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

July Mendez News

Hello all!

Yep, July was quite a busy month here in the Mendez household!

First up this month was Abby's birthday. On her birthday, we went with the family to one of our favorite restaurants here in Fairhope, Big Daddy's. Some of the best seafood in the world is right here in Fairhope, especially the fried kind. If you guys have never been to this area and had fried shrimp, oysters or fish, you are seriously missing out. But then, we fry everything in the South. We even fry pickles. (Hey, don't knock it if you haven't tried it; they are AWESOME.) Big Daddy's is right on Fish River, and the kids like to hang out outside in their play area.


That weekend, we had her birthday party at a local petting farm. The cool thing about this place is that it's on land that used to be my great-grandmother's farm. We're still distantly related to the folks that own it now, but it was cool to say, hey this is my-great grandmother's farm and we're having my daughter's birthday party here.

Abby LOVED her farm birthday party. She got to pet all sorts of animals include a rooster and a baby chick and a rabbit, feed a baby cow, ride a horse, take a hayride, feed goats, you name it. She talked about it for days. Here are some pictures from the party:






And here's a picture of the pregnant belly at the party: (I was 36 weeks at the time. Lily was born almost 2 weeks after this picture was taken.)

The rest of the month we spent waiting for Lily to arrive. And since she's gotten here, we've been keeping busy with changing diapers on 2 kids, feeding 2 kids, getting 2 kids to sleep, that sort of thing.

We also had a nice visit from Joel's sisters and dad and Abby's cousin, Belen. Joel showed them around the town and they hung out and helped out with Abby and Lily. It was great having them around.

Lily is doing great. She's starting to be awake a bit more showing off her pretty blue eyes to anyone who's around. She also sucks her thumb, just like she would do in all of my ultrasounds! Abby just adores her, and only gets upset when others hold Lily. Not because they're not paying attention to her, but because Abby's not getting to hold Lily. She calls Lily, "my baby." It's so cute. I'm getting used to waking up several times a night again, and Joel has been so great with getting up with Abby and letting me sleep in in the mornings.

August is cranking back up again, with all of our preparations to travel again. Between getting our shipments picked up, getting Lily's passport and visa, and check ups, we're keeping busy. My sister and her boys came down again this weekend to visit this weekend and Abby has been in heaven. She loves hanging out with "the boys." We're also looking forward to seeing Joel's parents who will be coming to visit for a week this month as well, and that will be great. That will be our month, and it looks like we'll be heading out of here the first week of September.

(We had to get the lens to our camera fixed, but it should be arriving today. I'll have much better pictures to share with you guys next month.)

Talk to all of you soon.

Love,
Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Announcing the Newest Mendez Clan Member

Yep, you guessed it, Liliana Claire Mendez is here!

She decided to grace us with her presence on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 6:03am. She weighed 7 lb, 4 oz, and was 20 inches long.

Labor was very fast. Contractions started around 10pm, and then around 11pm went from 14 minutes apart to 4 minutes apart in 15 minutes. Totally not kidding on that one. I kept waiting for them to slow back down, but nope. When we got to the hospital about 3:30am, I was already dilated to 8 cm! (Imagine me screaming to God for mercy for the ten minute drive to the hospital. It might have even been funny if it wasn't me living through it.) The nurses tried to break it to me that I was not going to have time to get an epidural, but I wasn't going to hear that at all. Dude, no one stands between me and my drugs.

So, I finally get all prepped and get the epidural (GOD BLESS THE INVENTOR OF THE EPIDURAL) and the nurse checks me again. All of the sudden she's paging the doctor and a swarm of people rush in. Apparently I got my "happy drugs" just in time because here comes Lily. The doctor, nurses, and Joel are all saying stuff like, "Wow, would you look at that," etc. I ask Joel if he can see her. Then Joel looks at me and says, "Julie, she's already out."

I didn't even have to push. Seriously. (No tears or stitches either. How in the world did I luck out like that?)

So anyway, that's the story of Lily's birth. She's doing fantastic - perfectly healthy, and a champion nurser and pooper. She has black hair, dark blue eyes, pale white skin, my nose, and Joel's ears. Lily also has a bit of confusion between days and nights at the moment, which is killing her poor mommy. And oh, my new name is "Human Pacifier."

