We LOVE our house. I couldn't begin to tell the all the reasons we are so happy we're where we are. Simple things like our house has a great layout. It's spacious and beautiful. It is light inside and it's plain (in a good way). The backyard is gorgeous and huge. We have a pool! And it's pretty big! But the things that matter even more is it's in a BEAUTIFUL neighborhood. We go to areas where most embassy folk live and it's really nice, but it's in a high rise in the city. I just LOVE that we're in a neighborhood. I love that it's full of trees and other houses and there's no traffic. It's just living on a street like where I would normally live (just not so expensive) and I can walk the sidewalk or road with my kids and it's peaceful. No stray dogs, no burning trash. People smile and wave as you walk by. You can walk to the park 20-30 minutes away. It's great! Truly, it's been my fantasy the last two years and we're finally here. Here's the other reason it's so amazing here. So we live in this beautiful peaceful neighborhood, but as soon as you walk around the corner, you're outside the gate and in the city. A grocery store and HUGE MALL that has EVERYTHING you can think of (clothes, hardware store, movies, books, crafts, spas, restaurants) is literally a 5 minute walk away. We can get along NO PROBLEM without a car. We can avoid so much traffic and wasted time by just sticking to our neighborhood and walking. WE LOVE IT!!!! So all of these reasons, make me so happy that we live in our exact house, in our exact neighborhood. I feel so blessed to be here. Like Heavenly Father hand picked everything, just for me- and I'm so grateful! Also, there are CRAZY flooding problems here, but our house and village don't have those issues so I'm really grateful! (like rainfall so heavy and intense that it fills the sewers and everything floats back up and out and everything smells like poo). I'm really grateful we don't have to suffer that problem!
Church, so far, is AWESOME. SOOoooooo many people have reached out to us. Playdates and other invitations. We've met so many people and really like them! It's all so exciting! The Primary is awesome. The teachers are awesome. Everything is just so great. It's so great to be around other people with the same beliefs and priorities. To be in an environment where you just FIT IN. I like it. It is so soothing. I'm so happy to be here. Going to playdates with other mom's here is just what I remember and worried didn't exist anymore. Just going to a house with my kids, they run off and the mom's chat. Everyone wants to hang with their kids and be near them. I seriously wondered if I would ever find this ever again, because it did not exist in Kyrgyzstan. Greg just got called to teach a Primary class and I got called to be the Primary Secretary. I'm pretty excited! I love Primary! It will be different to be apart of the presidency though, definitely a different experience.
One thing that's nice, is even though our home is new, the furniture is almost all the same! Makes it feel like home right away. The kids love dumping all the cushions off the couches to play on. I finally made a rule that the orange couch had to stay put. Otherwise, there was never anywhere to sit.
Those little yellow stickers are to help keep mosquitos away. They smell like citronella. We put them on them at night when they sleep. Yes, Scarlet gets devoured by mosquitoes to the point that I sprayed her entire body THICKLY with bug repellant. I sprayed all over her bed, we put a sticker on her AND her bed frame. And what happened? A mosquito bit her right outside her EYE!!! The one spot on her little body that didn't have repellent. What the heck!!!!???!!! This poor little girl has suffered SO MANY bug bites and I feel SO BADLY for her. It upsets her so much and they itch. We keep looking for better options, hopefully we'll find something that works for her.
Beyond just suffering an itchy bite- mosquitos here can carry DENGE FEVER and it's pretty serious. An embassy kid was just hospitalized for it and he is 8! Obviously we don't want ANY of our kids getting it, but can you imagine if it was Brighton or Marius! You can't explain to a baby why they feel like they're dying and you can't convince a 3 year old to settle down and bear the pain. Honestly, through it all, just like the pollution- every time it comes up, I get a peaceful feeling that we will be protected. So I don't worry. I spray TONS of spray on them through out the day and hope for the best.
The kids have been great. Playing a lot together. I've been working really hard at cutting WAY down on our tv time, and keep coming back to that we just need to eliminate it. Scarlet becomes a NIGHTMARE once the tv is involved. She just can't balance it in her life. It's all or nothing and so once I give in for just one little episode, it's nonstop fighting between us and it's so not fun. I keep coming back to that we should have no tv for the kids, except movie night on the weekends. I think they can handle that just fine without becoming re-addicted. It's so hard for me to make them stop after just one episode too. It's so easy to say, "Just one more" when I'm in the middle of something.
I love my family!
This is Scarlet being an INVESTIGATOR. She told me she needed a notebook to write in for her investigating. She even had a funny little voice she used. She never broke character and played a REALLY LONG TIME! It was ADORABLE.
Scarlet is so imaginative. She's always pretending and I'm always surprised at what she comes up with. She is so observant and continues to listen and try to understand things. She is getting pretty sassy. She tells me no and threatens me. She even threatened me with not celebrating her birthday. When I said, "Oh sad. I was really excited for your party." Then I saw her stir with this face expression of, "Oh, that didn't work." And then she told me we could still have it. But she's just always threatening me with what she will or won't do when I won't give into tv. She goes to Primary now. She was VERY SHY at first and I sat with her through all of Primary and her class the first sunday. The second Sunday I sat with her through the beginning and then asked if I could leave. She didn't want me to leave her, but she let me. But by the end of church, she's always happy and showing me the candy she got in class. She has great teachers. They are really sweet and were really prepared.
