The Moto

Thomas just really started getting interested in riding the tricycle around the apartment. He can't quite reach the peddles, but you'd be surprised at how fast he can get around. And, he rarely has an accident. Now, before riding, of coarse, he must put on his LSU hat. And, if it's a sunny day, he's sure to put on his shades (aka, Mrs. Potato Head glasses).

Lilian also caught on to Thomas's love of the bike and now takes full advantage, getting rides to where ever she wants to go. She drags her feet and he pushes her where she wants to go. (She does help steer, at least!)

Thomas has also been making a little more sense lately. Here he is practicing some very meaningful words:

It's been quite a while since the last post, and we've had a lot going on to catch up on. We spent a week in January in Olmue, Chile, for a general meeting with IMB. Everyone from Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile went. It was a fantastic and refreshing time for everyone. Here are some pics of the beautiful place we stayed.

There were tons of outdoor pools with kiddy pools and sitting pools attached.

Unfortunately, these weren't ready to eat!

The kids had a blast swimming, although it was a little cooler than we are used to right now.

Volunteers were brought in to help with a VBS for the kids. Lilian got to attend and had so much fun. She still talks about her teacher and the things they did in class. They also gave us a copy of the CD with the VBS music. We have listened to it almost everyday since we left, and Lilian dances through all the songs. She's even tried to teach Thomas some of the moves so he can keep up. (I'll post a video on the next post.)

Thomas, however, wasn't too excited about going to the nursery everyday. He eventually warmed up because the helpers discovered that if they took him outside to this fountain he was as happy as could be. I pray God is continuing to bless those nursery workers, because they had a week of hard work keeping those babies happy! Thank you to everyone who helped! This video is of Thomas after dinner one night at his "happy place."

The part that we all enjoyed the most was being with friends; some old, some new. Here is little London. She was one of the Costa Rica babies with Thomas (but she was born in Argentina). Both of the children loved Miss London. She was a trooper to last through all of the poking and "getting in your face."

Here's a new little friend, Anna Kate, Lilian met in her class.

And, an old face, Parker, from her school in Costa Rica.

But, with seeing friends, comes the good-byes. Here we are saying good-bye to our group from Costa Rica: London, Parker, Billy, and Issac (& little Lila).


Although we'll miss our friends, new and old, we hope to see them again soon. Thank you so much for your Lottie Moon Offering gifts that made this meeting possible for us.

Candy and Guarani

I recently noticed that there was some candy missing on our gingerbread house that we made. Here is Lilian after being asked what happened to it...

And, Thomas was showing us all up with his guarani skills today with our language helper. She was asking him if he wanted the noodles and bread so he could cook and where his money was if he wanted to buy it. Here's his response:

Thomas Turns ONE!

As hard as it is to believe, Thomas was born a year ago today! In his short one year, he's already lived in 2 countries and 3 different houses and started learning 3 languages. He's been perfecting his walking for 2 1/2 months already and is on a mission to climb everything in the house. So, in honor of Thomas, we made this video to say Happy Birthday. (Don't worry--everything in this video was supervised, although I can't say that about the first few times I found him on top of things!)



Please pray for Thomas today on his birthday. He has had a fever and some sort of sinus problem for a day and a half. The fever broke last night, but he's having trouble sleeping. Pray he can get some rest and that he will continue to improve.

School Time

We recently searched our little town for a preschool for Lilian so that she could have more exposure to the language. However, they don't have anything here until kindergarden age. So, Lili and I started having school in the morning while Thomas was sleeping. We're learning our shapes, colors, number, and letters and working on our writing and coloring skills. We've only been at it for a few weeks, but it's amazing how much she is learning and retaining. Here, I told her to practice tracing her letters while I set up a letter game for her to play. I thought that she'd just scribble around, but she really traced them. I was so proud to see what resembled letters on her white board that I took a picture! (Thanks for the awesome whiteboard, Meme and PawPooh!)

She's so big!!

As for Thomas, he's running around and climbing anything he can. He loves dancing and being chased. Here is a little of our nightly entertainment.

Thomas's First Steps

So, he finally did it! Thomas has been standing up on his own for quite some time now and he finally took his first real steps yesterday. (Now, lets see how long it takes him to really start walking!)

Thomas is Crawling!

Thomas started crawling this weekend. Seem to soon to you? It is! He's only 5 months. I definitely wasn't ready for this! We were able to get a little on video. 

What we've been up to...

Thomas is getting...well, I guess still is...big. He's scooting around everywhere right now. He pulls his knees underneath him and pushes all over his blankets and crib. He also is still smiling at everyone.

He's getting better at sitting, but isn't quite strong enough to hold himself up.

He's a pretty wild sleeper, too. I found him like this one morning. Somehow during the middle of the night he worked one arm out of the top of his sleeper, got the other one stuck inside, flipped the whole thing around, and wrapped a blanket around his head... I'm still trying to figure this one out...

And, of course, he loves to play with his sister! Here she is stickering him.

I was able to catch a little laughing on video while Lilian was outside with her daddy one day.

And, of course, Lilian is as cute as ever! Here she is during a "tour" of downtown Asuncion.

For those of you who saw my facebook status, these are the shorts. One day after tutoring, I came home to find our babysitter had put a pair of Thomas's shorts (that were too small for him) on Lilian. Look how perfect they fit her!

