Moving Day

We moved in last night, and as of this afternoon (Saturday), everyone actually has a pillow. That's a new thing. (We were using ones from the SP house.) I took two loads over to the apartment yesterday, some SP guys got the big stuff, and our new place is great.

And now it's Monday. We actually have most things put away, if not officially organized. It was enough so that I could actually vacuum the floors. We spent a ton of Saturday morning cleaning up, and then we spent quite a bit of time trying to do some more shopping for the apartment to get things like trash cans, converters, and an ironing board. (We finally found a decent one at a reasonable price at one of the neighborhood markets.) There are a number of markets here, but the one in our new neighborhood, Achumani, has prices that are way too high. That's where I tried to buy a bunch of stuff the other week and they tried to rip me off, so I walked away. However, another market in Irpavi seems to be a decent place to go. I found a small household stand with an honest woman who gave me decent prices, so I think I have found my market stall, even if I have to drive a little way to get there.

Shopping at the market isn't always cheaper, though. Part of me wonders if the buying power of supermarkets is going to end up driving markets out of business at some point. I can frequently find things in the supermarket for less than the market. Additionally, everyone tells me (and I have found from my experience) that as soon as they hear my speak they are going to hike up prices or not give me the best deal. When things are a simple, set price in the grocery store, there's no real reason for me not to shop there. The only exception will probably be fruits and vegetables, but otherwise I'll probably just shop at Ketal or Hypermaxi unless I go to the one woman in Irpavi.

We should get our furniture while we are gone, which has its benefits. As of right now all we have is a bed (the kids are sleeping on the floor) and a plastic table we're eating on. It works for a few days, but it will be great for the kisd to have beds, to have a few side tables, a real dining table, and a couch finally! What's going to be interesting is the color of the couch. I looked at the receipt over the weekend, and the color said chocolate. I ordered more of a stone brown color, MUCH lighter. We tried calling yesterday but no one answered, and things are so crazy today we don't think we can check on it, so the color might be a surprise. We'll see. I like the idea of the dark brown; I'm just afraid that it will end up showing fuzzies and stains. But then so will the lighter color; it all just depends on what gets on the couch, right?

The kids really like the apartment and are going to love their rooms I think, which are pretty large. Micah was taking a nap on Saturday while Alex and I were gone, and apparently Jason poked his head in the door and watched Micah very sneakily put on his monkey boots, very carefully pull the covers over him, and go to sleep. We have the pictures for proof!

No more for now. Today is insane because we have to get up at 3:00 in the morning tomorrow in order to be at the airport at 4:30. And we have a short flight with a short layover, and then we have an eleven. Hour. Flight. With small kids. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do for entertainment, but we'll work it out. We're almost there!

DING DING DING We have a winner!

On the family side of things, my son is apparently a HUGE flirt. I had to take him with me to the school today to turn in some forms, and on the way out there was a group of girls in a circle (probably 2nd or 3rd grade) who saw Micah. They immediately asked if he was Alexis’ brother (so apparently people know Alex already) and started to say how cute he was. My son then proceeded to walk up to the circle of females and give each one of them a kiss. They all instantly fell in love, and my son is going to be dangerous… lol.

On the administrative side of things, drum roll, please…

We have a place to live.

HOORAY!

I really couldn’t have asked for a better place. Here are the details:
- 20 minute walk to the office for Jason (and that’s a little farther because when he measured it, he went by his favorite coffee shop)
- 4th floor, so it has a view, but there’s an ELEVATOR!
- very, very, very safe (along with everything else, it’s next door to the Belgian embassy)
- on a quiet block that is close to everything but also quiet; a small park with playgrounds on each side of the block
- electric gate (I don’t have to get in and out to open the gate whenever I go anywhere) and an extra storage space, too
- huge kitchen with lots of counter space and (hopefully) a place for a small table
- place for washing laundry and hanging it up, attached to maid’s quarters (small room with bathroom)
- large living/dining area
- huge master bedroom with walk-in closet and full bath, also space for office in there (oh, and did I mention that both bathtubs are Jacuzzi tubs? that is apparently a big thing here)
- two smaller rooms for the kids (one doesn’t have a closet, but we’ll use it as a bedroom), and they're not actually small; they're bigger than the kids' roooms at home
- another full bath in hall (although with a hugely awkward toilet that you can barely sit on because the shower is two inches from the front)
- huge other room with walk-in closet and full bath – we’ll use as a play room, for the kids main bathroom, and as a guest room when needed (this currently has navy blue teddy bear wallpaper in the entire room, but we can strip that and paint it for about $100)
- carpet in all the bedrooms
- already has overhead lighting everywhere and neutral curtains (this is actually really important because that saves us money to spend on other things that we need, including a range hood, which is probably going to cost us about $300 – crazy, huh?)

Overall, this place is everything we could ask for, and we think we’re going to be really happy here and won’t feel cramped or like we’ll need to move after a year. It’s been a little bit of a difficult month living in transition, but we should begin our lease on Dec. 1, and we think that we might be able to start moving some things next Monday (and possibly as early as Saturday; we’ll see about that.) It’s a great price for the location, and we’re all very happy. We just went to take another look at it and take some measurements, and both of the kids seemed very happy about moving there.

So city won. Kind of. It’s like a little oasis in the middle of the city.

Things will start moving very quickly now. Because SP takes care of a lot of things, things are slightly more difficult. (This isn’t anything bad; it just means that buying things for the home will take a bit longer.) However, tomorrow morning we’re going to go look at furniture and probably place a very large order. We are most likely going to buy most things at a place that makes very cool, simple wooden furniture. I was there on Saturday and like all the stuff, so almost all of the furniture except the couch will probably come from there. Hopefully Jason will be able to go with us for that, but we’ll see. In the afternoon I’ll probably head into downtown La Paz to get some household things like basic kitchen supplies, possibly a few nightstand lights, etc. We’ll also need to buy a refrigerator and oven because those don’t come with rentals here. (And of course, the range hood. Sadness due to it being so much money.) However, we’re going to get a gas stove (hooray) and might actually be able to take the refrigerator that’s in the house we’re currently living in. (We already have a washing machine.) Things are going to start being a lot busier around here, but that’s great because it means that we’re actually going to be in a place of our own, which will be wonderful.

Pictures

Alexis' first progress report.

This might be the most disturbing assignment ever for a four-year-old. The frogs look way too friendly.


Micah has a need to close ALL doors. He doesn't like the fact that some of them don't stay closed here.

They got new chairs and LOVE them!

These will be my downfall. About a dollar for this box of bite-sized pastries. This is bad news for me.

