Boys

I have boys. I have three boys, to be exact. And they’re all awesome.

Malachi’s doing well in first grade. He’s taking swimming and Tae Kwon Do for his after school activities, and he’s liking them. He was learning the back stroke in swimming, and said it was hard. I told him that it was the hardest one I learned in my swimming lessons too. His reading and writing are coming along quite well.  He’s been making friends, and has no trouble finding someone to spend time with. Even our next door neighbors love playing with him. This is a nice change from the hardships of the neighborhood relationships in Costa Rica. Malachi has been seizure free for 21 months. I basically am just waiting for the next one to happen. However, he’s around the age where his first neurologist said he could grow out of them. So maybe we’ve left the seizures behind. We’ll have to see.

Simon is almost three. He’s growing, and developing quite well. He loves his brothers very much and wants to spend time with them as much as possible. He has a few friends and one whose house he knows so well that every time we pass it he gets quite excited. He specifically asks to play with that friend, and another often. He has requested an airplane cake for his birthday party, so that’s the theme we’re going with this year.

Coen had his eighteen month well check a month late (but that beats Malachi, who still hasn’t had his well check yet – oops). He’s already 26 lbs and 36 inches long! John suspects he knows 25-30 words, but I think it’s a higher number than that. He’s running around the house either after a brother or away from one. He plays with all the little toys, sending me into fits of fear that he’s going to choke and die – so far, nothing has been swallowed. How we’ve pulled that off, I don’t know.

Today I took all three of them and their yaya to the Mind Museum in Global City (also known as Fort Bonifacio, or BGC (Bonifacio Global City)). They had a great time running around and touching anything they could get their hands on. However, it seems like they’re all like me. They go through museums quickly. I tried a few times reading to Malachi, but it wasn’t tolerated much. John’s better at it than I am.

It’s (almost) that time again

Is it really? Is it really (almost) that time, already?

We’ve only been here (almost) six months, but yes it is. We’re on our second assignment, so it’s only two years long. Which means that this summer we’ll be planning our lives around our next move.

It’s time to research posts, because this summer…it’s bidding time.

This will be a new experience for us. John will be bidding on a mid-level assignment. In consular, it’s management. Depending on the size of the Post we go to it could be Visa (or American Citizen Services) Chief. It could also be deputy chief.

John’s been looking at the available jobs for a little while. There’s a position open in Santiago, Chile. There’s one open in Kyiv, Ukraine (which is where some good friends of our are going next). There’s a position in Ho Chi Minh, Vietman. There are a bunch more Asian posts that he’s interested in.

So we’re asking ourselves questions like…do we want to do a long language training in the U.S. (yes)? Do we want to speak Spanish again (yes)? Would we want to do an Unaccompanied Tour and be separated for a year (no, not really)?

After we think about those things, we have to consider what posts are available for Malachi’s class 2 clearance (for occasional Epilepsy). Which posts are good for me working (because that’s my requirement). Which posts have good schools. Where we can afford to have house help.

There are so many things to consider.

But for now, it’s down to research. We have to figure out what jobs are available in places where Malachi can go, and research the heck out of them. Once our above questions are answered we can have a good idea of what jobs to bid for. Then the real nail biting and unfortunate amount of waiting begins.