Tantrums, Teeth and Tigers!

It’s been almost a week now since Sebastian joined our merry little band, and I’d love to tell you about all the big adventures we’ve been having but the truth is we’ve stayed quite close to home to give the lad a chance to settle in. Everyone needs a chance to get used to each other, especially Charlotte who is finding it a little hard playing second fiddle. Concepts such as ‘sharing’, ‘be gentle’ and ‘give me a minute and I’ll be with you’ all take a little while to sink in. She’s been great overall, only the odd tantrum and the occasional profound comment to keep us smiling. Still just about happy to be a big sister!

As for the big man, well his arrival with us has coincided with teething. His bottom two pegs are coming in and he’s generally not happy about it. With his fair skin his cheeks are bright red, and he’s pulling away at his ears. His schedule is getting us up at 1-2am for a bottle, which is a habit we have acquired and need to work on breaking. Other than that he goes through until 6.30am when his sister wakes up, when they start the day watching Wonder Pets in Spanish!! He is eating some soft foods now, fruit, mashed veggies and cookies which we love to smush. We LOVE our bath, he goes absolutely nuts, so much so that he has left us a little gift in the tub the last two times! He’s generally a happy lad, but he needs to be busy, busy as he is currently a very frustrated crawler. He is quite different to how Charlotte was, a little less independent and by the admission of the foster mother he was utterly spoiled for six months and mostly in female company, quite the ladies man!! He’s quite serious, and we have to work hard for our smiles but he’s getting used to us now and gives up some really gummy smiles.

 

We haven’t gone too far out of the local area, but we are planning a few more trips as we get used to lugging the world around with us when we go anywhere. The taxis here are tiny, so it’s funny to see the look on the taxi drivers face when we flag one down. Since we really don’t speak any Spanish it’s kind of pot luck where we will end up! Yesterday we did take a day trip out of town to what can be loosely described as a ‘theme park’. A very unusual park donated in the name of a famous Colombian aviator. With attractions such as a life size replica of the Taj Mahal, a naval battle cruiser (goodness knows how they got it this far up in the Andes), and a reasonably well stocked zoo it was quite the mish mash. We all had a fun time, despite the hour of solid rain which forced us undercover.  The animal highlights had to be the Bengal tigers and the close up encounter with the emu! 

Up to now there have been a couple of other families staying in the pension, but the last left for home today so we are now the only people staying here. The last Canadian family was here almost 10 weeks!! We are hoping things will go a little smoother and we can be home at least by the end of August. We have a meeting tomorrow with the Colombian organization who oversees every adoption that takes place here. Once this is complete we will be waiting for our legal judgement to be finalized which will take a number of weeks. In the meantime we will plan a trip north to the beach which should be an ideal way to pass some of the time, and I will also try and meet up with a Welsh friend of a friend who is currently living and working here in Bogota.

Thanks to all those who have posted to date we love to read them, please keep ‘em coming!!