September 18, 2012

It didn’t take us very long to find out that what Mama La had told us was absolutely true.  Our days of sleeping in were over, effective immediately.  We did our best to have Francis in bed at his regular time, 8:00 p.m., and he “cut us a break” by letting us sleep until about 5:30 a.m. instead of dragging us out of bed at 4:00 in the morning like we were warned was his usual time.    

We got to experience snuggling in bed with a very loveable, huggable little guy who seemed oh-so-thrilled to have his mommy and daddy at long last.  Gregg and I started to get ready for the day, including showering with lukewarm water.  We discovered that the hotels we were using did not have the best hot water heaters, which wasn’t too helpful later on when we started getting sick.  (I digress)  As we were getting ready for the day, Francis learned that it was all too easy to go running through the adjoining doors to my parents’ room.  After all, they were the ones with the mango juice, bananas, crackers…  In less than 24 hours, this little guy was finding out exactly what good things grandparents were for, and taking full advantage.

We went down to the lobby for breakfast, and Francis showed us he had a terrific memory and meant business when it came to food.  He walked over to the area where they kept the booster seat and tried to bring it over to the table himself.  (Daddy stopped him and helped him out, of course.)  He picked out all of the foods he wanted for breakfast off of the buffet and then cleaned his plate.  He was ready to start the day.  Now, please.

After breakfast, we took a walk around the grounds of the hotel, which was within a gated community.  Just down the street from the hotel was the hotel pool.  We had heard that Francis liked water, and we should have been prepared.  As soon as he saw the pool, Francis tried to jump in with his clothes and shoes on!  Daddy was right behind him, holding him back.  We promised him we’d go back later, but it was right about then that we learned that when Francis sees something he wants, he doesn’t have much patience to wait for it. 

Ready to jump in with his clothes on!

 

Later that day, we took a taxi over to the mall.  Gregg and I wanted to let Francis pick out a birthday gift.  Now, in all fairness, we had heard about the salespeople in the toy departments of the malls.  We knew that we were going to have to go in with a plan and know what we were looking for.   Really, though, we weren’t quite prepared for the experience.  The man in the toy department tried to convince Francis he wanted a battery-powered, ride-on Cadillac.  (Not sure how he thought we were going to get this on the plane?)  We nipped that in the bud pretty quickly.  Then it was all sorts of action figures I’m pretty sure Francis had never heard of before.  His eyes were lit up and spinning.  He looked like – well, like an overly-excited, overwhelmed kid in a toy store.  We finally settled on the Optimus Prime Transformer.  A little clothing shopping, more looking around the mall, and we were on our way.

Lunch with the famous Jollibee.

Later that night at dinner, Francis stood behind my chair and started combing it with his fingers, singing I’m A Little Teapot.  In an instant, my heart belonged to him forever.

Post-dinner snuggle with mom.

Men at work.

Completed Transformers.

To Be Continued…