Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Ants!

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? We want everyone to know we appreciate your comments on our blog and your emails! Things are going well here in Haiti! We're acclimatizing to the warm weather and adjusting well. Today I had a little suprise! I was putting Jayden down for his morning nap and I noticed that part of his bottom sheet was turned up. When I reached down to adjust it I noticed some little dots running around. As I took a closer look and lifted up the sheet a little more I let out a horrified gasp! There were red ants everywhere! They were just teeming under that sheet and borrowing into Jayden's little foam pad that I placed into his pack and play to make it more comfortable. I grabbed Jayden out and yelled for Jason. Then I got to work. I gingerly lifted out the sheets and held them as far away from myself as possible. Then racing down stairs I shook it out outside. Bad idea! Soon I was covered with tiny, biting little red ants. I jumped up and down a couple times and frantically shook them off. Finally after having gotten most of them off, I felt a little better. I decided to just leave the sheet on the patio, since I didn't want to take it back in the house. Then I got to work on the mattress. I scrubbed, disinfected and rinsed, but the closer I looked the more I realized that they had made little holes into the foam pad and were hiding inside. Finally I just pinched out all the little holes, taking some of the foam out with the little ants and managed to get them all out. Phew, what a job! Anyway I felt much better once I knew they were all gone. Jayden is sleeping under a mosquito net so I hope they won't get in again. Plus, no more milk bottle to bed at nap time. I'm sure the little drops of milk were what attracted them in the first place. How is Jayden doing through all this craziness? I'm happy to report really well! He's gotten used to drinking water instead of juice, powered milk instead of fresh milk and bread instead of waffles. He doesn't mind the heat, and still runs around with the same amount of energy. He does sweat a lot though so I shower him off a couple times a day. Unfortunately the water is really cold, so he is not to happy about that! I think the whole neighborhood thinks I am murdering him, every time I rinse him off! Tonight I took pity on him and warmed up two big pans of water on the stove, like they did in the olden days, and let him sit in a little blue tub. He liked that a lot, and I felt better too now that he actually enjoyed getting clean. I included some pictures, so I hope you enjoy. Tomorrow we will write more about the family we are helping and other aspects of life in Haiti. We appreciate your prayers and support and don't forget to leave your comments! We love to read them.





16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to see that Esther's tricycle is being enjoyed by Jayden's friends in Haiti. Could never have imagined that 14 years ago!

Anonymous said...

Jayden looks a little hot!

Anonymous said...

This ant story is better than the ant story a few newsletters ago. You guys have something with ants.

Anonymous said...

ants.... sounds like they've moved in! You;ll have to get in contact with Daryl and Cara Dedert! Mom and Dad said they put something under the legs of the tables (something with sticky stuff in them to keep them from crawling up the legs! Hope you have a good sleep! Not sure I could after having experienced something like that! Take care. Luv steph Hampson

Anonymous said...

ants... :O ok... who ever left those 3 comments was NOT me ok.. it was ur annoying dad... :P jking... so hows it going out there? sound like its all quite an experince!! and im glad to hear that jaydens having fun with my tricycle! even thought i dont really remember riding that thing anytime... but thats alrite! but yea... jayden looks really cute in some of those pictures! and him in the bathtub! its soo small.. thats when he's wishing that he's at Gramps and Gramms to be in the BIG luxerious (however you spell it)bathtub that they have!! but i heard about everybody wanting to touch him.. thats really cute! anyways im gana go.. talk to you guys later... MISSING you guys SOOOOO much! ;) =) esther

Anonymous said...

Hi all;

It looks like Jayden is getting some colour, how about the 2 of you? We need to see some pictures of you 2 and your home etc. I remember taking a bath in a little tub like that only ours was made of tin, and yes, my mom warmed up the water on the stove. Hope you defeated the ants! Love the Jansensn

Anonymous said...

