Funny Little Story

This might be a little TMI but here it is. About 10 minutes before the kids were going to take a bath, Julian pooped in his diaper. Ok, no big deal but seriously, it would have been about 5 more minutes until undressing him and taking off his diaper to bathe, so I figured, why put another one on?? It's just a few minutes while I'm getting the bath ready. So, I let him walk around with his little jumper on with no diaper and the snaps undone between his legs.  While I'm running the water I walk out of the bathroom into our room and pick up Julian. I think he was bothering Matthew or something so I picked him up. I smelled a little poop smell but figured I had maybe not cleaned him as well as I should have so I dismissed it as that. I went back into the bathroom and Matthew calls me and says, "mama, what this is???" (not a typ-o, that's what he says) so I walk out to see and I can't believe my eyes because it looks like we had a dog and it pooped on the floor. I can't believe I didn't have anything on my arm or clothes and I just started laughing and said, "oh no! Julian pooped on the floor!". Matthew and I were laughing pretty hard and even more once I realized I didn't have it on me. Then, I took him into the bathroom and stood him up by the toilet to "wipe" him before getting into the bath (because, poor Matthew in the bath with Mr. Poopy Butt) and he starts crying a little. Then he starts slip-sliding around on something wet.  I can't believe it but I think he peed  while I was in there cleaning off his poop! Dang boy!

The end of this story was that Matthew was scared to death to get in the tub with Julian because he said he had poop on him and I had to convince him that I had cleaned it all off. I mean, some serious convincing!

Matthew is on the phone with Lisa and Julian was being silly.

Getting ready to go to Julian's one year bday party

About to leave for Julian's one year bday party



Julian kept leaning back for some Matthew love the other day, so cute.

The Little Ju Ju Bee

That's my little nickname for him....Ju Ju Bee. He's been doing ALL KINDS of things lately and the biggest one is WALKING! I can't believe it but he doesn't even seem scared! Since around two weeks ago (the 11 month mark), he's been going from one or two steps, to three or four steps to walking about 10 steps across the living room/dining area. So many times I've turned around to look at what he's up to and he's just toddling along. Matthew even says, "Mama, look!!!! Julian is walking!". He seems so amazed that his little bro is catching up to him. Of course if he really wants to take off, he goes down to crawling because he's super fast at that, but I see him contemplating to either walk or crawl sometimes.....just standing there, looking at the ground and then looking a couple feet ahead of him to see what he should do. Matthew also makes fun of the way he walks, all stiff legged. Too cute.

Julian also likes to push like a walker, anything and everything he can find that he can move. Luckily he hasn't figured out that the sofa  is pretty light and on these tile floors, I think he could push it. He pushes the dirty clothes hamper, coffee table, trash can, big tupperware containers, stroller, dining chair, plastic stool and anything else he can find. I'm not talking about pushing it a couple of feet and then being done, I'm talking about down the hall and back again, in the kitchen and back out to the living room. He's such a strong little boy.

He says several words these days including "hola", "mas"(more), "mama", "light" (won't leave the light switches alone!), "Negra" (our dog's name) and I think there are a few others that he's trying really hard at. Even though he can't say many things, he sure is sounding out stuff trying. He's very vocal and pointing at everything. He shakes his head "no" and usually smiles while he does it, showing those same six teeth he has had since 9 months. He pretends to answer the phone and talks on it. He pretty much eats anything he can with those six teeth and he drinks out of a sippy cup like a champ. His favorite snack is cheerio's but he also likes saltines, original goldfish crackers, cut up fruit such as pears, mangos, cooked apples, etc. He's thinning out a little though, growing real fast and now, even more active than ever.

We're transitioning him to one later nap instead of two naps during the day. He started the transition and we're trying to follow it. Sometimes he just can't do it and needs two, but a little over half the time, it's one nap now. I have to say his night sleeping just isn't there yet. I SO did not have this problem with Matthew and I'm pretty tired. I get up 2-3 times a night with him, occasionally it's just once and it seems like a miracle when that happens.  We just got him into his own room (my father in law just moved to my sister in law's house so the room opened up) a week ago and I'm hoping that will help, along with the nap change. He's usually up for good by 5:30am-6:30am.  I probably just need to get to bed earlier to help me with my sleep but I usually wait up for my hubby who gets home around 10:30pm and we're up till about 11:30pm every night. I tell ya, 6 hours of sleep every night is not the same when you have to wake up ever 2-3 hours duing that time.

