One Happy Birthday Boy

Our birthday boy wore himself out today, he fell fast asleep as soon as he laid his head on the pillow. He has to sleep with many items. He puts stuff under his pillow and all around him, whatever doesn’t fit has to be on the table next to him. I think he’s afraid it will disappear if he doesn’t protect it. Very cute. Joaquin had a very good day, I will get to that in a minute.

Is this not the sweetest thing you've ever laid your eyes on?


Let me back up to last night at bed time. Okay maybe just a little background info first, then onto my story. The first night we had the kids Jessica wanted to sleep with Eric and I, which we allowed. The second night was the night we all had melt downs, so daddy’s girls slept with him and I slept on Jessica’s bed to give them room. So last night I was putting everyone to bed and told Jessica that tonight she was going to sleep in her own bed. I named each bed, Emilee’s bed, Joaquin’s bed, Nate’s bed and so on. As I laid her on her bed she began to pitch a royal fit because she wanted to sleep in our bed. I sat by her bed and told her it was okay and tried to console her. Eric and I couldn’t decide if it was fear causing her to cry, is it that she felt comfort sleeping with us or just a matter of wanting to get her way. So Eric tried to lay with Jessica in her own bed and she insisted she go to our bed anyway. So Eric told her to go ahead. She went to our bed and I laid with Eric on Jessica’s bed. Remember yesterday Emi was a bit upset that we weren’t correcting various behaviors. So we explained to Emi as we were going thru this our “parenting technique” in hopes it would help her to understand our motives and how we are trying to approach things. So we turned out the lights and in less than 2 minutes Jessica came over to her own bed, crawled in between us and told us to go to our own bed that she was okay. We told her we were very proud of her and turned on the bathroom light so she wouldn’t be scared. I was very impressed in how she had thought things out and was willing to try to sleep in her own bed. Emi was impressed and I think started trusting what we were doing.

This morning Joaquin woke up and immediately told us it was his birthday. Jessica tried to convince us it was her birthday too, we told her no but that we had a bag of gifts for her she would get at the fiesta too. Oh and this morning we had no hot water, not even a tad warm. This made for interesting showers. Later we realized the pilot light went out and fixed the problem. So off to breakfast we went. We explained to Emi and Nate that our goal for the day was to teach Jessica and Joaquin to sit at the table and let us take care of getting their food, drinks etc and to sit until we were all finished before they could get up. We had a feeling this would not go over well with Jessica and told Emi and Nate to brace themselves. Boy were we right. Leaning our ways and the limits are very difficult for them. They have to see what is allowed and not allowed and if No really means No. I think today Jessica figured that out. She was not wanting to listen and threw a real fit. A scream at the top of my lungs kind of fit. Sometimes these first fits last up to 2 hours, ours didn’t last that long, but she did have a few of them between breakfast until just after lunch. The meal times were the worst, but she had one good one in between too. These are totally normal and will lessen in time as long as you stick to what you say you will do. After each fit she knew very well that we don’t give in but that we still love her very much. Because she seems to do better with Eric, he handled the fits today while I took care of the other 3. It was interesting to watch Joaquin during these fits, he knew she was being bad and therefore did not try to console her as he did yesterday. He seemed to trust us with what we were doing. She was a bit stand-offish at the fiesta but by dinner and after she was a perfect angel. We try to really praise her for good behavior and let her know we notice when she is good and listens. She is catching on. I think a big part of the problems today was that is was Joaquin’s special day and she didn’t feel as important, no matter how hard we tried. By the end of the day she could see that she was just as special and we love them all the same.

Both Jessica and Joaquin have been especially mean to Emi. Joaquin didn’t want her anywhere near him and it was obvious Jessica didn’t want much to do with her either. Jessica has also been a bit mean to Nate, she sticks her tounge out at him every time she passes him. This was killing Emi because she do desires to play with and be a great sister to Jessica. Well something clicked this afternoon and things are different now. We were playing with silly putty and Emi was trying to show them how you could see the impressions of different things. Both Joaquin and Jessica were open to play with Emi and it’s been better ever since. They wanted her to push them on the swing, Joaquin let her help him with his gifts, Jessica wanted to paint Emilee’s nails and put make up on her, then tonight Jessica asked to sleep with Emilee. Emilee was so glad, I think we’ve had a major break through!



