In loving memory

Sacha's grandpa, Harold, passed away this morning. He had been recovering from injuries from a car accident which affected his heart and ultimately caused fatal heart issues. He was 90 years old and had just had a wonderful, affirming and joyous party in his honor in June, which Sacha attended. We spent about three hours on the phone with travelocity this evening, trying to figure out a way to re-book our tickets so she could go to the funeral, but the short story is that it was impossible to do it and we'll be staying here as planned. He is in our hearts, though, and he was a wonderful man who lived a long, happy, and productive life. May he rest in peace.

Mexico, part 3, and the banana split that saved us

Before I start on today, I wanted to mention what Sacha and I have been doing in the evenings.  Basically, a whole lot of reading.  It's not safe to go out after dark, so after dinner and putting the kids to bed, we've been hanging out in an empty bedroom of this huge house and reading our books.  Good thing we brought some!  Here's Sacha right before we finally gave up and went to bed last night:

 We ended up having a big adventurous morning today!  The kids are about get up from their naps and demand that I get in the pool with them, and how could I resist that?, so this will be short and mostly pictures.  We first did a half-hour horseback ride through town that we had heard was fun.  It was fun, although both Sacha and I had to sit WAY back in the saddles so that the kids would fit in front of us, and that wasn't so comfortable.  However, we got to go along the water and through the streets and we even got to ride the mama of a new baby horse that was hanging around all the big horses when we got there.  SO CUTE!

Then, since only half an hour had passed and we had the whole morning in front of us, and since we were feeling ambitious, we took a taxi to a nearby larger town that has a nice waterfront.  Once there, we caved to the kids' demands that we take a boat ride.  That was fun and VERY bouncy on the way back, which the kids thought was hilarious.

After the boat ride, we were all fading fast.  My family did a lot of traveling when I was a kid, and I did a fair amount during college, but I've never been in the situation of being a parent in charge when everyone is falling apart in a foreign country.  Sacha and I were like, where are our parents to step in and decide what to do?  Long story short, we found a nice cafe and ate and then had the banana split that saved all our lives.  Soooooo big and soooooo good.  Yum.  Yum yum.  Here it is:

Newly energized, we taxied it back home and did our naptime thing.  This afternoon's plans are much like yesterday's:  splash around and play in the pool.  Natalia seems to have developed a strong fear of going in the water, but she's okay with splashing her feet in at the edge, so I guess that's a start. (Updated to add that we actually did get her in the pool and she eventually decided it was pretty fun.  Success!)  This is the pool, and then our casita in the background.

Note to self:  having a private pool is pretty sweet.

Photos of Alayna

Per the request of a few people, I have been trying to take some more photos of Alayna. . . but she doesn't tend to put them on the blog. So, I guess that I just have to post them myself. I seem to have a block when it comes to taking pictures. I'm not sure why.

This first one is of her carrying Natalia around in the Ergo. Natalia has been carried around everywhere in the Ergo, and thankfully she still fits. Given that the roads are all cobblestone around here, we decided against taking a stroller. This is our first vacation without a stroller! Thanks to my wife's willingness to tote Natalia, it is going very well!



This is just of Mateo and Alayna being too cute. He actually got a ride back from the central square yesterday in the Ergo, because Natalia was in a walking, jumping, running mood. He loved the ride! (I'm not sure if Alayna's shoulders loved the ride!) Overall, he has been doing a great job walking all over town!


Lastly, the kids just had their first "moooooom" experience. We were with the red cross trucks and watching them put all of their equipment back into their truck. So Alayna and I broke out into Natalia's favorite song about firefighters in Spanish, "Bomberos." Mateo was not pleased and told us to stop. Too funny and cute.

Mexico, part 2

First, a big happy birthday to my mom!  Happy birthday, Mom!  We'll have to celebrate with you when we get back.

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After the kids got up yesterday, we wandered down to the main plaza to get some ice cream and just check it out.  We had our ice cream and then just did a whole lot of people watching.  We found the centro cultural, which has quite a busy schedule...

and we climbed all over Mommy....

 and we watched a big band get ready to play a set that night.

