Vacations!!

Earlier this month my sister Angie and her wonderful Home invited us - Kenji and I - to join them for their united 5 day home vacations! Yippee!! They had planned for these 5 days (27 - 31) to be fun things for everyone to do together yet more geared towards the kids, as all the adults would get a separate vacation afterward. It was so sweet of them to think of us and include us into all the activities and outings they had provisioned beforehand.

Here are some photos of the places we went and the things we did these last 2 days. (I know it's going to seem like an overkill of photos, but I had to capture all the new things Kenji saw and experienced so ... shush up (in a very nice tone, that is). :) Oh, and be forewarned that there will be lots of more photos, come the end of the year. ;) Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!!

Here are some photos of what went on during Christmas day. My sister Esther and her family arrived yesterday and will be here for 2 weeks. Yay! I haven't seen her in ages. Lots of catching up to do. And they have a little boy around Kenji's age (younger) so that will keep him happy and occupied. Yay!

In other news, Kenji's 7th molar (right top) just broke through today! No wonder why he's been giving me such a hard time when it comes time to brush his teeth. Poor little muffin. :( And that also explains why he had little sores on his tongue. What a brave little guy!

Well, we love you all and wish you an incredible Merry Christmas!!!

(You've got to see the captions). ;)

Not again!!!

Yes, as some heard already, last night, sadly, Kenji dislocated his left elbow, again. Poor little muffin. :( The thing is, I was putting both boys to sleep in Angel's bed, as I normally do, yet this time Kenji fell asleep first and something came up and I had to walk out of the room for a minute so I wasn't able to move Kenji to my bed.

I'm not exactly sure what happened then but I'm assuming that Angel didn't know Kenji was sleeping so he tried to get him to get up and play with him, (since I was out of the room) but in his attempt to get him up, and realizing that Kenji wasn't helping him out much due to him being sound asleep, he must of yanked his arm a little too much :(.

When I stepped into the room I had no idea what had happened, Kenji was screaming while little Angel sat there bewildered. Poor muffins. Once Kenji calmed down a bit I asked him what had happened and he said Angel pulled his arm, OMG my heart sank as thoughts of his shoulder being dislocated again rushed through my head. But Kenji managed to tell me where he felt the pain -- in his forearm and elbow. That was a bit of a relief, but gauging from his cry and the pain he was in I knew that he definitely had dislocated his elbow, again. :(

There was nothing we could do about it as it was around 11:30 at night and I didn't have the faith to take him to the Red Cross. Last time I took him there I wasn't very happy or impressed with their professionalism and their verdict of the state Kenji was in after viewing the X-rays was not all that accurate. So I braced myself for a long, sleepless night.

Thank the Lord Kenji was able to doze off here and there a bit, meaning I got in a little bit of shut-eye time, yet due to him not being able to move much and wanting me to be ever so close to him (his legs hanging over mine) I laid on my left side literally 7 hours straight!! My poor leg was so sore and I won't even get into describing how my back felt! But thank the Lord we made it through the night, just barley. Heh. I want to take a moment to say THANK YOU, Liz, for all your help that night, and the many other nights and days you lend me a hand. ILY!

The next morning we got and appointment with a kids bone specialist. Thank the Lord everything went well and his elbow is back in place, but due to this very thing happening not even a year ago she said that it was very, very important to watch out that it doesn't happen again as if it keeps on happening then he will need to have an operation (yikes) due to the ligaments in his elbow being stretched more then normal. So do keep his protection along those lines in your prayers, thanks! Once again I'm so thankful for His protection and mercy.

On our way home from the doctor's I got him a paleta for being such a brave boy throughout the night. It was so cold but he refused to let me have a bite or even switch it to the other hand, it was so funny how protective he was of his shiner prize! It's so good to see him use his arm fully without pain and discomfort. TYJ!

Well here are some photos of happenings the night the accident occurred and of him playing around after having his elbow popped back in place.

P.S. You'll only see the captions to the photos when on full-screen mode. ;)

We love and miss you!

Ez, Jo and baby Derek are moving on. It's so sad. :( We will miss them! Kenji will especially miss his little cousin Derek. He's grown very fond of him and will always include baby Derek in his prayers -- whether it be his breakfast, naptime, or get-out prayer. It's really quite precious.

A sweet couple, who have been our friends for a good long, long time, joined us in our special farewell Lasagna dinner we had for them last night. They will be boarding a 32 hour long bus at midnight tonight! Yucky! So keep them in your prayers, thanks!

In other news, the other day me and my sister Liz went out to provision C-mas decorations and the Lord supplied just about everything we had on our list! TYJ! That very night the boys (Kenji and Angel) helped me put our manger scene together. It was a first for Kenji and he just loved it! He behaved so well and didn't break a single little figurine or any other little prop.

I've explained to him that Christmas is Jesus' Birthday and the celebration of the great gift -- Salvation -- He gave to us a long, long time ago. He seems to understand it all real well and is very excited that soon it will be Jesus' Birthday as he is so anxious to sing the "Happy Birthday" song to Him. Ha!

Christmas is in the air!

First of all I'd like to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my kid sister, Liz! Wow, I can't believe you're turning a whopping 18 years old!! My goodness! That makes me feel a wee bit old, heh. I love you lots, Liz, and pray that this year will be one filled with exciting new things for you. And of course be your BEST year yet! :) LY!

And secondly, I'd like to announce the birth of the handsome squishy, Quinn Dakota Luna, born yesterday to Mig and Amber in Aussie land. :) Congrats guys! Can't wait to see pics of him! LY!

Well now, with Christmas fast upon us I've started to find different little C-mas projects to do with Kenji in the afternoons or parent time. I had him choose a project the other day and he chose to make a snowman, of course I should have know he would have. :) He just loves the little snowman activity you do on Starfall, so to make a "real" snowman was oh, so very exciting for him!

There are a couple of pics of some cool things he built with "Magnetix's". He's just fascinated by magnets and if I may say so myself he's got quite the imagination for a little 2 year old. Two of the things he built were quite a shocker for me, yet at the same time I was once again very much impressed with his assimilation of the Word.

Last week I was reading to him about our many spirit helpers, (he knows quite a bit of them by name and knows what they're for etc). then I started to touch upon how we each have various personal spirit helpers as well. I made mention of our Elerian -- spirit beings who help us to be truly free in spirit, etc. -- and how this particular spirit helper is part horse.

He was fascinated, or maybe a little overwhelmed a first as his facial expression was one of astonishment, by what he heard and asked me if he had a horsey too. I told him that he did, and if he wanted at bedtime we could ask Jesus to show it to us and take us on a fun trip with the horsey. He was thrilled and kept saying; "Yes, yes, yes!" So cute!

Well when bedtime rolled around, I told him to close his eyes and think about Jesus, or Heaven, or a spirit helper and to lie real still and quiet while mommy prayed and asked Jesus to take us to a fun spirit trip! The Lord started to show me all these cool kiddo things, which I related to Kenji. It was awesome! After about 5 minutes I tried to wrap this spirit trip up but Kenji kept saying, "mas mommy, mas." How could I stop? So on we went up in a realm of fun and excitement and after a good long time, Kenji finally fell to sleep.

