Happy birthday, Auntie Kristin!!

Remember, about a month ago, we said that we would put up photos from our trip to Carlsbad? Well, here they are!

Cathy, Howard, Paloma and I headed down into the Carlsbad Caverns:















Down, down, down we go (past the bat guano):















It was amazing inside! It was huge and dark and really quite incredible. The diversity of cave formations was truly amazing. I wonder if Paloma will remember the Caverns when she is older?















We were there to celebrate Frances Joy's birthday, so there were a few photo opportunities with the Brandenburg/Wilsons.

Paloma snuggling with Grandmommy:














Paloma learning table manners from Aunt Cathy:














Paloma making Granddaddy laugh (even though she is such a serious little girl):














Paloma saying hello to Great-Grandmommy:














Paloma hanging out in the hotel room and enjoying being the centre of attention:

sunshine and flowers

Spring is here! The winds are gusting and the blossoms are blooming. The weather is warming up and we're hoping that there will be no more frosts. It's time to play in the garden!

Our crabapple has been blooming, and it has been spectacular.

Howard dressed Paloma in her party dress (thanks Stevia and Mike) and introduced her to crabapple blossoms.

After we got back from Carlsbad (more about that next time), we had a quick photoshoot in the garden to celebrate our first Mother's Day (with Paloma on the outside).

And then Daddypapa decided that he wanted to get in on the action too:

(Doesn't the apricot look great? Hopefully we will get some fruit this year!)

blog list

We know some other clever people who are writing blogs and so we just added something new to the blog - a list of blogs by family and friends (it's in the left panel, you may have to scroll down a little).

Please let me know if you would like to have your blog added (or removed, for that matter). We love keeping up to date with everyone!

Flamenco

Last weekend, our local co-op celebrated Earth Day with a street festival. They do this every year and it's fun to go down and look about at the different stalls, talk to people about solar energy, and buy some plants. We headed down to pick up a couple of Roma tomatoes (which thankfully survived the frost last night!). While we were there, we stopped to watch the Flamenco dancers.

Paloma was fascinated by the sound and movement.

Absolutely fascinated....

But all that dancing can be exhausting!

time keeps on slipping, slipping, into the future....

Six months old.

Six months old?

Six months old!

Wow, six months has absolutely flown by. Who can believe that it was six months ago that this gorgeous creature came into our lives? (Well, she had already been in our lives for about nine months before that, but we finally got to look into her eyes and hear her voice for the first time.) When I first saw Paloma, I simply thought: That's my baby. It's as though I had known her all along.

One month later, I was still enjoying maternity leave. My days totally revolved around Paloma and her naps. I thought I would get heaps of little fun, crafty projects done, write a paper or two, organise my recipe collection. But nothing got done apart from taking care of Paloma.

At two months, Paloma celebrated Christmas in Taos. She had quite a little personality already, and everyone noticed just how curious she was. She was intrigued by the lights and decorations, the wrapping paper and the new toys.

By the time Paloma was three months old, I was back into the swing of things at work. Actually, that's not quite true. I was back at work, and we were coping with the interrupted sleep and long days. Paloma seemed to settle into daycare pretty quickly. This photo was taken before we really understood how to read her tired signs - the poor little thing looks exhausted! Now we know better, she goes to bed earlier, and gets a good few hours of sleep in before waking us up (we're still working on sleeping right through the night!).

Paloma acquired a new skill at about four months - she sat up in the high chair! This was a major breakthrough. She loved being at our level and seeing what was going on while we ate dinner, and we kind of loved not having her in our arms all the time (or fending off Semilla while Paloma rolled around on a rug on the floor).

When Paloma was five months old, we went to visit her great-grandmommy in Carlsbad and she was able to show off by standing up (with support). Those skinny little legs are strong! Looks as though she might take after her Daddypapa...

And, now (wow!) she is six months old. And she has so many new skills, including:

....sitting up on her own (she can now do it easily and safely without the pillow support)...

....holding her own bottle, thank you very much...

...making friends and opening gifts (thanks Sevi!)...

...having naps whenever and wherever she likes (e.g., after playing all day with Daddypapa and George).

Her newest skill is very exciting to us: eating solids/mushed up goopy stuff. I'm kind of sad that I don't have the sole responsibility for providing Paloma's food anymore, but I'm also very happy that she is enjoying trying new things and learning about new tastes and textures. What an adventure!

Here is a video of Paloma's first real meal. We find it so endearing and quite hilarious, but we're her parents.

Once she had mastered the sloppy food, we moved straight on to the real stuff.

(Not really, we were testing to see if celery really could help with teething.)

Did Semilla surprise you?!

Paloma's Mobile: a project in motion

5:30 p.m.....












It began in earnest one night in late March. We gathered our good friends Aaron and George, all the scrap fabric, needles and thread in the house, and some cheap beer and thus began Project Magic Mobile for Paloma's crib.


8:07 p.m.
Conversations petered off as we finished planning and began cutting patterns in cloth and stitching shapes together.


George cut tiny shapes out of a variety of fabrics and methodically began to stitch them together.












stitch, stitch, stitch...



Aaron could have taken a little extra time and darned the hole in his sweater.





Ayesha's strange visions begin to take form...one, two, three, four, five...





12:10 a.m. Night passes and a new day begins. The needles become hot with the friction of frantic passes through sculpted fabric. Old socks are pulled from the closet and cut up as stuffing for the mobile creations. In Ayesha's and my head we hope our stitching holds tight so Paloma does not get into the athletic (foot) interior they were Howard's socks.




1:38 a.m. ...


A visible example of entropy unfolds before our strained eyes...















And BEHOLD from the raw fabric of our imaginations come to life:
"Cylindrical Dream Post (CDE)"















the distended belly of "Burlap Uni-bunny"















The prehistoric and wild "Soothasaurus Rex"















and the all knowing all seeing "Cinqopus"















Together they form the mobile that sweet little Paloma gazes at in wonder..hopefully not horror, as she drifts off to sleep each night















Her reaction unfolds..