Babci

We visited grandma for Ben's birthday and finally got pictures with her.
She is such a remarkable lady... would you believe she is 94 and still lives by herself?

She loves little visitors!

and she is always in such good spirits! We don't visit her often, yet she never has a complain.
She is always delighted to see us and when we apologize for not visiting often
she smiles and quickly interjects that life is so busy. Yet she is always so
happy to see us! She is pleased so easily and still we have such a hard time to find the
time to visit... shame on us! I so wish we were better stewards in taking care of her!

On another note:
Elena, obviously loves the camera... here are a few more of her poses

Cutesy

Elena:

* after her bout of sickness was done with:

"Mama, I think I done choking!"

*talking about our plans for Ben´s birthday tomorrow:

"I going to eat papi´s behday tomou"

*after discovering that I put the throw pillows of the sleeper couch on the other couch (she seems to really have an issue with pillows not matching the upholstery, if even for a short time)

"Mama! I say you ready! You don use the peious on that couch, they go here!"

*when asked this morning if she wanted a bagel for breakfast

"hmmm... in a lilo bit.."

Happy Moments

Better

Today has been a much better day. Tummies are still a bit restless but there is no more throwing up and that alone is great reason for me to be happy. We have taken the day easy so it´s been a rather slow day. Yogurt, rice, toast, bananas and ginger ale have been our meals though there aren´t big appetites going around.

Tonight Ben and I are to go out for dinner with a young couple we´ve been doing a pre-marriage course with for the past few weeks. We just finished the course last week and were planning on taking them out to dinner today. We will keep that commitment given that the wedding is next week and there isn´t much time to postpone it. The girls should be in bed by then and hopefully my stomach will fare well with the outing.

...yuck...

The good news:

:: Adriana is doing better.
:: She slept from bedtime 8:00 until about 2:00 a.m. for the first time ever! And she didn't nurse but went right back to sleep.
:: It was already 4 a.m. by the time she nursed

The bad news:

:: At 4:00 that Adriana came to bed, Elena began coughing in her bed and didn't sound too good. Yeah, she was the one throwing up now.
:: Since 4:00 I've been sitting on the couch with a sick 3 year old
:: Since 4:00 up until now (it is 10:00) she has thrown up every 20 to 30 minutes!
:: At this point I don't know if it is morning sickness or I caught the bug too, but the last three or four times that Elena has thrown up I can barely manage to help her through before running to the bathroom myself!
:: Considering Adriana's was a 24 hour bug, considering that the toughest part were the first 12 hours, considering the rate at which Elena is going, it is safe to assume that attempting to make it to my doctor's appointment today is out of the question. So, my appointment has been rescheduled for next week :o(

I feel so poorly right now that the three of us are still on pajamas and the prospects of food in this house look very slim today... this too shall pass... right?

Random

Yesterday I forgot to post the family picture...

...and this would be me after a hair appointment today
I definitely think I don´t do short well but, oh well
it will grow back sooner than I can go get it chopped off again!

Remember my list with a water crayon in the bathroom mirror?
well I guess the apple doesn´t fall far from the tree
although no one saw me do it and I erased it before little girls could get any ideas
Elena still managed to make her own little drawing

and when we thought we were finally all healthy, the stomach bug hit my sweet
little girl. Last night she spent the night throwing up (not exactly this pregnant woman´s
favorite thing to deal with). At some point she was so exhausted she just collapsed
on the towels I had set on the floor to contain the problem... it was just too precious
to pass. She is doing better today and I am hoping for some sleep tonight!

So...

We had a fun and busy weekend. We started it off going to my hubby's very first race. One step into his goal of running a marathon this year. The funny thing of it all is that the marathon he was thinking of running was the NY one in November... well this baby is coming in November, so we may just have to settle for the Scranton Marathon in October. Though we may have a more accurate idea after we see the doctor on Wednesday. At any rate, I won't say about the race because he wanted to post about it himself. I'll let you know when he does.

Easter morning found us with our little celebration before church. A very bland batch of cinnamon rolls (I tried a new bread recipe that didn't quite cut it!) but two little girls quite excited about looking for their baskets.

Since they can't read yet, this is the second year

Ben spends the night before drawing their clues.

All decked out we went off to church. We had to improvise with shirts underneath the girls dresses since it was so cold. But we made do, the pictures are a whole another story. You Moms with little ones out there will understand what I mean. We tried to get a good family picture but even taking pictures of the girls turned into such an impossible task. I've added a few up here just because, after all, even that gets to be fun!

This would be Elena thinking that her finger in her mouth looks good,
and Adriana following suit.

This would be Elena wanting to tell Adriana what to do.

Finally separated

Adriana, finally posing...

and Elena, finally posing too

After church we came home to take naps and at around three we got together for the freezing egg hunt (it was soo cold out).

Here are the little ones all bundled up and ready!

Elena finds her first egg.

Helping them look...

My little and determined one

trying to put her eggs in her basket

My sweet Elena in her search

HALLELUJAH!

Jesus is Alive!!!!

Unsual, timely and always faithful!

