Matching

I only brought two pairs of summer pjs for Calvin with us from the states, because I knew I could find something for him here. I knew it would be a hunt, and after meandering through the market I was successful, well somewhat. I found some tops and I found some shorts but they didn't match at all. It's been warm, and we are using our AC right now (which is heavenly btw), unfortunately we keep Calvin's door closed at night. So he doesn't get any of the AC air and needs to wear something a little cooler at night. Up until this weekend he's been looking rather local. Matching here is a thing with very loose meaning. (It's actually very nice because I don't have to worry if we don't match perfectly.) So this is how he has been looking when he goes to bed.

Nice huh?

I have been searching for some plain shirts but haven't had much luck. When I was at the grocery store last week randomly there were two blue shirts his exact size just waiting to be turned into something that matched his shorts. So I finally gathered a few free minutes to sew and spent some time making my child some matching shirts and shorts. It felt good to finally send him to bed in something that matched, weird I know.

lollypop, lollypop, oh lolly lollypop

Marvin and I love games, unfortunately this life stage we are in doesn't lend itself to being able to play very many of them together. Our evenings are usually filled with studying and weekends we're busy trying to get a few things done or catching up on sleep. Recently Calvin's become interested in games and boy does he love them. He is always begging us to play a "mame" with him. A few favorites are memory, the cookie game, and Candy land. He's slowly getting the concept of games, although we had to modify the cookie "mame" a bit, it's a bingo game and after trying unsuccessfully to get the concept of putting a cookie on the picture instead of matching the pictures we gave up. Instead he just gets a cookie if he has that picture.

Now candy land is a game that brings this child so much joy right now. He just loves it, and LOVES getting any of the special cards, even if he's about to win and he draws a Jolly card, or the Gingerbread card. He'll even try to trade with you if you get one of those. We're excited for more hours of game playing in our future. Now we just have hunt down a Chutes and Ladders game. It was my favorite growing up, and for some crazy reason we didn't bring it. If I had known his love for games it would have been high priority.

Me and my friend Pooh

We have our first imaginary friend around our house. His name is Pooh and he's a great pal. Often Calvin finds himself playing games with Pooh, and I will admit it's nice to have an imaginary playmate around. Some of their favorite things do do are play "soccer ball" or hockey. Occasionally Pooh comes with us places and at times is a little slow, so we have to wait for him. At first this little friend gave me some concerns about the mental state of my child, but rather than worry we've embraced Pooh and are glad he's stuck around.

When we asked Calvin what Pooh looks like he said that he is "a green and white fish." He's quite a talented little fish, that requires no water to survive, but I'm pretty sure his appearance changes some too. What a fun stage!

Celebrating Expat style

Our 4th of July celebration turned out beautiful, not too hot, and the clouds cleared out by our afternoon meeting time. We were able to gather just outside of town at a favorite spot of ours. Calvin and all the kids played so hard. Calvin LOVED playing soccer on a field with short grass (oh grass how we miss you). There were a few local boys at the field towards the beginning of our time and a few of our guys joined them in a friendly match.

The rest of the time we had the hill and field to ourselves, except when the cowboy was bringing his herd of cows through. It's fun things like this that make our celebrations more memorable here.

We also had some Brits join our celebration too, which is pretty funny, but they thought someone should represent the "old country". We ended the evening with some great fireworks, and some tired children. What a wonderful 4th of July this year.

For the Curious Kids

I know a few of you are curious about what we made during our OAMC spree, so here's our list with several links. I know I love finding good freezer recipes, so I'll share those we made.

1. Chicken Packets
2. Chili Verde (slightly modified)
3. Chinese Honey Ginger Chicken
4. Maui Wowee Chicken
5. Cuban Blackbean Chicken Salad topping
6. Teriyaki Chicken Burgers
7. Chicken Salad

8. Korean Beef Bulgogi
9. Gyros & Pita Bread
10. BBQ Meatballs
11. Taco Meat
12. Hamburger Patties
13. Shredded BBQ Beef

14. Stuffed Pizza Rolls
15. Calzones
16. Chili Kolaches
17. Bean Burritos
18. Pizza Dough & Sauce

Empty to Full

This past weekend a friend of mine and I went to work in the kitchen to create some freezer meals. We had a plan of action and started off a little slow, but together made 14 meals to fill our freezers. Now if you know me I'm pretty ambitious and always think I can do WAY more than I actually have time for, so I planned on making 18 meals. We stopped around 10:15 p.m. after we decided to do 4 of the meals on our own the next day.

It was so much more fun to cook with another person and by the end of the day I was so tired and had some killer cankles. I am excited to just pull out a meal and not have to worry about prep work for dinner. I'm also very excited about doing fewer dishes this next month!!!! Each meal was roughly around $8.00, which is pretty average here I've found, so I don't think it saves us any money, other than making sure we don't throw away any ingredients, but if it saves us some time I'm all for it. Most of these meals will give us enough for leftovers too!

After talking about how the day went we decided we had to change a few things next go around:

We will DEFINETLY preparing fewer recipes that involve dough. This month we tried to do a lot of recipes that would help us not use our ovens this summer so we baked, and baked, and baked some more, so we would not have to do it later. For the first 2 hours I was constantly making some sort of dough, and most of that dough also had to be filled with something, so that was VERY time consuming.

Also we need to recruit a dishwasher. At the end of the day after Calvin went to bed, Marvin became our dishwasher, it was very nice. Also it will be much easier when we don't have to bring hot water in from our bathroom. Right now it's summer and the hot water is off in our building, thankfully we have a hot water heater to heat water in our bathroom or else this would not have been fun. This type of cooking produces a LOT of dishes, I'm not going to lie that part stunk.

If we want to do make this many meals, we need do more prep than we did, we tried to chop everything ahead of time, but had a few things that I thought could have been done before we got together.

Also it will be good to figure out which containers would work best for what ahead of time, and label them. I'm very bad at figuring out what will fit in what. Since Ziploc bags are hard to come by in our part of the world we tried to use as many containers as possible. We both ran into problems towards the end with not having enough containers to fit what we needed. It also took a lot of time to stop and label stuff, so we either need to have our labels ready or know what containers will fit what.

