¡Viva México!

Tomorrow is Mexico's Independence Day. I should write what I think are the facts, and then check and see how much I got right. I think that would be a good laugh for everyone. I do know that a man shouted at night for everyone to rebel against the occupying Spainiards. I think it was Benito Juarez Miguel Hidalgo, and maybe the "grito" was more about finally being victorious? I swear I'm going to learn something about this very important and festive holiday!

The kids get tomorrow off of school, and N, because the Consulate celebrates both American and Mexican holidays, gets tomorrow off too. Yippee!

Word on the street was that kids were encouraged to either wear the colors of the Mexican flag (red, green, white) or traditional Mexican clothing today. Because we seem to be lacking anything pure red or pure green, I went to an outdoor market last night with our wonderful neighbor R, and bought the girls each a Mexican dress to wear to school today. They looked just adorable. Eva ("Eh-vuh") our housekeeper got here in time to do trensas in their hair again, so they really couldn't have been cuter.

Tonight we are going to our coto's (gated community) celebration, just across the street. There will be tacos, and drinks, and music, and lots of festivities apparently. Cubby and I walked over there earlier to buy tickets for some friends, and the decorations got us all excited. "Bbbuu!" shouted Cubby. (That's Cubby for "balloon", we've come to realize. Not very far from the beginning sounds of "Biibiibiibii" for "binkie" and "Bbbiibiibii" for "baby." He's certainly got the "b" sound down.) There is a rumor that they might televise President Calderon giving the "grito" of "Viva México!" live at 11pm, from near the city of Guanajato, where the original grito took place. I think 11pm is when the festivities officially begin, but I think that is when MY personal festivities will be back home and in bed. We'll see!

Quotes

We need to post more on here like crrraaaazzy. But for now, quick quotes from the girls.

Birdie one afternoon last week, describing what she's like at school:

"Mommy, I'm like a 'no sé' robot."

Deevie, making an observation about the mothers of some of her classmates:

"People here really dress up. But not you, Mommy, cause you're an American. Right?"

Guadalajara is gearing up for hosting the Pan-American games next month, and there are a lot of billboards, advertisements on taxis, etc. Everyone is very excited. One entire street is newly lined with all-weather exercise equipment and sport sculptures for the occasion. Anyway, the street is very recognizable, and I know I always feel very secure when I'm on it because I've known that street since my first day here. Apparently the kids are very familiar with that street too, because one longish day in the car last weekend, a very frustrated Deevie had this to say:

"We've been on this road like eleventy times already!"

Back to school!

The car got here on Wednesday afternoon and there was much rejoicing. "Hooray! Freedom!" Then it just sat in our driveway for two days... until this evening's elementary school open house. I took a taxi from work and Narra met me at the school in the minivan having just conquered GDL rush-hour traffic.

[Side note: Narra's last "I did something!!" post is ridiculous. She has been "doing something" every minute since our arrival. She's been amazing. Her job here is far harder than mine, she's been making things happen every day, and I have three happy kids to prove it.]

Deevie's open house will be next week, but we still had two teachers to meet tonight. Por que? Well, the Bird started off the year in pre-first, which is an extra grade they throw in, partly to help the Mexican children (the vast majority of students) catch up in English. Although most of them start there in pre-pre-K, they still speak Spanish in their homes, so the extra year makes sense... for them. For our book-devouring bird, not as much. After a couple of weeks, and some homework assignments that Birdie found sort of funny, the school and we concluded that a move to 1st was in order. Making the decision easier was that she's old for her grade in the US, so a bump up will mean she's still with kids her age.

Through this pre-first/first decision the school administration proved to be accommodating, caring, and great to work with, and we met several people we might never have spoken to otherwise. As icing on the cake, Birdie will be in the same Spanish section as before (same teacher and classmates for 1.5 hrs) AND have the same recess as her old class, so I hope the transition will go smoothly. Her old teacher and new teacher are working together to ease her in.

Meanwhile, the Deevster is all smiles in Kindergarten. She likes her teacher and classmates. Narra says there is one little friend, a French girl, who runs up and gives Deevie a kiss on the cheek when they see each other at recess. They bring a toy from home every Friday; today she was thrilled to bring in her daughter, Carol (a.k.a. the rather frightening looking doll in the post below).


There have been a few topes along the way. Each girl shed a few tears the first week--and we may still have a few to go with next week's transition--but I think things are smoothing out.

Tonight, when it comes to school in the GDL, we exhale.

Fancy school hairdos, courtesy of the other Eva.
(More about her later.)

I Did Something!!

I just made a 12-month appointment for Cubby with a Gudalajaran pediatrician!!! What an adrenaline rush. Using my best crap Spanish -- and Google Translate (thank you Google Translate) -- I pieced together enough sentences to make an appointment. And yes, this is my "primera vez" with this pediatrician, gracias (that was one of the off-the-cuff questions I hadn't prepared for. That and my telephone number.) Ha ha!

It's amazing how happy understanding the simplest things can uplift my spirits. I didn't even know my spirits needed uplifting until I made that call.

Oh, and N just called. The van is here!! Being delivered at 5pm!

Now Cubby and I have to prepare for a "Welcome Home Mommy" party I promised that baby doll Carol would have for Deevie when she returns from school. It was the only way I could get her to willingly get in the carpool this morning. Of course after I made the promise, Birdie chirped up saying she wanted Sally to have a party for her too.

I wonder if bouncing around in Grandma's hand while singing, "Yay! Mommy's home! Mommy's home!" will pass as a party?

