Just Another Busy November

Date: November 5, 2011
Location: Lake Jackson, TX

The MK Meier family has finally settled into life here in Lake Jackson, Texas.  During the past month, we’ve seen the weather go down from the 90’s range to the 40’s. We’ve watched the mosquito armies bring on a late summer attack for a couple weeks, just to die off every time the temperature dropped below 50.  We went from using air conditioning on a regular basis to needing to use heat. We’ve settled into a routine that keeps the boys busy (and Mamma from going insane).  She also been quite busy attempting to potty train Luke and to get Grace to eat some of her first solid foods.

If any of you have been following the blog, you’ll note that I’ve actually been adding posts a little at a time over the past month.  However, if this is the first time that you’ve visited the blog since the past update, here are the stories you will find:

1) Our two big prayer requests (probably our biggest stressors at this time)
2) My 25 hour day (thoughts on what Cristina should do on the day that daylight savings ends)
3) Halloween alternatives (how the MK Meier family celebrated Halloween for the first time)
4) A Trip to Chicago (find out why Stephen left Lake Jackson for three days to attend a conference)
5) Remembering Smashed Potatoes (discussing some of the cute phrased the boys have said)
6) The Lake Jackson Speed Trap (owning up to Cristina’s first time caught speeding)
7) Texan invadors (dealing with the Texas mosquito population explosion)

Feel free to read through the blog and enjoy!

Remembering smashed potatoes

Learning how to talk is something many of us have taken for granted.  Once we reach a certain age, we do not remember what steps it took for us to be able to communicate with the people around us.  We have already forgotten all the childhood frustrations of trying to tell a grown up something that they just can’t seem to understand, because the right words are just not coming out of our mouths in a way that makes any sense to them.

I remember coming up with the wrong words for certain items and finding out much later that the right word was something different.  For the longest time, if I saw a big bowl of white, steamy, pureed potatoes, I would call them “smashed potatoes.”  No one ever said anything to make me believe they were something different.  Then, one day a little friend of mine began arguing with me that the real word for this food item was not “smashed” but “mashed.”

After getting nowhere between us, I took the argument up with a grown up who finally revealed to me that my friend was correct.  Then I felt a little upset with my parents for letting me go so many years saying the wrong name.

Now that I am an adult, I find myself not wanting to correct my own children’s funny and cute labels for things. Recently, I’ve been buying little drinkable yogurts for Jared and Luke to have a snack.  They have a little picture of a monkey on them and are just enough yogurt to provide a bit of refreshment between nap time and dinner time. Jared has decided that this item is called a “cow snack.” I still don’t know why. But every one of us in the house calls the drinkable yogurts “cow snacks” now.

Just today, I pulled out a little string of Halloween lights to put in our front yard.  Basically, it is a string of smiling pumpkins that glow.  Luke took one look at them and said, “Smiling gummys!”

So, there you have it.  This fall, we will have a string of smiling gummies in our yard. I’ll correct the boys word choice sometime later on down the road.

Jared and Luke learn to milk a cow using this plastic version.

The Lively Luke

My two year old continues to amaze, impress and drive me crazy at the same time.  He is almost at the stage where we can really communicate to each other and yet there are still so many moments when I am clueless about what he trying to tell me.  Sometimes I can see the frustration come out on his face when he just can’t get his message across to me.  Sometimes it requires a translator, which sometimes Jared is the only one who understands what he is saying.  I don’t know how he does it, but my four year old can pretty much figure out what Luke  is trying to say most of the time.

Luke fluctuates from trying to do everything himself and then wanting help.  He goes back and forth between following his big brother around as his shadown and copying everything he says or does and….simply running away to do his own thing.  Unfortunately, his own thing is usually getting into something or some drawer that Mommy has spefically forbidden.

My newest challenge is keeping him with me when we go into big retail stores of some kind.  I’ve begun making use of a rainbow colored wrist band that looks slightly like a leash.  I call it “Luke’s special bracelet” and we let Luke wear it so that Mommy won’t run away from him.  This line seems to keep him pacified when he finds himself restrained to a few feet from mommy’s side even as Jared runs and jumps circles all around us.

