Worth a Thousand Words

As the saying goes "pictures are worth a thousand words". So, I will let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

Stinkin' Bet

The other night Jennifer and I were watching TV and she mentioned that she would still like to watch that Sandra Bullock movie, The Lakehouse, sometime. I reminded her that we already saw it and enjoyed it. But, she insisted that she hadn't seen it.

I thought, "How can she say that she has never seen this movie? I know that I have seen it. I would never seen a 'chick-flick' with another guy or by myself. What's the deal?"

We went back and forth arguing about rather or not Jennifer had in fact seen "The Lakehouse". Finally, I decided to go and rent it just to prove that I was right. Maybe if she saw a little bit of it she would start to remember. So I went to the local Blockbuster (yes, we have Blockbuster in Brazil) and rented the movie.

When I got home Jennifer coolly asked, "Do you want to make a bet?" I was extremely confident, so I agreed to bet. We bet that whoever was wrong would change all of Elisa's poopy diapers for one week. Folks, let me tell you something. This little girl is as adorable as they come, but she has unleashed the power of poo! She can really stink it up!!!

Well, sure enough Jennifer stuck to her guns and insisted that she hadn't seen the movie. I am now on full-time poopy duty. That didn't upset me as much as not remembering who I saw this movie with or when I saw it. I thought that I had gone with Jennifer to the theatre here in Porto Alegre. I couldn't imagine seeing it with anyone else. It really bothered me that I couldn't remember.

Later, the next day, I was telling this story to one of our friends and they asked if I saw it on an airplane. That was it! Jennifer fell asleep on the flight back to Brazil from the US in November and I couldn't sleep. The movie was showing and I ended up watching it. I could argue that she was there and just couldn't hang, but I'm a good sport. I'll change my daughter's diapers and I'll change them with glee!

What's in your mouth!?

The other day Jennifer was working on laundry downstairs. Elisa was with her just hanging out; crawling all over the place. At one point Jennifer looked over at Elisa to see her put something in her mouth. It looked like it was just a piece of string. Jennifer went over to take the "string" away from Elisa, but found that it was no "string" at all! It was actually a dead gecko! Gross!

We have geckos all over the house. It isn't uncommon to see one hanging on the wall or run across the floor. We view them as the "good guys" that eat the spiders that live with us too. To be honest, I knew that this particular dead gecko was there. I saw him on the stairs and pushed him down to the floor, thinking he was alive. When I saw that he was dead I thought, "I'm busy, I'll pick him up later." I know now that when I see something dead on the floor I should pick it up immediately and dispose of it, or Elisa will! Lesson learned.

Ethan Powell

I just can't imagine if something were to happen to Elisa. She brings me a Jennifer so much joy. It really breaks my heart to hear of other families that are hurting with loss or sickness.

I am sure that many of you have heard heart breaking stories of young children who are suffering from terminal diseases. Two-month old Ethan Powell is among them. He is suffering from Leukemia. He and his family need all the prayer and support they can get. Please go to www.ethanpowell.com to find out what you can do to help Ethan and his family.

Beach Vacation

This last week we were fortunate enough to spend a few days on a beach in the state just north of us. It was a blast! Elisa had been to the beach a couple of times before, but this was her first experience of actually getting down in the sand to play. She absolutely loved it! Although these photos don't do the experience justice, we hope you enjoy them.

Our hotel was down on the beach you see in this picture.

This is amazing!

Horray for the ocean!

Mommy and Elisa on the beach.

Watching the waves with Daddy.

Sand is so much fun!

I just destroyed Daddy's sand castle. What have you been doing?

I want to go surfing!

Family fun!

It is hard to pose for a photo op with all this sand distracting me!

I've gotta whale, dude.

High-five!

Sleepy-headed after a lot of playtime on the beach.

A Crawl and a Little Tooth!

Elisa has had some pretty significant changes in her life over the last few days. Last week she started crawling! She isn't all over the place quite yet, but she is exploring and going where she wants. She is pretty ambitious in her wanting to hold on to toys while she crawls. She still needs to practice a little before she can do that well.

We really felt that she has been teething and today we found it to be true. Elisa has a little tooth coming in! It is on the bottom in the front and from the looks of things it will have a neighbor before long. We can tell that both front teeth on the bottom will be in sometime soon. When they are visible I will be sure to post pictures.

First Easter: Part II

Well, Elisa found out that the Easter Bunny came and left some eggs and some new books for her. She was so excited that she wanted to dress up for the occasion. The following pictures were all taken today, here at our house. I am positive that you will love them just as much as we do!




