Trip to the Midwife

Okay so I finally made it to see our midwife to give Elijah his 4 months shots. He is 5 1/2 months old... oops. I've been waiting to take him because the week he turned 4 months old he had a runny nose that turned into a cold and well it hasn't really gone away. It has gotten better then worse then better. So I just figured I'd better do it soon or else. We measured him, got his weight, height, head circumference and was given his shots. I also had Ev weighed and measured too. Then after dinner I wrote down their stats on my charts and compared them. Ev weighed a pound more when she was born and was almost 2 inches longer at birth. But Elijah has grown 7 inches in 5 months. He weighs just a little under 16 lbs and that is what Ev weighed at about 8 months. For Ev's age she is at 40% for her head circumference, 30% for her weight and 20% for her height. She started out at 25 % for her head, 95% for her weight and 75% for her height.... I guess it goes to show that the size babies are at birth really doesn't have anything to do with how they turn out later on. Maybe she is going to be short like me... I guess she already is. Elijah was 50 % for his head circumference and length and 75% for his weight. Maybe he will be tall like his daddy.

We Found His Spot

So I've posted several times for Evangelia's birthday and I thought I would focus on Elijah now. A few days ago Elijah was getting fussy so Todd sat with him on our window seat in our dinning room. He loved it. He loves looking outside at everything going on. Evangelia joined him too. What a nice way to entertain them.

More Birthday Pictures

So I realized that I had forgotten some birthday pictures so here are some more. These pictures were on Friday her real birthday. Last year we took her to KFC the only fast food in town but it happens to be her favorite place. This year she loved eating chicken nuggets, going and playing on the play area, eating ice cream and playing some more. She ate an ice cream cone all by herself so we ended up not eating any of her cake. So we had that along with the cupcakes on Saturday. Our present to Evangelia was a Mr. Clean cleaning set. She loves to help our house helper clean so she was thrilled to have her own broom, mop, rubber glove and more.

Birthday Fun

Ev had a great birthday party on Saturday. She got lots of wonderful things and enjoyed having her friends over to celebrate. Our families got to watch part of the party as we skyped with them. Ev had a great day. I am still worn out from it. I am kinda glad birthdays are only once a year. All of the prep work then the party and then all the cleaning up is a lot. It is amazing what 5 kids 3 and under can do in a few hours! Also the fact that I only had 3 hours of sleep that night since I was up with Elijah and that I am coming off of being sick adds to my tiredness.

My First Birthday Cake From Scratch!

So I tested out a few things today. I have never made a cake from scratch so I made one today ( a few days ahead) in case something didn't work out and I would have to have a plan b. I decided that as a family we would celebrate Evangelia's birthday on her real birthday and I would make a special family cake. No pressure since I knew I didn't have to have it perfect for her party. Then we would have cupcakes for Saturday for a couple of reasons. One is that it is so much easier for little kids to eat and second I have cup cake holders and Care Bear rings to put on top of them so I don't have to decorate cupcakes like I did last year. So my cake turned out good. Sometimes cooking in high altitude will overcook things, under cook things or they end up non edible. I made a few cupcake and a small round cake with my recipe I found. It wasn't too hard either. Then I decided to take a piece of tracing paper and make a circle the size of my cake and then draw what I was going to do first. Just like my art classes... always draw a sample first. I am glad that I did. I drew a Care Bear from one of Ev's coloring books then I went to the computer and found a cute font and typed out Ev's name and then traced it on to my piece of tracing paper. I then iced the cake and made a few icing tubes out of more tracing paper. I mixed up my colors and I was ready to work. I am pretty happy with the results. Here are some pictures of my cake (now I don't want us to eat it!) and some of the fun decorations we have.

Care Bear Birthday Party

For Ev's first birthday our theme was polka dots. This year the theme is Care Bears. Evangelia's love for Care Bears started last year when my mom would send a small Care Bear in her care packages. She has 8 now.. soon to be 10. My family has been sending us lots of Care Bear items - coloring books, cards, bath books, paper dolls, etc. My friends from college asked if they could get buy us all the party decorations. So a few weeks ago we got a care package filled with streamers, plates, napkins, banner, balloons, party favors, invitations and so on. Last year I made all of my decorations (I had chosen polka dots because it was easy to find things that were circular and to make things to decorate with). This year it all came in our box. YEAH! I hope I will be feeling better by Saturday (the day of her party) and I hope she doesn't get sick from me or Elijah. I can't wait to post pictures of her special day.