That's a brief catchup on the Ju Ju Bee. We're celebrating his first birthday this Saturday, December 15th. He actually turns one on the 26th. I CANNOT believe it's been a year. I know, I know, that's what everyone says.

Thanksgiving Pictures

THE COOKS!!!

Hungry family members.....

Family posing with the cooks

 

Basically TWO of everything, hahahaha.

Turkey, turkey, turkey

Ready to start that serving line....

Can't forget dessert!

 

Thanksgiving 2012

Well, the American girls did it again!!! This time, we  (3 of us) cooked dinner for 27 people, which is the final count I think (yes, Lisa, I believe you were right on that number). All I can say is wow. I'm so proud of ourselves! I love that we get to share our United States tradition with my Costa Rican family and they love every bit of it. They love the food (I mean, who doesn't) and they love the going around the table saying what everyone is thankful for. The Costa Ricans really do it right. They talk about everything they're thankful for since the last Thanksgiving a year ago. It's much more than a quick "thankful for a few key things", it's pretty much a little speech. That's why we say the blessing, serve the food and start eating as we go around the table. By the time we got to me, which I was one of the last 5-8 people, it was just about time to go start serving the desert. That's how long it took for us to get around the table. However, we forgot to start it at the beginning once we all sat down (too into the food, I suppose) and then there were some new people in the bunch who had not heard what the reason for celebrating Thanksgiving was in the first place. I briefly explained about the Pilgrims and the Indians and then we got right to the "thanking" part. There were laughs, tears and a few who don't like speaking in public and it was just great. We had two turkeys (almost 30 pounds of it) and gravy, lots of dressing, greenbean casserole, creamed corn, LOADED mashed potatoes, salad, lime pie and apple pie. After our third year of doing this down here, we pretty much think this may have been one of our best menus :)

I have to commend my 4 year old on all his help this  year. We had bought new, durable, reuseable plastic plates this year and somehow I managed  to get him to wash all thirty of them before the first use. I set him up in the back laundry sink and he went to town. It's so easy when he follows me around with his little step stool saying, "mama! I wanna help!". He wouldn't stop till he finished all thirty of them. The day before that, I had two pounds of green beans to break the ends off and break them into smaller pieces and he INSTISTED on helping me. It was hard for him to pinch the ends off so I had two containers, one for the ends, one for the pieces, a cutting board and just a regular tableknife and he worked on those green beans in the living room watching the Disney channel like it was his full time job. What a great helper! That same day, he helped me put all the graham crackers in the Cuisinart, blend those with butter and sugar and then press the pie crusts into the pans to later help me make the keylime pies. My little chef is going to make some girl really happy one day.....At the dinner, he was filling the cups with ice with tongs and he was obsessed with it. He wouldn't stop even when we wanted a family picture but we made him anyway. He is NOT happy in the picture so we probably shouldn't have bothered at all. He was really involved in A LOT of the preparation and cooking and I'm so proud of him for that.

I will post a few new Thanksgiving pictures and a video of Matthew washing plates as soon as I get them from another person's camera.

Busted

This may be a little TMI but Matthew was acting like (but not really doing it) he was putting a toy in Julian's tushy while they were in the bath tonight. Julian was standing up with his back to Matthew and Matthew was making gestures like he was going to do it and looking at me to see what I would do. I told him that that was a hole for things to go out, not for things to go in. He said, "but I wanna do it...." and I told him, "no, just for his poop to come out and we don't put things in that hole". Then he told me, "yuh-huh, one time you put medicine in my bottom when I was sick". I just started laughing because that's true, he got a suppository one time when he was just so sick and we wanted something that would have a quicker effect for his super high fever....hahahahahaha.

