Oh so many things happened these past two months. Not only did Benjamin learn how to spend time on his belly without having a complete meltdown... / Tantas cosas pasaron estos ultimos dos meses. Benjamin no solo aprendio a estarse bocabajo sin desesperarse totalmente...
He was also mesmerized by his first Christmas tree.../ Tambien estuvo totalmente ensimismado por su primer arbol de navidad....
And the poets maudits that his parents hung from it..../ Y los poetas malditos que sus padres colgaron de el.
It was a good thing that he had at the last minute mastered grasping enough to participate in the gift-opening. / Menos mal ya habia empezado a agarrar cosas, pues asi pudo participar de la abierta de los regalos.
Which he did, together with Uncle Andy, in a last shot before he was felled by the stomach death-flu. / Cosa que hizo, junto con el tio Andy, a quien captamos en camara pocas horas antes de que lo atacara un virus del estomago totalmente matador.
Once recovered, we got a chance to jaunt through the great outdoors. / Despues de haberse recuperado, pudimos darnos un paseo por la ciudad.
Uncle Andy, do NOT get into another bike crash -- we will need those carrying arms in one piece for a couple years to come. / Tio Andy, por favor, NO dejes que te vuelvan a chocar mientras montas tu bici como un loco en Nueva York. Necesitamos esos brazos para que sigan cargando al chico durante muchos agnos mas.
Benjamin was also present for his first calendar-change.../ Benjamin tambien estuvo presente para su primer cambio de calendario....
Though really, he would have loved to sleep through it. Sorry, kid, the whistles are non-negotiable. / Aunque realmente hubiera preferido dormirlo. Lo sentimos chico, pero fue imposible vetar los silbatos.
Caught on camera: one Frump-mama with offspring, in winter regalia. We were toughening the kid up for the many feats ahead of him in the months to come. / Y aca la madre en su atuendo de invierno, con chico en brazos. Estamos entrenandolo para que aguante todas las proezas que tiene que llevar a cabo en los proximos meses.
Sitting up (it's easier on the father's belly)... / Como sentarse (es mucho mas divertido en la barriga del papa)....
... than by oneself, on the floor, but we're getting there. / ... que en el suelo, uno solito. Pero ya casi.
Flipping from back to front (forgive the obscenity -- it was our best shot), which he finally mastered in late January. He can now do it with diapers on, so we have abandoned the Greek-style training sessions. / Darse la vuelta de la espalda a la barriga (perdonen la obscenidad -- era nuestra mejor foto del proceso), lo cual logro, por fin, en enero. Ya la vuelta la logra con pagnales, asi que hemos abandonado el entrenamiento a lo griego.
The ability to grab at things now mastered, / Y ya que ha dominado la capacidad de agarrar objetos,
he can now fight back when we try to dress him after the nightly bath. / tiene como defenderse cuando tratamos de vestirlo despues de su bagno.
Fortunately, he's more amenable to reading, or the mother would be traumatized. / Afortunadamente, leer le gusta muchisimo mas, o la madre se traumatizaria.
And now, for the great micro-contorsionist! / Y les presentamos, segnores y segnoras, al micro-contorsionista!
I'm still not sure if the look of surprise is at being caught with his foot in his mouth, or at the sputter of chest-hairs he found on the way down. / Todavia no estoy muy segura si la car de sorpresa se debe al hecho de que lo agarramos comiendose el pie, o si es por la mano de pelos que se encontro de bajada.
And then, in early January we packed the kid in the car and took him with us to Washington where Carl had a conference and Catalina was about to take a plane to Colombia. Ahh... the luxury of being a conference baby... / Luego, a principios de enero empacamos al muchachito en un carro y nos lo llevamos a Washington donde Carl tenia una conferencia y yo iba a coger un vuelo a Colombia. Ahh... el lujo de ser bebe de conferencia...
Voila international baby of mhystery: he got taken along on his first extra-utero international flight (really, he was the one that the gradparents were interested in seeing -- the mother was mostly just transportation and food). We amazingly made it through an entire day of traveling with minimum fuss. / Les presento al bebe internacional de misterio en su primer vuelo internacional extra-uterino (los abuelos realmente estaban interesados en verlo a el -- la mama era mas que todo el medio de transporte y la comida). Increiblemente el viaje se logro con un minimo de lloriqueo.
And arrived at the Abuela's house where she had a whole host of delightful things prepared, unheard of in his parents' house: mobiles, / Y llegamos a la casa de la Abuela, donde le tenian preparadas toda clase de cosas maravillosas, nunca antes vistas en casa de sus papas: mobiles...
teething rings of indeterminate materials... / juguetes de proveniencia indeterminada...
Stuffed chickens, hats, and rides around the apartment in a stroller... / Pollos de peluche, sombreros y paseos alrededor del apartamento en el coche...
