Lame title

So, we have been busy. We're a busy bunch (too busy to think of a good title)!

We've been here for five months now. Five months, you say?! That's right! We've now been here a week over five months. It's hard to believe that it's been that long already. In one month, we'll already be done with one-sixth of our time in Jamaica. The other five-sixths have potential to go by very quickly.

So, in case you're wondering what's up...

Out of the six of us, there are only two at home during the day.

Johnathan has been busy managing in the Consular section. He enjoys his job, his co-workers, and his local staff quite a bit. He's continually making me jealous of them because he cooks for his team meetings. His current team isn't very big, and he wonders what he's going to do when he moves to a bigger unit in the section next year. He has an amazing garden growing in our backyard. We're constantly using tomatoes, lettuce, dill, and other things from our garden.

Sara (yeah...I do third person sometimes) has been busy with her Housing Assistant job. For a month, her coworker was on a well-deserved vacation, and she handled the job of two people. Sometimes she did it like a rock-star, but there were times where she wanted to just give up. She's learning that being in the GSO section is hard work. She's learning that she prefers to not work in Management section jobs, but is going to make the best of her situation. She's been playing Dungeons and Dragons on a monthly basis with some friends.

Malachi's second semester is going very well. He's been enjoying school more, has more friends, and is even enjoying math this semester (this kid really gets fractions!). This semester his after-school activities include Lego-Yuh Mind Robotics, and he's continuing his private drum lessons. He's been rocking the Skylanders game on the Xbox, as well as the Lego Movie game.

Simon is killing it in pre-school this semester. He brought home some homework last week and was so excited to do it. In fact, on Monday he asked Johnathan to make him some homework (I think he wants to be like his brother - we'll see how long this lasts). His birthday is coming up soon and he'll be five - yes, five! As crazy as that sounds, it's true. He's asked for an alien-themed birthday party. So we're trying to trying to figure out an alien-themed birthday party for kids who may not know what aliens are.

Coen stays home with Lucy and chills out with her. He plays on his own, as well as helps her in the yard, or in the house. He loves to help anyone with their task. Last night he wanted to help me with dinner, but I was dealing with a very hot pot of food, that was splattering. The answer was no. Poor Coen. He's so excited to go to school this fall. I had been worried about him and going to school. He has introvert tendencies, and at someone's birthday party wouldn't sit at the table to eat with all the other kids. I thought - how is he going to go to school?! But I think he'll do well. He's been wanting to go for so long, that I think he'll jump right in.

Lucy is doing well. She has a church community that she likes, and she has two close friends. On Sundays sometimes she goes to the mall with her friends for lunch and shopping. She's also often on the phone with friends in the Philippines. She seems to be happy, and I really hope she continues to be.

Everyone has been struggling with allergies and colds to some degree. I hope that as the rainy season ends we'll have fewer sicknesses (and fewer mosquitos!).

We're liking it in Jamaica and are looking forward to the next five-sixths of our time here (sorry for the lack of photos - we're too busy living life to take them!).

Pic-a-nic!!

I’ve been working on a section of the house a week, starting last week, in preparation for our move. I decided that this week I would do toys.

This morning I asked our amazing, wonderful, can’t-live-without-her, helper Lucy to take the kids out of the house so that I could do this arduous task without their interference.

She suggested to them that they eat their breakfast like a picnic. Coen got really excited and was all.

“We’re going to eat a pic-a-nic!!!”

It was super cute.

So now they are happy children who will have no idea that I’m going to be going through their toys and choosing what they have to throw away, sell, or get to keep.

I may never tell them.

Shhh….

Don’t make decisions on day 1

One shouldn’t make decisions on day 1 of potty training.

It’s such an emotional day, that one should refrain from any important thoughts. I think that yesterday I made and un-made and re-made many decisions.

Day 1 of potty training is similar to having an infant as far as stress-levels go. You’re all…

You also doubt everything you’re doing. It’s one of those days where you need to remind yourself that you’re not a total fail as a parent.

At the end of the day (with my potty-training style) the pull ups (a.k.a. “special nighttime underwear”) go on and you can breath a sigh of relief knowing you have about 11 hours of peace…and dryness.