Earthquakes For a Georgia Girl

I´ve been living in Costa Rica for almost 11 years now and being from Georgia, we never had earthquakes while growing up. When I first felt my first tremor in Costa Rica many years ago, I thought it was kinda cool how my chair was moving back and forth and the blinds in my apartment moved back and forth from side to side. It always lasted a few seconds, ten at the most and then it was done. I didn´t understand why some people could get so freaked out about it and everyone was always asking me if I was scared. Of couse I wasn´t, nothing ever happened....it was kinda neat.

My feeling has GREATLY changed since Wednesday, September 5, 2011. I was getting ready to nurse my 8 month old before going to a parade that was to start at 9am in front of the court house with my three and a half year old. It was for Children´s day that was actually on Sunday but the whole week was full of festivities in town for the children. Right before I took my baby out of my housekeeper´s arms, we all of the sudden felt the whole house start shaking. It started slow at first but seemed to be getting stronger. My husband, housekeeper and I just stood still and stared for a moment to make sure it was just going to be one of those quick tremors and then stop. My son Matthew didn´t seem to have a clue and my baby definitely didn´t. All of the sudden I realized it wasn´t going to stop and I felt a strong need to get out of the house and get out now. Immediately I started saying in a calm voice, "Let`s go outside......let`s go outside, let`s go outside". I kept repeating it and started walking that way but it seemed like no one was moving. I started turning Matthew around and heading him to the door but he didn´t really want to and didn´t get what was going on. It was a little hard to walk, felt so unstable. Then, my housekeeper who was next to me seemed to be frozen. I took my arm around her waist and started forcing her to walk, all the while saying "Let`s go outside" in Spanish. I don´t know why I didn´t grab my baby from her arms and just go but I was busy leading Matthew out too. Dani was closest to the door and when we got to him, he was going in front of us, then Matthew and my housekeeper with me trying to scoot everyone out. At the last minute since it seemed like Matthew didn´t really want to go, Dani turned around and picked him up and took him out through the door. Right as we were passing through the door, I heard glass crashing and things hitting the floor. I didn´t turn around to look.

When we got out to the side yard, we faced the back and looked at our new house under construction. It was swaying from left to right and right to left, all three floors of it. Then I saw two of our construction workers who´ve worked with us for years on the second floor but working up at the ceiling, practically on the third story. That probably impacted me the most during this upsetting event. I saw them, two people who we´ve known and trusted for years up there in this swaying building and not able to get down. All of the sudden, there was a lull in movement. It didn´t stop but definitely slowed down and the guys came flying down the ladder they were on and flew down the scafolding that was next to the construction. I´ve never seen anyone move so fast. They came over to where we were and we all just stared while waiting for it to stop. My car was in the carport under the first floor of the house basically bouncing from left to right. It was like a movie. It seemed like it lasted forever. I´ve seen reports saying it was anywhere from 45 seconds long (definitely don´t agree with that) to a minute and a half. I think the minute and a half is more like it but it seemed like forever.

Right after it subsided, Matthew said immediately, "I want to go inside, I want to go inside". I told him we needed to wait for a little bit first and make sure it was over before we go back. He started getting angry and kind of panicking. Then I realized he probably didn't realize what had just happened and why we couldn't go back inside just yet. I took him over to the chair to sit down, since I couldn't stop shaking and a flood of emotion overcame me. I really wanted to cry but we were with other people and I didn't want to freak out Matthew so I managed to just well up a bit and then I started talking to Matthew and hugging him and he put his face in my lap and I was trying to explain to him why the house shook so violently and we had to run outside, etc. Finally we went inside and saw what had happened. Here are two pictures and which don't do justice to the amount of broken shards of glass and ceramic on the floor.

