I'm sorry but...

...I have the cutest kid on earth. I know this is probably hard for some of you parents to hear, but its true:) And he's absolutely addicted to a Jack Johnson/Curious George video online that he watches oh...15 times a day!


Things have returned to normal for the most part here in Cochabamba. We went to the orphanage in Frutillar last weekend to take some of the kids to play soccer. We encountered a herd of cows and bulls on the walk to the soccer field (because why WOULDN'T we??) and one of the sheep we brought along got a little too close and was kicked 3 feet into the air by a bull (it recovered quickly). Other than that things went fine and it was a good afternoon. The girls are fascinated with Jude and love playing with him:) At one point, Ted asked me how to say "team" in spanish and I told him I thought it was "tema." He ran around yelling for the kids to switch up and create new teams, and we later discovered when we looked it up that tema means theme...hence the bewildered looks he received. Things stick in our memories better when there's an awkward story surrounding it, which seems to be the way we're learning Spanish: through humiliation. Yesterday, Ted was talking about what he thought was a half-brother, but he was saying "half man" instead. That sort of thing.





Saturday we went back to Frutillar and set up a projector and watched Kung Fu Panda with the kids, and yesterday we were pleasantly surprised to discover a new holiday: Dia del Peaton (Pedestrian Day). No cars are allowed on the streets in the city and everyone could wander in the streets with their strollers and skateboards and big wheels and whatever they wanted. Even though Jude was in his stroller most of the time, it was SO much nicer pushing him in the streets, especially when sidewalks look like this:

We walked to our friend/landlord Ana's house downtown and had lunch with her family on the roof of their building. It was great meeting the rest of her family and Jude hit it off with her younger nephews. Cochabambinos are so warm and welcoming, and this shines through so much in their food and hospitality. Ana is moving to La Paz in January, so we have to soak up as much time as possible with her before she leaves. We'll still see her at least once a month after that, but not for leisurely lunches like today:( The walk home was great! This picture of me strolling Jude doesnt look too exciting, but it is to us! This is one of the busiest intersections we walk through on a daily basis. It's right by our house, and traffic is bad here and we basically risk life and limb to cross the streets when stoplights are just a suggestion and motorcycles do their own thing most of the time. So, it was a big deal to stroll across the street right there:) If you blow up the picture you can see a little row of blue shacks in the median up ahead of us. That's "Las Islas" and its a really popular area every night. Around 6pm they all open up and grill all kinds of food, and that whole area is clogged with people until late at night. We're lucky to live right across the street from it, and normally eat "on the street" there (the infamous cow heart kabobs) about once a week when I dont feel like cooking. It's delicious, but makes the dog problem in our area pretty awful...Ted and I have woken up several times a night this week by howling dogs outside our building (hungry? bored? full moon? no idea). We've been sleeping with a mound of oranges on my nightstand to throw in their general direction when it gets bad (please don't call PETA, I said "general direction!"). I actually woke up on the living room floor on Saturday morning...the howling was so bad that Ted got me up and led me to a makeshift bed he made for us using the guest room matress, a little further from the noise. Jude sleeps right through it. It seems to be calming down though, and Ted must agree because I noticed he made a smaller pot of coffee this morning:)


And here's Jude after the stroll home, asleep and clutching his beloved fly swatter. They're his favorite toys right now, and instead of using old ones, we've been buying new ones for him to play with. This particular one is his "travel swatter" as it came with a larger green version that's more appropriate for home use.

He's 15 months old now and so much fun. He teeters around the house with his swatter, giggling and making us laugh:) I haven't seen him crawl in a while so I think the walking is here to stay. He's gone cold-turkey off the "baba" and drinks his milk from his sippy now, and has taken a much greater interest in his books lately. He loves fish so we bought him two at the Saturday market which now live in our kitchen (please don't die!) and we point at family pictures around the house and say names every day. He especially loves looking at Memaw:) He doesn't really throw tantrums, but when he doesnt get his way, he instead looks genuinely hurt and puts his head in his hands and cries quietly, and a kiss usually solves the conflict, bless his heart! When I put him down for a nap this morning, I caught myself walking away from his bedroom half-smiling and shaking my head...I just love that boy so much. God gave us a good one:)








He keeps getting hurt, though. This newfound walking equals newfound face-battering. Last week he fell at the orphanage and busted his lip, and you can see in the same picture a healing cut over his eye where he got caught between a chair and the wall and fell. On Pedestrian Day, we decided to let him be a pedestrian, and he tripped on the street and landed on his face, as seen in Exhibit B. I suppose he is a toddler, and he is a boy, and I'll just have to get used to the bumps and bruises, right?