Happy New Year

Luis and I are on the road again (still?). Yesterday, we flew to Charlotte, where we'll spend 3 days with Thomas and Lucy (and the 4 dogs and 1 cat) and see most of the Rock Hill McDows. Thursday, my friend Jeanette joins our travel team here and we all head to Atlanta to see Randolph & Lauren, Grandfather and the Terreri's. Saturday, we drive back to Rock Hill and then Sunday we fly back to MD. We'll have a week more before returning home to Mumbai.

Luis did great on the flight down, sleeping almost the whole way. I'm very impressed (and grateful) at what a great traveller he's been. The two overnight trips we took in India were sleep disasters for Luis - so I was nervous about all of this travelling in the US. But in the last 2 weeks, he's slept in three different houses (and on two airplanes) and hasn't fussed once. Yeah! And with the sun coming up almost an hour later here (than in Mumbai), he's sleeping an hour later each morning. Another Yeah!

Last week I took Luis for his one year check up. The pediatrician said that he looked great, seems very healthy and is on track for all his milestones. I was pleased to hear that Luis is doing so well (by medical standards). And in a way, it made me feel like I'm doing a good Mom-job as well. That's always nice to hear.

Luis was 21lbs 14oz (35%) and 31" (85%). For those of you who got used to metric (or just want to compare) that would be 9.92kg and 78.74cm. I'm pleased that he's put on almost a pound in the last month. I personally think he's grown more than 1/2" - and that measurement is much more subjective (have you ever tried to get a height measurement on a wriggly baby?).

Luis's best new trick is giving hugs. He tends to give them at bedtime after I read him a story, or if he gets frightened by something. It's a big, strong wrap around the neck with a couple of squeezes for good measure. They are awesome! Occasionally he'll give a kiss, but that's not so nice - a big open mouthed, slobbery suck on the jaw bone. The intent, I suppose is good. He's still not walking, though he'll take 2-3 steps between furniture several times a day. I continue to think that his proficiency in crawling leads to a lack-of-interest in walking. All things in good time... Luis doesn't have any recognizable words (nor anything even remotely resembling Mama or Dada), but he has a HUGE vocabulary of sounds. And he uses them all day long. His most recent addition is babababababa. Luis mastered a bye-bye wave a couple of weeks ago, but he's just now using it to actually wave bye-bye. This morning while Luis was having breakfast, Lucy's cat left the kitchen. I asked Luis, "Where's the kitty?" His response was to wave bye bye.

One not-so-endearing new trick is the way Luis clings to me and cries when I leave the room. He learned this somewhere on the airplane between Mumbai and Baltimore. He particularly likes to stand behind me when I'm doing dishes at the kitchen sink, wrap one arm around each leg, and kind of chant "eh, eh, eh" which I think means, "Mommy, pick me up - or at least, pay more attention to me".

But even that's hard to complain about when I think of what a happy and easy-going child Luis is. He's still a good eater, eating a mixture of pureed veggies and finger foods like pasta, cheerios and cheese (he stopped nursing three days shy of his birthday). He's a good sleeper taking two 2-hour naps each day and sleeping about 12 continuous hours at night. Luis is curious about the world around him and engaging. I'm really enjoying all of this time with him.