I don't have any pictures, but I really wanted to get in writing the things these two have been up to so I can embarass them when they get older. :)
Last week Juan Pablo told me he had a "good idea" for he and Andrew to do. He just needed a cup with some water. Upon further investigation I discovered what his "good idea" was. He was going to take Andrew's little plastic tricycle (which has a storage compartment under the seat) out to the street, put dirt in the storage compartment, add water and make "chocolate milk" and offer it to people driving by. I nixed that idea (or so I thought). When I went to check on them, he had indeed put dirt in there and talked Andrew into getting a glass out of the kitchen for water and was getting ready to mix the "chocolate milk".
On Mother's day as we were eating dinner at home with everyone Andrew went to the bathroom. Knowing that if it takes him very long he is up to no good I went to check on him. He had evidently "finished his business", but for unexplained reasons (at the time) had had his hand in the toilet. I proceeded to flush the toilet and scrub up his hands. On the way back to the table he told me he "wanted his pennies back". You know where they are - don't you? Flushed with his "business".
Also on Mother's day Andrew came in very proud of himself because Juan Pablo was helping him be a clown. Juan had opened the empty ash bucket (from emptying the wood stove) that was outside (but still had a few residual ashes in it) and rubbed white ashes all over Andrew to make him white and then found a red marker and colored his nose red. They were quite proud of themselves. At least it washed off pretty easily.
Yesterday I had put some things out on the kitchen counter for them to smell as we are working on the five senses in science. I didn't get that done, but had not put things back away. As I walked past the front door I thought I smelled maple syrup. Sure enough, Andrew had found the small bottle of maple flavoring, poured it out on the front porch and proceeded to make hand and footprints on the porch and had smeared some on his body also. Juan Pablo had joined in the fun too. I gave them a bowl of water, soap and toothbrushes to scrub it off. They had a great time doing that and of course wanted more and more water.
What are they thinking????
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Monthly Update
This seems to be becoming a once-a-month update. The days do just seem to fly by and before you know it another week is over. Shows my age, huh? Anyway, so what have we done in the last month? For Easter we managed to color eggs, hide plastic eggs to hunt and make it to the early church service. Pretty good I think. For the plastic eggs we put candy in the larger ones and change in the smallest ones. Before we started I limited them to 20 each and told Andrew I would help him if he needed it. Maicol immediately complained about that and so I just ignored him and went on. As they were looking for the eggs Maicol began giving his smallest eggs to Andrew and made a big deal about how nice he was being to his brother. In reality, he thought "bigger is better" and if he gave the little ones to Andrew he could keep looking for all of the bigger ones. He was quite surprised when he opened all of his eggs and found only candy and no money! Ironically, Andrew really has little interest in the money and wanted the candy. Guess next year we'll have to put the money in the big eggs!
Upwards soccer has started again. They had their first game Saturday. Juan Pablo is doing much better this year. Last year he had alot of trouble understanding what the coaches wanted him to do and was afraid to even play. This year while I know he still doesn't understand all of the words he knows what is going on and seems to have a good time. He scored 2 of their 3 goals and he really does put alot of effort into it. Maicol plays really hard and of course thinks he should be the coach! He does try to tell the other kids on his team what to do and they listen to him at least some of the time. Dan has been taking them to practice since I work on Mondays, so this past Saturday's game was the first I had seem them play.
We have had beautiful weather the last 3 days and have really enjoyed being outside. Our asparagus is growing quickly - we've picked some the last 3 days and if the weather continues like this we'll have plenty. The strawberries and raspberries are growing well too. We took a walk today near our neighborhood and spent part of Thursday at a park too. There are so many nice places to go.
Bethany is finally feeling back to her old self - minus the sore throat and constant stuffy nose. She was able to lead worship at church today. We stopped in to see her after we had attended an earlier service at our church. Jonathan is counting down the days til the wedding. Not much more than a month to go.
All of the kids are doing well. Maicol still struggles the most. I realized this week that he still isn't sure that I will come home after work. He likes to stay up to see me on Wednesdays when I get home between 9 and 10pm. This past week he fell asleep before I got home and didn't see me until the next morning. He was grouchy and rude to me all morning and when I finally talked to him the basic problem was that if he didn't see me come in he is afraid that I might not come back home. Based on his previous experiences I understand that, but sometimes it seems like no matter what I say, do, or how much time passes he just won't let himself believe it is true. I talked to him again today and reiterated the fact that he has to decide that he is going to believe what I say because I can't make him do it. I told him that I know that is not the way it was in the past, but the past is the past and once he decides to leave it there and relax he will be a much happier little boy. Oh how I wish I knew that I was saying and doing the right things! While there are similarities in parenting these boys and our older children there are also very great differences. The other two are still trying to learn that they need to do what Mom says even if Dad isn't there, but it is still a struggle sometimes. But on the other hand, we have so many wonderful times where we do things together, see them grow and mature and are just amazed at the things that have taken place in the past 18 months.
