Well we are still here, waiting for a visa.  We hope to be traveling before the end of the month, but we aren't really in charge of anything at this point, so we don't know for sure.

In the mean time, we are having a bit of a summer vacation in February.  Daniel already started leave and is home, which the girls are just loving.  We are mostly living out of our suitcases, and I have time to thoughtfully pack, store, and get rid of stuff.  We are only bringing 4 suitcases with us, and I'm being very choosy about what stays behind in storage.  Things don't store easily here, between heat, bugs, and moisture.  My brother-in-law will be staying in our house, so our furniture can stay here, and everything else has been winnowed down to a couple dozen tupperware boxes.  I'm looking forward to not being tied down by stuff!

Miss M and Lu like nothing better than being outside, especially if they can help their daddy with chores.  Their daddy is looking forward to the day that he can send them out to do chores on their own....

The girls are growing and changing moment by moment.  Ms M has already outgrown the next up size in shoes that I had planned to take with us.  She's speaking in full sentences, and likes to bust out with random reminders in quiet moments, like "We don't eat soap!"  Truth.  Lu is a perpetual motion machine, and is in trouble the moment my back is turned.  Her favored method currently is dragging a chair over to reach anything out-of-bounds up high-- door latches, the top shelves of the bookcase, the back of the counter.  She is impervious to any method of discipline, which does not bode well for our future.  Both girls are able to count to 10 in English and Spanish, which sounds impressive but actually is because I count at them all the time ("I'll give you to the count of 3 to come over here!!!" ) so mostly reflects on their naughtiness :)  For two-year-olds they are pretty mellow though.  We aren't struggling with temper tantrums, knock on wood.  Crossed fingers for our upcoming looooong flights!

This summer was rough.  Normally the rains start in August, but this year they were late, which means temperatures were out of control.  An article in the paper said this September was the hottest on record for Belize since 1857.

The problem with the heat is that the girls and I just can't escape it.  Our house is so tiny, all of us in one room all day long.  By 9am it is too hot to be outside, so we bounce around the (un air-conditioned) 12X20 ft downstairs, everyone getting a little crazier each day.  Everything edible/throwable/breakable has migrated to above 3 1/2 ft and yet the house still looks like a hurricane has hit it approximately 10 minutes after the girls wake up.  Once a week or so we journey out into the world, for a playdate or a visit to see Daddy at school.  Nowhere is air-conditioned, there is no escape from the 90 degree heat, so these trips (with the in/out of the car carseat wrestling matches, the inevitable toddler faceplants, and the dreaded car seat naps) wipe me out for the rest of the day.   Coping mechanisms have been lots of iced tea (for me) and Disney movies (for them).  Ms M now knows most of the words to the songs from Annie, the Lion King, and Mary Poppins.... which actually I feel is quite an accomplishment for a 2 year old.

I've been reflecting on this summer, though, and I decided I want to remember the good things.  The funny toddler sayings, their weird little quirks.  I have a pretty poor memory, so by writing down the good things and ignoring most of the bad things (AHEM potty training) in a few years I will look back at these toddler years with happiness.  Hopefully.

So on to my babies.  Since Ms M turned 2, her language has exploded.  Every day she tries out new words and phrases, and often Daniel and I turn to each other, puzzled as to where she heard her newest expression.  Her face and expressions are so animated, that even when she is just babbling in baby talk people often ask me what she is saying, convinced maybe she is speaking some other language.  She is quite, quite certain that there are monkeys in the fridge, and points that out to us several times a day.  She belts out show tunes and nursery rhymes, and dances with total freedom.  It's a joy to watch.  She is gentle with babies, but not with her sister.  She takes my face in both hands every night, and gives me a run down of her day in baby babble, often ending with, "monkeys upstairs?"  She talks to herself in third person, saying, "Look Emma, look!,"  She still hasn't figured out the logic of names, and calls pretty much everyone (including Daniel and I) "Tio." (Spanish for uncle).  Lu she has nicknamed Isa.  She is a night owl and a morning grump.

Lu is up, awake, and smiling by 6:30 every morning.  She talks a lot, mostly about her favorite things: flowers, balls, and the cat.  The cat she loves with much physical affection, and the cat really does not reciprocate. She is an independent miss, not really affectionate, but she likes to lean against me when I am sitting on the floor.  She is always dirty, even minutes after a bath.  She eats everything (even non edible things) with gusto.  She is absolutely fearless. When she falls she never cries, just picks herself up and barrels onwards.  She likes to spin in circles until she falls down and walk around the house with her eyes closed.  When you ask for a kiss, she shuts her eyes tight, sucks in her bottom lip, and turns her face up to yours.... which looks like a beaver.  She is obsessed with giving fist bumps, and will circle the room at family gatherings giving bump after bump.  She sits on her sister whenever she gets a chance (revenge I think for all the times her sister sat on her as a baby).  She has the longest eyelashes I have ever seen on a baby.  