Abby is also doing great. She loves "her baby Lily," though we have to be extremely careful that she doesn't love on her too hard, if you guys get what I mean.

Joel was great during the delivery. No passing out, no turning green or anything. I was quite impressed with him.

I'm recovering nicely. I feel so much better than I did for the two weeks before the birth (off and on contractions that never went anywhere, etc.) that I'm having the worst time behaving and sitting still and "relaxing." I really could use a decent night of sleep though.

Okay, that's it for now. Here is the new Mendez family portrait.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

PS. The winner of the Baby Pool was Lily's Tia (Aunt) Basi. Congratulations!

July Mendez News

Well, we made it. Our stuff is all packed and the movers took it off to who knows where. We spent our week in the hotel, and flew the 15+ hours and arrived in Alabama. Abby did pretty well, for a two year old that wasn't allowed to run around for fifteen hours. She fell asleep at the most inconvenient times, like going through security and customs, but other than that, she did pretty good.

We spent the last days of June moving into our apartment here and getting settled, buying our new car (more on that later), and doing alot of the shopping we'll need in Chile. We've been able to pick up alot of the big stuff we need so far - I've still got to do a major run to Sam's for diapers and wipes, but that's got to wait until my parents are free (they have the membership card) and someone else can do the heavy lifting. Joel had to spend last week in DC for work, but got to say hello to a few friends and family. Now he's "home" for a while, and we're all very happy about that.

Our first week here we also did the hospital tour and paperwork, and met my doula and OB for the first time. Lily's heartbeat was good and I'm measuring right on schedule still. So all that's going well too. Though I still have this personal belief that I'm not going to go the full 40 weeks. Heck, right now I'm just praying I make it to the 38 week mark like I did with Abby. No, the Dr didn't say anything, it's just this gut feeling I have about this one.

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(That's my personal hint that if you haven't voted in our baby pool - and let's face it, you haven't - you need to do so NOW. Just click on http://expectnet.com/game.php. You don't have much time left.)
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So we're trying to get all of our to-do lists done as quickly as we can so we won't be dealing with it after Lily is born. And yes, I am LOVING all my trips to Walmart. All these shopping trips might not make sense to most of you, but think about having to stock on baby Tylenol for a year and you might start to grasp what we are doing. Unfortunately we won't have a military base to rely on this tour. I explained it once to someone like being Pa Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie, where he would go to the store twice a year for supplies. That's what we're doing.

Yep, we bought our new car. It's a 2008 Honda Pilot. Bigger than we planned to get, but we were able to make a great deal so we're excited. It's got a third row that folds down flat, and can I just say how much I am LOVING all the space in the back! We've taken advantage of it already by buying the crib mattress and toddler bed for Abby already, and to shove all the suitcases in when we moved into the apartment. Here are some pictures:

Some of you might remember me telling you that my dad had told me he was getting Abby (and Lily) her own playhouse in their backyard? Apparently this is his new "project." Currently he's "landscaping" around it. I have to admit, it is the cutest thing you've ever seen. It also has a little kitchen to play with inside of it.

My sister is also down visiting with her boys and we are having a good time. We went to the Exploreum (Science Museum) where they saw a frog exhibit. They also had a preschool section set up like a fishing boat where little ones could "fish." (That's Abby and her cousin Nic below.) Last week my sister brought all of their fishing gear to our place and everyone fished off our pier and swam in the pool all day. Maybe I'll get a good fish/crab dinner out of this visit!

Abby is having a fabulous time getting spoiled by Nana and Papa. It's crazy. And now she has her three Crutchfield cousins hanging on her every word. She's got all of them wrapped around her little finger. We are in SUCH trouble when she gets older. All she has to do is scream their names and they come running. She wakes up asking for them and wants to talk to them before she goes to bed each night.

So that's been our month. We are SOOOOOO glad to be home in the good ole' US of A. We spent July 4th here at our place - my parents and Nancy and the boys came here and fished off our pier and swam in the pool and we ate all the fantastic BBQ that my dad made (and boy was it GOOD), and then we hung out and watched the fireworks. Everyone was exhausted by the time they were done, which I guess is the sign of a good day. Abby also learned a new word: "Fire-ire-worts" '(Fireworks). She wasn't scared of them either, though she did say that they were "loud" and pitty" (pretty).

