good times from last year

....i love my nieces!

my sweet pea

Happy 9 months Isa!

On the 10th, Isabella turned 9 months old. I can't believe how time flies. It's so fun to see her grow, but it's sad because she's definitely not an infant anymore!!

Standing! (or more like holding on for dear life)

our little teletubby
(thanks Jim and Robin for this! it still fits, this week at least!)

Lovin her pops

Trying on Daddy's hat!

rubber ducky you're the one

Things have been going great this week. We've looked at a few apartments. Although it's a little early to actually move, it's been good to get an idea of the costs of what's out there. We actually saw one that was (almost) perfect for our family... but our van didn't fit into the carport and there wasn't a storage space available. We have SO much stuff that belongs to the church, we need a room just to store it all in (sound equipment, puppet stage and materials, 10 bed frames and mattresses). We still have some time, so we aren't rushing ourselves.


Isabella turned 9 months old today (this photo is actually over a month old..oops). She is such a doll. I am amazed every day at her. She can skip a nap and still be completely happy. Today, for example, she took 2 catnaps of 20 minutes...and that's all! but she was an angel all day. I love her little personality. She must be a MK (missionary kid) because she is super flexible when it comes to schedules and people. Hopefully she will not be quite like her PK mother, who happens to be pretty stubborn! I'm lucky to be married to the most relaxed and genuine guy, who puts up with me and tells me things as they are.

Bathtime is probably one of the highlights of Isabella's day. When she was tiny, she didn't like taking a bath. She'd cry in the water. But ever since she started sitting up, it was like a whole new world opened to her... the warm water, bubbles, toys... She will sit and play forever! I finally have to take her out. She will object even if her toes and fingers are like little prunes. So cliche, but she does love her rubber ducky... it "makes bathtime so much fun" (thanks mom for the ducky).

Speaking of the economy, wouldn't it be nice to live in a time when a rubber ducky and a 20 minute nap was considered an important topic of conversation?

PS i will leave you with some random pics from Saturday

good times with Joselo

San Marcos

This video is from a few months ago when a team came

*Be prepared for some venting. If you don't want to hear it, don't read!*

i don't know where i'm going with this, but I just felt compelled to write. so, Isabella is such a joy! she's a smart little girl. She has been drinking out of a sippy cup for the last few months, she feeds herself finger foods (and prefers it over being spoon fed). She recognizes words like "light" and she looks up and points to the light. She claps and waves and gives kisses.

It's so fun seeing her develop. She weighs almost 19 pounds and is 68.5 cm long. She's a pretty big girl. Maybe that's why she's not even crawling yet! She will be 9 months on the 10th. I try not to let it bother me, but as a mother, it's hard to not compare your baby with other babies. Isabella is pretty close to crawling, she scoots around and rolls anywhere she needs to go. She is pretty dangerous now, i can't leave her alone for a second. But unlike other babies at her age, she is not pulling herself up or crawling. I tell myself all babies develop at their own pace. yes I know. i don't need to be reminded of that. I'm just sharing my thoughts.

The encouraging thing is that God knows exactly what we need. And it's true that I don't need a crawling baby in the place where we are living. Ugh, which makes me think about how badly i want to move. Our home (which is the church) is NOT baby proofable (i know that's not a word, but my english is pretty bad when I go long bouts without speaking it).

Carpeting is a LUXURY people, be thankful. I've wanted to get rugs for a while. but you know, they are a luxury, so that means that they are imported from somewhere else. A small rug the size of a double bed costs at least $200 US dollars. Putting her on the floor is confined to a small square of foam puzzle letters. God knows when she starts crawling I'm gonna have to take her to the emergency room for splitting her head open on the floor.

Her walker is fun for her, but that's pretty dangerous too. I only use it downstairs and in the same room where i am. A johnny jumpup thingy would be pretty cool, but not possible. We don't have doorframes like in the US. there is nothing in our home we could hang it from! Darnit.

