Swimming Lessons

Our attorney, Nora, presented all of our paperwork at the courts today, and we have been assigned to Court #5.  We don't know yet for sure if this is a "good" court, which usually just means it's a faster court.  We do know that the judge in this court celebrates every Sentencia with a party, because she sees the day as the birth of your new family.  Our papers will be presented to the judge early next week, and she then has 10 business days to review and complete our paperwork.  That means we are looking at having Sentencial in anywhere from 2-3 weeks.  We are hoping for less.  It can be hard for us to remain in this hotel day after day. 

We would love to do some sightseeing, but just don't know if it is a good idea yet.  It can be difficult for us to keep track of the 3 of the kids in our own rooms, much less wandering around in public places.  We sort of don't trust that they will listen to us yet.  They can tend to wander away from us, or sometimes get excited and run away from us, and it makes us nervous.  Combine that with the facts that the area where we are staying in Medellin is not good for walking, we have to constantly be aware of where the closest bathroom is, and we are a little bit leary of security, and we have opted to just stay put.  Next week if there are rainy days, we may head to the aquarium or maybe back to the mall.  We'll see.

While things are going well with the boys and we are seeing improvements day by day, there are still a lot of hurdles before us.  Sometimes it feels endless, but then one of the kids will do something really sweet or cute, and it gives us hope to keep going.  Still one of the biggest troubles with the kids is sibling rivalry.  We aren't quite sure about how much to intervene versus let them work things out amongst themselves.  The biggest problems there are sharing, rough-housing, and Juan Manuel bossing the little ones around.  We keep a keen eye on Christian to make sure that he isn't hurt, but he is actually one of the worst for sharing.  He sees it, he wants it.  Period.  That doesn't go over well with his brothers and fighting/crying usually ensues.

Another challenge for us is Juan Manuel's desire for attention.  He wants to be the center of attention always, whether it is positive or negative attention.  He seems to crave my attention more than Jason's, we think maybe because I can understand what he is saying better.  He wants to drive the agenda and be in control all of the time, but we are trying to reassure him that that is our job as parents, and not his concern to worry about.  Our days are falling into a pretty consistent routine, and we are always very clear about what is going to happen, and when.  But still, he will try to have things his way.  Sometimes it feels like every little thing is a battle, and sometimes we are just tired and weary from being on constant guard.  But we know that it is so important for us to be consistent and do what we say, so we always try to stick to that.

Jason went to the Exito store today (similar to WalMart/Target) for some groceries.  He was trying to ask at the deli for chicken, but couldn't remember the word pollo.  He had to flap his arms and make chicken noises to get his point across, and the people at the counter laughed and laughed at him.  When he came back with all of the bags of stuff, the kids were all over the place.  He bought a few things that we wanted to have as surprises for later, and we had a heck of a time trying to keep them hidden.  The kids were tearing into the bags and oohing and aahing and telling us all of the things that they want to eat.  For example, Juan Manuel told us he wanted for lunch:  cereal, arepa, ham, chicken, yogurt, cheese, avocado, juice, bread with jam, and grenadilla.  Yikes!  Santiago just wanted his Choco-Krispies...what a doll!  And Christian just points and says "ooh!  ooh!"

By the way, grenadilla is a fruit that they eat here, and the kids love it.  You peel back a little bit of the skin, and the inside is full of seeds that you scoop out and eat with a spoon.  Delicious!

We spent a lot of time at the pool today because it was a warm and sunny day.  Our boys have made friends with a little girl, Wendy, being adopted by a German family.  At the beginning of the week, Wendy was afraid of the pool.  But after seeing our 3 little monkeys splashing around day after day, she decided to give it a try today.  By the end of the day, she was splashing around with the boys and even putting her face in the water.  It is so much fun to see the kids play together, although we are on constant alert that our boys be gentle with the other kids.  They did great together, and I think that Santiago may have a little bit of a crush on Wendy...too cute!