Spanish in 4 months

In case you didn't notice from the picture, today is Kaylani's 8 month birthday! Even though Independence Day just passed, we figured we were close enough to get some extra use out of her All-American Swimsuit, and Mommy made a very patriotic sign to go along with it. With all this American activity going on around her, you'd think Kaylani would play along. Instead, she showed off her Spanish side.

Kaylani is half Puerto Rican, and 8 months old, which makes her 4 Spanish months old (Asian math for you). Apparently, 4 months is what it takes before you can pick up a little bit of Spanish (or 4 years if you're Daddy). But the little bit of Spanish that Kaylani picked up is arguably the most difficult. Today, she spouted off a clean, crisp, long trill of her tongue. As some of you might know, not everyone can do this. It's quite difficult and I'm pretty impressed with her early Spanish speaking skills. I mean, she hasn't even watched Dora or Diego yet!

Rolling her R's is impressive in my book because I'm not a native Spanish speaker (I'm not any type of Spanish speaker actually). It's probably harder to do than something like asking your girlfriend's mother (who only speaks Spanish) for her daughter's hand in marriage in Spanish. It's probably even harder than trying to think of something else to say in Spanish when you get back "only her hand???" as the reply. And since I'm already off topic and reliving my own nerve-racking experience of talking to my now Mother-in-law (who, by the way, I replied to with "no no, all of her body" in perfect, yet awkward, Spanish), I might as well just throw it out there that I expect Kaylani's future suitor to ask for my permission in perfect Spanish. AND, if he says something like "no no, all of her body," he better be a damn quick runner because I'm not going to laugh like Abuela did.

Anyways, we always have reason to celebrate something during Kaylani's monthly birthday. Sure we wish it was crawling, or standing, or something else, but we'll take it. Speaking Spanish is a great milestone, even if she doesn't mean it or know what she's doing. Maybe next month she'll spout out some full Spanish sentences. I hope not though, because if she's speaking Spanish before I do, then I'm sure going to get a lot of grief from my in-laws. I better get to work just in case. Feliz Cumpleanos Kaylani! Yo quiero Taco Bell (and other Spanish stuff)!

Oh, and don't forget to check out pictures from the last couple of days, including a few from Gymboree, and more birthday pictures! Enjoy!

The Great Debate

Today is Kaylani's 2 month birthday (Happy 2 Month Birthday Kaylani!), and I can't believe it's here already. It seems like only yesterday that we were waiting (impatiently) for her to come out. And now, 2 months and 3 lbs later (her weight gain, not mine...although it's close), here we are. Mommy and Daddy have most things figured out, or at least we think we do. We know when she's hungry and how much to give her. We know when she's tired and how to get her to sleep. And we know when she's pooping and how to change her. But there's still something we're not quite sure of. Actually, there's still something that other people aren't quite sure of, and that's why it's The Great Debate.

Asians have strong genes. You can always tell if someone has Asian genes in them even if you can't tell what type of Asian gene it is. In fact, Asian genes are stereotypically so strong that I told Mommy if Kaylani didn't look Asian at all when she was born, she had a whole lot of explaining to do (luckily, she did). For the record, I'm Chinese, which, for all you studiers of biology, makes Kaylani half Chinese. And Mommy, is Puerto Rican, which of course then makes the other half of Kaylani Puerto Rican. But, is she really half and half, and which half is which half? That my friends, is The Great Debate.

The majority of people we've run into say that she's a pretty good mix of both Mommy and Daddy, and I tend to agree with that majority. But, there are people who say she doesn't look a bit Asian, and that's what I find hard to believe. And it's not just Mommy's side of the family that says she doesn't look Asian (okay, it's mostly Mommy's side), but we've had strangers tell us the same. I mean, sure she doesn't have really slanty eyes, or really dark black hair, and isn't in front of a piano or holding a calculator (or abacus), but still, she looks Asian, right?

But for the purpose of this post, we'll just go along with the majority and say Kaylani is a perfect mix of both Mommy and Daddy. And in honor of the birthday of this perfect mix that we've created, here is the "genetic breakdown" of our beautiful little girl:

Head shape: Daddy (because it's big)
Hair: Mommy (because Daddy with that much hair would look like a giant fuzz ball)
Forehead: Mommy (because it's not as long as Daddy's)
Face Shape: Daddy (because it's round)
Ears: Mommy (because she doesn't listen to what I say)
Eyebrows: Daddy (because Mommy had gigantic eyebrows when she was a little girl)
Eyes: Daddy (because she still looks a little Asian)
Smiling Eyes: Mommy (because her eyes don't close when she smiles)
Nose: Mommy (because it's not flat)
Top Lip: Daddy (because of the bump in the middle)
Bottom Lip: Mommy (because it's pouty)
Mouth Shape: Daddy (because Daddy has a small round mouth)
Smile: Mommy (because it's beautiful)
Cheeks: Daddy (because they're HUGE)
Fingers: Mommy (because they're long)
Toes: Mommy (because they're longer)
Legs: Undecided (because they're not thin enough for Mommy's legs, and more normal looking than Daddy's)
Butt: Also undecided (because we don't have pictures of us in diapers...or do we?)

And that concludes today's Great Debate. Of the 18 measured characteristics, she looks like Mommy for 9 of them, Daddy for 7 of them, and 2 of them are undecided. I guess Puerto Rican's have stronger genes than Asians do, at least within the first 2 months. We'll see what happens as she gets older!

But before she does get older, as a birthday gift from Kaylani to all of you, here are pictures of her birthday "celebration" with Mommy today. Enjoy!