I highly recommend getting a good night sleep before a mega cooking spree. We both stayed up late doing our prep work which made for some tired girls going into it.

Overall I'm glad we did it and I'll certainly do it again, the benefits highly outweigh the negatives.

Ya Sure

This little guy just keeps cracking us up recently at things he says and I don't want to forget them, so here are some classic Calvinisms recently:

His response most of the time when he's agreeing to our suggestions, "Ya Sure."

When we ask him to do something and he's stalling doing it. He's quite clever and will usually say:
"But I have to asked you something." Which is usually preceded by not a question but something like this "memmer when we were are the abc house and ......... yes that was hun (fun)."

When playing he'll suddenly gasp and say.... "I have an idea, ya that'd be a good idea."

"Daddy want to wesle (wrestle) me."

"Pooper Groger." When describing his Super Grover underwear.

Saying "bring it on" when playing "soccer ball". (His daddy taught him that one.)

Every morning he's excited to get dressed and choose which "team" he's going to be for the day. As he looks at his shirts he'll say, "maybe be green team, no blue team, ohhhh mommy stripe team, cool." If anyone else is wearing the same color shirt as he is that day is obviously on the same team as him. (Can you tell he LOVING the world cup lately?)

Anytime either of us leave, he must run to the door give us a kiss and say "I wowve you too."

Such sweet gifts! We truly love this verbal stage.

Freedom

So far this morning it's a cloudy day and we're hoping the rain holds off until after our 4th of July plans. I know Calvin is really looking forward to a picnic by the river today and Marvin's excited to grill some kebabs (shh don't tell our local friends but he bought some pork).

The 4th of July is a holiday for me where strangely enough I get a little homesick, even more than Christmas. I have such fun memories of spending the 4th on my grandparents farm. It isn't anything but your typical 4th of July celebration, but the smell of fireworks and bug spray open wide the floodgates and the memories come a flowing. It was a day where we could play (we still do), get dirty, eat lots of yummy food, be around our cousins, and do a lot of laughing. I still love it, and it was fun the past two years to be a part of it. Here are some things I will miss this year:

• Hearing my grandpa pray for the gratefulness of those who have given their lives for their country. Knowing the sincerity of his heart and hearing the pain of losing his own brother in WWII in his prayer. (His generation understands how much freedom costs and I'm so thankful to learn that from him.)

• My grandma's kitchen instructions. I love being in the kitchen and doing what grandma tells you to do and how she thinks out loud. I can just hear her "Now Erica.........."

• The commentary on every firework that is shot off from my mom and aunts.

• Grandma's peach pie.....so heavenly

• Catching up with family.

So even though our 4th may look a bit different this year, we have so much to give thanks for. Living in a different country makes us appreciate our upbringing and heritage. We are thankful to be from a country who has the ability to help so many around the world, and where freedom is not just a word but a reality. Truly blessed are we!

giardia, giardia go away

Dear Giardia bug,

Please go away! You've made our life fun this last week, I will give you that, but you have forgotten that Calvin is still figuring out the potty thing, and it's hard for him to make it quickly to the potty when he needs to, especially when he is in pain. Although my vocabulary grew this week because of you and there are a few words I will never forget like stool stample and poop, you need to make a quick exit from Calvin's body. We thank you for giving us the opportunity to check out the medical clinics here, but we'd rather not go back. Your 7 day stay has been long enough. We hope to never see you again.

Sincerly,
Our WHOLE family

Finally SUMMER PRODUCE

We are enjoying summer produce right now! Hooray for fresh fruit and veggies that don't cost an arm and a leg! I have big plans for all this summer produce including: making some jams, applesauce, canning some tomatoes (diced and whole) and salsa!

I got things rolling a couple weeks ago with 10 jars of freezer strawberry jam, there is nothing better than homemade jam, it's so yummy, we've already finished one jar already. I'm really excited, now we'll see how much energy I have. I'm really excited thinking about being able to open up a jar of tomatoes and throw them into a recipe (we can get them here but they are about $3.00 for a small can, a price I just can't justify). Thankfully fresh local produce comes in stages, so that I'm not bombarded all at once. I have high hopes to get some cherries in the freezer this week. If you have any other ideas I'd love to hear them. I'm also tossing around the idea of canning some spaghetti sauce, from what I've read I'm a little intimidated, has anyone done this before?

What’s this called?

For Father's Day Calvin and I woke up early to get started on a big breakfast for Marvin (really Calvin woke up early so it helped me get an early start on the cinnamon rolls). As we sat down for breakfast brunch Calvin looked at the bacon and said, "What's this mommy?" He then moved on to the cinnamon rolls and asked me what they were. I had to laugh because I'm sure Marvin knew what these two things were well before 2 ½ . Regardless he enjoyed them both.

Refreshed

It's been a busy couple of weeks. We have slept very well. We had lots of extra stuff on top of our normal stuff that made life a little crazy. We were preparing for our supervisor and his family to move, and of course we had to make their send off special. It was a lot of fun planning and I was pretty exhausted by the time it was over. We had a fun time and I was thankful to everyone who helped it go smoothly. We will certainly miss their family. It has already been weird emptying their house.

Their house is in the process of being sold. We've had lots of memories in this fortress house, and it will be very different not going out to this village often. We lived in this same house for over a year before they moved to our city. Over this process it's been good to be thankful for those memories, but not to let them hold us back to where Father is leading.

Monday we had our nanny come so I could get some good time of refreshment. I will have to be honest when I plan these sort of days I'm often distracted by being home and the things that need to be done. I had to smile because it was a day when our water was out, and every household task that needed to be done involved water, it was a sweet little gift. It was a beautiful morning to sit on our balcony and just soak up the Word. I loved every second of it. I love to listen to music while reading and I noticed a playlist I created shortly after going back to the states and it was a sweet time of being reminded of how Faithful He truly is. This sort of morning is going to make its way into our monthly routine.

