Fall Update

I know you guys don't need the play by play, but here we are at week 22 and a half. Austin snapped a few pictures of us today in the beautiful Fall light in our backyard. I have been feeling great for the most part. Yesterday we had a busy day of walking around since we went to the REI garage sale in the morning and then took Bo to the Hogle Zoo. I don't know if it was all the walking or what, but I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions all day. They weren't too painful, but quite uncomfortable and did not get me excited for real labor. Luckily, we still have a while to go and lots to do before then.

Getting nice and round. I think it's part-baby and part-Fall treats. A day doesn't go by when I am not tempted to make some kind of treat. Today we had leftover pumpkin cake that we made yesterday when we should have been making dinner, but decided to make a treat instead. I know it's at least part-baby since he kicks like crazy. I have actually seen my belly move from the force of his kicking (luckily, he's not big enough to start kicking my ribs).

DC trip

Remember when I went to DC to shoot that recipe for Lactaid? Here is a link to the video.
I'll post about it tomorrow on my blog with some pics.

Today is Children's Day in Brazil. Good times. Wish you were all here.

One month of Bahia

Hi family,
Sienna inspired me to post. Thanks Sienna. Those of you who are on my Brasil email list already got this update today. Sorry. Those of you who are not on my list and want to be send me an email at damarispalmer at gmail dot com and I'll add you.
xoxo

Hi friends, I thought I'd give a little update on our first month of Bahia.

Our first visitors just left and we wish they had stayed longer. Josh and Heidi (Christian's cousin and her husband) came to visit us and they were so much fun. They love food, which is always fun. They wanted to eat and try everything, so we pretty much ate and hung out at the beach a lot, my ideal way to spend time. They also brought us stuff that I had ordered online, a bigger mosquito net, some chapter books for Enzo, and washable paint for Maria. Thanks Heidi and Josh! It's amazing the stuff you miss.

Our house is feeling more and more like our home. Here are some pictures. We're also feeling more like we have a routine so it's easier to enjoy where we're at.

Enzo is going to Kindergarten here. He's getting the tail end of Kindergarten because the school year ends  in the beginning of December. We're trying to get him caught up with his class and he's a good sport about it. It's fun seeing him learn how to read in Portuguese and figuring out where to put accents on words. In February he starts first grade and in first grade they only write in cursive. We'll have a lot to practice.

Maria is pretty much potty trained. During the day she only uses underwear but at night and during naps she still wears diapers. Diapers here are awful and super expensive, she was getting horrible rashes. I think we're all happy that for the most part she's diaper free.

This past week Christian and I went to an orphanage in Ilheus, the big town where stuff like orphanages exist. We got some more information on adoption and it's pretty complicated to adopt through the orphanages specially for the age that we want (under two). We don't care about gender or race but we do want a child that's younger than our two children. It doesn't have to be a newborn, but it does have to be younger than Maria. Christian talked to a local lawyer and she said the most common form of adoption is when someone gives you their kid. I know a lot of people who have adopted (my aunt, bishop, god-mother, and other close friends) and it's always because someone asked them to take their child. I'm kind of weirded out by this for various reasons, mostly because what forces people to do that in those situations are economic reasons which I find extremely problematic. Anyway I won't go into it too much but just wanted to share that we're really hoping we'll be able to adopt while we're here if it's the best thing we can do for a child and for our family. If it happens it needs to happen before March. We can't leave the country for 6 months after we adopt. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that if it's the right thing to do then it will happen.

Love, Da

Happy October Family and Friends!

Hey Family and Friends!

Hopefully, people are still reading this blog even if the posts are rather sporadic. It's beginning to look a lot like October around here. We had snow yesterday for a minute, but mostly lots of rain. It's a fun change. It's also been really cold. We were too stubborn to turn on our furnace on October 6, so we've just been bundling up with jackets and blankets in the house. Bo got to wear his warm jammies that he has been asking to wear ever since I unpacked our winter clothes. I kept telling him they were "too hot" so now he takes them out of his drawer and asks to wear "too hot."

Bo helped us pick out a few pumpkins to decorate our porch. It was really funny cause we pulled up to the grocery store and there were a ton of pumpkins in a big pile outside the store and he goes, "Pumpkins! So cute!" He's very good at picking up what we say and copying. This morning he told me to "wait a minute" and the other night when I was trying to get him to take a bath, he kept saying, in a very sweet voice, "No thanks mommy."

