Mexico Part 17: Year 1 Completed, School Birthday and a Haircut

We have officially finished our first year of med school in Mexico. Okay, so technically, it hasn't been difficult on me, but I know that this has been a lot of work for Matthew. We came back to Oregon for the summer. He gets four weeks of vacation and while the flights are expensive we had to come back home to see Cathryn, Matthew's sister, came back from serving an 18 month mission for our church and my brother Ricky get married. We are enjoying our time here. We came in on Sunday, and thankfully the kids were pretty good on both flights. We had to get them up really early in the morning because we flew out at 7 am, but to much to our surprise when we got to the airport, we were apparently flying out at 6:45 and we arrived at about 6:15. The flight people weren't to happy with us. And while we purposefully, like to show up a little late to the airport, we didn't mean to show up that late. It was a miracle we were able to get on the flight. We were literally the last ones to get on the plane, but thankfully we did. Then when we flew into Phoenix, I think we blew it because they were offering money to take a later flight. the airlines overbooked the flight, and I couldn't do it. Do you know how you want to, but the thought of having kids break down on you because you changed what was going to work for you wasn't my idea of having fun. So, we didn't take the money and instead flew in to Portland and we were all super tired. We recovered quickly though and are having a great time. We split up the trip to spend two weeks in Sisters and two weeks in Hillsboro. I decided to stay an extra week with the kids and fly alone so I will spend that week with my parents. Even though it seems like a long time to be away, it does go by quickly. While on our vacation we have been sleeping the kids in the same room, and I have been surprised how well it has worked. They both go to bed pretty happy. At first they were so excited to be in the same room that it took them a while to fall asleep but now they seem to be fine. In fact, the other day Elijah didn't have his sister with him to take a nap and he was pretty sad. I might have to move them into the same room when we go back to Guadalajara. There really is no need for it, but we might do it if it will make them happier. I will have to wait and see.

The common question I get now that I am not working full time is if I miss it. And what I often tell people is no. I miss my coworkers who are my good friends, and the kids but I don't miss what it means to work. All my friends who work know what I am talking about. I don't miss getting the kids up early in the morning to rush them to daycare, then be late to pick them up because I had a late meeting. I don't miss rushing home to make dinner to a bunch of grumpy children because I just got home and that is their job apparently, to be grumpy. Or quickly get them into the bathtub only to put them to bed and do it all again in the morning. Nope, I don't miss that. This year, I have learned instead that I love my free time. I have watched a TON more t.v., learned to love my sewing machine, read some more books, and hang with the kids. I have even gone on more dates with Matthew. Since we hardly get time together, we have made it more of a point to go out together and that's been fun. We'll see what next year in med school brings me. Hopefully, more good times and less stress. I sure I will have more good times, but I am not to hopeful on the stress part.

Before we left Mexico we celebrated Eva's birthday at school. She knew it wasn't her "real" birthday, but she still thinks she's already five. Whoops, that won't happen until July 14th, but she asked me all year when she was going to have her birthday party at school so I had no choice but to do it before we left. The kids in Mexico are actually still in school. They get out the first week of July, but with Matthew starting school then we couldn't wait for her to get out. She originally wanted a strawberry shortcake party, but I couldn't find a strawberry in my cricut stuff. I convinced her instead to do a bunny party because for the last couple weeks leading up to her birthday she couldn't stop talking about bunnies. So, we had a bunny party. We had a bunny cake, because I lost on that one. I really wanted to do bunny cupcakes, but she refused, saying that all the kids had cakes, so she had to have a cake too. But as you can see the bunny split right open. The roads in Mexico are horrible, and my little cake couldn't handle the bumpy ride. It looked cute at home.

                                      

And, the last thing that happened before we left home, was I chopped off Eli's hair. I think he looks younger, but most people say he looks older. Maybe I am just in denial, because I can see that he looks more like a little boy, than my baby. Now we have just been practicing how to get him from one end of the room to another with a pillow in hand, since he is going to be the ring bearer at my brother's wedding and I think he will be adorable. That's all for now.

