mexico house

we are here and it is hot. it's nice and cool in our apartment, but our apartment is pretty ugly or charm-less. it's pretty outside and very charming but it's hot. we are in the old city, centro historica, which is walled in.

we need to make decisions about plans before we’re falling apart or before the kids are falling apart and we’re desperate to get out of the house. b/c once the kids are falling apart, or we are, we just have to act fast to change the situation. we can’t plan logically or efficiently. this is a bullet point that we need to be sure we do.

• make plans a day ahead of time

so i want to debrief our time so far. traveling is hard. it definitely helped that the fam was with us. airplanes and security lines and everything in spanish and we have 3 suitcases and a stroller, two car seats, a frame-pack, and backpack and josh’s computer bag. and two kids. it’s so hard to get from point a to point b, even when they’re 100 feet away. there were many long lines we waited in, sometimes with all our stuff. (add to that list: fam’s stuff and fam). the airplane rides were actually good. we all had so many ways to entertain the kids and there were all kinds of toys for them. it was good. that preparation we all did really paid off. it was even complicated to get to the airport. dorian helped a lot by driving us to the airport, and taking care of plants while we’re gone and transporting some of us to the fam’s house… it all took planning and preparation.

so we flew to mexico city and stayed at an airport hotel, then left in the morning for our flight to campeche. we couldn’t fit in one taxi so we took two to our house. house is fine. no charm whatsoever which is kind of sad. an apartment with nothing on the walls and brand new white sheets and towels, and missing a lot of random things. whatever. there are two chairs that are like net/hammock/rocking chairs. and there’s air-conditioning in 3 rooms. three bedrooms. one for kids. putting noah to sleep was tricky and for two nights we had to do it so late and in our room, with both me and josh taking turns. or shifts, really, because it was work. it was about 10:30 the first night, when we started around 8. i guess it makes sense b/c it was two hours earlier in california.

so on monday and tuesday we walked around and saw the malecon or beach walk/area and also a fish market kind of place where we bought fresh fish to cook at home, and MEGA, the grocery store. we walked around the zocolo and the little markets with fruits and veggies and cellphones and nicknacks. we took a bus to the beach, la playa bonita. we got the internet set up and unpacked. josh did some work. we are starting to set up routines, including time in undies and sitting on the potty. we’ve had some time-outs, but only a few. it’s great having the fam here to help with the kids and to hang out and keep company/talk with.

adventures are more fun when you can reminisce about them later, and remind each other of details. mostly talk about them in the past tense. remember when….? here are some:

remember when we forgot about the frame pack and left it at the airport until tuesday when we noticed we were missing it?

remember when we called the airport hotel and the cab driver and decided to just go to the airport and ask about it?

remember when noah gave me a black eye by bonking his head into mine?

remember when noah locked the door to the bedroom and closed it? and there was no key so we called the locksmith?

remember when noah gave aviva a black eye?

and remember when we went into the water at the beach and we found a big conch shell in the water and there was a huge hermit crab crawling in it?

we tried out a sitter for the kids but gave up on her. she didn’t talk to the kids. and she was helping noah sharpen his colored pencils so that he could break them again on purpose. and then she’d do it again. we found two potential schools and one drop-in place that they’re trying out now. there’s other kids there too, and lots of toys. if that works, then the kids can spend 2 or 3 or 4 hours there, a few days a week, and then josh can work and i can be kid-free too.

here’s what i will do in my kid-free time, and what are my goals for mexico:

1. read about/prep for my classes, which will start at the end of january at san jose state.
2. work on the baby books that we are 2 ½ years behind on
3. read for fun
4. self-care-ish things like yoga, stretching, meditating
5. email and catch up on emails, work on low priority things that i’ve been putting off, like the baby book and emails
6. listen to more lectures online from happiness class i started a year ago (or maybe two years)
7. improve spanish with a class or tutor
8. blog

i’m looking forward to doing these things.

we went to the fruit/veggie/random-nick-nacks and nativity scenes market. i was wearing aviva on my back and she accidentally stole an orange as we passed by. we also were looking at two puppies for sale and one was a baby chihuahua, the size of a big potato. we’ve been eating good food and drinking a lot of juice and water and horchata. the buildings and the streets are pretty. cobblestone-y and nice colors. it’s very very hot. and also humid.

josh has been working and he was presenting at a webinar the other day. we’ll probably still find a better arrangement/place/time for work - the apartment isn’t so comfortable with no desk or table tops. probably we’ll find a coffee shop where was can set up shop for a few hours at a time on different days. we’ll see.