[So that was the post that I started in Mexico, then added a few pics, maybe half a dozen, and somehow couldn't upload. And possibly, the reason we burned through a gig of data in a matter of days. I did try to capture some of our memories before they became fleeting one of our last evenings, so here's what should have been about 15 blog posts all in one.]
The transition started out a little rough. Oscar did not do well sleeping the first
week. We discovered that he had an ear
infection, so that no doubt was part of the challenge. He also slept in our room and so when he woke
up and saw that we were almost within reach, he would rather cry to be picked
up than soothe himself back to sleep in an unknown bed in an unknown room. Our curtains did not provide great darkness,
so I taped a few cardboard boxes to the window to help make it a little
darker. We also bought a little clock
radio to be able to turn on the white noise.
I’m a little afraid it’s hurting his hearing, though, and since it’s a
little annoying to me, I always turned it down when I went to bed and sometimes
off if I couldn’t sleep. By the end of
the trip, while Oscar would wake up and fuss for a couple seconds, maybe roll
around a little, he would stay in bed lying down and go back to sleep on his
own until he knew it was 6:00 am sharp, at which time he would stand up and
babble until we picked him up. MUCH
better than the crying. All of our kids are like little alarm clocks. It pretty much doesn't matter when they go to sleep, they wake up at the same time in the morning no matter what.
The twins adjusted quite well to sleeping in a new place and
in beds rather than cribs. They both
fell out of bed at least once. But, much
to our surprise, they almost never left their beds even when they didn’t want
to sleep (which was always). Sylvia came
out of the room twice and Rafa would get up to play in the room a couple times
to avoid sleeping. That didn’t mean that
bedtime was necessarily easy. They
fought and fought every step of the way and Sylvia wailed her heart-wrenching
wail when she would realize that it was time to sleep and we really meant
it. This is neither a battle we enjoy
nor have figured out how to handle very well.
But, it’s also not unique to the trip.
We’re just in a smaller house so we can’t escape it quite as well. And, because we’re around more and gave in a
little thinking that we needed to be more accommodating to the transition, we
probably just made it worse. We were not
strict about naps, either, as we didn’t want to have to battle every day or not
be able to see anything since Oscar naps in the morning and afternoon and the
twins in the middle of the day. So, that
made some evenings a little rough since they were certainly overtired, both
from all the activities of the day and also from skipping naps. A few times, I lay down with them to read,
which helped them to drift off to the land of Nod. And it was a nice rest for me, too!
In the car one day, Rafa was a mess. I tried turning on music because he often enjoys listening to music to see if it would distract or calm him. It did neither. He wailed. And cried his typical, "NO QUIEEEEEEERO!" ("I DON'T WANT IT!") When he finally got quiet, Sylvia, who rarely stops talking, turned to him sweetly and the following ensured:
S: No estas molesto mas? (You're not upset any more?)
R: No.
S: Quieres la musica? (Do you want the music?)
R: No. Yo quiero el
silencio. (No. I want silence.)
[You and me both, little boy, you and me both...]
Oscar learned to back down stairs while we were away, but much prefers
going up. In fact, every free moment he
beelines towards the stairs, goes up a step or two, turns to look and see if
anyone will stop him, flashes his winning smile, then heads up. He also learned to take a couple steps. He’s not full out walking yet, but on the
verge. He much more confidently stands
and squats, and definitely cruises, but often bails and goes back to crawling
rather than taking more than 2-3 steps.
The twins got really into jumping on the trip. They enjoyed jumping down steps, off the
sidewalks, over cracks, or just around. They also had a blast on these really fun trampolines they had in the parks. They dug out a hole and the trampoline is at the same level as the ground. They have the net sides to help keep them fairly safe. I thought it was brilliant. And super fun for the kids.
Finicky eating came out in force from Rafa. He has a major aversion to all things vegetable. There were glimpses of hope, however, as he
would point out that he was going to try something new. And, he actually would. But, typical Rafa, it took him some time to
warm up to it and it would have to be when he decided to try it. Sylvia, on the other hand, got excited at the
prospect of trying anything and everything new.
Rafa also has started becoming more of a “boy”. He has begun doing many things with gusto and
excitement and NOISE. He enjoys shouting
and making big sounds, like lion roars.
He has also really improved his vocabulary and is not as intimidated by
long words. He still flips consonants
around fairly regularly, which Sylvia is always quick to correct.
In the kids' room, they had a closet with sliding doors. One in front of shelves and the other in
front of a space for hanging clothes.
That became a really fun place for the kids to play. They called it their ambulance as playing
doctor was a frequent pastime. A really dear friend has been their pediatrician since they were born and so it was really fun for them to play her. I also really like that when they think of doctors, they think of women. :) The closet also got filled with balloons for birthdays and was once a train. It was definitely a favorite play space for the kids, which was wonderful for us when they would escape up there to play for an hour or so. It's also quite fun to listen to their imaginary play. They really enjoy playing make believe with each other. And they're imaginations are quite active.
The kids still love singing.
We will need to start learning some new songs! We did start listening to a variety of music
in the car, which was provided by the car owner and I hope that this might be
the end of kid music in our cars at home.
Every day we would tell the kids that we were going on an
adventure. They really enjoyed seeing
new things, no matter how mundane. They
loved going to all the churches. We told
them that inside we had to use voces bajitas and so every time we approached a
church or talked about going to one, Rafa would excitedly say, “Mami, mami,
mami!!” and then in a whisper, “vamos a usar voces bajitas” ("we're going to use our quiet voices") with his finger in
front of his mouth. They were very proud
and also very good at being quiet while in the churches.
Sylvia learned that the churches are for God and Jesus. When we neared Santa Maria de Tenantzitlan
(sp?), it had two steeples, so she said, “Hay dos Iglesias. Una para Dios y una para Jesus!” Once inside, she pointed to each baby or man
and said, “Baby Jesus!…Jesus!…otro Jesus!”
And on the way out after looking into one of the capillas, “Dos
Marias!” She’s got this Catholic thing
down.
Sylvia also learned to get a little more comfortable with big, loud noises and noises at night in general. Pretty much every day we were there, some church was celebrating their day. So, we had fireworks going off all the time at night. Once, they went off pretty much through the night. At 2:30, 3, 4:30, whenever. We told the kids that they are for a celebration at a church. So, every time we heard the fireworks or thunder, Sylvia shouted, they're celebrating at a church!
All in all, it was wonderful to be away. But we're also happy to be able to brush our teeth using tap water, to be sleeping in our soft and comfy bed, and to not have to mop away dust every night. We definitely came back appreciating our lives here more!
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