Mommy watch this......

Ever try to put a potty chair over your head? I don't recommend it, they get stuck.

After about 15 minutes of a trying to pry this thing off of an upset little guy I determined it was going to take two people, and I had just helped our neighbors lock the door and knew they weren't home. So I called in the big guns, Daddy, and told him he'd have to head home instead of class. Of course I had to snap a quick picture before I did so. Thankfully we got it off about 5 minutes later, and Marvin was able to go to class.

Some days all I wonder is WHY?

not this week

Just so you know today is not Father's Day! I was clearly convinced it was until yesterday, thankfully a friend told me otherwise. So glad I didn't wake up super early to make breakfast-in-bed for the Father in our house. I guess when you're not being bombarded by media things get a little fuzzy!

Rant.....then swallow

So I have this thing against technology and children's toys. I DESPISE toys that require batteries! Most of the time they are so annoying you just want the batteries to die, but really where's the play when all your animals make their own sounds? Coming from an early childhood background I've seen so often how play just stops with these types of toys. I honestly feel like kids learn best through exploring their world with their own hands through play.

With that said, we do live in the age of ipods, ipads, laptops, etc. and it's important for kids to be familiar with them. I recently had this discussion with a friend, who is all about reading books to their baby on the way on a Kindle. (It will be interesting to see if this view changes once he becomes a parent.) Now the funny part was when Calvin brought me our calculator the other day and said, "Read this book Mommy." Our friend was very pleased at our little techno savvy little man.

I also said I'd never EVER own a leap pad, leapster, whatever they are. Well guess what someone gave us one and guess who loves it? I'll give you a hint, he's a blond little boy. But you know what made this mama's heart so happy? Was when he decided to add some "guitar action" with the music! That's my guy. Guess I better watch what I say from now on.

Addition & Subtraction

Soon and very soon we will be the proud owners of a freezer. I can't tell you how long I've wanted one, especially overseas. I've had dreams of doing once a month cooking but our little freezer could hold maybe 3 meals, it's that tiny. I've been plugging away at a menu that requires no use of the oven when needing to serve the meal. I'm all about keeping our house cooler this summer, why turn on the oven when you don't have to. The meals I've tried to pick out are ones that can be made by crock pot, stove top, or reheated in the microwave. Once a month cooking is going to be so handy this summer, especially since we've bumped our language up to 5 days a week. I think I have a cooking buddy lined up too, I'm really excited.


What really isn't exciting is the reason why we are becoming the owners of this freezer. We bought it from some dear friends, people we look up to, come to with questions about EVERYTHING, and are seriously our family here. They are moving on, although we're excited for their new journey, it's hard to say goodbye. It is fun that we will have reminders of them around our house, ways that they will still be a blessing to us from so far away. I think of this often as I pull bread out of Jamie's space bread box, or use Laura's salad spinner. Even though these people are not working with us anymore we're grateful for the opportunity to work together for a season. Our lives are better because of it!

Out numbered

We made it to the half way point, 20 weeks!!!! It's fun to think that we'll get to meet this little one in only a few short months. Some days that fact overwhelms me, but most days it is fun to think of life as a family of 4!

When we got married Marvin's side of the family was filled with boys, he has 4 brothers and not many cousins with two X chromosomes. I told him that I didn't think we'd ever have a girl, in fact I seriously thought it was impossible! Then his brother had 3 precious little girls, that we miss tremendously! It gave me hope. I will admit that when we were told early on that we may be having a girl I was excited, but a little sad Calvin wouldn't have a little brother to pal around with, I've grown to love being a mom to a little boy. Then our next ultra sound told us we were having a boy, we were just confused.

We had a very compliant little baby this last week for my ultrasound and turns out I'm going to be out numbered in our house, another little boy! We're thrilled!

I am already dreaming projects for this little one. I want to update our stroller. This is our stroller.

But ours has an extra easier to remove pad over the seat part, that I want to recover, to give it more personality. Which one would you choose?

Ta Dots?

or

Teeny Tiny Zoo Pool?

I need to order one of these soon so I can get the fabric and finish this project before we head out to have this baby. (Living in a place where it takes a month to get a package takes some planning!)

Thanks for the help and sharing in our excitement!

Homeward Bound

You have no idea how excited I am to be returning home today. I can't wait to give my amazing husband a HUGE hug. I've missed him so much this past week. So has Calvin. He is ready to give his Daddy real hug, not just a high five on the computer. Every time we pray at meals he reaches out his hand for Daddy, making me miss him even more.

To be honest it's been exhausting! I've been Calvin's constant playmate this past week (with the exception of when he and Pooh, his imaginary friend play). Thankfully he's been a really sweet boy, I've only had a few moments where I've wanted to lock myself in the bathroom. We've really had some sweet times together these last 8 days. I'll remember this trip forever!

We're all packed and ready to go. Of course we had to go local and pack as locals do, only I found a nice rice bag that was more my style at IKEA. I'll get it wrapped in saran wrap at the airport here in a few hours and no one will ever suspect I'm a foreigner.

I'm praying for an uneventful flight and a quick tour through passport control and customs, and of course a seat for Calvin this time around.

Too close not to stop

Calvin had a doctor's appointment at the hospital where he will have a minor operation when we come to have the baby this fall. It was great to talk about logistics with the doctor and see the hospital. This particular hospital is a good taxi ride away from the apartment we are staying in, and very close to IKEA. So since I have been craving a hot dog, I thought it would be perfect to run over to IKEA for lunch and of course take some time to play and shop while we were there.

I'm not the only one in our family who loves IKEA, Calvin had a blast. Of course it is so much more enjoyable because they have brilliantly laid out their store so that it's child friendly. We made it out of the store with a few necessary items like dry erase markers, and Ziploc bags, but a couple fun ones too. It's just refreshing knowing if you buy a toy there it won't break the next day. It 's was sort of funny to look around at the things in the children's section and see so many things that live at our house now. What can I say, we're loyal customers!

a busy building boy

Calvin would like to give a HUGE virtual thank you hug to Aunt Stacey and Uncle John for the legos. He loves them and has spent so many hours busy creating. He had the biggest grin on his face when he discovered a few familiar lego people, Bob the builder and Piglet. After we went to the store in search of a birthday present for a little friend I was so grateful to have such great quality toys. I really despise cheap plastic and apparently that is what is affordable here.