One day at the department store, I found Luke was talking and babbling to himself and realized he was trying to strike up a conversation with a nearby headless manikin.  Before I finally persuaded him to come with me, he said “Good-bye” to the manikin and blew it a kiss.

Currently, I’m trying to get him potty trained.  We aren’t quite there yet, but I think we are getting closer.

Luke greets me from inside a playground toy.

Our April Showers

If this part of our life was made into a movie, the opening scene would have taken place when I brought Grace home from the hospital on Monday, April 4. Grace was born at 12:40pm on Saturday, April 2.  After we were finally released from the hospital on Monday morning, I was looking forward to being home with my family and having some time to relax.  Little did I know that the relaxation time would be short-lived. 

My first week at home was the last week of the third quarter.  I promised that I would grade the final two assignments of my two computer classes so that the substitute teacher could begin grading everything for fourth quarter only.  A few afternoons when I should have been resting were spent grading papers. 

The real action of this movie began on Friday, April 8.  Jared started coming down with a fever around lunch time.  I didn’t think too much of it, but hoped he would sleep it off during his afternoon nap.  Then, Stephen insisted we go to the civil registrar’s office to begin processing Grace’s paperwork, even though she was only six days old.  We sat in line for over an hour to find out we didn’t have all the paperwork we needed to process her Ecuadorian citizenship.  This paperwork is necessary to complete before we could get herU.S.paperwork done.  We were told we needed to get our “migratory movements” from the census office in the center of Quito.

Stephen holds Grace in the Civil Registration Office.

So, I we all tried to go home and relax, and give Jared a little more Tylenol to control his unusually high temperature.  I went to bed that night thinking I’d be up a couple times with Grace, but not realizing that Jared would wake me up in the early morning hours with a raspy cough.  My mom heard him coughing and told me, “Uh-oh, that sounds like croup.”

Since he appeared to be struggling with breathing, I asked Stephen and my mom to take Jared to the emergency room first thing Saturday morning.  They found out that Jared did have the first stages of croup.  They gave him a shot and put him on nebulization treatments for the rest of the weekend. The doctor also told us to keep him away from the baby as much as possible.  However, it was difficult to keep Jared isolated from everyone.  Jared seemed to be doing a little better after his treatments, but he had a really bad cough.  All he wanted to do was lie around the house. 

Saturday night provided an interesting experience.  Little 7-day-old Grace only woke up once that night to be fed.  Jared, on the other hand, was waking me up every hour between 10pm and 4am, because he was so congested and his cough was hurting his chest and throat so much.  By Sunday morning, I was completely exhausted.  But I could not rest, because I promised Stephen that I would go with him to the census place at 8am to get our “migratory movements.”  We all skipped church and I tried to rest. 

However, I was starting to feel a tingling in my throat that day.  Not only that, but my varicose veins in my right thigh had gotten really hard and was starting to bother me.  I started feeling feverish by that evening. Fortunately, Jared only woke me up once that night and Grace two times.

I was tired on Monday morning, but Stephen was set on taking Grace back to the civil registration office to get her Ecuadorian paperwork done.  We left as early in the morning as possible.  We ended up staying there until 3pm before Grace got all her Ecuadorian paperwork done.  We finished just in time to go to my doctor’s office for an appointment.  When I told him about my varicose vein, he sent me to see a vascular surgeon, because he was afraid that I might have thrombosis of the veins. 

Indeed, this was the case.  The vascular surgeon recommended that I get surgery right away to remove the clogs that were blocking the vein in my leg.  So, I scheduled the surgery for Tuesday, April 12 at 1pm.  When I got home that night, I noticed that Luke was starting to cough and look a little congested. 

By Tuesday morning, I was also starting to cough.  But I had no time to rest, because I had to finish all my grading and get my grade book turned in before my surgery. 

With that done, I had 10 minutes to eat lunch, feed Grace and get to the doctor’s office.  I arrive a few minutes late.  My mom held Grace in the waiting room as I went under the surgeon’s knife for the following thirty minutes as he gave me local anesthesia to remove the clots from the vein in my thigh.  The surgery itself wasn’t too painful.  The worst part was trying not to cough too hard, because it seemed that I had caught a cold. 

