I have never mentioned it here, but driving here is an experience for itself. People don't respect any rules, nobody stops at stop signs, traffic lights, etc. It seems that the driver that is fastest usually prevails. Fortunately so far, we have been doing o.k. while driving even though there were some situations where we could have easily been in an accident.
Some friends of ours had a very serious accident this weekend. They were planning to travel for the weekend with other friends and driving with two cars around Venezuela with some other friends.A driver was overtaking another car and coming up on their lane. Our other friends who had been the first car were able to drive off the highway, but the car ended up hitting our friend's car frontally. They have very serious injuries and will have to be flown out of the country. Fortunately their children are o.k. My mind slips back and forth to them. They had asked us to join them on their trip, but for various reasons we had decided to stay behind. That could so easily have been us. I thank God today that they are alive and pray that they will recover soon from their injuries.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
A giant genius in training
I know that you are probably wondering whether I have dropped from the side of the planet. I haven't, still alive and kicking. But incredibly busy. I have organized a big party last week for my job for about 300 people with three different show acts. Quite some work. But it turned out - after many ups and downs - a very successful event.
We also had been back in the US for two weeks to spend some quality time with family and shopping. We had a good time and bought lots of stuff that we either can't get here or can get here, but what is way too expensive. Lilli had a great time playing with her cousins and seeing all her relatives. We also had to take her to the doctor because her skin was breaking out. It turns out she has eczema, so we need to be careful with soap and use lots of moisturizing lotion.
Yesterday I finally took Lilli to her 15 month-check-up. A little late at nearly 17 month, but better late then never, right? The doctor was very impressed with her as always. She is now 89 centimeters long - that is about 35 inches - and therefore has even grown out of the European growth chart that he uses. For Venezuelans she is a giant which they like to comment on whenever they find out her age. She weighs now 11.6 kilograms which is 25.57 pounds. For her height she is about 50 percentile for weight. Lilli has a vocabulary of about 80-90 words in three languages and is constantly learning new words. I can't even keep up with writing them down. The doctor said that an average kid that age has about 6-10 words in one language. But of course, we also think that our kid is a genius - like all parents. She is very sweet at this age and I really love it. Sometimes I look at baby pictures of her and wonder whether she ever looked that way... She also has nearly stopped all the hitting - putting her consequently in time-out seems to have done the trick.
In January Lilli will attend daycare for the first time. It will be good for her to interact more with other kids. On our family planning front, we would love to adopt again. But unfortunately, we just can't afford it at this point. But we would love to give Lilli a sibling. My dh still wants five children. I think I would be o.k. with 2 or three right now.
I took these pictures at a recent trip with friends somewhere in the jungle of Venezuela. We were supposed to climb to a swimming hole at a water fall. Little did we know that the friendly guide wanted us to climb up the waterfall (dh with Lilli in the backpack). The waterfall was about 60 feet high and it was very scary experience. But we were very proud after making it. It turned out that the "swimming" hole was perfect for Lilli, but a little bit too little for us.
We also had been back in the US for two weeks to spend some quality time with family and shopping. We had a good time and bought lots of stuff that we either can't get here or can get here, but what is way too expensive. Lilli had a great time playing with her cousins and seeing all her relatives. We also had to take her to the doctor because her skin was breaking out. It turns out she has eczema, so we need to be careful with soap and use lots of moisturizing lotion.
Yesterday I finally took Lilli to her 15 month-check-up. A little late at nearly 17 month, but better late then never, right? The doctor was very impressed with her as always. She is now 89 centimeters long - that is about 35 inches - and therefore has even grown out of the European growth chart that he uses. For Venezuelans she is a giant which they like to comment on whenever they find out her age. She weighs now 11.6 kilograms which is 25.57 pounds. For her height she is about 50 percentile for weight. Lilli has a vocabulary of about 80-90 words in three languages and is constantly learning new words. I can't even keep up with writing them down. The doctor said that an average kid that age has about 6-10 words in one language. But of course, we also think that our kid is a genius - like all parents. She is very sweet at this age and I really love it. Sometimes I look at baby pictures of her and wonder whether she ever looked that way... She also has nearly stopped all the hitting - putting her consequently in time-out seems to have done the trick.
In January Lilli will attend daycare for the first time. It will be good for her to interact more with other kids. On our family planning front, we would love to adopt again. But unfortunately, we just can't afford it at this point. But we would love to give Lilli a sibling. My dh still wants five children. I think I would be o.k. with 2 or three right now.
I took these pictures at a recent trip with friends somewhere in the jungle of Venezuela. We were supposed to climb to a swimming hole at a water fall. Little did we know that the friendly guide wanted us to climb up the waterfall (dh with Lilli in the backpack). The waterfall was about 60 feet high and it was very scary experience. But we were very proud after making it. It turned out that the "swimming" hole was perfect for Lilli, but a little bit too little for us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)