Our day 2 was much easier than day 1. I felt comfortable making decisions yesterday. Day 3 (today) has been another hard one. We filled his little bladder to the limits and he couldn’t hold it in! Tomorrow – less water!

This morning, he woke up at 3:30 a.m. His nighttime underwear was full when he woke up, and I think he’s reached the point where he wakes up and realizes that he’s peeing. I remember Simon going through this thing during potty training. I hope he doesn’t continue a crazy-early wake up like Simon did. Otherwise, I’m gonna be all…

Though I don’t drink coffee, so I’ll be all, “I need green tea in an IV.” Good thing I have lots.

No More Babies

It’s official.

There are no more baby boys in this house.

Coen started his potty training today. He was very proud of his underwear and showed it to his daddy after putting it on.

I don’t know how ready I am for this. I love the baby phase. It’s the only phase when they can’t get away and they have to cuddle with you!

However, the fact that they’re getting older is a good thing. It means more independence for them, and more freedom for other people (*cough* parents *cough*). It will be great to travel without the worry of diapers, wipes, changing pad, etc. Granted we’ll still travel with change of clothing, but that’s nothing new. That, we’ve been doing for years.

No more babies.

This is a good thing…right?

Yes, it is. It really, really is.

I forgot

some important information about Coen being 2.

For instance, he knows some colors. Well…he knows the colors of his plates and cups. He is also starting to become opinionated in which color he wants at a certain time. Yesterday at one meal he climbed onto the table and switched with one of his brothers. Luckily the brothers weren’t in the room yet, so there wasn’t a fight over plates.

I realized that his color knowledge is limited to his plates when he took the red crayon yesterday and called it orange.

He counts to 10 and then goes beyond, although I think 14 makes it in about 5 times between 10 and 20.

He loves to sing the ABC’s. He sings about 60% of the song clearly. He loves it so much and he gets so excited to sing it, it’s hard to not join in with him. He loves to sing about any song, really. He also loves to dance. I’ve gotten videos of him dancing lately and will have to make a compilation because he’ll dance for a couple of seconds to a song and then stop.

I’ve been more relaxed teaching the “academic” things to Coen. Probably because there isn’t as much time for he and I to sit down and read the books that Malachi and I could with the colors, and shapes, etc. But our helpers do teach them that stuff. John and I have such fun discovering them knowing things we didn’t teach them.

Sometimes, I get a little jealous that they’re not learning it from me, but mostly I’m just happy that I have awesome helpers.

Cleaning and not Letting the Toddlers Kill Themselves

I hate housework! I hate trying to do housework when there are toddlers running around putting themselves in danger ever 35 seconds. It’s very difficult to get anything done. Somehow I was able to work for about an hour yesterday afternoon before John got home so he didn’t come home to a complete wreck. I even got two of three kids to help out.

Today is Holy Thursday and a Federal holiday which means that at 6:30 a.m. my husband is sleeping in instead of eating breakfast. So I plan on making him take care of children while I clean floors and bathrooms. I should think about changing sheets and washing them all. Who doesn’t love clean sheets?! [edit: I’ve already stripped the beds and started washing sheets. There’s been a break in writing due to people getting up.]

This week without helpers has had its ups and downs. I feel that I’ve grown closer to Coen, but I wonder if it’s too close. Last night at dinner, he wasn’t happy (read: crying) when John sat next to him, but when he got up and left the room, and I sat down he was fine. I understand that he was tired and hungry, but his daddy’s a better parent than I am, it was surprising.

Simon’s modeling session went really well. Coen went to a friend’s house and was unhappy about it and crying for mommy. Simon was a total ham, though, and ate up all the attention and gave the photographer a lot of good photos. The marketing manager from the department store was very pleased with him. That was great to see. She was the one he needed to impress the most. Filipinos love my kids and their blonde hair. Now, we’ve finally put it to work.

About an hour in a half into the shoot when they were doing another wardrobe change, Simon started to become difficult. They had a coach though, and after wardrobe got him changed, she got him to do the work. I left the room for a while to sit and rest because just watching him work was exhausting for me.

