It’s been a while since we last wrote an update. I had it in my head that I would have ALL the time in the world to write here in Costa Rica. That I’d take my computer and a cup of coffee outside during Sonny’s naps and share all that we are experiencing and learning while listening to the sounds of howler monkeys and birds.

But I forgot, just like the start of school in the US, kids get sick! We’ve had ear infections, fevers for all kiddos, a bout of alleged croup, swollen bug bites (poor Sonny) and now we hear that lice is making it’s way through our school. We’ve already gotten the opportunity to check out what private doctors are like here in CR, as well as the public hospital. In short, we have been learning a lot, but there hasn’t been all that much time to write it down.

We've been here a little over 2 months, and I am so incredibly proud of everyone in our family. Wow, what a change and adjustment it has been! There have been adventures around every corner, both the good and challenging kind. I am trying to find the easiest way to share these past 2 months, and I’ve decided the easiest way is to share the top 5 things we’ve learned.

1. Shake it off!

From the first days in our jungle Airbnb, we learned to shake EVERYTHING out or off- both mentally and physically. We had a scorpion friend that lived in a hole on the outside of the boys sliding glass door to their bedroom. You better believe we NEVER opened that door during our 3 week stay at that tiny container house. The same little friend once hid under a bag I had drying over the banister, when picking the bag up he slipped out giving me quite

the heart stopping shock. We are thankful for this little creature's sacrifice to science, as Joel caught it and investigated its anatomy with the boys at the dinner table.

That was my first (but not last) close encounter with a scorpion. From then on every time I pick anything up, inside or out, I sing “shake it off” in my head. The boys and I sing it while shaking our shoes off outside before putting them on. Anything that falls to the ground for longer than a quick drop needs to be shaken off.

Just the other day, I made the big mistake of bringing a bag of stuff in from the car. That bag sat there by the front door for not ONE, but TWO days. We grabbed a couple things from it, when needed, but mainly it just sat there. I knew it had no food, I knew all the stuff in it was dry. It was a few books, toys, a towel, frisbee and a few other things collected from the car. I’m not sure how exactly I spotted it, but while picking up the living room to let Sonny crawl around, I glanced over at that bag, and the stuff that had now started to pour out of the bag, and I noticed two small pinchers sticking out of a book on the floor. I grabbed my phone to take a video as I thought there was a dead scorpion smushed in the book, but as I started to film, the scorpion decided to make his debut and crawled out of the book. My heart stopped as did my video as I realized I needed to act quick. If this scorpion made his way under the couch, or back into the bag we would be in trouble. So, out came Joel’s pair of Keens, the only footwear I could find.

. And the rest is history, except that now we really shake things out. And NOTHING ever stays on the floor.

2. Everyone LOVES Babies

With Joel and the boys in school 4 days a week, that leaves most of the shopping and gathering things for the house for me and Sonny. Our fridge is absolutely tiny, so we find ourselves at the store almost every other day. Sonny has been such a chill baby these past two months, going with the flow, and always having his head of hair plastered to his head in sweat. But also, everywhere we go, he gets ooh’d and aaahh’d over. I’ve had more conversations with people because of him than I would have ever had on my own.

It has been fun having the extra conversations with the woman behind me in the checkout line who offers to hold him as I unload my cart. Or using my limited Spanish to speak with another parent in a store, asking them where I could buy a high chair or other baby things.

Even the guys that came to repair our AC the other day, had to make a quick stop to tussle Sonny’s hair or tickle his toes each time they entered the house. Sonny seems to be loved everywhere we go, and in return, we all feel more accepted and welcomed in places.

3. All Ants Bite

The first days and weeks were extremely stressful and hard with the boys. They were excited about every bug they saw, the iguana that lived by our pool, the scorpion that lived on our porch, the centipedes that came out in hordes after rains, and the adorable tree frog that we’d see on our windows at night. Not to mention all the ants that lived both in and outside of our house. It was hard, but we had to keep telling our Midwest, bug and reptile loving boys over and over again, “All ants bite here!” “Most frogs are poisonous.” “Don’t try to pet the iguana.” “No, you can’t pick up the scorpion.” “Stop touching that centipede.”