Enough of that - on to the pictures.
Karen
They still love the merry-go-round. In Colombia they could go for hours and it's still that way.
Andrew's blue candy tongue.
What do you think might be in there?
Our handsome boys. Why is it so hard to get the three of them to smile at the same time?
Maicol.
Juan Pablo going in for a goal.
Andrew and I enjoying the games.
At Holliday Park.
Maicol.
Andrew.
Juan Pablo
Andrew coloring eggs.
Maicol coloring eggs.
Juan Pablo and his orange egg.
Upwards soccer has started again. They had their first game Saturday. Juan Pablo is doing much better this year. Last year he had alot of trouble understanding what the coaches wanted him to do and was afraid to even play. This year while I know he still doesn't understand all of the words he knows what is going on and seems to have a good time. He scored 2 of their 3 goals and he really does put alot of effort into it. Maicol plays really hard and of course thinks he should be the coach! He does try to tell the other kids on his team what to do and they listen to him at least some of the time. Dan has been taking them to practice since I work on Mondays, so this past Saturday's game was the first I had seem them play.
We have had beautiful weather the last 3 days and have really enjoyed being outside. Our asparagus is growing quickly - we've picked some the last 3 days and if the weather continues like this we'll have plenty. The strawberries and raspberries are growing well too. We took a walk today near our neighborhood and spent part of Thursday at a park too. There are so many nice places to go.
Bethany is finally feeling back to her old self - minus the sore throat and constant stuffy nose. She was able to lead worship at church today. We stopped in to see her after we had attended an earlier service at our church. Jonathan is counting down the days til the wedding. Not much more than a month to go.
All of the kids are doing well. Maicol still struggles the most. I realized this week that he still isn't sure that I will come home after work. He likes to stay up to see me on Wednesdays when I get home between 9 and 10pm. This past week he fell asleep before I got home and didn't see me until the next morning. He was grouchy and rude to me all morning and when I finally talked to him the basic problem was that if he didn't see me come in he is afraid that I might not come back home. Based on his previous experiences I understand that, but sometimes it seems like no matter what I say, do, or how much time passes he just won't let himself believe it is true. I talked to him again today and reiterated the fact that he has to decide that he is going to believe what I say because I can't make him do it. I told him that I know that is not the way it was in the past, but the past is the past and once he decides to leave it there and relax he will be a much happier little boy. Oh how I wish I knew that I was saying and doing the right things! While there are similarities in parenting these boys and our older children there are also very great differences. The other two are still trying to learn that they need to do what Mom says even if Dad isn't there, but it is still a struggle sometimes. But on the other hand, we have so many wonderful times where we do things together, see them grow and mature and are just amazed at the things that have taken place in the past 18 months.
Enough of that - on to the pictures.
Karen
They still love the merry-go-round. In Colombia they could go for hours and it's still that way.
Andrew's blue candy tongue.
What do you think might be in there?
Our handsome boys. Why is it so hard to get the three of them to smile at the same time?
Maicol.
Juan Pablo going in for a goal.
Andrew and I enjoying the games.
At Holliday Park.
Maicol.
Andrew.
Juan Pablo
Andrew coloring eggs.
Maicol coloring eggs.
Juan Pablo and his orange egg.Sunday, March 29, 2009
Three Birthdays and a Surgery
The title pretty much sums up the last three weeks at our house. Three of our children have birthdays in March. We start with Bethany on the 14th, then Jonathan on the 22nd and finally Andrew on the 28th. So, we have had a birthday dinner or lunch three Sundays in a row and cake (or in Bethany's case pie) three Sundays in a row. Jonathan's fiance Kristin said today we were going to be going through "cake withdrawl". For Andrew's birthday we went to Chuck E Cheese's. This is all the boys talk about when it comes to birthdays. We went for the first time last year on Maicol's birthday and now I think it will be a requirement for a few more years worth of birthdays. We just went to play the games and then out for ice cream afterwards. We did the cake and present thing the day after his birthday since that was when the other kids could be here. He has been very excited about having a birthday and being four. So we now have children from the age of 4 to 24. What a range!
