The boys...hard at work!



Our flying fish....







Whether at the beach, the neighbors pool, or the kiddie pool in our yard- we are surrounded by water. For this reason, we started giving Kemper swimming lessons. In the past few months, she has progressed from a frog-like double leg swim, to a fully-extended alternating leg paddle. She can jump in from standing on the wall, submerge, and kick her way to the surface to reach us- without drinking any water. We are teaching her to hold onto the wall independently, and to call for us before she releases her grasp.

Granted, we have a long way to go, and we won't be leaving our 15 month old unsupervised near any water source in the near future- but it makes us feel good knowing that we are starting to enable her- we are introducing her to skills that will not only make her more confident and athletic, but may also save her life. (Plus...it is a lot of fun!)

We are indulging in Costa Rican culture this week....so far we have visited a local soccer match and hosted a tamale-making party.

The soccer match was held in the Esperanza field. Three games were scheduled...we stayed for the first two. (Note- dog walking across the playing field!)


In this picture you can barely make out that the goalie is being carried off the field (into the crowd just a few feet from the net). The primary goalie from the Esperanza team was taken off due to a leg injury. The back up goalie was carried off the field on the very next play due to a broken pinkie (yes, he was carried off of the field!) This called an end to the first game....the team ran out of goalies!


We were all getting a little tired from the heat, and bored by the sloppy soccer playing. I didn't pay much attention during the second game...but these kids playing in front of us sure were interesting to watch!



A few days later, we invited our friend Tammy and her son Oliver over for some tamale making. We were instructed, and assisted by our friends Mirian and her daugher Maria Jose, Mirian's sister Miriana, and her daughter Mirianita.



Kemper and Oliver get along famously...


Mirian and Tammy cutting down 'hoja's'...






Oliver helping me carry firewood...


Tammy and Miriana hard at work...


...while Kemper steals the ingredients!


Pots full of goodness...



And at last we are rewarded! All of the hard work sure is worth it!

This past week has been an inevitable one for a parent- our child's first injuries. Since returning from the states last Wednesday, Kemper has been put through the gambit: On Wednesday she stepped on a dead bee- I pulled a nice sized stinger out of her foot. On Friday she climbed out of her crib (for the first time) and landed forehead first on the concrete floor. Thankfully she only had a little scrape from the incident. And yesterday, my poor little girl was stung by a scorpion on the palm of her left hand.

Here is a picture of the offending parties. They got what was coming to them. The 100 colone piece is roughly the size of a quarter.


From these three injuries, she only cried for the fall. We have one tough kid! Note the small red bruise between the bubbles....

Our little model...


In a way, we are happy that this week has finally come. We discovered that our daughter is neither allergic to bees nor scorpions, and that she won't break when she takes a hard fall. We learned that the local remedy for insect stings is sugar- ingest a half a teaspoon of raw sugar- it numbs (or distracts) from the pain.

Hopefully the old adage that bad things happen in sets of three holds true for us. We don't want to see our little girl hurt again!