New Pictures

Not Such an Infant, Not Quite a Toddler

Jeremiah is advancing rapidly but not growing as fast as he should. We went to the doctor this week for his 8-month checkup & he only weighs 16 lbs. Right now he's in the 5-10 percentile for his age. We feed him all the time, but he just doesn't gain that fast. The doctor isn't too worried though since he has a big appetite. In fact, he's ready for the next phase of foods: chicken, tortillas, cheese, beans, and red meat. Pretty much the only things he still can't eat are the high-allergy foods like nuts, fish, and wheat nor the choking hazards like popcorn or other small foods. Apart from eating he's doing good. The doctor wants him to start crawling, but Jeremiah acts like he wants to skip that. He likes to stand up holding on to the coffee table but doesn't like crawling.

As for me, I now work in the toddler house. At first I was in the older teenage girls' house, but the toddler house called for reinforcements. A few weeks ago the orphanage received 70 new children, with about 30 of them being infants and toddlers. The youngest baby was just a few days old. So now there are about 50 infants/toddlers in the house. Needless to say, it stays busy over there. With all the new kids the orphanage now houses about 480 children. The school year here is almost over, so the staff will have their hands full keeping everyone occupied.

Independence Day

As you can see by the last photo, Jeremiah’s two front bottom teeth have come it. Since then he’s been eating nonstop…bananas, rice, anything he can get close to. He can scoot a little bit now, but it's always backwards. It seems to me that he prefers standing (with support) more than crawling. The other day he was standing just holding on to the table. He didn't pull himself up to that position, but once he get's the hang of pulling himself up, it'll only be a matter of time before we're chasing after him.

The other photos are from Honduras’s Independence Day parade we had last week. (In the second photo you can see Selvin, the boy we brought with us to the US in the very front.) It took a lot of planning, but it all paid off that day to see the kids so excited. I was in charge of the band and dancers, so I had my hands full. The director's aren't here, so Terrez has been in charge of the entire middle school & high school & has really had a full plate. Now we are preparing to for next week’s adventure where we have to take the band and the upcoming graduates into town for a special presentation. After that things will be a bit more calm ☺

New Responsibilities

We've both been super busy & haven't had the time to update the blog. I am officially working in a house with the big girls & special needs. So far nothing major has happened. It's been good getting to know some of the girls outside of the school & see how they act when they're not around boys. Some are better & some are worse. Terrez & I both have more responsibility in the school. Neither the principal nor the superintendent are here right now, so we've had to step up. Once we get more adjusted the blog will be updated more often.

Baby Update

Jeremiah now weighs 14 pounds 12 ounces. The doctor said he's not growing as fast as he would like, so he recommended adding more foods to his plate. We just finished trying bananas and we're moving on to plums. The doc said Jeremiah can eat rice or cut-up spaghetti, but it seems so early for that. But then again, Jeremiah does seem to enjoy the new foods. The only thing he hasn't liked so far is the corn. H has has rice cereal, so I guess just plain rice won't be that much of a stretch.

Happy 6 Months!!

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of things to do. Here’s a recap (and not in order): Terrez took a small group of teenage boys and members of a visiting US group into the town to give away clothes. He said people were everywhere trying to get stuff. I’ve been substitute teaching high school physics, which is something I never took in high school or college. Luckily for me it was the same topics we covered in chemistry. I now help direct the marching band and color guard. I had a crash course in twirling flags only the day before I had to teach it to the girls. Since we are the school government advisors, we were super busy last week for our first fundraiser. We sold baleadas (bean-filled tortillas), cinnamon rolls, drinks and icees. The girls and I had to start making all the tortillas at 5:30am. Despite all the work I enjoyed it. I now know how to make an inexpensive, authentic Honduran meal. Terrez has been craving it for days now. We’ve also been running around town trying to gather all the necessary paperwork for residency. Since we have the baby it’s much harder to travel around, so we don’t want to have to worry about hauling him & luggage on long bus rides just to leave for a few days to renew our passports, especially since it’s been more dangerous to travel lately.

Jeremiah’s been growing so much. Today is his six month birthday :) He has his checkup tomorrow, so we'll see how much he weighs. As far as milestones & development, he can sit up pretty well by himself. He still topples over sometimes when he reaches for things, but he can handle his own. We started corn a few days ago, but he doesn’t like it. Once he gets used to it, we’ll move on to carrots. On another note, he’s just getting over a cold that he has had for a few days. Since he gets congested at night, he’s been waking up a few times. After regaining my restful nights, it’s so hard to go back to getting up in the middle of the night. I can’t wait for the cold to have fully passed.

Food!!

Jeremiah had his first taste of real food today... green beans. I guess he loved it because he ate a lot & didn't spit much of it out. He even tried to help me feed him, which made it messier, but hey, it's early practice for him eating on his own. I made the food myself & it was actually pretty easy. We'll see how the green beans go this week & maybe we'll try carrots or peas next week.

As for me & Terrez, everything is good. We started a new term at the school, so our daily schedules are a bit different. Twice a week the students have elective classes, and Terrez and I are involved with that. He helps with the boys' phys. ed. class & I help with the band (which is really a drumline). We have to start preparing for their independence day parade on Sept 15th, I have my work cut out for me. We've also just become the overseers for the school government. We'll see how that goes :)