Relaxing day #2: ping pong & pool

Friday June 21, 2024 -Anapoima, Colombia-

Repeat. Much like yesterday. The kids ( our big ones) were all excited for challenging the adults at ping pong. So competitive! Breakfast first though and they went to “warm up” while the adults dealt with the smallest one. Peanut was a bit fussy again. I think he was up 3 times last night. He has no tolerance for a wet diaper so that’s always an easy one. He was also congested so we needed to give him some nose drops to help clear him up. There were also som psych birds outside raising a racket across the compound. I told Claudia that Colombian owls are stupid because they don’t even slightly resemble a “HOOO!”. I don’t know what kind of teradactyl birds those were but they hang out in groups and they don’t sound very bright. I’ll see if I can’t get a recording of these geniuses communicating for future posts.

Ugh, this is an amazing place to plop. I maaaaayyyyy have fallen asleep in the shade yesterday after everyone went back in the house. Only thing out there was me and the birds chirping…not the psycho ones from last night!

Yeah, so the kids went to get the ping pong table warmed up but after breakfast, lil dude is in the habit of taking another nap after only being up for a couple hours. I don’t remember this schedule with my other monkeys but, ok.

Claudia went up with them to abuse them on the ping pong table and they all went in the pool. I sat back & plopped and read a new book that I’ve just started that a friend of our wrote.

Eugene Fournier’s “Still Breathing”. I’m about a quarter into it and really enjoying it. It’s about a widow who gets a “calling from God”. I put quotes around it because of her uncertainty that it is God that’s calling to this far fetched mission to Uganda to help a school set up a library. Honestly, I’ve been having trouble putting it down. Easy read and very smooth.

Our friend Fournier’s book. Good stuff.

Anyway, by the time peanut woke up, everyone was coming back to the house. Never mind, I got his suit on, bottle warmed, and we head up. Unfortunately, peanut & I were only in the pool for 5-minutes and we were called to lunch. Bummer! After lunch, nap time for the lil dude but he LOVES that water! The afternoon we’d try it again.

But we took advantage of nap time to wreck my kids at ping pong. Actually, Nani beat me 2 of 3 to be champ. THEN Santi challenged us him against a Nani -Papi team and took us down to the wire! I think we won 21-19. He has been doing really good. There are no pictures of these beat downs thank goodness. In my match with Nani, I may have run to her side of the table to tackle and beat her up. Lots of screaming and laughing. She had it coming because that 14-year old gets pretty lippy.

then, next thing you know, time passed and peanut was up and made a cameo at the ing pong table.

Look at the focus and determination in lil man’s eyes! Is “Eye of the Tiger” playing in anyone else’s head?

Bottle down and it was the return of Andre the Cranky,, Captain of the USS Peanut (the star of this blog) in the pool combatting his nemesis, the much feared & maligned Curly Haired Pickle-Shark, Santi the Horrific (who we coaxed back into the pool for these battles).

Epic battles were waged with splashing and giggling. There’s no laughing in sea battles!!!!! Kids! Pfft! They don’t know how to do it!

Don’t trust the pickle shark smile. He’s vicious! But the calm cool demeanor of Captain Andre is smoldering & intense. Unblinking and resolute! These battling nemesis’ will have a lifetime of adventure together! The dork in the middle is only a facilitator of shenanigans and has a non-speaking role in the picture.

But how quickly these battles are it out of a man. Fun was had but all good times shall end, interupted again by required naps. Andre and I headed back into the house to rest for another battle another day. We’ll see you again you fierce curly haired pickle-shark!

Due to the rain last night (oh, yeah, it rained last night and resolved our drying laundry), but now there are more mosquitoes. This evening will be spent indoors. As I type, I’m surrounded by my gorgeous family listening to music. Mami is paying bills and doing that type of fun stuff and you know what I’m doing…the kids are on the floor playing with the peanut.

My princess really loves this little boy! Great helper!

How’s this for live action photo. My feet in the shot? You’re welcome but with authenticity, there is always some ugliness & truth.

After this post is published, back to my book. Thanks Mr. Fournier!