I enjoyed the drive to New Mexico, partially because it was a whole five hours shorter than the drive to Washington, but also because it is geologically fascinating. It is like driving through a rainbow of rock layers; pink, purple, orange, yellow, white. If we weren't trying to hurry so we could pick up the Jeep from the mechanic shop in Albuquerque before they closed I would have wanted to stop and walk around.
Here we are in our new house! I made it into a sunshine, because that is the new order of the day. When we arrived the first week of January, the last time it had rained was October 6th. The PNW part of me shriveled up and died in despair.
There is an arroyo behind our house, so while we could probably high-five our neighbors on either side without any of us leaving our houses, at least we have some nice open space in the back. Here is the view from the excellent porch off the master bedroom.
Directly across the arroyo is a park with a big glassy field. I mean grassy. It's hard to remember because the grass is so sharp and scratchy in its deadness right now. There is a dog park and a playground as well. I'm pointing to our house in this picture:
Annie likes to play on the big kids playground. I am all in favor of her stretching her climbing skills.
It's fun to explore the arroyo on our way to and from the park. Can you spy all three explorers?
I'm curious to see how much water we get coming through here in the monsoon season.
We had a spot of trouble with the hot water heater when we moved in. There was a bladder of sorts installed to help control the water pressure, and after sitting dormant for several weeks it could not handle the strain of my laundry day. Then when they tried to fix it, something crazy happened with the valve to the street (or something like that; I was more focused on unpacking than the repairs), so they ended up having to replace the whole heater. I never realized how much hot water I use until it was gone for a whole week. We did sink baths at night, warming the water in a pot on the stove. It was time consuming.
A little post script: I got our February water bill. We use a lot less water when it's cold.
We had a nice welcome from our new ward. Our first week was testimony meeting. The whole ward is reading the Book of Mormon together in 6 months, so many of the testimonies were centered around the same passages of scripture in 1 Nephi. It was exciting! That afternoon a young woman doorbell ditched us some popcorn balls that we ate for our first NM FHE the next day.
I got called as the 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency my second week here, so I have been busy helping the new president get her regime off the ground. We will have an efficient, organized Primary in which to sow spiritual seeds.
In all our setting apart blessings they cautioned us especially to "be aware of the needs of our teachers," and since I didn't even know any of the teachers' names yet, I figured I needed to put in a little extra time and visit with them all individually in their homes. Drew has been a champion holding down the fort in the evenings while I have gone visiting. And while it has taken time and effort to coordinate and carry out, I think it's the best possible thing I could have done. We have some awesome teachers, and I already love all of them. And hopefully they love me too, since I took them delicious cookies. All the ones I didn't eat, that is.
We got Vivien all registered for school at Puesta del Sol ("Sunset") Elementary. The fastest way to the school from our house is on the outskirts of Rio Rancho, and a good portion of the route is on dirt roads. It feels like we're trekking through the wilderness every time.
They have a brilliant pick up/drop off system in place. There's a serpentine path that makes the most use of their space, and they've got all the teachers and administrators out there running traffic control every day so it is super fast.
Here we are waiting in line. The kids being picked up by parents wait under the pavilions, and if they don't follow the rules they receive scorching looks from the teachers on duty. I feel ashamed for the rule-breakers, and the looks aren't even directed at me!
The first day, Vivien came home and said she hated Spanish "because I was the worst one!!" She didn't know what the teacher was saying so she said she asked a friend what she was supposed to do instead, which I told her was a very smart way to handle the situation. It's hard. But she is such a quick learner, and has already picked up so many words. I think she will be ok. Here is her Spanish homework calendar (there's an English one too; we do a lot of homework). She is pretty done with Spanish by the end of the day . . .
. . . but luckily Elefante y Cerdita during story time can always make Spanish fun again.
