Sunny Tuesday

So, yesterday was very hard on me!  It was difficult saying "good-bye" to mom and dad but we know we will see them soon!  It was also a pretty dreary day here so that didn't help with my mood.  We hung around the apartment and after the rain, took a little walk in the small path that runs behind our apartment complex.  The path is very small and fenced on both sides to keep others out.  It's at least somewhere that Gustavo can go and run.  There is a small play area that has monkey bars, a swinging bar, and rings that can occupy Gustavo for awhile.  We ended up spending almost 1.5 hours down there.  We may have also made a friend as a lady walking her dog stopped to talk with us.  She is in one of the other buildings and is here from Miami on her own and has been here 2-3 months.  The best part is that she speaks English!  She told us about a family party that will be happening on June 2nd and is going to help us get signed up.  She also has a cousin Gustavo's age that speaks English so maybe they can get together some weekend.  I am not holding my breath and won't be stalking her but am hoping to meet up again.

Today is a sunny day so we will have lunch down by the pool and hang out for awhile.  Tuesday is fruit day at the grocery store so we'll head there afterwards to kill some time.  I need another bottle of my favorite wine, too :)

I'll post later about the last few weeks but wanted to give an update on the boys.  David continues to be a happy baby but when he is unhappy, everyone will know.  He sleeps ~11 hours a night (all through the night) and always takes a morning nap for ~2 hours.  If he's had an active day, he'll also take an afternoon nap but usually he skips this.  I think we could start moving his nap to late morning/lunchtime but it's easier to just do the morning nap here.  He still takes 3 bottles a day.  Yesterday, he finally figured out the sippy cup!  While my parents were here, we tried but he couldn't figure out how to suck on the hard nozzle.  Yesterday, he kept trying and eventually, he got some water out.  I am going to start putting his afternoon bottle in the sippy cup to get him used to it.  I can't believe he is almost 1 year old.  It will be nice to be done with the bottles and formula!

David loves Gustavo and his face just lights up watching Gustavo run around!  It is so cute to see.  He also loves music, cartoons and books.  I bought a Spanish farm book that we read every night and his face just lights up when he sees the animals and hears the noises.  He babbles and points the entire time I am reading it.  Sohrab sent down Good Night Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar and he also loves reading those.  I can't wait until we are home so we can introduce him to more books.  David walks very well holding onto our hands and also walks around the furniture on his own.  Every once and awhile, I'll catch him standing next to the couch with no hand on it.  When he hears music, he tries to dance and likes to raise his arms in the air so we should play more music when he is next to the furniture so he can work on standing on his own.  He is so mobile and goes everywhere in the apartment.  He's a very fast crawler and loves to climb the one step going up to the washing machine and just learned how to get himself down from there.  He is a toothless wonder.  We keep thinking he is teething but nothing so far.  Whenever I mention teeth (or los dientes), he also sticks his hand in my mouth to feel my teeth.  We measured him the other day and he's still ~27 inches.  It would be nice if we had access to a scale to see how much he weighs now.  He has a little beer belly but also has the little bird legs to go with it.  His hair is really filling in.  I just went through older pictures of him and can't believe how much he has changed since we picked him up 9 weeks ago.  Little kids and women are always drawn to him wherever we go.  Everyone is also either commenting about David or Gustavo so we attract a lot of attention with them both.

Gustavo is such a good helper.  I can't believe he is not even 5 yet as I think he has grown up so much since being here and being a big brother.  He does so much on his own now.  He takes his own showers, picks out his clothes, gets dressed and brushes his teeth by himself.  We are lucky that he has never been picky with food as it's so easy to go anywhere to eat and he eats everything I make.  He loves watching Spanish cartoons and usually after getting dressed, he watches these while David naps.  It's funny how into these cartoons he is.  Hopefully, he is picking up more Spanish as he watches these.  I am glad that he was able to see the Avengers with Papa Pres in 3D last week!  He loves the avengers and during his downtime at night watches these cartoons on "Dick's phone".  Thanks Dick for loading all of these for Gustavo!  He really loved the movie and I hope to go see it again with him after granny comes here next week.  Gustavo is really good for David but can be jealous (of course) at times when David is getting more attention from other people.  He is really good when it is just the 3 of us but acts up more when others are around.  He struggled when Sanaya and my parents were here but by the end of their visits did a lot better.  He enjoyed playing on my mom's iPad (may need to be our next big purchase) and reading books on it with her.  I love watching David and Gustavo play together!  The big belly laughs from David are so sweet!

I feel the most sorry for Gustavo as he really needs some friends to play with and interact with.  The playground at our apartment has been closed since we moved in.  No one seems to know what they are doing or how long it would take.  We were hoping to spend a lot of time there and I was also hoping that he would meet some friends there.  The project finally seems to be moving along so maybe they'll get done this week.  Lilliana called today and said she would call a Kindergarten here to see if we could get Gustavo in there.  She just called back and said they have room as the afternoon class only has 9 kids.  We are going to go look at it tomorrow.  I think it would be nice for him to be around other kids and be able to play.  I don't know if I want him going every day but at least a few days a week would be great for him.  I am sick of going to the 2 malls for entertainment so then we could cut out a few mall days.  I finally had to tell Gustavo yesterday that he wouldn't make it home for his last days of preschool.  He was sad but I promised him a lot of play dates with his friends this summer.

I am really hoping that we can be home for David's 1st birthday!  So, the boys are good and I am feeling much better today.  I am so glad that Granny will be able to come next week!  I wasn't looking forward to spending another 2-3 weeks on my own so it will be nice to have Granny here.  Thanks for all of the nice comments and emails yesterday!  It really helps to hear from everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the great weather back home!  More pictures and updates to come soon....