Some things about Wichita...

Wichita is one of those interesting, quirky little places, but quirky in a way you can't quite put your finger on.

Politicians have politician-y names.
And the collectibles are, erm, creepy. And there are museums. Lots of them. On just about any subject. This museum is a random assortment of world treasures, as its name implies. It is set up with partitions, like you'd find in an office. The crown jewels of its collection are a tyrannosaurus rex and a mummy. Indeed, treasures of the world. Oh, and there's a shrunken head and the pitchfork from the set of Wizard of Oz.

One thing that I've fallen in love with here is the architecture. I don't know that I've ever seen such beautiful and varied structures. Notice the boy and girl talking out their windows...

I enjoyed the Wichita Art Museum over the weekend, this piece was eye-catching:

It is appropriately titled 'Boys Night Out', in the medium of cotton and embroidery floss.

I love being here with Luis. The humidity is finally settling in to my hairstyle, and I'm thoroughly enjoying our complimentary YMCA membership. My sister now has FaceTime on her Mac so that has helped to ease the missing.

More posts coming soon! In the meantime, I'll be exploring this neck of Kansas with my helpful Visitors' Guide.

Getting my bearings...

So, I'm on my second full day here in Kansas. I managed to get myself terribly lost in the other side of town last night in an attempt to locate my husband last night. Without the mountains I have no idea which direction I'm ever going in. Turns out I was going in the opposite direction of where he was but it wasn't until I started hitting fields and farms (insert here, fields and farms miles apart) that it occured to me. But joy of joy (and thanks to a few iPhone apps), I found him.

We're working into something of a routine, it's partly vacation and partly not. The vacation part is having housekeeping come every morning to clean the bathroom, kitchen, and vacuum. I promise not to abuse this. Mostly promise. The other parts include waking up to Lui every morning (he doesn't start his work day until a meeting at noon, then lunch together before he heads out), complimentary breakfast and a daily 'hospitality hour' where the suites provide a light dinner and beers (I also promise not to abuse this), and a free YMCA pass while we're here. I went to Kansas-style aerobics (this means regular aerobics but you have to wear a Kansas Chiefs t-shirt) this morning with about 20 senior citizens. It was great. Lui and I have a goal to lose our last 20 pounds this summer.

Little Leo is settling in wonderfully and has found a few favorite things about our suite. He has told me his Top Ten list: 10. The buttons on the television are totally accessible. 9. He's become addicted to soaps and daytime television. 8. The handle to the dishwasher is also totally accessible. 7. It is fun to pull things out of the dishwasher. 6. The swimming pool is close by for dipping his adorable feet. 5. Belgium waffles for breakfast, need I say more? 4. The couch is just low enough to practice his mad climbing skills. 3. All the corners on the furniture are round. 2. The humidity has done wonders for his curly hair. And 1. A private man-cave (see image above). He likes to take his toys in this cupboard and hang out awhile. It's pretty cute.

I've successfully located Target, Green Acres Natural Foods Market (hooray!!!), an ATM, and a post office. Today is the first time we've seen the sun since we arrived, so Leo and I are packing up for an exploratory stroll about East Wichita. I'll blog soon with updates on Lui and what it is we're doing out here.

Love to all!!!

The longest drive of my life...

...started yesterday at 3:00pm and ended today at 5:45 in the evening, amidst a tornado warning, in the central time zone. I'm blogging live to you tonight from our new (temporary) home, a studio suite in the industrial area of Wichita. As we were checking in to our new digs the television in the lobby aired live footage of a tornado touching down in Oklahoma City, storm warnings have filled the tv screen in our little room all night long. We stepped outside at one point to watch the torrential rain and listen to the tornado sirens in the distance. I've been thinking how terribly far away from home I feel, but how at home one husband and one baby have made one me feel tonight... I love you, Lui. I love you, Leo. I love you, Nonny. I love you, Mom and Steve. I love you, Dad, I love you, Collene. We drove 9 hours yesterday to Parker, Colorado, and spent the shortest night ever with my aunt (thanks, Debbie!) before resuming our drive at 8:00am this morning. We arrived 8 1/2 hours later to Wichita, literally in the middle of an incredible storm. Not even while on my mission in Illinois have I seen rain like this. We are in the heart of Tornado Alley, and I admit it's a little unnerving. The weatherman was instructing us viewers tonight on how to best protect ourselves if the high winds were to shatter our windows. We are to wrap ourselves in blankets and get into the bathtub. At this point, we are getting ready to wrap ourselves in blankets and get into the bed, hoping for a peaceful night of sleep. Luis is back on the job tomorrow, but more on that later. For now, just know that we've arrived safely and that I love, love, love you all back home. We are most certainly not in Utah anymore.