My mom noticed that Grace was also starting to cough and that began to worry all of us.  A newborn baby may sneeze a lot, but should not be coughing.  I tried not to get too worried, because she was scheduled to see her doctor the next morning for her first check up. 

By Wednesday morning, it was obvious that Luke was sick.  He woke up feverish and coughing.  So, I took him to see the doctor, too.  The doctor said that he wasn’t too worried yet, because Grace’s chest was clear, but her sinuses were congested and if that congestion dropped into her chest, she would need to go to the hospital.  He told me to call a nurse who did home visits to come and check on the children’s oxygen saturations for a few days and to provide nebulization treatments to help clear up the congestion. 

So, I called her that afternoon and she arrived that evening for her first visit.  She did not look too happy about little Grace’s condition.  She said her oxygen saturation was too low and wasn’t staying above 90%.  It kept falling to 80%.  I didn’t know what to think of that, because I had never had to worry about oxygen saturation with my sons before.  By Thursday evening, the nurse was very concerned.  I was tempted to think that she was over reacting until she pointed out the fact that Grace’s nail beds were looking purple and so were her lips.  She said her oxygen saturation was falling to 60% and that Grace needed to go to a hospital right away. 

Grace in her hospital gown at Hospital Metropolitano. Poor, little Grace with her IV tube in her hand.

Reluctantly, I packed up a small bag and my mom helped me to go to the hospital where she was tested, x-rayed, poked and then finally diagnosed with infant bronchitis.  They wouldn’t even let me feed her until they were finished with all their tests.  Although there was little room in the hospital, the doctor was able to pull some strings and get us into a hospital “suite.”  It was almost comical, how we were able to stay in such a large hospital room for such a tiny baby.  So, after leaving the hospital on Monday, April 4, she was back in the hospital on Thursday, April 14.  Once again, my boys had to be separated from their mom for two days.  They seemed to do O.K. under the care of my mom, the nanny and Stephen. 

Grace with her IV in her arm.

The hardest night for us was Friday.  The nurse was still visiting our home to check on Luke and Jared.  Jared was finally feeling better after a week of being sick.  Luke, on the other hand, was not doing so well.  The nurse called on Friday night to say that she believed Luke should be admitted to the hospital.  I was at my wit’s end.  How was I going to care for both of my babies at the same time?  It didn’t help that my cell phone decided to run out of minutes at the time and my hospital phone wasn’t working.

Fortunately, the doctor understood my dilemma and suggested we purchase some antibiotics for Luke and see if that would help clear him up.  Stephen went out to purchase the medicine that night and his doses began.

Of course, the real climax of this movie would have been Saturday afternoon, April 16.  We were finally given clearance to leave the hospital on the condition that Grace would continue using oxygen at home until she is able to hold her oxygen saturation level at 90% on her own.  This required ordering an oxygen tank to be brought to our home.  A few hours before we left, we called the oxygen tank company so that they would be there when we arrived. 

Then I packed up our things and got ready to go.  I looked out the window and mentioned to Stephen, “I’m glad we have good weather to go home.”  The sun was shining and everything looked dry. 

This is why I was so shocked to look out the window at the other side of the building to see that it was raining.  How could it be sunny on one side of the building and raining on the other?  The last time this happened, our house got flooded.

 “Uh-oh…I hope we aren’t going to get one of those floods, again,” I thought to myself. 

We managed to get a taxi just as the rain started to come down really hard.  The next thing we knew, it was hailing and little pelts of ice were ricocheting off the windshield.  Stephen called my mom to ask how the apartment looked. 

“No, it’s not flooding yet…oh…wait a second…I think I see water coming up from the kitchen floor.” 

My mom tries to keep the water from flowing up from the kitchen floor.

As we turned the corner to go to our house, I knew it was bad.  The roads were already flooded three or four inches.  The taxi had to slow down quite a bit to keep from getting stuck in the water.  When we arrived in front of the school, the rain was pouring down hard, and we didn’t have an umbrella.  The taxi driver insisted that he would take our things from the car for us.  I ran into the building only thinking to protect Grace from the rain. 

