Every morning when Sosi wakes up she makes her daddy take her outside so she can grab a banana off the banana bunch that Alexis hung in the yard. I think i gave birth to a monkey…she is up to at least 2 bananas a day.

…well the clouds parted for a little bit today and for the better part of the morning and early afternoon we all got to enjoy some good old sunshine and warm weather. Sophie, Mommy and I all hung out outside for a little while and Maritza made us Eggs, Gallo Pinto (rice, pico de gallo and black beans) with fried plantains – yum yum. Then, to top it off she made us papaya smoothies. We are pretty lucky. She also cleans up all of the plates, etc., and does the dishes after we eat.

Later in the afternoon the storm clouds rolled in accompanying by booming thunder, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time. Sophie finished taking her nap – or should I say was rudely awoken by a little barking psycho white dog that resides with us at this house – and we packed up and headed over to the San Ramon “mall” for a some window shopping. Inside was an H&M, a surf shop with a bunch of American brands (albeit expensive), Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, and a huge grocery store.

Our new mission here is to find chicken broth. For some reason it’s nowhere to be found at any of the three grocery stores we’ve been to so far. As it turns out, there are a bunch of things we eat that has chicken broth in it. I emailed my friend Pablo so hopefully he’ll give us the low-down on where the goods are.

Other than this, Sophie stayed up a little later tonight. She ate a great vegetable dinner that Momma made (broccoli w/ cheese, brussel sprouts, and Momma’s special potato recipe). After dinner she watched a bunch of YouTube and then when she still wasn’t tired she came outside to take the dogs out with me. When a loud truck drove by while we were out there she pointed and said, “Car” – she is so smart and is doing new things and saying new words and sounds every day. Ah – how could I have forgotten, she also learned tonight how to blow on her arm and make farting noises. So for about 10 minutes she sat on the couch with me making fart noises and laughing – Michelle got it on video I think.

Anyhoodle, that’s about it for today! I’m starting to get tired and am looking forward to going upstairs and crawling in bed. I’m looking out the window at lights of a far off town set on a distant hill with a thunderstorm looming over it. You can’t tell there is a thunderstorm there except for every now and then when a big bolt of lightning illuminates the silhouette of a gigantic cloud. If it comes over here it will be perfect to go to bed to. The sound of the rain on the roof along with the rumble of thunder is the perfect white noise, and there are also no tornados to worry about in San Ramon.

A few funny things Sophie did today:
-wanted Mommy to hold her in pouring rain so she could freak out and make Sophie face (she flails her arms in excitement and makes a silent scream face)
-she’s eaten 5 or 6 bananas in the last two days and was a little constipated today so she was walking around the bedroom and then intermittently lying on the floor in different places sticking her butt in the air and grunting while trying to push a poo out
-we went out to lunch and there was a Christmas tree in the cafe (a place called Cafe Aroma) and she kept trying to make a break for it so she could grab the ornaments off of it
-outside the cafe a girl walked by with an jce cream cone and Sophie reached up to her in passing hoping she would hand it to her
-Sophie ate her own pistachio ice cream cone by herself (at an ice cream place called Pop) – she doesn’t understand how to angle it when eating it though so everytime she takes a bite she smashes the whole cone into her face and gets ice cream all over herself
-when Sophie pooped today and Mommy showed her the diaper she said DOO DOO
-Sophie learned how to hang queso palmito (the Costa Rican equivalent of string cheese) from her mouth and then shake her head so that a long string of cheese flies all around – she then walked around the kitchen swinging her head around like a crazy person doing her new cheese swinging trick

Every time Sophie wears her “I Love Dad” pajamas it makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world.

She does so much more for me than I can ever do for her.

Mommy had to work to put the Sophie monster down tonight but they’re both out cold now and I’m about to join them! Michelle watched Sophie a bunch today so I could work.

I am so lucky to get to be alive with these two girls.

