Attachment Parenting

I've never been a big fan of the mothering trend of co-sleeping, but only because it just didn't work for us. I cannot sleep when there's a child in the bed. I'm too worried about rolling over, or making a noise and waking them, and then I get heartburn and I really can't sleep. I discovered all this while Zaya was a colicky, sleepless infant. Needless to say, when Mim was a baby she slept in her own crib and we only snuggled when she was awake.

Apparently, though, Mim is going to be more open to the idea when she becomes a mother herself.

Meowling Fun!

Here's how you entertain preschoolers while Mommy and Daddy are busy painting.




The cat wasn't crazy about it, but the kids thought it was great! (Notice the tail and the front left paw.)

Guayacool

For as long as I can remember, my Grandpa P has had Guayaberas as part of his wardrobe. (And cotton coveralls, but that's another post) This is a style preference he picked up in his years as a missionary in Mexico, as most men do who go down south of the border for any length of time. I'm told they're very comfortable and easy to wear.

Now Zaya has a couple Guayaberas of his own. My friend Maria brings me clothes that her boys have outgrown, and the latest box had two of these shirts. (They're back in style, now. Grandpa knew what he was doing, I guess.)

I was so excited to see them. In fact I wish we'd had them for school picture day. I think it would be great to have a picture of Zaya and a picture of my Grandpa together in their Guayaberas. We'll have to try at Christmas.

Pintura

We are within sight of having one of the backrooms finished. All we lack is paint, flooring and trim to have our bedroom finished. (There will still be some work to do in the laundry area and the closet, shelving and such, but the main part will be done!)

Now we have to choose paint colors. This scares me because I am not very confident about colors. I can see colors very well, but I can't really tell what will look good together. When I was a senior in high school, I had to have the younger girls in the dorm tell me if the clothes I was wearing matched or not. I'm not kidding. Anyway, I've let Art have a lot of say-so in the colors we choose because a) He's paying for it. b) He's pickier. c) He's doing most all the work and d) It won't be my fault if it looks bad.

What a wife, eh?

Anyway, here's what "we" have chosen for the wall base color. It's hard to see in the picture, but it's a slightly brownish/orangeish off-white. The trim will be pine wood, and the flooring slightly darker wood. The doors and maybe the laundry area will be either dark green or dark blue. I'm leaving Art in charge of that decision for the above mentioned reasons.

The Great Pumpkin(s)

If an effort to be June Cleaver, I took my children to the pumpkin patch last week. It's a local farm that makes most of its money in the fall with pumpkins, gourds and general autumnal paraphernalia. I could've just bought the pumpkins for our jr. high party at the grocery store, but no. I wanted to create a memory. I created some pictures anyway. Beyond that there's no guarantee.

Of course there were quite a few Halloween decorations up, which I dislike intensely, but so far the kids don't really have any special interest in the whole process. They were intrigued by the mechanics more than anything. This snow-globe ghost had little black "bats" flying around inside a haunted house.



Luckily they were much more interested in the backyard. I loved this trampoline. The owners dug a hole and set the trampoline down where the jumping surface is at ground level. This way the kids can jump on and off with relative impunity. If we ever own a trampoline, this is how I'd want to do it, I think. You can see Mim there checking underneath. (She's looking for a cat, I think)



This will probably be our last pumpkin patch trip. As Mim and Zaya become more aware of the world around them, they'll start asking why we're going somewhere with big monster decorations and what a witch is and on and on. We face enough of that just walking through Wal-mart. Besides, I can buy the same pumpkins for half the price at the grocery store. Oh well. So much for nostalgia.

Book Meme

I've been tagged for a book meme by Lisa at Our Seven Qtpies.

Here are the instructions -

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your journal/blog along with these instructions.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
Tag five other people to do the same.

I have a couple hundred paperback mysteries in the bookshelf right next to my computer desk, so I grabbed the most accessible, which turned out to be Death of a Dude by Rex Stout.

"As I reported, he's one of the few people who thinks Harvey is clean."

"The Hall of Culture. You told me three years ago that he tried to get you to read Bacon's essays."

"I see you brought your memory along. It may come in handy." I slowed the car to ease down the bank of a gully and climbed back up. "He will expect you to shake hands. Everybody you meet out here will, and you've got enough built-in points against you without adding another one."

"I resent any formality requiring bodily contact."


I tag:

Lilibeth at Keeping Up
Johanna at The Journey
Aftergrace at Still Waters Run Deep
Sara at Geeks, Freaks and Weirdos
and Heather at not a DIY Life.

Update Blog Link

I just wanted to let everyone know about a blog where all of us are following the progress of Mrs. S.

Her daughter set this up, and I think it'll be a real help to us here in the community.

