The Saga of the Family Christmas PIcture

We tried, we really did. But between a baby who wouldn't stop staring at his toes, a grumpy 3 year old and a camera that is on its very, very last leg, it just didn't happen. However, we definitely tried... Here are some of our attempts:

Song Titles from Bub

The other night Ethan was entertaining me on his "Capanyo" which is currently out of battery. He was using the microphone and pretending to play songs and sing to me. He gave me a list of songs to choose from. I chose each of these songs at least once and he proceeded to "sing" them to me, which usually meant the same line repeated over and over to a tune that only he can follow. I wonder what prompted him to come up with these particular song titles, in this particular order. What goes through the mind of a three year old anyway?

Here's the list of his songs:

Sing of your lungs
Chug a chug a choo choo
Love your whole heart
Just eat honey
Christ the Lord
Just do Nothing
Please don’t eat the cherries
Please fishy don’t eat, it’s poisonous

It's a Bub's Life

I am doing a lot of the cooking right now (although every couple of nights my good friend Celeste cooks up a fabulous dinner) and it has been a challenge to do it with baby and Bub in tow. I finally got the bright idea to involve Bub, and last night had him help me cut the cucumber. He did so well at it (I cut it into strips, he chopped it into small pieces.) He kept saying, "Everyone is going to say, 'Thank you for cooking Bub!'"
When Celeste came to thank him for cooking, he was very solemn about it, and nodded sagely, and then pointed out that "Mommy helped too." LOL. Since then he wants to help cook at every meal.
***
Mom: Honey, I smell something stinky. Do you need to go number two?
Bub: No Mom. I was just farting for fun.
***
His other passion right now is gardening (much to Daddy's pride and delight!) They had planted some beans in cotton in a glass cup and watched them grow, but Bub kept telling me he wanted to plant seeds in oil. I couldn't figure it out. I explained to him that seeds grew in water or dirt, but not oil. He was insistent, however, and finally Daddy figured it out -- SOIL! So smart. So they did another planting project, this time in soil, and hopefully we'll have green beans in a few weeks. He has been checking on them a couple of times of day, giving them water and sun and is very serious about the whole venture. So cute!
***
Now I am just bragging, but one of our friends commented today how his vocabulary is more like that of a 5 year old. He already knows his ABCs and can count to 15 and has announced to me that soon he is going to be able to read. He also loves writing his name. I was all prepared for him to be slower at the schoolastic side, because he's a boy, (I know, stereotyping.. sorry) but he's just a quick as the girls. Such a smartie.

We're Making Christmas

Bub is finally old enough to grasp what Christmas is and tonight was thrilled to pieces when Daddy brought home a Christmas tree. He was all ready for bed, but we let him stay up and enjoy helping to decorate the tree. He solemnly informed me that he was helping to "make Christmas."

The Sand Dudes

We ended up having to take an unscheduled trip to the border because of new visa laws here. We have a million irons in the fire right now as we are organizing Christmas parties for 400 children (including presents, a meal, cake, candy, puppet show, clown show, etc and so forth - and we hold the parties in nice locations, like hotels or restaurants, so the kids can get out of their institutional environment.) Anyway, going on a trip was the last thing on our minds, but I'm glad we ended up going, as we had a few fun days together as a family before the Christmas craziness. (I say a few, as I don't count the 19 hours up and the 19 hours back as "fun".)

We found a hotel for a very good price right on the beach of South Padre Island and spent one of our days there just enjoying the surf, sand and when it decided to grace us with it's presence... sun. The main beach was covered with seaweed and jellyfish, but we drove out to the end of the island that is a state park and that was quite beautiful. Lots of shell hunting and gorgeous, white "sand dudes" as Bub calls them.

The wind was intense, but our Mr. Preshy (short for Precious) handled it amazingly well. Bub just loved it and had so much fun.




Our beautiful Shell Bell.

I love the look of sheer, unadulterated joy on his face.

Our Indisflexible Baby and Halloween

"Oh baby, you're so indisflexible!" was the the loving compliment paid by Bub to our Mister Precious one morning a few days ago. Since two negatives make a positive, we are thinking that this word means that he is very flexible...? Bub has taken to using very large words, and often inventing his own if he can't come up with one that works well.

