First Trip to Guatemala - Day 2

Morning is such a wonderful time of day – so quiet, so nice to be warm and cozy in bed, and so nice not to be in a hurry to get out of bed. I had just started waking up when Jim quietly tip-toed through the door from the adjoining room. It was just so neat to be there, greeting the morning as a family. I gently got out of bed – both children were still sleeping. I gently moved Nelson into Vilma’s bed as I thought it might be reassuring for them to see one another when they woke up.

Nelson was the first to stir. Slowly opening his eyes, blinking, changing positions but not quite committing to sitting up – looking at us, looking at his sister. I wondered what this would be like – would they be disoriented, would they be distressed to find themselves with these strange people in this strange room instead of their familiar surroundings?

We quietly reassured him with greetings of welcome – “Buenas dias Nelson. Ti amo.” (good morning Nelson, I love you) and gently rubbed his back. A smile crept across his face when we nuzzled his stomach, we sighed with relief. Slowly, Vilma started waking up and, like her brother, slowly took in her surroundings. “Buenas dias Vilma, ti amo…” accompanied by a gentle rub on her back and tummy. I love this moment – you can see it in the video also – she skirts passed the potential moment of fear and disorientation and after sitting up for a bit, allows herself to sink contentedly back into the pillows with a smile. Ahhh!

Next, we needed to change Nelson’s diaper. “Pantalones succio” (pants dirty?)…”oooh, pantalones muy succio!” I forgot to mention the first diaper change in my summary of Day 1 – and I don’t particularly remember one from the other – they all generally followed the same process which was pretty humorous. Jim had never changed a diaper before and experiencing it first hand brought new meaning to the phrase “shock and awe!” Fortunately, I don’t have a particularly sensitive sense of smell, particularly for bad smells, and I’ve changed plenty of diapers before in all my years of babysitting, so no big deal. But Jim absolutely treated Nelson’s diaper as if it were nuclear waste. He somehow managed to procure a plastic bag from somewhere for each of these events and as quickly as possible, removed the dirty diaper from the premises. Come to think of it, I have no idea where these diapers disappeared to… but they didn’t stay in our room for more than two minutes! Nelson handled these sessions like a trooper – no fussing at all – he was happy to have his diaper cleaned and in no time at all, find himself all nice and clean in a brand new diaper and clean clothes.

After watching her brother get dressed, it was Vilma’s turn. On Day 1, we had elected to keep them in the clothes they were in to avoid alarming them by changing their clothes and to provide some sense of familiarity. On Day 2, their Day 1 clothes were dirty, so it was time to try on something new. I pulled out a brand new outfit and some proper panties for my big girl. I held them up and said “Oooh, bonita! Buena?” She happily nodded. If I recall correctly, she only had a dirty diaper one morning, with just a little pee-pee and I think this was on the first day. The other two mornings she was completely dry and clean – almost ready for big-girl panties all night long!

With Vilma and Nelson properly dressed, albeit in clothes they were struggling to keep on their little bodies, we headed downstairs for breakfast. Our mealtimes fell into the pleasant routine of Jim procuring some “quick win” food to keep them occupied, me holding down the fort at the table, Jim piling food from the buffet onto two plates from which we would all eat and Jim spoon feeding Nelson while I spoon feed Vilma and periodically with us reaching across the table to provide a special morsel of something to the other child that was slightly out of reach from the primary food provider. Again, they seemed to love everything! As our bags of “comida” had already significantly diminished over the course of the day yesterday, I grabbed a couple of little cereal boxes to replenish the supply. We proceeded to open the Frosted Flakes at the table and watched Vilma as she very carefully extracted one after another flake and dipped it into her little packet of butter to eat… “hmmm!”

