Lily at 4 months

Hi all. I'm pretty swamped right now, so you're pretty much just getting pictures. but who wants to listen to me talk anyway?

Our littlest butterfly fairy.

Our "fresita" (little strawberry)

Lily is really into playing with her toys now.

Gotta love the passed out picture.

And here is our "4 months-old" picture

Oh, little tidbits: Lily found her feet yesterday. She is also a champion thumb sucker and snuggler, and likes to pull Mommy's hair. And is sleeping slightly better - we've moved her to a cot in the living room most nights so our tossing, coughing, snoring (ahem, this is not me) doesn't wake her up and vice versa. It's working out great so far: she's now waking up about twice a night to eat. Now if we could just get both of them to sleep at the same time . . . .

Love,
Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Abby at 28 months old

Yes, this little beauty pageant queen (or so she thinks) is our little girl. And no, I did not pose her! She did that all on her own.

Sigh. We're still enduring potty-training torture with Abby. I'd seriously would pay someone to sit in my house to pottytrain her and deal with all the mess that pottytraining ensues at this point. She's getting better. She tells me exactly when she's had an accident but hasn't quite gotten the concept of telling me before so we can get her to the potty. We might have to do "potty bootcamp" over the weekend if things don't improve soon. (As in strip her naked, and sit her on a potty for 48 hours until she actually succeeds a couple of times.) I think that if she did it "right" a few times, the concept would finally sink in. But right now, I'd settle for no more pooping on the floor of her room during naptime. Shampooing carpet every afternoon is getting old.

Abby and her "lil siter"

Abby is doing fabulous in school. Joel got a progess report from the school and the administator was telling him all about Abby's little friends that she plays with. Also, her Spanish is really taking off. The teacher can now tell Abby, "Go get your snack and put it on the table," in Spanish and Abby will do it. Our housekeeper is really helping Abby along as well. I'm having to make a point of speaking to Abby in English, so she doen't lose her English skills! Abby has already surpassed my Spanish, sadly.

Since Abby's now old enough to do "fun stuff," I'm now trying to encorporate more activity-type things in our afternoons after school. Last week we made cookies (from a bag, not from scratch) and it was Abby's first time cooking for real in the kitchen. It was a huge hit, so I'm sure we'll be doing it again very soon.

Abby's "poon" It also works as a microphone

Mixing the Dough

Licking the Spoon is Fun

What does Cookie Monster say? Chomp Chomp Chomp!

All Done!

Joel and I are so amazed by how beautiful and photogenic (and a ham for the camera) that Abby is. I made a joke that we should see if we can find Abby an agent and get her doing commericals or something here in Chile; so Joel is going to ask around the Embassy to see if anyone knows "someone" for us to talk to. Heck, it could be fun, and possibly put a dent in Abby's college fund one day, hehehe!

That's about it for this month. If anyone has any magic pills for instantaneous potty training, I want them!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

November News from the Mendezes

Well, we made it to November, and Turkey-Day is just around the corner!

First off, earlier this month I posted about a local preschool that several of us are trying to help/ Well, we created a blog about the school and it has a ton of pictures: http://jardininfantilelroble.blogspot.com/. Please feel free to check it out - this was one of my projects this month. Working on this school has been just one more thing to add to my busy schedule, but it's exciting and interesting as well. So, from now on, I'll be posting updates about this project at this website, instead of here on our family blog.

October has been one whirlwind after another. Joel was gone for ten (very long) days at the beginning of the month. He was having fun back in the US for a conference and to see his family in Miami. Me? I was not sleeping. But he's back now, and Abby is starting to sleep better at night. Notice I said Abby, not Lily. From about 2am-6am is often just futile effort to sleep on my part. She wants to eat, she poops, she has gas and needs to burp, which leads to more poop. Which opens up more room to eat some more, and so on, and so on.