Brighton finally goes to Nursery! Hooray! We went with him for the first 4 weeks and last week he went by himself! Yay! I think it helped that one of our new friends, Tom, was there and took a special initiative to play, hold him and make him feel secure there. Thank goodness! He had a great time and always whines Sunday morning that he wants to go to church HOURS before it starts because he wants to go to Nursery. We keep telling him that no one would be there if we left right then, but it's hard for a 3 year old to understand!
It's very important for Brighton to say goodbye. Whether it's me or Greg, or a random person that stopped by our house- he has a total MELTDOWN if he didn't get to say goodbye and they left. People will leave and the goodbyes last minutes and as soon as I shut the door, Brighton freaks and I have to open the door and yell to stop our friends and tell them that Brighton needs to say goodbye. So everyone stops and looks at Brighton and he says bye. I will like when this phase passes. For a long while, I had to always call Greg at work for the kids to say bye, because he would always leave before they woke up.
Brighton's newest food group is MANGOES. He eats so many. In Kyrgyzstan it was watermelon, and now it's mangoes. It's hard to get him to eat anything else. Just when I think we're making progress with food, it all regresses. Bah! It doesn't help that Scarlet has been only eating PB and honey sandwiches. She basically refuses everything else.
Brighton loves to run around and practice parkour with Greg. He's actually really good at it. Greg is always commenting on his perfect form and how impressive he is. Brighton loves it. One day at a park they ran all around, climbing and jumping off things. They had a great time and came back very tired and sweaty.
Funny quirk- Brighton really likes hard boiled eggs, but won't eat the yolk. He gives it to Marius. He also twirls his hair often (especially when stressed) and he chews on his big toe when he's upset.
When Brighton puts on his Batman costume he literally BECOMES BATMAN. He jumps crazy far and takes way more risks, and everything is faster and stronger and bigger. It's pretty adorable. And I gotta say, watching little batman run away as fast as he can is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. We love to watch him.
He loves to swim now. He requests it often and swims great with his life jacket on. It's the best! He doesn't use his arms and just kicks his legs crazy crazy fast! Brighton smiles the biggest and brightest in the swimming pool. I love it. He always looks so happy.
The last year Brighton has been very dependent on me, needing to be with me always, nearly obsessed with me. It has been a very draining year. Well, one night it occurs to me that instead of praying for ME to help him change and not have so many tantrums, I decide to pray that HE'LL change, and need me less and feel more comfortable and secure when I'm not around. And what do you know? It was like someone waved a magic wand the next day and everything's been completely different since. Even though it made life SO MUCH MORE relaxed and happy for everyone- it was so weird for me. I suddenly wasn't with Brighton all day. Suddenly he wasn't crying for me to hold him and it was like, "What's going on? Don't you love me anymore? Do you even like me?" But now I'm used to it and it's a much healthier relationship- for both of us. Also it was another strengthening of my testimony for prayer! Holy cow! What a miracle worked overnight, given after a simple prayer. Heavenly Father is very giving!
Marius is 15 months. He is really good at eating with a spoon and a plate. For awhile he wouldn't eat unless I gave him a utensil, but lately, he wants to sit on our lap and have us feed him. I wouldn't mind if we didn't get so messy doing it. He's constantly bringing us our shoes. Even if we don't want them. But his face is so sweet and "look at me, I'm so helpful!" so I always smile and say, "Thank you Marius!" and he walks away all accomplished and happy. He climbs on everything and is really good at it. He's constantly on our dining table. He even climbed on top of my piano keyboard- awesome. I used to give him time outs, but it doesn't seem to improve his behavior. It's so much trouble to keep up with him too, because it's a constant thing. I've sort of just been letting him hang out on the tables the last few days. He is so good at saying prayers! He'll start to pick up his spoon, excited to eat, and I tell him it's prayer time and he stops- PUTS DOWN HIS SPOON- puts his chubby hands together and smiles and me. Then we pray, say amen and I say, "Good job Marius!" and he smiles so big, takes his hands apart and eats! It's amazing! I'm quite blown away at it. I love that he waits the whole prayer. It's so crazy for someone as small as him. And a couple times he tried to say Amen. So cute. When we are saying our bedtime prayer on the ground, he walks to us, turns around, then backs up to sit on us. It's so cute to watch. He's basically the cutes thing ever.
Because of traveling and jetlag and everything just being a little crazy for a month, he's become REALLY binky dependent. It used to just be a sleep thing, now it's an all day thing. Bleh. I'm trying to ween him to just sleep time.