What an experience. There's been around 2500 aftershocks in over 10 days since it happened. Some we feel, some we don't. Everyone is thinking about it and talking about it ALL the time. We just can't stop. It's always on our minds. We're on the edge of our seats and on alert ALL the time. The night after the earthquake happened, we had another pretty good shake in the middle of the night. I woke up, got my flip flops on and just sat on the edge of my bed waiting to see what was next. Then, two days later another pretty good one while I was in the kitchen making a cake with Matthew and Julian was sleeping. Dani was home for lunch and just down the hall. I jerked Matthew out of that kitchen so fast, he didn't know what hit him. I went to the hall and just waited for a minute until I realized it wasn't going to continue. Every tremor makes us nervous but it seems about every two days there's a GOOD shake that really makes us think of running out of the house. The worst ones are the the couple we've had in the middle of the night. Thank goodness I woke up at the end of the last big one we had around midnight the other night so I wasn't even sure if what I felt, I really felt or if it was a dream. Plus I was alone with the kids that night since Dani was working a nightshift. Apparently it was pretty strong. I had messages on  my cell phone from the night before from family, wondering if we were ok and not too freaked out. They say this can go on for up to 3 months. The aftershocks are a good thing though. The earthquake only got rid of about half the energy that it had so these aftershocks are helping relieve the tension so we don't have another 7.6er like before.

The crazy thing is that the most recent big earthquakes with so much damage like places in China, Haiti, Chile, etc were all either less magnitude than this one or about the same. There was so much devastation in those places and we are so lucky that this country didn't have the same fate. I mean SOOOOO lucky. How is it that those earthquakes nearly destroyed those areas in other countries but in ours, there was very little structural damage and only 2 people died those were from heart attacks from the terrror of it all? Thousands died in the other ones.

The last thing that I want to say is that there is NO SAFE PLACE in an earthquake. I mean, tornadoes, you always have the basements or closet or bath with no windows, etc. Hurricanes and tornadoes both, you know about them or at least the potential for them way in advance so you can evacuate. An earthquake can come whenever and wherever and it's just scary. Even outside, there are powerlines, trees and other buildings and stuff that can fall on you. Some say get under a table and hold on as tight as you can to the legs but with a family of four, really? I am so glad we went outside and I wasn't inside to hear and see all the things falling and breaking around me. I would be more freaked out than I already am.

Consular Report of Birth Abroad

 Yesterday we went to San Jose to the US Embassy to apply for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad for Julian. In order to get his US citizenship, we have to go there to report his birth in a foreign country. There are many requisites including proof of my living in the US for at least five years after my 14th birthday (high school transcripts and social security reportings work for that), a letter from the hospital with the basic details of the birth, stating all the dates of which I have been outside the US in my life and where (which is A LOT of work) etc. It's all worth it though. In about 10-15 days we should have his Birth Abroad certificate and his US passport. I will officially have two Gringo Ticos by law with dual citizenship.

We had to leave around 4:45am in order to get the Embassy by our 8:15am appointment and we out of there by 9am. I LOVE how efficient the US Embassy is! Anyway, after that we had to go get Dani's tourist Visa from the Peruvian Embassy for us all to travel there at the end of September. Costa Ricans need a tourist visa but for Matthew, Julian and I, we're good with just the US passport. After the Embassies, we ran a few more errands and ended up eating lunch at Outback Steakhouse which made me pretty happy. Julian was a trooper the whole day but since he's easily distracted when nursing and we usually only do it in my room in the rocking chair, he didn't nurse well at all. He's always looking all around behind him, to the sides and at the ceiling. I guess in Peru he'll just have to get used to it because we'll be there a week. Since he wasn't nursing hardly at all, he tried some new foods! Don't judge me too harshly but he tried Ritz crackers (pre softened by me) and french fries and Alice Springs chicken at Outback. The chicken did not include the cheese, bacon and mushrooms that come on that though. He had a pretty good time with it all. After lunch we went to a place called Atenas ("Athens" in Spanish which is ironic since Dani's father is from there and both my parents are from Athens, GA) to visit some family on our way back. We had a good visit and Julian was great and even held by many people he doesn't know (which is iffy these days if he'll let them do that). Finally we got home around 7:30pm.

