Today, he called me out, “Quieres ver una culebra?” He whispered. Sure, snakes are cool, so I grabbed the camera and off we went to see the snake, leaving the boys with Mirna.

The guy who was clearing the land had his little boy, about Dorian’s age, with him and he’d killed the snake with a blow to the neck when it slithered out toward his son. I didn’t get very good shots, but didn’t realize until afterwards.

I have no idea what kind of snake this is, so if you want to enlighten me in the comments, go for it. I do know that it had fangs . . . Irving didn’t know they could lie back, so the guy lifted the mouth with the machete to show him (hence the dirt in the mouth).

The boys managed to escape Mirna shortly afterwards (she put their shoes on) and came running out to see what was going on, so we had a little science lesson. While we were examining the snake from a safe distance, the tail started to move back and forth and Dorian yelped, “It’s gonna bite me!” I explained that it was dead but the muscles were still moving a bit and that’s why we should never ever touch a dead snake because its jaws can still bite you even when it’s dead.

Then they ran off to look for more snakes in the little remaining grass. Thankfully they didn’t find any.

Now, ordinarily, we don’t get rain this time of year, much less 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I feel like I’m back on the West Coast! Normal rainy season weather is sunshine all morning, then rain about 3pm and into the night. The past few rainy seasons have been weird and this particular one has been so dry that there are some serious droughts in the country and people are starving to death because they don’t have enough to eat.

Then you have this bizarre week. It always rains on Nov. 1st, always destroying the kites and causing people to run for shelter, fiambre in hand. However, there are usually many sunny dry days before that and afterwards, the rainy season officially gives up the ghost. Not this year!

Then this morning, I got up entirely too early thanks to my kids and when the sun started to rise, we were treated to incredible blue skies and beautiful sunshine for the first time in many days!! The boys were excited, but since they got up so early, Dante had to have a nap. Irving got in at four am, so he’s still sleeping as I write this. And, the sunshine is trying . . . . but I can see black clouds roiling just over Antigua, which means they’ll be hitting us shortly, butting up against the volcano and dumping all their rain on us.

I wish we’d had more sleep so we could have gone out and enjoyed even an hour in this beautiful weather.

The rainy season has decided to finish out with a vengeance so my boys who normally live outside 8-10 hours a day are stuck indoors and have been for over a week. They are NOT happy about this, but while I tend to let them play in the rain, I’m not about to chance a relapse.

What we’ve done is taken the top mattress off our bed and leaned it against the wall so they can climb on it, hurl themselves (or an unsuspecting brother) into it and hide behind it. Just today, they’ve built a train, gone on a car ride behind the mattress to get Pepsi from the tienda and headed off into the wild blue yonder with their “airplane” built of every blanket and pillow in the house. And of course, there’s good old-fashioned jumping on the bed, which tends to dissolve them into coughing attacks every so often.

I would have photos, but I’ve been coughing so much and am so weary at the moment that I can’t even be bothered to pick up the camera. Even when they yell, “Pictures!” And pose for me. Because I know as soon as I turn the camera on, they’ll lose it and burst into laughter and turn into little blurs on the camera screen!

It looks like another trip to the doc tomorrow, this time for me. Whatever has settled in my lungs is setting up house, so I need to find out what the heck is going on and perhaps get some stronger medicine before I end up on the floor.

But the kids are good, which means Mama can relax and focus on deadlines writing getting better.

More specifically, on the fact that Dorian is a lightweight.

He stands 10 cm. taller than his brother. And he weighs just 1 lb more than him. He’s almost four and he weighs 31 lbs. Apparently this is a very bad thing, though I tend to shun the growth charts and stuff, having three doctors tell me that my kid is not just thin but TOO SKINNY is taking its toll.

One doctor told me that Dorian is scrawny, but he might just be growing fast. Another said that he is definitely, definitely too thin for his age and he must be fed more. He told me to have food available all the time, not just the three meals. :S I guess he thinks I limit the food in our house. I don’t, but the kid is picky!

Until now, I’ve figured that if he has the energy to run around and climb things outside for 8 hours a day, torment his brother mercilessly and still have the zip to jump off the couch 15 billion times before bed, he’s probably eating enough. Oh, once in a while I’d catch hold of his fragile little wrist and think, “He’s awfully thin.” or while bathing him, run my hand over his backbone that sticks out like a dinosaur ridge, or I might search the drawers for a pair of pants that fit him around, not just lengthwise and wish he’d get a little more weight on his tiny hips, but then I’d recall that I was a skinny kid, too and look how I ended up!

Now, I’m not so sure. He is thin. And I’m 99.9% positive that a few extra pounds would do him no harm!