Here's is what I've found throughout the house recently:

Lego People Swimming

pirate guys in a boat

I on the other hand want to give you a huge hug for the air conditioner! My allergies have been terrible this year and I have not even hit the worst of it. As we experienced a few hot days here in Istanbul, I was dreaming of our cool apartment back home. My awesome hubby and another teammate have installed it, and now all we have to do is get back home in order to enjoy these new treats.

One Ticket

We'll I survived my first international travel flight alone with a child and it wasn't too bad, but I'd much rather do it with help. Only on Nineveh Air is it possible for a 2 ½ year old to be a lap child, but at least his ticket was free. Of course he was a lap child without a lap belt, pretty sure those weren't invented when this specific airplane was made. It was a cozy flight, I'm so glad my belly isn't any bigger, because the person's seat in front of us was broken and only reclined, but we had a seat and we were able to fly. One other blessing was that the flight was filled with women, which meant that the waiting area and the plane weren't smoky!!! No smoking signs don't apply to bathrooms, in our part of the world.

It's also one of the few airlines that travel with their own "engineers". We had to wait on everyone to get off the plane so I could go to the back of the plane and get our stroller, since we boarded through the back of the plane. As soon as all the people got off the "engineers" put on their orange vests and grabbed their flashlights and went to work. I'm glad they make sure everything was working before they took off.

Calvin's been a great traveler and has been having fun at the "ABC house". He hasn't forgotten the apartment we stayed at when we were here for our visa run. In fact he remembers everything, as we were turning in the apartment complex when we arrived from the airport, and he was so excited to go play on the playground. I had to remind him we still had to take our bags to the apartment, he was slightly disappointed. He's also very busy retelling things we did the last time we were here, I can only imagine the stories he'll tell when we come to have the baby this fall.

I was able to see the doctor on Monday and the baby is continuing to grow! It was encouraging to hear that because I woke up on Monday after the oddest dream about a doctor's appointment where they did a sonogram but they couldn't tell me what the gender the baby was because the baby was wearing pajamas. In my dream they told me that I must have swallowed a pair of pjs, I of course insisted that I didn't, but they told me I'd have to wait till the baby was born to find out the gender, and they hoped that the pajamas didn't cut off the babies circulation to its hands and feet. They couldn't tell me if the baby would be born with hands and feet yet, due to the pajamas. It was very odd. So I was relieved to get a picture of this, and no I didn't tell the doctor about my strange dream.

We also learned what we're having, but I'll save that for another post!

The best news of all was that there was no sign of preterm labor. I'll get the last of my lab results back on Thursday and we'll see where we go from here. The doctor must release me to go back home, so I'm hoping that this stay will be brief and we can travel back home on Sunday, granted there is a seat available on that flight.

With this pregnancy I have a lot more fears. I try not to let my mind go there but it's quite terrifying wondering what might happen if I do go into labor early again, only not in a place with great medical care. So I've just been paying a little more attention to my body and trying not to worry over every little ache and of course pouring prayer over this little thing. I know many of you have been too, it means the world to us!

hmmmm......

I've been wondering this week why I just can't have a normal pregnancy. Last weekend I started to have some contractions, nothing major they don't hurt, and I'm almost positive they are Braxton Hicks. After doing some research it's completely normal, but I also felt like I had a UTI as well. I sent an email to a nurse and doctor asking about an antibiotic I could take for the UTI and also mentioned the contractions. Little did I know they go hand and hand, which can explain part of my preterm labor with Calvin because I had a UTI pretty much my whole 3rd trimester.

So they were a little concerned and wanted me to come out as soon as possible for a checkup. We had planned a mid way appointment but were trying to figure out the details of the trip as our supervisor is moving and there's a lot of work stuff to be done, and we'd like to spend time with them too because we'll miss them tremendously. I really wanted to head out once my antibiotic was finished but I was overruled. So I leave either Sunday or Monday.

Calvin's also accompanying me so he can see the surgeon about a little operation he's going to have come fall. This will be a first for me to travel internationally without any help; I've traveled twice alone with Calvin but not internationally. Thank goodness that people here are very helpful with children and we've done this trip many times I know where I'm going and can direct a taxi. It should be an adventure. I'm not looking forward to the going as much as the coming back. Getting through customs is a bit of a zoo, especially with a small child. You're literally pushed through the line when they see you have a child. It's nice but also a little crazy too. (But that's another post in itself.)

I really bounce back between being worried, afraid, feeling this trip is a little silly, and completely calm about everything at the same time. It will be good to see a real doctor and we hope to find out if we'll have another little boy running around our home or a little girl. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Oh and did I mention Calvin's doing great potty training, it's much easier when you can just pull down you child's pants in public and go when he has the urge. Haven't quite figured out how we'll do the airport since they have a squatty potty. Any suggestions? (Below is a squatty potty, the type you'll find in most public places here.)

good stuff

You know what was the best Mother's Day present?

Being finished with morning sickness!!! We splurged and bought a kilo of strawberries and celebrated with strawberry shortcake. Of course I had to teach Calvin the proper way to eat strawberry shortcake, drenched in cream, yum. Of course he loved it! I'm pretty sure you have to grow up eating it this way, Marvin hasn't yet embraced the cream soaked shortcake.

You know what else is amazing, chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. They don't contain any eggs so they are completly safe to eat, but oh my were these things rich. If you make them add a bit of salt to the dough, maybe 1/2 t., it tastes much better. I'd also add a step after the chilling process is finished. I recommend freezing the cookie dough balls after they have been formed before dipping them in chocolate. It will add some more time, but you'll end up with a prettier truffle and it will be much easier to dip.

