fun sick-free weekend

This weekend was the first time in a while that we felt like we could get out and do fun things since Suzy has been feeling good for almost a week now. Yesterday we went to a cool kids festival (meaning, the festival was cool and it was for kids, not that it was just for cool kids....although suzy is a cool kid....) anyway...i think you understand. They had all sorts of free crafts for the kids to make, homemade playdough, street chalk, music, dancing, etc etc. 

 ...and lots of good food! Including pupusas and Salvadoran tamales. I love that any good festival around has pupusas. We also drove through a section of LA that had a pupuseria on every block. Literally.

 After the festival, we took a stroll down Sunset Boulevard and went into some cool shops where we couldn't afford anything.

 We had found a Groupon earlier in the day for a Guatemalan restaurant near the festival, so we headed over there after strolling around town for a while. Suzy LOVED her plate of plantains and beans and crema (as you can see...), but we didn't manage a picture of our dinner before devouring it. It was delish and brought back lots of great memories of Central America.

 And here is Suzy all ready for church this morning....wearing her new church shoes that Nana sent. She calls them her "zapatillas like Dora" (from the Dora episode where she is a ballerina).

thankful

First of all, I am so thankful that Suzy has not had any diarrhea in over 12 hours. She has been playing all morning and is starting to get her appetite back. Whew. We still don't know what it was, but we already got a referral to a GI specialist in case it happens again. 

Suzy loves playing with our neighbor, Saakshi

I am so grateful (yet again) for the Trader Joe's donations that we get every Monday and Thursday. We still have a freezer full of gourmet meat, and we get fresh fruits, veggies, bread, and flowers every week for free. Here are the flowers I snagged today:

I am also so thankful that Trader Joe's brought dark chocolate covered raisins today too! 

 Suzy has decided that she often prefers sleeping on her floor rather than on her bed. She even slept in her tee pee one night last week. That is fine with me (as long as she sleeps!) but that means I have also slept on the floor for most of the past 5 nights as I have been constantly changing diapers and checking on her. I just took this picture 5 minutes ago...she is napping on her floor.

asking for prayers again

Suzy is still sick from this new round of diarrhea and vomiting...this is day 3 now and it's been the worst round so far. Every afternoon/evening we think she is doing better, but without fail, at 2am on the dot it starts up again and I'm changing diapers every 30 min until about noon. The doctor already ruled out parasites, allergies, etc etc so we don't know if it is a coincidence that she keeps getting different bugs, or if there is something else going on. Pray for wisdom, for healing, for rest for all of us, and that she doesn't get dehydrated or lose too much weight. Thanks.

Stardom

So, my mom sent this Science and Children magazine from 1995...notice who those cool kids are on the cover?? I remember this day...I remember thinking I was so cool wearing that oversized hot pink Hard Rock t-shirt and those rolled up Tommy Hilfiger jean shorts. And Marty thought he was so cool with his Bubba Gump shrimp t-shirt. Ha!

Check out the drama on those faces. We are so authentic.

Speaking of child stardom, here is our little star getting ready to go swimming yesterday...she calls her sunglasses "Movie Star", as in "Mommy I need my movie star on".

 

Our Movie Star....fish

She loved swimming in the pool and seeing the tons of kids there for swim lessons, diving lessons, water polo lessons, etc.

That is, until someone threw up in the pool and we had to get out.

Maybe that's why Suzy woke up with stomach issues AGAIN in the middle of the night. Bleh. 

I love that there are tons of public pools in Pasadena that we can use for a couple of bucks. And that it is swimming weather all year long!

The other day we went to one of the many beautiful public parks nearby to do some surveys with Hispanics about their opinions of the community for one of my classes. There are so many cool options for kids offered by the city of Pasadena- swimming, ballet, music lessons, etc etc and we are excited about Suzy having those opportunities.

And today I walked around downtown LA for a couple of hours doing some research for another class about the religious expressions near our church. Met some interesting people and found that other churches are practically non-existent near our church. The are a couple of cathedrals farther away, and some Buddhist Temples as you get closer to Chinatown. Confirms that our church is in the right spot. Now, if we can just get Elvis's schedule switched so we can actually go together on sundays......

I love that my research for my classes this quarter mostly consists of getting out, walking around our community, and talking to people. Much better than doing book reports and research online.

finally the weekend...

...for us anyway! Wednesday and Thursday are Elvis's days off, so we celebrate our weekend in the midst of everyone else's work week. I feels kinda sneaky, and we like it. Things this week have been pretty normal, work and play and class. Sometimes when I come home from class, I see that Elvis and Suzy have taken pictures like these:

I think she really looks her cousins Camila and Dani in this picture, if you know them

Suzy has had lots of good Gabi time this week...we love living in such a tight community where more days than not we end up eating lunch together, playing together, having dinner together or babysitting for each other.

Have a good fake weekend yall!

Suzy's back!

Suzy is officially completely back to her silly self! Today she thought she was hot stuff because the neighborhood girls fixed her hair and painted her fingernails for the first time! An hour later, she is still walking around with her fingers fanned out because they are "drying" still. Glad to see her acting normal again!

We have gotten all the tests back except for that crazy stool exam, and everything has been normal so far. If the last exam shows it is not a parasite, then it must have just been a nasty bug that wiped her out for a whole week. Thanks for your prayers!

Easter fun

Easter was pretty low key this year...I was realizing yesterday that this was the 1st Easter in 7 years I've celebrated in the US. I really love Holy Week in El Salvador...everybody is on vacation, and I miss the beautiful rugs that they make in the streets. I had totally forgotten that families get together for Easter. Since we don't have family nearby (except for some of Elvis's cousins in LA), and Elvis had to work yesterday morning, we didn't have any plans. Suzy and I caught a ride to our church, which was so good. Then we went to the park for a bit once Elvis got home, and we were just so happy to see Suzy being her silly self again (with just a few moments of tiredness).


On Saturday we went to an egg hunt on campus, but we got there too late and it was all over already. Sounds like it was like letting loose the bulls in the china shop, so I'm OK with missing it. They did give Suzy a couple of eggs that were left over, so we hid them for her. She looks pretty into it in the pictures, but the truth was she would go get one, then want to lie down for 10 min, then go get another one.

Saturday night, Elvis made us a special treat....Salvadoran torrejas. It's basically french toast made with egg bread (which we luckily got from Trader Joe's donations last week!), then soaked overnight in an amazing sauce made of unrefined sugar cane molasses and milk. YUM. We ate about a dozen each i think (Suzy included!) And then we put the sauce over bananas. And then we drank the sauce by itself.

Overall Suzy is sleeping much better, and is in great spirits this morning. We hope to get lab results today and have this mess all cleared up.

Trying jelly beans for the 1st time

torrejas!

Easter 2012

Easter 2011

Easter 2010