Dias en Colombia!

Up Close & Personal

Hard to believe we have been here for 10 days (11 counting the first night at SuitesHotel)!  Tonight my daughter and I laid on the floor together and she crawled over to me so she was no more than about 3 inches from my face.  She was so close I could actually see my reflection in her big beautiful black eyes.  She buried her little drooly hands into my hair and we proceeded to stare.  I think I could see my soul.  What a wonderful blessing this nina buena is in my life.  Mi hija es hermosa de Dios.  We then proceeded to sing all sorts of octaves and music.  Each time she would start I would join her.  She got really loud and then really quiet like a whisper.  It’s hard to imagine my life without her.  It’s hard to know she’s not legally ours yet…she is truly our daughter, more precious than life itself.  Un regalo de Dios.

All seriousness aside for a moment…practical reasoning here.

Ayudame!! Dos preguntas!! Can someone please tell me how to walk around with my daughter and not jut out my hips?  Not only is it seriously unattractive (see exhibit below with our friend Oohweee…phonetic is what we are going for here!!), but also it is a killer on the lower back.  How do you learn how to stand up straight and still support her??!!  And secondly, not for nothing, but I never eat foods with my fingers.  I cut pizza, won’t eat wings b/c they are messy and rarely eat anything that I have to get seriously involved with.  Somehow, this personal habit/annoyance is gone.  I feed my daughter off of my fingers all of the time.  I think I am her personal spoon.  I wipe her drool with them, (she’s kind of like a saint bernard right now with the teething).  Amazing how your own children change you!!

Teeth, Bows and Shoes!

Miercoles

It’s amazing how these days run together.  Trudy said that we got Court #1 (out of 11) and it is a “fast” court.  Not very fast, not slow, not very slow.  Fast could mean another tw o weeks.  Potentially we could be wrapping up in Cali next Friday and on a plane to Bogota shortly thereafter!!  It’s a gamble but seems to be a good one.

I researched a bunch of places to stay in the country for the next week so we could leave Cali and my attorney told me I was absolutely crazy, just like a true Colombian.  She couldn’t imagine why I would want to make my own bed, clean my own dishes, clean my own house.  There are a bunch of villas you can rent about 15 minutes South of the city limits.  She thinks the place we found was very nice, but expensive since it didn’t include breakfast.  Oh well…after my husband heard her viewpoint he put the giant kibosh on it anyhow! He wants to stay right here for another 10 days.  I think he may eat those words, especially since he finally bought coffee today so we could make it when we wanted and not have to go downstairs for it!

Yesterday seems like today, but that’s probably because our routine is so similar.  Up, bottle, breakfast, snack, walk, play, nap, swim or another walk, snack, bottle, bath, out for dinner.  We royally screwed Laura up last night.  We went out for dinner at 6 with our abogada.  Laura was snug in the Ergo and slept for 3/4 of dinner.  Unfortunately, she woke up about 8:30 and perked up when Jim fed her Lulo pie and water from a funny plastic cup.  (Lulo is like key lime).  So she didn’t get her 12 hours last night and we paid for it today.  She was way off from the moment she woke up…too early.  I think she was sticking it to us…saying you keep me up?  I’ll wake you up!!!

So…we tried today.  But to say she was arrancó would be an understatement.  She started off wonderfully and it slowly unraveled…had a great time at breakfast eating soup at 8:30 am.  She enjoyed it so much that Jim and I joined her.  Perhaps Las Colombianas know the way to a calm stomach!  Soup in the morning is quite nice, and it does go with coffee!!

Laura made me laugh today as I did my best to make her happy.  There’s this playground at the hotel with 2 swings.  She LOVES to swing.  She doesn’t exactly hold on, so I get this amazing ab workout and then literally have to stop and readjust because my back because my lower back and or my abs are fatiguing!!  I don’t know how parents do it…contorted bodies all over the place!!  Swimming was a breeze by comparison, cold limbs eventually go numb and come back to life.  She loves the water and makes fast friends.  We met a wonderful abuela today who has adopted children from Bogota who are 30.  She reminded me that being a mama is not about birthing the baby, but about loving them, wiping their tears, their bottoms and swimming in cold pool water.  She was a wonderful lady whom we plan to meet every afternoon in the pool (she lives in Colombia and comes for physical therapy).  Plus, she taught me all sorts of new spanish.  Like when all of these people keep calling my baby Linda.  Helloooo…her name is Laura!!!  Finally realized this means beautiful.  (insert foot into mouth, spit spit b/c the mosquito repellent tastes like caca).  Ciao is Italian, but they use it instead of Adios.  Sueno, doesn’t just mean dreams, it also means sleepy.  Loco doesn’t just mean crazy it also means mad.  The Lord put this amazing abuela in our swim lane today and surrounded Laura and I with the encouragement and love we needed.

