December Mendez News

Yep, I'm late. Just running around like a crazy woman this holiday season!

But before we get into any of that, let me update you guys on November.

First, a couple of cute pictures of Lily. This month she decided she likes wearing heels. The little bugger walks in them better than I do, and she's 16 months old.

And here she is discovering the joys of Popsicles.

And now for our Thanksgiving extravaganza.

Being overseas, it's a bit hard to find Thanksgiving-themed decorations. So I'm forced to get a bit creative. Trying to include Abby in it this year, I came up with the idea of a Thanksgiving Tree. I bought these simple branches and we colored "leaves" and wrote what we were thankful for on them. The tree ended up much fuller than this, but I forgot to take another picture before taking it down!

I really like this, and think I will continue this from now on. Super cheap, meaningful way to celebrate the holiday with kids!

Then, I got the crazy idea in my head that it would be a great idea to do a Thanksgiving themed snack-time for Abby's preschool class. Abby's the only American in the class, and besides getting to share "her" holiday with her buddies, these little Chileans could taste good ole' American food that doesn't have the word McDonald's in the title.

What did they have? Turkey, cranberry sauce (from a can), Stove-top stuffing (yes, I made the awful stuff, but I wasn't going to waste the "good stuff" on three-year-olds), plain green beans, a tiny cornbread muffin, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and a tiny, bite-size pumpkin pie. What was the favorite? The green beans. Which took me 2 minutes to nuke in the microwave. Aaaaah, three-year-olds. The teachers were enthralled with the cornbread, as they had never seen anything like that before in Chile.

Then, that evening we hosted several people over for Thanksgiving Dinner. That was a ton of fun, actually.

Here are the girls all dressed up before company arrived. Before they decided to color their entire bodies with blue sidewalk chalk. (Yes, Abby and her little friend colored Lily as well. Whatever. After two days of nonstop cooking, I just didn't care anymore.)

Here's dinner. Cheeseball and stuffed mushrooms for appetizers. For dinner, turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, sweet corn casserole, creamy pumpkin soup, cranberry sauce from a can (can't get cranberries here).

And here is dessert. Mini pecan pies. What I salvaged from what exploded all over my oven. Yup. Pecan pies can explode. Bet you didn't know that, did you? Our friends brought a pumpkin pie and apple pie that were scrumptious too.

Here is me with our friend and her little baby.

Joel took the day after Thanksgiving off, and we went to a vineyard for a tour and lunch. Great food, decent wine.

So those are our pictures for the month of November.

The girls are doing well. Lily is TALKING. ALL THE TIME. I can't even keep up with all the words she says now. It's totally amazing. Of course, it's all in Spanish still. Complete little Latina. And her weight is picking up a bit, which is good. I think the last time I weighed her at home she was around 21-22 pounds, which is what Abby was at this age. This is great, because we have been pushing to get her weight on. Once we figured out she had the dairy and soy allergies like Abby did and got her on the rice milk, I think that made a world of difference. We still fight the constipation issues with her constantly. I've got to have her drink prune juice or apple juice and eat apples every single day or we're in trouble. I know I should really take her in to get a check-up by a pediatric gastroenterologist, but I just dread dealing with those doctors again. Dread it.

Abby- well, Abby's in a phase. Terrible threes have finally hit. I thought we might miss them. But nope. One morning someone flipped a switch and BAM, there it was. Testing boundaries, defiant, talking back, sass . . . hmmm, sounds like a teenager or something, ha! However, the Dora the Explorer Christmas Special came on this week and it was all about a character that doesn't get any presents because he was naughty and didn't share, etc. and that has really impacted Abby. She is making a big deal of pointing out every single time she shares now! So funny. I think next week we might attempt to visit the mall Santa. Perhaps I can get him to drop some more hints about good behavior too.

On the good side, the girls are best friends and adore each other. They really play so well together, except for when they don't, of course.

Joel is working long hours at the office, and I'm working long hours here at home. Trying to ramp up my business, doing a massive amount of volunteer work, keeping the girls happy and occupied and doing the routine things like grocery shopping. I feel like I live at the grocery store sometimes.

Oh well, more news for you guys in other posts!

Talk to you all soon!

Julie, Joel, Abby, Lily