These are a Few of my Favorite Things

For the next 5 weeks Sean and I have a personal tutor twice a week. We are waiting until the next trimester begins in May until we start school again. This means Lucy stays at home with one of us while the other is being tutored, although she is enjoying the extra family time, we think she is missing school a little. She talks about school every now and then and she loves wearing her backpack around the house.


As you can tell Lucy is still loving hiding her eggs around the house and then finding them. The fun never stops.


We went to the toy store last week to buy Lucy another toy. She was thrilled with the farm that we picked out and so far it has provided many hours of fun.


Our favorite thing she has learned about the farm is that a rooster says "cock do do".


On Saturday we all went to the Feria (Farmer's Market) and then found a fun restaurant that serves milkshakes. They were quite yummy!


Lucy couldn't decide whose milkshake she liked better, Sean's papaya or my vanilla, so she just kept going back and forth getting the best of both worlds.

Random Lucy

There are no baby swings here so this is what you have to do if a girl wants to swing.


This week we have started our tutoring, we both have it 4 hours a week. Lucy has enjoyed her extra daddy time at the park. She has even learned how to kick a ball (pictures to be seen later).


Lucy loves looking at her friends every day on the computer, please continue to update your blogs :)


One of Lucy's new favorite toys are water bottles. Here she is trying to have a big drink after a long hot day.

Easter Egg Hunt

Here is Lucy in her Easter hat and dress before church. Interestingly, church here was nothing special today, as the sermon was not on the Resurrection and there was no special singing.


After church we hosted an egg hunt for some of the gringo kids that live near by. We had juice, cookies and a bible story for the kids while some dads went and hid eggs in the park. Here is everyone lining up down our stairs to head to the park.


Mike giving instructions to the kids.


Lindsey and Lucy heading off to find some eggs.


Here she is with Lillian, about to start fighting over the same egg. Lucy loved finding eggs and putting them in the basket, and after every one she would ask for "mor, mor." (more)


So excited!


And a final group shot of everyone at the end.

Lucy and the Volcano

Today Lucy had her first true Costa Rican adventure. Our landlord (Pablo) and family wanted to take us to a nearby volcano for the day. We had a blast with their family and enjoying seeing a different part of Costa Rica.

Lucy and her two new friends (Pablo's kids) Celeste and Javier


Javier absolutely loved the baby and wanted to be super close to her where ever she went.


We think this is a badger of sorts, but we are not really sure considering the translation from Spanish to English.


The Irazu Volcano- it had a beautiful green lake on the bottom. The last time it erupted was in 1965.


We were as high as the clouds.


Group shot minus Sean.

Walking Around

A couple days ago we decided to head out in a different direction and see where the road took us.

Here are the girls as we start to head down a big hill. The picture offers a good view of the southern part of San Jose.


We ended up at a familiar park, but one Lucy hadn't played in yet. She has really come to love grass and open space, it is a welcomed change from the ever-present tile floors and cracked sidewalks. As soon as she gets to some grass, she starts screaming and running around.

Trampoline Fun

We have some friends here that have a trampoline in their backyard so we had to let Lucy give it a try. For some background into my life I was NEVER allowed to jump on a trampoline and the one time I did I ended up breaking my elbow and having to have surgery to put it back in place. But don't worry dad this one had a net around it and she was very carefully supervised.

Butterflies

Today we visited the National Museum in downtown San Jose because we heard they had a butterfly exhibit. There were supposed to be 1000 different types of butterflies but I am pretty sure we only saw about a dozen or so. Lucy really enjoyed it, although like most animals, when they got too close she wasn't too sure what to think.

Easter is Here

Thanks to our loving grandparents Lucy received two care packages this week filled with Easter goodies. Easter is celebrated very differently here and one thing we could not find was Easter Eggs so Gannie sent us a bunch and we hope to have a Easter Egg Hunt here with all our Gringo friends.


Lucy was too interested in getting the eggs open which Niece stuffed with cookies.


Happy Easter everyone!

Stop and Smell the Flowers

First of all let me say Niecy (Lucy's grandmother) this post is for you :) Lucy loves flowers and every day when we walk she has to point out all the pretty flowers to us, if Sean and I do not stop and admire the flowers that she gets mad at us. So to account for Lucy's slow walking and the time it takes to stop every time she sees flowers we have to allow for about 15 extra minutes every where we go. As a side note they do have some really pretty flowers here and many are very different from anything I have seen in the States.

Lucy Walking Music Video

Video by family request. Feel free to skip this video if a toddler walking for 4 minutes doesn't do it for you.



Editors Note: We blatantly ripped off Noa Noll's walking video, but with cooler effects.

The Park

We go to the park every day because it is a block away from our house and it is a great experience for all of us.

Lucy is always able to meet some friends. While mom and dad are able to practice their Spanish with the parents.



This is Lucy's favorite spot at the park. She loves playing peak-a-boo behind this statue and she can learn her colors with all the mosaics.


It is also great to help Lucy get some energy out because she walks every where and then afterwards she sleeps great.

Daddy Time

Lucy has enjoyed some special Daddy time here in Costa Rica. Here are some pictures of this weekend at the park.

Crazy Hair Day

The weather here in Costa Rica is pretty bizarre. Almost every day around 3 it looks like it is going to start raining, but typically the clouds just pass by and nothing happens. We are in the dry season right now and come May it is going to start raining every day and not quit until January (talk about Noah's flood). However, today when we got out of school we had a surprise rain shower and since we have to walk home from school we all got wet and decided to have some fun with Lu's hair.


Big yawn. Pretty much every day we get home around 5 and it is all we can do to get dinner on the table fast enough, bath her, and then get her in bed as soon as possible.


I think this picture should be submitted for the next Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo commercial, I mean look at that volume?!

The "Milkstach"

One of our greatest joys right now with Lucy is at meal times. It is such a great time to enjoy each others' company and to sit and laugh and that is exactly what we did on this day:






A couple of fun new facts about Lucy:
- She has gotten 2 new teeth, which brings her to the grand total of 8. At this rate she is going to be getting her molars when she starts 8th grade :)
- According to her teacher at school Lucy now says "Vamos" (Lets go), I will believe it when I hear it for myself.
- Her favorite thing to do right now is pray, even this morning when she was pretend playing with her dolls she wanted to pray for their food before they ate.

Lucy's New Toy

Yesterday we went searching for a new toy for Lucy and found a great toy store, appropriately called, "TOYS." We walked all over the store and let Lucy check everything out until she picked out this shopping cart. She loves loading it up and pushing it around.

Do we have a 16 month old or a 16 year old?



Here she is "shopping" around.



WARNING!! Care Package Plug: If you happen to be sending us anything in the future, Lucy would love some "items" to put in her shopping cart. A great gift would be some small food boxes, emptied and broken down, that we could reassemble upon arrival and Lucy could "shop" for. Cheap, light, and thin, can't get any easier than that!

Pretend Play

Lucy has really enjoyed playing with her dolls lately and she is starting to understand "pretend play". Here is a short video of Lucy feeding her dolls a "snick" (snack).