We also had our housekeeper start this month. FINALLY. Man, Iris (Spanish pronunciation is Eee-rus) is great. She cleans the entire house every day, and cooks dinner every night. She spoils Abby rotten, and can get Lily to actually go to sleep for a nap. She speaks no English, but with my very very very bad Spanish and occasional calls to Joel for translation help, we manage to communicate. Having her here has allowed me to really put some time in each day on my business and other odds and ends that need doing. Like getting a shower each morning.

Speaking of my business, we're finally up and active and LIVE! Yup, you can check out my website at http://www.jsmcareercoaching.com/. For the past two weeks I've been working on writing a press release and then sending it all over the Foreign Service world. This week I have to write another press release that's not so FS-focused and start sending it out other places. But things are really starting to hop in Career Coaching land. I've got the CLO in Jakarta asking me to host a video conference seminar on volunteerism in resumes, and I'm in talks with another guy about speaking on his podcast. We're still working on topics. And I'm also teaching a teleseminar on business plans for my association in December (Remember me complaining about that business course I took last fall? Well, looks like that course is paying off now!) So yep, I'm keeping as busy as I can be here.

Abby brought home the crud from preschool, and it has been passed around to every member of the family. Sometimes twice. Seriously, Abby's on her third bug now (the first was a cold, which turned into bronchitis, and this weekend she has some kindof "my tummy hurts" thing happening). I swear, if one germ molecule is within 200 feet of Abby, she's going to catch it. I wish I could figure out how to boost up her immune system, beyond the gummy vitamins she already gets. Joel got a nasty cough, and Lily has had the worst congestion as well. But because she's so small, they refuse to give her any real drugs and I'm just supposed to listen to her phlegm-y hacking until it goes away on its own. Hmmph. I personally was doing great, and thought I was going to miss this go-round, but nope. Had to run to the Embassy Dr on Tuesday, and was diagnosed with Strep. The JOYs of having kids in preschool, right? Don't worry, we handed Iris the box of Clorox-wipes, and one of her new tasks is to disinfect every surface in the house each and every day.

In other Abby news: We've started potty training. We've not had a lot of success yet, but have had some conversations that go like this:

Me: "Abby, where does ca-ca go?" (This is poop, just in case you didn't get that.)
Abby: "Not on the floor."
Me: "No, not on the floor."
Abby: "Cause that's gross."
Me: "Yes, that's gross."
Abby: "That's nasty."
Me: "Yes, that's nasty. . . . So, where does ca-ca go?"
Abby: "Not in the bed."
Me: "No, not in the bed."
Abby: "That's gross."
Me: "Yes, that's gross."
Abby: "That's nasty."

And so on and so on. At least where she DOESN'T go has gotten through. (Oh, and she says the word "nasty" with a completely Southern accent. As in "That's Naaasstee." Wonder who she got that from, hee hee.)

Several folks have asked about our stuff and our car. Don't worry, we've been asking too. We're supposed to hear something this week, as in "Your stuff has arrived and will be delivered ___." We're just praying we get our car by Thanksgiving so we can have something extra to feel thankful for.

Halloween was a blast. The girls were "Butterfly Fairies." And everyone at the Embassy Halloween party thought that they were adorable.

Abby is starting to figure out the whole Trick-or-Treating thing. We went around our neighborhood on Friday afternoon. She really liked getting candy put in her bag when she rang the buzzer. (Not that she ate any, Joel and I did that for her after she went to bed.)

This weekend we borrowed a friend's car for the day, and drove to this area called Piedra Roja ("Red Rock"). It's a man-made lake surrounded by mountains, which a cute little shopping center nearby. You can rent boats and kayaks and stuff, which we talked about doing when we don't have the kids with us.

We ate lunch there, and the girls fell asleep in the stroller, so we went and bought groceries, and then drove downtown to this huge mall and did a bit of shopping there. You all will be happy to know that I talked Joel out of getting the remote control car for Abby for Christmas. As in the motorized car that Abby can ride in while Joel drives it with a remote control. I have to admit, it was pretty sweet, but completely over the top.

