We reached a big milestone of our tour here in Cotonou — we’re no longer the newest people at post!

Not only did we get a new embassy couple three weeks ago, but they happened to be assigned to a house just down the street from us, so we finally know some neighbors. And as if two new faces weren’t enough, another new officer arrived just this past week too.

The guy that just arrived is in the shell-shocked “it’s so cool to finally be here and see all this new stuff, and I have so much adrenaline to keep me running” phase. I remember that phase fondly — it’s what allowed us to cram our first weekend full of more activities than we managed in the subsequent month. It was before we realized how overwhelming our jobs would be, how overwhelming combining them with a newborn would be, and how overwhelming mixing all that with navigating a new culture would be. The others, the couple who have been here three weeks now, are likely in the “what in the world have we gotten ourselves into” phase. I hope for their sake they don’t linger in that phase as long as we did.

In other news, related only in so much as it also pertains to something else that’s new:

Flynn can crawl! Well, “crawl” might be a bit generous. Andy prefers the word “creep” to describe his sometimes up on all fours but sometimes snakelike slithering movement across the room. But still, if he sees something he wants, he no longer needs our help to get to it. For better (toys) or worse (remote controls, cell phones, power cords, Abbey’s tail…).