What can I say about today? It was kind of a hard one, mostly for the two older boys. I think they are just plain ready to be home. Plus, it is a hard transition for the two of them to suddenly have a new two-year-old in the family. Well, not really "suddenly" as this has been in the works for such a long time, but it was like one day they had never met him, then the next day they played with him for about an hour, and the next day he is their brother and is with them all the time. It is a big transition when you are used to things being a certain way, and then they are big time different. They do love him, that is clear to me, but there is a lot of togetherness on this trip with very little down-time for them. It is a hard thing for adults, so of course it is going to be challenging for kids. I try to soothe feathers as best I can, and distract them as best I can, and try to remember to praise them when I catch them doing something good, but it is something that is going to take time before we all find our new normal.
One supremely nice thing though is that there are plenty of absolutely adorable moments involving the three boys, and when I see them it is like a glimpse of heaven. The three of them have been loving to run around on the terrace together and play hide and seek or some sort of mob run where they seemingly make as much noise as possible. Sometimes Noah will grab Erik or Mario's hand to walk with them, which is precious. Mario and Erik are usually so quick to point out when Noah is sad about something or wants something or doesn't want something. Noah wants to be around them so much, it is obvious he thinks they are awesome. Erik loves to get Noah a banana in the morning, and Mario is quick to grab Noah's hand when he gets close to the steps. They are all three good boys, and I know it will all work out with time, patience, encouragement, and a lot of prayer.
Ileana drove us to the zoo this afternoon, which was a fun diversion. It is not like our zoo at home, but it was something, and we saw several animals that we had never seen before: several types of birds, a very heavy looking tapir, lots of types of snakes, and many zoo standby's: a lion, some jaguars, rabbits, deer, monkeys, raccoons, peacocks, and some others. We had a monkey incident: one monkey was walking around on his own around the zoo and just walked right up to us and on down the path. Ileana happened to mention a funny story involving another family who was at a resort town, and there were monkeys running loose there too. As often happens, those monkeys would take things that weren't hidden away, and these ones apparently had good taste and would try to take jewelry, cameras, phones, etc. One of our boys was especially nervous that this monkey would come and take the camera right out of my hand, and was oh so much happier when the monkey was in another part of the zoo. I won't say who was nervous: what happens at the zoo stays at the zoo.
The zoo is located in a park near the top of a mountain called El Picacho, which was maybe thirty minutes drive from our hotel. The park also has a large statue of Jesus, Cristo Picacho, overlooking the city, some playgrounds, and a replica of some Mayan ruins. It was great to do something new for the day. The views of the city below were simply gorgeous. Mario, Erik, and I walked to the top of the Mayan ruins replica, which was neat too, though I definitely had a hard time getting my size ten feet on those narrow steep steps. It was a good thing Jerry and Noah stayed on the bottom or we might have had some skinned knees to deal with.
More adventures tomorrow!