November should see us getting over the crud and getting our stuff and the car (we hope, anyway), plus me working on a bake sale fundraiser for the preschool (selling cookies at Abby's preschool to raise money for the other preschool that needs the toys), working like crazy on my business, starting Spanish lessons and making Thanksgiving Dinner for Joel's entire office. We are skipping the Marine Ball this year. I don't fit into any of my dresses yet, and Lily is pretty reluctant to take a bottle. I also hope to have time to start scrapbooking again this month, but that might be wishful thinking.

Talk to all of you soon!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Lily at 3 Months

(First of all, because it took me AGES to set up last month's blog post, I've decided to shake things up a bit. I will now blog at the beginning of the month about family stuff, what we've been up to, etc. The on the 9th of every month I plan to do a blog update about Abby, and on the 24th about Lily - their birthdays for anyone who's paying attention. This will spread the work out a little bit and hopefully in the long run make my life easier. Or just give me an excuse to take even MORE pictures!)

So, Lily is 3 months old today. I seriously don't know how that happened because now it's like I can't even remember her not being around and being a part of our lives. When I was pregnant I was worried about how adding another person would change our little family unit, and how Abby would react, and all that. But Lily has just slid right into her groove in our family and it's great. We are loving having her around.

Lily at beginning of October (Lily actually sleeping was so rare I had to take a picture)

At the beginning of October, Joel was gone for a week back to the US, so every day I tried to take a picture for his "Daily Dose of the Dynamic Duo." Well, since the "Duo" barely ever slept, it only lasted the first couple of days because I was exhausted. But here is an adorable one, right after bathtime for both girls. Abby loves holding Lily. We are so blessed that there's hardly any sibling issues between the girls. I hope they grow up as close and sweet as they are right now. (Yeah, yeah, you cynical ones out there, I don't want to hear it. Let me live in my fantasy world.)

What's fascinating to me is how Lily is such a different person than Abby. It's going to be so interesting to watch as they grow up. Here is a quote from The Baby Whisperer:

The "Spirited" baby seems to emerge from the womb knowing what she likes and doesn't like, and she won't hesitate to let you know it. These babies are very vocal and even seem aggressive at times. She often screams for Mum or Dad when she gets up in the morning. She hates lying in her own pee or poop, and she says "Change me" by boisterously vocalizing her discomfort. Indeed, she bables a lot and loudly. Her body language tends to be a bit jerky. These babies often need swaddling to get to sleep because her flailing arms and legs keep her up and overstimulated. If she starts crying and the cycle is not interrupted, it's like a point of no return, until she's reached a fever pitch of rage. A spirited baby is likly to grab for her bottle at an early age. She'll also notice other babies before they notice her, and as soon as she's old enough to develop a good, firm grasp, she'll grab their toys as well.

This is my little Lily to a T. Opinionated, bossy, and not afraid to let you know it. (Mom. Quit laughing.)

This picture is for all of you who don't believe me.

You know what, I LOVE that about Lily (okay, not the incessent crying). She's gonna need a lot of channeling, but I love that she's not gonna be anyone's doormat later in life. She's gonna be my little Zena warrior princess. Rock on, little chica.

Storytime with Daddy after his trip

Now both of my girls are Daddy's girls, but it's so fun to watch Joel turn into a marshmellow around Lily. This time around he's much more relaxed because now he knows what's going on. I tremble to think how these girls are gonna have him wrapped around their little fingers when they're older, though.

So, this month I don't have any fun stats about Lily. Until our car arrives, it's almost impossible to get to the embassy to have her weighed. The last time we were there though, she weighed 10 pounds, 4 ounces, and that was 2 1/2 weeks ago now. She's got a cold right now, courtesy of her big sister, but other than that she is doing great. She's still got reflux, but it's mostly maneagable as long as we don't run out of her meds. She sleeps well maybe every other night, and as long as Abby cooperates on the same night, I can actually get decent sleep occasionally. Not great, but decent. And yes, if she's in bed with me, Lily will still try to talk to me all night long.

Lily talks.all.the.time. Really. She'll carry on a ten minute conversation with you. And her grin just lights up the room and makes you feel great -- like you earned it or something.

