I can't believe that it has been a month since I've written a blog post. The truth is: I'm actually pretty busy now! Beyond our weekly routine of school for the twins, Spanish lessons, workout group, and Bible Study for me, and now we've added two nights a week of gymnastics for Josh and one night a week of tennis for the twins. Also, my parents visited at the beginning of February (blog post coming soon) and we have been using the computer in the evening to watch the Olympics (there is NO Olympics on Mexican TV!). However, finally, I have a quiet Saturday afternoon to journal a little about our life here in Mexico.
I titled this post, "Three Seasons in Three Months," because that truly has been what December, January and February have felt like. In these past three months, some days and weeks have been freezing cold and extremely foggy--how one would expect winter to be. Sometimes it feels like autumn, as some of the trees have lost most of their leaves. Now, some trees are blooming like it's spring time and many days are mildly warm with crisp evenings. Our theory is that Monterrey experiences autumn, winter, and spring in three months and then the rest of the year is summer. We're not quite sure yet how we feel about this climate.
Some days, like this one in January, felt like the perfect fall or spring temperature day. (Josh is the bike rider on the far right and Ben and the boys in front of him. This is at Fundidora park on a Saturday afternoon where Ben and I even rented bikes to ride around.)
At a park in January, there were about 20 wild parakeets on the trees. What a cool experience.
Also at a park in January, the boys played in leaf piles. Weird.
A few weeks ago, I found a fruit tree blooming with pink blossoms...my favorite!
We love keeping our eyes peeled for orange trees! That's something we can't grow in Oregon.
Monterrey may grow oranges, but we were happy to see that they are importing some fruit from Oregon!
One of the really neat things we did in January was attending a professional soccer game of the boys' favorite Monterrey soccer team, the Tigres. It was such an awesome cultural experience! In fact, I'm not sure that I can verbalize how unique and fantastic it was to experience a sports event like that in a different country/language. It was so fun to listen to the crowd chanting in Spanish, to look around and see an ocean of black hair and brown eyed people, and to have our kids wildly jumping around and high-fiving Mexicans after the Tigres scored goals. It's an experience we'll never forget!
In front of the Tigres stadium
Seth, Josh, Daddy, Sam
We sat close to the "super fan section" (similar to the Timber's Army in Portland). They stand, sing, fist pump, and chant the entire game. By the end of the game, we were all singing along!!
Bad picture, I know, but our family was on the jumbo tron before the game! We saw the camera close by and starting waving crazily...I'm sure the cameraman thought that 5 blonde-haired, blue-eyed Tigres fans would be fun to have on the big screen.
All smiles after such a fun game. It was a great game to watch, as well: 3-2 Tigres win!
After the game we let the kids pick out a souvenir and, of course, Josh selected this crazy Tigres beanie (anyone remember the Donald Ducky hat from Disney Land?)
Mexicans are crazy soccer fans, and one day after church (yes, church) the Tigres championship trophy was available to get pictures taken by. The boys were so excited (they are holding up 6 fingers for six championships).
The big boys even wanted to be in the group picture...we totally don't stand out here in Mexico (sarcasm intended).
One Sunday after church we decided to try a Korean BBQ place in town. It was an experience...just not my favorite experience. First off, we're pretty sure that all the meat marinade had gluten in it and we ended up not feeling great the next day from it. Number two, while it may look cool to have a grill on your table for you to cook your own meat, I want to go to a restaurant to have someone cook FOR ME. Ben and I spent the first 20 minutes cooking a ton of meat for the kids, then they ate it all and while we tried to eat ourselves, they spent the next 20 minutes trying to burn themselves on the grill experimenting cooking various different ingredients. Never. Again.
Ben and the boys made the most epic fortress ever. Sometimes I wonder what the landlord of our apartment would think if he saw the things we do! (Bonus points for finding Ben in this picture.)
Random picture, but this is from a Mexican CANDY shop. Yes, these are considered sweets in Mexico. Or maybe it is just that anything sweet here needs chili pepper, chamoy sauce or something spicy added in. It's very different, and in our opinion, GROSS.
