Dining out with a 9-month-old...

I just thought I'd share what we've learned about peacefully dining out with a 9-month-old: it's not possible.

I can't tell you how many times I've rolled my eyes at the parents of a screaming child and said "they need to control their kid!" Well, the other day while dining at a relatively nice restaurant, somewhere between Gabriela shrieking, flailing her arms, grunting like a pig, banging her spoon on the table, blowing a "raspberry" with a mouth full of food, and spilling Daniel's glass of water in his lap, I turned to him and said "Okay, okay, I take it all back!"

Anyway, here is a photo of her looking perfectly angelic at some point during the mayhem that was our lunch.

A quick update...

Hi all!

We don´t have time to upload photos but just wanted to say a quick hello!

We are having a great time in Medellín but are ready to come home and get Gabriela settled in. Unfortunately, it doesn´t look like that will happen as soon as we had hoped. I guess the post of the Defender of the Family, who is appointed by ICBF to review everything that goes through the courts, just changed hands. It sounds like there was about a week where nothing got reviewed or signed. Our file got to his office on February 5th but he didn´t review it until the 12th. He has approved it but is waiting to sign it until our sentencia (court date) has been scheduled. As of today, our sentencia has not yet been scheduled. It will most likely be scheduled for sometime early next week (at least that is what we´re hoping). We were planning to fly home from Bogota next Sunday, thinking that 2 1/2 weeks in the courts would be enough and would allow us a full week in Bogota. Now it looks like we will not have sentencia until at least early next week, which I don´t think gives us enough time to get everything done in Bogota. That means we will most likely have to change our return flight, which will not be cheap! We are a little bit frustrated but there isn´t anything we can do, so we are just trying to enjoy our time here.

On a more positive note, Gabriela is doing great and continues to let more and more of her personality show. She is a little clown and she makes us laugh a hundred times a day. We think she may be fighting off a minor cold but it doesn´t seem like anything serious and she´s still eating and sleeping.

Today we visited Yolombó, which is the town Gabriela was born in. We both said after we left that we are glad she won´t grow up there - even though it´s likely that she would have had a very happy life there, there really isn´t much opportunity. We took some photos that we look forward to sharing with her someday.

We´ll try to post soon and will definitely let you know when we receive our sentencia and head to Bogota. Please cross your fingers that that will happen soon!

Love,
Leslie, Daniel, and Gabriela

The week in photos!

Wrapping up week three...

Hi all!

Well, we are wrapping up another busy but good week here in Medellin! Actually, it was our quietest week so far. We had places to go and people to see nearly every day, but we were actually home for at least one of Gabriela's naps each day! On the topic of naps, Gabby really doesn't like to take them! She falls asleep in her stroller or car seat easily, but it's a battle to get her to take a nap in her crib. We feel like we've got a pretty good handle on everything else, though.

The highlight of our week was a trip to the zoo on Friday. The zoo here is NOT like zoos in the U.S. The animals are in corral-type pens or chain-link enclosures and you can come within an arm's length of many of them! I believe the tigers were the only animals that had a second fence around their enclosure! Gabby especially liked the monkeys, which really is not surprising, since we have said many a time that they switched our little girl for a "miquita." She talks a LOT and sometimes sounds surprisingly like a little monkey! She also seemed to like the birds.

We are waiting to here when we will receive our "sentencia," which will allow us to head to Bogota for Gabby's visa and then home. Our paperwork has been in the courts for a week and two days, and average is two to three weeks. We will keep everyone posted and are very much hoping to come home on our original return date of February 25th. We are having a great time but want to get Gabriela home and settled in.

Our best to everyone at home!

Daniel, Leslie, and Gabriela

Some more fotos from the weekend!!

The trip to La Piedra del Penol

Alive and well!

Finally, a chance to post!

We are alive and well and have been having a lot of fun. Daniels cousin Andres and his girlfriend Cathy are visiting right now from Panama and we have been very busy with them. Saturday night we went to a very cool bar up in the hills of Medellín where we sat outside listening to live music, drinking rum, and eating delicious food. Daniels aunt and uncle stayed at the apartment with Gabby and like all parents, we were terribly worried about leaving our baby with a "babysitter" for the first time. We put her to bed before we left and she slept through the whole thing, so she never even knew we had left!

Yesterday we went to La Piedra del Peñol, which is giant rock coming out of the top of a mountain. It has a staircase up one side and you can climb to the top if you are so inclined. The staircase is 649 steps up a very narrow and steep staircase. Daniel, Gabriela, and I were brave enough to tackle it and the view from the top is amazing. It was the first "hike" of many for Gabriela and she did great.

We think that Gabriela is continuing to adapt very well. We had a rough spell of a couple of days late last week but we think she was not feeling too well. She is back to her beautiful, smiling self now.

Oh, last week Gabby added "MAMA" to her vocabulary! She has said "DADA" and "PAPA" from the beginning, but "MAMA" was new! She said it right as I walked away so we think she was actually referring to me! It was very exciting.

We will try to update soon and add photos. Until then, rest assured that Gabby continues to be adorable!

Leslie, Daniel, and Gabriela

P.S. We REALLY appreciate the comments, e-mails, and phone calls!