That's all the pictures I have for now. Our camera battary is dead and we can't find the charger (probably in our shipment of stuff that hasn't arrived yet). I'll have more next time.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Clean Out Your Kid's Toys for a Great Cause!

You guys know Abby has started at a Montessori preschool here in Chile. At a brunch for new parents, they told us about a new preschool that needs help.

This new Montessori preschool was built and is funded by the government - they built the building, pay the teachers, and the kids go for free. It is in the WORST neighborhood of Santiago (think inner-city but in a third world country). There are 300 kids from birth to age 6. Four classrooms are from ages 0-1, and there are 7 classrooms from ages 1-6. The school was a six year project and finally opened just last month.

The catch is this: they are in empty classrooms! They are given virtually no funding for supplies, toys, books, you name it. They literally have nothing. So, they are looking for donations. Specific type things that were mentioned: puzzles, craft supplies, books, baby blankets, toys. Stuff that has some kind of "educational play" value. From my experience with Abby's classroom, they set up "stations" in these classrooms so think in that kindof direction.

We are looking like dressup clothes, maybe plastic kitchen type stuff, animals/farm-type toys, kitchen toys, baby toys, dolls, etc.

They have 78 babies from age 0-1. They have beds but no blankets - and it can be quite chilly here in Santiago. (We are thinking of getting together and creating those fleece blankets that you tie the fringe around the edges possibly, but no real plans have been made.)

Any picture books are fine, even if they are in English. Mostly they are looking for bright pictures with really good pictures. Of course, any children's books in Spanish would be great.

They have no decoration or artwork for the walls! So any pictures/posters, anything to make a preschool classroom pretty and appealing to small children would be great.

I asked about craft supplies as well. Crayons, markers, construction paper, playdoh, umm, whatever preschoolers like to do crafts with. I'm thinking coloring books would be great as well.

And if you're getting really ambitious, they even mentioned they are looking for play equipment for their yard, which has nothing. That might be harder to mail though!

Sorry to bother all of you guys, but I just have such a hard time thinking about little kids Abby's age going to preschool and having nothing to play with and nothing to learn with. All that they ask is that of course whatever items that might be "used" still be in very good condition for a classroom.

And of course if you don't have stuff to get rid of, but would like to hit up dollar stores, Walmart, or Target, etc.; feel free to do that as well!

I have a US mailing address where you can mail stuff and I will receive it here. Then I can take your things to the school when we go visit in a couple of weeks. Please email me (JMSjulie@aol.com) if you'd like my address, and I'll be happy to send it to you.

I won't bother you guys with too many more emails, but will upload pictures of the school and more details to our blog after us moms visit next week.

Thanks!

Julie

October Mendez News

Oh my goodness, where in the world do I start?

Seriously, a month ago we were in the US. It hardly seems possible, it's been such crazy chaotic month since then. Here's a picture of Abby with a couple of the Crutchfield boys right before we flew out.

Well, we arrived in Santiago on a Friday, immediate went to Abby's preschool and got her registered and she started the following Monday. She honestly did great. And she's finally gotten over the concept that Mommy leaves, and is truly blossoming and having a great time. I think she's making lots of friends too, her little classmates wave at me when I come to pick her up. They're so friggin cute.

And just this week we started using a schoolbus service to take Abby to school, until our car gets here (MUCH cheaper than taxis). It is so cute to watch Abby get on the bus each morning. We've starting singing many choruses of "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round" again.

Our house is in a private gated community that is very family oriented and quiet on the outskirts of Santiago. Like the "hem" of the "skirt" really, we are two houses away from the mountains (Andes) which mark the city limits of Santiago. Can't get much further out than that!

Our Neighborhood

Our House is at the end of this street, practically right by the mountain!

