"Shay" means Shane

Three! If you click on the picture you will see her bottom third tooth

Going back to work the second week was a little easier than the first. My first week back was hard. I cried everyday on the way to work. What made it easier going back was that I knew my parents were coming up. My parents arrived last Friday and left today. We are so thankful to have them help us. Not only did my mom watch Nayeli while I was at work but she also cooked dinner for us. She is awesome! My dad enjoyed taking Nayeli for walks on the jogging stroller. I called my mom numerous times a day to check on Nayeli to see how she was doing while I was at work. My mom said that on Wednesday Nayeli was playing in her exsaucer and she lifted her arms up at my dad and said Pa. That is what I call him so she copies what I say. My parents did such a great job taking care of her and playing with her, that every night she was so tired she would pass out before 830pm. I miss not being able to breast feed her during the day. Nayeli seems to miss breast feeding as well. I am so happy that I have a quiet and private place to pump at work.'

When I breast feed her in the evening she goes for 15 to 20 minutes. We have stopped rocking her to sleep at bedtime because she no longer wants us to do it. Instead we cuddle and snuggle with her and read her a book. Sometimes when I put her down for bed she will get up and stand up on in her crib, she wont cry but she extends her arms out at me. I pick her up and she wants me to rock her. She puts her head on my shoulder and wants to snuggle with me. We miss each other. I love when she does this! She will do this for 5 minutes and then she will look at her crib and stretch her arms out to it. I say Mimi's, hand her a teddy bear, and she goes to sleep.

My first day off after working my first week. I was so happy to be with my baby girl!Nayeli and Nana
Nayeli taking over the doggie bed. Scoot over Twinkie!
I am so glad Nayeli did great in eating for my mom and taking the bottle. She takes 2 to 3 oz. on each feed. We wonder why she gives daddy such a hard time and only eats 30cc to 50 cc. for him. The days that Shane feeds Nayeli we notice she is a little constipated. So we try to add a little water to her food or breast milk. She has done better over the course of the week though and Shane thinks she is just getting used to seeing him more. I started to give her grilled organic chicken and she loves it. We love organics! I also gave her organic black beans and organic lentils, she gobbled them up. We are having her eat dinner at the table with us. We noticed that she loves eating finger foods she gets a little moody when we try to feed her by spoon. I can't believe she getting so independent. Her little personality is starting to peak through. Nayeli is starting to drink more diluted apple juice through her sippy cup as well.

It's great to see that Nayeli likes to repeat the words we teach her. This past week she started to say some new words: When we say "Quack Quack" she says "Qa Qa", "Bir" for Bird. She looks up at the sky and says "Bir." She also does the baby sign for milk and dog. It's cute when she does the baby sign for dog because she pants like a dog. Just today she patted her leg and panted at the same time for the official baby sign. The Baby sign DVD is paying off. She waved bye bye to my parents when she was going to bed one night. Last Saturday, one word that all of us laughed at is when she first said, "Shay," which we knew meant "Shane." I sometimes have to yell Shane's name from upstairs and Nayeli copies everything I say. So when she wakes up she will stand up on her crib and yell, "Shay." If she is in her Pak N Play and needs something she will also yell, "Shay." We are trying to capture all of her baby sign language and little words on video but she says and does it so fast.

Nayeli stood up for one second without holding onto to anything while she was in her Pak N Play on Tuesday night. She raised her hands up and let go of the rail while holding one of her books. Our girl has balance and Daddy is now convinced she will skate on the US Womens Olympic ice hockey team when she is older! My mom started cheering her on, when I looked up she was holding on to the rail again. It just goes to show you that things happen so fast and it takes one second to miss it. Nayeli is getting more confident standing up. She will stand up holding on to something and then bend down and grab something with her other hand. She also holds on to the baby gate and starts bouncing up and down when she gets excited.
Psalm 107
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

Nayeli under her exsaucer.

Nayeli loves Twinkie's and Molly's toys. Here she is hugging them.Nayeli chasing after Molly.How do I turn this on?I think one day we will see Nayeli trying to drink out of the doggie bowl.If her arm fits in it she goes for it!She loves to wash her hands after being on the floor. What a great habit!
Please pray for the following CDH babies. Andrew who was born today and has been put on ECMO. Vincent who is at UCSF and just had his repair surgery. Jaime who got sick and has been hospitalized and is waiting to go home. To read more on them go to their links on the right side.

