Jakob is now eating well, and if we thought his energy level was high before, we now have to realize that it was far from its maximum! He shows no signs of illness anymore. He is high and low, always laughing, running, and socializing. Everybody in the hotel now knows who he is. He looks very happy.
He has been playing a lot with the four siblings who are going to live in Australia, and although he is the youngest in the group, he tries to boss them around and throws himself into all their games and playfights. Mostly it goes well, and if he falls and hurts himself, he is back in the game after ten seconds in mami's arms. He loves those kids!
The Australian family was interviewed by several TV channels today. (They will be on CNN, RCN and other channels, as well as in several newspapers, because apparently this is the first time a family has adopted four kids at once, at least in Colombia.) It was all we could do to keep Jakob out of their midst while they were filming!
Our one kid is a handful, and we're so glad we outnumber him two to one. We are very impressed that Nat and David from Australia (even with help from their other son) can manage four at once, but they seem to be coping just fine. But Jelena thought she sensed a trace of anxiety in David's voice today as she and Nat were going shopping together:
"Aren't you forgetting something?" asked David.
"What?" said Nat.
"The kids!"
"Oh, we'll only be gone five minutes!", Jelena reassured him. "But be sure to check on the children every half hour while we're out!"
One of the other guests at the hotel is an elderly, white gentleman, who is either creole or a gringo who has been living in Colombia for many years. Today when Nat had joined Ulf for lunch while Jelena was looking after Jakob during his nap, this gentleman came over to their table and said: "What I like so much about those four wonderful kids, is that they are always minding their own business!" Then he went back to his own table.
Later today, at supper, one of the kids was sent to her room without finishing her meal because she was misbehaving. Then the same gentleman got up from his table across the restaurant, crossed over to the Australians' table (next to ours), and asked: "Is everything OK? Why did one of your children have to leave the restaurant?"
After Paola left yesterday with her Italian family, Jakob has discovered the quiet, but very charming, French girl Marie (who is 5 years old, like Paola), who is here to get a new little sister. They have no language in common, but they play together very affectionately. This evening he refused to go to supper until Marie and her family were going, too!
He willingly lets her push him around in her baby sister's stroller. Papi tried to tell him that he'll have women pushing him around all his grown-up life, so there is no need to start so soon! But he wouldn't listen.
Papi has sung different songs for Jakob every night when it is time to go to sleep, but one in particular has been sung every evening. Tonight Jakob surprised us by joining in (very loudly) on the first two lines of "Byssan lull, koka kittelen full" just as we thought he was beginning to fall asleep! The more we laughed, the louder he sang. We had to choose a different way to calm him down tonight.
The new Swedish couple got their beautiful little Manuela (9 months old) today. When we asked them how their first day had been, they said: "Oh, everything was just perfect... but then she woke up!"
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