Manuel is SO MUCH happier than last week. As you can see in the picture- he was pretty sad. He could barely walk and was having lots of pain from his skin graft.

Now he is able to ride a bike and do all his therapy and it doesn't hurt. He can bend his knee 120% which is EXCELLENT!

He loves listening tomusic. I bought two Spanish CDs for him.  A Child's Bible Songs and Alex Rodriguez. Manuel requested Spanish Christian Music. He seems to prefer my tobyMac, though. He calls it "C.D. muy rapido" and goes around singing lines from it, thathe doesn't understand.

He now will ask for food if he's hungry and ask for medicine if he hurts or is itchy. He also asks to borrow my CD. He can make his own corn tortillas (even though it's the 'woman's job' )

He LOVES the Star wars movies. Infact, we are renting SW6 tinight for him to watch. We have a few, but some are on VHS and don;t have the Spanish. So we rent the DVD so he can listen toit in Spanish.

He pretends to use "The Force" to change traffic lights.

Sometimes he talks to me and gets frustrated. Poor Kid. I do know a LOT more Spanish than I used to, though. (which was none). Most tiimes he can get me to understand, sometimes he doesn't and gets upset and tells me "Yes you DO understand me!".. well, he just says "KIMBERLY SI COMPRENDO!!" but I think that's what he's conveying...

and sometimes I realy do- well, once I remember what the word he used meant. Sometimes Ihave to search mymemory back befor a word comes tome.

I like how he says my oldest son's name. His name is Gavin. Manuel says "Gabi".. well, he almost says the final 'n', but it usually just sounds like Gabby. He spells it with a b, as well. Though Gavin has shown him manytimes it has a v. He thinks of Vs and Bs as interchangable. Or actually, he sees them BOTH as Bs.

He has been working to earn money. He has over 1,000 lipera (is that the spelling of their currency??)

He is good at math. But like a normal kid, he never wants to do school. And like a boy he loves to burn things with the magnifying glass!

 He swears our boy cat is a girl and the girl cat is a boy. It makes Connor mad. I think that is why Manuel contiues to tell Connor his cat is really a girl.

I need to go read what he wrote today. If babelfish works..... I actually think I figures most of it out myself.

This is what he wrote:

1. Connor y Gabin estan en una fiesta.

2. Brian esta tomando foto.

3. Tambien esta la amiga de Brian.

4. Kimberly esta sosteniedo la camera.

5. connor le esta pegando a la piñata

6. los amigos de los muchachos etsan viendo.

7. La piñata esta en el arbor.

8. el arbor es de color verde

9. un muchachos esta can una pelota de basket boll

10. Brian, Kimberly, Gabin, Connor, y los amigos estan feliz.

most of the words I know, some I 'get the drift of' and some I guessed becuase I know what the picture was.

Don't forget to read my other blog from today:

Our School Science from This Morning.

I was up to 2AM Last night talking to Manuel. He told me all about the accident. It happened Dec 24. They have Christmas on the 24. He was playing football (soccer) with his friends (Rigal, Jose and another). They had been setting off fireworks. He had stuck one in his pocket. I'm unclear as to why or what he was doing with it. He mad e action that loked like he was whittling it. HIs pants caught on fire, he was screaming and smacking it withhis hands. HIs friends were too scared to help. His Mo one else was around. Finally his brother, Digno(28), foundhim and took him to his house. His wife put salve on his leg. (We think she is 38 yrs old). The took him to a hospital in a close town. The hospital turned them away. They went to a second hospital. He was there a month.

I learned thathe had two older brothers that died  before he was morn. (He's 13, Hid oldest living sibling is 28). His sister Carolina lives in a house on his proprety with her husband. Theyhave 2 kids. 3 yrs and 7 months. HIs sister Lourdes (19) lives in a bedroom at the end of their house with her usband. She is very pregnant. Carolina's first daughter died. She was throwing up a lot. She was a baby. I wonder if she just died of dehydration. Digno's wife wasmarried before. We think she is at least 10 yrs older than he is. Her oldest child is 23 and Digno is 28.