We've received about 3/4 of our stuff so far (waiting on one more shipment of stuff from the US) and supposedly our car will arrive in Chile sometime this month. We probably won't actually get it until sometime in November though, due to customs. But, mostly everything is unpacked and put away, and I'm almost to the point where I'm ready to start hanging pictures on the walls. It's starting to look really good, and I can't wait until it starts to "feel" like home too. Abby is really loving the backyard, and I'm loving that she can go out there without me having to worry, it's completely fenced in. The grocery store is fabulous, they have Safeway brands of a lot of different items, and name-brand of mostly anything else you can want. It's great. Expensive, but great. I've spent a lot of time at the grocery store this month!

So, yeah, most of our month has been about us frantically unpacking and setting up the house. And hiring and firing housekeepers. Joel has become quite a pro at interviewing, hahaha! Our first one cleaned well, but gave us attitude about doing anything and then she refused to play with Abby. (Huh? Who wouldn't want to play with her? Even our scary Marine Gunny Seargeant neighbor adores her and plays with her.) She lasted a whole four days. We had two different housekeepers accept the job and then not show up to start. They told Joel they were offered more elsewhere, but I personally think they were trying to shake him down for more money. We've had one lie to us in her interview, and 3-4 not even show up to be interviewed. We think we finally found a good one today, but I'm not counting my chickens, ya know? Too much drama these past few weeks for that.

Last Saturday we took a tour of Santiago with the Embassy language teacher. I didn't understand any of it, but I did enjoy the fabulous empanadas we had for lunch. Hmmmm, yum.

Family Picture

My Big Girl

And no, I have NOT forgotten about Lily at all! Just saved her for last to make you all read everything else!

Lily is doing well. All she ever wants to do is eat, and be held by Mommy. All day and all night. Daddy's okay, but he doesn't have the right equipment and all she really cares about is where the next meal is coming from. Her reflux is not getting more maneageable. A local pediatrician tried to change her to a medicine that is easier to get here, and this has been one of the worst weeks ever. Screaming colic for four/five hours at a time. Just awful. So the Embassy nurses are helping me switch back to our US prescription.

But she's smiling so cute now, and is starting to do these little giggles. They just crack me up. And she just lights up when she sees Abby. I'm enjoying this while I can; I know one day the sisters will be all catfights and hairpulling. Until then . . .

Here is Lily at 2 months:

Here is a picture of her little thunderthighs. It might not seem like much to you guys, but Abby never even got this much fat on her. And since Lily is being breastfed, I'm very proud of those fat rolls! (Goodness knows she eats enough to put them there.)

The girls snuggled up:
Abby kissing Lily:
The girls having a philosophical discussion about the fish in the bouncy chair:And a quick one from this morning while we were waiting for the bus to come pick up Abby. Doesn't that face say, "Mommy, hold me"???


Okay, almost done. I know there is someone's computer I've already crashed out there with all these pictures. But ya'll will love this story. As if you needed another reason to know "quiet" is not good when you have a two-year-old.

One day, I was nursing Lily and couldn't get up to check on Abby.

Finally Abby walks into the room.

I guess she decided she needed a little extra mascara.

The girl had the audacity to say "Cheese" when I took the picture too, the little booger.

So that's it. Our month in a nutshell. For October, Joel goes off for a week on a business trip for a week and a half, and we hopefully enjoy the housekeeper (goodness knows my cleaning skills are not up to par while holding Lily at the same time), and I get back to working on my business. There is still some unpacking and settling in we need to do, and perhaps we can get back downtown and see a bit of the city. Oh, and Halloween is this month! I've got the best idea for the girls costumes if I can pull it off! Just wait till you see!

Talk to all of you soon!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

We Made It! And We Have Internet!

Hello all!!

Well, we made it to Santiago, and finally got our Internet turned on!

I don't have much time right now to tell you all our news and stories - I promise to do that later. Because we have some seriously good ones.

For a quick rundown: the house is nice, and we like our neighbors next door (Marine family from the Embassy), the grocery stores are great - we can find ALOT of American stuff here but we just have to pay through the nose for it, Abby started preschool and is doing well I think, and Joel is working his tail off at his job.

