Ok, better day today.

Saturday June 29, 2024-Anapoima, Colombia-

Kids were up early and wanted to pool. So while we were enjoying our morning coffee, they were already in the pool. Peanut wasn’t even up yet! No worries, my son who would be freezing in a sauna came back probably 10-15 minutes later cold and done with the pool. The big one was close behind. Weirdos!

Well I talk about all the smiles we get to see in the morning. Today wasn’t as dramatic as other days but still a taste. Funny, Santi has a sense when I’m getting peanut up and just show up. He always wants to change the diaper. I love his effort.

Once peanut was up and we had breakfast, he wound down pretty quick for his nap. I don’t think he slept well last night. We heard a lot of whining and thrashing around. So an early nap wasn’t too surprising. But while he was down, Claudia & I went to the pool and left the kids monitoring the house. The water was beautiful and we were out there for quite a while, in fact, until peanut was done with his nap. Just a lot of mami papi time in the pool. Fixing the world, ya know?

For lunch, we had pre decided to go into town. Formula was low as well as a few other things. Today was probably the most peaceful meal we had with peanut. We kept him in his stroller and he was content drinking water while we ate. We had a bottle with formula prepped for him but wanted to hold off as long as he wasn’t fussing. One great advancement of our peanut today…he held his bottle on his own. That was a huge step forward. Lunch was good. A picture of Claudia’s fried fish just for my mother. Yes, they look back at you but really good!

Wha t you think ma!!! How’s that look? Ugh, so good!

Things were going great. We ended up giving him his bottle and all seemed well until Claudia looked down at the stroller. Lil dude had a severe blowout of his pants! The mess, for lack of better appropriate words, oozed out of his onesie and on to his stroller. Claudia and the kids took off to the car to address the mess while I handled the bill. Honestly, I ended up with the better end of that deal. When I got to the car, he was sprawled out in the hatch back of thencar and serious deep cleaning was happening. Pretty sure Clau was ready to call do a Bio-Hazard team to come take over. Epic, there was poo everywhere! Santi was selected (before I arrived) to clean up the stroller. I wish I could have seen it because he has dry heaving and making a big production. People on the street were apparently laughing at him. I need those videos!

We are currently accepting applications for a “Diaper bag proper”. We are considering moving on from our current employee due to differences in opinion over what a “change of clothes” should be and whether climate should a a consideration. The “blow out catastrophe” as we now call it highlights a problem we’ve had with our current employee. The outside temps yesterday were around 85F with a relatively high humidity. This was evidence by all the people walking around town in swim suits taking a break from their pools. The duty position entails ensuring the bag is packed with adequate number of diapers commensurate with how long we will be out, wipes for cleaning disasters, cream o prevent rashes, and a change of clothing. Though contractually, our employee met the terms we will argue he was wreckless in his clothing selection. Santi has been demoted to stroller guy until his skill level advances.

For the remainder of the day, peanut was diaper man…not quite “Captain Underpants” or “Peter pant-less”. He was supposed to stay in the car with me while Claudia and Nani went to the grocery store to finish our initial purpose for going into town. That probably took longer than it should because it was a holiday and it was nuts in town. When they finally came back to the car, Claudia whispered in my ears that she wanted to stop for “Oblea”, a little treat before going back home. Oblea is a thin wafer cookie for lack of a better word. These were about 6 inches in diameter and they spread Arequipe between two wafers. Arequip is like a very smooth and creamy Carmel with a consistency of a soft butter. Very delicious. The shop we stopped at made everything fresh. So the wafers were made on site along with the arequipe. Looked awesome but the kids opted for ice cream which makes me question their upbringing. They made poor choices. There was however a bit of magic discovered in this ice cream fiasco. Our little peanut, who we struggle with him eating anything, discovered the joys of ice cream! At first, he grimaced in reaction to the cold but after a moment, it was like a piraña attack. What a mess as the picture below will attest to!

At first, a bit reluctant but in the end….

It made his hair stand up on end!

By the way, it as wonderful going for an early evening swim. Though the mosquitoes did go on the offensive, it was still a nice relaxing time with mami. Our time in the pool was short due to the notion that we started to suspect that the mosquitoes had access to snorkels and were coordinating a counter offensive. We left before that could happen.

So nice with remnants of the sunset in the distance.

For my Catholic homies, June 29th, any guesses what national holiday was being celebrated? The Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul! Isn’t that absolutely amazing! I wish we had something like that at home. So awesone! Oh yeah, because the holiday falls on a Saturday, no work on Monday. Ok, by Colombian standards this seemed just like a reason to party a bit but from what I have noticed in my close relationship with Colombia culture over the past 24-years, they don’t seem to need much reason to party.

We need to create our own holiday at home instead of the ridiculous “month” society is currently celebrating, we should celebrate “Sacred Heart of Jesus” month and wear Sacred Heart colors…bumper stickers on our cars! Same with May, Virgin Mary month, blue & white flags and everything! What a better world it would be.

Fantastic!!!