Oh, please forgive me.. I realized I am totally complaining. Lord knows my feelings on all this, as we've had several conversations about it. And yes I'm submitted to His will, knowing that we will live here as long as He deems necessary. We are missionaries and we can deal with a lot and still be content, so please don't think I am an uncontent person.

I fight my "gringa" ways all the time... thinking that carpeting should be a right. I suppose this is a large reason why most babies in this part of the world dont start walking until a year or after. And most babies skip crawling all together. I've read that skipping crawling can affect a child's ability to read. This is a myth. It's been proven that it's not a necessary developmental step, like sitting or rolling over is.

I digress. I want to move, separate our living space from the church. A small apartment or house would be perfect. Something warm. Our home (aka the church) is beautiful and large and cold. Too large. Too cold. We use a bedroom on the 2nd floor as our living room so it can maintain the heat a little better. Plus the whole downstairs is used for the church. I pray for something that is warm(er)... that lets the sunlight in. For those who don't know (and for the 3 people who actually read my blogs), our home is made of concrete (hence the earlier refrigerator reference).

A year ago, our next door neighbors decided to eliminate the structure on their property and build two 6 story apartment complexes. (they are still constructing!!) The SAME month (a year ago), our front neighbors also decided to build a 6 story apartment complex. Can you imagine the noise day in and day out (7 days a week!). And the mess that is left with gravel and sand all over the sidewalk in front of our front door. and our water gets shut off randomly (without notice). We always have barrels and bottles of tapwater handy just in case.

Last night (and also is a frequent occurance) someone decided to park their car on the street just below our bedroom window at 2AM to drink and play some peruvian mexican sounding music so that the entire city of cusco could hear. Yes it woke up Isabella. Ricky had to yell from our window to get the guys attention. He turned the music down, but our entire household was already awake by then. I wanted to call the police, but calling the police wouldn't do anything anyway. They don't respond during mid-day let alone at 2 in the morning.

Another interesting thing about our street is the young drunk people that come home from the discotheque at 3am and yell/laugh/fight just long enough to wake us and the baby up. Oh and we are in October, which in Cusco is the celebration of Cristo Morado (Black Christ). every morning for the entire month, the catholic chapel near our house lets off huge firecrackers at 6 in the morning, sometimes earlier. It sounds like fireworks are going off in my room. I am much more accustomed to this now than I was 2 years ago, but it still makes me jump out of my skin every once in a while.

There are many good reasons why I want to move (not mentioned above). Having the church in a separate building would be beneficial and a blessing in many ways. The members of the church would be able to take ownership over the church (instead of thinking of it as our home). They would have many more opportunities to serve. We would have a sign out front and would be able to receive people who come in from off the street. Gosh, the list goes on. I have discussed this with the Lord many times. No need trying to convince Him because he already knows. His timing is perfect, so i abide in faith.

Aside from all this, the Lord gives me incredible sleep, even with an almost 9 month old that still doesn't sleep through the night. I'm up every few hours for some reason or another. I feel rested and refreshed even through it all. I don't feel stressed (maybe a little, but only sometimes). We are so blessed and grateful. God knows we are. He is good to us. We rest in His goodness and know he'll let us move sometime SOON to a quieter neighborhood of Cusco!

more photos from Santiago

priceless

The other night I went to check in on Isabella and I discovered her in this position. The funny thing is that she fell asleep holding onto the side of her crib. I decided that it won't be long before she'll be pulling herself up and out.. so I need to raise the side up.

recent photos

Here are some photos from Saturday with the kids and our visit to Jorge and Janet's home for lunch. Enjoy!

Auki

Dancing

Luis and Abraham

with Jorge and his family

Isabella likes Janet

Happy Independence Chile

Salud!