Okay, now onto the Birthday Boy. He was so funny today and very proud to be turning 5, he loved everyone’s messages from the United States. At breakfast the German family brought him a card and a matchbox car. He was so happy he could hardly eat. He held the car and card close to him, it couldn’t leave his site. He had to show all the staff and tell them it was his birthday. He missed his nap today because Jessica was screaming. Luckily the other families don’t think we are nuts because they have all been through it. It’s kind of nice because they offer you encouragement and tell you of their experience. It helps to know you are not alone. Luckily we were well prepared for these fits, and feel we handled them as best we could, in the end we saw results. By 6 we thought he was going to pass out, but he got a second wind. Carmen showed up with his balloon and cake around 3 and Joaquin was beside himself. We tied the balloon on his wrist and he thought he was the king of the world. When he saw his cake he just wanted to guard it and not let anyone near it. We finally put it up really high to show him it was protected. He went and checked on it several times before the party, but was okay to just play with his balloon. At party time he wanted to put all the chairs around the table himself and sit right by his cake. We sang happy birthday to him in Spanish, French, English and German. He was so proud, he smiled ear to ear the whole time. Carmen gave everyone mickey mouse ears to wear and a Colombian colored shaw. What fun. Then it was time to open gifts. Zuetana gave both Jessica and Joaquin a small gift, which was so nice. I have never seen Joaquin so serious for so long as he was when he was opening gifts. He was not sure what to think. Once he took everything out he wanted to put them all back in and keep them safe. Other kids came from the other Zuetana house and I think Joaquin knew these were his toys and not community toys for all of the kids. He takes great pride in his things. Jessica refused to open hers in front of everyone. She had to open them in the cabin, then packed them back in her bag and came back to join the party. They are so afraid someone is going to take what is theirs. Joaquin did go to the park yesterday without his backpack and to every meal today with out it. Improvement!







After the party the came back to the cabin and played nicely with Emilee and Nate with all of their new toys. We really didn’t give them much, we don’t want to overwhelm them any more than they already are. Joaquin’s favorite thing really was the balloon, he played with it from the time he got it until the time he went to bed. He had to tie it in a safe place before going to bed. We all got he biggest kick out of him today, he is very silly and have I mentioned that he doesn’t stop talking? The boy talks and talks and talks, it’s hysterical.Today he was telling me something and then looked me in the eye and in English said, “You Understand?” I about fell over. I didn’t realize how much he has picked up in this short amount of time. Jessica counts to 10 in English, actually she won’t count in Spanish anymore. She asked me the colors in English for her nail polish and asked the English name for her My Little Pony. She now only calls it Pony. They are really smart, it’s quite evident.

Okay a few last things before I hit the sack.

Nate to Tia Jeanie = “By the way, Tia Jeanie, I’m naturally guapo, you know that.

Emi to the boys at school = Here is the tiger and monkey you asked for, this is as good as it gets! (The boys at school asked Emi to bring them back a tiger and a monkey. She told them that there are monkeys in Colombia, but not in the big city “Bogota”, and there are no tigers here, we are not in Africa) But as luck has it she came across both a monkey and a tiger, so this is for the 6th grade boys. Also Tacos are a Mexican dish not a Colombian dish. Colombia is more like “rice and beans” kind of food.



Oh and the fresh fruit and juice caught up with us today. Mucho toilet paper for the Cabin! Okay that was gross, but it’s true. We’re not alone, a friend from the other Zuetana is having the same problem. We drank some soda and ate some potato chips today to try and unshock our bodies. I seriously think our bodies are in shock from the change in eating habits. I am sure to lose weight here.

Again I thank you all for the comments. It’s the highlight of the day for the kids when they read the comments. I really can’t express to you enough how much it means to me that you all are including Emi and Nate in your comments. They feel very connected to home because of you all. They are getting a kick out of the Tio Brian and Tia Jeanie for sure.

Love to all of you. We are feeling much less homesick and starting to adapt. If the morning goes well, we may even attempt to go to Unicentral, the big mall with some fun stuff for the kids. So far Jessica has not been ready for such a trip, we’ll see how tmw goes, we may put it off one more day. On Sunday we plan to go back to the market with another CHI Family staying at the other Zuetana house. They have a beautiful baby girl, they came to the party today and Emi was in heaven. She got her baby fix! She’s been missing her cousins Maddie and Annslee and I think baby Sofia helped that.

Hasta Luego!

Okay, one last pic, just for the fun of it