Vaccinations and a Bobble-Head Baby

This morning Margarita picked us up and we went to have photos taken of the kids for their passports and their visas.  The photo shop was in a mall that was under construction, and there were 2 jack-hammers blasting away, one on each side of the photo shop.  Just try explaining to your kids, in a foreign language, why you are there, and what they need to do (look straight ahead, open your eyes wide, close your mouth, don't smile), with jack-hammers blaring in your ears.  Good grief!  Then we had to wait about 30 minutes to get the pictures back, and wow, were we glad to get out of there!!

After that, we went to the doctor's office to get the kids vaccinations updated.  They each had to have a chicken pox vaccine today, but thankfully, that was it.  Juan Manuel was very frightened to go to the doctor's office.  Santi was pretty quiet all morning, and Christian was pretty much clueless. 

Juan Manuel went first for his vaccination.  Poor kid was scared to death.  The nurse and I had to chase him around the room to catch him.  I held him tight in my lap in a big bear hug, but he still almost squirmed away from me.  Once it was done and he got a sticker, a band-aid and a sucker, things were looking up again.  Santi just wimpered a little bit right before and during the injection, and Christian was just fine until they poked him.  Then he let out a big wail!  The suckers worked wonders to distract the kids though, and we were on our way without too much trauma.

Once we got back to the hotel the boys wanted to go to the pool.  Juan Manuel slugged Christian and lost his pool privelages, but that wasn't really too bad since it was cloudy and a little bit cooler today, so pool time didn't last too long.  Jason and I decided to implement a more consistent system of reward/consequence today.  We wrote out a list of "Las Reglas" or "The Rules".  We kept it short and tried to focus on the areas where our kids have the most difficulties.  It is as follows:
1.  Talk with respect
2.  Listen to your parents
3.  No hitting
4.  No pushing
5.  Share
6.  No shouting (in the restaurant, in the hotel, in the store, etc., but in the pool or the park is OK)

We also made a little chart with the days of the week and spot for each boy.  They get one freebie reminder that they must follow the rules.  If they break the rules after that, they get an X on their chart and a time-out/in.  If they get three X's in one day, they start loosing bigger privelages such as pool time, playing Fruit Ninja, playing with a favorite toy, or watching a movie.  Also, if they can make it through the day without 3 X's, they get a sticker at the end of the day.  We will see how it goes.  It seems very visually effective to show the kids where they are at, and Juan Manuel has the list of rules practically memorized.  He will say "this is rule #5" or "that is rule #1".  We don't know whether or not it will work, but after the difficulties we had the last couple of days, we figured that something new was worth a shot.

We spent some time romping around in the park at the hotel.  Actually, the kids seem kind of sick of the swings/jungle gym, and have lately taken to climbing up the giant hill surrounding the jungle gym.  They are finally starting to play without worrying about getting dirty!  Today we designated a set of "play clothes" for each boy, and told them that they can get as muddy and filthy as they want to in those clothes.  You should have seen them grin!!  They would climb up the hill and slide down on their rump.  At the bottom of the hill they would stand up and say "I'm getting dirty!".  The hill is actually pretty steep in places, and the kids burn a lot of energy going up and down, which is great.

After playing, we came back to the room and each boy took a bath.  We were told that they are used to showering, so having a bath is something that we think is new to them.  They splashed around just like they do in the swimming pool and we practically had to mop up when they were done.

Today was day 3 of no nap for Christian.  He doesn't seem too much worse for the wear without the nap.  Except for at dinner.  He was sitting on the floor (picnic-style, as usual!), and he was practically tipping over every time he started to nod off.  Jason and I call him our bobble-head baby.  The older boys didn't notice it at first, but when we pointed it out to them, they just laughed and laughed.  We laughed so hard that we woke Christian up and then he ranted and raved at us in his baby-chatter, which made us laugh that much harder.  It was really nice to have a good laugh with the kids instead of being at odds over behavior challenges.

We haven't told the boys yet, but tomorrow we are going to go to the aquarium.  The boys love to look at fish, and we are hoping that they will really like it.  Also, it will be great to do something fun outside of the hotel. 

Thank goodness today was a better day, we were really struggling to keep ourselves together yesterday.  Today felt like a breath of fresh air, and gives us hope!  We are hoping for another good day tomorrow, but even if it isn't, at least we are a little bit rejuvinated to deal with the struggles as they come.  Thank you so much to everyone for your comments and support, it helps more than we can say!!