We are back home (in Cusco) after spending 2 lovely weeks in Santiago. We had a great time with Ricky's family. And Isabella finalized her Chilean citizenship. She is officially American/Chilean!
Bueno, estamos de nuevo en casa en Cusco despues de dos semanas muy lindas en Santiago. Tuvimos un buen tiempo con la familia de Ricky. Y Isabellita finalizo su nacionalidad Chilena! Ella es officialmente una gringa/chilena!

Claudio celebrated his 26th birthday... Claudio cumplio 26...
We celebrated Chile's Independence day on the 18th at home with a BBQ. There aren't words to explain how great it was. YUM! Here is Peter dressed as a Huaso (typical men from the south of Chile).
Celebramos la Independencia de Chile el dia 18 en casa con un asado. No hay palabras para explicar cuan bueno fue. Que Rico! Aqui esta Pedro vestido como Huaso (ustedes saben quienes son, cierto)
We also got to see Maria Laura's pregnant belly! We are going to be tios. Ricky's brother, Angello, is looking forward to being a daddy.
Tambien, pudimos ver la guatita de la Maria Laura. Vamos a ser tios! Angello esta emocionado por ser papa.

We went to a fonda (kind of like a fair) where they sell empanadas and other yummy food. There are games and kiddie rides. I had a cheese empanada, actually two of them. They were fantastic.

Fuimos a una fonda donde vendieron empanadas y otra comida rica. Comimos empanadas de queso. Eran fantastico.

Isabella behaved like an angel (as always).. she did well with changing her bedtime and with all the new people. She goes to (almost) anyone and is always super smiley, so people love her (why wouldn't they?? haha)

Isabellita porto como una angelita (como siempre)... ella ajusto bien su horario de dormir y con todas las nuevas personas. Ella se deja tomar por cualquier persona y siempre esta riendose, entonces a la gente le encanta (y porque no, cierto? jeje)

More pictures coming as soon as I'm able. Now that we're back home, Isabella is trying to readjust to a schedule. She slept in till 8:30am today and only took a 20 minute nap in the whole day! She's also waking up like a thousand times (only 2 but at one point was awake for like 45 minutes) during the night, not wanting to eat, but wanting to be in bed with us. The reason is because she slept in bed with us almost the whole time while we were in Chile, so she doesn't want that to change! Ugh! Oh and she doesn't want to nurse much anymore, she's eating 3 meals a day and nursing a few times but even though she doesn't want to eat during the night, she wants to nurse for comfort. Anyway, it's tough, but we'll get through this.

Voy a poner mas fotos pronto. Ahora que estamos en casa, Isabella esta tratando de reajustarse a su rutina. Hoy, por ejemplo, durmio hasta las 8:30AM y solo durmio 20 minutos durante el dia. Esta despertando mucho en la noche, como mil veces (no es verdad, solo dos... pero eso es suficiente). No quiere comer en la noche.. ella quiere estar con nosotros en la cama! La razon es porque ella durmio con nosotros casi todo el tiempo en Chile. No quiere cambiar eso. Otra cosa es que no quiere amamantar tanto, esta comiendo como 3 veces al dia. en la noche quiere tomar papita para relajarse mas que alimentarse. Es un poco dificil, pero lo soportaremos!


For those who are interested, Isabella has 2 teeth that arrived the beginning of September. She also started clapping, waving hello/chao and is giving kisses. I love how she's growing... but it's just going too fast! Now she wants to feed herself. She loves finger foods. How did that happen so fast??

Isabella ya tiene dos dientes, que llegaron al principio de Septiembre. Tambien comenzo a aplaudir, saludar hola y chao, y esta dando besos. Me encanta como esta creciendo... pero pasa demasiado rapido. Ahora quiere comer sola, le encanta las comidas que puede agarrar con los deditos. Como llegamos a este punto tan rapido??

Well I'm tired but I vow to blog again soon. We have a million fotos of which I need to sort through and choose a few to post here.

Bueno, estoy cansada pero prometo escribir de nuevo. tengo un millon de fotos que necesito ordenar y elegir algunas mas para poner aca. Chao