Recent Happenings

Our day to day lives here are not full of extracurricular activities, however life with three small three children is never boring or uneventful.  (At least for this busy mom!)  Here are a few happenings recently.

We have some good friends who are also here for the birth of their fourth baby.  Last week we watched their three older kids while they welcomed the new addition.  It was great fun to have some playmates for a couple days and some very self sufficient ones at that!  We spent time playing outside, coming in and drinking lots of cold water when everyone was hot, coloring, and watching a few videos together.  The complex we are staying in has a bunch of other kids living here too and one morning we went over and played in their playroom.  There ended up being ten kids total and wow did they all play together great!  It reminds me how little these kids play with others that are like them, and how much they just eat it up each chance they get.  Our friends gave birth to another baby boy, and named him Josiah!  I cannot describe to you how very, very excited our own kids are about this new baby.  Emma and Jacob are wanting to be near him every chance they get.   I think it is making us even more excited about our own new baby.

Emma and I have been working on potty training.  It has been about 4 days already and I wouldn't say that we have been successful.  Have made progress but not really successful.  I am going to keep at it and we'll see what happens.  So far she spends the entire day, wanting to go and sit on her little toilet, over and over and over again for about 3 seconds each time.  Every once in a while she actually has a success but it seems as though it just happens, and is not purposeful.  On the other hand we have had almost no accidents since the first day.  I cannot get over how different my three kids have been in the potty training department. I have basically done the exact same thing with all three of them when it comes to training, and they have all three responded in such different ways.
We have spent a lot of time in this position:

 

  Each day we spend time working on homeschool and time playing outside.  Kids are regularly catching frogs, lizards, snails, and insects and doing 'something' with them. So far we do not have a child who exhibits any fear, whatsoever, of small crawling creatures.  The kids got a great laugh the other night when Jared was trying to catch a lizard from our porch ceiling and instead it ended up landing on my arm.  Of course I screamed, something none of my kids would ever do.  They were so disapointed that I did not grab it for them, instead of shaking my arm until it fell off and ran away.  We also have a small playground area just outside our apartment and Emma and Jacob like playing there.  Josiah is usually off hunting for something or climbing whatever he can find.

We have a porch on our apartment and I often sit on the porch while the kids play outside.  This has been a great spot to work on potty training this past week too!

Sometimes we take a walk down the street to pick up some cheap, yummy Thai food, go to the fruit stand and get mangos and small, sweet bananas, or get a bunch of orchids (for just over $1 US!)

It definitely is hot here.  Josiah is regularly, literally, dripping with sweat.  It makes me laugh when he leans over and water droplets fall on whatever it is he is working on.  Emma has a head of wet curls, every day.  Often the kids come in and know to go right to the fridge for their cold water bottles, sit on the couch and cool down.  Here they are watching a short video, after playing outside much of the morning, while I make lunch.

I am still pregnant, and feeling more and more pregnant by the day.  I am feeling great, for having 2 to 3 weeks left.  Although, it is getting really tough to lean over, hard not to do with 3 short ones running around and an endless supply of stuff being left on the floor.  It is also getting tough to get up, once I get down, whether it be from the floor or even from a chair.  I also think this baby must be much bigger than the last two, my heartburn is getting to be ridiculous.  Not sure if there is anything I can eat now without feeling some discomfort.  Makes me laugh, when I drink water and get heartburn!  Kids have been super helpful, especially with getting things off the floor for me, when I just cannot lean over again that day.  Emma, a couple months ago, discovered just how comfortable the baby belly can be.  She often is found sitting on my lap, head on my belly, one thumb in mouth and the other hand patting my tummy.  So funny!

Kids have also been playing together so much.  I am thankful for this bonding time.  At home, with boys in school most days, it seems they do not have that much time to play together.  We have almost no toys here and still they are regularly keeping each other occupied with whatever it is that is around or they decide to pretend at the moment.  Emma is a great playmate with both of the boys and goes along with whatever it is they want to play.  Here Josiah and Emma were reading together.

Thanks for joining me in taking a peak into our recent happenings!