In his yard he has lots  of banana trees, 3 mango trees, 2 coconut trees, a lemon tree, an orange tree, a guava tree, a nance tree and apple trees. The apple tree(s) doesn't have fruit on it. They have a chili peper bush, too. They have no flowers because the chickens eat them. The chickens sleep in the trees at night. Ther have 2 pigs that get tied to a tree.

 Manuels works on Saturdays cutting sugar cane. He has school for 10 months and on the other two months he works 6 days a week cutting sugar cane. He makes 500 Limpiras a week. 19Limpiras is $1 American. When he is working all week, he has to buy his own clothes and stuff. But if he doesn't have enough work to to buy his won needs,his parents take care of it. He rides a big truck that holds 60 people. All standing and crammed.

This week is Semana Santo (Semana being week) I guess it is a holy week. No school and not many people go to work. His dad still works cutting the sugar cane and will get paid double. The rest of his family will go tot he river to swim and play.

His brother LooLoo (sp?) lives in San Pedro and is 23. He's not married.

I heard about how Beti (8 or 9) broke her arm. His dad was in a car wreck (drunk driverhithim) and his dad's car rolled and he was inthe hospital for awhile.  He said his dad had a bad heart and passed out and they smashed onions for him to smell and he woke up. Not sure if it was really  his heart if he was fine without a doctor. He said he broke his shoulder playing soccer. He described it and whatthey did. I think it was pulled out the socket, not broke. He didn't need to see a doctor.

On September 10 the schools have a big festival with a pinata and everything. I guess it kicks the school year off? Beti goes to a school that is 10 minutes walking distance. Manuel's school is 30 mins by foot, 15 by bike. Schools there only go  up to 6th grade.

We arrived at the hospital at 2:30. The dr didn;t see us until almost 3:30. Manuel had x-Rays to rule out a bone growth disorder that sometimes happens in injured areas.

The told me to have him take it easy, and hold off on a lot of therapy. They changed his garments to one that gives more support at the knees. And I am to give him Ibuprofen 3 times a day (regardless of pain or not) and ice as needed.

A friend watched my boys while I was gone, then she watched my boys and Manuel so Brian and I could go out to dinner.

Brian and I stayed p late with Manuel. We taught him some new card games.

I printed this today- hopefully I got it correct this time.And Manuel will like to know what to expect daily.

Daily Schedule:

7AM- wake up despierte

8AM-Breakfast and clean El desayuno y limpia

9AM- school  escuela

NOON- lunch and recess  almuerzo y hendidura

1-3PM-   School  escuela

Dinner is usually approximately 5:30PM    La cena es generalmente los aproximadamente 5:30PM

Wednesday evenings the boys and Brian go to church. I stay home and clean or do work for school. 

Las tardes de miércoles los muchachos y el Brian van a la iglesia. Permanezco casero y limpio o trabajo para la escuela.

On the 1^st and 3^rd Friday evenings on the month, we have Bible Study at friends' houses.

En las 1ras y 3ro tardes de viernes en el mes, tenemos estudio de la biblia en las casas de los amigos.

This week in school we will be learning about fractions and percentages in math. We will be learning about cells in science.

Esta semana en escuela que aprenderemos sobre fracciones y porcentajes en matemáticas. Aprenderemos sobre las células en ciencia.

I have written our schedule for the week. I try to have a schedule for our days, but sometimes our schedule has to change.

Here is our basic schedule for the week. We always have tacos on Tuesday, but dinner on the other nights changes each week.

He escrito nuestro horario para la semana. Intento tener un horario por nuestros días, pero nuestro horario tiene que cambiar a veces. Aquí está nuestro horario básico para la semana. Cenamos siempre el tacos el martes, pero en los otros cambios de las noches cada semana.

