Girlfight

Hope everyone is having a long, wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We definitely are. We started in NJ at Nestor's sis's house. It was an intimate gathering of his sister, Evelyn, brother-in-law, Carlo, Titi (Aunt) Luz, Grandma, Karena (niece) w/ bo, Jonathan, Spike w/ gal, Christina, Nestor, Amelia and myself. Dinner was superb, sheer perfection -- as always. With fabulous desserts provided by Christina's brilliant sister, Corrina (professional baker...see corinasconfections.com), Karena and yours truly.

From there we hiked it down to my folk's house in Baltimore. Last night (friday) we had a 70th birthday party for my Mom. We brought in our favorite restaurant, Tio Pepe's food, dessert and used their famed sangria recipe to kick things off. It was really wonderful. I haven't tasted that food since before Amelia was born. We never go out-out when we're down here because there's really no one to leave our girl with. Sooooo yummy! Had leftovers tonite too!

So this brings us to today. More precisely -- this evening when a girl fight broke out. Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly -- but it was cool!!!!! So, Nestor had been spending some quality time with my 17 month old niece, Maya and his little girl was not so happy about this. We were all just hanging out on the playmat...but Maya was getting books read to her and lots of Uncle Nestor's attention. Amelia was playing with stuff, but definitely keeping her eye on Daddy and Maya. Then, Maya took Amelia's little Mickey Mouse driving toy(which she was playing with). Amelia was not happy. Bubbie stepped in and gave Amelia one of Maya's babies (which she was NOT playing with at the time) and Maya hit Amelia in the face. Immediately, Amelia swung out and kvetched at Maya, but Maya's Daddy was quick to swoop in and take Maya into the other room. It was awesome!!! I know what you're thinking...but for us, we were amazed that Amelia stood up for herself. She never moves quickly and her swing was almost in slow motion -- but it was there and she was standing up for herself. We were so proud of her. NOTE: neither of the girls used any force here and no one was hurt at all. Just a little wounded pride.

The girls are friends again and all is well.

Amelia is particularly in love with her big cousin, Ezra(4 yrs. old) who is such a doll with her. He runs in and finds her. He loves me to stand her up so he can give her big hugs. She just laughs and laughs when he does this. He sits next to her and holds her hand or plays with toys with her (we're getting used to the sharing part of it) and is just so sweet. Amelia doesn't have anyone else in her life like Ezra. She doesn't have that kind of contact with other kids, special needs or typically developing -- and it's such a special relationship for her to have. I really adore Ezra for his blind acceptance of Amelia. It gives me such extreme joy to see the two of them together. Amelia is so lucky to have Ezra and Maya as first cousins. I know they are going to be huge influences on her life in years to come.