The next morning though he gave me a rundown of what he saw and did up, up, up in the sky! It was so cool! He said he went to a fun place full of balls, really big ones, where he played with his uncle/spirit helper David. And he rode a horsey -- his Elerian horse -- which he said was called "Yellow." Whoa, I was flipped and so proud of my little guy. And of course so thankful that the Lord came through for him. TYJ, for our wealth and knowledge of the spirit world!

Anyways, there is lots more to tell; like cute things, new things he's learned, progress he's making, etc., but I don't have the time right now to do so, so the pics will have to do for now - or until I find some 'extra' time on my hands. Not likely to happen soon, but nice wishing, right? ;) May you all have an awesome, inspiring, and miracle-filled C-mas push. LY!

The big step ... finally.

Yep, my little guy, is not so little anymore. Alright so that is pretty obvious, but I still very much want him to be my sweet wittle muffin -- the one I can squeeze and cuddle all night -- but alas as with all good things, they must come to an end. Sigh. :( I've greatly enjoyed having my muffin sleep with me on my bed these past 2 + years (yes, I can see some folks being totally shocked by this, but I don't care :D) but I think the time has finally, and sadly, come to take the big step of ... sleeping in his own bed. :(

To tell the truth, I did try once before to get him to sleep in his own bed, but he was totally against the idea, guess he just wasn't ready. :D And I didn't want to force it upon him and have to deal with tons of weeping and sadness before bedtime. Big steps, or changes, in little ones' lives should be fun and as easy going as possible. Else you could create a whole lot of unpleasant feelings, like insecurity, fear, to name a few. Each child, family, is different and you must take all these things into account.

In our particular situation I didn't own a baby crib for him while he was a baby, yet about the time he turned 1 my mom gave me a very nice toddler size mattress, but I lacked the actual bed frame for it and being that he was still so little I didn't want to have him roll of the bed as it was quite a decent fall. So there that's my excuse ;) for having him linger longer then normal sleeping with me. :)

But now I guess he's finally ready as the other day out of the blue he asked me to set up his bed. He told me that now he's a big boy and as such he can't sleep on mommy's bed, he has to sleep on his new bed now. Awww, such a darling cutie-pie! Yet such sad news for mommy. :( And being that he is a bit older now I'm not so worried about him getting so badly hurt if he rolls off the bed. Thankfully he hasn't yet and it's already been about a week that he's sleeping on his own bed -- with the exception of climbing into my bed at about 5 in the morning each day. Yay! ... I mean, well, it is rather cold now so it's okay by me. :D

Pretend playtime!

# 1 Starfall fan!

Yep, Kenji just loves, loves school! Thank God! Or maybe the reason he really likes to do his school is because it's mostly on the computer? Very possible. He really does have a thing for comps, though, and to tell you the truth he knows his way around real well. I didn't show him the ropes of turning the comp on/off, getting on the web, or how to maneuver the mouse but I guess he simply picked it up from watching others do it.

He can get on to his two favorite school sites (Starfall & *Doki - a Spanish learning/games/activities site) all on his own. And just the other day granddad told me that he caught Kenji fiddling on the computer and saw him type in the letters "brit" in Google search all by himself and out came up a slew of Britney sites! OMG! Obviously the letters he typed by pure chance happened to actually make out a word, or at least a clue of a word. I couldn't believe my ears!



While on one hand I'm happy that he's figured out the basics of turning on/off the computer and getting onto Starfall and *Doki all alone, I still don't know whether or not to continue to let him do this on his own. I mean there's just so many things he can mess-up if left to just fiddle on the computer on his own. And Lord knows I don't want to be responsible for crashing/messing up someone else' computer. :D

The thing is he just seems so happy and fulfilled doing it all alone. I've warned him that if he fiddles around with the buttons and whatnot, then he will not be able to get on the computer alone again. So far this has worked, but I'm afraid it will eventually loose it's "magic". So I guess the best option is to simply be present when he's on the computer and avoid any trouble that way.

Alright, well onto other news. Last week we went to drop off some fruits and veggies at a local orphanage we've been helping out for sometime now. Kenji and Angel had a special gift to give to the orphans -- some Aurora books and CD's that a market contact sponsored for them. The kids at the orphanage were very happy and thankful for the things we brought them. And the boys had a nice time interacting with other kids -- a special little side treat as it's just the two of them right now.

Kenji's inquisitiveness is growing and growing by the day. I've noticed he's found a little passion with handyman tools and he sets himself out to do little 'projects' here and there (watch the video below). But I'm so weary that his inquisitiveness will lead him to something dangerous or naughty. The other day he got the scare of his life with an electric sander. Thank the Lord he didn't get hurt, just really, really, frightened.

You see this sander doesn't just have a great big deafening sound too it, but it also jolts/vibrates quite strongly when you turn it on. Well, Kenji decided to give it a try, he held it up and turned the button on only to have it fall out of his hand due to heavy vibrating. That and the loud noise was enough to scare him out of his mind. Poor baby, :( after the initial 5-8 seconds of total shock, and his countenance going ghostly white, he gave out such a loud and sad cry. :( But, DV, he learned his lesson.



Oh, and one more thing in the news department; we put our C-mas tree up this evening! Last year we got our tree up rather late, almost the 2nd week of December, so this time we decided to do it a bit early. The boys gave us a hard time saying it was way too early to do so, but us girls stuck to our ground and well, obviously, we had our way! :D Oh the beauty of being a girl and getting your way! Ha! ;) (well for the most part at least).



P.S. Okay, so maybe I overdid it on the vids and pics on this post,..... but it's my blog not yours :D, so there! ;) Be warned that there could very well be other posts just like this one! :D :D

Learning progress!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!! (^) MAY THIS YEAR BE THE BEST YEAR YET ... WITH PLENTY MORE TO COME. ;) WLY!

Alright, well on to my ramblings about Kenji. :D Well first of all I'm so happy that Kenji loves doing projects! Okay, okay, so I hear you all saying, "Um, duh, all 2 year old's do." True, but the thing is that Kenji wasn't really into doing projects before. He was mostly preoccupied about kicking a ball around, throwing it into the neighbors house, playing with cars, riding his 'motorcycle', etc., etc. You know the usual 'boy thing' -- getting into mischief! ;) And no matter how hard I tried to make it fun and interesting for him he just wasn't game. Much to my dismay! :D Maybe the fact that it's just him alone doing the project is what kept him from finding it interesting.

But recently he's started to show more interest (finally) in projects that don't solely revolve around playing with cars, play-dough, or balls! YAY! It's a huge step of progress, really it is! As there is just so much to learn and do through projects! But of course first of all you have to enjoy doing projects. :D So I'm quite happy that he finally is showing more interest in this.

