Stir Crazy

Today we felt like we were going stir crazy.  It was a beautiful morning, but kind of muddy since it had rained quite hard yesterday.  We headed down to the pool at about noon, and in rolled the storm clouds.  Shoot!  It takes us a good half hour to get everyone in their swimming suits, covered in sunscreen, and out the door.  We were barely there at all when we had to turn around and head back for the room.

We knew that we needed to get out of our room, so we took a taxi to the Tesoro mall.  We walked around and around.  We didn't buy anything, and we didn't even go in any of the shops since the kids touch EVERYTHING, and they usually have dirty hands (How does that happen, by the way??  We are always chasing after them with wet wipes, but to no avail!)  We let the kids ride on the carousel in the center of the mall, and we have hardly ever seen them smile so big.

We had dinner at a restaurant in the mall, and it was tough.  We have a hard time knowing exactly what it is that we are ordering, and half of the time the kids don't like what we get.  Juan Manuel ate like a champ, but Christian and Santiago hardly touched their food.  When we got back to the hotel they wanted bananas, cereal, and bread with jam.  Go figure. 

Part of our frustration with staying in the hotel is our meal times.  I think I mentioned it before, but the hotel has an awesome breakfast buffet that is included in the price of the room.  They have a ton of fruits, juices, hot and cold foods.  It is great, and we can find something that all of the kids like.  But for lunch and dinner we have to either eat in our room or go out to a restaurant.  Going out to eat can be tough since service here is pretty slow, and the kids have a tough time sitting still for such a long time.  So we often opt to eat in our room.  Between things we have picked up at the grocery store and ordering room service, we manage to do ok, but it is tough.  Actually, we have ordered so much room service that the hotel has started sending us complimentary gifts...a fruit basket this afternoon, cookies this evening!

The hardest part about eating in our room is keeping things clean.  Each of the kids has a blanket, and we always spread the blankets on the floor and eat picnic-style.  Even so, the carpet and sofa have gotten spilled on more times than I care to admit.  It isn't so bad when the kids are eating a sandwich, banana, or other finger-foods.  When they try to eat rice on the floor though, we end up with rice everywhere...mashed into the kids' socks, mashed into their blankets, mashed into the carpet.  It's especially hard when Christian wants to eat everything exactly the same as the older 2 boys.  If they are having yogurt, he wants yogurt.  He ends up wearing half of it, and we have gotten to the point where we just strip Christian down and let him eat stuff like that in his bib and diaper.  At least that way we can just wash him off when he is done. 

Today we let Christian skip his nap.  It has been such a struggle, and it seems to be getting harder, not better, so we thought we'd see what happened if we let it go for today.  Surprisingly, he seemed to do just fine.  At dinner time when he was in his high chair, his eyes were pretty heavy and he was starting to nod off.  When we got back to the hotel though, he was running around screaming and giggling like he usually does in the evening. 

Santi had a tough morning again.  He can be so sweet and loving, but when he doesn't get exactly what he wants, he is extremely sulky.  Half of the time, we don't even know why he is mad or what happened.  He will just lay down on the floor wherever we are and make a pouty face to try and get our attention.  We have gotten to the point where we just let him lay there, give him the option to walk by himself or be carried by one of us, and go from there.  But when he is not melting down, he is so cute you just want to squeeze him and protect him.

Juan Manuel continues to chatter constantly.  After a while, it can actually start to make us feel kind of crazy because there is NEVER a moment of silence.  He talks and talks and talks some more.  He says "mama" literally about every 30 seconds all day long.  We try to be very patient with him, but I must admit that it is a challenge for us.  We are trying to teach him that it is important to sometimes let mommy and daddy talk to each other, or to just let us rest for a few minutes.  He wants us to play or color with him all the time, and feels very sad if we can't stop whatever we are doing and give him full attention.  We are working on it, but I think it is especially challenging for us when the weather is rainy and we are cooped up in our room for consecutive days.  But he had no time outs again today, and he is getting better and better about listening to us.

We are hoping for sunny weather tomorrow so that we can have a day at the pool.  We need to get out of this room!!!