Who does Santi really look like?

This has been the topic of discussion over and over again, who does Santi look like? Most of the time Americans think he looks like Nolan because he is tanner than white babies, but Latinos think he looks like me because he is so white! There are some things for sure. He has Nolan's ears, Nolan's dads forehead, and long eyelashes like Nolan's brother Aaron. I was told this past week by Nolan's family in FL that he looks exactly like my dad. I have people tell me all the time that he looks like my mom. Santi has started smirking instead of full on smiling and he looks so much like my nephew David when David doesn't want you to know he wants to smile. So who the heck does he look like?

Nolan and Santi have matching ears!

Nolan's Dad

Nolan's brother Aaron. Aren't his eyelashes amazing?
Santi has long lashes, but not this long.

My mom.

My dad.

The moment I saw Santi I said he looked like my older brother Joel. I can't say exactly what it was, but for some reason he looked like Joel to me and he still does. My mom and I were talking about it again the other day and she decided to pull out Joel's baby book. Oh my gosh I win!! He looks exactly like Joel! Its crazy! They could be twins! Who knows if he will continue to look like Joel in the future, but for now he sure does!

Joel. This looks so much like Santi to me!

This is the winner right here! This could be Santi!
Its fuzzy because he is inside a playpen.

Joel's twin. Santi's face is just a little rounder.

The correct way to pronounce Santiago

Bless poor little Santi. His name is going to be butchered his whole life...and it doesn't help that he has a "different" middle name and a crazy last name too!

Santi is much of the time the center of attention. I have never in my life spoken to so many strangers. Santi loves to be outside so Nolan and I take him on walks in downtown Franklin almost every night. We get stopped ALL the time. "Oh he is so adorable", "can you even believe that smile?", "oh my gosh his socks look like shoes, how cute!" Then the inevitable question is asked, what is his name? Everyone goes from a huge smile to a little bit of a confused face when we say Santiago. Then there is a bit of a pause, just to make things a little awkward, "Oooohhhhh, *pause again*, thats cute (said in a very why the heck would you name your child that kind of way). If Im with Nolan it isn't as bad, but when its just me and Santi people are totally weirded out. I always try and make things a little less awkward by saying, "its James in Spanish." How many times have people then said, "oh Ill just call him James then, thats so much easier." Umm....ok sure, thats not his name though. Thats like saying, oh your name is George? Well Ill just call you Jorge. Its the same, but not!

To make matters worse his middle name is hard for Spanish speakers to pronounce, Job. So the poor guy is going to loose in one language or the other. I on the other hand LOVE his names, all of them. Nolan and I really wanted a Spanish and English name, but we didn't want either to be common in either language...oh and they had to go together. Ahhhh! So much harder than we thought. Santi didn't have a name until the day after he was born when the doctors told us we had to decide! Santiago is a beautiful Spanish name meaning James, and Job is an amazing man in the Bible who never gave up his faith regardless of what horrible things happened to him.

I wont even go into the last name. Portuguese name, but from Peru. Oh my! I do have to say my absolute favorite is the way a computer tries to pronounce it! Hahaha! Always a good laugh!

So, how do you pronounce Santiago? S is normal (yipi), an is pronounced like on (turn on the light) not an like ant (thats the main way it is mispronounced!), ti like tea, a like you are opening your mouth for the dentist, go like you would think...go. We always call him Santi though.

Just for fun, here is a video of Santi laughing.

Also just for fun, here is Sanit's newest trick...DROOL! 

Everywhere and all the time!!!!

Bath time in a sink

Santi is officially outgrowing his baby tub, but he isn't sitting up yet so I haven't put him in the real bathtub or sink yet, well until last night. He plays with toys all the time, but he has never shown any interest in his bath toys until last night. It is really hard to play with bath toys when you are laying on your back, so we decided that even though Santi cant sit up on his own we would put him in the sink so he could play....and play did he ever! He had a blast! I am so excited to be moving on from the baby tub because Santi is so big he splashes half the water out by the end of each bath! Hopefully he will learn to sit up pretty quickly because it is hard to hold him and wash him at the same time. Oh well, for now sink time is a new fun thing.

Notice baby tub in the background.

Playing with his toys...well sort of...one pinkie at a time.

He wouldn't even look up for a picture. He was to excited about all the toys.
You know...the toys we have been trying to get him to play with for weeks!!!

