Each day is a little life.: April 2008

Paloma's "class"

I had tried to take Paloma to her normal library storytime each Wednesday since I was able to drive, but this was the first time we successfully attended it. (One time the library was being treated for termites; another day we were running too late because Miss Priss was not cooperating—she didn’t want to get dressed.)

Nesha called and asked if we were coming. When we arrived she came to the car to get us because the storytime was being held outside (because they were getting new carpet inside, I think).

Anyway I finally got to see Ms. Letta that Paloma always talks about (she calls this her class) at her “fravorite” library. This storytime was about animals and was cute with songs, actions, and of course, several books.

Before I knew it, it was over. “This is it?” I asked Nesha, realizing that it was probably normal since toddlers and preschoolers aren’t known for their attention spans. She laughed, but I was left thinking of the country album called something like, “Did I shave my legs for this?”

After storytime I talked to one of the local school board candidates and then we went to meet David for lunch at Ali Baba. It was the first time his coworkers had met Eva and the first time they’d seen Paloma in a year (Carol or Barbara said she was in squeaky shoes the last time she was there). Paloma wasn’t very happy, though, because she wanted to get a snack from Daddy’s office. She remembered the vending machines from some other time she’d been there, but this time they were out of order. She cheered up when he got her a granola bar out of his desk drawer.

I'm Baaaaack!

Which means the birth announcements are done.

Sorry to those of you who've been checking in so faithfully!

I was not allowing myself to blog until they were done, especially because I wanted to have them to go with thank you notes and all of the dishes I need to give back to people!

David will be out of town all next week, so I was desperate to complete them.

So check your mailboxes soon. Not today or tomorrow, but perhaps the next day. I still have to chop, fold, insert, seal, label and stamp. But at least I'm not administering (or worse, taking) the TAKS test this week!

I will be back-blogging (like I did tonight) very soon with new pictures of the ONE-MONTH-OLD-ALREADY baby.

Eva @ one month

Eva didn't feel like having pictures taken at one-month old. We'll try again another day.

David tended to Eva while I worked on the house. I found them both crashed a little later.

This week, Carmen was apparently feeling the stress of the new baby in the house. We knew this because she complained, "I want to be an only child." We've had some good conversations about this... as someone said, that ship has sailed.

When Gabriel was born, she was too little to remember life before him. I always thought that was a good thing.

We told her that when Lauren was about her age, she didn't even want any more cousins. She got over it. I tried to explain to her that the reason I want a large family is for the kids: I want them to have each other. I can't imagine life without my sisters, and I want my children to have those built-in friendships for their whole lives as well. I hope someday she'll appreciate that, too.

Our cup--and our refrigerator--overfloweth

I tried, but I don't have pictures of all of the people who brought us food. It's an understatement to say our Sunday school class has been very generous. Our class now uses a web site called Care Calendar for this purpose.

But we also had meals brought by 2 family members, one neighbor and my department from work.

We feel so blessed to be part of this community. And what a treat to have such a variety of home-cooked meals, as well as tasty dinners from Market Street, Dream Dinners and Chili's.
Thanks, everybody!

First Trip to Abuelos' House

We took Eva to her Abuelos' house for the first time on Sunday. We shared a yummy meal; David and Abuelo picked up KFC chicken and groceries to make our own sides.

ALMOST got that smile on camera!

Our purpose besides visiting was fixing their new computer

that Maria got them for Christmas. Abuela needed to have Leopard installed so David could fix things for her remotely.

The kids got a little restless

(you can see Gabriel's hair is soaking wet in this picture)

but they ate fruit and snacks to their hearts' content there as usual.
Thanks for your hospitality!

Party of 6

Our church is making a new member directory. I signed up for the last possible day since I didn't know when the baby would come when the appointments were offered.

I hope Eva's name doesn't show up in the directory as "TBD" because that's how I listed her when I made the appointment!

Anyway as you can see, it's not a bad picture of 2/3 of us. Not so good of P-Lo, who was in a perfectly good mood and who had been promised m&ms if she cooperated. And awful of Eva, who's making a monkey face... but we knew we weren't ready for a new family portrait yet anyway.

But can you believe the color in this picture? Olan Mills should be ashamed. David's and Gabe's shirts are a really a vivid apple green. But maybe they take out the color in pictures when people don't pay the extra money for touch-ups/ enhancements. David said, "What do they do, hit the 'enhance' button and charge you an extra $20?" Apparently so.

