I think that the hardest part of being in a foreign country without family is when you go through times of celebration and times of hardships. When all of the kids were born, I wished greatly that our family could have been here to share in those joyful first few moments. When the kids celebrate birthdays, I always wish that their grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins could be here to watch them grow another year older. And the last two days, I have longed to be near family more than I have during our entire time in Paraguay. Yesterday, Chris had gall bladder surgery, an umbilical hernia repaired and a cyst taken off of his back. Although these are all minor surgeries, it still makes me long to have family here just to be with us and to help out with the kids and with the recovery process.
Chris went in to have some tests ran last week because the hernia was starting to bother him. The doctor wanted to check on his gall bladder to see how it was doing since he was already going to be working in that area. He found a stone that was a dangerous size (small enough to enter into tubes, but big enough to easily get stuck and cause major complications). He gave Chris the option on what to do. We took the weekend to think about it and pray about it. We felt like the risk was big enough, combined with that fact that our insurance here covers practically every cent of the surgery, that it was worth going ahead and getting it all taken care of. So, on Monday, Chris let him know that he did want to have the surgery.
We planned that Rocio (who helps me with housework and who is the babysitter for the kids when I need her) would stay with the kids during the day, while I went with Chris to the hospital on the day of surgery. He was supposed to go into surgery around 1pm on Thursday and then be out by around 3pm. So, I had planned to stay with him in the hospital until I had to be back at the house around 6pm (Rocio has night school). I didn't really like the idea of Chris staying in the hospital overnight by himself, but he kept assuring me and insisting that he would be fine and that I just needed to plan on going home to be with the kids. Everyone on the team offered to help in any way that they could, but we really thought we had it covered okay with that plan. And that way everyone else could continue with their normal Bible studies, spanish classes and daily routines as families.
However, it seems that things don't usually work according to plan, especially when it comes to time schedules and Paraguay. I should have known better! Chris did leave the room around 1:15pm, as scheduled, but the surgeries took longer than I expected. I got a phone call from the anesthesiologist around 3:00 saying that they had finished with the gall bladder surgery and that all had gone fine, but that he was in the middle of the hernia surgery. So, more waiting. Around 3:45, they called back saying that he was out of surgery and they were waiting for him to wake up. The doctor thought he would be back to the room in about 30 minutes. He got there around 4:45. He was still groggy and he was hurting quite a bit. I had been afraid to leave the room to eat all afternoon, for fear that they would call me while I was gone. So, as soon as I got him settled, I ran down to the cafeteria and got a bite to eat. I began to worry while I was eating because it was about 30 minutes before I needed to leave to go be with the kids. The surgery had gone well, and he was back in the room, but I just did not feel comfortable leaving him by himself so soon after coming out of surgery. However, it was very short notice to get anyone to stay with the kids longer. I called around to the team members, but on short notice, everyone already had plans. Perry offered to cancel his studies, but I hated for him to do that for only a few hours (because I would have had to be there around 7 anyway to feed Olivia and get her to bed) So, I was worried and frustrated because I couldn't figure out what to do. And for the first time since we have moved here, I was just frustrated at the fact that we live in Paraguay, very far away from our family. I knew that if we had been near family, they would have just been there with us to help even if we had insisted that we had it covered (because that is just what family does!) I felt torn because I knew that I needed to be at home with the kids, but at the same time, I felt terrible leaving Chris. And I knew that it was the plan to leave him, but that was when I thought I would have time to make sure he was okay first. And I had certainly not thought through the emotions that I would feel having to leave him right after surgery. I finally decided that I would go on home and once home, I would try to think of someone that could come and sleep at the house after I got the kids to bed. And then I could come back and stay with him. I made sure he had everything he needed and then I told the nurses that he was going to be by himself. I felt even worse when they said "Oh, and you aren't coming back?" I cried most of the way home.
