Country Rican

I am a daddy’s girl all the way.  I grew up with my father, my mother and two older brothers.  I have always considered myself a “guy’s girl” because I was always close to those three men.  We watched baseball and basketball and fights.  We watched Westerns and Gangster movies.  I can be girlie too, don’t get me wrong; but I was raised with brothers and for the most part my dad did not differentiate between me and them. I always tell people my dad was a feminist.  For a Puerto Rican male born in the 40s this is something rare.  I do not know what he said to the world.  He might have cracked sexist jokes or what not – but I never saw that side of him so I do not know.  I know the way he treated my mom on occasion was not the way he brought me up to be treated.  Maybe that is hypocritical, I don’t know.  But I prefer to view it as him wanting his kid do better and go further.  I honestly do not think he was always conscien...

It was twenty years ago I graduated from The University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez (COLEGIO) with my bachelor’s in Political Science.  Yes, I am THAT old.  I look around my wonderful life now, and think back to who I was then and what my whole world view was back then and it is amazing how much things have changed.  For one, at the age of 21 living in a small town in Puerto Rico , I had no idea there was a place called Dewy Rose where I would one day live, work and happily raise a family. The world has changed a lot in twenty years, but not so much that I am going to sit here and reminisce about the so called good old days.  I am an optimist and I want to always think we are better off now then we were then.  I want to raise my girls to live in today and for tomorrow and not for yesterday.  But at the risk of being cliché those who do not learn from history…well, you know. I am fortunate to have a lot of young people in my circle, or at least in t...

I thought about blogging about motherhood today.  So much to say, so much to do...I sit down and knock the dust off the laptop, open the blogspot and see I have not blogged in two years! And the last time was for mother's day in 2013! I sit and read what I wrote two years ago.  Holy cow! That was a hard time.  I look around at my life now and I think, it is not that bad.  Not at all.  Do not get me wrong, it is always a little hard, but nothing like it was around that Mother's Day - the first as a mother of two.  I say this now for all of my newly mother-of-two out there: it does get easier. A lot has not changed: still running a business during the busy season, still raising two little ones, still living next door to the in-laws, but everything is easier, perhaps because it was so hard in the beginning. Sofia is now 4 and fully potty trained. Savannah is almost 2 and 1/2 and we are actively potty training her now.  They share a room which is a wreck...

It is not my intention to use this post to complain, so I apologize in advance if it comes off that way.  I am just trying to update folks on what has been going on and paint a picture of what our life has been like for the last couple of months.  Unfortunately, just describing it might come out as a complaint. Just to recap: Savannah was born the Monday after Thanksgiving.  My mother had been staying with us to help me with Sofia during my last trimester.  She left right before the New Year, when Savannah was a month old.  At that point, the primary care of Sofia during the day passed on to my mother in law, who offered to take care of her at least until she was 2 years old.  Michael and I had decided we were going to start Sofia in daycare around this time. Ann just wanted us to wait a little longer to allow Sofia to be 2, and Savannah to be at least 3 months old.  Ann is wise and already knew that daycare meant colds and other bugs, so...

For at least a month I have been thinking of blogging.  I miss it.  There are things I want to write about, and so I start them in my head but never get to actually write about it. I am too busy. Here is my usual process.  I think of something, and then I can't stop thinking about it.  And so I start writing it in my head as I sort laundry, or wash my hair.  What usually ends up happening is that one night I am up for some reason and it all comes together and so I write it out in the next couple of days. The problem is I have a 2 month old with colic and an almost 2 year old, so there is very little spare time.  I do not sleep much, so there is never a night I am up for no reason.  If I am up, believe me I am busy bouncing a baby or something.  When I am washing my hair I am thinking about the grocery list or the laundry or something I forgot to do at work.  Every once in awhile I think about blogging about my dai...

On November 26 th , at 9:35 in the morning, my doctor cut me open and took out my second daughter.   I hate to describe it that way, but it was awfully clinical. After having a vaginal delivery, it was a bit of a shock to my system.   Not that I can complain.   My baby was breech and my options were limited.   I am lucky to have a great doctor who I trust did what was best for me and Savannah.   Last time he told me there was a 98% chance that I would push out my baby, this time the odds were reversed.   That’s life for you. I don’t know what I was expecting.   I talked to friends who had had c sections.   I even have a good friend who had two of them with my same doctor.   I researched it online, so I thought I knew what to expect.   Still, I was overwhelmed by the whole experience. We got to the hospital at the same time as last time.   We went to the labor and delivery section same as before.   We even had the s...

Sigh... We are having us a baby on Monday November 26th via C Section.  Unless some higher power intervenes... this is the plan. Little Savannah is a stubborn little girl.  She has been in Frank breech and nothing we have done to spin her around has worked.  I am still walking around the house at times like an elephant (and I mean this in more ways than one).  The only advantage to doing this is how amused Sofia is by it.  Savannah ain't budging.  At 36 weeks my OB tried an External Cephalic Version.  Basically, he tried to spin her himself by "massaging" her over my big belly.  I use the term "massage" very loosely here.  Luckily it was less than 3 minutes of trying, because I do not think I would have been able to take much more of that.  He says after almost three decades of doing this he can usually tell right away if baby is going to go along or not, and if it seems like she isn't cooperating he does not try to force it. ...