Having a boy...

D man turned 17mths this past weekend. Over the past 2 months or less I'm finding that having a boy means lots of falls. Poor thing always has a bruise on his forehead. He rarely gets knocked down, but rather trips over his own two feet...I'm actually wondering if one of his feet is turned in a little bit. He does a great job of falling and getting right back up without skipping a beat.

His sister on the other hand...whenever she falls she must cry like it's the end of the world and go screaming off away from people. She usually returns after a few yells and screams in a pleasant mood. It's quite nice that she's learned how to deal with her anger/embarrasment. Onlookers are always quite worried when she goes screaming off like a wild banchee, but I reassure them she'll be back in a few after some time alone :).......she is ALL FEMALE.

Back to my boy...

While Scott and I were getting ready for church on Sunday Darton had a bad accident....Adeline came to inform us of the accident and through stuttering words was able to spit out "Darton" and "beer." As you can see it's not beer, and the most amusing thing of it all was that she associates glass bottles with beer. That reminds me of a memory when she was younger than Darton. We used to sit oversized trash by our back door in Elko, including wine bottles. Adeline picked one up and brought it to me and said "Daddy." Quite humorous coming out of a 1yr old's mouth. Darton's spilled drink is a malt drink.

This picture is sideways, but you can see the blood D was sitting in when Scotty found him. We eventually discovered that all the blood was mainly coming from the cut you see below on his head. It's healing very nicely, but I'm sure will leave a scar. The worst cut is in the crease of his hand where his thumb connects to his palm. He protects it pretty well though and it's begun healing nicely as well. Praise God all his wounds can be taken care of in the home!

Our first "owie" for the weekend though was on Sarah. We put her int he back of the pickup while in the country and she jumped out. She ahs a nasty wound about the size of a nickle. I think it's healing well too. I'm keeping her indoors though until I see the wound has closed up.

Diapers and Dishes are Encouraging

The kids, Sarah, and I headed to Bonao on Thursday afternoon to spend a couple of days in the country. We dropped off our car for maintenance and then headed to Rancho Wendy, pictured below. Thankfully the day was uneventful since I was solo with the 3 of them. Scott got to us around 7p and then we all headed out the next morning for a finca (farm) near the mine owned by a co-worker of Scott's. Here is the O'Kelly's finca along with Darton screaming at me. I've gotten used to it over the last 1 1/2yrs ;). AFter living in a city for the past year, I've come to the conclusion that heaven MUST be filled with lots of grass and NO noise!

The farm is only 15minutes or so from the mine. Scott and the OKelly's joined us on Friday night and we left the OKelly's on Saturday to head back to the city.

We've started the house hunting process. After a year in the apartment I'm ready to have green out my front door...or rather the kids are more ready than I am.

A girlfriend passed on this very encouraging article. I hope all you moms enjoy it as much as I did!

Kids' Diet

I'm continually trying to remember to work on my children getting the nutrients and vitamins they nee din their food. I highly recommend What Really Works for Kids by Susan Clark and Simply Natural Baby Food by Cathe Olson. Olson's book requires shopping outside your normal grocery store, so it's taken me a while to cook more of her recipes. However, the bonus to living in such a large city is that we have an Asian store with lots of algae products, and they are right down the street from me! I went in yesterday and found the following ingredients to make the following mix to put in different recipes.

Sea Veg Mix
2 Tbsp kelp
1/3 c crushed hiziki
1/3c crushed arame
1/4 c crushed wakame
1 strip kombu

Crush the sea vegetables with your hands and place them in a blender. Gind to a coarse powder and store in covered jar.

Sea vegetables are exceptional sources of mineral, vitamins, and protein (strengthen bones & teeth and improve nerve transmission and digestion). You can add them to your current recipes to give your food an extra boost for your immune system.

Aunt Jana you will be happy to know that we painted A's toenails for the first time today :). I've been funny about fingernail paint, but she hasn't asked until today to have it. I think I let her have lipstick over paint b/c lipstick comes off within the first 5 minutes after putting it on. However, I read in Clark's book that women ingest up to nearly 60lbs of lipstick in a lifetime, and most of those on sale contain toxic metals such as aluminium and lead...so maybe i shoudl be looking into an alternative without additives or synthetic dyes.

