Ancient playground. Spring break play day

It's Spring Break and although we aren't taking any overnight trips, we did go on a day trip to a nearby temple complex!  We rarely go out of town together as a family so this was a special treat!  If Dave were writing this blog he would tell you all of the exciting things about the history of this place.  I'm less interested in the history so I'll just tell you it's REALLY old.  These are temples built long before Islam entered this country.

Dave took Jonathan to the inside of the temple, where visitors are required to wear helmets. 

This photo reminds me how strong Jonathan is becoming.  He walked under his own power all over the complex....no stroller needed!  I also see from this photo that those pants are getting a little short.  He has grown over 2 inches since his birthday in November!

Humorous family self-portrait attempt.

 

 Here is a rare photo of Jennifer (usually behind the camara) with Jonathan and Joshua.

This site is a big tourist attraction even for locals.  In our home city, there are a lot of Westerners and people are used to seeing us around.  When we go to other towns we attract crowds because of our fair skin.  The boys are cheek-pinched and photographed and hugged.  At this age they don't seem to mind the extra attention from strangers, but it's still a bit overwhelming for us as parents. 

 Oh wow.  So there was a little playground at the park with a small electric train for 30 cents a ride.  Jonathan was in heaven! 

The signs says "Children only" but the man let me ride with Joshua. 

 The little engineer!  The only thing missing is the hat!  Jonathan says this is "me saying All aboard!"

They also had these little pedal-powered go-carts.

Jonathan, our vehicle expert, said this is a "back-end loader with no bucket."  He's a very serious driver!

Angkota Adventure! It worked!

Well today Jonathan and I had another first -- quite an amazing one!   We have been out of cash for a few days and a trip to the bank was in order. 

An angkota is a little blue city minibus.  It travels a loop on a certain route all day.  The seating inside is benches all around and the door never closes ....EVER.  One way to anywhere is 25 cents.  (Not my picture.  I got it off the web.)

(Background information) When Jonathan was little, I used to wear him in an Ergo baby backpack.  It worked well on the angkota and he could be content in it for 3 hours at a time, with a break here or there.  Then he started getting too wiggly, bored, and fussy.  For a time I just decided not to take him to town in the angkota at all.  Then my mom got us a nifty little stroller that folds up easy-peasy.  I can roll him down to the bus-stop, fold up the stroller with one hand, heft him onto my hip with the other, get on, hold him on my lap to destination, and do the reverse steps getting off.    This required knowing the location of the stroller friendly sidewalks in town.  There are not too many of them, but I could manage from the bus-stop to the bank to the pharmacy and back across the street to catch the bus home. 

Now in advanced pregnancy, it hurts to even think about going to town on the angkota with Jonathan.  Everything seems so heavy and my pelvis just isn't as strong as it used to be.  I usually am limping the next day.  Not many of our friends have cars though and motorcycles are not an option for us either .....so on the angkota we go....just not as frequently as before.

Now that Jonathan is such a big boy, I decided to try something new and you know what?  He IS a big boy now and he did just fine!  We left the stroller at home and HE WALKED all the way to the bus-stop and around town and on-and-off the angkota several times, in and out of several stores, and all the way up the hill from the bus-stop to home!  We used his favorite red Elmo toddler harness, which he loves, but he also held my hand about half the time.  The only time I carried him was crossing the street.  It really decreased the physical burden, there was no fussing, and we both still had energy when we came home!  He even had dry pants!  I was so proud of him! 

Sorry, I don't have any pictures from today -- I haven't yet figured out how to manage Jonathan and myself and my belongings AND a camera.

But for those of you who are wondering how the belly is growing, I'll attach a picture from this last week.  Enjoy!

30 weeks pregnant with Baby Brother! 

First experiences! Poison alert!

Well, I had to call Poison Control Center today.  It works just fine over Skype!  The man who answered said "Now where are you calling from?  I've worked here 17 years and haven't ever seen a caller ID like yours!"

It was in the afternoon.  I was typing on the computer and listening to sounds on Jonathan behind me happily playing with his toys.  I heard rattling and clicking sounds along with his babbling comments to himself.  A few minutes lapsed and then I heard choking, spitting, fussy sounds and then protesting and crying.  I found Jonathan with a mouth full of reddish-brown pasty stuff and fished a partial capsule out of his mouth.  He had climbed on the windowsill to reach the table and managed to grab Dave's pill organizer off the table.  Now a days, he wants to copy his Daddy in every way so he was quite pleased with himself to get a hold of Daddy's pills!  Fortunately, Dave doesn't have any truly dangerous medications.  Jonathan had eaten one of the red rice yeast capsules which Dave is taking for his cholesterol.  I wasn't overly concerned.  Once I got his mouth washed out, he seemed fine.  I thought to call Poison Control about 20 minutes later, and they confirmed that he would be fine.  We're so thankful for God's care in this.

The main thing for us to learn is that Jonathan is gaining new skills each day and that he can reach and do things now that we might not expect! 

If any of you have any spare Mr. Yuk stickers, would you hold on to them for me?  I think I could use them as a teaching aide.