The other morning I was talking to our Mister Precious Pants (current nickname)...

Me: Oh Mister, you're such a precious baby! (And then to Bub - not wanting him to feel left out), "And you're such a precious pre-schooler."
Bub: I am NOT precious!

Happily, he is now fully potty trained (day and night) and no matter what he says, to me that IS precious!

On to other things: Halloween here is not really celebrated. Rather they celebrate the Day of the Dead, which is November 2nd, and involves visiting cemeteries, a lot of skeletons and other interesting traditions. It is also a big vacation, which this year meant Saturday through Tuesday off! The girls desperately wanted to go trick or treating, but that is not done here, except by very low class children, and also, because of the time change, it would mean going out after dark, which just isn't safe. So, we compromised, and all the kids went "trick or treating" in the house and happily ended up with some candy to show for it.

The girls wanted to be vampires, and even purchased fake teeth, blood and scar maker for the occasion, but I don't think it turned out quite as they had planned. At least they had a lot of laughs! Here Tory and a friend try to be scary...

Tory and Shelly here, looking good at Simone and Manolo's wedding (Simone is Polly, daughter of Marianne and Jerry - yep, she's married and has a kid!)

Mr. Precious Pants bids you farewell, as he takes off for a walk with my good friend, Cel.

Birthdays, Dress up and Thumbsucking

A little update for those of you who want to know...

I had a lovely birthday, including a tasty carrot cake with cream cheese topping baked by our very own Shell Bell. Starbucks has competition! Stephen got me some lovely earrings and Amaretto Liquer (Almond for the uninitiated) and Tory wrote me a poem. I felt loved :-)


The night of my birthday there happened to be a party going on in our house, (an early Halloween party attended by about 30 young people) and Stephen and I went for a few hours. Our young Mister was a Dalmatian. I went as a hippie. You guess what Stephen went as...


Our young fat is getting cuter and jollier by the day... I know this picture is out of focus, but I love the face he's making.


I'll end with this fetching picture of our cutie, who put himself to sleep sucking his thumb! He's the only one of our babies who actually sucks his thumb!

Some Photos

Our young chunk is continuing to grow. He is starting smile more, sleeps through the night, chews his fist with vigor and is definitely the most docile of all our kiddos. He has such a good nature - I feel blessed.

A list of his nicknames are:
CJ
Mr. Grumpy Pants (when he's grumpy)
Mr. Stinky Pants (when he's stinky... you get the idea)
Sir Topham Hat
Mister

Some photos for your viewing pleasure.


Bub asked me to take this picture of them snuggling, but then wouldn't open his eyes!

Mom, why am I in a pink chair?

Well, it's a little embarrassing, but I guess I'll hang out here for a while.

Okay, I'm getting the hang of this and kinda liking it.

Hats and Hair

It sometimes amazes me to watch my children grow up and see them develop their character, their sense of style, their likes and dislikes. I can definitely see some of myself and Stephen in them, but they also have things that are so distinctly their own. Tory has a love for hats and she really does look good in them. She is also good at picking them out and knows what will look good on her. The picture above is her most recent acquisition.

Speaking of style, we all got haircuts recently. I am not so fond of mine - they never, ever get it right, even when I show a photograph of what I want. So frustrating. Anyway, Shelly got a trim, as she is growing her beautiful hair long (picture coming soon). Tory went for a new look and I think her haircut turned out looking quite nice.

Sir Topham Hat

Our young chunk now weighs around 7 kilos and has many rolls. He is more placid than our other babies, and actually sleeps most of the night! Hurray! He is also extremely serious, and hardly ever smiles, just studiously studies the world around him and he lifts one eyebrow and smirks sometimes, which is kind of funny! We have nicknamed him "Sir Topham Hat".

Overheard...

in the kitchen this morning, Ethan's alligator and hand talking to each-other.

Alligator: Be careful with me, I'm a very delicate alligator!
Hand: Oh, Okay.

A minute later...

Hand: Help, help (halfway down said alligator's throat.)

A very DELICATE alligator? Please!

I told you so...

Little kids are so honest - they often express sentiments that adults also feel, but are no longer free to express.

