Ears pierced: It’s a girl thing (Part 2)

In September of last year, I took a break from my pregnancy complications to discuss ear piercing in "Life is full of barbaric customs." --Vada Sultanfuss. My husband was opposed to doing something permanent to my daughter’s body without giving her a say and I wanted to go with tradition.  In our family baby girls get their ears pierced as newborns.  My husband’s view was much more feminist than my traditional view. 

My daughter did get her ears pierced recently and my husband held her as it happened.  We decided to go with tradition, and I have to say the moment though petrifying for me, as a mother, could not have been more meaningful. 

Recovering

On my birthday we took my daughter to get her ears pierced and in attendance, besides her father and me, were two aunts and her three older girl cousins.  We stood by her as she had this permanent change made to her body, one that all of us ladies had also endured as babies.  We winced.  We worried. We smiled.  My daughter cried, but was over it in minutes.  I hope the spirit of that day will live on.  She will have many permanent life-altering moments in her future, but she will get through them with the support of some of the most amazing females in her life, and her feminist father.

Team get Catalina's Ear's Pierced

+ Positive +

One year ago today, I peed on a stick and stared at the plus sign in disbelief. All I could do was laugh. My husband must have thought I was crazy.  I had an important meeting to go to so I regained my composure and went to my meeting. I came home and peed on two more sticks. All were positive, I was going to be a mom. 

We had only been trying a month. I had been on birth control for almost fifteen years for medical reasons that threatened to make it difficult to conceive. According to Latino standards I was old. But here I was about to embark on the greatest adventure of my life, parenthood. 

What a difference a year makes, now we are parents to the most amazing and beautiful baby girl. I barely remember my life a year ago yesterday, maybe it is because I never truly lived until a year ago today. 

Catalina’s Playlist

Only music can take you on a journey through life. It can transport you to a different place and time or it can make the present absolutely perfect. My daughter has her own playlist. Many of the songs she listened to in utero, a couple we later added to the rotation. There is definitely something for everyone so we figured we’d share at the very least a portion of it.

In the hospital Catalina would fall asleep to
Debussy's Clair De Lune.

Classical Music

1. Claire De Lune by Claude Debussy

Catalina’s favorite fall-asleep song. This is what I would play for her, when I was stuck in bed in the hospital after my c-section and I couldn’t pick her up. I felt helpless, but through music I could sooth her and remind her of life inside of me.

2. Minuet in D Minor by Bach

3. Minuet in G Major by Bach

4. Gymnopedie by Erik Satie

5. Air by Bach

6. Arioso by Bach

7. Brahm’s Lullaby

8. Canon in D by Pachelbel

9. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart

10. Fur Elise by Beethoven

11. Greensleeves

12. Ode to Joy by Beethoven

13. Turkis March by Mozart

14. Spring by Vivaldi

15. Minuet by Boccherini

These were the songs that Catalina first listened to. They were the ones that made her happy in utero and soothed her when she was first born. As I write this blog, it is these songs that she is napping to.


Meaningful

16. Three little birds by Bob Marley

Catalina smiles while listening to
Bob Marley's Three Little Birds

The idea for this blog came last night. My daughter and I were playing and I put this song on. The smile on her face was priceless and it made my heart ache. When my cousin Mikey was five, he had an interest in Reggae music. I told him, he couldn’t like reggae and not know about Bob Marley so I bought him the Bob Marley Legend CD. This was one of his favorite songs. When he passed away 12 too short years later, we were at his wake. Our five-year old cousin Bella was sitting inconsolable. This song happened to be playing. I told her how it was Mikey’s favorite song and we sang it together. “singing ‘don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.” I bought her and her sister the same CD and this was their favorite song on it.  It is with that history, that only a Bob Marley song can have, that I sang it to my daughter. It was a moment I shared with my daughter, "the girls," and with my Mikey. In that moment his absence was heartbreaking, but his presence was felt just as strong. 

17. Cielito Lindo by Marta Gomez

This was the song my husband and I used to cut our wedding cake to. Cielito Lindo is a classic Mexican song and this version is sung beautifully by a Colombian. My baby is both Mexican and Colombian. This song is a little mix of her cultures. It is a mixture of her parents and her grandparents. It is the song that played at the wedding that would lead to her birth almost a year later.

18. Cali Pachaneguero by Grupo Niche

This is the song that we dance to in order to remember my mother. It is the song that brings us closer to her. It is the last song my mom danced to. We honor her by dancing to this song, and Catalina laughs. Catalina won’t meet her grandmother in this lifetime, but she will know her.

19. Madre e Hija by La India

This is a beautiful mother-daughter song. It is one of those songs that has new meaning now that I am a mom to a daughter.

20. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

My mom use to sing this song to me, and call me her brown-eyed girl, and now I sing it to me daughter. It is another fun song for us to dance to, and her giggles echo. I hear my mother in those echoes.


Mami-Daughter

21. Lucky by Kate Edmonson

This song is the new tradition. This is our mommy-daughter song that’s special just for the two of us to share. I first heard it after Catalina was born and I put it on her playlist, because I am so lucky to be her mom. 

22. Blue by Beyonce

Beyonce’s song to her daughter. Catalina’s mom can relate. “Sometimes these walls seem to cave in on me, When I look in your eyes, I feel alive.”

23. Forever Young by Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers

My wish for her.


Socially Concsious baby

24. Hallelujah by Beatriz Luengo

25. Be the Change by Kate Edmonson

Because it is her father & my hope that we will raise a socially conscious daughter who knows she can and should make the world a better place.


Just for Fun

26. Habanera by Bizet from Carmen

27. Kiss the Girl Colbie Caillat from The

28. Hakuna Matata from The Lion King

29. Somewhere Over the Rainbow by IsraelKamakawiwo’ole

She also needs to know how to just have fun.


For Obvious Reasons

30. Catalina by Fonseca

This is just some of the songs on Catalina’s playlist. She looks nothing like me, but she has acquired my love of music.

UPDATE:

I don't know how I could have forgotten this one.  But Sam Cooke always makes Catalina happy and growing up, he was one of Uncle Carlos' and mom's favorites! 

What do you think is a must add to Catalina's playlist?