Should have tried this months ago...

Ezra will be 19 months in 3 days and still does not walk.... until today!!! He LOVES to climb and can push furniture around the house to get to where he wants to go and climbs up it... really annoying, as nothing is safe; the other boys were never climbers like Ezra. So today, as he was pushing the ottoman over to Brant's desk to explore innumerable costly treasures, I turned to him and said, "Ezra, you need to practice walking, not climbing. Get down and walk." ...And he did.

Well, kinda. :) He did get down; he stood up - on his own, and kinda half fell/half took a step towards me. But close enough; I was excited he understands English. :)

This evening we were all playing on the rug and Ezra was crawling around and Brant said, "Ezra, you need to walk; you just got a bath and you're getting your knees dirty." I kid you not, he stopped, and stood up in the middle of the rug on his own.

The boys got so excited so the next half hour we spent helping Ezra "learn to walk." He was SO proud of himself, and did really well... took 2-3 steps at a time; can get up himself just from his knees; he even took several steps backwards and turned around some.

Better late than never!

Going to be a long, stinky year...

This morning....
Me: Elijah, why are you wearing the same shirt you wore yesterday?
Elijah: This is the shirt I do school in.
Me: We'll see about that.

First day of school!

Elijah started school today. We ended up home schooling him. A few weeks ago when we were praying for the tuition money, we had parts go out on the car and the motorcycle and our washing machine died... plus we didn't get any extra money, so we took that the Lord wanted us to home school this year! :) I admit I cried some about it, but we're trusting the Lord in this decision, so we broke out the home school books and set up Elijah's room.


We are going to try to start mid-morning each day with calendar time and math. Then I have to teach my class at the high school 2 days a week so Brant will do a little activity with them those days; the other days we'll do art, PE, history, etc. After lunch and the little boys are down for nap, I'm going to do reading with Elijah.

Math we're doing Saxon 1. I had bought the kinder curriculum and totally didn't like it, so traded it for grade 1. It's very manipulatives-based, which is great for the little boys - they can play with the manipulatives while I work with Elijah. (We'll see how that goes!) For reading we're doing Sing, Spell, Read and Write. I've had a lot of friends do it and like it, so we'll see. It's a train-based theme for kinder and a race car based theme for 1st, so I think it will go over well with the little boys. :)
Once a week we're going to get together with friends to do science, social studies, art, etc.... whatever activities we come up with. Caleb has a special coloring book that is his "school book" that he can color while Elijah is doing his worksheets; once we get more into the swing of things I have a couple pre-school books for Caleb to do too.

One of my fears today was the boys were going to be really disappointed with "home school." We've read lots of "getting ready for kindergarten" type books and they all involve going to really brightly colored classrooms with lots of paint and clay. :)
But the boys were SO SO SO excited today. Major hyperness last night and this morning. Brant took Elijah out to get a donut for breakfast... tradition my parents did with me and my siblings on the first day of school. Also gave them a chance to talk about obeying the teacher. :):)

So here's some pics of the day...





We will have a lot of tweaking to do in the routine. It took Elijah FOUR hours to do all his little worksheets... I think he had 3. But he talks NON-STOP and I couldn't get him to be quiet and actually do his pages. He seemed to have a lot of fun though. We'll see how it goes tomorrow....

Fun times

The electricity has been horrible lately, so not going to try to post pictures as it takes a while to upload them and don't want to risk having the power go out half-way through.

Last night we went to "Movie Night" up at the MK school. The Senior class was doing a fund raiser - selling pop corn and American candy (yeah!!!) and drinks and showed "Toy Story 3." It was the first movie night we've been to.... what a fun thing! There were TONS of kids - all in PJ's and with blankets and pillows spread out all over the floor and then chairs set up for adults in the back of the big MPR room - there were probably 200+ plus people and no one had seen the movie yet. The boys were SO excited. We let them each pick out a candy from the candy table and get a bag of popcorn... I think the whole evening set us back $3. :)

It's hard to describe the missionary community here and the precarious balance we face daily in living our lives as members of the misisonary community and also as missionaries to the national people..... being so isolated and in such a foreign culture, we need our fellow ex-pats for encouragement - and medical help and tips on how to make home-made yogurt and use a pressure cooker! And yet, we came here to reach the national people - which is a really hard, discouraging task at times and puts you in a lot of uncomfortable situations. Living in our new neighborhood we spend a LOT of time with the national people and so we really relish our interactions with our missionary friends.

