Weekly Updates (January)

Spending our last few days with Dad before we loose him to school again.

Fort Louis- climbing rocks and exploring.

Our morning walks never get old. I love being able to get up every morning and go for a walk with my kidos. That one of the plus' of living in the Caribbean. This winter weather is awesome. We found these boards on our walk one morning so we grabbed them for a craft to do that day. They had lots of fun painting there boards. Then we hung them on our tree outside in our yard.

I've had a few friends ask about our winters here on St Maarten, so i thought i would give in more detail what out winters are like. It cools down in December and warms up end up march beginning of April. Cooled down temp is 30'C each day but still feels like 35 and can cool down to 25 at night. I have really noticed it feeling cooler. I don't feel like going to the beach as much and at night I have to put a light blanket on, usually we just have a sheet. I never thought I would say this feels cool but it does. In the winter season here it rains more, at least once a day and there is usually a good breeze.

We had to have a ER visit with Lacey.... On Friday Lacey had a high fever all day and wouldn't go down with out Tylenol or Advil. I thought it was just due to teething. So we took it easy and watched movies. But early evening Lacey started to have a good wraspy cough, to me it kinda sounded like croup. Friday night was a rough long night for Lacey, she still had a fever and would just cry even when i was holding her and rocking her. I knew something wasn't right as she usually isn't this fussy with teething. Saturday we took it easy again. Lincoln was going crazy not going out and doing any thing. Josh was at school all day studying as he had a exam to study for that was on Monday. Lacey only slept for an hour in the afternoon, which isn't normal for Lacey, usually its 2 hours. when she woke up she was having trouble breathing and was whizzy.  Living with Asthma I was concerned for Lacey as you could tell she was struggling to breath. I really didn't want her to have to deal with Asthma like I have to. All doctor clinics on the island are walk in but are only open from 9-12 on Saturday's. so to the ER we went. I didn't want to take Lincoln as its not a fun place to wait and I didn't want him to caught anything at the hospital. So I messaged Josh and he came home to watch Lincoln and try to still study.  Josh meet us in the parking lot, Lacey and I got in th car and I told lincoln he was going home with Josh. Lincoln began to cry. As Josh was walking home with Lincoln, Lincoln said "I just want to help Lacey". Lincoln loves his sister and it was even hard on him to see Lacey cry constantly. He tried so hard to help her by bring her her soother, banker and puppy and would tell her to be happy but nothing was helping.... So Lacey and I were off, I was actually dreading going. I want to help Lacey but health care just isn't the same here... It was a good experience. The ER waiting room is tiny (the size of my kitchen). So I walk in and there is no front desk or signs on what to do so I ask the security guard, to see where I check in. You have to ring a bell then a nurse comes out. The nurse came out and asked if I had a insurance card I said no I'm paying cash, she passed me and went on to the next person, then I handed her Lacey's past port and said again I'm paying cash ($50 for ER visits). She got her registered. Then another nurse came out who was doing assestments and took some one in to get assessed who arrived after us. That second nurse came back out and I stepped forward and said Lacey hasn't been assessed yet so he took her in. This whole time Lacey was screaming her head off. A local lady asked me if she was teething, really?!? if she was just teething I wouldn't be here, no she's have trouble breathing. I just found I had to be very forward since I didn't have coverage (30 mins). They assessed her and took her immediately back since she was having shortness of breath. Love the triage system. Saw another nurse right away and they gave her something for her fever. Then we got a student doctor from AUC. He questioned us on her condition then came back in with the doctor.... We were in and out of the hospital in 2 hours, which wasn't to bad. Lacey was diagnosed with a viral chest infection. The doctor said it was sitting right on her lungs causing her to wheeze. I was so happy to hear it wasn't Asthma. If we wouldn't have left it he said it would have got a lot worse. So we got her prescription for a steroid, antibiotics and another medication for her fever..... Now to find a pharmacy to get the drugs. Found out no pharmacy is open Saturday afternoon, by now it was 5pm but luckily mullet bay Pharmacy is open from 9-1 and 6-9 due to its locations near a lot of resorts. So we got her meds that night which i was glad. As I wasted to start treating her as soon as possible.  Saturday night was a bit better night. Lacey was slowly on the med, she stayed at home with dad from church. She hates taking her meds.

Lincoln loves art time after lunch when Lacey is napping. Here we are painting with his cars.

At 16 months Lacey got another tooth, top right one, thats to the right of her two center teeth.

lincoln's drawing he did at church one Sunday.

This is Lincoln's drawing of his body. this sunday we learned that Heavenly father had a body like us.

At church we learned a little about the mission that covers St Maarten. The mission is called the West indies mission (caribbean islands) covers 12 nations, has 8 currencies, 4 langues (english, french, dutch and spanish)  also with other dialogues

We've been working on Lincoln's name with him.

I've been making some learning games for him. This one is match the octopus. You have to match the correct colour head with the legs.

Here's another game where you have to arrange the dinosaurs from smallest to biggest or vs verse.

I've also made Lincoln as weather chart. He loves it. He changes it multiple times a day.

Lincoln also has a HOT and COLD game when he has to arrange these cards on a Hot section and a Cold section. Lincoln says the wind (breeze) here on St. Maarten isn't hot or cold.

Valentine's crafts

Lacey loves being included and doing crafts too.

Painting with the end of a lettuce head. Lincoln thought it was pretty neat to be painting with a lettuce.

Making monsters with different shapes. Lincoln is getting very creative. While Lincoln made he's monsters he was face timing with my mom's day home kids. He loves keeping in touch with his friends back in Canada.

Lincoln relaxing one sunday afternoon.

These are a collection of Lincoln's pictures he took all by him self with his own camera that Nana Harker got him last year. He has recently become more interested in taking his own pictures like mommy does.

The kids having a snack break on the boardwalk.

Lincoln playing with his bottle caps with his cars.

Lincoln having some pool fun with his friend Liam.

Here's the Steve Jobs yacht that he had designed. We call it the iBoat, but its actual name is Venus. It was docked here on the island of St Maarten in October when my dad and brother were here and we have seen it this last week again. Josh was pretty surprised to see it when we drove by.

Fun night at the Carousel with some of Josh's classmates.