Day & Breakfast	morning	afternoon	DINNER
Monday –make your own breakfast	Reading, exercise, bandage cleaned, spelling	Gavin and Ki go to Class.
Tuesday- toast, eggs, bacon	Reading, exercise, bandage cleaned, spelling	I go have coffee & the boys do school work. Science together.	TACOS
Wednesday- waffles	Reading, exercise, bandage cleaned, spelling	Math, science
Thursday- your choice	Play games or go on trips.	Connor and Ki have class. You go to Spanish with Lisa Burke
Friday- French Toast, bacon	Reading, exercise, bandage cleaned, spelling test	Math & science
Día Y Desayuno	Mañana	Tarde	CENA
Lunes - haga su propio desayuno	Lectura, ejercicio, vendaje limpiado, deletreo	Gavin y Ki van a clasificar.
Martes - tostada, huevos, tocino	Lectura, ejercicio, vendaje limpiado, deletreo	Voy tengo café y los muchachos enseñan el trabajo. Ciencia junto.	TACOS
Miércoles  - galletas	Lectura, ejercicio, vendaje limpiado, deletreo	Matemáticas, ciencia
Jueves  - su opción	Lectura, ejercicio, vendaje limpiado, deletreo	Connor y Ki tienen clase. Usted va al español con Lisa burke
Viernes  - Tostada francesa, tocino	Lectura, ejercicio, vendajes limpios, prueba del deletreo	Matemáticas y ciencia

Manuel Blog 3-9

From Friday- I let Manuel sleep in since he was up a lot of the night Thursday night.Manuel's tummy was just a mild problem in the morning. I made French toast for Breakfast. We did a few stretches, his bandage cleaning, then met Brian for lunch at a Spanish/Mexican restaraunt. It was the real kind- the kid where all the worksers are Mexican or from other Soanish speaking countries and they have the TV on the Spanish Stations. The owner is a very kind man from Venezuela. He talked to Manuel a bit. I told him a bit about Manuel. where he is from, why he is here, etc. He asked if there were people that spoke Spanish that he can talk to and said Manuel was more than welcome to come to the restaraunt anytime to visit. He even said Manuel could come to his house and spend time with his family. A real authentic Spanisk culture family, I bet! Then he gave Manuel a gift certificate for $10. I'll take him back next week for lunch.

His right leg (with the most burns) looks so much better! HIs left leg (mostly donor) still hurts him a lot and bleeds. But it doesn't bleed nearly as much as it used to bleed. The sores still look about the same though.

His tummy hurts him the most when he is bored. When he in engaged he is easily distracted from the pain. That's good.

I gave him Benadryl to help him sleep. He slept all through the night.

Oh- after lunch, we went to the boonshoft museum. Manuel seemed to really enjoy it. He climbed the rope ladder. That was awesome therapy for his legs! And he went down the spiral slide. We sat in on a little chemistry lab. Manuel got to put Alkaseltzer tabs with water in a film canister and shoot the lid.

We went to a planetarium show. Just sitting there with nothing to do, his stomach was pretty painful. Not sure what that means.

Oh, the guy from Venezuela said when he moved here, it took 1.5 months for his stomach to feel better. The food here is just hard to get used to eating and digesting. He told that to Manuel and that he will feel better in a week or two probably.

Poor Manuel.... when he goes back home, he'll have tummy aches again as he gets re-used to their food in Honduras.

here are some pics from the museum. Manuel styled his hair all on his own. He slicked it back.

MARCH 9-2007

Manuel had been feeling sick- we worried a bit about him Then I figured it out.

The last couple days he has been eating very big meals at lunch and dinner. Yesterday he had a smaller lunch than the Wed; which could be why his tummy didn't hurt as bad.

(Wed he ate 5 or 6 tacos for lunch and he has more than that for amount for dinner).

So, here is what I think it is-
The Lexipro being at about 2 weeks a few days ago started triggring a bit of an upset tummy. Then his large meals added to that....
and I think his take with his parents was upseting and that didn't help him.

I think I will switch his Lexipro to the evening (with dinner), so he can sleep through the tummy ache. And I will limit his food intake at meals and see if that helps.

Manuel didn;t feel well yesterday. He was very sick to his stomach and puking. It started around 3 or 4. It was mostly dry heaves with some mucus. Which i a bit odd- he just ate a granola bar an hour, maybe 1.5 hours before he 'puked'... I kinda wonder WHERE the bar is? Maybe it was digested extra quickly?

Nothing else hurts on him, no fever.... It was either from his Lexipro- whichhe has been on for 2 weeks now, he also has been very drowsy the past couple days and a bit disorientated.

OR it was nerves. He had a phone conversaton with his parents the night before and we know that his dad beats him and has threatened to beat him over the phone and told him the drs would beat him if he's not good. Manuel is very very anxious about being good and not causing a burden or problem.