Giggley Ballerina

My parents will arrive on Friday. We will be busy getting ready for the transition for my mom to take care of Nayeli when I go to work. I took these pics of Nayeli and forgot to post them. The batteries died on the camera so the video kept getting cut off. Nayeli is taking little tiny steps. When she does she is always on her tippy toes.

We can't believe you are 11 months!

I peeked in to see you and held your hand before I left to go to work today. I peek in every morning to see you before I leave to go to work. I miss not seeing you in the morning when you wake up. It's been so hard leaving you everyday. I cried non stop the first day I went back to work. I didn't think I was going to make it through the day. Then daddy surprised me and brought you to see me twice this week. I was so happy! I am sad going to work everyday but I know I have to in order for us to survive. I cherish the days I will have off with you. I hope those days go slow and my work days go fast.
Phillippians 4:11b, "For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."

I am so glad you and Daddy are spending time together this week. You give him a hard time and you know you are in charge. You are definitely daddy's little girl.

Daddy taking you to his favorite pizza place (in CA of course) for lunch after lunch hour.

You are 11 months old today! You are learning so much and teaching us so much. We love watching how you get so excited about something that you sit and bounce up and down and clap non stop. You love your teddy bear. You have to sleep with him at nap time and if you get upset at night we give it to you. You get so happy when you see Teddy you hug him.....it's so cute. You are determined to have things your way and if you don't you let us know you are not happy by flapping your arms up and down and saying eeeeeh. When you are really upset you scream. I am glad you do that because you are exercising your small lungs that need to grow. You are standing and trying to take small steps but you don't get far. You have learned how to wave bye-bye, you love doing baby sign language for "book" you also love saying it. You like boys, I don't think daddy is too happy about that. Everyone that meets you has to stop to take a look at you. You are so outgoing, I think if you could talk you, would have long conversations with strangers. You are fascinated by Max the cat. He walks by and you say Kitty and giggle. We enjoy every single moment with you. We are so happy to be your mommy and daddy. You bring us joy everyday!

Thank you God for our precious gift you gave us. Nayeli is a testimonial and a blessing. Thank you for trusting in us to be her mommy and daddy.

I am so happy Daddy brought you to see me today.

Books not just for Reading

Nayeli loves her books. She also likes to chew on them. She says Book when she sees her book from a distance. She gets so happy when we give it to her. She did the baby sign for duck today. She loves to see pictures of little boys. Especially Carters and Johns. Oh oh! We are in trouble. Yesterday while we were out to dinner Nayeli saw this little four year little boy sitting a few tables away. Nayeli kept smiling at him. Eventually the little boy came over and said can I say hi to the baby. We told him sure but keep your distance. We are so paranoid and cautious. The little boy smiled and waved at Nayeli. Nayeli was giggly. She is only 10 months old and she is flirting. I think it's cute and funny. Shane doesn't think so. He keeps saying something about several firearms.

We had such a nice day today. We went to our friends daughter's birthday party today. We kept our distance from the other children at the party just to be on the safe side. Nayeli had a great time watching the other kids play on the water slide and the play yard. I think she thinks she is very independent she started to crawl away from us several times. She would get so upset when we would come after her. We are going to have our hands full when she starts walking.

What a cute little pout
Miss Independent
I don't think she thinks we can catch up to her. Nayeli taking everything out of her diaper bag.

Count down!

I am enjoying my last week off with Nayeli before I go back to work. I haven't cried alot yet but I am sure I will. I am trying to hold back. I don't want Nayeli to see me upset. Shane is taking next week off so it will make the transition easier. I requested for my hours to be reduced at work one more time. It was denied. I know God always has a plan. Whatever his plan is we praise him each day and thank him for our precious little girl. Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers.
Psalm 120:1
I took my troubles to the Lord;
I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer.

My mom will start coming to help with Nayeli in two weeks from L.A. I spoke with UCSF and they told me of a special mask my mom can wear during the cold/flu season on the plane when commuting back and forth. It's not your average mask. It's one that nurses wear when there is virus outbreak or TB patient they have to treat. I am ordering one for my parents and one for ourselves to keep handy.

