An Audience of Two

I used to love to take a nice, long, hot shower. Any stress or worry would fall away with the water, and I would daydream about my life or about the day, whatever came to mind. Yes, I used to love to take a shower. That is, of course, until they went from being thirty minutes to thirty seconds! Instead of being a relaxing distraction, they are now necessary as I wash off dog hair, baby spit up, and whatever else has landed on me throughout the morning.
The funniest part about my present-day showers is the ever present, ever attentive, ever interesting audience of two. My three year old dog, Luke, and my twelve month old son, Benjamin, make their way into the bathroom in order to make sure that everything is okay. Perhaps they want to make sure that I don’t miss a spot, although I suspect they just want to make sure that I am not having too much fun without them!
I love my little audience of two! They are always there, always watching, always by my side. I vaguely remember a time when I was single, on my own. What did I do with all of that free time? Oh, I remember. I read a lot of books, ran a lot of miles, and ate a lot of food! I also napped regularly. I still do these things; the only difference is that I do them in five minute increments, in between feeding and cleaning the baby and feeding and cleaning the dog.
I would say that my favorite thing about these two is the fact that everything that I do seems to be funny to them. The other day, I was practicing a sacred dance. I was taking myself rather seriously until, around the same time, Benjamin began to laugh hysterically at my hand movements and Luke began to jump up and push me over. It was as if they were saying to me, “Come on! You are not smiling enough! Let’s play!”
I love my little audience of two. It often makes me wonder what I ever did without them!

Two if by Sea

Benjamin was in his glory in Chile, surrounded by his three cousins, Constanza, Isidora, and Pia. The elder two doted on him every second that they could while Pia, only coming up on two years old, was quite jealous (check out her face in the picture) and made sure everyone knew that she was not happy about sharing her high chair and baby food with this intruder from the North!

Having already met and spent quite a bit of time with his boy cousins, Elijah and Caleb, it meant a lot to us for Benjamin to be able to get to know his beautiful girl cousins. He had a great time with the girls, even Pia who finally warmed up to him by the time we left.

The girls eagerly learned some English while we were there. They would say, "How big's the baby?", and "kisses!", and would giggle when he responded. When they will be together again no one can say, but they have a bond now that will remain.

I wasn't born yesterday! I was born a year ago!

Oh the stress! Oh the joy! Oh the excitement of a baby's first birthday party! We are so blessed to have Hollie and Kristin in our family, without them, today would not have been the same! His party was good, but they made it great!

The most exciting addition to the party were my parents who surprised us last night by traveling all the way from Ohio. Considering that all of my family knew, I was shocked that they all were able to keep the secret. I can't remember the last time a secret like that was truly kept!!! In all honesty, the following is how a secret is usually "kept" in the See family (and I am including myself). "I have a secret!" "What is it?" "I can't tell you!" "Come on, tell me and I promise I'll act surprised!" "Okay...here it is..." So, in light of this, congrats to all of you!

The best part about the day was that Benjamin truly enjoyed it as much as the rest of us did! I was cautious, having read the "What not to do at a 1st birthday party" chapter of "What to expect the first year". Thankfully, it all went well and he "preformed" for all of the guests. Even the Alarcon grandparents were represented in the blanket that Mama Nancy made and embroidered for Benjamin. It was so very special.

Thanks to everyone who came, it meant a lot to us! We love you!

That's just about right!!

My friend Elissa and I worked at Camp Sebago in Maine together about 400 years ago. I was checking out her blog the other day when I came across this picture. So I borrowed it. I love it because, when I saw it I thought, "That's just about right!" You can ask Samuel, my mom, or my sister, Hollie. This was me, except with brown hair.

Homemade Baby Food

We have returned, happy but exhausted, from our vacation in Chile. I had thought that I would have long stretches of time during which I could write about everything we were doing there, but alas I only posted once! Well, we did everything from swimming in a lake at the base of an active volcano to meeting Benjamin's great grandmother, Olga (the name says it all, by the way!).

We all have favorite parts of the vacation, but the most interesting for me was the homemade baby food. Every day, either my mother in law or the housekeeper (another thing I wish I had at times) would put a whole bunch of things from chicken to potatoes to spinach in a pot, boil it, and blend it. The first time that this was done, I thought, "There is no way he is going to eat it!". But eat it he did, every day for the rest of the vacation.

Of course now, when it is time for him to eat, he looks at me with those huge brown eyes as if to say, "I'm ready for my homemade baby food, mommy. You can put that store bought stuff away." So today, for the first time in my life, I made baby food. I do believe that I am one of the last people that anyone would expect to do so, but a baby's got to eat, right? Well, I can't afford to bring my mother in law over, so tomorrow I will boil some stuff, blend it, and hold my breath!

Chilean Ents

For those of you who have read ¨The Lord of the Rings¨, you will be happy to know that I have found the Chilean Ents. Those huge trees that talk and walk are alive and well and all over Chile! Of course I have yet to hear them talk or see them walk, but I´m sure that I will experience this before we leave.

We have had such a wonderful time here, and the most beautiful thing is seeing Benjamin with his Tata and Mama Nancy. They are so happy to have him here and he is enjoying every minute of it. His grandfather, who runs 2 miles every morning, takes him out to walk in the park. His grandmother makes him homemade baby food and feeds him almost constantly it seems!

When I saw pictures of Samuel at Benjamin´s age, I couldn´t believe it. They look almost identical!! I also was able to meet the infamous Abuela Olga, Juan Carlos´ mother. She certainly loves to talk. She certainly has her opinions.

Well, I´ll upload pictures later. For now, it´s off to spy on the Ents.

Love you all!