mexico for a little bit

josh was asking noah last night about mexico and if he likes it here. he asked him if he likes mexico or california better and he said he likes mexico more but just for a little bit. 

yesterday he chose his clothes and he chose a tshirt under a sweater under a tshirt. the sitter daniela changed his clothes later and put on a different tshirt on top. noah told me later he was wearing too much clothes but he didn't want to change or take anything off. 

food and please and cheese - all are two syllable words for noah. fooo - uhd, pea-ehs, cheeee-ehs.

he wanted josh to put him to bed and he said "daddy bring you to bed please"... pronouns are hard. 

chamula

we saw some stuff today that was very very strange. we went to san juan chamula, which is a little village of mostly mayans, outside of san cristobal. it didn't take so long to get there - maybe 20 minutes. we walked up to the main church and the plaza outside of the church, and there was a lot going on. 

first of all, i should mention that there has been a lot of firecrackers and the noise and smoke and explosions that go along with them - this has been happening for days. throughout the day, and the nighttime too. christmas eve was the worst/most. kids in the street were having little bonfires with pieces of wood, and it was late at night (maybe because they were going to midnight mass, or maybe just because that's what happens on christmas eve). we thought that the firecrackers would stop after christmas, but they haven't. last night we heard them, and at 2 or 3 am and then at 5 or 6 am and they were happening all over chamula. and i hear them now also. 

so the plaza outside the church. picture this: all the women and girls we saw were wearing the black fur skirts we see often. most of the men were wearing fur poncho/cape things, either in black or white. the men were also wearing sombreros. lots of girls were approaching us, selling friendship bracelets and keychains, pretty aggressively.  close to the church, there were 10 or 15 men standing in a line, all wearing the black fur capes and sandles that were also boots, and they were holding batons and had red and green ribbons on their sombreros. they stood still for a long time. next to them were a line of men carrying wooden trunks and one holding an armoir. there were also some men with little candles and soda bottles, and they'd pour liquid into the candles. there were a bunch of people holding bushels of tall reeds. there's a bunch of tubas and trumpets in a pile, with someone guarding them. tourists were in a line to get into the church. and firecrackers were going off.

soon they started a parade, and the brass band was going and also a bunch of banjo/homemade guitars, and men playing harps that they were carrying. they were big stand-up harps. and accordians. lots of accordians. and the firecrackers were goign off. the people were carrying the wooden trunks and the armoir. 

i didn't go into the church, but josh says that inside, there were pine needles all over the floor, and live and dead chickens, and people drinking coca cola which we'd heard about ahead of time. you're supposed to drink coca cola and then belch out your evil spirits. so that was happening too. luckily, no firecrackers inside. 

i didn't go in the church partly b/c i didn't want to wait in line in the sun and also because i was already overwhelmed with the weirdness. so while they waited in line and went in the church, i found a shady spot to sit farther away. 

not allowed/supposed to take pictures. so all i can offer is this weird description. 

feliz navidad

okay i'm trying things. first off, this keyboard is tiny so i'm making lots of typos. second, we're in a coffee shop and there is REALLY bad music playing so i'm distracted. but it is a nice coffee shop. tomrorow we'll have elana and her family here and thenext day, dorian arrives.

table of contents for this post: black wool skirts, babies, our babies, last night, parade, traffic light

the other day we went to the zocolo and there was a little itty bitty train there that kids could ride. noah sort of sat in it for a moment but then he wanted to get out. oh well. we saw a parade go by, and it seemed like such a random surprise.... i guess it was for christmas. there were hundreds of people walking togther, mostly with masks and costumes, anda bunch of floats with nativity scenes and other christmas things, one of jesus dying and some with kids ... music and a band and it was very surprising and kind of strange. we saw the parade twice - once when we were just sitting in a coffee shop with the kids and meredith's family and we heard a lot of commotion outside so we looked. huh. interesting. would you look at that.

there are a lot of women, mostly mayan i think, who wear these black fur skirts. they also wear a silky kind of shirt that has the same pattern and a neatly folded scarf on top of their heads.

the city/town/wherever we live has one traffic light.

i gave the kids a bath in the kitchen sink and they liked that i think. i asked noah if we shoudl do that again and he said no, he wants a shower in the kitchen sink instead.