I got home to some very happy-to-see-me kids, which was so sweet! I talked to Chris's family to let them know he was okay and then called and talked to my mom. She suggested that I try to call some people from church to see if anyone could help out since I was not comfortable with him being by himself. I tried to think of who I could call and after one call (with no luck of finding anyone that was available), my phone ran out of minutes! Following, is the part of the story where I actually began to find humor in my situation instead of just being totally stressed out.
I loaded the kids up in the car, all in their pajamas and drove to the pharmacy to try to add minutes to my phone. I had the idea that if I went to the drive-in pharmacy, I would not have to get all of them out of the car. The machine that adds minutes to cell phones was broken at the pharmacy. Just my luck! So, we all went to the grocery store, pajamas and all. They were having a children's puppet show (not your normal puppet show, more like a mini rock concert type puppet show) out in the parking lot, so the grocery store was packed! It took me a while to find a parking space. I got a few strange looks for hauling three kids in pajamas through the grocery store. But, we stood in line and paid at the cash register for my new phone minutes. By that time, my mood had lightened a little and I decided that we should enjoy our little outing. After all, the kids had been fabulous for Rocio and they were dealing very well with not getting to see their daddy and trying to understand exactly what all was going on with him. So, I bought the kids ice cream cones from the Burger King that is attached to the grocery store. By the time I got back home, it was really too late to try to get anyone to help out. I called Chris and he sounded like he was doing much better and he assured me that he would be fine. He even laughed at me a little for being so worried. And then, on my way home, Ike called me and said he was going to visit him at the hospital for a while. I felt much better by the end of the night knowing that he was doing okay and that he had someone with him for a while. And it all worked out okay! He made it through the night without too much pain.
This morning he is feeling better and watching TV (Can't beat a little "Crocodile Dundee" in spanish!). The doctor came in and took off his bandages and cleaned them and rebandaged him. Everything looks good. He is not in too much pain, so that is good. He says he can go home after they make sure he does okay with lunch. So, I still wish that our families could be here with us. But, God has once again taken care of us and given us just what we need at just the right time. He is good like that!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Emma's First Book and Walker's Digging Bucket
I am so very proud of Emma today. For school, she was supposed to write a book. The book was already illustrated and she just had to come up with the story line for the illustrations. We made a little book cover that she illustrated. She colored all of the pages beautifully. And for a 5 year old, I thought her story was fabulous! She titled the book "Cat Book". Below was the front cover of the book. I told her that she should probably draw pictures from the story for the cover, but she said "No, since it is my first book, I am going to draw a heart because I know I will love it!" And so she did.
I wrote on the front page that this was her first book and the date (and noted the fact that I wrote out the story, but she told me what to write). And this is her story: "Cat is at the beach. Cat is holding his boat. He made a sand castle with sand. His bucket is in the sand."
He pointed at the sand castle he made. He wanted water in the river. Cat had an idea. He wanted to get water in the bucket for the river.
Cat went to get some water in his bucket. Cat left his umbrella in the sand. He brought back the water.
He tripped on his umbrella. His bucket fell on his head. His water fell on the sand.
He put more water in his bucket. And then he put his boat in it." The end.
And this is the back cover where she drew the sun shining on the beach with the sand castle, Cat (she named the main character Cat) and the bucket.
And then there is Walker. He just makes me laugh. Every time I ask if they want to go outside he screams "Yes! I need to go get my digger stuff." It is a bucket filled with many of his construction vehicles that he digs in the sand with, plus all of his sand shovels and rakes.
And this is Emma and Walker playing in the castle from Emma's birthday party. Emma is fussing at Walker for trying to get into the castle with his "dirty" tractors. She is telling him that he has to clean them off before he brings them in. I can't imagine who she gets this from!
And here Walker is sweeping the drawbridge off so that Emma will allow him to come in! This pictures speaks a thousand words to me!
Warning: Filling May Be Hot!
