The Birthday Tooth

Chloe dresses Logan for bed.

Joss' looking sassy.

So much cuteness!

Joss waiting to perform a baile tipica with her first grade class. She's trying to sign "I love you" to me in the crowd. Happy mom moment.

A different class entertaining the crowd during their acta civica assembly. This was Tristan's favorite.

Joss kickin' up her heals. She loves the enagua, or native skirt costume that she borrowed from her teacher's daughter.

Her teacher put Joss in front. Who knew Joss would be so good at traditional Costa Rican dancing? That girl got moves! The girl 3rd from the back looks terrified.

Waiting at a cafeteria. Joss keeps up with world events. She finds reading Spanish easier than English. When I tutor her in English at home, she reads "j's" like "h's" and then makes all the "h's" silent.

Pensive Landon. Probably mulling over statistical models of toucans and seed dispersal.

The Costa Rican Independence Day parade. Independence Day here is a HUGE deal and celebrated the whole month of September. Landon and I snicker a little about that, seeing how independence was "won" with a simple letter to Spain on September 15, 1821, saying something akin to "we're going to strike out on our own now, ok?" And it wasn't even written by the Ticos. They have the Guatemalans to thank for that. Don't get me wrong, I think settling things with the pen is much preferable to lifting a sword. Pura vida.

Tristan put this purple swim suit on. A lady passing by exclaimed, "Oh, que linda!" as she looked into his large brown eyes. My friend who heard this laughed and explained that he was, in fact, a boy.

We took the training wheels off of Chloe's bike! Besides the one time she fell on her face (note the fat lip), she's riding like a pro.

We're celebrating Joss' birthday today. She was so excited that she woke the other kids up at 3:30 AM. And me too, unfortunately. Her dearest birthday desire is that her wiggly front tooth will finally fall out. All the other kids in her class at school have gaps in their smiles, and she wants to be part of the club.