Remembering...

This Friday is Evangelia's 2nd birthday. I can't believe she is almost 2! I've been sick this week so I haven't been able to do very much for her party but I have been thinking back to the days leading up to her birth. I remember the week she was born it had just gotten cool in San Antonio. I had spent almost my entire pregnancy in extreme heat. :) I had taken my maternity leave early because at 37 weeks my doctor told me that I could go into labor any time. Dr. Kauffman had thought Ev was going to be a big baby so I planned accordingly. Ev ended up being induced on her due date so I got 2 weeks to hang out and enjoy time alone with Todd instead of teaching. That was a blessing of the Lord. I had one of my hardest groups of first graders that year. My school had given me several students with discipline problems - what a perfect thing for a 3rd trimester pregnant teacher! My students didn't know that I had planned on coming back the first week in December to finish out the end of the semester and then resign. I had told my principal but hardly anyone at my school knew what I was doing. We were moving to Tulsa before Christmas so Todd was unemployed ..or as he put it "retired". The two of us went to so many movies. We would go to the Quarry and walk around the shops and go to a movie and eat. It was wonderful! The weekend before Ev was to be induced Todd's parents came into town. I remember that Saturday I started going into labor. I wasn't sure if I really was in labor or not so I waited it out and called the on call nurse and she told me to come in but I really didn't want to show up at the hospital and then get sent home so I waited it out until midnight when my contractions started slowing down and disappeared. Now that I look back at it and after having another child I was in fact in labor. We hung out with Todd's parents that weekend . Todd's mom and I went to this really great kids resale shop and bought Ev some fun things. I remember the other moms there were commenting on my belly and asking me when I was due. It was fun to say "tomorrow" and shock them. We went to the Olive Garden (one of my favorite places) to have my last meal before going to the hospital on Monday night. Then on Tuesday October 24th at 5am Todd and I arrived at St. Luke's Baptist Hospital. It was very quiet and still dark outside. I was nervous but very ready to not be pregnant anymore. As we entered the labor and delivery ward I remember I was the first one there that day. All of the nurses were standing around the nurse station just waiting for something to do. We got settled in and I got all hooked up by 6. By 1:40pm our little (big) girl was in our lives. I remember that day as if it was yesterday.

Just Like Mom

We got a set of watercolors today in a care package. Ev immediately wanted to use them so I decided to show her how and because I was trying to take care of Elijah at the same time I ended up leaving her at the table most of the time. She did really well. I took the last picture because there is a picture of me when I was about her age painting with watercolors. For those of you who don't know I really enjoy painting with them and back in high school that was the art media I worked with the most. Maybe she will like them as much as I do.

Elijah

I can't believe my baby is already 5 months old! Last night we watched a dvd that Todd put together for our families with video and pictures since Elijah's birth. Elijah has really gotten bigger. We really love our little boy. He smiles and coos at us all the time. He spends most of his time watching his sister play and he loves to roll over. We all enjoy making him laugh and he already has spent time watching football with daddy! He is a very special part of our family. We are blessed to have him in our lives.

Evangelia

So here are some funny pictures of Evangelia. She loves to copy what we do so can you guess who she is mimicking?

I love being "CRAFTY"

The first week in October was a week long holiday here. Yeah for no class! :) I spent my week trying to squeeze in opportunities to be "crafty" as Todd calls it. I think I accomplished that. Sunday I made Ev a dust ruffle out of some fabric that I have recycled 4 times now! (First it was the background of one of my bulletin boards at school, it then became a curtain in Ev's first nursery in San Antonio, it was then used as a tablecloth for Ev's first birthday party and now it is a dust ruffle for her bed.) Monday I found left over material from the quilt I made Ev a couple of months ago out of her old clothes. I used the last pieces to make a quilt pillow case for her bedding. Tuesday I knitted Ev a scarf out of some fun yarn my mom had sent me in a care package. Thursday and Friday I worked on Elijah's scrapbook out of some things I had brought here along with some fun stuff my friends sent me in a care package. Saturday I rearranged and decorated a few places in the house. And Sunday I cut and put highlights in my hair. In the end I felt really productive and that made me happy but I also felt a bit lazy because I didn't spend any time studying. Oh well...

