In the here and now news, we are starting our Dr. visits part of the week (we're cramming them all in this week). Today we go see the pediatrician for the first time...Eissa has never even been to the doctor or been seen by a pediatrician. All of you run-to-the-doctor-at-the-drip-of-a-nose kind of people, close your mouths. It's ok. She just has never had to go. If she has been "sick" it was only the temporary kind and nothing to go to the doctor about. Even when she had the rash (back before Christmas), we made an appt. but she had cleared up before we went, so we cancelled. I'm going to post a picture of the rash for you here though, just for kicks...never did that. The other 2 haven't been to the doctor since we lived in Phoenix (we left there June 2005).
Anyhoo, so we are going for check-ups, just to be established with a pediatrician if we should need one. We will also go to another place to get more shots after the Dr. visit. I'm thankful that we are wiser now as far as shots go...and more cautious and aware. We don't want
what happened before to happen again (the unfortunate shots experience we had back during the summer).
Then tomorrow Joel and I go for an OB appt. here in Anapolis. This is the doctor we saw before here. We are following up with her and our plan is that we won't see her again (unless she requests it...otherwise we will just stay in touch and keep her informed on my health), but that she be our back-up plan in case something goes wrong (never has before) and I should need to go to the hospital for something. The thing is that here the doctor we are using doesn't have privileges here in Anapolis (he lives and works in Goiania). The midwives that we worked with before always had agreements with the hospitals around and were affiliated with and had relationships with a doctor in the area that could take over should the need arise (unhealthy baby or mom, c-section needed, etc.). Here that is not the case, so we are hoping Dr. Kenia will be willing to do that for us. Pray with us for that...it's a never-heard-of scenario here, so she might not be too keen on the idea.
Then Friday we will be returning to Goiania to see our doctor that is going to do the homebirth. Whew...that should wrap it up as far as doctors' visits for a while...well, for me at least a month I think.
Alright, without further jabbering, here are the Thursday pictures of our vacation (but first the rash pictures)...
See, it looked kind of like mosquito bites in some places, but really it was just welps (I guess...could have been mosquito bites too).
She would get red all over in splotches...really weird. Of course we thought of the whole detergent thing, but it was inside her diaper too. Still don't know quite what it was...but, hopefully it just won't happen again.
And, it never even phased her a bit, so that was great...she didn't have any idea she was red and splotchy. :-) It made us hurt to see her though.
Now...vacation. Doing a little reading Thursday morning. That day was glorious for me. We didn't do much all day. When Eissa went down for her afternoon nap, Joel took the other 2 kiddos to the pool and I just stayed back and read and worked on Portuguese. It was
very relaxing. There was no laundry to be done, no supper to cook, no messes to clean...ahh, super.
I love this picture of Eissa. You can also see why she constantly has a bib on. Grady didn't need to wear bibs for slobber purposes, but Hadley and Eissa have needed full bib coverage at all times. :-) The last of Eissa's teeth are coming in now though, so maybe soon she won't need them anymore either. Of course, then I can just transfer the bib pile to the new baby's closet. :-)
Doing a little dancing.
On our way to town to eat supper that night.
We went to a great pizza restaurant...SO yummy. I am usually not tempted at all by the pizza here...it's usually things like ham (which is more like bologna), sausage (really fatty sausage...they don't have pepperoni here...that's why I go crazy when we're anywhere near the Pizza Hut in Goiania...they have American pepperoni), olive, etc. But, although they had some "interesting" kinds here, they had some really great ones too. Mmmm. On my plate in this picture is turkey and green peas (I didn't end up eating that one), bacon, sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, and 4 cheese. It was a lot of fun...and very, very good. They had one that was strawberry and chocolate...uh, yeah, I'll take some. The weird thing was that it had cheese on it, but was still fantabulous!
They had 35 varieties of pizza there. Waiters were constantly coming by our table to ask if we wanted some of the kind they had on their tray. It was great...buffet style without even having to get up. :-) They also had a major fruit buffet...and another part that had things like lasagna. Also, I love Hadley's scrunched-up nose in this shot. Funny.
I told them to give me their best pizza face.
They had little scissors there in the baskets where they had the ketchup...yes, to cut the packets of ketchup...how handy and fancy.
That morning when we went to the pool, the kiddie pool had just been cleaned and they were letting it fill back up. We were bummed at first, but quickly realized that this was a great thing. The kids LOVED playing in the pool as it slowly filled. Eissa, however, wasn't quite so sure of the different circumstances at first. She very quickly warmed up to it though and was splashing around with everyone else soon. 
LOVE this picture. :-) 
We had bought the arm floaties the night before. Carmen had said that's what she used with her kiddos and eventually after they started getting good at swimming around, she would take one of them off. Then, she would take the other off...and they would be swimming. Anyway, it was great having them on the kids...and Hadley and Eissa loved them...swam all around the pool (esp. Hadley...dog-paddled actually) by themselves. Grady never did put them on. 
Grady's jumping skills. 
Lounging. 
Riding cars at the carnival. 
Riding horses. 
Eissa's turn. She wanted to get on, so Joel hopped on with her at the very end of the ride with the other 2, but she didn't get to sit on the horse. So, we let her go and ride on a horse. 
Every time Eissa came by, Hadley waved frantically, smiling so excitedly. It was really cute and funny. 
Riding the airplane. 
Up in the air, looking all around. Me and Eissa are there in the bottom left corner, waving. 
Bia and Pedro on the pirate ship. They were on the last row. 
Bia and Pedro on another ride. 
On the train. 
Grady on his first "roller coaster." It did go kind of fast and do a good dip...Joel said it even got him a bit. 
All done...getting off. 
One more picture at the carnival before we went back to the apartment. 
