Boyd Bear Tracks

For vacation we went to Punta Uva, which is a beach near Panama. This is the view from our balcony. Beautiful!! Somehow we ended up with a suite (out of all the people who went on the trip--about 70). It was really nice! Jon and I were able to go snorkeling and see some interesting fish. I saw a little black one with blue spots. That was the most colorful one I saw. Fortunately I didn't see any reef sharks (I don't even know if they come to this beach). I'm usually afraid to go too far out in the ocean for fear of sharks. Chalk it up to seeing Jaws when I was little and then seeing too many Discovery channel shows on sharks :-). I did scrape myself up on the coral reef. It was really shallow in some spots and as I kicked my flippers I scraped my knees. Then, I lost a flipper, and while trying to grab it I scraped up my hand and foot. I didn't know coral was so sharp! I looked like I had a battle with a large cat and lost! But, I didn't know the extent of my injuries--that night I discovered that the whole back of my body was charred!! Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well the last night we were there.

Lucas and Eliana (and Jon for that matter) didn't burn at all. I guess I worried about them more than about myself. The kids loved the kiddie pool, but once again wouldn't step foot in the ocean. We did collect a lot of tiny shells and some dried out sea urchins (good thing I didn't brush up against one of those while I was snorkeling!). On the last day Jon dragged Lucas out in the ocean. He cried for a little bit, but pretty soon he started enjoying himself (as long as Daddy hung on to him). They had a huge cage of parakeets at the hotel and two big parrots. The kids really enjoyed looking at them. The day after we got back home again, Lucas took out his coloring book and colored the picture of parakeets. He made them rainbow colored and did a really neat job. He's doing really well with coloring in the lines!

Before we left I let the caterpillar go (so it wouldn't die). The moth still hasn't come out of the chrysalis. I hope it's not dead. There are two little spiky caterpillars on the ivy so I'm keeping my eye on them for when they make a chrysalis :-). I caught this big spider in our patio (it was under Stockings' cage!). I put a fly in the jar and after a while I couldn't find the fly so the spider must have eaten it. It almost looks like a baby tarantula (really fuzzy). So, I may lose some animals in my zoo but I keep adding others :-).

On Tuesday Ellie found the underwear I bought for her and insisted on wearing them. I guess we're beginning the potty training process. She had two accidents and I put her back in diapers. When she had the first accident Lucas asked me why I wasn't angry with her :-). I told him it's because she's learning how to use the potty and doesn't know any better yet. He knows I don't like messes :-)!

Today she wanted to wear her underwear again. She wore them for a little while, but it makes me nervous that she'll wet on something (other than the floor, which is easy to clean). At the park she saw that two boys used the bathroom by a tree so she went over there and took off her shorts and diaper. She said "I poopy" but of course she didn't need to go! I don't think she's gone in the toilet yet! Oh well, I know it will eventually happen (sigh!!). So much for being really simple with girls!

Lucas has been having a lot of headaches lately. I don't know if he's getting a cold or if it's something to do with the weather or what. I'm thinking I need to take him for his yearly checkup anyway so I'll probably ask the doctor about it. He had headaches every once in a while in the States, but they seem to have increased in number since we arrived here.

Ellie is starting to talk a lot. Her favorite phrase is "I want Mommy!" :-) She talks her version of Spanglish. She'll say "I want eso" (that) or "Agua, peez" (water please). The cutest is that now she's changed her "why?" for "por que?" She also says "mio, baby" (my baby). So you can see she's mixing the two languages together. It's pretty funny!