Happy New Year One and All!

I would like to point out that it was 91 degrees here yesterday. Who in the world wants 91 degree F weather the first week of January???? (Well, I guess if you're one of those folks in the US that has a couple feet of snow, you might.)

December was a busy busy month with all of our Christmas activities.

First was the Embassy Christmas party:

Abby eating a gingerbread man

Santa is apparently Scottish. He also arrived in a firetruck. Way cool.

My birthday was also this month, and we celebrated in the best way possible: by getting Mommy the most wonderful relaxing massage EVER. It was wonderful. As in, I fell asleep on the table wonderful. And then sat in a steam room and lay in one of those spa sun chairs and napped wonderful. Then came home to my two year old who sang Happy Birthday (with lots of coaching by Daddy) to me wonderful. Great Day. Makes you want to turn 33 a couple of times in a row.

Then the Christmas Song Sing-A-Long with our church:

Does everyone notice that we are picnicking outside in SUNDRESSES? Yes, I am having issues with Christmas being in the middle of the summer. It's just weird, folks.

Next was Abby's Christmas program, but you guys already know how that went!

Christmas Eve, there was a children's service at our church. (Not exactly that child-friendly, but they tried.) They had all the children write letters or color pictures as a present to Jesus on his birthday. Joel and I thought that was a lovely idea. Abby and I worked on her picture that day (complete with stickers and feathers and fuzzy balls and glue - a true work of 2 year old art) and we had discussed how we were going to go up front and give it to Jesus. Well, the entire service she kept trying to interrupt the program and go up on stage; and then getting upset when we stopped her. Patience apparently isn't a characteristic that runs in the family. She was so proud of that picture and showed it to every single person there that night.

And then of course, Christmas morning:

Christmas Morning Kisses. Abby's new kitchen is in the background. Lily's new exersaucer.

Abby put on these dress-up heels, stood up, and pranced around like she had been in them her whole life. She can even go up and down the stairs in them, something I don't even like doing.

Lily trying to eat the wrapping paper.

We spent Christmas afternoon in our new splash pool. See, I told you the weather is weird here.

We spent New Year's Eve at a friend's house, hanging out. I was so proud of Joel and I -- we both made it until about 1am, when we finally came home and got some sleep.

So that's been our month. I made some resolutions as I always do, and looking forward to keeping them (lose weight, scrapbook more, win the lottery, those sort of things). Hope you are having a warm and prosperous New Year!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Lily at 5 months

It's time for your monthly dose of Lily!

This month's theme is: "Things That Go in Your(Lily's) Mouth."

Lily is really into grabbing and actually playing with toys now. She's gotten extremely good at putting things in her mouth. (If she can reach it, it goes in.) Here is a picture of the girls at the Embassy Santa party. She got a little stuffed Panda bear (really a Burger King Happy Meal toy - this month they are all zoo animals and she loves them).

Here is a close up of Lily in her Christmas dress, courtesy of Nana. The girls both got tons of complements on their matching dresses. And I have to say I enjoy having the cutest and best- dressed little girls at the Embassy parties. Being a mom of little girls can be lots of fun (until you get to the hair pulling stage anyway).

This is the other thing that Lily has figured out how to put into her mouth.

See, I keep telling you all how friggin' cute she is, and someone finally got a picture of it for me. This is how she falls asleep. She burrows her head into your shoulder and shoves the stopper in and just collapses as she sucks her thumb. Oh, and she snores a bit too. What you can't see is her other arm gripping mine as she sleeps. Abby might have snuggled at this age, but Lily cuddles.

Finally, Lily started eating cereal this month, just before Christmas. Or wearing it. She hasn't quite decided which one she likes more.

She will actually grab the spoon out of my hand and shove it into her mouth herself if I'm not going fast enough for her. She is so funny. This face is the "I'm so full I'm totally drunk" face.

Here's just a random sweet one of Lily and her daddy. This one was taken Christmas Eve at our church right before the Children's Service. Lily was an angel. Since this post is not about Abby we will not discuss HER behavior. (Don't worry, Santa came anyway.)

And here is my baby doll at 5 months: (she wouldn't cooperate and look at the camera)

Love,

Julie

Abby at 29 months old

The reason this posting is a week late is that it's taken me a week to think slightly rationally about this event. But enough people have told me that this is a hilarious story so I figured well, why not share it with everyone?

My original plan was to blog about Abby's Christmas pageant last Tuesday afternoon. This was a big deal to me and Joel - it's Abby's first performance in public (because she "performs" for us every single day of her life). Would she do the two-year-old thing and freeze on stage and start crying? I tried to prep Joel for this possibility; Abby goes through shy moments at the weirdest times. Or would she be a prima donna and steal the show?

The answer to the last question was YES. But not how you might think.

Back to the story: I spent two weeks working on her costume at night after she went to bed. (Umm, hot glue guns and Abby don't mix.) She was a church bell. She practiced for weeks swaying her hips so her "bell" would go "Ding Dong." She danced and sang her song all over the house. I bought her a new little yellow sundress to go under the bell costume to "match."

