Jason's Birthday

It's official I am married to an old man. Jason turned forty last Tuesday. I would make more fun of him, but it is my turn next year. It was not the best birthday ever. It started at 7:30 with the electricity going off right after he got in the shower. Here that means no hot water. The kids said, "Feliz cumpleaños" to him and I made him some eggs. Laney did not think they should go to school, but we should all celebrate the whole day. She made him a big poster board card and hung up some balloons. She put all the gifts she made and piñata stuff on a shelf for later and went to school in tears. Jason and I went to class and I brought a few pastries for all to enjoy (us and two others). We figured the lights would be on when argot home. However, there were not. Soon we realized it was just our house not the whole neighborhood. Jason checked the fuse box and found nothing wrong and then called the landlord. He said someone would come at three. No worries. I went and got the kids, who were in a terrible mood. Creed woke up a little off and his mood only went down hill. I think they did not feel well. The house is pretty dark without lights, especially Creed's room which has no windows. It got really dark outside and started pouring. No quiet times and no kids shows (long boring story of a broken tv that was taken to be fixed three weeks ago). Luckily Jason left for a coup,e of hours of peace and quiet. Alejandra came over for our Spanish lessons and brought cupcakes. It was so nice of her. The kids and I were going to make him cookies, but we had no oven. We mixed them up thinking it wouldn't be too long. Someone came at six to fix it, right after it got dark. Needless to say there was some arguing with the landlord in there too. Not all bad, but not all I wanted it to befor him. I told him we were still going to the beach so at least he would get his present.

Fast forward to today, the day we were going to head to the carribean....and we did not. The kids had some runny noses on Tuesday and then on Wednesday night Laney had two bad asthma attacks. Luckily, this time we have inhalers so she was able to breathe again and go back to sleep. It took me a coup,e hours after each one to fall asleep. They kind of freak me out and I am a bad sleeper after being abruptly woken. She was ok in the morning and we sent her to school. After looking into the humidity we saw that it really went up here (October is the rainiest month and worst for asthma here). The beach is pretty similar to here, but is far away from a hospital and civilization. Knowing Laney never has just one bad night and this asthma thing is new and scary and being so far we thought it would be best to not go. So Jason did not get his present from me. Laney gave him a ton that she made (a camera, a hand, some butterflies) and Creed sweetly gave him some of his cars. Then last night we did the piñata so he at least got something. Oh, on Wednesday morning we makes him his cookies too. Laney made all the pretend candy for the piñata too. I love how the kids got so into it. Creed would ask laney what candy it was and they lick it and say how delicious it was.

The kids do not really realize we were going to the beach and it does not bother jason so it is not too bad. Jason knew how bummed I was so he and the kids picked up a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for me on the way from school today. How sweet is that. He gets nothing and I get flowers. He is such a great guy.

Hopefully Laney will feel better soon and have no more attacks. Last night she just coughed, but she is complaining about her ear today. I am tired of getting up in the night too so it is best we did not go because then Jason and creed would not be sleeping either.

El Fin de Semana

We had a nice weekend. Saturday we went to the science museum that is two blocks from our house. I love it when activities are easy. They had a ton of stuffed animals. They had big animals like lions, ostriches, tigers, etc. They did look a little worse for the wear. A lot of them were from the 1980s. Then they had all the Costa Rican animals; sloth, tons of birds, reptiles and of course, butterflies. There were a ton of amazing butterflies. Laney had to look at each and see where they were from. A lot were from here. The room smelled of whatever is keeping them from rotting and she did not even complain, which is amazing because she has the most sensitive nose and notices everything. They also had a bunch of dinasaurs. They loved those too. It only took an hour to go through it, but it was fun seeing the kids get so excited over everything.

We then went to McDonalds. You would think my kids never get out of the house the way they react to McDonalds (or Old McDonalds as they refer to it). Laney has been wanting a little pony from there ever since MariaPaula brought hers to school and told her about it. There toys are perfect for our kids b/c they are cheap and they love them. Laney kept saying how it was like Christmas and it was what she always wanted. Creed got a transformer and was willing to get on the excitement bandwagon. I think he liked the hamburger the most. They played on the playground and had a blast. They are still playing with those toys and love them. I want them to stay like this forever, I know that is not possible so I will enjoy it while I can.