Last Weekend

Last weekend our wonderful neighbors (and social sponsors from the Consulate) took us with their family to a place that sounded like Balnearia "Wheats-lah". Obviously I don't quite have the spelling right on that last word, but that's what it sounded like. The actual word had an X in it, and any Spanish word with an X confuses the heck out of me. Except "Dos Equis" -- but I don't think that counts.

"Balnearia" literally means "seaside resort." The place we went wasn't a resort by any English translation I know, but instead was a very hidden collection of hot springs that feed into each other. There were concrete stalls for changing, and concrete bathroom stalls, along with barbecue stands for guest use. We had to drive on a mostly-dirt mountain road for a ways before reaching the quaint village (we're talking 5 houses-ish plus a "tiendita" (small store)) that lead to the gate of the balnearia, passing Mexican burros (donkeys) on the way, and catching some breathtaking mountain scenery. "This looks like Hawaii!!" Birdie kept saying. The hot springs were natural springs, but in order to serve the local public, concrete pools had been built around them to allow for varying depths and temperatures. The girls loved it. (Have we mentioned that they are both swimmers now?! Crazy how quickly that has happened.) On a bathroom break to Wheats-lah, Nick ran to buy some fresh Mexican corn on the cob (I differentiate because the corn wasn't what you'd expect back in the States - it's tougher and heartier, almost yelling to be ground into a tortilla) from a roadside vendor. We grilled that along with the sausages and other food everyone had contributed for the barbecue.

It was so great to do something! N told me about the Saturday plan on Thursday, saying that we'd been invited to tag along on an outing. "Where?" I asked. "Does it matter?" said N. That is sort of where we are :). Our van has yet to arrive, so we basically only go to places we have to go to -- like work (N shares a taxi or gets a ride with neighbors), or school (we have a permanent driver for the girls now, so no more hauling car seat and cranky Cubby around every day!). Seeing parts of Guadalajara beyond those two destinations was thrilling to say the least.

The house

Here are some pics of the place from the day we arrived:

Back yard/patio:

The girls' room. (They want to share--it's what they're used to.)

Master bedroom:

Master bedroom closet (!) and Exploring Birdie:

Our bathroom. Really nice. The house is full of showers but this big tub is our only tub. To bathe Cubby, we do bucket brigade from the sink because it would take about 5 hours to fill otherwise. Once we get some water pressure to the big tub, we'll be sittin' pretty.

The view from our bedroom. There are lots of houses still under construction all around us. Note the playground on the right. Through that white building on the other side is a swimming pool. Having these things so close is amazing.

The living room/dining room: (it was getting dark)

...and the outside. We had pictures that came out better, but I think this one captures the chaos of the day.

Unaccompanied Air Baggage

It arrived on Thursday! Christmas in August! And as our neighbor warned me, even though we were very much looking forward to getting some of our stuff, in the end it didn't feel like a whole lot. But we were and are still very happy about it, and the kids were dancing around squealing with delight at each box opening.

Best things about UAB arriving:

- The girls' bikes!

- The grill! No propane yet, but hopefully we'll get some soon so we can cook out.

- Our own sheets and towels!

- More silverware!

- The art/craft center!
- Cubby's crib! We had a crib in the welcome kit, but the mattress seems smaller than standard, and therefore leaves gaps around the edges. And the side rail doesn't come down like ours. Don't get me wrong -- we very much appreciate there even being a crib in the welcome kit, but it's nice for Cubby to be back in a familiar bed.

- My shoes! So now I can bring the girls to school in something other than my running shoes. Not that I'll ever fit in with the fancy, beauty queen-esque mamas, but at least I look a little more put together. Or so I think! Ha ha.

Things we wish we had put in UAB:

- A mini-stero system so we can plug in our ipods/laptops to play music. We thought we had, but it must've been put in HHE because all 7 of our packed-to-the-gills UAB boxes got here without it.

- Bed covers! We packed sheets, but not the duvet covers or our quilt. It would've been nice to have that instant familiarity and homey-ness in the rooms. Our neighbor lent us covers for the girls' beds (colorful ones from Ikea), and that has been wonderful.

I'm sure there's more stuff we miss, but I can't think of it now. We were smart to pack bathroom rugs in our luggage because we needed those immediately. We packed shower curtains too, but all our showers have glass doors so we ended up not needing them. The GSO rep came by last week to inspect the house, and mentioned that we are welcome to paint any walls if we want to (yay!) just so long as we paint them back to white before leaving. I think a little color here and there (I'm thinking accent walls) will make this place feel a lot more like home. Bright yellow? That would seriously clash with some of the furniture, but I do want something bright to fit with Mexico. N has yet to chime in about this issue.

One piece of advice we got before arriving was to have the shipping company reps open our boxes and unpack our stuff for us, and take all the trash away. Wonderful advice! There is such an urge to just do it yourself and be alone with your things, but with small kids around and no tools, it makes so much more sense to have the pros do it. I also asked the guys to put together the crib (cuña (Found out it IS actually "cuna" without the trill! Apparently "cuña" has several non-crib meanings, one of which is "bedpan.") - with a trill over the n - don't know how to do that on the Mac [-thanks Craig!]) and the bikes, which was also great advice we got -- have them put together everything so we can use them immediately.

I'm also so thankful for the Exersaucer that another neighbor gave us so Cubby could stay put and watch the commotion from a safe distance, eating his Cheerios.