Another week...

Karina is growing more everyday. Emily stepped onto our bathroom scale holding Karina and according to that, she is now 19.5 pounds. Her chunky thighs seem to confirm that.

Karina is getting stronger everyday too. She can hold her neck up and when propped up against the sofa, can sit up as well, for a while.


One of Eliana's favorite activities right now is watching videos on YouTube. Specifically, she watches Calliou, which is a cartoon about a boy and his family. The videos we let her watch are dubbed in Portuguese, which she seems to understand. The boy is a little whiny, though, and Eliana, unfortunately, has started copying him a little. We're going to have to find a better role model for her.

A Costco opened up not 2 miles from our house this past week. On the evening before the grand opening, people were invited to tour the facilities and feast on hors d'ourves. Instead of little snacks, they served all-you-can-eat pizza, hot dogs, chicken bakes, smoothies, salmon, cheese platters, roast beef, egg rolls, ice cream, gelato and more. We were all stuffed. Eliana did not have enough hands to keep up with what she wanted to eat.

She also continues to have a fascination with goggles. Eliana found a pair of swimming goggles from her older cousins and loves wearing them. She wanted to wear them to church, but we told her 'no.'
Eliana has also expressed interest in learning how to use chopsticks. We bought a pair of training chopsticks for her. It slows down her eating, but she enjoys using them.

She also wanted to eat an apple during dinner. We usually peel it for her, but this time, she wanted to eat the peel. (We guess that she's seen Elvin eat the peel). When she was done with it, the apple looked like the cratered surface of the moon.

We are looking to move Karina from our room into the nursery. That meant moving Eliana from the nursery, where she's been sleeping on the twin bed, into her own room. We spent the weekend re-arranging furniture and Eliana was very excited to have her OWN ROOM!And as part of her bedtime routine, she gets two books read to her. But instead of wanting to hold her baby sister in her lap, she wanted Karina to sit next to her. In this picture, Karina looks to be enjoying the book as much as Eliana. She's come a long ways in the past 3 and a half months!

Not to be outdone by Home Depot, Lowe's also offers free workshops for kids. You not only get a free apron, you also get to keep the safety goggles, which are so fun to wear. This is a good indoor activity on a rainy day, so Eliana and Papai went this past Saturday to build a periscope, or "periscote" as Eliana calls it.

After you're done, they give you a certificate and a badge.

Later on in the day, Eliana's cousins who live in Portland came over to spend the night. Karina got lots of attention that night. Here she is sucking on her fist, which she spends a lot of time doing lately.

Eliana wanted to relive Halloween, so dressed up as a .... we're not sure. The apron is from Home Depot, the goggles she acquired that morning from Lowe's, and the mask we got awhile back during a visit to the pediatrician.

By the end of the night, it looked as if a tornado had hit our living room. No toy was left untouched by the four girls.

So Karina continues to be a good sleeper. She goes to sleep for good at around 9 or 10pm, gets up once during the night to feed, then sleeps until 8am or earlier if her older sister harasses her. And last night, she actually slept all the way through the night, from 10 to 6:45!

She continues to be her squawker self and will squawk more for Eliana or Mommy than for Daddy. As she is developing more awereness of her surroundings Karina is also developing a strong case of stranger anxiety, just like her older sister at this age.

The sisters love spending tinme together and we hope the sisterly love lasts through the teenage years and beyond.

On the first Saturday of every month, the local Home Depot has a kids workshop, where they give kids a free kit as well as a supply of hammers and wood glue. Last time, Eliana built a fire boat and this past weekend, she built a spice rack (which she had a hard time understanding the purpose of, until we brought it home and put spice jars on it.) She has fun, can hammer a nail in with Dad's assistance, and even got her own apron to take home. If you look closely, her apron is in Spanish; they must have run out of English ones.

On Saturday evening, we made green onion pancakes for dinner. Eliana helped to roll out the dough and sprinkle green onions on top. She was a very good helper. During dinner, she tried eating them, but declared that she didn't like them. We think they were too tough and chewy and also she said she didn't like the "salad" inside of them.

Eliana came up with a new game called "shopping." She stuffed her toy shopping cart with her toy fruits and vegetables and brings them to the cashier. This went on for about 1/2 hour or more.

Karina is becoming quite the talker, or rather, the squealer or squawker. The noises she makes sound like what a bird would make, or maybe a pterodactyl. Sometimes during dinnertime, she is the one doing the most talking while the rest of us just listen.

Bathtime is much more intriguing to Eliana now because Karina will often join her. Eliana thinks its VERY exciting to share a bathtub with her baby sister.

Karina enjoys the baths as well. She enjoys floating in the warm water.
After bathtime, Eliana was frolicking with her sister before putting on her pajamas.

Happy Halloween

On the Friday before Halloween, our church organized an indoor Harvest Fest for the kids. So after trying out three different costumes that she has inherited from her older cousins, Eliana chose to dress up as a bunny rabbit.

Karina, on the other hand, didn't have a choice in the matter and we dressed her up in a Yoda costume.
Here's a video of Eliana before heading out to the Harvest Fest. She's acting a little silly because she's very excited about being dressed up.

Here she is in the "Candyland room". In this room...you get candy.

We also carved pumpkins. Eliana wanted a "happy face". Papai carved an X-wing into his pumpkin. Eliana wanted to light the candles inside, but we didn't let her. She did get to blow out the candles at the end of the trick-or-treating time. She also liked having so many kids visit us all night long.

And Karina continues to grow and develop. Now, she holds her head up pretty well and is grabbing things with her hands. If you make eye contact with her from up close, she'll smile back and you, and talk to you. But, she still sleeps a lot too...