La familia de Nolan

Santi finally got to meet some of Nolan's family. This past Saturday Nolan's cousin Lorena got married, so last Thursday we packed up and flew to Fort Lauderdale. Santi had many firsts. He flew on a plane (did amazingly), went to a new state, met Nolan's aunts, uncles, cousins, & grandmother, & went to the beach. We had a jam packed few days, but it was so much fun having Santi meet the Reategui side of the family and have so many people speaking Spanish to him. Lets just say he ended up being the center of attention most of the time! He is now used to being held all the time and any time he even begins to whimper he is kissed and hugged until he gets what he wants.

Now the food we had, OH MY GOSH! I can not even explain! I love Peruvian food with all my heart, but when real Peruvians make it it is to die for! Im sure Nolan and I both gained 10 pounds, but it was oh so worth it. Lomo saltado, aji de gallina, arroz chaufa, yes please and thank you!

Here is our timeline.
*Thursday evening flew to Ft. Lauderdale, arrived around 10:30 PM (past Santi's bedtime). Nolan's uncle picked us up and drove us to his house where everyone was hanging out after the rehearsal. We didn't get Santi or ourselves into bed until 1 AM. Not the greatest idea for a 4 month old.

*Friday we hung out at the house with everyone. That evening Nolan, Renato (his cousin), Santi and I went to the beach. It was dark and windy, but still very fun!

First time to see the ocean.

Santi, Nolan, me, and Renato.

*Saturday was the wedding 2:30-4:30 PM, reception from 5-10 PM. About 45 minutes before the wedding we started getting dressed and ready. Nolan searched and searched for his pants, but they were not in his bag. Yeah, I repacked his bag from a backpack to an actual bag because I needed him to carry some things for me. Somehow I didnt pack his pants. About 10 minutes before we HAD to leave for the wedding his uncle brought over some pants. It was a little stressful there for a minute! Santi did pretty good during the wedding. He slept for about the first 45 minutes until he was woken up by a soloist. Then he realized he really didn't want to be in his suit anymore and would rather not be quiet. The last hour was a bit of a struggle. As soon as we got to the reception we changed Santi into something a 4 month old would actually like to wear. Apparently it is custom for the families to dance with the bride and groom. Each family member steals the bride and groom from each other for a short dance. So Nolan went to go dance with his cousin and I held Santi, and MUCH to my surprise his aunt said I had to go dance with the groom. I was the ONLY gringo! How embarrassing! I can NOT dance. Oh well, it was fine! Then I look over and Lorena was dancing with Santi! ADORABLE! To bad I wasn't able to get a picture! Then the dance floor was opened for everyone. Once the (very loud) music started we took Santi down stairs for a nap. Surprisingly he was able to sleep even though you could hear everyone jumping and dancing. Latinos SERIOUSLY know how to dance and have a good time! Once we left the reception I took Santi home to go to sleep, but they all continued to party for several more hours!

Nolan almost had to go to the wedding in his swim suit! 

My little adorableness all ready for the wedding!
I love how he lifts his eyebrows and
makes it look like he has a unibrow!

Its wedding time!

Lorena & Chris Zayas!!

Nap time downstairs....

Party time upstairs!

Our little family.

Me with the bride.

*Sunday we hung out at the house again then Nolan had to go back home to work Monday. We dropped him off at the airport at 5 PM, went back to the house, had dinner, then got a phone call from Nolan asking us to come pick him up because the flight was full! I WAS SO EXCITED!! He got to stay a whole extra day AND South West gave us almost $500 to use on our next flight! Thankfully his boss let him have another day off.

*Monday we went to the beach for several hours in the morning. Santi thought the water was to cold and the sun was to bright. Lets just say it was rather difficult to get the sand out of all of his rolls too. He didn't even sit in the sand, but the wind got sand on him. Haha! He slept for the first 45 minutes to an hour though. That night Nolan actually left. For dinner we had a parrilla with the family next door.

Santi enjoying the beach as one should! 

Deerfield beach. 

Santi in the waves.

*Tuesday several of us went to Lorena's house for breakfast, then we went shopping.

*Wednesday we spent hanging out at the house again.

Santi playing with his great grandmother!

*Thursday morning early early Santi and I left for the airport. I was terrified of traveling alone, but Santi did sooooo good. He slept the first hour, then ate, then played on my lap.

Ready to board the plane.

What an amazing trip! We are all very exhausted, but full and happy!

