February Mendez News

Hallelujah, it's February! And I'm finally caught up with updating this blog!

January ended up being a crazy hellacious month. First off, our nanny went on vacation and we were without any help for three weeks. Joel was off for a week between Christmas and New Year's, which wasn't too bad, and then I was on my own. In what apparently decided to be one of my busiest business periods so far. Of course. Just when I have no childcare, right? So in between trying to keep the house clean, keep the girls entertained, and doing whatever business stuff I can keep up with, I was also doing all of my client calls late at night after the girls went to bed.

Then, mid-month we found out our nanny quit on us. Just up and didn't come back after her vacation. Without calling. We only found out she quit because we did some detective work and finally got ahold of her in Peru. Her response was to the effect of "Yeah. I've been meaning to call you. . . ."

So, that was our beloved nanny - the one we had raved and bragged about for the past year. She just flaked out on our kids. If you've been one of my buddies on Facebook, y'all probably watched me freak out about the situation daily. There is no telling how much business I lost from the inability to keep up that month. As you can tell from how late I've been updating this blog, I'm still digging out from under all that insanity. Abby is still upset about it, and there is nothing I can do for her to make it better. Don't worry, I'll get over being upset about this one day. Eventually.

Well anyway, Joel and I both went into hyper-drive. Joel contacted a nanny agency here in Santiago that we had been referred to; and I drove around to all the local playgrounds and asked the nannies there to pass the word among their friends. I talked to the nannies in the grocery store. I carried little slips of paper with our contact numbers in Spanish at all times, just in case. For two weeks, we interviewed nannies every single night when Joel came home from work.

That's actually how we finally ended up finding our new nanny. Her sister takes care of a little girl in Abby's classroom. She started the last week of January, and is doing well. She's brand new from Peru, so I'm having to do a bit more "training" and "supervision" than I really wanted to be dealing with, but oh well. At least we have someone who's good, right? She's very good with the girls, and likes to organize. Really. She organized my sock drawer, the spice cabinet, and the girls' playroom. She was trained as a pediatric nurse in Peru, so she is also very good with dealing with how strict I am about the girls' diet. (I am considered "strict" by Chilean standards, compared to the other parents in our neighborhood. I don't allow my toddlers to drink Coca-Cola and eat candy incessantly. And the nannies at the playground can't understand why my children can get to sleep so "early" at 8pm, when the other children are easily awake until 10pm or later.)

So beyond that, what else went on this month? Abby went to the summer session of preschool, and had a wonderful time. Each week was a special theme. She learned about things like dinosaurs and space. They had water games twice a week, and once a week did face painting which she didn't want to take off. Have I mentioned before how much I love this preschool? I begged them to let Lily in this year even though she isn't two years old and they said no. Leaving this school is going to be the hardest part of leaving Santiago.

I've mentioned Lily's allergies to you guys before. Well, at the end of December, I had to take Lily to the pediatric gastroenterologist. Her reflux is continuing to be a problem and we're attempting to get to the root of the issue. The Doctor agrees with me that she seems to be having some kind of issue with dairy and soy milk as well. Then rice milk became an issue because she was getting constipated from that as well. So we ended up ordering a machine so I could make her milk from almonds and it finally arrived. Yep, you read that right. I make 2 liters of almond milk just ever other day.

The good news is she actually likes it (I add a bit of honey and vanilla to make it taste good) and is having no reactions to it. The bad news is the amount of time it takes to prepare, and that we are now tied to needing a refrigerator. It has bit of a crimp in our traveling plans, but I guess that's just as well.

Here are a couple pictures from our month.

Here, the girls created a cafe where they could go for coffee. I remember doing this with my little friends growing up so I got a huge kick out of this. Oh, and I introduce the girls to Oreo cookies. Lily will do ANYTHING for an Oreo cookie!

Then, I went to get my hair cut and took Abby with me so we could have a "Girl's Day." While I was getting my hair washed, she got her first little manicure!


She picked purple. (I was hoping for pink. Oh well.)


Then, my big girl girl her first hair cut. (It was just an inch or two.)

Here she is, before:


During:

And after:

While we're sharing pictures, I thought I'd share a couple of Lily. Lily has perfected the art of throwing herself down to the floor in the most melodramatic way possible.


One day, when I was trying to load the dishwasher, I discovered she had decided to paint herself in diaper rash medicine. Don't worry, she's not in pain here. She's just angry because I told her that this was "not good."


Finally, here are a couple of shots of Joel playing a new game he created which I call "Sleeping Beauty." Except, Joel's the one asleep, and the "beauties" have to kiss him to wake him up. The girls love it. Crazy papa.