Random Updates

1. I just heard my son count to five in Spanish while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Maybe we'll get cable after all...

2. I made homemade tomoto sauce yesterday. I didn't have the ingredients I really wanted, but I tomatoes, oil, and onion powder. For only those three, it turned out really, really good. I guess it's kind of Italian style: fairly chunky and you're supposed to just coat the noodles in it. I think I'm going to make more today with better ingredients.

3. I saw a house the other day that could be really great for us. It's farther away than we wanted, but it looks like there's publich transportaion nearby and a place to park our car. The drawbacks (other than distance): spiral staircase, which I worry about with the kids, at least one kid would be on a different floor from us (this would make going to the bathroom in the middle of the night a little weird for Alex because she'd have to go up a flight of stairs if she was on a different floor), and it's actually pretty big, probably bigger than we need, making cleaning a potential challenge. (I'm still hoping for a maid, but the bigger the house, the more expensive that becomes.) Part of me is still really hoping that we can get that one apartment within walking distance. It would be so great in so many ways...

4. Alexis got her first progress report the other day and did EXCELLENTLY. I was so proud. She got goods in all of her "extras" like gym, etc., except for in art, where she got an excellent! And all of her "academic" stuff was perfect. I'll take a picture and post it if I get it back today.

5. Have I mentioned that I feel like my entire face has broken out during this process? I shouldn't have to battle zits and wrinkles and the same time; it's really not fair. On the flip side, though, my hair looks A-MA-ZING in this country. Low humidity I guess.

The Eternal Quest?

Okay, so maybe that's me speaking a bit hyperbolically, but what can I say? It feels like we've been househunting for a long, long, long time. In reality, we've only been here a little over two weeks, and we didn't even see our first apartments until a few days after we arrived. It really hasn't been that long. I think we're just a bit disappointed in the dearth of options near the office where Jason is working. We'd really love for him to be able to walk to work, but we're not quite sure if that's going to happen.

There are two opposing viewpoints here. ONE: LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY!!! Okay, so we could live in the middle of the south zone of the city, which has a neighborhood called San Miguel, whichis right next to Calacoto, where the office is. The benefit is that we would be close to everything. We could walk out of an apartment building and go a block to our favorite ice cream place, walk to get saltenas (my new favorite food - a slightly sweet, baked pastry dough filled with chicken or beef, potatoes, veggies, and spices), and basically have close access to everything. However, it would be like living in the middle of a city, constantly noisy, and we don't know if that would get old. On the flip side, we could live in the burbs, have less access to transportation (possibly having to take Jason to work every day or give him the car), and live in a tranquil setting, possibly with a view, and maybe even a house with a bit of green space. Oh, the dilemna. Oh wait: there's not much of a dilemna because there's NOTHING FOR US TO SEE! (We've had a few showings cancel on us.)

In reality, we have a good place to stay until we find where we want to move, and we can be here as long as we'd like to be, which takes the stress away. However, we're all ready to find a home, but we don't want to just move into something that's not going to good for us and we'll have to move out of a year later. So city or country? VOTE NOW!!!! (Not that we'll take into account your votes, but vote anyway!)

Micah is finally over his cold. He went on antibiotics to get rid of a cough, which was the only symptom of his cold. The cough wouldn't go away, so we spent 18 bucks on medicine. (Yikes, right?) The pricing thing is interesting here. TO give you a rundown of a few grocery store prices:

1 liter milk: $.90
1 pounf of chicken or beef: $3
1 box of Cheerios: $4
1 box of about a dozen small pastries of various types from Ketal, a grocery store here: $1 (These will be my downfall. They're bad, I tell you. BAD! But oh so good...)
six kiwis: $1 (this is at the grocery store; they're apparently a lot cheaper in the market, which I haven't been to yet)
1 saltena: $.65 (Now I want to go get these for lunch.)

Groceries aren't really cheaper for the most part, except for fruits and veggies. Some things are more expensive and we'll still buy sometimes (like CHeerios for the kids - I haven't found a generic version yet), but other things we'll give up completely. (I don't think I'll be buying any Nutella here.) Part of the experience though, right? One of the things that always cracks me up is when I'll see an import of something, like beverage sweetener, that in the states I woudl buy at the dollar store and here costs about four bucks. Always interesting, right?

Now let's review some of the differences:

1. I can take out my trash any day of the week. All I do is put in in a bag and take it to the curb outside of my house. How awesome is that?

2. There are no driving rules here. I mean, I know there ARE some rules, but there aren't many as far as I can tell. If you try to take a left turn, be prepared for cars to pull up on your left and your right and take the turn before you if you're not aggressive enough. I'm working on my agressive behavior. Honestly. Take THAT, PUNK DRIVERS! I'LL PASS YOU IF YOU'RE GOING SLOW!

3. They have this thing called your NIT, which took me a while to figure out. Whenever you buy something, you're supposed to either give your NIT number, which is your tax id number, or save your receipt. This is because sales tax isn't added, and the citizen is supposed to keep an account of all purchases so that they can pay the government the appropriate sales tax. I wonder how many people actually do this...

4. Milk comes in bags, just like in Managua. You can buy it in a box, but it's more expensive. It seems like I am constantly opening up bags of milk due to the two rugrats I have at home.

5. The dogs. The stupid, stupid dogs in our current neighborhood. I promise you it sounds like the beginning of a West Side Story rumble outside of our window at two in the morning. Maybe we can move somewhere without so many dogs that want to join gangs and disturb the peace of slumbering humans.

6. The playgrounds. When I asked Alexis what her favorite part of Bolivia was, she said school, and then she said playgrounds. Because almost everywhere you go out to eat, there's a playground. It's very nice for the adults.

7. The bathtubs. I know this isn't an across the board kind of thing, but every place that we've looked at (and some have been nice and some not so nice) had jacuzzi tubs in the bathrooms. Our hotel had it. Our current house has them. I never expected this to be a norm here considering Jason didn't even know if we were going to get a regular bathtub.

8. There's no sandwich bread. Not that there's any lunch meat or peanut butter anyway, but the sandwich bread that's available is all really tough. I have found some rolls that we're using for sandwiches and cooked a bunch of chicken and sliced it thinly for sandwiches, and I found some reasonable cheese. Put that on a roll with some avacado, and WALA! You have a sandwich.

Those are some of my observations thus far.