Bienvenidos a Miami

I am so excited! We are leaving for Miami today! Nolan's cousin Lorena (who was in our wedding) is getting married on Saturday. Not only are we excited about the wedding, but Santi will get to meet some of Nolan's family for the first time. We have been so lucky that Santi has gotten to meet both sides of my family. We had TWO family reunions this year, my dads side of the family and my moms side. But until now Nolan's side of the family has only seen pictures and seen him on skype. So tonight Santi will get to meet cousins, aunts, uncles, and his great grandmother. He has no idea how much lovin' he is going to get over the next week. Sadly Nolan has to come back for work Sunday evening, but Santi and I will be in the sunshine state for a whole week. Please and thank you!!!

Pictures of the family, wedding, and Santi at the beach to come!

Blakley side of the family. We all got together for my granddads 90th birthday.
Jesse came in from Indonesia, Joel and the boys were in from MS, my cousin was in from India,
another cousin was in from Seattle, and my granddads brother drove in from TX.
We live all over the globe! Santi was 4 weeks old.

The Grant side of the family. We had family in from TX, IL, MO, TN, FL, & DC. Santi was 3 months old.

Texan-Peruvian

It is going to be so much fun teaching Santi about the places his family is from. Not only will we be able to teach him about the Incas from Peru, but also the cowboys from Texas!

In July we filed the paperwork for Santi to become a dual citizen, it was actually much easier than we thought. They hand wrote his birth certificate on the spot and sent off for his passport. We received his passport in the mail several weeks later and that was that. He is now a dual citizen with the most adorable passport picture EVER! I wish we could take Santi to Peru right now to meet Nolans whole family, but he cant get all the shots needed until he is 12 months old. So for now Skype will have to do.

My whole family is from Texas so I grew up with a huge respect for the lone star state. I was born in Texas, but only lived there for a few years, but there is still something in me that loves my birthplace. Everything in Texas is bigger and better, especially the food!!

We were given an adorable onsie with the Peruvian flag on it at a baby shower. Santi wore that onsie all the time (especially with his daddy when Peru was playing) until he finally outgrew it. Well, yesterday Santi got something Texan. Cowboy boots!!! I think any little boy in cowboy boots is adorable, maybe thats the Texan in me. But at the same time, I think anyone would think a little boy in cowboy boots is stinkin' cute. I can not wait to hear him stomping around the house in them pretending he is an outlawed cowboy with a broom horse! Oh the fun we are going to have!

Watching Peru play Uruguay on Independence day in the US. Ironic? I have
always worn red white and blue on July 4th, but I guess red and white will do.

Its official!

Thank you to whoever donated these beauties to Goodwill!
They will be loved well in their new home!!

Scream-laughs, crawling, and sitting up

Santi's newest thing is grabbing faces. He loves laying on the floor with you sitting over him letting him grab your face. He literally screams with excitement. He will grab my ears, nose, and mouth as long as I will let him. He sits there and makes goo goo sounds and then bursts out with the highest pitched scream-laugh you have ever heard. The first time he screamed I thought something was wrong then I realized he was laughing.

It is so fun to see his little mind working. Everything seems to be a progression. To think, just 17 weeks ago Santi hadn't even taken his first breath and now he is doing so much! Santi smiled from week one, then he moved on to laughing, now scream-laughing. He went from accidentally hitting his toys to intentionally playing with them to grabbing them and trying to stick them in his mouth. Now he grabs my face and hair (pony tails and stud earrings are a must).This morning he started lifting up his legs and hitting his toys with his feet. He went from just recently starting to suck him thumb when he was hungry to sucking his thumb just for fun. Now he likes to suck his thumb with his blanket, burp cloth, or my shirt in his mouth as well. He went from rolling over from his stomach to back at 12 weeks, then back to stomach at 13 weeks. Now he is really wanting to sit up, or is it me that wants him to sit up? Haha! I think its a little of both. He at least likes me to pull him up to the sitting position. He will sit there for minutes swaying back and forth while I hold his hands for support, it is really surprising how little support he needs though.

This morning I looked over while eating my breakfast and Santi was on his stomach with one of his toys about 2 inches out of reach. He kicked and kicked his legs trying to figure out how to get closer, sadly to no avail. Is crawling or scooting in our near future? I am actually not excited about crawling. Walking, yes, crawling, no. I feel like he sticks his hands in his mouth to much for me to be happy with him crawling. I am not a clean freak, I wish I were. I sweep the floor once a week, clean my bathroom probably once every two weeks (eww thats kinda gross), and I have no idea when the last time I dusted. When it comes to my baby I feel as though I am a little different. I want him to get natural immunities and I think its important to let him run outside barefoot and eat dirt when he is a little older, but considering he isn't allowed to have almost any medicines yet I am a little more cautious. I try not to be that crazy mom who wont let anyone touch their baby though. I took Santi out in public the first week. I will let pretty much anyone hold him, but I just have this thing about the floor. We live about 500 feet from a very busy street and have wood floors. I have never in my life seen such dirty dusty floors. It must be from the street! I am convinced. I can sweep the floors and 2 hours later all I can see is dirt and dust. It drives me crazy, not crazy enough to sweep everyday, but pretty crazy!

