Back in the Saddle

Well, we've been back in Quito for just over three weeks. Sleep deprivation makes cultural adjustment feel more extreme than it probably is. I am spending my days at home with Lillian learning how to manage household staff and remember how to speak Spanish after 10 weeks off.

Lillian is doing great--she's only really had one bad night when she woke up every 45 minutes due to altitude adjustment. A little baby tylenol seemed to do the trick. We've made a couple trips to the Embassy and joined in on the annual baby photo with the Ambassador.

Fingers and mouth meet.

Ok, so it's not the best photo but I was able to catch one of her latest milestones. She's loving her fingers and is quite good at getting them in her mouth now. She's still working on her social smile which she's gotten really close to. Tristan says she smiled for him at 3AM while changing her diaper and I've gotten something really close but she's not yet consistent. We're hopeful for smiles soon!

The past two weeks have been busy with workmen in the house and I've been picking up household vocab and stumbling through explanations of plaster repair and plumbing installation. Lessons learned: plumbers will take you for a ride round the world. We hired some recommended plumbers to install a UV water filter. Problem was the instructions for our UV water filter were all in English and I couldn't understand them. After four hours on a Saturday, they broke the glass protector for the UV light and installed it backwards causing a flood. Came back on the next Monday with a new part and young guy who seemed to know what he was doing and two hours later they finally got it straightened out after I called the company in Texas to get advice and order replacement parts. We are now the owners of one expensive filter and some spare parts which I think I could now install myself next time. Super frustrating. I successfully shared my frustration with them in Spanish and think I got my point across.

Plumbers--I'll refrain from further comment.

We also had some water damage to the wood floors and walls near the front entrance since the grass was so tall when we got back after two months and the sprinkler system sprayed water on the front windows. Interesting to be in a country where doing things by hand and wood are still very much an art form.

Sanding the new wood floor--got dust all over the house!

Hopefully everything is set for a while and we're tackling the last few boxes and hoping to hang some things on the wall for the first time in 4 years. We weren't very motivated in Yekat and Moscow since those were one year posts.

Rental furniture arrives.

Day to day, I'm with Lillian which is challenging and rewarding. She's a really good baby--only fussy when she really wants something (diaper, food or sleep) and generally quite content to snooze, hang out or drool when she's awake. Hoping to get more adept at being out and about with her. I am missing Seattle and the ease of life there but for an overseas posting Quito doesn't have too much that one can complain about.

Baby & Bug meet.