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Carrie Rodriguez 
Friday, July 30, 2010
Up early to get ready and make toast for the girls for their trip home. Victoria performed her “Beauty from Pain” sign language song for us; first time Andres and Adrianna were able to see it live. We had intended to watch her last night, but…glad we had time this morning. All goes well from getting them up, coffee from Chica for each of them, and Diego buckled and on our way. Cesar stayed home to help with Isabella while Chica conquered her house cleaning. I was selected by Cesar to go with the girls to make sure all went well for them.
By the way, Isabella was almost turning over for us. She has accomplished the task quite by accident before we arrived. She probably could have shown us her newest trick, but we have all been holding her so much she has not had time. Her hands are still a fascination to her as she grasps toys hanging from her carrier and actually gets them to her mouth. And she is gurgling cute sounds more often, too. It is apparent in the couple weeks we have been with her that she is in better command of her fine motor skills daily. And just as a point of amazement, that baby knows how to persist in her cry. She can go on for several minutes while she is lying down after being fed; she will pause if you walk by and make eye contact with her. She stops, smiles, kicks her legs and waves her arms and waits. If you don’t pick her up she will start her cry again. Very smart child, she is.
So we got to the airport in record time, parked on our first swing through the parking lot and were off to check in bags. The process is wait in line to be directed by airline staff to the appropriate window. The girls were next and the lady says the plane is overbooked, would they like a flight tomorrow and a $1000 voucher each? I had been entertaining Diego and needed to hear the offer again. Actually, yes, we would like that; you have two takers. 20 minutes later we had vouchers in hand with 70euro for 2 meals and were sitting in a café enjoying breakfast. They still have 40euro for breakfast tomorrow before they leave. It was all so nice (with the exception of the employee who had to take back one fruit salad and get an extra croissant because I was not able to explain well in English what we wanted.) It was odd getting out of the parking lot. A full 6euro for the short time we were there (almost $10) and thought we may not get out before the ticket expired because of the traffic in the lot. A couple cars were loading and blocking the lanes, a couple were unloading and blocking the lanes and one guy jumped out AT THE EXIT to go buy a ticket to get out…he ran down the lot and we were not sure he was going to be able to physically complete the task. But he did return, handed the ticket to the driver of the vehicle and trotted across the street where the driver came to switch out with him and there they also blocked the street, but at least we were no longer waiting to use the parking ticket. They give you about 15 minutes to get to your vehicle and exit the lot in addition to the time you parked. If you don’t exit in time, another ticket must be purchased. I wonder how difficult this must be with all automated machines (no human in sight).
Got home and left the girls in the car to surprise Cesar and Adrianna. Andres started talking with Adrianna about heading to Dacha for the afternoon if the weather was ok and perhaps waiting till tomorrow when they would have more gas rations availale [if you buy gas in town it is almost 3 times as much because of the taxes which are charged]. They had never gotten near their limit before…And in walk Andreina and Victoria. Adrianna heard their voices and looked at me, then Andres, and smiled, just wondering what was going on. She liked the change of plans. Then Cesar walked out after his shower and passed Andreina holding Isabella, stopped and walked back to see her again…He also liked the new plan for the day. Of course there was teasing that the girls being here made it impossible for us to get to the train for Paris on time and we only had the 4 tickets, etc. Then it was changed to heading to Italy to do more shopping which we could not do now because they were still here.
What did we do with the extra day? It had been a very long, sleepless night for many of us and that resulted in a mass nap. We got Diego out to the playground, Cesar through a few more chapters of “23 Days” about the Tour de France and lunch at home for all.
Andres and Adrianna took the girls out for dinner and Cesar and I stayed with Diego for a fun night at home including jello, funny baby videos on the internet and bath time. It all went well until he realized his parents were not home and he missed them. What? It was only 8pm, too. So after a couple minutes, I got him up and let him eat some requested cereal and a glass of milk, lay back in his bed and let him look at a book with his light on for a couple minutes. This was about the time his family returned and he got another ½ hour of attention and reassurance.
With the return of the kids came “Clash of the Titans” and the hopes of an evening watching it. Pretty sure I will head off to sleep for the reason it is not starting till 10:30 and sleep tonight now may be worth more than the movie.
The weather is expected to be mostly clear tomorrow. If we get the girls off as expected, we may be heading to Dacha for the afternoon. It is an emotional experience we are looking forward to. Thanks to a couple FB contacts, our house will be secured an additional night and the girls will be driven home on the right day. God brought us through this day and we thank Him as we look to tomorrow, too.
