Boston Update

Three of the past four posts have been about Bailey, so I thought it was about time for an update about Boston.  She's growing by the minute and is already filling out clothes that Bailey wore at nine months. She squeals in delight regularly and is an extra-smiley little baby. And boy, is she a trooper.  We tote her around everywhere as we go through our days and most of the time she doesn't skip a beat.  Thanks to babywise, we've got a pretty good schedule ironed out, which means we know what times are best to go out, how long we can stay gone, and when we should get home.  Even when things get a little "off" . . . a good night's sleep fixes everything and we start over again in the morning.  

Anyway, here are some pics to show you how Boston spends her days:

Toes! I have toes!!!

Freed from the car seat at dinner

Tummy time while sister naps

Bumbo! (and pony tail)

Listening to her sister "read" to her

Chewing on her Jenny Jump Up

Checking out her new walker

Just hangin' out

Crying it out before a nap in her car seat

Playing with her feet . . . again

"Watching" an elementary soccer game with sis

The Purple Game

Friday marked our second play date with our pastor's twin girls.  After some "free play" time, we played the most AMAZING game ever. The purple game.  

Now, as everyone knows, all games have to start with a read-aloud. Okay, so I made that part up. But the girls didn't know any better (it's part of the game!) and we enjoyed reading To Market, To Market together.  Ideally the story would have had something to do with the color purple, but you do what you can with what you have.

After the oh-so-vital story time, we covered the coffee table with Nala's bath towel, and I brought out a bowl and two cups. One filled with red-colored water, the other with blue-colored water.  (Here's the part where you pretend you don't know where this "game" is going.)

The girls stood on one side of the table and I stood on the other, with the cups out of reach of their anxious little hands.  After they identified the colors in the cups, I poured one of the cups into the bowl. Let's say it was red. The girls squealed in delight as the red liquid filled the bottom of the bowl (and no, we didn't talk about how liquids have definite volume, but not definite shape...maybe next time).  I asked them what color was in the bowl.  RED!!!!  

Next I held up the cup with blue water in it and asked them again what color it was. BLUE!!! And what color will the water be when I put it in the bowl with the red? BLUE!!!  

(insert grin over the upcoming teachable moment!)

As I poured the blue water into the red, the girls jumped and screeched as the water DIDN'T turn blue. PURPLE!!! they screamed.  

After a quick re-cap about red and blue coming together to make purple, each of the girls took a stab at the purple game. They even discovered that it didn't matter which color you put in first - red or blue - in the end it always became purple when the two were combined.

Blue in one cup, red in the other 

Blue first, then red

Red first, then blue

Master mixer!

And what play date would be complete without some (shirtless) butterfly-esque finger painting?!

Mold

Back in May - shortly before going/coming to California to visit - I noticed something in our bedroom that explained my increased sneezing, itchy eyes and the congestion that accompanies most allergic reactions...

Exhibit 1

MOLD.

Exhibit 2

Our roof has leaked since the day we moved in; to the point where I get up in the middle of the night to lay out towels in key places around the house when the rain starts pounding the roof in the middle of the night.  We told our landlord and he just kind of shrugged and said "okay." 

Exhibit 3

Humm...

Exhibit 4

My assumption was that it was just a Paraguay thing and we needed to suck it up. It's just part of living here.

Exhibit 5

The leaks (and therefore mold) are confined to the back two bedrooms; ours and the one we've been using as the guest room.  Thankfully, Bailey's room was free of the nasty black stuff.  And, to be honest, I can handle the congestion. After 30 (yes, thirty) years of dealing with allergies, what's a few more sniffles?  But Boston was sleeping in the room with us at the time, and we'd be moving Bailey into the "big" room after the Cali trip.  We HAD to clean it up.  

Brandon getting a head start on the ceiling while the
other boys work on the roof

Our six week hiatus (and the wintery conditions in Paraguay) only grew the problem. Literally.  So we set a date, grabbed some friends, and attacked the mold.  We used a bleach solution, followed by a good washing, then a sealant.  Plus, our friend Ruben's dad came to replace a dozen broken roof tiles.  No use cleaning up the mold if the cause is still there, right?

We moved our bed to the living room

Now the mold is gone and our ceilings look better. Well, sort of.  The paint came off with the mold in some places, so it's taken on a spotted appearance, but as long as the mold is gone, I won't complain. Too much.  

Things from our room were piled in the dining area

And we're taking steps to make sure that we don't contribute to the problem from the inside.  The big things being opening the windows in the mornings and line drying our towels between showers.  So far the house has felt less stuffy, which is always a nice feeling.