Sunday we went to church. Of course, it was not just that easy. The week before we were late b/c they moved the bus stop on us. This Sunday we realized there was a 10k race in the park. Wish we had known about it ahead of time and may have tried to do it. Anyway, we walked the twenty minutes through the park to the bus stop and waited...and waited...and waited. The bus we were waiting for comes every ten minutes. We realized they had changed the bus stop, but where too? It was not the same as the week before b/c the race was going by there. People admired the kids while we waited and called them munecos (dolls) and were so cute with them. I tried to talk some too.  We had to find the bathroom and this time we were prepared with our money, then we got a snack and then we went back to wait some more. We had run into a friend from Spanish class who was looking for the same bus and he said he would go investicate and then call back. He called right when the buses started coming and said they were stopping across the park. I did not know what to do b/c I knew they would just switch back at some point. We could not get on a couple of buses b/c they were so full. We eventually got on a bus and made it to church early enough to play in their playground before hand. Granted it was for the second service, not the first one that we were originally trying to get to. I met a nice lady on the bus and talked to her on the way. She was heading to her own church.

Then after church we came home and went to the sports bar to watch the Lions. For the sport fans you understand why it was such a good afternoon. We missed the first half of the game, where they got themselves down 0 to 20 and enjoyed the second half come back. We love our little sports bar and enjoy talking to Raul and the rest of them and of course the games are great. I love being able to watch my Lions again especially with the best start in decades.

Nothing Too Exciting

I feel like I should have lots of exciting things to post on this big adventure, but I don't. Learning a language is just a lot of tedious work. Plus, having small kids is kind of tedious work too. Everyday seems to be the same. Get up, way to early, try and get Creed to finish his breakfast in less than an hour, get dressed, get them to school. Granted the last two days Creed has finished his oatmeal at record pace and beaten Laney. That is the exciting news in this house. Breakfast has been an issue for him his whole life, or at least an issue (pain) for me. We have tried a laundry list of tactics with the one of not caring being the best. "Eat it, don't eat it, whatever; but nothing else until you do". I put pineapple in his oatmeal the last couple days and he ate it fast and mostly by himself. Not sure if we have turned a new leaf over or not. He has had pineapple before with not as good results. Folks, that is the excitement over here. We have the same issues we did at home. I guess the good news is is that it does not surprise me, at least as far as the kids are concerned. Granted I did hope that somehow being here I would just miraculously pick up Spanish. That is not the case. It is A LOT of work, with at the moment, not feeling like a lot of results. I think there are numerous issues. One being every conversations ends kind of awkward or a little confusing. I think the conversations are longer than they use to be, but they just go until I do not know what is going on. It is hard feeling clueless so much. I believe it is all paying off and will come together, but it is hard. I am changing some classes around to have more from my favorite teacher. I am excited to spend a lot of time with her starting next week. She somehow gets me talking a ton (in spanish of course) and teaches me through that. I am hoping I will start to much better. It is hard too b/c you have one really good conversation and then the next minute you do not understand the next person at all. Un poco y poco. That is my new mantra. They say it takes kids longer to learn a language than adults (ask Jason he has done a ton of research on this). If we spent as much time as they do we would know it really well, however, I believe there is a huge mental advantage that they have. They do not care if they are wrong or corrected, whether they are totally understood. Laney enjoys playing with her classmates, it does not bother her that she does not understand them. That is huge people. I want to be able to communicate well and be able to understand people. I guess when I talk about kids I mean little ones like I have. I am glad it is not traumatic for them, I just wish it was not for me too. There is a lot of self talk involved in trying to remain positive and realize how much we are learning. I am so glad we have this opportunity to this. It is a great learning experience personally as well as the language. It is worth the work. I am just going to do the best I can and see where I am at in awhile. I cannot worry about whether I will be fluent or not. I think more people will understand me in a year than do now. I must keep my nose to the ground and stay focused. We are going to the Carribean in a week so will have more exciting news about that. If people would come visit then we would have more excuses to see this wonderful place.

First Field Trip

The kids went on their first field trip. They went to the museo del niños. They had to be at school an hour early (7am). Creed was excited until we started walking to school, then he kept saying he wanted me to go with him. They peeled him off of me and had a great time. Not surprising since that happens a fare amount of time and he always does well. They were so excited about the juice boxes they got to take for snack time. When I picked them up they were so hyper. Creed kept saying he wanted to go back there. Laney talked about the bus ride there and all she saw. She was on the same bus with creed but did not go through the museum together. We went a month ago with their grandparents and the kids loved it. Laney said her friend David told her creed was on the same bus. I know that does not sound earth shattering, but it means she is understanding some of the kids in Spanish. I cannot help but get excited by that. Yesterday creed said to is teacher, "tengo hambre". Both his teacher and I were very excited. I know creed knows some Spanish we just do not know how it will come out. When he was little (6weeks) I started taking him to the Y and when he was two one of the workers looked at me in a surprised fashion and said he could talk. It made me laugh because he started talking the month he turned one (even before laney) and was a great talker. He just does not see the point in talking outside the house. I am so glad they love school and had a blast. Also glad I did not have to go supervise a bunch of 3,4,5 year olds. That sounds a little crazy to me.

