No Pequeno.....mucho mucho!!!!

No pequeno...mucho mucho!!!! This is what I heard at lunch when I attempted to give Danni a smaller bowl of ice-cream than Emma had!! For all of you non Spanish speakers I think you can guess what his issue was!! (And YES ice-cream once again!! Emma thinks she is on spring break still. The ice-cream will end this weekend. They will all be mad at me - oh well!) I bought some small plastic bowls for Danni to use becuase he broke one already (sorry Clemencia!!). He ate his lunch in the small bowl no problem but when the ice-cream came out and Emma and Hayden both had bigger bowls he was not having any of that!! His facial expression and tone was just hillarious! He was not happy!! Anyway, it has been yet another rainy day and cooler. We were lucky to have such sunny days last week when we visited the orphanage. We spent 4 days outside getting to know Danni so it would of been a mess if it rained that whole time. Also, we have had a very busy house today. Javier and the two electricians have been in and out all day in addition to the cleaning lady being here all morning. Emma and Danni have watched quite a bit of TV today - bad mommy - but Hayden's schedule was booked today so I had to juggle the kids and all the commotion in the house. We had planned to go spend the day at the mall but that never happened. Oh well, there will be many more days to walk the mall or should I say ride the escalators!! :) The electricians finally left around 4 PM -- we have HOT water!! Danni showered and then Emma did and ALL the lights shut off!! They were off only for 3 minutes and then they came on. It was the entire house so we think it must of been an outage. I quickly showered myself to ensure I got a hot shower with lights!! :) It is 8 PM now and no problems so I think our electrical issues have been taken care of. Tomorrow Emma is going to Skype her class. She is very excited. We plan to spend the day Saturday exploring more of Ecuador. We should have some awesome photos to share. Take care all. Thanks for all the nice emails on how much you like the blog. I am glad you are reading it!! It is a fun way to remember our time here. It is so very special! Sorry - only one picture today. Danni did sleep better last night but he seems to need a little siesta every afternoon. They are extra cute when they are sleeping. :) Adios! Mari

He finally wore his new shoes!

This is a big day for Danni....we bought him new shoes last Thursday and he has refused to wear them but today he put them on wore them outside!! I am going to put the old pair in the closet - hopefully we have conquered one hurdle. Now we just need him to sleep through the night. The first night here he slept straight through until 6 AM but every night since he is up 1, 2 maybe 3 times. He gets up, walks to our room and then cries. We know this is a huge adjustment for him but he could at least then sleep to 8 AM - no he is up by 630 AM!! Then he falls asleep in the cab or even the cart at the grocery store. So other than our major accomplishment of the shoes we didn't do much today. It rained pretty steady until mid afternoon. Then we walked to Megamaxi and bought groceries - all of us went. We did have the manager of our apartment come (Javier - he is a really nice man) and two electricians. They were here for several hours trying to figure out our electrical issues. They laughed and laughed when I told them what was going on. I think they thought I was crazy! In addition to the dryer on lights on dryer off lights off thing we also had a situation with the hot water on lights off hot water off lights on in our bathroom. So they poked around in all the wires and siad they had it fixed but still no hot water. Javier told us that they got this brand new water heater from the United States --- and that ends up being the issue!!! Some thing burnt out on it and was causing issues with other stuff - too technical for me. All I know is that I have most of the lights now but no hot water. I cant even go camping with out hot water!! :) At least I have a flush toilet!! :) Anyway, they had to take the water heater with and will hopefully be back with it tomorrow. I guess no showers tonight and a sponge bath tomorrow AM with boiled water!! We are safe and well so that is all that matters.

I have included a picture of this man doing his gardening here. We are in the city with high rise apartment buildings and many of them have beautiful flowers and shrubs outside their windows - we are talking several floors up. So this guy was out there in the rain weeding his garden!! Later! Mari

Great day...strange evening

Let me start with tonight....dryer on lights work.....dryer off lights dont work....hot water in shower turned on and lights go on.....hmmmmm this is quite interesting. Not all the lights go off - just some so were are okay and are not sitting here in the dark. Shut the breaker off for both the dryer and the water heater and have someone coming in the morning to check it out. Now on to the fun day we had. I again managed to get us out and about with out Hayden's help. We went to a planetarium and a dinosour exhibit which are right next to Parque La Carolina which is where we went on Saturday. I think we were the only people visiting so we got lots of attention. They had a staff person who spoke some English so she became our tour guide. They even played the planetarium movie in English for us. It was made by Planet Earth - Emma loved it. All about what earth, plants and animals will be like in a 100 million years. Danni liked it at first but near the end a strange animal made a loud noise and then he curled up and buried his head into me. Then the dinosours - some of them were animated where they growled and moved. It was pretty cool but it scared Danni. Emma loved it! Emma and Danni also saw that even though the park was pretty quiet there were still a few ice cream venders riding their bikes around. So they had ice-cream before lunch. Then as we were leaving the park Danni saw the airplane that you can play in. It was closed so we couldnt play. Danni didn't quite understand what I was saying and he got upset and started bawling and wouldn't stop! Luckily Santiago called and I had him talk to Danni and he finally stopped crying!! Here I am blond and white as can be with this little Ecuadorian boy screaming his head off!! So glad he called when he did. When we go home of course we also played bubbles. I did a video and will try to upload it to YouTube and include it in this blog. If I cant get it to work I will try to email a link to people. He is a silly little boy and loves to get the laughs!! Even at dinner he likes to be the comedian. He sticks his napkin to his face or looks weird at you until you laugh. He sure fits right into this family! He giggles the hardest when he toots or burps. :) That's it for tongiht! Pray that we get the lights/dryer/hot water what ever it is fixed tomorrow AM! Mari