                            

Mexico Part 16: Mexican Mother's Day

One of the things that I would remember my aunt telling me about her school was that they always put on a lavish mother's day program here in Mexico.  When May hit, I was looking forward to see what Eva's school would put together.  Mother's day in Mexico is always celebrated on the 10th.  That's kind of nice in some ways because you know the exact day every year, but I also don't mind that we have it in the states every second Sunday.  Because Mother's day fell on a Tuesday this year, the kid's program was actually on a Friday.  I debated a lot whether or not to bring Elijah with me because I didn't want him to keep me from actually seeing Eva do her thing, but in the end I was glad I took him because he really liked it.  It captured his attention the entire hour and a half that the show went on. They had each class do a performance.  The little kids' class ages range from 14 months to about 2.5, I think, and while I always get asked why I am not taking Elijah to school yet, that day of the performance when those kids got on stage and one after another started crying because they wanted their mom, it sealed the deal for me.  I understand the mom's that have to work and take their kids out of necessity, but I am thankful every day, after working full time with my babies in day care, that for once, I am able to be with them.  Okay back to Mother's day.  Eva's group went third.  They all sang/danced a song in Spanish that all the mom's knew but me.  I think I need to listen to more Mexican radio here.  Then they did a Spanish poem.  After that they sang/danced to the Beatles Love Me Do, which, whoops, I didn't realize that the words to the song were love me do.  I thought Eva was just saying to with a Mexican accent and I kept correcting her that the words were love me to not do.  I feel super bad now.  But in my defense, I often have to help her with her pronunciation because her teacher has an accent and the kids pronounce things with one.  Anyway,(I digress way too much don't I?) then after that they danced a Spanish flamenco sort of dance.  It was cute.  And, she was actually able to wear a dress up dress that my brother Ricky brought her from Spain when he went there some years back.  It was a great Mother's day program.  Not to mention the fact that afterwards the kids gave us these frames that the school had purchased and brought in a photographer to dress all the kids and take their picture.  I thought it was special, because I really don't have too many framed pictures of my kids here.  It is always nice to see your kids up on a stage.

This is Eva's best friend, Zharia.  Next year she won't be going to school with Eva because they moved far away mid year and the commute is a hard one with a brand new baby sister.  I know Eva will be sad to not see her on a regular basis.

Two of Eva's good friends, Luna in middle and Isabela.  

Mexico Part 15: Elijah's Friend Birthday Party

The birthday boy.  I don't know why we put the suit on.  He never once got in the pool.

The big sister.  She had a blast with all the siblings of the little kids I invited to the party.

The cakes.  I made two because I thought I wouldn't have enough (surprise, surprise).  I totally had enough.  I think I ate pound cake for a week after this party.

My brother Ricky and I had about a million of these pictures of us growing up sharing a birthday.  We were both March babies.  These two can be so sweet sometimes.  Emphasis on the sometimes.

He LOVES icecream.

Licking up the icecream.  Doesn't everyone do this?

On Friday, May 6th, my brother Alex's official birthday, we celebrated Elijah's birthday with some great people that we have met here in Guadalajara.  Seriously, I feel so blessed to have Eva in school so that I can meet people there, go to church so that I can meet more people, and then have the Guadalajara Wives Club so that I can meet even more, more people.  This time we mostly invited people in Elijah's nursery class.  If I didn't then the party would have been a crazy size and frankly with no real income, that would have been tough.  So, almost all the people from the party with the exception of some of Matthew's teammates from school were from nursery.  I don't know how much Elijah really noticed.  He is kind of a loner sometimes.  He spent most of the party eating watermelon and trying to escape from the party than actually get into the pool for his little swim party.  We had it at the club house here where we live and that was kind of a crazy story.  First, we decided that it would be a swim party and what a better theme than to have an American BBQ to go with the swimming.  I went to Costco and bought hamburgers and hot dogs and everything was set to go.  Awhile back when we were swimming at the club house we saw that the BBQ there was a charcoal kind so we knew we had to get to the party somewhat early and start the charcoal before the guests arrived.  After loading most of all the food in the wagon, Matthew went down to the club house only to find that there was NO BBQ.  I seriously  could not believe it.  I called the guard house asking him about the BBQ and he said that everyone brings their own.  What!?  Here we were, it was 4:30 by this point, guests were going to be coming at 5:00 and we had no BBQ.  Thank goodness they built a Walmart nearby that just opened about a month ago because I sent Matthew to purchase a BBQ for us.  We had been wanting one but not like this, so spur of the moment. Matthew came back with the BBQ at about 5:00 and we quickly proceeded to put this thing together.  Meanwhile, the kids are running around all over the club house and Elijah kept getting stuck at the top of the hill whining for us to get him down while Matthew and I were frantically putting this BBQ together.  Talk about stressful.  Luckily, our first guest didn't show up until about 5:30 so she didn't see us putting the thing together, but that put us super behind on the charcoals.  It totally stunk.  I hate being late on the food, and it wasn't my fault really but I did learn a lot.  Never assume a facility has anything in this country.  And that is so true!  Thanks to some ingenious thinking, like using a blow dryer to get the charcoals going, we fed people at a decent time and I think the party was a success.