Pool and Bday

On Friday we enjoyed a sunny day at the water park. We are the first of our friends to try it out. It was great until people showed up ;) Mostly b/c the people that showed up were ones that tried to have "relations" in the kiddie pool! Notice the attitude Little Bit is giving up at the top...The music was at Domincan level of "beyond loud" and here Adeline is dancing. Tiffany, also in the picture, went with us. Today I celebrated my 28th bday with girlfriends and a chinola margarita. I don't remember a birthday since I've been an adult where people outside of family lavished me with so many gifts. I received 2 houseplants out of the deal!! My first mind you. They were all very sweet to celebrate with me and it was a great reminder that I do have good friends here.
The orchidsAnd the other...

That's my neice Ella in the photo frame. We'll get to meet her in December when she come to the DR.

Friends

It's been a week of hit or miss with the electricity, but at this very moment I have it and hopefully won't lose it before I finish the post. The worst part about no electricity is not having water...our pump/cistern/whatever system we have needs electricity to work. Adeline has picked up the phrase "No hay luz" (there isn't any electricity).

Tuesday I went to the Santo Dominican Country Club and joined the International Woman's Club. I was purposely trying to stay away from it last year for fear of being sucked "into the world" but am going to give it a try this year.
Late Tuesday afternoon I was aching for an activity, so I invited a couple of girlfriends over with their kids for frozen margaritas, and as you can see below, dancing. (Grammar moment: I really needed a pause in breath when you read the last sentence before the word "dancing" but can't decide if putting a comma there is a comma splice or not...nerdy I know) We played music statue and it didn't take Darton any time to learn that when the music stops you stop dancing...he was hysterical...he will be able to groove and move much better than his father ;)

Today I took Jonathan for the day to help Kathryn. Kathryn is due with #3 in 2 wks and Jonathan, her oldest, turns 3 in December. You can do the math on that one! Whew! She is super woman.

We went to the Botanical Gardens and suffered through the heat. It is currently the hottest it has ever been in the year we've been here.

Darton saying "cheese." He is quite the little ham, and when he's not crying is making us laugh at him!

Playing a game together.

Enjoying ice cream after the hot sun

Darton REFUSED to eat the ice cream while I was holding it, so I chowed down the majority of it while he was screaming his head off and then gave the last bit to him. The Dominicans were quite impressed he could "shut of" that quickly. Adeline's will has NOTHING on D-man's.

No hay luz about 30 minutes after we got home, so we hit the pool at the nearby hotel.

We're off to the waterpark tomorrow.

Beach to Boost Spirits

We hit the beach on Saturday in Guayacanes. We went to Playa Esmeralda All Roses which is about 45minutes away. We paid about $30 per adult and $15 for Adeline to spend the day, which included lunch and national drinks (aka rum drinks & Presidente beer). It was a great boost to my spirits after spending the first week in August with family or friends here. I feel like my parents were here forever ago and it was just at the beginning of this month! A day in the sun with clear water and beautiful palm trees was a great reminder that living here "ain't that bad" :) Darton can now say "I want that" or "I don't want that" and is jabbering all the time. If I don't get Adeline in swimming lessons, I think Darton will be the first one to swim. He loves the water.

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE to dance. Here they are in action. We usually turn up the music once a day to jam out. If you click on the pic it will blow it up so you can see Darton's face. I love that expression. And is it just me or does my daughter look like she's doing a cheerleader dance move...maybe it's in the blood :)

My boys

Quite the poser Litte Miss is becoming...

Can I Walk the Walk or Just Talk the Talk?

I am ending my study of Luke and one of the questions about Peter's 3 denials of Jesus took me back to Luke 12:4-9 which I found encouragment in today. It would be great to think that I would be able to recall these verses if ever put in the same position at Peter. But I know, that I too am weak.


And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? An not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say to you, whoever ocnfesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.


What I find incredible is that there are people in history, Christian martyrs, who took these verses to heart when they were being burned at the stake or drowned with their hands tied for their faith in God.