A Few Cute Little Moments

Just to jot down a few cute little things....

Julian has really taken to our housekeeper/sometimes nanny, Arsenia. Arsenia is amazing and I love her so much and she does ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we ask. She also sees things that I might not have even have thought of and does them. In Costa Rica, housekeepers really do more than just keep house. At any given moment, she might start raking the leaves, wash my shower curtain, clean out my closet and wipe down my shoes, change the dog's water bowl, cook whatever I ask or just do the prep work and act as my sous chef and I can't count the amount of poopy baby clothes she has gotten her hands on.....mainly Matthew! Don't know what it was but it was really hard to keep Matthew's poop in his diaper and he pooped MUCH more than Julian but Arsenia was there ready and willing and I'll never be able to thank her enough. She takes care of Julian quite a bit during the three days a week she works with us. He doesn't even say that many words really but he's started saying Arsenia. He'll yell for her from the other room and she'll answer him from down the hall. It's so cute. The other day when he woke from his nap, we overheard him calling on the monitor for her. It was the first time I think he's woken from a nap and didn't call "mama!" I thought I would feel weird about it but instead I couldn't wait to run tell her that he was calling her over and over from his room. It was so cute and I know her heart totally melted. She walked in his room and started talking to him and I heard him start giggling. Such a sweet little moment.

We have started putting a larger (9oz) sippy cup in Julian's crib at night and most mornings when he wakes up, there's nothing left in it. Matthew, since this age or before has always slept with a water in his bed as well. It's just so hot here that most people drink at least some water during the night. I ALWAYS have a cup of water by my bed. I think I did in the states though too, just in case I woke up thirsty. April is the hottest month of the year and many times when I get ready to go to bed around 11:30pm, it's still 88-89 degrees in my bedroom. This has been the last few weeks but it has started raining this week and is definitely cooler tonight. The 88-89 is rare during most of the year but common for April. The other night I went to make sure Julian's music in his room was ok before I went to bed and all of the sudden he just sat up. I froze....and waited. He reached for his sippy and just started downing it. Then he closed the little flip top it has, put it back in the corner and laid down. Since we put that water in there, he rarely wakes in the middle of the night to nurse. I think before he didn't need to nurse so much as he was just so thirsty.....poor kid.....and poor me....if only I had thought of the sippy earlier, I wouldn't have been so sleep deprived.

Matthew has a few, cute things going on these days. The other day he asked me if a spider bit him, would he turn into Spiderman. I explained that that was a very rare spider and we don't have that kind here, so he doesn't have to worry (or get excited, whichever the case might be). His new thing is when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do, like clean up the OJ he spilt on the floor, he says in a very winey voice, "but I'm SO tired of cleaning up juice", like he does it ALL the time. We went to a mass dedicated to my father in law's passing for the one month anniversary last night and he said, "but I'm so tired of going to church", like he does it all the time. In the last month, we've been to church 3 times for his grandfather but other than that, we almost never go. I don't see how he can be so tired of it. He uses this for other things too like taking a bath every night, hahahahaha.

As I said, we don't go to church much but when we went last night for the service for his grandfather, his cousin Emma was there as well. You would think that my children go a lot the way they behaved so well. I was so proud of them.....and then Emma popped over to our pew and I realized why it's good to only have two children instead of three. Three was WAY different. So, after a few minutes, Matthew went to the pew behind us where his aunt Marjorie was and she gave him a little container of broken up crackers that had obviously been smashed up in her purse at some point. Then, Emma and Matthew decided to go two pews ahead of us where there was no one sitting. These are wooden pews with enough space for about 5 adults. Matthew started walking in front of the empty one and tripped......spilling ALL the little pieces of broken crackers ALL over the pew and the floor. I was sitting two pews back and with Julian and couldn't do anything and Dani wasn't there. I just waited to see what he was going to do and he started sweeping all the crumbs and bigger pieces up with his hand and putting them back in the container. There wasn't much on the floor, I don't think but he took 5-10 minutes picking up every crumb off that pew and then brought me the container to throw away later. I was so proud of him and the way he handled that. He did such a good job and knew what he had to do. Also, at the beginning of the service, they make announcements including announcing the people who had passed that that mass was dedicated to. Matthew was playing with something in his hand and the priest announced in Spanish, Daniel Vargas Castro. Matthew looked up at me and said in English, "Mama, he said Tito". I had no idea he was even listening OR that he new Tito's real name. I was truly impressed. I was also reminded  that he hears EVERYTHING....and he understands more than you think.