Mexico Adventures

For the Record

2012-01-08T23:30:00.001-06:00

Our little Jack Felix, on the eve of his 8-month birthday, slept through the entire night. No cries, no feeds, no nothing except sleeping from 6:30 p.m. until 6:22 a.m. WOW! I nursed him to sleep a bit early b/c he didn't get a good long afternoon nap. After his nursing, he was looking around, not getting soothed, generally being awake. So I put him in his bed and he cried. I waited 10 mins, went back, rocked, shushed, put in his chupon, held, rubbed. Nothing worked and I realized that nothing I was doing was having any impact on Mission: Baby Sleep. So I just put him back in the crib and went to get the dinner ready to put in the oven. He really wailed when I walked out of the room. It took me about 15 minutes to get it all together. I said to Elise that I'd just zoom over, soothe the boy and then do the last bits. But when I got to his door, the crying was really slowing down. I waited a couple more minutes and then silence. 12 hours of silence. I never thought it possible but he did it. The best was that I slept too - a minor wake up at 3:40 but I fell right back asleep. So nice.

In general he is in such a cute phase. All phases are cute, but especially now. He really recognizes us. He cries when I leave the room, though is quite quickly soothed by whoever is watching him. He has become a weapon of mass destruction, grabbing everything in his midst. Today he got a glass off the counter that I had to wrestle out of his hand. At the restaurant, he got my knife so quickly, but we managed to prevail. We have a spoon rest on the counter that he loves to bang when he's sitting in the Bumbo. His eating is going so well - today he ate a huge bowl of mamey and cereal. For dinner he had 2 big cubes of sweet potato, half an avocado and some broccoli. He loves to drink water out of a cup. Still no teeth peeking through but they mustn't be far away. He is just generally a very busy baby - looking at his toys, thinking, seeing, putting in his mouth. He learned to shake his head, and he loves to imitate with no, no, no, no, no. So sweet.

He was so fussy this afternoon with his teething and general lack of long naps, so I lay down next to him around 4:00, nursed, and we both dozed for over an hour. It was very cuddly and good. Plus even though I slept all night, he is a lot of work and I was ready for a snooze. Basically he is the best baby ever with the most kissable sweet little face.

Paris Milestones

2011-12-13T16:33:00.002-06:00

1. Solids: He is doing so well with the eating! He gets the spoon right in the mouth most of the time. Damian had the super smart idea of letting him eat his apple sauce using a rice cake, and that was a huge hit. I dipped the cracker in the sauce and he just sucked all the apple off and gnawed his way through the rice cracker. When I was too slow, he would squeal and flap waiting for the next bite. I also gave him mixed vegetables which he loved too. Though a lot ended up in his hair and on the bib.
2. Rolling Over: Today was the big day - he rolled from his back to his tummy and untucked the bottom arm. He was proud! Except it means that now he can no longer be swaddled at night b/c he flips and then has no arms free. However, this little one does not know how to sleep with arms free, so we are now in a bit of a struggle. Hopefully a combination of soothing, crying, nursing, pacifying will eventually lead to the elusive sleep. Poor little thing! He is so sleepy and yet, so awake.Update from a week later: he figured it out, sleeping with free arms! He still flails, and sometimes it helps to calm him down by holding the arms down, but he does it. He is sleeping really well, he does very long stretches of 8+ hours, it's great. With the jet lag, he ends up waking up around 5 ish, we bring him in the bed and I nurse him back to sleep, and often he sleeps past 8:00, and today he slept until almost 9:30!3. Sitting and concentrating: This is his favorite. Just sitting with his toys, thinking, looking, putting into mouth. He is reaching for things so much more, he wants our phones and iPads, and he isn't always satisfied by getting a different item in its stead. He is a smart baby!We take him out in the stroller but also in the sling and Baby Bjorn for public transport. He's heavy but it works. I went all the way to Michele's house today in the metro with him in the Mei Tai and it worked great. People are so nice, giving you their seat, holding doors... Grand success all in all.

Giving Thanks in San Francisco

2011-11-24T17:15:00.001-06:00

Well, Mr. Jack Felix Milverton has learned to sit up. Minor toppling occurs, but mostly he can sit for a long time. So sweet! And his eating is going so well. He's had bananas, mango, avocado, broccoli, apple sauce. We bought him a special bent spoon so he can feed himself. At first very little food went into the mouth, but yesterday he was a champ and got so much food in his mouth, he was smiling and so proud of himself. I mashed up the bananas and gave him some on the spoon. I tried to give him a long piece of banana to self feed, but he couldn't hold on, too slippery. The avocado was going to suffer the same fate but then we thought to leave some of the rind on, and he got it right in the mouth. Same for mango - just sucked and sucked the fruit. We went for Nepalese food on Tuesday and Gwen had a nice grill of vegetables, we gave him a piece of broccoli which he put right into the mouth, sucked away. He was happy. In fact, he realized that why bother with the hands, just let the broccoli hang out of the mouth. Highly cute.

We had a fab trip with all 3 grandparents. It was such a good break, and so fun to just all hang out together. Next up is Paris. Jack is a jet set baby.

