domingo, el 30 de septiembre de 2012



Buenos noches.

A tranquilo día here in Mexico. An early morning again…sopresa!!

So Max and I did our thing and that included a walk to the kiosko. Happy to report that the broken glass that madre y Max encountered ayer, was all gone!!

A VERY quiet domingo in the centro, but the “big house” was busy with lots of peeps all dressed up to visit the iglesia.

So Max walked the kiosko and said hola to the peeps as they walked by.

A great nap…one of two great naps. The second one, con madre, was great and late…so no playa today.

After nap con padre, hola to blueberry pancakes and then Bex took over Max time…as it was Nascar time!!

But first, a nice FT con Max's abuela, mi madre.

Quiet afternoon on the couch and after Max’s second nap, tiempo para family walk…y helado para madre!!

Max had another go around at the kiosko and practiced how to crawl down the escalera backwards. Much safer!! He still needs practice, but he is getting it.

Headed home for the pm rutina…Opa’s favorite lomo cerdo!!

Max was “lively” during la cena…we think he has a tummy ache…not enough “business” today. Poor guy…he’s just a lil’guy!!

And that was domingo.

More fotos mañana…just need to sort through them.

Have a great lunes y Feliz Cumpleaños to mi hermana!!

Hasta mañana.

Marco, Bexico y Max

sábadoa, el 29 de septiembre de 2012



Hola y buen sábado!!

8pm and madre is involved in round #1 with Max…hoping he is asleep in 30 minutes when padre takes over!!

Talking about sleep rutinas, I was talking with Tony last night and here is how his hija goes to sleep. She hits the sack at 11pm (wow), wakes up at 5am for some business and then sleeps again until 10am. And then has a nap at 5pm.

All this due to the late cena the Mexican peeps have. But, the niña sleeps 11 hours with one break…there is hope for Max!!! Stay tuned…lol.

A great day…up early again. And when we were headed out the door for our walk, Max let me know that today was NOT the day, or maybe the time was incorrect, for a walk.

I have NEVER heard him like that while we were headed out, so I knew he was serious. How serious? We turned around, headed upstairs, leche’d up and within minutes…lights out. For how long? 90 minutes mis amgos, 90 minutes!!

Score some free time for madre and she took good use of it!! And when we awoke, she took over the Max-time and I went to el gimnasio and the two of them had madre/Max time!!

Good workout and then popped into Nissan t confirm with Carlos why we were not going to Istmos today. He laughed. And then showed me the new mascota.

In Canada, we might end up with a raccoon in the rafters. Here?






Yup, that is an oso hormiguero. Oso means “bear” in español and hormiga is “ant”…not sure how it translates, but the animal is an anteater. Maybe the oso is because his manos are like those of a bear?

Pretty cool to see!!

Off to Che and somehow spent another $800 pesos…but grabbed some real leche!! Maybe it will be pancake domingo?

When I came home, it was nap #2 for the lil’guy, so I puttered around and spent 5 minutes at the alberca…before the nube rolled in. Oh well.

And when Max (y madre) awoke after 90 minutes, we figured the cloud cover was perfect for a trip to the playa.

Always fun…but what up with madre getting all those bug bites?

Max’s amigo, the security guard at INM, came out to say hola, and even picked up the sand covered lil’hombre.

And as we were getting ready to leave, a couple on a tricycle drove by and said hola. They were selling something, but we just said hola. They stopped, got off their bike and came over to talk about Max.

And for the second time in a week, we were asked if Max’s hair color (or was it the chinos?) were natural. Lol

I gave Max to the senorita and the two of them were enamoured!! Hello!! And how did Max behave? Like a trooper of course, but maybe it was because of his new soother…my camo shirt!! He has played with it all day!!



Headed home and it was time to start la cena and the rutina…and you are all caught up.

Some otro photos?

From around town.

All these boxes of shoes...



And none in BEXXX?

There are very few bars or restaurnates that sell draft beer in Huatulco. I saw this sign...good to know prior to the 4 de noviembre fiesta!! ja ja ja


And if these guys come back in 9 months...maybe we will be buying some for Mojon!!


And some more of the lil’guy.

Checking to make sure he looks good before heading to the alberca.


Time to find Max un refrigerador caja...a fridge box.


Mañana? Sleep in? Naaaah. Nascar at 1pm….yaaaa!!

Have a great domingo.

Marco, Bexico y Max

viernes, el 28 de septiembre de 2012


Hola y buenos noches!!

10pm and time for some fotos y updates.

Mañana, no trip to Istmos as Tony cannot make it. He came to the condo with his hija to tell me why…another death in his famila…bad luck with them peeps.

