Videos 2008

Almost Sentences

Neli is blowing us away with his vocabulary and the way he remembers people. He can easily recall people's names and associates people with items, actions or other people's names. I know this is normal and is what all little learning brains go through, but it is pretty incredible to see this once blob of baby labeling his world. See the little video of his baby talk from 2-3 months prior.

His compound words and sentences of late:
Dada's White Truck
Mama's Hat
Get Nana (banana)
Big Blue Ball
Up Please
Pretty Moon
Blue Car
Surreal (cereal)
Baby's Turn
Cut Apple, Cut Pear
More whatever

Month 16

It was this 16th month of life that Neli took his first real steps. Out of the blue he stood up a thanksgiving and walked and then did it over and over with a big smile. He also started day care two days a week at the beginning of November. It is going pretty good since he doesn't want to leave when we pick him up.

Stand and Walk Little Man

Neli decided to walk on his own at 15 3/4 months. He was up past his bedtime and full of fun cousin/family energy at thanksgiving. He just stood up and started walking like his ancestoral great apes. When he fell he got up and took off again and again. A week or so later he hasn't seemed to have that much interest in repeating his walking feat.

November 20, 2008

Went to the doctor the other day he weighed in at 26lbs and 11oz (65%), 2feet 10inches (98%).

In this 16 month of Neli's life he has continued to expand his vocabulary exponentially and now has people that he associates to by name - LaLa, Papi, Grammy, Greta and Isak to name a few. He has made some primitive sentences such as "dada's truck" and "green ball" and a couple of times has used he the word please along with stating what he wants.

Walking on his own is still a ways off but he does like to walk holding someone's hand and to take a couple of steps/diving in between two people. (8 days after this post he walked)

Another new experience for him this month is day care which he attends twice a week for 6 hours per day. He is the youngest one there and the only non-walker, but he is doing great - eats well, is able to sleep at nap time and only cries for a minute or so when we drop him off. A good sign is that he doesn't want to leave when we pick him up.

A Halloween Story

15-16 Month Action

15 Months

Baby Talk

Neli has taken to talking before walking. See his progression of vocabulary from 13 months to 15 months old.

14th Month

Neli is like a parrot, he just keeps learning words and using them. He surely suprises us with his vocabulary. He has pretty much doubled his list of words since we wrote down a list 12 days ago.

One of his favorite things to do is slide head first down the slide. Then he turns around and tries to climb back up the slide "Up, Up", and with a little help he is back down again. -JF

14th Month of Fun

A sampling of all things fun in the 14th month of Neli.

Talking but not walking

Here is the official list of words that Neli says* at 13 and 1/2 months:

up, down, shoe, wee, hat, swing, fan, ink, egg, truck, block, book, drum, cup, bib, bowl, spoon, hand, thumb, ball, doggy, mommy, daddy, hole, bean, pea, bee, duck, (ba)nana, (avo)cado, Lala, head, ear, tunnel, belly button (kind of), apple, stick, share


*may require the services of a parental translator

First Steps (with help)

Just out of the blue Neli wanted to take some steps (at 13 months) The weird thing is he took about a month off before he showed any interest again in taking steps.

A bit over a year old.

13 months and busting out…Neli had his one year physical last week and measured 33 inches tall (99% height for his age) and 23 lbs (50% for his age). His legs grow stronger by the minute. His gym is our small house and some city of Santa Cruz park play structure almost everyday. When he is not barreling down the slides head first at the park, he enjoys kicking up dust as he traverses the playground looking for play structure parts that spin or move. He’ll happily break his stride for snack time and is not particular about who offers or what is being offered. This morning he woke up and laughed hysterically for about 5 minutes than went back to sleep? This goes right along with his telling jokes lately too. For example, “Ha gee ga” was a thigh slapper for both of us when we were riding home from the park yesterday. When we got home, I tried to put him down but we were laughing too much. I tried keeping a straight face but it was just so funny... He also adds new words every week. They start to take shape one day and then in the next day or so I suddenly realize what he is saying. For example, “cupek” --> "cuk" -->"cup". Food preferences this month are melon and blueberries (the absolute bomb). -Nadine

12th Month

1st Birthday Dance Party

11 Month Fun

One Year - Relentless Love

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Like they say "the years fly by fast", or in this case one year of relentless love will complete its turn on August 4th. Every morning he is up ready for a new day of learning and everyday something new is learned. Whether it is how to master crawling, as he has this last month of year one or his fascination with pressing buttons this little guy's waking hours are all about experiencing the moment. Us parents are co-explorers, observing as he does. Nadine as a principle investigator armed with her night-stand reference library and myself as the data collector taking hundreds of photos and videos to reflect upon in the future.

A whole new world of the outside has opened up to him through a portal you and I know as the doggy door. One moment he is in the house pushing the flap and the next he is whooshed out to the dirty flagstone yard of chickens, flowers, and sticks.

He has almost six teeth in and happily crunches on cereal. There is not much he is not interested in eating. His new skill of waving good bye to mommy, daddy or visitors is getting honed in (as in he will do it when someone waves to him and not minutes after the person has left) and at times he will wave good bye to the dog in anticipation of her fleeing his approach. He still has little to no stranger anxiety and yesterday decided to crawl across the whole park to check out the basketball court, the balls being his point of interest.

One year down, the rest of our lives to go.

Neli and Greta

Month 11, Done.

