Grapes

Here is something interesting for all you foodies (or for those of you who are into grapes).

When we were living in Houston and I had just found out we were moving to Chile, I immediately thought about what foods would be available.  So, naturally, I looked at where a lot of the produce came from.  I remember one thing coming from Chile was grapes, and I thought, oh good, I like grapes, so I'll be able to get them there.  Well, after 4 months of living here, I finally saw grapes for the first time in Jumbo.  And get this, they were imported from California...

Good times.

And yes, they were VERY expensive but I bought them anyway.  I've had enough of apples and bananas!! (Did I mention there isn't a great selection of fruit at Jumbo? My nana offered to take me to la Vega - the local crazy market where I wouldn't go by myself solely for my lack of speaking and being able to negotiate.  It seems much more intimidating than the one in Santiago - which I am going to take her up on next week.  That will be another post, don't worry).

Block party

This morning I made pancakes from scratch for the first time since we have lived in Chile.  It really felt like we were back in our house in Houston for some reason. However, we were missing the following very important things:

BACON
Sausage
Syrup
Fresh milk
BACON

After we ate, Sadie and Steve had a major block party, building one of the tallest towers ever constructed in Antofagasta.  Sadie has been obsessed with building tall apartment buildings for her animals lately, and today the reached a new height...

Just some of my fave pics...

I have a nana!

Ladies and gentlemen, I officially have a nana.  THANK YOU for that!  It has been a long time coming, and my house is so grateful since it has been begging to be cleaned for weeks... is that gross??

It has been kind of chaotic trying to find someone.

Here is the long story: I know there are many people out there looking for work, but it was extremely important to me to have someone that came with references, specifically that I could trust.  First, I asked all the Antofagasta expats I had been in touch with, and I got one response (someone's nana for over 10 years knew someone).  My landlord also brought over the nana that has cleaned the house I am living in for other expats and that he's known for years, and I really liked her, but she has a 5 month old baby who she wanted to bring with her.  That was not ideal for me.  While waiting to see if she could find a "sala cuna" (daycare), I interviewed the nana's friend, and liked her, but lost her since I waited a few days before responding.  The sala cuna didn't work out, so I then lost all my prospects.  The landlord's nana had a name of someone, but she was unresponsive after a few days, and I lost patience.  SO, I went through an agency called Nanas Antofagasta (they even have a website!), which was recommended to me by another expat.  I had a very good experience with them.  They were very attentive to my needs and brought over two nanas I chose from a list to interview (at the same time which was awkward...).  One from Peru and one from Bolivia.  The agency is very professional and does background checks and makes sure all the papers for the nanas are in order.  They also check references and provide me with all that information. 

Here is the short story: I ended up using a professional agency that does background and refernece checks and coordinates interviews (ie, brings them to my house).

I would like to take a moment to say that all the interviewing is done in Spanish.  It is difficult to say the least...

So, today is the first day my new nana is here and I am tumbling over my words to explain to her what I want to have done, etc.  It is helpful that I had a nana in Santiago who was very good, and she kind of "trained" me, so I know what to expect and what to tell the nana here (her name is Carmen and she is from Peru, married a Chilean with a 4 year old daughter who is in school).  She is very sweet and good with children - Sadie is already comfortable with her - and Carmen is not afraid to ask me questions about what I want her to do (which is good!).  I just hope she is a hard worker and can CLEAN!

Nursing success!

So this post may be TMI, but I am so PUMPED (or not, which is a good thing as you will see...) to share my good news.  It is about breastfeeding, so all you faint of heart can stop here.



...



OK, for those of you who continued (no doubt women and men who have children), for the past 8 weeks I have struggled a LOT with nursing Isaac.  Because he was a preemie, and he was in the NICU, and he had hyperglycemia, the doctors didn't want me nursing him for very long (only 5 minutes at a time), which meant he had to take a bottle.  And, I preferred him to have breastmilk instead of formula, which meant pumping.  all the time.  Without going into the detail that no one wants to hear, I was having to nurse, then give him the bottle then pump every 3 hours.  It was a total nightmare since each session would last at least 1.5 hours.  I wanted to give up and almost did plenty of times (especially at night...).  But, I kept trucking along because that's what I do.  And, I am proud to say as of today, it has paid off!

