Parks and Recreation

We've been in downtime mode for a while now and so have been spending much of our time in the local parks, expanding our exploration throughout the city of Bogota.  We found a park that is huge and offers an outdoor gym, complete with machines to massage our tired and aching muscles from our daily calisthenics with Emanuel.  Leah has now skipped the fancy equipment and is opting for resistance training in the form of Emanuel. 

Emanuel imitating his new futbol idol - Falcao

Lord of the Swings

Baby boot camp

We also made a trip to the largest park in Bogota, Parque Simon Bolivar, which has a lovely lake and wonderful views of the nearby mountains.  Emanuel continues to love these park visits and they have become our "go to" activity when stumped for things to do.

Parque Simon Bolivar

 

 

 

Life is good

"Houston do you copy?"

We've had several adoptive families come and go during our stay and all have left their indelible marks on our hearts, both with their shared journeys and with the beautiful new families that we've had the opportunity to witness come together. We continue to patiently wait for further word on getting "Sentencia", and think that it may be next week(?).  We are grateful for the wonderful support we continue to receive here.  The time spent here has allowed us to spend countless hours bonding as a family.

Naptime

Hand Jive with Luisa (French family)

Leah & Emanuel with some of the ladies and babies here at El Refugio

Love,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

King of the Night Time World

Time keeps moving along at a good clip, although we haven't explored much outside our locale since the last post.  Emanuel continues to amaze us with how quickly he is picking up on things.  He is so observant and is learning things so rapidly, it's hard to stay ahead of him.  He uses his powers for some good, but mostly evil.  He has fast hands and keeps us on our toes.

Giggles for Mama

He's has been testing the waters on getting things done the way he'd like them to be. He has met his match with some stubborn adversaries (us), and we've had a few battles over such important lifestyle choices such as;  riding in the stroller instead of being carried, and drinking out of mom and dad's water bottle instead of my sippy cup.  Yes, epic battles over crucial themes.  Throughout our now 3.5 weeks here, we've found that Emanuel comes alive after dark.  He is electric.  It is both adorable and terrifying as we foresee even more epic battles during his teenage years.  Most of our good photos have come during these witching hours.  With his grand exuberance of love and joy during these periods, all previous battles and sins are easily forgiven.  Such is parenthood???

Ready to fly

His favorite book.  In french of all things.

Hide & seek fun

Whaaahaaahaaahaaa!!!!

We did manage to take a day trip to "La Candeleria", which is the old city of Bogota with homes/buildings dating back to the 16th century.  This is currently where many artists and students work and play.  It also is home to the branches of government (senate, parliament and presidential palace).  It was a relatively quick visit for us, but makes quite an impression.  If you're ever visiting Bogota, this is the place to stay as you are immersed fully in it's culture, art and history.

Strutter

Awkward Family Photos entry?  Unenthused presidential palace guard with equally unenthused Emanuel.

Love,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

Singing in the Rain

We are officially on our 3rd week in Colombia.  This past week, almost every afternoon, it has rained.  I know that is paltry compared to the winter our fellow Midwesterners are experiencing this year.  Needless to say, we have been getting a little stir crazy, particularly the "little man".  Over the past few days we took a short trip to la Tagueria, and celebrated Tia Rachel's departure with a picnic at Parque del Chico.  For those non FANA folks, la Tageuria is a Colombian artisan jewelry factory.  This intricate, handmade jewelery comes from the tagua nut.  We had the opportunity to tour the factory and of course purchase some of their wares.  For the FANA folks, rumor has it the ladies from the FANA Buffalo, N.Y. group frequent la Tagueria not only for the jewelry, but for a chance to see the owner's son, who is muy guapo!  Sorry, Jeff had the camera that day and Emanuel was more interested in the pretty colored tagua seeds.

Parque del Chico is a beautiful park within a short taxi ride from El Refugio.  This park formerly was the grounds and house of Pepe Sierra and includes a museum, fountains,  a geese haven, but most notably a British double-decker bus turned cafe.  Emanuel was fascinated with the resident geese and gato.  When it started to rain (on schedule) he repeatedly climbed the double-decker bus stairs and obsessedly consumed his guanabana batido.  He ignored the rain for the most part, but did venture out in it once the cramped confines of the bus threatened his need to explore.