Nightly baths and permission to splash at will... / Bagnos cada noche y el permiso de hacer todo el reguero que quisiera...
And so, for two weeks and a half, the kid was happy as a clam. / Asi que durante dos semanas y media, el chico estuvo feliz como una lombriz.
To be expected, what with so much attention -- from tia Juana... / Era de esperarse, con tanta atencion -- de la tia Juana...
La Abuela, second-cousin Jeronimo,/ de la Abuela, el primo segundo Jeronimo...
great-aunt Olga, great-uncle Ivan, and second-cousins Daniel and Santiago,/ la tia abuela Olga, el tio abuelo Ivan, los primos segundos Daniel y Santiago,
great-aunt Maria Jose,/ la tia abuela Maria Jose,
and of course, El Abuelo,/ y claro, el Abuelo,
whom I will tease for the rest of his life for offering to take the red-eye shift at 6:30 in the morning and then thinking that meant plopping the kid next to him while he worked on the crossword puzzle. / a quien nunca dejare de molestar por ofrecerse a cuidar al chico cuando se desperto a las 6:30 de la magnana y pensar que eso queria decir acostarlo al lado mientras el terminaba el crucigrama.
But you have to give it to him: he can make some funny faces./ Pero hay que reconcerselo: puede hacer unas caras chistosisimas.
Everyone was also working on "Colombianizing" the kid. Here, sporting the ruana (a wool blanket with a hole in the middle for one's head, worn traditionally in cold climates in Colombia) that his Abuela gave him for Christmas. / Todo el mundo estuvo tratando de "colombianizar" al chico. Aca lo vemos modelando la ruana que le regalo la Abuela de navidad.
Which he then wore to El Alto de la Cruz (a friend of my parents' farm), where he got introduced to he horses. / Que luego se puso en la visita al Alto de la Cruz (la finca de un amigo de mis papas) donde lo llevaron a que conociera los caballos.
Had it not been for my motherly worries they would have plopped him on a horse, bareback, to get him used to riding them. / Si no me cuido, lo hubieran montado a pelo de una vez para que se acostumbrara a montarlos.
As it was, we contented ourselves with watching the horses being shown off in the picadero. / Por ahora nos contentamos con mirar a los caballos desde el muro del picadero.
Later on, once inside, we kept the kid entertained during the last part of the visit playing "AeroChupos." / Mas tarde, ya dentro de la casa, entretuvimos al chico jugando "AeroChupos".
The other amazing thing that happened these past two months was the range of facial expressions this kid acquired. Here: conspiratorial, / La otra cosa increible que paso durante estos ultimos meses fue el rango tan impresionante de expresiones faciales que adquirio. Aca: picaro...
and then one of the many versions of amazement and surprise,/ y luego una de las muchas versiones de sorpresa y asombro,
and once again, / una vez mas,
the world really is a bizarre place,/ el mundo realmente es muy raro,
but a delightful one sometimes as well (he also started laughing sometime in early January), / pero es bastante chevere de vez en cuando (tambien empezo a echar carcajadas a principios de enero),
and just basically absurd./ y en general totalmente ridiculo.
Now, the hands are great for exploring things like tropical flowers, / Las manos son realmente utiles para explorar cosas como flores tropicales,
but really, his diagnostic tool of choice is his mouth. Left to his own devices, EVERYTHING would go in there: / pero la herramienta que mas le gusta es la boca. Si fuera por el, TODO terminaria ahi adentro:
bees, / abejas,
turtles (am I the only one who sees the extraordinary similarities between those two?) / tortugas (soy yo la unica que encuentra un parecido increible entre esos dos?)
birds (I hope these are the early signs of an adventurous eater), / pajaros (espero que estos sean signos tempranos de un gastronomo aventurero),
toes (apparently the thumbs are not enough)! / los dedos de los pies (aparentemente los de las manos no bastan)!
Thank goodness he finally sprouted his first tooth! The mama can't support this kind of voraciousness for much longer. It's hard to catch on film, but there's that pearly white if you look closely, as well as a close-up of the eye color -- pure glauco, that indeterminate Ocampo hue. / Menos mal por fin le salio su primer diente! La mama no puede aguantar tal hambre durante muchos meses mas. Es dificil sacarle una foto, pero si lo miran detenidamente, ahi esta la perlita, ademas de una toma del color de los ojos -- puro glauco, ese indeterminado color de los ojos Ocampo.
And here's another one, hoping for a better shot. / Y aqui hay otra toma, esperando que saliera mejor.
He'll need those teeth, if the tiger-hunting parties continue in this house (our poor cats...). More soon! / Va a necesitar esos dientes, si es que continuan las excursiones para cazar tigres en esta casa (pobres gatos...). Hasta la proxima!
