Local Wildlife and A Small Victory

The other day, we went to the park before lunch (yes, that is considered bad parenting here to take your kids out in the middle of the day, but I've stopped caring what the people here think about us as parents), AND we saw a huge "herd" of iguanas all suntanning on this patch of grass and on the steps.  Of course, it was one of the few times we didn't bring our Flip or our regular camera, so we couldn't catch this awesome site on film that day.



Action shot!



Look at how long these guys are!

Today, we went back - since it was brutally hot and surely iguanas would like that! - and we didn't find the herd, but we found some random iguanas strolling on the sidewalks in the park.  We caught one of the smaller ones on the Flip, but I got a picture of one of the bigger ones later on.  These things are nasty but so cool.  They honestly look like little dragons.  Tim got pretty bold and got close to them, but I wasn't about to get near one.  They looked mean.

No, this isn't Katie in the stroller



But that wasn't the biggest excitement of the day.  We got Katie to ride in a stroller for an hour or so!  Woohoo!  Since we have stopped caring about what people think, we thought that the mall would be the perfect place to stroll Katie and Rosa around in the strollers.  One hitch - you have to get to the mall.  We somehow got loaded into the taxi with our two umbrella strollers, diaper bag, and our two munchkins and managed to tell the taxi driver that we wanted to go to the mall.  When we got there, we unloaded.  There are security guards everywhere there, and one came to help us with the umbrella strollers.  We couldn't get them to open, and finally we figured out that we had put straps around them to keep them from opening.  We finally got it working and wheeled the strollers into Exito to start the exhibition of the Gringos putting the baby Colombians into the strollers while they scream bloody murder.  We had several concerned Colombians looking our way, whispering and throwing us evil looks, but by golly -I was going to get Katie used to a stroller!  We needed her in one for the airports.

So I threw my head back proudly, put on a fake smile, and stroad through Exito while my children cried (Rosa was crying because she didn't get her nap and was tired - she could care less about the stroller).  But after awhile, a miracle happened...Katie enjoyed herself and started singing her normal E I E I O and drumming her lips.  Another miracle happened soon after, and Rosa fell asleep while we ate dinner.  Then we strolled around a giggling 2 year old and a dreaming almost 1 year old through the mall for over an hour and finally TALKED.  We realized that we haven't really had a chance to talk in peace and quiet since we got here.  We must have done 7 laps around the mall and then up and down many aisles in Exito.  As long as Katie would let us, we were going to walk.  Such a nice break.  One that we desperately need as we grow more and more homesick.

At the mall - Rosa passed out in the stroller, Katie singing E I E I O in hers

Tomorrow's big hurdle?  The high chair!!!  Looks like we will be having ice cream in the food court of the mall :)