Morning Meltdowns

Mornings seem to be a more difficult time of the day for our kids, and we can't exactly seem to figure out why.  Actually, the time between when the kids wake up and when we go to breakfast usually isn't too bad, and our routine is very nice.  After the kids first wake up, we usually play quietly or hold them in our laps until it is time to get cleaned up and dressed, brush their teeth, etc.  The 2 hours after breakfast are pretty reliably ugly though.  Usually during those 2 hours, Juan Manuel winds up, and Santi and Christian both melt down.  Today, Santiago and Christian decided to have simultaneous melt-downs in the bathroom.  Both kids laying on the floor, wailing.  Why?  We can't even remember for sure, but I think it was because they were mad about sharing the soap, or something pretty harmless along those lines.  Santi's melt-down continued on and off for the next 2 hours until he chucked a toy car at Juan Manuel and hit him in the forehead.  Yikes!  Time-out/in for Santi.  But, then all of a sudden, it is like someone flips a switch and things go back to being ok again.  We have come to sort of expect the turmoil, and I think that we are less frazzled when addressing the tantrums.  On the up-side, Juan Manuel didn't have even one single time-out/in today - Hooray!!

Today we went to the mass that they have here in the hotel.  There were a lot of people there!!  It was a little bit tough, because we didn't understand much of what was being said, but the order of the mass was familiar, and the kids really liked it.  We were told that they attended church every Sunday with their foster family, so we are very happy to continue that with them.  They asked if we could go to mass every day, but they only hold service here at the hotel on Sundays, so we will wait until next week.

Some funny things that happened today... 

• This morning, when we were all getting ready for church, Christian found an old french fry on the floor, or somewhere.  We can tell that we are really starting to relax our standards, because we actually let him eat it, and just laughed about it! 
• We found a dead dried-up lizzard in the bull ring/volleyball pit, and showed it to the kids.  They were fascinated, and carried it around by the tail, poked it with a stick, and played with it until they dismembered it. 
• The kids found a sheet of stickers that we had hidden (because they kept fighting over it).  Juan Manuel went to get their photo album and somehow knocked the stickers down in the process - DRAT!!  Oh well, we had to fess up at that point, and the kids actually played with the stickers and shared much better than they did even a week ago.
• The kids were playing with their teddybears, and pretending that the bears were them.  They were telling the bears the rules for how to behave in the restaurant (no shouting, no running, speak to each other with respect), giving the bears time outs/ins, and making the bears apoligize to each other after they jumped on each other's heads, etc.

Today we said goodbye to 2 of the German families that we have befriended during our time here.  One family adopted a little boy, Luiz Filipe, who is in need of heart surgery.  Their Sentencia came much quicker than normal in order to expedite his medical procedures.  We have watched little Luiz come out of his shell in the last 2 weeks, and he went from being very frightened and shell-shocked to walking around the hotel saying "Hola-hola-hola-hola-hola-hola-hola!" to everyone he meets.  Our little amiga, Wendy, and her family leave for Bogota tomorrow.  The kids all played together in the pool for the last time today, and I explained to the older boys that Wendy's family will be going to Bogota and then home to Germany.  Juan Manuel and Santiago asked me when we would be going to Bogota, and when we would go to the United States.  I did my best to explain to them, and they seemed to make the connection (they told me that they want to build snowmen when we go to the United States).  We will really miss both of these families, as it has been very helpful to talk to other families who are in a similar boat, and so much fun for our kids to play together. 

This afternoon/evening it has been raining very hard here.  After talking to everyone back in Minnesota, we are really appreciating the beautiful weather here.  If it rains tomorrow, we are planning to head back to the Tesoro mall to get out of the hotel for a little while.  There is a carousel in the mall that Juan Manuel is bursting at the seams to try out. 

That's about all from here today.  Thanks again to everyone for the emails and comments.  The advice and support are so appreciated and helpful!!