Eleven months

This month went so fast!!!! We got settled in to our new place and you've been sickly. You love the new house and having so much room to play, crawl and practicing walking. You have such a personality! And you are not afraid to make your feelings known. You're already a handful. The terrible twos should be interesting!! 😁

You have two teeth now and you love to scrunch up your nose at everything. It's cute. 

You get going pretty fast when you walk with your new walker!! 

I hate when you aren't happy and don't feel good. Brother tries to make you happy!

You and Brother love that we have bathtubs now!!

You like to bite and hit and pinch. Which isn't funny, except it really kind of is. We're not teaching you good habits every time we laugh when you do it though!!! You're pretty strong for being so small! 

You love your Lovey!!

Other than you being sickly, it's been a good month. 

 So sad but so big!!! One month to go to a year!!!

We're (not) lucky

I used to think Davie and I didn't have much in the way of good luck. With the way things ended up working out with immigration, it just seemed like we were fighting uphill battles and losing. However, I would say the last few months / year have changed my view on our luck and now I think we are some of the luckiest people I know.

Little things have happened lately to make me think this. We've "lost" a few things but then found them again later and, while a seemingly small thing, had the items stayed lost it would have been sad and upsetting, frustrating and costly. 

Our amazing new house and view have helped too. We are very lucky to be living this life that we are living. It's beautiful here and we love our mountain. 

One day I'll get the best sunrise shot. This one isn't great, but I do love that sky though!

Kaylynn and Eduardo are healthy and safe and happy. My heart aches for my friends who have not been as lucky lately. Life can be cruel and unfair and there are things I hope I never have to experience. 

These two. 💜💜💜💜

The world is a scary and hard place, but here on our mountain we can just enjoy this fabulous place we get to call home. When the fog rolls in we like to say we're all alone in the world. Nothing can hurt us. 

I worry and stress and feel guilty about so many things. But I am trying to just focus on being grateful for all that we have right now. 

Family time. Kaylynn thinks we're crazy. Little does she know she's got lots of years ahead of her to think that! 

10 months!

Month 9 was fun, I think. Super busy, but fun!

I'm finally loosening up a bit, so you got to try lots of yummy foods like ice cream and vanilla pudding and ketchup. We moved to a new house, so you've already left the house you came home to from the hospital. We LOVE the new place though, so it's ok. You clap and dance and wave and you're getting you're first teeth. Sometimes I look at you and I'm just in awe. 

Standing all on your own! You still aren't walking yet, but I think you're close. I want to get one of the push toy walker things for you. I have a feeling you would be all over the place with one of those!

You had fun at Sky Jump for Brother's birthday. 

Back to Nicaragua for 15 days for your cousins quinceañera. 

My plan was not to let you on a motorcycle at all, but that didn't last, unfortunately. Here you are with Alfredo, trying one out. And later, your dad took us to your aunts house for dinner on a moto. 😖 You liked it. I was stressed out the whole time!

You loved uncle Melvin, which is fitting as I do too. He's a really great guy. He loved you too!

This poor little chick didn't stand a chance!

This is how we are now around you - you are SMELLY!!! My nickname as a baby was Smelly Melly and I guess you are taking after me. It is bad!! 😷

We visited your great-grandparents. They were happy to meet you!!

Seriously, could you be any cuter??

Closed Captioning brought to you by

ME!

I have a job! It's not a great paying job, but it's a job nonetheless. I made $18.12 today, working from home typing the closed captions for two videos. It's kind of interesting and fun work, and it's actually harder than one might think, and at least it's actual work, for the first time in 14.5 months. It feels good. 

I also got a call about an accounting position here and an email about a position in California that would be remote work. So things are looking up in the job department!

I swear, I think a big part of it is the new house. I just feel more motivated and excited about being here. 

And with views like this, who wouldn't?

Grecia here we come!!!

From my first visit here, Davie and I have wanted a place to call home with a few characteristics: a stand alone house in the mountains. We've daydreamed about it a lot as we've been out and about the past year, commenting on places as we drove by, thinking about what we would want in our next place. Because, while there are some definite pluses to where we are now - awesome pool! helpful neighbors - there are some big dislikes as well and it's never felt like somewhere we would want to be long term. 

With everything crazy in our lives though, I certainly was in no hurry to look for a place to move to. Davie though has liked to browse the listings posted to Facebook and point out ones he found interesting. With school out and the job situation still up in the air, he decided he wanted to actually see some other places. We went to one last week and it was not good. It was a maze! And dark and in the middle of the city basically, which is not something we really want. 

