Happiness Comes in the Mail

This is my fabulous friend Paige. She is funny and smart and generous and we have had many memorable moments together.
Yesterday as I sitting at home, having just spent two days sick in bed and still feeling kind of crappy but up because Mario went back to work and Gabe doesn't take care of himself yet, the doorbell rings. And it's the mailman delivering me this:

Fun summer clothes from my fun friend Paige!! She wrote a post on how this is the greatest summer skirt. But I didn't get around to buying it until it was all soldout online. So she went to Gap, bought me the skirt, mailed it to me INTERNATIONALLY, and also included cute new summer items for Gabe. Clearly Paige is great, and so everyone should go to her blog and comment, because that is the best payback (plus, she's really funny and her blog is always a great read.)

THANK YOU PAIGE!!

My Love Guys

My baby Gabe:
1. He is a great napper. He sleeps 11-12 hours at night and takes two naps of 1.5 - 2 hours each during the day.
2. When he is not napping, and not asking to be held(which he does a fare share), he likes to bang things and climb anything in sight. Falling of the kiddie car did not deter him in any way.

3. He likes to chew on Q-tips. I left the drawer open next to his bed one day on accident and I swear he went through like 20 of them. He also likes to play with the bar of soap from the bathroom which I am apt to find any place in the house.
4. He likes his books better than any other toy he has. He looks at his books all the times...for about 30 seconds each time and then throws them on the ground when he's done.
5. If you ask him what the cow says he will reply "booooo". If you ask him "que dice la vaca" he says "boooo". If you ask him what the pig, duck, horse, etc. say you get the same response.

6. For some reason, probably because it is generally forbidden, he is enthralled by our tiny patio. The one day I let him out there, he broke a pot, tipped over a bucket that had a little water in it and then proceeded to redistribute the mud all over the patio, the glass doors, and himself. (Potential for messiness is exactly why it's forbidden!)
He was in heaven, and to his credit he managed to not touch any of the clean laundry hanging out to dry.

7. He knows when he's not supposed to have something, like the telephone, the remote, the computer mouse, and when he gets one he watches to make sure I see he has it, then when I come, he runs about 5 steps before chucking it onto the nearest hard tile floor. I try to look him in the face very seriously and tell him no, but he is always too busy laughing to look back at me. He also likes to pick the "child-safe-electrical-outlet-covers" out of the outlets, which he can do just perfectly. When I tried to put a chair in front of the outlet, he climbed onto the chair and tried to knock the picture off the wall. I decide risk of shock was more remote than risk of injury from broken glass.

8. He is super lovey, and when I don't expect it he'll come give me a hug and a kiss and melt my heart.

9. If he smells I have something in my mouth that he wants, he'll put his mouth to mine to get it. Mario is horrified by this, but I kind of love it.

10. He had his first bubble bath today, and was at first scared and then fascinated by the bubbles.

My First Love:

I feel Mario doesn't get enough face time on the blog, so here are some recent shots. Mario, for some reason Annette will likely understand, is opposed to remaining fully dressed when in the house. However, it's winter here and cold. So when I walked in the room the other day, he was sitting at the computer in the purple poncho his mom knit for me to keep warm. It was too hilarious to not take a picture.

At a friend's birthday party last weekend we played charades and I swear I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did at Mario trying to act out the movie "Lilo & Stitch". The below move was preceeded by some hula dancing that would have made Linsey Crisler proud (or cringe).

Hotmail Failure = Heart Attack

Okay all you people out there that supposedly read my blog but just never comment, my hotmail account has failed me. I can no longer log in. I've been trying different combinations of "secret question and location information" for a week now, all to no avail. I am trying to avoid thinking about all of the information, email addresses, etc. that I have lost so that I don't have a total panic account. And although I'm still pretending to myself I'm magically going to regain access to that account that I've had for 10+ years again, I am feeling a little isolated in the meantime. So, please email me your email addresses to: adrianneresek@gmail.com, or leave your's in the comments section.

And if you happened to email me in the last week, please forward it to my gmail account.


Perdi acceso a mi castilla de email de hotmail!! Por favor mandame un email a mi otra castilla: adrianneresek@gmail.com o deja tu email en la parte de commentarios.... mil gracias!

Unexpected Gratitude

Tuesday, Gabe and I, along with Susana, went to visit my SIL Griselda for her 40th birthday. While at the mall yesterday, we stopped in the food court to get snacks. Gabe was being rather fussy and since the place was practically empty I decided to let him out of his stroller for a bit, and of course he made a bee-line for the games/arcade area next to the food court. The very first thing he saw was a kiddie ride, of the same variety of this bob-the-builder tractor, only it was a truck.

I helped him climb in, and I was smiling to myself in amazement and joy that my kid was having the time of his life and I didn't even have to put any money in it!! He was spinning the stearing wheel and jumping up and down, having a great time. Susana walked over to watch him enjoying life, and I walked away to get the food I had ordered him thinking, he'll be okay, it's less than a foot off the ground! After I put the food on the table, I turned back to see Susana carrying Gabe to me, saying he had fallen. I didn't think much of it, he falls all the time, until I grabbed him from her and noticed that he was unconscious, having convulsions, and her shirt was covered in vomit. I start yelling at ANYBODY who can hear me to CALL SOMEONE, CALL AN AMBULANCE. I realize shortly after that everyone is staring at me and I'm screaming in English so quickly start yelling in Spanish. I sat down with him and immediately said a prayer. I could feel that he was at least breathing, and someone told me to lay him across my lap so he wouldn't choke on his vomit. As I moved him, he wimpered a bit but then he was back out. He was probably out for about 2 minutes total, and just as he was waking up and starting to cry the paramedics arrived. But those were honestly the longest two minutes of my life. They took him to the ambulance and even as we were on the way they said he seemed fine, his eyes not dialated, responsive, etc. Once at the hospital the reviewed him, took x-rays of his head which everyone up to the neurosurgeon examined, and explained to me that he must have landed straight on his head when he fell out of the truck. And much like a boxer in a fight, that kind of impact can cause you to faint and vomit, without doing any additional damage. A little ibuprofen and 30 minutes later he was as good as new, running, trying to climb everything, acting silly, and his grandmother and I are still beside ourselves with terror.

Gabe on the 4th of July

While Gabe was napping later and I was resting, waiting for Mario who cancelled all his patients to come get us, I realized I had much to be thankful for, besides the fact that my child wasn't seriously harmed.

I am grateful for medical care that is accessible. Ever since I came here I've had this fear in the back of my mind that if something ever happened to a child of mine the inferior medical care in this 3rd world country wouldn't be able to help me. But so far my experiences have been MUCH faster and better than those of my sister Allison in the supposedly great medically-advanced USA.

I am grateful for a husband who ALWAYS puts his family first. By the time I called Mario, Gabe was home, running around and laughing, and it was not at all necessary for Mario to cancel all his patients and come. But he did it anyways. He truly always puts us before anything else.

I am grateful for the power of prayer. For the knowledge that there is a God who knows what is happening, and will answer my prayers. And I am grateful for my brother-in-law and the other priesthood holder who were immediately in the hospital to give Gabe a blessing.