Lately I have seen the hand of the Lord move in unusual, timely and faithful ways, not only in my own life, but in others. It is always so refreshing to remember how personal He is. Let me tell you about my own little miracles.

This month is Ben´s birthday and upon returning from Guatemala it was quite discouraging to realize there was no money in the budget for a gift. Now, of course, anyone would have thought along these lines: "Lord, how could I even begin to doubt you. We didn´t have money to go to Guatemala to begin with and not only did you provide the tickets but money came our way throughout the trip to provide for the expenses while we were there. We even brought money home instead of having to spend from our already tight budget. So I trust and I know that you will provide to bless my husband on his special day!" Well, not me. I pouted, fought, cried and wallowed about the whole thing. A few days ago I was taking the girls to play with the cousins and stopped at the post office on the way. I saw an envelope from a dear friend and got excited to hear from her. It looked like a card. I love getting mail, so very excitedly I tucked it in my pocket, got the girls back in their car seats and drove off to Dee´s. Keeping the card in my pocket kind of made it last longer and build up the anticipation as to what my friend had to say. Upon pulling into her driveway I parked and took the card out. In a couple of seconds I was crying my heart out as I read her words AND the check enclosed. That´s right. She was telling me how blessed she has been lately and how she wanted to share that blessing with me... me... of all people! The check was written for more than enough money for a birthday gift, party and all the works!

The second one. Monday night I couldn´t sleep. I tossed and turned and my mind was racing with thoughts and thoughts and thoughts about everything and the next thing. Little projects around the house kept popping up in my head and I finally decided to get up and write them down. As it would happen, in the darkness I could not find one single pen or pencil to jot my thoughts down. I was getting increasingly frustrated because I didn´t want to wake anyone up. Why couldn´t I just find a pen and get things into paper, off my brain and get some sleep? Well, I didn´t find a pen but in my desperation I did find a crayon... a water crayon, that is. Resourceful as I am, I made do. Got the water running in the bathroom sink, got the crayon wet and wrote my little list on the bathroom mirror!!! The next morning my husband thought I went psychotic, but that´s beside the point. At any rate, one of the things I wrote (and twice) was to get some nice posters for the girls. Nothing complicated, just something that can be put at their sight level and that would dress the bare walls I´m getting tired to look at.

So Tuesday morning I took the girls to Wal*mart. When we were done shopping I put the groceries in the cart, packed together with little girls and was trying to get my wallet in order as I pushed the cart trying to get out of the store. An elderly gentleman stopped me before reaching the exit and said: "I have these for you" as he handed me a bunch of paper. Still trying to pull everything together I looked back at him and he said: "It´s just pictures, I get them from magazines. Keep the ones you like and get rid of the rest." Still confused I thanked him and went away. After settling in the car I went through the papers he´d given me. Won´t you know that although they aren´t real posters, they have nice enough pictures that I can even rotate for the girls while I can get the real nice stuff that I´d like to put up?

Just in case I was wondering how much attention He was paying...

Happy!

We are happy to share that we are expecting a Thanksgiving baby!!! Our guess is that this new baby will come to meet us around mid November! Stay tuned for updates!

Excited!

We just got these in the mail, thanks to the Christmas gift from them! Although my girls don't sit for more than a paragraph or two, it is still an enjoyable time!

As for everything else, little girls are slowly getting better and we are revving our engines for the weekend services. Catch up with you all soon!

Random and Late Stuff

* After a couple days respite, little girls are fighting fevers again. However, there is no throwing up as I´ve known there´s been in some other places and for that I am infinitely grateful. Besides the fever and a bit of sniffles and some sleeplessness at night, the girls are in good moods and spirits.

* I shared about my work of a couple weeks ago. Here are some late pictures:

This is the new children-friendly coat hanger and
hats, gloves, mittens and scarves boxes...
Even though the little things need to be picked up several times a day
because little girls like to play dress up with it, I like the feel of organization.

Entryway closet, with lots more space to use!
(I couldn't possibly bring myself to posting a "before" picture of this...
way too embarasing!)

and the pantry with the new addition in it...

* Call me sentimental but we went out today to buy a few things we needed. We ate out, got back in the car and just then it hit me that I hadn't brought a change of clothes for Elena. Of course, that wouldn't normally be an issue except for the fact that she was wearing regular underwear instead of pull ups. I know as much as training her to use the bathroom I am being trained in being sensitive about her need. So upon entering the next store I immediately took her to the bathroom. My sweet girl was sooo good! Not only had she stayed dry but did an awesome job in a public bathroom and washing her hands afterwards. As she was pulling the paper towel to dry of her hands it hit me... my heart tightened in a mixture of pride and joy and sadness at the same time. I came out and Ben said: "How did it go?" With a choked voice I said: "Too well! My little girl is growing up!!"

Today *Edit*

It was quite the adventurous weekend. We went from being all by ourselves to having five last minute guests over night on Friday all the way down to Adriana and myself stay home from church on Sunday morning.