And we diddn't pay that. We got a free 8x10 with our sitting and purchased a 5x7 of David & me, and that cost $30. What a rip-off! Have I ever mentioned Portrait Innovations here? We'll head back there soon for better pictures and better value.

In the meantime, at least all 6 of us will be in the directory.

Eva @ 4 wks/ Gabe's kindergarten field trip

Where does the time go? Eva is four weeks old already!

Gabriel's kindergarten class (all 115 of them) walked to the duck pond and had a hot dog lunch.

We met them there.

Doing a jig. I have no idea why. It's a very Paloma thing to do, though.

Paloma's never met a stranger. Especially kids. Everyone is a potential friend. If only I had her guts...

The kids investigate ducks and a dead turtle.

Gabe's class poses for a picture on the bridge.

Paloma went to check on Eva several times.

Sean's mom (Carmen's basketball Coach Sandy) took the boys for a walk around the whole pond.

Hannah and Paloma bounced together on the playground overrun by kindergarteners. (Nesha brought Hannah and Rachel there to play with us.)

Jeffrey (our neighbor who goes to our church and is in Gabriel's class) found a butterfly to share with everyone. Of course they all scared it away when they surrounded him...

and Mrs. R got to hold little Eva again.

This is the line for the swing made for kids with special needs--it must be pretty special!

This is Paloma telling Mrs. R, "When I grow up, I want to be a weed!" What ambition!

War Dance/ Hope for Africa Children's Choir

We went to church on a Thursday night to see the Hope for Africa Children's Choir. They were amazing, entering the sanctuary with screams that startled all but Eva, who remained asleep.

The choir also performed at the Methodist General Conference, which is where the performance in the link above was recorded. The kids and their chaperones stayed with members of our church during the week, and it was obvious that all involved were affected in a powerful way.

Even though the children were great and brought tears to my eyes, we stayed only halfway through because it was a school night and the little ones were getting antsy. Carmen and Gabriel didn't want to leave, so we purchased a DVD.

The same week, I happened to check out the movie War Dance from the library. I had seen it on a new releases list and reserved it online, and it became available the same week we saw this choir live. I highly recommend it. It follows children preparing for a national music competition--apparently a big deal all over Uganda! And it was very well done. Supposedly there is curriculum to go with it being released this week. According to the case and the site, it won several awards and even an Oscar nomination. But watch it because it will affect you.

After going to the Shine Global web site, I am inspired to do more to help these filmmakers continue their life- and world-changing work.

"Jackie would have put me in the swing!"

Nesha called to see if we wanted to meet her and the kids at the park. I said yes but it would be lunchtime before we could get there. As it was, we got there and then I worried that I was at the wrong park because they weren't there. It turned out that we just beat them.

Mason is looking so much more grown up!

And he's really sweet with Paloma.

Maya ate her sandwich and then some...

It was an unremarkable trip to the park except Nesha made no less than 3 trips to the restroom with the kids in that time and we lost Zoe's camoflauge crocs for a while because they blended in so well with the bark and grass.

Eva didn't know where she was when she awoke.

Zoe's also getting so big!

Paloma had a good time, but as we were driving home, she realized she had not swung in the swings. She said emphatically, "Jackie would have put me in the swing!"
I apologized and told her I would have been happy to put her in the swing if she'd asked. We'll swing next time, sweetheart! Mommy is learning!

Self-Serve/ Is today a Jackie day?

Poor Paloma has had more freedom than she knows what do do with since Eva's birth. When David leaves to take the kids to school, I'm sometimes still in bed, between sleeping and waking, nursing Eva, recovering from a long night. So Paloma finishes her breakfast and comes up to see us.

This morning, though, I was up. I was eating a bowl of cereal when I heard Eva awake on the monitor. I left my cereal on the table and went up to see about her.

A few minutes later, Paloma came up with a snack for me.

It was in my cereal bowl.

I looked in it and there were multicolored Goldfish that came from their goody bags from Mason's birthday.

I asked her how she got them, knowing they'd been out of her reach. She told me how she got the stool, climbed up and got the Goldfish from the basket, then found some scissors, cut the bag open and put them in my bowl for me.

But my cereal and milk were still in the bowl when I left.

"I finished it. And drank your milk!"

I was a little scared to go back and see the mess she'd made, but this was it:

Not too bad, but I was not interested in eating the Goldfish for some reason.

Later we went to Amy's house since Nesha called and said Jackie was coming over with Hannah and Rachel. I knew P would be thrilled to see Jackie since she still said almost everyday, "Is tomorrow a Miss Jackie day?"