One week in

As many of you know, I was recently hired by the embassy to be one of the two Community Liason Office coordinators. This position is commonly called "the CLO" by embassy folks, rhymes with "flow". When we were back in the US I didn't know exactly when I would start, but it turns out it was this past Tuesday, the 14th.

Well, my first 20 hours are done, and things seem to be going well. I'm having fun, working with great people, and although there is much to learn, I'm not feeling totally overwhelmed. The only significant downside seems to be with the kids. This week and next are their two weeks of winter break, so they have been home from school all day every day. That means that they have been spending a whole lot more time with the nanas. Turns out (surprise!) they aren't so happy for daddy to be gone two and a half days.

Ben had been excited by my starting work at first. Then I explained that I would be working, but Mommy wouldn't be changing to part time work. No more mommy, just less daddy. Sobbing, he grabbed my head and claimed he would never let go. Thus started my first day of work, and my second. Today, day three, seemed better at first. When I got home, however, things were quickly revealed to be not as great as I thought. I had children alternating in crying over tiny little things, and finally after Jen got home and we started dinner, Ellie had a total breakdown about which prayer we said.

Turns out, after coaxing from Jen, she was just feeling really overwhelmed by my being gone so much, being out of school, and just life in general.

So, tough few days. Once school starts again I think we all will be better, but working part time is not going to be an easy transition.

Another Georgian

No, not the former Soviet kind. The other kind. That's right, Ben got accepted into pre-kinder at Saint George! Woohoo! That means we don't need to work at all on finding a new school for the boy. Phew.

Unfortunately, since he was born in 2005, he isn't going to be ready for Kinder quite yet. That means he'll be one of the oldest in his class, which we don't mind, but we'll also need to pay for all of his school, which we don't love. The Embassy will pick up the tab the next year, but until then we will feel the pain.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, he's been accepted for the 2010 school year, starting almost a whole year from now. Crazy, huh?

Excitement

Last night we had some excitement here, although not of the best sort. Jennifer was home again, actually seeing us for the first time since Thursday morning, we had finished a nice dinner, the kids were almost tucked in, and the two of us were going to fall asleep while watching a few episodes of Lost. Good night, right?

We almost made it there. Ellie was nearly asleep, and I was finishing the tucking-in process with Ben. He had a few toys with him, as usual, and in his hot little hand he held two coins from some country outside of Chile. As I was finishing his prayer, he just casually reached up and popped one of the coins into his mouth. Since he was lying down, it slid immediately to the back of his mouth, and he started choking.

I propped him up, tried the finger sweep method of clearing a small child's mouth, and was encouraging him to cough, all the while shouting for Jen to come help. It soon became clear that the coin was lodged in his esophagus and the immediate danger was past, as he was able to breathe. We woke Ellie up and drove him to the urgent care center that is luckily about ten minutes from our house.

There they checked blood oxygen, determined he was fine (it ranged from 97-100) and took him in for x-rays.

During this, everybody was asking us what kind of coin it was, and were somewhat amused to find that we couldn't even identify a continent of origin. The kids "collect" coins, and we have them from the US, Peru, Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hungary, the Czech Republic, China, and the EU. I'm probably forgetting one or two, but you get the picture. The best I could do was say it wasn't Chilean - the kids don't play with money they know can buy bouncy balls or candy.

After analyzing the x-rays, they decided that it was likely to not pass through him naturally, which meant that we needed to relocate to the main hospital where they would have somebody waiting to extract it. We decided that it was best for Ellie to get some sleep, so we went home, and Jen and Ben then headed to the hospital.

A few hours later, somewhere around midnight or 1am the coin was extracted, and Ben was just sleeping. They used an endoscope so he had to be under general, and it wasn't clear how long he'd be asleep.

In any event, he woke up a few hours later, Jennifer brought him home, and we all woke up in the same house, not much the worse for wear. Ben has a bit of a sore throat (serves him right!) but is in good spirits, Ellie is tired, I'm tired, and the three of us missed our chance to meet Joe Biden this morning. Jen spent the last few days with him and his staff, and so this morning she is back at work taking care of whatever needs to be written up following meetings between the VP and foreign leaders.

For those of you who haven't seen the kids recently, I'll just mention something Jen pointed out last night. We've taken both kids to the ER/urgent care several times. For Ellie it has always been for croup or similar illnesses. For Ben it has been for when he slammed his thumb in a door in our house, and now for when he swallowed 50 Mexican centavos. That should help illuminate their respective personalities a bit.

I'm hoping that this takes care of our near-death experience quota for this assignment. I handled it in Cambodia, Ben took it here. I think we've done our fair share.

The big first day

Yesterday was Elena's first day of kindergarten. It feels like the last month or two have been just prelude to yesterday, what with all the shopping for the uniform, the purchase of her book for English classes, and the general excitement that has been surrounding everything even remotely related to St. George's College.

The morning (she starts at 8 and finishes at 12:30) went pretty well, her teachers said she was good, if quiet. That quiet won't last long, I'm sure, the girl loves to talk. Here are a few pictures.

If she looks nervous, it is because she is. She got a stomach ache as we
drove into the school parking lot.