An Interesting Combination

I have been EXHAUSTED recently. Language study is exhausting in itself then you throw in being pregnant and allergies in the mix and it's a perfect combination for being extremely tired all day long. Most days I fall asleep before Calvin does, and if I by some miracle I'm still awake after he's gone to bed my minutes are limited. The other night I was talking to Marvin and I finished my sentence and the next second I was out. Regardless of how much sleep I may be getting it just never seems like enough.

I am wondering what happened to that surge of energy you're suppose to get in your second trimester? I'd could really use some!

Don't forget the Bread

Calvin literally does not stop talking from the moment he wakes up till he goes to bed. He's such a hoot too. He's incorporated a lot of what we say in his speech now. It's made us stop and think about how often we truly say words like, maybe and other words like darn it.

He also has very specific ways things should be said, for instance peanut butter and jelly is, peanut butter, jelly and bread, how silly of us to forget the bread. Sometimes the way he words things isn't always the shortest for instance, smoothies are ice, blueberries, honey, and yogurt. With a big emphasis on HONEY.

He's also added a few new local words to his vocab and seems eager to learn new words every day. Since it's warmed up kids have suddenly come out of the woodworks and Calvin loves any chance he can get to play with kids. He'll often look out our window and if there are kids on the playground run to the door and try to put his shoes on and announces that he's going to go play with the kids. I will admit there's something in this mama's heart that just wants him to have a good local buddy to pal around with on the playground outside our apartment. But to have a good buddy you kind of need to be able to talk to him.

Marvin and I have been thinking a lot about local preschool recently. There is so much to think about. We know it would be instrumental in helping his language grow beyond what we or a nanny could ever teach him, yet thinking about my little man going to preschool all morning long is hard. Unfortunately we have to start thinking through some of these things since we live in a culture of who you know gets you places and slot in a preschool class. But for the meantime I'll enjoy our time together, picking and helping the dandelion population expand. It's a good thing locals love them because they are everywhere.

Macgyver Skills

What would we do without google? Seriously when I have a question I usually ask google. For example, this winter when the olympics were on and all they were showing in this country was curling, a quick google search gave us a better understanding of what they were doing.

Well google and you tube came to our rescue last week. It was bedtime and Calvin didn't take it so well, he insisted that he already went to sleep that day. His arguement was pretty good but obviously wasn't winning the battle, so he ran into the kitchen and closed the door and locked it. Of course he couldn't get it unlocked, and the hinges were on his side of the door. Thanks to you tube and a pair of tweezers we now know how to pick a lock. We never thought we'd have a need for that skill!

Oh the Drama

....over a bandaid.

Can you believe it, Calvin's never had a need for a band aid before? Sure we had a few scraped knees last summer but nothing major. Well last week Calvin was playing with Marvin's tape measurer and it gave him a little cut on his finger, nothing major, so we broke out the bandaids.

Now this band aid was a bigger deal than the actual cut. He was so excited about his Diego band aid. The drama began as he went to bed, he started picking at the band aid and eventually it came off, having a tired boy amplified the situation. He would not let it go, so I caved and got him another one, which he again tried to take off, thankfully he fell asleep. But first thing in the morning we had a highly distraught little boy pouring tears over his band aid that was now stuck together and not on his finger. Now there's not much reasoning to be had with a grumpy determined 2 year old. He was determined enough to figure out how to open it up again and for the rest of the day his beloved band aid was rotated from finger to finger.

Since then we've had many learning lessons about what warrants a band aid, and that little stinker even tried to hurt his finger again with the tape measurer just to get another one, thankfully he was unsuccessful. He did have another band aid incident this past week and thankfully we escaped with only one, and a little less drama.

May Day in the Mountains

Our friends invited us to join them on a trip to the Mountains to celebrate May's birthday. I was a little apprehensive because at the time I was still feeling like I was car sick all day, the windy roads up the mountains did not sound appealing, but since I had a couple of good days we agreed to go with them.

The drive was fine, we didn't have to pull over, PTL and so thankful to be spared from that embarassment. We arrived a little after 7:30 p.m., and got checked into the hotel and then around 8:30-9:00 headed outside to start a fire to grill our shashlik, the local kebabs. I'm so very thankful I ate before we left because I've actually had an appetite lately and would have been starving. It was dark as we went outside and of course the lights by the little shelter weren't working, it took about 30 minutes for the staff to figure out how to turn them on. In the mean time Calvin was having a blast throwing things in the little stream that ran along side the shelter. The water was freezing and I was so paranoid that he would fall in, especially since it was dark and we couldn't see anything.

Once the guys got the fire going he enjoyed watching that for a while, then it was back to throwing things into the water. Now shashlik takes FOREVER to make. You need good hot coals before you can even cook the meat, then the meat takes a while to cook. So by the time they were ready to eat it was 11:00 p.m. Calvin and I were both were so exhausted.

The next day we woke up had breakfast in the cafe at the hotel (a malt-o-meal type cereal and eggs, very good) and piddled around before finally driving up to the mountains. Calvin and I only went up one lift because I was already having some headaches and well I'm a little paranoid about this pregnacy since I had some complications with Calvin.

He loved playing in the snow before everyone else went up the lifts and then we just waited for everyone to come back. We ate at a little cafe then went back out to play a bit. Unfortunately since there were cafes everywhere there was also broken glass in all the good snow playing spots that were out of the path of the skiiers coming off the run. So it was slightly stressfull.

Thankfully the rest of our group arrived and May, her daughter and us headed back to the hotel for nap time. The rest of the day was beautiful. We enjoyed hanging out at the hotel just chatting, which I loved.

You may be wondering where Marvin was, well he was skiing, for the first time ever. It was quite a surprise as we didn't think he'd be doing this, but thankfully he brought his ski bibs. Now this isn't the best mountain to learn on and it didn't help that they went clear to the top to start. Marvin's only instructions were as followed, "If you want to turn do this. (then Ute showed him how to move his skiis)" Then Ute proceeds to say, "Okay go ahead". It was an adventure for sure. The next time Marvin goes skiing he's bringing someone who can give him a little more instruction.