Another major progress is ... today he started reading!! Yippee! He's always loved school - flashcards/picture facts/reader/school videos - but wouldn't repeat much when doing his FC, PC, or readers but I knew that he was just storing all that info in his little brain and sooner or later it would all spill out. And it has! He's quite fond of reading the reader books on his favorite computer school game - Starfall - and is picking up on not only sight reading but the phonetic route as well! I'm soooo happy! :) :)

While it is a big deal for me, as you can tell, yet it was bound to happen sooner or later and I'm glad it was the latter. It's common for kids learning 2 languages at at a time to be 'slower' on picking up talking and reading, but I don't think Kenji has really been all that 'behind'. At 1 1/2 he knew his alphabet letters and sounds, shapes, colors, and numerals 1-10,(the last 3 in Spanish as well) plus lots and lots more. It was around this time that his vocabulary began expanding a little more each day, both in Spanish and English, and he started to put simple 2-3 word phrases together.

Now he says a lot, makes himself understood, and copies just about any word he hears that is doable for him to say, ha! I know it's a matter of time before he fully takes off talking - full sentences in either language - there is no rush, and when that occurs it will be one very happy day for me. :) For now I will simply do my best to expand his learning skills and simply let him go at his own pace. I think I will be astonished at the progress made therein, though. ;)

Here are pics of some of the many daily cute things he does. I also have a video of Kenji reading some words, but I'm having issues uploading. So check the blog out again later. :)

* Small note:
He helped make his own lunch, did just about everything from peeling/cutting the veggies, to making a tomato based sauce for the chicken,(an expert garlic peeler) and making mashed potatoes as well. He was so proud of himself and couldn't wait a minute longer to taste his food, he literally dug into the chicken minutes after I removed it from the fire!




The video of him reading some words from his Starfall reader is not working :( I'll keep trying. But, in the meantime here's one of him making lunch for Angel and him. It was his first attempt at saying the words to the things he used. He says it all oh, so very cute!

My little 110% missionary!

It's been a while since I last posted and it hasn't been due to lack of things to post about, for indeed there has been lots happening lately, almost more than would be my fancy. But I won't complain. :) I'll try to recap the most oustanding events in a single post, so as to not bore you all. :D

A couple of days ago we went out on FU with the boys, mom and I, and although we weren't able to cover a lot of ground, so to speak, we did meet a very sweet and receptive man -- manager of a CFE office -- we talked with him for a good 40 minutes showing him our work, projects, etc., as well as approached him for help in lowering our electric bill in some way, as it was ridiculously high. TTL, he agreed to lower it considerably, on his own account, and sent some workers to check our electric meter to see if perhaps it had any leaks or is malfunctioning, as our reading was a good 1,000 percent higher then our normal bills.

That encounter with him and his readiness to help was a miracle in itself, but that was not all. He also bought several "Mottos for Success" and some other products, as did various of his employees, and he gave us permission to go to another office and present our work/products there as well. What a victory and success! We went ahead and set it up for another day. PTL!

Around lunch time we stopped by a friend who owns a little restaurant and who so kindly agreed to feed us all. TYJ! Mom spent some time with her afterwards while I tried my best to keep the boys happy. Emphasis on tried :D for it had been a long day for them in the scorching heat and they were getting very restless, but they held out pretty well and mom had a good talk/prayer time with the sweet lady -- owner of the restaurant.

Our last stop was at a Wal-Mart to pick up some things for dinner. Right outside of Wal-Mart there was this group of people in firemen attire -- newbee's -- having a firemen-drill lesson. Of course Kenji was interested in seeing what they were going to do so we stayed outside in spite of the terrible heat. Those 8 or so minutes in the sun did it for him and brought out the sleepiness I had tried to hold back for the past half hour or so.

All in all our day was a success. We got lots of tools out, quite a bit of come-backs, referrals, 10 souls, met a lot of recptive people who are interested in helping in a greater way, a good meal and our transport (taxis) was all for free! TYJ! He never fails to take such good care of us.

Kenji has really been a trouper these past 2 months going out on OR/FU with me a lot more than normal. Such a shiner! And slowly he's loosing his 'timidness' and is more willing to say 'hi' and recite his verse in Spanish to the girls, that is. The boys will have to wait a bit longer... ehe. As his goal is to reach all the girls right now. HA!

The last two weeks Word study for Kenji was along the lines of witnessing, reaching the lost, etc. So, DV, he will start to acquire a "love for the lost" at a young age and truly know what being a missionary means. I think he already is understanding these things as every now and then he will ask me to read him the "back-pack story" (aka Pandita Ramabai - which is one of his favorite right now) and then after the story motion to go out in the car to say 'hi' and 'Dios es amor' to people. So adorable!

Anyways, that for me has been so encouraging as sometimes I'll get weary in well doing and think it won't make a difference if I don't read to him from his Word study curriculum faithfully. But I'm realizing more and more just how much he desires the Word and how well he assimilates it for a 2 year old. And it sure makes me desperate to not only be faithful to read to him/pour into him, but to most of all give him the right sample in everything I do and say.

Well, I'll stop there before my post gets drawn out. :) But like I said there are lots of instances in the day were Kenji says or does something that is truly amazing, and post worthy, but unfortunately I lack the time to write about it all. But who knows maybe I'll start posting more frequently, but just making the post shorter or something. Who knows? I'll see how I feel about it later.

Fun at the fair!

So there's been a fair here for a little over a month now and we still hadn't taken the kids to it. Seeing as it would soon be over we decided to venture out and take them even if it meant traveling by public, because granddad is still not home.

The Lord did so many miracles for us during this little outing -- He supplied the taxis, entrance fees, meal, rides, shows, snacks, you name it! The kids had a great time and we didn't even spend a single peso. To the contrary He led us to some sweet and needy people who got subscribed,(2 subs) bought us quite a bit of material, and want more! TYJ!

Here are some (okay a lot of)pix of our adventure to the fair - a first for Kenji! :) Just maximize the slide and then click on the "info on" icon to see captions. ;)

Viva Mexico! Viva la Offensiva!

Yesterday, mom, me and Kenji went out on OR/FU. Since it was sort of a holiday (El dia del Grito -- midnight) most businesses were only going to be open half day so we were hoping to make the most of the morning, but due to some events we started our witnessing day a bit late -- 10:00 am. But in spite of that we were optimistic and the Lord encouraged us to go out anyways and that He would bless our outing.

So off we went to our first FU appointment. We actually didn't have an 'appointment', but we've been trying to get a hold of this particular friend for awhile, but he's always too busy. So the Lord showed us to go see him at his office. Even though we thought that for sure he wouldn't be in, as most mangers didn't go for work that day.

Well, much to our surprise he was at his office, but was very busy was what one of his workers told us. The Lord showed us to wait for him a bit. We did but the minutes seemed to grow longer and longer and Kenji was beginning to get a wee bit weary of sitting :D.

Kenji has come with me on OR/FU before but two major differences this time were; #1 we didn't have a car this time -- thus we spent more time in the hot sun walking to our next witnessing spot or provisioning taxis. #2 His outings before had only been half days in other words a couple of hours. That was our vision seeing as shops would close at about 2 or so, but the Lord had other plans. :)

So back to our FU appointment tale. Finally, after about 30 minutes of waiting our friend was able to see us. He was quite surprised by our unannounced visit and kept saying how he had been thinking about us lately and was wanting to call us, but it never came to be. We got to spend a good 20 minutes with him (make up for our long wait ;) :D) showing him our latest projects and happenings and got to talk to him in a more one-on-one personal way. (As opposed to the casual 5 min. talk we often have had, due to how busy he is).

