Good news, bad news

So the bad news of this week is that ENanny had to go home =( but we had a great 6 weeks together, and i don't know what we would have done without her help!! Grandaddy left on New Year's Day, but he has kept in touch with Suzy on Skype. Here she is talking to him on the telephone:
The good news is that we went to the doctor yesterday, and Suzy now weighs 8 pounds 6 ounces! she gained 4 much-needed pounds this month! Here are some new pictures of her, some of them are just random, and some are from a photo shoot we did trying to get some pics for a birth announcement. None of these made the cut, but they're cute anyway =)

go heels!

Or maybe she takes after her daddy??

Elvis 1983....................................Suzy 2010

Both of them are 1 month old in this picture, whereas in my picture, i was only a couple days old, and Suzy was 1 month (too bad my little outfit didnt fit her right at birth!)

Like mother like daughter??

Ashley 1983..................................Suzy 2009

Recognize the outfit????

Christmas fun!

We really enjoyed our first Christmas here in El Salvador, celebrating salvadorean style on Christmas Eve, then Baldwin style on Christmas day. You see, Christmas is celebrated here on the 24th with a family dinner, and so all of Elvis's family came over christmas eve and we had a great meal. elvis's mom made hens with the traditional christmas sauce on top, and some incredible chocolate/plum tamales. mmmmmm! my family contributed the silly christmas headwear. luckily, elvis's family were good sports about it. =) then on christmas day, we celebrated baldwin style. the only tradition that was broken was that we didnt wake up until 10:00am, whereas i am usually waking everybody up at 6am that day. however, we had already been up at 1am, 3am, 5am, and 7am feeding suzy, so i think its acceptable. here is mom, waiting for our traditional baldwin breakfast (country ham, grits, eggs, biscuits, moravian sugarcake, and grapefruit). thanks mom and dad for bringing all of the christmas staple foods!

we didnt eat breakfast until about 1 pm however because we were too busy opening presents! (read: opening suzy's presents for her!) here she is with her new books and toys. i think her shirt is appropriate for the occasion (it says "i love presents")

opening up the fun box of gifts that tio marty and tia sara sent!

checking out (suspiciously) her new flamingo symphony friend:the precious outfit tia tyler and tio chris sent:

uh oh, silly headwear runs in the family i guess...

people celebrate christmas here by shooting fireworks all night long, so here is a video of what it sounds like. its sideways and too dark to see anyway, but you get the idea of what the night was like . it was a little stressful when you have a newborn, since it was soo loud all night, and smoke just filled the house because all of the fireworks!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Merry Christmas to you all from the Henriquez Baldwin family!!

It's interesting to me how having a baby in the family changes your whole perspective about what constitutes a "big" event during the week. For example, this was a "big" week because we took Suzy to a park 2 blocks away for an organic market that they have there on the weekends, and also the fact that we went out to breakfast with her on Sunday was a huge event. Now our big events of the day revolve around a big smile of hers, a big poop of hers, a big feeding of hers, etc. It's amazing how you get back to appreciating the small things in life as really amazing big things. Another big event was taking her to get a TB vaccine...it was not fun having to hold her while they gave it to her. But, they also weighed her, and she is up to 6 pounds 6 ounces! She has gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks! This is a big deal and a big answer to prayer! Here we are at our big breakfast outing:Suzy's first trip in the sling to the park (she loved it!):Suzy at the park with the 20 juice oranges we bought for $1!

We are excited about spending our first family Christmas here...the fam is coming over tonight (Christmas is celebrated here on Christmas Eve night at midnight) with homemade tamales and Christmas chicken, and we will be surrounded by the booming fireworks that we fill the air from sundown to sunup. Suzy is all ready for Christmas...here are some of her Christmas poses and other random cute shots:Suzy's first hairbow:

Granddaddy teaching Suzy how to pray:

A Christmas smile for you!

Stick up your dukes:

a note from Suzy...

Hey guys, it's Suzy here writing to you all. Mom has already publicly thanked Tania and Efra for my cool tree mural in my room, but now that I'm here and my room is all ready, I wanted to thank some more people. First, thanks Ruby for my cool name plate on my door! Thanks ENanny for painting me this fun wall hanging!

Thanks ENanny for my new blanket and Judy for my rocking chair cushion! Thanks Tio Marty and Tia Sara for my cool new owl toy bag! Thanks Granny for my UNC teddy bear!
Thanks Lulu for painting me a picture and for the wall hangers! Thanks Ray and Theresa for my UNC cheerleader babydoll! Thanks UNC girls for all my books!
Thanks everybody (mostly ENanny and Granddaddy!) for all my new clothes! My clothes holder already broke it is so full!
Here is a view of my finished room from the door. I'm not sleeping in my crib yet (I like to be closer to Mommy and Papi at night) but during the nighttime, I eat every two hours in my rocking chair with either Mommy, ENanny, Granddaddy, or Papi. And we're getting a lot of use out of my changing table...my digestive system is working great now! Thanks for your prayers! Also, I went to the doctor yesterday, and I'm up to 5 pounds 12 ounces! I'm almost back up to my birth weight finally!
Also, people have been saying that I have my Papi's skinny butt. Well, you should see this picture of me using my new cloth diapers! They definitely give me more junk in the trunk!

Big week!

This has been a big week here in our household...first of all, Granddaddy got here on Monday! He greeted Suzy with tears of joy in his eyes. I think it was hard for him to be away from all of us for the past 2 weeks. here is their first encounter:


Monday was also a big day because it was Elvis's birthday!! So we were able to celebrate with his mom and sisters and with Mom and Dad too. Unfortunately, I was sick all day throwing up (apparently making up for the fact that I didn't throw up at all during pregnancy) but I'm now recovering (again...when will my defenses go up again?!) Here is a pic of the bday present I gave Elvis:

More pics of the proud family:



Thankfully, Granddaddy brought some preemie size clothes for Suzy, so now she finally has some outfits that fit!


Tomorrow we go to the doctor to see how much weight Suzy has gained!