Because we are traveling next week, we went to Lilli's 9 months doctor visit this morning. The challenge for this visit was to actually talk to someone on the phone to schedule the visit. I tried first on Tuesday afternoon and all the phone lines were busy non-stop. Then I finally got to talk to someone and she just gave me additional numbers and said that I needed to call there to schedule a well-baby visit. So I called those lines. I was on hold for a very long time. After about 10 minutes I hung up. I tried it several times again, but had no success. Then finally yesterday in the morning I was able to talk to someone (in Spanish which made me kind of proud since it is more difficult on the phone than in person) and schedule a visit for today.
Lilli is now 8.97 kilos light which is 73th percentile for weight and she is 78 cm long which is 99th percentile for length. We know that she will be a tall girl.
The doctor was very nice and took a lot of time with her. He has studied in the US and speaks perfect English. He even gave us his cellphone number for us to call in case of an emergency. He answered his cellphone twice during our appointment. He told us that he wants to see her again next month. While I am excited that I will be able to track her weight gain and her growth more closely, I am very surprised that they are monitoring the children so closely here for the first year. It means three more doctor's visits until she turns one.
Apart from that it was similar to a visit in the US. He asked us whether she was crawling. She is pretty close and moving around a lot on her playmat. She can do a 360 and she can creep a little bit if she really needs to reach a toy. She can put herself in a sitting position from laying on the floor. She can walk holding onto my hands or with the walker. She is also starting to pull herself up on us or furniture.
The doctor told us that she is in excellent health. We were glad to hear that. We must be doing something right.
I feel so blessed with this wonderful, healthy baby. I can't believe that we are already celebrating her 9 month birthday next week. I am very excited to travel next week to Europe. My only concern right now is getting to the airport and getting help with the luggage. Traveling by myself with a baby, some suitcases, and a stroller is a challenging and scary thing. I hope that Lilli will be good on the plane. I pray that I will get a baby crib on the plane.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Happy Easter and bad news
My sweet Easter bunny.
We received a letter from the agency today. Anxiously we opened the envelope to find a letter from Lilli's first Mom. She wrote that she wanted to give us some space in the next months because our next update isn't due until Lilli's first birthday. But she wrote that she had a problem and has lost her apartment with everything in it - her clothes and all the pictures of Lilli. My heart hurts for her. I can't even comprehend what she must be going through.
Fortunately we had sent copies of our pictures to the agency and they will send her the copies. I am relieved that Lilli doesn't have to go through losing a home. She might have moved a little to often for her age, but at least she has a home.
Also we will write her and send some updated pictures of our little angel. She signed "Milk" today for the first time. Every day I am so grateful to be her Mom.
Bad news from my Dad. They found another tumor in his lung area. Just last month they said his X-ray looked better than ever. He needs chemotherapy again. I bet having us there for a couple of weeks will help him go through this. Last week we had our one year anniversary of his diagnosis. We are just glad that he is still alive and doing relatively well.
Please keep him and Lilli's birthmom in your prayers.
We received a letter from the agency today. Anxiously we opened the envelope to find a letter from Lilli's first Mom. She wrote that she wanted to give us some space in the next months because our next update isn't due until Lilli's first birthday. But she wrote that she had a problem and has lost her apartment with everything in it - her clothes and all the pictures of Lilli. My heart hurts for her. I can't even comprehend what she must be going through.
Fortunately we had sent copies of our pictures to the agency and they will send her the copies. I am relieved that Lilli doesn't have to go through losing a home. She might have moved a little to often for her age, but at least she has a home.
Also we will write her and send some updated pictures of our little angel. She signed "Milk" today for the first time. Every day I am so grateful to be her Mom.
Bad news from my Dad. They found another tumor in his lung area. Just last month they said his X-ray looked better than ever. He needs chemotherapy again. I bet having us there for a couple of weeks will help him go through this. Last week we had our one year anniversary of his diagnosis. We are just glad that he is still alive and doing relatively well.
Please keep him and Lilli's birthmom in your prayers.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
What a party!
Yesterday Lilli and I went with some friends to a Easter party. The playgroups here are not really institutionalized. They are much more informal meetings with a mailing list. Because there are not many places to go with young children, people just host the playgroups in their houses. There is one playgroup that is international and this is the one we visited.
After driving around for more than an hour (have I mentioned that Caracas traffic is horrible?) and trying to find the location, we finally made it. We took the elevator to the penthouse and walked up the stairs to the terrace. What an experience! There were about 30 Moms with about 40 children. Most of the Moms had brought their nannies with them so that they could chat in calm while their nannies where watching and taking care of the kids.
They had a huge buffet with fingerfood. Meatballs with a noodle as a stick, chicken nuggets, hummus, other sauces, breadsticks,... There was a hot dog stand. They even had a jumping castle. The terrace was full of children playing with the different cars and toys that were available to drive around. There was a table with playdough and some other mass to make some crafts. There was a huge Easter bunny at the wall where children had to put eggs on with a blindfold. They even had an Easter egg hunt. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been a birthday party or something... But that was just a random Wednesday afternoon before Easter.
Today we had a coffee with some friends on the terrace of a nice coffee place. First a kid approached and wanted money. We just send him away. When a guy approached us from the street, he showed us a letter and told my friend he was collecting money for a dead police officer. I couldn't read the letter that he had in hand. I usually would have just told him "No" and wouldn't have cared about it any more.
But my friend actually grabbed some money out of her wallet and gave it to him. I was surprised and asked her why she had given him money. She was nearly trembling and said she gave him money because he had a gun in his pocket. I hadn't even noticed that. She was concerned that if she wouldn't give him anything, he would just pull out the gun and ask for her whole purse. It seems to be better not to sit on terraces that can be approached from the street.
After driving around for more than an hour (have I mentioned that Caracas traffic is horrible?) and trying to find the location, we finally made it. We took the elevator to the penthouse and walked up the stairs to the terrace. What an experience! There were about 30 Moms with about 40 children. Most of the Moms had brought their nannies with them so that they could chat in calm while their nannies where watching and taking care of the kids.
They had a huge buffet with fingerfood. Meatballs with a noodle as a stick, chicken nuggets, hummus, other sauces, breadsticks,... There was a hot dog stand. They even had a jumping castle. The terrace was full of children playing with the different cars and toys that were available to drive around. There was a table with playdough and some other mass to make some crafts. There was a huge Easter bunny at the wall where children had to put eggs on with a blindfold. They even had an Easter egg hunt. I was incredibly impressed. I wouldn't be surprised if that would have been a birthday party or something... But that was just a random Wednesday afternoon before Easter.
Today we had a coffee with some friends on the terrace of a nice coffee place. First a kid approached and wanted money. We just send him away. When a guy approached us from the street, he showed us a letter and told my friend he was collecting money for a dead police officer. I couldn't read the letter that he had in hand. I usually would have just told him "No" and wouldn't have cared about it any more.
But my friend actually grabbed some money out of her wallet and gave it to him. I was surprised and asked her why she had given him money. She was nearly trembling and said she gave him money because he had a gun in his pocket. I hadn't even noticed that. She was concerned that if she wouldn't give him anything, he would just pull out the gun and ask for her whole purse. It seems to be better not to sit on terraces that can be approached from the street.
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