Up early to get ready and make toast for the girls for their trip home. Victoria performed her “Beauty from Pain” sign language song for us; first time Andres and Adrianna were able to see it live. We had intended to watch her last night, but…glad we had time this morning. All goes well from getting them up, coffee from Chica for each of them, and Diego buckled and on our way. Cesar stayed home to help with Isabella while Chica conquered her house cleaning. I was selected by Cesar to go with the girls to make sure all went well for them.
By the way, Isabella was almost turning over for us. She has accomplished the task quite by accident before we arrived. She probably could have shown us her newest trick, but we have all been holding her so much she has not had time. Her hands are still a fascination to her as she grasps toys hanging from her carrier and actually gets them to her mouth. And she is gurgling cute sounds more often, too. It is apparent in the couple weeks we have been with her that she is in better command of her fine motor skills daily. And just as a point of amazement, that baby knows how to persist in her cry. She can go on for several minutes while she is lying down after being fed; she will pause if you walk by and make eye contact with her. She stops, smiles, kicks her legs and waves her arms and waits. If you don’t pick her up she will start her cry again. Very smart child, she is.
So we got to the airport in record time, parked on our first swing through the parking lot and were off to check in bags. The process is wait in line to be directed by airline staff to the appropriate window. The girls were next and the lady says the plane is overbooked, would they like a flight tomorrow and a $1000 voucher each? I had been entertaining Diego and needed to hear the offer again. Actually, yes, we would like that; you have two takers. 20 minutes later we had vouchers in hand with 70euro for 2 meals and were sitting in a café enjoying breakfast. They still have 40euro for breakfast tomorrow before they leave. It was all so nice (with the exception of the employee who had to take back one fruit salad and get an extra croissant because I was not able to explain well in English what we wanted.) It was odd getting out of the parking lot. A full 6euro for the short time we were there (almost $10) and thought we may not get out before the ticket expired because of the traffic in the lot. A couple cars were loading and blocking the lanes, a couple were unloading and blocking the lanes and one guy jumped out AT THE EXIT to go buy a ticket to get out…he ran down the lot and we were not sure he was going to be able to physically complete the task. But he did return, handed the ticket to the driver of the vehicle and trotted across the street where the driver came to switch out with him and there they also blocked the street, but at least we were no longer waiting to use the parking ticket. They give you about 15 minutes to get to your vehicle and exit the lot in addition to the time you parked. If you don’t exit in time, another ticket must be purchased. I wonder how difficult this must be with all automated machines (no human in sight).
Got home and left the girls in the car to surprise Cesar and Adrianna. Andres started talking with Adrianna about heading to Dacha for the afternoon if the weather was ok and perhaps waiting till tomorrow when they would have more gas rations availale [if you buy gas in town it is almost 3 times as much because of the taxes which are charged]. They had never gotten near their limit before…And in walk Andreina and Victoria. Adrianna heard their voices and looked at me, then Andres, and smiled, just wondering what was going on. She liked the change of plans. Then Cesar walked out after his shower and passed Andreina holding Isabella, stopped and walked back to see her again…He also liked the new plan for the day. Of course there was teasing that the girls being here made it impossible for us to get to the train for Paris on time and we only had the 4 tickets, etc. Then it was changed to heading to Italy to do more shopping which we could not do now because they were still here.
What did we do with the extra day? It had been a very long, sleepless night for many of us and that resulted in a mass nap. We got Diego out to the playground, Cesar through a few more chapters of “23 Days” about the Tour de France and lunch at home for all.
Andres and Adrianna took the girls out for dinner and Cesar and I stayed with Diego for a fun night at home including jello, funny baby videos on the internet and bath time. It all went well until he realized his parents were not home and he missed them. What? It was only 8pm, too. So after a couple minutes, I got him up and let him eat some requested cereal and a glass of milk, lay back in his bed and let him look at a book with his light on for a couple minutes. This was about the time his family returned and he got another ½ hour of attention and reassurance.
With the return of the kids came “Clash of the Titans” and the hopes of an evening watching it. Pretty sure I will head off to sleep for the reason it is not starting till 10:30 and sleep tonight now may be worth more than the movie.
The weather is expected to be mostly clear tomorrow. If we get the girls off as expected, we may be heading to Dacha for the afternoon. It is an emotional experience we are looking forward to. Thanks to a couple FB contacts, our house will be secured an additional night and the girls will be driven home on the right day. God brought us through this day and we thank Him as we look to tomorrow, too.
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