I guess we will see which comes first, crawling or sitting up...

Success is measured differently

I worked as an office administrator for about 9 years. Success was measured by having the checkbook balance evenly, paying bills, filing tax forms, getting things done on time etc. Now success is measured very differently! Success is measured by a clean, full, happy, sleeping baby, tiny fingernails cut, learning new things, admiring people you love, and in general sustaining another human beings life. Yeah, its a bit different than what I am used to.

Learning new things

Happy!

Tiny TINY fingernails cut....its harder than you think!

Clean

Sleeping

Admiring papi!

I have to say that my new "job" of parenting is A LOT harder, but my bills didn't smile back at me in the office...my Santi does!

Rolling Stone

Santi is wearing his Rolling Stones shirt today.

Bilingual is a must! But how?

I absolutely LOVE living in a bilingual home! Learning Spanish is by far one of the greatest accomplishments that I have done in my lifetime! I never thought I would learn another language. I was horrible at Latin in school, then I took 1 semester of Spanish because a friend was and I got a D. I am not good at languages, well I thought.

I was given the amazing opportunity to go to Peru for 2 months to help missionary friends with some administration work. While I was there I decided Cusco Peru was where God was calling me. So I went back to the States at the end of the summer and fundraised for 4 months. In January of 2005 I moved to Peru for a year. I knew NO Spanish. Well, everyone knows gracias and agua, but that was about the extent of it! I got a tutor for 3 months to learn the basics then I remembered why I didn't like studying a language...its HARD! Since I had the basics I stopped studying and learned the rest from friends, church, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, etc.

Come to find out, the reason God called me to Peru was to meet my husband...who didn't speak any English! How hilarious is it that I was called to marry a man who only spoke Spanish when I got a D in Spanish? I think you could say thats pretty ironic!

Santi has a mother and father who both speak Spanish so it should be easy for him right? We plan on only speaking to him in Spanish at home. Apparently it isn't as easy as that. Nolan and I have many Spanish speaking friends and hardly any of their kids speak Spanish. And if they do speak Spanish they don't speak correctly. They are unable to conjugate verbs and switch from present to past and future, something any child over the age of 5 should be able to do.

I was reminded of this again yesterday when I was speaking with a lady who has an 11 and 13 year old. Violetta is from Mexico and doesn't speak English. Her children grew up here in the States, but only knew Spanish until they went to school. Once in school they learned English and over the years have lost the majority of their Spanish even though their mother can not communicate to them in English. This is the story we have heard over and over. Nolan and I both worked with an English as a Second Language program at church for 2 years and we were told time and time again how children do not want to speak Spanish once they learn English. I know that living here in the States the kids hear English more out and about, but in their homes they only hear Spanish. What is the deal? Are the embarrassed of Spanish? I cant imagine not being able to communicate with my parents!

I want my family to be different! I want my child to be proud of both sides of his family! I want him to speak Spanish proudly. I want him to be able to go to Peru and visit his grandparents and speak to them normally. Im not sure why the other children have failed to keep up with their Spanish though, so Im not sure what I need to do differently. How can I ensure Santi not only learns English but Spanish as well? Im at a loss! I don't know what to do! I only know that speaking Spanish is very important!

Solo queremos dormir!

Hasta ahora tengo que decir que faltar dormir es lo mas difícil cosa de ser padre. Puedo aguantar los pañales, vomito, tiempos de llorar, pero si no duermo allí es donde tengo problemas! Santi le gusta dormir pero le gusta comer también y normalmente comida es mas importante. Nuestro primer noche en casa no dormía nada pero en las semanas que venían dormia pocito a pocito mas por la noche hasta que estaba durmiendo 7 horas. Yo pensaba que ya por fin iba a dormir siempre asi. Pero no! Cuando ya estas acostumbrado a una cosa un bebe cambia todo lo que hace. En tiempos de crecer duerman mucho menos y comen mucho mas. Los últimos 2 semanas han sido así por nosotros! Algunos noches levanto cada hora y media. Hora y media no es suficiente para nadie! Eran días terriblemente difíciles! De repente el es que estaba despertando a todos pero el tampoco estaba feliz. Cuando el no duerma bien en la noche no esta feliz el día siguiente. Cuando duerma bien en la noche normalmente duerma bien en el día, es raro como funciona. Por fin los últimos 3 noches esta durmiendo un poco mejor. Esta durmiendo 3 horas seguidas. No es nada cerca de las 7 de antes, pero es muchísimo mejor que hora y media!

