Adventures in the city

We have had the passed couple days free.  No appointments, no place to be at a specific time.  It was nice to just 'hang out'.  J's schedule is pretty regular.  She was on a specific schedule when I picked her up and so I try to stick close to that.  The only major change has been waking up.  She used to have to get up at 5am, as there were many children in her group that all needed to be changed, fed, bathed, etc. to start their day.  Now, she sleeps as long as she wants!!  (And the girl can sleep!!)  She sleeps soundly through the night until about 7:30 (or so) and then wants to just snuggle. (With no where to go this morning, I just brought her into my bed and held her and snuggled. And we didn't get out of bed until 8:30!!!)  You hear no complaints from this Mama, that I 'had' to snuggle with my girl for almost an hour before she was ready to start the day!
We'll see how this goes over when we get home and actually do have to be up and about in the morning!

She LOVES playing outside, which we usually try to do in the morning, when there are a couple other kids out. And she LOVES her bath.(Yes, I have mentioned this before, but baths are a BIG deal!)  I'm so glad she likes the water and cannot wait to see what she does at the beach (and the pool!)  I imagine she's going to be a little fish!!

We ventured to the grocery store on a drizzly afternoon.  She does so well in the stroller and is very patient while I wander up and down the aisles trying to find the things on my list.  I have picked up SO MUCH Spanish in just the short week that I've been here.  I pretty comfortable reading things (at least signs, labels, etc.).  I still feel a little odd speaking it, just because I know I butcher things with my 'used to be Chicagoan now turned Southern - American accent'.  I do feel comfortable 'finding' things in the grocery store and even had to ask someone where milk was!!!

This was our walk back, with 1/3 of the people as morning.

J's first Ciclovia!!

Today, we hit the big mall.  On Sunday's here in C, they have something called Ciclovia, where they close off certain streets for people to walk, bike, run and just be able to spend time out with families.

 There is a road that is just a few blocks from here and leads all the way to UniCentro, a bigger mall with a more store choices and restaurants.  It's about 30 blocks, but as long as the weather is nice, it's not a bad walk. We went in search of new shoes, but no such luck.  Silly girl has little, but wide feet.  Also, since it was my first attempt at walking to UniCentro, I wanted to be sure to be done in time to walk back while it was still Ciclovia.

Mmm, that's some good hamburger!

UniCentro..big mall, lots of stores!

(They reopen the streets late in the afternoon.) We could have tried a few other stores, but we did enjoy our time walking around and had lunch at El Corral.  The best hamburger place in Colombia.  I was told "even better than in the US".  I admit it was a darn good burger! J enjoyed it too...maybe I need to make hamburgers at home..one more food to the list!  

The views are so great.  The mountains stretch all the way from one end of the city to the other on the East.  In some parts there are little villages up in the mountains and in others it's simply trees and rock. I did get a little glimpse of the Monserrate.  It was super far away, but just cool to know that's what it was.  I hope to get to visit it while I'm here.  There are a couple of ways to get there that might be okay with the kiddo.  I'll certainly post about it if we make it there!

It's tiny and a bit blurry, but that's it Santuario de Monserrate.

Someone spotted a dog.  The couple (with the dog) walked along side us for quite sometime and J kept point and looking up at me, pointing and looking.  She loved it!! I hope she's that excited when she meets Chloe!!