The missoinary community here is unique - there are probably 300ish missionaries (counting kids) here in town, and though that may seem like a lot, it's a pretty small world.... like living in a tiny town in America.... you know everything about everyone and your struggles, faults, victories... all on clear display to everyone. People know way more more about each other than in America just because of our situation... medical issues, financial issues, etc - all common topics of conversation as we navigate this weird life here. The great thing though, is people look out for each others' kids and the kids have a great network and a very large family... it's a very safe, comfortable enviornment for the MK's. There's not much to do for fun around here so people spend a lot of time just talking with each other, eating dinner together, playing games, watching movies together - life is a lot simpler and slower than in America. Seeing it last night - laughing with everyone as we watched "Toy Story" and watching people get excited about M&Ms and Skittles and seeing the older MK's playing and taking care of their younger siblings - made me veyr thankful for the enviornment my kids are growing up in.

It's very hard having our kids away from their grandparents and missing family so much, so thankful for fun times that remind us that there are some major perks to living over here. We had to wait 3 months to get to see Toy Story, but we got to enjoy it with a whole bunch of friends (and Rolos and Gobstoppers!)

Sorry Mom

This morning walking to church Elijah fell. Rocky road, 5 year old running in flip flops, it happens quite a bit actually. You’d think he’d learn. I was a ways behind carrying Ezra and Brant called my cell and I could hear Elijah screaming on the phone. When I got there, a whole crowd of people were standing around looking at the little white boy with blood gushing out of his head. He had quite the gash on his forehead, which thankfully, he couldn’t see. What he was screaming about was the little scrape on his knee... it was almost funny, except we all ended up missing church, trying to get Elijah cleaned up and calmed down.

When I was a little girl, I was a big wimp. I couldn’t swallow pills (until I was in college, sad to say) couldn’t handle getting splinters taken out, and couldn’t stand needles. I’m still a big wimp, but I did do childbirth 3 times with no epidural, so have pretty much gotten over it.

Elijah is totally my child. I am now really, really sorry for all the screaming and grief I gave my parents... but they should be happy to know I am getting it all back. (Although, he is now a great pill taker - can pop his 4 anti-malaria pills on his own each week.) Tonight one of the cuts on his hand was still dirty and all the scrubbing Brant had tried earlier in the day hadn’t done much to clean it. I called a friend to borrow some of her prized hydrogen peroxide (can’t get it here, but I am definitely ordering some next time someone comes to visit!) and it took both Brant and I to hold him down while we doused his hand with the stuff multiple times. But STILL it was full of dirt, so I decided to be a grown-up and stop being squeamish and tackle the mess with the tweezers. Brant held Elijah down and I dug around til all the dirt and gunk were out. The neighbors came over wondering what the crazy white people were doing to their screaming, desperate child. But it’s all clean now and covered with a nice Woody and Buzz band-aid. (Thanks, Grandma!)

Tonight as we were putting Elijah in bed I warned him that if he doesn’t toughen up and get over the whole wimp can’t handle pain thing, he would have a kid just like himself someday. Then I think I will just laugh.... probably like my parents are doing now. :)

A very happy little boy

At the store with his wad of cash....

The proud owner of a new hoop....

All 3 boys playing with the hoop....

Not pictured.... a very sad Mommy who now has to sweep her own floors. :(

Ezra

Ezra is 18 months old now. I think 18 months has to be my favorite age. Old enough to communicate and interact with the world; too young to talk back. :) Ezra is a doll, still my baby, but every day turning into a little boy. Here are some of his recent goings on....

No, he still doesn't walk. Crawling is much faster and he is very adept and pushing books across the floor, crawling with our cell phones, keys or the TV remote. He also CLIMBS.... he has figured out lately that he can push our ottoman across the floor anywhere and climb up on it... to reach the top shelves of the bookshelf, the top of Brant's desk, you name it.


Papaya... the kid could live off of it. I don't know what we would do if we had to move back to States unexpectedly.


I love this... he's into trying to dress himself lately. Here, he put his bib "on." He actually ate the whole meal, holding the bib on with one hand and eating with the other. :)


Ezra loves to "go" As soon as we tell him we're going he heads off to the shelf by the door where we store our shoes. As fast as he can "shos, shos, shos, shos" and grabs his little shark Robeez. :) Since he got to go on the motorcycle with Brant, he often wears his helmet around the house... can never be too prepared. :)


Ezra sucking his thumb at night.... every time we put him down for nap or bedtime it's the same... he grabs his rag, wads it up and sticks his thumb in his mouth this way. He's still my baby.

Caleb....

....has worn the same outfit every day this week - his "surfing clothes" (little blue tank top and blue shorts with surf boards on them that Gappy sent from Hawaii!) He just keeps pulling them out of the dirty clothes basket each morning... and returning them each evening.

At least it cuts down on laundry!

Scary

Last fall Elijah’s tennis shoes fell apart.... after a year of hard wear one day they had just had enough; the soles fell off and his toes poked through all in one day. So I went to our big box of extra clothes and shoes and discovered to my dismay that despite all my detailed lists and careful shopping last time we were within 3000 miles of WalMart, I had forgotten to get two sizes of little boy tennis shoes... which meant that there were no shoes remotely close to Elijah’s size in the box.

