miercoles, el 31 de octubre de 2012

Hola y Feliz Halloween!!

No goblins here, but we do have a pumpkin hanging in the window. I think one year we will head back to Canada for a few weeks in October, have a late Thanksgiving and stick around for Oct 31 so Max can trick or treat.

Currently 9pm, Max is asleep and madre is making pizza (oh so good pizza) for mañana. Me? One ojo on the monitor and one on “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”….a classic!!

The day…6am start again. Moving on from that old story.

Max did have his first taste of leche de vaca and he had no adverse reactions, so we will continue this and start some weaning. It seems he is self weaning during the día, but still LOVES his mid-noche tank ups…the ones that wake up the whole familia, and leave madre drained in more then one way. Stay tuned for more weaning news!! Ja ja ja

Good walk around town, but friggin warm today. No viento made it that way, but as I type, it is a chilly 27,0 grados and I think we will hit 25,0 esta noche.

Max said hola to a ton of peeps, and we have secured some help from Moises y Samuel. They will meet me at noon on domingo and will help with loading, unloading and setting up the food and bevies for the fiesta.

In the kiosko, Max saw one of his favorite amigas and spent 20 minutes running around the kiosko, chasing or being chased, and screaming in joy. He worked up a sweat…as did padre who was chasing him to make sure it was another accident free día.

The niña’s madre was chatty today and made mention that she had met Bex while I was ill with gripe. She said madre does not like the AM shift…lol.

This same senora (she is 30’ish but has a niño so you call her a senora to be polite, but I am sure she would prefer to be called a senorita) chatted me up about us coming to visit their house.

Now it became jumbled up in the translation…but Bex may have a new friend now!! Ja ja ja

On the way home, pit stop at a tienda de plasticos and picked up Max his very own TV remote. Por que? When he sees us use ours, he just wants to play with it and if we give it to him and he breaks it…we are screwed.

Ever go to a store and buy a TV remote for a niño and to be asked what type you want and just reply “the cheapest”? The look on the hombres face was hilarious.

Two good naps for Max and a he also had a road trip to Che con madre...hello to some regalo (present) shopping!!

We had an overcast afternoon and we actually had some showers too. That made for a cool pool time, but the lil’guy and I toughed it out.

Me? El gimnasio and on the way I stopped to give Raphael an official fiesta invite, and he was working on the timing belt of a coche. The owner? A guy I see at el gimnasio and have chatted up once or twice before. Small town mis amigos, small town.

The first Sunwing flights from Canada have started arriving so we are seeing some white faces around the pool. One of the peeps has always been kind enough to bring down some items for Max and this trip was no different.

He is loaded up on swim shorts and a few playera, and Bex ordered a few new gorra (hats) for him…just in time as someone (not me!!) lost the Elmo hat. Having a niño would not be so expensive if we stopped losing things!! Lol

A good PM rutina and even snuck in a FT con mis padres while Max was in his tina!!

MISC

No luck on one satellite internet company…a “rights” issue of having someone in Mexico use the system. Huh?

No luck on ordering some Oakley sunglasses either!! I tried the US website and even called…they will NOT take a Cdn cc and send to an American address. Doph. Too bad as the US prices are cheaper and we have an amigo, who lives in Colorado, coming down in less then a month. Oh well.

Fotos.

With his favorite playera wrapped around his shoulders...now you see me... 

Now you don't!!

Max's new gorra...great picks madre!!

Off for their walk and Max is waving adios to his padre. Yup, he knows muchas palabras de español.

From the walk to el gimnasio.

I was going to blast the Federales for spending big bucks on new Harley's for the whole estado, but I did the research and these are roughly the same price as a Kawasaki.

I talked to the officer who was riding the bike and he was a nice guy who loved Max's hecho en Mexico tattoo!!

If they had only come talk to me before they spent all their hard earned money renovating and then opening the pizza joint.

Rain showers headed our way.

How many niños get picked up from escuela.

Mañana. No sé…stay tuned.

Have a great jueves!!

Marco, Bexico y Max

martes, el 30 de octubre de 2012

Cream cheese anyone?

Buenos noches!!

A blur of a day that started at 4am…we will solve this sleeping issue one way or another!!

