Day 2

Another exhausting day.  Whew!  The kids slept all the way through the night last night.  We put them to bed at 7:30, and they didn't wake up until 6:30...not one peep all night long.  These kids go to bed so easily.  They don't fuss, they don't whine, they don't pop out of bed multiple times, they just play quietly in bed for a little bit and then they crash.  They say a prayer together in Spanish before they go to sleep, then there are kisses and "good-nights" for everybody.  It may have something to do with the fact that they don't stop moving from the time they get up till the time they go to sleep at night.  Christian does have about a 2 hr nap each day (we were advised of this by ICBF), but he gets very very nervous when he is separated from his brothers.  If we can get him to fall sound asleep and then put him in the crib, it is ok.  Otherwise, it's a big problem.

So, for the most part, the kids are very good.  They are a ton of fun, they are very happy, energetic, smart kids.  They are eating like champs.  They are very affectionate towards Jason and I, and towards each other.  Their biggest challenge so far has been sibling rivalry and sharing, especially with Jaun Manuel.  Juan Manuel can be very rough with his brothers and very possessive of ALL of the toys.  We have had to be swift and firm, but always loving, with Juan Manuel regarding sharing.  Santiago becomes very sad when Juan Manuel won't share with him, and will try to hide under the bed or behind the couch.  Juan Manuel had a tantrum today and needed a "time-in"...the first for any of the kids.  I was the one to sit with him, and it gives me a whole new appreciation for parenting and people who are good at it.  But, after that episode, Juan Manuel was much better about sharing for the rest of the day.  He can still be very rough with his brothers, who are quite a bit smaller than him, so we need to stay on top of that as well. 

Christian is a sweet little baby who is content to play by himself or his brothers, but you can tell he is on the cusp of his "terrible twos".  He is fiercely independent and wants to do everything by himself, hence most of the time the front of his shirt is covered with water, or juice, or whatever.  We brought sippy cups for all of the boys, which are awesome, (thanks for the advice, Steve and Julie!) but the boys couldn't get the hang of the cups with the rubber seals in them, because they had to suck too hard, so we took the rubber seals out.  The cups still work pretty well, but Christian usually misses his mouth half the time, or drinks out of the wrong side, and water flows out of the air hole and down his shirt.  Oh well, it's just water, right?  The bib with the little catch-tray at the bottom is awesome too.  When we are in the room and the kids are having snacky-finger food stuff to eat, we just load the bib tray up with some for Christian, and then he can feed himself and doesn't get mad at us for trying.

Santiago is showing the most sadness of all of the boys.  Like I said above, there are times when he will sort of withdraw from everybody and go off by himself and hide his head in his arms.  It just breaks my heart for him.  Whenever we see it, we go and give him a super-big hug and tell him how much we love him.  Santiago is a daredevil!  He will jump onto the monkey-bars and just hang there, even though his arms are not long enough to swing across.  We have to watch him like a hawk, or we turn around, and there he is just hanging there, and we don't know for how long!  In the pool, he is like a fish.  Today he learned how to hold his breath and put his head under the water.  Once he figured it out, he was dunking his head down every couple of minutes.  And then guess who tried to imitate him...yes, Christian even dunked his face in the water a couple of times to make sure that his big brother didn't out-do him.

The boys LOVE the photo album that we had sent down to them last November.  They want to look at it again and again, and they know everybody in it.  They know their abuelos, their tias and tios.  They got to skype with my mom and my sister Vicki today, and they thought it was awesome.  Tonight they were asking to talk to Abuelo, but we couldn't get through before it was time for bed.

The afternoon here was very rainy, but at about dinner time the rain stopped, so we thought we would go out and play futbol or frisbee.  The kids were disgusted with the mud...I don't know if I've ever heard of that with boys!  They were showing us every little speck of mud that they got on their shoes or pants.  So playing in the park didn't last too long today.

Jason had to venture out to the Exito store today.  The room we are staying in doesn't have a kitchen, or a kitchenette, or even a microwave, but does have a refrigerator.  With 3 hungry boys, we desperately needed to get some food for our room.  Papa came home with lots of fruit, peanut butter (which the kids hated!), and lots of good miscellaneous stuff.  We are having a hard time telling what the kids like or don't like to eat.  They will tell us that they do or don't like something, and then they end up eating the things they said they didn't like, and leaving the things they said they did like.  Who knows?  We aren't too worried about it, and figure that until we get back home, we are just kind of stuck with whatever we have access to, which isn't much. 

Again, we are exhausted!  We are hoping for sunnier weather tomorrow so we can get the kids out running around to burn off some of their energy.  Thank you so much to people who have left emails or messages for us, we can't say how much it helps to hear words of encouragement.  Hasta manana!