We prayed for protection over him and his work and so that he would make a way in his busy life to make more time to feed his spirit. He was very touched by mom's sincere prayer and kept on thanking her for praying. We presented him the option of being a pledger and he was more than happy to. He also resubscribed to Conectate and bought a FJWL book.


Here are some pix of how we celebrated "Dia de la Independencia". I'll write up some more about this later when I get more time. :D

Of growing pains

For the past week Kenji has been, off & on, complaining about pain in his knees. The first time he complained about it was on our way downstairs for breakfast. He said he had "ouchy" in his knee and asked me to carry him. I thought he was just using it as a means to get me to carry him down the stairs, but his complaining has become more frequent as well as apparent when doing other activities as well. So I'm assuming that he is going through a growth spurt, thus experiencing growing pains.

He is nearly 3 feet tall (1/2" or so shy) and just barely 2 years old! But this is the first time experiencing growing pains. :( Poor little guy! Pray that the discomfort and pain he feels will be bearable and that this growing spurt passes by quickly. Also for his behavioral side, as of late he's been very cranky and fussy. Probably not only because of his growing spurt, but it looks like he's going to be getting 2 more molars! :D

On the bright side of this due to him not wanting to have any more "ochies" in his knees I've been able to convince him that such-and-such food; veggie, protien, fruit etc., will help take away the pain in his knees. So far it's worked well :D, pray it stays that way. But at the same time he may not be wanting to eat due to his molars coming in, grrr ... what to do!? But thank the Lord he's only about 1 kg. under weight!

I've actually never had a problem with him not wanting to eat his veggies/food TTL, but he has his moments when he simply refuses to eat his food. In such cases it's usually more a matter of just trying to do the contrary of what I ask him rather then not liking his food. But he's making progress in this area - as slow as it might seem to me. :D And believe it or not he has his days when he will ask me for food every hour or so! My goodness, where does all that food go?!

Now, on news of sad happenings (and pretty gross as well). About 2 weeks ago I caught Kenji putting little balls of tissue up his nose and on one occasion a bean as well! I immediately took them out and gave him a pretty frightening spiel of what could happen if he got a bean or tissue stuck in his nose. My spiel worked it's charm for a several days after which one day Kenji came up to me and said he had an "ouchie" in his nose.

I did my best to search for tissue or a bean up his nose, but I could not see anything so I told him to blow his nose really hard which seemed to give him temporary comfort. I wasn't sure if he did or didn't have something up his nose, so I just prayed that it would feel better. About 4 days later, while lying with him for several minutes during bedtime, I got a whiff of some nasty smell. My first thought was that it was his breath, but then I remembered that I had just brushed them and he had even rinsed his mouth with a little bit of mouth wash. And I also reasoned with myself that that fowl smell could never come from his mouth.

I was now all the more curious to find out where this fowl smell (it stunck like rotten, sweage water, or something) was coming from. I sniffed his clothes, his hands, his hair, under his neck, but I new it had to be somewhere on his upper body/face as when I laid my head beside his little head I got that fowl whiff. Finally I sniffed his nose and ... my goodness! I asked him why his nose stunck so bad, and asked him if he had stuck something up his nose. He, of course, said no. I did my best to blow out anything inside his right nostril, but it didn't help much.

Seeing as he could still breathe/blow air out through that nostril, I figured it wasn't a bean as if it were it would completley obstruct his nostril. So my only other guess was tissue paper. LFM, I should have asked Him what to do, or even what Kenji had up his nose, but I didn't and simply relied on my own knowledge. I thought that if indeed it was tissue it would soon enough get moist with some camomille tea drops and then dissolve and come out on it's own.

I told mom about it, but she didn't smell a thing, nor did Ez, or anyone else, so I was begining to think that maybe there really wasn't anything up his nose and perhaps he might just have a little infection in his nostril due to sticking dirty fingers in his nose. About 5 days passed and still that smelled continued, and yet no one else smelled it, but by this time Kenji had begun to complain about his nose if I were to touch it or if he would blow his nose.

So, finally, 10 days later from the first time I detected that nasty smell from his nose, we took him to an 'otorinologo' -- a nose doctor -- and just by looking at his nose from the outside the doctor could tell that he did have something stuck in his nostril. He procceded to tell us that because the thing in his nose was stuck way up the nostril his nose could bleed a bit throughout the proccees of taking it out. It took both mom and Ez (I didn't go) to hold him very, very still.
Seconds later ... out came a papaya seed!!! Yuck! It was beginning to expand in size (swell up) and it looked as if little things were growing on it. Double yuck!!

He of course cried a bit, but it was more because he was scared, as later he told me it didn't hurt. TTL! I'm so happy his little nostril is object-free :D and that it wasn't more serious, like been further up then what it was. And I'm sure Kenji learned his lesson about putting things in his nose. As now if I ask him "are you going to put things in your nose again?" He answers "No! Doctor again, no way!" The whole while relating what not to do, what the doctor will do, etc., with his cute little hand motions and gestures.

Here are some of his current favorite things to do; play with water, chase the cat around in a not so loving way :D, (something were working on) "type/work" on the computer, and lasty run around ... naked! Enjoy these pix of Kenji's recent happenings/cuteness :).

Its my little man's 2nd birthday!!

TO MY DARLING KENJI:

I can hardly believe two years have gone by since you made your grand entrance into my life. It's seems not too long ago you were still my helpless little darling baby. I can still clearly remember the first time I held you and felt your little heart beat against mine. What joy that brought me! You were such a sweet, fragile little bundle of love. You had this air about you of knowing so much and wanting to share all this knowledge of yours, yet you couldn't.

But look at you now you're all grown up - with a knockout personality, character and all! You've really changed a lot as well as learned so much this past year. I'm amazed with how 'alive' your mind is and how quickly you learn new things. Its so cute to catch you randomly burst out with a new word you've learned!

Some of the highlights of the progress you've made this last year are; walking, leaving diapers, learning so much scholastically, being weaned, understanding both Spanish and English, forming small phrases in both languages, learning about spiritual matters in a more in-depth way then most 2 year-olds do, and lots more.

I'm so proud of you, my love! And while I look forward to watching you grow up even more and learn lots and lots everyday for years to come a part of me wishes you'd always stay my darling little baby boy. I'm really excited about the future and I feel blessed to take part in your upbringing and life. I know that great things await you - my little yet mighty warrior.

Mighty and yet so tender and sweet, thoughtful and kind. I simply love the little hugs you give me whenever you sense I'm in need of a booster. And each time I hear your soft little voice say "Amo mama" coupled with that darling smile of yours I'm reminded of what it's all for and it makes everything and anything above and beyond worth it.

