Sometimes being a parent is hard. I knew becoming a parent would mean, changing diapers, being up in the night (or all night sometimes!) dealing with tantrums, sticky fingers and messes, but somehow I thought it was easier to solve those problems. Even when I had just one baby, I only had just one kid. Only one kids mess to clean up and deal with. Nobody else to worry about if I left the mess behind while I cleaned up the said child.
Now I have 2 kids. When one makes a mess the other one joins in. For example, today as I was changing a diaper, the other child decided it would be a good time to get into the nail polish and paint himself and whatever else he could find. Not realizing this, I put the other child down and she wandered off. I quickly tidied the room I was in and went to see what they were up to.
Literally I was only out of sight for 2 minutes.
I went into the bathroom and there they were happily painting away. After I got over the initial shock, I stuck them both in the tub, clothes and all while trying to find something to clean the floor with. Realizing it wasn't going to come off easily, I wiped up what I could, and proceeded to clean the kids off. I stripped them and while cleaning one child, the other one decided to poop and play with that. While dealing with that mess (thankfully its all contained in the tub), the other child who I was trying to clean turns on the tap and sprays water everywhere. Now I finally have them mostly cleaned and they are having a bath, while I am sitting here trying to figure out how to attack the now dried on mess they created. Oh and its lunch time and someone needs a bottle and a nap.
I love my kids but somedays I do not like them very much, and I seriously wonder what I was thinking when I wanted kids. I somehow assumed that being a parent at some point I would get some decent sleep and could deal with all problems and tantrums in a calm and collected manner-every time. When I have been gone out of the house with full time language study and have not gotten a decent nights sleep, somehow that idea of being calm is a fuzzy memory. Its survival mode somedays.
Although I do have to be honest, today has not been all bad. They are happy to explore their creative selves and at least they were playing together nicely for a change. When I first came in the room to survey the damage I did get a warm welcome of hi mommy!! Big smiles and giggles. Don't you like our artwork?
Somehow it does help me stay somewhat calmer than I might have been otherwise. On the other hand though, it is infuriating when you are trying to measure out some sort of discipline and they just laugh themselves silly as they think mommy is just oh so funny.
Just a typical day in our house. Well nail polish is not a normal occurrence but messes are. And for the record, I really do love my kids and I know that in a few years time (ok more than a few) they will be gone and have kids of their own and Im sure in some strange and twisted way, I will be missing those messes. Because along with the messes they make, there is also bed time story cuddles and sloppy wet kisses and I can fix all their problems (generally speaking) by sitting with them on my lap and comforting them. I know they won't want to sit and cuddle with me for too many more years. So I will treasure this time and hope that I can find a good scrub-brush and nailpolish remover to get rid of the mess they made today.
Friday, 28 June 2013
Monday, 24 June 2013
Great finds
I think I have mentioned before how much I enjoy the weekly bazaar. We get whatever is in season. The strawberries are almost done and we are getting lots of watermelon, corn, cherries and apricots now. The apricots are truly amazing. I guess that is why this place is world famous for them. One thing they do not have here though is blueberries or salsa. I did find blueberries at a specialty shop but they were $8.00 for about 30-40 blueberries. I just could not bring myself to do it. So I guess we will have to wait until we are back home to have some. I miss the days of having neighbours drop of flats of berries for us! They were so good.
They also dont really have anything mexican. They do sell tortillas occasionally but that is about it. At this same specialty shop I had heard that they sold tortilla chips. It took 3 visits for me to finally score some. They were always sold out. The next task was to make salsa. I have been doing it since we got here but not I actually have chips to go along. Cilantro is a hard find but there is one vendor in the market who sells it. Those are my finds for this week. Also animal crackers. The kids love them and ask for them every day at snack time.
On a different topic, the last few days have been slow and relaxed. A is done language class and my classes start tomorrow so we had a few relaxing slower days in between. It has been nice. This morning we finished breakfast (usually around 7am as the kids are up at 6.) Then we cleaned our house just in time for the painter to come and do some touch ups and fix the wall in a few places. The kids have been peeling paint of the wall and the smallest child has eaten it. So we wanted to get it fixed obviously since paint is not a healthy part of her diet. We fed the painter lunch and cay which is a staple drink here and now he is still busy painting and fixing the walls. I just hope we can keep the kids from touching the walls until the paint dries. I think I might take 1 or both of the kids to the park later as it is not so hot today. We did not go yesterday as it was too hot to be outside in the full sun. There is very little shade on any of the playgrounds here. This week will be busy as I become a 4 day a week student again on top of regular daily activities. Only for 2 months and then we will take a bit of a break. Our friends here are having a baby at the end of summer so we want to be available to help them out. Summer is looking busy as we have several different groups of people traveling through the city that we are hosting and have some work related things to do that will take up some time. We are enjoying the hot weather although I do miss a good air conditioner. We have some wall units in the house so some rooms stay cool. We will just be spending lots of time in those locations.