I have always thought that the lady who sued McDonald's for hot coffee was a little crazy. After all, it is supposed to be hot coffee. However, for the first time, yesterday, I began to empathize with her. Our team had our weekly team lunch at Shopping del Sol (that is equivalent to a mall food court). I got the kids chicken nuggets and fries from Burger King and couldn't help but notice the deal of the day- two hot apple pies for the price of one. So, I went and got my healthier meal from another place and we all enjoyed a great lunch. However, I couldn't help but think after my healthy meal, how well it would be topped off by a hot (fried) apple pie. So, Chris and I decided to try out the deal of the day. The lady at the counter told me that it would take 6 minutes and 30 seconds and asked if I could wait that long. I found it humorous that she was so precise, but I told her that it was fine. So, I waited a little longer than that and returned to the counter. I waited there for several minutes and still, no appled pies in sight. I finally got the attention of one of the gentleman workers and asked him if he could check on them. He said that they take 7 minutes to cook (he apparently needed some update in his training because it only takes 6 minutes and 30 seconds!) I informed him that I had already been waiting for longer than that and he quickly informed me that was not possible because the apples pies were not ready yet. However, as he went to check on them- the lady quickly grabbed them out of the cooker (which I assume was a big grease pit) and put them in their little cardboard boxes. He actually put them on a tray and turned to another lady coworker and asked her to hand them to me. I think he knew that they had been cooked for too long and was embarrassed because he did not want to look at me after he had wrongly informed me I was wrong! Anyway, I was so excited about eating that apple pie until we opened the boxes and saw that they were a little....well, overcooked! Much darker brown than any hot apple pie that I have ever seen. I should have stopped there. I took the first bite and a piece of apple fell out onto my wrist. It hurt like crazy! It was so hot! I could not believe just how hot that apple felt on my arm. I got it off as soon as I could, but my arm was already burnt. I really should have stopped there! I let the pie cool off for what I thought was a decent amount of time. But apparently it was not long enough. I took my second bite and a big mass of apple/oozy gel/glob of cinnamony mess squirted out and oozed down the side of my mouth and onto my chin. The pain this time was amazingly terrible! I could not get that stuff off of my face quickly enough. Everyone started to look at me and laugh, but I was in serious pain! I had to ask Chris to go and get me some ice because it literally felt like my face was on fire. While I was sitting there with a cold compress on my face, I noticed the famous warning on the side of the box: Warning: Filling May Be Hot! I was somewhat irritated that it had been overcooked and therefeore burned me. But as I started thinking about it, it is called a fried apple pie! What else would I expect? By the time I got home that afternoon, it was all blistered up and yucky. I checked online to see how to treat it and exactly how much damage those apples had done. They caused second degree burns! So, the next time you grab a hot apple pie- heed the warning- it might be hot! And apple burns are no laughing matter.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Picky Eater Progress!
My children's eating habits never fail to amaze me. They are all so different! When Emma was little, I was very prideful of what a fabulous eater she was. She always prefered a plate of broccoli, peas and corn rather than any other thing I could offer her. I was thrilled! And of course, proud of the wonderful parenting skills I had. I have to admit that when I heard stories of other kids who did not eat very well, or were very picky eaters, I secretly chalked it up to being something the parents did or did not do. And then Walker came along. A blessing from God. I needed a little humility when it came to the eating habits of my children. And boy, was I forced to rethink all that I thought before about what causes picky eaters. From the time Walker was a baby, he would spit out any baby food that was green. Emma rarely spit anything out as a baby! I could put just about anything on her plate and she would wolf it down. But Walker, was a whole new story. I don't feel like I did anything different with Walker than I did with Emma. Our family has always eaten pretty healthy at almost every meal. And we eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and milk products! I tried fixing every kind of food possible and in every style with Walker. But, there are very few things that he will eat. I really think that he struggles with some texture issues. As a baby, he would not eat anything that was not crunchy. I had to use a lot of creativity to find ways to make everything he ate crunchy! He has gradually started to eat a few more things with a variety of texture, but he has still not gotten very far off the "crunchy" path.