Psalm 18:32-34 NIV
It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

Lunes – Integration Day at ICBF

I’m not sure I mentioned that Laura was up watching the superbowl until 9:40 last night.  We learned the hard way that she can NOT nap after her 6 pm bottle. No matter if it only takes her 4 minutes to drink.  I’d like to actually time whether an adult can drink 10 oz in 4 minutes.  Hmmm…

Trudy picked us up this morning for our 10 am appt.  We arrived a few minutes late but they were running behind due to the rain so it worked out fine.  Laura loved on the staff (this was a return to old faces for her) and played and played and sang as we answered the agency’s questions.  Lots of questions about what is our schedule, how does it feel to be parents, is she favoring one over the other, does she eat, sleep, play…how has our life changed, what’s the best part of having Laura, what’s the hardest part…From there we went to the notary and I’m happy to say the Gangemi Name lives on!!  In Colombia, children always take the father’s and the mother’s names.  Amazing!  Poor child…

We came back for a nap, a walk, playtime, bathtime, bottle time and a trip to the pizzeria.  Laura ate regular bread this time, yellow squash, a bite of a tomato and (drum roll please)…Uncle Vinnie you will be proud…proscuitto. Jim was about ready to kill me.  Hey, the pediatrician emailed me and told me to start mixing up Laura’s foods so she could be more regular.  What’s more regular than prosciutto?!

Thus, some prosciutto and veggies later, my daughter fell fast asleep in the restaurant (cuddled in the Ergo).  We made our way back to the suite where she settled down for bed until her father let me know the prosciutto had the intended effect.  She went right back to sleep after that!  Yay Laura!!

It rained almost all of today so hopefully tomorrow will be nice so we can swim in the pool again.  Love to you all.  PS.  Jim cried all over the poor ICBF people, then the attorney and the staff started to cry.  Laura was none too pleased with us.  Until the mangoes came out!

Sabado – Day Four!?

I can hardly believe we’ve had Laura for only four days.  It feels like she has always been ours.  We’ve been up to a bunch in the past two days.  Mostly getting ourselves on a schedule and learning about each other…and helping Jim be brave 🙂  He’s decided he needs his own Daddy Page…which I caution you all to read; how could his girls get into that much trouble in two short days?!  Imagine if Amanda was with us!!  Tenemos muchos problemas!  (Honey…I need back up!!)

A Colombian Wedding, Gatos, Empanaditas en el rio Cali, a couple from Belgium, Garlic Toast, Bambina Loca and loving being padres adoptivos!!

Pictures will have to come tomorrow since we’ve been bumped by a Colombian wedding party that started at 8 pm tonight and goes til 3 am.  It was on our floor…and the wedding party had the rooms surrounding ours.  Preemptive strike?!  The concierge called us and asked if it would be okay to move us to another floor. I was thinking wedding cake, salsa dancing, wonderful people.  We moved.

I’ve decided the only way to wear Jim down is to use Laura.  Sorry sweetie, but you DO need fresh air and thankfully love to be around spanish speaking people!  So each morning, we wake after Laura has slept a fitful 12 or perhaps  ab-crunching 12.  (Jim says she actually has a 9 pack — I think it’s 6 but this child has serious strength.)

We have a bottle (which we have finally figured out how to do sin azucar…banana cereal!), head down to breakfast, have papaya or a banana bite and some papaya flavored water and then head out…caminamos con el coche en los calles.  Yesterday we went to el pargue de gato where Jim learned how to use the Combi over crazy terrain.  While none to happy, but Laura was all smiles and then asleep, we shopped for a $10 sippy cup in Pepe Ganga, the largest baby store in Colombia which does have everything… and head back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap.  She wakes up…we have a bottle, nosotros nadamos en la piscina and play in the shade with the mosquitos and then head for a bath, a bottle and dinner in Cali.

Last night’s adventure Jim actually said was muy divertido!!!  Perhaps until that moment when he wanted to call a taxi rather than walk home.  Hey, Laura is snug in the Ergo…(Amanda, Tamson…come to my rescue here!!).  Anyhow, 2 plates of Empanaditas later, (for those of you ever in Cali you must try the patio of HOTEL OBELISCO) we head back through crazy Friday night bliss in Cali.

Have I mentioned how beautiful the women are here and that they dress to the nines?  No one wears shorts, capris or skirts during the day. They are all in pants (extremely tight mind you) plus makeup and tops and hair that leaves a stylist wanting.  Nighttime simply ups the game.  Since now…they all have seguridad privado en tow.  So here’s the scene…

Dark street.  Loud music coming from the salsa autobus that picks up partiers every 1/2 mile and drops them club to club all night long – this looks fun, but one only knows what happens to you once you board that bus!  Policia or Seguridad Privado on corners, taxis and cars everywhere…and a 3/4 mile walk home.  Mi esposo was HERCULES.  He took up the whole sidewalk, blocking and tackling and army crawling and dive rolling our way home.  I felt perfectly protected from across the street where I was pretending I had no idea who that hombre loco was.

