Feliz Cumpleanos Elisa!

She's been looking and acting like a seven year old for some time but her birthday is finally today!

Punta del Este

This year has been incredible for Elisa, our social butterfly.  We placed her a year ahead in school and she jumped in both socially and academically without any problem.  As we hoped, Elisa has taken the biggest leap in language development and sounds like a true Chilena complete with all of the slang.  We hope that there is some way to keep her going!

South of Argentina

She has had two visits from the tooth fairy, eight visits from the raton del dientes, has mastered hand clapping games in Spanish, developed a love and aptitude for swimming, continued with gymnastics, broken one bone, had one trip to the ER in the middle of the night for asthma, started to read in both English and Spanish, does homework without being nagged, was involved in Tzeirei Ami (the youth group), babbled away for hours in Spanish, and made more friends than we can count.

In the South of Chile

Somehow all the rage in second grade at her school is Monster High collectible stickers.  I don't think that any of the kids really know what the characters are about but they are having fun collected and trading cards to fill up their sticker book.  We have justified her involvement by the fact that at least the sticker book is in Spanish ;-)  For her birthday she asked for a "lifetime supply" of cards.  We got her enough to amuse her for a few weeks.

Elisa has been a real trooper this year going with the flow as we try out new things and travel all over.  It hasn't been easy being in the back seat in the middle on all the long trips and listening to long Harry Potter books.  I don't think that we've made a Harry Potter fan of her but she's been a good sport.  Elisa - we hope that your good humor and easygoing personality help you as you continue to explore your world!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!