I guess they are in some form of mourning for 8 days and mañana is día #8…soooo…we postpone again and hopefully proximo sábado we will all be able to go!!

The día? Up at 745am and after desayunos, off to the kiosko for Daddy Daycare!!



Lots of niños today and Max enjoyed himself. We might need to buy him a yellow pail though, as he was pretty attached to the one brought by the lil’niña.

Good siesta and we all headed to the playa again. But before we left, a visit from Roman to discuss the “new” project and the cost of redoing plans etc.

The price was fair…$22,000 as the last time it was $60,000 from scratch. We are also paying Roman to do the investigative work on the possible alberca.

Click HERE if you want to read more about the fiberglass pools.
  
At the playa, Max had a great time, said hola to his amiga at INM and was super excited about his cruising and speed crawling.






It will be an easier time when he can walk and we do not have to worry about him burning his manos on hot sand!!

Off to Nissan to chat up Carlos and then home for naps and pizza prep….read on!!

Misc

Popped into HSBC to get some $$ to pay Roman and scored on an application for a new credit card, tarjeta de credito. The normal interest rate is 42.8%....but they have a promotion and that rate is only 32.13%. Doph!!

Had some cardboard pizza with our agua guys, Victor y Amy. Pizza sucked, but fun to sit with thee 2 hombres and hear what they have to say, and listen to their questions about life norte.

What is the importance of the maple leaf? Aren’t Canadians gringos too? Why don’t you work? ja ja ja

A bitt (hee x3) low on energy, so no gym today. But…I did a long walk and pit stopped at a construction store to look at their misc goods. Ceiling fans, floor tiles and the such. Just looking….just in case!!

Lunes…new sleep method training for Max. No rocking…stay tuned for the results.

Baker Bex made some chocolate chip cookies today…they are all gone. Doph.

Hadn’t seen the abuelos for a while, so right before la cena, we fore up the FT and Max put on a show. The show? Being goofy with my camo shirt. The lil’guy LOVES that playera.

And you should have heard him laughing while we were in the pool. I poured water over my head, made a silly face and then he laughed. Hilarious and soooo much fun to make your hijo laugh!!

Misc fotos.

Fun volcho...surf business.


What is barbacoa and what is chivo?


From About.com, HERE is their blurb on barbacoa.

And this next foto...chivo.


Not sure why, but he is tied up in the lot at the end of calle Carrizal.

Not sure what this car is advertising. The World of English of Disney?


This is Double Trouble, ayer, at the kiosko.




It is viernes!! Buen fin de semana!! No big plans for the weekend…but there is a race on domingo!!

Hasta mañana.

Marco, Bexico y Max

jueves, el 27 de septiembre de 2012

Hola y buenos noches!!

Late night due to a Mojon meeting, so I am going to keep this brief.

Burgers for dinner...I knew you all wanted to know that factoid. And Max is doing great...thanks for asking!!

A good day over all, waaaay better then ayer...our lil'guy came back to us...El Diablo stayed away for most of the día!!

Mojon? We are looking into a fibreglass pool...might save a few $$$. We managed to keep the first floor and second floor of the plans, the same as they were. That should save some $$ too.

I did not want to get rid of a terraza that had been between the casa y rental, but to keep it is $8k plus now we would need to pay for poste y support beam due to the renta casa not being built.

But...by adding Oma y Opa's room to the 3rd floor, we now have half the roof that has become a huge terrace!! We will put the solar on top of the 3rd bedroom and there will be one super sweet terrace waaaay up top!!

Next up...pricing on the new pool idea and pricing to get the plans reworked asap so we can start the paperwork before year end. Stay tuned!!

Ok...off to lavo los platos y set up the PP.

Have a great night y hasta mañana.

Marco, Bexico y Max

miercoles, el 26 de septiembre de 2012


Buenos noches!! So where DID the past 3 days go? They disappeared fairly fast…all due to our on going sleep issues with Max Van.

We are not sure what it is, but it has kept him up and us up on a regular basis.

He is getting his naps, but maybe we are stretching his last nap too long and he is over tired when he goes to bed? They (who are ”they”?) say that a tired niño actually sleeps worse then a well rested niño. And that a niño that goes to bed earlier, actually sleeps longer then a niño that goes to bed later. Huh?

So, after another 630am morning, we are trying something different…plan #112!! We had Max in bed by 645pm and he fell asleep at 745pm. Hopefully this gets him a good sleep, and puts him in a great mood for mañana.

Today’s mood for Max?


Yup, he was PG….Pudgy Grumps!! Not the complete day…but he sure took it out on madre. Yikes. They went to the playa together and he was not happy from the moment they got into the camioneta, until the moment they got back home.

Tough on us if we are not 100% ourselves…come on, he is just a lil’guy!!

