No one would believe us, but we’ve captured it on video. It’s Marina’s version of One-Two-Three only it’s Two-Three-Two (in Spanish).
All she wanted to do was eat the cupcake, but instead MAMMA and PAPPA made her sit through 4 versions of Happy Birthday (English, Spanish, German and Serbian). In the end, Princess Marina had lots of fun and more than a healthy dose of refined sugar (carrot / orange, vanilla lemon and chocolate orange cupcakes) at her If You Give a Cat a Cupcake Party. And everybody knows what happens if you give a cat a cupcake… he might want some sprinkles to go with it.
A sunny windy Saturday at the Barceloneta. We nabbed an inside sea-side table for our regular Buenas Migas Saturday desayuno which led to some creative “rocking out” to the 80’s music inside.
The word of the week is allá – the place where mamá and papá need to high-tail, so that Marina can do her thing SOLA. In the video she says ciao, her other fav word!
yeah (yes)
My mom and dad, A.K.A. Gram and Gramps, came to spend a week and a half with Marina and a week in Tuscany. Marina thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them -- playing with the things in Gram's purse, going to the zoo, playing at the beach, etc. etc. I think the photos (sorry there's so many) are pretty self-explanatory and sum up the visit quite nicely.
OK, this is really just for true fans of Marina, 'cus to anyone else this might be a totally boring video. It's significant, though, because as soon as she gets this down, it's one less thing we have to do for her and one more thing she can do on her own.
I took this video with our new camera just after Marina finished her breakfast. There's just something about her this morning that strikes my funny bone. Make sure to play it in HD and in full-screen mode!
Whoah! Flame accompanied by song?!!???!?
I hope it's ok with Raquel, but below I'm pasting her response to Gina's mom's request for a report on how the party went:
"Marina estaba PRECIOSA y creo que se divirtió mucho. Estaba con vuestro vestido... parecía una princesa. Al principio, creo que se veía rara, pero luego se lo tocaba, se daba una vuelta... (como una princesa, vamos). Eso sí, no se lo podrá poner mucho porque le queda justo para ahora, y con lo que crece... Al principio se extrañó de que hubiese tanta gente, pero luego creo que se lo pasó muy bien. Había bastantes niños: unos cuatro o cinco y casi todos pequeñitos. Con los gorros, los "matasuegras" (no me imagino como es en inglés "son los que soplas y se estira"), los dulces... miró la vela con cara de "qué es esto" y creo que pensó lo mismo con el "cumpleaños feliz"...pero... le llegó la hora de comer y volvió a ser la "princesa más feliz del planeta" (come estupendamente bien). Gina y Tyler, seguro que tienen un montón de trabajo hoy. Éramos bastantes y no sé a qué hora se irían todos... Seguro que enseguida os envían fotos. Fue todo muy bien y seguro que a "la princesa de la casa" le hubiera gustado que estuvieran sus abuelos... pero, otra vez será."
Thanks to Gina's mom, Marina DID very much act the part of a princess/hostess greeting everyone at the door and making everyone feel at home. She enjoyed very much every minute of the party and was sad when it was all over. The only thing she couldn't quite figure out was why there was a burning stick in a cupcake in front of her while everyone sang a song to her.
A morning on the Barceloneta - breakfast at Buenas Migas and exploring on foot - followed by an afternoon nap and an afternoon pretending to make pasta. Sunday afternoon in the park downstairs (this was her first time on a playground) followed by a coffee at Starbucks. Why Starbucks? Because it's a nice clean smoke-free cafe where she can walk around freely and the staff there just adore her. She loved the balloon they gave her, but we were a little afraid she might pop it.
In just a couple short weeks, Marina has gone from being all about crawling to being all about walking!
The moms made a kind exception and allowed me into their exclusive club -- I was the only father amongst the crowd of moms and babies this afternoon. It was a giant reunion of sorts, with tea, chocolate, juice, pastries, etc. Marina is one of the older ones with only a few kids older than her. She would not sit still for the group photo on the sofa, preferring to run around with other kids' toys instead.
"Hurry up and finish, President Obama, I'm ready for bed!" Marina has been waiting for this day her entire life, but all she hears is "blah blah hope over fear blah blah unity of purpose blah blah worn-out dogmas blah blah happiness blah blah blah..."
She must take after her daddy, who also started walking when he was 9 months old. This has been an exciting week with Marina taking her first steps unassisted! For a while she has been standing up and walking around while holding on to furniture, but then about 3-4 weeks ago she started to stand on her own. On Saturday, she started by taking a couple steps, on Tuesday she took about 13-14 steps, yesterday Gina counted 38 (OK, it's time to stop counting:), and now she's able to practically cross a whole room on her own!
Marina has been adding to her repertoire -- this week it's "bah."
Flavia has been taking care of Marina during the day while Gina and I go to work. She's been fantastic and Marina likes her a lot! It occurred to me that we had no photos of them together, so here are some shots I took right before Flavia went back to Argentina. We look forward to her return in January.
Just last night all of a sudden Marina started babbling (I guess they call it "canonical babbling"), saying "doo doo","dah dah", "goo goog", "boo boo", etc. Anyway, listen for yourself -- I caught her on video today as she was exploring our bedroom furniture.
Thank you Alder and Ruth for introducing Marina to Sophie. You should see how she just loves to gnaw on her and wave her around. I guess Sophie's withstood the abuse of many a baby over the decades since she was introduced in France, and we gather from our recent trip to Provence that she's still famously popular there.
Favorite aunt (only aunt) Tía Marisa came to share the love with her new niece in early June. She and Gina spent 10 days walking and eating and playing in Barcelona. There was some drinking too, but not as much as a breastfeeding mom might have liked. Marisa took over the late afternoon fussy shift; she particularly enjoyed Marina’s morning stretch IN PERSON.
We're getting out more with Marina. To the sea. To the mountains. Up Diagonal. She is very content being wheeled around in the Babyjogger or MaxiTaxi or just carried in the BabyBjorn or sling. This is also the month of smiles!
Gina's parents (hereafter to be referred to as Nonni and Nonno) came to Barcelona to spend about three of Marina's first four weeks with us. We are so grateful for their help and advice, the time they spent soothing and playing with Marina, and their babysitting while Gina and I could go out for brief walks to the sea or Tibidabo.
After a mere 5 hours of labor and no epidural, Marina Misaki Alioto (click here for more photos of ME!) was born at 7:05 am on March 26, 2008. Marina is named for her mami and papi's love affair with 2 beautiful port cities, for her great grandfather's years as a fisherman in one of those cities and for her sister who happens to have their favorite first name. Marina is pronounced the same way in English, Spanish, Catalan and Japanese. Her second name means "beautiful bloom or blossom" and originates from the myriad suggestions from Japanese family and friends in their second home… Kyoto.