I can tell the stress of moving has been wearing her down as the days have passed. The novelty of everything carried her through at first, but the school day starts really early for my little night owl (Drew takes her on his way to work and they have to leave at 7) and she tells me she is lonely at school. She chose a green pen to do homework the other day, "because it's the color of Esquire Hills Elementary, the best school in the world where all my friends are." She's had a pretty good attitude all things considered, but she's had a small #2 accident almost every day (and sometimes more often) since we got here, so I know it's taking a bigger toll than is obvious. Moving is hard! It is making me very grateful that Drew is out of the military so we won't have to put her through this quite as often. It is heartbreaking to watch your child be lonely. We just try to love on her as much as we can when she's home.
Which is not hard to do, because she is fun, Bannister.
F.U.N.
She has been wanting to "play on the computer" lately, which involves typing words into the Google search bar. She typed in her name and was thrilled by all the beautiful pictures that came up of Vivien Leigh. She asked me to print one out so she could hang it by her bed. It was gone a few days later, and she told me she had put it under her pillow instead. She's a funny.
Sometimes she clicks on stuff she shouldn't on the computer though, and I have to scold her. Here is how she feels about those conversations:
I found it when I was cleaning her room. I asked her about it when she got home from school and told her it had made me sad to find it. She took it to heart. On Saturday she went with Daddy and Annie and Rafe to plant some trees in downtown Albuquerque and I told her to draw me a picture about her trip. Here is what she drew:
As soon as Vivs leaves for school in the morning, Rafe and I cuddle up on the couch for a reading lesson while Annie and Merrick finish their breakfast. During his last lesson he read, "The ram is sad." He's doing really well. Here he is trying (and failing) to not smile for a picture.
After reading we try to go outside for a walk. Merrick is the happiest little lump there is.
Annie is happy as long as I let her walk for a bit after I push her in the stroller. We'll sit on the wall and let her walk up and down the walking path until she's had her fill. It gives me a chance to catch up on my scripture reading (I'm trying to do what my Bremerton friend did and read the Book of Mormon once a month all year, but it is REALLY hard for me to catch up once I get behind, which is from day 1).
After our walk I put Merrick to bed and leave Rafe and Annie to their own devices while I do me-stuff (shower, try to put the house in order, etc.). They are doing well playing together.
I love watching my children climb all over challenging playground equipment.
And mostly stay out of trouble.
Look how big!
And how cute.
When Merrick wakes up we have lunch. Getting a meal on the table with small, hangry children around is like running the Motherhood Gauntlet. I shall give an example. I was trying to peel some eggs I had hard boiled that morning, but one of them was NOT letting go of its shell, which is annoying enough by itself, but Annie was standing by one of my legs crying about who knows what, and Rafe was hanging on my other side keeping up a steady volley of questions ("When is lunch ready? Where is the cheese? Is this my plate? Can I take it? What are you putting on it?"). I gave him a job to get him out of my hair, but when he opened the dishwasher to get the cups out, Merrick made a beeline for the silverware caddy and grabbed the sharp end of a steak knife with his pudgy little hand and proceeded to paint everything in reach with blood, crying. I had to stop peeling the stupid egg to try to wrap a ginormous bandaid around his minuscule finger, which made him cry more. While I was putting away the first aid kit, Annie stopped crying long enough to "tickle" Merrick (a.k.a. throat strike him), which made him cry louder, then when I told her to stop, she started crying again. Then I felt like this:
I yelled, like Pee Wee, but guess what? Everyone just cried louder, and I still had to finish making lunch. My mom said it's not worth it to throw in the towel when you're a parent, because you just have to pick up the towel again right after. No one else is going to. So I picked up my thrown towel and finished making the lunch and set it on the table and a minute later, it was silent but for the sound of chewing and looked like this:
After lunch we have about an hour before it's time to pick up Vivien. If I use that hour wisely, by the time people get in the car they have been toileted and dressed and have proper footwear and outerwear to ride the pick-up-from-school momentum and run some errands. Fun fact: you get 5 cents per reusable bag you bring to the grocery store here! This is where I keep mine so I don't forget to take them with me.
Some people get tired of having to run errands all the time.
So sometimes we go to the library or explore local parks instead. This playground had some especially tricky elements. I about broke my arm on this one:
Rafe wanted a picture at the top of the pyramid.