Matthew had stayed all day with my friend Lisa. Lisa spent the night the night before, got him ready and took him to school in the morning and picked him up at 3pm. Three days a week Matthew does afterschool activities like going to the sports complex in Nicoya, arts and crafts and science experiments. He seems to really like it. After 3pm, he played all afternoon until his grandmother arrived around 6pm to take over. I think he really enjoyed the whole day and did really well. I'm so proud of both my boys. They are so awesome!!!

 

 

 

 

Quick Catch Up

So, it's been awhile since I've posted, for me anyway. Three weeks is longer than I ever wanted to go without posting mainly to not miss documenting anything in my sweet little boys' lives but also to keep others up to speed.

My excuse for the last ten days is that both my little guys got strep throat and my almost 8 month old not only got strep but another tooth coming in (that makes the third, two on bottom and top right) PLUS as uncommon as it is, seems to have a mild case of chicken pox. Apparently babies under one year are usually protected by some type of antibodies or something from the womb of the mother but it seems like Julian got it. Also being under one, the condition is so mild that it was almost like nothing. I'd say he had about 15-20 pox on his body and he didn't even scratch them. I've noticed this on babies this age and younger that they don't seem to even notice a mosquito bite. Matthew used to get bitten all the time and they never seemed to itch him (now he scratches till he bleeds). The only thing I was worried about with his and his little brother of course, is Dengue which is very common in Costa Rica and even people in our own neighborhood get it. That's something that we never thought about in Atlanta when thinking of mosquitos, just that awful itching. Here, putting on repellent is taken to a whole new level because you might be keeping him out of the hospital for a week or so by protecting him. So luckily ictching wasn't a problem and we're not even convinced that's what it was but it sure did look just like it! He's due for the vaccination at a year and three months. I don't know if there's a test to see if he already had it but it's probably not even worth it if there is. We don't know anyone who has chicken pox either and we don't leave the house THAT much, so it's a little shady. After the strep incidents, both boys were good for 2-3 days and BAM! They woke up with really high fevers and instead of throat pain, it was cough and congestion which turned out to be Bronchitis which is what my husband Dani had........Ahhhhhhh, good thing it hasn't touched me yet because I just don't know who would take care of all of us! All this sickness has meant going  back to "newborn" sleep habits and with Dani out for the count, I had to take care of Matthew and Julian tag teaming me throughout the night. I really do think they planned it to just when one gets back to sleep the other one wakes up. Wow, I'm tired.

To catch up a little, Julian is army crawling all over the place. He can really go fast on those elbows. He's toyed with getting up on his knees a bit but doesn't go far that way. It is adorable when there's something he really wants across the room and he just goes for it, usually smiling and laughing the whole way. He's so happy being mobile. Before even crawling really well, he's trying to master pulling himself up on things which is so scary having only tile floors and cement walls to bang your head on, ugh! He's pulled himself up on the coffee table few times with me "spotting" him but I'm so nervous for him to do it by himself. I really have to watch him. Gone are the days that I could go do a couple of things in the kitchen and leave him in the living room unattended for long. He's also eating 2-3 meals a day but still nursing full time as well. He usually eats pureed carrots, sweet potatoes, avocados, rice or oatmeal cereal, pureed fruits like cooked apples, papaya, banana (which he really doesn't like), etc. I just made a chicken puree that he ate tonight for the first time and he accepted it pretty well. I now bathe the boys together and they LOVE it! It's kinda nice to get them both in and out at one time and only have one bath time per night. Julian wants to do anything and everything Matthew does. He gets POed if I don't let him. Which means he gets POed a lot!

This was supposed to be a quick catch up but it's turned longer than I expected. Since Julian is taking a sippy cup pretty well now (never could get him to take the bottle) with my breastmilk, that allows me to go on a field trip with Matthew's class on Wednesday. We're going to a Puma rescue farm outside of Liberia and we'll be gone until about 2pm. This sippy cup thing was just in the nick of time because the kids can't go if an adult doesn't go with them so Matthew wouldn't have been able to go. I'm so glad we get to and I'll make sure I post pics.

