4 weeks!

It's hard to believe that we've been in Colombia for a month, and we've had Esteban for 4 weeks. It feels like no time, and forever, all at once.

On Tuesday night we had a Sentencia party for a Dutch family who got their Sentencia on Monday. They have been here for 8 weeks, and they are SO excited to be heading home! The party was after dinner, with champagne and cake, balloons and noisemakers, and it was made even more fun by the fact that three new families arrived that day from Norway.

The three of us at the party.

Esteban in a party mood, actually standing on the floor!

Wednesday we hung out around the hotel, trying to honor Esteban's natural schedule of eating and napping. On days like that, we take a walk in the morning, and usually again in the afternoon.

Esteban is nearly always happy to take a walk to the park!

Also, la doctora (the pediatrician on-call, who visits the hotel) came to see us on Wednesday. She was most impressed with Esteban's growth and strength, and said we can start adding one new fruit a week to his diet. So we started with bananas at breakfast today. As you can see below, Esteban took great delight in his bananas.

Mmm, bananas

Tomorrow (Friday) morning, we head out to spend a couple of days in Villa de Leyva--a last hurrah before Grandma Dawn goes home to Seattle early on Monday morning. Villa de Leyva is a town that was founded in colonial (that's the Spanish colonization) times and retains much of its colonial character. It will be a nice change of scenery!

A word of thanks to all of you who have posted comments telling us how it's snowing where you are (Seattle, Boston, etc). I hope the cold and wet ends soon and that it's followed by Bogota weather! We'll be offline until Sunday night or Monday morning. Have a great weekend!

The latest pics and vids

Our little guy is busy!

Esteban is taking his first morning nap (he takes two right now), Grandma Dawn is off to her Colombian cooking class, and Momma Sabeth has a few moments to share the promised pictures on Snapfish:
http://www1.snapfish.com/shareereg/p=486301206933342682/l=358236077/g=3203364/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB/pns/share/p=486301206933342682/l=358236077/g=3203364/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

And a few recent videos. None of these are more than 90 seconds because they are taken with my regular digital camera.

Esteban rolling over (front to back)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7361311154243153563&pr=goog-sl

Chatty Esteban--giggles, squeals, and 'talking'
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6554901068597883975&pr=goog-sl

Happy Esteban, v. 2--a brief look into his developing personality--this one is sideways on the screen
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7631495946018728259&pr=goog-sl

Hope all is well with you and yours!

Busy weekend

I am writing this in the midst of a huge thunder/lightning/rain storm, in which we narrowly escaped being caught. For the second day in a row, the morning has been decently nice and there has been a torrential downpour in the afternoon. I shouldn't be too surprised--it IS the rainy season!

It's never too soon to start reading!

We've had a busy weekend. Yesterday we went to Monserrate, a peak overlooking Bogota that has a church on top. The church contains a statue of the Fallen Christ, to which many miracles are attributed. Monserrate is a national pilgrimage site in Colombia--about 20,000 people visit it every Sunday. So, it was good to go on Saturday when it was not as crowded. You get up to the top of the mountain by taking a train up a VERY steep track, and then you come down by funicular. After Monserrate, we ate lunch in a very typical Colombian parilla (grill) restaurant where we were served huge plates of very tasty grilled meat. So good!

We're at Monserrate, elevation 3100m (~10,200 ft)

The sightseeing wasn't actually the highlight yesterday. The most exciting thing that happened was that Esteban rolled over! Before breakfast, even. He rolled from his front to his back. He still hasn't quite figured out how to go the other way, but I'm sure it's coming soon. The photo documentation, along with pics from Monserrate and our Sunday adventure are on Snapfish, which is being typically uncooperative when I want to post a link. I'll put the photo link on tomorrow.

With Grandma Dawn at our break for 'elevensies.'

Today (Sunday) we headed out, walking, for the flea market in Usaquen. It's about 30 blocks north of us, and the walk there took about an hour. Fortunately, on Sundays Bogota closes many main roads to auto traffic and opens them for pedestrians and bicycles. Known as Cyclovia, we really enjoy walking on Sundays because of the reduced pollution. The flea market is a wonderful place to get artisan crafts, and we didn't leave empty-handed.

Other big news is that my brothers Peter and Patrick are coming to join/help me in Bogota in mid-April. Yep, both of them at the same time! I'm really looking forward to seeing them, hanging out with Esteban, and showing them some of Bogota--a city I'm coming to really love.

3 weeks and counting

I can hardly believe we've had Esteban for 3 weeks as of yesterday. It's amazing how much he's grown and changed, and continues to develop every day. Life is settling into a good routine of naps and bottles, bath and bedtime.

Yesterday we returned to La Candelaria with Grandma Dawn, and visited the Gold Museum (about pre-Columbian civilizations' gold use--fascinating) and the Botero Collection (Fernando Botero is a living Colombian painter and sculptor whose chubby figures are unmistakable).

Jody and I taking a bottle break with the babies while at the Botero museum. Esteban has an internal timer that requires a bottle at 11:00am precisely! No waiting for Mommy to finish looking at the paintings!

