My new best friend

 You know how people sometimes say they were absolutely in love with their baby from the time he or she was inside the womb? I'm pretty sure that's true for some people. For us, we were in love with the idea of having a baby and we were getting ready to love this baby with all our hearts. But it takes time. I would say the first few weeks is instinct what kicks in. As with all relationships, mine with Lucia has grown every single day. I would say the difference is that my love for her grows exponentially every single day. Don't get me wrong, she's my daughter and I would have died for her from the minute she was born. It's just that the love I feel for her today is different than the one I felt yesterday and the one I felt 4 months ago.

I am blessed to be married to the best woman in the world who happens to be my best friend. But not even Belinda gets as excited to see me as Lucia does every morning when she's awake and I peek into her bassinet. It's amazing to know you're so special to someone. The other day I was sound asleep, I was about 5:30am and I started feeling something moving on the bed right beside me. Belinda brought Lucia to feed in bed and when she was done, she decided to lay there and wait for one of us to chat with her. Well, I slowly opened my eyes and as soon as she saw I was looking at her you should have seen her smile and heard her giggles. It made my day. I didn't want to get out of bed, I just wanted to stay there and chat with her all day. That lasted about 15 minutes before she realized she was still hungry and demanded Mommy's attention and my 15 minutes of fame were gone...

I have been talking to her exclusively in Spanish. I am not sure if she registers the sounds or not, but it looks like she knows when I'm talking to her (since I do it in Spanish) versus when I'm talking in English to Belinda. I have been signing and playing my guitar to her and she seems to enjoy it. She also seems to get excited every time I put some music on and pick her up to dance with me. I may have father's pride symptoms but I do think Lucia and I are starting to bond and I can say without a doubt that I now have a new best friend in her.

Belinda as always continues to be my hero. Waking up at night to feed her and taking care of her all day long every single day must be exhausting. Yet when I come home from work she's always happy to see me and welcomes me by signing to Lucia "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" It's the best welcome anyone could get. Honey, I wish I could find a way to show you just how much I love you and how grateful I am for being the wife and the mom that you are.

We are taking off to Seattle tomorrow morning for a 4-day work conference. I am taking my girls with me and we'll take some time there to formally introduce Lucia to our friends. I'll try to post some pictures from our trip to the Emerald City next time.

The Mexi-Afri-American princess

True globalization at its best. Out little Mexican-African-American princess made a splash on her first trip to Mexico last week. We now need to start planning the South African trip for 2012.
We spent 11 days in Mexico (4 in Mexico City and 7 in Cabo San Lucas) and all I can say is that it was not nearly enough time to spend with the family in such nice locations.

Our little Lucia got initiated in Mexican culture by getting her ears pierced and a pair of lovely earrings her abuelito bought for her. Among many cultural differences, earrings are certainly one that I hadn't thought about until recently. In Mexico, it is a service offered at the hospital when baby girls are born (almost like the circumcision for boys). When my parents came to visit us for the first time after Lucia was born, one of the first things they notices was that she didn't have her ears pierced. So, one this trip to Mexico we went to our good friend Pediatrician Dr. Guiza (my friend Juan Carlos' dad) and had her little ears pierced in an initiation into true Mexican culture.

August was definitely a busy month for the Fernandez family. Uncle Malcolm came to visit from Cape Town, Grandma Glenda came from Savannah, Georgia, we had Lucia's Adventist dedication at Tabernacle Church in Portland and we had Lucia's Catholic baptism in Mexico City.

Lots of things happened on our trip, but the most notable for us was Lucia's growth. The first night after we came back we notices she barely fits in her bassinet and she no longer fits in her plastic bathtub. Our little girl is now 4.5 months old, 24.5 inches long (up from 20 inches at birth) and 15 lbs (up from 8.8 at birth). She's definitely growing and getting more curious about the world every day. She seems to love music, especially when someone plays it live in front of her.