2018 Year in Review

Happy New Years Eve! We've made it to the last day of 2018 a little older, hopefully a little wiser and with one more little girl in the mix. It's been an incredible journey this past year and we'll give you our Top 5 as is customary but first a brief run down of our Holiday Season.

Scott landed back in America the Saturday before Christmas. Finley had a rough transition period for the next two days as she re-met Daddy and then met the rest of her Jackson relatives. We spent Christmas Eve with the Hammonds then traveled the short distance to Scott's brother's home for Christmas Day with the Jacksons. 16 people in total were in attendance around the tree and it was wonderful. Many terrific gifts and memories. Later that week we took the older girls to see Mary Poppins Returns which was their first movie in the theater and the parents had more fun watching the joy and excitement on their faces than the film (it was good but they were better). Finley also accompanied us and didn't enjoy it quite as much.

Playing with stickers.

Aunt Carey invited us to play at Nook.

Mackenzie and Grace loved these little cars.

We participated in a Harry Potter Escape Room before Christmas with some friends at their house.

Making Christmas Eve Eve pizzas.

Enjoying the Hammond Family Christmas Eve Concert.
Uncle Brad is singing Dominic the Donkey for us.

Grandma Jackson bought the girls matching Flamenco outfits in Barcelona.

We recreated the Nativity with two Marys, Uncle Brenton as the Donkey and of course, Finley as the Baby Jesus.

Finley turned 2 months old on December 23 and since has begun to master smiling and cooing which is a delight to her parents and grandparents alike. And then this morning, just shy of being 10 weeks old, kind of rolled over. She had one arm tucked underneath propping her up on her side and just pushed herself the rest of the way. It was very exciting.

Now our Top 5 of 2018!

#5 - In February we received an extension to make our 2 year tour a 3 year tour! We are excited to stay on another year to continue to learn Spanish, enjoy the culture and watch our children grow up on foreign soil.

#4 - In July we hit our year mark living in Asuncion! Two more years to go and we still love living there. If anyone wants to visit, we've got a room with your name on it.

#3 - Mackenzie started preschool! Mom was a little sad/nervous to send her baby off to school but Mackenzie was so excited to spend the mornings with other kids her own age. We really wanted her to be immersed in Spanish as well which is why we took the leap. She only attended for 2 months before we came back to America for Finley's birth but she loved the experience. Come February 2019 she'll be back!

All ready for her first day!

#2 - We were the definition of world travelers this year. In February we went to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In May we visited London, England and a few other locals in England. August we found ourselves in Santiago, Chile where Scott skied in the Andes Mountains. We also took two fun trips within Paraguay. In January we drove a little outside of Asuncion to see the giant lily pads of Paraguay and in September we visited the beautiful Encarnacion down South. And naturally we visited the United States in the Summer and Fall-Winter.

Giant lily pads in Piquete Cue, Paraguay.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Stonehenge in England.

High up in the Andes Mountains in Chile.

Visiting Jesuit Mission ruins in Encarnacion.

#1 - And the number one top event of 2018 should come as no surprise; the birth of our daughter Finley Adela! It was a hard fought road to get her here but it was so worth the bed rest and 3 week hospital stay on Mom's part. We all love her very much and she is a wonderful addition to our little family. We are excited for the growth she will have as an individual and sister in the new year.

One week old.

One month.

We've all done a lot of learning and growing this year but no one more than Mackenzie. She turned two in June and every month she seems to have hit a new milestone. Her communicating skills and vocabulary increase exponentially every day. She can count to 10 in two languages and she knows all her colors in English. She has taken the role of big sister like a champ and adores her baby sister. What more could you ask for as a parent?

As we say goodbye to this year and welcome in the new, we thank all of our family and friends who have followed us on our journeys this year. We wish you and yours a Happy New Year.

The days are long but the weeks are short

I love the Christmas season but not that the days seem to go so quickly during it. Solution: have two small children that you take care of almost exclusively by yourself. It's been a long, but mostly wonderful week with the girls. We'll make this a quick one because at the end of the day you just need some 'me' time and writing a blog doesn't really count.

Decorating these cookies? Now that was 'me' time!

Some events worth mentioning this week, Kiersten traveled to downtown DC with both girls in tow and successfully didn't lose either and got Finley's passport! Hooray! Things go well when we plan ahead so maybe that's the key... or maybe it's sleep. At this point they're one in the same.

She was very excited about her new bottle of vitamins she wanted to hold them on the ride home.

Another event was cousin Ashlyn's 6th birthday party. It was Moana themed and as a surprise Moana herself came to the party. Ashlyn was super excited to have her cousin Mackenzie in attendance and Mackenzie was a little overwhelmed with so many older kids around and opted to play alone or with Mom.

Moana taught the kids to hula dance.

