon!

Emily's Turns 1 (month)

Emily is one month old today, which is weird because it feels like she was born yesterday. We can hardly believe how quickly time is passing and how much we have already come to love this happy little girl.

Since it was such a beautiful day we dressed her up in some new clothes (recently imported from her fans in Spain) and went outside with the camera to watch the sun set and capture a few of our favorite Emily faces. See if you can pick out my favorite ;).

Hoy Emily cumple un mes de nacida, lo que parece extrano ya que se siente como si fue ayer. Es dificil creer lo rapido que pasa el tiempo y lo mucho que queremos a nuestra bebe tan contenta.

Como el dia estaba tan precioso, la cambiamos en ropa nueva (que le mando su tia Carla) y salimos a disfrutar el dia y a tomar fotos de las expresiones de Emily. A ver si pueden seleccionar cual es mi favorita ;).

Emily Visits Inks Lake - Emily Visita el Lago Inks

This post is dedicated to my dad who, despite all the frustrations of using a computer, has made an effort to check his email and even check out our blog to see his new grandaughter. Therefore I'm writing it both in Spanish and English. Love you dad!

Esta publicacion esta dedicada a mi papa, quien a pesar de todos los problemas que tiene con la computadora, ha hecho el esfuerzo de revisar su email y hasta aprendio como ver el blog, todo con tal de disfrutar a su nueva nieta. Asi que la publicacion esta escrita en Ingles y Espanol. Te adoro papito!

At barely a week old we decided to take Emily to Inks Lake for some family pictures. It was cold outside so we had to time it just right or Emily would start complaining about the cold, just like mama she doesn't do well with the cold air, I'm sure it's the half dominican blood in her.

Con poco mas de una semana de nacida, decidimos llevar a Emily a uno de los parques de Austin llamado Lago Inks para tomar fotos. Ese dia hacia mucho frio asi que teniamos que posicionar a Emily para la foto y rapidamante tomar la foto antes de que Emily comenzara a llorar. Al parecer a Emily no le va a gustar mucho el frio como a su mama; debe ser la sangre dominicana dominando.

Here are a few of Emily's many faces. Arves and I could stare at that little face all day long!

Aqui estan varias de las caritas que hace mi ni~a. Arves y yo podemos pasarnos todo el dia velandole el sue~o y viendo su carita!

Abuela Mechi was still in town and we got a few shots of the two of them.

Abuela Mechi todavia estaba con nosotros y pudimos tomar varias fotos de Emily con su abuela.


Proud mom and dad

Padres orgullosos






Three generations

Tres generaciones

Thank you mom for all your help. It made the adjustment to our new lifes a lot more enjoyable. Love you.

Mamita gracias por toda tu ayuda. Tenerte con nosotros nos ayudo a disfrutar los cambios de tener a Emily en nuestras vida. Te adoro.

Emily's First Week

Emily arrived at 11:35 PM Thursday night October 21st. Since then she's been surrounded by love from all our friends and family.

Both my mom and our good friend Doug waited for her arrival at the hospital while Arves and I welcomed little Emily to this world. It was an amazing experience although a very long labor.

Here is a picture with some of the many visitors Emily had on Friday.

We all came home on Saturday and Emily has been wonderful. Here we are leaving the hospital.


Hard to believe but Emily already has her list of likes and dislikes. Emily loves being in the sun and going for walks with mom and dad in her stroller. She also loves her morning strolls with dad in her Bjorn. On the other hand she does not like having her arms tightly wrapped when swaddled; just like her daddy!





Emily also loves to eat. Here is a video of Emily's first interactions with daddy while mom went to the store. She got pretty close to eating her hands :)



We are in love and couldn't be happier. Emily is the cutest baby and Arves and I are very blessed to have her in our lives.

