August Birthday Boys

My first and last babies have birthdays 6 years and 2 weeks apart!  Hard to believe they are 7 and 1 now.  The days do sometimes drag by, but the years sure do fly.  Sammy (who goes by Samuel with his friends) had a sports theme party this year.  We went to the school “cancha” with our boys and 4 extras and played games related to basketball, football, soccer, baseball and Frisbee.  Paul organized all of this, so I was glad he didn’t get called in to the hospital.  Sammy’s favorite sport is basketball and he has a pretty good dribble including an under-the-leg trick taught to him by second cousin Adam.  The local pinata store made us a special order basketball pinata which we did after pizza and cake at home.  Sammy thrives here in Shell, but I think he’s the kind of kid who would thrive anywhere.  His passions other than basketball are reading (he’s read 3 Chronicles of Narnia and is working his way through the Bobbsey Twins series,)  sign language (which I taught to his school class this past year,)  games including a new favorite – Ticket to Ride, playing in the jungle, Spanish and guitar – which he is hoping to learn to play.  We are so proud of the way he jumps into life here – eating fried fish with the head, tail, etc still intact, trying (and liking) tripe, attending the Spanish version of AWANA here in Shell, attending Spanish speaking VBS at our church, setting up a library this summer with his best friend Jonny and roaming our “jungle” backyard.  I am impressed with the quality and consistency of his friendships.  He seems to get along with everybody and received a peacemaker award from his teacher last year.  At the same time, he has a couple special friends that he keeps up with, even those in the States.  This summer we were able to see his two buddies from pre-K in Dallas – Adam and Tyler.  The three of them seemed to just pick up where they left off 2 years ago.  He also loved being around many of his cousins – all of the Taylor cousins in Houston and cousin Jian in San Antonio.  He has a special relationship with his same-age cousin Ellie and I think they even speak Spanish together but it has been neat to see his relationships with all his cousins develop.  Sammy also has the important role of biggest brother and is eager to teach his brothers and tell them how things work.  They have fun building forts together, playing hot wheels or pushing Isaac around on his train toy.  However, when we realize we haven’t seen Samuel around in a while, we can usually find him in his room reading.

It is especially difficult to believe that our baby is now one  year old.  (To celebrate his birthday, we plan to change our banner picture so he’s actually represented.  Poor, deprived fourth child.  We just can’t top the stunning background of the current picture.)  He crawls and cruises all over the place and has a dozen word vocabulary, adding much to the noise and chaos of our household.  He is a happy baby and is content to play by himself, but also loves having his brothers around.  He loves bananas, ice cream, balls, strawberries and riding on his new train with brother-power!  He is also fascinated by the water bottle rockets that Paul likes to shoot off, so we celebrated his birthday with a rocket-shaped cookie and bottle rockets.  He has a great habit of sleeping late in the mornings, for which we are often grateful.  His toothy smile can make us grin whatever mood we’re in and we look forward to seeing his personality, language and mobility develop in the next year.  It won’t be long before he is running around the jungle with his brothers!

The following was written some time ago.  Now I have two more birthdays to catch up on!

It’s birthday season at our house and Mom is having a hard time keeping up!  Josiah is three and we love third birthday parties.  This is our third third b’day party, so we stuck to our tried and true formula of recreating a kids TV show episode.  Sammy had a Dora party and Nathan had Diego.  Josiah wanted WonderPets, so we set out to save the baby rabbits.  Josiah had a blast being pulled along in the “flyboat” – our wagon with a paper sail.  The finale was hunting carrots to feed the baby rabbits followed by a pinata to feed the party goers.  A Mickey Mouse pinata, because to a three-year-old, that makes perfect sense at a WonderPets party and also because the WonderPets haven’t spread to Ecuador yet.  I don’t know if they ever will since guinea pig is a delicacy here, not a pet!  Josiah is still our little “travieso” (rascal) and tries to keep us all on his toes.  He is a very enthusiastic boy.  The best part of my work day is coming home to him running out to meet me as if I’ve been gone for weeks instead of just a few hours.  He plays the little brother pest role as well as the rough big brother role well.  He has his own logic and we can’t always follow what he is talking about.  He likes to make up words in Spanish and sometimes understands the real ones.  His only memories of life in the US are from our visit and he relishes his life as a jungle boy.  His best friend in the world is the three-year-old next door – Katie.  When we review our best and worst of the day as a family, his answer to both usually involves Katie.  We love our loud, eager, active, sometimes-toddler, sometimes-preschooler and can’t wait to see his personality and talents develop further.