Jason is on his first trip to see one of the SP project locations. He'll be back tomorrow. While there's a lot involved (he is the "boss" after all), he's really enjoying his job so far, and the people are great. I'm trying to put myself out there with my Spanish and simply with trying to get stuff done, but I feel a bit in limbo until we get a home. The good news, though, is that there have been no problems with me working for Smarthinking while I've been here, so I can still continue with them. I'll have to figure out next semester's schedule soon, but it seems like it will still be a good fit. Especially if I can get Alex to always take an afternoon nap after school. (You're getting very sleepy, Alexis. You want to take a nap.)

Finally Some Pictures

Yes, we finally have some pictures. The first two are pictures from the baclony of our hotel. Stunning, huh? The others are pictures of the SP house (including Jason's new office) and the views from there, and then we have a few of us just hanging around, including Alex and her first day of school. She was so excited to wear her Highlands t-shirt!The house only has the beds and the table for furniture right now, so we're hoping not to stay here for long. Yes, we do have some pictures of Micah, but Blogger kept failing on me. (I am remembering why I stopped publishing pictures here; it's way too complicated and time-consuming. I think the pictures are going to remain on Facebook for the most part!)

Alexis' First Day

You know how I wrote that Alex was pretty shy when we went to go visit her classroom? Well, when I dropped her off at school yesterday, she greeted her teacher with a huge smile and went right in. She apaprently had a great day and really enjoyed herself, and we're really glad that we're sending her. It's just weird to have her gone every morning. We signed her up for the bus yesterday morning, and I was told that bus service would start on Thursday. (Wednesday is a holiday.) However, when I got to school, the classroom was empty. Everyone apparently thought that she was going to get on the bus. (I was also about five minutes late because the guy who was picking me up only thinks it takes five minutes to get to the school.) Anyway, we called Jason, who was there to greet Alexis at the door, and everything was fine. Her teacher said she had a perfect day and was really happy, so that made me really proud. She played in the sandbox and with playdough and house and other things and said she didn't learn anything because she already knew what they were learning. We also did her homework yesterday, and she got to go to the library, which was exciting for her. She REALLY wanted to get a book for Micah, which was sweet.

We also looked at another apartment yesterday, which was great in a lot of ways but was only two bedrooms, and we decided that we really want the kids to have their own rooms. It's going to be worth it to us for them to each have private space when they want it. The search continues! There's one place that might be coming available sometime soon, but we'll have to see. Apparently it's a little dumpy at the moment but will be fixed up, and it's in the middle of everything, which is good and bad. It's supposed to get a ton of light, which helps keep the apartment warm, and it's the perfect location for Jason walking to work. It is, however, just like being in the middle of a city, which is a little crazy.

We went out for dinner and ice cream last night and had lomo saltado, a very typical dish of grilled beef, tomoatoes, and onions over french fries and served with rice. It was awesome. And, of course, there was a playground for the kids, which they love. Then we went out for more ice cream (not as good as Sunday, but it was two for one day). It was the first time I think I really got a feel for living in a city, though. Walking around at twilight and then when it was dark made me think of being in New York with tons of people around and everything open and tiny stores and massive traffic. Not everything in our area is like that, but there's this oval inside of a street called Montenegro that makes you feel like you're in downtown La Paz. (Not that I've been to downtown La Paz yet... It's just how I imagine it would feel. We're in Zona Sur, the southern area.) Being able to walk to stuff is very cool except that the kids keep wanting us to carry them, which gets pretty old.

Today is a holiday - Day of the Dead - so there's barely any traffic and the office is closed, so it's probably going to be a great day for us to get in teh car as a family and do a little bit of exploring while the roads are fairly empty. To the grocery store!

First Week

We’ve been in La Paz for almost a week now, and in some ways it already feels like home. In other ways it feels like we’re simply fumbling along, though!  It’s been a great week. We got a lot of rest by being at the hotel, and it really helped with the transition to have a place where everything was taken care of, we didn’t have to worry about cleaning, and was incredibly nice. We left there on Friday morning, when I proceeded to rush out the door and forget one of your bags. (Yes, I felt really bad about that. What is it with me and not getting all the bags? This one was behind a door when I did the final check, and I couldn’t bring it out before leaving because it was huge and blocked the entire hallway.) However, all was resolved and we arrived at the Samaritan’s Purse house, which is right next door to the main office. In a number of ways that is an ideal place: Jason’s office is downstairs (as well as some other cubes in a huge room), it’s spacious, it has HUGE closets, there’s a great little yard, etc. In other ways, though, it’s not the best: really slippery (thus dangerous) floors, fairly choppy, Jason’s office is downstairs… (There are good things and bad things about that.) Ultimately, though, we can’t stay here. The former director lived here, but then they decided to start using it more as office and guest space, and apparently the lease might be up next summer anyway. Regardless, we can’t stay here.

SO BEGINS THE HOUSE SEARCH! So far it’s not very promising. We’d really like something where Jason could walk to work and it not take 30 minutes, or at least he could take a trufe, which is a small van/bus/taxi type of transportation. We looked at two apartments on Tuesday evening. The first was actually really amazing: spacious rooms, great for entertaining (and since Jason is the director, part of me is thinking that we need a place where we can invite people), beautiful floors, and way out of our current price range. There were two other drawbacks. First, it was being rented furnished, which means that we would be responsible of the kids (or me) destroyed anything. Second, one of the bedrooms was set up with a huge built-in bookshelf and desk, which is great if you want an office but bad if you need a kid’s room. So that was off the list for a number of reasons. The second place was farther away but next to an amazing kid’s park. However, when we entered the apartment, I think we both knew it was just wrong. It was in horrible shape. Not that we need anything luxurious, but this had massive cracks and needed to be painted all over and there was mold all over the bathrooms, one of the tubs was actually blocked by the door and a wall so there was NO ventilation or light, pretty gross kitchen, and one of the rooms had a smoker in it, and I doubt that smell would ever completely come out. Needless to say, we passed on that one as well.

What’s a little disappointing is that the newspaper had basically nothing for us to look at. We were thinking that we would find at least some possibilities to look at from the weekend paper, but there was one apartment that was $300 a month (there’s no way that’s in any shape for us to want to live in at that low of a price), and the other one has a great location but is only two bedroom, and we’d really like at least three. Apparently there was one house at a great price that was a little farther away than desired but still worth seeing, but as soon as we found out about it it was gone. We might have something to look at tomorrow, but I’m not sure. Part of us would still really like a house for a number of reasons, but there are a lot of other issues that come with that, like a gardener, security, etc. So the housing search is still on in a major way, although we’ve only really had minor results. It’s great to have a place to stay while we’re looking, though, and while we’d like something sooner as opposed to later, we can wait a little while. Hopefully not too long, though.