We are potty training Bubby - he is having a bit of a tough time with it, and although he is now officially in "undy wears" as he calls them, he still often forgets to tell us when he needs to go and sometimes puts up a fight about going potty when we call him, insisting that he doesn't need to go. This evening I tried to potty him and he was insisting that he didn't need to go, but finally agreed reluctantly to try. Sure enough, he sits down and immediately starts peeing.

"I told you so..." I say, triumphantly.

He looks at me and says, "Mom, stop tolding me."

Lullaby

Here Ethan sings his latest composition to his brother.

A Happy Ending

You know that sinking feeling when something bad happens - you loose something important, something that is going to cost you a lot of time and money to replace? Well, last night Stephen and I were both pretty much overwhelmed with that feeling, as his wallet and cell phone disappeared. He had absolutely no idea where they were. The last he could remember seeing it was after working out at the gym, and after discovering at 9:00 at night that they were missing, he went to the gym to see if it had turned up and even searched the locker room, all to no avail.

He called the cell phone over and over, and it just rang and then went to the voice mail. We walked all over the house, hoping that it was just misplaced, listening to hear it ring. No good. Finally, around midnight, we called our banks and put all our credit cards/debit cards on hold and went to sleep with heavy hearts. The wallet itself is not that valuable - however, it had about 200 USD in it, all Stephen's cards (Credit and debit for here and the US), COSTCO, Sams' club, an irreplaceable bank card (long story), and his driver's license, which can only be reissued in person! The cell phone was a bigger loss, as it is Stephen's "office" and contained numbers that were only in the cell phone which he needed for his business and projects. All in all it was a loss not only of money, but also of the time it would take to replace everything in that wallet and find the numbers, get a new cell phone and get people calling it instead of the old one. WEEEEEEP!

We prayed and hoped and today he went back to the gym for one last check and what do you know, the locker cleaner (probably makes about 3 bucks an hour, max) found it, knew Stephen was one of the missionaries that the gym donates passes to, and saved it completely intact for him! When Stephen tried to give him a reward, the man refused, but Stephen explained that when he was praying about why he lost his wallet, he felt that whoever found it needed the money. The man then teared up and explained that his family is going through a really difficult time and gratefully received a reward. It was totally worth it, to get those valuable items back and to see the smile on that man's face!

I feel like Someone was watching out for us, and my heart is warmed to know that there are still honest, good people in the World! I hope if I was in his shoes, making as little money as he did, that I would have the integrity to give it back and not be tempted (or at least not give in to the temptation) to keep it!

Goodbye

We said a sad goodbye to Mom and DC and Grandpa this last week. Mom and DC threw an incredible "goodbye party" at a very quaint "Pozole" restaurant. They invited all their close friends (about 25 people) and many people drove for hours to see them and say goodbye! Just shows how loved they are and how much they'll be missed. Sniff! The meal was wonderful, traditional Mexican fare (specifically from the State of Guerrero) and there was some lovely Mezcal (sort of like Tequila, but with a stronger taste) and a lot of laughs and tears.

The night before they left the girls and I went to their house to say goodbye. Poor Bubby came down with a fever (he is still stick with a nasty flu!)so Stephen stayed home with him. We took pictures, ate ice-cream, cleaned out their fridge and generally tried to be merry on such a sad occasion! They will be so sorely missed. I know I have been very blessed to have had them so nearby for so long, that my girls and Ethan have gotten to know them well and that even though they are moving, at least we are on the same continent! (Gotta count those blessings!)



Four generations!



Do not be fooled. He is not smiling. This is a poop grimace.



The long-necked aliens have arrived.



Good bye Grandpa, Gogee and Great Grandpa! We love you and miss you!

Overdue update

Nothing of great importance to report, but just wanted to let you know that I am still alive! Have spent the last month resting as much as I can (I have gotten a lot of help, for which I am very grateful.) Recovery is a lot slower this time around - I am guessing it will be at least another month before I truly feel "normal". The Dr. put me on a no dairy diet, and that with the "nursing diet" (nothing spicy or gassy) makes for very little variety or taste in my food! Hopefully there will be some benefits (weight loss... pretty please) but we'll see.