After 8 weeks, Isaac is finally nursing completely from me!  Woo hoo! (and, let's hope I'm not jinxing it!).  And, the best part is, it isn't taking quite as long anymore.  It's like he woke up one day and decided to make our breastfeeding relationship work.

You have to enjoy the small successes in life, right?

Here is my cutie pie :)

Hair stylin'

Sadie is FINALLY letting me put her hair in ponytails, pigtails, barrettes and bows.  I'm super excited and have proof!

Her hair is very fine and thin and of all different lengths, but I still think it's super cute.  For those of you who are wondering, the pigtails lasted about 2 seconds, but the bow was on until it fell off on its own.

Activity Time

I thought I would post a couple pics of daily life here in Antofagasta.  First is the park by my house (not quite the same as the parks in Santiago, although a great view!)  Then, some sensory bins that I created with the help of Pinterest and whatever I could find around the house.  Sadie loved them!

Fiestas Patrias

The 18 of Septiembre is a huge deal here.  And by huge deal I mean it is bigger than Christmas and Thanksgiving combined.  I believe it is the celebration of Chile's independence.  It is marked by a TON of drinking, bbq-ing, and dancing.  Or, in our neighbor's case, a HUGE party last night that lasted from about 9pm until 5am.  They had a band, lots of karaoke and what sounded like a killer game of beer pong.  And yes, it was the loudest party I have heard since college.  When I woke up to feed Isaac during the night I kept thinking I was living next to a frat house!

The holiday is so important to Chile that the schools get at least 1 week off, and all stores are closed for two days.  What is notable here is I mean ALL stores, including the grocery stores.  Yes, Jumbo was closed for two full days!!

To celebrate, we all went over to our friend's house for a bbq of chicken and burgers, and most importantly in my opinion, homemade strawberry margaritas!  The day was gorgeous - sunny and around 70.  Steve even got half a day off work!

 I only have pictures of the afternoon (before the bbq) when we were playing in our yard.  But, very pretty day!  The first is of Sadie eating lunch outside and the second is after dada came home for some play time.

A good Sunday!

I'm feeling bad about my ranting post, so I'm going to say that yesterday was a great day.  It was gorgeous and we finally went to the beach.  It is actually pretty nice! And, Sadie LOVED the water.

The military also had some kind of festival where they had all their machines, etc out to tour for the kids.  It was a lot of fun!

Hilarious (or not) day

Of course just as I sit down to write this entry, I hear Sadie wake up... OK, I will be quick.

While there are many things about Antofagasta that I like, today was a very frustrating day.  I believe it has some to do with our sleep deprivation, but mostly today was a great example of just how Chileans do things (and why a lot of expats I know are frustrated with daily life items and want to move back to the states!)

