Q & A with Luke

This Sunday Luke gave a little talk in Primary and the theme was Family Members Have Important Responsibilities. I asked Luke what the jobs were for each of the people in our family and this is what he said. The bullet points are quoted answers.

What is Daddy's job in our family? What does Daddy do?

• work
• get a new job
• goes to school
• drives

What does Mommy do?

• knows the rules (someone has to!!)
• they love to hear favorite songs
• meet with friends
• play with kids

What do you have to do?

• to be good (yes!)
• listen to Mommy (and heck, yes!!)
• play with Dad and get rides on his shoulders
• follow the rules (at least he knows it even if he doesn't always do it - that's a start, right?)
• eat and grow big

What does Caleb have to do?

• not cry
• play with toys
• get better at playing

I used some of these answers to come up with a talk. It's always fun to ask my boys questions interview style. Luke drew a picture of his happy family that he held while giving his talk. He did a good job!

Ben’s Been Busy

Hiya! Is he about to do what you think he's gonna do???

TRES, DOS, UNO!!!

AHHHHHH!!

If you are wondering if I jumped too you must be out of your mind, and don't know me to well!!

Also, how could we leave Mexico without going to Luche Libre??

Ben went with some guys from school, but we hope to go back with the boys before we leave. Ben said that between matches all the kids get to go up and mess around. Luke will love it!

Ben with Christopher (from Holland) and Mark (a native). They actually had to give a little presentation on the Luche event.

Just a cool picture.

Sleep Training

A lot of you know that we've never owned an actual crib because we've moved so often and we've lived in such small places. We bought a Pac n Play when Luke grew out of his cradle and it's been used everyday since for nighttime sleeping as well as day time naps for 5 years. It has finally seen it's last day.

The other day I could hear the boys sort of jump-rolling from Luke's bed into the Pac n Play and then the sound of fabric ripping and then 'uh-oh.' They ripped through the side netting. That night I turned the Pac n Play around so that the ripped side was up against Luke's bed. The next day (after having had a serious talking to about not doing gymnastics into Caleb's bed) they ripped through the other side doing the same thing. Imagine my horrified disappointment. Caleb is to big for the Pac n Play anyway, I'm not going to buy another one, but he has to sleep somewhere these next 2 weeks, and I don't want him in my bed. With no other option I put Caleb in his bed and about an hour later found him like this.

He's managed to stay in his bed since that first night, thank goodness. I figure it's good training for when he finally has a big-boy bed of his own.

Little Caleb

So last week, Caleb woke up with a red eye. I thought maybe he had pink eye, but there wasn't any goop in it and the whites of his eye were still white and not irritated. We called Doc Grandpa and he said without the goop or redness in the eye it was more likely a bug bite or an allergy. Either way, for about 3 days Caleb's eye was swollen to almost closed. Into the 3rd day he tripped at the church and wacked his cheek bone which slightly bruised, and bonked his lip which bled and swelled up. Poor thing looked like he had been mugged. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture. All I have is this adorable one which resembles what he looks like post injuries! Aren't those cheeks the most pinchable?

New Baby!!!!

Not me. My sister. Due in October! Yea!!!!

It's happened

Last week a moment I've been dreading happened when we walked past a gaming store and Luke turned total zombie. He stopped at the entrance, turned to see the massive wall of games and promptly began drooling. We called his name numerous times, clapped our hands as if trying to get the attention of a wayward puppy and still no response, only continued drooling.

My mom bought Ben a DS for Christmas this last year and it quickly turned into Luke's. We've found that he could spend many brain numbing hours with his Lighten' McQueen racing game. If only it could teach him to read...

Now begins my years of birthday and Christmas shopping at these deplorable, stinky, boy-smelling game stores. At least the machine carries huge leverage in encouraging positive behavior. He does anything for more playing time.

American Roads, I Miss You!

O, American roads I miss you terribly!!

Your clearly painted lines that indicate whether 2 or 3 lanes of traffic should take up the space.

Your exits placed regularly on the right side of the road rather then left, then right, then right again, then left, then right again causing you to almost crash 2 times, get honked at 1 time and barely make the exit you swore was on the left side, but no, it was on the right.

Your English written roads signs that give reasonable time to merge through 3 lanes of traffic.

Your police officers who roam the roads and sometimes have pity on a confused driver. Sometimes they even offer advice or give directions rather than ask for discreetly handed mula. 3 times people - 3 times in 2 months! Usually I play dumb (which isn't really 'playing') and Ben uses really broken Spanish. They get frustrated because we aren't 'getting it' and let us go. Usually we have made a violation because their roads are crazy, but they don't give us a ticket. I don't get it. I'm convinced our US plates make us stick out and the policia are just waiting and watching for the dumb Americanas with their Americana dollars to make a mistake. Curse our US plates!

Your drivers who know how and when to use a blinker.

Your 4-way STOPs where drivers stop and politely take turns instead of 5 and 6-way STOPs where the first one to go is the driver with the most guts.

Your street parking where all the cars are lined up nicely in the same direction giving drivers a clue as to whether the street is one-way. I never knew how beneficial this parking law was. Would appreciate it here.

Your smoothness from regular pavings rather than polka-dotted with pot holes so big you swear you just blew a tire.

And lastly, your speed bump warning signs in order to keep your car from teeter tottering up and then down, scraping both the front and back end of the underside of your car on the gravel.

5 more weeks! 5 more weeks and I will most enthusiastically drive your roads and not have to silently cuss each time I drive by a cop! O, did I mention this...

Really, it was bound to happen. I've never seen more bumper to bumper accidents pulled to the side of the roads as I have in this country. Thankfully there is a GM dealer down the road and we opted to pay for all the extra out-of-country insurance available. Our poor car!