Exploring new territory

Nathan has been exploring new territory here in Bolivia. He's all boy, and I mean that in every sense of the word! One of the things that we have recently become very intimately acquainted with here in Bolivia is the plumbing system in our home. In each room that has water flowing to it... such as the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room, they all have a hole about 3 inches by 3 inches in the floor that carries water to the pipe that leads to the main valve or pipe that carries all the water from the house out to the street. I have grown to appreciate these holes as we mop because there's no need to dry or go over the floor a second time, you just pour your hot soapy water on the floor, mop, and then squeegy (seriously have no idea how to spell that word) the water to the hole, it's marvelous. And they work great, until little Nate man throws a kink, no more accurately said, throws a ball into things. Oh yes, you guessed right. Wednesday morning I started a load of laundry and went back upstairs to get little man out of bed. Sonia got here around 9:30 and when she went into the laundry room I heard her calling my name, apparently there was quite a bit of water all over the floor. Well we had had an episode with the laundry machine before so I really didn't think a whole lot about it, just thought I'll have Gary take a look at it later. As she was squeeging (really gotta figure out how to spell that word) the water out the back door, she noticed that as the washing machine was emptying again the water was not coming from the machine, but up from the beloved hole in the floor. Thus began the search for the source of the problem.

Gary came downstairs and ran wire through the pipes to try and see if he could force out whatever was causing the problem, but to no avail. Then later that day our landlord (who lives next door) came over to see if he could help. There is a square portion of the back porch that is kind of like a door that can be lifted up to view the main pipe carrying the water out to the street that is located right outside the back door. James tried and tried and tried to lift this square block but it's about 7-8 inches thick and is solid concrete. He explained to me where he thought the problem was and said he would come back later when Gary was home.

At this point everything downstairs is backed up, no using any sinks for anything. Gary came home for lunch and tried to lift this crazy block too and couldn't. But being the creative man that he is realized that maybe the car jack could be of assistance :) and it was. So after he sets up the jack and lifts this concrete block, he and James (who's come back over by now) work to try and find the source of the problem. One thing that you have to know is that when we were home Nathan fell in love with this Playskool toy that includes these little plastic balls about the size of a racqetball, which apparently fit perfectly down the pipe hole in my kitchen.

And which was exactly what James and Gary found as the worked to rid the pipe of the problem. Gary said to me... there are very few situations in his life in which he has been more embarrased. Here he was working and working to solve the problem with the help of our landlord (who kept saying, i just don't understand, we never had this problem when we lived here :) and at the end of all the hard work, to pull out one of our son's toys... yeah, so that was a humbling experience. Needless to say, we keep much closer tabs on the little plastic balls now and are trying to figure out how to glue down the hole covers :)

I recently bought Nathan some new crayons at the local market here. He's loving coloring and we're saving his masterpieces to send home to the grandparents soon. But today from the looks of my son you'd think I never feed the kid. Because he was walking around with one crayon in each hand gnawing on them as if they were pretzels. Now mind you I know this must be a normal thing for kiddos as they begin to color. They have all survived a little crayon in the digestive system. But normally it is only mommy and daddy who are witness to the crayons leaving the system, many times in the same form in which they entered :) But not in the Bull household because we took Nathan to the pediatrician today to have him check out little man for a cough that's been hanging on for a week or so and for a pretty raw little tushy. The pediatrician decided to do some lab work, which for all you parents out there means watching and trying to catch the pooping machines in action. Now all who know us well know that we have survived stool samples before, and under much worse circumstances (with a 3 month old, solely breastfeeding baby, let's just say gallon sized ziplocks with holes cut for Nathan's legs were involved :) but the afore mentioned sample did not have to be handed to a lab worker with the preface, yes I know there are blue and green flecks all in there, and no it is not what Nathan had for dinner :) Yes, we know crayons are not one of the main food groups, we appreciate your concern, we're working on it :)

And last but not least is Nathan exploring the boundaries of the bath water. For some reason it's not enough to sit and play in the bath water, or even to splash it every where. Nathan's newest play time is to sit in the water and inch by inch lower his entire face towards the surface of the bath water. Until the moment at which his face reaches the water and he realizes that his entire face is under water. He's such a hoot as he pulls up from the water gasping as if someone was trying to teach him to swim under water. They are so funny as they explore new sensations and boundaries! So needless to say I know there will be many more adventures to come from Nathan, I just hope that we come away from them all laughing, even if just to ourselves :) about them all. God bless you all and thanks for reading about the current adventures of Nathan Wallace. Until next time.