Another Year

2011-11-13T11:48:00.001-06:00

I can't believe almost a month has passed since I last updated. I guess I can believe it b/c I've been working like crazy. But now all is calm.
Jack is now 66 cm's and 18 pounds. This morning of my 39th birthday I took him for a lovely long walk in the sling. He cried at first b/c he was so sleepy yet there was so much to look at, but then he fell asleep and I just walked and walked. It felt so good after being cooped up for so long doing budgets. He didn't sleep long enough though because he is back down for 2.5+ hours and counting. Wow.

We started him on solids this week. He sat in his little Bumbo chair with his tray and shoved the banana into his mouth, and I think some of it was even swallowed. He was very cute! Today I'll try avocado and mango. I bought him a high chair but part of it still to be delivered, so we'll see how he goes with that one too. He even had his first tastes of formula, which of course he loves. I am still nursing but in Miami and the budget meetings, I just couldn't keep up the pumping to meet the demand of the big boy, so he got a few bottles of formula, and actually it was super convenient for the plane right home to have a bottle ready for immigration and the car ride home. This weekend I did make a fairly good effort to keep up with the supply, which should get us through to the end of the year, especially since we are SF for 2 weeks starting Wed, and then we head to Paris in mid-December. So if I can actually come home in the afternoons and feed the boy myself, I reckon we'll do quite well with the freezer supply.

He is learning how to sit - he still topples over, but he is getting good. And he can sit up in his baby bath with a little help, he leans against the sides and plays with bath toys. So cute! He loves Sasso and reaches out to grab him. He still doesn't sleep through the night, but it's getting closer - the other night he didn't eat until 5:40, though he did cry a few times around 3:00... I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This is how he looks now, with big grey eyes and a cute grin.

Whirlwind

2011-10-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

Well, this is a busy time at work. I worked all weekend, late nights during the week. At least the good part of having the office around the corner is that I can zoom home around 6:00 and give Jack his bath, feed him and put him to bed, and then head back to work and finish up. The very best part would be to not have to go back (so far, it's only happened once), but at least it's possible.Jack is so doing well! He is just the best baby ever. He smiles so much, wakes up many days just babbling in his little bed, no crying. He now goes to sleep at 6:30 (into his bassinet awake and then just FALLS ASLEEP LIKE A NORMAL PERSON), and then has one quick awake time in the middle of the night for which Damian provides chupon insertion. And then he is up around 4:00 or 5:00 for a feed, and sleeps until 7:30. It is fabulously great. In fact, it is so much better than how it used to be it's hard to believe. We now have quiet evenings like we did before, just reading or working, watching movies. It's incredible. And the naps.. all very organized and good. He just falls asleep when he's tired without too much convincing. I mean, not every time, but mostly he has 2 good long naps each day. SUCH A CHANGE from a month ago.

On Saturday night (was that just yesterday?) we decided to take advantage of Osiris spending the weekend to babysit while I worked and Damian studied to head out to dinner. I noticed that Morimoto finally opened here, so off we set with a booking on Open Table. It turned out the restaurant hasn't in fact opened yet but was having a friends and family evening, which they welcomed us to, and we got a free dinner at Morimoto in exchange for our feedback. It was very fun!

What else about Jack? He has gone from being able to just hold things, then to grasp them when we put them in his hands, then to reach out (he can now grab the toys hanging down from his plastic archway), to really being able to reach out his hand and take things. He is very grippy! Beware necklaces and shirts. He just grabs whatever is under him (spit cloth, blanket, changing pad) and just hoists it right up. Very cute! He almost laughs when he give him tickly kisses on his belly. He is so curious, always looking around at everything. I can still get him to nap in the sling when I take him for a walk, but he fights the power for a long time, just looking around at everything. He is good at his push up, though he isn't that curious about flipping onto his back. He does it, but not often. Mostly he's happy to lie on his back and look up at his toys, especially his giraffe. He loves Sophie la Giraffe. Now he weighs 17 pounds (7.8 kilos) and is 64 cm's. He seems so huge, but the pediatrician reassured us that he is exactly 50% percentile, so he is as normal as can be.

This is amazing. Everyone says how much you love them and how incredible it all is, and it's all true. I love his sweet face, and then I look at his father and see the same sweet face. Life is pretty good.