Bebes son lo mas lindo cuando están durmiendo rico. Abajo hay fotos de Santi durmiendo en diferentes sitios.

Recién Nacido

Agarrando mi dedo

Afuera

Pañal

Sonriendo

Gordo

En su silla 

Caminando 

En el carro

Con su papi...debe estar durmiendo!

Feliz durmiendo con su papi!

When you have a baby you must start a blog

Why is it that every time someone has a baby they feel they must start a blog? Well, I got the itch this morning. Who knows if I will actually keep writing or if anyone will even be interested enough in reading what I do write. Here are a few things for sure, I will add tons of pictures of my bilingüe bebé, my grammar is horrible, spell check will hopefully make me look like I know how to spell in English, and just for fun I may write in Español sometimes.

So I have decided to keep more of a journal for Santi rather than a blog. I have a notebook with letters written about every other week starting 2 days after we found out we were going to have a little Rea, but this will be more of a journal. I say this is a journal for Santi, but lets face it, he is a boy and would probably be embarrassed I am even doing this. So this is a journal for me!

I have to say motherhood is a lot harder than I thought. I think that is the case for most people because everyone pretends it is fun all the time. Thankfully I am old enough to have realized this couldn't be the case, but I was still shocked by the many surprises along the way. The only advise given is "get your sleep now, you won't sleep again until he is 18." No one seemed to mention all the crazy things that happen to you while pregnant, how the first night you come home from the hospital your baby will be awake all night LITERALLY, and how once your baby finally starts the wonderful habit of sleeping 7 hours at night he will go through a growth spurt and revert back to sleeping an hour and a half at a time. Most women go through these surprises with grace and beauty, then there is me. I love sleep! Before I had a child I needed at least 8 hours of sleep or I would be a grouch the next morning. Well bye bye 8 hours. I haven't slept that long in over 4 months. So yes, there have been many many many days where I have been a grouch and felt horrible about it. I have looked through my tears of exhaustion at the most beautiful creation God has ever made smiling up at me making goo goo sounds. Yeah, and all I want to do is sleep. The second biggest surprise for me was how boring staying at home can be. When I worked full time I thought it would be the most wonderful thing staying home with my baby. Then, once home with my baby, I realized it can be horribly boring. It is hard to find something to do for just the right amount of time. Reading is out of the question when I am tired because I wont remember a thing. And if I do find something to do often times I don't want to start into something I know will be interrupted by a waking baby in a few minutes. I realized in the first few weeks that I am a huge people person and I need to get out of my house often! I am NOT a homebody as much as I wish I could be! Why don't other moms complain? Am I the only mother in the world that feels this way or at least the only one to admit it?

Once I am able to get past the black circles under my eyes and enjoy my baby I realize I have one of the sweetest children ever. There are plenty of happy babies in the world, but there are also plenty who don't smile nearly as much as Santi. You can pretty much get a smile even mid-cry. All you need to do is speak to him in a sweet or silly voice and he is all yours! I was blessed with a smiley baby from the beginning. I am also blessed with a very mobile child. He learned to roll over from his stomach to back at 12 weeks then the very next week he was rolling over from back to stomach. The latter greatly surprised me because every where I read says he shouldn't be able to do that till 5 months. Now when I go get him from his crib he is in a totally different place, something I am still getting used to. No more laying him on my bed and running to the other room to grab something.

Our living room has changed from a place for adults to sit and maybe watch sports to a giant open space with blankets and toys. When I was pregnant I didn't want a baby swing and other ugly toys because I wanted my house to still be my house, Santi would be part of our house, but his toys would be in his room....yeah that changed. I could care less what the house looks like now as long as I have a happy healthy child. Santi now has more retail space in the house than either Nolan or I.

One of Santi's newest things is the sucking of his thumb. At first he sucked his fist, then he finally found his thumb. Now there is no going back, you can take a paci away, but you can't take a thumb away. I have a feeling this is going to be an issue in a few years, but for now its WONDERFUL! He can calm himself now. Plus its really cute! He doesn't even attempt to make a fist, his fingers are all up in his face.

Well I hear a cry, meaning Santi is up from his nap...until next time.