Christopher James, nickname "mister" is doing well. He is a serious baby - reminds me a lot of Tory. Continues on a horrendous schedule, including playing/crying until 3 or 4 am most nights. He is very vocal - he grunts and growls and bleats like a goat when he wants something but doesn't cry very often, for which I am truly grateful! The girls are being a big help and I have just had them start studying again after a one month break.

Stephen has been working double time, poor guy - not sleeping much at night and still doing everything that he has to in the day (or into the night.) We have had 3 major charitable projects this last month (pictures forthcoming), the organization of which has taken a lot of his time, but they were all very successful!

More news coming when I feel like it. Have a great day.

Something funny..

Stephen insists that I post this, so here goes. It was taken on my birthday last year (which is October 2, in case you forgot) :-) (Watch Bub the whole time...)

Christopher James it is...

So it is official. He is Christopher James. He such a good baby and so sweet! Bub just loves him to bits and wants to hold "his baby" at every available opportunity.

Here is his rendition of where "his baby" came from (a transcript is available below for those who need it:



Transcript:
Bub:I got this baby from my Mommy's tummy and the from the hospital. And then Mommy was staying in the hospital and then I just started to get this baby.
Dad: Do you like it? What's this baby's name?
Bub: Hmmm, the baby's name is baby.

I am recovering slowly, first day without strong pain meds, and Stephen is working so hard to keep me well fed and cared for (with some help from our girls as well.) We also have had quite a bit of help from others we live with, which we're very thankful for!

One more video of Bub and "His Baby":

Here's Baby

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to put up pictures - I have been waiting for us to choose a name, and although it's very close, the final decision has not been made, so bear with us.

Names in the running are:

Christopher James
Edward James
Michael James or James Michael...

Christopher James is the favorite so far, but we always take forever to name our babies. I'll announce it formally as soon as we know for sure. (Oh, and the nickname in Spanish for James is Diego.. cute, huh?)

Without further ado, for those of you who wish to know, here is a short retelling of the birth of the baby of our family. (Warning - Placenta's, uteruses and other body parts will be discussed, so discontinue reading and skip to the pictures if you're faint of heart.)

We originally scheduled baby's birth for July 9th. After much back and forth we decided on a c-section, for a number of reasons. There was a possibility of trying to deliver the baby naturally but when we prayed we both felt very strongly that we were supposed to have a c-section and that was also what the doctor was recommending (because of the size of the baby, my health history and the fact that the rascal kept changing his position in my tummy, so there was no guarantee he would be in the right position come his due date.)

We have a good friend who supports our work and runs a diagnostics clinic here, who had helped with all my lab work and he offered to do a more elaborate sonogram for me, so we took him up on it and went in last week on Friday to have it done. He said everything was fine with the baby, but urged us to go see our doctor on Monday, as the scar from my previous section was very thin and there was danger of uterine rupture.

We saw our ob-gyn on Monday and he immediately moved the surgery to Wednesday, June 30th. We checked in Wednesday morning (have you every gone 24 hours without eating or drinking!!! Thank God for IV drips is all I have to say!) and the surgery started around 12:30 noon. Everything was pretty casual, they numbed me from the chest down (I hate that part - so claustrophobic)and Stephen sat next to me and held my hand. The baby was out at 1:19 and was fine. He weighed 3.3 kilos and was 49 cm long. I cried tears of joy to hear his lusty cry, as I had had a premonition that something was wrong, and I was so thrilled to see that he was fine!

However, as we were there admiring the baby, Stephen said he looked up to see the doctor turning white. He said we needed to make a decision fast and showed Stephen how the placenta was completely adhered to the uterus, making it impossible to separate the two without me bleeding to death. Already I was starting to hemorrhage, although I didn't realize it at the time.

We had about 10 seconds to decide, so we told him to take it out, as that was the only option we had (he wanted our consent, however). I told Stephen to go with the baby as we had no idea how long the surgery would be and they proceeded to do a hysterectomy on me which took about 2 hours. I was awake the whole time, although I was on a lot of "happy juice" and drifted in and out of sleep. Poor Stephen had it much harder than I, sitting with the baby and waiting to find out if I made it or not. He had a bad scare when one of the nurses rushed in, asked for my full legal name, (hands shaking) and then rushed out and wouldn't tell him anything. Poor guy! All the while I was blissfully in a drugged out state. Thankfully I was able to nurse the baby as soon as I got to the room and we left the hospital 3 days later.