July is just more of the same for us really, hanging out here, finishing up our prep-shopping, etc for Lily and for Chile, and also possibly welcoming the newest Mendez to the world. My due date is August 4th, so it's quite possible and probable we'll see her this month.

Talk to all of you soon.

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby and Lily

Pictures of Lily

Hey all. I had my OB appointment on Wednesday and finally got some decent pictures of Lily. Not great, but decent. So, who do you think she looks like?

3D Face Shot

2D Face Shot

She's doing great, measuring exactly on schedule. She's not as active as Abby was, that's for sure. I don't get kicked nearly as often. Lily prefers rolling and twisting and flopping all over the place.

It was very hard to even to get these pictures because someone was sucking their thumb the whole time and then had their other arm up covering up their face. She wanted to sleep and did NOT appreciate being poked to wake up.

Perhaps Lily will be my quiet child, and a good sleeper? Joel and I can't wait to find out!

Love,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

Late May News from the Mendezes

Hello all!

I'm writing this early because our internet will be turned off this weekend in preparation for our move, and who knows how much time I'd have to deal with the blog in the next couple weeks anyway? Plus, Abby's currently occupied with Sesame Street. So, here I am.


May has been a crazy busy month. First was Croatian Labor Day on May 1st. Joel had the day off, so we went down to the big park for their festival. They had all these booths and vendors, and the city gave away free food -- this apparently famous Croatian stew, which strangely resembles beans and weenies. Who knew beans & weenies could be a national dish?

After that, a friend of mine threw me a small baby shower.

Then came Mother's Day. Joel and I had already made plans to go out of town for a long weekend later in the month, but then at the last minute he decided we should have a dinner out that night as well. We had the restaurant to ourselves which was nice, plus Abby behaved during dinner, which is a gift in and of itself.



Last week, we took our last road trip in Croatia to visit the Istria area. We spent most of our time in Pula, which is a famous city there. They have an amphitheatre which is smaller but in much better shape than Rome's Coliseum, and is still in use for concerts, etc. The Istria area used to be part of Italy (before WWII) so there's alot of Italian influence and ruins there.

We also spent a little time in the pool and the beach. The water was freezing, but Abby didn't seem to mind at all. Joel had "chasing after Abby" duty, while I did my job holding down the beach chair and reading a book.

Our absolutely favorite things were the two agrotourismos we went to. (Agrotourismo is an Italian term for "tourist farm".) We ate some fabulous food and Abby got to see and play with animals. Oh, and Joel got to drink copious amounts of wine. The owner apparently makes his own wines and liqueurs as a hobby. Joel got to be his buddy, and all of the sudden I look over and Joel and the owner at the bar "testing" various things. Needless to say, I drove home.

Is that smell the goat, or Abby?

Abby oinking at the pig, and the pig oinking back.

Yes, Joel is on a horse. This is what happens when you drink too much wine.

In addition to all these activities, we've been incredibly busy here. We've both had dentist appointments, OB appointments, and then we've gone through the whole house organizing it for the movers. Plus, Joel's had some interest in his car, so it looks like we might have that one sold soon as well. Which will be great.

(Hey, does anyone want a cat? At the very least for the summer? We haven't been able to get anyone to take Puzza here, and we're starting to get really desperate about what to do with him. Seriously.)

My business is progressing quite well. I've been working pretty hard on getting my credentialing credits completed and am almost halfway there. The website designer has been going full throttle on the website and it's looking really good. We're down to the nitty-gritty stuff now, so hopefully by the time we get home to the US, I'll have more to share.

Lily is rolling around like crazy in there. I'm starting to get that jiffy-pop thing happening with my belly. She seems to be calmer than Abby. Abby kicked me all the time, but Lily just seems content to do rolls and flips.

Speaking of Abby, she is just a very active 2 year old now. She can practically carry on a conversation with her 2 word sentences, and she's great at getting her point across when she wants something!

We're going to be a little difficult to reach in the next few weeks. If you need us, please email us. Joel will have more access to his email than I will. Our movers arrive on the 12th and we'll move into a hotel for our last week here, and then we fly home to Alabama on the 20th. So, it's going to be a nutty month, but we are really looking forward for it all being over, and getting to see family this summer.

Talk to you all (and see some of you) very soon!

