Unpacked and Ready To Go

It's been just over a week and we are finally getting out of a mountain of boxes. (I will say that it is less painful to unpack than to pack.) We could have finished sooner but mentally, I just needed a break from figuring out where to put things and realizing that I have more junk than I need.

Last weekend Gusi was outside quite a bit with the gardener, but this weekend he was inside "helping" us. Ok, so he bowled a few rounds with my decorative candles, but he generally did quite well. All that was old seems new again, so his toys have become new sources of enjoyment. He's even taken to sleeping with his stuffed tiger, fish and monkey. The tiger is affectionately called a "meow meow" and no matter what I say to dissuade him that it's a "grr grr", he insists that it's a cat, so a cat he is.

His old/new books are also a welcome relief for both of us. For Gusi it means new stories, for me it means no more Tintin for a while. It is so violent! The characters hit, spit, fight, get drunk, smoke and do all other sorts of bad behavior. Not appropriate for a toddler, not at all. And yet, Gusi loved seeing the vignettes and following the storyline so if he didn't get Tintin as a bedtime book, I got an earful. I would try to skip over the really bad parts but still, he learned how to say "don't hit" (in English) because that was my moral to Tintin's story. So, I'm much happier now that we've got our Baby Loves Jazz series. Miles the Crocodile and Ella Elephant don't kidnap, poison or steal, thank goodness--they scat and be-bop.

All that is really left is a bit of organizing here and there and hanging up our art and pictures. We have a lot more room here in Senegal than we did in the US so the trick is using all of this space so that it shows off our pieces in the best way possible.

Oh, and I realized that one of the benefits of living in a tropical climate is that my son's clothes last a bit longer. Last year I remember that even though his clothes may have still fit him, the weather had changed meaning I had to get all new clothes anyway. Here, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. He's still wearing short sleeved shirts and shorts, though occasionally he'll wear long pants. The shoes are a different story. Shoes here take a beating. They're washed a lot more, they're left outside in the hot sun, they're used for rock climbing at the beach--shoes just don't last as long here. I've ordered Gusi his first pair of online shoes. His feet have grown so I'm guessing at the shoe size but the internet is the only place I can get sandals in the middle of winter, so lucky me that I have internet. What would I do without it? Suffer probably.