Stephen, however, noticed that the taxi driver had not unloaded his computer case before leaving us.  The next thing I know, Stephen is chasing the taxi down the street leaving me in the front of the building with a sick baby and bunch of bags.  Five minutes later, he returned drenched, but with the computer tucked under his shirt.  He had to chase the taxi down a couple blocks.  Thanks to Stephen’s ability as a runner and the fact that the flooded streets slowed down the taxi, he was able to catch him. The taxi driver thought he could steal Stephen’s computer in the confusion of the moment, but didn’t count on Stephen’s quick instincts or his speed in running.

The next step was to get the baby home.  The man with the oxygen tank had arrived by then, and a group of men in the lobby asked if they could help me get my things home.  When we all arrived at our home, we saw water covering the entire floor of the house.  I stood there in a state of shock until the oxygen man asked, “So where do you want me to put this tank?”

“Not here!” I said.  I would not be able to take care of a sick baby with bronchitis in this flooded house.  So, we sent all the kids to the second floor with some of our friends to watch a movie. I tried to stay upstairs because I had no boots and my tennis shoes were completely soaked.  But every time I came downstairs to get something for the kids, there were more friends and neighbors helping us to sweep the water out of our house and to try to clean up all the city water that had created a muddy, wet mess everywhere.

The water overflowing from the inside of our house and the outside as well.

Since we live in the basement of a dorm, we were allowed to use some of the guest rooms upstairs to sleep for the night.  We tried to start cleaning some of the clothing items that had gotten wet in the flood, but the electricity went out at 8:30 that evening, leaving us in the dark for several hours.  It took three guys to move Grace’s oxygen tank up to the guest rooms, but we were all able to get some rest that night.

By noon the next day, we were able to bring the kids back down to the house.  We had heaters running throughout the house to warm up the building and dry the walls and floors.  Grace’s nurse finally gave Luke a clean bill of health on Monday, April 18.  The antibiotics were really helping him improve.  By Wednesday of that week, I actually got antibiotics for Grace and for myself because our congestion was not clearing up, either.  As soon as I took my first dose, I started to feel better. 

Grace had to wear her oxygen in her nose for several weeks.

Easter vacation began, but we couldn’t go anywhere, because Grace was still hooked up to an oxygen tank.  The nurse was still coming to visit twice a day.  After Easter vacation ended, I took Grace to see her doctor on Monday, June 25.  The doctor said that she would still need oxygen for two or three more weeks, but that the nurse could bring down her visits to twice a week.  I was also told that Grace wouldn’t need nebulization treatments anymore and that she just needed to have her oxygen saturation checked. 

In the next step to recover, Grace only needed oxygen blowing toward her face and not in her nose.

So, the nurse came for the next two weeks.  Another positive change during this time was that the daily rains suddenly stopped at the beginning of May.  The second of May was the first day in over a month that it didn’t rain.  And finally, the nurse made her last visit on Friday, May 6. She recommended that I continue using oxygen with Grace at night.  So, I continued to use it until May 15.  Then I returned the oxygen tanks just in time for us to fly out toTexas for a visit on May 18.

Grace sleeps without her oxygen completely.

A full month has passed since then.  Grace continues to stay healthy and grow both in length and weight.  In spite of the trials that happened during her first month of life, Grace is a happy little girl who loves to giggle and coo at those who pay attention to her.

The Birth of Grace Erin Meier (our little GEM)

As I came into my final month of pregnancy, the burning question was how long I should continue working.  I had watched several of my pregnant co-workers work up until their due date and even past it.  I had never had the opportunity to reach my due date with my first two children, but I had decided that I didn’t want to work until the point of 40 weeks of pregnancy (if by some small chance I made it that long).

However, I was not sure if I should keep working until the day I gave birth.  So, after some consideration, I decided to work until the end of my 39^th week if, indeed, I did make it that far. 

As my 39^th week approached, so did a lot of other stress factors that will be discussed later on in this blog (flood, finances, etc.)  Stephen told me that I should stop working earlier than that, because I was allowed to stop working after 38 weeks even if I had not given birth. 