Love,
Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

May Mendez News

Before I forget, you all need to go to vote in our baby pool! http://www.expectnet.com/games/LilyMendez

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Well, here it is May already!

You guys have already seen the pictures from our VIP visitor this month, but here is just one more. NO ONE got the picture of me shaking the President's hand!!! I'm so miffed. The embassy photographer got some really good ones of Joel, at least. (We've ordered those, but they haven't come in yet.)

I'm happy to say that Wednesday was a red letter day! Abby asked to sit on the potty and actually peed in it! Of course I'm out of M&Ms at the moment to celebrate with. She's been watching this potty training video I borrowed from the Embassy library (It's theme song: "She's a super duper pooper." No lie.) and has been asking to take her pants "Off" which is a new favorite word. Up until today she just wanted to run around naked.

So yes, I just talked about pee for a whole paragraph. Who cares? This is a total big deal in our house! (Can you imagine if I could get her potty trained before Lily arrives, and not have two kids in diapers at the same time?????)

Abby is TALKING now. Not just the occasional word here and there, but she is picking up new words practically every day. We've got clown, cloud, dinosaur, and octopus added to our repertoire now. Elmo has almost been overthrown by the Wiggles as Abby's new favorite show. We've had the video for maybe two weeks (another from the Embassy library) and she has memorized all the songs. And the dances. Oh and this is cute: when someone leaves, she has to blow them a kiss, tell them, "Wuv you, See you, bye bye." She likes to play hide and seek behind the couch, and also say "Who dis?", Where dit go?" And answers "I dunno" when you ask her the same questions.

We finally got an official diagnosis of reflux for Abby. So, with the reflux meds she's been on this month, plus the fact I've taken her off of soy milk, has been the miracle cure this month. Abby is back to being a great sleeper and has put on two pounds in the past four weeks! It has been fantastic.

Lily is still baking inside and doing just fine. She's rolling and flipping and kicking and just having a grand ole' time in there. Me, I'm doing fine. I'm 26 weeks along this week and really starting to feel awkward and big and tired. I'm growing out of my maternity clothes! Well, really out of my winter maternity clothes, as it should be warm now, but nope, I'm still stuck in long sleeves most of the time. I'm really sick of this weather, and I'm ready for summer to be here. And yes, I'll change my mind once I'm stuck in the Alabama heat this summer. My next OB appt is next week. Unfortunately I don't have any decent ultrasound pictures to show you. She's got a 3D ultrasound which looks really cool on screen, but when she prints out the picture - it just looks like a huge blobby mess.

I do have these to show you, though.

Me at 24 weeks. (I was taking of myself in the mirror, so it's fuzzy)

Me at 26 weeks. Still not a very good picture, but you get the idea.

Joel is just a busy beaver this month, working up a storm. He's also been doing double duty this month as the official "heavy duty lifter" in the house. He also got a poker night in.

I had some friends over to scrapbook last weekend, and I'm happy to say that I have Abby's baby album almost completed! I just have to put titles and and journal the last half of the pages, then it's all done!

We've also been working on my business website and I've been plowing ahead with my certification homework. We decided on the logo colors finally. I can't wait to have the finalized website ready to show all of you.

Our plans for our move are progressing right along - we've got plane tickets, and one of our cars sold! That just leaves one more car to get rid of, plus we're trying to get someone to adopt our cat Puzza. We can't keep him at the apartment we'll be staying at for the summer, and it's too expensive to put him in a kennel for three months. So far there are no takers here, because everyone we know is moving too! (Any takers? He's a very sweet and affectionate cat.)

In May, we have a couple of holidays coming up, which I am looking forward to. Not that we really have any plans to go anywhere. We have planned our last trip to Aviano planned at the end of the month to stock up on stuff before we move to Chile. I also have a baby shower that some friends are throwing me, and Joel and I are trying to get all those last appointments in - like dentists appointments, etc.

Abby with Alek, her boyfriendAbby at Brunch (after meeting the President)

Abby loves to give her daddy kisses.

Okay, that's it for us!

Love to all,

Julie, Joel, Abby, and Lily

PS. If you would like to show some support for my little niece Kate and her family during their summer at St. Jude's, her dad Mark has designed some really cute T-shirts and a mug that you can order: http://www.cafepress.com/sugarkate!