So, any ideas on how to get a non-eating kid to fatten up? He’s on a plain kick right now . . . plain pasta, plain eggs, etc. so sauces are out. He eats veggies, but those don’t really bulk you up! Cheeses are out, except cream cheese, which he likes on bread, but he can’t have much bread (that might be part of the problem, restriction of grains and processed foods . . . isn’t that where all the good calories are?!)

I’ve tried just putting a plate in front of him and telling him that’s what is for dinner . . . he will happily go without eating for days if he isn’t served something plain. And trust me, we did this with breastfeeding, he is stronger than me in this regard! If he could outwait his mother at a month old, there’s no way I’m going to survive a hunger strike at almost 4.

At the moment, my main plan is peanut butter. By the spoonful. And . . . well, actually, that’s pretty much it.

November 1st is All Saints Day and it is huge in Guatemala. Everyone goes to the graveyards and decorates the graves of the deceased. It’s quite beautiful. We didn’t get to go this year because we were all so sick, unfortunately. You can read about past years here and here, though.

For years now, I’ve wanted to try my hand at making fiambre, the traditional dish that is eaten on this day. Many people call it a pickled salad, but it is much more than that. It can have up to 50 ingredients, including a number of things that I’d rather not eat, like blood sausage and fish. And it can cost between Q50-100 per plate, which is a LOT of moolah. Until this year, we didn’t have the money in October to make fiambre. This year, though, since I’ve had a huge surge in work, I bought all the ingredients, looked up a recipe online and made my own.

Our fiambre had the following ingredients:

- carrots, green beans, red peppers, cauliflower, peas, corn and chickpeas

- chorizo, sausage, ham, hot dogs, longaniza, salchichon, salami, chicken

- mozzerella cheese, American yellow cheese, Parmesan cheese

- hardboiled eggs, olives, baby corn

All pickled in a mixture of vinegar, oil, chicken broth and egg. Sounds weird, but it turned out delicious.

Here’s what it looked like when we were mixing it up. My maid put the cute stars and hearts on the radishes for the photo.

This sat and marinated overnight. Then on Sunday, I made the plates of fiambre for the in-laws and for Irving.

First the veggies go on a layer of lettuce . . .

Then the meats . . .

And the cheeses and decorations . . .

And finally, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese!

He got a cough a week ago. Nothing serious, and the rest of us came down with it a few days later. Dante was very bad for a day, but then he felt better. Dorian, meanwhile, didn’t improve. Dante is down to a runny nose after 3 days of being sick. Then yesterday, he suddenly spiked a fever and ended up laying there whimpering. THe usual acetaminophen didn’t bring his temperature down, but Flamydol did. He felt much better and was up and playing until bedtime.

I checked his temp in the middle of the night and he was normal. This morning he bounced up and was running around, with a cough, but no fever. THen suddenly, at noon, he got very irritable, lay down and started to cry. I touched him, hot again. A quick check said his temp was 99.9° . . . within 15 min. it had soared to 103.4°. I gave him more Flamydol and we are heading out the door to see the doctor. Prayers would be appreciated . . . we’re hoping it’s nothing too serious this time around!

I’ll update you when we get back.

Updated: Well, we hit the doc’s in time. Dorian has the beginning stages of bronchitis, Dante has an upper respiratory infection, also just starting and as we thought we were done, the doctor told ME to get up on the table. “I know how moms are,” he said, “You’re coughing, too and if you don’t take care of yourself, you’re going to be sicker and sicker and reinfect your kids.” I have bronchitis, too.

The grand total for the consult for four people (Irving had one too) . . . Q150, or about $35. With medicine, it came to the grand total of $50, since my meds were free and the boys got theirs at a reduced price right there in the doctor’s office. Not bad!!

No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Dante and his oranges

Chicken Stew with Dumplings

Paprika Cabbage Soup

Pumpkin Halloween Cookies (check out the colored sugar I found, in the art section of the Bodegona!)

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Dante sweeping up sand and gravel from the dump site for construction materials.

And sassing his mama . . .

Climbing

Peekaboo kid

King of the castle

Dante

A piece of popcorn left on the floor and eaten by ants overnight . . . isn’t it amazing what a bunch of teensy tiny ants can do?

The usual routine of searching everywhere he usually leaves them turned up nothing and finally we were getting pretty annoyed when Dorian yelled, “I forgot my mochila!” He’d packed his little bag to go visit with his friends. I looked for the mochilita and found it on the kitchen counter.

When I opened it, we discovered everything you need to go visit a couple of little boys.

Cash (for chips or something), a tooth refrigerator magnet, a pen, and, of course, keys.