Domingo y leones

For the second week in a row we went to a sports bar close to our house that had the NFL package. I have not watched the lions on a regular basis for a long time, at least since having the kids. I actually have not missed much since they have had some bad years. We go to Gol (the name of the restaurant) and have a delicious lunch and watch some futbol Norte americano. In addition, the friendly manager likes to talk to us. We end up missing some of the game, bit it is mice talking to him. He is working on his English so he asks us questions and he helps us with our Spanish. He is very friendly and now it is nice recognizing someone here. When I go by during the week he says hi too. With young kids you cannot stay and see all of the games, but it was nice to see the lt two games where they played so well. Who knew I had to come to costa rica to watch the lions.

Feliz Día de la Independencía

Today is the Costa Rican Independence day. We have been learning about it all week in our classes. We decided to go to Ezcasu for their parade. It is another little subarb of San Jose. I go there everyday for classes too. It is easy to catch the bus there from here and we actually know how to now. Laney loves parades, shocker I know. I felt like it might be child abuse if I did not take her. We enjoyed the bus ride over. We grabbed some juice and postre and sat down to watch. It was a beautifully sunny morning. There were lots of cool dancers and kids doing cheers with pom poms. There were lots of drums and xylophones. After an hour or so we had to leave because the drums were so loud and constant. My ears are a bit too sensitive for the noise levels here. Of course, Creed was crying as we left, but it was a fun adventure. And it has been fun learning about costa rica. Laney has had me play the costa Rican national anthem over and over so she can dance to it. She absolutely loves it.

My kids are amazing

I have been so impressed with my kids on this adventure. I cannot believe how well they handle change. Of course, when they are sick they are a wreck, but they are a wreck at home when they are sick too. I was worried about Creed and how it would effect him to go to school 5 days a week for 4 hours a day. He has not been away from me for that long before. He has done a few hours a couple times a week and been to the YMCA a ton. I think all those things have helped. He likes to complaiin every morning when I put his uniform on that he wants to stay with me and not go to school. Some times he even cries a bit on the way to school, but that seems to be gone now. He likes to turn his head away from his teacher when she comes to get him and cling tightly to me. However, he is smiling and you can tell you feels the need to put on a little show. He cried a couple of times during school in the beginning and they would take him to see Laney and he would be fine. Then Laney was sick for a bunch of days and he did great. He does so well in school and even in the afternoon. On weekends he seems to get a bit bored and gets himself into trouble annoying his sister or us. I think school is good for him even though he has to pretend he does not like it. So many new things for the little guy and he seems to be doing so well with them. He is in the terrible twos a bit and it gets pretty messy, especially when he doesn't feel good. We remind ourselves of how things were with Laney and how they are so much better now. He is exerting his independence and figuring out where the boundaries are. Luckily it is getting a little better now that he feels better. He still has many time-outs and loses things. The key with him is to not care whether he eats or not or whatever he chooses. The consequence is there if he chooses to not listen. I do look forward to the day when breakfast is easy, but for now we just keep showing him the line and some days he crosses it a little and some days a lot.

He is learning a lot. He is doing great with Spanish and I love hearing all the little words creeping into his speech. He is also learning to read. He can sound out some words on his own. Again, I am impressed with all that is going on in his life and how well he is handling it. He is a funny guy and I need to remind myself sometimes that he is only three. Laney is doing incredible as well. She has begun playing with her classmates. At first she would come home and say she didn't play with anyone. It broke my heart and I had to hide my emotion. She did not seem phased by it and just said it matter of fact; she has to tell us everything that occurs at school. Slowly, she began to say she understood her teachers in spanish, just not her classmates. We tell her give it time. She runs to school everyday and was bummed when she was sick. As I have said she has spent countless hours working on crafts and projects. She seems excited about everything new. Her face lights up and she can't wait for whatever is next. She was so excited the first time she rode a bus here; saying it was like a roller coaster. She gets in a little trouble for being loud when she gets so excited. She just can't help herself. She loves everything and wants to express every emotion to its fullest. She is controlling with the remote and freaks out a bit over that and does get annoyed with her brother every once in awhile. She then goes to her room for self time. She does that when she gets frustrated with us too. I am impressed. She seems to regulate her mood in there and then usually comes out in a better mood. Her Spanish is great too. She is speaking in more sentences and beginning to use different tenses when referring to others. It is excited to hear. We live two doors down from a school/office supply store. It is like Christmas for her every time we go in there (we go in a lot). The people are so friendly and Laney is always needing tape or string or paper. Sorry for all the rambling. If someone can tell me how to have paragraphs I would greatly appreciate it. I do it when I am typing and then it does not show up in the text. I know it won't stop me from all the senseless rambling, but might make it easier to read and not so chaotic.

