The Days of Our Lives...

What we've been up to:

After 5 years in Argentina, my National Identity Document finally arrived. Mario asked if I want to stay now that I can open a bank account. Um, no.

I decided to take advantage of Gabe's desire to help and started giving him chores. He's responsible for putting away the silverware and he does a great job - even distinguishes between the big and little forks and puts them in the right spot. He really wants to help wash dishes, but I try to avoid that due to the lake that appears on my kitchen floor afterwards.

Gabe likes to be just like his dad and wear a tie to church...and just like his mom and use lip gloss. He talks a TON and says the funniest things, but of course I can't remember them when it's time to blog.

Lucia had her first two teeth come in these last couple of weeks. They came in at the same time, which couldn't have been too comfortable for her. Here we are headed to church - with one shoe missing before we've even made it out the front door. That tends to happen a lot. Why can't babies keep their shoes on?

I've been trying my hand at crochet lately. I like it because it's way less mess than sewing. I don't have to get out my machine, set it up, cut out the fabric, have thread, bobbins, etc etc etc.
Also, you can do it anywhere - waiting for the doctor, in line at the bank - I just drop the yarn and hook in my bag and anytime I have to sit around I can keep working. But I don't love it so much because it takes FOREVER. This little dress of Lucia's was a vest that Susana gave her and I crocheted the skirt on and added the flowers. First I spent three weeks working on it and hated it so unraveled the whole thing, then I started over and it took me another week to finish it. A month.. Seriously? Do you know how many skirts I could have machine sewed in that amount of time??

Mario and I celebrated our 4th anniversary a couple of weeks ago. We had all these big plans to go away for the weekend, which changed into going to a local hotel for the night, which ended up just being going out to dinner. But it was nice to have alone time and I'm still married to the hottest and nicest guy I know.

One of the big reasons we didn't go away overnight is that Lucia is a TERRIBLE sleeper. She likes to nurse about every 2.5 hours - all night long. While I initially loved my quiet time alone with her in the middle of the night, now I'm tired. 6.5 months is a long time to go without good consecutive sleep.

So this weekend I got strict. I sent Mario and Gabe to Susana's house to sleep and made her cry it out. It's horrible listening to her cry - it breaks my heart. I go try and calm her, but I don't nurse her so she just gets madder and screams more than when I just leave her alone. The first night she cried an hour. Last night only 30 minutes, we'll see how tonight goes.

Lucia in the adorable sherpa hat my friend Stephanie made for her, and her little ruffle outfit I made (with the machine. waaaay faster.)

I feel like I've been busier than this, but I don't have any other pictures on my camera so that must be it!