So that is us, at the end of the summer.  Hanging on, looking forward to rainy days and cool nights.

summer summary

Summer, mostly over, and everything a blur of hot humid days.  Here is what we are up to...

The girls are growing so fast I could probably chart the differences day by day.  Ms M went though a shoe size in a week!  They drink about a half a gallon of cow's milk a day (thank goodness we have a cow) so that could have something to do with it.  They are in the language explosion stage and I love it.  Lu is already starting on a few words at 1 1/2 years old, but Miss M is in the accelerated growth stage of language.  A few months ago she was trying out one word at a time, and now she turns to Lu and says quite clearly, "go away now."  They have 15 minute periods scattered throughout the day of actually liking each other.  The rest of the day I mostly feel like a referee for angry territorial cats.  There is a lot of shrieking in this house.

I spent quite a lot of time this summer making cheese.  We were only milking 3 goats, but that was enough for about 5 pounds of cheese a week! I did a fun cheese swap with some facebook friends in San Pedro-- I sent cheese (by plane!  I felt very sophisticated... this is what my life has become) in exchange for some organic cocoa powder and a whole pile of fabric, most of which Miss M has claimed for "pretty dresses."  Most of my cheese I sell locally, since I am actually one of the few people in the entire country who makes and sells goat cheese.   That is not something I ever expected to be known for...

We've also aquired some new creatures, namely a pair of fluffy dwarf bunnies

and a goat named Snow who was raised in a kitchen (NOT mine) and thinks she is human.

 She sleeps on our doorstep each night and faithfully follows Daniel around the farm each morning. Whenever I open the door she walks right into the house with an attitude of absolute entitlement. She's pretty gentle with the girls, but will buck them over if they bother her too much.  So basically she fits right into the toddler mafia at this house.

Caye Caulker with babies and toddlers

*pictures stolen from my sister's instagram :)

We just got back from a few days in Caye Caulker with my family, and it was so, so good.  This is my second trip to Caye Caulker with babies in tow, and I'm convinced it is the best beach in Belize for babies.  Adults, too, actually.

What makes Caye Caulker special is the area known as the split.  The water here is extremely shallow-- it starts at about 6 inches deep- and the waves are buffered by the reef that surrounds the caye.  Combine this with bathtub warm water, and you have the perfect baby swimming spot.  The girls could have stayed in the water all day.

The lee side of the island doesn't have a nice big cleared area to swim in, but you can find some relatively seaweed free spots if you look around the docks.  This side of the island is blocked from the wind, so there are virtually no waves.  Palm trees grow right to the water's edge, so I was able to sit in a shady part of the water while the girls played.

This time around I think we hit on a pretty good combo of transportation and accommodation.  Last time we took the water taxi from Belize City to the Caye, which is cheaper but takes a few hours.  It was pretty draining. This time we drove to the municipal airport, parked there, and took a literally 10 minute flight to the island.  I was afraid the babies would be scared of the loud engines-- some of the planes are very small and can be loud-- but Lu was so relaxed she fell asleep.  Miss M alternated between looking out of the window and waving to other passengers. Flying from the municipal airport is significantly cheaper than from the international airport-- about half as expensive.   So much better then wrestling a toddler on a speedboat for 45 minutes!  (My fellow Belizean blogger Laurie has Tropic Air discount codes on her flights to Belize page, email her for a 10% off code.  Maya Air also flies the same route, and is a bit cheaper.)

We stayed at Costa Maya, right near the split, and it took us about a minute to walk down to the swimming area each morning.   I wanted a place with a little kitchen and this hotel was great-- clean and quiet, with nice big modern rooms.  I would definitely stay here again.  We've stayed in nice places farther down the island, but it is such a production to haul babies and gear to the water that we hardly ended up swimming-- which rather defeats the purpose of going to the beach. This time I could leave everything in the hotel room, not worry about extra diapers or even towels, and hop back and forth easily.   There are a couple of similarly priced hotels right next to Costa Maya that we also looked at,  Barefoot Caribe (looked nice but right across from a rather noisy restaurant) and Blue Wave guest house (no kitchenette).

Next time we go I'd love to hit the slow season in September and October.  Prices are a lot cheaper and there are way less tourists.  We will be back!

I'm linking to everything for those who are interested, these are my own opinions-- no one asked me to review or is compensating me :) 

River Walk

Saturday afternoon we took a walk down to the river.  One of the workers on the farm has built a fish trap, which is a complete work of art.  The concept is that when the river level rises- as it does frequently during the rainy season- the fish are forced into the chute of the trap.  The worker has been catching fish with it for months now.  The entire thing is build without a single nail or screw.

One of the nearby resorts got permission to build a large deck near the river beach.  They bring guests for fancy picnics.  The babies love it for running around; it has a more square footage then our entire downstairs and nothing to bang into or trip over.  Perfection.