He's working himself to a long nap around noon, which the few times he's done it- has been AWESOME. I am totally a supporter of it now. It will really support the social life I'm planning to have :) and I'm ready for some consistency. It has just been crazy since we got here. Different everyday.
Marius throws TANTRUMS now. They are crazy. The nice thing is, now that he's #3, it's not such an ordeal now to Greg and I. It's definitely BOTHERSOME and we wish he was tantrumless, but before it was like, "WHY ARE THEY CRYING!!!!!" and so EMOTIONAL and I would yell back. Now it's like, "Fine, whatever. Cry. I'm not gonna do much about it." I mean, it depends on the day, but I am SO MUCH better at handling it this time around!
At nap and bed time, I bring him to everyone in the house so he can say goodbye and he waves. He smiles while he does it and it is SO CUTE. I like it. I feel like it's his little cue for bed time.
Scarlet could spend all day in the pool. She never wants to get out. She wears her goggles, puts her head in the water and holds her breath while floating facedown, as long as she possibly can. IT'S THE WORST!!!! I never know if she drowning! It really keeps me anxious watching her. I'm glad she's testing herself and working on goals, and holding breath underwater is a great skill, but seriously, there's no way to know if she's holding her breath or just drowning before my eyes. As I said before, it's the worst.
Scarlet can't wait to get married, but ESPECIALLY to have babies and be a mom. She talks about it all the time and pretends to go on dates with Brighton and whenever they play she's always the MOM. She's constantly asking about holidays. How many more days till Easter? I want this for my next birthday (in 11 months). It is never ending. I long for the day when she really grasps the timeframe of months and years.
Scarlet broke her wrist playing with Greg! She jumped on him and it broke! She was in so much pain when it happened, but it didn't bruise or swell so Greg and I weren't sure what to do, so he made a sling and cast from our first aid kid and it helped SO MUCH. She would not have been able to sleep otherwise. I'm so glad he knew how to do that! I learned how in a first aid kit, but I don't think I would've remembered and now it's sealed in my head. She had to get multiple xrays, because the break wasn't super obvious. She's been in a cast nearly 3 weeks and hopefully she'll take it off this weekend! That will be great. Greg, the genius that he is, got something to make a cast for the pool, to not soak the one the doctor gave us (also a temporary cast). So that has been great. The whole experience goes to show what an INSANELY high pain tolerance Scarlet has. She only complained of it the few hours after it broke!
Thunder and rainstorms here are INSANE!!!! When it rains, you can just hear it and there is so much, I get the eerie feeling that I am underwater. It's weird. Thunder here is so LOUD it literally SCARES you and makes you jump. The worst time, I was alone with the kids and the LOUDEST clap of thunder happened and all the lights went out. It was just like in a movie- it was so crazy. And I just thought, "Oh my gosh. They kids are going to freak." And of course they did. But yeah, there's a rain and thunderstorm almost every night. But it is rainy season, so we'll see what happens in a few months.
I love that it's always warm enough and sunny enough to go outside (assuming it's not raining). But honestly, we've gone out in the rain a bit too. We bought a pedicab- I'll show it later. It's been super fun to ride with the kids, but we need a way to strap Marius in because he's always trying to get out and I worry for his safety! So we've only gone outside our driveway a few times, and not very long. But I'm excited to ride to the park. It's funny, because it's a very 3rd world thing, so the bike is actually very tiny, so you have to kind of crunch down to ride it. Not the best, but it's a fun idea. I'm glad we got it. All our friends that see it freak out and want one, and all the locals just stare at us with hysterical wonder and we ride by. I always wonder what they're thinking.
It was funny, when we decided we wanted one- we discovered we couldn't test ride it because they're only made to order. I didn't wanna blow $300 on something we may never end up riding because it stinks. So we thought we'd pull over a REAL pedicab and ask to ride it ourselves. Well, the only place pedicabs are . . . are the not so nice areas of Manila. So the embassy driver pulls over when we see one and right when I get out- I can feel that everything is different. Everyone is dirtier. Everyone is staring at us. I feel very white and very rich. I feel everyone's eyes on the whole street. Then I get in this dirty pedicab and Greg rides me around. It was fun and really crazy. The brake is in a really strange spot and he couldn't find it at first and we're heading towards a stopped car and Greg can't figure out how to brake. And he's like, "Megan! There's no brake!" and we don't know what to do as we're flying closer and closer to the parked vehicle. Then he figures it out. We paid the guy $2 not thinking much of it, but our driver said we made his day. I think a ride is normally 50 cents and he didn't even work for it. He let us ride it for 5 minutes and made $2.