Up for good at 6am and off we went. The lil’guy was hambre…he wolfed down his desayunos!!

Good walk…hola to lots of peeps and some good kiosko time. The lil’guy just loves to be out of the condo, walking the streets of La Crucecita.

As for the town, some definite hustle and bustle as peeps are getting prepared for Día de los Muertos. There are new vendor stalls popping up by the tiangus and they are selling all the Día items like pan, dulce and even sugar cane.

Who knew peeps on the “other side” liked sugar cane?

Lots of flowers being sold as well…quite a colorful time of year here.

As for the lil’heart breaker…he was all dressed up today!!

Max...Max Van!!

Showing his sensitive side.

Then cutting loose!!

Futbol anyone?

And why should we be worried about his head? 

Hola? Senoritas?

Found string...will play quietly for 15 minutes.

After the walk, home for the nap and it was a well deserved 90 minuter!! Good for the boys to recharge the batteries and it also gives Bex some free time to get her day going. Hola to some laps at the pool…and more reading on how to wean your niño!!

Madre took over and we had a new and improved Party Palace to explore…version #97!! The big attraction for Max right now is the book case where the TV and stereo sit. Doph.

We are working on some discipline and Max really understands when he is not supposed to do something…like hands in the toilet or climbing the bookcase. But that doesn’t mean he will not voice his disapproval with our decision…oh he has a voice!!

Hey…it was no clunk martes!! Not a single blow to Max’s head!! Like I said, if he can survive us, he can survive anything!!

Back to the day. I readied myself for el gimnasio and it was a nice walk. Overcast day and I think we didn’t break 30,0 grados.

Madre y Max were headed to walk the mall so we all walked out to the gate and they went left and I went right.

Here they are on the prowl.

Max has gone Mexican on us. When it is hot, you will see many hombres with their shirts over their bellies.

The E on the sign stands for estacionamiento...parking.

It sometimes takes 2 peeps and 10 minutes to get socks and shoes on the lil'guy. So for this adventure, he was Croc'd up.

Note the ever diligent and always careful and concerned madre!! She has a firm grip on the lil'walkers playera, shirt and just in case he trips, she will save the day. 

Note how chilly it was today...jeans? Oh madre!!

I did my 15 minute walk to the gym and on the way Elder confirmed domingo at 1pm and asked where Marina Park Plaza is. 

If we even get 1/2 the peeps we invited, it will be one VERY eclectic group!!

As for el gimnasio, amazing how much more energy you have when the gym is only 29,0 grados vs 40,0!!

Here is a new Mexicoism. There was no musica at the gym and I asked why. I was told there were “no luces” which means no lights, but in actual fact there was no power. Me, I would have said no electricidad, and would have been correct and wrong at the same time. Who knew?

Hustled home so I could go to Che, sat outside and won a game of Solitaire on my iPod and then the familia all went to Che.

No scores and good thing we had previously bought 6 packages of our panales as they have been out in Huatulco for the past few weeks…oh oh as Max would say!!

Headed home and while I put away the stock and fought an ant army, Max y madre had some fun pool time.

Great PM rutina…some yummy cerdo again…and you know who is asleep!! Madre is up in the oficina and after a few months of constant work and deadlines, her work load slowed down and is slowly building again.

Nice for her to have this large client base as one of her Aussie clients has moved to the US and has more work for her. She also has some work for her mucho loco client in India…hey, it’s work and pays for the tacos!!

Ok, some last fotos.

Maybe Max will be on Google streetview!!

Why do camionetas always seem to break down by this parque?

Have a safe and Happy Halloween. Next year we will dress up the lil’monkey and take him for a stroll around the centro. This year? In bed by 7pm!!

Hasta mañana.

Marco, Bexico y Max

lunes, el 29 de octubre de 2012

Ok…how was your lunes?

Ours? Crazy día. Not your normal day here…Max was just not himself for most of the día, and that made the day challenging.

We are not complaining, just sharing the facts.

Max’s facial scrapes are healing nicely…boy does he look like a tough guy with those scrapes.

And how are his new injuries? What new injuries you ask? Grab a seat and keep reading.

