international mom

CAR PROBLEMS AND OTHER ORDEALS

CAR PROBLEMS AND OTHER ORDEALS   

if there isn't one thing to worry about there is always another. always. one problem is solved and another immediately fills its spot.
so all weekend long we were running around like idiots because i had an insanely huge leak. i mean gallons and gallons flowing into the house. my friend and i were running outside every second because the rain didn't stop all day either. anyhow she came up with a contraption to deflect the water from going into my house and it worked, we just had to empty out the buckets which were filling up by the second.
the next day my guard totally fixed that one problem, i still have a huge leak, but at least it's not entering my house. however, since i paid him and he thinks i'm some damsel in distress, he is now my best friend. constantly talking to me about fixing the problem. i mean we start at 7 am and it goes on intermittently all day.
just do it, man! enough talk. i'm soooo sick of talking, people just need to do it.
anyhow, i got put up my limits, and i'm so glad my husband is coming home soon, because then he'll back off a bit too.

so, now that the leak is fixed that is flowing into my house, i take my son to kinder and guess what! my fucking car dies. like i said, if it's
not one thing, it's always another.
it just dies, no idea why. i run home and get a tow company, we get it to the shop and guess what? when i'm showing it to the mechanic, it starts up beauitifully and runs and everythign. so basically i threw away 30 bucks and we haven't even started to deal with the problems yet.

at least, now it's getting looked at. i mean the signs that my car is having problems have been coming up left and right, but i was waiting until my hubby got here, but the car just said "no more" it's time you take me to the doctor.
anyhow, i have a great friend and she lent me her car!!!!!! which has been a super help.

music to our ears and eyes!!!

music to our ears and eyes!!!

my son is becoming musically and artistically inclined! i'm soooooo happy about it.
he loves hard core music, like regeatton and other up and up music. now he's even taken out the guitar and plays on it, while singing along. and if he does a dance, it's usually mosh style. he loves ninja turtles and dresses up with shorts, bare chested and sticks a little stick in the back. and dances like mad saying the music is from ninja turtles, when it's not, but it's still really pumped up. it's so fun to watch him!

my mother has a way of making me worry all the time, and one thing is she is constantly saying that he should be drawing, but he never had any interest in it until last week. now he draws families all the time. it's soooo cute. he draws families and started drawing out cat now too.

cave exhibition

cave exhibition

for school he had to do an exhibition on caves, we were allowed to do it in english. his nanny did the actual collage, becasue when i did it, it looked ridicoulous and she put in some creative touches making a huge difference. however, me and him learned everything in english:
where are caves?
underground
what do caves have?
rocks
why are there so many rocks?
because there are minerals
why is the water different colors?
because there are minerals
who lives in the caves?
bats
when do bats eat?
at night
when do bats sleep?
in the day

he knew all of this. it was super cute, however, i believe for him to truly know what a cave is he has to go to one to see it for himself.

international son is growing faster than i can grasp it!

everythign out of his mouth is:
verdad que si, verdad que no, veras ma
que chiva ma,
and now the new one is mientira (liar), he hasn't said it to me yet, but it's coming. he's saying it to his little friends.

i had my friend over the other day who has a son 9 years old and my little man totally looks up at him. yet, he cried at the drop of every dime. he didn't eat alone, i still had to feed him, because eating is such an ordeal for us, i still feed him.
yet, it's only hurting him becasue he looks weak and i don't know how to toughen him up. i don't know how to get him to eat on his own, how to stop being such a winey little kid. i know its kids, but it's also the parents.
he cries for everythign, and wants everythign. i feel like such a meany because all i do all day is say no to this, and no to that.

ecological exposition and other fun things at school

today i had the great pleasure of going to international son's school for an exposition. one that i had to prepare, but that's besides the point.
however, the interesting part to this exhibition is this:
the school using a genuis coax to improve their establishment. every year, they have so called nominations for the new kids of each class for an ecological addition to the school
the past years, the parents of the 'nominees' have built a little farm and supplied animals, have bought 3 huge recyling bins.
this year my sons' competitors are:
one to install a huge water tank that costs easily $400.
the other one to build cages for rabbits.
and ours was to plant sunflowers...
the fact that they want us to spend tons of money, doesn't make much sense to me. which is fine, but this was the show that his competitor put on today who wants to build the rabbit cage.
first of all the boy is 4 years old, and has absolutely no idea what the hell his family is talking about in the first place
but to rewind for a quick sec, i arrived with sunflower seeds, a little cardboard drawing of a sunflower and little cards with toothpicks for the kids to put thier names on it when they plant the seeds at home.
the other kid had literally 5 adults show up. they brought an insane amount of junk and unpacked it all. then they got busy:
they started to blow up balloons, then they took out at least 8 huge packs of candy and junk food, then they had hats made and flags and face painting and music. so far, the fact that they want to build a rabbit cage is no where to be determined.
once the teacher introduced my son's project and the other boys project we gave out what we had.
for instance, at least my son gave out the ecological sources which was recycled paper name stands and sunflowers, the others gave out so much stuff and candy that no one had any idea what they were doing, and thought it was a party.
when i came to pick up international son at the end of the day, some of the kids were saying that he was the one that gave them the flags and stuff, and the seeds. no one remembered the purpose of the other kids presentation.
being in school with my son, was the most incredible thing ever, he ran to me and was soooooooooooooo happy to see me and so loving.
but the farce that they other boy's family put on, was nothing but a display that look how much money we can spend and look how great we are.
it was certainly an experience, and not one that i want my son to learn from. however, his project and idea were amazing!!!!!!! and he was giving out the seeds with me...

