It's been a while

It's been a busy few weeks here, filled with welcoming a new nanny (yay!!), buying some furniture for the living room (cha-ching$$), and basically having a busy week with school and life in general. It's been good.  Here are a few pictures and observations about our life in Panama.


My morning commute

It's beautiful in its own way. My morning commute follows the Coredor Sur, right along the water. If you look out further (not in picture), you'd be able to see a dozen or so huge tankers waiting to go through the Panama Canal. The wait time to go through is 24-48 hours, so the ships just sit there for a while. As you can imagine, there is a huge pollution problem and you would never want to swim in this water, but it's beautiful anyway.  The high rises that you see in the distance are a neighborhood of Panama called Costa del Este, and a very new suburb of Panama City.


It's hot!!!

This was one afternoon last week - 97°F. But we are entering the rainy season, with October and November being very wet around here. Streets aren't always constructed with run-off in mind, so there is a lot of flooding. Let's see how my little car does in big puddles!

Shower time at school

Max goes to El Jardin de la Cuadra from 8 until 5:00 M, W, F.  T and Th  we have speech therapy, so I pick him up at 2:45 in order to make our session by 3:30. Lots of traffic issues already at that time... On his full days, he gets a shower in the afternoon.  Isn't that amazing?? Obviously with the weather being so hot, showering the kids in the afternoon helps cool everyone down and freshens everyone up! Everyday, he brings a "lonchera" (lunchbox) for his morning snack, then they feed him a lunch that they prepare, he takes a nap in his PJ's, he gets a shower and changes clothes again.  I love it because we don't need to take another shower (unless he gets super sweaty again), and he's not all grungy in his clothes. 


Morning meeting at Brader

Every morning, all 3-12th graders gather in the open court yard at Colegio Brader. This picture is of the younger kids gathering, because the older ones had exams all week this week.  It's a big part of the school, with the flag raising, the national anthem, and a prayer (Catholic school).




A swimmer needs energy!!  PB and J to the rescue!

Max loves to swim, and is not afraid of the water.  If he's wearing his swimmies and his goggles, he is unstoppable - diving under by hanging on, swimming in the pool alone, jumping in, etc.  I have to really be careful that he doesn't get too comfortable, and forgets his swimmies - that's happened once.  I think it was more scary for mommy than it was for Max. "Why do I need air to breathe, Momma?"

I am learning more and more about Max.  The other day we attended a book fair at this huge convention center right by our house. It was very crowded with lots of noise and activity. Sure enough, they had a Children's Area, with a jumpy house, some stages, and other children's activities set up. As we walk into this area, a line of children participating in a dance was snaking its way through the convention center. A grown-up extends a hand to Max and he takes it, and joins this dance line. With the crowd and the hustle/bustle of this area, Max and I are separated for a good 10 minutes. He is dancing, I am watching from the sides. He can't see me, but I can see him. This kid did not panic (like I think I would have, if a stranger who didn't speak my native language would have grabbed my hand and pulled me into an activity) and I can see him participating and trying to do the line dance correctly. Then, he gathered with the rest of the participants and got a little prize at the end. It was truly amazing to see him so confident and so comfortable engaging in something that was unfamiliar. Made me one proud momma! :)

We are at the end of our second trimester, and now have a week-long vacation. We are all going to the Beach House in Contadora.  Aaaaaahhhh. Will update from there.