Ok…first off Max wakes up at 5am and won’t fall asleep. So the boys hit the other bedroom and we managed to grab some shut eye until around 615am. Yikes.

And was there a chance of some slumber, some laying around until the cob webs were shaken out? Aaaaah, no. So we were up and started the AM rutina.

Tough to figure out how we were going to go about it as it was so early. He normally eats at 815am, but would I need to fee him earlier etc.

But first off, Max heads into the cuna for his normal 15-20 minutes while padre does his thing and gets the Party Palace gates set up.

All was well until I heard “thunk” and see the lil’guy laying on the carpet, face up.

What the “F”? I bolt over and pick him up, soothe him for the 30 seconds it takes to get him happy again, and off we go.

So what the heck is up with the crib? How can we allow him to sleep in that at night if he can get out? I am going to have to figure it out and it looks like adding another rail to the top, will be the solution.

Ok, disaster averted for now…what’s next?

Time to change the panale and what do I see on Max’s index finger? Uh, he is missing his fingerprints on one finger!! He has lobbed off a dime size piece of skin…yikes.

How he lost it? Thinking when he bungeed out of the cuna, but I am not sure.

So time for bandaids and now he is really not having a great day. Tired, sore from yesterday, sore from today and now he cannot use one finger.

We tried to have breakfast early, but he was having none of it. Out of the highchair and time to get ready for a walk instead.

The tone of his voice woke madre up and now the familia was all out. Three tired peeps trying to figure out what was going on.

The plan was a walk and madre hit the sack. And as I tried to get the lil’guy ready for a walk, he told his padre it wasn’t going to happen.

Ok, fine with me as I was pooped already. But it was only 9am…who has a nap at 9am? The Van boys do!!

And it was a rock solid 90 minute siesta!! The familia seemed to all wake up at 1030am and we chatted it up and the walk plan was back in action.

Max and I headed out and I carried him most of the way on my shoulders…I just didn’t need any spills!!

We had a nice pit stop at one of the escuelas. There niños were all looking at libros hanging on a string strung between trees, and Max was eager to watch them.

The maestra came out and decided to chat us up and after that, we had a small crowd gathered around.

And Max was the center of attention again…vida es buena!!

As for the rest of the walk…how many times does one padre have to tell the story of why his hijo looks like he is a stunt man? Yikes…maybe 10 times?

A good time at the kiosko and then got the gears from the crew at Gabriels, before heading home.

Madre took over and oooooooo Max was a handful while padre was away. No pleasing the little guy. Yikes.

I was at the gym, grabbed some GB for la cena and had a pow wow with Roman. Then it was home to give Bex a breather.

Breather? Off to the pool where Max LOVES to play with any spiders or beetles he can find. And then there was the talking up the storm and prowling the poolside…all while making giggling sounds.

Poco loco…but we love him!!

Madre came down to help get the lil’dguy diapered up and then it was time for an early dinner and an early PM rutina. And I must stop there…as I will NOT jinx Max’s sleep!!

Fotos…lean day. Why? Did you read the blog? 

Ok...here is Max y Kow. Kow came all the way from Vancouver with us and had been upstairs in the loft. Max y madre hung out in the loft and Max became GOOD friends with Kow.

It got to the point that we could ask Max "where's Kow?" and Max would point up to the loft...smart niño.

So we bring Kow downstairs to see if this will brighten up young Max's day and it did. The funny thing is that when Max knocks Kow over, Max thinks he has hurt Kow. Max gets a little sad and sometimes gives Kow the "head touch"...Max's affectionate kiss.

In the first foto, Max has knocked Kow over and is deciding the next course of action.

The action happens to be inspecting Kow's tail while he is sleeping. Oh Max.

One tienda de bicis here in Huatulco...new shipment has arrived.

Mañana…sleep in…please? Working on Mojon internet and the fiesta…busy day!!

Have a great martes.

Marco, Bexico y Max

domingo, el 28 de octubre de 2012

Buenos tardes mis amigos!!

Just sitting around watching the race, so I thought I would start updating you on the day…and it has been quite a day already.

What a confusing día due to the time change…lol. The PVR time states it is 1151am, which is Vancouver time. The microwave was correct until Bex thought I had not changed the time and she dialed it back another hour.

