Our first night in our new home!

Tonight is our first night in our new apartment - what a significant evening! We spent the afternoon with a friend and her three-year old, and went to visit a dinosaur exhibit. Lots of noises, and sometimes too scary, but all was well, and everyone had a good time. Then we all went to the local mall (HUGE!!!), and rode the carousel and the train. Of course, Max was happy.

They dropped us off at our apartment, which I had spent the majority of the day preparing. Car, little David, Max and I went to the grocery store, bought a ton of stuff, and now it feels like we are home! Some furniture would help, but all in due time. We have beds and some tables and chairs. It'll be fun to set up our home from scratch.

We got a lot accomplished in the last few days: set up a local bank account (harder to do than I´d imagined), bought a car, got a cell phone, had my apartment connected to phone, internet and cable, bought TV´s and other electronics, went grocery shopping - Car and I are working off of so many lists, I can´t keep them straight.  Car also found a nanny, Laura, who will start on Sunday night. Looking forward to meeting her.

Had some wine with other school administrators and the owners of Colegio Brader, and I am so excited to join their team. They really are good people, with their heart in the right place. 

So now I'll enjoy my first night here in a new bed, a new apartment, in a new city, in a new country! WOW! 

Nighty-night, everyone!!

Week one and two

Here are a few observations of my first week and a half:
1. I have yet to meet a person who is unkind! Example: I was in the check out line of the equivalent of Best Buy, and struggling with Spanish (surprised??) when the guy next to me turns and says in perfect English: "May I help translate??"
2. I am taking Spanish lessons with a friend of Carolyn's. It's harder than I thought! My brain is tired after our sessions.
3. When a car needs a new battery, the battery place comes to your house and does it right there.
4. A personal trainer here costs about $15 per hour. :)
5. When you buy something from "best buy", you can't leave the store until they have unpacked whatever you bought and shown it to you for verification. Then, they pack it all up again, and load it in your car.
6. Everyone here is on a blackberry because texting is free with other blackberry users. So, no one emails anymore. Everyone texts! No iPhones... Ugh!! but I'm learning.

More later!!

Our new adventure: PANAMA

So much has happened in the last year. Max is thriving as a three- year old, growing like a weed, asking "why" 250 times a day, and exploring his, ahem, independent side. The major news is that we have moved ... To Panama.

As some of you might remember, my best friend, Carolyn and her family live in Panama. A great opportunity to work at a school in Panama came up, and I was ready for a new adventure both professionally and personally. So, I rented my house, sold my car, and bought two one-way tickets to Panama City.

I'll be working as a "Directora" at Colegio Brader, preschool through 12 th grade, about 1200 students. I've been hired to be the Director of Strategic Planning, and will work with the school to help them chart out their next few years while also helping them cement their systems and procedures. It will be very exciting for sure.

Max and I have a big 3- bedroom apartment in an area of Panama City called San Francisco, right on th end of Calle 50 and will hopefully move in August 1. In the meantime, we are staying at Carolyn's place where Max is enjoying being the youngest sibling!!

He will go to a small preschool,starting August 1. The school is mostly in Spanish but there are some English speaking teachers there as well who will hopefully ease his transition. In march 2012, once he's 4, Max will be at Colegio Brader with me,which will be great.

I am trying get us all set up here for the next few days, and of ocurse, would be at a complete loss if it werent for my friend Carolyn. She has been amazing in supporting us every step of the way, and trying to figure out all th details of starting up in a new and foreign city. But I can already imagine that it won't be foreign for long.

I am trying to learn Spanish which is very challenging at this moment. I had 6 years in school and some of it is comng back. Hopefully it will kick in soon!!!

I'll try to post more soon. Stay tuned!!

The Summer of Camping Adventures

We've been doing a lot of car camping lately and Max has been hanging with some of his older buddies.  Mason and Griffin have been showing him some boy tricks!! Here are some pics of our camping adventures this summer.
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MMmmmmmm... S'Mores!

Max goes hiking!

Max and I went up to Mirror Lake a few weeks ago. Here is how it went... :)
Hike #1
Hike #2

Some pictures, too.

Max's Surgery #3!

At the end of June, Max had his third surgery. This was to fix the fistula in his soft palate, and was a second attempt to the failed surgery of last April.  Max walked into the hospital like a champ. He was on the cell phone and was dragging his slepp over suitcase like a little business man. He walked into the surgery unit, and cuddled up to the nurses right away, as if he's known them all his life. Someone asked if he knew them all.  No, he didn't!

 

I ended up getting to be with him for the anesthesiology part in the surgery room, which was so great, because I could then picture exactly where he was, and could help him go to sleep, which he did peacefully in my arms. Max had an amazing recovery - he was eating ice cream three hours after the surgery. We got to go home the next day (after a sleepless night). He did everything he was supposed to, so no need to hang out there anymore. My mom was able to come for the week after the surgery, ready to help with anything that we needed. Since Max was doing so well, it ended up being a lovely stay-cation for us, and we were able to enjoy the week together.

So much has happened!

It's been fun and busy. Max continues to love the outdoors. He has developed a love of carousels, has deepend his fixation with trains, has gone camping and has hiked! But best of all was his surgery in the last week of June, which, we all believe, has fixed his soft palate. He recovered beautifully this time, and all is still sealed up up there. He has even learned how to suck on a straw, something he couldn't do before. In addition, he receives speech therapy once a week and loves his speech therapist, Kalli! In fact, it's been really fun to observe how he's made connections with so many people. He loves to talk about his Tante Heidi and Griffin, Jemae, Rayy and Mason, his Uncle Hans, Grossmama and Grosspapa, Aunt Anne, Lala, and so many other people. Not a day goes by when he doesn't mention them at least once. He is surrounded by nothing but LOOOOOVVE! Enjoy the pics!