Our first month

We are coming up on one month in our new home in this new country. What does that life look like?

New Portuguese Friends! Like Hita, our new housekeeper. I have decided that for the rest of my life, I will give up a night out a week, a vacation a year, new clothes, to have someone clean my house. Hita charges 30 Euros ($38 USD). That is less than a night out for dinner. Soooo worth it. And Abigail loves her! I plan to do a post on housekeepers in America and why no one has them in the near future. Stay tuned.

Hydrangeas! Our garden is full of them. In fact, they grow like weeds here on the island. We have tons of beautiful flowers in our garden. JB actually did a post on this on his blog asking for people to help him identify some of the species that are foreign to him. I love all the flowers but the hydrangeas have already nestled into a special place in my heart. (This picture looks like Abigail is lying down -- when in fact she is sitting against a tile wall.) I especially like cutting one of these and putting them in a vase in the kitchen.

Baby jail! Okay, so it's not a jail, technically, but this octagon shaped baby gate (loaned to me by Kristy) has been a LIFESAVER during our first few weeks here. I have no furniture to help section off rooms and keep Abigail out of the boys stuff. This gate is used in about 50 different ways everyday. I block off parts of the room, I let the boys play cars inside it, I block exit doors (since you have to leave your doors and windows open here for a good breeze.) I don't knwo what I would do without it. I even set it up outside and put Abigail in it with toys. She sort of feels like she is in on the action with her brothers from this vantage point.

Bed sharing! The boys are currently sharing a full sized bed. We actually have them sleeping in it sideways so that they both have more room. However, we often find them sleeping right next to each other. Elijah was actually "spooning" Isaac when we snapped this picture and both boys started moving. We love to go in each night and see how they fell asleep. (You'll also notice Isaac in full pajamas and Elijah in nothing but his underwear. This is each of their styles of choice right now.)

Borrowed superheroes! With our own toys limited right now, we've taken to borrowing things from other people. Our new friend Carla "thought" she was heading to the USA for a vacation (they didn't make the rotator and thus have to try again in a week) so we borrowed a bunch of stuff from them -- including this Spiderman costume whcih Elijah has been a huge fan of.  And puzzles. Those are our's, and Elijah LOVES them ... while Isaac wants no part of them.

Dogs Days! Scrubby isin heaven here at our new house. One, because he has a free run of a huge outside as much as he wants. Two, because he sit on the second floor balcony and see the whole world. And three, because he can get away with more since he isn't right under foot all the time. Here he is sleeping on the boys Elmo couch which we put in their Pirate tent. This was a clubhouse for them, but he took it over as a bed when night came and he thought we weren't paying attention.

Emotion! There's been lots of smiles, but lots of tears too for this little guy. He seems to have had the hardest time making the adjustment here -- first with bed wetting and now with a lot of tears and passion. He's settling in and still making us laugh as much as ever, but he's definitely had some growing pains during our first few weeks here. Here he is playing with chalk (and painting his bike with it.) He has decided, adamantly, that his name is Sidge. NOT Elijah. (I plan to do a whole post on this soon!)

 Acceptance! While Elijah has seemed to be struggling to find his new normal, Isaac has seemed to settle in a bit easier. He asks lots of questions, takes most everything in stride, and has liked to stay close to our new home when he can. (Opting to hang out with Mommy at home other than go to the store with Daddy for instance.) He is excited about taking swimming lessons with our neighbor behind us ... especially because every day he does a good job means he can go get an ice cream cone at the Red Cafe one block over.Here he is below, creatively coloring his pirate sword (aka as a piece of wood) with chalk.

And that is how our life is currently turning during our first 30 days in the Azores.