Reunited

This past weekend was really special; Suzy got to meet her cousin Anna, uncle Marty, Aunt Sara, PLUS she got to meet David and Lucy and their sweet daughters, Lulu and Nissa. They are definitely family also and it was so great to see them after 7 months of being apart. Lulu was so sweet to all the babies and they had such a great time together, Suzy couldn't even sleep she was afraid she would miss something. None of us wanted the day to end. It's so fun that Anna is 4 months old, Nissa is 5 1/2 months and Suzy is 7 months. They will be lifelong buddies.

Thankfully, Marty and Sara and Anna will be back down to NC next week so the playing and catching up can continue. I think Mom and Dad are a bit excited to have both granddaughters together finally!

miss priss at the beach

Finally in NC!

We are so happy to be here in NC, although we miss Elvis like crazy!!! Suzy did awesome during our all-day travels, even though we were up at 3:30 am on SUnday morning, had a 5 hour layover in Miami and didn't get to Wallace until 10:30 pm. She slept on both flights and then played with the people around her, especially on the second flight. She didn't cry a bit on that whole flight, not even during the take off or landing! There was a mission team of about 50 people on that flight, and they all fell in love with her and wanted to hold her and play with her. She LOVED the attention! She was definitely the most popular person on the whole flight.

Yesterday we had a busy day of meeting the family...she met Mema, Granny and Pah Pah, uncle Mark, aunt Nancy and their boys, Uncle Tripp and Aunt Jenny and cousin Brooke....she charmed them all of course! We even got a walk on the beach in yesterday which she also LOVED. Here are some pictures:

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day here in El Salvador, so we are celebrating Elvis's first Father's Day! I'm not even going to go on about how great a father he is; if you know him at all you know how amazing he is. Today Suzy was so excited, she woke up at 5:10 am! She and Elvis watched the World Cup game at 5:30, then Suzy helped me make banana waffles with fresh fruit on top for a special breakfast, and she gave him her present she's been working on all week: her handprint that we made using coffee instead of paint! I was worried she was going to suck on her hands with the coffee on there and not sleep all night! Here it is:
Suzy and I are excited that we will be in NC on Sunday to celebrate Father's Day with dad! I'm trying to pack today, but Suzy's stuff is definitely taking up more room in the suitcase than my stuff. Please pray for her on Sunday if you think about it- that she will be calm and not get too antsy while flying...she doesn't typically like to just sit in one place for very long.

See you Carolina/Virginia folk soon!!!

A day at the pool

Today was a good day...my school took all of the teachers out for a big end-of-the-year breakfast then let us go home for the day. I still have a few things to finish up at work, but I'm almost done!!

Update on Suzy's new foods: she has now tried 2 types of squash, the green potato thing (it was her fave), carrots, and today she tried apples- both apple juice and mashed apples. She loved the juice but not a big fan of the mashed fruit, I think because of the consistency. Anyways, she has also been getting up on her knees the past couple of days and rocking a bit! I have no idea what we will do when she wants to really start crawling all over these hard floors...any ideas from anyone else who doesn't have carpet???


This afternoon we went to a pool with some friends of ours, including baby Joey who is 11 months old, so this counts as Suzy's first real play date! They had a blast swimming and playing together.



Oh, and here's a cute video from last night of Suzy and Elvis being silly before bedtime:

A day at the park

The rains finally stopped and we were able to pick up our Sunday tradition of going to our favorite park. It's amazing how in just these few weeks that we haven't been, Suzy has changed so much and can now enjoy it in even more ways. I was the photographer yesterday so Elvis could be in more pictures with Suzy!

And Suzy's 3rd word was......

So, as you read in my last post, Suzy surprised us this weekend by saying "mama" and "papa". She said each of them again yesterday and today wowed me with a new word. I happened to be changing her dirty diaper and all of a sudden she says, "pupu" (or, poo-poo)! My mother-in-law was visiting and we both died laughing...of course my daughter's third word would be pupu! At least she said "mama" and "papa" first....

Today Suzy and I took advantage of the fact that I was out of school again to go visit some friends, go to the pretty park, and go out to eat 2 for 1 sushi with Aunt Kenya. We had a ton of yummy sushi, including one with mango wrapped around it! YUM! We totally pigged out. Suzy didn't get to eat sushi, but she did get to start on her squash this week. She wasn't very impressed. Here are the pictures:

Suzy: "Mmm that green gunk looks yummy!"


After one taste that quickly turned to: "What is this in my mouth??"



Then we caught a glimpse of Suzy as a teenager giving us a little attitude: "You're expecting me to eat more of that??"


"Fine, I'll just shut my eyes and deal with it...."

Update on Agatha: the rain has stopped here and we're going back to school tomorrow. Oh, but you've got to see this picture of a sinkhole that opened up in Guatemala City after all the rain on Sunday:

Ponderings Part II

So, it turns out that this rainy streak is actually the Tropical storm Agatha passing through Central America. It has not stopped raining for more than one minute all weekend. It makes for great lounging around weather and a great excuse not to leave the house. However, El Salvador is a very fragile country when it comes to rains like this. Thousands of people have been evacuated and there have been a few deaths here in ES already. Sadly, there was another mudslide at our friend Jose Luis's house which snapped the retaining wall they built like a twig. Apparently his house was not damaged too badly, but there is a lot of mud and tree limbs piled up all around the house. Luckily, they had already decided to leave the house last night and spend the night in another town. Please pray for those whose houses have been washed away.

A few of my ponderings from yesterday have already been answered, for example:

-No, in fact Suzy's diapers will NOT dry in this weather. It doesn't matter if they are hanging inside the house in the laundry room, they will not dry. Which means they will probably get "the funk" as well.

-We did manage to make it to Suzy's checkup yesterday, and she weighs 14 pounds 3 ounces! And she is almost 26 inches long, which at least in ES is right on average. She does get to start eating new foods this week, starting with green veggies. It's weird, they are all salvadoran veggies that we don't have in the US, so I don't even know how to tell you what they are. So here are some pictures of Suzy's cuisine for this week:
Guisquil: kinda like a green potato but not so starchy.
Pipian: A kind of squash. This will be Suzy's lunch today and for the next few days.
She will also be dining ayote, which if you've had squash pupusas down here with us, this is the squash they use for them. Next will be carrots, then we start with the fruits. I think it will be interesting when we go to NC because we don't have these veggies in NC. For those friends of mine that have new babies in the states...what are the first (American) veggies you start your kids on?

Well, got to get working on cooking this squash. Church has been cancelled tonight due to the red alert we are under here in the country because of the storm. Apparently schools have been cancelled too until further notice. Although I am sad for our country, I am thankful to have a day of rest, a true Sabbath, here snuggling with my two faves. It's also been a nice break from the heat...it's finally cool enough for Suzy to wear real pijamas!

OH! And the big news....Suzy woke up bright and early at 6:30am just like every other morning. Apparently she didn't get the memo that rainy days are for sleeping in. So, we put her in bed with us, with hopes that she would go back to sleep. She, however, thought it was time to play and to wake us up she said: "MAMA" and then two minutes later she said "PAPA" !!!!!! We were both like...were we dreaming? Did she really just say that? Go Suzy! That sure woke us up!!