It's definitely different here. We live in a really nice area- called Makati- in a REALLY NICE village that is gated. But when you walk in certain areas there are barefoot little kids chasing after you yelling, "Mam! Mam!" and hold up this little string of flowers for 50 cents. We usually buy them. Greg will always give them our food on hand, like bananas and bags of popcorn in the stroller that we didn't eat at church. They get really excited for the food. One in awhile, a woman (maybe their mother) comes with them, but she has this weird face (maybe she's on drugs?) and just stares at us like we're money and I really hate it. I don't like when she's there. Also, the kids listen to us (they know us by now). If we say no, they smile and say ok. But the woman follows us the entire way to the gate. I'm so glad there are guards at the gate or they would know where we live and follow us there! I'm getting more persistent and when she's there I just yell NO and it seems like the last time she didn't follow us as long. But the girls are really happy and smile. But there's one kid I see, he's so small- he's like Brighton's size and he always looks DIRTY. Like on his face is DIRT! The first time I saw him I was so shocked I literally tripped and sprained my ankle and scraped it all up on the road. I was so emotionally shocked and just wanted to cry all day the first time I saw him. So when we finally bought flowers from him, Greg noticed he had warts all over his hands. So then I was all freaked out about the flowers we were touching and the kids and now I don't want to buy from him, ya know? But I feel bad. He looks way poorer than the other girls. The whole thing is weird. Is it a scam? Do they go hungry? Where do they sleep? What is there situation? We'll never know. At first it was kind of nice, you buy from them and you feel like you're helping and you'll become friends. But after a few times, you realize you're just a bag of money walking by and it makes me less excited to buy. But the truth is, they are super poor and for goodness sake- their parents are making their 6 year olds work a seriously high traffic BIG intersection all by themselves all day long in the hot sun- so we just try to keep our spare change on hand, and hand it off as we walk to church or the mall.
We walk 30 minutes to church each sunday. It's strange because we walk past malls and businesses and people are everywhere and we get these wonderful gusts of air conditioning as we walk past the doors. And you can smell the food in the restaurants. We are very sweaty by the time we arrive at church. Fast sunday was pretty intense. I didn't make it 'till the end of church. I caved when Nursery snacks got passed out. But I'm pretty sure I drank some water before that. We'll see if we start driving when our car arrives. I'm realizing more and more that we're going to have that "abroad" church experience that I've often heard about. One example that's quite unsettling, is it's in a high traffic area and people will just straight up walk in from off the streets and steal IPADS, IPHONES and whatever might be left behind. Because of this, we literally can't leave kids alone- EVER. We have to walk every child to the bathroom and even check the bathroom before we send them in. It's really crazy!
The kids and I have started getting to know other moms and their children and it feels so good. It's everything I was missing the last two years and my spirit has just been soaking up the goodness! It feels so good to have friends, have real conversations and just fit in! I'm going to tell you- going 2 years without a real friend in Kyrgyzstan made me start to wonder if something was seriously wrong with me and nobody liked me- like I was a weirdo. I had to keep convincing myself again and again, that it wasn't me and it was just the situation. But here I am and making friends is easy peasy again and I feel like I fit right in with these women! I feel closer to them and more connected after our very first conversation in a hallway at church than I ever felt with anyone I met in Kyrgyzstan after a two years of playdates with the same people. And this happens again and again. I'm so happy to be here! Seriously, living in Kyrgyzstan gave me a serious complex about myself!
Of course, it's very humid here. I've realized the incredible importance of keep myself in shade. Even if the shade is from a lamp post and it's literally the size of your body- if you're standing in that, trying to hail a taxi, versus standing in the straight sun- you will keep your sanity so much longer. The other crazy thing about the humidity- is you won't even be hot, but you will just SWEAT SWEAT SWEAT. It's a little nuts.
The longer we're here, the more obvious it is to me, why it was just so hard for me in Kyrgyzstan. It is so much better here. Before 24 hours had passed, I said to Greg, "I know we just got here. But I already want to extend a year (as in our tour here)." And it's stayed that way ever since. Living here is just so easy. We are completely adjusted. The only thing that's been difficult and hopefully soon it will pass, is driving outside our neighborhood. We're lucky we can walk so many places for basically everything. But if we want to meet someone that lives- say an hour away? Or drive to the embassy, or somewhere we've never been . . . oh man it's a HASSLE. Trying to catch a cab in the hot hot sun while your kids are exhausted from walking in the hot sun to catch one- oh man, it's enough to do me in for the whole day. And then trying to make sure your cab driver is actually taking you where you told him. To make sure he even understands you? Oh man, you always just sort of say, "yes" and hope for the best, thinking, "worst case scenario, they can always just take me back home if we can't figure it out". I keep getting more and more set on just getting a driver when our car gets here (because they drive our car- not their own). I'm kind of freaked to drive by myself with the kids, incase I break down in a not so good area, or just get lost or just the anxiety of being in a traffic jam for an hour + and having kids cry the whole time. So not fun. But if it's a driver I know and trust and can communicate with, and if the kids are crying, I can pass them toys or something- or simply being a clean car WITH our carseats and music we like or watching an IPAD because the commute to a playdate is an hour there and an hour back. You know, doesn't that sound better than what I described previous?
We're definitely living in our little beautiful bubble over here. But it's so enjoyable. When we drive to the embassy we drive through these parts of town that are just DIRTY. Little kids, no shirt, no shoes, playing all by themselves right off a busy street. There are so many people EVERYWHERE and it's a little overwhelming if you really think about it, but you just lock your doors and think, "Well, there's a man driving the car if something goes bad." But the places we actually walk around in and live in, are so beautiful and perfect, it's like you're in the states. It's really crazy.
