A literal mind

I've had a deep cough for over a week. The following conversation came this morning as a result.

Eliana: Mama, I don't like it when you cough.
Mama: Me either. I don't like it when you or Lilah or Daddy cough too.
Daddy: That's right, coughing is for the birds!
Mama: Will you pray that Jesus will heal me, Eliana?
Eliana: Yes! "Dear Jesus, please help us not to cough, and help the birds to cough. Amen"

Lilah @ 18 months

What a little treasure our tempest is at this age. It has been wonderful to get home and settle back into a routine. Lilah is a much happier girl at home!

Words: She is starting to take off with words. Here are the words she's saying off the top of my head: ball, yes, oh no! cheese, up please, more, whoa!, book, dog, duck, ta-ta, bye bye, I... you! (I love you), I got it, ouch, milk, shoes, hat, chair, knock knock, baby, hello, ola, estou bem, night night, kiss, and of course, the names of her family. She is starting to mimic phrases from Eliana. She makes just about any animal noise and is attempting to sing songs with us. She has also been babbling for a long time and looks quite serious when she's giving you a good long "talk".

Hobbies: Her favourite things to do are: dance, eat, brush teeth, nap, cuddle her blanket, pinch Eliana, wrestle with Daddy, cuddle with Mummy, read books, play outside, pretend to talk on the phone, suck her thumb, pack up toys and sing songs. She uses Eliana's little chair as a pram, and pushes dolls around in it. If I am preparing food in the kitchen, Lilah will stand at the door and tackle me when I come out. She grabs ahold of my leg and won't let go! She often comes up to me, puts her arms in the air and says "Up!" It's going to be a good shock for her to share her mama when baby #3 comes!

Foods: If Lilah had a choice, she would be on the carbohydrate and fruit diet. While Eliana is our little carnivore, Lilah loves most kinds of carbs and turns her nose up at meat! She is drinking out of a normal plastic cup and only occasionally spills (though sometimes it may be on purpose to play with water). She is also venturing into the feeding herself with a fork or spoon season. We are thankful for those pink plastic scoop bibs, Grandma!

Lilah, we love you precious one.

The prayers of a three year old

This was Eliana's prayer last night.

"Dear God,

Please help Mummy, Daddy and Lilah and me"

Please save me.

Please let us go out for a coffee in the morning, and then go to a park, and then get on an airplane.

I love you.

Amen"

snapshots from West Africa

Our family undertook a one month training course in West Africa during September and November. It took four days of travel to reach our destination! Here are some snapshots of our time there.

Eliana enjoying a cold poppa on one of our very hot 9 hour bus rides.

Looking for crocodiles with Daddy

My African babe

Grinding nuts for dinner with our host family.

Our wonderful host.

 

Walking out to our host family's farm

Lilah all wrapped up.

 

Pretty package

Thanks for our new party dresses Grandma & Grandpa! They came just in time to dress up for Daddy on his birthday.

Dancing with a star

Lilah at 16 months :)

Eliana's 3rd birthday

Eliana turned 3 last week. When she woke up on her birthday morning, she peeked around the corner and said "I want to see my birthday." We got her some little chairs to enjoy her books on.

Lilah is taking fill advantage of her sister's birthday present.

In the absence of cream cheese in this country, I couldn't make my traditional pumpkin cheesecake for Eliana. So, after Nate bought 8kg(!) of carrots off the street for a bargain the other day, I resorted to Nate's favorite cake - carrot cake. I even decided to venture out and cut the shape of a three for Eliana. She loved it.

When we asked Eliana what her favourite part of the day was she said, "Eating my delicious, delicious cake." She knows the way to her mama's heart :)

This is the first year Eliana has anticipated her birthday. She was excited all week leading up to it. It's also the first time she has really understood opening presents from friends. It was sweet to watch.

Her favourite present? A lollypop:)

Eliana back to normal.

After a month of sickness our little girl is on the mend. She is back to laughing and singing, wanting to go for walks, and has energy to play. We are so thankful for all of the prayer and love you gave us. We especially give thanks to the Lord for her recovery.

Today is the last day of her 10 days of medicine. We are glad! Eliana has started saying "Daddy, how about I take my medicine, and I won't even cry!" :)

Lilah's waddle

Lilah developed a cute little waddle to her walk recently. We're not sure if it's because we started using cloth nappies again and they can be a bit stiff after drying in the sun, or if it's because our floor can be slippery and the waddle gives some extra grip, or if it's just because she's just so cute. We caught a little glimpse of it on camera:

ps - that dress she's wearing was mine when I was a little girl!

Little Lilah

Lilah has had a rough few weeks due to some kind of stomach bug but, thanks to the prayers of many, finally seems to be on the mend. She has currently got a ferocious appetite (she eats more brekky than daddy!) which may be her little body catching up, and she is once again her bubbly self.

Eliana now seems to have picked up whatever Lilah had. Having my girls sick is a weak point in my life. I always knew that such times would cause some of my biggest struggles in Mozambique. But the Lord has given me a theme verse for the days that our precious girls are sick:

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

And as a dear friend who has faced much affliction reminded me, "He is worthy of our affliction!"

And, as always, our girls handle their sickness much better than their mama does!

Eliana's first few weeks in Mozambique

Eliana has really been thriving in Mozambique, which has been our prayer for our girls for a long time. When we first arrived she showed signs of culture shock and/or jet lag (like fear to get out of the car and an unusual attachment to her bed), but after 3 days, she started to be in her element.

the river marginal near our house

We make sure to take her outside everyday. She loves to play in the driveway of our apartment building with the Mozambican children that live here. She can't communicate with them yet, but says portuguese phrases when we encourage her.

It was a nice surprise to find that our language learning city, Quelimane, has a couple of parks. Eliana had a ball with Daddy and some local children last weekend at one.

Can you find Eliana in the 2 pictures below? She is the only white face. This is the children's Sunday School of the church we will likely settle at for a first year of language study. Eliana did amazingly well, although it must have been a bit overwhelming to have children surround her and touch her for the majority of the service.

We give thanks to the Lord that Eliana is doing so well. Lilah, on the other hand, has been quite sick since we arrived, but we also give thanks because the Lord has shown His face through it. He is good all the time!

photos of the girls

I just updated two albums I have of the girls on Facebook. If you would like to see them, here are the links:

Eliana's 2nd year

Lilah's 1st year

Lilah walking

Lilah went from mostly crawling to mostly walking about a month ago now. I have the cutest videos of her but apparently our new camera takes videos that I can't upload on blogger. She has the sweetest little waddle and still holds her hands up, either for balance or from a habit formed by practicing while holding our hands :) Mama loves the walking stage!

Grow baby, grow!

In the last 2 months Lilah has grown about 3 inches! We measured her height on the back of great-Grandma's door before we left for Virginia and then again when we arrived back in Michigan yesterday. Here is the proof!

You can see Nathan written at the top of the photo. That's how tall Nate was when he was 13 months! Gotta love family records. We will certainly be starting our own measuring door once we settle in Mozambique :)

Lilah - 12 months

Lilah's quirks at 1 year:

• Steps - Lilah started standing on her own just after her birthday and was taking up to 5 steps a week later. She is still at the 5 step stage. Walking while holing on to our hands is her favourite thing to do.
• Signs - She signs more, please, up please, blows kisses and waves bye and hi. She is pointing at things more often as of today.
• Words - Dadda, Mamma, Ana, Lilah, Amen, Hi, Bye and attempts any words we give her (though they usually come out as Dadda or Bah:)
• Eats - She has gone from eating all table foods to being a fussy duck. If Lilah is not happy with a food I'm trying to feed her she'll bat it out of my hand or grab it from me and throw it on the floor. I have to hide my smile as I attempt to teach her this is not ok. :) She's certainly not as compliant as our little Eliana was :) When she's hungry though, she'll eat just about anything. When Lilah turned one we stopped the bottles and she uses sippy cups now, but also loves drinking from a straw.
• Sleeps - still on 2 naps a day and around 12 hours at night
• Games - peek a boo, clapping, dancing, hide and go seek, sneaking up on big sister, tackling mummy and daddy, kisses, blowing kisses, walking

We love you our sweet tempest :)

Eliana 2.5 years

Eliana is getting close to being 3. Can you believe it? Even in our eight weeks here in Virginia people have been commenting on how much she has grown. Eliana and Lilah have been attending 'culture school' from 9-3 M-F while Nate and I have been in sessions. It was very hard at first to say goodbye to our girls in the morning, but they have adjusted very well. Eliana has especially LOVED preschool and asks to go even on weekends. Some of her favorite things to do these days are:

• be pushed on the swing
• climb
• play on the playground
• jump and skip
• pretend to be different animals
• chase her friends around
• go for runs together as a family
• go for drives together
• preschool
• sing and dance together
• read books
• have cuddles in the morning

We love you our sweet baby girl!

Lilah 12 months

We celebrated Lilah's 1st birthday a couple of weeks ago, here in Virginia

I baked her a white chocolate cheesecake

Which was Lilah's favorite part of the party :)

The party poppers and balloons were big sister's favorite :)

It was a happy birthday. We love you Lilah. You make us laugh everyday with your bright spirit, sassy smile, sweet cuddles and big, sparkling eyes.

Some quick photos of the girls while I've got a chance! (We are having a wonderful time at our overseas orientation in Virginia, but time for leisure internet use is limited :)

 

Lilah at 10 months

Eliana loved staying with Great Grandma and Grandma and pa and Uncle Doug in Michigan

We made a detour to Niagara Falls in NY on our trip from Michigan to Virginia

We also stopped in to explore some Amish country in Pennsylvania.

We had some fun African style worship by the lake. Lilah felt right at home tied up Mozambican style to me.

I think Eliana is going to adjust to singing to drums underneath trees in Mozambique just fine :).

We miss you all very much. The girls are doing GREAT and love their preschool that they attend Mon-Fri while Nate and I are in sessions. Praise the LORD!