The theme for the party was cars.  It is so hard with a two year old who doesn't speak much to tell you what they would want for their birthday, so I just assumed he would like this the best.  We did little car invitations with my cricut.  Put together little baggies for the kids that had some of Elijah's favorites.  It had a little car, balloon, fruit snacks (those are a hot commodity around here since you can't find the small packs.  I saw that costco brought those giant packs of fruit snacks but they aren't the same as the little packs in my opinion.), homemade play dough and car stickers.  The little kids especially liked everything in the baggies, and really that was who they were geared to.  His birthday cake, was my first attempt at putting a cake together.  I used this website to copy Elijah's car cake.  It was a fun experience.  I am usually a cupcake person, but it was fun doing this.  And when it came time to give out cake, most of the kids wanted the wheels because they were donuts.  Darn kids, didn't they know all the effort it took me to put the cake together?  They were supposed to want a slice of the car, not the donuts :)  I guess it was good that at least they wanted some of the cake.  It meant it looked appealing.  My first party here in Mexico is done, and while I missed all my friends from home A TON during Eli's birthday, I realized we are lucky to meet great people wherever we are in life.

Some of the guests at Elijah's birthday...

We (okay some) think that is Elijah's girlfriend.  He gets super excited to see Kylee in pictures.  And in real life, he has been known to put the moves on her.

Some of my favorite Puerto Ricans!  Gabriel is Eva's age.  And Elijah spends a lot of time with Yasiris when we get together for wives club.

If I could only be as patient and calm as Jenn when I have four kids (okay, if I have four kids) I will feel like super mom.  

Alan from Elijah's nursery.  He couldn't get enough of the pool.  He was so cute!

Eva loves these girls from church.  Since our primary is small there are a lot of muli-aged groups.  These girls are super sweet to Eva who is much younger than them.

Little Dylan from nursery too.  She kept wanting me to take her picture.

Alan's little brother.  Eli doesn't see him much but I thought those ears were adorable.

Mexico Part 14: Spring Break in Puerto Vallarta with photo overload

The second week of spring break we spent it in paradise.  It wasn't that Puerto Vallarta was the most beautiful place, but it was the resort that we were at was awesome.  It was the Sunset Plaza Beach Resort.  The view to the beach, the rooms, the facilities, were all incredible.  In fact, at one point, Carla, Matthew's mom, and I commented that we felt kind of silly sitting in these super nice beach chairs with umbrellas on a roped off private beach, while other people walked by us and saw us sitting there.  It was crazy.  Then sometimes Eva would want me to sit in these big beds that were also on the beach.  All I needed was some good looking guy to feed me grapes or something.  Needless to say we had an awesome seven days in Vallarta.  We spent a long part of the day swimming in there pools and relaxing on beach on a regular basis.  That was really all that Eva wanted to do and I can't blame her.  She even managed to make some little friends there, and she had fun the the pulling calling Grandpa John crocodile.  I don't know how that even started but it was their little game, and she LOVED it.  The water/beach in Vallarta is pretty gross, if I am going to be honest.  Matthew made me swim in the thing because he wanted me to touch this boouy that was out there and I guess there was a part in the middle of the ocean where you could actually touch.  I didn't actually get to touch that part with my feet because he couldn't find it and Elijah was whining for me so I decided to swim back in but it was a good experience.  The water isn't warm either but it is warmer than the Oregon cost.  It is just as salty and I know that because I am not a good swimmer and I got a good gulp of ocean water down my throat.  The only reason why this happened was because I wouldn't stop complaining that Matthew dragged me out into the ocean and a bunch of water came in.  I kept quiet after that.

Matthew and the kids

Family shot at the beach.

Proof I got in the ocean.  I seriously freak out when I am in there.  I keep thinking of sharks and how they aren't too friendly with humans.

