quito - part 9 - historia familiar

This post has nothing to do with Emilia, really, other than it's about part of her family history.

Monday we went to visit Tio Andres' new house in Los Chillos (about 20 minutes from the city). On our way, we took a small detour to go and see San Francisco. If our family (the Velasco/Jijon side) can be said to come from somewhere, if there's an "ancestral home", it is San Francisco. This place is so special my Tia Marcela (the closest thing I have to a grandparent - my grandmother's sister) hasn't been able to come back to this place since they left it when she was very young. We had no idea the state it would be in and frankly were pleasantly surprised to see it's been really well maintained...

This is a picture that has always been in my house. It's so old that we don't dare take it out of it's original frame to scan it, so I had to just take a picture of it. This is my maternal grandmother who, in this picture, is about 15 or 16 years old. (I'm guessing it's the late 20s, early 1930s?) My mom doesn't remember why she's dressed like an indigenous woman, but there's another picture of her sister Elena, in a similar outfit. Maybe they were going to a party or something. In any case she's standing on the semi-circle steps shown at the far end of the porch in this picture (they're actually in the middle of the porch).

Pretty cool, i must say. My mom says my grandma lived here for several years on her own, managing the farm, properties, and the employees when she was a very young girl.

quito - part 8 - sunday at the club

Sunday we went with some of the fam to the club for lunch. Emilia had a grand time running on the golf course (including the green of the 9th hole - oops!), getting a small cut under her eye (presumably from a blade of grass when she was rolling around), not eating her lunch (but drinking an entire carrot/orange juice made especially for her, and basically terrorizing the other patrons in the restaurant.

morning bath (obviously)

quito - part 7 - 23 months old

with her primo Santiago.

So we're a month away from Emilia turning two and I can honestly say I don't know where the time goes. Everyone I know who has kids has always said "oh, it goes so fast" and you think, yeah, time does go fast, but with our Pearl it has flown by. I feel like yesterday she was born and now she's almost 2! Good grief! Having said that, she's definitely acting like a 2-year-old. She's much more independent now and we hear a lot of "go away mama", "no mano" (no hand) or "mama solo" (mama, all alone). Of course along with that we now here "i lub you" and "a mucho a ti" (I love yous). Her appetite swings wildly from not eating anything to eating everything in sight. At least she's adventurous in tasting new things. She's loved our time here in Ecuador (which is winding down -we're back on Saturday) - spending time with all her many cousins, our friends and family, and seeing all the beauty and wonder this country has to offer. We've had a wonderful time here, but I think Papa's probably ready to see his girl.

Emilia's vocabulary has exploded this month. New words include: mut(mucho/much), rico (yummy), ouchie (as in ouchie pie/mano/coco - hurt foot/hand/head), 'ucha (llucha), avion (plane), mocos (mucous), chimba (pigtails), meyaya (mermelada/jam), "papa avion byebye" (heard often - papa left on the plane), Bruno, Matteo, Rafa, 'afia (guarderia friends), coche (baby stroller), I eat___ alone, buzo (sweatsuit - she loves wearing the warm-up suits 'yrie loaned her), oto (otro/other), tuyu/todo yucky (everything is yucky or not to be touched), Ana, Mia, Lucas (more cousin's names), monkey, bunny, dog, kitty, azul (blue), Tulu, Ala (Alara), only/solo (only), uno mas (one more), uno, dos, tres, siete, 1,2,3,7), campana (bell), bola (ball), crema (lotion), palo (stick), limpio (clean), "dormez vous" (from Frere Jacques), jugo tuto (juice box w/ straw), Tia Talu (Tia Claudia), Tiaaa (Tia Marga - she's undergone a name change now), alla/aqui (there/here), sana colita sana (what she says when she has an ouchie that needs to be "cured"), se cayo (it/she fell), pueta (puerta - door), casa (house), ese___ (that___), baja/bajo (down), pantlon (pantalon/pant), shirt, cama (bed), uniqua (from Backyardigans), fone (phone), Mama canta (mama sing), 'tuck (stuck) and the engima that is one of her favorite sayings: "uno siete dos a manya" (we have no idea what this means - perhaps it's some sort of communication to her mother ship? - says it at least a couple times a day).

And have we mentioned the incessant singing??? And how she loves to talk on the phone especially to her tias, Gapa (Grandpa- my dad), and Papa.

Thursday we spent the day at my cousin Ma. Fabiola's new house where Emilia got to play with her cousins Alejandro, Pedro and Santiago. They have a huge trampoline (totally dangerous) that Emilia of course fell in love with. We had to pull her off of it when it was time to go.

with Alejandro and Santiago. Alejandro was the ringbearer at our wedding.

doing what all kids like to do - digging in the dirt.