On the way home May and I were talking about the next time we do this we'd leave the kids at home. I agreed wholeheartedly!!! We had barely started moving on our journey back home and I had a little boy slumped over sleeping hard in my lap. Overall it was a fun but EXHAUSTING trip, so glad we went!

Can you guess who went skiing???? Guess who also forget to bring sunscreen????

Love It!

While we were out on our visa run I picked up the most adorable fabric at the bazaar in hopes to transform it into some cute summer skirts that can accommodate my growing belly. I had the best time being overwhelmed by the selections. It truly was a hunt to find the best fabric as they had tables of pre cut fabric piled on top of each other. I would have stopped to take a few pictures but I was too busy finding the perfect fabric. I loved it, but to a non fabric lover it must have looked like a mess. I found some great deals and I'm so glad I ventured to the bazaar as everything was much cheaper than any fabric store I have stepped into since leaving America.

So far all my normal clothes are still fitting, so I haven't felt pressured to sew them yet. It was VE day this weekend and Saturday we stayed close to home to be on the safe side. So it was the perfect day to turn this fabric into some adorable summer skirts. However I only finished one, I always think I can accomplish more than I truly can during nap time, somehow I haven't quite figured that out. I made the Lilly Skirt and it was so easy. I had so much fun sewing with elastic tread for the 1st time. It was so easy, not as intimidating as once thought, so watch out world I have a new skill. I'm hoping to bust out another skirt today, since I don't have language tomorrow.

So here's the picture of my first summer skirt and my first "belly" picture, the waist of the skirt added a little to the "baby belly", but I don't really mind one bit. I'm 4 months along (16 weeks)and feeling better but the nausea still hasn't dissipated entirely, thankfully I want to eat now, you have no idea how much of a blessing that is.

It's a .....

Baby! Well we've had two ultrasounds one told us it was a girl and another that told us that it was a boy. I guess we'll wait another few weeks before we know for sure. We have been asking Calvin what he thinks and here's what he told us. (This video was when I was 14 weeks along, after we told him how big the baby was he said, "hold on" ran to the kitchen grabbed a lemon and was so proud.)

We're working on that gender thing right now. Apparently since most babies don't have hair they're easily mistaken for boys in Calvin's mind right now.

Happy Mother's Day out there to all the moms in our world. Especially my mom and my mother-in-law. Being a mom has opened my eyes to how awesome our own moms are. Thanks for everything you've done for us and continue to do. We all love you!

Just want to bottle it up

Marvin and I were talking about all the things we just love hearing Calvin say recently. He's at that age where he's just so stinkin cute when he talks. Sometimes I just wish Calvin would always say oops like "ewwps" and "well-woh" for yellow. But then Marvin reminded me that he's glad he won't because he'd be picked on tremendously. But I do want to bottle them up and remember them forever.


He's also become quite observant and has a memory like none other. We have to be sure we are serious about our promises or else we hear something like, "memer (remember), I go outside today. Here are a few things he said recently that have made us smile.

Marvin was leaving for work one morning this week and as he was about to walk out the door Calvin said, "Hold on Dadda get trash." Marvin usually takes the trash out each morning when he heads to the office and this particular morning he forgot, so glad we have a cute little reminder and I no longer have to remind Marvin when he forgets. Thanks buddy.


This week Calvin and I went to the grocery store and during language the only sweets I had in the house were Calvin's potty reward M&Ms, so of course I had to serve them because it would have been rude not to. After he saw I was giving away his M&Ms I told him we were going to the store later so we could buy some new ones. Unfortunately I only brought a certain amount of money with me and as I was mentally calculating how much I was spending I realized I was cutting it close and still had to pay for a taxi home, so I didn't buy the M&Ms. Before we got to the cash register I warned him that I didn't have enough money to buy M&Ms today, he was a little disappointed but since I was buying him a juice box he didn't seem to mind too much. Then yesterday while we were cleaning up the house he found a coin, worth about 3 cents, he came running up to me and said, "Mama have money, put my shoes on and go buy M&Ms." What a stinker, when I told him that wasn't enough money to buy M&Ms he looked at me like I was crazy. Then again today we were playing play dough and he brought up the M&Ms again only this time he pointed out that "Dada has money."

Had I only known

Oh so apparently Calvin didn't have the flu bug last week. My language teacher told me that his stomach was just cold. What I need to do next time is iron a cloth and tie it on his belly. We could have been spared all the yuck if we had only known.

Oh and sometimes it's really hard not to laugh when people tell us these things.

Nice

A couple weeks ago Calvin and I went out for a little walk and we spotted a dog with some serious problems. It was having all sorts of muscle spams, it's body was literally jolting and looked really sick. We were at the playground when I spotted it so we waited a bit till it was off the path. Thankfully we haven't seen the dog again.

However a few days later Marvin spotted another dog displaying the same symptoms. We both had our suspicions, but didn't think about it again till today when I did a little google search on rabies symptoms. Sure enough all signs of rabies, sweet. Hopefully that will be the last we see of this strange behavior in our neighborhood stray animals especially since it's prime outdoor time, well if it ever stops raining and warms up.

It's still there.......

.......my love for aprons that is! My friend had a birthday this weekend and I was thinking through what to give her and thought about making her an apron. I had a little steam left in me one evening and after browsing through a few apron sites I found this apron and loved a few features about it. This would be the sweetest little girl's apron and I have and the perfect color combo in my head.

But of course it's not me to copy something without putting my own twist on it. I loved the gathered skirt but I wanted it a little more fitted top and a little longer than the inspiration photo. I cut 2 bodice pieces 9 1/2 inch long by 22 inches (I was running short of fabric so to make the most out of what I had so I cut my fabric so that the bottom of the bodice was on the selvage. This way I didn't have to hem this part. I'd recommend cutting your first piece 10 1/2 inches so that you'll have plenty of room for a hem.)