They also dont really have anything mexican. They do sell tortillas occasionally but that is about it. At this same specialty shop I had heard that they sold tortilla chips. It took 3 visits for me to finally score some. They were always sold out. The next task was to make salsa. I have been doing it since we got here but not I actually have chips to go along. Cilantro is a hard find but there is one vendor in the market who sells it. Those are my finds for this week. Also animal crackers. The kids love them and ask for them every day at snack time.
On a different topic, the last few days have been slow and relaxed. A is done language class and my classes start tomorrow so we had a few relaxing slower days in between. It has been nice. This morning we finished breakfast (usually around 7am as the kids are up at 6.) Then we cleaned our house just in time for the painter to come and do some touch ups and fix the wall in a few places. The kids have been peeling paint of the wall and the smallest child has eaten it. So we wanted to get it fixed obviously since paint is not a healthy part of her diet. We fed the painter lunch and cay which is a staple drink here and now he is still busy painting and fixing the walls. I just hope we can keep the kids from touching the walls until the paint dries. I think I might take 1 or both of the kids to the park later as it is not so hot today. We did not go yesterday as it was too hot to be outside in the full sun. There is very little shade on any of the playgrounds here. This week will be busy as I become a 4 day a week student again on top of regular daily activities. Only for 2 months and then we will take a bit of a break. Our friends here are having a baby at the end of summer so we want to be available to help them out. Summer is looking busy as we have several different groups of people traveling through the city that we are hosting and have some work related things to do that will take up some time. We are enjoying the hot weather although I do miss a good air conditioner. We have some wall units in the house so some rooms stay cool. We will just be spending lots of time in those locations.
Friday, 7 June 2013
politics and protests...
Its been awhile since I posted. Things have gotten interesting and busy around here. We are still busy with language learning and that has been very busy. A has been taking a course 3 days a week while I am home with the kids. On the days between his classes, I have my language helpers 3x for a few hours each time and then in the evenings we do homework and study. Saturdays have been our day off where we spend the day all together as a family. Last Saturday after our kids were in bed, we were sitting in our living room relaxing, we started hearing tons of noise outside. It seems we are in the midst of some political reforms and protests. Not to worry though, we are fine. Actually it always seems worse than it is in the media. The media tends to portray things negatively. It has been pretty peaceful in our area, just a bit noisy at night until around 10:30 or 11pm. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.
During the day it is business is usual, we still take the kids to the park, go to class, go to the shops etc. Yes, things have happened and there has been some violence and their is tension between people and the government but it has been portrayed worse than it is.
It brings back some memories of another city I lived in where a political uprising took place, (kenya 2007 election) however that one was much worse. That one had people being murdered in the streets and was essentially a mini genocide. I think because of that experience a few years ago, I am not as freaked out as much as I might have been otherwise. I am not naive either in thinking it can't turn into anything serious but at this point, we are taking things one day at a time.
So if you are wondering about us, now you know. We are hoping for peace to be restored and that the people will be heard the way they want to. It is definitely different being in a country that is not considered free. Where women don't have many rights, and it is illegal to protest as there is no freedom of speech or religion. I often remind myself of how lucky I am to have been raised in a free country where I can pretty much do what I want. As challenging as it is to live here some days, I am glad for the opportunity to experience a different world view and teach my children about different cultures and worldview outside of N. America.
During the day it is business is usual, we still take the kids to the park, go to class, go to the shops etc. Yes, things have happened and there has been some violence and their is tension between people and the government but it has been portrayed worse than it is.
It brings back some memories of another city I lived in where a political uprising took place, (kenya 2007 election) however that one was much worse. That one had people being murdered in the streets and was essentially a mini genocide. I think because of that experience a few years ago, I am not as freaked out as much as I might have been otherwise. I am not naive either in thinking it can't turn into anything serious but at this point, we are taking things one day at a time.
So if you are wondering about us, now you know. We are hoping for peace to be restored and that the people will be heard the way they want to. It is definitely different being in a country that is not considered free. Where women don't have many rights, and it is illegal to protest as there is no freedom of speech or religion. I often remind myself of how lucky I am to have been raised in a free country where I can pretty much do what I want. As challenging as it is to live here some days, I am glad for the opportunity to experience a different world view and teach my children about different cultures and worldview outside of N. America.
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