We spent most of the weekend unpacking and trying to get organized a little bit. It seems weird to unpack when we’ll just have to pack up again, but it actually helps to organize everyone’s stuff and get out of the way things that we’re not using at the moment. Last week was also nice because people from SP took care of lunch for us, so today was the first time we actually had to fend for ourselves for lunch. What’s amazing here is that there are SO many places, including nice ones, that have play areas for kids. Some of them are huge playgrounds, some of them are just small areas, but a lot of stuff is really kid-friendly, to the point that 1. Sometimes there is even a person who works for the restaurant that watches the kids in the play area, and 2. When we went to get ice cream last night, Micah started looking around for the play area. It was really great not to have to worry about lunches at all, but it was also really nice last night to be in our “own” – albeit temporary – place and have a meal around a table the other night. The people here have been so helpful and friendly, and it has made the transition a lot easier.

Alex will also start attending school Tuesday. It’s a little weird to think about, but while I’m sure it will be hard for her in many ways, I’m also pretty confident that she’s going to love it. She met her teacher and was a little shy at first (this is pretty normal right now – things have been a little overwhelming), but then she brightened up and was playing in the room. She now has a Highlands t-shirt to wear for her uniform for now until we get her some other polo shirts, and tomorrow she’ll start going to school every day. So different. Alexis is also feeling MUCH better. She’s over her laryngitis and only has a cough sometimes, but that’s more of an adjustment to the climate than anything else.

On the other end of the spectrum, Micah has been unbelievably exuberant. He just smiles at everyone and is smiling and dancing and laughing and wants people to pick him up and overall is interacting with almost anyone who will pay attention to him. He has already made some favorite friends amongst the SP staff. While Alexis is taking a little longer to warm-up (it’s more overwhelming for her, and being sick didn’t help), Micah is full-speed ahead. It’s pretty awesome to see how captivating he is.

Life has been busy and will continue to be busy, but this is what we expected. We went to the English-speaking church yesterday and there was a potluck after the service, so it was nice to be able to meet some people there. While I’m pretty sure that we’ll go to a Spanish-speaking church most of the time, it’s nice to be connected with the missionary community down here. I don’t think it’s nearly as large as the one in Managua, but sometimes it will be nice to have some community that speaks English.
Today was also Jason’s first full day of work. The family went this morning because he led devotions, and while I don’t understand a lot of it, the parts that I did get were really great. He made people laugh and engaged them in a number of different ways, and I was really proud of him. Today it’s been all meetings for him, so he is right in the middle of it and getting to work, which is sometimes I admire him for doing.

That’s it for now. I’m going to drive Alexis to school tomorrow (someone from SP will be in the car with me) since I need to go there to sign a bus contract for her, we might have an apartment to look at tomorrow, at some point soon I’ll have a cell phone (I don’t want to drive without one), and we’re ready to really get started!

The Purple Bane

(I promise they won't all be this long, but I know a lot of you were interested in the actual trip.)

We have arrived in La Paz, hooray!

We flew out of DC early Monday evening. Reagan is one of the few airports to do international curbside check-in, and it was well worth a tip to be able to pull the cars to the curb, unload them, and not have to try and drag them through an airport line. We have eight bags. Eight filled-to-the-max bags. And we each had a carry-on. And a personal item. We had a lot of stuff.

The only incident in DC was when they had to unload our bright purple carry-on. (Due to the fact that we try to abide by the rules, we had to get a new carry-on at the last minute. And they had a purple one. So it became Alexis' future luggage.) Anyway, there was something ball-like that was suspicious to them in the purple bag, and LO AND BEHOLD it was a globe. A small globe that spins whenever there is light around. And it has a small layter of fluid between the globe and the material covering the globe that doesn't come out. And it's really, really cool, and it's fragile so we wanted to take care of it. And there's liquid and we did not even think about it. So it is now gone. (This was actually a Christmas present to Jason from my father, and he's really bummed about it.)

However, that's the only thing that has been lost in transit so far, and that was our fault. We ate a little bit of dinner before the flight to Miami, and the kids were great. I don't think the take off and landing bothered either of them much, but I was stuffing craisins into their mouths on the first take off in case they had ear issues. It was actually really great to just spend time with the kids in the airport and on the flight because things have been so crazy that we haven't had a lot of time to just hang out.

And while the globe is the only thing left in transit, we almost lost the entire purple bag. I will take the blame for this one. I was getting three personal items and checking to make sure we didn't leave anything behind, and Jason asked me to get the purple bag. However, I heard a flight attendant ask if she could help, and I thought she was getting the bag. Apparently, though, she had fallen in love with my daughter and was walking her out in her arms! We got out of the gate and did a bag check and realized we were missing the purple one. I rad back and got it, fortunately, but that would have been bad news! (This is why we occasionally did checks to make sure we had everything.)

By the time we landed in Miami it was about 8:30, and we had to walk quite a ways to the next gate. This is where it started to get hard because the kids were tired. The walk throught the airport was fairly hard, but we got to our gate, gave the kids a small snack, and proceeded to go through the most confusing boarding process ever. We got to go in early on the first flight, which was nice, but on the second flight they kept switching which line we were supposed to be in and had too many lines open, etc. Everyone was really nice and didn't understand why we couldn't board first, though. We got on board, though, and a fellow passenger helped Jason with some of the luggage. (We did, after all, have three rolly pieces. In the first flight I pushed one ahead and pulled one behind, but this flight was too narrow to do that.) We got situated and took of about 45 minutes late, and the kids fell asleep instantly. Micah slept almost the entire time. Alex did too except for the fact that her sleep was interrupted because she was sick. She lost her voice on MOnday morning before we left, she started to feel a little warm to us while we were on the first flight, and by the middle of the night she was burning up. We both prayed for her and her fever went down, which was great, but she has been coughing really tired and throwing up a little bit. (This could be due to altitude as well. She threw up right after we landed.)

We got through all of the customs and visa processes without a problem, which is great, and then we met the SP guys who loaded up our stuff, dropped off some of it at the office/house they have, and took us to our hotel.

La Paz is awesome. We got into the airport, which is REALLY high, and drove El Alto and other parts of the city into Zone Sur, which is where Calacoto is. Calacoto is the really nice area of the city and where SP's office is. The drive down was spectacular. There are tons of mountainous crags all over the place, so while I'll miss forests, the landscape is truly unique. I could see the temperature rising on the thermostat in teh car as we would drive further down.