Vivien decided to be terrified of climbing to the top, but she still wanted to do it, so I had to climb up to where Annie is (holding Merrick) and spot her while she slowly made her way up, crying and trembling all the while. Once she'd done it she wasn't scared anymore, and she wanted a picture with NO HANDS.
One other outing of note was a drive into Old Town Albuquerque to check out a new dining table (we're ready to be proper Americans again) that we purchased from a guy who makes furniture out of old barn wood in a little storage shed in an alley. I had to buy a plastic cover for it, because kids are messy and I was worried about all the spills on the wood, but it is beautiful, in a rustic sort of way. He is making us some matching benches that should be done tomorrow if all goes well.
Since we were close, we stopped by the Museum of Natural History.
There was a flyer for a field trip to the Bosque del Apache and it made me feel nostalgic. Last time I was there, we saw a Great Horned Owl!
Though we wouldn't need to drive out there to see one now. Drew said there are two Great Horned Owls that live on the Intel grounds. You can see one of them up under the pipes in this picture his coworker sent:
And while I'm on the subject of birds, I SAW A ROADRUNNER! We were driving back from running errands and it ran right across the road in front of us. It was very exciting. To me. But it happened too fast to get a picture, so here's one from the Internet.
Back to the museum. We watched a show in the planetarium about stars.
And walked through all the exhibits I remember from coming here when I was little. This giant brachiosaurus leg was always a favorite:
I liked this snapping turtle's name: Baroness Snaplet deChomper
When we are not on outings, we are just hanging around, trying to get settled. The kids are happy to have all their toys out again, but I have to stay at least within hearing distance because Santa was careless and sent us cheap Chinese Octonauts that shed chokable parts left and right.
I have already almost lost this boy to a choking hazard, and I have no desire to repeat the experience. There are, of course, other hazards as well. And he's learned to walk this month, so that's increased his reach and also his fall distance. It's amazing to me how much core strength he has in that round little body, though. He is such a sweetheart.
He's even sweet when he as a cold and sucks on a silicone bracelet so much that I basically get a saliva shower carrying him around. Look at it dripping off his elbow. Blech.
Annie loves her little brother.
She went to the dentist while we were in Utah and the x-rays made a big impression. She will often come up to me with some object and ask me to "open" and "bite" so she can take my x-rays. Maybe she'll be a dental hygienist.
Also, while we were in Utah, I caught her sitting on the stairs next to the stuffed elk head with a little deer toy she'd gotten for Christmas from Nana and Papi, holding it up to talk to its "mommy in the clouds." She is painfully cute sometimes. We've been trying out pigtails and ponytails in efforts to combat the static. I need to go get some more of those little clear elastic ones. Her fine hair won't support anything bigger for long.
A conversation from last month:
Me: (trying to smooth her hair) My little fly-away girl.
Annie: I not a bee. Or an egg. Nana's chickens have eggs.
Me: What are you if you're not a bee or an egg?
Me: I baby!
She's gotten herself into some scrapes the last couple weeks. Wedged between storage bins in my closet...
...and finger caught in the Parmesan cheese at dinner.
Also, she is completely incapable of handling the sight or smell of poop, including her own. If she happens to look down and see her poop in the toilet, she will gag. Sometimes I'll be changing Merrick's diaper and not know she's behind me until I hear her start retching. She had an accident last week and was cheering me on as I was cleaning it up. "That's very good...bleh"
I have a couple Rafe things to write down as well. At some point in Utah he was playing with a pretend sword and I told him it was too wild. He calmed down a bit and said, "See how gently I'm slicing?"
Overheard by Tia Kate: "Vivi, Gray wolves are very fond of Barbies."
He says "baroom" instead of broom.
In a prayer: "Thank thee that we can be calm while scriptures go on and on and on."
He and Annie were teaching the Octonauts the gospel one day in the play room. "Annie, I say Jesus, you say Christ. Then I say Heavenly, you say Father."
He has started saying a couple words in a Cockney accent, like Kwazii from Octonauts. It's mostly "no" ("niaou") and "about" ("abau") and "don't" ("diaount"). I will try to get it on video. It's almost as cute as he is.
No comments:
Post a Comment