Wish we all had one...

A custom-sized hot tub, that is. One that could even double for dish washing. Oh, I dream too much.



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Hush-a-bye cobwebs... I'm counting my blessings.

Leo with his great-grandpa Boyd.

I am. And I felt the joyful weight of them during church today. Even though I wasn't in Sunday School. I was in the mother's lounge, nestled between the Relief Society room and the bathrooms in the east hallway, with my precious one nestled in my grateful arms.

With Thanksgiving coming and going this week, I've had blessings on the mind. Namely, the blessings I desperately hope, wait, and pray daily for. Those someday blessings, the ones I wake up thinking about, the ones I curl up with at night, the ones that are "closer than breathing" to quote Tennyson. And I've struggled to balance those blessings in the weights with the ones that are, again to quote Tennyson, "nearer than hands and feet".

But on Sunday, rocking and feeding my dearest babe in the dimly lit mother's lounge, these words from a poem came to mind:

Hush-a-bye cobwebs, dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.

It struck me how really temporary much of life is. How temporary is financial stability. How temporary is nursing a heavenly babe. How temporary are my heavy worries.. I am assured that they won't last forever. I know in some future day I will wake with those someday blessings at hand and not only in dreams. How temporary is mostly everything that is not eternal.

I looked into my son's little brown eyes, stroked his fuzzy sweet head. Curled his mighty fingers around my own, took in his smell, his presence, his love. Thought on my life before and since him. Thought of his devoted father. Listened to sweet singing through the thin walls of the lounge. Pondered on my little family and on my parents and on their parents and on the very things that connect us for all time. And counted my blessings.

Not the ones I wish for, but the ones I have. And they are so very many.

I'd like to meet the other three...

Leo had a check up yesterday. Turns out he is in the 97th percentile for weight, meaning only three boys in an average group of 100 would weigh more than he does. Yes, I'd like to meet them. I'd like to talk to their mothers about how many disparaging remarks they get at the grocery store, about needing to "cut back" on feeding their sons, or from ladies in the mothers' lounge at church, about how we must feed our sons every half an hour, otherwise they wouldn't look they way they do. Seriously?!!?! Are we really going to start holding infants to a standard of how we think they should look? Give me a break. My boy is constantly happy, always pleasant, t0tally delightful, and an absolute joy. I take this overwhelming evidence to mean that he is doing just fine, thank you very much.

On a different note, Leo went to Halloween story time at the library this week. As an added treat, Lui got to come along! He was a lion (Leo, that is... not Lui), a very sleepy lion.

Tonight is our Trunk or Treat, and we Bonillas are going as pirates. Luis worked very hard to turn the back of our Jeep into a pirate's cove, complete with chains, lights, and a ship. He's so talented... if I didn't love him, I might hate him. Here's hoping you enjoy your Halloween weekend, and if anyone makes a comment about your precious offspring and how they should look different than they do, just send them my way. I have words.

Life as we know it...

has changed for good. And I don't really mean 'changed for good' as in 'changed for the better'. I mean it in more of a 'we're never going back to that sweet spot, are we?' kind of way.

That is to say the diapers of a breast-fed baby were, in retrospect, the sweet spot of parenthood. Today I experienced my first diaper change of a spoon-fed baby. Incidentally, one who had not pooped since last Friday. Thus, feeding upon feeding upon prunes upon feeding upon more prunes, came out in one mass exodus shortly after 11:00 this morning. Ay. I am still catching phantom whiffs of it now as I type.

Needless to say (because really, isn't it obvious that my boy adores milk?), Leo loves loves loves to eat. He is crazy about carrots, squash, oatmeal, rice cereal, grapes, apples, peaches, watermelon, orange juice, lemons, prunes (see above) and just about anything else we let him suck on. Oh, that would include celery. He doesn't swallow the majority of this list, but he sure loves to suck on it. He is such a delight. He passed out in his Bumbo yesterday just moments after his last bite of mashed up lunch. Luis and I are falling more in love with our son every day.

Also on the list of things Leo loves are baths, Johnny Jump Up, babbling in the morning, Daddy, the little red fox toy from IKEA, his ears and his toes. I took him to his first story time at the library last week, I was so impressed by his attentiveness to the stories and interaction with the other children. We even got to make a bat hat in commemoration of the story time theme; Things That Fly In the Night! I feel so very thankful to my sweet Husbie for supporting me in staying home with our son. I can't imagine missing the seconds and minutes and hours of this sweet life with Leo.