I'm Back, Biatch!

Yes, I'm back. Back to reality and freezing temperatures and a painful 1:2 adult:child ratio. 15 days in El Salvador truly spoiled all of us. After 2 days there, I was almost in tears at the thought of coming home - sorry Mom!! Life down there is just so much easier. No cooking or cleaning or laundry. All the beans and rice a pregnant girl could want. Beautiful weather. But when the 15 days were up, most of me was ready to come home. I missed Lola. I missed my family. I missed speaking 100% in English. And now that we are back, I realize it's not so bad. We all fell right back into our lovely routine as if we had never left and things just feel right.

I have so much to write about the trip and plenty of pictures to go with it. My new camera is great and I will be able to upload all my photos tonight when I install all the software. Without any pictures for this post, I will just share with some quick highlights/interesting things from our vacation:

• Collette learned to walk. I know I said she has been taking steps but by Christmas, she was walking full time. Sebastian is just now showing signs that he is ready, taking more steps by himself to get to his favorite toys.
• In Spanish, they have a special word for "to hold" when you are talking about holding a baby/person. I think it's because they do it so often. Seriously, it's amazing Collette learned to walk considering how much time she spent in someone's arms.
• I found out that kids in El Salvador start preschool (they call it "kinder") at about 18 months old, some even younger! And its 5 days a week, 8-12!! I won't even tell you how little it costs. Lucky bastards.
• In El Salvador, it seems that they don't know what ear infections are. I was quite worried Collette had an ear infection because she had a very bad runny nose, fever and was just so cranky - very unlike her. When I mentioned my hypothesis to Billy, he thought it was his fault because she dunked her head underwater in the bath while he was washing her. When I mentioned it to someone else, they looked at me strangely and asked when Collette had gone swimming. The only ear infection they are familiar with is "swimmers ear", not the inner ear infection I was referring to. Weird, right?
• The beach was a complete disaster. Well, the sand, anyway. How do people take their kids to the beach at this age? The sand-eating and sand-in-the-eyes caused a complete meltdown for poor Sebastian. Collette didn't seemed to mind as she just kept eating the sand, non-stop. She also eats dirt. Is it considered pica when it's a baby doing it?
• My kids are totally bilingual!! Well, you know, in receptive language. They're not talking just yet. But they understand so much in both languages, I was so amazed. I think it really helped to have so many people around them talking and interacting. Another reason I was scared to come home - they are all alone here.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and will probably go back at that time each year. Which means next year we will have 2 two-year olds and a 5 month old. Yikes!