Four month picture

Because we were in Mexico on December 21 -- Emma's four month birthday -- the official birthday picture with Johnny Bear was taken two days later, on December 23.

The biggest changes we've noticed with Emma this past month are:
- She grew out of her 0-3 month old clothes.
- She can hold her head up.
- She can stand on her legs for a long time if we hold her.
- She is very social - smiles a lot in response.
- She has been out of her baby swing for two weeks now... yeah!

One month old picture.

Oma gives a bath

Don't know what the official rules are of posting pictures of naked babies on the Internet, but I just love this one of my little girl.

The party

One of Alison's crazy ideas for her wedding was for the bridal party to dance together.
So here I am, a married woman with a newborn child, dancing with a groomsmen.
Needless to say, it was fun.
Hello Chris! :)

Me and my favorite person in the whole wide world <3

Emma is woke up to take pictures and meet the extended family.

Emma meets the cousins.

Emma meets Conono.

The wedding

Alison and Rob's wedding took place at an Hacienda (plantation). A simple, yet beautiful event with family and close friends only.

Emma was able to made her grand debut later that evening when she was woken up to take family pictures.

"Okay mommy, I'm ready! Let's go see Aunt Alison get married."

La fea y la requetefea, as my dad would call us.
The ugly one, and the uglier one :)

Mom with her two daughters.

Alison wore the same wedding dress our grandmother used at her wedding more than 60 years ago.

Night before the wedding

On Monday night, the night before the wedding, some of the Charruf cousins, the bride and a few friends got together to celebrate Alison. The evening included good Italian food, marriage advice and a little surprise gift at the end :)

Pinata

Emma's first encounter with a pinata took place last Monday morning at Oma's house.

Reach out --

Grab --

And pull --

Wedding welcome dinner part 2

Byron with Kristen, a former student of his and my sister's good friend.

Alison with Alex, Eduardo and Kristen.

The party is over and look at the leftovers! Mom didn't have to worry about cooking for DAYS!

Wedding welcome dinner part 1

On Sunday, my mom hosted a welcome dinner at her home for friends and out of town guests.

The bride and groom, Alison and Rob.

Dona Esperanza preparing hand made tortillas... yum!

Rob's dad and uncle, with Lynn --mom's friend.

The Georgia Tech men.
Rob and his groomsmen.

Dona Mary and the serving table.

Chichi Velia, bisabuelo Ali & abu Naamen

After church, we went to my aunt Miriam's house for lunch, the house where my dad grew up, and where he lived for the last 10 years of his life.

After eating a good Yucatecan/Lebanese meal (kibis and cochinita pibil, yum!), Byron and I took a little girl around the house introducing her to her two great grandparents and grandfather, all three of which have passed away.

With Chichi Velia (chichi = grandmother in Maya, Yucatan's native language). Passed away in August 2006.

With bisabuelo Ali (great grandfather).
He passed away 9 months before I was born almost 28 years ago.

With abu Naamen (abu = short for abuelo, grandfather in Spanish).
Passed away November 2007, five months after I got married.

Byron pointing out abu Naamen and his four siblings.

Emma & Manuelito, my cousin's son, who wanted to take Emma home with him :)

Church

We took Emma to church with us last Sunday to Shalom, the same church where Byron and I got married and attended while living in Merida.

We got to see a few of our friends again and have them meet our little girl for the first time. Despite being tired at the time and at the verge of being fussy, she was a sweet girl who enjoyed being held by others.

Alejandra (one of B's former students), Claudia and Karina.

Chucho, one of the two pastors who led our wedding in 2007.

With Vivi and Cesar.

Emma snuggles

While in Merida, Emma would "sneak" into Oma's bedroom in the mornings to get some snuggle time with her.

Emma and Daniela

My mom has always said that Brenda was my first friend. We lived just a few houses apart from each other as baby girls, and our mothers would often get us together to play and spend time with each other, even as newborns.

Fast forward 27 years and both of us are married to foreign men (she married a Canadian, I married an American), both of us live abroad, and both of us have little girls just six weeks apart.

While our hectic time in Merida these past few days, we made it a point to get together with Brenda, her mom and daughter Daniela.

Chinese fortune

This past Friday I was sick as a dog. I spent most of my day on the couch recovering from a cold. I had to eventually leave the house to get some much needed Christmas shopping before my Mexico trip this week, but I had already warned Byron I was not going to put one foot in the kitchen that day. I made him in charge of dinner.

We hardly ever do this, but I asked Byron to buy food and bring it home. He brought Chinese food, and OH! it was so yummy! I'm half tempted to make Friday nights "Chinese nights" from now on. Anyway, all that to say is that I got a smile on my face when I opened my fortune cookie and read my fortune.

Growing up

For a few weeks now we've started noticing that Emma will intentionally grab things in her reach. She still can't grab things off the ground, but if they are hanging above her or are right in front of her (for example, her pacifier string, shirt, blanket), she'll grab it and either just look at it or stick it in her mouth.

Another thing we've noticed her doing is that she rubs her eyes when tired.

And finally, you may remember me mentioning how she likes to suck on her fists and we were just waiting for her to discover her thumb. Well, she discovered her thumb, but was not that interested in it. What she really likes to suck on is her left hand index finger. Byron's dad, one of Byron's brothers and Byron himself are all left handed, so Byron likes to hope that Emma girl will be left handed as well.

Bumbo seat

Each day I seem to fall more and more in love with my little girl. Today we decided to give the Bumbo seat a try, and OH DEAR! How sweet she looked sitting up like a big girl. I of course busted out the camera and took what seemed to be enough picture to fill an entire photo album.

The perfect Christmas gift!

Setting up for Christmas

Last Saturday we went out to buy a little girl's first Christmas tree. After a four hour long nap (in her swing, of course), we drove over to Publix. It took just a few minutes to find the perfect tree, and most of our time there seemed to be spent taking pictures.

In front of our Christmas tree.

Emma's first snowman friend.

Finally, a picture smiling! Check out how huge those cloth diapers look on her!


While we were decorating, Emma took yet another nap (in her swing, of course). She woke up to a decorated tree and house.

Our traditional Christmas picture with our Santa hats in front of the tree.