Needless to say, we were all very excited. Joel took off work and met me at her school. The program started with Mary and Joseph, the little bitty girls being angels (really very cute) and the little bitty boys being the animals (who knew there was a "giraffe" in Bethlehem, but I digress).

Then the big moment came. Joel whipped out the video camera. I pulled out the camera.

And Abby came out the door, the first in line of all the other bells.

Apparently, Abby had told her teacher that morning she didn't want to wear her dress that day. So, the teacher decided to let her go without it. Oh and Abby pulled out her ponytail holders too. Which means she danced around in her underwear during her Christmas program. With crazy foofy hair.

I was so completely embarrassed and mortified. I almost cried through her program. I don't have one decent picture of her looking cute in her costume. Without her panties showing that is. Thank GOD the housekeeper put her white bloomers over her "big girl" panties that morning. At least she was decent. Those crazy-rich Chilean parents that were there must think I dress her that way regularly. I can't believe the teacher let her do that.

And the crazy thing is, there were about four different outfits in her bag in case of "peepee" accidents. So it's not like she didn't have anything else to wear.

Once I could think past my wall of mortification, I have to love how my girl just pranced right up to center stage and owned it. She got right up there in front of fifty+ people, and ding-donged her little heart out. May God protect that little self confident and joyful spirit. I just pray he makes her keep her clothes on in the process.

Oh the stories I'm gonna have to embarrass her when she brings a boy over when she's older. I've even figured out the title to my scrapbook page: "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."

Lesson learned. On school program days, I will be the parent who shows up early and "helps" get the kids in their costumes. So I can make sure my own kids look good for the photos.

Let's all hope I have less exciting things to blog about next month.

Love,

Julie

PS. Here is a picture of Abby after I got ahold of her and put her clothes back on. With her bestest friend in the world, apparently.

December News from the Mendez Crew

Hey all. Thought I would share with you a couple of our Christmas card rejects. Yup. Aren't they cute?

This has been a wacky month. First off has been our war against cooties. We've had ongoing colds, Lily had a bad case of bronchitis, Abby got a double ear infection that required a trip to the ER on a Sunday so we could get an antibiotic prescription, then Lily and I came down with a heavy cold again this week. Sigh. I really hate colds.

The other battle in our house has been against the ants. The second it warmed up outside, the ants invaded our house in full force. We keep spraying and had the exterminators out, and have been putting everything in the kitchen in sealed containers and plastic bags. Apparently sugar ants are a common problem here, everyone has them. You all know that I have "issues" with creepy-crawlies, so having ants is just driving me up the wall.

Good news! I think we're on the downhill slope of potty training! We're still having accidents, but now they're real accidents as opposed to before. Oh, funny story - on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we were at this restaurant for lunch for a work thing for Joel. Well, Abby and her little friend Anna (three months older than Abby) found a new favorite game: peeing in a public restroom. Abby thought that the rows of toilets and getting to talk to her friend through the stall was so cool, we spent most of the day - in the bathroom. Oh well. I guess I'm training her in the "girls go to the bathroom in groups" thing a little early.

Thanksgiving ended up being nice, but crazy. We did a small (by my standards) Thanksgiving lunch at our house with one other family joining us, then put Abby down for a nap, and the rest of us went off to Joel's office Thanksgiving dinner in the afternoon. It was all great, but we were soooo stuffed. We put our tree up the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and that Sunday we went to a pool. Yes, bathing suits on November 30th. Something very wrong with being warm enough to get in a pool on Thanksgiving weekend.

Here's a few pictures from Thanksgiving:

Abby and I made a "turkey" using her hand

Our Feast

The KidsLily in her Turkey-Day Outfit

We did get our car this month, woohoo! Except we are still waiting on tags, so any driving we are doing is not exactly legal. So we're not taking it past the grocery store or Abby's school for the time being. And we got our last shipment of stuff from the US, so we're finally 100% moved to Chile. And pretty much unpacked, though not necessarily organized. I got my first "real" client this month and have enjoyed putting her resume together; and I'm starting the testing phase of my resume writer certification. I also started my Spanish classes and though I try, I just can't devote the full amount of time I should to studying. I do what I can though. In good news, I've learned how to say, "I'm going to take a shower."

So that was our November. In December, I'm really trying to focus on just completing stuff on my to-do list one at a time. And we're attempting to slow down just a bit and enjoy the holiday season. There is a Children's party at the Ambassador's residence this month, and a trip to a restaurant that is supposed to be fabulous, and Abby has her Christmas program at school as well. She's going to be a church bell. I spent most of last week making her costume. Abby also gets out of school on December 18th, so after that I will be spending lots of time thinking of ways to keep her entertained until the summer program starts at her school in January. Somewhere in there though I've got to wrap presents.

Talk to all of you soon.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

PS. One more picture. Joel and Abby performing. You can't say she gets all of her drama queen antics just from me, LOL.

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