Christmas Pictures!

Thank God I'm finally back to normal! It was such a difficult time to do my everyday routine feeling sick and without energy but I'm very happy that I'm feeling much better and that the persistent cough and general discomfort have gone away.
Going back to where I left off a month ago, I'd like to say that we had a very nice Holiday time with the family. First Tim, Beth, Joyce, Hannah, Jacob and Molly arrived and then Barry, Kathy, Rachel, Kaleigh and Brett came home. Eli couldn't have been happier with the visit. She loved every minute of it and had no problems interacting with the big crowd. We all helped with the cooking. Some of us stayed home while others went shopping at the outlet located 4 minutes from home, so in general we were all content and happy to be together.

I also want to give and update on Eli's development. She is now counting up to 20 in Spanish, she is putting up to three words together, she now runs faster than ever, she is also much bigger and can now reach further on my desk and kitchen counters. Eli kisses me in the middle of the night in many occasions when she is in bed with us, she likes jokes, loves music, likes to ask for a facial tissue to clean her nose, she says words like I got you, I'm done, no way, Guatemala, she names all her uncles, grandmas and grandpa, cousins and friends from day care. She also eats very well and likes soups, rice, tangerine, raisins, broccoli, avocado, plantain, melon, crackers, greens, eggs, etc, etc. Eli knows all the body parts in both English and Spanish, she understands both languages without problems. I talk to her in Spanish all the time and her vocabulary is pretty extensive and not because she is my daughter but Eli is a very smart girl. Oh, and she is a daddy's girl. She loves Greg or nene or baby as she calls him. And she loves daddy's jeep too. The other morning Greg says that he was putting her in the other car when she started crying and saying: no, jeep, jeep and did not want to get in. Eli is our compliment and our everything and I cannot picture my life without her. The Lord bless her and protect her today and always.

And these are some of the pics from Christmas.

Our house. The back is the barn, the middle is the kitchen and the front to the right is the rest of the house.

These pics were taken at the beggining of December. Never the amount of snow we saw last year.

The guest house to the left

I baked a carrot cake and decorated it with fondant. It was good but there were other sweets more appealing to the crowd.


Tree decorations

My other baby.

Beth loved her present from husband Tim...and so did we.

It was a whipped cream maker!

Eli in her Santa dress from uncles Tim and Beth.

This is the wrapping for my present. Greg painted it and it looked very nice.

Making faces






When she is ready for a diaper change, she opens the drawer in the kitchen where we keep the diapers, takes one and goes straight to the living room where she knows we usually change her.Smelly girl.

She is huge! At her 2 year old medical check up, the doctor said tha she is now in the 30th percentile for lenght and in the 50th percentile for weight. Before she was off the chart for lenght, she was way down. So she is huge now.

With Grandma Joyce.

Nice album she received for present.

With Godmother Rachel.

Just guess who we are looking at...

Reaching further and further...When Eli arrived from Guatemala she was as tall as the desk's height.

Here she is looking at the calendar godmother Rachel received from her.

Ajiaco time.

Brett and Kaleigh.

Tacos/ Fajitas time.

Eli and Molly

Eli loves gramma's company.

I've been sick :(

I don't think that I need to tell you all how I've been feeling lately and how energetic I've been. My face says it all.
I started with this cold/flu like symptoms before Thanksgiving( did I say Thanksgiving...almost two months ago?)and despite all the medicine that my doctor gave me the first week in December and some home remedies, I continued feeling sick with symptoms like coughing, sneezing, lack of energy, etc. But when I thought that I was almost there, the worst came. About two weeks ago I started with a terrible cough that would wake me up and make me get up in the middle of the night, a runny nose that left all my skin around the mouth an nose so red and sore that it would hurt to put some moisturizer on, a sore throat that wouldn't let me pass any sort of liquids and many other symptons proper of a very, very bad cold. This week the doctor precribed me different medicine and sent me for a chest x-ray. Thank God my lungs are clear and there is no inflammation. I still feel sick, tired, exhausted but at least I am not coughing the way I was coughing before.
This is the reason why I haven't posted. This and all the chores I have at home plus a sick baby that started with diarrhea right after Christmas when the family was still visiting. Eli is still not drinking any milk and although she is much better now, her BM is not normal yet. Lots of Pedialite every day which I hate but nothing we can do. Some home remedies have also helped. The good thing about Eli is that as you can see in the pics, she does not look sick, she does not slow down, she eats normal and plays as usual. Amazing!
I hope that I can post all our Holiday pics later this week. Take care,
Clare.

He estado enferma por ya casi dos meses de una tos y una gripa terrible. Sin embargo, lo poer de esta enfermedad me llego hace mas o menos dos semanas cuando una tos persistente no me dejo dormir por casi una semana completa. Me tenia que levantar en la madrugada varias veces y a pesar de todo lo que me tomaba no me pasaba la tos. Me siento cansada, exhausta y con un sueno terrible.
Por otro lado, Eli tambien ha estado enferma. Comenzo con gripa, fiebre, tos y diarrea. Ya hace mas de dos semanas de esto, y aun sigue con la diarrea aunque mucho menos. No esta tomando leche. Cuando tenga oportunidad y mas animo, coloco las fotos de la Navidad. Espero no pasar de este fin dde semana que viene.
Abrazos,
Clarena.