Kid Update
I especially want to write a quick kid update on Josh, because we've seen some really great growth in him these past couple months. First of all, he has started a gymnastics class twice a week. This is a great step for Josh, because he literally has never been involved in something like this. The first couple classes were pretty rough with quite a few tears shed, and he still gets nervous on the way to class, but he is getting better at taking instructions from an adult that isn't his parent and with playing with the other kids. Now he asks almost every day, "It is gymnastics today?" Gymnastics has given me hope that we will be able to bring him to school with minimal tears someday!
At first he claimed he did not like gymnastics, but you should see some of the videos I have taken of his smile after swinging around upside down on the rings. His body and personality are perfect for gymnastics, as he is strong, quick and a total daredevil. He loves it.
The place he attends is really, really great. They teach the kids legit gymnastics such as the balance beam, parallel bars, rings and tumbling. His teacher is fantastic and thankfully speaks English.
At the beginning of the school year I wasn't sure that Josh and I were going to make it through each day just the two of us. It was SO hard. But now we've gotten into a great routine. I'm slowly realizing that Josh simply has a much different learning style than Seth and Sam did. He's not the type of kid to just sit down and try to write his letters or learn to read. So, now we're learning to count while playing catch, learning letters by doing relay races, practicing writing his name with sidewalk chalk, and any other various kinesthetic activities Pinterest gives me. I've been so encouraged by his pace of learning this past month and I'm hopeful that he'll begin to learn to read soon!
I still can't believe that Josh colored this all on his own!
Silly boy...I love seeing him dress in costume more!
The Lord has also provided for us some great friends that we can hang out with in the morning while Sam and Seth are at school. Harvey and Liza are both a little under two years old, but they give Josh interaction with other children, a chance to be leader and good example, and their moms give me friendship and conversation. Amanda and Leah have been such an answer to prayer! (And Leah, the mom on the right, leads a twice a week workout group for some ladies at her playground. Having that to look forward to a couple morning has been a lifesaver for me, not to mention it's been awesome to get in shape again!)
Sam and Seth in front of their school: AIM
In mid-January the twins had what is called, "Student Led Conferences," where Ben and I got to spend an hour at the school while the boys showed us what they are learning in each subject. We also got to chat with their teacher a bit about how they are doing and their goals for the second half of the school year. It was wonderful to hear how well they have adjusted to school and amazing to observe their self-confidence as they talked with their teacher (a huge contrast from a similar meeting in August before school started!).
Seth is having a great quarter in school and as he told me yesterday: hasn't even cried once! He is doing much better at recognizing when things are "mountains or molehills" and staying calm when he feels behind. He still is loving playing violin and has enjoyed starting once a week tennis lessons. His teacher told us that his personality is really starting to show more and that he is a pleasure to have in class! Seth also scored the highest classroom score in his MAPS reading comprehension test, and he and Sam tied for the second highest MAPS math score. They are just doing so great! Seth loves creating things, such as the Spanish newspaper they made a couple days ago home. He also has been the ringleader in a story that the three brothers have been writing together while in the car.
Seth loves dressing up and showing us things.
Sammy is also doing really well in school. His teacher told us that he's a great teammate, a good leader, and does a good job coming up with compromises. This helped reinforce for us what we've already observed about his middle child/mediator personality; it's a really neat gift that he has. In general Sam is a bit more physical and energetic than Seth and more often than not can be found kicking a soccer ball around the house. However, if he is not kicking a ball, Sam can be found making things out of folded paper. I cannot tell you how many paper houses, animals, claws, etc. there are laying around the house. It's driving me bonkers. Sam is a bit more influenced by the attitudes at school and has shown more "cheek" at home than ever before...but he's still such a delight.
I love this picture of Sam dressed up for a presentation at school.
Both stellar creations by Sam. Left hand: inside Seth's Valentine's Day card. Right hand: booger soup recipe...only one page in a compilation of "Mud Recipes."
The boys' school had a 21 day reading challenge...that's something that we could really get behind at our house! Yes, Sam read 1,648 minutes in three weeks. Seth was only about an hour behind him. And, yes, they beat everyone else in their grade by miles.
So, that's a bit of what's happening in our life here in Monterrey. In short, we are doing really great. We've lived here for a little over 10 months now: we can't believe it's been almost a year. We're really settled in and happy. The Lord has provided schools, a home, a job, friendship, a church...all above and beyond what we could have imagined. We're so thankful that we followed His leading to come here!
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