Samuel turns 10

We are completing our year of furlough in the US and are now in Vermont for a week for some R & R before heading back to Ecuador.  Our first day here was Sammy's 10th birthday and one of his presents was a zip-line tour over Okemo mountain with dad.  We had fun watching each other zip off into the trees.  I worked on my landings and after a few zips was landing on the platforms like an eagle on it's nest.  I was also inspired by the construction of the whole thing and am inspired to build one of our own in Ecuador!

Here is Samuel's final zip.  He almost doesn't make it to the platform!

Barton Boy Update

In lieu of a post per birthday boy the next few months, I'm going to summarize the goings-on with the younger Bartons in one post.  We think they are all pretty Super!

Nathan celebrated his 7th birthday last month with a Star Wars party.  There was great debate in the first grade class about whether the girls were interested in this theme, but they ended up agreeing to be invited.  Nathan is very conscious of others' feelings and did not want anyone to be left out.  Of course, he managed to stretch his birthday out over a week or more and I made at least 4 separate cakes or treats!

  

Paul (Master Yoda) made a great Jedi Training Course with light saber moves and a paintball slingshot from the x-wing fighter, culminating in a Death Star pinata...

...and light saber cake.  Note to self:  making a cake out of ice cream does not allow much time for decorating without melting.  Also, the freezer needs to be big enough for the whole light saber!

Nathan reports that soccer and baseball are his favorite sports and science is his favorite subject; reading is a new passion, having recently "clicked" for him.  Nathan loves being a jungle boy spends hours every afternoon with his friends building a fort in a small patch of jungle behind our house.  No adults have been permitted to view this creation, but it entertains him for hours and leaves him completely muddy and happy.  Nathan recently switched rooms with Isaac to have his own room and takes great pride in decorating, organizing and keeping it neat.  Star Wars tops all his passions - if he's not out in the jungle, he is probably playing light sabers or playing with his x-wing fighter.

Josiah turned five this month, a long-anticipated event.  

He requested a space shuttle and jungle party.  We ended up putting Curious George on a space walk from the shuttle and had quite a mish-mash of decor including a Lightning McQueen pinata.  (This worked out well here since there is a limited selection to choose from.)  The jungle-space games were suspiciously similar to the Jedi training camp of the previous month!  Josiah had a great time as did his friends.

The cake, as usual was due to the baking skills of Mom and the construction and decorating skills of Dad.  One of our more impressive cakes, especially tying in the jungle with Curious George, which was all Paul!  So, a close-up.

Speaking of construction, Josiah is quite the master builder.  He has recently joined the lego craze in our house, but continues to spend hours building with his magnatiles - magnetic construction shapes.  His creations are only limited by the number of sets that we have.  Josiah tells us that he is going to be a detective (or a spy) and an artist - possibly an artist who draws things and then builds them.

Samuel's ninth birthday comes later this summer.  He is already planning a solar system party which promises to tax his parents' creativity.  This reflects his deep interest in all things space and his hopes of being an astronaut (or basketball player.)  He recently explained to us exactly why Pluto has been demoted from planet status and one of the things I look forward to about homeschooling during our furlough next year is the things the boys will teach me, especially Sammy!  He will keep us on our toes.  The past 2 months he has been taking guitar lessons from a missionary high school student here in Shell.  He has been quite dedicated to practicing and seems to be progressing well and enjoying it.

Sammy continues to be our bookworm and loves mysteries.  He is working his way through the Hardy Boys series.  His teacher has challenged his class to read the entire New Testament before school is out and he is close to finishing and earning an ice cream reward from his teacher.  If he is not reading, he is playing Wii and loves the challenge of improving on his previous games.  He is a sweet brother to Isaac and alternates between sweet and bossy with his other brothers.  He proved to be a great help with Josiah's recent birthday party and made it possible for Paul and I to get everything done in time since doing it in advance didn't really happen.  He is still out little boy, but more and more often slips into pre-teen mode.  

Isaac is the last to have a birthday later this summer and is close to three.  It is hard to believe how big our baby is and we would be even sadder if we weren't enjoying this stage of his so thoroughly.  He is 100% boy and loves balls, planes, cars and Cars, asking to watch the latter at least once a day.  He is quite the baseball player and asks us often to go out and throw the ball for him.  When he connects with the ball, look out!

He is quite a talker, like his brothers and repeats things ad nauseum until he gets the answer he wants.  He reminds us of the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18 and usually get the same result by wearing us down.  So at least he has learned one Biblical lesson well!  The older boys dote on Isaac for the most part and are fighting over who gets to share a room with him when we are in the States next year.  We went to a zoo recently and Isaac asks constantly to go to the zoo and see the animals.  

He also sings "Awesome God" and chants "It's the Dad life!" from a youtube video he has seen.  Basically he is as cute and sweet as can be, unless he is tired.  Then he gets mad easily, sends himself to his room and either falls asleep or recovers his good humor.  Although he will always be our baby and Mom enjoys every baby moment left, we are thrilled to see his own personality and talents emerge. 