Since I'm more of a curved line girl rather than a straight line girl, I then took both pieces of the bodice with them right sides together, folded them in half and added a scoop neck. From the end of the scoop I measured over about 2 1/2 inches for the neck strap, then also scooped out the top corners for the arm holes. (I first held it up to myself to figure out how far to cut.) Since this was a gift I wanted it to be adjustable so I used a halterish neck tie and an traditional tie back rather than the adorable straps in my inspiration photo.

I gathered the skirt using a basting stitch and then pulling it manually (oh how how I'd love to find a gathering foot someday). I of course had already hemmed the sides and bottom of the apron skirt. Next I sewed my bodice scooped neck and arm "holes" leaving the bottom open as well as where my ties attached. I then enclosed my straps in the bodice, ironed and pinned it shut. Lastly I tucked the skirt in the bottom end of the the bodice, and pinned it shut. Sewing a seam around the entire bodice.

I imagine if you've read everything till now you actually know what I'm talking about, so go ahead I dare you create your own, but make sure you send me a picture.

Joining the Ranks

Marvin and I feel we've finally been initiated in the the parenting club, we experienced the middle of the night cleaning up vomit/hold your child while they get sick thing. I have a whole new appreciation for our moms. Just want to say thanks for taking care of us when we were sick growing up. Marvin and I are grateful. I also learned how much love it takes to clean up that nasty stuff at 3 a.m. (Thanks honey.)

After a long night the sickness continued into the day. The poor thing was miserable yesterday, he spent most of the day in my arms, or laying on the couch. Thankfully our sweet teammates brought us some food for the little man, Marvin had to go out of town before any stores opened and of course I had planned on a grocery run later in the day, which meant I didn't have much in the house. I am so thankful they brought a few items over. They seriously rock.

We're just about through with all the laundry that were casualties from the stomach bug, now if it would only dry. Every available cabinet is open and holding sheets and blankets that have been washed.

Thankfully Calvin's back to his old self, he's been quite busy today playing, playing, playing. His appetite starting is coming back, and I'm thankful I haven't heard "Mama my bummy (tummy) hurts" all day long.

Help....from all my cloth diapering fellow moms

So our cloth diapers were wonderful in America, you know the place with dryers that aren't ridiculously expensive. Little did I know that one wash here and they would turn into sandpaper. Part of the reason we pushed toilet training was that it was becoming impossible to change Calvin's diapers, he flat out refused to wear his cloth diapers, and I don't blame him. I've tried all sorts of things to soften them up, fleece liners, extra rinses, vinegar rinses, etc. and after they line dry they turned out with the same sandpaper texture. It's frustrating because I really like them. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Since getting a dryer is not an option right now (for one the heavy price tag and two where in the world would we put the thing) we're looking into ordering some new diapers for this next little one. (Really cloth diapering isn't too bad, this is coming from a girl who swore I'd never use them.) So we're stuck trying to figure out what we should order. I'm looking at the all in one/one size diapers. I've narrowed it to two diapers.

Bum Genius or Fuzzi Buns One size. Any suggestions? Anyone use these? Here are my thoughts:

I like how the bum genius seem to be more compact and from what I've read clothes tend to fit better. I like the velcro, but I also don't like the velcro. It's a pain to remember to close it when washing and if you don't all your diapers stick to each other and sometimes sticks to the diapers or wipes too. Also velcro isn't as durable and they may not hold up to another child. And they look a bit on the small side. I tried one on Calvin and it still fit him but he's also not a large child for his age, he still fits into size 4 diapers and he's 2 1/2.

What I like about the fuzzy bunz diapers is that they have snaps instead of the velcro. They seem bigger so they might fit longer. They seem soft when line drying since they are lined with fleece. Can anyone attest to this?

So there you go, that's what we're pondering as we think through things we need for this newest little blessing. Thanks for helping and if you know of someone with an opinion about either one people send them over and have them give us some advice. Thanks WFMW for the help.

and P.S. I must confess I totally gave up on potty training Calvin, my stomach just couldn't handle it, we'll wait till I stop gagging all day long. We're totally doing disposables right now and I'm okay with that.

The big 30

Nope not what your thinking, Calvin finally hit 30 lbs. I picked him up yesterday and thought oh my goodness you're a chunk, I immediately went and weighed him. We have noticed he has grown but since I can't remember how tall he was at his 2 year check up I don't know how much he has grown. He's currently 35 inches tall (or 89 cm.). He's certainly turning into a fun little boy.

He's at that stage where he is starting to get jokes. We received an email from a friend who suggested Phil if it was a girl and Laura if it was a boy. He just started laughing and said, Mom Laura is a girl's name. It's been fun to joke around with him lately.

His language is exploding right now (one of my favorite developmental periods) and he busts out with words we didn't know he knew. Today after lunch he was playing with the magnets on the fridge and told me they were his passport and tried so hard to get his passport in his pocket. Too funny, guess it goes to show what's relevant in his world.

We were able to get out of the house yesterday and visit some friends in town we haven't seen since February. Calvin had so much fun playing outside and trying to figure out how to pedal a bike. I know he'll have plenty of time this summer to figure it out and we're hoping to go shopping for one tomorrow.

And since it's been a while since we posted a video. Here's some live action from our little veggie tales lover. And yes this is his stage that he must have in this exact position any time he listens to veggie tales.

Oh and speaking of veggies, the little man now loves GREEN BEANS. I never thought it was possible or that I'd hear him ask for more green beans at dinner. Funny how those taste buds change, glad we were persistent and keep giving him things he normally doesn't touch.

Heavy Heart

There is so much in our world that can weigh our hearts down, and recently my heart has been very heavy. I've had moments of pure brokenness lately, maybe it's due to the changes of hormones, but recently I've been brought me to tears in an instant.


Recently Calvin's been working on saying his name. For a while he was convinced his name was cowboy. Now he only says it when he's trying to be silly. But how that one word has brought a heaviness to my heart, Cowboy. My grandpa used to call Marvin cowboy, because he was a farm boy. When we left the states our first term I never imagined coming back to my American world changed so much. A few days before we returned my grandpa died, he never was able to meet Calvin. Though we had discussed such things happening my mind never really went there. So it was bittersweet when I heard our sweet little guy call himself cowboy.



