Saturday Right?

I keep losing track of what day it is. I wake up every morning and rack my brain as to what day it is.

Today we just relaxed a bit again around the house. Nate slept in and missed the made to order breakfast. We picked him up some fruit and he made oats once he got up and about. Emilee and Nate spent some time with their cousins on the webcam after breakfast, which they both enjoyed.

Here is Nate talking to Brandon on the webcam.


Jessica got into a bit of trouble for back-talking Mami last night and was told she could not have the TV or Shrek this morning. I was surprised it wasn’t a fight this morning. But when she got up and got ready, she asked her dad if she could turn on the TV. Obviously remembering what we had told her. He told her if no but if she was good all morning to mami that she could watch it this afternoon. She shook her head yes and with out a fuss, complied. Chalk one up for Jess!

Eric and Emi went back to Maku to pick up a few things we wanted while Nate and I stayed back with the little ones.

Here are a few things we did before lunch.

We taught Jessica how to log onto coloring.com to color pics on line. She loved it!


Joaquin did some exercises


The brothers played with cars


The girls played on the swing


We also taught them how to play UNO. Once they have the rules down we thought it would be a good way to work on numbers and colors in English, as well as turn taking.

We watered the plants, but then it rained all afternoon, so I don’t think they really needed it. Also it stormed here last night. The thunder was so loud, we forget how much higher we are, it’s really much louder when it thunders here.



After lunch we watched Shrek, AGAIN! Then we went to Crepes and Waffles just for ice cream. The ice cream is really pretty cheap and the selections are a lot of fun and it’s not too far. It started raining again when we got ready to leave, so we got a bit wet on the way back. It was too wet to go to the park so we chose ice cream instead.



The kids are really doing well figuring out who we are and how we work. Emi and Nate are still doing great being away from home and are ready to stay for the duration of our trip. Jessica and Emilee seem to be bonding, which makes me really happy. They have a way to go, but have come so far.

Joaquin finally says his name as Joaquin Hollis. At the beginning Jessica would say her name as Jessica Sanchez Hollis. But Joaquin would only say Joaquin Alexander Sanchez. We have not pushed the name at all, or even mentioned it anymore for that matter, and then out of the blue yesterday or the day before, he said “my name is Joaquin “something” Hollis.” He has given himself a different middle name that none of us can figure out, but he has been saying his name a lot the last few days, with Hollis on the end.

Here at Zuetana you can put your family photo in a book and leave a written message, the book sits on a table in the lobby. So today Joaquin wanted to look at the book with me and pointed to each family telling me who was the mami, papi, nina and ninos. I think he is starting to figure out this idea of what makes up a family. He has been giving lots of kisses and likes being held. But he does not like to have his picture taken unless he is being really silly. That’s why we still don’t have a really good pic of just the 4 kids or of the 6 of us.

This was an attempt to try and get a pic of the 4 of them.


Tomorrow we are going out with a group of folks, still not sure where. Someone told us they thought we were going just outside of Bogota to a village of some sort. I guess we’ll see. I’ll just get the camera ready. We were told we would be gone all day. Should be fun.

Thanks to the folks who emailed about the price of our weekly stay. Zuetana is more expensive than El Refugio and we thought about requesting to move, but really we don’t think the change will be good for the kids, so we decided to stick it out here. We also wanted to try and visit their orphanage, but don’t think it would be a good emotionally for Jessica and Jaoquin. We have some candy that my sister and aunt got for J and J to give their friends but I think we are just going to print a picture and send a card along with the goodies. But before we make a final decision, we are going to wait a few more days and see what we think.

Good night from Bogota!

One last pic...
This is Emilee taking care of the "little man"