Boo is here!

Other than the Grand Graduation Party, we also went to J to bring little Mr Boo home. Mr B is very much an expected and awaited new family member- and wait for him we did, due to fun immigration regulations- but he is finally here!

The way back home was much easier than I anticipated. He fell asleep often and with great timing (during the border crossing wait, soon after lunch, and again around 6pm and until we got to the local Walmart, around 9 or 9:30ish?). He also had zero accidents the entire way here, since probably out of nerves/excitement over being in new environments or because that is just his natural schedule, he doesn't need many bathroom breaks at all- and by great luck, it happened whenever we took him out for a walk. We did our very best to keep him comfortable. Quijote is an amazing, stable driver who doesn't subject you to any quirky motions when he is in charge. And my mom gave me plastic covers for the car floor, so he could have some freedom while protecting the car from any unwanted moisture. He spent most of the time on his bed on the back floor or on Miss E's lap. I actually took the picture below out of happiness that Boo so very sweetly got over the initial shove that Mr E gave him the first time he attempted to climb on him- and tried a second time after a while!

I was also especially proud of Boo that he did so well while confined to the carrier when we did stop for a meal. I rewarded him by sharing a tiny bit of my chicken with him, which Quijote has been pestering me about. I won't spoil him, I promise!!! Ok-- I'll make an effort not to, anyway.

We did stop a couple times to get dog stuff- I thought we were so prepared, after gifts from my brother M and sister-in-law T and having shopped ahead of time, even setting up the doggy door- but alas, we needed this or that and found out in the process that we were not nearly as ready.
We lucked out, though, and had a good trip home. Quicker, even, than we thought it would be. We finally got home and went to sleep, and Boo slept very well that night. All night, in his bed by Miss E's bed, without crying. We said "Bed!" and put him in it and made him stay there and fall asleep while we waited, the way we did with the kiddoes! LOL. So we have literally put 3 babies to sleep, all together, quite successfully each night (tonight included, as Q just walked out of their room tonight, so I gather it's worked again). I hope it's a pattern! Changuitos changuitos!

Today there was much doggy dancing, doggy holding, doggy training, doggy dressing.... He even made princess level in the princess in her castle game that Miss E likes to play (it's been unseasonably warm over here!). I was so afraid that we had had to wait so long that we didn't have a puppy anymore, but he is high energy (despite his super chill, patient, laid back personality- thank God!) and sleeps a lot, so I am grateful to have been very wrong on that score.

Ready for a nap at 9am after an hour of playtime.

It's been all fun and no bads yet, so I realize I am incredibly spoiled so far and this can't hold for long, and we are bound to have something, but well, we are just so happy and so excited to have him <3!

We're also very glad that he seems to be willing to put up with all the attention, as he is either being played with or looking for them so he can get played with. This reminds me a lot of my grandmother's dog that my cousins and I used to play with.... happy happy times...

My parents have both separately texted me to ask about how he is doing. so I'm sure they're missing him. He's been having a good time, though, I hope. And we are certainly enjoying having him around <3

Dad's Graduation

We threw Dad a party to celebrate his graduation! He is an ordained pastor but due to the demands of his ministry, he saw the need to further his education. We are all so proud of him and wanted to celebrate him, and it was so wonderful to see our/his family and friends.
At the end very late at night, it was family only and great conversations were had. We human folk live for those moments of deep introspection- don't we? I thought it was wonderful.

My lovely sister's table, made from an old door by our brother, was the perfect base.

I love decorating, so my family lets me do it. I may or may not have asked my husband and my sister's husband to move the table a few times. They were so patient. I like to think it paid off... heheheh!

El festejado, con amigos de su juventud. As you can see we added balloon numbers by the clock.

Some of the family that joined us :)

More family. I wish I had a picture of the other table, or of when we joined the tables together to all talk.

Mi abuelito y yo.

We had the party at my sister's beautiful new home- and she and I painted that mural with the birds and the trees!

It really was a wonderful party, and my Dad and Mom looked so happy. Mission accomplished <3

A Day In The Life of E n E

Life has slowly gone back to normal, despite the winter illness, potty training Mr. E, and travel. So I thought it was time for one of these.
I should say, for the sake of honestly, that today has been a particularly good day (despite the fun of potty training) and that's why I chose today :)

7:30 am Q gets picked up to go to the college for his day at work.
8am the kids wake up, but they know I'm not a morning person. They hang out in my room for half an hour, waiting for me to wake up.
8:30 Breakfast :)
9 am Playtime!! Since the house is clean already, we can do so much today! There is dancing, trains (we put together a really cool, complicated train track!) And of course, there's the game we started yesterday after I saw a video on Facebook- bueno, un video sobre el juego del elastico- no lo encuentro!)

I found a meter or two of elastic that day and we tied it around the legs of two chairs and have been playing for hours each day, yesterday and today. She even learned a move already!!

Around 10am I saw Quijote's text that he had set up the bread machine so all I had to do was press "start" and we'd have pizza dough, so I did the excruciatingly difficult task and we kept playing until it was ready.