A few months ago, however, we made a giant break through with him. Everyone kept telling me to just feed him what he would eat and not worry about it. But, I was really just having trouble accepting that fact that at many meals, he was only eating bread because that was all he liked. Every opportunity I get, I hide veggies and fruit in any kind of bread I can. (Muffins, pancakes, rolls, etc.) But there are days that there is just not time to hide anything in anything! And so, we were trying to get him to eat at least one bite of something at each meal that he did not like. And it was not working so well for us. So, after a rough day of unsuccessfully trying to get him to eat at least one bite of something he didn't want to eat, Chris and I decided to regroup and try something new. We brain stormed and came up with a new plan. Since Walker has always had trouble adjusting to new things, especially food, we decided that we would introduce one new food at a time. We started with apples. And at 2 meals out of the day, we would start out with apples. Every one of us would get a few bites of apples on our plates and then we would all take bites together. We made it into a race. Whoever got their bite eaten first, got bragging rights as being the winner. We weren't sure if it would work or not, but we thought that anything had to be better than him crying through meals because he didn't want to eat whatever was on his plate. And amazingly enough, it worked fabulously! Walker, a child who would never even put a bite of apple to his lips, was eating 2 and 3 bites of apple at every meal. And happily! Since then, we gradually tried it with grilled chicken (previously, he would only eat breaded, crunchy chicken). And tonight, using the same technique, he ate macaroni and cheese for the first time in his life! We have done it with a few other foods, but most of the foods he has a hard time chewing because he doesn't like it. (Again, the texture issue seems to play a role in his dislikes) But, we still make him chew at least one bite. However, tonight is the first time we have made him try macaroni. Through the first few chomps, he was saying, " I don't like it!" But by the end, he grabbed another bite and said "Let's race again!" He ended up eating about 7 or 8 pieces of it! So we had 7 or 8 races! He may never eat it again for all I know. But to me, every small step is a huge victory! And I love that he now knows that there are foods that he hasn't tried that he might like. He still does not eat a big variety of food, but knowing that in the past few months, we have added apples, grilled chicken and now macaroni to the list of things that he will at least allow to touch his lips- I am thrilled! To me it sure beats just letting him continue to eat bread at every single meal!
And I can't leave out little Olivia. She is now 10 months old and most days I am thrilled with her eating habits. She loves most baby foods, eats just about any kind of fruit pureed in her cereal and likes to eat most solid foods with her hands except for beans and peas. She even loves pureed spinach and onions mixed with cheeses and/or yogurt. It really is amazing how different each child is when they are all raised in the same household and sit down at the same table every day together for meals.
Now when I hear about families who have picky eaters, I can certainly empathize. And I no longer assume it is anything the parents did or did not do. It is simple- kids are just each different!
A few months ago, however, we made a giant break through with him. Everyone kept telling me to just feed him what he would eat and not worry about it. But, I was really just having trouble accepting that fact that at many meals, he was only eating bread because that was all he liked. Every opportunity I get, I hide veggies and fruit in any kind of bread I can. (Muffins, pancakes, rolls, etc.) But there are days that there is just not time to hide anything in anything! And so, we were trying to get him to eat at least one bite of something at each meal that he did not like. And it was not working so well for us. So, after a rough day of unsuccessfully trying to get him to eat at least one bite of something he didn't want to eat, Chris and I decided to regroup and try something new. We brain stormed and came up with a new plan. Since Walker has always had trouble adjusting to new things, especially food, we decided that we would introduce one new food at a time. We started with apples. And at 2 meals out of the day, we would start out with apples. Every one of us would get a few bites of apples on our plates and then we would all take bites together. We made it into a race. Whoever got their bite eaten first, got bragging rights as being the winner. We weren't sure if it would work or not, but we thought that anything had to be better than him crying through meals because he didn't want to eat whatever was on his plate. And amazingly enough, it worked fabulously! Walker, a child who would never even put a bite of apple to his lips, was eating 2 and 3 bites of apple at every meal. And happily! Since then, we gradually tried it with grilled chicken (previously, he would only eat breaded, crunchy chicken). And tonight, using the same technique, he ate macaroni and cheese for the first time in his life! We have done it with a few other foods, but most of the foods he has a hard time chewing because he doesn't like it. (Again, the texture issue seems to play a role in his dislikes) But, we still make him chew at least one bite. However, tonight is the first time we have made him try macaroni. Through the first few chomps, he was saying, " I don't like it!" But by the end, he grabbed another bite and said "Let's race again!" He ended up eating about 7 or 8 pieces of it! So we had 7 or 8 races! He may never eat it again for all I know. But to me, every small step is a huge victory! And I love that he now knows that there are foods that he hasn't tried that he might like. He still does not eat a big variety of food, but knowing that in the past few months, we have added apples, grilled chicken and now macaroni to the list of things that he will at least allow to touch his lips- I am thrilled! To me it sure beats just letting him continue to eat bread at every single meal!