He talks! Ball, doggy, dadda, mama (mimi), fan (an), hat (at), in, and on occasion bubble and book. He is really into books of late and enjoys putting almost anything on his head and saying "hat". He enjoys bike riding on the back of my bike. When he is not biking, sleeping, playing or speaking he slithers around the house pulling himself up on things especially Nadine's leg. 3 1/2 teeth and he is becoming his own little person. See a video of his 11th month

Hat, Hat, Hat

Many New Talents in His 10th Month

This last month Neli has been able to communicate and shares a lot. He is real aware of his surroundings and takes clues from the dog or from door sounds to know that mommy is home. When he hears her he drops everything and takes off pulling himself across the floor with his left forearm, dragging the rest of himself behind.
He is crusing around the house freely like a baby commando seal and likes to drag things with him as he goes.

He has an official first word - "ball". He also likes to say "daddy" and "doggy" which he get mixed up at times.

30 1/2 inches - 90th percentile
Head diameter 18 inches, he is "growing into his head"
20 lbs 13 oz - 60th percentile
His favorite part about going to the doctors is playing with the paper on the exam table.

I posted 4 new videos at hijuanvideos.blogspot.com

The Starving Baby

Neli's nanny Tessie has called Neli the "Starving Baby". He seems to have an non-stoppable interest in feeding himself.

Opening Door, Tickling, and Tounge

Neli Meets A Chick

Alive and Kicking, 9 Months

Neli has found a new passion - swimming! He is like a fish in the water. We took him to a pool in Santa Cruz and visiting Papa Mike in the desert. He loves it - kicks, screams, blows bubbles and doesn't mind dunking his face in the water.
Besides the pool he is really into feeding himself finger food. Tessie, the lady who cares for him twice a week, calls him the "starving baby" cause he just doesn't quit shoveling it in. Well actually he does and he shows us by carefully dropping the finger full of food on the floor. He also has been starting to "chipmunk" his food, just keeps shoving it in but doesn't swallow until he has his cheeks full.
His elephant seal crawl (see it here) gets him where he wants and it is quite cute to see him kick it up a notch when mom comes home. Of course with him worming across the house he has become a dog hair magnet and babyproof loophole finder. The first two things he did when exploring the kitchen were to open the oven broiler and try to stick his head in and reach under the dishwasher to pull on wires and insulation. Nothing a little duct tape can't prevent. Neli had his first real cold and fever and us novice parents learned how to deal - he lived. He's starting to mimic and and likes to wave back, sometimes, and replies to "bahp, bahp, bahp" with his own "bahp, bahp, bahp."

Oh yah, we finally came up with a way to spell his name, Neli.

Locomote!

Maybe he is related to elephant seals? This is his first "crawl" ever.

Eating Glasses

One of Neli's favorite past-times. This is a video might only be suitable for diehard Neli fans - 3 minutes of baby babbling and sucking on glasses, not much else to see.

Neli Month 8

This month we celebrated spring by hanging out at the park, picnicking, and eating grass and dandelions. Neli loves the swing especially when he is back to back with a baby buddy. He enjoyed a visit from his cuz Sierra--the highlight was when she fed him some lunch. He celebrated his first Chanukah (a bit late) when we take family photos. This month he is speed scooting across the wood floor; eating anything we give him (mom loves to watch him feed himself green beans and zucchini); laughing hard at faces made in his face; hoarding instruments in music class; and growing 2 bottom front teeth.

Oatio Magic

Learning to feed himself.

Neli Eating

So this might be only suitable for the diehard Neli fans. Almost three minutes of Neli eating! Not the most exciting flick in the world but we enjoy watching his hands while he eats and wonder if he will continue to wave his hands in the air when he eats as an adult?
We also wonder if his skin is a tan hue cause of all the sweet potatoes he eats? It is a fact that a doctor once thought Nadine was jaundice cause of her orange skin from eating too many carrots.

7 Month Dance Party

Highlights from Neli's 7 Month Birthday Bash.
This day has enspired us to celebrate with daily afternoon dance parties.

Going on 7 Months

Double click to play slideshow or triple click to view album


We are definately in routine of baby care life. Neeli is napping on a pretty good schedule. He loves to eat, but I think it is really just about the spoons. Filling him with food is the easy part, unfortuately it doesn't come back out as easily. Poor dude is a tad on the plugged up side. We give him prune juice and it still doesn't work. I suppose he will grow out of this.

Wanna see more? I made this photo book for my dad. http://www.shutterfly.com/action/sharedproject/8Act2bVk1ZtGW8/project/view
Some shots are what you have already seen but there is a great page of Neeli and me as a baby on page 4.

6th Month

There was a lot of family to meet and greet and Neeli had fun with everyone. He flew on a plane for the first time in his life and did great on the plane. He's sleeping like a champ and gobbling down food. Nadine is becoming a baby food maker extraordinaire. Sweet potatoes and bananas are his favorite.

New Years Greeting 2008

2008 New Year Greeting

Click play.

Time to Baby Proof

Neeli is a few months from crawling but this video is reminder of why we will need to start baby proofing the house.

Neeli 5th Month

My friend Carol told me when they turn 4 months old they become edible, cute enough to eat. This sweetness was mixed with the passing of my mom but I am glad that she got to hold him and share her smile and sparkling eyes with him. It looks like he will have blue eyes and carry on that sparkle.
Like those baby books say this month has brought many fun times. Rolling over, babbling, devouring rice cereal and banana, and becoming a better napper. We are quite lucky cause he is a good night time sleeper.
Neeli got to meet his LA family and continues to have fun with the Goldens. Check out the LA cousin video posted in December 2007 at www.hijuanvideos.blogspot.com

Grease Lightning

In 2005 the farm apprentices where I work said they we doing a rendition of Grease - "Farm Grease". I didn't let this opportunity for my first stage performance pass me by. I got to sing Grease Lightning. I played Kinicke, Danny's best friend. It was incredible how great this musical worked out even though we hardly rehearsed.