Sunday Morning Movies

Kirsi Dancing



Aidan Talking

Kirsi in Action Handing Out Candy

Kirsi's biggest thrill this Halloween was handing out candy to all of the neighborhood kids. She was so excited. At first, she sat on our doorstep and would run with the big bowl of candy to the gate. Eventually, Kirsi and Mommy sat her chair beside the gate where she would sit with the bowl on her lap.

As a father, to see her sitting there, so tiny compared to the others and brave, was heartwarming.



Tyrone, by the way, is a character from The Backyardigans, Kirsi's favorite show.

Sunday Morning Videos

Just going through some of our videos on a beautiful Sunday morning in Santiago, Chile and we thought we'd post some.

Here's Kirsi's "I'm Dizzy" video.



About 3 weeks ago, Kirsi, Aidan, and Daddy went for a bike ride.



And finally, Aidan showing where his nose and ears and mouth are! :)

Happy Halloween

Halloween is a very popular event now in Santiago but we're told that 5 years ago, no one celebrated it at all.

We started our day off by bringing out the sprinkler and letting the kids and Simba run through it.  Kirsi loves that kind of activity but not nearly as much as Simba does.  It was all new for Aidan and he was fine watching.  A couple of times he ventured in and was fine as long as the water hit his legs.  When the sprinkler moved up and hit him in the back, he would squinch up his face and clench his body up and move out as fast as he could.

After the kids went down for their nap, Dana and I went to work on getting food ready for a Nido Halloween party where we met with other Nido staff and their families for supper and different activities such as a kiddie parade, cup cake decorating, and a pinata.  We dressed up as Fred Flintstone, Wilma Flintstone, Pebbles Flinstone, and Bam Bam Rubble.

For Kirsi, the most exciting part of her day was sitting by the gate and handing out candy to all of the kids.

As you can see, she made herself very comfortable.  "I'm so excited!"

Happy Birthday to me!

Today, I'm 34.  Wow!  For some reason, that number seems really big.  Much bigger than 33.  I'm not feeling old yet but 34 is starting to get there.  :)  It's been a great day.  Yesterday, I went for a manicure/pedicure that my friend, Monica, got for me.  It was great to get pampered and now I have pretty nails.  Love it!  Then I went out for dinner with a few friends, which was great.  Good food and great company.  Not only did they treat me to dinner but they also got me gifts - thank you so much!  Just going out for dinner with them was enough. 

This morning, I woke up to two wonderful cards from Kirsi and Aidan.  Der had put together a few pictures of them and me over the year into a birthday card - it was so sweet!  Then I had birthday presents waiting for me in my Inbox.  Der got me a gift certificate to Kiva so I could help out someone else start up or improve their small business.  Today, I chose to help a group of ladies from Bolivia who want to help their families out financially by selling knitted items.  Kiva is simply amazing.  There was also a gift card from Kirsi and Aidan from Heifer International; they had bought a flock of ducks to give to a family.  They get training on how to feed, raise and care for the animals and they have to give the first batch of ducklings to another family and train them (and so on).  A fitting gift coming from Aidan, who LOVES ducks.  Whenever he sees a duck, he gets so excited and points and keeps saying over and over, "Du, Du, Du". 

I had tons of birthday greetings from family and friends, which warmed my heart right up.  Thank you to everyone! 

Tonight, we were going to go out for supper as a family but our little girl was beyond tired so we decided to stay home.  We enjoyed the birthday cupcakes Kirsi and I made this morning as our dessert instead.  We might try to go out tomorrow night instead.  And then, Der and I are going to go out on a date to celebrate my birthday on Friday night.  Pascuala is going to stay with the kids while we go out to a Thai restaurant - yummy!  Peruvian and Thai in one week, how luck am I?!

So, even though 34 has been a daunting number for me (for whatever strange reason), I've had a fantastic birthday this year.  If getting older means enjoying my birthdays like this, I'm all for it!  :)

Playgroup

Last night, we hosted playgroup for Kirsi's age group.  The kids had a ton of fun playing together - they played with the kitchen, the tool set, the ball house and then headed outside to run around together.  Every time they get together, they get better and better at playing together.  There was Kirsi and Caroline (the only big girls) and Zane, Santi and Tymon (and Aidan).  It was great to see them together having so much fun.  Like usual, Kirsi hardly ate anything for supper, maybe four bites of a bun.  But Aidan ate FOUR hot dog weiners, yes, four!  I couldn't believe how he kept wanting more and more!!!  He loves chorizos (a type of spiced sausage) but he can't eat them because he gets an awful tummy ache a few hours after chowing down.  So, I thought the plain weiners would be better.  Well, he woke up off and on from 7:30 till 1:00.  Twice, he drank almost an entire sippy cup of water - gotta love all the salt in those darn weiners - but the rest of the time, he just didn't want to sleep.  I finally let him be in his room and fall alseep on his own.  Of course, he cried but whatever I was doing wasn't helping.  And yes, I'm pooped this morning, especially since Kirsi decided it would be a good idea to wake up at 6:00 am!