You really do have to take it easy, though. When I got off the plane I felt a little dizzy. Micah just wanted to run around after we got off the plane, and it was really funny because he kept falling down. It's a little harder to keep him calm, but he is feeling fine it appears. Our day was busier than I anticapted yesterday, but we got a tour of the city and SP's office (and met a lot of the staff), the school Alex will go to, and a lot of other places. We also had lunch at the acting director's house, where I proceeded to fmuble through my limited Spanish, Alex slept on a couch the entire time, and Micah went about capturing hearts, which is his normal M.O. We got back to the hotel around 3 and rested for a while. Later in the afternoon I actually went out to the grocery store, which in many ways reminded me of Nicaragua. We are drinking milk out of a bag again and having to use bottled water, and we'll also have to remember to stop flushing toilet paper! And last night we put the kids to bed early, ordered room service pizza, and we were in bed at 8:00. That was really, really nice.

Alex woke up a few times during the night with coughing fits, and she threw up this morning, although that could be due to the altitude. One of the SP employees is a pediatrician, though, and she's going to come over and check out Alex to make sure she's okay. Jason's going to go look at some apartments this morning to see if we can find something within walking distance of his office. Alex should be able to take the bus to school, but we do have a car to use while we're here: a 2006 blue Rav4. (That's lind of exciting to me.)

So that's the wrap-up of our first 24 hours in La Paz. We're acclimating and will start to get situated soon.

UPDATE:: Alexis has laryngitis (this started on Monday before we ever got here) and is a little low on oxygen. We got an x-ray of her lungs this morning ($10!!!) just to make sure that she was okay, which she is, and she's taking some ibuprofen and will get a little bit of axygen for a few days.

Vacations

We did a "staycation" this year with the kids. Yes, I know the name is lame. No, I'm not making apologies for it. Jason had a week off and we took that Monday and Tuesday to hang out with the kids. On Monday we went to the Reston Zoo; it's part petting zoo, part random animals, and part hayride. The kids LOVED it! They've been before, but they had a blast feeding the goats and the ducks. We even got them milk bottles for the sheep! This is the same place we went to about a year ago where the emu ate Alexis' shorts. (She still talks about it.) On Tuesday, the day of the earthquake, we took the kids to Splashdown, a waterpark nearby. They were totally fascinated! Alexis had no fear and went down (age-appropriate) slides with no fear and wanted to do everything she could. Micah loved it but had to figure things out for a little bit first. His favorite part was the water shooting out from the ground in the shallow pools. Seriously, he was fascinated by this and played with this for over and hour total. We were also able to take both of them on the lazy river, and they enjoyed that. It was really just a fun time together.

Jason and I did get to go on a vacation just the two of us while the parents watched the kids, which was AMAZING! We went back to the first B&B we visited on our honeymoon and hung out in Staunton and saw The IMportance of Being Earnest (my fav play) and ate awesome food and just had a great time.

Excitement Abounds. For One Child.

We went to a place called House of Bounce yesterday. It's a big room that has blow up slides you have to climb up to, and you bounce around and different things. I dont' know how to describe them if you've never seen them, but if you have kids, you probably know what I'm talking about. Alexis was fearless. Micah? Not so much. We were there a little over an house (Alex got tired after that), and Micah spent almost the entire time clutching to my arms if we tried to do something. It made it very tiring for me, but still lots of fun. We spent a reasonable amount of time watching ALex go down one of the slides while MIcah just at in my lap. He was pretty overwhelmed. But Alex just went right in and did it all, which was really fun to watch.

We've been working with her on being more involved when she does things and telling us about them afterwards. (For some reason she never wants to tell us details about different activities that she does.) We went to the Smithsonian a few weeks ago, and she spent most of the time being really uninvolved, which was very disappointing. I mean, it's the Smithsonian! We're working on that. She did go to music camp last week, and she had a show on Friday morning that was so cute! She sang with the other kids, although I ended up being only a few feet from her and served as a distraction for her at times! It was a thirty minute show, and towards the end she started to step back and just watch all the other kids and not really want to sing, but overall she did a great job and we have some really cute videos of her singing and doing motions.

Micah got stung by a bee at the playground the other day, and when we brought him home at one point he was saying really, really fast over and over again "go away bee go away go away bee go away go away bee go away" while shaking his head to get it off his ear. It was so sad but so funny all at the same time. He's completely fine though. He is actually starting to recognize some colors now.

Oh, and Alex is officially beginning the reading process I think in that we sat down with some three-letter words and were working on sounding out the letters and putting them together. She's getting so old!

I DID It!

"I DID it!" This is Micah's current favorite phrase. Whenever he does something that he thinks we should notice? "I DID it!" Whenever he climbs the steps up to the house all on his own? "I DID it!" Whenever he sits in his carseat doing not much of anything? "I DID it!" We've had to have a little talk about professing your proud expertise when you really didn't actually DO anything... It's a work in progress. In the meantime, it's currently my favorite thing that he says.

Reading

Alexis: We are currently reading Charllote's Web to her. She got REALLY into a Frog and Toad book that we got at the library the other week, so I actually found the collection at the used bookstore. She has gotten really excited about chapter books, so I want to foster that in her. However, our next library choice was a BAD one. I got the first two Junie B. Jones books, and this girl is one massive brat without any redeeming qualities. I read the first one to her on Sunday afternoon and was having some issues with it, and Jason started reading the next one to her, and we both decided that there would be no more Junie B. Jones in our home. Long live Ramona, if I could not just find all of my old copies... I checked the first two out at the library, though, for when we finish wastching Charlotte's Web. I'm hoping this really starts to kick a desire to read in gear. She's been doing a great job with some workbooks about figuring out which letter begins which word, and she's starting to write some words, and I want to teach her some sight words. We'll see how it goes! (I tried the sight words a month or two ago and they didn't take, so I'll wait a little longer and see. No pressure or anything.)

Micah: His current bedtime favs are Goodnight Moon, Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaur, and Inch by Inch. We started reading Inch by Inch about a week ago, and for some reason he thought it was really, really funny. Maybe because I pretended to try to gobble him up like the bird threatens to thr inchworm in the book. Regardless, he was laughing really hard at each page. Until last night, when for some reason when Jason was reading to him he decided that the ultimate reading experience for him would be to pretend to grab the inchworm on each page and eat him up! Then Jason would tell him that he needed to spit it out, so Micah would pretend to spit the worm out so that he could grab and swallow again. Jason told me about it this morning. So cute!

Micah at Two

34 inches and 25 pounds. Even his doctor said that he's going to catch up to Alex pretty soon. All was fine with his appointment, except for the fact that he decided to cry and be afraid of Dr. Theodore for some unknown reason. Maybe he thought he was getting a shot.

