8 months

It was hard getting your picture this month - you are moving so much now!! We're in the U.S. visiting. We came to watch uncle Mike graduate from high school. I'm so glad we made the trip and could be there to watch him graduate. I'm very proud of your uncle Mike! 

You've done great traveling again and we've got your brother with us this time. He's been such a big help!! You're so much more active this trip though, it's been pretty tiring. And you haven't been sleeping well AT ALL, but I think I figured that out, so we'll see how tonight goes. I'm so lucky though because despite the lack of sleep and the many long car rides, you remain in a great mood as usual. Such a blessing!

I still can't believe it's already been 8 months and we're only 4 months away from you turning ONE!! You've continued to grow and change so quickly. I love watching you, but I hate how fast the time is going too. 

This month you've really started pulling yourself up and standing. Sitting is so two months ago. You love to stand and you like to try to walk while holding on to something. You will crawl wherever you need to go, but it's a kind of hybrid crawl / walk as you use one foot to propel you and drag the other leg. It's funny to watch, but you sure can move fast doing it! 

You love eating and have tried lots of new things. Your favorite right now on the trip are frozen blueberries. We'll have to see if we can find some at home! You make a huge mess, but you really do eat a fair amount too. 

This trip you've done so much. You met your aunt Kay, who contributed to your name. You got to spend time with your cousins and go to the farm. 

We got to go to Tulsa and spend time with Mommy's friends Rebecca and Rachel and meet Rachel's cute little boy Ian. 

We've been to lots and lots of offices over the last month and you've been such a trooper about it. The dentist, the pediatrician, the Caja twice, the hospital (for our neighbor) and immigration. Through it all you've stayed smiling (or sleeping 😊). 

Dentist - they loved you!

Pediatrician - I wanted you to show off your scooting skills. ☺️

First trip to Caja - you didn't sleep long, but you loved the people watching!

Hospital waiting area - it was nice!

Immigration - we waited for soooooo long and still didn't end up with what we wanted. 😣

You're almost always so laid back and happy. It's great!

Kicking your feet up. 😝

Try, try again

No cedulas today. We have to make another appointment. Sigh. Various things went wrong to prevent us from getting them today. Hopefully now we understand better what we need to do and can get them next time. Davie will call tomorrow to make our new appointments. I'm hoping for first thing in the morning so maybe we don't have to wait so long to be called! Kaylynn is such a trooper - she did great! At least we have that in our favor!!

I'm tentatively considering possibly starting to sell baked goods when we get back from the U.S.  Nothing major and not expecting to make a living at it, but I'll be done volunteering at Eduardo's school soon when it breaks for summer and it looks like even when I find a job it won't pay what we need so we'll need to supplement somehow. There's a big market here for US baked goods with all the expats. I think I could end up making a couple hundred a month potentially. We'll see. It's a thought. 😆

What will be

There's much I could say about the last year, our first in Costa Rica. Instead, I'm just going to post this advice to myself and try to get to the point where I am living it. 

Thursday the boys will have been here a year and Friday is my one year. 

Tomorrow, if all goes well, our residency will be finalized and we will have our ids in hand. 

This year has not looked like what I had hoped or expected in many ways, but we're together for now and that's all that matters. Here's to having faith in what comes next. 

And we have these two to make us laugh and help keep us happy. We are lucky in many ways. 

7 months

You've changed so much this month!!!! It is so amazing watching you grow. This month you've started scooting along, so close to crawling! You pulled yourself up in your crib so we had to lower it so you don't fall out! 😁 And you've started eating real food and you are loving it!! You also added another country stamp to your passport when we visited your abuela Enma in Nicaragua. You are such a good traveler! Gram and your uncle Mike visited us too. You've gotten to where you get sad when I leave for school in the morning, which makes me so sad!! But when I get home you have a HUGE smile on your face when you see me and I love that! You were sick for a week this month and I hated that. But you stayed happy through it all. You are so good and we are so lucky!

You like to play with your lovey in your crib. 

You don't actually crawl from this position yet, but you're getting there!

Your brother loves you!

I never know what your dad is going to do with you next!

At the animal refuge. 

With Gram. 

You were so good on the long bus ride to Nicaragua. And your brother is so good with you!

Meeting abuela Enma. 

We made you sleep in a suitcase two nights in Managua. 😝

I love this picture of us at the Hilton in Managua!

You love food but it is soooooo messy!!!

It's so much fun being your mommy! This month promises to be another busy one. We're taking Brother to the U.S. for 10 days. You'll have to show him around! I think you'll also end up officially crawling and pulling up on more and more things. Who knows what else you'll do! I can't wait to see!!

Vacation

It seems funny to say we're on vacation given the status of our lives the last 10 months, but I really do feel like we're on vacation for real right now. I think a lot of that mindset is due to the fact that our residency has finally been approved and we'll pick up our Costa Rican ID cards May 13th and be official official! So it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and we can actually relax a little for a change. I mean, I still have to find a job, but I'm really hoping that won't end up being too difficult, and at least now I'm able to really focus on job searching and give potential employers a start date vs having to say I can start whenever residency comes through. Really very little, if anything, about the move has ended up going as I thought it would, and it's nice to know that I will hopefully soon be working again and we'll be back on track with things.

Vacation started out with an awesome visit from my mom and brother Mike. It means so much to me that Mom keeps coming back and that new people come too! I know it's a long travel day and the tickets aren't cheap. We really love having people come visit and knowing how much they care to spend the money and take the time! 

I loved watching Mike meet Eduardo for the first time Friday night. It was obvious that Mike was excited about meeting him but the look on Eduardo's face was priceless. I think I must have forgotten to tell Eduardo how big Mike is. :) Eduardo looked a little shocked when he saw Mike! They don't grow people that big here. :) But once the initial shock wore off, they seemed to get along fine. They watched some movies together and played in the pool Saturday afternoon with Davie. We went to an animal refuge Saturday morning that is by our house. And has a pizza place attached to it, which I knew would get Mike excited. :)

We weren't originally planning to go anywhere this week. But Davie and I had to get new tourist visas one last time in order to keep our driving privileges, and the timing worked perfectly with Semana Santa (Holy Week / spring break) at Eduardo's school. We tossed around various ideas for what to do but finally decided to come to Managua so Davie's mom could come down and spend the week with us and finally get a chance to meet Kaylynn! 

Being the super adventurous people that we are, we ended up taking the bus Monday from San Jose to Managua. We had to get up at 4am for our 6am bus and we finally got into Managua at 4:30ishpm. It was the longest day ever! Kaylynn's having a hard time nursing and sleeping if there are things going on or people around. She needs to be in the middle of the action! So she only slept around 2 hours, maybe, in total the whole time. Thankfully she wasn't really all that fussy and really did a great job overall. Eduardo did great too, as usual. However we all ended up a little sick to our stomachs by the time we finally made it to Managua. I had a bout of carsickness at the beginning of the trip that I thought was going to knock me out for the whole bus ride. Thankfully it didn't last very long!

 

Going through immigration at the border was very weird.  We were on an "express" bus that meant we paid extra and the bus people took care of everything - they waited in almost all of the lines and got our passports stamped and filled out all of the forms and everything for us.  We didn't actually see anyone from immigration, although someone from customs did walk by our luggage and take our customs form.  It was unlike any immigration / customs experience I've ever had before.  Also, no one asked to see our permission to leave Costa Rica form that we have for Kaylynn.  I guess because both her parents were there, they didn't worry about it?  The whole thing was just very casual.  It was nice not to have to do much though!  We did have to hand over our passports about 10 times to the bus people - that was uncomfortable.  I don't normally feel okay about giving others my passport when I can't see where they are taking it or what they are doing with it!

The long bus ride was all worth it though when we got to Managua and got to see Davie's mom and two of his nieces. I love this picture of Davie, his mom and his kids. 

 

It's been fun watching Enma, Davie's mom, with Kaylynn. She does some of the same things with her that Davie does! I can see where he learned stuff. Enma does an awesome job getting Kaylynn to laugh. It's great to hear. I wish I was that good at getting Kaylynn to laugh!

Monday night we actually stayed in the same hotel that Davie and I stayed in the very first time we went to Nicaragua.  Which was really funny because we DID NOT like that hotel at all at the time.  Davie swore it wasn't the same place, but it totally was.  It ended up not being too bad - after the last two+ years, that hotel no longer really shocks me like it did that first night - but it still wasn't the best place ever.  Kaylynn had to sleep in the suitcase. 

We stayed at a nicer and cheaper place Friday night that I think we'll use again.  In between though, we splurged and stayed at the Hilton Princess.  I really love that hotel.  It's so nice!  I really enjoyed staying there again and feeling a little like I was back in my "old" life before the move and all the changes.  Some of my favorite things:

- A/C!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Nice sheets with a duvet.
- No bugs!
- King sized beds.
- Yummy food that neither Davie nor I had to cook or clean up after.
- Goat cheese!  I've missed goat cheese and they had it at every dinner at the hotel.  (I upgraded us to the Executive Floor, which included breakfast and dinner.  Our room was a Junior Suite, so we had a living room area, which came in handy with Kaylynn.)

I felt very much the spoiled American by spending the extra money to stay at the Hilton, but it was worth every penny.  I miss feeling like a spoiled American sometimes.  :)

I still can't believe we survived two bus trips with the kids.  Kaylynn slept almost not at all Friday night, which made Saturday a very long day.  She also ended up starting her 6 month growth spurt while we were there, so was up three times most nights.  It made the trip feel very long.  It was really nice though having Davie's family there to help!  His mom and nieces would immediately reach for her whenever we were together.  It made me wish for a full time nanny.  :)  Not that I really want a full time nanny, but the extra sets of hands were very, very handy!  Davie and I got to go down to dinner by ourselves one night, which was our first real "alone time" since Kaylynn was born.  We were only one flight down from them, but still.  It felt like we got away for a little while.

It's taken me almost a week to finish this post.  :)  I'm going to stop now because it feels a little out of control.  Our trip was awesome but I am really glad to be home!

We went to the same lake Davie and I had gone to before. 

Kaylynn finally slept with us after being up for two hours from 12:30-2:30 Friday night. We all got about an hour of sleep before we had to be up for the bus. 😞

I don't need sleep Mommy! I just need food. 😋

Progress Report

I feel like there's been a lot going on.  I certainly feel like we've been busy, even without jobs.  :)  The last few days especially have been pretty exciting.  Davie and I both have an appointment tomorrow at Migracion regarding our residency applications.  I'm not 100% sure what's going to happen at the appointment, but I know it's (1) a very good thing to have and (2) a big next step in finalizing our residency and getting us official-official here.  Very exciting stuff!

Eduardo is doing so well in school.  This week has been parent-teacher conferences at his school.  I actually ended up deciding not to have a conference with Eduardo's teachers.  I really struggled with that decision, as of course I want to talk about Eduardo and hear how he is doing, but the conferences were optional for students who had a conference in November and, because I'm volunteering at the school, I see his main teacher quite a bit already and I feel like she and I touch base on how he is doing and discuss any concerns (not that there are many of those) and talk about things we can do at home, etc., etc., a fair amount, so I really didn't feel like there would be a lot for us to talk about if we did have a conference.  He also comes home and talks about school A LOT, so I can tell he is learning and I can certainly tell a huge difference in his English ability and in his math skills.  He's kind of a little math genius it seems.  :)  However, even though we didn't do an official conference, his main teacher did show me some of his work on Monday, just so I could see how far he has really come. 

He has a journal he has been writing in since school started, and the difference between August and now is AMAZING.  In the beginning, he would write one or two short sentences and his teacher had to correct almost every word.  Now he writes whole pages with only one or two corrections PER PAGE.  He also was given a math assessment with problems for end of 1st grade, beginning of 2nd; end of 2nd grade, beginning of 3rd; and end of 3rd grade, beginning of 4th.  He got all of the end of 1st - beginning of 3rd grade problems right and only missed a few of the problems for the beginning of 4th grade!  So he's basically a grade ahead in math.  One of the things I really love about this school is that they are able to customize the curriculum for each student, based on what they need, so he is able to continue to be challenged in math and isn't being held back any.  It's just really so amazing how awesome he is doing and how far he has come in such a short time.  I've always known Davie was smart, even if he didn't end up getting the education to nurture it.  It's so exciting to see that Davie passed that on to Eduardo, in addition to his good looks.  :)  I told Davie he makes super smart, super cute kids! 

Mom and Mike come Friday and we are all SO EXCITED to have visitors and get to see them.  Eduardo talks about it every day, it's really cute.  :)  We're in cleaning / getting ready mode, big time!  Then, Monday we are taking the bus from San Jose to Managua to visit with Davie's mom and some of his family until next Friday.  It's Spring Break / Holy Week here - with all of the Catholics here, Holy Week is a HUGE deal.  Everyone takes the whole week off.  I'm looking forward to having Davie's mom meet Kaylynn, although I'm not so excited about the bus ride.  :)  Kaylynn these days seems to like car rides though - she LOVES going places now - so hopefully she'll do okay.  And there will be stops and things, we can get out and move around.  Keep your fingers crossed it goes ok!

If you can't tell by all of the exclamation points and capital letters and smiley faces, it's been a very good day and things seem to be looking up in our neck of the woods.  We're getting a very nice tax refund and hopefully soon I'll be able to start job searching in earnest.  A job is the only thing really missing at this point.  I'm feeling more settled here and more at peace with our situation.  Now to find an awesome job and life will be pretty darn great!

Six months already!

How did you already get to be six months baby girl?? After today you'll be closer to your first birthday than to the day you were born. That makes me a little sad. But I have so loved watching you grow and learn and I'm excited to see where you end up next month!

We've had a big month. You've started exploring foods, we went to two beaches and a national park and you've added even more tricks to your repertoire. You can put your pacifier in your mouth yourself. You can sit up all by yourself for a short amount of time. So now you aren't as happy playing on your back anymore. Laying down is so last month! 😄

Jaco beach

Carara National Park

Playa Agujas

Green bell pepper

Onion

Cucumber

Orange bell pepper

Coconut

You are such a little ham and you love to smile and play with everyone you see. Everyone comments about how happy you are and one of my biggest wishes for you is that you are able to hold on to that happiness as you grow. I love seeing your smile and hearing your laugh. 

Hamming it up at Carara National Park

You love swinging in the hammock. 

So happy!

Your face lights up when you see Daddy or Brother. It makes me so happy to see how much you love them. 

You concentrate so hard when you are playing now. Everything is new and full of wonder and there's so much you want to learn. 

You've gotten so big! I still can't believe it.