Max is very helpful around the house... His favourite chores are helping with coffee, turning on the laundry, watering the plants and helping to make rice. As well as helping Spence with his work at the office.
Spencer has been hard at work keeping
up with the maintenance of the house. Burning leaves and branches, cleaning gutters, and cleaning out the water drainage... Blah!
A few weeks ago we signed up to celebrate Takiwasi's birthday. Spencer did not have much information other than than it was a half an hour bus ride to another town, he was given two long ribbons that we did not know what to do with (we thought maybe we had to tie them around our heads?!) and that we had to stop at a church. Well, turns out the bus ride was 1.5 hours, the ONLY destination was church and the ribbon was to write our wishes to tie onto the to the famous Virgin Mary alter. I spent most the service in the park across the street eating ice cream with Max, as a Catholic Church service in Spanish is hard for me... Err, mean, a 2 year old to sit through. ;)
Max has had a bit of a rough time... He bumped his head two times... The first trying to stand on top of a beach ball the second, slamming a door and having it bounce back and knock him over. Now when he has a minor bonk he says, "oh no, Max's head broken, need ice!"
We also had a bit of a health scare. Max started to run a fever one evening but was in good spirits, so I didn't think much of it. The next morning he still had the fever, but ate breakfast and played as normal. As the morning went on the fever started to rise so I gave him a Tylenol before his nap. As he laid down to go to sleep he started to have a seizure. I panicked and ran outside to seek help from my neighbours. They came to our rescue, one Peruvian man took Max and started to perform some kind of jungle chanting to calm him while we waited to go the hospital. We received excellent treatment at emergency... We were seen by 3 doctors and several nurses immediately. Max was diagnosed with scarlet fever and given a course of antibiotics. He was a champ and enjoyed cuddling on the couch watching the movie Cars.
Some more unfortunate news... One of our kittens, Itchy, has gone on an adventure in the jungle and not come back. We are hoping that someone found him and has claimed him as their own pet (which apparently is quite likely here as a cute white kitten). Scratchy doesn't seem to mind too much, as now she doesn't have to battle for food and attention. She is a lovely cat who comes when you call her and is now very affectionate and tolerant of Max picking her up in awkward ways and driving his toy cars on her while she sleeps. She does find good hiding places when she's had enough.
We had a nice Canadian Thanksgiving out at Rubén and Kristi's. Max and I made brownies (found some very expensive Betty Crocker mix at the store), Spencer created his own version of cranberry sauce with Camu camu berries, and Rubén and Kristi made a delicious chicken with stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans. The kids had a ball playing while we enjoyed the food and wine. They have a guest name Ida who is a journalist from Norway. She was super lovely and I hope we get to spend more time with her before she leaves.
Max and I spent a morning with Tala, which is always a pleasure. They were very independent and wanted to hold each other's hands when walking on the sidewalk and not mine.
Yesterday we took Spence to Urku (the animal refuge down our street. This spider monkey's name is Nativa.
I saved the creepy crawly update for last. Here are the latest creature encounters...
Whip scorpion-- dead, but harmless even if it was alive
Tarantula-- alive INSIDE our house having a face-off with a lizard, harmless but still was terrified having it in our house.
Leaf-cutter ants-- alive and hard at work, of course harmless.
Sorry for the length... I am going to try to post short updates more frequently, as to avoid these super long ones.
