Little Victories

We are making progress! The twins are messy eaters, so Troy went shopping and bought these giant bibs with pockets that catch everything. They also wet the bed, so now they get pull-ups at night (and they actually do a dance when they put them on so something tells me this isn’t the first time they have worn them). We have established a “boring chair” as our time out place and have looked up the Spanish explanations for why the kids get put in time out in the first place—the count by the way is Samuel-4, Daniel-6, Luis-0. My (Andrea’s) Spanish is improving, on a four and six year old level at least. Most importantly though we are getting out of this hotel!

Today, Rosario, the owner of El Cortijo, took us to her country club on the outskirts of Pereira. It was amazing. So beautiful. First of all, it is in the Andes (need I say more), surrounded by lush, green landscaping and palm trees. There is golf, tennis, soccer, etc… But what we were most interested in was the kiddie pool!!!! Troy is a total fish, and a lifeguard at that, so we want the boys to like the water, or at least be comfortable. No more of this screaming through bath time (Luis). And this club—David and Sheila can you remind me of the name?—had 2 pools that were kid sized. Perfect!

The only drawback to the day was we missed nap time and we learned that the twins need naps! All three boys fell asleep in the car on the way home though. It was really cute. Another lesson learned: popsicles are the worst invention—how long will their lips be blue anyway? Regardless of the mess, muchas gracias to Rosario for the treat and a great day out and about.


The clubhouse. Rosario is the woman lounging in the foreground.


One of the kiddie pools. It is about knee deep.


The lap pool. We didn't even bother working our way up to this one.


I can't get a picture of all of them together, but Troy managed to take this one of them in the baby pool. It is just too, too cute. I have no idea of what they were up to, maybe collecting leaves (las hojas).


Troy in the kiddie pool with Carlos and Luis. Luis was so brave in the water and did not cry or scream. I did have to get in with him at first, but then he did great. Daniel was doing great until he ate it in the kiddie pool. We were really glad he had the water wings on even though they could touch the bottom. It really freaked him out.


I think Samuel is going to be a fish like Papa. He isn't quite comfortable enough to float yet, but he has started holding his nose and sticking his face under water.


These two are just so funny together. They really don't interact a whole lot but when they do I wish I could understand what they are saying because I am sure it is really funny. When we asked Mauricio our interpreter to tell us what they are saying, he said that most of the time he doesn't even know because "baby Spanish" is a language all its own.