It's weird being rich in a poor country. Spending the same amount on a pizza that you pay someone to clean your house all day. A pedicure is about $5. An hour massage is around $10. You can choose to live cheaply or expensively- depending on where you go and what you buy- so we do both, depending on our mood. We usually spend more if we're tired and just order Papa John's 'cause we don't have to think about it. But if we have time and energy to find something local and good, we can get really decent food for like $2! It's pretty crazy! I don't know how they do it.
I have more to say, but this post has been long enough. Things are going famously. Of course we have our bad days, but it becomes clearer and clearer that it is going to be happy living here. Now that we're more settled I find myself wanting to fly to some remote island for some exotic adventure!
Brighton finally goes to Nursery! Hooray! We went with him for the first 4 weeks and last week he went by himself! Yay! I think it helped that one of our new friends, Tom, was there and took a special initiative to play, hold him and make him feel secure there. Thank goodness! He had a great time and always whines Sunday morning that he wants to go to church HOURS before it starts because he wants to go to Nursery. We keep telling him that no one would be there if we left right then, but it's hard for a 3 year old to understand!
It's very important for Brighton to say goodbye. Whether it's me or Greg, or a random person that stopped by our house- he has a total MELTDOWN if he didn't get to say goodbye and they left. People will leave and the goodbyes last minutes and as soon as I shut the door, Brighton freaks and I have to open the door and yell to stop our friends and tell them that Brighton needs to say goodbye. So everyone stops and looks at Brighton and he says bye. I will like when this phase passes. For a long while, I had to always call Greg at work for the kids to say bye, because he would always leave before they woke up.
Brighton's newest food group is MANGOES. He eats so many. In Kyrgyzstan it was watermelon, and now it's mangoes. It's hard to get him to eat anything else. Just when I think we're making progress with food, it all regresses. Bah! It doesn't help that Scarlet has been only eating PB and honey sandwiches. She basically refuses everything else.
Brighton loves to run around and practice parkour with Greg. He's actually really good at it. Greg is always commenting on his perfect form and how impressive he is. Brighton loves it. One day at a park they ran all around, climbing and jumping off things. They had a great time and came back very tired and sweaty.
Funny quirk- Brighton really likes hard boiled eggs, but won't eat the yolk. He gives it to Marius. He also twirls his hair often (especially when stressed) and he chews on his big toe when he's upset.
When Brighton puts on his Batman costume he literally BECOMES BATMAN. He jumps crazy far and takes way more risks, and everything is faster and stronger and bigger. It's pretty adorable. And I gotta say, watching little batman run away as fast as he can is the most adorable thing I've ever seen. We love to watch him.
He loves to swim now. He requests it often and swims great with his life jacket on. It's the best! He doesn't use his arms and just kicks his legs crazy crazy fast! Brighton smiles the biggest and brightest in the swimming pool. I love it. He always looks so happy.
The last year Brighton has been very dependent on me, needing to be with me always, nearly obsessed with me. It has been a very draining year. Well, one night it occurs to me that instead of praying for ME to help him change and not have so many tantrums, I decide to pray that HE'LL change, and need me less and feel more comfortable and secure when I'm not around. And what do you know? It was like someone waved a magic wand the next day and everything's been completely different since. Even though it made life SO MUCH MORE relaxed and happy for everyone- it was so weird for me. I suddenly wasn't with Brighton all day. Suddenly he wasn't crying for me to hold him and it was like, "What's going on? Don't you love me anymore? Do you even like me?" But now I'm used to it and it's a much healthier relationship- for both of us. Also it was another strengthening of my testimony for prayer! Holy cow! What a miracle worked overnight, given after a simple prayer. Heavenly Father is very giving!
Marius is 15 months. He is really good at eating with a spoon and a plate. For awhile he wouldn't eat unless I gave him a utensil, but lately, he wants to sit on our lap and have us feed him. I wouldn't mind if we didn't get so messy doing it. He's constantly bringing us our shoes. Even if we don't want them. But his face is so sweet and "look at me, I'm so helpful!" so I always smile and say, "Thank you Marius!" and he walks away all accomplished and happy. He climbs on everything and is really good at it. He's constantly on our dining table. He even climbed on top of my piano keyboard- awesome. I used to give him time outs, but it doesn't seem to improve his behavior. It's so much trouble to keep up with him too, because it's a constant thing. I've sort of just been letting him hang out on the tables the last few days. He is so good at saying prayers! He'll start to pick up his spoon, excited to eat, and I tell him it's prayer time and he stops- PUTS DOWN HIS SPOON- puts his chubby hands together and smiles and me. Then we pray, say amen and I say, "Good job Marius!" and he smiles so big, takes his hands apart and eats! It's amazing! I'm quite blown away at it. I love that he waits the whole prayer. It's so crazy for someone as small as him. And a couple times he tried to say Amen. So cute. When we are saying our bedtime prayer on the ground, he walks to us, turns around, then backs up to sit on us. It's so cute to watch. He's basically the cutes thing ever.
