weekend

On Saturday Shawn went to the post office with Peter to set up a PO box so we can keep in contact with him and Rosita once we return to the states. Shawn also went to the grocery store and bought all kinds of stuff! We now have bread, peanut butter, jelly, avocados, vanilla wafers, water, microwave burritos, more Ramen, cheese, and last but not least good ol’ Minnesotan SPAM! Yup, I had a hot Spamwich for breakfast today =) Of course I had sent him with a list of 3 items: Water, a notebook and something for dinner. Note: I did not get my notebook =P

I on the other hand stayed “home” all day with Emi. We’re trying to get on a schedule and it seems to be working and helping with her tummy issues. My little girl hadn’t gone #2 for 3 days when we first got her! Since Wednesday she’s much more regular except when Rosita breast feeds her.

Rosita did not visit us on Saturday and I think Emi did mourn/miss her. She would look around and whenever I’d feed her she’d look up at me and scrunch her eyebrows then whimpers a little. It breaks my heart. I also know she’s starting to recognize us. She’ll smile when Shawn comes into the room or when I come back from the patio. She already knows that Shawn’s the one to play with and she playfully screams whenever he holds her. With me, she coos and knows that I’m the kissy one. She’s so alert everyone asks how old she is and when I say 3 months they say “wow, really? I thought she was 5 months”. She’s also very noisy. Whenever people are talking nearby she turns to see them then dismisses their conversations and turns back to whatever she was staring at.

We also had no running water on Friday but I forgot to add that in the last post. The toilet would refill but no sink water or bathwater. Just when I was starting to miss my dishwasher, God gives me a taste of what I should really be thankful for. We managed with bottled water and well we just had to be a little stinky that day =) Wet wipes are a must for future families! We were so happy Saturday morning when the water (no hot though) came on. We didn’t mind taking a cold shower.

Shawn also wants me to tell you guys that we keep getting random phone calls on our cell phone. Apparently if you don’t buy new minutes, the NTA gives your number away! We had someone say our number was someone else’s last week! It’s very annoying and I think she was a teenager or something because people call her at all hours and they all sound young and in party mode!

Sunday we woke up and Rosita showed up at about 8:30am. We all went to church which I think was a surprise for Rosita although we kept saying, “church today, we’re going to church today, Assumption Church…” Rosita didn’t want to enter and wanted to keep Emita outside with her. I felt bad but the whole reason (well obviously not the whole reason) but a main reason we wanted to go to church today was to get Emi blessed by the priest, so I took her in and Rosita waited outside. After mass we took a taxi to Payless Supermarket and ate lunch. Rosita went home at that point and we walked back to the MIR (Marshall Islands Resort).

Oh yeah- everything is 3 letter acronyms. Here’s a quick rundown that we know so far:

RMI – Republic of the Marshall Islands MIR-Marshall Islands Resort RRE- Robert Reimer Hotel DUD-Delap, Uliga, Darrit (the names of the villages that make up downtown) NTA- National Telecommunication Authority

You just get in a taxi and say MIR and they know where to take you.

Tips for future families:

I’m so happy we brought:

- the Playtex drop in system. No need to wash bottles and they’re so easy to use!

-the Munchin bottle warmer. I don’t use it to heat the bottles but you can sterilize pacifiers and nipples. Very easy to use and has been very handy.

-our Ikea changing pad which we’ve used as a bed for Noe. It’s flat but has 3 sides that inflate to create a barrier. Since she can’t roll over yet, it works well.

-lots of burp rags/wash cloths!

-lots of ziploc bags. We brought sandwich and gallon sizes and use them more then I thought we would. All of our food is sealed up or Noe’s bottles when they’re in the backpack .

-small tupperwares! We use them for formula and for food storage (keep the roaches away, which we haven’t seen any in our hotel, but better safe than sorry). Right now our AC is dripping into our room so I have a container under it =)

We should have brought:

-rolls of quarters! Taxis, laundry, water…everything is paid with quarters around here.

-different sized pacifiers.

-More blankets for Emi. I brought 2 very light ones and 1 heavier one. I think one more of either would be helpful.

-more medicine for us. We brought everything under the sun for Emi but we should have brought more for us. Benadryl, Tylenol and laxatives! LOL- we were warned about getting an upset stomach but not the opposite!

-something for Noe to sit in. This one is tough because it’ll take up room in luggage, which is why we didn’t bring one, but if you can bring a bouncy chair or something similar I would.