The month of August kept us busy as summer vacation wound down for the kids, and we spent a lot of time at home waiting out the rains. Despite our best efforts to remain healthy, we all succumbed to strep throat towards the end of the month that proved very difficult to shake. No fun!

However there have also been some fun and interesting things around town to keep us busy. New arrivals have come to Dhaka over the past couple months, so we've had a chance to get to know some new people, and it's been particularly nice that some of them have kids the same ages as ours.

Little things let us know that we've been in Dhaka for a while now - already a year and a half! For one, both Crystal and Adham now feel reasonably comfortable driving ourselves around through the crazy traffic of the few square miles of the city that we spend 99% of our time in. This is a big change from a year ago, when it felt challenging to even drive a few blocks to the school or a friend's house. For another, we now know that the rainy season will eventually end, the temperatures will cool off, and we'll get a couple comfortable months at the end of the year.

Tasman has just begun pre-K4 at the American School, and he loves his new teacher, Ms. Victoria. Atlas too has just begun attending a playgroup in the morning, although it's still a bit difficult to face separation when he gets dropped off. The staff there is very good though, and there are lots of fun activities for him to participate in, so we're pleased that he has so far seemed quite happy there.