Patty Schimmer Condition Update

All I Know

We now know the name of the other driver. He was a student at the university that lived in a nearby town. For reasons unknown his car swerved across the line and hit theirs. Our teacher, Mrs. S, tried to get over, but she just didn't have time to get far enough. He was driving a little convertible, and was ejected forcibly from his vehicle. He died instantaneously.

Our students have some bruises cracks and cuts, and each boy has a broken leg. Mrs. S's legs were crushed by the front of the vehicle, but they are performing surgery already in the hopes that she will be able to use them again. She also has some cracked ribs and the other cuts and bruises and internal problems that come with a wreck of this magnitude.

We're all still praying here, and I hope that you are too out there in internet land.
Thanks for the prayers you've already sent on their behalf.

Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for Mrs. S from our high school here. (my alma mater) She and her van load of kids were hit head-on this morning on their way to school. We don't know, yet, who hit them, and we don't know yet the extent of Mrs. S's injuries, because she was trapped still in the vehicle last I heard. Two students have been taken to the hospital, but the rest are OK.

I'll update when I know anything new.

Update: This is all courtesy of the grapevine. Mrs. S was medi-flighted from the scene of the accident to Oklahoma City. Both of her legs are broken. Two boys (A and P) were medi-flighted from the hospital in W'ville. They also have broken legs, and the doctors wanted to check thoroughly for internal injuries. (They may have both been ejected from the vehicle.) One other student was involved, but seems to be fine. The driver of the other vehicle was killed. We do not know who it was, or where he/she was from. We also have no details yet about how the accident occurred.

Field Trip!

Friday was Zaya's first ever field trip. We went to a Farm and Corn Maze that is out here in western OK. Mim and I went along to participate in the festivities, along with a lot of other mommies and a couple of baby brothers. Thomas stuck right with us most of the day. He's a sweet little guy. He wanted to hold Mim's hand and pat her a lot. He always had to sit by her and Zaya. He'll be in most of the pictures, I think. He's in a bright blue shirt.

The kids listened to a talk about alternate sources of energy. (Here's what Zaya thought about that.)



Then went for a hay ride. (Minus the hay. It was really more of a trailer ride.) There was a brief stop for pumpkins. Despite the appearance of the photo, it was actually Thomas who wanted to sit by Mim. Although she doesn't seem to mind, does she?






After that exhilarating experience we went through the corn maze. We only did half of it, but that was quite enough for the 14 four and five year olds. (Not to mention all the grown-ups)



They had a little barn where the kids could feed the animals.



And then they watched the farmer hypnotize a chicken. (It's not every day you get to watch something like that! Hot Dog!)



There was a "train ride" and a crazy playground to finish the morning off.





The kids and I went out to eat at Taco Mayo. We were all exhausted, but Mommy most of all. I came home and crashed while the kids ran around like lunatics and planned world domination. (They almost pulled it off, too, but I came out of my fog enough to distract them with Curious George just in time.)

Our Morning Thus Far

Right now, Zaya is Spikit the Bat and Mim is Goki the Butterfly.

Just thought I would share that with someone.

Spikit the Bat likes to eat mosquitos. Goki the Butterfly apparently just likes to run around the house flapping her wings and saying, "flap flap flap".

Tap Tap Tap

Art took the kids out back to help him with the remodeling. They enjoyed themselves, to put it mildly.



What child doesn't love bashing things with a hammer? He gave them each a little section of drywall and let them go to town. I think I'm just going to get rid of all those oodles and skads of toys they have in their rooms. Apparently it really takes very little to entertain them.

Mack the Ram

What do you think is on the sheep's mind? Jealousy, timidity, homicide?



I'm not sure which child put him there, but I have to admit I'm curious about the thought processes involved.

Memo

Just a little note to let everyone know that Mim is feeling much better. She was better by about 10:30 this morning, actually (Wed. morning, that is.) Now we start praying that no one else in the house catches it...

Best Laid Plans...

Today was supposed to be a very busy day. I am leading a Moms In Touch group on Wednesday mornings, and today was going to be my first day to lead it by myself. Then I was going to take my friends (Maria and Laura) to their doctors' appointments, and pick up Zaya from school.

But...at 5:30 Mim woke up sick. Very sick. So, I'm playing nurse instead. There were a lot of phone calls to make this morning, but I think we've finally gotten everything settled. I was just preparing for a long stressful morning when Laura came to my door to make sure I knew what to do for a sick kid. She bustled in and started telling me what things would work best, what to avoid, and how to make rice water the way her Mama did in Mexico.

I loved it. Really, I'm not being sarcastic. If there's one thing I've learned as I've grown older, it's that I need a lot of support in life. I use to imagine that I was an independent spirit, but I'm just not. Not at all.

