A Colombian Ear Piercing

In the Colombian culture newborn baby girls' ears are pierced before they leave the hospital. It's a right of passage and stamp of femininity, making it obvious for any passer by to distinguish a baby as female, even those baby girls with the beautiful shiny bald heads. I had my ears pierced at 3 months. Adrina, being 5 months old, was way behind schedule. Gary and I finally decided to carry on this Colombian tradition by piercing Adrina's ears at 5 months old.

Getting the okay from the Pediatrician, I thought about the best places to get the piercing done. My first inclination was to have Adrina's ears pierced at a tattoo parlor. Why not? They specialize in piercings and they run a nice sterile operation! After all, I did get my navel pierced at a tattoo parlor in the 90s! By the way, bad idea in retrospect, especially after having a baby! I  thought of going to Newport Tattoo, the place where Gary got his tattoo on his foot, ouch! Turns out, they don't pierce infants, not even with parental consent!

With the tattoo parlor option out, I decided on Claire's in Fashion Island. Claire's specializes in the pre-teen market, and they are game to pierce infants! Walking into Claire's is an intoxicating sensory overload. Every square inch of Claire's is cluttered by Justin Bieber t-shirts, One Direction posters and Hello Kitty jewelry  The ear piercing station was near the front entrance, actually, it was practically in the front window display for all to see. We walked in on a 4 year old girl getting her ears pierced. She was waiting patiently for the piercing gun to trigger, and when it did, we heard her horrible cry! I almost called it off, but then I saw that the girl was just fine, she was safe in daddy's arms with a mouthful of Swedish Fish. Okay, now Adrina was up. We picked out a pair of sparkly CZs and the two nice Claire's ladies placed Adrina on the chair in Gary's lap, market her ears, positioned the guns, counted to three and bam, Adrina had a shiny new pair of earrings. The shriek Adrina let out was absolutely horrible. I didn't want to witness it happen, but the ladies got trigger happy and did the piercing while I had one foot out the door. I didn't want to hear the inevitable wail. Luckily, her cry only lasted 30 seconds. After that she was happy and blinged out with her new earrings. Overall, she did great, what a Colombian trooper!

Adrina before her piercing

Adrina just after her ear piercing

Play hard and sleep hard

Adrina loves to play ...



She sleeps when she can!

Adrina and Uncle Frankie Meet Again

We are so happy to have Frankie back home safely from Afghanistan. Frankie met his niece Adrina when she was born on May 15th. Then, on May 20th, Frankie had to say bye to Adrina to go work in Afghanistan for 5 months. We missed Frankie so much while he was gone, but we were able to keep him updated with Adrina's life via pictures, video and Skype. Adrina grew so much while Frankie was away, she was an active 5 month old when Frankie returned. To show off her new skills Adrina took Frankie to her Gymboree class. She showed him how she can giggle, play on her tummy and shriek in excitement. It was fun catching up with Frankie. We love you and glad you're back home!

May 20, 2012

October 10, 2012





Pumpkin Patch

Gary and I took Adrina to the Tanaka Farm Pumpkin Patch to celebrate the Fall. We were there for all of 20 minutes due to the scorching sun and blazing heat. We managed to pick out two great big pumpkins and take a few photos with Adrina.

Adrina's Halloween costume. What a cute panda!

More Halloween costumes...

"I'm not sure how I feel about this costume."

 "Ok Mommy, I will give you a smile for the camera!"



Got myself in a pickle

Adrina is getting very active. She loves rolling over and stretching her arms out of her crib. We might need to get one of those dangerous bumpers to keep her limbs in her crib. For now we enjoy watching her get into compromising positions in her crib.

iPhone Photo Frenzy

I have a serious iPhone photo problem, I've taken hundreds of photos of Adrina. Here are a few good ones.

Adrina's Two Month Old Portraits

Adrina turned two months on July 15th. Her Aunty Sara took some great pictures of her smiling and laughing. Adrina was very amused by the flashing lights of Sara's camera. We tried getting the best poses we could while Adrina flailed her armes and legs around like a pro.