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.



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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.