So I trekked off to the “department store” here in town and then proceeded to hit all ten of the shoe stores in the local “mall.” People here have a thing for shoes... there are more shoe stores in the mall than all other types of stores combined. But I couldn’t find a decent pair anywhere. Quality here is crummy to say the least, and prices are expensive for the quality offered.

So I decided to pray about it. Elijah definitely needed some tennis shoes; he had flip flops, but nothing else. About a week later, we had gone to visit a friend and as we were leaving she said “Hey, does Elijah need shoes? I have a pair my son just outgrew that Elijah can have.” She pulled out a cute pair of little brown and navy Nike shoes that fit perfectly and still looked really nice (her son must be easier on his shoes!) I cried and praised the Lord that He was into details of little boy shoes.

And then, I thought, what a great opportunity I had missed to show Elijah God’s faithfulness. I had not told him I was praying about the shoes. I had not given him the chance to pray with me and watch God work. Was I scared that God would let me (and him?) down?

So, today we talked to Elijah about school. He’s supposed to start kindergarten in ten days, but as of yet, we don’t have the money for tuition. We told Elijah the situation and how much money we need and told him we will all be praying that the Lord would provide the money in the next week.

The caveat in this situation is that we’re not sure that the Lord wants him in kindergarten at the MK school. We have all the home school materials already and the logistics of half-day kindergarten would be difficult to swing with only one car - which Brant needs most days for supply buying. WE really want him to be able to go, and HE wants to go, but we’re also open to the idea that maybe the Lord doesn’t want him to go, so maybe the lack of money is the Lord’s way of saying it’s better to homeschool him this year.

Funny thing, this trusting the Lord business. It’s a scary thing to put God to the test in front of your children - definitely a test of your own faith. :) We know the Lord can provide and we want Elijah to see God’s work in providing... but we also know that a “no” answer is also God’s working as well...

Hoop dreams

Yes, even in 3rd world countries there are toy fads. The latest and greatest toy to hit town is the hula hoop. A couple months they suddenely appeared EVERYWHERE. They are bright and colorful and I'll admit, if I were a kid, I would think they were pretty cool. It is hard to go into a store without seeing them and lots of kids in our neighborhood have them. A while back, Elijah decided he HAD to have a hula hoop.

We are not the type of people to just go out and buy a toy for our kids just because... they have tons of toys, and I know the boys well enough to know they would not have the faintest clue what to do with a hula hoop nor have the coordination to acutally use one. :) So, we decided to teach Elijah a bit about money and give him opportunities to earn money to buy his own hula hoop.

Trouble is the stupid hoops are EXPENSIVE. I went in the store pictured above (which happens, by the way, to be the only store in town that sells canned refried bean and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving time!) and asked... the hoops were $7 a piece! That may not seem like much, but I know for a fact they are cheaper at WalMart... and considering that the average wage here is $3 a day, I was shocked that so many kids here have them. AND trying to keep Elijah engaged in earning money long enough to save $7 was going to be impossible... so I thought.

Money here is based in 1000 rp bills. 1000 rps equals roughly a dime. We gave Elijah extra jobs to do around the house - sweeping under the dining room table (mainly under Ezra and Caleb's spots!) after meals, wiping the bathroom sink down, helping fold laundry.... he did SUCH a good job. I was really impressed with how careful he was and he was so excited to earn money - we gave him a few 1000 rp bills each job and he kept them in a box.

It's been about 6 weeks since we've began the little project and he is almost able to buy his hoop. He had grand dreams of saving enough money to buy Caleb one too, but I'm afraid the hoop craze will be over before he gets that much! One good thing in the delay is that the prices have come down some... he could get a medium size one now for about $3. The other great benedit from this whole thing is he is SO much more careful around the house... and makes Caleb be too... "Caleb eat your sandwhich over your plate... you're making too many crumbs for me to sweep up." It's given us a better idea of his abillities too; definitley enjoying not having to sweep every day. :)

We're going to take him to buy his hoop this weekend; will post pictures of it. :)

This week

Ezra took his first motorcycle ride with Brant. He LOVED it. He now goes around wearing his helmet.... usually backwards. :)


Caleb "hiding" from me. "Mom, come find me!"


We cut Elijah's hair today... school starts in less than 3 weeks, and he was looking pretty shaggy. We still haven't decided whether or not we're going to put him in the MK school or not. Money is an issue, but so is logistics with it being an afternoon only class. :P One day he is really excited to go to "school with the big kids" and the next day he wants to "do school at home like Jaden" (his friend here in town who will home school kinder this year) So praying for wisdom - fast! :)