Or Nerves of other sorts- Just the fact of his situation- being hurt, far from home, etc......

It could have been something he ate. Maybe there was something in the granola bar that his tummy didn't like.

According to the nurse, burn patients are very susceptible to ulcers... that could be it, too.

He is still asleep today. It's 9:15.

*I have a MANUEL Category- so you can click on it to read the other Manuel Blogs

--Kimberly

We have been using babelfish more often. I write out sentences for Manuel toread when I don’t think he understand what we are trying to show him. I used it to tel him what he will be doing in class today.

He is learning English. I have 5 words in both English and Spanish (like ‘happy-feliz’ and ‘tired-cansado’). We played charades. For my boys I would say the word in Spanish and they would act it out. For Manuel I would say the word in English and he’d act it out. Then they had to write their word sets 3 times each.

Ki can’t find his word cards. ARG! ARG ARG! lost things really BUG ME!

He choose ‘tired’ for his word of the week. So we wrote that down on a card and he added to his story.

Gavin and Connor had some more spelling to do.  5 words aren’t cutting it fr them…LOL. So while we did that, Manuel played the Spanish book for the Leap Pad. “Fiesta en la casa” or something like that.

After lunch, I dropped Ki and Gavin off at their classes. Connor and I took Manuel to the Boonshoft Children’s museum of Discovery. He seemed to really like it, but was overwhelmed and got quite worn out.

I am making a Spanish recipe for dinner. It was given to me by Ron (from the game store) Ron used to be a chef in Southern Cali and has friends from Honduras. He said this dish is common in Honduras and Manuel should love it!

MANUEL-D5h (Day 5 home)

(from Yesterday)

After eggs and corn tortillas breakfast I did Manuel's therapy and cleaning and bandages changes. His right knee is looking infected. I'll keep an eye on it.

I took Ki to Krispy Kreme for breakfast. It was a Mommy Date.

My hubby stayed home today to help the boys work on the Pinewood Derby cars. He lets them do as much as they possibly can on their own- just provides instruction and overseeing things like elecetric power tools. So it is taking quite a while. I like the their cars look like a car a kid made. It bugs me when parents do these things for their kids- the car definately lloks like an adult did it all, and the adult made car beats out all the kid-made cars... that just makes me upset! What are they teaching their kids!!!


Back to earth- and we went to lunch with Brian's padres (parents). We took Manuel to Chipotle. I LOVE their food but I HATE HATE HATE their restaruant. I get migraines from all that NOISE and commotion!!

Came home and the guys got started on their cars. I went to a cafe to work on my school schedule (and avoid all the nose of power tools and BOY NOISES- those sound effects boys make 24/7....)

I have a week of planning- with dr appointments and BiLingual lessons. I don't have the workbooks planned out yet.

And it is time for Therapy and bath for Manuel again.

Then we will have dinner and go to Bible Study.

**Bible Study went well. Manuel made it up their huge staircase and was all smiles. Then he went down to the basement (that's a second flight of stairs) and played Ping Pong with Brian. Allthose stairs made his leg bleed quite a bit this morning.

We had waffles and sausage for breakfast. My 3 boys helped. Gavin made waffles, I made Sausage. Connor and Ki cleared the dishwasher and set the table. Manuel didn't have sausage. I thought the night.

Manuel worked some sea life puzzles while I did spelling with the boys. Again, this looked to be something he has never done before.

I did Manuel's exercises with him.

Then we did some cleaning. I taught Manuel to vacuum the school rug. He did well. And hopefully it'll be a good exercise for him.

Then we all did math. Well, THEY all did Math. I had them use Dice. hopefully, that made it fun for Manuel. I wasn't sure where he was at in math, so we started with multiplying a D6 (6 sided dice) times a D6. That went well so I moved to double dice (a die in a die) and a D8. So he had problems like 63X7. He did great with a few of those, so I gave him a double (D8s) and a triple- a blank clear die with 3 D6 inside to make a 3 digit number. So he did problems like 253X34. And he did very well with those, too.

The boys did their school reading while I did bandage changes. Poor Little Manuel. He was sobbing and there was bog drops of blood on the floor. Connor brought him a mango after he settled down and was soon dressed and out doing stuff with the boys. I thing Mangos should be prescribed as antidepressant med.