Anoche I came back from my Mojon trip, ate my cena and took over from Bex and then promptly fell asleep…at 9pm!! So I was in a better state today and it seemed to have an impact on Max as the Niño Whisperer was called into duty a few times.

Fingers crossed.

Mojon…a good trip. The winter waves did a little damage to our property, but not much. The waves also replenished a lot of the arena that had been swept out to sea.

This year’s maintenance will include a new roof on the palapa, clearing of all the brush and weeds and replacing some sand under the palapa.

And if we are proceeding with a build, we will spend some $$ to get a breakwater built in front of our piece of paradise. Hard to believe that a few short years ago, the water never came within 100 feet of our property.

So where are we at with building on Mojon? We have decided that we don’t want to become another statistic or a foto in Bubba’s blog, showing an empty tienda…all because someone made some poor choices.

The master plan of a rental and a main casa, was a great dream. But it would tap into our reserve funds and we are not willing to make that gamble.

So, we are looking into the cost of building our casa, but adding a 3rd bedroom so friends and family can still come and visit. We should be able to save some $$ on the plans and design, as we are keeping all the work that was done on the first set of plans…and might just throw the 3rd recamara on the roof!!

Who wouldn’t want a bedroom on the 3rd floor, overlooking the oceano and with some wicked breezes up there?

So the new plan is to sit down with Roman y Sergio and hammer home some new plans and costs, and then git’er done….if we like what we see.

There are some new government officials coming into power at the end of the year, and Roman suggests getting the paperwork in sooner then later, as that way his “amigos” will push the paperwork through before year end.

So…if everything works out…a new casa in 8 or 9 months!! Stay tuned.

Ok, what else has been going on? The scuttle butt around town is about Lalo. He has been found and his padre came down from Acapulco to help get him onto the wagon…and try to keep him there.

Lalo is still amigos with the gang at Gabriels, but they had to cut him loose as he was unreliable in regards to showing up for work. Doph.

So he now works at a tienda a few spots up the calle, and has his padre here for support. Nice guy…with a problem…and we wish him nothing but the best.
Hmmmm…what else is happening? Bexico is slammed with work this week…big deadlines for many projects. Then it slows down, barely, as she has been given even more work by her Australian based clients.

All the work is great, but tough on her when she has a bad night of sleep due to the lil’guy. But I try to assist by hanging out with Max more often or for longer parts of the day…no complaints about that!!

So, how will we earn $$ if we don’t have a rental in Mojon? Via the remainder of my investments and from our bread winner, Bex!!

Living here is soooo inexpensive in comparison to Vancouver. Gas is half price and we spend about $120/week at Che and another $30 in fruta y verdura. At Mojon, our biggest monthly expense, after food, will probably be the satellite internet.

I did a Speed Test on the system Scott is using at Mojon…good for email but NO good for what Bex will need it for. So…I will need to look into the available packages and go from there. Stay tuned.

Other expenses at Mojon? Electricity is free due to the solar system…hola to air con!! We will have gas for the stove and water heater and we will also bring in non consuming water for baños etc.

It should be muy barato once we are settled!!

Ok…I think you are caught up…time for some more fotos. These are from the past few days.

The kiosko seems to be the place to be if you have a niño.

This senora and her daughter, decided to help Max with his walking skills. Max has something else on his mind...boobies...oh Max!!




This senora was visiting Oaxaca y Huatulco, from Montreal. Her husband was out chasing their 2 year old...who was out chasing birds.


From around town...have muebles, will travel.


This guy looks like he held up the ring toss at the carnival!!


Ayer, in the kiosko. This niña was VERY happy to share her juguetes con Max. She is also a "poser"...she loves the camera.




Oma, do you recognize the madre of the little niña?


After a long walk and all the playing with the senoritas...the lil'guy was pooped out.


But today he was eager to get back and visit with his newest novia!!

Uh padre...a little privacy please!!





Mañana? Up at 630am? Have a great jueves!!


Marco, Bexico y Max

martes, el 25 de septiembre de 2012

Buenos dias!!

Max and I are headed out for our prowl around the zocalo!!

Sorry for lack of updates and fotos...today (miercoles) will be catch up day!!

Have a great Wednesday.

Marco, Bexico y Max

lunes, el 24 de septiembre de 2012

Buenos noches. 

I sound like a broken (and tired) record...but what a long night.

Bex was the trooper and at 5am, after 30 plus minutes, managed to get Max back to sleep, but he still awoke another 3 times before he was up for good at 730am.

Madre y the lil'night terror were in the otra recamara, and padre slept until 830am and then bolted out of bed realizing madre would have been exhausted...and was.