This morning, we got up and went back to the ex-pat community center, where they were having a talk by the Red Cross.  We mostly wandered around the grounds during the talk, having been promised a tour of the fire truck after it was over.  I caught some snippets of the presentation, though, and I have to say that I would be a bit worried if I were of retirement age and living here.  There's only one ambulance for the two closest towns, so you could wait more than 20 or 30 minutes in an emergency, and they just can't afford some things we take for granted, like that stroke medicine that has to be administered within 30 minutes.  I hope the presentation raised them some money, because it sure sounded as if they could use it!

 Anyway, like I said, we did some wandering, which included looking at the koi in a pond (Tali is signing "fish")...

and throwing rocks at a painted rock in the lake.

 Then, we got to check out the equipment, and Sacha and the kids got to sit in the fire truck!  Talia only lasted a few minutes, but Mateo loved it.

Then, on the way back, we walked along the road by the lake and found a real, live turtle!  It was stuck right next to a wall that divided the road from the lake/marsh area, so I very carefully picked it up and put it back on the lake side of the wall.  It was pretty neat.

 Now we're back at the house and everyone is sleeping except for me.  I had a great workout in our hosts' pool and now am just relaxing before the kids are up again.  I think we're planning to spend most of the rest of the afternoon just splashing in the pool and laying low.  The kids have been troopers, but they need a quiet afternoon without any more exploring for today, I think.

I will close with this photo that Tali insisted I take this morning.  She and Mateo are wrapped up like baby burritos, which is what we do with them after their baths, and she really wanted Megan to see her wrapped up like a burrito.  So, here she is! 

Mexico, part 1

Well, we made it! And, we have an internet connection! The flights down here were remarkably easy - just two two and a half hour flights and we were in Guadalajara.

Then we took a taxi to where we're staying: the palatial home of some of Sacha's parents' friends. They are the parents of one of Sacha's best friends from high school and retired to live down here about a year ago.

Their house is huge, and it also has a little cottage on the grounds that we're staying in. There's a pool right in the middle of the courtyard and the house kind of spreads out around that. Long story short: it's gorgeous and welcoming and sunny. Yay! It's the rainy season here, but luckily it rains mostly at night. We've already done some exploring of the town, Ajijic, and that's been fun.

Everything is within walking distance, so we don't have to deal with public transit or a car or anything. And, our hosts have been more than happy to take us out in their car when needed. We all went to the public market in the next town over yesterday. The kids only lasted about five minutes, but we got to see all the people selling fruit and meat and all kinds of things.

Today, we decided to venture out by ourselves, so we walked about five blocks to a restaurant that our tour guide and our hosts recommended. There, I got what was quite possibly the largest Mexican hot chocolate ever made.

After that, we went to a kids' art hour at a local community center run by the huge ex-pat community that lives here. All the other kids were Mexican except for ours, and another little girl who was also visiting from the states.

I have to say, just to pat Sacha and myself on the back for a minute, that I'm proud that we've managed to get the kids down here so early in their lives. We really want them to know and be familiar with the Mexican side of their ancestry, and so far, we seem to be on the right path. Also, we'd like to live abroad for a year when the kids are older, so this is our first step toward that,

Mateo has been a bit shy, but happy to use his Spanish to talk to other kids and adults. The cutest example of this was when the four of us had been talking about our ages and then Mateo climbed up a huge slide at the local park and announced loudly that everyone should watch "the tres y medio (three and a half year old) go down the slide!"

Natalia has been very shy and has mostly wanted to be carried around in the Ergo, but she did some drawing at the art class today and has loved playing at the park. It's tough to have your routine shaken up at age two, so we think she's doing great.

Anyway, we're just taking things day by day, which is probably good, because we still have almost two weeks to hang out here. Still in the plans are horseback riding, lots of swimming, playing at the park, roaming the village, possibly visiting some nearby towns, and trying to relax as much as possible.

Finally, I thought I'd post a few photos of the amazing public art that is everywhere down here. Everything is brightly painted and everywhere you look, there are intricate little designs or paintings or murals.