Truly my life has been blessed in many, many ways but the biggest and most special way has definitely been having you in my life. I'm so happy to have you as my son - my life would be pretty dull without you in it. And I'm even more proud to be your mom. I wouldn't change you for the world.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my darling boy! I pray that this year will be one filled with fun, excitement, and happiness for you. Continue to stay close to Jesus, His Word, and your many spirit helpers. I love you soooooooo much - almost too much!!

Here are some pix of you when you were 1 years old. Just look at that somber, yet lovable, personality! Who can resist such cuteness?
























And here you are at your 2 year old birthday party! You're the sweetest, cutest, and lovable little man! I love you just as you are! Thank you for being my sunshine.

--- YAY! The long awaited b-day pix are finally up! Click on the 4 little arrows to make the slideshow full screen, if you prefer that. You will notice Kenji very dazed/overtired towards the last stretch -present opening- this is due to a fun all afternoon outing which tired him up real well. Good, I'm totally for utter tiredness at bedtime, tee hee! Enjoy! ---



I'm quite pleased with Flickr's slideshows. I can't believe I never tried it before! Oh and today it's my 1 year blogging anniversary! Hooray! 2 cheers for me! :D

P.S. I have some more pix coming soon (as soon as I can squeeze some more "free-time") of the boys adventure to this huge play-place. So check it out again in a couple of days. ;) Love you all and thanks for the presents and b-day wishes!

Angel's birthday celebration!

Seeing as today it's Angel's b-day and a day after his it's Kenji's and then a day after his it's Ezy's , (whew) mom didn't want to make a big deal about Angel's b-day. But I would have nothing of the like I told her, I did. :D

As I mentioned in my last post I really wanted to take him to a water park, but due to the weather we weren't able to follow through with that idea. So, we decided to celebrate his birthday with the foods he most likes - PIZZA and PASTA - and thus make it special for him. We were able to provision 4 big pizzas and a special pasta dish just for him from Italianni's. He loved it! TYJ! And Lord willing we will take them both to Piccolo on Kenji's b-day - as part of their b-days' celebration. Pray they give us a positive answer tomorrow.

I'm not sure if he really understands the meaning of "It's your birthday today," but nevertheless we endeavored to make it a fun and memorable one for him, as not only does he deserve it, but as we (family) all know, we just don't know how many more b-days we will celebrate with him. It's a miracle he has been here with us for these past 11 years and I hope there will be many more to come!

Here are some pix of his b-day celebration for your enjoyment. ;) And thanks guys for wishing him well and getting him presents. Love you!

Of creativity and the like

It's been a while since I post pics of the handsome one :) believe me there have been many 'worthy of a pic' shots, but it's not like I'm gonna walk around the house with a camera in hand :D. But the other day during our activity time the boys' (Angel and Kenji, both Virgos) creativity was in full bloom so I had to capture a shot of their creations. To tell you the truth I was quite amazed and impressed!

Angel built this cool little building/house with many levels and pine trees. Don't know what was going through his head at the moment, but it was very creative of him. Kenji built a little table with food, of course, food is something that lately has been more and more on his mind. It seems he's always munching on something, yet he is still so thin! :( Anyways, so he puts 4 little people on chairs to eat, then since there was still room on the table, but no more people, he decides that the trees might be hungry too! :) So cute!

Angel seems to really like building things with blocks/megablocks and since coming here I've tried to encourage him in this area and have noticed his creativeness improving so much! And it's quite amazing to me how his Virgo traits show up every now and again in spite of him being DS.

For instance while building something with the megablocks the other day he took note of making it color coordinated! I was really impressed! I only helped with the last top of the tower and the blocks sticking out from the main building, he did all the rest! It goes to show the progress he's made these last several months with a little attention in those areas that he needs help with.

Their birthdays are coming up real soon (Angel the 27th & Kenji the 29th) so we're trying to see how we can celebrate it in a fun way seeing as there aren't other kids in the home. Although we may possibly invite friends who have kids their age, we'll see as this will mean more planning, and organizing, simply put more work something that doesn't really appeal to me . :D

But one idea I had was to provision a water park to celebrate Angel's birthday as he just loves swimming. We were able to enroll him in a swimming school, 2 days out of the week, so he's real happy about that! But recently it's been raining every day or every other day and for the most part the weather is overcast, so I don't know if the water park idea will be feasible in the end. :(

And for Kenji's birthday I was thinking he would like something more like a 'Jungle Jim' or something to that extent. Lately he's been driving me up the wall with his running around like a crazy man; climbing anything he finds climb worthy like the back part of our coaches, (yep, he success- fully climbs our coaches from the back even though he gets a swat for it each time when we catch him doing it) jumping off anything he can get on to on his own like our coffee table, etc!

I realize he may simply have way too much energy, but in spite of his daily hour and a half at the park he still seems this wired up! Dear lord, what to do?!Well I'll leave you with some photos of the last couple of weeks, you can expect lots more to come with their b-days a week or so away!

Inevitable ...

That's right, when a little molar pops its little white head through the soft gum surface a next one is sure to follow it. Today Kenji's 6th molar (left bottom) made it's proud little entrance! :) I don't know how soon the next set of molars (top ones) will follow, hopefully not too soon :D, but in any case pray that this teething period will be smooth and easy. Thank you!

True to his name!

These past couple of weeks Kenji has begun to show a lot of interest in learning about spirit helpers and angels which consequently led to hungering more for the Word. Yay! As any mother will agree its so much better when they, out of their own accord, desire the Word rather then forcing them to sit still for 15 or more minutes while you try to get them to listen, yet to no avail.

The other day Grandma gave him a big kids Bible, "The Picture Bible," during parent time. I told him I would read one story after he got ready for bed. Seeing as his new Picture Bible has more text/narration then his Preschool Bible I thought that he would barely make it through one story. But much to my surprise he stayed still and attuned for 4 stories straight, and even had me read and re-read "Temptation in the Garden" story and every time I would close the book he would ask me for just one more! How could I say no to my little "Word-lover!" But I had to eventually give in and say "No more." Ever since then he asks me to read from "The Picture Bible" rather then his Preschool Bible.

Another thing I've noticed is how respectful and serious he is (and has been for sometime now) about prayer. At around 10 months he began to show a fair bit of respect for prayer - would close his eyes, fold his hands, and sit still as long as you kept the prayer short, heh. Then at about 18 months his level of respect for prayer went up a notch. Since then he's been able to sit still for a longer prayer, (typical grown-up in-depth prayer) all the while keeping his eyes tightly closed and will even lay hands on whatever we are praying for if it's something that is there in the room, of course.

And most recently he's learned to call upon his spirit helpers when praying. If I happen to forget to call on a spirit helper throughout my prayer he will promptly remind me of doing so. (His favorite spirit helpers right now are Tor and "Dite"-Aphrodite). Sometimes he will even interrupt prayer in order to run to our room and get my "Helpers and Hinders" booklet from my desk. He likes this booklet because of the spirit helpers it shows on the cover. He points to the male helper and says "Tor," even though I've told him many times that that particular helper is not Tor. It's Tor to him and there is no convincing him otherwise. So cute!

Alright, so what's the whole thing behind 'True to his name'? Well, here is what his name means. Depending on what kanji you use you get a different meaning. (Ken = sword = swordsman JI = grace, mercy).

