I thought I'd put up some video that hasn't been on here before. At least I don't think I put this one on before. It's from Christmas and John shows how much he loves to get presents.

More pictures of Johnito in his pajamas

As you can tell Johnito's pajamas are getting a big snug on him. I'm sure we'll be buying new clothes soon for him. Later in the evening we went to WalMart for some food and there is a McDonalds inside. Of course John had to get some chicken McNuggets. His toy was a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter which he liked a lot. So much so that somehow he fell asleep with it in his mouth. Kids.............

Johnito at church in his pajamas

This past Saturday our church held the "Breakfast With The Bishop" program in which the children come in their pajamas and are fed breakfast. The idea is that it's supposed to be done at the first of the year and the children then meet their teacher and see what classroom they will be in. As you can tell that didn't happen but better late than never. With John's assistance I cooked pancakes for the first time ever in my life. By the end I was doing pretty good but the earlier ones, well I'll just say I'm glad I didn't have to eat any of them.

Johnito's Hands

A few weeks ago I had to take John to the doctor because of a persistent cough that he was having. Okay, truthfully Connie made me take John to the doctor. We hadn't been there for almost 7 months and as I was signing John in, he held his hands up to the receptionist and told her to look.



The first thing that came to my oblivious mind was that I had washed his hands and cleaned his fingernails before coming and he was just showing her his clean hands. But I realized very quickly that I was wrong. Dead wrong. She made a quick comment to another worker that he was showing her that his hands were healed and they no longer needed bandages.



Even though it had been 7 months he remembered all the work they had done for him. They would take off the bandages, clean his hands and then put on clean bandages. At first it was every day and then every other day and then just every few days as we got better at doing this ourselves. Of course the biggest obstacle was having John trust us enough to do it.



As John's name was called and we went back to the room he stopped and showed everybody who worked there his hands and how they had healed and then repeated it with the doctor. It was a miracle that he didn't suffer any permanentt damage or scarring and everybody at the doctors office was wonderful and very patient with us. I continue to be amazed with John as he showed me something that day. He helped me to remember how much everybody there went out of their way to be kind and helpful and that there are still caring people in the world. We are eternally grateful to them for all that they did.

Marriage and La Teta Asustada

This is a copy of a post I made on my other blog (www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com) and since it concerns marriage or more importantly, my marriage, I thought I'd copy it here so that family and friends will have a chance to read and comment on it. Or not, whatever they prefer.

My wife is from Peru and as a result I try to find Spanish language movies for her to enjoy. I myself do not speak much of the Spanish language although it is something I plan on changing in the near future. So imagine my surprise when I find a movie that is not only written by a Peruvian, stars a Peruvian, was made in Peru and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film, that I excitedly tell her the premise and she says she doesn't like it (without watching the trailer) because it seems that the main character would be living such a horrible life. When she says things like this, without giving the movie at least even a casual glance it can really deflate me and make me wonder why I bother even trying. I mean, what is the point if whatever I spend time investigating in an attempt to make her happy, to show something of her country especially on a grand stage, is rejected so easily without much thought or interest?

But then as I think about it deeper (something I'm good at) I realize that the point is that I tried, whether she likes what I've done or even appreciates it should not be my goal. I love her with all of my heart and even after almost 5 years of marriage the fact is that there are things about each other we never will understand. There are things we do not know and are just starting to figure out. After all, we come from 2 different cultures, speak 2 different languages
and have had different things happen to us in our lives. Whenever something like this happens I need to get over my initial feelings of disappointment and remember that it's not about me. As long as we are growing and learning and loving we will be fine. We don't need to have everything in common or think the same way about everything. Our differences are what makes it so wonderful. It's what makes it so worthwhile. It's why we keep on fighting for this marriage because make no mistake, marriage will always have it's struggles and rough patches broken up by periods of tranquility. The trick is learning to make those tranquil peroids last longer each time.



By the way, much like my effort La Teta Asustada did not win the Oscar. It instead went to a movie from Argentina. But at least they can say it was there and had a chance which is a lot more than many other films can say. Congratulations to director Claudia Llosa and star Magaly Solier. I will certainly be looking for it on dvd and who knows, I may just slip it in the dvd player without my wife knowing what it is and tricking her into giving it a fair chance.

Last of the pictures of Johnito posing in his hardhat

These are the last of the pictures of Johnito psoing for Connie, I promise. Now we need to get some new ones taken. All I can say is, he's going to break a lot of hearts. Enjoy.

Johnito acting funny as he poses

As you can see from the most recent pictures that Connie had taken of John he really took his posing to a new level. Words cannot describe this so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.