This 'n That

Chad has been gone 5 days already... just 7 more to go. It has been going really well and actually fast for me. A few girls from the church have been helping me out and one of them always sleeps here. The girls have all been battling colds this week, so that hasn't been fun. Larissa is almost completely better, Giselle is getting there, but Elysia's is really taking its good old time. Callie has had a stuffy nose all week, but that's it. It's worse at night, so our nights haven't been so good. She wakes up crying, and I'm sure it's because she's having trouble breathing. The doctor told me to use a sodium chloride nasal spray, but it doesn't seem to be making a huge difference.


Chad's flights all went well and Molly got there fine - a little worked up from the trip, but she adjusted quickly and is loving it at the Miller house. The one major bummer is that the airlines lost his suitcase! He got there Thursday morning and when I talked to him Friday morning I forgot to ask him if they had delivered it yet. I guess it's better that they lost the luggage and not Molly!


Giselle and Larissa are really starting to talk a lot of Portuguese. In one sense, it's sad that we're leaving, just when they are really picking up the language. When Brazilians are here, they talk mostly Portuguese to them, but with us they speak almost all English. It's funny though - they will say a sentence but it will be mixed English/Portuguese. The other day Larissa said to one of the girls here, "Vamos play bola" (Let's play ball). Every now and then they will say a Portuguese word that I would have never known that they know. We hope to speak Portuguese in our house when we get to the states so that they don't lose it. I know that's easier said than done, but we want to try.

I am so glad to say that I am finally over my 2-month-long skin allergy!!! It appears to have either been the boxed milk or drying our clothing out under the cashew tree. I cut both of those things, and it got better. I won't be trying one or the other though to figure it out - it's just not worth it!!

These are the cashew fruit that I talked about in the last post. We have a tree of them behind our house, and they are dropping like crazy right now. They're really tiny though - a good cashew fruit is much bigger - like maybe the size of a pear. They hang from the tree 'upside down' - the nut hangs off the bottom.

Callie just starting giving us smiles. Her very first deliberate smile was to Chad on the day before he left. That was really special for him. This morning I got a big open-mouth smile and coo from her. It is so much fun when they start to respond to us! Yesterday she was 5 weeks old.

Chad got the suitcase out to pack, and Elysia promptly curled up in it with her blankey as if she was going to sleep in it. Then they all thought it would be fun to crawl in...

The above picture is of Elysia 'eating' a yogurt by herself. I obviously wasn't paying attention to her and when I did look at her, this is what I saw. Then the doorbell rang... when I got back to the table, the picture below is what I returned to... she thought it wasn't enough to have it all over her face - she needed it in the hair too!