Our table was placed next to a large group of missionaries who were just concluding their trip. Jim volunteered to take some group pictures for them and they proceeded to ask all kinds of questions about Vilma and Nelson and snapping pictures of our beautiful children. As we were concluding our breakfast, the people at the other table next to us approached us. The family at the other table included two Guatemalan young adults – a young man of 21 years and young lady of 19 - and their adopted parents. They had come to Guatemala to retrace their past and were very curious about our family, which appeared to have some interesting parallels. The young man and young lady were biologically related, but in their case, had been adopted by different families. Somehow, their families learned of one another and encouraged a relationship between the siblings as they grew up. This was their first trip back to Guatemala. They encouraged us to maintain the children’s language and return to Guatemala so our children would know the country of their birth. A very interesting and unexpected encounter… I wondered if they felt any sense of regret about what their life would have been like. Surely they wondered… Too intimate of a question to ask over breakfast, particularly while our children were beginning to squirm. From our limited experience, it was obvious that there were some very nice things about this country… We will need to make sure that our children are given the opportunity to benefit from both worlds. Fortunately, Guatemala is only a short flight from Houston and a beautiful destination… we will find a way.

Given that the clothing we had purchased for the kids had turned out to be far too big and they really did need new shoes, Jim set out that morning to find a children’s clothing store and get some necessities. During this period, the kids and I played in the room. I discovered that they loved being on the balcony. It wasn’t enough for me to pick up just one child to see the view, they both wanted to see it at the same time. I tried holding both of them at the same time, but that consumes a lot of energy quickly – I just couldn’t sustain that position. So, I reluctantly placed the desk chair on the balcony thinking to myself, I’m going to regret this, placed it a distance from the wall and sat both children on my lap. But, predictably, this just wasn’t high enough to see over the wall. I stood up and held one while supporting the other on the chair, but Vilma had a better idea and pushed the chair against the wall and clamored up. I was nervous about this, but kept a close eye while we watched the activity on the street. Again, our limited vocabulary came in handy as we exclaimed over the colors of the passing cars and counted how many white, black, red and green cars we saw. When Jim returned, he had been successful finding shoes but unsuccessful finding clothes. Once again, the clothes were way too big. But the shoes were an instant hit.

The activity we planned for the day was to take the kids to the pool – an obvious favorite destination among the other children staying at the hotel. Last night, I had walked Vilma by the pool and we had dangled our feet into the water, kicking and splashing. I had wanted to build up to the pool and create some positive associations. She asked about “la piscina” (swimming pool) and last night I had answered “manjana.” Even when we finally went to bed, I reassured her again “ci, la piscina manjana”and she seemed excited. With the positive experience with the “piscina chico” (little swimming pool – the bathtub) under our belt, we thought we would try it out.

Back in the room, Jim and I changed into our swimming suits while intermittently playing with the kids. Then, it was their turn. I followed the same process that seemed to work earlier – held up the swimming suits and said “Buena, la piscina!” If my memory serves me well, I believe Nelson wasn’t particularly excited about being changed into his swim diapers and swimming suit and Vilma was upset with me for making him do so. Not quite sure, but what I do remember clearly was Vilma being very unhappy about me taking her clothes off to put her swimming suit on… As soon as we got her clothes back on on-top of her swimming suit, she was okay, but she did not like being changed. With some toys, the bath toys, float vests and sippy cups in hand, we headed down to the pool for our next adventure.

There was clearly some hesitation on the part of Vilma as we headed down to the pool. The pool area was packed with families and children. We managed to find a seat for our things and we sat the children by the edge of baby pool – a shallow area no more than a foot deep. I sat down in the water and proceeded to splash Vilma and Nelson’s feet, similar to what we had done last night by the pool and in the bathtub. Vilma enjoyed this and she even tried to push Nelson’s feet in the water so he could experience this too, but his little legs were struggling to reach the water. After a while of this, we thought we would try to advance things to the next step and tried to lift up Vilma and take the bottoms of her outfit off. Again, she did not like us messing with her clothes. At this point, we decided it really didn’t matter whether she got her clothes wet or not. Next, I sat Mr. Easy-Going Nelson on my lap, as I had done in the bathtub and eventually Vilma permitted herself to be placed in the same position. With each passing moment, they became more comfortable and relaxed and carefully observed the other children who were enjoying the water. I could see them debating to give up the security of mom’s lap when toys drifted a short distance away. I am confident that with more time, they will develop an affinity for the water. All in all, I thought they did great for their first swimming pool experience.