Because of traveling and jetlag and everything just being a little crazy for a month, he's become REALLY binky dependent. It used to just be a sleep thing, now it's an all day thing. Bleh. I'm trying to ween him to just sleep time.
He's working himself to a long nap around noon, which the few times he's done it- has been AWESOME. I am totally a supporter of it now. It will really support the social life I'm planning to have :) and I'm ready for some consistency. It has just been crazy since we got here. Different everyday.
Marius throws TANTRUMS now. They are crazy. The nice thing is, now that he's #3, it's not such an ordeal now to Greg and I. It's definitely BOTHERSOME and we wish he was tantrumless, but before it was like, "WHY ARE THEY CRYING!!!!!" and so EMOTIONAL and I would yell back. Now it's like, "Fine, whatever. Cry. I'm not gonna do much about it." I mean, it depends on the day, but I am SO MUCH better at handling it this time around!
At nap and bed time, I bring him to everyone in the house so he can say goodbye and he waves. He smiles while he does it and it is SO CUTE. I like it. I feel like it's his little cue for bed time.
Scarlet could spend all day in the pool. She never wants to get out. She wears her goggles, puts her head in the water and holds her breath while floating facedown, as long as she possibly can. IT'S THE WORST!!!! I never know if she drowning! It really keeps me anxious watching her. I'm glad she's testing herself and working on goals, and holding breath underwater is a great skill, but seriously, there's no way to know if she's holding her breath or just drowning before my eyes. As I said before, it's the worst.
Scarlet can't wait to get married, but ESPECIALLY to have babies and be a mom. She talks about it all the time and pretends to go on dates with Brighton and whenever they play she's always the MOM. She's constantly asking about holidays. How many more days till Easter? I want this for my next birthday (in 11 months). It is never ending. I long for the day when she really grasps the timeframe of months and years.
Scarlet broke her wrist playing with Greg! She jumped on him and it broke! She was in so much pain when it happened, but it didn't bruise or swell so Greg and I weren't sure what to do, so he made a sling and cast from our first aid kid and it helped SO MUCH. She would not have been able to sleep otherwise. I'm so glad he knew how to do that! I learned how in a first aid kit, but I don't think I would've remembered and now it's sealed in my head. She had to get multiple xrays, because the break wasn't super obvious. She's been in a cast nearly 3 weeks and hopefully she'll take it off this weekend! That will be great. Greg, the genius that he is, got something to make a cast for the pool, to not soak the one the doctor gave us (also a temporary cast). So that has been great. The whole experience goes to show what an INSANELY high pain tolerance Scarlet has. She only complained of it the few hours after it broke!
Thunder and rainstorms here are INSANE!!!! When it rains, you can just hear it and there is so much, I get the eerie feeling that I am underwater. It's weird. Thunder here is so LOUD it literally SCARES you and makes you jump. The worst time, I was alone with the kids and the LOUDEST clap of thunder happened and all the lights went out. It was just like in a movie- it was so crazy. And I just thought, "Oh my gosh. They kids are going to freak." And of course they did. But yeah, there's a rain and thunderstorm almost every night. But it is rainy season, so we'll see what happens in a few months.
I love that it's always warm enough and sunny enough to go outside (assuming it's not raining). But honestly, we've gone out in the rain a bit too. We bought a pedicab- I'll show it later. It's been super fun to ride with the kids, but we need a way to strap Marius in because he's always trying to get out and I worry for his safety! So we've only gone outside our driveway a few times, and not very long. But I'm excited to ride to the park. It's funny, because it's a very 3rd world thing, so the bike is actually very tiny, so you have to kind of crunch down to ride it. Not the best, but it's a fun idea. I'm glad we got it. All our friends that see it freak out and want one, and all the locals just stare at us with hysterical wonder and we ride by. I always wonder what they're thinking.
It was funny, when we decided we wanted one- we discovered we couldn't test ride it because they're only made to order. I didn't wanna blow $300 on something we may never end up riding because it stinks. So we thought we'd pull over a REAL pedicab and ask to ride it ourselves. Well, the only place pedicabs are . . . are the not so nice areas of Manila. So the embassy driver pulls over when we see one and right when I get out- I can feel that everything is different. Everyone is dirtier. Everyone is staring at us. I feel very white and very rich. I feel everyone's eyes on the whole street. Then I get in this dirty pedicab and Greg rides me around. It was fun and really crazy. The brake is in a really strange spot and he couldn't find it at first and we're heading towards a stopped car and Greg can't figure out how to brake. And he's like, "Megan! There's no brake!" and we don't know what to do as we're flying closer and closer to the parked vehicle. Then he figures it out. We paid the guy $2 not thinking much of it, but our driver said we made his day. I think a ride is normally 50 cents and he didn't even work for it. He let us ride it for 5 minutes and made $2.
