My Baby Boy is Three!!!!

It really can't be true, but it is.Julian is three years old today. His request before bedtime tonight? He doesn't want to sleep in his diaper because he's been without diapers during the day since two years and four months old. He doesn't think he needs them to sleep in anymore because he's a "big boy". He's actually right. Most of the time since he went diaperless in the daytime, he wakes up with a dry diaper in the morning. It's me really, who doesn't want the chance of waking up in the morning to find wet sheets on his bed. Gotta go for it at some point though, so tonight's the night! I'm sure he'll have accidents though, it's to be expected.

Several times today I thought back at three years ago and what I was doing right at that moment the day he was born. He was already three days late and since Matthew was born two weeks early, I never in my wildest dreams thought we'd go LATE on the second one. The usual is that the first one is late and the ones after come earlier. That's what they say anyway.  When I was taking a shower to go work at the store this morning, I thought about three years ago around the same time, I was showering to go deliver at the hospital. Later at 1:35pm, I thought about how Julian was only 8 minutes old at that time three years ago. For some reason, Julian was reflecting back too because he wanted to see pictures of him when he was newborn and even when I was pregnant with him and he could see my big belly with him in there. Here are some pictures we looked at and he enjoyed them a lot.

 

A Happy Announcement!!!!

I'm so happy to announce that I'm officially a soccer mom starting about a week and a half ago!!!  (you thought it might be some OTHER kind of announcement, right?) We had our first game today but it was only the first for Matthew, not the rest. The others have been playing for a while I think. We lost but we don't care! I was sitting in my tailgate chair under the trees taking pictures and enjoying the nice morning. Here are the pictures that I got. Matthew's uniform isn't ready yet so that's why his says "Sebas" on the back and he's number nine. Such a great morning!!!

Really good action shot but his head got cut off because he jumped!

The cool thing is there are two girls on his team and they are

practically the best players.

Culture Day!

Yesterday was Culture Day in Costa Rica and at Matthew and Julian's school, they drew names to see which continent each class would represent and then individually, which country each student would represent. The children had to dress up in traditional dress from that country and take a traditional dish as well to share with the class. Well, Julian's class got Asia and Julian got Japan. Matthew's class got Africa and Matthew got Nigeria. Personally I love this kind of stuff so as soon as I found out, I started googling and trying to figure out what the traditional dress was like for boys in both those countries. I found lots of pictures and then chose the ones I liked and that were easiest to make and got started! I got a sewing machine for a "baby" present when Julian was born from my parents and both their spouses (thanks y'all!) and am always looking for a great way to use it. I had such fun creating these outfits and looking on youtube on how to sew them, that I can't even explain. I am a master at the sewing machine now and I can now thread the machine with my eyes closed in 2 seconds flat. It used to be so hard for me and frustrating but I got it down now! I don't know why it was hard before because it's really simple. At school, they dedicated the whole morning to learning and sharing about other countries during a big school wide assembly and later back to the classrooms to try the traditional foods.

Of course when Julian got Japan I immediately thought SUSHI! since I make it from time to time here at the house anyway. Obviously I wasn't going to put raw fish and no matter what I put, I really didn't expect them to really eat it. The teacher said it was more to represent the country and not necessarily that they were going to eat all that. So, I made sushi rolls with avocado, cucumber and a typical fresh white cheese from Costa Rica. I don't know if they ate any of it, but that's what I sent! Then, for Matthew, I researched typical Nigerian recipes and found this simple one called Shuku Shuku which are baked coconut balls that taste just like coconut cookies. They were great and I don't even like coconut cookies that much. So Matthew took those and they were a hit! I had so much fun doing all this and can't wait to use my sewing machine again. I am going to have to make some other things like simple skirts and stuff just to stay into it.

This was the dress rehearsal and the sleeves on Julian's are too long and the neck was too big.

I'm waiting on some pictures that some others took from school. This was still dress rehearsal.

Going to school that morning and the neck and sleeves are fixed on Julian's outfit.

See Matthew in the back on the right side?

You Smell Like.....

Today, Julian and I were cuddling on the sofa for a minute and he said, "You smell like.....(I was like, WHAT IS HE GOING TO SAY NEXT?) pancakes and bread and cookies." It made me laugh out loud. So I said, "You smell like Chinese Shrimp and Pizza." It was what sounded best to me at the time. Then he said, "You smell like flowers.....and junkfood." I guess that's what sounded best to him at the time. Then Matthew turned away from his video and chimed in....."You smell like......Poop!" Leave it to the older one to ruin something nice and sweet between mother and toddler. Then someone said "diarrhea" and it just went on and on and I stopped participating. Finally Matthew said to me, "Usted huele a PURO flowers!" meaning that I smell like pure flowers. It was so loud and pronouncing that it erased all that poop and diarrhea talk from before. Thank goodness!! Boys love to talk about all that raunchy stuff. Good thing I'm not easily disgusted......