my incredible son!

we went to visit puerto viejo, a beach on the carribean side of costa rica which is about a 4 hour ride from our house.
with a 4 year it's a bit difficult, however my little man handled it wonderfully. i mean we had our moments of crying fits, starting with the 4 am wake up which led to a few time outs because, he refused to eat. then another little outburst once we were there and he insisted on me buying him a surf board, and the fact that i didn't have the money didn't matter, instead he went to my friend who we went with and started saying that she should buy it for him. he obviously has no concept of money.
and since i was also trying to sell my books to some stores, he kept on crying about the surfboard for like an hour until we finally made to an incredible beach. punta uva where it was literally 2 kms of empty beach stretch and the best part the water was so calm and so shallow, i didn't have to into the water with him, which i'm so not a fan of.
my friend did end up taking him in deeper, but it was just a magnificent day.
we had a great soda breakfast, and then a yummy pizza lunch.
to me, the day literally revolves around his eating schedule and as long as he eats well, and is happy, i'm soo happy!!!
and remarkably he was very happy and so was i and my friend. and i even got to sell my first 5 books to a store:)
the reason we went to puerto viejo was on a passport run. apparently, it's a huge business down there to give the passport to someone, pay them 100 bucks and they get it stamped for you.
so it was a very easy, lovely day for me and my little man while my friend did her thing:)

international son's project

i've discovered that i am so not artistically inclined and not at all a good role model for son when it comes to these sorts of projects. nonetheless, his school has given him the homework of making a collage of a cave. it's pretty funny looking, but the fact that me and him started doing it together was so special for me. he was listening so intently to what i was saying, and repeating what i was saying, and even though i did the majority of the work, he helped along.
doing projects with him was so fun. that it's giving me the idea of doing more!

TOUGH MORNING

ok, i'm trying really hard to work with my son here. but i lose my patience and cool way too often lately
for instance today was a perfect example
he woke up at 4:30 am. which is pretty bad, however, i put on a video and slept on and off for aonther hour or so.
then, i found on my furniture a green silly putty. when i tried to take it off, i realized it stains.
this was some weird toxic thing he got yesterday at the arcade. i wasn't pleased. so i told him, to be careful because it stains, and he understood and agreed with me.
not even half a second later, he took another piece and dileberately put it on there.
i was furious. so off to a time out we get.
then he wanted yogurt. he was doing great, drinking beautifully. the phone rang, i ran upstairs, it was a wrong number so the conversation took less than one minute, i come downstairs and the half of the bottle was on the floor, furniture and blanket. he spilled it on purpose
i was furious, another time out.
finally, i thought ok we're over this. i get him dressed to go out and he looks great. i let him drink his yogurt again. not even 2 seconds later he on purpose, again, spilled the yogurt all over his shirt and pants.
why, i'm not sure.
next we're in the car and since his new thing is chickle, i gave it out to everyone.
we've already been thru this ordeal, but after a while of chewing it he likes to take it in his fingers and get it all over the place.
it's sticky and impossible to get out. so of course i am fuming again.
but i simply don't see what is the purpose of all this? its not like he doesn't get attention from me, on the contrary.

international son independent!

we are becoming very close with my next door neighbor's whose daughter is almost 9. her and international son get along great.
yesterday for the first time ever, i let him go to the mall with her and her dad, actually they went to this place where they play games and kind of like a amuzement arcade place, but not that super.
so, of course, being a freak, and super paranoid, i taught him if he was to separate from them to scream their names loudly until someone came for them
i'm considering putting a little dog tag on him with my name and number. these days, with so many weirdo's loose on the streets, who knows
but he was great apparently. but the fact tat he's getting so old that he can go out without me is also quite scary to me!
today we went to the children's museum. i love this place, really it is one of the greatest things in costa rica for kids
but i went with my neighbor and her daughter, and my son was just all over the place, it was fanatastic. he was so independent.
and every minute he is more amazing and wonderful
right now we are in the why phase, everhyting is why. why do we do this, why do we do things like that, why everything.
i actually find myself wondering why and not coming up with some of the answers myself

insect hunting

i have found a great school for my son. it's ecologically friendly, they teach aobut the environment, they have a little petting zoo, recycling, etc...
yet, he still loves to find little insects and tiny lizards and either torture them or kill them instantly.
i dont know how to stop this, but i simply can't watch it. instead of showing him new insects and lizards, i tell everyone to shut up and not say a word, because i know the fate and destiny of the little guys once he sees them
i seriously hope it is just a phase