Should I pet the geese??

Hiding from the rain while enjoying a guanabana batido

Lookout world, here I come!!

Up, down, up, down...

I'm melting!

Parque Chico

Tia Rachel is off to Cartagena tomorrow with her friend Kelly from Seattle who is in town for business.  We'll be making the rounds around here and maybe hitting up Mimo's for ice cream.  Routine is not a bad thing.

Emanuel enjoying our favorite arepas at Usaquen market

Mimo's makes everyone smile!

Hamming it up!

Besos y abrazos,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

Babysitter!!!

We've had a fairly action packed few days as we toured the salt cathedral with a Colombian friend of Rachel's (Luis) and went to the botanical gardens today.  The salt cathedral was pretty incredible as a working salt mine has been transformed into an amazing place of worship/tourist site with huge carvings and large cathedral ceilings throughout.  We had lots of "oooh, aaahh" moments echoing through the corridors. Trumping all of this, Tia Rachel watched Emanuel this afternoon so Leah and I could enjoy a Valentine's day happy hour at the Bogota Beer Company. 

Emanuel continues to improve in his car travels and has become very verbal during our excursions.  He continues to be fascinated by the resident pigeons and dogs, but is still too afraid to make an acquaintance.

Emanuel is losing some of his playmates as 1/2 the Krull's left today and the Graber's leave tonight.  We've found that Emanuel likes a little routine, which includes backyard time after meals, 2 walks daily (mix of leisurely strolls with run around time at the park), fairly constant snacks and doing laps through the kitchen/work area of the lovely ladies who work here at El Refugio.  He even buttered them up with little valentines today (courtesy of Leah).

We continue to enjoy what Bogota has to offer and are lucky to have Rachel here to share this time.  It sounds like her friend Luis may generously show us around the city more this weekend.

Guanabana batido mustache vs...

...beer mustache

Salt Cathedral in Zipaquira

Emanuel cruising by a catarata of salt

The family at the botanical garden

Emanuel showing off his baby T

Love,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

Serious Monkeying Around

We've now settled into the period of time between the Bienestar interview and sentencia, where we don't have much official business to attend to.  This should last at least a few weeks as we found out today we were assigned to an "average court" (3-4 wks more in Bogota?).

We've had some fun goofing around with Tia Rachel.  Rachel and I took a bike tour of Bogota, learning a bit about the city, it's history and politics, but mostly dodging traffic and people.  It was really quite fun.  Leah stayed home and enjoyed 1 on 1 time with Emanuel.

Rachel & Jeff touring Bogota

Coffee roaster/cafe stop on bike tour

 We've otherwise have fallen into a nice routine of wonderful El Refugio meals, backyard futbol lessons (taught by Emanuel, free of charge), walks, ice cream breaks and playground hijinks.

Emanuel giving his best "serious face".  We were going to have a competition, but who could top this?

Tonight was 1/2 the members of the Krull family's last night in Bogota, as dad Brian and oldest daughter April leave for Buffalo, NY tomorrow morning.  They will be missed as April and Emanuel were backyard playing buds, competing for soccer balls and to see who could stomp out the most bubbles from the bubble machine (me).  We took some cute pictures of all the kids staying here at El Refugio that hopefully they'll enjoy looking at as they grow up. 

The gang (from left to right):  Emanuel, Avery, Logan, April, Elena

Love,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

Tia Raquelita en la casa

The journey continues...

This past Thursday was a Colombian holiday, so the zoo was closed.  We did not realize this until we made the hour + drive there.  Our trusty guide, Jorge, made an impromptu back up plan and so we visited the salt mine in Nemocon instead.

Emanuel is slowly improving in his toleration for car rides, although his short attention span still makes long trips difficult at times.  Needless to say, Jeff and I are exhausted at the end of every day.

