Mexico Part 30: Middle of February to Middle of March

Where to begin.  I feel like I am so behind and for my children's sake I have to do a little rewind.  February 14th was almost an entire month ago but deserves to be talked about.  I took Eva to school in the morning, only to come home and have Matthew show up with two set of roses.  He can be so sweet sometimes, even though he swears up and down he really doesn't like the holiday.  Well, I do, and so we had a little fun with the kids and threw them a little party.  My friend, Vanessa, made the best sugar cookies, and the kids had fun decorating them.  We had some pizza, red punch, red jello...everything was perfect.  The kids had a blast playing around the house, and I had awesome company.  All the friends left, minus, my friend, Anjane, who stayed with me because our hubbies had planned out a special night in for us.  It was cool to see the boys make our dinner: yummy walnut fish, with a salad, the best baked potato I have had here in Mexico, and bread.  It was the works.  We even ate by candlelight and iPad fireplace.  They even planned out the music we would listen too.  Conversation was awesome and it was a night I won't soon forget.  Matthew outdid himself this year.

Fast forward a little and we are in March.  It has been about two weeks now and I am happy to saw that my little Elijah is potty trained!  I was starting to think it would never happen.  If anyone remembers I had Eva trained a week after her second birthday.  Elijah?  Well, two months before his third birthday.  They say all your children can't be the same, and that is the truth.  It all started about three weeks ago when I decided to pull off the diaper when we were home.  I wasn't having any luck and I was getting pretty stressed because he was peeing all over the place and he didn't care if he was sitting in his own urine.  But, fast forward a week, and all of a sudden he was telling me "peepee mama" and we would run to the bathroom and he would go.  Every once in a while we have our accidents but they are starting to be less.  Yesterday we were at church and I decided to send him in underwear.  Last week I was too scared and put a diaper on him.  Well, he was sitting in church, crouching, and all of a sudden I hear him quietly say, "peepee mommy" and I take him and we run out of the sacrement meeting.  I run him into the bathroom only to find that he went half in his underwear and shorts and the other half in the toilet.  Lucky for us, I had an extra outfit, so I went back into the chapel, left him in the bathroom naked, and changed him into a plaid pair of shorts that definitely did not coordinate with his plaid Sunday shirt.  Oh well.  At least we had something to change him into.  I have had my fair share of nuggets in the underwear incidents, urine in my hair incidents (boy urine can shoot, I tell you), and encounters with my bleach spray, but I am happy to report that it is official, my boy is potty trained!

I think it is so cute how he plays with his trains on the floor like this.

In other news, we are moving.  With the financial situation the way it is, the government cut our loans, so we can no longer live better than we were living in the states.  Bye, bye, swimming pool and tennis courts, and beautiful homes...we are moving over with the "poor people."  I really think I should hit myself, because I am being so mean.  So, now if anyone ever decides to come and visit me, you will get a real glimpse of Mexico.  Okay, it isn't that bad.  I am actually excited to move into our new place.  It has a great park, the kids will be able to ride their bikes in front of our house (which they haven't been able to do very well in this place), we will be really close to Eva's new school for next year, and Matthew will be close to the hospital he will be at next semester.  Not to mention we will be paying half of what we are paying in our current place!  I will post pics of our new place soon.  The landlord said I should get keys this Wednesday, and as soon as I have internet in the new place, we are moving over there.  For now, I have been taking the kids to the pool everyday that I can, enjoying it while we still have it.  

Eva has been saying some cute things lately.  Here are a few of them.

• First, we were at the pool the other day, and she had her arms out and said to me,"Look mom, I'm floating."  Then I said to her, no Eva you're swimming.  Silly girl figured it out on her own.
• Eva can be such a pain when it is time for bed.  She does anything and everything she can to get out of going to bed.  So, Matthew said to her that she better go to bed or he was going to spank her bare bottom.  Well, Eva grabs her teddy bear and says, "This bear's bottom?"  We about died laughing.
• Way back in Sisters, she asked if deer were supposed to walk on the road.  And we asked why she wondered that.  She said, "Why are there signs on the road letting deer be on them."
• The other day when we were listening to Pandora she said if the song was from Mary Puttins. (aka Poppins)
• She was telling Elijah the other day that poop and pee go in the toilet.  Then she proceeded to tell me that that was why Jesus gave us toilets.
• Eva was in the bathroom and I hear her say,"Mom, Elijah has to see me go poop so he can learn huh?"  Meanwhile, Elijah is saying, "Oh WOW, queque!" (Elijah's nickname for Eva)
• And while listening to Pandora she says to me that you have to sign up your passport (aka password) and then you get music.
• And lastly, she always says pouldn't for couldn't.  When she goes in the pool she needs her gobbles instead of goggles.  And we do get spiritual around these parts, but it is mostly wondering why we pray before we eat and why we have to go to church.

Gotta love children.

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.

Catching up...December to January

Where to begin?  The beginning of December was filled with Eva on stage.  She had her ballet recital, which is the first we have seen since we have been here in Mexico.  She looked like a little angel.  They did their own rendition of the nutcracker, that was nothing like the nutcracker, but the little girls were angels.  They had the entire ballet classes from the university perform and every time the little girls hit the stage everyone was ahhing and oohing at them.  They were priceless.  The performance started at 7pm on a school night, and since our kids are in bed by 8, by the time the performance was over our angel turned into a little monster.  No fun, but she managed to humor me and smile for the camera.