This is a funny little story.  Eva got a little taste of the virgin strawberry daiquiris one day.  Well, the next day she wanted to order one and she insisted that they add a little strawberry to the top.  Wish granted!

My little Eva 

Nana and Elijah, but more importantly, do you notice the beds and chairs in the background that  I was referring to?

Matthew was so proud of himself when he bought this hat.  He wanted one like Elijah's because he thought his was so cool.  

I can never get this kid to smile for the camera anymore.

This is the inside of our room.  It doesn't so it justice but the view from that balcony was amazing.

Matthew and I working on our tans.  We got good at applying the 15spf  and the higher spf when we felt like we were going to burn.

Eva got really good at working the elevator.  She knew to hit L for when we were going swimming and 4 for when we were going back up to the room.  Oh and this girl got a major tan while we were there.  She was pretty pasty white before our trip.

Her swimming confidence grew in leaps and bounds while we were there.   She learned to trust her floaty and hold her breath underwater.  We were really proud of her.

One thing we did go and do while we were in Puerto Vallarta was visit their zoo.  It was the craziest zoo I have ever been too.  It really was more like a feeding zoo.  You buy these bags of food when you get there and you go throughout the whole zoo feeding the animals.  And the animals are super friendly, because they want you to feed them.  Some of them, like the little monkeys, will stick their tiny fingers through the cracks in the glass so you can give them food.  I know we had just gone to the zoo a couple days before this zoo, but it was a completely different experience.  If we would have paid more money, we would have been able to pet their tiger that they had there and I think their jaguar too.  The kids totally loved the place.  But, I think Matthew might have loved the place even more.  He was all over giving those animals food and touching them, and of course taking video of the kids and their reactions.  We had some fun times.

Eva didn't like the giraffe too much when it was so close to her.  Elijah also  preferred to admire it from afar.

I think they were showing each other their teeth.

These are the cracks I am talking about.  I thought the raccoons were a little scary.

He liked this little guy.

Isn't it nuts how close you can get to the animals?  

Do you see their mouths?  They really were nice, they just wanted the food.

Elijah turns TWO

On May 2nd my baby turned two.  I can't believe it's finally here.  I have spent so much of my time telling people that he isn't two yet that I almost can't believe it that now I have to tell them he is two.  Since he is such a big boy, they all think he is older than he really is.  Which is good and bad.  Actually, mostly bad because they expect him to act older than he is.  Poor kid.  I think he had a great birthday.  This morning I made him pancakes with extra syrup since I know he likes that.  We went to the tiangis and I bought him freshly squeezed orange juice and a tlacoyo (it is like a stuffed tortilla, but not really), which he loves.  I made his favorite dinner, fettuccine alfredo and watermelon.  This kid knows how to down a watermelon.  I buy these little ones and he almost ate half of one, no joke.  I know his day mostly revolved around food but I thought those things would make him happy.  I took him to the store to get some missing ingredients for his cake and I bought him a sprinkled covered donut, which he thought was pretty neat, and a helium filled balloon.  He had fun with that thing all day long.  He kept hitting the balloon with his pool noodle as well as the wrapping paper.  I am not sure if he thought it was like his little piñata.  They do piñatas a lot here.  Then when Eva came home from school, she sang the piñata song as he hit the balloon and he thought that was pretty funny.  For his birthday his nana helped bring me his birthday present.  We gave him one of those car ramp things from Fisher Price.  He thought that was awesome.  It was so funny to see him open his presents.  He kept saying woah.  That had to of meant he loved everything.  He wouldn't really blow out his candles.  He was pretty scared of them, but what he did do was pretend to blow them out after Eva blew them out for him.  He ate his little cake that I made for our little family party, but I think his favorite part was really the vanilla ice cream.

This is for you Elijah...

Today you are two and I am so thankful for your sweet little spirit.  You make me laugh.  I love to kiss you even though you don't always like to kiss me back.  Actually I think you do but I think you get a kick out of playing hard to get.  I LOVE when you come up to me and give me a big hug.  I can't get enough of those.  You can be gentle when you want to be.  Sometimes when you try to show affection you actually hurt people but we all know you have good intentions.  People seem to really like you because of your easy going personality.However, you are also one strong kid.  You can push Eva all around the room in the toy stroller or drag her around a kid plastic chair taking rough corners.  That's why you are strong.