Micah thoroughly enjoyed his birthday presents and said "wow" when he opened them, especially his Handy Manny tool bench. He loves the noises it makes, and overall it was a big hit. He was also obsessed with this sticker book I got for him and sat in my lap three nights in a row until he had finished most of it. (This ended up being an awesome gift because it cost about 15 cents at the library.) He also enjoyed his cupcake and literally face-planted into the icing, which was the main part he was concerned with. It made a mess, but what is a birthday for?

No More Babies

If I thought there was even a slight tinge of babyishness surrounding Micah, I would probably want to grab it and hold onto it. That is not, howevever, the case. In the least.

My son turns two today.

And he is very much a kid, not a baby. He wants to do everything Alex does, which means that he wants to do TONS of things that he is way to young to do. He copies her and looks up to her and wants to be big like her, which means that he does things like make his bed in the morning and puts his dishes in the sink when he's done, but it also means that he thinks he should be able to write letters like she can and brush his teeth by himself. It's a mixed bag...

He is definitely amazing, though. In the past few weeks I really feel like he's starting to work out how to work through his frustration. He knows that we won't tolerate him throwing fits, and he is resorting to them less frequently and, even when he does try to erupt into crying, he is letting go if it much more quickly and finiding that life is much better when he chooses to be happy instead of sad. I'm amazed at how much he knows right now, too. As of him being two right now, he knows all of his capital letters, most of his lowercase letters, numbers 1-10, and shapes. he can also not only count to ten and try to say the alphabet, but he understands the concept of counting and what it is, so he'll actually try to count objects sometimes.

I also have an incredibly affectionate son who loves to be in a lap having his back scratched or simply lying down in your lap. Unless he's on the move, that is. I'm going to miss when he no longer has his little toddler run, but for now he still have the cutest way of moving throughout his life: at full speed with a little bit of bouncing to his cheeks and a soundtrack to accompany said bouncing. Another of his latest obessions? Playing tag with his sister, although Alex only wants to play about half the time. He still loves playing hide and seek and will get behind a chair in the living room, count to ten (from three about half the time) and then burst out, saying "HERECOME!" before trying to find someone. His favorite book right now is Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs, and he laughs at every page, especially the page where they are singing a dinosaur song and we sing the text to him. He has this way of bursting into laughter recently that cracks me up so much. It's not that it's less natural than it used to be, it's almost like the laughter has built up inside of him and he has to let it out with a guffaw. For a while baths were a nightmare, but he now seems to have recovered from whatever trauma he experienced with water and is now mostly back to normal when taking baths. (He still doesn't like his head to be wet and would never volunteer to put his head in the actual bath like Alex did, but as long as he's not screaming, I'm content for now.)

He is also starting to be fairly polite and will frequently say please and thank you without any sort of prompts. I was pretty proud of him, too, because my parents were here taking care of me and the kids for a few days while I was recovering from sinuplasty, and Micah was behaving pretty well and listening to my parents when they told him no. He was also fairly gentle with the kitten that they brought with them, whish was fun to see.

More birthday updates later since it's five in the morning. We're not doing a party for him, but after his nap today we'll open a few presents and have some cupcakes. (And he BETTER be excited about cupcakes because he always wants to talk about this favored form of dessert...)

An Addition

I forgot to add this last time, and it's too cute not to include. A few days ago, Micah randomly started to "act" for Guapo. He first started it by making him talk to me and wave his hand. Then he had Guapo ask for a kiss and hug, and he started to make him pray when we pray with him at night. He'll also have Guapo throw up a high five to you if you ask. Cuteness defined.

Letters and Numbers

Micah is officially counting to ten! It's very cute, and he does a really good job with it on a regular basis. The only problem, however, is that he almost always starts with the number three. :) What's really cool, though, is watching him point to objects and count them one at a time. He gets the whole counting concept. He is also trying to sing the alphabet, which is cool, and does a pretty good job with that, too. (When I say a pretty good job, I mean that I can figure out what he's saying because I'm his mom...) His newest thing to learn is shapes, and he's starting to recognize some of the basic ones. Hooray for learning!

FOr some reason, he's been pretty anti-veggie lately, which makes for some interesting meal times. It's hard to believe he's almost two, though. In the past week he has started to walk down the stairs by holding the railing and doing it like a big kid. Micah also slept in a sleeping bag for the first time last week. We stayed at my parents house, and the kids slept in the guest room together. The only real problem was that both of the kids needed to poop right after I put them to bed, so that was a bit disruptive, but after a few minutes Micah settled down and they both went to sleep. Also, after wanting to play for a few minutes at Nanny's house, they both went to sleep pretty readily in their sleeping bags. Granted Micah was out of his sleeping bag and on the floor in the morning, but there were no problems. NO MORE PACK AND PLAY!!!

I've been working a little bit with math with Alexis, and she has started wtih some sight words, and I have a small list of some things I want to review with her this summer. And then she's off to preschool in the fall. It seems so weird, although it's a little less odd since she'll only be gone two mornings a week. I think she's really going to love it, though.

They've also been having a ton of fun with everyone visiting the past few weeks. It has been VERY busy around here recently, mostly being able to see old friends from Lee. The kids fall in love with everyone, which is pretty awesome, and it's great to have kids who are so friendly and engaging with strangers. It's also VERY cool that on this Monday morning the kids are roaming around the house together. Alex is leading Micah in a very cool way (not bossy at all right now) around the house and encouraging him to play with her. This means that I just got to exercise and am now typing this blog post out without worrying about kids. Very cool.

Alex Independence

Yesterday we went to the part with some friends who were in town. They brought along their golden retriever, and while in the fields at the park, Alexis took Ava for a walk all by herself. She also got a kite to fly twice all by herself. She was adorable, running along the path with us watching in the distance, leading the dog and later on flying the kite. Those are the kind of moments that stick with you and make you realize that your kids are truly growing up.

A Good Day

Today is Memorial Day, and we ended up having some old friends over for brunch. We met their two kids, hung out, and just generally had a great time. We also just got in from spending almost two hours in the backyard, which might be a record for us in one sitting. We played in theie little kiddie pool and then had hot dogs and sausages with homemade chili and watermelon. Very stereotypical, right? It was a great day, even though Micah REALLY doesn't want to sit in the water. He did, however, want to spend an hour pouring water into a cup. I wish I could be entertained that easily...