I can’t wait to see what comes out of the session. I imagine seeing him on a big billboard (there are some very large ones here). It would be awesome if it would happen while some guests are here, but I don’t think it will happen that fast.

Speaking of someone being here. We have four days left until our first guests arrive. We’re getting very excited about their arrival, and hope their travel is “quick” and safe.

I’m off to clean! Have a good holiday weekend, all!

Last But NOT Least

There is a dearth of blogging about my third child on this blog. It makes me sad. I really hope that he doesn’t care later in life. He has no medical condition that I need to write about for therapy, and he’s just entering the age where he gives me good blog fodder. I really hope that he doesn’t think that it reflects how I feel about him.  

I love Coen. He’s going to be two in a few months and I’m not looking forward to him growing up. He’s amazing how he is and I want him to stay this age forever!

He talks way more than either of his brothers did at his age. His vocabulary is astonishing. He has standard words like daddy, bye bye, hi, etc. But he’s got some cute Coenisms that I’d love to share.

He struggles with the word mommy. So he says “moni (mah-nee),” which is also what he calls money and monkeys. It used to bother me that he doesn’t say the word right, he used to be able to say mommy just fine. However, now I like it. It’s something neither of his brothers did, and it reminds me of my nickname in World of Warcraft which was Moni, short for Monicola.

He calls almost all drinkable liquids “apple juice.” He just recently started calling other juices, “juice.” But water, milk, and most other drinks are “apple juice.”

“Ate Moni (Ah-tae Mah-nee).” Once in a while he’ll pull this one out. Ate is a Filipino word used for older people in the family, sisters, aunts, yayas. But not mommies. Mommies are just mommy. The yayas think it’s so funny when he says this.

Coen is also athletic. He runs after his brothers as fast as his little legs will take him. Since he’s only 16 months younger than Simon, he’s not much shorter. Therefore once his coordination improves he won’t be behind Simon much at all. He’s only a bit behind him, as it is.

He loves to play outside. Once released from a door it’s an international incident to get him back inside before he’s ready. It usually takes proper motivation to get him back in. Usually food works.

Coen will eat almost anything you put in front of him. We stopped giving him baby food and bottles at 10 months. He was done with them, and that was fine with us. Since he started eating from the table at such a young age, he’s the least picky eater of them all. I really wish we’d done this with Simon too.

Since he’ll be two in a few months, there’ll be another similar post in a few months. But since he’s super cute and starting to provide more blog fodder, hopefully you’ll hear more about him before then.

Playing with the water table he got for Christmas. After this slip ‘n slide adventure we put down towels around it instead of just one side.

Adventures

Christmas break started on Friday at noon. Malachi’s home for three weeks. I love Malachi so, so much. And I’m happy about the perks of Christmas vacation.
But I think sometimes, Simon values his time at home without him. Or maybe Malachi values his time at school away from the youngins and with kids his own age. Either way, the two have them have been fighting a lot today.
Sunday night a mom from Malachi’s grade texted and asked if Malachi and I could join them for the Hi-5 Holiday concert. And of course we couldn’t pass up free tickets, especially since it was Malachi’s girlfriend that was inviting us.

Mom and Son going out for their second concert.

Malachi really enjoyed it. And besides his girlfriend being there, he met another friend. They had fun dancing and singing. They would even dance in the aisle (we had aisle seats).
I think it was a memory Malachi will hold onto for a while. On a side note, I wonder when Malachi’s taste in concerts will change. Will I enjoy the concerts as much (or little)?

In other news, Coen had quite a fall yesterday. I was trying to rest and there was a knock on my bedroom door. Lucy had Coen and said she was so sorry but that Coen fell (The helpers here are so apologetic when one of the kids falls. I think they fear that they might lose their jobs. It would be so unfair to lose a job if a boy falls.). There was a prominent scratch and a large goose egg on his forehead.

Coen was most upset by the fact that he wasn’t still outside playing. He didn’t want to come to me, and all he wanted to do was go back outside. I told her that if he starts crying and won’t stop, or if he starts walking funny to let me know. Otherwise, he seemed fine. We continued keeping an eye on him that evening. Nothing was wrong with him. He ate fine and acted fine.