11:45ish we started making pizza!!!! I can't exaggerate here, it's not possible to overestimate how excited I was that Mr E was so thoroughly involved. I tried to contain myself. But goodness, he is getting so big!!

 

1ish we had lunch.
I also made a calzone for Q to take to work next week. And we got this new fancy lunch bento ish box! (ordered it from Amazon)

After lunch we had quiet time 2-3:30ish.
4:00 Quijote got home just as the kids were coming out of quiet time and some bathroom-ing was happening. He wasn't feeling great so I made dinner- chicken soup! Always makes one feel better no?

We decided a little TV time was in order, as is usually the case once Daddy gets home.
6:30pm Poor Q is out to pick up my meds and I'm going to do a little laundry after finishing this up.
8-9pm is bedtime! We'll do a little packing as well. Ready for puppy and other family fun!! I'll have to come back tonight to add pictures and videos. And that post with the FB posts of things they've said might have to wait till next week I guess!

Projects projects

First, the dining room chalkboard wall. We had a lot of fun with this project. We're almost done!!
I've wanted a chalkboard wall since forever and now that we have our own home, this is the sort of thing we finally get to do! We tackled most of the project last week (not this weekend, but the weekend before). It's a tall wall so we do have a bit more space that needs work (up high above the door frame) but we'll get around to it this week, espero! jeje!

Mr E and Daddy woke up early and started smoothing out the wall. It's a skim coat of whatever putty like stuff goes on walls. We had to do this because our walls are all textured, so we had to even out the surface so that writing on the wall would be easier (and honestly, because it wouldn't look right with the texture). We decided it wasn't difficult to do, once we figured out how to fix the issue. It was kinda fun working with the stuff because of its texture, and kind of a very easy, immediate satisfaction sort of project.

 Miss E woke up later that Saturday and joined in. Then we did a little painting the next day.

Our victory picture haha!

We've been using the wall a whole lot already. Miss E has been drawing all kinds of cute stuff. Tonight there's music info on it (Quijote), letter practice (Mami and Miss E) and shape and line practice (Mr E). Last week, Quijote left a series of math problems for Miss E, which she happily solved each morning the moment she realized they were there. Usually it's counting, sorting, basic geometry- stuff like that. This one (below) ended up being a three parter. She had to draw a number of circles in each box (boxes A and B) and then she had to tell him how many circles there were total in both boxes. It's been so fun to have something like this. There's something different about doing school work on a larger scale!

I have also been sewing here and there. I haven't been posting all my projects because I always say I'll wait till people are wearing their stuff on a "cute" day and then we end up staying home because.. well, we like home a whole lot these days I guess (read: Mr E is having trouble going anywhere.. and I don't have it in me to fight it). We do go to ballet class and to church most Sundays but have been rather lax on our other activities...
Anyway, this is our latest day of fun. We had a great time making dolls out of leftover fabric and string. It was fun to see  what each kid wanted (I do have lots of little bits of fabric so there was space for lots of choice making). Mr E wanted a boy superhero with black long hair (I kept telling him that week that he needed a haircut, so I guess this was about making the boy look like him). And he should have a thunder symbol on his shirt. The cape was my idea, but he decided on orange. Miss E wanted a doll with long black hair and a pink princess dress. She was upset at first that the doll didn't sit upright, so we put a skewer in it. The head holds up now. She also painted gold shoes and gloves on her doll and the boots on his doll.

I suspect Miss E will want us to make more clothing for the dolls. We've been making hats and dresses and everything in the world for the bunnies. We definitely go on a bunny week here and there, and the bunnies end up going on all kinds of adventures. There's been camping, hiking, dancing, driving roadtrips in a pink car that happens to be the perfect size. We've put together a classroom so the bunnies can go to school. And of course a bakery. Everything turns into playing bakery these days. For Mr E there's only cars and dinosaurs right now. His dinosaurs join the bunnies on their adventures, and while his imagination doesn't go as far as making up complex situations yet, he does put together short stories or simple situations (the dinosaurs are good or bad, are attacking or saving the bunnies) or sometimes he just goes along with whatever convoluted story Miss E has started up.

There's been a couple posts about things the kids say, so I should also blog about that later this week. Next weekend we'll be picking up the puppy (from the litter my mom's dog just had a few months ago) so we're super excited for the upcoming adventures. Yesterday Quijote and I switched the doors that connect the back porch with the house so that the one that has the doggy door will lead into our breakfast room. All kinds of prep work has been done- reading up, buying stuff, trying to figure out the puppy's name.... The poor doggy's name keeps changing. It's gone from "Floda" which is either a mispronunciation of "Flora" or something related to "Flo the ball" to "Boo" and it even occurred to me that we could call it "Chip" as in chocolate chip, since puppy is small and dark and sweet. We'll see how it all goes. It's completely new territory for me (I was always the kid who just played with the dog, now it will actually be my responsibility for the first time) so wish us all luck!

PS Just in case I haven't posted it here- a pic of the kids playing with puppy on our last trip to Juarez.

and a puppy closeup. I have another one in my camera pictures (these are all phone pics) but I can't access those until we buy a new computer...sigh.. I think my parents sent me this one.