I ended up teaching my final day on Thursday, March 31 and handed over my classes to a very competent permanent substitute who would teach my class for the rest of the school year.  Friday morning (April 1), I hosted one last meeting/party with my high school civics club and sighed in relief after having completed all my teaching duties. 

That afternoon, as I did my shopping for the following week, I began to feel a lot of tightening in my stomach as “false” contractions took place while I pushed the grocery cart around the store.  I wasn’t sure if they were a sign of anything besides my own fatigue.  So, I decided that I would monitor them after I went to bed.

That night I went to bed feeling a little strange, but decided to wait and see what would happen after a good night’s rest.  I woke up twice that night with a very distinct feeling that I was having a contraction.  However, they were three hours apart, so I didn’t do anything about until the following morning when I was having them every hour to every half hour.  By 8am, I knew I had to call my doctor.  He had told me the previous afternoon at my 39 week check up that I was 2 cm dilated and that I needed to let him know ASAP when I started having contractions.

“This is your third child and it will come a lot faster,” he told me.

Nevertheless, I was still surprised when he told me that he wanted me to go to the hospital right away.  I was a little annoyed as I took my shower and got dressed and started calls to the people who had agreed to watch my boys in case I went in to labor over the weekend.  My contractions were still between 30 minutes to an hour apart.  They were very light and my water hadn’t even broken yet as it had with both of my previous pregnancies.

Cristina smiles because her contractions aren't very painful yet.

Stephen and I kissed our boys as we left and said that baby Grace would be coming out of mommy’s tummy soon and that they would be able to visit when mommy and baby Grace were ready.  Luke didn’t quite understand why he couldn’t come to the hospital with us, but Jared was content to watch us leave.  Just the night before, I had given the boys a couple of gift bags with a baby toy in each of them and told them that they could give the presents to baby Grace when she was born.  Jared was really excited about that prospect and promised to help his baby sitters find everything that he and Luke needed while we were gone.  It made me proud of my 3 and a half year old son to see him step up to be the “big brother.”

We arrived at the hospital shortly before 10am and found my doctor anxiously awaiting us in the emergency room entrance.  He whisked us into an examination room where he confirmed my suspicion that I was not that far along in the delivery process.  I was still only 2 cm dilated and the fetal monitor had not picked up any contractions in 10 minutes.

So, my doctor said that we could wait in the room until the hospital checked me in and that he would come back later to see how I had progressed.  He mentioned that if my contractions did not become more regular in the next couple hours, he would give me something to speed up the process.  It seems he was determined that I give birth that day. 

I looked at Stephen in annoyance and said, “I do not want be induced!”

I was still hooked up the fetal monitor as different nurses and hospital representatives prepared paperwork and tests to admit me to the hospital.  Meanwhile, I began to feel more contractions.  I had two within the following twenty minutes and one of them was a lot stronger than any of the previous contractions I had been having so far.

By 11am, they were wheeling me into the labor room where I would give birth.  As I waited for Stephen to arrive, I realized that my contractions were already coming a lot quicker than they had before.  I noticed that they were now 10 minutes apart.  After Stephen came to the room, he noticed the television and began to flip through the cable channels.  I tolerated the distraction for the time being as I walked around the room waiting for contractions to come and go.

By noon, Stephen noted that my contractions were coming every two to three minutes and were lasting about 45 seconds to a minute.  Shortly afterwards, I felt too tired to walk around and began to sit down on the bed.  Suddenly, I could no longer tolerate the television.

“Turn that thing off now!” I ordered him in frustration. “I need you to focus on me, please!”

The nurses must have noticed the sudden change in my tone of voice, because one lady came running in and asked me how far apart my contractions were coming.  When I told her that they were coming every two minutes, she said she would call for the doctor.  She came scurrying back and said that she was told to check my dilation.  I was surprised when she told me that I had already dilated to 9cm. 

The room became a flurry of action as nurses began to bring in everything needed for the delivery.  I took the time to call Jared and Luke one last time.  They were eating lunch and getting ready to take a nap.  When I got off the phone, I didn’t even notice any pain for about a couple minutes.  However, the next contraction was so strong I knew that I would want to push soon. 