That evening Kiersten and the girls attended the Reston Ward Christmas Party and saw lots of old friends from the Ward. They were pleasantly surprised to see her and very surprised to see Finley. It was a nice welcome.

Mackenzie loves playing with Grandma's talking ornaments.

Cute matching gold dresses for church.

And we've been doing a fair amount of shopping or really just going to stores and walking. Most of our Christmas shopping is completed or done online. Today we went to IKEA and that store just sucks you in. It was around nap time and once we got to any section with a bed, especially the kids section, Mackenzie climbed in and got comfortable.

She took her shoes off on her own and climbed in. Guess she was tired.

Scott was had quite the social life without his girls to keep him at home. He went to a friend's house to play games on Thursday then on Saturday went to a farewell party and had a great time. The hosts paid for a food truck to cater and Scott swears he had the best burger he's had thus far in Paraguay. There is another quiz night this coming Friday and chances are he'll be there. Kiersten is sad she won't be able to join him but happy he's got things to look forward to.

The Mackenzie Update:

• Mackenzie is SOO close to being fully potty trained. Starting this week we've got her in pull-ups and she went the whole first day in them and kept them dry! She's been pretty excited about it. She's even teaching Bop Bop her bunny to use the potty.
  
• Some new favorite phrases: "yeah, please" "stop it" and "Can [you] do it? Yes you can!"

  

  Playing at the play area at Potomac Mills Mall.

• She has been making funny faces for Finley which of course she can't see but it gives Mommy a good laugh.

  

  Some Mackenzie photography of her baby sister.

• She has had far too many days without naps and we don't like grumpy Mackenzie. It leads to really awful bedtimes.
• Speaking of bedtime, she's learned the art of Goodnight Moon by which I mean delaying bedtime. "Need go potty, Mommy." "Need ta poop." "Eat dinner, Mommy?" (We always eat before bedtime!) It's getting to be extremely stressful for Mom. BUT! She has been sleeping on the queen bed in her room surrounded by pillows for several nights and she really seems to like it. She's growing up so fast!
• New favorite food: hot dogs!

The Finley Report:

• It's official, people (strangers) are obsessed with her.
• Still sleeping a ton during the day and nights are getting a little better. The only issue is getting her to sleep the first time at night. After that she's pretty good to fall back asleep in the middle of the night.
  
• Since we've been doing so much driving around, she's spent most of her naps this week in the car seat which translates to not wanting to sleep laying down at night. A few nights she's slept in the bouncy seat... not a great trend but she sleeps.
• She looks close to rolling over but please not yet! Hoping it's still about 6 weeks away.
  
• 7 weeks old! Filling out well and growing. She doesn't look so tiny anymore.

That was a pretty good, quick week review. See you next week!

Christmas Cookie Season is here!

Wow what a week. Honestly, so much has happened we can't even remember it all.

This week we tackled more ventures out with Mommy and the girls. No more trips to the library this week but to the stores instead. Kiersten is starting to feel more and more like herself and during her 6 week checkup she was cleared! Meaning cleared to be herself again meaning exercise! Yes! She's starting slow and trying not to do too much. But usually the most exercise she gets is chasing Mackenzie or picking her up and walking. Lots of walking.

All buckled up and ready to sleep.

  

Loving her dinner from Chipotle.

Mackenzie has been feeling better this week. Just a little runny nose remains. So she got to have a play date with our friends in Reston and had a great time. We are so thankful for the friends we still have in the area.

And then she fell asleep in the car all the way home.

On Friday all the girls got out of the house for a trip to the mall. The only thing purchased was lunch from Cheesecake Factory. 

Saturday was a very special day. We went downtown to DAR Constitution Hall to hear the Army Band American Holiday Concert, one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Mackenzie had a terrific time looking at all the decorations, pointing out the lights and dancing to the music with her cousin. Finley on the other hand didn't enjoy her earmuffs or trying to eat with all the noise. Luckily there was a quiet and comfortable location in the basement where Mom could feed her and still watch the concert. When it was over we walked to the National Christmas Tree which was dark when we arrived. A few minutes later all the lights came on. Electrical issues apparently. We then walked a few blocks to Elephant & Castle for dinner.

Sleeping before it started.

Mackenzie couldn't hold still long enough for a picture.

The fife and drum corp.

Quick pic holding the girls in the cold in front of the National Christmas Tree.

Sunday after all three hours of church (yes we finally made it to all of church), we drove to Daniel and Ashley's house in Reston for a delicious dinner. Their home is terrific and Mackenzie, who hadn't napped, was very well behaved and loved their cats.

Poor Pippa. Mackenzie had a great time playing with the cat toys too.

