Peek-a-Boo!

A Morning Swim

Yesterday - a nice morning at the swimming pool.

Gwendolyn instructed her grandfather in wading techniques for the kiddie pool.

And taught Taisie how to properly lick the chlorine off a beach volleyball.

And this great shot - Gwendolyn looking nonchalantly into the distance, unaware of the vigilance of her two grandparents, both reaching out to steady her should any danger arise.

On the way home, we found this beautiful polka-dotted beetle. It reminds me of Mom's painted furniture.

Culantro Rojo

Gamboa just started getting an organic food drop - every other weekend one of these baskets arrives for us from a local co-op called "Culantro Rojo." The basket is full of fruits and vegetables, some familiar, some not. Theo has been cooking for us all week (which has been amazing!) and is helping us figure out great ways to uses these fruits and vegetables.

Gwendolyn Gets a Pool

Just as dry season ends, we finally pulled ourselves together and bought Gwendolyn a wading pool. Which she loves!

Luckily - with the wet season upon us - the pool also seems to withstand the rain.

Arrival!

Late Friday something very exciting happened, but Gwendolyn didn't realize it until she woke up Saturday morning. Her grandparents arrived from Rhode Island!

They brought with them a huge suitcase full of cool things, including (in pieces) this beautiful bat table Theo painted. Gwendolyn immediately decided it was for her.

Their arrival coincided with what really seems like the start of the rainy season (we've had a couple false starts in the past week or two). Warm sunny mornings, followed by huge downpours and thunderstorms in the afternoons. By early evening, the rain usually stops enough to go for walk.

Following the evening walk, Gwendolyn personally oversees the removal of everyone's shoes - laces are a challenge, they're a new concept for her.

Then dinner - and if we're awake enough - a movie. To sum it up in Wren's own words: "Mom - happy! Dad - happy! Toby - happy! Taisie - happy! Wren - happy!"

Toucan Rescue

Yesterday I came home from work to hear there was a toucan in the laundry basket below our house. The gardener found it in our backyard as it was being attacked by another toucan. It's left wing seemed broken, so after trying to feed it (very enthusiastic response to watermelon and cantaloupe, no to bread and dog food), we took it to the vet at Summit Zoo. They will set the wing and care for him, and then (we hope) let him go when he recovers.

The strange end to a very busy day. As our friend Ioana said, where else but Gamboa would you come home to a toucan in your laundry basket?

Angela

I've been meaning to write a post about Angela for a while. Until just recently, every Tue afternoon and Sat morning, Gwendolyn would have the wonderful company of our great next door neighbor, Angela.

They would spend this time reading...

...drawing...

...playing with Wren's animals...

...and racing around the neighborhood.

Angela and her family just headed back to Washington for the summer. We miss them and hope they return soon!

Surprise Visit

About a week or so ago, I opened my inbox to find a message from a friend I hadn't seen in years. I first met Matt in Hawaii, then by coincidence we were in the same graduate program in Austin. What a surprise to hear he was on a short visit to the STRI, he was writing me from Panama City, and would be in Gamboa the next day. Hurray to the small world of biology!

Easter Sunday

We arrived back in Panama just in time for Easter. Which might have passed without our notice if it hadn't been for Angela, our great next door neighbor and frequent babysitter of Gwendolyn. She organized an Easter egg hunt for the kids on our block.

In addition to a great egg hunt, just the right level of difficulty for the under 3 set, Angela and her family provided homemade cinnamon rolls and hot coffee, which was just right for the still-waking-up set.

And yes, those are the same ducks that were so tiny a few weeks ago! (And no, none of the eggs were duck eggs.)

Trip to Houston

We got a much cheaper flight out of Houston, and David's dad was extremely sweet and offered to drive us down. This also meant just one flight instead of two. And a pretty short one - just under 4 hours. And it also gave us the wonderful chance to see Jillian again, and for Gwendolyn to meet her Houston cousins.

Gwendolyn made very quick work of nearly destroying Jillian's studio.

Jillian took this really well. But here is Gwendolyn the Destroyer, making a quick exit.

And here she is, meeting her cousins Zach and Alex for the first time. Sharon's son Scott and his wife Julie moved to Houston about a year ago. Zach is the transformer, Alex is the one drawing with great concentration.

Wonderful Austin

There were so many great parts of our trip to Austin. Here are a few highlights, and here's hoping we come back soon!

South Congress. The Capitol Building in the distance. (And a strange new skyscraper.) The Austin Motel. A random guitar player crossing the street.

Dipping our feet into Barton Springs.

A walk by Town Lake with Karin. Beet/carrot/ginger juice from the Daily Juice (a staple during my pregnancy with Wren) .

Dinner at Mike's. Seeing Kristina, George, Ellen, Merlin, Paula, Mike, Ray & Emma.

Dinner at Darien & Justin's. Cuddling with sweet, squirmy Ash and Oliver.

Outfitting ourselves at REI.

And finally, on our way out of town, a trip to Black's Barbeque in Lockhart. I love pure Texan-ness of this last shot, deer heads, Texas-shaped clock, American flag, fluorescent lighting, father and daughter.

Storage

One of our major goals during this visit to Austin was paring down the stuff in our storage units. We have been paying a lot of money each month to store stuff we're not sure we really need. All carefully sorted before we left Austin, when we thought we'd pay to ship a container full of things down to Panama.

Gwendolyn was great during this process. She ran up and down the halls, wheeled the dolly around, sang songs, did little dances, and watched quite a bit of Finding Nemo - many times. David and his dad were also great - with unbelievable skill, they squished the contents of 3 storage units into 2! We mailed 20 boxes to Panama, took a few things to Goodwill, and fit the rest into long term storage.

Grandpa John - Again!

Just over a week after we said goodbye to him in Panama, we met John in Austin. On his birthday - April 1. Here's birthday breakfast at Star Seeds Cafe, one of our favorite Austin haunts (and his favorite too).

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!