More teeth!

We think Alton is cutting more teeth as he has been a cranky bear the last day and a half. He has a low fever, red butt and is pulling on his ears and gnawing on his fingers. Not being ones to bust out medication unless necesary, we haven't given him anything yet. Tonight though for the sake of hopefuly getting a little bit of sleep, we're going to try some tylenol at bed time;)

We're going to the notary tomorrow with our agency representative to get our documents ready for the courts and will hopefully have our meeting with the Defendor of Minors on Wed. or Thurs. This is the meeting that will officially submit our case to the courts and usually occurs about 10 days after the presentation date that you receive the child.

Today was the first rainy day we've had since being here. We ventured out for a quick walk to the grocery store this morning before it started raining to get some rice cereal and yogurt for Alton, but other than that we have had a day hanging out here at the hotel. I'll post when we know for sure when our meeting is with the Defendor!

Go Pack Go!

We had a day out shopping yesterday with the Jaenisch family. We went to the leather district and the sports district. We ordered something super cute in the sports district for both the kids. I know those of you who have been here already can guess what it is! I'll post pictures when they're ready:)

After being out and about all day yesterday without a decent nap for either of the kids, we decided to take it easy today. After breakfast we just hung out and Ena got to watch a movie while Alton took an hour and a half nap. We ventured out for a walk to one of the parks for a while too. We're going to watch the super bowl on the giant 23 inch tv down in the lobby. We figure it's a step up from the 13 inch tv in our room;) Unfortunately the only other American family here at the hotel are hard coreVikings fans:( I'm not naming any names. We'll share our chips and beer & wine with them anyway:) Enjoy the game all of our fellow Wisconsinites!

Some exciting news for Ayudame:)

Yesterday we were invited to tour the new property that Ayudame recently purchased. It is a small farm will lots of green space to play and a huge main house that they will be spending the next few month's renovating into a home for the older children who live at Ayudame. Us, the Jaenisch's, several Danish families, and many of the agency representatives from different countries all piled into a huge van to drive out to the farm for the tour. Maria Clemencia was very proud as she showed off the new place and explained all of her plans for the house renovations with the families and all of the agency representatives who had been invited along for the tour. She's excited to have a beautiful home with plenty of green space for the children to live in instead of an institution in the city. We were gone the better part of the day from 11:30 to 6:30 and even had a picnic lunch out at the farm. We arrived back at the hotel with some tired kids (and adults) just in time to enjoy another awesome Juanita dinner of pork tenderloin, baby potatoes, and a warm vegetable salad. Lisa brought out a bottle of wine to share with everyone in the dinning room and it was a great ending to the day:)


















Some of the beautiful Ayudame children who were along for the tour. We couldn't get everyone together at the same time for a picture, some of the older boys were already outside enjoying the green space;)

Empanadas

Yesterday I got to learn how to make empanadas in the kitchen with the famous Juanita. Mary set it up for her and her SIL Lisa and they let me join in:) Everyone who stays at Hotel Paris constantly talks about the great food Juanita makes and what a riot she is. It is all so true! It was so much fun and I got the general idea of how to make empanadas, but still have no idea about most of the actual ingredients. All of the spices were not in their original containers and we (I at least) weren't able to understand when she was telling what any of it was:) It was a blast though and I'm pretty sure one of those fun empanada presses is going to be on my wish list now;) John had a daddy day care afternoon alone with the kids while I was enjoying my little cooking lesson. I returned to the room to find all 3 of them asleep together on the same bed:) Fun times:)

Here's Ena and her buddy Ben.

Check out those sweet thighs and chunky monkey cheeks:) So much for a low birth weight preemie! The kid eats like a horse:) He fits into our family perfectly:)

Alton Joseph

Some details from our presentation day and some information about our sweet baby boy. We went to the orphanage directors house to recieve Alton. Very different than it was with Athena when we went to the actual orphanage. We could hear him giggling upstairs with his caregiver while we were going through the paperwork part of the process downstairs. When they finally brought him down he came right to us and even had smiles for us right away. They said he likes bright colors and he proved that to be very accurate when he continually tried to grab the pink flower on Athena's jacket:)

Alton currently weighs 19 lbs. 13 oz and already has 8 teeth! He eats like a champ! He has 3 bottles and 3 meals a day so far. His first night with us he fell asleep during his bedtime bottle at 9:00 and slept until 5:30 this morning.

Athena is doing great being a big sister:) She is excited and is constantly kissing him and helping. We did have a few tears last night when she couldn't have mommy's attention while I was giving him his bedtime bottle, but overall she is doing awesome!! We're so proud of her:)

Napping angels:)

Photo shoot outside with daddy while mommy and Alton were inside ordering coffee at Juan Valdez Cafe!

Jammie buddies and the fun instrument toy Athena scored at Maku:)

Sweetness:)

A little bedtime sugar for everyone;)

He's perfect:)

Prepare to have your heart melted. We'll post more details about him and about the day at a later post. For now enjoy the pictures of the 2 most beautiful kids in the world:)

Love from Bogota!!