Emily Comes Home

After a few long days of painful contractions (about a week or so) we finally headed off to the hospital on the morning of October 21. We were in labor for over 20 hours, but at 11:35 PM all that work became worth it as our little Emily Margarita joined our lives. It was an amazing experience to see her come into the world!

Another amazing part of the experience is that even though we live deep in the heart of Texas we had family waiting in the waiting room and an amazing outpouring of love from the friends we have made here in Austin. Both Doug and Mechi were here and were able to meet little Emily within the first 1/2 hour of her life, and we have had numerous visits from our friends here in central Texas who seem to love Emily almost as much as we do.

I could go on for hours about the birth experience, but I know why you are all here, so on to the photos . . .

Here is the first photo I took of Emily. She was still a little swollen, but already looked cute to me.


The room we were in was amazing! Here is a photo with our nurse, Lisa, who helped with the delivery - she was a lot of fun and extremely helpful.


Here she is in her mommy's arms right before her first shots and first bath.




Speaking of shots and baths. She did not like her first bath at all! She turned bright red and threw a fit after which she was exhausted. The first and second photos are of her before the shots and bath. Note the tranquility. The third is of her being dried off, after said shots and bath . . . she was furious!








One thing that has made us laugh quite frequently is the size of her feet. Emily has HUGE feet! The nurse even made fun of her because the foot print they took barely fit in the box on the paper.



Sleeping in her hospital bassinet


With Dad


Home at last with all of the flowers her new friends brought her.


She has been such a sweet little girl. She rarely cries and sleeps pretty well . . . though come to think of it, she is starting to demand that her daddy carries here everywhere he goes when she is awake.

Baby bump

It's hard to believe our due date is less than a month away. We had our last ultrasound this week and our little baby is healthy, just waiting for the right time I guess.

I'll be 37 weeks on Monday and have absolutely loved being pregnant; our bags are packed and the baby's room is pretty much ready. Arves and I cannot wait for our baby bean to get here!

Things I'm going to miss:

- Feeling bean move; the kicks, hiccups, rolls... I love it and it makes me smile!

- Being with our baby 24/7 and knowing he/she is okay

- My belly

- Sleeping in because "I'm pregnant" and not feeling too guilty about it

- Being just the two of us

Things I'm looking forward to:

- Meeting our little baby and finding out the sex

- Starting our new life as a family

- Being able to run again (I was only able to make it to 30 weeks)

- Seeing the scale go down (hopefully) instead of up every time I step on it

- Being able to roll in bed without having to wake up

- Fitting back in my regular clothes

Arves took this amazing picture and I've entered us to win on a baby bump contest from What to Expect. You can vote for us at this link

A Few Home Upgrades

We're getting closer to the much awaited birth of our lil Bean, and have gotten the home improvement bug. Not quite to the level of a few of our friends (TW tore his house completely down to the frames), but still enough work to keep us busy and sweating on the weekends. Here are two of the more major projects we worked on.

1. A new deck!!! We've been wanting to add a deck for a few years now, so this is a very welcome addition.

Here is our back patio before building.

Another view of the patio - you can see that there is barely enough room for Tica

And a view of the house from our back fence line

We are still waiting on the wrought iron railing, but here is the semi-final deck. We cut one of the side railings on the patio off and added access to the deck via 3 steps.

We also added another access to the deck from the landing of the existing stairs.

And finally, here's a view from the back fence line. As you can see, it's a pretty tall, so we're considering a small privacy fence so our neighbor, Lynn, doesn't feel as if we're stalking her

Now all we need are some cheap chairs, and some guests!!! Any takers?

2. Painted and added chair rail to the nursery. Tica is really the design inspiration behind this room. She chose the colors, ceiling fan, and the chair rail, and even a really cool light switch cover.

Before . . . drab, boring beige . . .

After . . . fun, gender-neutral, bright colors. Hopefully Bean likes the light!

We're really excited (and exhausted) about these new upgrades. Mostly because it means we are a few steps closer to being ready to receive the newest member of our family!!