Not a great picture but it's at a resort with my mom and it was the

 

independence

 day parade of lights.

Matthew wanted to be buried.

The ZOMBIE!

Tuckered out after a long day at the pool.

Mimi came to visit and we went to the beach!

My late father-in-law's old 1958 Landcruiser Jeep that is off to be restored!

My father-in-law would have cried out of happiness at this picture.

Paco y Lola

I am just in awe. Amazed really. Maybe it's not that big of a deal but I really feel that it is. Matthew can read! My almost 6 year old has read 34 pages of a book to me and they aren't just one line pages either, like minimum 4 and up 7 or 8 sentences per page!

I really started to realize since last week when we had a parent/teacher meeting and was told that 5 or so of the 13 kids needed a little extra help in reading and Matthew was one of them. The teacher said she would be at school an hour early a few times a week to give extra help. I wasn't thrilled to hear this and a little surprised because whenever he's had homework and had to read simple words, he could. Oh well, I thought, at least he's going to get the help and we will start working at home and get him caught up in no time. After the meeting, I asked the teacher if she could recommend a simple book that we could work on in the house especially since Spanish isn't my native language, I would like a guide of what kinds of simple sentences they're working on. She told me and I bought the book yesterday. When he got home from school he saw the book in the living room and I told him what it was. Immediately he opened it and started reading the sentences. Slowly but surely reading them. By bed time he had read 34 pages and with only a few hiccups which were words with syllables that he had not seen yet in school. After I told him how they were pronounced, he got the hang of it! I mean, 34 pages?!?!?!?! This book is famous in Costa Rica and it's required reading in first grade throughout the country. It is a 125 page book called Paco y Lola. Just a reminder, he's still in Kindergarten. The Ministery of Education does not teach reading before first grade but Matthew is in a great private school and they REALLY CAN read before first grade! I think I'm in even more shock because there are adults that can't even read and I just can't believe my little almost 6 year old is doing it pretty darn well!

 This is Matthew's first reading book!

"Negra, can you say red ball?"

Today at the soccer field we were playing with Negra (our dog), Dani, Matthew and Julian. All of a sudden Julian said to Negra, "Negra, can you say red ball?" Then he said, "No, Negra can't say red ball because she can't talk very well."  It was so cute. He said it in a disappointed voice, like, oh, poor thing, she can't talk. He talks to Negra like she's another kid and ask her if she knows what color things are, etc.

Getting into the bathtub tonight Julian was taking off all his clothes meaning his shoes, shorts and underwear except for his shirt. I said to Julian, "You are so big! Look at you taking off your clothes all by yourself!" And he said, "I am so big. And I am Superman." He says the cutest things.

Recently, he's started telling me a bedtime story. He says, "Once upon a time, there was a princess. The princess found a coin. Then she found many more coins" and then he says some other things that  I can't totally remember right now and part that I don't understand. Finally, he says, "and then she lost the coins. The END."

Matthew has been doing really well in Taekwondo recently. They do these things called "formas" which are a series of calm, controlled movements and in the first group, there are 18 steps. They are different positions of defense moves and punches. For a while, it was really hard for him to learn them. He seemed to just copy what others in the group were doing and he barely got by. I decided to learn them by watching a video online so we could practice in the house. We practiced and practiced and practiced. Obviously, being a 5 year old, he didn't want to practice so much. Well, the other day, they were doing formas and he was in a group of 3 kids. The teacher was going over it and was reprimanding anyone who wasn't doing it correctly and making them do it again and again. The teacher is pretty strict and serious and kind of scary actually at times, especially for that age. Matthew is so shy and for a teacher to basically yell at him is not easy. I was so proud of Matthew because he was the only one not getting reprimanded and made to do it over and over. He knew it PERFECTLY and was so confident. Not at all like he had been before when he was looking around at everyone else and unsure of his steps. Later, they each had to do the formas alone in front of the group and teacher. Matthew is the only one who did it perfectly and he got a stripe for his belt for doing so well. It made me so proud and he was so happy that he had gotten the reward of the stripe on his belt for all to see. We talked a lot about how important it is to practice to get better and look how well it worked for us to be practicing at home and that way the teacher had nothing bad to say about his performance. I think he realized how good he felt from his efforts and this will be a great learning experience for the future when we have to practice other things like reading, writing, math, etc. Practice makes perfect!