Right now I've got laundry running, the dishwasher has to be unloaded and the kitchen cleaned up. Our housekeeper (they call them nanas here) starts tomorrow morning at 8am, I have maintenance people from the embassy coming first thing to move the furniture around and take what we don't want, and then the first of our shipments of stuff arrive for us to unpack. Don't worry, we have about three more different shipments coming, so we get to spread all this fun out over the next several weeks at least.

Oh, and both girls are sleeping at the same time at the moment, so I've got to run around doing my chores as quickly as I can. This doesn't happen very often in our house! But I at least wanted to let you all know we made it here safely.

Talk to you all soon!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

September News - Where in the World Are the Mendezes?

Hello all! And to answer the question - today we're in Atlanta. Tomorrow? Who knows?

August has been a busy month (but then, what month hasn't, right?). Between getting up every 2-3 hours to feed Lily at night, and chasing after Abby during the day, I feel like we've been in continual motion.

(Lily and Grandma Bessie)

Abby and Lily are great together. Abby just loves her new baby doll; she pees, poops, cries, eats, and is fun to dress up! Hahaha. Seriously, Abby loves playing with Lily, and we're constantly having to remind her to not hug too hard. She's also taken to mothering her stuffed animals, which I think is adorable when she rocks Eeyore and tells him to "night night."

Lily is growing like a weed. She was 8 lbs, 3 oz at her last appointment, gives great open mouth kisses, and is starting to coo and do all those adorable baby things that make you want to just eat her up. And I don't care what they say about gas, this girl grins at you when she sees you. I love that.



Oh, and we did get a diagnosis of reflux for Lily, so we were able to get a prescription for her from the pediatrician. It took about five minutes during one of her check-ups. I LOVE American medical care. And Abby has finally grown out of her dairy allergy, which means our life has instantly gotten so much easier!

Joel's parents came to visit for a week this month also, and we had a great time showing them around and eating some great food (Tata cooked almost every night. It was wonderful.) Abby had a blast playing with Tata and Papa Luciano, and Lily was quite spoiled because she was never put down. It was definitely a win-win week for everyone.



We also took a very quick road trip to Auburn to get professional pictures made at a photographer that my mom likes. The pictures turned out so great - when we get them back I'll scan them show them to you all.





Last week we took Abby to her first football game! We went to a Fairhope High School game and had a blast. (Go Pirates!) Abby loved the drums in the band, and was very impressed by slushie she and I shared. Lily, bless her sweet heart, slept the entire time we were there. If only she slept as well at night.






Other than all of that, we've been frantically dealing with all the rigamarole of trying to get out of the country. Our medical clearances, birth certificates, social security cards, passports, visas, vet certificates and all that. In addition to that paperwork, we've also been dealing with movers. Again. After Hurricane Fay, we had movers pick up our "stuff" shipment, and take all of that away.


So, why are we in Atlanta now, you ask? Well, with Hurricane Gustav barrelling down on the Gulf Coast, we got worried about flooding. And since the apartment we rented was right on Mobile Bay and we have that lovely new car, Sunday we packed up the car and "evacuated" to Atlanta. (Murphy's Law, we leave and Fairhope got a bit of rain and nothing else.) Can you believe we were able to pack 8 suitcases, 2 kids with carseats, a double stroller, a cat, and us in our car?? I love our Pilot! We've been hanging out in a hotel here near the airport.

Our new plan is to leave on Thursday night, so we can miss the next hurricane coming through that is supposed to be here sometime Friday. This is just not a good time to be trying to fly.

September is going to be busy yet again, and in Spanish! Well, if we ever get to Santiago it will be. I'm hoping we get a lot of our shipments at our new house before the end of the month, have Abby start preschool and get our housekeeper hired. I don't know how long it will take to get our internet set up, so contacting us might be a little spotty for the next little while.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the girls down at the Fairhope Pier:

(This one is of our brand new double stroller.)

PS. Completely forgot to tell you - Abby loves to go "sopping" (shopping) at "Walam" (Walmart). (Here is a picture of Abby playing on the car at Walmart - her favorite part of the trip.)



We'll talk to you all soon!


Love,


Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily