living the high life

Our apartment is on the 11th floor, and in many ways, I am definitely "living the high life" of convenience here. Of course, in a perfect world, I would not have to move far away from home just to have a baby. But, if I do have to move, I am so grateful I can enjoy some fun new things about our temporary home.

So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite things -

* A playground in our apartment complex!! The girls are in "slide-heaven". And as if the playground itself wasn't enough to satisfy, there's a KFC with indoor play area that's a 5 minute walk away. More slides! It's almost too good to be true!

* The elevator! If this were a Top Ten List, the elevator would definitely be my #1! Oh man, what a difference this makes. 15 steps from our front door I've got 24 hour access to an elevator that scoots me, my belly, my girls, my stroller, my groceries, my whatever, up and down those flights of stairs with ease.

* The neighborhood grocery store is big and amazing. About four minutes from my building... instant access to all kinds of things that are "pretty inaccessible" in our hometown. I am LOVING it!

* Fancy yogurt! Small confession: I like when my yogurt tastes more like a dessert than a health food. Have you ever eaten Yoplait Whips Key Lime Pie flavored yogurt??? Oh wow, it's amazing. And it's technically a 'breakfast food' :) Well, there's no Yoplait Whips here, but they do have fruit flavored yogurt with large yummy chunks of real fruit. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

* The house helper here is such a blessing. She's super familiar with the apartment, knows all the ins and outs of the neighborhood, and makes the girls giggle :) I'm also learning all kinds of local lingo from her- we're in the same country, but there is a lot of local dialect, so I'm learning the northern way to say "zucchini" and "iron clothes" and "cilantro".

* Friends!! I'm not sure I realized how lonely I was back home without my buddy and neighbor and fellow-mom Erin Ashley. Wow - it's great to be around some other foreign moms again :) Thank goodness Erin Ashley is busy packing her family's bags and getting ready to return to this side of the globe - they'll be home in just a few weeks and I can't wait to get back home too so we can be living "mom life" together again!

* The LJ baby catalog. You will not believe this - but there is a store here that has a 200 page catalog of baby goodies. And they deliver. For free. I think one of a mother's primary love languages must be "home delivery". Especially in a country with no minivan, no carseats, no drive-thru pharmacy, no child-seat-equipped shopping carts, etc. Let's say it's 9pm and you realize you are almost out of diapers. No problem. Call the LJ catalog folks. Your diapers at your doorstep, the following day! Not to mention that they carry all kinds of items I can't even buy back home - like rice cereal (which I plan to stock up on before heading down south).

I'm sure there's more! Of course, I miss home. I miss our neighborhood. I miss my own house, my own bed, my own kitchen, my own routine. But let's face it. I'm hardly in "enduring" or "persevering" mode here. It's good stuff. So we're settling in and enjoying the wait for our baby boy!