Meaning & Definition of Swordsman:
1) someone skilled at fencing.
2) a person versed in the art of the sword.

Meaning & Definition of Grace:
1) a disposition to kindness and compassion.
3) a sense of propriety and consideration for others.
4) elegance and beauty of movement or expression.
7)(Christian theology) a state of sanctification by God; the state of one who is under such divine influence.

Meaning & Definition of Mercy:
2) alleviation of distress; showing great kindness toward the distressed.
3) a disposition to be kind and forgiving.
4) the feeling that motivates compassion.

In other words; A noble, mighty and skillful warrior/samurai.
Well at least that's my personal translation. :D

(Samurai is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. The word samurai is derived from the archaic Japanese verb samorau, changed to saburau, meaning "to serve"; thus, a samurai is a servant).

When I was in the midst of choosing a name for him the Lord reminded me of a prophecy I got when I was about 6 or 7 months preggers where Dad told me that my baby had a very special calling - the calling to be a mighty, precise, and valiant warrior in spirit for the Lord. And the reason why I chose a Japanese name was because of a traditional (family) custom due to our Japanese descendant.

To tell you the truth now as I dwell upon all this; the name, meaning, and his special calling I'm beginning to more fully realize the true depth of his name. It's amazing! I couldn't have wanted a more fitting and meaningful name for my handsome little man other than, KENJI. This is why. (His second name is a whole other story in itself, maybe I'll elaborate on it some other time). :)

Hasn't the Lord said before that the Word of God is like our sword in the spirit (Heb.4:12) as well as told us that the best and most efficient way to fight in spirit is through prayer (Isa.45:11b)? Well, there is no doubt in my mind that the Lord has called and ordained Kenji to be a great and mighty swordsman of the spirit fighting with the Word, prayer, the keys and the many other spiritual weapons He has given us. (Eph.6:10-18) But first and foremost a servant of the Lord!

Now isn't that something? I sure think so, and it makes me very desperate to do my part to teach and train him in His ways so that he can be ready and well prepared for whatever his special calling in the Endtime may be. Lord help me to be more faithful, desperate, instant in season and out of season, and on the ball when it comes to teaching Kenji about You, our spirit helpers, the Word, and the spirit world.

That time again

Well what do you know, my little guy just got his 5th molar (right bottom)! Yep, it's that time again of rising above Kenji's daily "out of the blue" fussiness, his tummy aches, (due to putting everything in his mouth) his restlessness both at day and night, a considerable drop in his appetite, etc.

Now I understand why he was so fussy and his temperature a little warmer then normal. But in spite of these challenges, yet again, I've determined to not let these petty things get to me. :D I will rise above, I will! :) Shoot a prayer for me as well as for Kenji if you can! TY!

Growing up

This past month Kenji has learned so many new things, spiritually, physically, and scholastically, and each time he achieves something new I'm filled with so much pride, (the good kind :D) joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness. My baby boy is changing so much and growing up! I'm :) yet at the same time :( for I will miss not having my "baby boy" anymore.

Time would fail me to tell of all the things he's learned or the cute and funny things he says and does. Nor would my mere writings about some of these things cut it as most of them are only appreciated by sight and hearing. And being that I don't have a camera to capture these cute things on video, I must be content to simply recount them in my minds eye.

Although, I will make mention of one particular thing he learned this week that made me so proud. The other day we had a prayer day. Grandma took them for the first shift and revolved her time with them around Word time. They colored, played Word games, had Word time, etc. His favorite "Word game" was one that involved him rolling/flicking "praise/prayer marbles" into various little holes.

He had a blast doing this. Although grandma was the one actually praying short praise/prayers he would lift his hands after each shot and say "amen." It was so cute and such a wonderful idea to impart the importance of prayer to this little ball lover of mine. :D But that isn't the particular thing I wanted to mention.

Grandma then read to them the MLK "Tola and Tor" and gave them the whole spiel of who they are, what they do, and how they can help them (him) anytime. Grandma then proceeded to make them their very own necklaces with a key hanging from it. Oh my God! You should have seen Kenji's face when I went upstairs to bring them some snack.

He was trying to tell me about all the things he did and learned, but his mind was processing things way too fast and he just couldn't get it out as fast. But he managed to express through words and actions about his very own special key. He proudly showed it to me and said, "mine." Then he pointed his little finger and yelled "no" and put out his hands (just like it shows Tola and Tor in the MLK) and made some sort of a destruction noise.

Grandma explained to me what they had read and what he was acting out. I then went up to him and commended him for listening to Word time and learning so much. I said, "yes, we can always call on Tola and Tor to help us fight the Devil." He said, "yesh, (yes) Tor." When I heard him say "Tor" I was so happy, and once again proud of my little guy.

Oh, and another biggie was he learned 30 new words this past month! Okay, so these things may not mean much to some, but it means a LOT to me and I just had to brag about it. :D It may seem normal, or even a bit late, for a 1 & 10 month old tot to talk so much. But I think he's doing pretty well, seeing as he is learning 2 languages.

Usually when kids are subject to this they are late talkers, but Kenji has been saying many words in both Spanish and English since 1 1/2 years old! Actually his first word was ball at 6 months old. (I'll have to count up all the words he's collectively learned since he started talking). His latest new thing has been putting together small phrases with his words. And in no time he will really take off talking!

I can't wait till that moment, it's going to be too cute and precious! Hopefully by then I'll have a means to record it on camera. Okay, I'll stop talking/bragging about Kenji now and leave you all with some pics. Some are recent ones and others are a bit older. Enjoy!

Special outing!

Sunday (Parent Day) has come once again, YAY!, and seeing as the past 2 Sundays' we've stayed home I thought it might be nice to get out of the house for a bit and enjoy some AC, :D, so I decided to take Kenji to Carl Junior's play-place.

At first he was a bit hesitant to get in and play, as it was his first time at a play-place, but after some prodding and Angel's help he warmed up and realized it was a wonderful place to be in. The boys had a blast and after 2 + hours of play they didn't want to get out. But alas it was time to go home, but not before buying a delicious Sundae ice-cream.

Here are some pics of our outing. Enjoy!

My valiant fighter!

The past 3 days Kenji hasn't been feeling all that well :(. It all started last Sunday afternoon when he began acting whiney and fussy for no apparent reason. I realized then that his temperature was a bit elevated so I got him to wind-down a bit to see if perhaps all his running around was the reason for the increase of his body temperature. But by nightfall his temperature had slowly made its way to a low fever.

Since his fever was not very high, nor was he complaining about it, I opted to just let his body fight it off for a bit. He went down for bed fairly easy that night in spite of being sick. (The wonders of story time and cuddles!) But around 5:00 am when he finally made a peep his temperature had risen to 38.9 and his little body was burning so I gave him some Tempra to bring it down and help him continue sleeping.

The next morning he awoke with a temperature and kept it all morning then by naptime it had gone up a bit again. I gave him some Tempra and it helped to keep it within a "safe" bound for the afternoon, but around dinner time his fever had escalated to 40.0 degrees. He also refused to eat much that day.