It's definitely different here. We live in a really nice area- called Makati- in a REALLY NICE village that is gated. But when you walk in certain areas there are barefoot little kids chasing after you yelling, "Mam! Mam!" and hold up this little string of flowers for 50 cents. We usually buy them. Greg will always give them our food on hand, like bananas and bags of popcorn in the stroller that we didn't eat at church. They get really excited for the food. One in awhile, a woman (maybe their mother) comes with them, but she has this weird face (maybe she's on drugs?) and just stares at us like we're money and I really hate it. I don't like when she's there. Also, the kids listen to us (they know us by now). If we say no, they smile and say ok. But the woman follows us the entire way to the gate. I'm so glad there are guards at the gate or they would know where we live and follow us there! I'm getting more persistent and when she's there I just yell NO and it seems like the last time she didn't follow us as long. But the girls are really happy and smile. But there's one kid I see, he's so small- he's like Brighton's size and he always looks DIRTY. Like on his face is DIRT! The first time I saw him I was so shocked I literally tripped and sprained my ankle and scraped it all up on the road. I was so emotionally shocked and just wanted to cry all day the first time I saw him. So when we finally bought flowers from him, Greg noticed he had warts all over his hands. So then I was all freaked out about the flowers we were touching and the kids and now I don't want to buy from him, ya know? But I feel bad. He looks way poorer than the other girls. The whole thing is weird. Is it a scam? Do they go hungry? Where do they sleep? What is there situation? We'll never know. At first it was kind of nice, you buy from them and you feel like you're helping and you'll become friends. But after a few times, you realize you're just a bag of money walking by and it makes me less excited to buy. But the truth is, they are super poor and for goodness sake- their parents are making their 6 year olds work a seriously high traffic BIG intersection all by themselves all day long in the hot sun- so we just try to keep our spare change on hand, and hand it off as we walk to church or the mall.
We walk 30 minutes to church each sunday. It's strange because we walk past malls and businesses and people are everywhere and we get these wonderful gusts of air conditioning as we walk past the doors. And you can smell the food in the restaurants. We are very sweaty by the time we arrive at church. Fast sunday was pretty intense. I didn't make it 'till the end of church. I caved when Nursery snacks got passed out. But I'm pretty sure I drank some water before that. We'll see if we start driving when our car arrives. I'm realizing more and more that we're going to have that "abroad" church experience that I've often heard about. One example that's quite unsettling, is it's in a high traffic area and people will just straight up walk in from off the streets and steal IPADS, IPHONES and whatever might be left behind. Because of this, we literally can't leave kids alone- EVER. We have to walk every child to the bathroom and even check the bathroom before we send them in. It's really crazy!
The kids and I have started getting to know other moms and their children and it feels so good. It's everything I was missing the last two years and my spirit has just been soaking up the goodness! It feels so good to have friends, have real conversations and just fit in! I'm going to tell you- going 2 years without a real friend in Kyrgyzstan made me start to wonder if something was seriously wrong with me and nobody liked me- like I was a weirdo. I had to keep convincing myself again and again, that it wasn't me and it was just the situation. But here I am and making friends is easy peasy again and I feel like I fit right in with these women! I feel closer to them and more connected after our very first conversation in a hallway at church than I ever felt with anyone I met in Kyrgyzstan after a two years of playdates with the same people. And this happens again and again. I'm so happy to be here! Seriously, living in Kyrgyzstan gave me a serious complex about myself!
Of course, it's very humid here. I've realized the incredible importance of keep myself in shade. Even if the shade is from a lamp post and it's literally the size of your body- if you're standing in that, trying to hail a taxi, versus standing in the straight sun- you will keep your sanity so much longer. The other crazy thing about the humidity- is you won't even be hot, but you will just SWEAT SWEAT SWEAT. It's a little nuts.
The longer we're here, the more obvious it is to me, why it was just so hard for me in Kyrgyzstan. It is so much better here. Before 24 hours had passed, I said to Greg, "I know we just got here. But I already want to extend a year (as in our tour here)." And it's stayed that way ever since. Living here is just so easy. We are completely adjusted. The only thing that's been difficult and hopefully soon it will pass, is driving outside our neighborhood. We're lucky we can walk so many places for basically everything. But if we want to meet someone that lives- say an hour away? Or drive to the embassy, or somewhere we've never been . . . oh man it's a HASSLE. Trying to catch a cab in the hot hot sun while your kids are exhausted from walking in the hot sun to catch one- oh man, it's enough to do me in for the whole day. And then trying to make sure your cab driver is actually taking you where you told him. To make sure he even understands you? Oh man, you always just sort of say, "yes" and hope for the best, thinking, "worst case scenario, they can always just take me back home if we can't figure it out". I keep getting more and more set on just getting a driver when our car gets here (because they drive our car- not their own). I'm kind of freaked to drive by myself with the kids, incase I break down in a not so good area, or just get lost or just the anxiety of being in a traffic jam for an hour + and having kids cry the whole time. So not fun. But if it's a driver I know and trust and can communicate with, and if the kids are crying, I can pass them toys or something- or simply being a clean car WITH our carseats and music we like or watching an IPAD because the commute to a playdate is an hour there and an hour back. You know, doesn't that sound better than what I described previous?