First, Alexis. Her fourth birthday party was awesome. We invited her friends over and EVERYONE came, which we didn't expect but was awesome. We scheduled it for 10-11 on a Saturday morning, and basically they all played downstairs int he ball pit and then came upstairs to have some cake after singing happy birthday to her. Jason's favorite moment was when everyone was singing to her, and she was so delighted that she got shy and started hiding her face in her daddy's legs. It was adorable. I made her a butterfly cake and a maardvark cake, which were both a hit, especially the maardvark cake. I am never again, though, making two birthday cakes and decorating them for this girl. We asked people not to bring presents because we're really trying to prevent her from going into overload with presents, but a number of friends made their own cards and brought them to her, which I thought was really, really nice. It was a good time. She also got a free meal at Red Robin, one of her favorite restaurants, and the staff sang to her and brought her ice cream, and she got a free meal at Chick-fil-a and one of the managers came and brought her a little "eat more chicken" cow. Overall, she had a great birthday and got lots of presents from family that she is enjoying a lot.

Alex is recently doing a really great job writing letters, so we've written a few notes to people. I tell her how to spell, and she writes it. She's been dealing in capital letters and I've wanted to move on to lowercase letters soon, and that was affirmed by a friend at church who works as a reading specialist who has to get kids to unlearn writing words in all caps. I know what's on my agenda for this week.

Micah is our boy of despair. If he doesn't get his way, he despairs. If someone takes something from him, he despairs. If he doesn't want to eat, he despairs. (Okay, so I am speaking hyperbolically. Kind of.) He is so happy when he's happy, but when he is sad (and he's teething and had a cold before that), he is miserable. It takes quite a bit of patience, but time outs seem to be helping some.

However, he does know his alphabet. He confuses v for y and z for s, but otherwise he's prety accurate most of the time. It's cool because I can just point at a letter and he says the name instead of me getting him to choose the correct letter. We'll start working on lowercase letters soon, but I'm pretty proud of him for his uppercase letters. He is also trying to count and knows numbers 1-5 pretty well and a few others, but not consistantly yet. He also tries to sing the alphabet song and count, both of which are really cute. He doesn't know colors or shapes yet, but we're working on those. He does, however, know most body parts, which is pretty cool.

Also, about a week and a half ago we switched him to a toddler bed, and he did an AWESOME job. I think he has seen hers and was excited about it, and we've really had very few problems with it. That's really nice in the midst of his other crankiness.

It is now family pie time (where we sit down and eat some pie, exactly what it sounds like), so that's it for now.

The Zoo

We went to the national zoo today. It was the first time in a LONG time, and it was Micah's first time at all. Alex had been sick this weekend with a fever, so she was actually pretty tired while we were there. She still enjoyed it, though. Micah LOVED it! The only problem is that he ALWAYS wanted to be out of the stroller walking around, and sometimes he needed to stay IN the stroller. However, with Amber's help (an old friend from college who was in the area), we kept the two kids happy and fed and excited. The crowning moment, though, was when Micah walking around in the small mammal house. (I've discovered that smaller, scurrying animals are more entertaining than large, immobile animals.) Micah put his face right up to the glass and saw a golden-tailed tamarin, which has always been one of my favorite animals at the zoo. For some reason, this tamarin decided that my son was IT and jumped down directly onto the glass right in front of Micah's face to pounce on him and then run away again. Micah thought it was the most hysterical thing he had ever experienced and kept jumping up and down over and over again. It was a long, but good, morning. The journey out there can get a little long because it's the city, but it's worth it. We actually became FONZ members today as a family, meaning that I can park for free anytime that I go! The zoo is free, but parking is a bit expensive, so this makes it easier to think about going for shorter periods of time. Plus, the kids get free animal crackers every time they go!

Speaking of jumping, this is Micah's new favorite activity. He just jumps ALL of the time around the house until he falls down and then gets up and does it again. This kid catches more air than I do!

Micah's Development

Micah continues to amaze me, and I think I have to thank Alex for a lot of that. His vocabulary just seems huge to me, especially when I think about how few words Alex said at this age. I know I've mentioned that once or twice (or a hundred times) before, but it's crazy to me how he just says a word because he's mimicking someone or he sees someone doing something. FOr instance, he just saw Alex dancing and said "dance", which I've never heard him say before. So incredibly cool. He's also VERY into pretending right now, especially pretending to be asleep. We've created two little monsters who both think you're supposed to roar at someone to wake him up! It's pretty funny.

However, the main thinkg right now is that Micah has started to use the potty. AT 20 MONTHS! How cool is that? He is by NO MEANS potty-trained at all, but apparently while Alex and I were gone this weekend, something clicked for him. Jason was telling Micah that he was using the potty, and Micah got really excited and started to say POTTY POTTY POTTY! SO Jason got his potty out of the closet, and Micah sat down and used it. How cool is that? This was on a Saturday. On Sunday Jason told me this sotry when I got home, and I asked Micah if he used the potty, and Micah said POTTY POTTY POTTY, went upstairs, and used the potty. No joke.

Yesterday he used the potty four times. For real.

Unfortunately, he can't even pull his pants down yet. But he gets the concept! It will take him a long time before he's actually potty-trained, but if he wants to try, I'll certainly let him.

Alex and I had a great time visiting friends this weekend. Micah was sick, so he and Jason had to stay home. However, I think Alex enjoyed being without Micah for a while. She kept wanting to hold our friends' two-month-old baby and had a blast playing with her Uncle Kyle's old toys, including a Wonder Woman figure that she became quite attached to. She got a huge kick out of being able to choose some special things like a gourmet chocolate, and we went to this HUGE indoor playgound/ballpit,jungle gym/bouncy place called Ballocity. She was so much smaller than most fo the other kids, but she just WENT for it and had a blast inside. It was also adorable when we visited Kyle's church. She loved the SUnday school and apaprently enjoyed being a hlper and speaking into the microphone, and she is in love with Kyle and insisted onholding onto his hand when he was done praying with people up front. (He's a pastor and was speaking that morning.) It was adorable.

And the big news is that Alex is officially going to preschool next year. She's in a program at a church right around the corner from our house, which is really nice, and she'll be there two days a week for about three hours. And get this: IT'S FREE! Yes, we had another option that was a great price, but it was five days a week, a little more than I really wanted to send her right now. Plus, now we'll have some money to do other special things with her!

Updates - Very Brief Paragraphs

Micah:

Micah is saying dozens of words, which continues to astound me. One of his latest is help. That's actually very helpful (no pun intended) simply because he can let me know when he needs help doing something, and I think it's creating a little less frustration on his part. He has no problem picking up words, and I've watched him trying to put two words together. He is also doing better at identifying some of his body parts, although he certainly gets them wrong fairly frequently. He has some of them down, though. For example, he loves to say hair for some reason. He eats well and has a smile that lights up the room with one huge dimple on the left side of his face. He is also really into grabbing people's hands and saying hand when he wants to lead you somewhere or have you take him down the steps. He does this to people he doesn't know, too. These days he's waking up at about 6:30 in the morning, but we'll see if the time change coming up helps keep him quiet longer. Who knows?