I hope you'll figure something out to keep the ants out!
The pics in your Photo Gallery are very nice! it's good to get an idea of where you live. But wow, the streets look crowded!
Those pink flowering plants you obviously love are bouganvilles. We keep them in our 'serre' (glass-house in English?) where they flower the whole year. They problably will in your climate too... so, enjoy! :-)
It's such a weird idea that you're now not only far away from me, but from everyone you know!
Take care...
Love, Mary

Anonymous said...

By the way... do you have a postal address? I'd like to test how long it takes for a postcard to arrive at your place. I might actually have to post the card for Will's birthday next week or so. :-) Well... I guess it will take close to 14 days.
Thanks
Love, Mary

Anonymous said...

You look like you're having fun with your new friends, Jayden!

Anonymous said...

Hey, where did he get those toys, I thought they didn't have toys there! Did the names come yet from those black children? Maybe your note didn't get there yet! (Gemma's words)

Anonymous said...

Looks like Gemma didn't forget that she wants to know those kids' names!

What did I tell you about bugs and creepy crawlies... I am really thinking about you in that area! As soon as I saw that word ANTS at the top of your blog, I new they came for a visit! All the best!!!

Oh I forgot to tell you that I got my bus license, and so far am having lots of fun doing it!

Say hi to Jay and jive Jayden a big fat kiss for us!

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to hear that Jayden doesn't mind the powder milk, and water. I really like his bath, it's much better than a cold shower. Jason will also remember having a bath in a cooler box when we were camping. Hope you will get the rest of your stuff that's in customs, so you can move into your house and set it up before you go to language school. Is the fans keeping Jayden cool? Miss you lots, give Jayden a big kiss froms gramps and gramma

Anonymous said...

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'll try to answer your questions.
#'s 1, 2 & 3. Thanks Dad! We appreciate your effort to give us lots of comments ;) anonymous, whatever!
#4 nice hearing from you Steph, we did sleep good regardless of the ant plague. I was also happy and relieved to see this morning that there were no ants in Jaydens bed.
#5 we really miss you a lot to Esther! I hope you can visit soon, because that would be really cool!
#6 thanks for all you comments Jenny! As for pictures of our house and of us we took those today. We will post those soon! I think we are getting tanned too.
#7&8 Great hearing from you Marin! Yes we love those flowers and now know what they're called thanks to you! I'll try to get our address to you as soon as possible. Our internet is very slow here and unreliable, and I have to search for it on one of our old emails, so hopefully, I'll be able to get it to you soon.
#9 &10 Great hearing from you Carly & Gemma. The names of the two little children are Nicolas and Sabboule. The toys were ones that I brought along in my suitcase.
#11 Congrats on getting your bus license Anita! That's really great. As for the ants and other bugs, I don't mind them so much as long as they are not crawling all over Jayden in bed!
#12 Thanks mom & Dad hope to Skype you soon!

Anonymous said...

Did those ant bites not bother you? Obviously Jayden is fine, he does look hot but he looks happy!

We're thinking of you and checking up on you a lot!

Love, Anne-Marie

Anonymous said...

Quite the experience with the ants! Hope fully this will be only a one time incident, not a repeat from Idaho! Sounds like Jayden is adjusting fine to Haitian life! That is great to hear!
Luv Sherilyn
PS We are going to be at Mom and Dad's on Friday night, maybe we can Skype?? It would be great to talk to you.

Anonymous said...

#14 Hi Annemarie! How are you doing? we are doing fine! Between the mosquitos and the ants we are kind of itchy, but I brought along anti-itch cream, and that helps. we also have several different types of bug repellents so if we really feel the bites we spray that on. Jayden actually doesn't seem to have any bites! And he doesn't itch at all either. He does have a lot of bruises though! Everything is tile here so no carpet to break his fall! Thanks for checking up on us ;)
#15 Hi Sher! I miss you and our monday nights! The ants came back today, (jayden woke up early and wanted his bottle, and I gave in, silly me ;)) But I guess I really have to put my foot down! Only water bottles in bed! It's just that if he wakes up early like 5;00 he won't go back to sleep except with a bottle of milk, and this morning I wanted to sleep a little longer then that! Well, I learned my lesson! Hope to talk to you soon.