Day 13-15 of our trip, days 10-12 with R

This is already far more writing than I enjoy doing or thought I would do... so... I am lumping three days into one post... but don't fret... our last day will get a post of it's own... and might make you cry... did me just writing it! (yep, already wrote it) just waiting to post it until I wrote this one 😜

These three days were a little bit of the same (hence not having multiple posts be repetitive). Lots of laughing, lots of snacking and lots of learning new "tricks"

A few take aways from these three days:

*  R is really starting to repeat words we say.  He doesn't talk much, not even in Creole, but he is really starting to listen to what we say and try repeat words. It did come to our attention that he may never really know much Creole.  From what we can tell he doesn't talk much, maybe he knows more than what we think but he is so shy he doesn't speak much.  We have been teaching him basic English words which it seems now that he may say more English words than Creole.  This may be our perception since we don't know much Creole and it also may change by the time we can bring him home. But it is our current take on the situation.

* He can have grumpy days (or at least times of day).  A few days ago we were talking about how most blogs we have read about their bonding trips, people we watched go through it, and people we have talked to all say there has been so hard days... we hadn't experienced that yet really. One morning we we got there (Monday I think) he was GRUMPY!  We really struggled getting him to play much and interact with us.  Then he fell asleep in my arms... I think the poor boy is exhausted. He has done more playing, interacting and learning in 1.5 weeks then he has in 2.5 years combined I think. I would be grumpy too 😫 When he woke up, he was pretty much himself again and ready to play.

* The last few days he has really been watching our every move.  We forgot how toddlers do that and he has reminded us.  He watches everything we do and tries to copy us.  The cutest and best example I can give you... we were teaching him to jump.  There are some concrete pilings in the yard.  Ethan and R were jumping off them and jumped into some mud that splashed all over their legs.  Not wanting to walk up three flights of stairs to get wipes, Ethan walked over to some tall weeds, pulled a few and used them to wipe is leg off. He immediately walked over next to Ethan, pulled weeds and tried wiping his leg off too.  It was adorable!

* Five, yes 5, people can fit on a "moto".  I have talked about the traffic already but we experienced something new today. Everywhere on the streets are motorcycles, essentially being used as taxis, today we saw FIVE people on one motorcycle.  Evaleena doesn't believe it when we told her over the phone but its true... so wish I had a camera handy!  There was the driver, 2 ladies and each lady was holding a child.  CRAZY STUFF!