Bethany had her tonsils out last week, so she had been hanging out at our house for about 3 days. Mostly sleeping on the couch, taking her pain medicine and eating slushies. She's slowly getting better, but is still pretty uncomfortable. But, she is back in her apartment and so we are a little more back to normal here.
That's the big news. We continue to go the proverbial "two steps forward, one step back" with Maicol. Just when it seems things are going well for him, he has a day where nothing seems to go right. Oh well, we are making progress. Juan Pablo is still slowly becoming more comfortable. I have always kissed and hugged him when putting him to bed, but he never reciprocated. Recently he has started hugging and kissing me before bed. And he has started hugging me spontaneously - something he didn't do before. Before we met them, we were told they would probably be very affectionate and want to be near us and touching us all the time. It took Maicol about a year to start that and now at the 1.5 year mark Juan Pablo has become more affectionate. As I sat reading to them before bed last night one sat on each side of me with their arm around my neck listening to the story. So, it seems we are still moving along in that attachment thing. It has been a slow, but steady process.
On to the pictures...
Bethany's Birthday and her pie. Andrew looks pretty excited too!
Jonathan's birthday - with Kristin trying to stay out of the picture.
Juan Pablo and Maicol at Chuck E Cheese's. I love this picture of the two of them.
Jonathan helping Andrew feed his tickets into the counter so he can get a prize.
Licking the blue icing he requested off of the beater. Is there anything better?
Andrew blowing out his four candles.
A very happy birthday boy! He is not only excited about his birthday, but he loves cake!
Bethany had her tonsils out last week, so she had been hanging out at our house for about 3 days. Mostly sleeping on the couch, taking her pain medicine and eating slushies. She's slowly getting better, but is still pretty uncomfortable. But, she is back in her apartment and so we are a little more back to normal here.
That's the big news. We continue to go the proverbial "two steps forward, one step back" with Maicol. Just when it seems things are going well for him, he has a day where nothing seems to go right. Oh well, we are making progress. Juan Pablo is still slowly becoming more comfortable. I have always kissed and hugged him when putting him to bed, but he never reciprocated. Recently he has started hugging and kissing me before bed. And he has started hugging me spontaneously - something he didn't do before. Before we met them, we were told they would probably be very affectionate and want to be near us and touching us all the time. It took Maicol about a year to start that and now at the 1.5 year mark Juan Pablo has become more affectionate. As I sat reading to them before bed last night one sat on each side of me with their arm around my neck listening to the story. So, it seems we are still moving along in that attachment thing. It has been a slow, but steady process.
On to the pictures...
Bethany's Birthday and her pie. Andrew looks pretty excited too! 
Jonathan's birthday - with Kristin trying to stay out of the picture.
Juan Pablo and Maicol at Chuck E Cheese's. I love this picture of the two of them.
Jonathan helping Andrew feed his tickets into the counter so he can get a prize.
Licking the blue icing he requested off of the beater. Is there anything better?
Andrew blowing out his four candles.
A very happy birthday boy! He is not only excited about his birthday, but he loves cake!Thursday, March 5, 2009
Worms, Trees and Houses
What a fabulous day! It was finally warm enough to get outside and play! Everyone is so much happier (and ready for bed at the end of the day) when they have had a chance to run and play. They managed to get their schoolwork done right after lunch, so we had the afternoon to go outside. I cleaned up the yard some and the boys did boy things - climbed trees and dug for worms. Maicol and Juan Pablo are trying to teach Andrew to climb a tree. Not sure if that is a good idea or not, but they had a great time together working at it. Then they moved on to looking for worms. Digging in the sandbox and looking under things for them. I'm not sure what they were going to do with them once they unearthed them and fortunately I didn't have to find out. :) We were hoping to have a fire outside tonight and roast marshmallows, but it was just too windy.
Enjoy the pictures of our first outside play day in way too long! I need to explain the last picture. Juan Pablo is into building houses. He started one in the backyard and was going to sell it to us for the bargain price of $6.00. He never got it above about 4" high before we made him put back the boards he used, so then he moved on to a brick house. That's the last picture - he and Maicol standing in his brick house. Unfortunately it had to be disassembled recently too. Who knows what he will build next.
Enjoy the pictures of our first outside play day in way too long! I need to explain the last picture. Juan Pablo is into building houses. He started one in the backyard and was going to sell it to us for the bargain price of $6.00. He never got it above about 4" high before we made him put back the boards he used, so then he moved on to a brick house. That's the last picture - he and Maicol standing in his brick house. Unfortunately it had to be disassembled recently too. Who knows what he will build next.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Nothing new and exciting, but it's past time to update so here goes.