In the courtyard at the Botero.

The requisite happy Esteban photo of the day.

It was a beautiful day, and we walked a lot. We ended our day out with a fabulous lunch in a little restaurant on a beautiful courtyard (at right).

We find that our days out are best ended before afternoon naptime--making morning adventures most important. A difficult schedule for this mommy whose best time of day is NOT morning!

Thanks to all of you who have emailed and posted comments to the blog. It's so great to hear from you. I am definitely missing home, and it's nice to know you're thinking of us, too.

Esteban has a killer kick!

This is what happens when the baby leans into the camera just as you take the picture. I guess he wanted a closer look at it.

Here’s a video my mom took of Esteban kicking the soccer ball. If we don’t have it documented on film, no one will believe that our son had a killer kick when he was 5 months old! This video was last week - he's even stronger at standing up this week.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1672389903010208560&pr=goog-sl

More recent photos of Esteban, more from Easter, and some of the Hotel Halifax, are on Snapfish:

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=418251206492785792/l=358147533/g=3203364/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Happy Easter

(written Sunday afternoon)

Easter in Bogota turned out to be great! There are 5 families at the Halifax right now—2 from the US, 2 from the Netherlands, and 1 from Norway. At Saturday breakfast we had some informal conversations about our respective Easter traditions, and made some plans to celebrate accordingly.

Mom, Esteban and I went to church at the Episcopal cathedral this morning. It was very nice, and not as long as last week. Esteban was a real trouper—he very intently watched the Dean preach his sermon, and slept through about half of the service. We saw a brief liturgical dance done to traditional Colombian music, and we sang a few familiar tunes.

While we were at church, other families painted eggs. Since all the eggs here are brown, they literally used paints to decorate boiled eggs. Others colored Easter pictures. Someone blew up and hung up balloons. Other people went out and got fresh flowers. Someone found chocolate Easter eggs with prizes in them for the kids and they had an Easter egg hunt. The Halifax staff had planned a special BBQ lunch in the courtyard.

When we came home from church, there was already a fiesta starting in the sunny courtyard. Festive music was playing. The staff came out and joined us all for lunch—and the food was great! BBQ marinated beef, potatoes, grilled sweet plantains, luscious avocado and tomato salad, guacamole to put on whatever you wanted, with sangria, and fresh fruit in juice for dessert. I’m almost hungry again just talking about it! It was a really nice party.

Lunch is the more formal meal here in Colombia, so dinner will be less fancy. As we talked about Easter traditions, it became clear that family being together is an universal value for this holiday. So, for dinner tonight, we asked to all sit at one big table instead of the 4 separate tables we usually occupy. Our family in Colombia will be gathered together.

Julien celebrated Easter in Rhode Island with his parents, and we hope they had a grand celebration. We spoke with them briefly last night.

Not to make those of you in colder climes jealous, but we’ve been enjoying a run of nice weather. Sunny days, with highs in the mid60s to low 70s, sometimes a breeze, the occasional late afternoon thunderstorm (brief ones), and nights about 50 degrees. The Colombians think it’s kind of cold right now—they are all wearing jackets and sweaters. It is supposed to get a little more rainy this week, with the high temperatures climbing a few degrees at the same time.

More photos and video to come - probably tomorrow - as soon as Snapfish is cooperating again.

7 kilos!

Some people were leaving the Halifax today and the scale was out in the hall to weigh their luggage. I took advantage of it and weighed myself with and without Esteban. Never mind what I weigh, but the difference was 7 kilos! Just two weeks ago Esteban weighed 6 kilos. Now, the scale may not have been the most precise, but that's a 2lb gain in 2 weeks! And just tonight we went to put pajamas on him that were too short. Obviously, I am marvelling at how fast he's growing.

And it's not just his physical size--he's stronger every day. Standing up more (while holding onto hands), sitting up more steadily and pulling himself from reclining to sitting. He still can't fully roll over or sit himself up, but those milestones can't be too far away. He's just amazing. And so curious and interested in the world. We can almost see his brain sponging up new information. What with the growing and learning, it's no surprise that he's sleeping 10 hours/night. Last night, it was all the way through.

We talked to Julien tonight via Skype. The Internet is a truly amazing thing! Our camera resolution wasn't great, but we were able to see and talk with each other in real time. Esteban was a little confused, and also fascinated. We all miss Julien! We hope to Skype my Dad in Seattle, and my brother Samuel, my Uncle David and Grandma (the last three all in Australia) in the next few days.

Bogota is amazingly quiet today, and probably will be so through Monday, for the Easter weekend. There was almost no traffic on the streets today (so the pollution wasn't too bad) and the sidewalks were deserted. They really mean it when they say it's a holiday here! The parks, on the other hand, were filled with families and dogs. Many people travel to be with family for the Easter holidays.

I've posted new photos to Snapfish. They include photos from the last few days--Julien's last day/night in Colombia, Grandma Dawn's first days with us, and our visit to CRAN (the adoption agency here). http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=967201206048356789/l=358053449/g=3203364/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB