Happy Birthday Grandma!

It is my mom's birthday today (I won't tell you how old she is!), this is the kids little tribute to her!

Happy Birthday Mom.

Is it Spring yet?

The weather keeps teasing us here in Pittsburgh, and every time I get sad about moving it gets cold enough for me to be excited again.

Tuesday Katie and I started a "mommy and me" class called 'Springtime for Preschoolers'. Last week we learned about the wind. We were supposed to fly a kite but there was no wind and it was to cold to be outside. But, Katie is so excited that she has her own class to go to--she is like Daddy!

It did get warm enough once (and it wasn't raining) this past week that we took Marcus and Addy on their first trip to the park. Katie has been going since she was just a couple months old, but poor Marcus and Addy are number 2 and 3, that combined with the cold has made them late park goers.

Addy loved it!

Marcus was a little scared but didn't cry!


We have been working with Addy crawling. She is so close.

Marcus here for moral support

All three kids working on crawling


I went to get Marcus out of his crib this morning and he was laying on his belly--he finally rolled over!

Crazy six months!

Marcus and Addison are 6mths old today!

Addy is our little princess. She is a rolling and jumper-roo machine. She has learned how to push herself backwards, and is trying to figure out how to move forward. She still refuses any type of solids that we offer her. She loves to people watch, but would rather that they stay at a distance. She reserves her smiles for Mommy, Daddy and Katie, and of course Marcus.

Marcus is such a big boy. His favorite thing to do is to eat. He loves to talk, laugh and smile. He has finally learned that there is more out there then what is hanging over his head, so he is attempting to learn to roll-over--it could be a while though.

Guatemala

As some of you know I have been actively involved in an orphanage/hogar that my parents started in Guatemala 6 years ago. I haven't been as much as I would like, but I do try to make it at least once a year to do what I can to help.

Due to some Guatemalan craziness, all the kids were taken from our home about 6 months ago. We are in the process of fighting to get reopened and get them back. Meanwhile, there is a perfectly good building sitting on lots of land, loaded with great supplies, so we decided to help out the local community-specifically the children.
The economic difficulties have hit Guatemala harder then they have the US so the price of fruits and veggies have sky rocketed--even though they are the ones growing them. Because of their poverty the local Mayan kids get very little fruit and vegetables and even less schooling(every American kid's dream, right!). They have school for about 3 hours a day and spend part of that time in gym. Point being--the kids needed more of the two things we think are most important--veggies and education. We decided to start a feeding program, where they get yummy soup and other veggie packed meals, with a piece of fruit for dessert.
After the kids eat, we plan to have grades 4-6 meeting with a teacher we hired to help out with their lessons for a couple hours. Hopefully this will give these kids a chance to rise above poverty and the Mayan stereotypes.

Point being, my parents needed someone to go down and get the feeding program started and check in on everything. So, Katie and I spent a week in Guatemala, while Mark partied away his Spring break at home with the twins! (Don't feel to bad for him, he did buy a PS3 to help pass time)
Katie at the airport in Guatemala, finding her hat to face the hot, hot sun! Oh blessed warmth after the cold Pittsburgh winter.

We stopped by to check out the new building on our way to Lake Atitlan in Panajachel where my little sister lives.


This is Katie ready for her first full day in Guatemala. We are going to the market with the cook to buy the food for the program and then she is hanging out with Aunt Hannah while I head out to the orphanage to get some work done.

At the market everyone kept touching Katie's head--this is something that happened the entire time we were down there. She would get so mad. At the market she just yelled every time some one touched her. Later in the week she started wearing her hood or a hat to hide her beautiful blond hair.

After the first hour at the market Katie was starting to get kinda bored, she kept trying to lift all the bags of veggies we were buying, but they were to heavy. At one point she picked up some random lady's bag bc it was the right size for her to carry.

After a full day of working at the orphanage and Katie hanging with Hannah, we decided to get some dinner. Katie wanted chicken nuggets, and she was so tired and hungry that we couldn't talk her out of it--she was in a bad mood. Finally, we found a place that had bagels and she settled for one of those. Half-way into the bagel our sweet Katie returned and she was ready for a night on the town. We walked the main street where we saw this bicycle band. They use the bikes to power their amps.
We watched them for a long time, Katie was so enthralled. Later she saw another band where someone was playing the drums; she then decided that she must have a drum. Thus, our search began.


Lake Atitlan is a large lake, surronded by volcanoes, with little pueblos hidden all along it's shores, some are touristy Guatemalan, and others are relaxing European--all are easiest to access by boat.
View of the lake by Hannah's house
On Saturday we decided to go check out a pueblo that neither Hannah or I had been to. There was nothing to great there other then a hotel with great hammicks, but at least the boat ride was fun; Katie stood up the whole time singing and dancing.
After the boat ride we went to find some ice cream. Katie wanted green (her favorite color), which was lime sherbet, and I got chocolate. Part-way through her cone Katie asked for a bite of mine, after tasting mine she decided that we were going to "trade."Katie ended up getting ice cream everyday we were there. She told Hannah one day that "ice cream made her head feel better."

Sunday we went to church and hung out by the lake (Where we saw more dirty dogs that Katie couldn't pet. Every time we passed a different dog she would ask, "is this one dirty?").

Monday I headed out to the orphanage again to start the feeding program. (Katie went swimming with Hannah.)

Emma, our cook, dishing up the food.

(Shout out to people who donated, they were a lifesaver bc of how many kids there were.)
The kids were so cute. The were so excited about the food and especially the fruit--it was a banana today. Most of them brought tortilla's from home. Some of the other ones were a little shy talking to me but the younger ones chatted away, and everyone wanted to see the picture that I took of them. There were 60 kids there on Mon (there are 71 enrolled in the school).

After lunch, while the older grades were in the new study session, some of the mom's from the neighborhood came to talk to us about the teacher we hired. We had hired the principle to teach the afternoon class and they didn't like the way she treated their kids so they wanted us to get someone new. Some of the comments were normal gossipy comments, but mostly they were just normal women who care so much about their kids education and wanted more for them. There was one mom who said she wanted someone who would teach her child over and over again until they actually understood it. She said, "I would do it but I didn't get to go past the 2nd grade so I don't know what he is learning." It was very touching to see who we were trying to help. We met with more moms on Tuesday and I interviewed and hired a new teacher.


On Tuesday I headed back out to the orphanage, and took Katie with me this time. We spent the morning sorting and organizing supplies on the second floor. Katie was such a big helper, she is a pro at sorting.
Later, during the second meeting with the moms, she played with some of their kids they had brought along (the kids weren't in school bc there was "something" going on Tues-Thurs so there was no class those days). One of the little girls ask me if Katie speaks the same language as I do, when I said "yes", she looked at me in wonder and asked "did you teach it to her?"


Katie was so sad when the kids had to leave that she cried. I guess me and Hannah weren't cool enough for her, for some reason she wanted someone closer to her age. We ate lunch out at the orphanage (where by the way the water is not in yet), Katie kept spreading her food out onto different plates. After she had succeeded in getting two bowls, a plate, two cups and a spoon and a fork dirty, she put everything down said, "OK, I'm done, lets put these in the dishwasher." The funny thing is she had just stood outside watching curiously as Emma hand washed all the other dishes in buckets.

After days of searching the market and some outrageous bidding wars we finally found Katie her drum.


In Panajachel the way to travel is by tuk-tuk. Katie loves them, she remembered them from last year and was so excited to ride them again. We took them everywhere. Most of them are red, but one day with Hannah she saw a yellow one, they stood there for 20 mins trying to find another yellow one to ride in. None passed, and finally Hannah had to drag her into a red one.

Later we flagged down a yellow one two different times. We actually got a yellow one for our last tuk-tuk ride.

We had a blast and would have been so sad to leave but Katie and I both missed Marcus and Addy and Daddy. I had to show Katie pictures of them a couple different times (from the camera) so that she would stop crying. She would ask me "How are Marcus and Addy? Are they OK?"

But, we were so sad to leave Hannah and the sun!

Babybook update

We took Marcus and Addy to the doctor this week.

Addison weighed 15lbs 2oz and was 25 3/4 ins. She is now rolling both ways. She gets really hyper at night and giggles. She has started grabbing our faces and talking to us.

Marcus weighed 16lbs 13oz and was 26.8 ins. (This puts him in the 75% and Mark is so proud he is already planning his football career. But seriously Marcus gained 3 lbs in 2 months. He eats so much food!) Marcus has amazing hand-eye coordination, because he hates to put any weight on his legs so he lays around, silly boy. He has started doing "the shake"--which means when he is laying on his back he will shake his belly with the biggest smile on his face and move around the floor.

They are two of the happiest, cutest babies ever! And to top it all off, they have been sleeping 8pm-8am for the last few months!