Thanks to her cousin Laney, we also have some ballet clothes to play in. She enjoys doing barre exercises.

...If I can keep her still enough, that is...

Here is a video of Lilian singing (something) and dancing with two little princesses made from playdoh. She is pretty dramatic at times. She would sing a few lines and then want to see herself--to make improvements in her performance, I'm sure! (Sorry for the no clothes--In Lilian's new phrase: "It's hot out there!")

Thomas Talks

Thomas has learned that he has to work really hard to get attention when his sister is around. Here he is practicing his sweet baby noises!

A normal day with Lilian

Mind Your Manners

We've been working on manners with Lilian. It's going a little slow, but she seems to be catching on. We finally got her saying "No, mam." She still doesn't quite know when to use it--she'll use it to mean "yes" and she'll say it to Daddy--but, sometimes she gets it right.

And, we're going to have to continue working on food etiquette...

Year and a half

It's hard to believe, but Lilian is already a year and a half! She has done a lot of growing in the past few months. Right now she is working on talking. Although most of what she says doesn't really make sense, she tells you with feeling and intensity. She is also imitating everything that we do (or at least trying!).  Here she is trying to make the same faces as me. 

Here are some random photos from the last few weeks. 

She loves to talk on the phone. (You'd think we do it all the time...).

The beaches.

She loves to label faces. One morning, she woke up really early and Justin put her in the bed with us. I couldn't go back to sleep because she kept poking me everywhere saying "eyes, nose, mouth..."

The Dance: Energy of the Hands

Lilian has been doing this dance for a few days now. I promise I did not teach her. Either she learned it from school or she is a modern choreographing prodigy!

A Healthy Baby

In my child development classes that I (Allison) took in school, I remember learning that a healthy 14/15 month old is one who is into everything. Well, it's seems we have a healthy little girl. Here's a little video of the result of Lilian's fun in the bathroom.

Settling in

Lilian is adjusting just fine to life here in Costa Rica. Although we are still in Central time zone, we've had to adjust our daily schedule just a bit. Life here starts when the sun rises...which means Lilian's new wake up time is somewhere between 5 and 6 am. Check out this video, and see what I mean...

It is a common practice for people to pay mariachi bands to play songs outside of people's homes for their birthdays. This could happen at anytime during the night--1 am, 2 am, 5:30 am--whenever. What wife would not be appreciative to know that her husband loves her enough to wake her in the middle of the night with sweet sounds of Costa Rica?

Lilian is really enjoying having a playmate around all of the time. Hannah is 18 months old and is a great little hostess. She loves to give hugs and is even really good with sharing her toys. She's also really easy to talk to; Lilian loves having heart-to-hearts with her. I don't even want to know what she's told Hannah about all of us. 

  

Lilian has also become Miss Social Butterfly. At our IMB Christmas get-together at the language school, Lilian had a great time running through all of the kids. She got to meet a lot of knew friends and was so excited to see old friends that we met in Orientation. 

So. things are going well. We are all really excited to get in a place of our own next week. We hope by the 12th to be showing you pictures from our place!

Major Discovery

Lilian finally discovered something that I have been trying to call her attention to for months. Hope you enjoy.

Rock 'n Roll Chick

Cute Girl

She's supposed to be taking a nap, but she's getting too good at rolling over that she wants to do it all of the time.

Eating Cereal

Lilian started cereal this month, much to my dismay. This means bigger messes, stinkier poops, and more things to buy at Walmart. Here is Lilian's first experience. All she did was spit as the spoon got close. She's gotten more used to it now, but she hated it at first!

Dedicated to the Lord

Lilian had her Baby Dedication on Sunday, Feb. 17. All seems wonderful in this video clip of the service. But, what you don't see here are the events leading up to getting to the Dedication...

Saturday night, Lilian and I (Allison) were heading home from a weekend with grandparents. Right after getting onto I55, I blew a tire. Easy fix, right? Just put the spare on. Apparently, we bought the car without a spare; something that we didn't really think too much about until Saturday night. So, Lilian and I hung out on the side of the interstate waiting to be rescued. We got in touch with the local police to come and get us to an exit so Lilian could eat. But, Lilian's carseat would not fit into the police car because of the cage. Justin and my dad eventually found us. Lilian and I took my dad's truck to Burger King to wait while Justin, my dad, and the policeman worked on my tire. Because I shredded the tire beyond the fixability of fix-a-flat and some air, we had the car towed to the Burger King parking lot and my dad drove us home.

Because Justin had to go to work after church, we had to do something with the car before church. So, Justin and Jay (a good friend on campus) left at 6:30 Sunday morning, got a tire, drove an hour to the car, changed the tire, drove back, and made it to church on time. Lilian and I rode to church with Jay's wife, Lilian (referred to as Big Lilian). So, all made it for the Baby Dedication.

What is the moral of the story? It could be "the Lord takes care of His children." It could be "Satan works to prevent us from following the Lord's will." Or, it could be "make sure you have a spare!" I'm not really sure what the purpose was, but I know that the Lord protected us and He is the one to be praised. We praise Him for sending help in the flesh. We praise Him for allowing the policeman not to write a ticket for our expired inspection sticker. We praise Him for getting us to the Dedication. And, we praise Him for our beautiful daughter who He has entrusted to us to raise in His ways. I pray that Lilian would trust Christ for her salvation and always desire to please God above all else.