Possum, Popcorn and Monkeys

Our dog Negra got out of our fence the other night and it was pretty late. Not enough time to get her back in because she has to do her laps up and down the street. If you call her, she runs faster and it's even more of a game. Unfortunately, she just had to spend the night out there and that was that. In the morning, upon unlocking the gate, there was a dead possum out there and two guilty looking dogs named Negra and Cochi (our neighbor's dog/my dog since I take better care of her than they do).  For some reason, there always seems to be a possum taunting these dogs and Negra will bark for hours at one in our backyard while it plays "dead" trying to get Negra to go away. Usually, it's me that has to go out there even in the middle of the night to try and scare it away or tie up Negra until it "comes back to life" and goes away. If, somehow it ends up dead, we bury it in our compost area where we bury all our organics and let it compost away. This time was no different but I wanted to wait until Dani got home to "take care" of it. Matthew saw it outside the gate and asked what it was. I told him it was a dead possum. Then I told him Negra and Cochi killed it last night. He asked me what it's name was. I was shocked by this question so I quickly said, "uhhhhhh, Possy!", yeah, that's it, Possy. He didn't buy it and said that wasn't the name so I told him it was Snickers and he seemed to buy that......hmmmmmm what are these three year olds thinking?????

A couple of weeks ago after my sister in law Carolina had been in town and left, Matthew asked me for some popcorn. Now, when Carolina was in town, she had bought two bags of microwave popcorn. They ate one and the other one got put in the cabinet. Dani and I were out of munchy stuff a couple of nights later so I was like, "Oh! We have that bag of popcorn from Carolina"....so we ate it. A couple of days after that, Matthew said he wanted popcorn. I said, "oh, I'm sorry, we don't have any." He said, "Mama! I KNOW you have popcorn, tia Ina (Carolina) buy popcorn and bring it here.  I know you have it. Get it!" I was in shock that he was so sure about that and remembered everything. Then I had to explain that his dad and I ate it. He was not happy.

It is so interesting watching Matthew learn Spanish and English simultaneously. I mean, sometimes, he tells his grandmother something in Spanish and then he tells me what he told her in English. He changes so easily and naturally. Last week we were outside playing and he went outside the fence to get something but didn't want to come back the traditional way. He wanted to climb the fence from outside and me to pull him over (it's a little higher than my head) back inside the fence. I was like, OK. So the grandmother who lives across the street was on her front porch watching all this and she made a concerning comment about him falling possibly by climbing the fence as she watched him start going up. I assured her that he was good at this kind of thing and it wouldn't be a problem (hoping I was right!). So I pull him over and then I yelled across he street in Spanish, "See, he's like a monkey, he loves to climb everywhere." Then a couple of minutes later Matthew says to me, "Mama, I mad at you!" and I was like, "why?" and he said, "because you tell her that I monkey and I not monkey, I Matthew!" It was so cute because I had said that in Spanish and called him a "mono" but when he told me why he was mad, he said it in English. Not only was the language translation interesting but he also really thought I was calling him a monkey, so of course, I had to explain that it was "like" a monkey since monkeys climb things so well and he did too. He wasn't mad anymore after that when I said what a great climber he was, lol!

Guanacaste Independence Day

All this week has been a celebration of our province of Guanacaste being independent from Nicaragua and staying with Costa Rica. We have had celebrations in the schools as well as parties in the central park of Nicoya (including the first female president's visit on the 25th). Matthew participated in the "reinado del maiz" which was basically crowning the king and queen of corn at the different schools. Corn is very important in Guanacaste and many foods are made from it including, delicious corn bread, homemade fresh corn tortillas, choreadas (like corn based pancakes), baby corn (that's what I call it but don't know the real name in English), cornmeal and of course....corn on th cob. The children who want to participate dress up in a traditional indian costume from Guanacaste back in the old days. Matthew won at his school last year and got to ride on a float (aka pickup truck.....see picture on main blog page on the right hand side) so we participated this year too. Didn't win this year but I had fun making the costume as usual and Matthew didn't have fun wearing it as usual. He's not keen on dressing up in costumes or wearing any type of head pieces. This year I got him to wear the indian feather headdress though and last year I couldn't make him.  I guess we're making progress.

