9 Months Going on Terrible Two´s?

Who can resist that sad face...

Ariana is 9 months old today, yay! We have her Dr. Appointment tomorrow, but I know she weighs a little over 20 lbs, not quite 21 lbs yet, and she is getting alot taller! I think she had a little overnight growth spurt because all of the sudden nothing is out of her reach! She grabs everything! The other day Isaac left his planner in the middle of the coffee table, she couldn´t reach that far last week, but she got it and ripped his page of phone numbers out, then ate it. She somehow got a few digits from every phone number on the page, great. We´ll have to start asking for phone numbers again...

When I am at the desk she´ll reach up and start yanking papers, cords, speakers - whatever she can get a hold of - off the desk, I´m sure it´s a ploy to get my attention and it totally works. She yanked my laptop off a few days ago and she thought that was pretty funny. She´s a crack up. I just hope she doesn´t start thinking that her name is really“dammit Ari”. I´m working vigilantly on that though, it´s shocking how it just slips out involuntarily – not in anger, more like a mumbled sigh as I am doing damage control behind her. I wouldn´t trade her for anything though!

She loves to throw whatever she´s no longer interested in, her bottle, her toys, her glass Gerber food jar – that was fun to clean up. And she has started screaming at me if I take something away or walk into another room without taking her with me. Am I raising a spoiled child or is this just part of the process? I love the cuddles though, she continues to get more cuddly and is super content just to lay against me while I read a book or rest a little. I just finished Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight series. I would put her Baby Einstein video on while I read and she would kneel next to me with her chin resting on my torso watching her video. We both liked that. I need to get another good book.

What? I´m not up to anything....

To Cut or Not to Cut?

So, everytime I see some of our family members here they ask me why I haven´t cut Ari´s hair yet. It´s kind of stringy in the back and around her face from her newborn hair, but what has come in since then is a little more full and wavy. They insist that if I cut it now it will grow in fuller and faster. I don´t know why it is so hard for me, hair always grows back (well in most cases, sorry baldies). But I love to pull her hair up in a ponytail or pigtails so it doesn´t get all sweaty and stick to her head.

So what do you think? Cut now or not yet?

(I also get hammered with the question why I haven´t pierced her ears yet, it´s kind of a tradition to do that to baby girls in latinamerican countries. Haven´t been able to bring myself to do that either, we´ll see...)

Recipie Help

I would like to reach out and ask for some recipie help. I am in a menu slump. Every week I cook the same few dishes over and over and can´t seem to think of some better ideas. I´ve purused the internet a bit, but nothing seems to stick. We have the weekly pasta with meat sauce, BBQ chicken and Potatoes, Chop Suey, Tacos, and of course the typical Panamanian dish of rice, lentles and either meat or chicken in a creole sauce. We have this dish about twice a week. Ocassionally I throw in grilled sea bass, shepherd´s pie, chicken enchilada casserole or a chicken cordon bleu casserole. That is about the extent of my menu planning.

I would love some new, not too complicated menu ideas. I cook chicken more than red meat because Isaac is watching his cholesterol but the chicken dishes are where I feel the most stuck. I don´t have many chicken ideas, I definately prefer beef meals.

Anyway, whatever you have, I´ll try!

Mamones

You may be wondering what this little hairy critter is. It´s actually one of my favorite fruits here in Panama. It´s called a Mamon Chino. The only unpleasant part is getting over the weird feeling of sticking the “hairy” peel in your mouth to break it open, the peel is about the consistency of an orange peel. But the fruit is so yummy! Dad, you´ve ordered this in chinese restaurants, I think they call it a leechy nut. China may have their own version of it, but same taste, same family. I would just love to know how they de-pit them!

Service Project

Last week Isaac went with the ward to help clean up the property of a single mother with four kids. There was a big dirt hill right behind her house that posed a mud slide risk. They decided to level it as much as possible to reduce the risk.

Ari, Ari

Not sure how I feel about this picture. Not sure if it´s pretty or spooky...

Ariana is progressing so much. She has 2 cute little teeth on the bottom. She makes this cute little snorting face that really accentuates them. I think she has allergies and she does the little snorting thing because her nose itches. Regardless, it´s really cute.

The "snort" face, no teeth in this one though

She stands up to everything but still doesn´t know how to lower herself back down, so after she gets tired of standing she starts howling for me to come lower her down. I tried to just show her how to get down, but she lets go of whatever she is holding on to and clings to me the minute I´m there. We´ll work on it.

She is sleeping through the nights much better now, thank you for all of the comments and advice. The biggest key was getting her to go to sleep - at naps and bedtime - by herself. I didn´t realize that putting her to sleep everynight in my arms made it so hard for her to go back to sleep once she woke up in the middle of the night. Now she refuses to go to sleep in my arms, lol. Training her didn´t turn out to be very hard. Training Isaac is another issue entirely. He is so concerned that Ari is suffering that it has been a real test for him not to jump up and get her in the middle of the night. He is such a good dad. How many wives can “complain” that their husbands are too attentive to the kids.

She has become cuddly lately, I love it. She has always been clingy, but not very cuddly.

The other day I was lamenting some of the things I miss from home. Then Ari started getting fussy (we were in the car), so I turned it into a little “I love you more than” game.

“I love you more than hot showers (that´s alot), more than carpet, more than Cafe Rio (although I may have to ditch her for a weekend to share that love), more than my family, sorry guys, more than my washer and dryer, more than my dishwasher, more than windows and doors that close”... the list goes on. That´s allota love!

Life is Slowing Down

So between the hat, lathered sunscreen and the little floaty umbrella Ari was sunburn free after our three week stay at the beach. Yay! (I know, I know, overprotective...)

Ariana and cousin Avery

Well, I am starting to feel a sense of monotony here in Panama now. Life is finally starting to slow down and have a steady rythum. Which means a little less to write about (many of you are probably happy to see the end of three or four long posts each month).

This month Isaac finished working on our bedroom. He installed some cieling tiles (styrofoam squares hung from the tin roof) which really blocks out the heat and the pounding sound of the rain. It was unbareable hot in the bedroom with just the tin roof. We have been sleeping in the living room for the last six months because it already had the styrofoam tiles. It´s so nice now though, that I don´t have to crawl out of the livingroom in my unmentionables everytime the Jehova´s Witnesses come to the door, they always come so early! Now we can´t even hear them from the bedroom, haha.

Here, no body knocks on the door. They stand at the edge of your property and yell "buenas" until you come to the door. It´s an interesting custom. Maybe it´s because almost everybody owns dogs. The property lines aren´t that far from the front door though, and my big living room windows give everybody a clear shot of our livingroom. I just hope the neighbors haven´t seen more of us than we would have liked. Yikes.

Two weeks ago Isaac was called in for a stake interview. The 2nd counselor asked if he would be willing to accept any calling. He said yes. "Would your wife support you in any calling?" Yes.

Then the interviewer told Isaac to make sure he was on time to stake conference the following Sunday so that he would know what his calling would be when they sustained him. What?! He was a little nervous at first they would call him as a bishop, our bishop only has a few more months to go. But they called him as a High Councelman for the stake. He´s okay with that. The upside - no more Elder´s Quorom President callings (unless they send us to a spanish branch again when we get back to the states, I think in that case they could call him as EQP again). We´ll cross our fingers (not to go to another branch, lol).