At school, they had their Christmas program.  Their theme was an Arabian Christmas story.  Everyone was quite confused when the costume list came out what they were going to be doing, but made sense once we watched it all.  It was pretty cute.  And like always we are impressed by Eva's little dancing skills.  She doesn't like to share with us what she is going to be doing until the actual performance, which can be annoying, but it is a pleasant surprise when we see the real thing.  Elijah was also a nice surprise.  He sat through two, two hour performances two days in a row and he was GREAT.

Then on the 10th of December we made it to Oregon.  It is always nice to be home.  The iPad, made the flight a good experience.  Okay, well not just the iPad, but it did help.  My kids are getting really good at flying now.  And since they are getting older, the tantrums seem minimal.  In order to make the most of what we spent, we were there for a whole month.  Even though we were literally, back and forth between Sisters and Hillsboro, it was nice.  We were able to spend quality time with family and friends and get things we can't get here.  I laughed when I saw that Matthew's carry on was filled with chocolate chips, chowmein noodles, and taco seasoning when it was time for him to go home.

So, here is a rundown of some events...

Our kids love "pap."  Everytime my dad would come home from work, Elijah would run up to him and give him a huge hug.  My mom would try to get the same affection from Elijah and he just wouldn't give it the same most of the time.  Elijah would get up in the morning and always ask, "uhnta pap?" Meaning, where's pap.  Too cute.

Okay, so when we got to Oregon, Matthew and I were having some serious contact issues.  We had had eye infections and couldn't wear contacts.  I think we spent the first half of our vacation in glasses.  Man, seeing this picture with my mom makes me realize I am a spitting image of her.  When did that happen?  This series of pictures is when we dragged my mom, brother Ricky and Keri to the Grotto in Portland.  When I was in high school I used to sing with the choir in the church that is there.  And literally, as I am typing this, a friend of mine posted this on facebook.  What are the odds.    

It was cool to go and relive those moments.  They had lights, music, a puppet show (that the kids really liked), and a petting zoo.

                                     

We made a trip, (two trips actually) to the Portland's Children Museum.  The first time was with Matthew and the kids and the second was with my brother, Erik, after Matthew left for school.  We took the Max and enjoyed hours of fun.

 Elijah played with this contraption for a long time.  He would stick the rubber ducky in the slots and make it move with the water.

 This is the coolest thing I have seen.  It is a rubber dirt pit.  We loved the thing.  Eva made a face.  Do you see it?

 I was a patient in the ambulance.

 Eva's dressup with the lego exhibit.  That dragon is made of legos.  Pretty cool.

We were also lucky enough to use our new brother in laws' parents club house to have fun.  It's called Brasada and the place was great.  The kids had access to a nice kiddie pool.  I would have hung out there more if I had the chance.  We went a couple times, even when we didn't have John with us.  In fact, the first time we went I ran into a glass wall.  Who does that?  So the second time we went, the guy who works there was like, " Hey, were you the one who ran into the wall?"  I told him I was but was super embarrassed.  Who wants to be known as that person?

 

Christmas came and went.  We spent Christmas eve with my parents and Christmas day with Matthew's parents.  This year Eva really wanted a minnie mouse.  She went and visited Santa at the mall, and she told him she wanted that too.  My parents got the kids a minnie and mickey on Christmas eve and Eva's face was priceless.  I had to include this picture of Elijah because we couldn't get that hoodie through his huge noggin'.

Then, one of the main reasons why we came to Oregon, was Matthew's baby sister's Cathryn's wedding.  Woah, that's a lot of contractions.  Don't judge if I didn't get them right.  They were married at the end of December.  It was nice to have all of the family together.  The kids have a blast with all of their cousins.

 Elijah had a rough night.  He had a major blow out.  We literally had to hang out in the bathroom in socks only while Matthew went home to get me a new shirt for the kid.  Then right when we were getting ready to leave, he decided to drink out of the SUPER hot, hot chocolate, burning his mouth and spilling it on his shirt.  But, when he managed to be dressed he looked pretty good.

When we first got to Oregon we took a trip to Cannon Beach and spent a couple days there.  At the end of the trip, after Matthew left, my parents and I went back to Cannon beach and in January saw this...

 It was beautiful and warm.  We were there for only a day and a half, but we were able to play at the beach and roast marshmallows.  The kids discovered this time around sliding down the hill.  We really didn't want to leave.  It was actually warmer at the beach than at my parent's house.

Which brings another topic.  The weather.  It is amazing how quickly you forget what it is like to be cold when you are constantly in warm weather.  I couldn't believe what a wimp I was.  I had to go out and by me a sweatshirt because I couldn't handle being cold.  I even had to make a hat for Elijah.  For the first time ever he was telling me he was cold and wanted a jacket.  Coming from a kid who is always sweating, it was kind of funny.  Surprisingly, we didn't see much snow this time that we were there.  It snowed one day in Sisters, but barely.  It was somewhat disappointing because Eva was really looking forward to snow.  Oh well.

Then of course.  It was time to go home.  The kids were great on the plane.  We originally had a less than one hour layover in Arizona, which then turned into two.  But it didn't even phase the kids.  On the last flight, it was a small plane.  Originally, I thought the kids could sit together on one half of the plane, while I was across the aisle, but about 30 minutes into the flight I realized it was a horrible idea.  I talked Eva into sitting next to an old Mexican grandpa that was sitting next to me and then Elijah proceeded to cry and whine and eventually he took a nap.  It was wonderful.  He slept a little over an hour and even while the plane was landing the kid was totally asleep!  I couldn't believe it.  We got off the plane, met Matthew and now we are able to get back to our schedule.  It is always awesome to be in Oregon, but there's nothing like sleeping in your own bed.  And there you have it.  In a nutshell, that was December to January.