And I can't leave out little Olivia. She is now 10 months old and most days I am thrilled with her eating habits. She loves most baby foods, eats just about any kind of fruit pureed in her cereal and likes to eat most solid foods with her hands except for beans and peas. She even loves pureed spinach and onions mixed with cheeses and/or yogurt. It really is amazing how different each child is when they are all raised in the same household and sit down at the same table every day together for meals.
Now when I hear about families who have picky eaters, I can certainly empathize. And I no longer assume it is anything the parents did or did not do. It is simple- kids are just each different!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Emma Turns 5, Cinderella Style, The Whole Story
We started out with Cinderella themed invitations. I did three different ones. The girls' invitations had just Cinderella, the boys' had Prince Charming and the couples' (our friends who don't have kids) had Cinderella and Prince Charming dancing. Each invitation was personalized. I downloaded the Disney characters from http://www.disney-stationary.com/. I just used white cardstock paper and made them using Microsoft Publisher.
http://www.printactivities.com/
The kids helped me build and paint a castle made out of cardboard. We got a giant refrigerator box from an appliance store and drew windows and a giant door on it. Then I drew squares on the top of it to make it look like the top of a castle. I used a box cutter to cut them all out. I was running low on paint or I would have left the windows in and made them where you could open and close them. I thought about putting little curtains in, but I ran out of time. I first tried spray paint, but the box absorbed the paint quickly and one whole can only covered one side of the box, and not very well at that. So, I bought regular water-based paint and mixed together black and white to get the grey color that I wanted. It went on easily, it was much cheaper and the kids were able to help me. Plus, while I finished the outside of the castle, they decorated the inside with whatever color they wanted. I left the door attatched at the bottom and layed it down on the floor. I painted only the inside of it. Emma and I used black construction paper and made chain links. We attatched them to the "door" and the side of the castle and made it look like a draw bridge.
And at the party, I put washable markers inside the castle and the kids were able to draw whatever they wanted.
Next was the menu. Emma helped me plan that as well. We used her favorite foods (healthy and junk) and dressed them up a little bit. I made sugar cookies in the shapes of hearts and stars and put skewer sticks in them while they were still warm to make them look like magic wands. Ideally, I would have iced them in pretty colors and tied ribbons around them. But, I just didn't have time to do everything I would have liked to do.
And I made chocolate covered strawberries.
We also did a Cinderella "pumpkin patch". I hollowed out a pumpkin and let it dry out. Then put a spinach and yogurt dip inside it. We surrounded it with cucumbers and carrot sticks as well as little pumpkins for decoration. And we used the Polly Pocket sized Cinderella and mice to set up in front of it. It turned out really cute. I put foam letters in little pink and blue boxes behind it with Emma's name spelled out to tie it in with the colors she had picked for the party.
We also had pink koolaid in a punch bowl for drinks and "Yes,Yes" cheese puffs (the Paraguayan version of Cheetos), because no party in Paraguay is complete without "Yes,Yes". And then I made tons of little sandwiches out of peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese and cream cheese with strawberry jelly.
The tables were set for a banquet feast beside of the castle.
I found these great little hard plastic plates that resembled real china and painted around the edges "Princess or Prince" and then each child's name (it was all in spanish, of course). Then they had little plastic goblets with their names on them as well. I loved this idea because we knew which plate and cup everyone had been using, they looked adorable and then they got to take them home with them as part of their party gift!
