Dec. 22nd was Matt's work party.  It was supposed to start at 6pm, and we probably got to his office around 5:45pm.  Now, I know Peruvians are notorious for being late and nothing starting on time, but I wasn't prepared for just how late things start.  My Mom's side of the family is pretty notorious for not starting on time much either, so I'm used to that.  But there are limits :)

Anyway, Henlie napped on the way to the office.  I prepped the gifts we got for Matt's employees while we waited.  It is mostly why we arrived a little early, just in case we actually started at a decent hour :)

Betty got there on time and the accountant was there shortly after.  And then it was just us for a long time.  Henlie had a relatively short nap, and was super excited about the Christmas tree in the office.

We maybe got everyone there around 7:30pm.  Henlie played with Ricardo's son, Franco.  Franco is about 6 months older than Henlie.  They had a grand time running all over.  We started eating maybe around 7:45pm.  Matt apparently arranged the catering.  He used his favorite little shop at the market downstairs from his work where he usually gets lunch.  We had a yummy noodle salad, followed by chicken, rice, and potato puré.  Matt made sure to order chocolate cake for dessert because I love chocolate.  He knows me so well :)

During dinner, we were serenaded by the sounds of protest.  A new labor law was recently passed that affects 18 to 24 year olds.  It takes away some of the benefits that they previously enjoyed, or potentially takes them away, making it not mandatory for employers to provide them to that age group.  Business people like Matt see this as a good move because it should allow for more jobs as companies can actually afford to hire people, but in such an entitled country as Peru, it hasn't gone over well.  Most everyone got up to check it out through the windows, and then Ricardo brought up the news to watch the protest there as well.  They were marching to Miraflores, so by the time we actually left, they were gone.


After dinner, it was presents.  Henlie delivered the truffles to everyone, and Rosario and Betty had gotten something for everyone, including Henlie and Franco.  Franco got a little plane from the movie Planes that rolls around and makes noise.  Henlie got a giraffe which also makes a TON of noise.  It is simultaneously the best and worst toy ever.  She thought it was great.  We find it very loud and annoying :)  Hers didn't come with any batteries, so they raided batteries from remotes and put them in for her.  She thought it was so great.  They also got Matt some men's lotion (I didn't know it was a thing) and gave me a couple of bracelets.

Then it was some more talking.  We got Henlie changed and ready for bed and said our goodbyes before walking home.

12 01 14 - Sitting on Daddy's toes to help him with his sit-ups :)

12 01 14 - More shave on her nose.  It's her favorite thing to do when Matt shaves :)


12 03 14 - Look how long her hair is getting!


12 03 14 - "I'm stuck!" Never mind that they are only pillows and she did it to herself :)


12 03 14 - Her favorite place to put stickers.  That and the back of her right hand.  All of them.  At once....


12 06 14 - We finally bought a stroller.  Henlie approves.  Then we had to take it for a test run, so we walked down to Huaca Huallamarca.



12 11 14 - We finally put up our "Christmas tree."  Henlie likes to match the little ornaments to their big ornament "mommies."  And she mostly just loves to swipe all of the ornaments off onto the floor. :)


12 11 14 - We were trying to find baking powder and baking soda (we were unsuccessful on this trip), and so Matt squatted to look at bottles.  Henlie had to squat too.


12 12 14 - Her first bun! It didn't last super long, but how cute is she?


12 12 14 - Later, after the bun was out, she wanted Mommy's clip in her hair.  Then we found a smaller one that stayed in her hair better than mine :)



12 13 14 - We went to Miraflores to shop at Inka Market to try to find a very Peruvian Christmas ornament (we were successful!).  I give Henlie an ornament every year for Christmas, and I like them to mean something.  Since we're living in Peru, I wanted something that would remind her of that time.  We also had to go to Saga Falabella to try to find some Christmas Eve jammies for her.  Since Saga is next to Parque Kennedy, we made a stop to pet the kitties :)


12 15 14 - Henlie and I finally went by ourselves out of the house to Parque Mariscal Castilla.  Unfortunately, she fell asleep before we got there.  She could not be roused to play at all.  I took a photo as proof we went to the park.  She was pretty upset when we didn't go to the park when she woke up.


12 15 14 - We chatted on Google Hangouts with Grandpa Erdmann.  Henlie was trying to let him look through her telescope :)

11 19 14 - Henlie kept stealing the corner of my blanket and putting it on the coffee table.  She thought we needed to have a picnic.