Although I can't bring myself to change the banner of this blog, I offer an updated picture here:

  

A Day in the Life

It's hard to nail down a typical day here.  There's always something strange going on.  Yesterday Paul was in the O.R. for about 12 hours.  That is not usual, but we have a third missionary surgeon on staff now, so it may become more common.  There are several things that Wednesdays bring regularly - I visit the orphanage Casa de Fe, Paul goes to the hospital doctors' meeting in the afternoon and the fruit lady comes!  This is one of the things I love about living here.  Produce delivered weekly to my driveway!  I am even willing to pay exorbitant prices for this convenience.  (For example, apples are 4/$1 instead of 5/$1.)  The truth is that produce is easily available a short walk in several directions from the house, but I am spoiled by the fruit lady and not likely to change.  It's really 2 fruit ladies and a man who drives them down from Ambato, 2 hours away.  Strawberries, pineapples, tomatoes and mandarin oranges are almost always in season and cost a couple dollars each for a weeks worth.  This week the fruit lady made my day by bringing me basil, which is not as available around here.  We'll be eating lot's of brushetta this week!  You can see our friendly fruit ladies in the picture below and our wagon full of the week's produce.

The fruit lady remembers when I was pregnant with Isaac and seems to have a special fondness for him.  She always gives him an extra mandarina and asks about him if he doesn't come out.  All the boys love mandarinas and can eat 3 or 4 at a time, but Isaac is especially fond of them and can make a meal out of them.  Here he is with Josiah showing off their snack!

Yesterday was also unusually clear and we were able to see the volcano Tungurahua spewing ash!  This is about an hour away in the town of Banos.  This is our back yard with the compound playground and a neighbor's house in the foreground.

From the same spot, but with the zoom.

New Year's Eve

Even after 3 years here, it's hard to clearly explain the New Year's Eve traditions.  Maybe the pictures will help.  This is the hospital's version, although you can walk around Shell or any town on New Year's Eve and see even more elaborate examples.  The old year is considered an old man.  It is personified in a straw man that can take on virtually any character.  Here is one from the hospital contest where each hospital department created an old man (the old year) and a widow (his wife after the new year arrives.)

Here is another example from the Maintenance Department of the hospital.  The figure to the left is the old man's (or old year's) soon-to-be widow.  Men dress up as the old year's widow and "beg" money from people driving and walking around.  All in fun.  The man on the right is reading the old year's will, leaving various things to different hospital employees.

Time for the bonfire.  All the figures are added to the pile.  The scrubs were saved.  As Paul commented, there aren't many XL scrubs - no need to burn them!

Arahuno

In early December I was able to go into the "jungle" with several other doctors to do physicals on children in the Compassion International program.  The hospital doctors have been taking turns going to remote jungle communities to do these physicals.  I agreed to help with this one because it was drivable, rather than requiring a flight and thus able to do with only one overnight.  The most difficult part was lining up back-up for Paul with the kids since he was on call the whole time I was gone.  Once that was figured out, it was a fun trip.  However, it was definitely "jungle-lite!"  We went to a community called Arahuno.  About 7 years ago a road was built to their community and since then they have had electricity.  They also have running water, although there was a problem with the pipes while we were there that had the water shut down.  We saw about 160 kids.  Almost all of them were healthy.  The ones that had medical problems that I saw had been seen, often at our hospital in Shell.  Most of these problems seem to be orthopedic injuries.  We also saw a small group of children from a more remote community that the Compassion workers brought to us by truck.  We did all the physicals in the elementary school for the community, named for Edward McCully, one of the five missionaries killed by the Waorani over 50 years ago.

Josiah's big debut!!!

Dear friends and family (especially grandparents):

Please see the following clip featuring our budding thespian Josiah!  Recently he and his preschool classmates performed in a provience-wide expose of "preschool culture" for the community here in Shell in our local "Coleseo".  Enjoy!

The Littlest Brother

Our Baby Isaac is already two!  It's hard to believe that much time has gone by.  He is a sweet boy and we all dote on him.  His brothers love him and he loves them.  He calls Sammy "BeMul," Nathan is "Nah-Nah" and Josiah is "Yah-Yah."  He does a good job keeping up with them and they look after him.  Isaac loves slides, jello, strawberries, Baby Einstein, balls, airplanes, strawberry milk, pineapple, books, pasta, and mandarinas.  He does not like baths, swimming, being sticky or being left behind when Mommy or Daddy go somewhere, especially if we go in the car.  On our vacation in the States, he warmed up quickly to the new people he met, especially when he saw his brothers playing with them.  He also kept up with all the activities we did from sailing to the corn maze to the aquarium.  He especially liked the alpine slide which he could ride with an adult.  Every time he reached the bottom he said, "One more time!"  He is a good natured little guy and although he likes to say "No," it seems like he says "Yes" more often than the others at two.  He is very attached to both Mom and Dad and likes to be with us.  His most common phrase is "Hold you me!"  His second birthday was during out Stateside vacation, so we were able to celebrate with both sides of the family and Mom even made him a giant "2" cookie.