We left the house at 11am with a long list of to dos, and by 1pm all we had done successfully is get gas.  First we went to the bank (which was closed on Sundays of course, but so was the ATM.  All we needed was cash!).  While the bank was open today, the ATM didn't have any money in it.  So, that was a fail.  Next, we went to a furniture store that was very unhelpful and couldn't find what we needed.  Then, we went to the mall and of course they also didn't have what we needed (just a futon people! and some patio furniture!).  The best part is that no one helps you.  Everyone tells you something different and sometimes they really just lie to your face.  (I can't even tell you how true this is even though it sounds horrible!  Like the pool guy who was supposed to arrive at my house at 11am on Friday and didn't come until 3pm without any kind of call or anything).  In the stores there are people standing around chatting to each other, but NO ONE makes any effort.  Just a very different culture.  I hate to say it, but I really have found it to be true (and so have others).  Finally we went to Easy (like a Home Depot, actually I think it might be owned by  Home Depot someone told me), and found what we needed.  We finally begged someone to help us (it was around 3pm) and they wrote us a slip of paper to pick it up on the loading dock.  We paid and drove the car to the loading dock.  Our big box for our couch was there, but no one was around.  So, Steve and I proceeded to load it on the top of our car (with our huge 2 kid stroller and 2 car seats no way would it fit inside our Rav4).  Steve had some twine and worked on tying it down.  No one offered to help.  No one was even around to help.  While we were there a man drove his truck right behind us, so when we backed out to get around the guy in front of us, we of course hit the truck.  Thank goodness no marks, but we were very frustrated! Who pulls up right behind a car loading a huge box on the top??  Finally got home around 4 and put Sadie down for a nap!  Steve went back out to run errands, including trying to pay our ADT bill.  Went to the ADT office, but they said you can't pay there you have to go to another place (but on the bill it says you can pay there...). Fail. He then goes to get the patio furniture we found initially but they of course don't have anything in black, only turquoise.  And of course it took him about 30 minutes to find someone to help!  What a day.  He is still gone, lost his parking ticket so can't leave the lot.  Because he has no ticket, he has to take the car papers (which don't even have our name on them yet! That is a story for another day) to some office and prove the car is ours and he needs to leave with it.  I am just praying they let him out.

So, I may never see my husband again and he may spend the rest of his life in the parking lot of the Sodimac...

There is my rant! How I miss Target.

Here is a cute picture of Sadie to make up for it!

The desert that is our front yard

We live in a desert.  The driest place on earth to be exact.  And, while we have a gorgeous view of the ocean from our backyard (and actually all the windows), we look directly at a huge barren mountain to our front (we are on the edge of the development).  This morning, Steve and Sadie went on a short walk to discover our front yard and the area close by.  Frankly, she loves it.  It's like a huge sandbox, which is where she would live if we let her.

Sometimes I forget I'm in South America

Exhibit A

Although, I didn't see the store, just the sign...

Our new house

Well, we are now in Antofagasta.  There is so much I want to say about our experience here already, but I don't have much time right now.  However, I want to start by posting pics of our house (please excuse the mess).  Steve is already working like crazy (leaving at 7am and hardly home by 8:30pm on good days), so there is not much time for me to clean!

The view from the master bedroom.

The front of our house (within our crazy tall wall fortress).

Our "garage"

Another part of the view from our master bedroom (yes, it's a glare on the window)

The desert in front of our house

Isaac's room (which is obviously still in progress)

The kids' bathroom upstairs

 Master closet (and that's only half of it!)

 Our bathroom sinks

 Sadie's room (after her nap)

 View from Sadie's room (you can see the master windows which are awesome!)

 View from Sadie's room

 Kitchen (I'm making dinner so you can see I'm trying to bribe Sadie with things she can play with)

 Our new appliances (that we had to buy ourselves!)

 Another view of the kitchen

 The logia (where the washer/dryer are obviously as well as the "nana room", which you can't really see but it's to the right of the washer)

 The main living room (with a good view of the backyard)

 Dining room

 Backyard (from inside, so there is a glare)

Not pictured: The awesome grill, playroom and office...

Granny and JoJo Visit

We were soooo incredibly happy and grateful to have a full week with Granny and JoJo.  The kids really enjoyed it, and I was so appreciative for all their help.  Steve was out of town for most of the week (driving from Santiago to Antofagasta with much of our stuff and of course to take the car up), so it was nice to not spend that time by myself with the kids.

I already mentioned the exciting event on their first day (the earthquake).  The rest of the time was devoted to sight-seeing as well as catching up and going to the park.  We all went to La Vega, Mercado Central, Cerro San Cristbol, Los Dominicos (all of which I've discussed on previous blog posts), and our favorite parks as well as the Concha y Toro Vina, which was a real treat (since what new mom gets to go to a winery??).  We had such a great week and I even had time for naps and extra sleep with them around.  :)

Here are some good pics. (wish I would have taken more!)