My Birthday

I had such a fun, memorable weekend celebrating my 40th birthday. Thanks again for all of your birthday wishes! I was touched with how many people remembered.

We kicked off the weekend on Friday evening by inviting Jairo's usual group of friends over for games, dinner and a movie. We played in the backyard for a while, including a heavy dose of my new exercise routine ("the alligator"), which we will soon be marketing in the U.S. as the latest fitness gimic. It involves pulling children on a plastic see-saw alligator with a long rope that I removed from an old swing (when there aren't a lot of toys around, you need to improvise). Apparently pulling them at a slow pace didn't quite do the trick, as their shouts of "rapido, rapido" clearly indicated. Since I wanted to live to be 40, this game of running while pulling about 90 pounds behind me only lasted about 20 minutes...at which point the kids tried to just do it themselves, without much success:



We headed inside to wait for the pizza, and Jairo entertained the ninos with a couple songs that he has learned during his piano lessons ("Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb"). We think it's great that he always pulls out the piano books to pretend that he's actually playing the songs in the books:



Rebecca then stepped it up a notch by breaking out the i-pod for a little dance party, which consisted of "I Like to Move it Move it" played a good 10 times in a row. We then settled down for dinner, after which we watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks" with a delicious dessert of conguil (popcorn...Papi's favorite). Just another fun night with Jairo and his friends...he (and we) are really going to miss them!



On Saturday, we headed out to Otavallo, a town that is about 2 hours north of Quito. We rode one of the local buses there...and again felt very fortunate that one of the 2 main bus terminals in Quito is located only a few blocks from the orphanage...makes these day trips so much easier (not to mention that the 2-hour bus ride only costs $2)! We're so dependent on our cars at home, but we have gotten so used to taking cabs ($2-4 to almost anywhere in Quito) and buses here that we've forgotten what it's like to have a car.

Otavallo hosts a large outdoor market every Saturday, filled with arts & crafts, food, and clothes. We felt somewhat guilty that we made Jairo ride a bus for 2 hours, only to find out that he then had to go shopping for a few hours...but he was a good sport and was very patient throughout the afternoon. We bought a few things, including one of the market's hot items--finger puppets (I bought a Bart Simpson; Jairo, a Spiderman). Rebecca added to her collection of clothes bought around the world, and I added to my pen- and random collection of chatchkis bought around the world.



We played with Suki when we got home, and then settled in for a couple movies since we were pretty beat after a long day of riding and walking.



Rebecca and I celebrated the final hours of my 30s with a box of wine and American Idol. Unfortunately we were too tired to make it until midnight...guess that's what happens when "sleeping in" now means 7:00am.

Which brings us to Sunday, my 40th birthday. In thinking back to previous milestone birthdays, I remembered that I had a bowling and pizza party for my 10th birthday (how do I remember? I had such a birthday 4-5 years in a row); my 20th birthday included Bert & Ernie cakes; and for my 30th, Rebecca took me to Disneyworld. So with the "little kid in me" still alive and well, we decided on bowling & pizza again for my 40th.

After eating toast and yogurt (bleh!) almost every morning for breakfast while in Quito, Rebecca made us a delicious breakfast of bacon, sausage and eggs. Afterward, we broke out an old-school game that I found in one of the closets of the house we're renting--electric football!! I loved that game as a kid, and had 3 different versions of it during my childhood. Jairo enjoyed setting everything up and playing with me.



We then headed out to get pizza for lunch at Archie's, the pizza place that we went to a few weeks ago. Unfortunately our party of 3 wasn't large enough to warrant reserving the private room in the back where all the other kids celebrated their birthdays...oh well.

Then on to bowling. I don't know if it was my new age, my new decade, the fact that they didn't have one ball that i could fit my thumb into (remember, I'm considered a giant down here), or my subconscious brain wanting this to happen, but Rebecca won the first game.....and Jairo came in second. Which left third place for yours truly. Needless to say we weren't going to leave until I had a chance to redeem myself...which I didn't. Congrats to Rebecca for bowling her highest score ever to win the second game as well, but at least this time I came in 2nd (I think Jairo let me beat him this time, as evidenced by the fact that he experimented with a few bowling styles, including his patented "overhand toss").



We had a blast, and I was proud of myself for actually "growing up" in at least in some areas of my life--when my high school girlfriend beat me in bowling, I didn't talk to her for days...this time I only pouted for a few minutes. I credit Derek Jeter for teaching me how to lose gracefully (during those rare instances when he actually lost).

We went back home to play in the backyard, where the three of us played catch with our tennis ball. Jairo does extremely well with the "throwing" part of the game (again, well-suited to play either center field or shortstop for the Yankees)...and is getting better at the "catching" side of the game, which will come with more practice, a mitt, and bigger hands. We forgot to take pictures, but I am including one that we forgot to include in a previous post--this is Jairo and I playing "baseball" with a plastic blue ball and our fists as the "bat" (since we haven't been able to find a wiffle bat or ball down here...again, we improvise where we can!):



After napping, it was time for presents and cake! Rebecca took Jairo out a few days ago to find presents for me--he selected a little stuffed tiger (that roars when you squeeze him); a pen with a TV on top of it (that has a slide show of the cast of "High School Musical"); and some index cards (to be added to my stack of flash cards I've created to help me learn Spanish).





I then opened cards and gifts from Rebecca and some family members. I always feel so lucky and blessed to have so many wonderful, thoughtful people in my life...and no one more so than Rebecca--the most beautiful, selfless, generous person I have ever met...who I have learned so much from during the (almost) 12 years we've been together.

Cake followed the gifts, which included Jairo's precious solo of "Cumpleanos Feliz." It is an Ecuadorian tradition for the birthday honoree to stick their face in the cake, which Jairo happily did on my behalf.





We finished the evening with a great dinner at a fancy steak restaurant...a great way to cap off such a fun, memorable day & weekend! Jairo had us laughing all night at dinner...and he had us in tearful hysterics on the 10-minute cab ride home, during which he was pretty much having a one-way "conversation" with the cab driver...updating him on everything we've done over the last few weeks, as well as what is to come when he moves to the United States (the cabbie became very well-versed on what school he goes to, who Duffer is, and what months our pool in Fairlington is open).

Jairo is the greatest gift of all, and we anxiously await our judge to sign off on our final adoption decree. Rumor has it that this may have happened over the last few days, but we won't know for sure until we have the final paperwork. So keep us in your prayers...and look out for an upcoming post in (hopefully) the very near future!