Day Fourteen & Fifteen: Our 1st Weekend

For the first time we disrupted Daniel's daily routine by visiting friends and enjoying a long walk.

Saturday we spent the afternoon with a few of Claudia's college friends. Claudia's close friend Lilliana hosted and prepared a traditional Colombian soup called Ajiaco and served it with white rice and avocado slices. It was great to see and catch up with everyone and see their children.

Getting away from Casa Lanthana for the day was a great break for us. The service there is great. The employees are very nice. But it was nice to be in different surroundings.

After lunch, Daniel played with one of Claudia's friend's children. He was in heaven. For days, we've watched him eyeing the other children at Casa Lanthana wanting to play with them. But they are French families difficult to interact with and some of the children play too rough for Daniel. So we typically play in our room instead.

Daniel did as I expected. He thought he was one of the big kids. He was playing with dinosaurs and cars on the floor. He was making sound effects for the cars and giggling.

The visit also gave me an opportunity to make a quick trip to Claudia's grandfather's condo to pick up additional clothing. We were expecting our stay at Casa Lanthana to be eight days; i.e. our last day would be Tuesday June 7th. The reason we need to stay longer is because we have to have our Integration Meeting (it's a follow up from Gotcha Day) and we can't leave Casa Lanthana beforehand. Monday is a holiday so that delays our Integration meeting. ICBF set the meeting for Thursday June 9th which forced us to stay for a few extra days more than we originally thought. It also delays us moving forward with the adoption for a few days. As of now we are nearly two weeks behind schedule.

Anyway...

When we returned to Casa Lanthana, our liaison Lucia said that we can leave Casa Lanthana on Monday. Yea! We'll definitely miss the amenities and all the fantastic support from the staff. It all comes with a price though; I mean a substantial price! We're looking forward to going back to the condo where we can stay for a lot less money.

On Sunday many of the main streets in Bogota are closed for pedestrians and bicycle riders. Licensed street vendors hawk their food and services. Kids ride their bikes. Adults run, roller skate or walk. Dogs walk beside their masters. It's called "Ciclovia" and it lasts from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. every Sunday. It's a huge success based on the amount of people taking advantage of it today. I wish large cities in the United States would do this.

The weather was nice Sunday for the first time in a week. Nearly every day has been overcast and rainy. Sunday, however, had blue skies and sunshine. We ate breakfast got dressed and put Daniel in his stroller (Thanks Nana!) to enjoy the great outdoors.

We ate grilled corn and a couple of empanadas from one of the vendors. The corn had a great flavor and empanadas always have a special place in my heart. Daniel slept most of the time but woke up long enough to wolf down a graham cracker cookie and a little bit of corn.

We played with Daniel during the afternoon. Each day for a couple of hours between naps and meal times he is in great spirits and enjoys crawling around the floor playing with his toys. We tickle him, hold him in the air, let him crawl over us and a lot of other things. It's the best part of our day. His laughter and smiles are priceless. We are so glad to get him at this age.

He makes noises, but can't speak. He can pull himself up the side of the bed, but can't walk. We are thankful we'll be there for those "First-time" experiences.

God bless,