A cloudy Monday

Today was a quiet day. Hayden had a full day of work. Emma did her school work this morning while Danni and I played. Then we of course all played bubbles for a while. My friend Lisa suggested I look into getting a bubble machine. I think she is right!! After lunch I took Emma and Danni to Megamaxi all by myself. My first trip out alone with out Hayden! He is the one that can speak Spanish - I can speak enough to talk to Danni so I was a little intimidated but I did it!! I got us there and back in a taxi and even ordered ice creams for Emma and Danni. The grocery store of course has a Baskin Robbins and that was driving Emma crazy that she hasnt had a taste yet and we have been here over a week! Danni loves ice cream too so now she has a partner in crime. Nothing else going on today. We have had such nice sunny weather up to yesterday afternoon. It was cloudy most of the day. Another storm rolled in this afternoon. I love watching the clouds roll over the mountains here. They are so cool. So no kid pictures today. Just ones of the clouds. Not much else to say. Tomorrow I think we are going to the park or the mall - depends on the weather. Mari

Week one down...7 to go

Well, we have completed a whole week. It was a pretty awesome week. We met the most awesome little boy and have enjoyed our first week in Ecuador. We know there will be some bumps during this trip but it was nice to have a great first week. Today we visited Old Town Quito. Plaza Grande is the center of Old Town Quito and is surrounded by the Presidential Palace and several beautiful old churches. Mass was going on in the churches so we only could peak in and was not able to take any photos but they were beautiful!! On Sunday's the streets in Old Town Quito are shut down and the community comes and enjoys the day. There are lots of street vendors, artists, food, music and entertainment. It was a lot of fun. Oh, and Winnie the Pooh was visiting Quito too! We have done a lot of walking the past two days of which Danni has walked most of too. So we were not in the taxi but 5 minutes and he was passed out! We got home just in time as a storm rolled in over the mountains. It seems it is always sunny and pleasant in the mornings and the rain tends to come in the late afternoon or evening. Tomorrow...day one for school for Emma. Everyone will be off to bed early tongiht! Oh yeah, Danni wore his new shoes today...for 5 minutes in the house. Maybe tomorrow we will make it out of the house but I better carry the old ones with just in case!! Hasta manana! Mari

Parque La Carolina

We had a really fun day at the biggest park in all of Ecuador today. It is truly HUGE with so much going on from rides, music, food, horses, botanical garden, and an airplane you can play in --- it is endless! We spent 4 hours there.....and my camera ran out of batteries, so not alot of pics today. Sorry! Danni and Emma even rode horses. It was so cool! Maybe next time I will check the camera before we leave!! Danni is settling in well. He was up at 4:00 a.m. calling for Mami. Hayden and I let him sleep in our bed and he went back to sleep almost immediately. He is happy and healthy. Also as we recap the week thought to mention that Danni has never traveled except by taxi. You have to see to believe his skills in calling one. Hayden and I were rolling :) Here is this little guy yelling "TAXI" and waving his arm!! Many adoptive parents have described to us the nightmare of going home by airplane. We have a feeling this will be a non- issue for us as Danni simply love airplanes. Birds too. Hayden would like us to buy some bird that lives 80 years for him. Not going to happen. Emma also continues to do very well though I suspect she is not looking forward to Monday when Hayden takes up being her teacher. They do well together at this , and although an adjustment we are confident she will not be behind when she starts as a 5th grader this fall. We also had some delicious empanada's for dinner tonight!! They were awesome but also fried so that cannot be a staple - only a treat now and then. Buneos noches! Mari

Adios Amigos

Today was Danni's going away party at the orphanage. The kids were so excited for CAKE and chips and candy!! Their eyes were huge with excitement. Oh and all the Sprite too - Cola, Cola, Cola they would chant!!!! The house mother will have her hands full tonight when those kids come off the sugar rush!! It was a nice party. After they pigged out all the kids hugged Danni and said goodbye. We also went around to all the houses of children and passed out suckers and siad goodbye to the social worker and psychologist. It was a sad goodbye for Danni and his house mother but she knows this is best...Danni will understand when he is older. Other than the party we hung home and played. Danni loves to do puzzles and he is very good at them. We also found some more bubbbles! :) Our internet was down most of the day so it was kind of miserable for Hayden who is also trying to work while we are here. It was a system outage so there was nothing we could do but wait. Hopefully everything is fixed. I also spent some time sewing Danni's pants. Hand sewing that is!! OK mom and Nan - quit laughing at me! I am not very talented when it comes to sewing - actually if I can wait I hold on to things until my mom comes to visit and then have her sew them!! :) Hey - we all need our mommies!! Anyway, Danni is a little short so even the smallest clothes I brought with are too long. He still didn't like his new shoes today. Maybe tomorrow. Going to the park tomorrow. It has a little lake with paddle boats that Emma has been itching to ride on. Hopefully the sun will be shining! Some really cool clouds were falling over the mountains tonight. It was so cool looking. I included some pics of it. Mari