Juanchito

Our oldest - our son Juan Carlos...aka Juancho, aka Juanchito, aka Stinky (only when he eats empanadas) is a comedian! He's also a storyteller, a professional sports player (name the sport, he'll play it...ice hockey may be a bit new for him, but he's excited to ice skate in Minnesota!), an all around entertainer!

Tonight at dinner he had the whole table rolling (at least those that speak Spanish) with his jokes and funny stories. He loves movies and loves to act out different scenes...he is oh so animated! Even those that didn't speak Spanish were laughing because of his facial expressions! But the funniest part of the dinner hour was eating chicken. We had a great chicken meal that the senoras of the house made for us and I was about to mention to Robert that Juancho was really cleaning the bones of his chicken when all of a sudden Juancho bit the end off his chicken bone and started chewing it. The whole table gasped and I said "Juancho, what are you doing?" The senoras of the house (Colombian women that do the cooking and cleaning for us) said to Juancho - 'you don't need to eat the bone!' and simultaneously Juancho spit the bone out on his plate and put the now open end in his mouth and began to suck on it. We learned from Betty, who runs the place where we are staying, that people living in poorer regions do not get meat very often (might explain why our kids are SO skinny!) and so when they do, they chew the bones and suck out the marrow...that was all Juancho was trying to do was complete his meal! But it was quite a shocker...he bit into that chicken bone like it was a marshmallow! I think I won't serve chicken with bones in it until he is well aware that he doesn't need to eat bones anymore!

Juancho is a smart fella too. Today we had 'contests' during school to help reinforce what they've been learning (the last two days we've focused on learning the major parts of the body in English)...but we quickly discovered that was a bad idea because Juancho was winning all the contests! He is very quick to catch on even though he and Laura have been in the same grade in school (he started school a couple years late).

Juancho is a normal 10 year old boy, who has a few things that get him a little bent out of shape - as they would for any 10 year old boy. We've only had to discipline him a few times (it consists of sitting in a chair (time-out) for a few minutes and after talking with Mami or Papi. He never fights our discipline and is always open to talking about whatever the issue was (which so far has been not listening to Mami once or twice, and fighting with his sister) and responds pretty well. We realize that it is tough to get used to a new family...and new rules and norms of how that family works...and these children have been doing great!

We love our oldest son and the great personality God has given him. Can't wait for you to experience it yourself!

Here are a few pictures of Juancho over the last few days...

Juancho loves to run up the little slide at the place we are staying - and he loves that he can do it in 2 steps...even though you'll see below that involves a full body extension! Here's a play-by-play...

Juancho working hard on his schoolwork - he is a great student!

Juancho loves his 'tiburon' pajamas! (that is Spanish for 'shark'!)

This last picture I took about 5 minutes ago...Robert went in our room and found Juancho and Angie sleeping together...he is a very caring big brother - especially for little Angie...and she just adores him.

SO CUTE!