Venezuelan Vibes

Emerson was excited to wear her cute little Grizzly Cub shirt for her first spirit day Friday at Gilchrist. I wish I would have thought about dressing Addison in her purple Growing Room shirt for her own spirit day, but oh well. We’ll get them both in their school shirts on the same day together eventually….

Emerson specifically requested “space buns” for her hair today. But they’re so difficult for me to do, because she has such a deep side part (which was made even further over after the staples she got in her scalp, changing her hair a little bit), so it’s hard to part it down the middle, and so it was nowhere near even, and one bun was bigger than the other. Oh well, I still love her “crookedy” space buns, and think she’s adorable!

Since drop-off was so crazy yesterday for Emerson, today, Jeff chose to park across the street and walk her up to the school, so it wouldn’t take so long. He said it was much easier that way today, she got there in time for breakfast, and maybe even some playground time. But she just looks too big walking down the sidewalk by herself!

But then later in the morning, one of Meg’s really close church friends Holly, who’s a 5th grade teacher there, came and found her, and sent Meg this picture. As my Grandmother said when Meg shared it with the family, it was good to see her with a familiar face!

The beginning of Addison’s day went really well, but as you’ll find out later in the post, she didn’t actually end on a great note today…

My friend Heather and I went out to try a new restaurant at lunch today for the first time, Venebites. It’s a tiny, cozy little place in midtown, with authentic Venezuelan food. I’d never had Venezuelan food before, but dang it was delicious! I’ve had arepas a couple of times before, from other places, but this one was hands down the best I’ve ever had. I ordered the Arepa de Pabellon, which had black beans, shredded beef & fried sweet plantains, and I paid extra to add cheese as well. It comes with a green dipping sauce on the side, that I believe is an avocado cilantro cream sauce, that was out of this world. The combination of flavors from the meat, cheese, plantains & sauce was just incredible, and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from groaning at every delicious bite.

Heather ordered the Arepa Camaron, which had a cold shrimp salad, peppers, tomatoes, onions, avocado, Thousand Island & tabasco. And I know she loved every bite of hers and raved about how much shrimp was actually in there. And she loved the same green dipping sauce as well.

We loved sitting out on the patio, even in the hot August heat, surrounded by all their beautiful plants, succulents, and cacti. Even a water fountain! They didn’t have speakers out there though, so we were missing the music playing inside. So I brought up some Venezuelan music on my phone for us, and that really was the final touch of Venezuelan vibes, to round out the whole situation. If you can’t tell, I absolutely loved it, and also already wrote a rave review on Google as well.

You guys, look what Jeff found today! We have bananas growing on our banana trees! We haven’t had actual bananas since we moved in six years ago, so we’ve been so excited about these. There are two bunches, and the bananas themselves are tiny, but they’re so cute. We’re thinking maybe we should pick them so they can ripen off the tree? We gotta do some research…

Gilchrist pick-up this afternoon went soooo smooth and fast today. Praise the Lord for that! The whole process only took like 4 minutes today, and then we were on our way to Growing Room. (I’m so glad they schools are so close to each other.)

But when we got there, we got bad news – poor little Addie had picked up a stomach bug, and thrown up at school just shortly before I got there. Sad little baby girl was obviously not feeling good, and was very tired. I covered her up with her sheet from school, just in case she threw up again in the car, hoping it would protect her brand new car seat. Luckily though, she didn’t throw up in the car.

When we got home, Jeff tucked her into his side, and she just laid there all quiet and chill, for the longest time.

Emerson went to the mailbox with me, and helped me open some mail and packages. Last Friday, we signed her up for her very own library card, and it finally came in the mail today. She was so excited! So of course we’ll be going to the library tomorrow at some point.

From Amazon, this past week I ordered: a bento box & silicone cupcake liners for Emerson’s lunches, and pretty phone cases for my phone. Pretty ones didn’t exist when we bought our new phones last fall, and I’ve had a plain black one this whole time, and just now thought about finally getting a new one. I couldn’t decide which of these I liked best, so I ordered both, with the intentions to pick one & send one back. But they were only about $10 each, so I just decided to keep them both. Emerson liked the one with oranges best, and wanted me to put that one on, so that’s what I did 🙂

Emmie wasn’t hungry yet, so I just made myself a leftover meatball sub and read while I ate. Then Jeff and I switched and I held Addison while Jeff ate a leftover meatball sub. Emerson finally decided she was hungry, and ate a PB&J. And decided she was still hungry, so she got Jeff to make her a second one, which she ate all of as well, along with some boom chicka pop popcorn.

Meanwhile, my poor pitiful baby girl threw up one more time while I was holding her (luckily, I was able to lean forward and hold her in a way it didn’t actually get on either of us, and Jeff ran over to catch most of it in a towel), and then promptly fell asleep on me.

We let Emerson stay up pretty late watching Despicable Me 3 with Daddy, while I just held and rocked my sleep baby. Addison eventually woke up, and we got her to drink some Powerade, and we checked her diaper, and then she was back asleep in about 20 minutes. Emerson’s bedtime went really well, and she was so tired and fell asleep so easily. We’re hoping and praying Addie’s little tummy bug runs it’s course quickly, and that none of the rest of us get it. Say a prayer for our family to stay well!