Extra baby "things" were stashed by the fridge

Now we're just waiting on a good hard rain to see if the roof repairs hold up!

Chores

The past few weeks have been full of changes for our dear little Bailey girl!  Among other things:

• Travel from California to Paraguay (with a pit-stop in Panama)
• Time change
• Instant switch from summer to winter (though it's already starting to feel like summer again in Paraguay)
• No more Graw and Pa in the morning
• No more trips to Brooklyn's house (oh how it breaks my heart when she asks if we can "go Brookey house?")
• No more talking to Abue on the phone (well, she does still, but it's all pretend now)
• Preschool

And Mom and Dad's favorite addition? CHORES!

Don't get us wrong, she's not doing anything solo at this point. In fact, her "doing" of the chores actually makes tasks take LONGER and are more work for us than they are a help. For now, at least.  But she's learning discipline and what it means to be a part of our team, team Trevino!

In the mornings she's in charge of feeding Nala, pointing out poop for us to scoop, and helping sweep up the leaves and debris in the yard.

"So heavy!!!"

We have to supervise her scooping, otherwise Nala
would probably get five or six scoops
of food instead of two!

In the afternoons she helps Daddy water the grass and has once rinsed the bubbles off the dishes as I washed them (though our small kitchen makes dish-washing a hard job for two people to do, especially when one has to stand on a chair to reach the sink!)

"No! Bailey do it!" says Miss Independent.

Evening time comes and she helps move the car back inside the fence, gives Nala her dinner, and is in charge of "setting the table" (just forks, her own sippy cup, and her own plate; nothing sharp or breakable).

Driving the car with Daddy

Pushing our fence closed

She's always been a great picker-upper of her toys, so I wouldn't call that a "chore" per-say.  And we usually clean up as we go so that the house is never a disaster at any given moment.

So far she's doing great with the added "responsibilities"and loves helping Mommy and Daddy. Soon, though, I'm going to start a sticker chart for her so that she still has motivation to work hard when the novelty of it all wears off.

Maria's Preschool

Ready for her first day!

It's official. We've taken the plunge.  Bailey is enrolled in preschool!  Tuesday was her first day and she will be going twice a week.  How did we get here? When did our baby grow up???

She's in the owl room

While we lived at Asuncion Christian Academy, Bailey had daily contact with other kids, neighbors, teachers and even some of the kids' parents.  But after living in our house for the past year, I realized that Bailey was missing out on interaction with other kids (and adults).  99.9% of her time was spent with me, Dad and Nala.  Now to add Boston to that mix.  Not that it's a terrible thing to hang out with Mom, but sharing toys with Mom is a lot different from sharing toys with a fellow toddler.  And there's something to be said for NOT being the center of attention every second of your life.

She has a cubby! *tear*

So we started to look into preschools, or something of the like, to get Bailey out of the house a few days a week.  Thankfully, Brandon had connections at work to a woman - Maria - who has run a private preschool for 20+ years (Brandon's secretary's mom, to be exact).  The instruction is in English (though all the kids - save Bailey - speak Spanish as a primary language) and it is the unofficial feeder preschool for Brandon's school.  Before visiting California in June, we toured the school, met with Maria, and discussed the possibility of Bailey attending, staring in August.

Circle time

The classes run 8 AM - 11:30 AM, Monday through Friday, for kids ages 1 to 5.  Many of the students attend five days a week, but that was a major sticking point for me.  I'm not ready to "let go" that much and let Bailey's entire morning be ran by someone else.  Between breakfast, school, lunch, nap and dinner, we'd only have maybe two hours together in the evenings.  Not going there yet. Let's give it a few years.  Thankfully, Maria was flexible with us in terms of the schedule (and tuition). We pay half of the regular rate (the equivalent of $70) and Bailey goes to school two days a week.  We'll also probably take her on "special" days, too: birthdays, water day, etc.

Choo! Choo! Lining up with fellow classmates
to go to the playground

Tuesday and Thursday I got to shadow her in the classroom and I know that she's going to be just fine.   The only things that worries me a bit is the fact that all the teachers are English Learners themselves and don't understand Bailey. They're used to the emergent Spanish that most of the kids come in with, and have (probably) rarely had exposure to beginning English.  At one point on Tuesday, she said "potty!" as clear as day, and the teacher gave her a confused look.  Same with her "play toys?" question and "water?" request.  So, it'll take some adjustments, to be sure, but she's a bright kid and (generally) listens pretty well.

Plus, I speak teacher-eze fluently and will know that when your teacher says you were "sensitive" today, you were a bit of a cry baby, you little stinker! :)