Mystery Solved

Delaney has always be so crafty. It has puzzled me for some time where she got it from. I have to be the least crafty/creative person alive. It has never bothered me too much since I really don't like doing those types of things. Laney has been obsessed for some time with paper, tape, glue and of course glitter. She loves to create things all the time. She spends almost every quiet time working on some project. Today I gave her an egg carton and she immediately came up with tons of things to do with it and Creed's. As I mentioned before she has made a camera, a phone, and at least 20 presents for Jason so far. I told her to make 40 since he is turing 40 on the 27th. She is well on her way. She loves this little show here called Art Attack. One day her and Jason were watching it and he was making a piñata. We always have one for the kids b-day so they decided to make one. Who knew Jason was so crafty. When I think about it, it makes sense. He is extremely resourceful and creative in figuring problems. All he needed was an extremely crafty daughter to do things with. I need to figure out the picture thing so I can post Kelly the piñata. She is on Jason's favorite show (according to Laney), Handy Manny.

All Are Healthy!!!

Sorry for the delay in writing. There is always a lot to say, just not always enough energy to say it. I am exhausted at the end of the day, especially the last couple of weeks with everyone sick. Jason was having horrible allergies as well. For a few days we were thinking we would have to move somewhere a little drier to survive. Laney's doctor told us to get special coverings for the mattresses and pillows. With some effort, a few taxi and bus rides over a couple of days we were set. There are a lot of dust mites in humid places and probably in our furniture here where we are renting. They affect people with asthma and people like Jason who are horrible allergic to dust. Jason improved quickly and now only seems to have some little allergies to the whatever is growing outside. A lot is growing with all the rain. Laney now has an inhaler and Creed finally got better too. They both made it to school Thursday and Friday and have slept through the night the last two nights. AMAZING!!! In fact Creed has slept in until 7 both days. I am still going to bed early and getting most of my sleep by 4 in the morning. I stayed up until 8:30 last night. Granted I fell asleep on the couch at 6:30 so I guess it isn't a great accomplishment. I think I am tired from trying to understand and talk to people. It is hard work for me. My brain is fried and I am beginning to even understand English. One of my teachers said that was a good sign. I decided I would take it as that since I am trying to be positive. It is hard feeling stupid and not knowing what is going on. So many things we do not get. We took the wrong kind of snacks to school for kids day. We realized when they came home with individual snacks. The teachers were sweet and took the ones we gave. People say things and I don't know what to say in response. The list could go on and on. I knew living my dream would be hard so I am just trying to learn more everyday and hoping after awhile I will know Spanish. Or at least know enough to not feel totally stupid. Luckily, people are very kind and gracious or there is a taxi nearby when I get way off of where I am going on the bus. All in all it is amazing. I love the four teachers I have and they give me the interaction I need. I miss my friends and they are doing their best to fill in. Plus, Jason is great. He has let me go to classes and stayed home with the kids while they were sick and let me go study. It is fun having two of us to figure things out. I have now had two full weeks of my classes and know that I am moving in the right direction.

The TV

We now have tv in Costa Rica. It has had a couple of benefits. First of all I can finally watch a little futbal americano. I have missed it a bit over the last several years. Second, it is one of our language learning tools. We watch the kids shows in Spanish and actual understand some of them. The only problem is there are commercials and Creed gets mad and says he wants a kids show back. He cries over every commercial that is not about kids stuff. Laney an the other hand likes the commercials. She sees something she likes and says I want a camera; then she goes and makes one. It had so much detail it was amazing. It had a lens, lots of buttons, a screen on the back. She used a cereal bar box for the main part. SHe is almost obsessed with the phone, and has loved it from the get go, so she decided to make herself one. After being home from school for three days, because she was sick, she was running a store and calling him on the phone to buy things and get her things. She is very creative and resourceful. She has memory cards that she is carrying around and draws on them what she doesn't want to forget. She cracks me up at how busy she always is creating things and playing. She was able to go back to school today and was so excited about it. Creed has been "coughing" every morning trying to get out of school. It is hilarious. He also feels the need to be dramatic when I leave or drop him off. My funny, funny man. He is excurting his independence and even though he doesn't want to go to school he does wonderfully once he is there.