Last week we went for a 2-night, 3-day trip to a state park. Of course they have an indoor pool which was one of the main reasons for going. There was also a hot tub which they loved. I just wish the pool water were about that warm! It wasn't bad, but not as warm as I'd like. We also played some ping pong, watched movies and cartoons, played games and ate alot. We stopped to see Grandma and Grandpa Baker also. So, lots of things in one trip.
We haven't had anymore snow, but there is hope of some this weekend. We did have quite a bit of wind while we were gone last week. It blew our trampoline from our yard, over our neighbors fence, through their yard, over the fence on the other side of their yard and into the next neighbors yard and against some trees. It will need some work, but Dan thinks we can salvage it. If we can't the trampoline will be sorely missed. We have spent alot of time playing on it and have burned alot of calories since our neighbors were so kind to give it to us.
School - Juan Pablo is doing well with reading, but the math thing still leaves him a little puzzled it seems. He is able to sound out words and mark the vowels, but can't figure out how to write the number before or after another number or add without counting objects every single time. Maicol still hates to have to write any kind of sentence, but his ability to do it is improving. Math doesn't seem to be difficult for him. Andrew knows all but maybe 2 or 3 letters of the alphabet. I had no idea he knew so much - watching Word World and Super Why has helped him (and listening to us work with Juan Pablo). Now we're starting to work on the letter sounds.
Behavior - Maicol seems to be improving. No all day stints of him being angry and if he is it's only for a short period of time. His big problem now is learning "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything". He loves to point out any slight error you may have made (or thinks you may have made). Because he is still learning English he sometimes doesn't completely understand what is being said. We have so many ways to say the same thing and I now realize how difficult it is to learn English. They understand most of what we say, but certainly not everything yet. Juan Pablo still dislikes schoolwork and that seems to be where alot of his getting into trouble comes from. He asks every night if there will be school tomorrow - and then sighs when I say "yes". They all still listen better to Dan than me. If we're both here and I tell them to do something, they will look around to see if Dan is watching and let that determine if they will do it or not. That makes me crazy!! We're still working on that, but it is certainly better than it was.
I think that's it for now. We'll try to do some new and exciting things before the next post.
Karen
Reading one of Andrew's favorite books - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Dan has read it enough that they can now quote some of it.
Juan Pablo
Andrew, Juan Pablo and Maicol
Last week we went for a 2-night, 3-day trip to a state park. Of course they have an indoor pool which was one of the main reasons for going. There was also a hot tub which they loved. I just wish the pool water were about that warm! It wasn't bad, but not as warm as I'd like. We also played some ping pong, watched movies and cartoons, played games and ate alot. We stopped to see Grandma and Grandpa Baker also. So, lots of things in one trip.
We haven't had anymore snow, but there is hope of some this weekend. We did have quite a bit of wind while we were gone last week. It blew our trampoline from our yard, over our neighbors fence, through their yard, over the fence on the other side of their yard and into the next neighbors yard and against some trees. It will need some work, but Dan thinks we can salvage it. If we can't the trampoline will be sorely missed. We have spent alot of time playing on it and have burned alot of calories since our neighbors were so kind to give it to us.
School - Juan Pablo is doing well with reading, but the math thing still leaves him a little puzzled it seems. He is able to sound out words and mark the vowels, but can't figure out how to write the number before or after another number or add without counting objects every single time. Maicol still hates to have to write any kind of sentence, but his ability to do it is improving. Math doesn't seem to be difficult for him. Andrew knows all but maybe 2 or 3 letters of the alphabet. I had no idea he knew so much - watching Word World and Super Why has helped him (and listening to us work with Juan Pablo). Now we're starting to work on the letter sounds.
Behavior - Maicol seems to be improving. No all day stints of him being angry and if he is it's only for a short period of time. His big problem now is learning "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything". He loves to point out any slight error you may have made (or thinks you may have made). Because he is still learning English he sometimes doesn't completely understand what is being said. We have so many ways to say the same thing and I now realize how difficult it is to learn English. They understand most of what we say, but certainly not everything yet. Juan Pablo still dislikes schoolwork and that seems to be where alot of his getting into trouble comes from. He asks every night if there will be school tomorrow - and then sighs when I say "yes". They all still listen better to Dan than me. If we're both here and I tell them to do something, they will look around to see if Dan is watching and let that determine if they will do it or not. That makes me crazy!! We're still working on that, but it is certainly better than it was.
I think that's it for now. We'll try to do some new and exciting things before the next post.
Karen
Reading one of Andrew's favorite books - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Dan has read it enough that they can now quote some of it.