We went to the celebrations in the park a couple of days ago and then again  today to play on the trampolines and kids' mechanical cars, eat some yummy typical food and hear some typical music, etc.

 

House Construction

We have been building a house for 4 years now. Yep, that's right, 4 years! With half a year of rainy season every year, construction costs going through the roof, spending approximately a total of a year in the USA during a two year period on leave without pay, we're just taking our time. We also don't want to be paying on this house for 30 years so we're doing much of it out of pocket whenever we have the money. There's no rush really, we have a perfectly good house we're living in right here on the same property. It will be three story but the third story will only be about a third of the house, the rest is two story. Five carports and about 4,000 sq. feet, it's going to be amazing with amazing views.  I can't wait till it's done but I try not to dream about that too much since it'll still be a year or so (or more, who knows?) till it's finished. By request, here are some pictures.

From the living room looking into the entrance on far right, dining room
in the middle and kitchen on the left.

Looking from the kitchen into the living room with the dining room
on the left next to the kitchen.

 View from third floor, overlooking second floor roof. Third floor
doesn't have roof yet.

View from other side of the third floor.

Living room with big sliding glass doors/windows to be able to
open up and have it completely open air. There was going to be a
balcony there but now there will just be a railing to save living room space.
There will still be a balcony on the second half of the house outside the bedrooms.

Matthew Spends the Night Away

Before I get to Matthew spending the night away, I have some sad news. My mother in law has the beginning stages of rectal cancer and will be going under the knife tomorrow in San Jose. She has already had a bout with colon cancer a few years back, had surgery and it was taken care of. She needs to get a colonoscopy every so often still to check and this time, the colon seems to be ok but the rectum is not. The outcome looks good but none the less, she's been hospitalized for a week in San Jose (4 hours away from where we live) and has had many tests done and tomorrow she will have surgery. I'm still not sure what the end result was on which kind of surgery she'll have, whether or not they'll have to open her up to do it or non invasive but either way.....not fun.

So Dani and his father were going to San Jose this afternoon and will be there until Tuesday (Dani's father is going to another town on the way to visit family there). Just a couple of hours before leaving today Matthew all of the sudden said he wanted to go see his grandmother, aunt and cousin in San Jose. I told him that I would not be able to go and I would stay here but if he still wanted to go, he could. This is a boy who even though he can go to the bathroom by himself still wants mommy to do it for him no matter how many other people are around that can help him too. It's ALWAYS mommy and not daddy that he wants to do things for him and it's quite tiring actually. I love him to death though, so I usually give in. The only time we've ever spent a night away from him was ONE night in his whole 3 1/2 little years right around the time he turned 3 years old. Well, since then, I left him to go have his baby brother but he was still in his own house and surrounded by tons of family. I can't believe he just hopped in a car, went 4 hours away and he VOLUNTEERED to do it. I'm very proud of him but I miss him. Wow, just 7 hours without him and I feel almost like I have nothing to do, lol! Kinda boring without my little guy here. Julian keeps me busy, but just goes with the flow with whatever I want to do.

Matthew and I were watching this cartoon last night and this little girl kissed this boy on the cheek and of course his face turned red, he started floating and little hearts started popping out of his eyes. Matthew kind of laughed at that so I asked him if any girls had ever kissed him like that (thinking maybe one of these cute little girls at his school or something) and he said yes! I was like, "who"? And he said, "Mama" and he was totally serious. It was so cute. I just love him so much.

Here are a couple of pictures from his class party right before vacation. He's supposed to be back at school tomorrow but we let him go to San Jose for two days instead.

His teacher Kembly is this tiny little thing and
probably had to choose pre-school because all
other grades would have kids much bigger than her.
We think she's GREAT!

Teeth!