There are things that we've choosen to give up because we believe with all our hearts that what we are doing is what we are supposed to be doing and as I think about my grandparents and family it's hard to think of the what ifs.



Another silly little thing that has been hard lately has also been thinking about our next little one and family. We want our family to know our kids, one of my big motivators to keep this little ole blog going. But part of my heart is a little sad that my mom and Marvin's mom will never feel my big pregnant belly. That they may never get to share in the experience of holding our newborn babies. It's silly really but it's something I have been grieving.



There are many more things, watching the older grandmas and grandpas dig through the dumpsters in search for recyclables. Staring into the eyes of beggers at the market. The sin in my own life, tragedies, etc, etc.



I honestly believe that Father has given me such a heavy heart for a reason and it's been sweet to have such sweet times of crying out to Him for all these things. I do hope that Father burdens your hearts for something. Today I found a song I had long forgotten about in my itunes library. It started playing right in the middle of lunch, it was a fun time of worshiping Father. Calvin even joined in and sang too. This is my prayer today.

" I will not forget you you are my God my King, with a thankful heart I bring my offering and my sacrifice is not what you can give but what I alone can give to you."

The BIG Offenders

I’m trying so hard not to complain. I am thrilled to have this little one growing inside me, but man I am ready to not be sick all the time. My heart truly breaks for sweet friends who would give anything to feel this sickness. So I’m bearing through it, thankful that one day it will end, and we’ll get to meet this little blessing.

Our latest doctor’s appointment went well and I was able to hear the results of my blood work. Everything was normal except my thyroid test, apparently I have an overactive thyroid, which my doctor told me is fairly common in pregnancy. For many women this leads to a lot of nausea and weight loss. Here in a couple of weeks I’ll have another blood test done and hopefully it will be back in the normal range. So this can explain part of the reason why the sickness is more intense this time around. Thankfully I haven’t gotten sick for almost a whole week. I don’t think anyone enjoys getting sick, I certainly don’t and can’t wait for it to stop. I cannot imagine those who have it much worse than this pregnancy, I'm so sorry!

The biggest things that set me off are smells and tastes. Some things just send me gagging in an instant. One smell that usually does it is clean laundry smells. This would not be so bad if we had a dryer, but we hang our clothes up to dry inside and some days it’s just overpowering. I’ve already cut back on the soap but the dilemma now is go without fabric softener and have stiff clothes that almost stand up, or become overwhelmed by the smell. Both not fun options, because I HATE putting on stiff socks, it seriously makes my skin crawl.

So for now I’ll continue to try to eat, I’m really tired of bread & crackers, and I hope this passes quickly. I’ve made through 6 weeks of this and hoping I have only a few more weeks of not feeling well all day long. This week is my last week in the 1st trimester and I'm really hoping things turn around soon.

Hold the awards

Well this week I had one of those days where I certainly was far from winning any mom of the year contests. We had been couped up inside for several days due to rain, and since it was just overcast and barely sprinkling I decided it would be great to take a little walk. I should have known better to have a purpose for our little walk, since Calvin was just dying to get outside and piddle, so our walk was far from ideal.

The whole time Calvin just wanted to play and I had another agenda, get to the store and back home. So we slowly made our way to the store, poor Calvin endured the wrath of his mama's tongue the whole way there. Here's what you would have heard, "Stop picking up rocks, stay out of the mud, don't splash in the big puddles, hurry along, we don't have time to "fish" right now, come on hold my hand a car is coming, Calvin keep moving." Get the picture, the poor guy just wanted to play.

Once we got home I was looking forward to resting during nap time. I hadn't been feeling so great and finally fell asleep and guess who woke up early, with a stinky diaper. Nice. My attitude was far from sweet and was seriously annoyed.

The rest of the afternoon he was literally begging me to play with him. Coming over and giving me hugs and kisses, bringing me books. I felt awful in more ways than one. It's amazing how much love that little guy can give in a day. I was literally about two seconds shy of getting sick and he comes over and just pats my back. Seriously I wanted to cry, he had already forgotten how ugly I was to him in the morning. I'm learning a lot about what forgiveness means from our sweet little two year old. I also have been learning a lot about what it looks like to love a two year old and how selfish my heart is. I do treasure this time in our lives and want to be a mom to builds our kids up. I have so much to learn and I'm thankful for the wisdom of Father to guide me in this precious task.

P.S. Our walk today went much better!

Easter 2010

This Easter was a bit different than we had envisioned it, but it really was a beautiful day. Since we were still stuck out of country without visas we tagged along with another group to celebrate. It was such so fun to look around the room and see all these people that Father had brought together for that day. Some of us were just passing through and others actually lived in the city, but it was neat to see how different we all are, we've come from different parts of the world, grown up in different homes yet we're family.

Our Easter service was a bit different from years past, for starters we met on Saturday evening. We enjoyed our living room time of singing, speaking to the king and learning from the Word. At the same time little ones played below our feet or snuggled in our laps. It was fun to just truly worship. After our time together the big kids hid a few eggs for the little ones. It took Calvin a while to catch on but after a bit they all were pretty pumped to find an egg. It was such a gorgeous evening and we were able to hang out outside and play before heading home. I'm a little sad we forgot our camera.

On Easter Sunday we headed out to a park so that Marvin could play a little ball with some friends. Calvin and I enjoyed the park with another young mom and her son, and to our surprise a tulip festival had begun at the park. Tulips were in bloom everywhere. It was simply gorgeous. Part of this festival also included music and Calvin enjoyed watching them "pay tar" (play the guitar). There even was a guy out painting, which was so much fun to watch for a while. I know Calvin was just dying to paint too, but he did well and controlled himself. With all that excitement he barely even played at the playground. We ended our exciting morning out with an Easter lunch at Papa John's, and boy was it tasty.
That night we had fun going through a hymnal we found at the apartment we were staying at and singing together as a family and reading again the truths of why we were celebrating. Calvin found a little musical instrument and accompanied us. It was pretty special. I hope you all had a great celebration too.