Monday Morning Sights

The kids were all up on the early side this morning and with nowhere to go, got a chance to watch some cartoon classics. Oh, the antics of Shaggy and Scooby, and those silly Looney Toons! So here they all are still in their jammies.

Sweetie

Spidey

Smiley

Still working out the food thing a bit... maybe something in the meal I had at a restaurant on Saturday? Josh had a restless night last night so something was bothering him. But that didn't stop our little guy from grinning at his Mommy! I think it's because he knows he'll be able to finish all his naps today. So often during the week he falls asleep right before we have to go in the car. And car sleeping isn't a valid option as far as this fellow is concerned. :)

Random Pictures from Saturday

We had an appointment with Dr. Flores yesterday and we were encouraged. Josh's heart sounds better, his calcium was in the right range and his blood work came back okay. God is really working!


Dana and Joshie.


Bertha babysat yesterday for us and painted up Micah's face. (and hands)
Micah cried a lot this morning when we washed it all off.


Bertha did a great job on Eva's face.


Bertha with the kids.

Wordless Wednesday

Santa and a Crying Baby.

Last week we had our Palliser expat Christmas party in Saltillo. We had a great time hanging out and eating.

Here are a few shots of the kids with Santa.

Eva's first glimpse of Santa.


Even though Eva was a little shy when asked what she wanted for Christmas, she did not hesitate to go up there and sit with Santa. By the way, she asked Santa for a computer.


Micah was not shy. I had to hold him back and make him wait his turn.




I love these photos. So angry.

A tea party and growing Josh.

Dana has been blogging up a storm lately so I thought I'd spell her off and guest blog today. But I had to first wrestle my camera back from her. She has been on fire with the photogging. I love it. Although if Dana really gets into it it could mean no early retirement for us.

Okay, so this morning we found the kids with this set up. Ironically they were having a tea party on top of the coffee table. Too bad we didn't get any video because it was quite entertaining. Eva and Micah are playing so well together.







When I got home Dana held Joshie's feet in place and I snapped a few pics of the tall guy. He's even giving out some smiles.




Later, Dana grabbed this shot of Josh and I. Josh actually hung out with me without crying for almost 10 minutes. WOW.

A Typical Morning

A glimpse into what we see and do weekday mornings:

We might see the produce truck... (I would love to buy from this truck but apparently I don't buy with enough frequency and volume to make it worth the seller's while to add my house to his route.)

While it's not unusual to see military convoys, we saw this rather incongruous scene of military trucks- guns, balaclavas and all- parked in front of the local church. I wish the photo were better, but I wasn't sure how apropriate it would be to take a photo so I was sneaky about it.


We travel the short distance down a highway to Eva's school... (39 secs)

Then we wait in line to drop her off at her gate. It's a pretty slick system where the parents don't even get out of the car for drop off and pick up. All the teachers know which cars/parents belong to which children- impressive- and escort each child to and from the corresponding vehicles. Quite safe and efficient.


The usual sights and sounds at the back of the school bus... (15 secs)

Did you pick up the accusatory glance Joshua shot at me?

More Brothers Photos

(again with the ISO 800... my bad)

Joshua had a really good morning. Didn't even cry at all in the car and was happy and relaxed enough that when Micah asked to hold him it worked out great! I was lucky to capture a few smiles from Josh. He smiles at me pretty easily, but stops the minute I cover my face with the camera!

Brothers

I'm really happy with this shot. (I'd be happier if I hadn't shot it at ISO 800...!)

TKD

I think I enjoy the kids' class more than they do! Well, I definitely look forward to it more than the kids do. Every time I announce with great excitement that it's time to go to Tae Kwon Do, the kids groan, "AwwwwwwWW!" I think (hope?) it's just because they're kind of tired by that time in the day. During warm-up they always have giant grins plastered on, with a similar expression to a dog with its head out the car window.

Their teacher, Barbara, is really really good. She got to one or maybe two steps away from representing Mexico in the Olympics. She obviously enjoys children and knows how to work with them effectively. She keeps the classes moving so the kids don't lose interest and she pushes them farther and faster than you'd think possible.

In the short time since they started, Micah's attention span has increased considerably. He used to tune out at around the 30 minute mark. Yesterday it was about 50 minutes before he began kissing the mirror and contemplating his navel. It is so incredibly cute to see these little guys standing at attention, bowing, and doing all the different movements.

My heart swells when I watch Eva. She has developed such confidence and self-assurance recently! She is the first to volunteer when Barbara asks who wants to do something in front of the class. Her shouts are among the loudest. She has an obvious sense of belonging among her peers. These changes are so huge, as she has struggled with self-consciousness. Answered prayers!

I see so much of myself in Eva, and Andrew in Micah. In their learning styles and ways of being. It makes me chuckle as I see Eva trying to be 'efficient' when doing different movements, and the way she focuses on following instructions as exactly as possible. And then there's Micah who just kind of does stuff as he sees fit. He sees the basic idea of the exercise and isn't so concerned about precision so much as getting it done.