First Thunderstorm

Yesterday, around 3:15 in the afternoon, it started thundering.  It was strange, really, since we haven't experienced thunderstorms since Sri Lanka.  By 4:30, when Der and I were finished tutoring, it was starting to rain.  By the time we got home, it was pouring rain, hailing, thundering and lightning!  It was awesome!  The air smelled so clean and fresh and it was great to listen to it coming down.  It was the first time our kids got to see lightning and hear thunder too.  Kirsi said she was scared but she didn't act it; I wonder if she was pretending to be like Franklin in the book we have about thunderstorms.  :)   We took Pascuala to her big bus stop so she wouldn't have to wait in the rain and the streets were a mess.  The drains were full and the water was shooting up through the manholes.  The streets were flooded so there were places we had to go super slowly so we wouldn't get the sparkplugs wet.  Yesterday was the first time in a while that I didn't mind the rain coming.

On the mend

After Kirsi and Der got sick, we thought we had this flu beat.  But on Friday, Aidan got the worst case of the flu of all of us.  He started vomiting at 4:00 in the morning and was still throwing up at 10:30, so I took him to the ER.  They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and then some Pedialyte.  We had to stay in for over an hour for observation, to make sure he had stopped vomiting.  He hasn't thrown up since but now he's got diarrhea.  Poor little boy!  He's getting better finally.  Then on Saturday night, I got it bad too.  Today, I'm fine, thank goodness.  Der, though, is still feeling rough.  He's on round 2 of this flu so hopefully he can kick it soon. 

The Sick Fairy

has hit our house.  According to Der, "our house is a vomitorium."  Nice.  Kirsi woke up at 1:00 and threw up all over the place.  It was the first time she'd thrown up and she was freaked out by it.  We got her in the shower while we cleaned up everything - sheets, blankets, pillows, carpets, PJs.  Der got her down again and it happened again.  Kirsi said, "I don't like this.  I don't want it to happen again!"  Poor thing.  We're just waiting to see if Aidan gets it or not.  Lovely.

Has spring really sprung?

After another cold, rainy weekend in Santiago, we have enjoyed one beautiful spring day. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and it looks like today will be too. Is it too hopeful to think that spring might finally be here? I've got the weather forecast up for Santiago and it looks like one cloudy day is in store for the next week. That I can handle, but I'm not holding my breath. Usually by this time, the weather is perfect and we enjoy lots of time outside. Yesterday, the kids spent an hour at the park with Pascuala while Der and I were at work (I'm still tutoring). Today, the plan is to get out for a walk and some playground time also. Plus, Kirsi has her horse-riding lessons today. Let's hope that this is spring for good now and we can get the sand toys, hats and sunscreen out for a few months!

Uruguay

The Kitch family and Grandma JoAnne spent our Dieciocho holiday in Uruguay and had a great time.  We spent a couple of days Montevideo, which has a very nice casual pace for a capital city.  The people are friendly and at least 75% of them walk around with a mate cup and thermos of hot water in their hands.

We arrived late Saturday and spent Sunday walking around the city.  Things were kind of slow but we got in a huge street market that spanned over 7 city blocks.  We also went to an agricultural exhibition that had over 90,000 people attend.  It was packed and very much like any ag-exhibit back home.  We also spent some time walking around the plazas.
Then it was off to Colonia del Sacremento, an old Portuguese smuggling town that is still well preserved.  The weather was great and we enjoyed a lot of walks along old cobblestone streets.  The town was originally built in 1680 and is full of character and good restaurants.  The kids also got some time in throwing stones into the Rio de la Plata.

Our last four days were spent in Punta del Este, a beach where all the rich and famous go to in summer.  Since it was low season, it was pretty much empty.  Unfortunately, the weather was really bad so we spent a lot of time indoors but we did visit Casapueblo, which we enjoyed a lot.

Click the picture below for a slideshow of our trip.

Trip to Uruguay

Hola!

We've been slowly working on a blog about our trip to Montevideo and it's almost ready.  In the meantime, I thought I would post some videos of the trip.  Uruguay is a beautiful country.
Montevideo



Driving to Colonia & Colonia del Sacramento

Kirsi didn't realize she was being videotaped here. She's become quite a little model in front of the camera and loves to pose!



Driving to Punta del Este & Punta del Este

Haircut day

Today was haircut day in our household. Gramma did her hair first and then started with Aidan, then Kirsi and then Mommy. We love Aidan's little hippie hairdo and all his little curls but it's getting hard to control it. He gets wicked bedhead and then it takes a lot of work to get it under control. Kirsi was next. Her hair was getting quite long so I asked Mom to take a good chunk off. She looks so sweet now and her hair looks super healthy.

OK, there is a whole new format to this and I have to figure out how to move pictures and text.  I hate changes that aren't obvious!

Kirsi and Aidan At The Olympics

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Kirsi and Aidan Dancing

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