This shows less anxiety and more of the cool old gate to the school.

In the classroom she found something that would have made Ben comfortable,
but large plastic dinosaurs are less important to her than to her brother. Ben
was with us, and as soon as he saw them he ran over and played until we left.

Puzzles are more her style. Behind her is one of her two teachers, Maite.
The little girl behind Maite is wearing one of the little smocks that the kids are
supposed to wear nearly all day. Sadly that is the one bit of the uniform that
she doesn't like, and today at dropoff burst into tears when told to put it on.
We asked her why she doesn't like it and she responded that she didn't like
"the style". I suspect she is annoyed that the boys wear brown ones and she
has the blue and white checkerboard kind.

That's all the photos we have, although we have more stories. The families in the class have been extremely welcoming, the parents more than the children, of course. That being said, Ellie has an invitation to a birthday party tomorrow (she's going to go) and we are invited to a BBQ at the school with the families from her class of 27. The other 26 started in the same pre-K class, and she is the only new one, which makes it a bit harder for her, but everybody seems to understand how difficult it is for her, and they all are trying hard to help.

Today's new thing is the bus - she will be riding it home after school every day. There is a driver and a helper, and all the buses are required to have safety belts by school rules, but I'm still nervous.

Right, well, that's all for now. I need to go drop off some drycleaning and pick up Ben. He's doing better on his own at the preschool than we had expected, which has made Ellie's transition easier for me to handle.

The Ladies Man

A few days ago the kids needed haircuts, and I had been delinquent in getting them to the barber, which has been known to happen on occasion. In the morning we had a playdate with Asher, his mom, and his baby sister Liesl. They had been away in the US for about six weeks, and during that time Asher had steadfastly refused to get a haircut. So Julie (his mom) and I decided to have another play date that afternoon, this time at the playground right outside the barber shop. The hope was that the kids would be good influences on each other, particularly Ellie, who really likes haircuts.

A few hours later we met up at the barber shop. Asher, to my surprise, was convinced simply by Ben and Ellie's willingness, and was already in the chair when we got there. His big sister Morgan had also come along. Now Morgan is seventeen, and frequently babysits for the kids. We are trying to think of ways to make it so she doesn't go off to college this summer and instead stays here so the embassy continues to have her babysitting services.

Anyway, Asher was soon finished, and Ben decided to be difficult and refused to get into the chair. Ellie said she'd go next, so Ben calmed down a bit. Enough to notice that Morgan was sitting in a comfy chair in the waiting area, and that there was an equally comfy chair next to hers just waiting for him. He wandered over, scrambled up into the chair, crossed his legs, and leaned on the arm of the chair closest to her. They then proceeded to chat. His new owie (which was the nominal cause of the struggle) was forgotten. They chatted until Ellie was done. I then went over to ask Ben if he was ready for his haircut. He looked at Morgan, who smiled and told him he'd look much better with a haircut. That was all he needed. He hopped out of the chair and climbed up into the barber chair.

So far, except for a notable age difference, I think I approve of his choice of girlfriends. I'm not sure how comfortable I am leaving them alone together now, although I suspect that Ellie would be happy to tell all...

Big Ben Turns Four

Well, I've once again been neglecting you all. Ben did indeed turn four on the 8th, and I am nearly two weeks late getting photos up. This is not because we didn't celebrate (we did), or because we've been away (we haven't). I've just been home with the kids every day, since this is summer vacation, and finding time when they are quite and I'm not sleeping is difficult.

Enough with the excuses. Here we go. Ben decided that he wanted a family-only party this year, for reasons that aren't entirely apparent to us. I guess he didn't like the idea of yet another party, or something. He really is a social little guy, but perhaps he was just feeling overwhelmed by all the parties we've been having recently.

We started with decorating the star-shaped cupcakes that he requested.
If it looks like there are more sprinkles on there than frosting, it isn't just you.

We then ate a delicious dinner, consisting of dino macaroni and cheese,
hot dogs, ketchup, raw veggies, and kid champagne.

Here is the only slightly overloaded cupcake, waiting for the big blowing out.

Finally, we had the big opening of presents, including the trying on of
shin guards and setting up of games. Perhaps not the most exciting of
parties, but he told us it was fun, so I guess that's the important thing.

Ellie Performing for Your Pleasure

This is the season of Christmas programs, and also of end-of-year festivities at schools around Chile. We have a few videos, first from the end of year program at the kids' school, and then from our Church's Christmas program. All are relatively short. Ben doesn't appear in any of the videos because he has issues with participating in such things. He refuses to attend Sunday School, thus isn't in the church program. The preschool program started at 7:30pm, and since he had refused a nap that day he fell asleep before it even started.

Ellie and friends John, Henry and Julian do a traditional American dance


All the kids in the big finale. They all had interesting costumes,
some from their home countries, some not. And yes, the child
with the big hair and animal skins is in blackface. Chile isn't quite
as progressive as the US in terms of race issues.

This is only a small part of the full program, but it was the
only part that Ellie was in. I apologize for the occasional
crazy swings of the camera, but Ben was trying to make
his presence felt as well.