One other trend from this week we'll mention is bedtime. Almost every night this week bed time got later and later due to getting home late or because Mackenzie needed to use the potty or wanted water or cried or... you get the idea. Now since last blog post Mackenzie has gotten better and more comfortable sitting on the potty and going number one but she hasn't pooped since... back to the drawing board I guess. She is very close to being fully potty trained so that's a plus. Then there is the figuring out how to put two kids to bed as a single parent. Finley doesn't have a set bed time but we're trying to get her on some kind of a schedule but I don't think it'll happen until we are back in Asuncion and Daddy is around to help.

Mackenzie's creative use of the Boppy nursing pillow.

Speaking of Daddy, he has had a usual work week. At home things were a little different. He ordered Christmas presents on Amazon and did regular chores. One of which is cleaning the pool. That was a bit of a challenge this week when he found something that didn't belong in the filter and long story short, the pump is broken so he hasn't been able to properly clean the pool or swim in it. The contractor is coming soon to fix it. So grateful we don't have to pay for that.

And now for the exciting news of Monday. Grandma is getting ready for her Christmas piano recital so the kids are coming here for the lessons this week which meant Mackenzie had some new people to play with. This freed up Mommy to start Christmas shopping with Finley along for the ride. When we got home both girls were napping so Mommy starting practicing her cooking decorating skills. That evening after bath time we got the girls dressed in their new Christmas jammies and in to the car to go to Bull Run Park to see the Christmas lights. Right as we were getting to the park, Mackenzie unexpectedly threw up so we turned around to go home. She threw up one more time then fell asleep for the rest of the drive. We got her cleaned up and in new jammies at home but then Finley needed to eat so Grandma took over. Hoping its just a 24 hour bug and not the flu.

After Mackenzie's sickness episode yesterday and a rough night in which both girls kept Kiersten up half the night (her admiration of actual single parents is soaring) we opted to stay home today and bake a lot of cookies. Mackenzie was her usual self so perhaps it was just car sickness. She also slept in until after 8 so thats a good thing and we made sure she went to bed at a more reasonable hour.

So many gingerbread men!

The perfect assistant baker. She did great adding the peppermints to the tops of each cookie.

The Mackenzie Update:

• Her new favorite expression is, "Look at this" which she says, "Look dis" usually followed up by Mommy. We went to ACE to mail our Christmas cards and there were holiday lights and decorations everywhere and everything was, "Look dis, Mommy!" A 5 minute trip turned into 20 due to a curious and awed toddler.

  

  The blow up Storm Trooper was just a little bit taller than her.

• She must be going through a growth spurt because she is eating more than usual. At dinner on Saturday she ate 3/4 of a normal sized burger and had eaten a lot during the day. After getting home that night she had some more food before bed!

  

  Different burger but she did well with this too. I think burgers are her favorite food.

• Not sure if it's due to the late bed times and a few days without naps but she is getting a little more disobedient with Mommy. Let me re-phrase. She has her moments of disobedience when she is set on doing something her way that Mommy doesn't want her to do. So she's pushing the boundaries more and it hasn't been a lot of fun for either party.
• She still associates all candy with Halloween and that it belongs in her pumpkin. She has been calling her advent calendar candy her pumpkin.
• One of her favorite things to do is hide. "Hiding!" she'll say at random times during the day or play. Mommy taught her how to really hide during a game of hide-and-seek with Grandma and that you need to be still and quiet. She caught on quickly and now we might need to be careful when she disappears...

  

  She put these on herself without prompt.

• Since she wasn't sick this week she was allowed to go near baby sister again and her love for her abounds. She likes to pat her head and rock her in the bouncy seat under the close supervision of Mom.

  

  First bath together! Finley was only in it for about 2 minutes.
  Mackenzie held her hand without being asked.

• She is starting to do more and more imaginative and make-believe play. Almost every morning at breakfast she declares there are bears outside. One morning they were green, another day it was pink. (There are no bears outside, not even statues.) She is also good at pretending.
• She is so smart. We saw a Coca-Cola truck one day driving and she saw the red truck and white writing and said, "Daddy juice" which is what we call Coke at our house which means she isn't allowed to have any. It was hilarious and also amazing that she recognized the image from the can.

The Finley Report:

• She is almost officially out of newborn clothing and into 0-3 month clothes! Still in newborn diapers.
• She is still sleeping most of the day. Her most wakeful times are around 10am and 6pm.
• Her stretches of sleep during the night hit a high at 5 hours between feeds this week.
• We worked on tummy time. She is very strong and can lift her head pretty high and turn it. She also enjoys tummy time and will probably become a belly sleeper in the future.
  
• Her eyes are looking a little lighter, almost blue. We think they will take on a hazel hue but only time will tell.
• We took her one month photos this week! One month! Wow.

  

  Just a little bit bigger than the bunny.

• She turned 6 weeks old today (Tuesday)!!

It's officially Christmas season but the last few days have been too warm for my taste. We are hoping for more snow and *fingers crossed* a white Christmas this year before we go back to the hot, humid Paraguayan summer.

Finley's first Christmas!