“Where’s the doctor?” I asked.

Just then, he arrived and measured me again.  I was 10 cm dilated, but the baby had not come down yet.

“Try not to push,” he told me.

The next ten minutes were a rush over my system.  The moment the doctor sat down in front of me, it felt like a roller coaster was let loose and I had the greatest desire to push.

“Hold on! Not so fast!” my doctor told me.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” I said as I tried to hold back what felt like a waterfall of contractions that were coming all at the same time. “I can’t stop pushing!”

“O.K. O.K.  Just slow down,” he said.  “She’s coming.”

And suddenly in two pushes, she had arrived.  I looked down and saw her little bottom sticking up in the air as the doctor cut her free and handed her to the nurse.  My pediatrician did not arrive until 10 minutes after the baby was born because it all happened so quickly.  (Note: In Ecuador, it is customary that both the attending physician and the pediatrician be present at the time of a baby’s birth.)

Grace reaches out to her daddy.

The time was 12:40pm.  Grace Erin Meier was born on April 2, 2011, on the 97^th birthday of her great-grandmother (on Stephen’s side of the family) with the same initials (GEM). She weighed 2.7 kilos which is approximately 6 pounds and measured the length of 47 cm, which is approximately 18 ½ inches long.

The doctor began to stitch me up as we waited for the placenta to release.  After thirty minutes, it was apparent that the placenta was not coming out on its own.  This same thing had happened with the birth of my second son, Luke.  He called the anesthesiologist to put me under so that he could manually extract the placenta.

By 3pm, I was waking up again and in the recovery room.  It wasn’t until 4pm that they wheeled me into my bedroom and I was able to see my baby again.  I stayed in the hospital for two days and returned home on Monday around noon to the two very excited big brothers anxiously awaiting the return of their mother and baby sister.

We are all very happy to be home as we get acquainted with the newest member of the family.

The Meier children together for the first time.

Notes From a Single-Parent Household

Date: February 24, 2011
Location: Quito, Ecuador

It is times like these that I most admire single parents of small children.  Stephen left Quito day to spend a few days in Lake Jackson, Texas (a city about an hour south of Houston) to visit a Christian school there that is interested in hiring him.  He will return to Quito to rest for about 24 hours before he gets back on a plane to travel to Bangkok, Thailand to visit the International Community School there about a possible job position. He will not return from that trip until next Friday night, March 4.

That leaves me, Cristina Meier, to care for two energetic toddlers and a quickly growing child in the womb whose due date is approaching in about six weeks.  However, I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on what has been going on in our lives since the new year began (which was the last time I wrote).

Visit the posts in this blog to find out about:
1) Stephen’s current job opportunities for the next school year (Ministry)
2) Cristina’s pregnancy update (Family News)
3) Experiencing Valentine’s Day the Sophomore Way (Ministry)
4) Special Prayer Needed for Stephen’s brother, Kurt (Family News)
5) The Meier boys’ bedtime routine (Family News)
6) Girls Come Early (TCK Views)

We pray that God’s blessings will be with you as the month of February draws to an end.  Feel free to contact us by phone, e-mail, blog, Facebook or Skype.

Sincerely,
Cristina (for the rest of the family)

The Meier Boys’ Bedtime Routine

Jared and Luke put Bible stickers in their notebooks.

Every night after getting ready for bed, we have a “story-time” routine.  In the past few months, this time has developed past simply reading a few story books.  We added a Veggie Tale devotional book for kids for a while.  Then, Jared joined Awana Cubbies and we began to add this Cubbie book lessons to our “story-time reading and activities.  Jared spends some time learning Bible verses and Luke sometimes tries to mimic what Jared is saying. 

When we are all done, we pray together before the boys go to sleep.  For several months, I would sit at Jared’s bed and Stephen would sit at Luke’s bed while the boys prayed laying down and looking up at the ceiling. A couple weeks ago, as Stephen began planning his school-visiting trips, I realized that I was going to be by myself during this process for several days.  So, I began to change their prayer time routine by having both boys kneel at the foot of Jared’s bed so we could pray together.  Luke sits on my lap and Jared kneels next to me.  My heart swells as I listen to them repeat after me.  Jared has actually started adding a few lines he thinks of on his own.