Laura told me what to get in my cabinets and started cooking rice water for Mim. She told me what kind of juice I needed also, and the best place to find it. When the rice water was done, she went back to her house to get me some ice because she discovered we didn't have any.

When she returned, she had a quesadilla and a burrito for me and told me to sit down and eat. She also had some Posole (a mexican soup) frozen, and fresh chopped vegetables to eat with it. That was for my husband for supper, so I wouldn't have to cook for him. (I try to explain that he won't be upset about things like not having a five course dinner, but they don't really get it.)

We occasionally have our culture clashes, but I wouldn't trade my friendships with those two ladies for anything. We are learning each others' languages and customs, and how true sisterly love can overcome a lot of boundaries.

Mim is still sick, but I don't feel quite so alone with the struggle anymore.

Beach Babe

After listening to Mim crank and whine for a while, I told her she would not get to play with Play-Doh until she had spent 15 minutes playing quietly in her bedroom by herself.

After a bit of a tussle, she decided this would be a good idea, and this is what I found after about five minutes of suspicious silence.



It must have been the soothing ocean breezes, because chica was completely asleep on the sunny sands.

Which brings me to the question of naps. To nap, or not to nap...I could go on, but I won't. I think we've all heard enough from the Prince of Denmark. The point is...if I let Mim nap during the day, she doesn't want to go to sleep until late at night. If I don't, though, she's tired and cranky in the afternoons.

Any quick and easy solutions from you experienced moms out there?

Aarroooo!

My children are running around the house like wild animals this morning. Coyotes, to be exact. They eat other vicious creatures like wolves and bears. That's the claim, anyway.

They also snuggle on big pink and brown blankets and drink hot chocolate.

The kids see no problem with any of this, so I suppose I don't either. Saturday morning's aren't supposed to make sense.

We're Still Here

Yes, as Lisa P pointed out, it's been a week of no blogging. Not actually any serious reason for that, only a busy schedule. Oh, yeah, and about 7 books. You might think I'm kidding, but I'm not. Every now and then I get on a little reading jag, and then my family doesn't see me for a few weeks. Right now it's a Helen MacInnes and Mary Stewart jag, so I should be out and about soon, as they each only have about 8 or 9 books that I'm interested in re-re-re-reading.

The kids are doing fine. No one is currently under the weather and we've all adjusted, I think, to the new school schedule. Zaya still loves his class and his teacher, and hasn't had any more altercations with the tiny little Pre-K bully. His best buddy is still Thomas, and they play "superheroes" everyday, from what I can tell. He likes his Spanish class, and has the colors down pretty well. Although there was a little incident with the color purple...that's all cleared up now, though. We told him it's impolite to correct the teacher, and he can just say violeta because that's easier anyway. (I think she's teaching them pURpura which isn't really what any of my Spanish speaking friends say for purple, but Zaya keeps saying purPUla, which is totally wrong. I corrected him, so he corrected her...you get the picture.)



Mim is enjoying her time with Mommy (even when Mommy is reading) and doesn't seem to miss brother too much. She hasn't really had time to because we've kept very busy with ESL classes, shopping and etc. She's getting a little bossy, but I think that's age and genetics more than anything else. I was a bossy little girl myself at one point (OK, I probably still am) so I think I can handle her. She's becoming more and more of a girly-girl, which I don't think I'm prepared for, but I'll try my best. My friends gave her a bunch of beads for her birthday, so we've been designing jewelry here too.

Fun Times in Esophagusville

This afternoon I returned another pH test to OKC. That means I spent 24 hours yesterday and today(about 1-1) with another ignorant tube down my nose and throat. I don't want to whine, really, but let me just tell you how incredibly uncomfortable that is. OK, I won't go into detail. Just believe me.

I had an awful, awful night. Lots of heartburn and tummy troubles and very, very little sleep. When I returned the test this afternoon, though, the nurse tech said that it only showed a couple of brief times when I had any acid there. Which means the incredible, nauseating reflux pain I experience every day and night is...what? No one seems to know. I am rapidly losing what little faith I had in our medical establishment. They probably won't even believe me now. It's not psychosomatic!

I still feel pretty lousy, but I can't even describe what a relief it is not to be wearing that tube and computer box. Ugh.

I didn't take a picture. Consider yourself lucky.

Is There a Vet in the House?

Today, Mim is dragging a long piece of string around the house. It was once a part of my afghan, but seems to have morphed into Mim's pet snake. He's been given a tour of the house, ridden in a transformer car, and fallen ill. Now Mim is playing doctor with Snake.

First we get a good close look at Snake with the magnifying lens.



Then we check Snake's reflexes. Forcefully.



And finally we use the stethoscope to make sure that Snake has survived his check-up.



I fear for Snake's future here in our home.