Today, our morning routine was followed by 2 dirty diapers that Jim prayed for and the Lord delivered (thank you God!), and a walk to la Catorce Supermercado.  One thing about the shops here, the people that work in them…they like their jobs, they are happy, they are helpful, they know their products, and they love babies.    We bought swimmie diapers which only come in Medium, but seem to fit her (she can’t possible be 24 lbs by now can she?!)

Nap-time was a bit of a ruse…so I am thankful my husband has the Laura touch of transferring from my chest to the pack and play.   A spin class later, we of course put our new swimmies to the test.  And that is where we met Jeremy and Sarah and Mateo!

They told us all of the places to go and stay away from in Cali, the jewelry to not wear, the areas to not walk in, the trips to make for the coffee region and pompado (hmmm..I don’t think I have that right) and convinced Jim that the place we’ve rented a few weeks from now outside of the city is, in fact, fabulous, and we will be right at home for the week.  (Praise God for sending us Sarah!!)

A bath, a bottle and a walk later…we end up at Antonina’s for dinner (pretty cool…my late grandma’s namesake).  This is where Jim and I discovered something fascinating.  Each time we drink our beverage, Laura squeeks.  We finally figured it out and realized the child was thirsty.  Oh my.  At the end of the meal (or nearly there…) Miss Laura decides she too, needs lasagna.  We compromised with garlic toast.  She was WILD and loved it.  Jim told me to stop feeding her b/c she was going to be gassy.  What’s a mom to do?  I fed my sweetie.  So we come back, swap rooms, set up, and open the jar of mangoes.  To which Laura went muy loco.  She ate the last 1/2 jar and was happy, smiling, laughing, belly laughs!! and loving on her mommy and daddy.  It couldn’t possibly have been that we were 30 minutes past her bedtime, could it?!  We finally skyped the states and Laura was able to see her big sister and noni finally.  A quick rock later, she was fast asleep.

Another day of paradise.

Day Two!

We made it through the night!  Laura woke up at 12 am; bounced all around in her playpen until 12:45 am or so.  She did lower abdominal kicks for 25 of those minutes.  Jim tried to rescue her until I firmly exercised my mommy voice…they were both back to sleep a few minutes later 🙂  Didn’t matter, b/c I was still awake watching and listening to my daughter sleep her first night with us.  They have her sleeping with a pillow.  It makes her snore!  Yes I know…bad, bad and worse.  She finally woke up at 7:20 this morning.

We had a great round of cereal and mango and formula mix and finally called the attorney b/c she wouldn’t take the bottle and I was getting nervous.  Trudy called the family, and to my shock…the nana who watches her during the day with a house full of other wee tots and two dogs seems to have a sweet tooth.  No wonder she wouldn’t take our bottle.  It tasted like formula.  Low and behold the special recipe…

• 8 oz formula, 4 tsp Nestum (honey and wheat) and honey.

Hello?!!!  A pillow and honey?  Well, she’s 19 lbs and counting so I guess they know something we don’t.  We comprimised and added 1 packet of sugar.  And here is our first satisfactory bottle – she took a whole 3 oz.  She probably would’ve taken more except I was crying all over the poor child.

She was fast asleep for nap #1.  A whopping 45 minutes in her crib.  She was happy happy happy and couldn’t wait to get up and play.  So…we did!

From Laura….”We went down to the pool and in my first swimsuit (Look at me GRAMMY!!) We had a 1/2 jar of mangoes and then I went swimming for the first time…but first I had to hang with Dad.  We were about to have a ton of fun, I could tell.  Here we go!

Well, maybe….

Yup…tons of fun.  Then Dad and I went on a walk.  We went for water.  Hmmm…my first taste out of a big person’s cup!!  It did the trick, because right after this wonderful aqua, I took 5 oz of splendid formula mix!

Mom and I went for bath time then, good thing we have a large tub because I slip around a LOT and Mom takes up half the space.  We played and bathed and did the bath thing! And then mom gave me the most splendid baby oil massage.  I loved when she rubbed my scalp…that was the best part!  Dad was back from the gym by then so mom tossed me in the Ergo and we went for pizza.  The ergo is a bit like a warm cocoon.  I could hear mama’s heart beat.  We got back, had 4 more tsp of cereal, mangoes and formula and an oz of drinkie stuff and then dad rocked me to sleep.  I tried to call my auntie stephanie and cousins but they weren’t on skype.  Listen cuz’s…I have a bed time to make…and it was 7:15 tonight.”

And from Court & Jim…Auntie Stephanie, Lydia, Grammy, Darby and Amber did call…you were asleep!  Auntie Jackie called too…you were still asleep!  So all in all we are figuring out Laura’s schedule, when she is most playful (between 5 and 7) and the feeding, thing, too.  Jim wouldn’t let me mash up a real mango and papaya today; probably a good thing but what the heck are some of these ingredients in baby food?  Especially the ones written in espanol??!!  We ordered pizza from the hotel restaurant, which is amazing…and have plans for a trip to the zoo next week!  Tomorrow’s plan…empanadas and more pool time!  Love to you all…thanks for your prayers!