I had thought I convinced him we didn't need to move. We are happy enough here, I was nervous about trying a new place and maybe being miserable. But then he came across another posting and wanted to see it. We had the time, so I set up the appointment. 

Driving to it, I turned to him and said - I'm going to love this house, I can already tell, and it's going to be really far out and we'll have to decide if we want to live that far. 

And that's exactly what happened. 

It's a U.S. style house. Which means it's better construction, has bathtubs vs just showers, U.S. appliances including a U.S. w/d, better inclosed so fewer bugs. It's also one story, so no more worrying about Kaylynn and the stairs - she's decided she can climb them without any help. :P But, probably the best part, it's got a huge backyard with lots of fruit trees already planted and room to start a garden of our own. 

(Most of) The front! It doesn't look like much from here, but it's sure got a lot going for it once you cross the threshold!

Part of the view from the patio. I seriously think it's one of the prettiest places I've ever seen. 

The dining room / kitchen. I love all the wood and the kitchen is amazing!!

The back view. Pretty much everything you see is ours. There are banana trees, a mango tree, a pineapple tree, citrus and other fruit trees and plenty of space to plant more. We're thinking tomatoes, corn, beans, zucchini, peppers and squash to start. The white part of the roof is the solar water heater. 

Is it crazy to move right now? Yes, I really do think so. 

Are we now going to be really pretty far from potential jobs and certain stores? Yes, but if we love where we live, I don't think the drive will seem so bad. It'll be around an hour to get certain places, but I don't think the traffic will be as bad as where we are now. So where here it would take us an hour to go 10 miles, now it'll take us an hour to go 40. Still an hour, but less frustrating, in my opinion, to be constantly driving vs sitting in traffic. And most of the drive is gorgeous. 

Ultimately, I think we'll be happier there and way more comfortable and it shouldn't end up costing us more after a year than if we had stayed here. And, if we hate it, we'll move again in a year. But I really, really feel like this place has the potential to be a place we could grow to love and to call home. 

We'll see what happens! We leave tomorrow morning for Nicaragua and we'll move when we get back. We've got a busy month ahead of us!!! I'm so looking forward to being in our new place!

9 months

What a month!!!! You just continue to grow by leaps and bounds every day. It's so fun to see what you'll do and discover next. 

Not the best picture, but you stand without holding on or anyone holding you!! Not for long periods of time, but you do it! You love to pull yourself up and cruise around using anything you can grab onto. You'll be walking before we know it!!

You make the cutest sniffy / scrunched nose face. And you'll sniff really loud while you do it. So we do it to you to get you to do it back. Then we all laugh. 

You like to raise your arms and wave them around. So I started saying "Super Kaylynn" and now you'll do it whenever you hear that. 

You've started opening and closing your hands really fast. I think it's your way of waving. Daddy thinks you're trying to say "come here!"

You've said what sounded like "mama" a few times, but I don't think that it was purposeful. I'm ok with saying "mama" was your first word though! 😊 You love making new sounds these days! "Nononononono" is a favorite as well. 

You're so cute when you sleep and Lovey is your favorite thing these days. You always want to hold her. I just wish you were sleeping a little better. There's an 8 month sleep regression that you can't seem to get over. Sleep is no longer your friend. I sure hope that changes soon!! Thankfully Daddy does a great job of helping out with you in the night. I can't do it alone anymore!!

I can't believe a year is just right around the corner!!!

Resident!!!

It's official! I got my Costa Rican permanent resident ID card last Friday. It feels weird to be a permanent resident of another country. I'm so glad it's official though!!!

Because nothing works easily, Davie has to go to the post office this coming Friday to pick up his. So random that I could get mine the same day, but he couldn't. 

For still not working, it's been busy lately!! Last week was the first week of summer, so my time volunteering at the school is done. Can't say I miss teaching preschool, but I do miss having somewhere to go every day. I've got a couple positions I'm hoping will come to something. If not, I'm going to start selling baked goods in July. 

We're going to Nicaragua on Sunday for two weeks. There's a big family celebration on the 11th and we really should be there. Davie's sister is flying back from Spain and his brother is already home from Panama. They haven't all three been together in 10+ years. And everyone wants to meet Kaylynn. So we're going. It'll be an adventure, but one it's important we don't miss. 

My plan is to start selling baked goods when we get back. I did a focus group to see if people would be interested, and I have started pricing my recipes. Hopefully I'll be able to sell some things!

Eduardo is doing a summer camp this week. He's never done summer camp before, but it was a big hit today. Kaylynn is funnier and funnier every day. But that may just be our sleep deprivation. :P I keep telling myself that one day she'll sleep!!

At least she's cute. :)

The big one is too. :)