I checked on him twice in the night to make sure his color was good and that he was breathing fine. Both times he passed. I was going to the Medical Clinic on the compound today for another reason so I brought him to have him looked at in case there was something that a medical professional could see that I couldn’t. She said we handled the situation perfectly and that his pupils were responding to stimulation. He checked out just fine.

A little out of focus, but happy to smile for the camera.

Good view of the bump and emerging bruise. The bruise isn’t much worse than this, today.

The Kids are Great

I’ve been quiet. I feel like there isn’t much to blog about. But that’s not true. There’s plenty to blog about. But I haven’t been very happy lately. Things at Post are different than expected. Harder than expected. Life is not bad, it’s in fact quite good. However, the fact that it’s taking me a lot longer to start work than I thought it would is holding up some kind of ability to be happy.

I realize that I shouldn’t rely on working outside of the house to be happy. But it’s provided happiness for me for the last five years. I like being a part of providing finances, and I like going out and doing something I think is meaningful (finger scanning (like printing but with scans) might not sound meaningful, but scanners help keep out terrorists, too).

Anyway, I realized that writing has been therapeutic in the past. So, I thought I would begin writing again. Also, it helps keep the family members informed. Especially the family members that aren’t on facebook.

So. What can I write about? Well, as I said…lots.

***Warning: Not Sexy (read: gross) Potty Training Talk***

Simon is potty training! We started this what feels like ages ago. He’s mastered peeing in the potty, and he’s doing really well going out in public which took a bit longer. But #2 has been more of an issue. We feel so bad for him that he’s scared to do it. He wouldn’t go in the toilet. He wouldn’t go in his special nighttime underwear (pull-ups). He goes for days (read: four to six days) holding it in and then it’s just painful for him. Then when he could hold it no longer he would go in his regular underwear. Today he finally did it in the nighttime underwear while he was playing in his room with Coen. I wondered if there was something about his being around us that made it scary. Maybe it’s embarrassing and he just doesn’t know the difference between the two feelings yet. Anyway. I hope we figure out a way to help him go more regularly. I hope we figure it out soon because this is no fun!

 

***Potty Training Talk Done***

Other than potty training he’s doing well. Simon’s in the 3T clothes now, which our nanny and I dug out of the closet. He’s working on saying those L’s in his words and improving! No more hearing “sweeping” when he means sleeping, please! He’s so jealous of Malachi going to school. We’ve heard good things about AmeriKids (daycare/preschool at the Embassy). So we’re going to look into putting him in once I get settled at work. He’ll love going to school with a backpack just like Malachi. If only he got to ride a bus, then he would be in toddler heaven.

Malachi is doing well. His after school activities this semester were Cartooning and Chinese. He’s decided he’s not much a fan of either and wants to do something else. So we signed up for Tae Kwon Do and Aquatics for the next semester. We’ll find out on Monday if we got in. I hope so, because he loves these activities (he did Tae Kwon Do in Costa Rica). His swimming has improved a ton since we started living in a house with a pool. Nonetheless, he wants to do swimming at school. Since they call it Aquatics instead of swimming (there’s no swimming alternative), I wonder what it will look like. 

I went to Malachi’s first ever choir concert. It was so fun to go and brought back memories of having my own choir concerts when I was young. He played his part very well, and I have a video to prove he can walk in circles acting like an elephant. It’s one I might use to embarrass him later in life. He’ll be on winter break soon. I have no idea what to do with him for a month. We’ll have to figure out how to fill the time.

Coen is doing quite well. They all are, I guess. He’s growing so big and practically skipped the 18 mo. clothing stage and wears the 24 month clothes that Simon was just in (or at least it feels that way). His vocabulary is huge, like Malachi at this age. We’ve been compiling a list of his words. They include (but are not limited to): shoes, moon, fox (his favorite animal, a stuffed one from Great Aunt Janice), bye bye, mommy, daddy, hot, bite, oh oh (“yes” in Tagalog, which he’s possibly saying other words in and we just don’t know it), please, and apple juice.