 Ki and I went and fixed the bird feeders out his window. I repositioned the seed feeder because it was too close to his window. I think the birds were frightened. And Ki hung a suet feeder.

Ki helped make laundry detergent.

And now it is lunch time!

my parents are coming over for dinner later.arund 4:30. We'll eat at 5. I think I'll make homemade noodles and chicken. I love homemade egg noodles!

Yes, that is what I am. TIRED! Not too bad. I mean it is a good feeling tired. A tired that comes from a long day of getting lots done.

I made tortillas for breakfast. Gavin made eggs. Ki made bacon. Connor made toast. Manuel ate toast, tortillas and a fried egg.

We cleaned up and the boys played a bit. Then e did school. Manuel just watched today. I got him to write a little letter to a friend's boy who had written Manuel a letter. I don't think Manuel has ever written a letter before.

After we had our story time, we did Stretches and Brain Gym. Manuel joined us. He did sitting Criss-Crossed, Deep Breath Stretches and his knee lifts.

Gavin and Connor did spelling. First they did Lazy 8s and double-doodles. Manuel did these, too. He wrote his letter during the first part of our spelling lesson and just watched the rest of the lesson. Ki worked on his story he is writing.

Then I did Manuel's washing and dressing changing while the others did their reading time.

My mom called and when I was done with that, it was time for lunch.

Manuel had gotten the coconut from yesterday by himself and was starting in on that, so I figured it was lunch time. Manuel also had some spaghetti.

I think my brain fell asleep, because I forget what happened for awhile after that. Brian came home shortly after lunch though.

I went to the store.

Then for dinner we had homemade tortillas, store bought taco shells, steak slices, rice, taco ground beef, cheese, saute'd bell peppers, black beans, salsa, lettuce, Mango juice and Guava juice....... it was a yummy buffet!

After we cleaned up from dinner, Brian got Manuel started on a Pine wood derby car, then I did his exercises with him.

After exercises it was bath time for Manuel. Brian helped with that.

MONDAY FEB 26-

When I got to the Hospital, Manuel was all smiles.

He cried at the hospital when he was saying good bye to his friend's mom.

He SOBBED after that when we had to changehis dressings. It was his first time without any pain meds, they wanted to see how it'd go. He bled a lot and cried and sobbed.

He slept on the way to our house.

He wsa very sad for a few hours. Just sat and sniffled. He didn't wand to eat or play or anythng. Whichis very understandable.

Shortly after dinner I got out a mango and started eating it. Gavin asked for some. Ki asked for some.So I gave them some. Connor walks in and tells me that Manuel might want some. So I whisper how to ask in Spanish and Connor asked Manuel, he ened up gobbling half of my Mango. Then I told Connor how to ask if he wanted more and he did. So I gave him his own own mango. It was the first smile at our house.

Manuel and is Mango.

After Mangos He asked us to play UNO (just brought the cards to us. I need to get him talking. I can understand 'Juego'. (play)I use that word with him enough, I'd think he'd know I know that word.).

Then the boys got the soccer ball out and had fun doing head bounce passes back and forth. They had Manuel laughing pretty well.

They also went to the bedroom at some point and got Manuel talking to them. Teaching them words and how to say numbers and they taught him. They tried to get him to say 'cat', but it came out like 'hot' with a small /h/. He laughed and handed he stuffed tiger t me and askes me to say it in english. WOW, that was a first. he has never asked for an English word  before!

So it was a slow, sad start, but he seemed to warm up the boys (and to the mango and coconut) quickly.

From Feb 26

Manuel comes home today! Well, not to HIS home... but he's being discharged from the Burn Hospital today and we will bring him to our house!

I need to figure out what to dofor dinner. We probably won't get home until 6. And I won't want to prepare a fancy meal after the drive and all.

--KIMBERLY

I can't find a picture of him smiling. I'll have to make sure to get one today. He has the cutest smile!

It was a good day@!!! Manuel is no longer in isolation and was at the playroom when we arrived. He is standing to tall and straight (for the most part) when he walks. (they thught he'd have the hunched walk for a couple of weeks, but he only had it a few days).