Gymnastics

This summer we photograhed Ally doing handstands all over:

Pacaya Volcano

Ruins at Icimche

The shores of Lake Atitlan

Our hotel in New York City

The entrance to Hershey Park

At Becky's Alma mater Union College

And this past week she started out her level 4 USAG season with 4 practices in a row, Thursday 415-6(she left 2 hours early to get some sleep) Friday 330-715, Saturday 11:45-230, and a special floor routine practice today Sunday 8-10am. She is loving it still, and so excited for practice. 

First day of 5th grade

Wow. 5th grade. 

Ally groaned at the inevitable first day of school pictures, but she humored me and smiled for all the pictures. It looked like rain so she grabbed an umbrella before we left. Her friends came thru with the schedule and told us today was a gym day so Ally picked out "sports clothes" as she calls them which are appropriate for gym days and wore those with new sneakers. 

We walked to school today, since it wasn't actually raining. 

After the events of the past two weeks I was glad we had done all of her school shopping in July and early August. We had a new backpack, lunchbox water bottle and all of her school supplies at home. So yesterday when we got home she opened everything up, sharpened new pencils and got it all ready for today. 

She even let me take a few pictures at school! She was excited and confident on the walk to school and wanted to walk in by herself. I did ask how much longer she would want me to walk her to school and she said "maybe in 6th grade I will walk with friends to school". She knows I don't mind taking her at all so when she's ready will be fine. 

I'm so proud of her. And I hope she has a great first day of 5th grade. I can't wait to hear all about it after school. She has gymnastics practice this afternoon so we will have plenty of time to talk in the car. 

Grandma Barbie

My mom, Grandma Barbie passed away at 12:04am September 2, 2017. It had been a difficult few weeks for her. She had terrible stomach pains and was constipated for 10 days before the doctors realized she had some blockage in her colon and performed an emergency colostomy procedure. Basically, after 6 days of not pooping and having terrible stomach pains she went to the ER on the advice of her primary care physician. At the ER they did a cat-scan of her stomach and diagnosed my mom with diverticulitis. They treated it with IV antibiotics and tried lots of non-invasive things to clear her colon. But after 4 days and lots more pain the doctors operated and removed part of her colon and the blockage. A few years ago she spent 3 weeks in the hospital for respiratory issues and was diagnosed with COPD (emphazyma). Her damaged respiratory system did not recover fully after the surgery. Her blood pressure was extremely low for the first few days after the surgery and then her lungs started to fail and finally her heart failed.

At the beginning of last week, Ally and Becky went to visit Grandma Debbie and Poppy Dave and I went to NY to be with parents. I arrived the morning after the surgery and stayed until today when we came home. (I did leave for 18 hours to go back home and pick up Ally, Becky and Cloey.) in her last few hours of life my mom was able to see my brothers and my Aunt Martha, and she was able to talk and communicate. 

Telling Ally that her Grandma Barbie died was one of the most difficult parenting tasks yet. Ally had spent the night at my friend Michelle's house the night it happened so in the morning I told her when I went to pick her up. Every night since Ally has cried and had such a difficult time getting to sleep. 

The funeral was yesterday and relatives came from all over the country to honor my mom. I guess that is the silver lining or the bright side, Ally got to see lots of family she doesn't usually see. I took very few pictures. It just didn't seem right. I'm blogging about it because I know this will be a significant event in Ally's life. 

We put together a slide show of pictures from my mom's life and here are some:

My mom went with me to Guatemala to finalize Ally's adoption and bring her to the USA. This is a picture of them meeting.

So many fun times during our annual week to stay with her in Siesta Key. We joined her there for 9 of Ally's 10 years.

My favorite picture I found of my mom. 

The fun times with Aunt Martha. 

The picture above is Ally's favorite.

I love this one too.

My mom was an amazing grandma. She played games, baked, did crafts and read books to Ally and her cousins:

She even did puzzles (that she hated, but Ally loved).

Blowing bubbles

I told Ally to remember fun times and she said Disney World with Grandma Barbie, when we celebrated her 70th birthday.