Bike Ride with Matthew

Today is the first day that I could go on a REAL bike ride with Matthew! By REAL I mean I got to ride my bike and Matthew got to ride his own. Before, Matthew still needed help getting started once stopped. That means every block when we stop at the stop sign, I would have to get off my bike, put it down, go to him to get him started again, run back  and get on my bike and then catch up to him only to do it again at the end of the next block......ugh! So, somehow Matthew just started riding his bike in the yard today and really mastered it so we decided to go for a ride. It was so fun. I've been waiting for this day that I could ride a bike with him for 5 1/2 years:) I haven't even been on my own bike in years so it was a great day! Now we just gotta work on Julian....maybe in about 3 more years?

This Babe is Officially Potty Trained!

Well, it's official. This almost 2 1/2 year old is potty trained.  It's really been official for a week or so but I'm just getting to write about it. We did it for almost a week in the house before sending him to pre-k with no diaper. They said to send him with three extra changes of clothes (for 4 hours) so we did. He said he was NOT going to tell his teacher when he needed to go but we had to try anyway. The first day, he wet every change of clothes we sent and when I picked him up, he was only in tennis shoes with no socks (no dry ones left), a diaper with no shorts and a shirt, hahahaha. I just started laughing when I saw that. His teacher decided to offer him a piece of chocolate if he told her when he needed to go to the bathroom. So the next day he went to the bathroom the first time and then the second time he didn't quite make it so they had to change his clothes anyway. The third day he came home in the exact same uniform that I had sent him in! Yay!!! I was so happy! And now today, the fourth day he came home in the same clothes that I sent him in and so I think we have a success!

Also, unlike most children, he has had no problems or fear of pooping in the toilet or even letting me know in the middle of the night that he needs to go to the bathroom. Most children will use a diaper at night for at least six more months even up to years after they potty train. But, it looks like we will be able to take the diaper away at night in the near future. Sometimes he wakes up with a dry diaper and goes straight to the bathroom when waking up. Other times, he has let us know in the middle of the night when he wakes up and feels like he needs to go and that is really very rare. All in all, we are very happy and pleased with the way it has gone! It could have been so much worse and really it was fairly quick and not that bad, yippee! Way to go Julian!!!!

Giant Bubble Fun!!!

We played with giant bubbles today!!! I found this recipe to make GIANT bubbles and we tried it and it worked pretty well!

 

Oh yes, and we played scary mud monsters later on as well!

Orange and Green Taekwondo Belt

Matthew graduated to his next TKD belt last Saturday. He was allowed to skip one belt because he was the winner in his group in the last tournament. I have a video of him breaking the board at the end as you'll see but unfortunately something happened and it started recording right as he was breaking the board :( The of it is still cute with his happy little face after breaking it so I'm going to post it anyway. Don't know if the video posting will work, it gave me a lot of trouble.

Matthew and his besties from school

Matthew and Kendall and two other photo bombers

Matthew in the bottom row in the middle

Excuse Me!

Julian burped this morning and usually he says, "excuse me." Since he didn't, I said, "excuse me" and I looked at him. He slightly turned his head and looked at me and said, "mamá, I think....you no burped."  He has this way of looking at you but by cutting his eyes to one side without really turning his whole head and he was so serious. It was so cute!

Seems that the rainy season started on Thursday, April 24th and has rained late in the day every day so far. These kids are crazy about this and want to jump in the muddy puddles in their rain boots every time! Matthew wants to lay down in it....ugh. So far I've managed to talk him out of it.

Julian doesn't have a raincoat yet.

I know it's blurry but this is his makeshift raincoat.

Ready for some puddle jumping!

Julian did some finger painting on his belly, arms
and face with mud.

Julian's First Horseback Riding Experience

We went to Juan Rolando's farm today with Rolando's daughter Montserrat, Emma, Juan, Matthew and Julian and Julian rode a horse for the first time. He did it with me and then by himself. He liked it but didn't want to keep doing it over and over. Matthew did it like a pro and learned how to really ride with the reins, stopping, starting, turning left and then right. I really have to take them to the farm more, they have the best time. After that, the kids had to do a little work in the dairy farm and afterwards got to drink fresh, fresh milk.