we went to the marketplace that josh and i like a lot. there are a lot of fruits that we don't recognize and also it's crowded and has random little piles of potatoes next to old-school-atari-type video games and there was a babyy crying who was in a box - i guess the parents were busy so they put the baby in a box. it's crowded and narrow and dark and we have been able to get a lot of things there, like these little sweet bananas noah likes a lot (he ate 6 yesterday) and potatoes and a pair of sunglassses for me for $45 (which is $3 usd)... we took a taxi back which is $2.

 we asked a little hotel place down the hill if we could leave our stroller there, and they agreed. that is great because we live at the top of a very steep hill and it's impossible to use the stroller until we get down the hill. so we'll pay them $8 for the month and that is really really helpful.

other plants we see everywhere: bromeliads and begonias and jade and trumpetvines and nasturtium and hydrangaea.

we see a lot of women carrying babies around. usually in a sling-ish kind of thing where the baby is on their back, and all that is showing is a foot. sometimes women carry other things in these sling things though. so you never know if there's a kid or stuff in their scarf, unless you see a foot. also there is a lot of walking around nursing - a woman just takes out a boob and sticks it in the kid's mouth. no embarassment or modesty or anything. i like that.

last night was hard - noah has a little bed thing in our room and aviva is in the packnplay in our room. they were both crying throughout the night. noah would get up and make demands (like he wanted daddy, not mama, and he wanted to brush his teeth, or needed to snuggle on a belly, or whatever) and aviva would just cry and cry. they were both coughing a little but not that much. we gave aviva tylenol twice (4 or 5 hours apart) and it helped but still she cried. i'd nurse her and still she'd cry. we'd change diapers, comfort, talk, snuggle, and still there was so much crying. argh. it was worse than the night before, but the night before was also bad. i don'tknow what we can do differently tonight... argh

okay i'll try pictures

i'm sorry it's sideways. but this is right outside our front door. it's a very steep hill going down.

one of the floats in the parade

noah in the backyard

sorry it's sideways. bath in kitchen sink

fur skirt and neatly folded scarf on head. this is what we see all over town.

josh and noah walking down one of the steep hills from our house

at mexico

Our front door

we are at mexico

other than the kids being sick (again) and josh losing his voice, we are here and all well. it is BEYOND beautiful. the streets, the cobblestones, the house we're at, the hills in the distance, the doorways and wrought iron metal around the windows on the street... it's really really breathtaking. meredith and david and baby miriam are here with us also for this week and that is great. 

when we ask noah where we are, he says we are at mexico. on the flight here, on the airplane we were given chocolate chip cookies and that made noah very happy. he called the chips "seeds." i think that was a good introduction to mexico - it made him like mexico right away. we have a sitter for the kids named nery and she has been coming a few hours a day. the first day she was here, she tried to change noah's diaper but he kept saying "no." he went 5 hours or something in the same daiper and it got so wet that his pants were wet and even his socks were wet. we told nery later that even though noah says no, she should do it anyway. 

also, when i change aviva's diaper and noah's there, he often says "beeba no have penis yet. not yet. soon." also beeba not have teeth yet and he says that often. it's true - she's 11 months and no teeth. well eventually. he's 2 and a half. 

there's a playground we've heard about that is a taxi ride away. it's kind of surprising that there aren't more. no parks really either -- there are little plazas in front of the churches, with gazebo things, but no grass to run around in. and nothing like a playground that we've seen yet. maybe we'll check out the far away playground soon. we spend a lot of time in the backyard which is beautiful and there are a lot of plants that are similar to berkeley. we've been sitting otuside and doing yoga and reading... noah likes to do yoga. he does downward dog and calls it a tunnel. plants - bouganvillia, agapanthas,. jade, some plants i recognize but don't know the names of. 

the roads are sometimes hard with a stroller because they are cobblestone and bumpy. also they are very narrow and the sidewalks are also narrow when they exist and aren't flat. they have steps and ramps for the driveways and curbs. so that's hard and the cars are going slowly, but theyy are loud and since josh lost his voice, we can't talk unless he's whispering and there are no cars around and we're close to each other. hopefully he'll get his voice back soon. 