And then for the most important menu item, we had a Cinderella cake! We used a Cinderella barbie doll for the upper body, and then her dress was the cake. My friend Andrea made most of it. Together we made the actual cake part by using three round cake pans and a big bowl that could be used for baking. It was a homemade strawberry cake. Then for the icing, we did a cream cheese icing and colored it blue. We had some problems with getting it the right color to match the dress on the doll, but Andrea eventually got it to the right color and consistency. We layered the three round cakes for the bottom of the dress and then sat the bowl cake on top, upside-down and cut around it so they would be even. The bowl cake had to have a hole cut into the middle of it for the doll. I made the cakes a few days ahead of time and then froze them. So, the day of the party I just took them out of the freezer in the morning and Andrea was able to ice and decorate it right at party time. She took the doll and wrapped it from waste down in saran wrap to keep her from getting caked or iced! (This was a big concern for Emma since she had gotten it for her birthday). Then she iced the cake and put ribbon around the seam to cover it up. Then added two pieces of shimmery fabric with a hot glue gun that we had bought and cut to look like part of her dress. Then she added an additional bow around that and tied it in the back. And voila- a beautiful Cinderella cake! And it was really yummy too!
As for entertainment, I surfed online for ideas and then Emma picked out which activities she wanted out of those. First and foremost, she wanted face painting. Two of the teenage girls from church helped me out with that. All the girls stood in line to get their faces (even some arms) painted.
Emma loves crafts, so we set up a craft table where they could color pictures of Cinderella that I had printed out, make candy and fruit loop cereal bracelets and/or necklaces, and make dresses for their barbie dolls using scrap craft material (I had asked them to bring their favorite doll on the invitation). The moms had to help with the dress making, but it was a big hit!
We also had a Princess pinata. It is common to have a giant balloon as a pinata,but Emma said she didn't like that loud popping sound when it busted, so we opted for the pretty princess one that you just pulled the string and all the goodies fell out!
And then we also had a puzzle table. I printed out several pictures with Cinderella characters and put each one on a different color piece of construction paper. Emma helped me glue them and then we cut them into puzzle pieces.
And then, of course, we opened gifts and blew out the candle so we could eat the cake!
And to end the party, we gave out the party bags. I bought pre-made little cloth gift bags and then printed out Cinderella for the girls and Prince Charming for the boys and personalized each bag. Emma helped me glue the print-outs onto some blue foam paper and then glue them to the bags.
In the bags for the girls were crowns and magic wands, a coloring book that I made from downloadable coloring pages and activity pages, and a Cinderella paper doll set I found online that I printed on magnet paper. (Emma has loved playing with this on the refrigerator and even on the dishwasher) The gift bags for the boys had swords and coloring books. Plus, they all got to take their personalized plates and goblets home.
I really did not do a lot of decorating. We just blew up tons of balloons and had them floating around in the floor and I let the castle and the tables be the decorations. I put little balloon bouquets on the tables and that was it.
Overall, it was a lot of work. But at the end of the night, Emma could not stop talking about how much she loved her Cinderella birthday party. That made it all worth it! And we actually got to spend a lot of time together working on the crafts and planning it all out.
Here are all of the websites that I found helpful for ideas and planning:
http://www.4kraftykidz.com/ (this one was very complete!)
http://www.printactivities.com/
Monday, August 9, 2010
Emma's Birthday and Party Planning
I am anxious to blog about Emma's 5th Birthday Party that we had Saturday, but right now, I am still recovering. I need to upload a few more pictures, finish cleaning up my house and have a few minutes to get some thoughts together before I do the big blog about it. But, these pictures are from last Thursday, her actual birthday.
And here are a few of us working on the castle that we built out of a cardboard refrigerator box. The kids had a great time helping me paint the outside and then they had free "reign" of decorating the inside.
Hair and clothes were included in the painting for Walker. And Emma wrote all of her friends' names that were invited to the party on the inside. It was a busy week last week getting ready, but everything turned out great! Birthday blog coming soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)