Who does Charlie look like?

I haven’t written in a while. I have been struggling with not wanting to write only about Charlie but in the same breath he is what takes up our time these days…

We are back visiting in the states. We arrived on May 16^th. The past 2 weeks have been fast paced and jammed packed with seeing some very important loved ones.

Something that has been a topic of conversation is “who does Charlie look like…Katie or Brandon?” We really aren’t sure but I see more of myself in him. I also really see my brother Charlie.

Brandon at a few weeks old.

Katie at 1 week old.

Katie holding Charlie Kussard at 6 weeks old.

Charlie Kussard at 9 months old.

Charlie Kukowski at 4 months old. 

I will write more about our adventures in Minnesota/Wisconsin once we are settled back home in Guatemala.

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

Life around our house

It is getting pretty quiet around Lake Atitlan. Most of the seasonal visitors have left and tourist season is tapering off.  They finally finished the work in the yard at our house. While they were doing the work their was between 8 and 12 men in the yard. The work included taking down a very large avocado tree that was dead, building a massive stonewall with rocks that they wheeled down in wheel barrels from the neighbors yard, building an open air viewing patio down by the lake, and planting grass by hand that they had pulled from the neighbors yard.  All of this started the day after Charlie was born.  It is nice to have peace in the yard again!

We moved Charlie to his own room last night. He is still getting up in the middle of the night to eat but we are hoping that having his own space may help him with his sleep. It can get kind of loud in our room with the dogs coming and going. He is 13 weeks now! He weighed in at 15.5 pounds at his doctors appointment on 4/1/16.

I finally started my Spanish language lessons this week. I feel very dumb. Most days I can’t even remember my name because I am so tired! I have no idea how I am going to retain a new language but Ingrid my teacher is very proud of me for trying!

We are heading to Minnesota on May 16^th for a 2-week visit. We are really looking forward to this and have a very full schedule already (not trying to sound important...just want to see everyone that we can!). I am sure we are not going to feel like 2 weeks is enough.

When we return to the lake a few of our friends that we spend a lot of time with will be gone so life will feel much different. Below is us spending some time with some of these friends at the Casa del Mundo hot tub! This was the day that we left Charlie with a baby sitter for the first time…I cried as we walked away and when we returned home. He did fine!

While we will return to less friends our good friend Jennie and her boyfriend Andy are coming down on June 15^th and will be staying 2 weeks. We are going to make the trek to Belize together! We are looking forward to getting Charlie another stamp in his passport!

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

Kukowski Family Vacation: Akumal Mexico

Brandon’s parents are amazingly generous. They take the whole family on a vacation every year. It is really great because we are all spread out and don’t see each other that often. It is nice to be able to spend quality time together.  Charlie really loved all of the attention he received from his Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.

This year it worked really well for us because we needed to renew our visas. We are in Guatemala on a 90-day tourist visa. It is easy to renew. You just need to leave the country every 90 days. We were 41 days over on our visa renewal. Because of this we had to pay a fine at the airport. The fine was the equivalent of $55.00 per person.  Charlie received his first passport stamp…the first of many for him we hope!

The beach was great and so was the company. We were lucky in that my dad, Grandma, and other family were on vacation about an hour away so they came for a day to meet Charlie. We had a great time reconnecting.

It also so happened that our friends Ryan and Megan from Minnesota and Nick and Delia from Mexico were also on vacation and were staying about a 2 minute walk down the beach. We met Nick and Delia’s new daughter Alex and also got to see how big Megan and Ryan’s daughter had gotten since August.

Our trip home was very long. Brandon wanted to take the direct flight from Guatemala City to Cancun but that meant being away longer and I didn’t really want to leave the dogs that long. So instead we had a layover in Mexico City. This was fine on the way there. It was really cool to see Mexico City from the air.  It is massive!! But our flight out of Cancun was delayed 2 hours making us miss our connecting flight out of Mexico City.

