Santiago de ... Bossut-Ugarte a los 10 meses

Santi is:

Chunky: nope, below the 50th percentile at 8.780 kilos. He actually lost weight this month due to his teething issues. But those cheeks and those fat legs ........ hmmmmm!

Tall: yup, he's on the 100th percentile at 79cm!!!

Crawling: FINALLY!!!! It's really more of a drag (picture a wounded soldier) than a crawl, but at least he's moving and going places, although not very far.

Restless: if he's sitting, he wants to stand; if he's standing, he wants to crawl ... it's really hard to know what he wants to do. We think that he's feeling trapped, wanting to follow Mateo in whatever he does but not being able to do so. Hopefully when he does walk, his restlessness will decrease.

Temperamental: he's a tough one --> for example, if his food is not pureed, he won't eat. He'll shake his head no, keep his mouth shut and push it away with his hands! If he doesn't want to be kissed or hugged, he'll definitely let you know by screaming.

Teething: his two upper teeth came out about a week ago.

Loveable: I love that Santi loves being around his brother, that going in his brother's room is the coolest thing on earth and that whenever he sees Mati or Daddy, he shakes his arms and legs in joy.

Santiago de Cali

Cali is Colombia's third largest city and salsa dancing capital of the world. We loved it!!! We had be warned that it was HOT, but the cloudy skies cooled the days and it was just perfect to be strolling around in shorts and t-shirts. We indulged in great nouvelle cuisine (Nueva Vallecaucana) and overall had such a wonderful weekend.

Mati and Santi bonded like never before! Together, they had laughing marathons on a couple of nights at the hotel. They are starting to have a better relationship. Also, Santi surprised us with his crawling (really, it's more like he drags himself) skills - this little fellow will soon take off in an attempt to keep up with his older brother!!! Ayayayay ... what awaits us??

We were happily surprise with how well maintained the Cali zoo is. Here is Mati pretending to be all macho by telling the bird to come over, but as his body language expresses, is terrified!

High five monkey friend!

Butterfly watching

Mati saw 2 out of the 4 main animals/characters from Madagascar (the movie) at the zoo: Alex, the Lion and Marly, the Zebra. He saw this lion tail at the shop and begged for us to buy it. He's been running around the house in his lion tail ever since!

"If Mati has it, then I want it!"

Iglesia de San Francisco in the San Antonio neighborhood

Monasterio de la Merced

The Obama influence is EVERYWHERE!!!

Guadalajara de Buga

Seeing JC in the "box" made his day!!

Oh yeah ... the priest signing authographs on his latest CD ... gotta love the Catholic Church!

Museo del Senor de los Milagros

Busy man granting all these prayers

Cali and specifically the Cauca region originally developed its wealth from sugar cane plantations. Mati is learning how they pressed the cane (some 200 years ago!!!) to extract the juice and produce the sugar.

Mamounette's & Papounet's Surprise Visit

Marie Paule and Bill came to Colombia on a surprise trip for Nico's birthday! We picked them up at the airport, Nico fooled into thinking we were picking up some friends of mine, and headed straight to Anapoima for the weekend. Mateo had a blast playing with his grandfather in the pool, diving for gold Euros with him at the bottom of the pool, and learning the infamous Bill trademark: his thumb game! Not to mention, playing with the trucks they brought him. Santi, who's going through separation anxiety, had a hard time getting used to them. He has a strong case of "papitis" and a milder one of "mamitis". But towards the end of their stay here, I think he finally got used to being around them. It also hasn't helped that he's been teething. Before we left for Medellin, he's fever spiked up to 102F. I brought it down with some Tylenol but the following days he was still highly sensitive and running slight fevers. He's somewhat better now. He has no fever, but doesn't eat very much and is very restless.

We returned to Bogota for a couple of days. Bill took Mati to school everyday and we would all go pick him up. Mati was very proud to introduce his "abuelos" to his friends, and it was hilarious when Jeronimo, one of his best friends, told him matter-of-factly, "Mateo, your grandfather is so old!".

Over the weekend we went to Medellin. The city has some amazing modern architecture, but otherwise, it was rather dirty and not very pretty. In my opinion, the best part was taking the teleferico up the shanty town of Santo Domingo. It felt real: the streets were so animated with music blasting, people talking while sipping their beers or "tintos", kids running around everywhere. We certainly stuck out like sore thumbs and because of that we opted not to parade our cameras around, so I have no pictures (besides, we decided to go at dusk!!), which makes me sad. So, the purpose of taking the teleferico was because of the view. Medellin is in a valley (it actually reminded me A LOT of Caracas) and had it not been foggy the views of the city would have been beautiful.

The abuelos are now back in France, but we wanted to thank you guys for coming and sharing a little bit more of Colombia with us! We hope you enjoyed your stay and the boys!!

ANAPOIMA

On the speed boat watching Nico wakeboard.

"I found the gold coin Papounet!"

"Good job Mateo, give me five!"

And you all think I'm skinny!!!

Eating beets

MEDELLIN

Santi was fascinated with the Botero sculptures.

Common scene with Santiago!

At last ... at peace with Mamounette.

The Medellin Aquarium ... very cool!

Parque Explora - Bill having fun playing a virtual harp.

La Catedral de Medellin - Mateo made me go through each of the 12 stations and explain to him what was going on. He would go back and forth between them and ask again and again (he still obsessed with this) why Judas had decided to put Christ on the cross.

No supe que eran las "Empanadas Inteligentes" ...

Comi mamones!!!

Eco-friendly menu ... written on the wall!

Santi warming up

Parque Botanico de Medellin - this where the orchids are.