what to do with a sick hijo

Hijo spent the day playing in his tent.  I pulled it out because he has a low grade fever (100 F or lower) so we could not go out and do the things we had planned for the day.  Hijo got this tent 2 years ago for Christmas and he really has not played with it since, but he loved it today.  he decided he was going to sleep in it tonight, until he realized that I was not going to sleep in it with him (I am too tall for it).  But he had a great time playing today.

I am hoping his fever goes away this evening, or I am going to have cancel church and going to hermano's tomorrow.

Love and hugs,
Deb

growing up

Over on the first blog I had, I ended the blog with some status on Hijo.  Here is what I wrote:

March 2009- Bug is:


40 inches tall

30.2 pounds
 
 
Well, you all need an update
 
July 2010- Hijo is:
 
44 inches tall
42.3 pounds
 
 
 
So in 15 months Hijo haas grown 4 inches!!!!!!!  No wonder I feel like he is growing out of everything. He has gone through 3 shoe sizes, now wearing size 13 children's shoes.  His sandals that fit at the beginning of hte summer had to be replaced on Thursday, they were a size too small (which I could see, but shoes were not in the budget until this weekend). Luckily, 2 years ago I accidently bought the wrong size snow boots and they have been sitting in the cloest waiting for Hijo to grow into them.  I will need to get him new snow pants and a coat this year, but that is not so much of an issue other than he always wants a red snow suit and the choice is always blue or black.
 
I am thankful I was watching his growth and bought his school uniforms in 2 sizes.  That way as he continues to grow, he might make it through the year.  I will have to budget for more uniforms during the winter months so he has end ofhte year and next school year clothes to start with.
 
he is growing like a weed and he is going to be tall, I can see it in his feet.

gifts from afar and music

Today the mailman brought an unexpected package.  I opened it (addressed to me) and then realized what was inside.  So I taped it shut again and brought it along when i picked up hijo.  when he saw it he asked what it was it and I told him it was a surprise.  the next statement from him  "from Guatemala?" with a huge grin on his face.

opening the box, the jammies.  I have to say here, they were in a ziploc bag and it was so amazing to think that 4 years ago, I was sending Ziploc bags of things to him and now he is Ziploc bags from family in Guatemala. 

The transformer car (instructions included, I just have to figure it- they are in English- I am just not the technical one).  The awesome card and a happy hijo!!!

some silly photos of us.  Hijo can now center a photo while holding the camera at arm's length.  I have taught him well.

Playing with the plane that was also in the package.  It was the hit of the package, but the car was a close second in terms of what he liked the best.  It was funny to listen to him talk about the PJ's.  he comments on how he would not be cold now.  Now it is in the 90s F here with heat index around 100, the house AC is set at 74.  the AC in the car is broken, so by the time we get home, he is sweating and can not wait to get into the house.  But I guess at night he prefers to be bundled up in long sleeve and long pant jammies.

After picking up hijo and hanging out having fun, we headed over to the high school to watch the matching present their show after 1 week of band camp. Jas was in the this band last year and was hired to work with the band this year in a technical role.  So we went to support Jas.  The band was awesome and hijo and I agreed that we are coming to watch the football games this year so we can watch the band.

it should be fun.

School starts in 4 weeks for little man.  WOHOOOO!!!!!!


Love and hugs,
Deb

hanging with B and gymnastics

B came over for dinner tonight.  Hijo was off the hook as you can see.

caught in the act of trying to talk and keep my eye on hijo at the same time. 

unfortunately, hijo was keeping his eye on the camera lens.

hugs from my baby.

gymnastics- a swing-a-thon tonight.  straddle swings

straight arm swings

And finally, some push ups on the bar.  Hijo was having problems with this.  He does not like to keep his arms straight.  So the coach and I were calling him a 'wet noodle" and then he was hamming it up for us and deliberately collapsing his arms.

I noticed something significant tonight. I am in the minority at class.  of the 8 kids in the class, there are only 2 of us who watch our kids the entire time.The rest either read books, talk on the phone or watch the kids playing basketball in the other part of the gym (there is a large, heavy curtain between the sides of the gym).  I had been thinking the last few weeks that I am looking forward to being able to work out at some point when Hijo is in classes.  But then tonight, as I watched the kids light up as I interacted with them as I took pictures of hijo, I realized that my job as hijo's mom is watch and encourage him.  I can not do that if I am sitting there reading a book or working out across the hall.  I am going to ask the coaches next week if I can walk off to the side and just walk for the 40 minutes of the class - like pacing- so I can work out, but I can watch hijo all the time.  I don't want him to ever feel that I thought a book or a workout was more important than him.

5 more weeks to school starting.

Love and hugs,

Momma

pizza sauce and hanging with Hermano

go back o the previous post and this is all of those tomatoes!!!   yes, after skinning them, deseeding them (although I did not do it as good as job as I should have), I made home made pizza sauce.

This is the finished product- ready for freezing.  It is not as thick as jar pizza sauce, but it smelled delicious.  we will make our first pizza on Friday night.

The sunflower bloomed.  The picture of me is to show how tall the sunflower is- it is at least 8-10 feet tall.

After church today, Hijo and I were settling into our Sunday afternoon activity when the phone rang.  It was vaca daddy and vaca momma asking if we wanted to meet them for lunch as they were over near our house shopping.  Hijo and I raced out the door to meet up with them.  A wonderful surprise.  As they were going shopping, hermano came home with us to play and the boys had a great time.

brotherly love and lots of trains.

trains gave way to playdooh.  We started with 4 distinct colors and now we have one jumbled mass of play dooh divided into 4 containers.