Nayeli went one week without waking up after she went to sleep for the night. For the past few weeks she wakes up one hour after she goes to sleep and wants to breastfeed. She does it a couple of times a week. I breastfeed her and bottle feed her before she goes to bed. I guess she is thirsty. I change her diaper twice before I go to bed and she sleeps the rest of the night.

One new habit that Nayeli has picked up is that she will flap her arms up and down if she wants something or if she is upset. We think it's cute but we try not to laugh in front of her. Something else she is mastering is she pulls herself up to a standing position and then she lets herself go and she lands on her tush. She loves it! Thank goodness she has some padding with her diaper. When she does it on the hardwood floor she tends to let go a little lower. Smart Girl!

Nayeli trying to figure out how to turn on the TV Nayeli trying to call John and Carter! Here is Nayeli flapping her arms. If you listen closely at the end she says Boo.

Shane's grandfather passed away suddenly last week. We are very saddened over his passing. We are extremely sad that he never got to meet Nayeli. Shane is not going to go to Colorado for his granfather's funeral. Shane doesn't want to take any chances going on a plane and getting sick. We are sad we can't be there to support our family.

Nayeli's last summer road trip

We went to Southern Ca. last weekend. We were having second thoughts on going because of the fires. My parents gave us a few nights stay for free along with free tickets to Disneyland from a gift they received from their timeshare. We decided to stay in Anaheim to stay away from the fires. We are so glad we went. We disinfected our hotel room with Clorox wipes, put blankets on all the couches, and also put blankets on the small area Nayeli was playing in. We mostly kept her in her pak n play. We also were so happy when the hotel told us they just had the carpets cleaned.

We went to a place called Adventure City. We kept Nayeli from touching anything and had our anitbacterial wipes handy. She loved the carousal, petting zoo and the train ride. We also got to take Nayeli to the beach for the first time. Nayeli loved having her feet in the sand and in the water. Shane was about to take a picture and a wave out of nowhere came and got Nayeli soaked from her waist down. She got startled and cried. I felt so bad because I didn't see it coming. She felt better as soon as we sat her down in her little shade tent. She tried eating sand and wouldn't stop trying to get it in her mouth.We were a little paranoid in going to Disneyland. We decided to go in the middle of the week and we made the right choice. We didn't have to stand in line for very long. We actually got to walk right up to some of the rides. Nayeli loved It's a Small world. Her eyes lit up and she laughed and clapped. It was very easy keeping her from touching the hand rails or anything else. As soon as we would get on a ride she was so distracted in looking at what the ride was about and didn't touch anything. She also liked the Pirates of Carribean. She didn't care for the Clown on the Pinochio ride. I didn't like clowns when I was a kid either. Nayeli surprised us on Wednesday when she was eating dinner. She baby signed more and eat all at the same time. Shane and I were in shock and said you want more eat. She smiled. Nayeli is a genius. She loves to say book and baby sign it. She waved for the first time at a stranger last Monday. She is so happy communicating. We repeat everything to her several times and that seems to work on her learning it. During our trip we got to see a few of our friends and wish we could've seen more before going home. We are glad we are home safe and healthy. We had a great time escaping on our last road trip to see family and friends, and thank God for watching over our travels. We thought Nayeli would be tired from the car ride. She amazes us, she was full of energy. She climbed up Max the cat's stairs on her knees and stood up when she got up to the top. Max looked terrified and thought this was the only safe place he could get away from Nayeli. Poor cat.
We are dreading calling UCSF later this month. They told us to call sometime this month regarding our impending second winter of lockdown. They have told us to limit visitors from coming over, and not to be around anyone who is sick, has been sick, or has been around anyone that is sick. They also told us to avoid crowds. This is so hard to do all over again since we have only started taking her out. We have been so cautious this summer. We are so glad that we had the chance to take Nayeli out and show her off. We hope this winter goes by fast. We have so much to worry about for Nayeli, to include the Cold/Flu/RSV/ and now the swine flu as well. We are both head cases.

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Nayeli did her first baby sign

Nayeli said book twice yesterday and did baby sign language at the same time. Today she signed and said book again. I was so impressed. I hope I can get it on video soon. Nayeli really enjoys to play with Molly and Twinkie and their toys. She could care less about hers. Nayeli hated being on tummy time and now this is her favorite position to sleep. She thanks Carter for the tip on sleeping this way. She thinks it's very comfy.