About our guests: It was sooo good to be able to serve them if only for a few hours. I'm afraid accommodations weren't that much comfortable, but it was sure good to see them. They arrived past midnight, to the girls didn´t even know they were here until Saturday morning. Upon finding out that we had friends sleeping downstairs she was quite urged to come down and "wake up our friends", as she put it. My guess is that out of the bunch, Jamie caused the greatest impression on Elena. When I tried to sit with her on the couch to do her hair she kept telling me this specific couch was her friend Jamie´s. A couple days later she kept talking about her friend Jamie and all the toys he has in his house. I thought it was cute.

Since then, there hasn't really been much going on. Little girls have taken turns getting sick after Ben began the weekend with fevers and coughing. Hopefully if Elena follows the same pattern Adriana did, by tomorrow she should be done with the fever. We´ve been mostly housebound and for some reason this keeps my energy levels down. In fact, my list of things to do has been put aside... It is always hard for me to get going. Once I get going I follow through, but if you stop me, picking back up again is really tough. Not a great quality, I admit, especially when life is all about getting back on track! Oh well...

**An important event of the day: Elena stayed dry all morning long!!!**

Adventures in Potty Training

As mentioned in the previous post, having a functional bathroom downstairs have certainly brought potty training closer to a reality for our little Elena. Needless to say, it has been an adventure as we try to avoid accidents and encourage the use of the "toilet". Forgive my candor in sharing the details but as usual I am trying to record the memories of our little life.

* She has no problem going "pipi" on the toilet but for some reason "kinkies" (for stinkies) is just not happening. A few months ago, when I realized she was working in filling her diapers and thought of taking a chance I asked: "Sweetie, do you want to go kinkies in the toilet?" To which she replied: "Mami, I am not going kinkies, there's a squirrel in my tummy!"

For clarity sake, my daughter is convinced that her "tummy" is her bottom.

* Her newest one, if I inquire if she wants to go kinkies in the toilet in an attempt to avoid changing soiled underwear she simply says: "I'm not kinkies, Mami, I'm just popping!"

* After a day of attempts I decided to buy flushable wipes. I offered her to go and she declined by saying: "My tummy don't work right now, Mami". But when she realized that I wasn't going to let her use the new wipes she said: "Mama, you help my tummy push kinkies... pweeease!"

* Her most favorite one is "I have to go peep masef!"

* On another note (nothing to do with potty training), she has been processing the whole last name thing. Several times a day she'll be found saying: "I Nena Faip Nenduiky; Adwiana, you Adwiana Hope Nenduiky; Mama you Keya Nenduiky; Papi Pato Ben Nenduiky"

Pheww!

This little woman has been working hard at trying to finally catch up with this house. See, I have felt so far like I failed at making the combination of the two apartments feel like home because when we first moved into the second apartment I had just had a baby. I couldn't really do much and I let the chips fall where they may and figured I'd have time to make a home out of these two apartments soon enough. Well, I was in for a surprise because adjusting to two little ones was harder than I anticipated. Last year, when I felt as though I had a chance at it again, I'd be so exhausted I couldn't understand it and sure enough, I came down with mono. So, between one thing and the next I never have quite finished the house.

Lately, we have been considering downsizing by moving downstairs into one apartment and renting out the upstairs again, just to even us out with our finances. I was all up for it because it would be a very immediate way to get some money. The only thing that kept nagging at my was the thought that I had failed at managing the bigger house. And the more I looked around me the more I got frustrated by bare walls displaying nothing more than a pretty color; poorly used storage because I didn't have time to organize its contents; boxes full of odds and ends that have needed going through forever; missing picture frames with pictures of loved ones whose faces I'd love to look at regularly, etc.

Coming back from Guatemala it was my utmost goal to catch up with the house regardless of what would happen in the next few months. Therefore, this past week has been spent in trying to catch up with the house. I hate to admit that little girls have been watching way more TV than I'd like them to but I am a woman with a mission. So far:

* Entryway closet has been cleaned and rearranged opening up some more room for storage.
* Kitchen table has been fit inside the pantry allowing for some extra shelving in the pantry and freeing up the room in the kitchen.
* Hanging hooks for little coats have been installed at little girls' reach so their winter stuff is a little bit more organized.
* A couple storage boxes have replaced the basket that held all things winter. By having a separate little box for gloves and mittens and another one for hats and scarves, it looks a bit better and things are easier to find.
* Microwave oven has been scrubbed inside and out.
* Kitchen counters and shelves have been cleaned.
* Although not all the pictures have been found, those that were sitting around waiting to hang from a wall have been hung in our stairway. Going upstairs now is a nice reminder of loved ones and looks more welcoming. It looks uneven because of the missing pieces, but we're a step closer.
* Downstairs bathroom has finally been finished so we (as in Ben) installed new towel hooks including one at little girls' reach so they aren't getting our hand towel wet and dirty every time they wash their hands.
* In addition, by having the bathroom finished, potty training for Elena has finally become a work in progress. If she needs to go I don't need to run all the way upstairs with both of them in tow to make it on time, etc... you get the picture.

Yet to do are tons of little things that sometimes feel like they amount to nothing but, amazingly, all those little nothings bring great satisfaction to my heart!