Lots of “DON’T… DON’T.. DON’Ts” or “STOP!”, “NO!!!” where in our vocabulary those first first weeks. It was exhausting. Reflecting now on those first weeks, only a little over a month after the fact, I am filled with anxiety just thinking about it. Luckily, it only took a few fire ant bites, lots of serious talks and some videos to get it through the boy’s heads that “if you don’t know about it, don’t touch it”… “ALL ants bite!” (In fact, the notorious bullet ant is here, and its bite makes you feel like you were shot by a bullet for an entire day) and “many things here are poisonous.” They are now extremely cautious, and we no longer hear things like, “But it is my friend,” but luckily their curiosity is still intact. In fact, just the other day the two boys charged out to our porch in the evening enthralled by the flying grasshopper the size of a bat. I hid.

But now we have a new dilemma and that is our super fast and inquisitive crawling baby. Poor Sonny has had many run-ins with fire ants while crawling around our house and small spiders in his car seat. His poor little legs have little bites all over them, but the little trooper has hardly complained or fussed over them. I think Joel and I are hurting more from seeing these bites than he is. And after getting them checked out at the doctor, we were told they are okay just don’t let them get infected. So, we are doing everything we can to eliminate ants, I think that will be a whole other blog post due to the amount of time and energy I’ve put into these indestructible little pests.

4. DON’T Put off Tomorrow what you can do today (or NOW)

I saw a shirt hanging in one of the tourist shops on the main strip in Tamarindo. It read “ Why do today what you can put off for tomorrow.” This isn’t the first time I’ve heard the mentality around, "Let’s do it manana.” I imagine this kind of mentality is what brings many expats to Costa Rica. The funny thing is, I have learned quickly the importance of the opposite: don’t leave things for tomorrow.

After getting three kids 5 and under to bed in our home in the U.S., both Joel and I have got in the habit of just putting dishes in the sink for tomorrow. Or leaving the dishes in the dishwasher, saying, “Let’s just unload the dishwasher tomorrow," Or, "the laundry is done, I’ll take it out of the dryer tomorrow." Sometimes you are just too exhausted to do what you know you should do now.

But we learned quickly here, that if you leave anything in the sink, you get ants. You leave anything slightly damp, you get mildew or mold. You leave any food out of the fridge for a short period of time, you get rotten food. You leave clothes on the floor, you better be shaking them out really good because most likely a colony of ants has started to form. And any crumbs that fall to the floor (especially with 3 kids) you better be sweeping that up TODAY, right now… not manana. This is a lesson I knew I needed to learn, and I am very grateful that Costa Rica has turned into a boot camp of being cleaner and neater. Excuse me while I go and sweep up the crumbs from breakfast before the ants come.

5. 4 day work & school weeks are AWESOME!

It has not been the easiest first two months in country. We've had all kinds of adventures and challenges. But don't feel TOO bad for us, as we have been spending a lot of time at the beach. With Joel only working 4 days a week from 7:45-2:30, and the boys at his school, we've been able to spend a lot of time exploring this new country on weekends (even if that is the time to find the cheapest tires for our truck or learn how the hospitals/medical systems work). With school over at 2:30, we've even been able to slip in beach days after school and catch0 some beautiful sunsets.

The boys have learned to swim. Sonny has started crawling and pulling up on everything. We bought a surf board and Joel and I hope to get better at surfing. The boys have become quite the experts on their little boogie boards, and thankfully, they have learned to become a bit more cautious at the beach and pay attention to the tides. Sonny loves the water, sand, and the attention he gets everywhere, smiling and chortling at everyone along the way. Joel has perfected opening cold pipa's (coconuts) with a machete, and I've been enjoying taking Sonny swimming at the pool in the mornings while the boys are at school.

We then had my father visit in September, bringing lots of fun goodies from home, including our air fryer and chocolates from Trader Joe's. We look forward to more family and friend visitors in the upcoming months, as well as doing more travelling around this beautiful country ourselves. We've also decided to MOVE again, but more on that in our next post!