Shark Teeth

Chloe on Halloween

The kids dancing at a Halloween party.

Joss and Logan, ready for a walk.

Scary Joss

Shark teeth! Joss got her two bottom center teeth pulled 3 weeks ago because her permanent teeth were coming in behind her baby teeth. Now I have to take her back tomorrow to pull two more baby teeth to make room for the permanent teeth to move forward. Her jaw just isn’t big enough for all of them. She’s excited that the “ratón” (which means “mouse” and is the Tico version of the tooth fairy) will be putting money under her pillow again.

More of Halloween

Logan the Kitchen Elf, looking for mischief.

It is the rainy season now, and it’s taking it seriously. It rains for most of the day, which makes it hard to dry the clothes out on the line. We end up just putting them away semi-damp and wearing them again before they mold. I gave a bunch of clothes away last week because of this. Well, also because a stranger asked me for them. She stopped me in the park and explained that, as we were good friends, she felt like she could ask me for any children’s clothing I had. I said of course, and she could come by the next day. Then we had to go through the embarrassment of asking each other (such good friends!) our names.

Landon has been sick for more than 4 weeks with bronchitis. I’ve given him different medications, including antibiotics when he developed fever and chills from a secondary infection, and he’s been resting in bed a lot. He received a blessing from a missionary at church today, so he’ll probably get back to work soon. He’s gotten a lot of advice from the locals, including rubbing hot alcohol all over his back and chest. We ignored that one.

For Thanksgiving we had a traditional American meal, which tasted delicious. We went the WHOLE DAY without eating beans, cilantro, or plantains!

Landon caught his last toucan this month! He now has 20 toucans with transmitters on them and 10 volunteers following them.

We bought tickets home last week, which makes our return more concrete to me. We’ll be in California in the middle of May! I know I’ll miss many things about Costa Rica, including the friendly people and the yummy produce. But I’m also excited to see my family again and enjoy the conveniences of having a car and a Wal-Mart around the corner.

And, last of all, I will repost from my Facebook page an incident that I will now bury in a graveyard of memories that I hope will never resurface: True terror is having a cockroach fall off your toilet paper and onto your bare leg, and then being unable to run because your pants are down around your ankles. I might have PTSD.