Juan Pablo
Andrew, Juan Pablo and MaicolSunday, February 1, 2009
It Finally Happened
It finally came. After weeks of watching and waiting, hoping and praying, faithfully checking the news at least once a day, the long awaited, much anticipated event of the season finally arrived at our house - snow! We got about 8 inches between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. It was beautiful! The boys went out to play at home Wednesday after it stopped falling, but we had to wait until Thursday to go sledding due to some behavioral issues that resulted in a moratorium on sledding until school could be completed with the proper attitude and speed. We had a wonderful time. Maicol got to try out his new snowboard and the rest of us enjoyed sledding. I don't know how many times we went down and then back up the hill, but it was enough that everyone went to bed very well Thursday night. :) We stayed almost two hours and by that time although they would never admit it, they were tired. Andrew is big enough this year to take himself back up the hill, so that means more trips down the hill for Mom or Dad since we don't have to carry/drag him back up each time. We have had a problem with him taking his gloves off and then crying because his hands get cold. No amount of talking to him has resulted in him not doing this. So I saw an idea (in a magazine I think) that seemed the perfect solution to this problem. Buy waterproof mittens and then sew them to the end of the sleeves of a long-sleeved shirt, put the shirt on him and then his coat on and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot take his gloves off! He wasn't too sure what we were doing, but he went along with it, and we had no cold wet hands that resulted in crying fits. Wish I could say I thought of it, but it is a fantastic idea as far as I am concerned. Now I just need to figure out how to keep his feet dry. Hopefully we'll get at least one more good snow before spring.
Dan and I have been out twice by ourselves in the last four days. Bethany came over to do haircuts on Thursday night and stayed for a couple of hours so we could go out and eat. Jonathan and Kristin came over today and took the boys to eat lunch and go sledding so we had the afternoon free.
Enjoy your week and the pictures.
Karen
"Come on Papi, hurry back up the hill with my sled so I can go again!
Andrew - dressed to do battle with the hill.
Andrew, Maicol, Mami and Juan Pablo.
Juan Pablo
Maicol - looking very cool on his snowboard.Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A Little Break
In an effort to maintain our sanity we spent the last couple of days at one of our state parks. The good thing about this park is that it has an indoor pool! All the boys love to swim and Juan must ask almost everyday if he can go - somehow he doesn't get the connection that it's too cold at -3 to go swimming outside! So we took a little trip so that they could go swimming and we could get away from the daily routine. It went reasonably well all things considered. We were off looking for Andrew a couple of times because he slipped out of our sight inside the Inn. He is a quick little thing when he has an idea about checking out other parts of the building on his own! They of course didn't sleep very well the first night, but were out quickly the second night. We got to eat a breakfast buffet and I could have all the crispy bacon I wanted. Dan got to work on one of those 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles for hours. So everyone got to enjoy something a little special. The boys got to help put out seed for the birds to eat. They have a great viewing area to watch the birds and squirrels come to eat. We walked outside a little, but at barely 20 degrees it's just not that much fun. And the best part is it's 2 nights for the price of 1! Now it's back to reality - work for the Mom and Dad and school for the ninos.
Here are a few pictures of the trip and a couple of other things.
Karen
Andrew is not much of a vegetable eater, so we have been encouraging him in that department. He will put about anything in his mouth, but if he doesn't like it it will come right back out. Yuck! Anyway, we had stirfry tonight and he actually ate a few pieces of broccoli. If you look very closely you can see a small piece in his hand. I of course had to bribe him with cookies and he washed it down with chocolate milk, but I still think that's progress.
Putting out seed for the birds and squirrels.
The boys in their new robes. Maicol had been requesting a robe for Christmas, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for a robe for a 9 year old. We were at Target last week and they were marked down to about $4, so they all got one. They think they are quite handsome in them. Maicol wants to wear his all day and Juan wants to sleep in his. We're still working on robe etiquette.
Here are a few pictures of the trip and a couple of other things.
Karen
Andrew is not much of a vegetable eater, so we have been encouraging him in that department. He will put about anything in his mouth, but if he doesn't like it it will come right back out. Yuck! Anyway, we had stirfry tonight and he actually ate a few pieces of broccoli. If you look very closely you can see a small piece in his hand. I of course had to bribe him with cookies and he washed it down with chocolate milk, but I still think that's progress.
Putting out seed for the birds and squirrels.
The boys in their new robes. Maicol had been requesting a robe for Christmas, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay $20 for a robe for a 9 year old. We were at Target last week and they were marked down to about $4, so they all got one. They think they are quite handsome in them. Maicol wants to wear his all day and Juan wants to sleep in his. We're still working on robe etiquette.
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