Monday, September 23, 2013 - Yupanqui's 3rd Birthday, Spending Quality Time with the Family Today was Yupanqui's third birthday. Craig was feeling a bit better and decided to venture out today. Running water had been restored, and Craig was able to shave, which made him feel refreshed. There had been a young man at the party who had been filming with a HandiCam all night. The family had borrowed the camera and we were able to download the footage to our netbook. We sat at the dining room table and watched the footage with Aida, Rosa, and Yupanqui. After breakfast, we sat outside and played with Yupanqui and Tayanta. When Sisa arrived home from school, her face lit up when she saw Craig outside. "Achi Taita, esta bien? (Godfather, are you well?)" she asked with delight. We gave her and Yupanqui coloring books and crayons, and they sat with us outside coloring. A group of guys in a truck came and disassembled the tent. We showed Sisa and Antonio videos of Sisa's baptism and our visit in 2010. When they saw airplane footage, the kids said that we must have gotten chocolate there. They forever would associate chocolate with airplanes because of the cookie bar that we gave them from our flight to Quito. It was so cute! Craig was definitely well hydrated at this point, but he still wasn't feeling any better in terms of dizziness and balance. He was seeing double at times, which he knew is a symptom usually correlated with MS. He wanted to spend time with the family; he didn't want to lay in bed all day again. So we made sure that he always had a chair to sit in, and made the best of it. Aida had gotten Yupanqui a birthday cake today, but he fell asleep before dinner. Craig hadn't gotten sick since Saturday, and his appetite was now fully back. He was able to enjoy the long-awaited much-anticipated pork for dinner. The family still enjoyed the cake even though Yupanqui wasn't awake to see it. At least there were leftovers for him to enjoy tomorrow!

Achi Taita and Yupanqui Achi Mama and Sisa Achi Mama and Shina Tayanta See all photos from this day