Friday we had our Bienestar interview with the Defender of Minors.  All went well and we now have temporary custody of Emanuel.  Next we wait to be assigned a court (maybe we'll find out which one on Monday or Tuesday next week).  We keep our fingers crossed that we are assigned a relatively speedy one, although we are enjoying our time here.

Saturday Tia Rachel arrived!  She will be here for a few weeks and so should get some quality time in with Emanuel.

We did get to the zoo today with the Graber's and Krull's.  Emanuel enjoys babbling at the animals, most of which he remains quite leery of (and rightfully so).  Each Harris has been growing increasing more confident...Jeff in speaking Spanish (particularly ordering typical Colombian food to devour); Leah in parenting trickery (well timed snacks) and Emanuel in exploring the world (fast feet, fast hands, fast babbling).

Besos y abrazos,

Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

Big Strides

It's been a busy few days and we get the feeling that this is how it's going to be during this adventure, and we're perfectly fine with that.  We're having such a good time getting into a little routine and are enjoying getting to see Emanuel's charming little personality blossom. 

We went to the FANA birthday party yesterday and were very anxious and fearful to see what his reaction would be upon returning there.  It's impossible to know, but he was likely confused and then became very angry.  This obviously broke our hearts to see him react so strongly and it confirmed our worst fears for the day.  Later in the day, we met with his psychologist, Luis, who Emanuel had a close relationship with during his time at FANA.  The meeting went well and Emanuel started to get his smile back.  On the way home, he was so loving and playful that Leah and I knew we had our little guy back.  With this visit, it fully confirmed what a wonderful place FANA is as many of the staff took time to greet Emanuel in a very loving, supportive way.

We had a relatively low key day today.  We had to run a few paperwork errands with our wonderful driver/guide and made 2 trips to the park and 1 for ice cream.  Emanuel is becoming much more confident and brave, initiating climbing up on the playground equipment and taking the slide many times (having a spotter of course).  This is likely the start of some daring acrobatics.  Leah and I will have to be on our toes!

Glow stick party (thank you Graber's) after dinner.  Emanuel with his buddy April.

Tomorrow, off to the zoo.

Love,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel

Rollin' In Style

The one hiccup we had getting into Bogota was leaving the stroller at the airport (sorry Ochocki's, we're still working on finding it!).  We apparently aren't used to traveling with kid gear and never noticed we didn't grab it off the baggage claim belt until we arrived at El Refugio.  We went a few days without said stroller and finally broke down and bought one, as the other kids here seem to really like theirs (snacks and drinks in tow, lounge chair relaxed little tikes).  Emanuel instantly relaxed into stroller mode and appeared pretty happy to be out of the Ergo carrier as were his parents, as sharing sweaty bellies all day long leads to upset people.  We took advantage of car free streets on Sunday as the people of Bogota have what's called "Ciclovia", where the streets are handed over to bicyclists, rollerbladers, joggers and stroller toting families.  We made it to the market and back in approximately 3 hrs, finding this to be pushing the threshold of comfort for Emanuel.  He is such a sweet boy and continues to win the hearts of his parents with each day.  It feels like Christmas morning every time the end of each nap approaches, as we cannot wait to interact with him and see his beautiful smile. 

We were even able to organize a Superbowl party at El Refugio, complete with pizza, chips & cheese and cake.  Sad to say that not much of the game was watched on our part, but it was a blow out anyway.

Today we took multiple walks and made multiple stops at local parks.  Emanuel continues to be enthralled with the pigeons and all things green (plant life).  He is a little leery of dogs and so his relationship with Westy may actually work out well as she will likely ignore him anyway (I'm sure they'll be great pals in due time).  We also stopped at a restaurant for the first time for a sundae, testing the waters on Emanuel's table manners.  I must say, he did pretty well.  It's hard not to behave well though when you have a chocolate covered waffle with ice cream staring you in the face.

Tomorrow is the visit with the psychologist to check in with how things are going.  We feel things are going great so far and so are hoping for a passing grade. 

Love,
Leah, Jeff & Emanuel