As you can see, play time involved the TV too- they boys listened to Nick Jr for most of the afternoon and then I watched the end of NASCAR race.  I have to say, the boys were great.  They had one time out on the couch after not listening, but other than that one incident, they played together and let me quilt.  I was at the dinning room table, so the boys were in my line of sight all the time. it was so nice to have them playing together or side by side without me having to give them ideas of things to do. 

Next weekend we are heading over to farm to "put up" corn.  I foresee lots of shucking, boiling and slicing.  but the boys will have fun and it will awesome to talk with vaca momma and vaca daddy again.

Love and hugs,
momma.

gardening and quilting

I went out at lunch today and picked another 1/2  bowl of tomatoes and then came in and searched for pizza sauce recipes so I can use them all.  Since Hijo and make homemade pizza each week, making our own sauce is great.  I picked up fresh herbs at the farmers market today.  I need to get some garlic tomorrow and the cooking and freezing can begin on Sunday. 

This evening I finished off the blocks for Little E's quilt.  I have to put another border- to make them look like they are shadowed, then do the sashing and the outer border.  So another 2 weeks of working in the evenings.  Hijo really wants to help me by pushing the pedal on the sewing machine, but I value my hands, so I am looking for things for him to do while I quilt.  I think I am going to end up quilting while he sleeps.


continuing the theme of loss and acting out- I realize that it is just not an adoption issue.  I need only look at my sister to see the result of too many changes in our early lives.  We moved almost every 18 months- by moving, I mean from one military base to another.  We lost friends forever (I can not find them on facebook or any other social network, so they are lost at this point).  We have memories of leaving toys behind due to weight limits.  Today, my sister still does not handle change well.  She longed for living in one location and she made sure her kids never had to change school districts.  She has not reacted well to them growing up, and she is not reacting well to her time with hijo coming to an end.  I see it.  She and I had to have a talk this week about what things will look like in August because I will not have the excitement of starting school pushed aside for the negative side of this change.  I know it is taking a toll on her, but life moves on and hijo needs to have us united that school is a fun and exciting place, so he embraces the change.  There will be time to mourn and time to reflect on the gifts that Auntie Lulu has bestowed on hijo.  More on that in 4 weeks. WOW- 4 weeks to the start of school.  My goodness, time is flying by.

I am off to rest now, we have a busy day tomorrow.

Love and hugs,
momma

garden update

With the heat here- in the mid 90s (F) each day - the garden is going gangbusters.

more potatoes and Swiss chard.  I actually think I am going to have to harvest the potatoes soon.  The Swiss chard needs to be eaten and soon.

Tomatoes are pulling over the tomato cages, but there are lots of them to harvest.  I went out at lunch today and picked all the ripe tomatoes and this evening there were another 5-10 large tomatoes to harvest.  I guess I need to get hoping making pizza sauce and salsa to freeze up for the winter.

The hot pepper are out of control.  I learned my lesson this week- when a hot pepper has a name "cherry bomb"- it does not refer to the red color!!!  I took one little sliver of the pepper and I thought my mouth was going to explode.  it took a glass of milk to rid my mouth of of taste.  I did try the other 2 peppers- not nearly hot and definitely ones I might consider growing again, just not so many.

the corn is doing great.I am a little concerned that the silks are turning brown and the ears are not too big, but we'll see how it goes.

The sunflowers that have not bloomed yet.  But they are getting close to blooming.

Hijo's first tomato.  It was not ripe at lunch. 


Hijo continues to react to my being out of town last week.  The cycle seems to take longer to actually come to a head, but it comes eventually.  I suppose this is good that it takes longer for the acting out to come- but I am not sure.  Some behavior is definitely just 4 year old behavior, but I can not ignore that the behavior stems from the trauma of adoption.  I read Cindy's blog, and I am so grateful for her words and experience- they are helping me see more signs in Hijo.  I don't that hijo has the extremes that Cindy has and is dealing with, but he does show the same types of behaviors when his world is upset.  So when I travel, I know to expect acting out when I get home.  The fact that it gets further and further from the time I come home seems to be a good thing, it means he is learning to control his emotions and gain the knowledge that I always come back.  Time does heal, lessons are reinforced and learning takes place.  I am hopeful that with time, as hijo grows, that he will not act out after trips.  But I worry for other changes coming soon- school.  Again he will loose something precious- time with my sister, brother-in-law, Jas and the puppies (Ginger and Izzy).  I am not sure how school is going to affect him, but the fact that I might be traveling right after school starts is not going to help matter.  I am trying not to worry about it, but I can't help it at times.  I want to spare hijo the pain and I want to spare myself from the emotional drain of fighting with hijo when I get back.  Our fighting is a battle for control- hijo wants it to punish me for leaving him, I want control to keep our family on course.  We are at odds in this battle.  Once the routine returns to normal, things are good- it is just getting us back on track.
Life is full of ups and downs and we will get through this, but prayers are appreciated.


Love and hugs,
Momma

VBS and gymnastics

Monday night, we visited a nearby church for VBS (Vacation Bible School).  let's just say we will not be going back and leave it at that.  But hijo enjoyed this game, so there was a positive.

Tonight was gymnastics again- hijo loves it.  He can not wait to get there and he loves, loves, loves playing on all the equipment. 

doing a bridge.  I really need to work with him at home, I used to be able to do a bridge, so I should be able to help me better his technique.

Walking on the beam

leap from the low beam - he loves the jumping off part.

Spiderman on the wall- learning the technique for hand stands

building strong arm muscles

running up to the vault spring board

Learning the technique for a cartwheel. 

He loves it.  He has 4 more weeks and then a week off before outdoor soccer starts.  I think he will be sad when gymnastics ends, but so excited for soccer to start.  School starts in 4 weeks.   Hijo has another week before we start the countdown to school.  I feel the need to post a count down on the blog too.  We'll see.

Love and hugs,
Momma