Henry's First Haircut

Well, poor guy. We cut off his hair - the hair he rubbed and pulled every time he went to bed. But, he seems to be adjusting to the fact that his new military cut is here to stay. I would have cut it differently but the cut was free (courtesy of Mercedes Zamora) and all she had was the buzzer dealy so here are the pics! He was amazing. No tears. He just kept saying "Ah done" "Ah Done!" Not sure why I don't have a final pic of how cute he is - with his "no hair" cut.

Christmas in Costa Rica

What's that you say? It is too early for Christmas? Not here gosh darn it. The stores are full of wonderful "porcelain" statues of Jesus, Santa & angels, Faux Trees, bulbs, garland, anything holiday-like that you can have made in China.

So, now Claire has decided that tomorrow we have to go down and buy our plastic tree. It is difficult to rationalize with a four year old why buying a tree on October 8th isn't the best idea. She is even decorating the house as we speak with "cuttings" from one of her workbooks. Last night she wanted to leave oranges & cookies out for the reindeer & Santa. "What is that stuff that Santa & the Reindeer eat?" She asked.

Good lord. I have three whole months ahead of me to deal with this. Wish me luck.

Recent Challenges

Internet Problems: I had a tech come to the house even though I knew there was nothing wrong with my connection - it has something to do with a cable between here and San Jose. I seem to be playing the internet lottery. I can open some pages and not others. No rhyme or reason to it, just a lottery. I tried to open the French National Newspaper website LeMonde.fr (don't ask me why - I don't speak a lick of french) and of course, I didn't win the lottery. The tech says to me, "Well, that is because" he pauses, looks at his watch and continues "it is very late in France." I highly doubt that this connectivity issue will ever be fixed if he (or "they") think that the internet closes after dark in Europe.

Parasites: We debugged & dewormed about four months ago. Over the last week, Claire has been screaming from the bathroom "MOMMY! I HAVE ANTS IN MY BUTT!!!" I guess the parasite meds didn't quite work. She is on them again. Poor girl.

Electricity: Every now and then the municipality decides to just shut off the power. There is no warning, they just shut if off. Sometimes it is for an hour and sometimes it is all day. They shut it off on Saturday. I had no hot water for my shower (it is heated by a freaky electrical gizmo that makes you think you will be electrocuted every time you shower,) no internet, no light, no tv. . . I had to go downtown to buy a few things and I HAD to take a shower. So, I took an ice cold freezing hellish brutal painful shower. The point of all of this is that nearly every Tico I know wakes up at 5am and takes a cold shower. Why? Because they say it is a great way to start your day. Maybe that is why they are all insane here?

Things with four legs: I have some rather large animals scurrying around in my ceiling. Actually, it isn't really scurrying - it is more like thumping. They aren't mice, and I doubt rats. I am thinking opossums? They decide to play chase every night when I get into bed. It creeps me out and I am worried that one of them might fall through the ceiling and bring lots of horrid bugs with it into my bed. I need to figure out how to get rid of these mystery beasts.

I do have to say that the kids are great. Although by the looks of this picture I took of Henry tonight, my frustrations are rubbing off on him.
(Yes, that is a bruise on his cheek from falling off a chair two days ago, and today he fell trying to climb into his crib and split his lip and bruised his chin.)

News from the North

When a vice-presidential candidate can't even name ONE newspaper or magazine that she reads to keep up on world news we have a problem. The failing economy is a problem. The bailout issues are a problem. Gas prices are a problem. There are so many problems right now in the states that I am somewhat happy I am in my little Costa Rican bubble. I did just read a summary of the bailout bill - it is only one page but it provides a basic overview of the bill. For the whole thing, you can go here.

Thank god we cashed out our 401K earlier this year!

People here are extremely concerned that the problems in the US will soon trickle south and further harm the economy in CR. Wages are horrid, jobs are scarce, food/gas/electricity are terribly expensive - i really don't know how people survive here. I feel so lucky that Ben is working and that CAFECOSA is slowing growing.