Before we knew it, it was lunch time. We sat at a shaded table beside the pool while Papa went to get some food. The hotel had a festive air that day, with a live band playing local music perfect for the pool and had set up a buffet of traditional Guatemalan favorites – taquitos, tamales, chicken, plantains, rice and for desert, sweet potatoes, cinnamon crisps, fried plantains, donut-like pastries, and a creamy custard. We tried it all. At one point, I made the mistake of feeding Vilma a pepper with her chicken – it was obvious she did not like this, but having tried one myself, I was amazed she didn’t cry – it was hot!

With lunch finished, we headed back to the room and pulled out some new toys. I had brought a Leap Frog toy named Lilly who sings and counts in Spanish and a Leap Frog toy that helps teach colors and matching. We also developed a game where the kids would run across the room from the door to the balcony and land in our arms to be thrown in the air… as one child was being thrown the other would run back to the door with giggles all the way as they ran back and forth and begged “una mas” (one more, again) as they were being thrown in the air. Jim went on a second shopping expedition and was more successful finding some clothes that fit perfectly and Pediasure formula for Jessica.

That afternoon, we rented a pair of strollers from the hotel. We had seen several other families with the same strollers and this sounded like a great idea. The kids immediately wanted to crawl into them and Vilma was very conscious of making sure she was properly strapped in. While we waited for Jim in the hallway, we knocked on the door and said “donde es Pappa?” Jim would open the door and peak out – “Es Pappa!!!” while he was rummaging around doing some last minute supplies gathering and going to the bathroom. For the kids and I, the anticipation was delicious – knock, knock, knock “donde es Pappa?”… and finally, “Es Pappa!” When we were all ready to go we headed downstairs. We went to the poolside and before we knew it, Nelson fell fast asleep. Vilma got out of her stroller and cuddled with me on the lawn chair while Jim got us lemonade. We shared the lemonade and wrapped ourselves in a warm towel that had come straight out of the drier – delicious! After a while, Vilma and I walked some circles around the pool with her in the stroller. Each time we were on the opposite side, I would say “donde es Pappa?” and she would point to Jim! I can tell, she’s gonna love her daddy! She loved watching the other children in the pool and every once in a while wanted to touch the water. After walking several laps, a woman commented, “I just had to stop you and tell you, I’ve never seen anyone look so happy!” A comment we heard repeatedly and couldn’t have been more appropriate – definitely, this weekend represented the happiest moment in my life. I have never known such contentment and joy delighting in every new experience with our children.

After spending some time at the pool, we decided to walk around outside the hotel. Vilma was anxious to see the “calle” (street). We didn’t want to go too far so we basically walked to the end of the block on each side of the hotel. No sooner had we completed our first roundtrip when Vilma was asleep. After getting very little sleep last night and playing with them all day, this was a blessing. Jim and I sunk down on the couch in the lobby, treated ourselves to a latte and relished the moment – tired, but unbelievably happy parents at last!

Looking at our watch, we knew we were inviting disaster. They had fallen asleep around 5:00/5:30… not an ideal time to take a nap. They usually ate dinner at 7:00pm according to Jessica. It was definitely a late nap…. Should we let them sleep through dinner, or wake them up? After seeing how much they ate at dinner there was no way that I thought they could skip a meal.

Finally, we decided to gently wake them up in the restaurant. I don’t know why that sounded like a good idea… as I think about it now, I can’t imagine what we were thinking, but anyway, that’s what we did. First, we woke up Nelson, Mr. Easy-Going. Good choice… it took him a while to get his bearings, but eventually he allowed himself to be pulled out of the stroller, placed in the high-chair and started eating. Now it was Vilma’s turn. I gently called her name. She slowly peeled open her eyes and tried to take in the situation. She was content to sit in the stroller for a while, but as we were approaching the conclusion of dinner, I tried to engage her in eating. “Comida?” “Ci?” As she debated what she wanted, you could see the storm approaching…. Slowly, she dissolved into tears. I picked her up, held her close and walked out to the pool area and rocked her back and forth. She settled down, but each time we started to change positions, she started crying. Jim and Nelson were ready to go and he was starting to squirm. We packed up a piece of bread and some fruit and exited the restaurant.

