Day in the life with Maria

We are having a great time bonding with our sweet Maria this week. Here is a snapshot of a day in the life!

Her day starts with a huge smile and big hugs for Mama and Papa. Then we take showers. We have managed a pretty good handoff to get all three of us showered using the 3 minutes of warm water and no bath tub. Lots of turning the water off, scrubbing up, and rinsing in hopefully just the right moment to catch the warm water! Maria enjoys eggs, fruit, and/or yogurt for breakfast. This girl loves to get dressed and head out the door! She is the first one to put her shoes on and brings both of us our shoes to get us going.

The first few days we started with a trip to the mall. It was something to do and we always seemed to need one more item from the grocery store. Maria loves to point out every character she finds, from Mickey Mouse to the bear on the toilet paper! She does a great job walking around the city and the mall.

Lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Colombia. We’ve enjoyed exploring the mall food court. This is food that takes around 30 minutes to be prepared, comes in huge portions, consists of much better quality ingredients (size and type), tastes very fresh, and is still around American fast food prices. We’ve also tried some small restaurants as we walk through the city.

Nap time has been hit or miss. We’ve enjoyed keeping Maria’s schedule flexible so if we are doing an activity away from home she can continue to play and have an earlier bed time (not sure the earlier bed time has exactly worked yet).

Yesterday’s adventure was Chicamocha National Park. This was an hour and a half van ride away followed by a 30 minute cable car through the world’s second deepest canyon. The park contains a memorial sculpture, adventures such as paragliding, zip-lining, climbing and repelling an artificial waterfall, and an entire water park! We had a blast.

We have loads of fun playing in our Airbnb apartment living room and saving time for snuggles!! Here’s my girl double fisting a cracker and a piece of bread while watching Frozen.

The day normally winds down with a light dinner, most likely bread/crackers/yogurt/ leftover soup for Maria. More play time, teeth brushing, and we’ve come down to only a few tears during a story before calling it a day!

Every day we experience something new with Maria, from swimming in a water park in the mountains to exploring new foods to letting Mama try out new hairstyles on her. This girl is resilient. She loves quickly, and she isn’t afraid to hold back. We are so excited to continue exploring life with her!

Bonus:

Favorite daddy moments!

• watching Andre put on a stern face while asking Maria to complete something (maybe a bite of food she has halfway eaten), only to turn away and hide a giggle at her ridiculously cute face shaking her head no
• coaching Andre through his first poopy diaper!
• making Maria giggle while he plays with her so lovingly
• Maria excitedly shouting “Papa!!” anytime he returns from anywhere