It’s both exciting and scary to think of his little mind trying to comprehend the spiritual aspects of our routine.  One night, he was lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling shortly after I got his pajamas on and I could tell he was thinking about something quite deeply.  Then, he turned to me and asked me, “Mommy, where’s God?”

I felt my heart stand still for a second as I tried to break down that question in a way that a three year old might understand it.  It’s amazing to me that he will soon be at the age where we can explain the message of Jesus’ love and sacrifice and the salvation of mankind.  It is also a bit terrifying that I am the primary tool for communicating that message in his life.  All I can do is pray that Jared will somehow see Jesus’ love in me in spite of my flaws and weaknesses.

Christmas with the MK Meier Family

The timing for Stephen’s trip to the U.S., allowed for many Christmas gifts to be brought back to Ecuador.  Stephen spent one night with my siblings in Gainesville, Florida and they gave him many gifts to bring back to Ecuador with him.  We had also saved up gifts purchased over the summer to give to the boys for Christmas.  So, we have a tree loaded with presents when the boys woke up on Christmas morning.

Jared climbs through the tunnel of his new tent.

Every year, Christmas morning becomes a little more meaningful as the boys grow to understand and appreciate what the season means just a little bit more.  At nearly three and a half, Jared was really starting to understand the concept of Christmas.  He was able to help pick out some presents he wanted to give his brother and his mommy and daddy.  We counted down the “naps” until Christmas, since Jared sleeps twice in a 24 hour period. 

I woke up on Christmas morning before anyone else.  Usually, I find it difficult to get out of bed, but the adrenaline of the upcoming day got me up early.  I puttered around the house getting last minute things done and waiting for the boys to wake up.  A surge of excitement welled up inside me as I heard the boys stirring and Jared started talking to Luke.  I grabbed my camera and waited to take a picture of the boys as they came out of their bedroom for the first time to see the tree, the presents, the bulging stockings and…of course…their first present, a small Discovery kids tent with a tunnel attachment already set up in the middle of the living room. 

Luke zooms through the tent tunnel with great excitement.

Jared came out of the bedroom first.  His eyes grew wide as he looked into the living room.  However, he retreated quickly back into his bedroom before I could get a picture.  I could hear him talking to Luke and trying to coax him to leave the bedroom. 

After about five more minutes, I see Luke walk out of the room, with Jared literally pushing him out the door. 

“Look at the presents, Luke!” Jared was saying. 

They were both surprised to see me standing there, and got a bit side tracked by my Christmas greetings.  But eventually they made it to the living room and their new tent.  They were so excited and begin to climb through the tent and the tunnel immediately.  I let them play a little while, and then told them that they needed to drink their morning milk, because it was already 7:30 in the morning.  They had both wet through their pajamas, so I changed them into new sleepwear.  By then, Stephen was awake. 

We let the boys open their stockings first.  By this year, Jared was beginning to understand the concept of digging everything out of the stocking before focusing on one object.  Luke, however, wanted to stop and play with every toy he pulled out of his stocking before trying to get anything else out of his stocking.  It took a bit of convincing to turn his attention back to the stocking when he had so many intriguing toys lying around him.

Jared and Luke open their stockings with a little help from Mamma.

 After the stockings were finally empty, it was time for the boys to take a bath and get ready for breakfast.  So, we all got ourselves cleaned up and filled our bellies before we tackled the Christmas tree loaded with wrapped gifts. 

By the time breakfast was done, the dishes washed and put away, it was already 10am.  Stephen read the story of the three wise men to Jared and Luke to explain why we give gifts to each other on Christmas day.  The night before, we had read the Christmas story of Jesus being born, so we didn’t repeat it again that morning. 

Then, we began to open presents.  We let Luke be the first to select any gift to give to the person to whom it belonged.  That was Jared’s present.  Next, Jared selected a gift.  We let Luke and Jared continue selecting the gifts.  Luke was the first to get tired of the gift-opening process.  After selecting gifts for the fourth or fifth time, Luke began to grab gifts, hand them to his dad and then take off to play with a gift he had already opened. 