You still don't communicate too much but I am starting to realize that a lot of the gibberish you say are in fact sentences, but I have to be listening really hard to understand you.  These are the times when you tend to get the most frustrated.  You are getting better at repeating a lot of words but there are still some that you can't say.  For some reason you have a really hard time saying the word leche.  You will say ugo instead, which you are saying jugo.  Yeah, can't figure that one out.

You love playing outside.  A couple months back you developed this fear of the black birds that hang out in the backyard, and I don't blame you.  Those things are kind of scary to me too.  I think they might of scared you one day, maybe they got too close.  But it seems like the fear has gone away and you like to play out there every morning.  Most of the time you play in the sand/water table that we have out back which means that you come in sloppy wet with dirt all over.  Or you get a hold of the hose and "water" the lawn.  I don't mind as much anymore about the clean up because I know that being outside makes you happy.

While you love your momma, you have a hard time getting along with you sister.  Well, it's really more like hot and cold.  You either love her and are running around all over the house laughing or you are pulling her hair and making her cry.  Sometimes I feel more like the referee in a boxing match than your mom.

Your sleep habits are also off and on. We still haven't figured out why you wake up in the middle of the night.  But when you do you will wake up and sometimes stay up for over two hours.  You aren't crying but are as happy as can be these times and are usually cracking up in your bed.  These nights I never know if I want to laugh or cry because you keep me up.  Eventually you will go back to bed, but of course you aren't in the best of moods the next morning.  You seem to be trying to phase out your naps because if I let you sleep too long during your nap, that usually is one of the reasons why you will wake up in the middle of the night.

By this age with Eva, I would have been real close to taking away the bottle and potty training and while I don't see you close to potty training yet, your baba will be gone real soon.  These things are always harder for mom than for you guys.

You eat fairly well.  We like to refer to you as our fruit bat because you love fruit, but meat, not so much.  I don't know if it is that you don't like the texture or taste, but I have a hard time trying to get you to eat meat.  I guess there could be worst things.  Elijah, I love you so much.  Thank you for being my sweet Elisheto.  Love, mama.

Mexico Part 13: Tlaquepaque

Matthew's parents joined us for the second week of our spring break.  It was great to have them here.  You don't realize how much you miss family until they come for a visit and then they leave.  But, the good news is plane tickets are finally booked to Oregon and we won't have to miss anyone for too much longer.  The most fun that we had will come in a post soon but one of the days that they were here we went to Tlaquepaque.  At first I had a hard time saying this word when we first got here but now I am such a pro, I don't have anymore issues :)  Here's a little wikipedia nugget on the place...Tlaquepaque (Spanish pronunciation: [tlakeˈpake]), historically San Pedro or Georgetown, is a city and the surrounding municipality in the Mexican state of Jalisco. During the 20th century it was absorbed by the outward spread of the state capital and is now a neighborhood of the Guadalajara conurbation, lying only a few kilometers from the city center.  
Apparently it is also known for its pottery, blown glass and mariachis but I think we missed most of that because we didn't see too much of that.  I guess we did see a museum with some artwork and pottery now that I am remembering but I didn't take any pictures of that.  When we were there they were having this crazy sale of  empanadas.  Which for anyone who hasn't had an empanada, they are so delicious   They are this Mexican bread that is filled with whatever you can find them with.  Most often you see them filled with a pudding custard or apple, but here they had them filled with cajeta (I like to think of it like the Mexican caramel but it is a sweet goat milk spread), guava, pineapple, strawberry, all sorts of goodness.  And, my sweet friend showed me to love the ones that are filled with food, like mushrooms, tuna and peppers.  My personal favorite are the ones filled with cheese and peppers, or rajas, as they say here.  I LOVE them.  They are probably super fattening, but I don't care.  And if you find them warm because they were just made, they are even that much better.  The town is super cute.  At first we didn't think there was much to see, but then we found the touristy street and it was really clean and filled with neat statues and street vendors.  One of the things that I thought were super cool, but didn't get were these little statues that were covered in tiny colorful beads.  We will have to go back soon, so I can buy one for our home.  One guy told me that is takes him about 5 days to cover the little elephant with beads.  That's a lot of time and it makes me think I wish I was that good at making something that would sell well and looks beautiful.  And of course, the day wouldn't be complete without finding some fountain to cool the kids off and keep them happy until we walked back into the car.  It was HOT outside!