2010!

First a little catch up of what we have been up to so far in the month of January.

New Year's Eve was relatively uneventful. We spent evening at my friend/neighbor, Jesica's house. Her husband, Rafa, cooked some delicious buffalo wings. They turned out amazingly good especially considering that buffalo wings are not popular in Costa Rica and also because it was his first time ever making them. At 11:45pm we all went in the street to set off some fireworks. Vincent had been looking forward to the "bombetas" for some time, but I think that night he realized that he enjoys them more from a distance. The really high pitched ones scared him and he started screaming at the top of his lungs in a terrified voice "Mamá! Casa! Quiero ir a casa! Ya! Allá!!!" He lasted that night until about 12:30am.

Last year on 1/8/09, was when Costa Rica was rocked by the 6.2 earthquake in Chinchona which did tons of damage to roads, buildings etc and killed 28 people. The Turrialba Volcano has been in the news this January, and has been spewing ashes and gases from its crater. Luckily, the area around the Turrialba Volcano is sparsely populated, so they evacuated a handful of residents of that area, but no one was injured. It has since calmed down easing the fears of a major eruption.

Vincent is almost fully potty trained! I'm so excited that I can mark diapers off my grocery list! And I am also thrilled that I will no longer have to change his diapers. It was getting kind of embarrassing changing his diaper in public since he's so big.

I take absolutely no credit for Vincent being potty trained. He is on "summer vacation" right now, but his school kept the daycare open to help out the working parents. There aren't many kids enrolled in the daycare summer program, so I figured maybe the teachers would like to help me out. Considering they have lots more practice at potty training toddlers then I do and Vincent seems to listen better to other people. The teachers said they'd be happy to help out, so last week I sent him to school in his big boy undies and lots of extra clothes in his backpack. He had only one accident each day and for the first time ever peed in the potty! Thursday afternoon when he got home he finally peed in the potty at home! I did the happy potty dance that all other parents know how to do.

Looks like we will be heading to Atlanta in 10 days with NO DIAPERS!

25th & 26th!

Vincent went to bed on the 24th at 11:30pm. Since everyone who has fireworks and that's pretty much everyone in San Jose sets them off at midnight, I am very suprised that he did not wake up. Santa came and left lots of presents for Vincent. He must have been a very good boy to get so much stuff!

After Santa came!

I woke up first and was up for about an hour waiting in the living room for Vincent to wake up so I could catch his face on camera. I got impatient and actually woke him up saying "Don't you want to get up and see if Santa came and left you presents?" He said "Si, mama." I ran back to the living room before he managed to get out of bed. This might explain the reason his expression doesn't seem to register the fact that there is a pile of toys under the tree that weren't there the night before.

He went right over to the train table! A big hit!

Sammy seemed to thing that the presents were all his.

Vincent seems to think that Santa is going to come every day now. In fact, every toy commercial that he sees he says "Deme toy Mama, deme toy please." For a month, my response was "You will have to see if Santa brings it to you." Now I say "Christmas is over, you'll have to wait until your birthday." He says, "y Santa?"

Lucy bought Vincent a mini kiddie pool. Perfect for just him! He loves playing with water and had a great time on Saturday morning, filling it and emptying it.. repeat. Lucky for me, water is cheap in Costa Rica!

The train table has kept him occupied for about an hour straight which for a toddler is amazing!

December in Costa Rica

December in Costa Rica is beautiful considering I'm a big fan of warm weather and sunny days. Vincent and I took advantage of the great climate a week ago and met up with my good friend, Chantal, and one of Vincent's future girlfriends, Alix and we all headed to the park.

The kids who have frequent playdates,  but hadn't seen each other in over a month since Chantal was in France visiting her family, had an awesome time playing.

No fear of heights.

What friends are for.

Lighting of the tree at the Children's Hospital

Every year, usually the first Thursday in December, they have a performance and light the big tree in front of the Children's hospital downtown San Jose. In the 9 years I have been here, I have never gone, but this year was invited by my neighbor/friend, Jesica, to go with them and their son, Jair, who's just 3 months older then Vincent.

We left the house at 4:30 and drove 10 miles to downtown which took almost an hour! Got to love rush hour. We parked at the fire station since Jesica's husband is a firefighter. Vincent got to sit in a fire truck, but believe it or not, he completely flipped out. My camera is acting up these days and I couldn't snap a pic in time before he started to try climb down himself. 

We walked probably about 10 blocks down Avenida Central to get to the Hospital. Let me tell you, that pushing a stroller in the crowds of people trying to get home from work was not an easy task. Vincent loved every minute of my crazy "driving" and was squealing with delight. Not to mention his constant commentaries about the xmas lights in stores. "Vea Mamá! Vea! Mas luces Mamá! Allá vea!!! Vea Santa!!!" Yep my kid speaks Spanish.

We made it the hospital with about 5 minutes until 6pm which is when they supposedly light the tree, but like a lot of things in this country... it didn't happen until about 6:10.

It was really touching to see all the kids staying in the hospital watching from the windows.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Ok, maybe not since it's 72 outside but it's still December.

Yesterday after running errands, I picked Vincent up from school and we headed off to get the Christmas tree. He was not in the best of moods considering he had just fallen asleep before I picked him up. However I was determined to get a tree.

Originally I was planning on going to an actual xmas tree farm to cut one down but laziness won and we just went to a little place in downtown Guadalupe.

You can tell he is not at all excited about purchasing a Christmas tree.

Once home, I tried to get him interested in helping me decorate the tree but didn't have much luck. He was more interested in riding his tricycle.

For once I said "smile!" and he did!

Checking out the "One Fish, Two Fish..." ornament.

Vinnie's latest fun

Earlier this month, Vincent finally started pedaling his tricycle. What a wonderful milestone. He is very excited about this new skill. I allow him to ride his trike indoors so now that he pedals, he is much more efficient at following me from room to room.

One afternoon (after pajama day at school) Vincent wanted to play in this storage bin that I had bought that day. I guess it was a comfortable place to snooze because as when I went to see what he was up to since he wasn't making any noise this is what I found.

In Costa Rica, the school year is from Feb. to Dec. This is because 'summer' here is from Dec. to May. Summer meaning the months that it doesn't rain. I imagine it'd be no fun to be on vacation from school during the raining season. With the end of the school year, comes school pictures!! Vincent's first school pic! I am pretty amazed that he cooperated (looking at the camera and smiling) since when my Mom and I take him to get his pics taken he has a complete meltdown.

Baths

Every once in awhile, Vincent will refuse to bathe in the evenings. I'll skip a day or two, but by day three he's in desperate need of a bath. He loves playing with the umbrella outside in the rain, so it occurred to me to let him play with it in the bath with the shower on. He thought it was a fantastic idea, so for the next week he bathed with the umbrella!

Also, worth mentioning, is that my child for the first time in 2 years and 7 months actually got his head wet in the shower voluntary. It was an amazing moment that has yet to repeat itself.