And of course the bedroom clock was not changed at all as I did not want to wake the lil’guy up last night.

To add more confusion, I had a dry cough last night and that was waking Max up…so off to the spare bedroom and I was awoken when madre came in for some panales.

My turn to take over, but I could not figure out what time it really was, and what time Max had truly woken up because madre had been looking at all the afore mentioned clocks!! Oh it was a gong show!! Ja ja ja

So I think Max woke up at 630am sábado time, which was 530am today time. Yikes. My job was to conduct the AM rutina and try to stretch it out so we could get Max to take his first nap around the normal time, vs an hour earlier due to the time change.

Well, on that front, I was successful. We came home around 10am and the lil’guy (y padre) was pooped and ta-da…a 2 hour nap!! Up at 12 noon and Max (y padre) is back on nap schedule. Yipee.

And what a superstar partner!! I wake up after the nap and who has recorded the race to ensure I did not miss a single lap? Grassy ass madre!!

Ok…what was NOT successful with the AM rutina?

Here is Max antes our walk.

And here he is after our walk.

Doph.

But as you can see, he is no worse for wear.

Passport foto anybody?

A few cuts, bruises and nap head!!

Ok, here is what happened. A great walk to the zocalo. We even stopped to touch the piña.

We get to the kiosko, say hola to the regular crew and then it is time for some prowling around. So off Max went with padre following right behind him…just in case.

We were chatting up some peeps and Max had a little spill, but was a-ok. And then when he used his arms to push himself up, he fell flat on his face.

Ohhhhh the zocalo went quiet when we all saw this happen. But in true Max fashion, there was 30 seconds of red face and tears, and then with the art of distraction (mine and the gang in the zocalo), Max was his happy self.

A little dirty, a little sangre on the nose, but a happy niño.

One of the domingo vendors held him and let him play with the trinkets she sells, and he was even happier. It was nice to see the peeps come to the rescue and this included a few niños, even the vendors 2 year old hijo.

So after the zocalo, we walked home, Max showing off his war wounds to all that would look. We tried to find Lalo as well, as it is his cumpleaños and we wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday.

Now, the joke at the zocalo, if it is one, was that padre was not going to want to go home to show madre the latest golpe on the niño. Doph.

Madre heard us coming and I gave her the heads up and there were 3 flights of stairs for her to prepare herself for the carnage.

She was a little shocked, but handled it like a trooper. Who could have figured that he would have fallen flat on his face while trying to stand up?

And after we talked about it, all was good.

Yikes...our lil’guy.

And that mis amigos, is the day so far. 150pm and the familia is out for a walk and I am settling in for the last 210 laps of the race.

Will finish this up later tonight, after Rib Eye domingo is over!!

saludos

Welcome back!!!

Wow, as many of you know, and we have discovered, becoming a parent can be overwhelming and very humbling.

So you already know about the golpes…how about the “not thinking” padre allowing his hijo to walk on the slippery pool tiles?

Ugh…we were in the pool and madre came down and Max was soooo excited to see her, that I pulled him out of the pool and stood him up on the edge of the pool so he could walk to her and say hola.

My stupid mistake? The one where I go…”what were you thinking?”…is that I put him on the tile vs concrete and what are tiles when wet? Slippery…and down he went…thunk on the back of his noggin.

Now, you gotta give it to the lil’guy…if he survives us, he will be able to survive anything. So he had his 30 seconds of crying, I had about a minute of almost crying, and he was fine. Six hours later and I am still kicking myself in the butt.

So…gotta be a little more protective but not stifling…the lil’guy loves his independence!!

Overwhelming and humbling.

Other then that “incident”, it was a great afternoon. A great race and madre y Max had a great nap.

We will skip talking about pool time again, and move onto la cena. Great steaks and roasted papas…followed by a great PM rutina.

And we are slowly making headway with Max falling asleep on his own!! No more rocking and today when I went in to close the show, he was too tired to chat, but wanted his usual hug…which can last 30 minutes.

Today, after 10 minutes, he stopped babbling and made a concerted effort to roll out of my lap and into bed!! Ah ha…cautiously optimistic that this will continue. Stay tuned.

Last fotos of the day.