My mom made sure to see Ally in her favorite activities, she attended a few of Ally's annual gymnastics shows and ballet recital

Ally missed her first two days of school this week to attend the funeral and travel back home. She was surprisingly alright with that. She needed the closure and time with family to mourn my mom, we all did. And we are all prepared for some hard times of missing her in the coming days, months and years.  

We all loved Grandma Barbie. 

Hair cut

For a few weeks Ally has been talking about a hair cut. Her hair was big (and long) but unruly. She couldn't wait to get a few inches off and more layers put in. 

I took before and after pictures:

She was so happy!! Seriously she was glowing after her haircut. 

This morning Ally told me how much easier it was to put her hair up in a ponytail for gymnastics now that it was a few inches shorter, but much lighter because of the layers. 

Fun with Friends

This summer we have friend to get together with friends more than usual. With Ally's gymnastics camp it would be easy to never see local friends, so we've been working on seeing school friends more often.

Guatemalan Family BBQ, the annual event that Gabi's family hosts. This year from our usual group it was just Gabi, Ally and Rosa:

They played badminton with a friend of Ally's from school for a long time.

An afternoon with an old friend of mine:

They gave Ally the boxed set of The Hunger Games. Ally started reading on the way home.

Chris and I 

Chris and I and our kids! His son Aiden is almost 2. Chris and his husband Joel were gracious hosts and we had a really nice lunch with them. 

Ally getting older:

That is Ally with her kindergarten teacher Jim and her friend (and fellow kindergarten student) Collette. Jim posted the picture below on Facebook and asked for some help at a local sing a long he was performing at. I emailed him and said Ally could do it. Her friend Colette came along too. 

Guatemala Day 7: Antigua and Niños presentation

Today was our last day here. Ally's mosquito bites are itchy and Becky's sunburned skin has starting peeling. I spent the day telling both of them to stop scratching. It's time to go home tomorrow. But we are bracing for a brutally long day of travel. We get picked up at 8:15am for our 1:00pm flight. New TSA regulations require additional checkin time for all flights entering the USA. Then we have a 3 hour layover in Miami again. So we finally land in Boston at 11:00pm and still have to go thru customs and get a cab home. But that is tomorrow. Ally won the photo contest so she gets to pick the restaurant for dinner in Miami. 

That is Becky's peeling arms. 

Today was another fun day. After breakfast we headed back to the arch and did some shopping. Final gifts for Ally's friends and a jade necklace for Beth and Ally. Then we visited a 300 year old church Las Capuchinas, stopped at the Chocolate Museum for some souvenirs and rested for a bit before we headed out to a presentation at Ninos Benedicion, a local charity project for children. 

Breakfast, the children's plate was perfect for Ally. 

 

Our hotel lobby.

Ally took this fantastic picture of the arch with the volcano in the background. 

At the church it was mostly in ruins. The building now houses Antigua's preservation department.

They are looking at the toilet.

Gorgeous girl. She loves it here. 

Banana bread and bananas to dip in chocolate sauce. 

Beth and Becky took some nice pictures around town.

At the presentation children came out dressed in traditional clothing from different parts of Guatemala. They introduced themselves, their age and where they lived all in English. It was a riot. All were 11-14 years old. They kidded around and were embarrassed sometimes. It was delightful and Ally loved it. The children performed several dances and even had Ally join in.

Then we all joined in!

After the presentation the girls dressed Ally up. The director also did Ally's hair. Ally loved it. 

They taught us how to make tortillas. Traditionally they would grind their own masa. Now you can buy it ground and mix by hand.

But they still form by hand. 

Turns out Ally is a natural at forming tortillas. The director was sincerely impressed, she said most kids get a sticky and messy and even most parents can't do it right the first time. But Ally's were perfect!

Ally also acted as our translator for almost the entire we were there. Again, Guatemalans are so surprised and impressed that Ally knows Spanish, and so much Spanish. This trip has truly reinforced how important it is that Ally is bilingual. 

Then we got to eat a cooked tortilla with beans. 

After the presentation we went back to our hotel. Beth and I did some more shopping and Becky and Ally relaxed. Then the 3 of them went out to eat while I packed. 

At dinner tonight Ally had a huge glass of lemonade. Then it was back to the hotel and she played card games with Beth and Becky while I blogged. Now it's time for bed. 

This really has been an amazing trip.