February is a complete summer break for us. We're trying to do as many fun activities with the girls as possible. First up is Vacation Bible School, then lots of play dates and pool time, grilling, and just enjoying the summer weather!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Mendez Vacation!

Immediately after Christmas, we packed up the car and went to the beach!

We went to this resort called, San Alfonso del Mar. It reportedly has the world's biggest pool. Seriously, you can take sailing lessons. In The Pool. How freaky is that? And it's right on the ocean, so you can be at the pool and look out at the Pacific Ocean.

From the boardwalk on the "outside" of the pool, looking at the ocean.

Looking back at the hotels, over the pool.

Our particular "hotel."

Just another cool shot.

The hotel really wasn't a hotel at all, but private, rent-able apartments. Perfect for us since we are still attached to sippy cups, not to mention Lily's almond milk, and need a refrigerator at all times.

One thing, it was FRIGID COLD. Which you might expect going to the beach in December. Except hey, it's the middle of the summer here, and the day before it was 95 degrees at our house in Santiago - just two hours away! It was amazing the difference that the breeze off the Pacific made. Needless to say, I was not as prepared for the weather as we should have been and we all ended up staying in the one pair of pants and sweater that I packed for everyone all weekend. The water in the pool was freezing cold too, because they used the water from the ocean. We were just too early in the season for it to be the least bit warm. Oh well. Live and learn.

Isn't this just the best picture?

Our first day, we paid extra to get into the heated pool, because they had bathrooms there and it was too early for us to check in. That was fabulous. Even the sand was heated. And yes, they made us wear the dorky swim hats. Thank goodness Abby thought it was cool.


Back at the beach, the girls ended up playing in the sand most of the time. Even in the kiddie pool the water was freezing. They did get in with Joel for a while, until I saw Lily's lips turning blue. Then I made them get back out and warm up. Next time we go, I'm taking thermoses of hot chocolate to the beach with us!

And here is nap time. Poor girl just wore herself out playing. We all had a great time and wish we could have stayed longer.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, Lily

Christmas 2009

Here are our pictures from Christmas.

Christmas Eve Family Service at San Marcos Church.



Christmas Morning. I made the girls eat breakfast and get dressed before they were allowed to open the door . . . .


And here they are playing with their loot. I made them take their time and open the presents one by one. (Hahaha, I'm a mean mom.) But the good news is, we didn't lose any little pieces in the wrapping paper. And we stretched out the entertainment for several hours!







Abby loves the idea of stockings. She wanted to be the "helper" and hand them out to everyone.




That was our Christmas! Simple, but the girls had a great time!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, Lily

January Mendez News

Here's a photo recap of the month of December.

First, the girls at one of the birthday parties here. Notice the tattoos. Lily was a little freaked out by the "thing" on her arm. Abby, as you can see, was not.

Dangerous. Man, we are locking her up when she gets older.

And here we are trying to get the "perfect" Christmas picture with Santa. As expected, Lily did NOT like the stranger in the red suit. AT ALL. But, I thought he was the best Santa we've met so far. He talked to Abby before we got started and made sure she understood that even though he brought presents, that was not the real reason for the season. Go Santa.

Once we took Lily out of the equation, then Abby wouldn't cooperate. Sigh. So much for getting the ultimate Christmas card photo.


Afterwards, Abby went on a little Christmas train ride set up at the mall.

Yup, we're going to need to lock up this one too.


Here are a couple shots of Abby at another party, with kids from her school. They had this amazing play area for kids set up. She had a blast. None of the pictures I took of her in the bouncy house came out very well, which is a shame. She loved that thing.


And here is my other cutie-patootie. She's all about the accessories. Hats are super fun.


But as you can see, pants are apparently optional.


Here are some pictures from the Embassy Christmas party.



The girls got little baby dolls from Santa.


And Abby loved her ride on the fire truck.

Here are pictures from our real day of Summer vacation. (Our seasons are opposite the US, so we're in the middle of summer right now.)

First, there are Popsicles outside.


Lily is a Popsicle addict. Is there are 12 step program for that?

Then, playing in the pool when Daddy gets home from work.

Followed by an attempt to teach the girls Hide-and-Go-Seek. We'll have to work on that a bit more.


Finally, to end things up, a couple of us decided our kids needed to make gingerbread men. And of course there is no such thing as refrigerated cookie dough here, so we had to make it all from scratch. They didn't turn out to bad actually.



So, that was our month of December.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, Lily