11 21 14 - "Look, Mom! I have a shave on my nose!"


11 21 14 - She gathered all of her friends and wanted me to take a picture :)


11 22 14 - We found Garth a job down here.  Lots of things are delivered via motorcycle.  This just happens to be the Pizza Hut Delivery a block from our house :)


11 25 14 - Henlie decided we needed to have another picnic.


11 25 14 - Stopping buses and checking drivers' papers.  Apparently not authorized drivers can be a problem here?


11 28 14 - Had the traditional Hadfield snack - POPCORN!  One corner of the bag got a little burned, but it was still alright.


11 29 14 - Our favorite park, though, is a few blocks north in Lince, Parque Mariscal Castilla.  It is very large.  There is lots of grass and trees and flowers.  Having public gym-type equipment is a thing here, so there is a gym park.  There is also a playground and a children's library that does activities outside every Saturday afternoon.  On this particular day, we met with the McMillens and played. Also, this playground would so not be allowed in the US lol.  It's kind of terrifying in some spots :)

My birthday was on Friday, Dec. 5th.  Matt wished me a happy first 29th birthday :)  He still went to work, but he came home early.  Henlie was still having tummy troubles, and was a bit of a grump.  Matt offered to take me out to dinner to an Italian place (I love Italian), but wasn't so sure he wanted to go with a grumpy baby.  Fortunately for me, she pooped, and we were able to walk to the restaurant.  It isn't too far from our house.  La Bodega de la Trattoria.  There was one word in a lot of the descriptions that we just didn't know.  Matt asked the waiter what it was, and he brought out a leaf to show us.  I was like, oh, it's an herb, okay.  (Albahaca = basil, in case you ever need to know :)) I got some Garlic and Olive Oil Spaghetti.  It was delicious.  Matt got some pork.  It came with puré potato, which was SO tasty as well.  We just shared with Henlie.  She and I also split a jar of chicha morada.  Love that stuff.  It was the best chicha I've had here I think.  Probably because it was a little sweeter than normal.  I'm a sugar addict, and things here just aren't as sugary :)

We had an appetizer, two entrees, and drinks for S/. 118.  Let me do the exchange for you.  That is about $41.  For really good food, and really, on the higher end of some places you can find here anyway.  Not bad for two people to have a fancy dinner.  We can easily spend $60+ at Carrabba's back home doing the same thing.  


For our appetizer, Matt got some bread and cheese and ham thing.  I don't know what kind of cheese it was, but I wasn't much of a fan.  Plus, it was pretty hard, which makes putting it on your bread rather hard.  But the ham?  Oh my stars!  It was SO good.  I was shocked.  Seriously, so yummy.  I left quite pleased with my birthday dinner.


And that was pretty much it :)  Carrie had sent me a beautiful birthday card that got here earlier.  My parents also sent one, but it hadn't arrived by my birthday.  And, of course, I was inundated with Facebook well-wishes.  It was a pretty decent birthday :)

I'd talked to a couple of my American friends about Thanksgiving plans.  I wasn't sure what we would do for certain, but I knew I wanted as traditional of a feast as possible.  Fortunately for us, the McMillens decided to host American Thanksgiving at their house in La Molina.  We were assigned a dessert, so Matt made Kill You Brownies (Peanut Butter Truffle Brownies are what Betty Crocker calls them :))  We'd never driven to La Molina before during the week, only on Sundays for church.  We knew it could take 2 hours, so we opted to leave an hour early.  We actually got there in about 45 minutes, and that included getting a wee bit lost.  Good thing Matt called a taxi driver (the ones you call or use through Easy Taxi typically have GPS in their cars).  We were able to use the GPS to find out where the heck we were going :)

We hung out for awhile chatting while Abby and Rob finished up some aspects of dinner and waited for other guests to arrive.  Henlie hung out with their girls.  She did their stairs like a champ.  It was a little nerve wracking for me when she wanted to come down the stairs, but she steadied herself on the glass railing and made it down just fine.

We also played in the common area a bit.  Henlie found some scooters and a trike and wanted to play with those.  There was also a trampoline and a little swingset.  Henlie played on the swings a little, but she didn't last long.  And she refused to go down the slide.