Maritza (our housekeeper) and her husband Alexis (our guard and gardener) are just the sweetest couple. They both love Sophie so much and are just such great people. We will def. miss them when we move from this house. I wish they could come with us. Alexis is constantly bringing Sophie little gifts and odd things he finds in nature, and Maritza can def. throw down in the kitchen! Sophie will lean in for both of them to hold her and it is just so cute to watch. We are getting better with our Spanish so communicating is getting easier by the day. Below are some things that Alexis brought for Sophie today and some dishes Maritza cooked/prepared for us. I will have to get a pic of her breakfast she makes in the morning. She even warms up the milk for my coffee…love…wondering why i never thought to do that! Alexis will go into the trails and chop off flowers for Sophie. His presents aren’t Target or Babies r Us style but Sophie just loves them…lol.

Fresh Pico de Gallo with limes from the lime tree!

Fresh veggie soup - Sophie inhaled this!

Homemade Papaya Frostie

An old wasp nest (vacant obviously) that Alexis found for Sophie

Another close up of the wasp nest...boys boys.

A trinket made by Indians that Alexis brought over as a gift for Sophie

Today we all went to breakfast at Villa Blanca. It was a dreary day weather wise but we ended up having a lot of fun. Villa Blanca is a beautiful resort close to us that we will def. be visiting weekly while here in San Ramon. The breakfast was awesome and we met the manager who offered us the private movie theater whenever we want to come watch a movie and told us we are always welcome to just come use the facilities. The movie theater is part of the resort and we can just call and schedule a movie to watch after our meal and take Soph to her own private movie! After breakfast today we went to the “game room” and Soph played around with some Jenga blocks and sat on the pool table putting the balls in the pockets. Once she was worn out we got back in the car and she was asleep before we even turned off the road from Villa Blanca. Unfortunately she missed out on the herd of cows blocking the road to leave b/c she would have loved to show off her new trick when we saw them. She just learned “Moooo”. We say, Sophie what does the cow say, and then the lil nugget says “Moo”. We’re working on “tweet tweet” for the bird. Anyway, after she zonked we drove to a town called Grecia to just look around and then headed back to San Ramon and stopped at her fave cafe (Cafe Delicias) for a “sticky treat” that she absolutely loves. Fun for her, not so fun for the sticky mess mommy always has to clean up-lol. Some pics from the day are below :).

Eating breakfast at Villa Blanca

Playing on the pool table

Just the girls

Some pool table Yoga

Goodnight Irene

traffic here is much diff than Chicago...moooo (ps- note the top of our Costa Rican flag on our windshield- fml)

Sticky treat!

Yes mommy has to clean the goo from each almond sliver that falls off this sticky treat and onto the car seat, sosi's clothes, her hair, her hands...everything! Why can't my daughter like something normal like a cookie?

…so I installed a program on my phone that lets me update the blog. Here goes!

We’ve been here a couple of weeks now and are settling in. Michelle made our fav. spaghetti recipe last night and it was really nice to have a meal like we used to have back home in Chicago.

We went to a new grocery store in a place called Bajo Zuniga yesterday and got tons of veggies and some fruit for less than $20. It was also fresh and came from some local organic farmers.

The weather was pretty crappy when we first got here but there have been some awesome days full of sunshine since then. The rainy season is coming to an end – they say it usually lasts until the middle of November.

It makes us really happy seeing Sophie outside playing in the sun. She has a bunch of toys (we packed an entire suitcase) yet she loves going outside, examining plants and playing with the cats and dogs we are renting along with her house (they came with it).

Sophie had so much fun today that she tried to zonk out a 6:30PM. We gave her a shower early and she and Michelle watched Sesame Street in YouTube for a bit.

Now she’s out like a light…

No pics to attach but thought i would note Will’s first ride on the back of a moped here in San Ramon. He held on to Alexis and they rode off into the horizon to fetch some eggs. He came back with a bunch of eggs in a plastic bag and a ball of cheese called Queso Palmito. After that Maritza made us all breakfast and then Sophie, Betsy and the boys went on a hike. Alexis was carrying a machete and chopping flowers for Sophie to hold. They hiked in the mountain and Sophie came back holding some big exotic flower from Alexis. She also did her geek out face and cracked him up as she got excited when the wind was blowing. I walked outside to find Sophie, Betsy, Will and Alexis (holding a giant machete) walking back. My how things have changed from Whipple street- lol. Supposedly picking up our new car today. Will was supposed to go at 8:30am with Pablo to the lawyers office…it is now 11:36am here…yup Costa Rica time (Will and i fit right in- we’re never late here).