Alex:

Alexis has entered a whiney stage, which is not fun. We're working a lot on how to express herself in an appropriate tone of voice. We're also actively working on manners a lot, and she's getting pretty good at saying excuse me to interrupt people. Now we're working on when it's an appropriate time to actually do that, and if she's anything like me, she'll never learn that lesson completely... her tracing skills are getting prety good, and she's doing a better job writing letters. However, one of the things she's gotten REALLY good at is determining what letter a word starts with, and that's very cool to see her develop that skill.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

That's for you, mom, because my son is a jabberwocky. He just jabbers and jabbers and jabbers and jabbers and jabbers and jabbers... You get the point. It's so weird to watch the language development because Alex was so slow with it, but part of me thinks he'll be a lot slower in putting words together to form sentences. We shall see. It's hard to think that he'll be at the level that she was when she was two, but that is six months from now, and six months in toddler world is like eighteen years for the rest of us. He likes to volunteer lots of words and now that he has mastered the old favorites, like sit, he likes to use new ones, like sock. That's one of his most recent favorites. He has also mastered going down the stairs. He's not walking down, but he's scooting down on his but, so one of his favorite things to do is play up and down. (Alex created that name.) They both go up and down the steps and then play on the landing while bursting out from one side to scare me. Micah is totally enamored with this new freedom. Me? It kind of freaks me out a little bit, but he's very stable and I've got to let him go sometime. And on a random note, he now LOVES brushing his teeth. I don't know when this transition took place, but he's all into getting up on the little stool and letting me do it and then trying to do it on his own.

We got rid of his high chair a few weeks ago, so now he's just using his booster seat. I've also finally been able to get him to delay eating dinner, at least most of the time, so that we can all eat together as a family. This is really, really nice. Another nice thing is that he's sleeping later. He got into some bad sleeping habits over Christmas, so finally I just started letting him cry again when he woke up at 5:30, and now he's usually sleeping until almost seven with no tears in the early morning. Hooray!

Christmas was so much fun. I think I had my first true parental delight in getting presents ready for the kids. We moved the coffee table out of the way and created piles for the kids' presents, complete with stockings for both. Micah got this huge letter train that I got at a yard sale, and we put a blanket on top of it and let him pull it off. Then, after she had opened all of her other presents, we told Alex she had to go looking for her last present. It was in a huge bag in the basement in the middle of the floor, and she got a kick out of that! It was her shopping cart, and we spent quite a while with the kids playing with their new toys with the fireplace going. We did all of this on Christmas Eve, including taking Alex to the doctor because her ear was hurting. I'm really glad it happened before we left town. We actually picked up her medicine on the way out.

And of course they got tons of toys that they loved. Some of the favorites? Alex got lots of craft stuff that we've been working our way through. That's not exactly an instant satisfaction toy, but she's beeb loving using all of her supplies. I think her favorite among those has to be these collages that Uncle Jason got for her that create little animals. If I can ever get her to let go of them, we want to put them on her walls when she's done with the set. She also keeps wanting to make the Crayola cookies that Aunt Jen and Uncle Keith got her, but we're waiting on that for when we don't have any more Christmas junk food in the house. She also has gotten really into putting wooden beads that she got into the lunchbox that she got and carrying them around the house and arranging them. And while she can't follow the directions yet, she loves the little piano she got that has a book of songs that go with it to play by numbers. One of Micah's instant favorites was a wooden toy that comes with a hammer and balls. You hammer the balls down and then they roll out again. It was instant obsession, and I thought he was going to break the glass in the door when he was playing with it. He seriously just confiscated the thing, took it over to an area, and started whamming it to pieces. It might be my favorite Christmas moment of the season. He was also very excited about the bouncy ball that he got and kept trying to throw all over my grandparents' house, and he loves his laptop, especially the button that makes the donkey noise. Over and over and over and over. And the dump truck. ANd the list could go on for both of them. However, it makes me happy that some of their favorite toys are also things we got for them. For Alex, her shopping cart and Uno Moo, which is a great game! For Micah, his alphabet train.

And they both discovered their devotion to ham. Being part Martin, it was bound to happen.

The snow the day after Christmas in NC was wonderful. It was about nine inches I think, and if Alex hadn't had an ear infection, she would have loved going out in it. Fortunately, the snow didn't delay our schedule, and we were able to get home on Monday night.

Alexis continues to amaze me with her appropriate use of words like fragile and apparently. Her neverending desire for interaction is making us think it's time to explore some more activities options for her. We're looking into come classes at our community center, although they don't have enough people signing up for classes to make, so I'm hoping that will change in the future. But they offer all sorts of things, including swimming, which might be good for her to have. Manassas offers a pre-ballet class, which she might enjoy, but Id have to get her some gear for that. We're just looking for some reasonably-priced options that would help develop some interests and have her interacting in a different way with teachers and kids. And while we're not going to do it this year, we're seriously considering preschool for next year for her. Manassas Park offers a morning preschool five days a week for 150 a month (right now), and we think that this may be well worth the money, especially because her kindergarten will be all day. I'm not very worried about the academic side of stuff, but I'd really like to give her the ability to interact with other kids and teachers in a "school-like" way. Not so much for the transition to kindergarten, which I think would be fine and we could always work through if needed, but mostly because I think she would really, really enjoy it.

SHe got into a phase of not eating her dinner and we had to have a number of discussions and time outs, and she is now doing a great job! The time out seems to be a pretty effective tool for us, so we'll see how it works for Micah. I'll never forget the time that she got out of time out and Micah got into her chair and started making crying noises like he was in time out! He wants to do everything that she can, naturally, but sometimes he bugs her, so we're learning about independence and what she has the right to do (go into her room and shut the door if she wants to play alone) and what she doesn't have the right to do (demand that Micah stops looking at her, which is a big one lately). And she always wants to help with everything, so I try to find ways to let her do that. Although when it comes to her own chores, that's another story... ;) She also says the cutest, sweetest stuff, like when she wanted to go downstairs when someone was sleeping she said, "Don't worry, my eyes are very quiet." "I'm writing a letter to God so he doesn't get sick. Dear God Don't get sick love Love Alexis." "Does God live in our heart? Will he be there when we get home?"

It melts my heart.