Annalise and Alejandro have been bonding well.  She looks well after her little brother and he follows her around wanting to mimick what she's doing. 

Saturday we went to a park about 10 minutes away called Parque de las Madres, Mother's Park.  It has a beautiful statue of a mother with her two kids.  Annie and Alex enjoyed the slides, swings and monkey bars.  Jim and I almost had a heart attack because the ground is rocky underneath the play sets. 

Yesterday we went to the town of Banos, Baths.  It is known for it's hot springs that hotels and spas pipe in to their clients.  We ventured on to the city bus that stops right outside our apartments.  Twenty five cents per adult and kids are free. The Cholas on the bus found Annalise very amusing, with her red streaks in her curly hair.  Neither of which you see here.   We went to a day resort called Duran.  It has two large identical pools, each with a shallow end for kids.  The water was bath-water warm!  It's changed out twice a week.  We bought a few pool toys at a store we call, "Target", named Coral.  Most things there are pretty inexpensive, as compared to the mall stores. 

People stared at us a lot because Annie has become such a good swimmer, and jumps off the side into the pool.  Kids there didn't seem to know how to swim.  Annie felt so proud.  She can't wait to go back.  Also, we were the only ones with pool toys.  We saw families tie balloons onto the kids bathing suits to help them float.  Kids hugged on to them also.  I kept waiting for one to pop!

Alex had a blast in the pool too.  He was a little nervous at first, but then got into the water play quickly.  Loves to splash and float (with us holding him) and eventaully signalled his little finger that he too wanted to jump off the side like big sister.  After all, he can't let a girl show him up.

The weather was about mid 70's.  Pretty chilly when you step out of the water into the wind, but enjoyable none-the-less.  We ate there because we were told by several apartment residents that the food was good.  They were right.  Jim and I had a dish that had stewed beef, saffron rice, french fries, sweet plantains and salad.  All yummy!  Annie had a hot dog and fries.  Alex had a cheeze empanada and anything off of our plates. 

Once home, we had dinner.  Finally something he really liked...noodles with fish.  Had to hide the fish because he doesn't like to eat chuncks of meat or fish.  Immediately after dinner, he fell asleep in daddy's arms.  I changed him and he was asleep in bed by 6pm!  He was pooped out!  Annie went to bed an hour early too.  That place needs to be closer!