This is a picture of Elisa's Easter Nest.

Elisa is all dressed and ready for her first Easter!
She makes for a really cute and happy bunny rabbit...

First Easter: Part I

Jennifer's dad grew up with the tradition of making an Easter Nest the night before Easter Sunday for the Easter Bunny. So, we had Elisa out in the backyard last night making a nest with grass and leaves. It was pretty funny to see her work on her little nest. I will "post" more pictures tonight or tomorrow of Elisa's first Easter. Enjoy the pictures!

Cute Little Girl

Elisa is wearing her first hair barrette in these pictures! It was a big day! ;)

True Adventures

Well, the name of this blog is "the Adventures of the 'Little Missy'". So, we decided that is was time to kick up the adrenaline a notch or two.

True Adventure #1 (rating: PG-13 - scary situations)

It has been a normal part of the night routine for Elisa to wake up sometime between 3 and 4am for a snack. This might be what some would actually call "comfort food". We think that she only wanted to "snack" to know that we are there and that everything is okay. These snacks usually last only 10 minutes or so, but have been a burden to the joy of sleep. Anyway, a few nights ago Elisa called out "snack time". It was 3:30am. I got up and went to her room. I picked her up and carried her to her sleeping mother. I woke Jennifer and she maneuvered herself so that Elisa could lay between Jennifer and the edge of the bed (foreshadowing here). I went back to sleep and I want to say that poor Jennifer did too, but I don't think she ever woke up to be able to go back to sleep.

After a few minutes we heard the worst sound ever (like a loud smashing). Elisa screamed and cried out and we both knew what had happened. She had rolled over, right off the bed and on to the hard wood floor, hitting her head. I freaked out. We both (Jennifer and I) started to cry as we knew that this was a scary and serious situation. Jennifer picked Elisa up and she stopped crying (not a good stop, a scary stop). I took Elisa from Jennifer as the crying started back up and we rushed to get clothes on and get out the door to the ER. The time was 3:45am.

We rushed through the empty streets of Porto Alegre to the hospital we thought we were supposed to go to. However, this particular hospital doesn't have pediatric care (go figure). So, we rushed off to another hospital that we felt better about. The time was approximately 4:20am.

We got to the second hospital and Elisa has calmed down considerably. We didn't know if this was good or bad. If she had a concussion we didn't want her to sleep. Needless to say, we were very worried. We rushed into this hospital's ER and told them the situation. They had us sign in and wait. Meanwhile, Elisa is waving at the technicians and talking in her baby talk. I still didn't know what to think, but I thought it was possible that she was alright.

The doc called us in. We explained that Elisa fell out of the bed and hit her head on the flood. She took one look at Elisa and asked, "Why are you here?" Elisa was just fine. She was playing and laughing and talking. She didn't have any marks or signs of a head injury.

We left and made it back home around 5:15am. We put Elisa back to bed (she fell asleep immediately). As we started to calm down and get ourselves settled we noticed that Jennifer has some magazines and a pair of rubber sandals on the floor on her side of the bed. We don't know for sure, but it seems possible that the "smash" we heard was the magazines and sandals breaking Elisa's fall. I think Elisa was asleep and the fall scared her into crying.

This experience inspired me to break her of her "snack" time each night. Thankfully, it only took one night. The first night she woke up and cried. I went to her and comforted her, letting her know that we were in the next room. I put her back down and she fell back asleep. Every night since she hasn't woken up. Instead, she has been sleeping until about 9am. Praise God! Praise him that she is healthy and well and that she is a good sleeper.

True Adventure #2 (no rating, just warning - deals with excrement!)

Today I went to get Elisa up from a nap. We had heard her for several minutes playing in her bed. When I took a look at her in her crib I was shocked to see that her diaper was only wrapped around one leg and that there was poop everywhere! It was in little balls all over the place! I yelled to Jennifer for reinforcements and then went in for a closer look. Upon lifting this poor child out of a pile of her one fical matter I noticed a little ball of poo stuck to the side of her face. "Nasty" is all I have to say about that one. All in all it was pretty easy to clean. It was just gross. I consider all of us lucky that the poop was in some serious ball shapes and it wasn't pasty. That would have been horrible!


Well, those have been the latest in what I am sure will be a long list of stories in the life of Elisa Lucena Terry. Stay tuned for more amazing "Adventures of the 'little missy'"!