Thursday was also her graduation from "guarderia". Hate to admit it, but actually got a little sentimental about it.

with Luciana - one of the kids from her class.

the graduate

with Manuela

Friday we had lunch at my Tia Susy's house. Amazingly, Emilia lunged at Tia Susy and followed her around the entire time we were there. Tia Susy is a big baby person and I guess kids pick up on that. She loved spending time with Tia Susy and the new grandbaby, Manuela (14 months old, daughter of my cousin Margarita).

There's more from the weekend - but I'll save it for another post.

quito - part 6 - 'afia's bday

This past Saturday was Emilia's cousin's birthday party. Sofia (or 'afia as Emi calls her) turned 3 and, unfortunately, had a raging fever the day of the party so she was not to thrilled with all the festivities. Emilia, on the other hand, had a grand time playing with all the kids, jumping in the bounce house, and spending time with 6 of her cousins. The rain held off until the bitter end when it was time for one and all to hit the road.

pre-party primping - trying to do pincurls (didn't work) while brushing her teeth.

bounce house fun - even though she was the youngest there Emi was not afraid of joining in the fun (prima/cousin Ana Victoria in background).
the tios have a great dollhouse/playhouse built on the property. emilia would run back and forth from it and bring "meals" to different people. thrilled that tio esteban (her godfather) is playing along and "enjoying" his juice and fried egg.

same idea, different person - this time with tio beto.

swinging with Ana V.

the biker gang - juan esteban & lucas in background (more cousins).

leave it to Emi to find the babydolls.

lined up to get something from the "fairy" - notice how much smaller Emi is than everyone else. Ma. Claudia in pink, Ana V. in yellow (cousins).

the game the fairy was explaining - they had to crawl through the tubes and collect the balls (?)

best way to end a party - lollipop, goody bag full of fake jewelry.

quito - part 5 - the 'dos

So I'm way behind on my postings (shocker), so I'm going for 2 in one day. This one is all about hair.

calling Papa

Emi's hair is kinda wacky. It's wavy/curly and she's got plenty everywhere, except on the sides. Usually I just throw it in a ponytail or spout on the top of her head (sometimes two) and try to stick a bow in it (usually met with tears and her trying to pull the bow out... am contemplating using a hot glue gun to keep bows in hair). Elsa (my mom's maid) would eye Emi's 'dos very suspiciously - like she didn't quite approve. The other day I found out why. Elsa (mother of several daughters) can french braid hair like you can't believe. Even Emilia's hair. It's quite impressive. Now Emilia has a french braid in her hair every morning. I'm trying to learn how she does it, but it's not looking promising.

ready for "guarderia" showing off her hairdo and her cool-kid sunglasses.

quito - part 4 - casablanca

Just back from an awesome 5 days at the beach in Casablanca. Boy, did a certain short someone ever enjoy herself. She ate her way through every delicious food the cook made for her/us (patacones, ceviche de camarones, dorado a la plancha, bolones de verde, empanadas de verde to name a few), didn't get sick once (except for the windy drive back to town - then she had a nasty bout of carsickness which I can totally understand), drank batidos (shakes) of every kind of fruit imaginable on the beach, rolled in the sand, shouted "I coming!" to the waves as she splashed in the ocean, "swam" in the pool (more like floated), and had a popsicle a day (it was the beach after all - healthy eating goes out the window) in flavors like taxo, mora (a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry) and coco (coconut). She actually cried when we were leaving and I can't say as I blame her at all. It was awesome and we can't wait to go back next year (hopefully with Papa).

the snacking (and singing) started early in the car ride - munching on some chifles

post-nap - ready for an afternoon dip in the pool.

we went into town (Atacames) almost every day. our first full day we stopped off and got Emi some water shoes. She sat down at the stall and modeled them for all the passers-by. (note also cell phone purchased by A - we now own 2 of them - most annoying music EVER!)

first vacay popsicle - taxo flavored (can't quite decribe what taxo tastes like other than yummy).

enjoying a batido de coco on the beach - please note the sand coating the child's face - it looked like she was a powdered donut she had so much sand all over her.

mora flavored popsicle. we chose to go with just the diaper for this popsicle for obvious reasons...

felicidad maxima

so i'm not real big on putting pictures of myself on the blog, let alone in a bikini, but it's the only pic i've got to show just how beautiful casablanca is... i mean, mountains and beach - the best! we spent ages floating around in the pool. thanks to A for her "expert" :) picture taking.

our "going out & hittin' the town" look - phone, glasses, cracker and keys required.

This week Emilia's the "estrella de la semana" (Star of the Week) student in her class at school which meant that I had to run out and actually print out (!) pictures of her for them to put on the bulletin board. Tomorrow she has to take in some special toys for like a "show & tell" and then on Thursday I have to go in and do an "activity" with her and her class - yikers.