It's been quite a week

When we last left you...we were heading into Sunday and a trip to the flea market.

We did go to Usaquen on Sunday. It took Grandma Dawn and I almost 90 minutes to walk from the new apartment to Usaquen. The new place is far enough north that we had to walk south to the Cyclovia route, and then across Calle 116. We met Julien and Grandma Ana at the square in Usaquen. They took a taxi and arrived well before we did - they even had time to catch part of mass at the church on the square. It was so late by the time we were all assembled that we had an early lunch before starting our shopping. We enjoyed the flea market. It's filled with hundreds of stalls of artisans and vendors selling everything from lunch to jewelry to textiles and toys. Even if you don't buy anything, it's worth the trip. We had never been there in the afternoon, so I don't know if this happens every week, but we saw a music/dance group who performed in the market. Neither of our kids liked them at first - too loud, guy in scary costume - then Esteban decided he liked the ladies in the pretty dresses :)

Monday, Julien's last day with us, we walked to Unicentro (a big mall) to finish our last bit of souvenir shopping for Julien and Ana to take home. And we finally got our empanadas for lunch! While we were there, it started to pour rain, so we took taxis back to the apartment.

Julien's and Ana's taxi came for them at 6:00am on Tuesday. We were very sad to see them go. It's been so fun having 2 abuelas here! And we miss Julien very much. It's a good thing we have a Vonage phone here in the apartment (free calls to the US), and good wireless Internet for Skype! We spent Tuesday having a relaxing day of regular meals and naps and playing in the park - trying for a "normal" schedule for all of us. Julien called Tuesday evening to say they arrived home safely, and with all their luggage!

Wednesday and Thursday have melded into a blur. Some firsts from those days:

• We discovered that Isabella really likes feeding herself. She has just about mastered getting baby "puffs" into her mouth on the first try. She likes feeding herself so much that she doesn't like to open her mouth for the spoon.
• Isabella also likes to feed herself pandeyuca (bread made from yuca aka cassava and cheese) and french fries.
• There is a sandbox in the park across the street, which required us to get some sand toys for Esteban to play with.
• Esteban has gone pee in the big potty (standing up!) twice! We've been talking about potty training for months, and relaxed all efforts when we knew we were coming to Colombia soon - so this is a big step!
• Sabeth has realized that she may never get anything done (like blogging or watching her DVDs) in the evening if Esteban refuses to go to sleep before 10pm!

It's Friday - we had another low key, low stress day. We've been in the apartment a whole week. It's cold in the apartment! Most homes in Colombia (or at least in Bogota) don't have any kind of heat - and this one is no exception. It's been near 50 at night and only in the mid 60s in the daytime. The apartment doesn't have many outside windows and so we don't get much warming effect from the sun. Good thing the kids have warm pjs and the beds have nice thick blankets on them!