This is when I began to worry a bit as so far the Tempra had only served to contain his temperature/fever for short periods, but had not entirely knocked it out of his system. Again he took Tempra and thankfully it helped him sleep most of the night without any further inconveniences.

In the morning he awoke, again, with a slight temperature. Seeing as his fever wasn't going away entirely on it's own or with the help of Tempra I called our sweet Pediatrician friend to get his advice. After giving him the whole spiel of Kenji's well being/symptoms and my concern that the fever wasn't "breaking" he prescribed some medicine for the throat as he said that most likely he had a slight throat infection.

The day transpired much the same as the day before with him hardly touching his food, his temperature going up and down, but surprisingly enough he wasn't acting sickly or being whiney and instead insisted on being up and about his daily activities, minus outdoor play time, just at a "lower" pace, something he also did the day before.

Sadly though, that night his fever went up to 40.5! Not good at all! So he took Tempra again and we all desperately prayed for the Lord to heal Kenji up completely and not have his fever go up any higher, as by what I'd seen every day/night, his fever would increase a little bit.

Thank the Lord he answered our prayers and he slept real well that night and the next morning he only had a 38.4 temperature, the lowest temperature he'd had since it all began! It slowly kept on decreasing as the day progressed and further more it didn't go up at night!

I'm so happy that his fever finally "broke" after battling with it on and off for 2 and a half days. I think this is his first time to battle with such high fevers as well as a throat infection, but he did real well. He was such a fighter and for the most part was still his funny and odd little self that he is.

I'm sure the Lord had a good purpose behind this "sickness" but one thing that comes to mind that I'm thankful for in this situation is that it caused me "pull up my socks" in my prayer life, and it also made way to impart on Kenji the importance of prayer and fighting in spirit and introduce him to more spirit helpers and how to call/use them in our every day life.

Thank you all for your prayers for Kenji's healing. Lord willing this infection will be gone soon and he will be restored to full health. I'm just so happy and thankful that he doesn't have a fever any more. TYJ! :) And pray I don't get sick ... I feel a bit funny, maybe I'm just overly tired. Better get to bed now. :D Thank you!

Circus fun!

The other day the Lord supplied some tickets to "Fantasy on Ice," sort of like a circus, for the kids. We decided to wait till Family day, which was today, to take them. I wasn't sure if Kenji would be interested in going but when I asked him about it he said he did want to go. So with that settled I got him ready for his first time to a circus, or something close to it.

When we got in the car he was all excited most likely due to the kids themselves being all excited as seeing that it was Kenji's first time to a circus he didn't really know all that awaited him. Or maybe he was simply over-joyed to be getting out of the house. In any case he was a happy little man!

When we got to the circus there was an enormous line and at one point it looked as if we wouldn't make it, due to there not being enough space anymore, but the Lord did a miracle and we barely made it in. Five more people got to go in after us before they stopped accepting people due to the circus being full. It really was a miracle that we got in as our free tickets were only good till today and that showing was the last one for the day.

Because of the circus being so full we weren't all able to sit together. But at least we got seats. I don't know how many people were under that circus tarp but boy, oh, boy it was sooo hot. Poor Kenji had sweat dripping down his face. So I went ahead and took of his shirt half way through the show. That's when it finally dawned on me to do so. :D

For the most part I think the show caught his interest, of course there was some things that didn't, but all in all I think he enjoyed it. Although I'm sure if it had been a real circus, like with animals, he would have enjoyed it more. But it was one more thing to add to his list of first-timers and he seemed pretty pleased with the whole outing in general.

(The reason some of the pics aren't so centered, mainly the ones of Kenji alone, is because it was pretty hard to hold/balance him in one hand while trying to take a pic of him with the other. I simply had to take a shot and hope that I at least got his face. :D Anyways, just thought I'd clear that up).

(Grr...this random line-up of the pics is really bothering me. I think I might get the Pro account and settle this problem once and for all. At least then I will be able to actually view the photos in order, as they occurred).

Round two ...

It's so sad, my little man fell on his lip, again. :( His first fall, about 10 days ago, has scarcely healed up and BANG another fall. I guess that's what happens when they hit the stage of not only exploring everything but also defiant to any advice or warning you may give them. Oh well, it will soon pass. :D

This morning during devotions grandma was watching Kenji and Angel and seeing as there were 10 minutes left before devotions were over she decided to lie some mattresses on the floor and let them do somersaults for a bit. Now, all was going well with the acrobats until Kenji decided to get off the mattresses and try something different... but to his dismay it didn't quite work out and he fell smack on his face.

Once he calmed down I cleaned up his bloody face and literally covered his face with honey. Then I asked Kenji what he was trying to do and what made him do that silly stunt? And in his cute and peculiar way he told me what he had tried to jump and spin at the same time. Putting 1+1 together I remembered that yesterday at the park we had seen some guys practicing some tricks on their skateboards.

Kenji got one of the guys to lend him his skateboard and this guy was trying to teach Kenji how to ride on the skateboard. It was so cute to see him try and push himself off with his little foot and while also attempting to stand/balance himself on the skateboard, of course with mommy holding one of his hands. He was flipped and didn't want to return the skateboard. :)

I then realized that he was trying to copy the skateboarders only to find out, the hard way, that he's not quite ready to try skateboarding tricks, yet! :D Grandma jokingly said that for his birthday we should just get him am American football helmet and thus prevent any more head/face injuries. Ha! Not a bad idea. ;) lol

So once again he has big swollen lips although thank the Lord this time the fall was not as bad in the sense that he didn't bust his lip open just a couple of blood blisters. I guess this time it was his nose that got the brunt of the fall. :(

He was so miserable due to his ouchy so in order to distract him from it I put on his favorite school program -Starfall. He loves school and he loves computers! It's a package deal! He goes through stages as to what letter of the alphabet or booklet he likes to do. I'm not kidding he will only want to watch that particular letter or booklet over and over for about a week! Grrr! Right now he's into the "Silly Turkey" booklet. He's gotten down the country tune and he has the cutest little clap/dance for it. I should video him doing it some time, heh!

Anyways, back to our story. After nap time I told him to get his sandals on, he refused to do so and so I let him go barefoot but I warned him that if he did he ran the chance of getting ouchies on his feet or worse yet falling down due to not having shoes on. Still he did not heed my advice and went his merry way.

A little while later he went to the back patio, barefoot, and started chasing the cat. I once again made mention of putting his sandals on to protect his little feet especially outside where there are little bitty rocks that could poke him, or ants that could sting him, or taking a fall due to not having shoes on.

My stubborn little Virgo was determined to do it his own way and went outside despite my heeding to not do so. He had been outside for less than 5 minutes when I heard him cry, I ran out outside and picked him up off the floor. This time though I wasn't too sympathetic of his fall as I had warned him many times to not go outside barefoot.

Apparently he was chasing the cat an tripped over our unleveled cement-brick floor. He got a fairly big scrape and bruise right above his right eyebrow. I washed his scrape off, disinfected it with some hydrogen peroxide (he didn't take to kindly to that) and placed honey on it to help the swelling and bruising.