So...a long night and day and we move on. The lil'guy is so great for us...we take the horrible nights with a grain of salt.

But it is late and I am about to set up the PP and hit the sack.

Might be headed to Mojon mañana to chat up Roman...stay tuned.

Have a great martes.

Marco, Bexico y Max

domingo, el 23 de septiembre de 2012



$10 pesos!!

Buenos tardes!! 315pm, the race is on, we have already been to the playa and Max y madre are having siesta #2.

Based on last night’s sleep, best to get the blog update started now vs waiting…doph.

It doesn’t say ANYTHING in the owner’s manual about why a niño wakes up at 1130pm and then does not want to be held, rocked or soothed…until 130am. And he was VERY upset. Ugh.

Eventually Max allowed me to hold him and slowly rock him and he fell asleep, I think from sheer exhaustion.

So, we don’t know what it was. Too much sun? Naps too short? Too many blueberries for breakfast?

Once he was asleep, I just held him and then eventually put him into bed and went to sleep myself. And what time did he wake up…after a crappy sleep? Yup…630am.

Let’s just say Max on 5 hours sleep has a lot more energy then I do. But up and at’em and the day began. It did begin slowly…we both had a lay down in the other recamara.

Then it was off to the PP and I made breakfast and after some great cereal con blueberries y pasas, walk time!!

It had already been over 2.5 hours since Max awoke, but he was a trooper and we stretched it for 3.5 hours.

Fotos from the walk.

Fonatur needs to hire an arborist!!


From our new favorite walking spot, the kiosko.



Karate niño!!




Headed home and had a great 90 minute siesta. That left me with 6.5 hours sleep for the day….but enough for me to sign on and join the familia at the playa.

But first…blueberry pancakes!! Max had a small one…sin huevos as he is still just a lil’guy, and of course he devoured it.

I needed to putter around, so madre y Max started walking and I met them on Blvd Chahue, just before Che. Loaded up and off to playa Santa Cruz.

And there wasn’t a parking space anywhere near the beach!! Hello to family day domingo!!

We did our speed crawling and some swimming, but silly padres forgot the umbrella and we are concerned about the exposure Max is getting to el sol. Bex lathers him up with SPF50…but he is just a lil’white guy!!

So out of the oceano and time to get changed and head home. The usual post-oceano rutina is for us to rinse the arena off Max in the oceano, strip him down and Bex grabs the toalla and we wrap him up when we exit.

Then it is up to one of the empty tiendas next to INM and there we change Max and I watch him as madre gets changed herself.

So normally I set Max up with one of the poles that support the roofs and due to a fiesta being held next to INM, the musica was playing and Max decided to get his groove on.




Well, that leads to a bunch of peeps seeing him grooving and they smile, laugh and now they want to meet the lil’guy.





And of course that leads to the senoritas wondering what is going on and the next thing we have to worry about…paparazzi!!



$10 more pesos!!


Even the guard from INM came out to see what all the commotion was about!!

The peeps did a nice job cleaning up and decorating the empty tienda.


We like the idea of having Max's fiesta on the playa...something to keep him occupied during the shin dig. Mañana we will chat it up with the hombre who seems to own the spot, and see what the deets are. Stay tuned.

A super fun experience and the peeps LOVED meeting Max (and maybe us?) and Max was super tranquilo…duh!!

Time to head home and have lunch, but the lil’guy looked pooped, so thus nap #2 and thus I am blogging and watching the race!!

70 laps left, it has clouded over, I am sure that after the familia wakes up it will be tiempo para la comida and then off to the pool. Me? Probably a quick siesta…padre is pooped.

Finish this off tonight…wish us luck!!

Hasta pronto.

Marco


Buenos noches!!!

825pm UPDATE

Good race…not great, but good to see some of my fave drivers do well.

Good nap for Max…y madre…and then as they prepped for pool time…I fell asleep. Huh? Yup, it was lights out and totally unintentional. Oh well…ja ja ja

Awoke to drool on a pillow and no familia in site…doph. But I dragged my butt down to the alberca and managed to catch up with Splashing Max….the kid loves to splash!!

Then it was upstairs for the rutina, throw in a little FT con Max’s abuelos, and you have the day.

Misc

You are not going to believe this. The friggin fridge shelf….it broke. Yup, the new one…the one brought from Canada. And no, I have NO idea what happened. Obviously something on the shelf hooked onto one of the other shelves and doph.

So…my advice to all of you out there? Do NOT buy THIS fridge!!!
  
Ok everyone, have a great lunes!!

Nice post-oceano hair style Max!!


Another $10 pesos?

Misc fotos.

Max, still trying to figure out how to get into the cocina.


The lil'hombre likes this nook under the island.


Marco, Bexico y Max