Our dear doctor came in to check on me and when I thanked him he said, "No, thank God, it was a miracle. It was so close! Thank God you're here!" He is not a very dramatic, nor a very religious man, so that tells you something. Afterward I had a number of my friends tell me that they had a bad feeling about my surgery and were praying for me, some for days beforehand! I really believe that had something to do with how well things turned out.

Baby is fine - sleeps pretty well, although he thinks that 1-5:00 am is a good time to play. I am making it to the bathroom and back now without help (hurray for small favors) and each day the pain is a little less, but it's going to be a much longer recovery as it was a much bigger surgery.

I am still reeling a little from it all, emotionally I am a little bit in shock about such a big thing happening out of the blue. However, I have done a bit of research on the condition (Placenta Increta) and have found I have a lot to be thankful for:

* This condition is very rare, and it usually means very premature birth of the baby. Thankfully I carried him full term (38 weeks) and he is fine.
* Many women who have had this lost a lot of blood and had to have transfusions. My blood type here is very rare, and it would have been a big problem. Because we were both in the operating room, we decided immediately and the surgeons got on it immediately, I didn't need a transfusion.
* We decided to have a planned cesarean. (The doctor said that there was no way I would have lived should I have tried to have the baby naturally.)
* The doctor was a good surgeon. He had just done another hysterectomy that morning. We had tried to find a more natural doctor for this baby's birth but again, after praying, felt we were supposed to go with him, even though surgery is his strong-point. He really isn't very interested in much "natural" and that kind of goes against what I wanted in my ob-gyn, but boy was I comforted that he knew what he was doing when I was undergoing the hysterectomy.
* So far no surgery complications and I am healing, albeit slowly.
* The baby is fine and we have a beautiful, well balanced family.

I am sure there are lots more things to be thankful for, but those are some of the biggies. Now, without further ado, here are some pictures of our newest addition. (More photos coming soon - I don't have any good close-ups of him yet):

Capanyo for you

Bub got a little piano for Christmas last year, which he affectionately calls his "capanyo". He hasn't used it in a while, but then last night he decided to play with it and ended up putting on an impromptu concert for me. I caught the tail end of it on video.

Happy Birthday Bub

Bub had a great birthday, lots of nice presents, chocolate cake and ice-cream and some friends over to visit. A highlight of the day was when Great-grandpa made it over for about an hour and presented Bub with his birthday present and spent some time with us. Photos below:

Shelly's Creation

I am so proud of our Shell Bell. She has wanted to learn to bake, so we decided she would start doing a new baking project each week. This week she attempted Chocolate Butter Cake from scratch for Bub's birthday (including having to double the recipe.) The only thing I helped her with was mixing the icing, as we don't have an electric mixer, (and paying for the ingredients). She did everything else, with the help of one of her friends.

Here are a few photos of her project, including the finished product, which we all enjoyed!

The Fruit Saga Continues...

This morning, Bub spent about an hour playing in the yard and ended up with a new fruit collection. We have a papaya tree, mango tree, lemon tree, and a couple of other fruit bearing trees. There is one particular papaya tree that grows right outside our room which he is very attached to. He has protected its fruit from being picked early and watched it carefully, waiting for the papayas to ripen. (If you've only ever had store ripened papayas, then you wouldn't know how good tree ripened papayas are. I personally think store ripened papayas taste somewhat like vomit, but they are so sweet and good when they ripen on a tree!) Anyway, we've been slowly eating each papaya fruit as it ripens.

Today he picked a smaller papaya that was almost ripe and added that and a green mango that fell off our mango tree to his "fruit collection" that he carries around the house. Between the mango, the papaya and the coconut he couldn't even manage it all and we finally had to get him a bag to carry it all in, as he was inconsolable without his "fruit salad"! We finally had to banish the papaya to the fridge, as it was getting bruised by being carried about and cuddled all day, but tonight the coconut is in his bed and the mango is on his desk! As long as he doesn't start trying to sleep with a banana....