Snowbound Herpetologist

I'm going to take advantage of my literal 10 minutes of kid free dead time to write the fastest update that I can!  Last night, Panama declared a "cuarentena total," meaning that we are not allowed to leave our house except for a two hour window as designated by our passport numbers that can only be used for "groceries and emergencies" (apparently, jogging does not count as an emergency).  Our kids, who are already "spirited" (when I'm feeling generous in my description of them) will literally run us both into the ground (forget science!) if not carefully managed.  Maya's school keeps trying to send us work, but I'd say we've managed ~50% of it, and with a lot of bribes. These kids literally cannot sit inside a house for 6 weeks, maybe longer. However, we knew it was coming, and that it might last a really long time.  So, we did something totally extravagant but I bet key to our salvation, in the end - we rented a second house (larger

Well, hello, there!  It is has been a very, very long while since I've posted - many things have changed.  Annika just had her third birthday, Maya is 6 and in kindergarten.  I just successfully went through my third year review as an Assistant Professor and have been renewed until I go up for tenure.  Husband is on sabbatical, so we moved the entire family to Panama for 6 months for a lovely, work/collaboration-filled sabbatical with some of the top thinkers in the world, complete with the cutest little school for the girls touting opportunities for immersive Spanish.  There is even an absolutely amazing swimming pool (like 5 star, at the hotel that receives a zillion European and American tourists) that looks like it jumped out of a postcard and for which we just bought a $500 annual membership! Cue screeching tire sounds. We have been in Panama since January 10th and were just now really getting into a groove with both work and kids (although I had to fly back to the North C