We ended up having a 5-hour layover in Mexico City. We were lucky in that the airline did upgrade us to first class (I think having a baby helped this to happen) and so we were able to hang in the first class lounge. We wanted to make the 3-hour trip home on Saturday but we didn’t end up getting to Guatemala City until midnight.  We stayed in the city and headed home the next morning. To go 400 miles from Guatemala City to Cancun took us FOREVER! I will listen to Brandon next time!

We arrived home only to say goodbye to our friends Yash and Zoe.  We only met them 5 weeks ago but we became very close spending much time with them. We had pizza night, patio happy hours, Rummikub, brunch club, and morning coffee after Yash’s swims. Jackson and Kirby really took a liking to Yash and Zoe as well. Zoe was woken up on more than one occasion to find Kirby licking her feet or Jackson eating out of their compost in their kitchen. We hope London treats you well and look forward to seeing you both again!!

We are settling back in to life on the lake. Our conversations now are “will we stay longer or will we return to Minnesota”.  Who really knows what will happen at this point…this is very exciting and anxiety provoking as well.  The beautiful thing is that we don’t really have to make any decisions just yet and we are enjoying our simple life and watching Charlie grow!

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

Charlie Update

It doesn't feel that long ago that we were talking to my large stomach trying to convince the inhabiter to join us and now he is two months old. 

Brandon talking to Charlie during our wait

This little person is growing rapidly. 

One month old

Two months old

He is very alert and is tracking. It is so much fun to watch him follow us with his eyes. He laughs in his sleep, lets us know exactly when he has pooped with his extremely loud grunting noises that are very cute, and loves his bath time. 

He has outgrown his suitcase sleep spot and has moved to his travel crib. We are developing a bedtime routine that includes baby massage. Charlie loves his feet being massaged.  He now will sleep 6 hours at a time. 

Sleeping in his suitcase

Now in his travel crib

He will allow Brandon to feed him with the bottle if he is hungry enough but he definitely prefers breastfeeding.  

He is extremely flexible. We are all looking forward to his first trip on an airplane to meet his aunts, uncles, cousins on Brandon’s side, Grandpa Kussard, and Great Grandma Kussard in Mexico next week.  We also are very lucky that our friends Nick, Delia, Alex, Megan, Ryan, and Harper will be staying about 1 mile from us in Mexico so we will get to hang with them too! 

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie

randon, and Charlie

More visitors.

One of Brandon’s old co-workers, Kareem, made the trip down to Guatemala with is girlfriend Marta. They spent some time at the lake and we were lucky enough that they wanted to hang out with us.  They also brought down some gifts from another one of Brandon’s old co-workers Kate…thank you Kate!

We went to the Chichicastenango Market (ChiChi) together. This is the largest market in Guatemala. It is located about an hour away from Lake Atitlan. Kareem and Marta had a list of loved ones that they wanted to purchase gifts for and so they were on a mission. I was hoping to find one beautiful huipil.

Church steps where flowers are sold

Kareem and Marta are master negotiators (We have moved on…you should too) and they were so much fun to watch in action. They made a fabulous team. I think I did an all right job negotiating for my purchases and I think they are beautiful!  As I was negotiating Brandon and Charlie were being surrounded by a group of women who were very interested in Charlie. They thought he was beautiful and also were concerned that he was cold. I can’t tell you how many times we explain to a local that we are from a very cold place and that this is not cold to us…our baby is not cold he is sweating!

The huipil’s that I purchased are from the village of Nahuala. Each village has their own patterns that set them apart and the women take great pride in their craft. 

The next day Brandon and I hike to Kareem and Marta’s hotel to meet them for breakfast. They stayed at the hotel that Brandon and I had hike to while I was pregnant for exercise.  It was my first time making it all of the way back. We had a very nice breakfast and then had a photo session with Marta’s selfie stick. This was my first time with a selfie stick…

Oh, we also posed for our VERY FIRST family photo as well.  Photo credit to Marta.

Like my hair?! It was so very windy!

We can’t wait to hang with Marta and Kareem when we are home in May.

XOXO,

Katie, Brandon, and Charlie