I remember when Nathan was born, of course.  His was the easiest birth and we were so thrilled to meet him.  He was short and stocky (that didn’t last long) and looked like a little football player.  Now he is more like a gymnast.  I remember introducing him to Sammy (who immediately dubbed him Nay-Nay) and just enjoying his newborn calmness while Sammy ran circles and played games and was chaos personified.  With the wonderful vision of hindsight, we now realize Sammy was the least active toddler we’ve had, although he was a normal active little boy.  Nathan easily topped him by running, climbing and getting into trouble everywhere.  Even now, Nathan keeps up physically with his big brother.  Both learned to ride bikes without training wheels at the same time.  As Nathan gets older, having turned five last month, we realize that his high energy level accompanies a very sensitive heart.  He is friends with just about everybody -  girl, boy, older children and younger children and is very outgoing with adults.  He takes good care of his baby brother Isaac and was very disappointed not to be able to visit his friend’s newborn brother at the hospital here.  Nathan is also our deep thinker.  I wish I remembered to write down all that he says.  He is very concerned about heaven and not sure he wants to live in the clouds.  He asked me one night if I would ever get rid of him.  I assured him we would never do that, but that one day he would be eager to move out and go to college.  Later that week, with Paul away working in another part of Ecuador, Nathan asked him on the phone, “Daddy, are you in college?”  One night a couple weeks ago he asked me, “Mommy, are we God’s toys?”  Sometimes we can reconstruct where his thoughts come from, but this time I was baffled.   All I could say was that we are God’s precious children, not His toys.  What a delight and awesome responsibility it is to have this precious little heart under our care for a few years.  Happy birthday, our sweet Nathan!

Maw-Maw and I have been in Shell a little more than a week and are finding our second trip much more fulfilling than our first. It’s lots of fun to be with four active little guys – some littler than others!

Sammy is a very serious first grader who learns his spelling words and Bible memory verse almost instantly. I’ve been teaching him about Roman numerals, and he’s caught on well.

Nathan is ever the explorer; he’s equally at ease tromping through the jungle in his boots, and navigating the boundaries set by his parents. Maw-Maw is intent on getting him reading-ready.

Josiah is sailing through the terrible-twos in great style; he’s unpredictable – alternating between now being sweet and cuddly and then impestuous and independent. We’ve built houses, trains, towers, planes and other Magna-Tile masterpieces. His potty training is in progress but sometimes it’s hard to tell whether he’s had an accident or been playing outside in a puddle.

Isaac is growing too fast for our semi-annual trips to keep track of. He’s sitting up, playing by himself or with his older brothers (he’s usually the toy!), and snuggles himself to sleep on our shoulders if given half a chance.

Maw-Maw has been working in the pre-school with Nathan and his classmates, including four from the orphanage Casa de Fe. She’s also been helping Joshua, one of the Kindergartners, improve his letter and word skills (I’m sure there’s a really impressive name for that but I don’t know what it is) to get him ready for school next year.

I’ve been helping straighten up the library, for which one needs to have a sound grasp of the alphabet. I’ve also helped in the 3-5th grade science class with Newton’s Laws of Motion, desperately trying to recall my two years of college physics. Fortunately we won’t get to electro-magnetism which I never quite grasped.

The missionary community is amazing; they’re very close and very commited to the Lord, depending on Him to guide them through the many peculiarities of life in Ecuador. They’re also very supportive of one another and resourceful when it comes to adapting to the “doing-without” part of life here. Life in the hospital compound is reminiscent of growing up in the 50’s when people didn’t lock doors and let their kids run and play outside without worrying. The Barton Boys are getting wonderful lessons about what’s important in their young lives – family, freedom, love and God.

We’ll report on Week 2 in a few days, but I can already predict that we’ll find fulfillment by trying to live in the community rather than just visit it. And I know we’ll miss Kim, Paul, Samuel, Nathan, Josiah and Isaac when it’s time to return home.

Pop

Well, as you might imagine, there is no such thing as a typical week.  Forget our jobs and living in Ecuador – life with four boys keeps things ever-changing.  We are finishing up a holiday week here in Ecuador.  The kids had Mon and Tues off for Carnaval – the two days before the beginning of Lent, which is celebrated with water games, squirters and water balloons here.  It’s mostly fun, but whether walking through town or going to work, you are in danger of getting wet!  The weather was sunnier than usual which made for fun water games here on the compound as well.  I spent Tues morning at the hospital clinic where there were not many people to see due to the holiday.  Wednesday I checked in at the orphanage where it seems like everybody was sick and there seem to be a new outbreak of parasites.  I am also trying to compile developmental screening exams on the younger children, so I was able to do a few of these with a member of a short-term team visiting Shell.  Paul has had an atypically light week at the hospital, possibly due to the holiday.  He is making up for that today (Saturday) with and all day meeting regarding the future of the hospital followed by a surgery.  We’re hoping to see him for dinner.  It is a privilege to be involved in long-range planning, which in this case is about five years down the road.  Five years ago (and even two years ago) none of the current missionary doctors were here at the hospital, so things change quickly.  Many of the Ecuadorian staff have been here that long and much longer, however providing important continuity for the hospital.

On the home front, Sammy and Nathan had only three days of school this week.  Homework has been lighter so we’ve been busy with things depending on the weather.  Yesterday was a rainy, chilly day, meaning inside play and family movie night.  We started “The Prince of Egypt,” which believe it or not, none of us have seen.  Today has been sunny, so we pulled out sunscreen and bathing suits and it’s almost like Carnaval all over again!  In one of my dumber moves, I thought tackling potty-training (Josiah) and sleep-training (Isaac) in the same week was a good idea.  We’ve had more luck with the sleep than the potty but “poco a poco” is our motto.  Isaac is a content, sometimes serious little guy, but tickling and zerbers and funny faces bring out his giggles.  He’s about twenty pounds now, which makes him more resilient to Josiah’s attempts to play with him.  He sits up and plays with anything he can reach, but shows no interest in rolling over and only slight interest in table food.  I’ve made several attempts at homemade baby food since it’s not readily available here, but most of it ends up on his bib.  He did seem excited about a taste of Mommy’s brownie last night – definitely takes after me.  Sammy lost his second tooth this morning when Nathan “accidentally” kicked him in the mouth.  It was already loose, so not a complete surprise.   Both older boys have been doing lots of bike riding and practicing without training wheels, which gives Paul his exercise!  Paul has been able to get a few things done in the “paperwork” category, most involving expenses of some kind.  He and I are making plans for Maw-Maw and Pop’s upcoming visit to Shell, Paul’s upcoming trip to San Lorenzo to  work for a week with a missionary surgeon there, our church’s mission trip here this summer and a possible stateside vacation for us this summer!  We are also “deworming” as a family – something most people here (natives and foreigners) do on a regular basis.  Last night everyone took their medicine fine, but tonight is the nasty stuff, so we’ll see!  That’s the thumbnail sketch, and Daddy did make it home for dinner, so we’re off for hotdogs and games until the sun goes down and bedtime rolls around.  Maybe then I’ll get a chance to post some pictures.

This is Carnaval weekend – celebrated the Mon and Tues before the beginning of Lent.  It is a big holiday weekend and many people travel.  The tradition for Carnaval is throwing water on people.  This could happen at any time – on the bus or the street.  The kids celebrated at school with water games the preceding Friday.  Samuel’s school, Nate Saint holds to this tradition, so Paul brought the younger boys up today to see the games and get a little wet themselves!  I will ask him to post pictures!  We don’t have big plans for the weekend and next Mon and Tues are not hospital holidays, so we will be working even though the kids are off of school.  We may have some crazy water games on the compound with our neighbors this weekend.  Check the photo albums for pictures.

Yesterday was quite a historic day for us “estadounidenses.”  As Obama started his new job, so did I.  (Kim)  Of course, mine should be much less demanding, but getting back into pediatrics in Spanish will have its challenges as well.  Things went well and the biggest challenge so far is communication (and pronounciation) in Spanish.  Still, I am glad to have this chance to put my months of language school, not to mention medical training to use.  Isaac is not very excited about taking a bottle in my absence, so we will see how he does.  My commute to work is drastically reduced to a 2 minute walk instead of a 20-30 minute drive.  And I was reminded how much I love my profession and look forward to serving this new patient population.

Nathan started back to school as well yesterday, so now we are all back to our routines.  Paul will start leading a Bible Study tonight (in Spanish, or course) for the family practice residents who are rotating at the hospital.  This responsibility is shared among the doctors, so he will do this once a month.  We are excited to have this chance to interact with our collegues about issues of belief and faith and we pray for a fruitful discussion.  We pray for blessings on your “new starts” as well!

Realizing I got a little crazy with 16 pictures of our four newborns, I’m limiting myself to one of each at this stage.  Who do you think Issac (left) resembles the most?  Each of his stages gets better and better.  He is smiling and giggling and loves his doorway bouncer, which makes me glad I squeezed it’s awkward shape into one of our suitcases this summer!  He even sleeps through some nights if you define “night” rather loosely and start at midnight!  (L to R: Samuel, Nathan, Josiah)

Christmas here in Ecuador is celebrated by most families at midnight on Christmas Eve (called La Nochebuena.)  They eat a big meal, turkey or chicken, depending on what they can afford and exchange gifts, including bags of assorted candies.  Protestant churches don’t usually have services on Christmas Eve, but have a Christmas program earlier in the month.  For this reason, the missionaries in Shell got together and had a progressive dinner and carol sing on Christmas Eve this year.  It was a big hit and maybe the start of a new tradition.  We stuck to opening presents on Christmas day, the tradition in both Paul’s and my families and Grandma especially enjoyed seeing the boys open their presents.  Since we just had turkey at Thanksgiving, we had green chicken enchiladas, (with canned tomatillos that Paul’s Mom imported for us!) which is becoming our family tradition on Christmas day.  Our longest standing tradition was our 6th annual Christmas cookie decorating party.  Six years ago when it was Sammy and two Ellies, all just over one-year-old with parents doing most of the work, we couldn’t have foreseen continuing this tradition in another country.  (And last year it was a bilingual party.)

New Year’s Eve also had unique traditions here in Ecuador.  The old year is represented by a straw doll in the form of an old man that is burned at midnight and his wife is the New Year.  Men dress like women (the wife of the “old year”) and collect change in the evening of New Year’s Eve because they are soon to be widowed.  Burning the old man, or old year represents getting rid of anything that was bad or negative in the old year.  We had the chance to walk around Shell and see some of the dolls that were made, some in quite elaborate displays.  They are often given the faces of popular figures or the families that they represent.

We are slowly establishing our school routines.  Sammy has been in school for 2 1/2 weeks and Nathan started last week.  Samuel goes to Nate Saint Memorial School.  This school was started over 40 years ago so that parents serving as missionaries in Shell wouldn’t have to send their children to school in Quito.  It was a dream of Nate Saint, missionary pilot and one of the five men killed by the Huaorani in this area in 1956., to have a school here to avoid this separation of families.  The school is K-8, although this year the oldest student is in 5th grade.  Typically there are 30-40 students, although this year there are around 15 since the older grades are absent.  Many families have children similar to our in age, so in the upcoming years, the enrollment will increase as Nathan, Josiah and Isaac and their friends start school.

Sammy’s class is a combined first and second grade class with 4 boys and 3 girls.  He comes home for lunch every day except Fridays and it’s fun to see him in the middle of the day.  The school is a 10 minute walk or 5 minute drive from our house.  The curriculum is American and everything is in English except Spanish class.  Sammy loves everything about school and in spite of being a bookworm, will tell you that his favorite thing is P.E. which all the students at the school do together.

Nathan is going to a preschool that was started last year by one of the missionaries.  There are twelve 4-5 year-olds, several from the orphanage that is located in Shell.  This school is also in English with a part of each day set aside for learning some Spanish words.  He has enjoyed the first week and the only drawback we can see is that Josiah misses his older brothers and wants to go to school as well.  Although Nathan likes doing crafts and activities, his favorite part of the day is recess time!