Next Friday Eva will test for her orange belt. Apparently it's a "massive" test day with all the local schools attending. Should be interesting. I'll be sure to take my camera.

Bird

Micah has gone so quickly from random scribbler to actually producing recognizable images! Well, fairly recognizable. This here is a bird. As you can tell from his wings and feet. Right?

Little Boys

Smiles, Splashes and Silly

The other day I finally got around to hanging Eva's mosquito net. She was absolutely thrilled and Micah was very excited for her. While I was taking pictures of it, he made sure I got a shot of him and his bed too.



The kids thought Joshua might enjoy having some company in the swing. And a warm head.


Now a few shots from today:

Joshua gifted me with some awesome smiles today and I managed to catch one with the camera!

Here he is gazing up at Eva. Those three kids love each other a. lot.

I'm sure this would be harder on the Winnipeggers if the weather there weren't still unusually pleasant:

Micah is sooooo bored in the mornings while Eva is at school....

Baby Micah Flashback

I came across this clip of 16 month old Micah and I am amazed. It is quite something to see him when he could only grunt! And his signing ability feels even more amazing here from the future. It must be so frustrating for those babies that don't have that communication tool!

>

I Spoke Too Soon

I made classic parenting mistake. I declared something so. Hence immediately thereafter it became NOT SO.

Joshua was miserable all afternoon.

Micah opted out of much of the Taekwondo class today. "I'm not interested."

Hopefully I didn't compound my mistake by signing them both up anyway. Micah was really tired from his sniffles so I'm counting on the return of his enthusiasm by next week.

Here is a 23 second clip of them working on a punch. SO cute.

Snot, Smiles and Taekwondo

So Josh wasn't even over his last cold when this one hit him. Poor guy is so tired but just can't stay asleep once the snotcork wedges into place. However, despite the miserableness of having a cold, and at the risk of him immediately proving me wrong (as kids are wont to do) I am going to declare Joshua more content.

The last week or so has seen him enjoying diaper changes, quietly hanging out in the bouncy chair or swing for a stretch, and doing much less crying in the carseat. Yippee!!! He really enjoys when the big kids fuss over him- which is such a double edged sword because that's how he gets his colds. Yesterday he sat on my lap and quietly enjoyed the kids' Taekwondo class for a good 15 minutes before the snotcork got the better of him.

I've been looking for some sort of activity in which to enroll Micah. He is so bored in the mornings! He needs an outlet. Of course there are no morning activities since other kids his age are in school. But most afternoon activities are for kids four and up. But I found out that Xochi's Taekwondo teacher takes kids as young as three!! Yesterday we went to check it out. It only gets better. Both kids can be in the same class. There is a volume discount. It is two days a week and starts at 4:30 (many activities are three days a week and start as late as 6 or 7'o'clock). I like the confidence, discipline and language benefits I see coming from this class. And the kids really really enjoyed it! So did I. It was really fun to watch them learning with big smiles, and Micah was so cute doing his best to follow instructions. I will try to get some video tomorrow.

A Portrait

Last week, while waiting for Eva to come out of school, Micah did a portrait of me. Don't I look cute? At first I didn't have those three lines coming out of my head or the dot between my legs. But then I asked him if I could have hair and a body so he added those features.

I love getting a glimpse into the kids' inner workings and perceptions of the world around them. Eva, for instance, now makes sure the people she draws have necks.

In other news, Eva passed on her latest runny nose to Josh. He was still getting stuffy and a little restless in the nights from the last cold... but last night the poor kid was up every hour or two struggling to breathe through a ton of snot. So frustrating! I'm starting to get pretty good at the sleep deprivation thing now; hardly grumpy at all. Though my communication skills have suffered horribly. My Spanish might currently be qualified as 'broken'.

Cake Party

So I got pretty stressed about Eva's birthday cake. The last time I baked a cake was one year ago. Baking at high altitudes is challenging. And I can't eat wheat so I couldn't do any taste testing. Eva asked for a lemon cake so I found a layer cake recipe online and made it on Wednesday so if it was garbage I would still have a day to get one done. Things were going pretty well. I felt good about how it came together. I made a single cupcake so the kids could try and approve it. That cupcake just about did the project in! I tried to fit the muffin tin plus two 8" round pans on the same rack. And managed to push one pan right off the back of the rack!! NOOOOOooooooooooooooo!!!!

I was able to salvage about 2/3 of that batter and that was good enough for me. The beauty of the layer cake and toppings is that it doesn't matter too much what the cake underneath looks like. It's all about the taste. And the kids gave it two thumbs up (I'm sure the two cups of sugar in the recipe had nothing to do with that, ha ha).

Here is the finished product.



And finally, our FIRST FAMILY-OF-FIVE PHOTO! (Hm, the cake looks rather lopsided now that I look at it. Maybe the cake underneath does matter a little. Ah, whatever. I wasn't going for perfection, just edibility.)