He’s starting to run and is doing ok at keeping up with his brothers. He especially likes to pillow fight with the other boys. Today he even picked up a pillow and hit his daddy. It was awesome. He loves to be outside. Anytime a door going out is open he runs for it. If he doesn’t get to stay out, or has to come in before he’s ready, then he lets you know he’s not happy.

So, as the title says, the kids are all great. We all are really. If only I could start working…like…now!

Physical Therapy Update

It's been a while since I updated y'all on Coen.

Last week on the way to Simon's birthday party at the mall, Coen and I stopped at CIMA for his physical therapy appointment and I showed the therapist Coen's latest achievement: Coen crawling. She was so excited for him, so excited that she deemed him done with therapy unless the Dr. requested more. She and I agreed that he probably wouldn't be doing that.

Not only is he crawling, but he can move from a crawl to a sit (which he couldn't do last Wednesday), and he's working on pulling himself up. I have a feeling that we'll soon be moving his crib mattress down.  Another thing I think he's accomplished..talking. In one morning about two weeks ago he said "da da" three times after seeing John. Three times! After the third, I called it as his first word. Today he was using the ma ma sounds quite frequently while playing with me. I might be dreaming, but I'm calling that one as well. :)

Coen's busy day

We saw the Pediatrician yesterday in the a.m. and Coen's doing quite well! He's only lost 4 oz. in six days - probably because he's eating so much. He's grown a centimeter, and his head shrunk two - apparently their heads are swollen at the time of birth. She thought he looked a little yellow, so she ordered a blood test. It came back borderline, so we were instructed to get him in the sun in the morning and have him eat lots. We'll do another test today to make sure it's not climbing. Other than that he's "perfect." 

I can tell you from my perspective that he's a poop machine! He's also pretty amazing and we're falling more and more in love with him. 

In the afternoon we went to the Embassy to get our packages and mail and introduce Coen to some people. He was a huge hit, and even met the Ambassador, but while Mommy was getting her tetanus shot, he was getting hungry and Daddy remembered that we needed to get home and give Big Brother his mid-day medicine. So Coen had to ride home in the car hungry. Eventually he fell asleep, but before that, if the car wasn't moving you knew he was there in the back seat.

He was so tired from all the activity yesterday, but he was a champ through it all.

Life with Three

Right now, life with three is easier than expected. Of course Coen isn't doing much, but I truly expected it to be much harder right away.

The last few days have been filled with feedings and diapers for me, and cooking and taking care of the older two for John. Coen is eating tons still, and is spacing out his feedings. Our bosses (my supervisor is married to John's boss) came today to see him.

I'm recovering pretty well. I've been able to even help around the house a little bit. Getting sleep is the hardest thing, although with him spacing out his feedings I got a bit more last night and should get more tonight - I hope.

Malachi is sick. This is horrible for him, but I feel bad because I can't just cuddle up with him. It also means he has to stay away from Coen. That's sad because he loves Coen. Simon may also have the same cold, we're not sure if he's sick or just teething.

Life with three should get very exciting in a few months though.

Longest labor, Shortest delivery

Coen Christopher was born on June 8th at 7 lbs 12 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long at 7:30 p.m. He was welcomed into this world by a team of Dr's and nurses and his parents in Costa Rica - our first (and last) International birth.

I was induced with both Simon and Malachi. The whole labor times (including delivery) were 8 1/2 hours and 13 hours respectively. With this labor, the time was at least 21 hours. I now know why my body is so exhausted compared to the others. Also, the epidural kept wearing off, so I still had a pretty painful delivery. My Dr. was amazing though, he was the perfect coach. That's one of the greatest things about delivering here. The Dr. was my coach through delivery not the nurses. 

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but he came out in two sets of pushes. It wasn't the normal three pushes in one set, it was more like one really, really big push for set one and then two or three not quite as big but still big pushes for the second set. And then he was out and crying, and he was amazing. They had to take him to another room for the tests and shots, and that made me really sad. I was jealous that John got to go with. He passed with flying colors and didn't cry from the shots.

I've written this over the last two days, I just have to wrap it up. He's nursing lots and keeping me up at night. Right now I feel completely wrecked. Hopefully I can nap today, maybe more than once. His cry is growing and he's getting louder. John's been amazing - he always is.