I planted these cosmos forever ago and one is finally blooming right in time for the freezing temperatures.

In other news, I am 20 weeks pregnant and on Monday, we found out that we are having a BOY! We are super excited for Bo to have a little brother to play with.

We miss you all and hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Post when you get a chance, so we can feel not so far away.

Love,

Sienna and Family

Our New House

Here are some pictures of our new house. There is a whole list of things I've done including installing a new shower, several new hinges, putting glass in the window, cutting down the palm fronds that were letting ants inhabit the roof, putting locks on some of the doors, redoing the clothesline, putting nets on the balconies and windows so the kids don't fall off and a bunch of other stuff. Through the process I've learned a bunch of new words in portuguese and that everything is easier if you have the right tools. We really like the light in the house. There is a wide varanda with big glass doors that open up letting in a nice breeze. The kitchen and living room are connected with high ceilings and then the bedrooms have large doors/windows that open and allow for a lot of air flow although not much privacy until you close them. We're right above the road so we can see everything that is going on down below. We're also pretty close to all of the beaches.

Upstairs there are two smaller rooms in a kind of loft. Iris is in one of them and the other is empty for visitors although its not a bad place to escape to get some work done. There's a lot of wood and wicker which is nice. Everyone has as mosquito netting which is kind of essential because the house is totally open.

This is looking upstairs at the loft.


This is our bedroom.

This is the kids bedroom. As you can see the netting was essential. Its probably a ten foot drop onto concrete out the window/door. There is kind of a backyard which is part of a store/restaurant that is currently vacant below us. Hopefully no one will rent it anytime soon. We did get permission to use the space as long as no one else is although we haven't been down there yet.



This is the extra upstairs bedroom for visitors. Come visit.


Living room looking out with our two new hammocks. One for each of the kids. It helps to reduce the fighting unless one of us wants to get it.

Poem for September 11 (from Mimi)

A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : The Poetry Foundation

Happy Birthday Colleeny!

I wish I had better pictures (Obviously, I'm out of practice when it comes to taking pictures of real, live people) and I wish these would portray Colleen's obviously painstaking life's work in making such a cool family. She's good at surrounding herself with such awesome spawn. It's like a family of ultra-cool brothers and mega-awesome sister, and then I get to go home when they get annoying.

 Kidding. Noelle is never annoying.


Plus Paul is the perfect-o running partner for me. Luckily Colleen shares and has even been running a bit herself, so soon we'll be the perfect running trio.

It's been fun having Ethan, and now Isaiah in my class. Both of them grew up very suddenly and it took me by surprise. The girls are  fighting just to get a piece of them.

I'm sure Truman won't have any trouble picking from the leftovers.

 Colleen is amazing at everything she touches. I'm sure the Springs will take over the world, soon.
Happy Birthday Colleen!

Remembering 9/10/60

We were excited about going to the California State Fair. Mom and Dad had been gone for awhile and it was getting later and later. Turns out they had been to take mom to the hospital to give birth to her ninth baby! Daddy chose the name Colleen. I was excited to show her off to my friends. My second grade school teacher seemed amazed (and maybe judgmental) that Mrs. Hunt had another baby! We didn't make it to the fair that year, but I don't remember any of us having any regrets!

Poem for September (Back to School)

I accompanied mom on her walk yesterday. At our stops (she sits every 5 minutes or so to catch her breath) I recited two of her poems and one other. Then she surprised me by reciting two fairly long poems and a portion of another. The first was "In School-days" by John Greenleaf Whittier. She remembers perfectly all 11 stanzas.

HOUSE

We found a house and it's perfect. We saw so many almost perfect houses it was getting overwhelming.  I was getting super discouraged because either the location wasn't right or the price was to high or the house was to small... and then we found this house. It's all wood and glass, big kitchen, big living room, huge solid wood table, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms downstairs, and a loft upstairs with 2 additional bedrooms. We have a jungle backyard and the best part is that we have monkeys running on the power line by our balcony all day long. That is seriously why we got the house. That and the killer price. I can't really think too much about how low our rent is otherwise I'll never want to return to California.

It's a 5  minute walk to the kiddie beach and a 3 minute walk to the surf beach and a 1 minute walk to all the nice restaurants.  We have 9 beds, 3 hammocks, and only 5 people. Seriously come visit.

I'll post more pictures after we deep clean and move in.