As of Late

I thought it was time to post a random collection of happenings and "normal" life in Guatemala.

A sample of homework Ellie sometimes has. This time she was supposed to find 5 pictures that start with E (in Spanish). We had a hard time: Elmo, estrella (star), elefante, Elsa, and Ellie (she drew a picture of herself). 

An abundant number of diaper changes happen in this house.  

Tummy time for Ruby sometimes means her older sisters "read" to her. 

Hazel is constantly kissing and talking to Ruby and trying to hold her hand. I have to watch Hazel because it borders on smothering. She really can't get enough of her baby sister.
I think they will be buddies because Hazel won't have it any other way.  

We have a new couple that recently joined our team. They've been staying with us for the last week before they head to El Salvador, so we took a quick trip to Antigua. Group selfie!

While eating lunch in Antigua, Ruby started crying. The owner of the restaurant offered to hold Ruby while I finished my meal. What service!
Actually, people here offer to hold Ruby all the time, and I usually say no.

We continue to enjoy our new house. The girls get a lot of good outside playing time, and we love how close we are to the school and other things. Just this morning I needed cilantro, and I walked 4 minutes to a little tienda to buy fresh cilantro.

Easter morning. The timer on our camera got a surprisingly decent picture of us.

Recently Ellie had a 4-year check up. She was so calm and patient with the doctor (Thanks, Doc McStuffins!), and wanted to make sure that the doctor was going to check her heart with the stethoscope. 

Speaking of doctors, this little one had a check-up on Saturday.
She weighed in at 12 pounds 4 ounces.

We had an interesting cultural interaction with our doctor, which I'm going to blame on the fact that solely nursing without supplementing with formula is very rare here, from what I've seen. The doctor had two concerns. One, after poking and prodding her for several minutes and then flipping her onto her tummy, she spit up. He was worried about this, which surprised me. Then I remembered hearing that formula babies spit up more than breastfed ones. Is this true? Well, babies spit up. It's normal. Especially when put on their tummies. It doesn't mean they aren't getting enough to eat. Which brings me to his second concern, which was that she was maybe not gaining enough on just my milk. I had to come home and check what the other girls weighed at this age, and both were around the same, maybe just a few ounces more. So, I'm not worried. She eats great. Sleeps a lot. My guess is he's not used to seeing babies without rolls, which also tends to be the case with formula-fed babies, which is so common here. My girls have all been on the thin side, fairly roll-less, but great eaters. They are healthy. And happy.

To prove it, here are Ellie and Hazel at 3 months. They are so definitely siblings.

Today Ruby is 3 months!
Her third month has seen a few changes. At the beginning of the month she was somewhat colicky or irritable every night for an hour or two before bed. Nothing really consoled her. Sometime during our trip to Haiti this slowly went away, gracias a Dios, as they say here.
After adjusting home to the time change, she is sleeping better than ever. With all three girls I've incorporated a "dream feed," where I put them to bed around 7pm, wake them up around 10pm and feed them to help "top them off" for the night. I adjusted this by making it a littler earlier (which is counter-intuitive, but totally works), and in the last few days she has been sleeping until 7:30 or 7am. Happy Mama here!