We chatted with the Adamses, Wells, and Storers when they arrived, and we had yummy traditional food.  I was very pleased.  And hungry lol.  And the turkey was so moist!  I don't know if it was because it is so humid here or what they did to cook it, but I quite enjoyed the white meat - this coming from the girl who always goes for dark because it is more moist and the white is usually pretty dry.  

Poor Henlie has been having tummy troubles since about week 2.  *TMI WARNING* She was constipated for about a week, and when she finally got over that, her diaper rash got quite bad.  Then, she tried to not go.  Which basically created more constipation.  Needless to say, she was grumpy and I was upset and we were going through diapers so often.  She'd try not to go, but still get some poop smeared on her bum, so we'd have to clean it.  Her body knew she had to go, so while I'm trying to clean her up and get Desitin on her, she's still pushing just a little, even though she was trying not to, which would just make it so I had to use another wipe.  And then her rash would bleed.  By 4pm, I was ready to go home.  We pulled Matt away from his soccer game, and he called the taxi guy back.  Unfortunately, taxi man had some other clients who had pushed back, so he was no longer available to take us home.  We hung out for a little while.  The Adamses offered to drop us off somewhere we could pick up a taxi.  By the time we were going to be waiting somewhere, though, I opted to have some leftovers for dinner.

The Adamses left.  Henlie eventually started to feel better, and so we were able to enjoy the party.  We chatted with Abby McMillen and Kathy Storer for awhile after the Wells had also gone home.  We tried to get on Easy Taxi to find a taxi as it was getting later, but we couldn't get on the McMillen's internet.  Abby tried to use her Easy Taxi, but it didn't work.  So, the Storers offered to take us somewhere we could pick up a taxi.  However, they were very generous and opted instead to drop the family off, and then Rob Storer drove us out to San Isidro to our house.  We got home maybe around 9pm.  

So, we live on a main road (which was a terrible plan, by the way.  So loud.)  And it gets stopped up all the time.  Plus, remember how driving here is horrendous?!?  I'm really surprised there aren't more accidents.  Seriously.  Anyway, Rob figured it was late enough it shouldn't be too bad.  And out to our house really wasn't that bad, but going back out to La Molina looked so bad.  I felt bad Rob decided to bring us all the way home.  Very grateful, but I still wonder how long it took him to get home.

All in all, aside from the hour or two Henlie was not feeling well and being a grump, we had a lovely evening.  The food was so yummy.  We got to meet more people from our ward.  We played in the common area.  Matt played a couple of games of soccer.  I had fun chatting with the girls.  Kathy brought some English books over for Abby's girls since her girls had outgrown them.  Abby let us look through and pick some out, too.  We picked two, If You Take a Mouse to School, and a Winnie the Pooh book.  (Henlie loves her Piglet, but she'd never actually seen or read Winnie the Pooh, to my knowledge.  She could have at Grandma's house, but I wouldn't know that :))  I kind of regretted not picking a couple more because those were the only two books she wanted to read always for like two weeks.  I was so sick of them lol

Matt opted to take Black Friday off as well, so we got a long weekend with him.  While we missed visiting with family, (Literally.  We were out so late we didn't know they wanted to video call.  By the time we got home to some internet, no one answered our calls :)) we had a great time making some new friends and enjoying the warm La Molina weather.

And I'm really glad I didn't have to try and figure out a turkey dinner for 2.5 people in a foreign country :)

Welcome to Peruvian Little Tidbits :)

11 07 14 - After our walk to Parque El Olivar, we noticed the humidity was helping Henlie's curls :)  Later that night, Henlie got ahold of a diaper and was changing Piglet's bum.  Fortunately, I convinced her to use pretend wipes, and not the real ones.  She had lots of fun asking me for wipes after that :)

11 09 14 - Peru has so many awesome flowers, but I rarely take any pictures of them.  Here are some from the church grounds on our first Sunday.


11 10 14 - Water "singing" as it slowly drains out of the tub, even though the drain is closed.  Henlie had fun in the bath.


11 13 14 - Henlie was reading Elmo book to Piglet.


11 14 14 - We have an empty hole in the entertainment center.  Henlie decided she should be in it :)


11 15 14 - We walked to a new park sort of by our house because it looked like (on Google maps) it had a playground.  We were not disappointed.

When we got home, Matt turned on the TV.  We found a cute little show of random shorts called Oddbods.  Henlie was mesmerized.

That night, Henlie helped Matt practice his guitar :)