Thursday - Botero Museo

Since I have been opening this blog every day with a description of the night before, I guess I will continue with this template.

Last night was cake... end of story.

She awoke this morning around 6:00am and was as happy as a clam. Which if the pattern continues, means we are in for a long night. We'll see.

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Okay first off, if you read yesterday's entry you know that my camera crapped out. So I have no photos for you guys today. (more on that later)

Today started fairly early, Linda decided to set the alarm for 6:30 am, but since we have a built in alarm clock, we, I mean "I" was already up. Linda did get up and got a bottle ready right before going right back to sleep. So Amelia, and I kind of just laid in the bed playing and getting to know one another.

I have made a few observations of this little girl today. I will list them as I go, in no particular order, just as I remember them.

I had Amelia sitting up, and I was sitting indian style. She stayed like this playing with her toys for about 45 minutes. Then she was ready for an actual breakfast of Bananos and a 4 oz bottle of formula.

By this time we were all up, and Linda fed her breakfast.

We had plans to meet with Eduardo at 9:30 to go sight seeing. So around 8:30 we went down and got some breakfast ourselves. We once again met up with James' friend Santiago.

Afterwards, we met up with Eduardo. I asked him if there was anyplace that I could get my camera fixed. Basically they do not have Olympus brand camera's down here at least it is not a popular brand and he told me I would be better off to wait until I got home to fix it. He took me to a place to called "Foto Japon" to buy a disposable camera. They didn't have any and I wound up buying a $34,000 peso camera ($17 U.S.) and a roll of film for our sight seeing tour. Total bill: $24 U.S.

We drove downtown and saw the main part of the city. He took us to the Metropolitan Cathedral. Which is a beautiful 3 or 4 story Cathedral built of aged bricks. It was incredible. We got there just in time for the end of a mass. I hope the images from my $17 camera do it justice.

Right outside the church is Simon Bolivar Park. This park is dedicated to the guy who won indepence from Spain back in 1810. It reminded me of a smaller Union Square Park in Manhattan. It is a park in the middle of the city.

From there we went to the Botero Museo.
Ferdinand Botero is a world famous Colombian sculpter and painter. He is still alive and living in Italy. He is probably the most famous Colombian since Pablo Escobar. Anyway, he makes these giant sculptures of very round and fat people, here is one image that I found on the internet. It was nice walking through the quiet museum.

Okay Observation 1) Amelia loves being in the stroller, as long as you are moving. If she is in it just sitting there, forget about it. She watched everything in that museum.

Observation 2) Amelia is definately comfortable with us now. I noticed in the museum that even if I was across the gallery and I turned to look at her, she was already watching me. When she noticed me looking at her, she would smile and flail those little baby legs and arms. (Some of you may remember when James came home, even on that first day when everybody came over, he was looking for one of us making sure that we were in viewing distance.)

Observation 3) Linda and I both realised this earlier in the week, but I don't think I wrote about it yet. Amelia, really, really loves kisses. When you move in to steal a kiss, she immediately opens her mouth wide, and leans towards your face.
So this morning I put it to a test. I started kissing her, below her lips and above her little chin. She was laughing like a crazy girl. Not only does she lean into you, but her feet and arms start to flail about. It was great.

Right up until Daddy got a small mouthfull of pre digested formula. Now, James thought this was the greatest thing he has ever seen, laughing his little butt off. Laughing that is, until I informed him that whatever splashed off of my face, landed inside his brand new sneakers.

After we saw everything in the museum, we went down to the cafe so Linda could feed and change the baby. Eduardo bought us some refreshments of the Colombian version of a Frappucino made with very strong coffee.

I put mine down on the table and turned to help Linda get settled. When I turned back James was in the process of downing my drink. By the time I stopped him, he basically drank 12 ounces of my 16 ounce drink.

Do any of you know what 12 ounces of espresso will do to a 5 year old? Lets just say that he lasted a long time today before crashing and going through withdrawals that would kill a heroin addict. It is now 10:50 and I think I still hear him moaning.
Actually, I'm just kidding. He handled it okay. He had a belly ache and a wicked poop, but all is fine now.

After the museum, we drove around the city some more, just checking it out. On our way back to the hotel, Eduardo stopped by his friends house to pick up his digital camera so that we could use it for the rest of the time that we are here in Medellin. But he forgot the cable, so tomorrow I will have more digital photos to upload.

We got back, put the baby down for her nap. James and Linda did some homework and I went to the gym for an hour.

The other adoptive parents called and invited us to go to dinner at a local restaurant. So we jumped at the chance. Both of them speak spanish so we felt very comfortable going out without our guides.

We went to what we are told is the best steak place in Medellin. We were able to walk down to the restaurant, it was about 3 blocks away. San Carbon steak house, had menus in spanish or in english so we were set. I must say, I was worried, because the beef here tastes different than at home. Well, this was the best meal that we have had yet. This was like being at Peter Lugers. You could cut this one inch thick steak with a fork. The dinner for 4 adults and 1 kid with beers and margheritas cost about $198,000 pesos. Which after we split the bill came to about $50 U.S.

We walked back and my family went to the poolside restaurant for some desert.

That's it, that was our day.

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Observation 4) When Amelia drinks a bottle of formula, she gets a row of sweat beads that form across the top of her forehead. By the time she is done drinking, and is passed out, she is soaking wet from sweat. Her hair is actually wet.

Observation 5) James tries to make her laugh all day long. Mainly doing those annoying things that 5 year olds think are funny. Well today he figured out that if he sneaks off to her side and jumps in front of her, he could scare the pants off of her. I was about to yell at the kid, when I realized that Amelia laughs every time he scares her. She jumps which makes James laugh, which in turn makes Amelia laugh. Today, James actually laughed so hard because she jumped, that he had an accident. She is absolutely infatuated with him. It's great.

Observation 6) I am absolutely in love....

Hasta Mañana