No Kiss for You!

Today was another "typical" day at the hotel for us.  No changes in the routine, which was good. 

Every day when we go down for breakfast, the kids chant "jugo de mora" (blackberry juice, which they whip up in the kitchen and it comes with about 4" of foam on top).  The staff, trying to be nice, bring us big glasses of jugo de mora, with even bigger straws.  While they are just trying to give the kids a treat, it often ends up backfiring on us.  One day they accidentally brought 4 glasses of juice.  Almost every day, we have a juice mini-catastrophe.  Juan Manuel couldn't understand that when you drink using a straw, you don't tip the glass up, and has ended up pouring the juice all down the front of his shirt.  Santi has gotten the hang of drinking out of a straw, but Jason and I are always on "high-alert" for juice glasses being knocked over, or straws getting caught in the kids sleeves.  It would actually be better for us if they didn't bring any jugo de mora, but we don't know how to tell them that without offending them.  Plus, if the kids hear us say it, they will probably scream bloody murder.  So, we are stuck with jugo de mora.

Today, while we were playing in the park, a morning dove was hopping around near us.  Christian got more and more agitated as the bird got closer, and eventually ran away from it screaming - he is afraid of birds!!  I felt kind of bad laughing about it, but I couldn't help it, it was so cute.

Today Christian finally took a nap...and we are paying for it now.  He fell asleep at about 4:00, and we decided to let him sleep for about an hour (since he hasn't had a nap in 4 or 5 days).  He has been squirmy like a little bug all night since he woke up, and we can hear him in the other room talking baby babble while the other 2 try to sleep.  Hopefully he won't keep the other kids up, but then again, if he does, maybe they will all sleep later in the morning - woo hoo!!!

During Christian's siesta, the older 2 boys finally got to play Memory again.  I played a couple of rounds with them, then they decided to play some more by themselves.  Juan Manuel was making up all of his own rules, and would flip over 5 or 6 cards in one turn.  Santi got mad and didn't want to play any more, so he came and layed with me on the couch and snuggled.  We are kind of surprised at how affectionate he is.  Our paperwork had described him as being kind of emotionally reserved, and we have definitely not found that to be the case.  He is a little bit shy, but he loves to be hugged and kissed, and will sit in our laps, or ask to be carried.  I would almost say that he is the most outwardly affectionate of all of the kids, and it is so much fun to give him lots of love.

We are still working through behavior issues every day with Juan Manuel.  Today he got 4 X's on his chart, and somehow it ended up that Jason was the one implementing almost all of his time-outs.  It seems like he alternates with which one of us he is going to test.  A few days ago, it was me.  Today, Jason was the lucky winner.  Tonight he said the funniest thing though.  We were looking at pictures on the computer, and we came across a picture of someone that he didn't like the looks of.  He shook his finger in front of the computer and said "I don't want to give THAT PERSON a kiss".  Ha!!  It took me a minute or more to process what he had just said, but when I told it to Jason and we both laughed our heads off, Juan Manuel kept saying "what's so funny?  what are you talking about?"  YOU, you funny little goof-ball!!  Then, when we told them, Santi also shook his finger and said "I don't want to give that person a kiss either!"  Crazy kids!

The kids are loving their bath time more and more, but we have to be careful because it can get them all whipped up, they are having so much fun.  We have put a time limit on how long they can each spend in the bath, otherwise I think they would spend all day and all night in there.  It is really cute to see them play though and just get to be kids.

The kids love to swim with Jason in the deep part of the pool, and fight about taking turns with him.  They are getting braver and braver with swimming, which means that we have to keep a very vigilant eye on them.  They do not know how to swim on their own yet, and they also can be so spontaneous and such dare-devils...a dangerous combination.  We try to almost always keep them in the kiddie-pool, unless they are swimming one-on-one with one of us in the big pool.  They have been pretty good so far about respecting that, and hopefully it will continue that way.

Not too much else happened today.  Our Norwegian friends leave tomorrow, and we will of course be sad to see them go.  I think that we will go to church again tomorrow, as the kids seemed to like it so much last week.  I think we are getting a little bit punchy in the hotel again, so maybe we can think of something low-key to do outside of the hotel next week.  Maybe a trip to the store, maybe the zoo, but after our experience at the aquarium, we don't want to try too much too soon.

Thanks for checking in with us, and for all of the comments.  It really helps us to know that we are not totally off in left-field, and is so great to hear from everyone!