La Candelaria...and Laura's First Tooth!

We had plans today to go with our new American friends (Eric, Sara, their son Nils and their new daughter Karina) to go to La Candelaria...a historic part of Bogota. This is one of the oldest sections of town. It has a huge town square that is all decorated for Christmas and it also is where the president of Colombia lives. While we were waiting for the driver to pick us up at the hotel, Laura was sucking on my finger. All of a sudden I felt something very sharp in her mouth...and it is her first tooth!! Suddenly Shawn and I were able to understand why we had such a fussy daughter all day! She did much better as we were out and about sight-seeing and we were able to have a very full day. Our time in town was great. We saw lots of old buildings, went into a few museums, and ate some obleas...a traditional Colombian snack that is kinda like 2 flat ice cream cones with a caramel type sauce in between. A neat thing...Laura and Karina lived in the same orphanage during the first few months of their life. It seems at times that Laura recognizes Karina and they fell asleep holding hands during the cab ride home this afternoon! Enjoy the pictures of our time out and about town!

Fun Friday

Today was a good day. We ventured out of the hotel 3 whole times!! This morning we took a fairly long walk that ended up at a park. Laura had her first ride down a slide, her first ride on the swings, and her first try at the monkey bars!! This kid has a grip like you can't imagine. Whatever she gets a hold of she holds on to for dear life. It's great for things like toys and blankets but horrible when it involves your hair!! Luckily I haven't worn any necklaces yet...she might break them before we can get her little fingers to turn loose! Bathtime wasn't such a happy experience today. As you can tell by the picture, Laura was tired of posing and just wanted to have mom and dad put some clothes on her! We obliged soon enough, but just had to share this pic! The power has gone out several times today at our hotel and this posed a huge problem when it was time for Laura's afternoon bottle. This kid likes her bottles HOT! Room temperature isn't anything she is interested in. We tried it...but had to go to the kitchen to boil some water to warm the bottle up. We are trying to gradually decrease the temp so by the time we fly home we don't have to find hot water to make a bottle on the airplane. We had some great play time this afternoon and Laura is getting stronger everyday. She is close to sitting up on her own and her neck is getting stronger during tummy-time. Shawn snapped this picture of me and Laura kissing...a picture that is very similar to one of my mom and me when I was about Laura's age. She loves getting kisses and it always gets a big smile out of her! We also took a quick walk late this afternoon. Instead of hauling out the stroller, we decided to try the baby carrier. Much to our surprise...Laura loved it. She was able to suck on the front of the carrier the whole time and she was not bothered at all by the blanket on her head (an attempt to keep her warm). Our last foray was to dinner with the American family staying at a hotel down the street. They are adopting a little girl from the same orphanage as Laura. We had a great time eating pizza at Archie's (a local pizzeria). It is always funny trying to order at restaurants when we don't speak Spanish and the waiter doesn't speak English...lots of hand motions and repetition! We had a great time, though, and are enjoying spending time with another family from the States. The building that Shawn and Laura are standing in front of is a huge spa that is decorated for Christmas that we passed on our way to dinner. Overall, it has been a great first week here in Colombia. We haven't heard anything about how the judicial process is going for us. Hopefully we will get some updates next week. We are just trying to be patient and let everyone do their jobs. It won't make anything go faster if we are constantly bugging people to tell us the latest news. We are looking forward to getting out to explore more of the area this weekend and it looks like we have found an English speaking church to attend on Sunday. We'll keep the blog updated this weekend and we hope you all have a great weekend, too!

A slow day in Colombia...

We didn't do a whole lot today. We were supposed to have a meeting with the orphanage director this morning but it was postponed. Shawn and I are both fighting some sort of cold, but Laura is doing a lot better. We made a quick trip to the mall and had some ice cream. Fortunately, we decided to take a cab home since the weather changed very suddenly and we had quite a storm. We also got a visit from the American family we met the other day. It looks like we will be able to do quite a bit with them in the upcoming weeks. This picture was taken this morning...the hat cracked us up!! The rest of the pictures are just some of our favorites from the day...enjoy!!

Exploring our neighborhood

After yesterday and never leaving the room, we decided that today we would do some exploring. Before we got ready to go, we decided it would be good to see how Laura did in her stroller. As you can tell, she took to it like a fish to water. Before we left we needed to give Laura some fruit. We are really trying to follow the orphanage schedule for now and at 10:00 Laura gets fruit. Yesterday I tried to give her banana baby food from the US but she would have none of it. Today I just smashed up a banana and Shawn fed it to her. It takes about 3 times to get it to stay in her mouth but then she seems to really enjoy it. We finally got everyone ready and hit the street. As we were leaving, we had another family staying here take our picture outside of our hotel. Everything is very secure here at our hotel and we feel very safe both inside the gates of our hotel as well as in the surrounding neighborhood. Our plan was to stop by the bank and go to the grocery store. I have been craving American food...I even got a Pizza Hut pizza last night for dinner. We decided it would be nice to have some comfort food in the room when we are needing a pick-me-up...oreos, pringles, microwave popcorn, and Heinz ketchup (in a plastic type bag)!! We also found a really cool store selling lots of Colombian stuff. We will take another trip there to buy some things to bring home. After our walk it was time for some lunch and playtime with daddy...as you can tell she loves spending time playing! We also were able to meet another American family that is staying at a hotel nearby. The husband stopped by to say hi and introduce himself. It looks like we are going to go out with them on Saturday night to dinner and some sort of horse show...I don't really even know what that could be, but time with another American family will be nice! We had plans to go to the park after Laura's afternoon nap, but the weather looked a little iffy, so we decided to stay closer to the hotel. We just walked a few blocks to check out a Mexican place we might try for dinner one night and we were also able to find another shopping district. It probably seems funny to see me in short sleeves and Laura all bundled up with a blanket. The people here in Colombia think that they have cold weather...even though it is close to 70 during the day. They frown upon kids not being kept warm. We even saw a baby today with a hat, gloves, and winter coat on...and I was sweating in my short sleeves!! We ended the day with a little tummy-time practice. This is something we don't think Laura got before she came to us. She is making improvements already but we have started putting something soft under her head for when her head crashes to the floor...which it does every 15 seconds or so!! So far, we are really enjoying being parents. She has a very sweet personality and when she smiles she lights up the room. She sleeps like a dream...3 naps during the day and about 8-10 hours at night. We couldn't ask for a better baby. Her cold is getting better and the medicine seems to be helping...she especially likes when we come at her with the nasal syringe!! We haven't heard anything about how the judicial process is going. We have another meeting tomorrow with the orphanage director so she can see how we are all adjusting to each other...maybe we will find out more then. Thanks for all your love and support!!