I saw this face occur as Max was eating some cantaloupe. I grabbed the camera and managed to get him to repeat the look.

Uh, Houdini...what you up to?

The blue bins are meant to surround the fan as well as stop Max from pulling everything off the bookshelves. The blue crate was to prevent him from crawling over and the cushions were all about preventing him from cracking his noggin if he fell.

So Houdini figures out there is no need to crawl over the crate...just climb into it. Doph.

Mañana…lunes. Bex is looking for some ribbon to hang some globos at the fiesta, I hope to hit the gym and possibly have a short meeting with Roman.

Still need to plug in the MJ and make some calls...stay tuned.

Have a great lunes.

Marco, Bexico y Max

sábado, el 27 de octubre de 2012

Hola.

Remember this foto?

Pan de Muerto? Bread of Dead?

Anyway, a new piece of info to add to the whole Día de los Muertos. This bread is not to eat. You put it on the alter you have made, and it is meant to be an offering to the departed.

Rumor has it, all the food sits on the alter and if you eat the food after el 2 de noviembre, it will have no flavour as the flavour was consumed by the departed.

Me? I am not going to try it. Yikes.

Ok, our day. Great sleep…until 4am. What up with that lil’guy? But I took him next door and he fell asleep promptly, not waking up until 715am…wow, we slept in.

A good morning rutina and had a fun walk as usual.

And how was the little Casanova?

Ok, some info. The little niña is one years old, tiny and does not walk yet. The padre might be 17, and I have seen him in the zocalo regularly with another hombre and his niña.

The niña loves Max and unlike many other niños, is not timida of him due to his size.

This "head on head" thing is how Max shows you he loves you. Ask for a kiss, and this is what I too get. Max loves this lil'niña!!

So after all the affection, the otra hombre asks me to get Max to show hi amigo Max's trick. Ok..."Max, where is your belly button?"...and Max pulls up his shirt to show off his buddha and his belly button. The hombre laughed very hard.

And after the tricks were over, Max and this lil'senorita got into a conversation that amazed both padres. It lasted on and off for over 15 minutes.

After the walk, we had a great nap and then madre took over with the lil’guy.

We all went to Marina Park Plaza to check out the site of the fiesta. Good news is that at least half the area is in the shade at 1pm, and K&R will ensure we have some umbrellas as well.

So, it is set and there is an 8 day countdown until Max turns 1 year old!! Seems like lots of peeps are excited about attending the fiesta…including some peeps that have not been invited. Doph.

It is a small town and a small condo complex, so word about the fiesta is out, but we invited only the peeps we have had regular contact with. Our solution is to bring back a postre for the peeps who wanted to come, but missed out.

Stay tuned…we might have a bunch of angry peeps on our hands!! Ja ja ja

Off to Che as a familia and madre loaded us up with some leche y formula for the little guy…once he is off the boobie that is.

No big scores at Che…more salmon for the lil’guy as he LOVES salmon, and yup, some real leche for padre.

Max has been pooped out from all his daily activities and today was no different. We came home and he made it very clear that he was tired.

So off the two of them went for the siesta and I put away the loot and then headed to Papaloapan for some rib eyes. Yummy rib eye domingo in this casa!!

I popped in to say hola to Daniel and his familia who were visiting the tienda, and whom we had seen at Che as well. Daniel Jr was trying on Dracula costumes for school.

As Daniel explains it, niños see traditions like Halloween on TV and the school lets them dress up for the one day. There is no casa to casa trick or treating here, but I am told niños do walk around the zocalo, going from restaurante to restaurante looking for pesos or treats.

We will check it out…stay tuned.

I did make it to the gym and after that, it was pool time for the familia. Follow that with the PM rutina, and you are all caught up.

Misc fotos.

Have camo shirt, will travel....if this darn gate wasn't here!!

Hola Petra!!

Mañana…the race is on at 1pm EST and since our clocks fall back one hour tonight, I get to tune in at 11am vs noon.

But…the clocks falling back also means it is VERY likely that Max will be awake at 6am vs 7am!! I thought this was all about gaining an hour and instead I get less sleep? Ja ja ja

Ok, have a great domingo.

Marco, Bexico y Max