Best laid plans

Well, our flooring plans have self-destructed. The supposedly wonderful flooring guy that our contractor was subcontracting to (I know, my grammar skills have left the building) has disappeared without a trace. Therefore, there will be no floor refinishing or carpet removing while we are gone. Except, thank goodness, in our entry room, which is what needs it most anyway. In that room, the carpet will be removed and some nice, classy, durable marmoleum will be put in. Then, after we get back, we'll work on finding a new flooring person and get the rest of the project done. We're both pretty disappointed about this turn of events, but it will all work out in the end, I'm sure.

Anyway, in happier news, we had a fun time at the park on Sunday. They had just installed a new climbing structure at one of our nearby parks and it was a hot day, so the water feature was in full swing, too. We all had fun, and both kids ended up soaked. We'd like to send out a big thank you to Megan and Apa, who took the kids through the water feature while Sacha and I stayed pleasantly dry :)

These three next ones are my favorite ones lately of my favorite three people.

Here's Mateo climbing on the new structure:

And, climbing on the older, more familiar, Apa structure!

Water!

Megan was such a good sport about running all around with the kids in the water feature.

I present Exhibit A:

I love how the water's hitting him from all angles in this one.

I've been thinking over Wendy's recent post (answering a question I'd asked about photography) and am thinking of making the first two photos of the kids in this post the centerpieces of some kind of family photography wall. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Or, any other favorites that I've posted? I really want to start printing and framing some of these, but get overwhelmed when I sit down to pick a few...

PS: We leave for Mexico for two weeks on Thursday, so blogging may be less or more frequent, depending on all sorts of things.

PPS: We'd like to send out HUGE congrats to our friends Lili, Ronnie, and big sister Eliza on the arrival of their new baby boy. We can't wait to meet him!!

New developments

The kids are doing all kinds of new things recently.  I went to acupuncture this morning and had some time to reflect while I was lying on the table (ahhh, relaxation!) and here's what I came up with:

1.  Mateo can ride his balance bike.  I think he could do a pedal bike if he wanted to.  He rode his balance bike all the way to a farther-away-than-our-usual-park today and home again.  He can really get going, he can balance with both feet off the ground, and he can even handle most bumps and going up and down driveways and curbs and such.  Thanks again to Bubby and Poppa for the gift!

2.  Natalia, despite our suspicions that she will be very quick to learn the balance bike thing herself, won't go near hers.  She prefers her little trike, although she's getting to be much too big for it.  One of these days, she'll be ready, so we're trying not to push.  It will be fun to watch her learn when she is ready, though.  I think she's gonna be a terror!

3.  Speaking of our little girl, she's doing a lot of talking these days.  She can speak in full sentences when she wants to (ie, "Can I see that?") and will tell you in no uncertain terms exactly what she wants.  She's learning her colors, numbers, ABCs, and pretty much anything else that comes her way.  Recently, both kids are learning about spiders, because it is spider season here.  All the baby spiders have hatched and are making webs all over everywhere.  It's best to go out with a stick or something in front of you in our garden, so as to catch all the webs before they and their spiders get you in the face!

4.  It's summer time and the living is easy.  Sacha's home, the kids are free from any structured activities, and we're having fun just making it up as we go along.  We did sign them up for swim lessons after we get back from our trip, but, for the most part, we're doing the slow summer thing.  We just wake up in the morning, talk about what we'd all like to do, and then we do it.  For the most part, I have the kids in the mornings and Sacha has them in the afternoons, so we can each have some time for ourselves, but we have plenty of family time, too.  What can I say, except that it's great to be married to a teacher!

5.  We are leaving for Mexico in less than a week!  While we're gone, we're planning to have half our house, which is currently covered with nasty, stained carpet, refinished with hardwood floors.  That means we have to move all our furniture to the other side of the house while simultaneously packing for our trip out of the country.  Good times!  Let's hope we arrive in Mexico with our sanity intact, and that the project actually does get finished before we get home.

6.  The hot weather is finally here.  Wahoo!  We're hoping to get some good berry-picking in after we get home.

7.  Sacha and I are going out with two other couples for dinner and a movie tonight.  A big group date!  The fact that we all got sitters for the same time and arranged this all was amazing, and we are looking forward to it.  We're looking forward to hanging out with some of our playdate friends and actually being able to have a conversation with each other, and also for the working spouses to get to know each other, too. 

8.  That's it.  Hope your Saturday is treating you well!