We're definitely living in our little beautiful bubble over here. But it's so enjoyable. When we drive to the embassy we drive through these parts of town that are just DIRTY. Little kids, no shirt, no shoes, playing all by themselves right off a busy street. There are so many people EVERYWHERE and it's a little overwhelming if you really think about it, but you just lock your doors and think, "Well, there's a man driving the car if something goes bad." But the places we actually walk around in and live in, are so beautiful and perfect, it's like you're in the states. It's really crazy.
It's weird being rich in a poor country. Spending the same amount on a pizza that you pay someone to clean your house all day. A pedicure is about $5. An hour massage is around $10. You can choose to live cheaply or expensively- depending on where you go and what you buy- so we do both, depending on our mood. We usually spend more if we're tired and just order Papa John's 'cause we don't have to think about it. But if we have time and energy to find something local and good, we can get really decent food for like $2! It's pretty crazy! I don't know how they do it.
I have more to say, but this post has been long enough. Things are going famously. Of course we have our bad days, but it becomes clearer and clearer that it is going to be happy living here. Now that we're more settled I find myself wanting to fly to some remote island for some exotic adventure!
4 comments:
this was so wonderful to read!!! I loved every bit of it. about you, the kids playdates, the area. The poor kids....i can't imagine. I really can't. I'm so happy for you that the area is better. So happy you have a pool and can go outside so miuch. so relieved for you. kyrgustan sounded awful. sounded so much like shads mission in russia. the bug bites!!!! I feel for you! last summer when we were in hawaii, it was a month straight of the most mosquito repellant weve ever used! there are mosquitos in hawaii in nature obviously, but the house we rented was on a river and waterfall in the jungle. I would COAT the kids from head to toe every night before they slept and they'd still wake up with tons of bites. i tried the natrual stuff at first, then went to repellant without deet and then i went to the fullblown awful stuff just to prevent bites. If i missed ONE spot, they would get a bit there the next morning. can she sleep in a bug tent? i love you and miss you. thanks for writing all this. it's so nice to get to know your life more while you're so far away from us. love you and miss you.
oh man! there was so much i wanted to say but it was so long i can't remember! haha. the poor kids with the warts, I feel like i would be the same way, worrying i caught some disease. The drugged out wierdo mom- CREEPY. massage price, and pedicures? I'd be getting massages weekly!!!!!!! and i'd def get a pedicure! ha. It is so crazy that you can buy a pizza for the same price as labor there. so wierd. I'm so glad you live in a nice bubble where you can feel like all is well in teh world. Oh my gosht eh bug bits- AWFUL! We have quite a bad case of them here too. apparaently some new mosquito has been introduced and it's brutal. After a half hour of being outside in the pool I got 16 bits. And they are huge welts- it's awful. I CANNOT believe that story of the bit by her eye! crazy! poor little girl. all your kids are so cute and precious. the humidity- ugh. the storms I think are kind of fun. we have what's called monsoon season in AZ, and we get a month of awful humidty and storms and i love the storms! OH MY GOSH THE STORMS AND FLOODS BRING THE POO BACK UP?!!! I AM SO GLAD you don't have to deal with that. it makes me wonder and so sad for the kids that live on the streets. where do they go in those times? so sad. It just doesn't feel real that these things exist, that there are people who exist outside our bubble. I'm just so happy for you in general, everything is just so wonderful for you there. i love you!
oh yeah i just scrolled through it again to remember- your little car/bike thing sounds so funny- you have to blog or instagram it. i laughed out loud. and scarlets little investigator pic was so cute. And I feel like marious is either really smart or carden is really dumb. Hello- he prays?!!!! That is crazy! i feel like i did EVERYTHIGN with maddie, and she was so smart- and ihave done NOTHING with carden and i have stunted his development. like i never bother telling him what things are or teaching him anything. the poor kid just has to rely on maddie to teach him anything i feel like.
Jeff's brother served in the Philippines and got denge fever! He said it was the worst thing he has ever had. He felt like he was literally dying! On lefts mission, he would encounter little begging kids. He said it was so sad because they were usually working for someone else so the money they got was never used on them or it was used on glue to huff. I would probably give them food more than money because who knows where it's going. Hopefully the food they can eat. It must he a third child thing because Trenton is seriously the best. When you described Marius, you described a good portion of him right down to prayer. I love it. When you described church, it's not only an international thing. A friend that lived in Vegas told me once that they would have to do the same thing, walking kids to rooms/bathroom. Keeping tabs on everyone because random people would walk on from the street and you never knew their intentions. I never could wrap my mind around that because I've never experienced but it happens in the states too. You will love your calling!! I've had that one a couple of times and it was one of my very favorites!
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