Jared wanted to help everyone open their gifts, too. 

We had to pause a few times to allow the boys to try out their new gifts.  By the time all the gifts had been unwrapped, it was past noon.  We gave the boys their lunch and put them down for a nap without any struggle.  They fell asleep almost immediately.  Who knew that opening gifts all morning could be so tiring?

Meier Boy Accomplishments

I have been surprised to see how well my sons have been able to handle the different baby sitters who came in and out of the house during the time that their nanny was sick.  There was only one day when I really could tell that they were struggling.  I was on my way home one morning when I began to hear them chanting, “Mommy! Mommy!”

I found them standing at the child-safety gate in the front door, rocking back and forth and looking for me to come home.  It made me laugh as I reached in the door to give them hugs.

Jared and Luke look at books together as they drink their morning bottle of milk.

They are learning so many things, so quickly.  One of the things that our nanny has contributed to is teaching my boys how to count in Spanish.  She plays these little jumping and counting games with them.  Luke can actually count from one to ten in Spanish and he can’t even count that far in English.  I heard Jared once count to 24 in Spanish. 

Another one of Luke’s new fascinations is trying to have a conversation with you on the phone.  You should try it sometime.  Give us a call and we’ll hand the phone to Luke.  He will talk your ear off.  Will you understand what he says?  Well…possibly ten percent. But he loves to talk on the phone. 

Jared, on the other hand, is getting much better at having a conversation….if he doesn’t get shy.  He’ll say, “How are you?” I’m fine” all in one breath and then continue to tell you about his latest exploits or the most recent treasure he has found. He is also able to make himself understood by Luke a lot better than before.

Luke is so used to having his big brother around all the time that he always looks a little confused or lost when Jared isn’t around.  Sometimes Daddy takes Jared in the running stroller when he goes out to exercise.  Just recently, we’ve started sending Jared to Awana (for 3 years and up) and allowing him to attend Sunday school instead of staying in the nursery. 

Whenever Luke realizes that his brother is missing, he usually spends about five minutes wandering around saying, “Jey-wed…where are you?” before he notices that he has full and complete access to all the toys that his big brother usually yanks out of his hands.  However, it seems that Luke has more fun when his brother is there to wrestle over the toys than when he is playing with toys by himself. 

Both boys are soaking in more vocabulary every day.  Recently, I realized that Jared had the Bingo song memorized.  I thought to myself, “If Jared can memorize how to spell ‘Bingo’ than he can certainly spell his own name which has the same amount of letters.”

A few days later, Jared is singing:
“There was a boy who had a friend and Jared was his name. 
J-A-R-E-D,
J-A-R-E-D,
J-A-R-E-D
And Jared can spell his name-o.”

Jared has also memorized three different verses from the Bible after several months of doing bed time devotions.  He knows Psalm 118:24, John 4:16 and Psalm 27:1.  Feel free to quiz him on any of these verses the next time you talk to him.  He’ll probably tell you, if he’s not feeling shy at the time.

Luke’s Melodic Expressions

Luke spreads the sause on his own pizza pie.

In the past year, it has become evident that Luke really likes different kinds of music.  All I have to do is start singing something or turn on a CD and Luke starts swinging his arms around and moving his body to the rhythm of the sounds he hears.  He’s also drawn to musical instruments that he finds. 

If you are on our Facebook page, you should take a look at this video, if you haven’t seen it yet:

http://www.facebook.com/Stephen.CristinaMeier?v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=420303491650

Just recently, he has started trying to sing some of the songs I have taught Jared.  His favorite so far is Old McDonald.  He can’t really pronounce the words, but he’ll make the sounds of the song that sound something like this:

“Oh muh-dow waw… aw…aw…aw…..ee eye ee eye oh!!!”

Then he tries to pinch his nose to signify that the pig on Old McDonald’s farm had an “oink, oink” here, there and everywhere. It’s really quite cute.

Of course, the last few days, he’s been singing “Happy Birthday to you!” randomly because his mommy recently celebrated her birthday and he got fascinated with the song.