A letter to our daughter on her first birthday

To our daughter Ávila Anastasia,

It’s been a FULL YEAR with you. A year full of smiles and laughter. Full of so much sweetness and love. Getting to know you is a gift, but seeing you grow is such a blessing.

We thank God for entrusting us with your life. You have brought an abundance of joy and happiness into our hearts. We absolutely love being your parents and cannot imagine our lives before having you.

As our first child, we are learning so much about ourselves and each other. Your kind and gracious personality has been so merciful as we learn to navigate parenthood, and we thank you for that.

You are Miss. Personality- curious, observant, talkative, and playful!

Here are a few of our favorite moments as we see your personality and curiosities unfold:

1. You seem to REALLY like your dad’s yellow rubber duck boxers… anytime I have laundry on the bed you immediately grab ahold of them.
2. You love animals!! You point and say “guau guau” at the sight of a dog or any animal for that matter. Oh my goodness – DOGS are your favorite! Your Nona’s dog is almost my height, and you handle her like she’s a stuffed animal.
3. Your favorite words are “mama”, “dada”, “agua”, “la luz”, “this”, “ball”, and “guau guau”. You will usually shout them out when you want to have a conversation, or you see them close by.
4. You are a great conversationalist already. You sit and talk in your own blabbers like we understand you, and you do it with facial expressions and hand movements.
5. You say “wow” with different intonations, depending on what caught your eye. It’s so cute to see you do this.
6. You make these really cute faces by scrunching your nose or puckering your lips when you say “aww”.
7. You like to point your right hand pointer finger, open your arms when questions are asked, wave “hola” and “adios”, and clap your hands when we say “yay”. And you’ll reach up towards us on your little toes ready to be picked up. 
8. You have learned exactly how to use each of my makeup brushes and sponges. You know which one is used for the eyes, lips, and face. So anytime I apply makeup, you try to do the same. You have even tried to dab some on your father’s face.
9. Your dad has taught you to call your stuffed animal “lambie” and now that is all you will say when you hug lambie to bed or when you bring lambie to breakfast.
10. When you crawl you BEAR CRAWL, like the strong little climber you are. Those arms and legs are strong!!
11. You haven’t mastered kisses yet, you just open wide like you want to bite our nose.
12. When you learned to stand up by yourself, I watched your reaction from a distance and saw your little grin of accomplishment. The sight of seeing yourself so proud and happy, brought me so much joy.
13. When you learned to take your first steps you reacted the same way – so proud of yourself! You showed us your work ethic: never once did you take a fall with a bad attitude or cry, but instead you stood up and tried again and again and again… until you learned to walk on your own.
14. You enjoy following me around the house, so much so that you learned to climb stairs to follow me to the loft (we are still trying to teach you how to get down from stairs, so you don’t fall a second time). You also crawl up the outdoor stairs to the kitchen door when you want to go inside the house from outdoor playtime.
15. You give the strongest neck hugs AND WE LOVE THEM. Especially your dad! His eyes will close to take in the moment for as long as he’s able to.
16. You are a wonderful eater! You have fed yourself since you were able to. You enjoy tasting different foods and beverages. There is not a moment we can sneak a food without you curious to try it (spicy food, alcohol, and caffeinated drinks are the most difficult).
17. You will find your own snack if you are hungry. There have been countless times that I find you in front of the pantry shelf with a banana, orange, or avocado half eaten with the skin on. Or I’ll find apples that are nibbled and returned to the bin, or sometimes it’s nibbled onions, garlic, limes, and lemons. Whatever is at hand’s reach – you are sure to eat it.
18. We learned that you don’t really like stringy vegetables. Sliced cabbage, spinach, lettuce get ejected out of your mouth (even when I try to hide them between foods).
19. You are very friendly. You wave hello to the old folks at the store when they say hello to you.
20. You will hand feed us your food or give us a sip from your sippy cup.
21. Anytime I do Pilates you immediately take the moment to use me as human playground, which then becomes our play time.
22. We love to color (and bite on crayons). You are very good about coloring on the page and not on objects, which I appreciate. We are still teaching you to not put crayons and markers in your mouth, and you seem to understand… at moments.
23. You love exploring your room and ours. By the time I walk into the room to find you, the shoes are off the rack scattered, the hangers from your play closet are on the floor, all your personal toiletries are out of the bin, and you are usually trying to dress yourself with a hat on your head or sunglasses on your face.
24. You enjoy reading books by yourself. You will go sit by your book basket and look through them all, it’s your favorite pass time and favorite “toy”. You know how to flip the pages and trace the words with your fingers.
25. You love to read books with us. Your favorite bedtime story is “Goodnight my honey bunny” and you will make sure to press all the noise buttons.
26. You also enjoy listening to groovy music that make your body want to dance. This is mainly rumba flamenco, mambo, salsa, and some classical guitar – thanks to me, you will have GREAT taste in music 😉 hahaha
27. You love to play “BOO!” when either of us holds you and the others jumps out from behind to spook you. Your whole-body wiggles preparing for the next jump scare and you’ll playfully look for us over both shoulders.
28. Recently you have taken an interest in nursery rhymes, and we’ll (occasionally) do the hand movements together. Your favorites are “La araña chiquitita”, “Un elefante se balanceaba”, and “Sol solecito”.
29. I have noticed that when you or are being disciplined, you will react with a serious face and then (to change the mood) you do our tongue clacking noise.
30. You are an excellent helper. You will wipe the floor with a napkin, mimicking when I clean up your spills. You also understand to return toys, blocks, and crayons back in their rightful place.

with all our love,

Mamá y Papá