Ever since Julian was two months old, I've thought we were about to have teeth, lol! At that age, there was actually a small little chip of a tooth that had broken through (or had never been beneath) the gum but it was a little behind where it should have been. Shortly after that, within a month, I couldn't find it anymore and it seemed that the gum had grown over it. Then, at 3 or so months, he was drooling, eating his hands and making all kinds of weird movements with his mouth and lips as if his gums were itching or bothering him. It seems that now at 6 1/2 months, we have TWO bottom teeth that have just broken the surface of the gums. It's official, we have teeth!

Other news to share is that he's been eating solids for about a week but he doesn't totally have the hang of it. I get it down (mostly I'm just giving him rice cereal but will start oatmeal cereal tomorrow) but it takes a few tries. Occasionally he swallows it the first time but usually it comes out, then I spoon it back in, out again and in again and it's just a game until it goes down. He still has the pushing out with the tongue reflex which should be going away soon.

What a Week!

Matthew started his Winter break (yes, Winter is in July in Costa Rica) this week so it'll be this week and next week. Whenever he's on vacation, it just seems like all normal routines (which I like and really think the kids do too), normal eating habits, etc, just go right out the window. I'm exhausted, hahahahaha. That might be also in part due to the fact that Dani has been on vacation for a couple of weeks and just started back this week, our housekeeper asked off for Monday and oh yes......BOTH boys had strep throat! It was bound to happen and will happen over and over again I'm sure. The funny thing is that Julian brought it to Matthew and not the other way around, lol. I think he got it from his cousin Emma when we went to the beach with them and no one knew she had anything until the last day. A couple of days later, bam! Julian had it and a couple of days after that, bam! Matthew had it. Luckily I only had a sore throat for one day, congestion for another and I was done....at least as far as I know.

I cannot believe what happened tonight. Matthew actually served his own dinner (basically) and was eating it at the table by the time I got done with Julian's bath tonight. I was in shock. I had left some rice and chicken in one of his bowls on top of the coffee maker (ants are rampant in CR) with a spoon in it and had steamed some fresh broccoli and left it in a tupperware container on the counter before I took Julian to the bath. When I came out, I went in the kitchen and if we had an inside dog, I would swear that the dog had eaten 3/4 of the broccoli so I was like, who ate the broccoli? Then I look in the living room at Matthew and he had used his stepstool to be able to reach the prepared bowl on top of the counter and coffee maker, served him a BUNCH (because I had made extra for a couple more servings) of broccoli and took it to the living room to eat. I was in SHOCK! All the food was room temperature which may be ok for the broccoli and chicken but the rice? Yuck. He didn't want me heating it up for him either, he was happy. I was so proud of my little man. I don't know how he knew there was anything good in that bowl on top of the coffee maker much less, his dinner but he found it and he was eating. What a little independent guy. Nope, he won't be one of those kind that has to wait on his woman to get him some dinner, no sireeeee!

Matthew and Julian "almost" the same age. It's within a month, I think. I have one with Matthew under the hooded towel but I can't locate it right this second.

 

Went to the Beach!

On Saturday we decided at the last minute to spend 3 days at an all-inclusive resort about an hour and a half away near Tamarindo at a beach called Playa Langosta.  The resort was only 3 star so it wasn't top of the line by any means but a TERRIFIC family friendly resort with kids everywhere. Although we had to take turns staying in the room during Julian's naps, it was still great and gave us some one on one time with Matthew when Julian was sleeping. Matthew learned about playing pool with daddy and learned about running through the rain (it only rained once for a couple of hours one afernoon) to get to the beachside snackbar to drink piña coladas with mommy :) Of course we didn't just drink piña coladas (virgin for him). We ate popcorn, pizza, hotdogs and pork and cheese eggrolls! Good times with the 3 year old!

Fun Morning at the Firestation

Today Matthew had a field trip to the firestation with his class. The parents were invited to meet up at the corner bakery for a short little walk down the street to the station. The kids had to wear modes of transportation costumes made out of boxes for their little parade. I asked Matthew what he wanted and he immediately said firetruck. So that´s what he got! It really was neat little tour of the station and all and they even slid down the pole for us, neat! Here are some pictures of Matthew and his little friends. It was all so cute and everyone passing by thought they were just adorable. This was right in the middle of town almost.