Tatiana continues to do well (with exception to the HUGE temper tantrum she just had-I'll get to that in a minute). On the other hand Steve and I have not been great the last couple of days. I got sick-started with a cold but yesterday my sore throat returned (it had come and gone once already) and my body was very achy and fatigued. I felt terrible. One of the other mothers gave me something last night after dinner (medicine). I took it and went straight to bed. I was sleeping SO well until Steve got up sometime in the night. He said he was passing a kidney stone. He did this once before so I knew what was coming. He was in A LOT of pain and eventually starting throwing up because of the pain. So, it was a long night-part of it anyway.

We wanted to go to the meeting this afternoon but we are still not feeling too well-although better, so that's good. Instead we are just going to go to the kingdom hall when the mtng is about over so we can meet the English speaking friends and let them know we are here. We have some questions for them and are really hoping to visit the branch tomorrow as that will be the last available day before Steve leaves Colombia.

Today is Sunday (we've been here 1 week!) and as I mentioned before, El Refugio does not serve lunch on Sundays. So, we are being treated to a French BBQ! Should be interesting-never been to a French BBQ before. There are three french couples here now and they are going to cook out for lunch today and invited us to join them along with the other American family here.

In regards to the temper tantrum mentioned at the outset: We've been rocking Tatiana asleep since we've had her because it would be too frightening for her to just put her in bed and leave her be or even leave the room. But she has indicated a couple times in the last few days that she is ready to go in her crib. We think this is good. Although we loved rocking her in the beginning because it was a great bonding opportunity, we don't want it to become habitual-any of you parents reading can imagine why. Anyway, we tried for her morning nap to put her in bed and leave the room. After 10 min or so she was still crying and we decided perhaps this big step was still too much for her. So I went in and picked her up as she wanted. However she did not apparently want to be rocked to sleep she wanted down and was already mad we left her in there. So I held her while she kicked and SCREAMED and thrashed. Her face was bright red. Finally she indicated she wanted back in her crib so I put her back. The other problem with this mornings bedtime ordeal was that Tatiana didn't really want milk when we received her. And since she was so congested we decided it may not be the best thing for her anyway at that time. The only juice here, though, is something like Sunny D. So after a couple days of that we bought her juice that was 100% juice. And that's what she's had all week with the exception of a little water here and there. She also has fruit at least twice per day since it is served to us at lunch and dinner, typically. As you can imagine, her stool was quite soft. Since her congestion is clearing up we thought we should really cut back on the juice. Well, so far she absolutely will not drink the milk (as of this morning).

Therefore, when Tatiana wanted back in her crib after her tantrum of all tantrums thus far, She wanted her bottle (that's another story-she shouldn't still be on a bottle in our opinion) of juice. All I would give her was the milk and that continued to frustrate her. But, I refused to back down. She kept whimpering here and there and then she would sit up. Each time I would tell her to lay down. At first she did not understand so I would gently lay her back down myself-which she was not such a huge fan of. But after a few times of saying it in English she began to understand and would lay back down on her own when I told her to. Finally she fell asleep. It was not fun but Steve and I feel we set a boundary-even if we have to go through the same routine again (and maybe even more than once) hopefully each time will take a little less time and soon she will catch on.

About the bottle-at first she would only drink out of one bottle-the one her foster mother sent and said was her favorite. And her favorite indeed it was. She will drink out of another one now but not out of a sippy cup. All we have are the hard sippy cups here-none with the nipple that is more like one between a bottle and sippy cup. We were going to buy one but they are $15-$20 here!!! For that, she can drink out of her bottle and we can get a sippy cup when we return to the States. We still only give her a small cup or a sippy cup at mealtimes. She will drink a little bit but not much.

One of these days we will have to take video for you all to see of Tatiana's 'happy dance' when food is set in front of her. It's so funny and she does it EVERYTIME something new (in the way of food) is set before her. I told you, she gets very excited about eating!!!!!

That's all for now-of course we'll continue to post.