Mexico Part 29: Eva's Open House

For the last two years at Eva's school they do an open house where they invite the parents to come and see what your money is going towards.  They show us a little snippet of the English program and a little snippet of the Spanish side too.  Eva will be done with this preschool at the end of July and we can't believe how far she has come.  She is learning her numbers pretty well, grasping simple addition and subtraction, counting by tens up to 50 real well, and of course learning to read and write in Spanish.  It is amazing to see your own child learn.  The other night, Matthew was amazed at how well she can read.  Of course, she still needs fluency practice (totally said by the teacher in me) but it's neat to see your baby reading.  Back in October I was a little concerned and mentioned to the teacher that I understood they were reading in cursive but was worried she didn't recognize regular script.  She told me not to worry, to give it time and that I would see that she would sort it out later.  Well, Eva totally has.  She recognizes most letters in script now too.  It's cute.  Sometimes when she is reading her little phonic readers (these) she asks me what sound the letter makes because she is unsure of some noncursive letters and then keeps reading.  Eventually the goal will be to teach her myself to read in English, but for now, I am just letting her get good and one and when she can dominate it well, we will start with the other.  Well, that morning of the presentation Eva was not feeling well.  I mentioned in the last post that Elijah had been sick, well Eva didn't seem to get it as bad as Eli, but she got something.  Anyway, she came and laid in my bed, all sad because her tummy really hurt.  It was the saddest thing.  At one point we were going back and forth about whether or not she was well enough to go to school.  She had a low grade fever and I flat out told her I didn't think she could go and that maybe I could go another day and visit her school by myself without the full blown presentation.  It broke my heart when I saw her trying to be strong and not cry and ask me who was going to play "mother" in the presentation that they were going to be doing.  She can be so sweet I tell you.  I actually teared up.  I am a big baby.  To make a long story shorter, we decided that she was okay to go and that as soon as she didn't feel well we were going to be coming home.  Turns out she did well and we left before lunch time.  The cool thing about this story was what happened the following Monday.  Eva came home from school and told me that the teachers all said how impressed they were at Eva for coming to school even though she wasn't feeling super because she had a responsibility that Friday in the presentation.  And then, all the kids and teachers clapped for her.  That made quite the impression on Eva.  And frankly, on her parents too.

Eva read that word during the little presentation where they were decorating cookies.  The word is Nutela.

Do you see that face?  We get that look often.

Mexico Part 28: It wasn't the water that made Elijah sick...or was it??

My last couple of weeks have involved vomit, diarrhea, more vomit, and yes more diarrhea.  It has not been fun to say the least.  Elijah caught a nasty virus that made him sick for about two weeks.  I think it is finally over, thank goodness.  There were days there where I thought I would never stop doing laundry, or using the bleach to clean his mattress.  I never thought a little guy could explode so much, but now I realize nothing is impossible.  The funny thing is it all started the night that I had taken the kids to McDonalds earlier in the day.  At first we thought it might be food poisoning except that no one else got "this mysterious food poisoning" but Eli.  I was at a relief society activity and Matthew texts me about 30 minutes into the activity letting me know that Elijah had thrown up and he couldn't believe that it was happening on his watch.  That night Matthew had to spend the night with him because he was literally coughing up vomit in his sleep.  The kid was so out of it he would have slept in his filth if you would have let him.  The next morning it slowed down a bit, but then when we thought he was getting better, a new symptom moved in.  It got to the point where we couldn't leave.  Well, before we learned that lesson, we went out with some friends when we thought he was feeling better, and that night, at the restaurant mind you, he threw up all over the floor.  It was HORRIBLE.  But, now, after being patient, the kid is eating like he hasn't eaten in two weeks.  Which, I suppose he really hasn't.  It is just crazy to see how a little body knows how to take care of itself.  And thankfully, no one got his nasty bug.  Talk about a blessing.
So, it wasn't always that bad.  Prior to the two weeks, the kids one night decided to have a dance party.  They actually enjoy having one often, but this one involved dress changes.  I came upstairs to hear the music playing and see Eva dressed like this (she had her ballet shoes on too)...

And then of course, Elijah had to get his "dance attire" so we had these wacko kids running around the room dancing in their swim clothes.  I suppose it is these funny moments that make the not so funny moments bearable.