We went upstairs and walked some circles with strollers in the hallway. We were afraid that if we stopped, Vilma would cry. At each turn-around, one of us would take the opportunity to read the facial expressions and try to decipher the status of things. We even tricked them by keeping the momentum of the strollers but switching strollers so the other could see Vilma’s expression at the turn-about. She was calm, but she wasn’t interested in going back to the room. Jim and I couldn’t help but laugh as we did circles in the hallway thinking that if any of our friends could peer into our predicament they would be laughing themselves silly – ah! Such novices!

After walking around a while, I brought Vilma back to the restaurant and walked by the buffet and asked again, “comida?” This time, an affirmative yes. The buffet was closing down, but while I’m sure I was the target of some glances of disapproval, I went through and got another plate for my little girl – she was going to get her dinner if she wanted it. Jim and Nelson came back to the table to see us with another plate of food. No sooner did Nelson see the food, when he indicated he wanted more also. So, we sat down again while I fed Vilma and Jim fed Nelson, dinner #2. When they were finished, we headed back upstairs with a bowl of fruit thinking Vilma may want more later. As soon as we pulled them out of the stollers, they headed to the bowl of fruit and ate every last bite. Vilma in particular like the watermelon and was very careful about removing all the seeds.

At this point, we were back in good terms and we proceeded with bath time, following the same routine as the night before. This time, Vilma asked to go pee-pee before stepping in the tub, smart girl! And I got the baby shampoo before getting in the tub so it was in easy reach, smart mom! On day 2, I managed to gently wash Nelson’s hair with the baby shampoo. He was a little sensitive with his eyes, but all in all, proved he was a trooper. Vilma enjoyed her bath as much as the night before and showed more independence by wanting to be the exclusive water dripper and cup pourer – you go girl! I snuck in some cupfuls of water to help complete the process and snuck the baby shampoo onto her head, but she basically did the rest. We had a little snuggle session when she was tightly wrapped in her towel and got them dressed for bed. Jim had already dressed Nelson. And thus began bedtime, day 2.

After a long day, we were both tired. Jim had no intention of patiently waiting for them to fall asleep. We attempted our routine again of placing them firmly on the bed, singing songs and avoiding eye contact. But each time I peeked between my eyelids and Jim stole a peek in the mirror, they were staring right back at us with smiles on their faces. I started laughing – I couldn’t help myself. Jim expressed some frustration that I thought might scare the kids and sent him packing. Now I had two children who were wide-awake to put to bed all by myself… oh-boy!

We played for a while with the Leap Frog toy and eventually, I focused my efforts on Nelson. Vilma was pretty good about being quiet if she knew Nelson was asleep, so getting Nelson to sleep not only achieved getting one child to bed, but it helped get the other closer. After a short while of rubbing his tummy while he was in a sitting position (which he seemed to thoroughly enjoy and leaned into like a dog getting a good tummy rub), I gently made him lie down and kept rubbing his tummy or back, whichever was facing up. In about 10 minutes, he fell asleep. Vilma wasn’t ready yet. One by one, we explored more toys in the toy drawer and she became fascinated with a card game (color and shape matching game). The cards spilled out and she proceeded to place them all back in one at a time. I was impressed by her perseverance and dexterity, but at the same time, I thought this is never going to end! Eventually, she got all the cards packed into the deck. Then I said “Vilma y Mama y pastina cama, ci?” Basically, Vilma and mommy and playdough in bed, okay? She nodded, and with that, I picked her and we went to bed. She fell asleep within 10 minutes. Not bad if it hadn’t been for the time…. About 2 am in the morning!