Advantages of Living Here

Silence Really is GOLDEN!

The house is quiet. The kids are in bed and I am enjoying the stillness in our apartment. Todd went on a trip today so I have been managing the kids since this afternoon. At dinner tonight I told her Ev were going to pray (I was sitting in daddy's seat and I was going to pray instead of him) and she pointed towards the door and said, "daddy pray daddy pray". She started getting upset so I decided to call him and have him pray for our meal. It wasn't what he was expecting from my phone call but it sure changed Ev's tune. After hearing him pray for us she went on as she usually would. After dinner I got everyone in jackets and hats and loaded Elijah up in the sling and we went out to buy milk for Ev. Thankfully at the 6th building of our apartments (we live in the 2nd building) there is a small convient store on the first floor. The lady that owns it and her worker know us well. They love Ev and take care of us. They saw that I had my hands full with both kids and I had bought a box with bags of milk in it so they offered to walk with me and help me get home. I spent the next couple of hours feeding and putting both kids to bed. I am exhausted. Now I am just crossing my fingers hoping that Elijah sleeps through the night again.

I Really Am Almost 30

Yesterday I went to the Import Store while Todd worked on a few things at home and the kids were asleep. I walked a block and then proceeded to wait for a very popular bus for over 15 minutes. That is crazy! Then after another 15- 20 minutes later I got off the bus and had to walk another block to the Import Store. PHEW! After almost 40 minutes I made it at my destination. As I approached the store I remembered that there is a new Baby Store a few shops up so I decided to go in and see what they have. As I was looking around I was immediately approached by 2 of the workers. They love to hover over you and ask you questions. I went to where the diapers were and was looking at their options. I touched the size "large" diapers and the lady goes "you have a big baby?" I thought it was pretty funny but at the same time I was excited that I actually understood what she said! After looking at a few more things I decided to tell her that I have 2 children. She was surprised and then I told her that one is a boy and one is a girl. They love that. They tell me that is really great. I told them the ages of my kids and they told me that I look very young. I think they were saying that I don't look like I've had 2 kids. I told them that this year I will be 30. They couldn't believe me. I went on talking with them - which is a big deal for me. I could understand a good amount of what they were saying and I tried to talk as much as I could. They took me to the back of the store to show me something they are proud of. I had told them that my son is 4 months old and I look through this window into a small room with a few ladies and a couple of babies. What I saw was the funniest thing I've seen in a while. I couldn't believe it... I didn't know whether to be shocked or curious or what. I saw a naked 4 month old little boy with a innertube around his neck floating and kicking his legs in water. It was too funny. The little boy was too cute though and as I stared at him I noticed how similar he was to Elijah. People tell me all the time that he looks Asian. I think they want me to bring Elijah to come "swim". I am pretty sure the lady told me they do it to strengthen the baby's muscles. Who knows maybe I'll do it someday. I just walked away feeling good that I used my language and that these ladies think I look young. I guess with turning 30 in a few months that is a good thing. :)

My First Favorite Color

As I finished the previous post on how much I love FALL I remembered that as a child my first favorite color was ORANGE! Not the typical color for a girl... my family told me I liked the color because of the car on the Dukes of Hazard but that is not the case any more. I really do like the color. I'm wearing an orange long sleeve shirt with a sage green shirt underneath it. I match my decorations! Haha. I just couldn't get enough of these colors so I took some more pictures.

I love FALL!

FALL is one of my favorite times of the year. I love watching the leaves change color and I love the bright yellows, oranges, reds and browns. Too bad I can't see this wonderful phenomenon that God created for us to enjoy. Where I live we don't see too many trees and I can't drive down a neighborhood and enjoy the surrounding colors. I really miss that. I have tried as best as I can to bring some "FALL" to our house. Here is a picture of my limited FALL decorations. My friend had to take a trip to a city down south that has an IKEA so she bought me some orange place mats. Yeah for more decorations. I love them!

Hello!

I've been tossing around the idea of having my own blog for a while. I have been journaling since highschool but in the recent years I haven't had the time. Or maybe it is because I have other things to do and just haven't gotten to it. I know, it is a sad excuse but maybe here is a place where I can express my thoughts and share my life experiences from this side of the world.