But most importantly I gave him a good talk about the importance of obeying mommy even when he doesn't fully understand why I'm telling him to do such and such. Thank the Lord he was a lot more obedient after that and the swelling on his lips and nose went down completely and his bonks and bruises weren't so bad at the end of the day. I tell you honey does wonders for bonks and falls!

A little accident

Kenji had a little accident today, well not so little, but in comparison to what it could have been it is by far a very minor thing. So I'm most certainly thankful that it wasn't worse. The Lord and his Angels truly did protect him. TYJ!

I had just finished giving him Word time and wanted to keep him still for a bit while I got his school things together for the morning. So I brought him some puzzles and other fun creative toys to entertain him with for about 5 minutes. He sat down on the rug and throughly immersed himself into the puzzle (he really likes puzzles so I got him some 24 piece ones that are easy for little ones to do).

I cleared up the Word time props, books, etc., we had used and brought some school things into the room he was in. Then I turned around and went for some paper and markers for our pre-writing exercises, but I didn't even make it down the hall to my room when I heard him cry.

Let me back track a bit, while I was clearing up the Word time items I took note of the fan being placed in such a way that the cord was stretched out and I thought to myself how someone could trip over it easily. Obviously the Lord was giving me a check to do something about it, but I brushed it off and told myself I would move the fan as soon as I brought all the school things to the room.

I guess I figured Kenji was entertained with his puzzle so he wouldn't get up for another 3-5 minutes, giving me enough time to finish up and then move the fan. But the Lord wasn't pleased with my procrastination and had to show me the importance of instant obedience, even in the little things, the hard way - through my baby having an accident.

Yep, Kenji tripped over that very cord I got a check about to move, but didn't. And because he had a puzzle piece in his hand he must of not taken note to the cord in his way, so the trip caught him off guard and he fell straight on his face/mouth. You can imagine how I felt when I noticed the cause of his fall. But there was no time to think about that now, Kenji's face and neck was covered in blood!

I took him to the bathroom and tried washing/wiping the blood off, but his nose was bleeding so much and he wouldn't let me plug it to keep it from bleeding even more as I guess it was pretty sore from the fall. His mouth was bleeding a lot too and both his lips were swollen, really, really swollen, in less than a minute.

Because of the swelling he wouldn't let me open his mouth to check if he had gotten a cut inside his mouth, or on his tounge or gums, but it was obvious that something big happened to his outer bottom lip. It looked like he had gotten it sliced as it was bleeding a lot, but I wasn't too sure as he wouldn't let me inspect it.

By this time grandma, Jo, and Ez came to see what had happened and one of them fetched some ice and honey. Grandma helped me clean his face up so that we could see just how bad the cut on his lip was. I thought that we were for sure going to have to take him in for some stitches on his lip, as it looked like it had gotten a bad cut/slice and for a while it looked like his 2 front teeth had gotten loose or something as he had these lines caked in blood right above the teeth, but such was not the case, TTL!

Once we cleaned him up and put honey on his nose and lips, and gave the honey time to do its thing, it looked as if his lip would heal up without stitches as it didn't appear to have sliced open. I don't know how to explain it, but it was more like the skin got bashed and bruised and in some parts he got little cuts where some of the inner lip was oozing out, making it look worse than what it was.

Thank the Lord that by that afternoon his swelling had diminished incredibly and he was able to eat a little bit of food. His lip although bruised and cut in some places was looking better and better by the hour and by nightfall he was doing so much better! I'm so grateful and thankful to the Lord for protecting Kenji from a worse accident.

I learned a very important lesson that morning one that we all at times get familiar with - that of asking the Lord everything and taking heed to his little nudges/checks in the spirit. But He is merciful and never gives us more than we can bear. He knows I wouldn't have been able to bear a more serious thing happening to Kenji due to my lack of obedience to His check. The Lord indeed is good! TYJ!

Because of the nature of the accident and all that followed it slipped my mind to capture Kenji in his first accident in relation to a fall (he had his first accident the beginning of this year). But the next day I was able to capture one sort-of-good pic of his ouchy. He wouldn't stay still long enough to capture his perfect little poses showing off his ouchy. And for some reason most of the pics came out to bright, maybe Noelle didn't have it in the right setting,so some of the pics look kind of funky but I'm trying to see if I can fix them before I upload them here so be patient. :)

In other happier news :D a couple of days ago I took out Kenji's little swimming pool and let him and Angel play in it for about 3 hours straight. They were so happy! It's mighty hot over here these days - 95 or more degrees at times and that's in the evening when it has supposedly cooled off! Yuck! That's not even funny!

The pictures,... finally! They aren't all that great, but at least you get to see the ouchy he got. :( Thank the Lord it's doing better now.

Home at last!

And so our long, yet fun, 19 day trip - from Torreon to Saltillo then Mexico City and back to Saltillo and then to Torroen - has finally come to an end. Whew! That was a lot of traveling for a little tyke, but he did so well both in the car and the bus both ways!

I'm so happy it worked out for us to stay a week longer than our original plan in Saltillo as to tell you the truth I wasn't sure if Kenji would be up to traveling on a bus a day or two after our long 9 hour car drive from Mexico City. I sure wasn't looking forward to it! :D

Anyways, here are some random pics of the many fun things he did while in Saltillo this last week. I had a lot more, but had to cut down/choose the most interesting ones in order to not go past the MB limit Flickr gives the freebies. :) Seeing as I already posted a lot of pics in the last 3 posts. :D

One of his favorite things, by this I mean - ALL TIME FAVORITE, - was riding the trike that was there. Seriously he must have ridden the trike about 4 hours per day, no kidding, of course in short slots here and there, but still that's a lot of time!

Meaning that I spent that much time, each day, hunched over pushing him. The trike was a little too big for him so he wasn't able to actually pedal himself. But he will shortly as I want to get him, DV, a trike or something to that extent for his birthday. (He's going to be flipped! So pray I find a good one for a decent price. :D Thanks!)

Another thing he really enjoyed was doing projects, activities, or simply playing with the kids in the home. There are no kids his age or around his age here, so it was really nice for him and helped him socialize a little more. Although he didn't take too kindly to the little girl as she was way too overbearing and kept on trying to always hold his hand and always give him hugs, etc. It was cute, but Kenji didn't seem to think so. He was more like "Give me some space, lady"! Ha!

He really liked playing with the dogs and cat - my little animal lover - but still needs to learn to be more gentle with them. He thinks he's gentle enough, but Chester - the cat - didn't seem to agree with him when Kenji would try to pick him up by his tail or check out what was inside his ear. Ha! By the 3rd day we were there Chester would run and hide when Kenji came around making Kenji get all sad. He actually would slap his leg and say "oh, no!" with a big frown on his face. :( Pretty cute!

Oh, another thing that was sort of new to him was getting in the pool. He's gotten in once before when he was a little younger than a year, but it was too cold and he most certainly was not happy with that. Anyways, he didn't care too much about the water this time, but was more into riding the 'motorcycle' floaty. He would have stayed doing that for hours had I let him, but the sun was too hot at the time.