i might change or move some of this writing later to another place, but i want to write a little about our travels. doorways that we see when they are open - it's nice and surprising to see that there's a big entryway and a huge (often) plaza and house.... you have no idea what's behind the closed door and it looks like ajust a door. but there is a huge amount beyond the door. 

living somewhere is more interractive than visiting - we are learning about where to get kindling for the fire and where to put the trash for the two days a week for trash pick up...

i'll try and add pictures soon.

random noah notes from september thru november

noah likes to give open-mouth sloppy kisses. he sometimes holds my cheeks and presses my face to his.

he has a few pairs of pants that are too long, and i roll them up sometimes. tonight he wanted me to roll up his shirt. he said it was too long.

he likes to say "love that one." or "don't like that one." he likes to make clear what makes his cut and what doesn't.

likes talking about cobwebs. there were cobwebs in his nose, cobwebs on aviva’s neck - any bit of dust or shmutz is a cobweb.

i had a ponytail and it was different. he didn’t like it i guess. he said “take. off. hair. again.”

he likes to sing twinkle twinkle little star, and he sings it to himself. sometimes as he’s playing, and sometimes to himself in his bed. it’s singing, and not talking. there’s a little bit of a tune. and he likes the hand motions also.

the other day as we were leaving aurea’s house and he was playing with sidewalk chalk, he was holding the chalk. finally he agreed to put it down on the step and we could go. i said “say bye bye to the chalk.” and he waved to the chalk and said “bye bye chalk.”

he often wants to do things himself, and he says "fuff!" that's his word for "self." 

also he says "sizzies," and that could mean cereal, salad, or scissors.

he tells me where to kiss him. he says "kiss here. and here. again."

i said to say goodbye to someone and i told him, “say goodbye, noah.” and he said “goodbye noah”

what she likes

she likes to put clean diapers in her mouth. she also likes to grab our glasses. but her favorite of all favorite thing to put in her mouth: socks, shoes, toes. socks and shoes - it doesn't matter whose. toes are her own, usually. 

noah done sleeping

for several nights now, noah's been waking up around 4 am. with some comforting and petting and holding, he goes back to sleep. but he has strange requests and he is very adamant about them. last night (or this morning) he said, at 4:00, "done!" when we asked what he was done with, he kept saying he was just done. "done sleeping?" josh asked. "noah done sleeping" he responded. the other night, at 4:00 he wanted me to brush my teeth. other times he's wanted to read a book or go outside or one time, to eat pancakes. 

the boy

noah has had a few dance parties, and i'll add some videos. he likes to dance. "to dance," means, to him, to run around in circles and make funny goofy noises.

also, we don't do it as much anymore, but for awhile, noah and i would go for a run around the block before dinner. we did this to let josh cook in peace and also to get some of noah's excessive energy out. we would go to the "up-down-splat-garage" which is a little slanted driveway where we'd run up and run down and splat our hands on the garage. and he pats trees we pass to say hello.

this is the up-down-splat-garage

also he has a run where he flops his arms around and he kind of moans. it's his running sound. he knows to stop when he gets to a street and he doesn't need reminders for that anymore.

last night we had dinner of macaroni and he called it "rackamoni". i like that.

at school, noah does "work." he's not playing with toys, but he's working. at home when he's playing, he also calls it work. i like that, too.

he is suddenly ticklish in a way he wasn't. it happened sort of sudden. now he's ticklish when i'm changing his diaper, when i pick him up, and even the other day when i was undoing a button on his sweater. he said that tickled.

he (hopefully temporarily) has gotten fascinated with poop. i expected this to come up later. i'm guessing it will re-emerge later. he was talking about how pee and poop are going to drive the car, and he was laughing and laughing. and a dog has a butt.

the girl

there have been a few times that aviva has pulled herself to standing. then she cries because she's stuck and can't get down. but this is a big step. also she likes to crawl over the the gate whenever we forget to close it. she can't cross it when it's open, but she could probably do that soon and she doesn't like it when we are on the other side of the gate.

she's also often sticking her tongue out. it's a happy look. also, she and noah have been playing a little together. or, rolling around on the ground together, anyway. and he gave her a kiss yesterday which was actually a lick on her head.

something she likes that makes her laugh is when you kind of bite her chin or her fingers.