What we have been up to the past month besides sorting through Cuba pictures:
Me: After almost 3 years of Spanish, I’m speaking to my children in English inside the home (pressure from the Frenchies) and I don’t mean to honk my own horn, but I’m much funnier and more funner (Isn't that awesomely ugly!) in English. Parenting has become slightly easier, yet I’m still in the stage where I forget to speak in English half of the time, so it’s a mangled Spanglish.
I had my first soccer game in over a decade and it was U-G-L-Y. I ran 7 miles last Saturday, but it doesn’t hold a light to frenzied sprinting.
Elijah: If potty humor were an art, he’d be Picasso. Yet sometimes I wonder whether I’m the Picasso and he’s my understudy.
If talking to people were a sickness, I would say Elijah’s terminal. We usually get home 1.5-2 hours after school ends, in a large part b/c that kid talks to every person he passes. He usually starts with one of the following:
1. “How much does that cost?” Then he looks at me and says with a surprised look on his face, “Mom, it’s only XX pesos!” And I reply, “Show me da money!”
2. “Do you have any food?” Last week he and Claire crawled uninvited into a man’s car and started eating from his huge jar of candy. Don’t worry, it was not Chester, I could spot that dude from a mile.
Claire: is growing up. Her big accomplishment lately (besides cutting her own hair) is that she learned to walk—she went through a stage of forgetfulness where as soon as we stepped out of the house (and even sometimes inside), her legs would stop functioning. Now, not only can she walk, she asks to run on the way home from E’s school, that is, when she’s not mastering the scooter. I will never forget (in the next 30 minutes) the moment the scooter clicked for her. A tear almost came to my eye when I told her how proud I was of her conquest.
Iris’ arms are no longer the enemy, but a source of entertainment. Although they will still attack her face in moments of exhaustion, for the most part, she looks at them and thinks, “What are those silly appendages going to do next?”
David: He made a goal last week to change at least a diaper a day. He averaged about 1.02! His average for this week has dropped significantly.
Outings in the month of January:
For my birthday, the women in my ward took me out for tacos on the street. I sampled a few delicacies: eyeball, tripe, the fat behind cows' ears. I heard the tongue was good to, but couldn't make accommodations for it in my stomach.
What I really wanted for my birthday, what I feel I need most these days is an extra arm. Preferably with a hand on the end, but really I would have settled for a stump. Oh well, maybe next year. Instead I got a day full of fun and car-sickness. On the actual day of my birthday, we took a trip to Malinalco. This is the group on top of the Cerro de los Idolos, where we hiked to see the Aztec ruins.
In the town
Does this food remind you of a movie?"I only believe in science."
A neighboring city was celebrating the day of the black Christ. Many people were wearing and selling these flower crowns.
Another trip we took this month was to a huge petting zoo. I came to the conclusion that the bottom lips of camels are one of the uglier creations in existence.
Fun fact: The majority of us have had buffalo milk. Every time we eat pizza. Mozzarella cheese is made from it.Claire sporting her new pout.
She temporarily overcame her fear of horses.
At the dog show.
Dear Cow,I know exactly how you feel.
I sympathize with you from 1am-5am every morning.
Don't worry, they tell me it might get better.
Much love
Also, a new development in our lives: supporting and engaging in illegal activities.We were on our way to the temple yesterday and accidentally turned into a “bus only” lane right in front of a corrupt cop. He threatened to impound our car for 3 days, plus give us a fine of 40-days of wage (we found out later he couldn’t really do this even though he showed this “law” to David in his little rule book). The alternative was to give him “a few pesos to buy lunch.” We gave him about $4 in coins because it was all we had on us. It turned out that this cop doesn’t want to buy street food, he wants a nice lunch. He escorted David to the nearest ATM and ended up with about $18. Oh man, I was ready to leave Mexico right then—you’re supposed to be able to trust police, they defend your rights, uphold the law, etc. etc. I arrived to the temple slightly distraught (understatement) by the situation. But as I watched faithful, good people filing out of at least 10 buses to enter the House of the Lord, I concluded that Mexico might not be located in the depths of a fiery inferno as I had previously supposed. I guess I can live here a few more days.
