Start with one Jacuzzi tub:
My boys love it when the other one gets in trouble. If I ask Julio to clean up a mess he made, Juan Carlos will be in my face saying, "I didn't make a mess, I didn't make a mess!" and to further his point, he'll ask for a bottle of Windex to clean the windows.
Saturday Julio whacked Juan Carlos with a book. We confiscated the book and then I sat down with both boys and told them a little story. My graduate professor at BYU had 3 sons; he would tell me how if a toy was used as a weapon it would immediately go into the trash. One of his sons had received a telescope for Christmas and then had used it as a sword to hit one of his brothers. Their dad broke it over his knee and put it in the trash in front of the boys.
After telling Julio and Juan Carlos the story, I asked them what they thought.
Juan Carlos, feeling like he had a leg up on Julio being the victim of the violent book-crime and all, put on his proud voice and showed me the palm of his hand said, "Yeah Mom," like he was in total agreement with me,"When I hit, I just use my hand!!!"
I really haven't quit blogging, at least in theory.
I know, I know. I've started all of my posts the last 3 months like this, whining about why I haven't been blogging. Sorry about that. It's just that I am getting practically nothing done right now. No piano practice, little exercise, no blogging, no emailing, no sending photos to grandparents, no cooking, no cleaning, no sleeping.
All I do is produce milk for Pedro, feed Pedro, rock Pedro to sleep, change Pedro's diaper, change Pedro's clothes, bathe Pedro, make sure Pedro is breathing, etc. etc. We have 2 maids now (long story) and I am still getting NOTHING done, and I'm tired! I can't imagine the sorry state I'd be in if I lived in the States with no help. Oh well-I love the time I get to spend with the baby.
So, a little update on our lives for those of you who are still out there.
First Things First: My First Earthquake
We just finished up 2 weeks of Spring Break. That's 4 kids 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 2 weeks. By the end of last week I was going a bit batty. Last Thursday we jumped in the car and headed out for Acapulco.
I had booked a hotel online and it was awesome. Here are some pics:
(here's where Blogger stopped letting me upload photos! Grrrr.)
That night at 12:43 am there was a 6.0 earthquake whose epicenter was 40 miles from where we were at. We were staying on the 8th floor of a 10 floor building. We were swaying like crazy. Guapo, who grew up in California, was not too phased, but me, who grew up in Colorado, was pretty much totally freaked out.
The kids slept through the whole event.
The next night was Guapo's bad night. Julio and Margarita (at separate times) threw up. I only felt slightly guilty about not getting up to help him clean up the floor, the sofas, the sheets, the walls, the clothes. First of all, I figure I have to get up with the baby all the time, and second of all, Guapo always seems to be out of town when there is puke to clean up.
He commented to me, "It's as if they don't even try to make it to the bathroom. I think they just open their mouths and let it fly." Yep, that's pretty much what kids do. There was throw-up EVERYWHERE. Yuck.
The last night,Guapo tried to insure he would get a little more sleep than the previous night by placing throw-up receptacles next to each kid:
Luckily, there was neither vomit nor earthquakes the last night of our stay.
Ok, on to other issues:
GMBC: (Gringas in Mexico Blogging Conference)
Easter weekend I got to meet my first ever OLF IRL (OnLine Friend In Real Life). I met Amerimeximadre when she came with her super cute family to Big City. At first we felt pretty uncomfortable talking face so we chatted online for a while:
Then we got used to the whole IRL thing and just talked like normal people.
Ron Brings Kitty Over to the Dark Side
Muchacha Moment
One of our maids came to work sick on Monday.
She told Guapo she had a fever from "eating too many carrots".
Who knew?
One Funny Kid Quote
It's fairly hard to blog with just one hand and my little guy likes to be held so-not a lot of blogging going on in my house. But, here are a few pictures of things that have made me happy.
So I had forgotten about the sleepless nights.
I guess it's one of those things we forget so that the human race will continue to procreate, like morning sickness and the pain of giving birth. Julio and Juan Carlos spoiled me by coming home from the hospital knowing day from night. Margarita was a bit harder, but I figured it was due to the fact that I was a nervous first-time mom.
Little Pedro (thanks to all those who suggested names!!) is giving me a run for my money in the sleep department. He feels no shame in waking me up every 2 hours to have a very little bite and then head back off into dreamland.
Unfortunately, we have other sleep issues as well. This is what we often find in Pedro's bed:
That's Ron, our Venezuelan kitty. Guapo, who does not like cats, but kindly tolerates them to keep his wife and kids happy, was very disturbed by this.
So, he headed off one day to run an "errand" and this is what he returned with, much to Margarita's delight:
A cat bed that cost $50.00. That's 50 U.S. Dollars, not pesos. For those of you who know Guapo, you know he is not into spending money-especially on frivolous purchases, so this was big for him. Poor naive sap really believed that the cats would take to sleeping in their cat bed instead of in Pedro's or our bed.
Kitty has checked it a couple of times, but Ron has yet to approach the bed.
Most of the time the bed looks like this:
I told him not to feel bad, that his purchase was not a total waste of money. Here's where Pedro's sleeping these days:
Sweet dreams!!!
It's about time I get back to blogging. We've been home for a week now with our new little addition and it's been great. The adult to kid ratio has been 1:1.667, not to bad. All that changed today as my mom headed home. Now we are at 1:2, and on Wednesday when Guapo resumes his crazy travel schedule, it will be 1:4, give or take a muchacha here and there.
I still have not given my sweet little boy a blog name-I am open to suggestions.
His delivery went very smoothly: here's a brief recap so as not to bore any of you.
Friday March 3, 10:00 am: I go in for my weekly check-up, the doctor tells me there hasn't been a lot of change, and that I am at a "generous" 1 cm. Generous seems like a weird adjective to use along with 1 cm, but whatever.
3:00: fairly regular, but not hard, contractions begin
3:30 pm: Margarita arrives home from school with her birthday party in tow. We decided to do her party a little early this year so it wouldn't get lost in the baby shuffle. We had 6 girls here for a swimming party. We ate haystacks and I made a very tall, 7-layer, ice-cream cake (Guapo family tradition).
9:30 pm: last guests leave and not a minute too soon- my contractions were getting stronger and I was starting to feel panicky.
9:45 pm: blog
10:15 pm: I tell Guapo I think that this may be it and that I had better call the doctor.
10:20 pm: Doctor tells me to go to the hospital
10:25: I call my friend to come over and stay with the kids.
10:30-10:45: frantic packing
11:00: we leave for the hospital. NO traffic which is amazing for Big City.
11:10: we arrive at the hospital and my doctor was waiting for me. I was at 4 cm.
11:45 pm: Yay! epidural in place!!! (me giving Guapo the "thumb's up", a traditional picture we take during each birth after I get an epidural)
Four short hours later: New little guy born.
Later that day, the kids were able to come and meet there new little brother. Here's Julio (6 yrs old), and Juan Carlos (3 yrs old), meeting the baby.
This was probably the best, easiest delivery I have ever had. My doctor was wonderful and the hospital was very nice. There were several differences that we noted between having a baby in the States and having a baby in Mexico.
All in all, it was a great experience and we are doing well here at home. My mom was a great help; she was the official bather and poopy-diaper changer. Here she is with Margarita (9 yrs old) giving little guy his first bath:
Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers. Remember-I need help with his blog name-give me your best suggestion!