Our Beautiful Boy

2011-10-02T22:15:00.001-05:00

And Home Again

2011-09-27T09:40:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful trip to Philadephia and DC. Jack got to meet Gram, which was most exciting for all - really! - especially for her. He got to meet his cousins who were very happy to see their cute baby cousin. Sasha kept asking me "Why is baby Jack sucking on your boobie?" She did not seem satisfied with the answer that it was how he got his food. She is just the cutest too - singing away loudly with all her songs, playing for hours on her own with all toys - first the blocks, then the dolls, then play dough, then painting. She just goes into the toy box and keeps coming out with one activity after the next. Pearl meanwhile is a little whiz doing the Monday NY Times crossword. She knew a lot of the answers! Most impressive. The flights were good, though it's just hard traveling with small person. Jack was a champ though, only minor crying on each flight during the awkward waiting to take off phase. He is again a different baby. He flips over from his tummy to his back. He holds his head up so well in the push up position. His sleeping went crazy during our travels, but last night at home, he slept wonderfully - down at 6:45, a feed at 11:00, back to sleep on his own, awake at 4:40 with a bit of crying until 5:00, then another feed and asleep on his own until 8:30. Ah! We all are much better rested this morning. Yesterday I was so sleepy, I forgot to wash the conditioner out of my hair, and then reached into my purse for a pen and took out a makeup brush, and almost walked to a meeting with it and my notebook. Oops. Sleepy. Today I feel a million times better. It is nice to have a cuddly little snuggler in bed with us, but the reality is that none of sleep particularly well. Even when I get good sleep, usually my back is achy from contorting around the little guy. Plus he keeps snuggling in, so I get about 4 inches of bed. Really, he is better in his little bassinet, and I can have some snuggles during a weekend nap. Seems like a much better arrangement.

To the Beach

2011-09-04T10:33:00.000-05:00

Well Mr. Jack Felix continues to grow and develop so well (obviously). The past 2 days he has started being so talkative, he just stares up at us and babbles all sorts of sounds, it's wonderful. And with such a serious look on his face, or with a big smile - he obviously is trying to communicate, it's so sweet!

This weekend we went crazy and decided to have a weekend at a lovely resort by the beach. Even though travel with babies is hard, we just KEEP ON. I'm glad we did it. The flight was fine, ride to the resort was fine... The first night of sleep wasn't exactly fabulous, but since then it's actually been great. The Four Seasons is pretty amazing - they had a crib set up for us, with 4 little letter sponges that spelled out JACK and a package of cookies with his name in the icing. Then the second day I asked for a changing table and tub which they provided, and a stroller that reclines. Since we got those things, our time here has been fab. He's had lots of good naps in his stroller both in the room and walking around the resort. The sleeping in the crib is still tough, but he did a 2+ hour nap on Friday in it, and last night he managed from 10pm until 4:30. So there is progress. By 4:30 I put him in bed with us to nurse, and he slept through until probably around 7:00, had another feed and we all dozed until 8:00. He was very pleasant company in the bed, sometimes he is very kicky/fidgeting/barky, but last night he was all sleep and sweetness.

He even had his first swims in the pool. On Friday the weather was a bit too hot, but as a result, the pool was really warm. He loved the water, kicked and relaxed. Yesterday it was cooler, and he got one of his chubby legs into that tepid pool and he wailed as if to say, I don't want that! So out he came (babies endure so many injustices of nappy changes when they don't want it, doctors check ups, going through security at airports when they'd rather be asleep, etc I figured that if he has an opinion about the temperature of his swim, I will let him decide what he likes). Then we found the hot tub which actually wasn't very hot at all, actually similar to his bath temperature, and that he loved. He just blissed out, practically falling asleep in Damian's arms. It was really cute. His little bathing suit is cute too.

He's not used to the heat and humidity, so we've escaped to the room at the hot part of the day or for his nap, and that seems to work out just fine. Damian is in the ocean now, and I'll head out to the pool next. It's been lovely to see the ocean and just get out of the city. It's definitely easier to stay home, but we don't want to give up our adventures, and even though we can do a bit less than we did before, it's still really nice. All 3 of us need to learn how to travel together. Some moments are hard, but overall, it's been so good, and so beautiful. Plus it's all Americans here, so everyone seems to have dinner at 7:30, it works out just fine!

I'm hoping that his sleep issues are starting to resolve themselves. Aside from a major meltdown diaper change last night, he slept a long time. I've gotten over my panic about feeding him every time he wakes up, so that is progress for me. He really can go about 8 hours without eating by now, which is good. I would never not feed him if he were hungry but I know now that I don't have to feed him at the first sign of waking in the night. If he is really hungry, he'll let us know. Now we just have to hope that he can stay asleep... but anyway, it's moving in the right direction even though some nights are pretty tough. He still isn't really in a set sleep/nap routine, except that he always naps about 1-2 hours after he wakes up in the morning. I'm sure in the next 1-2 months, he'll start to have a set afternoon nap as well. The only other consistent thing is a 7:00 meltdown of much screaming. Happily I've managed to organize my work to always be home around that 6:30 witching hour, so I can feed him after his bath. Usually I'm home much before. But still, I've managed to clear my calendar for those hours so I can help deal with the Loud Progeny with the best tool at our disposal: All Nursing, All the Time.

Now just waiting for a certain JFM to wake up so we can take him back into the pool!

Or Maybe Not

2011-08-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

So just when you figure out what the baby wants, he changes. In the same exact day! We did end up reswaddling when he was super sleepy in the middle of the night - he still wakes himself up so much with his flailing arms. After his 6:00 a.m. feed I put him back in his Miracle Blanket and he just passed out in 2 seconds... so the only conclusion is that we are in a transition. Look at him in his bumbo chair:

Unswaddling the swaddlee

2011-08-28T21:21:00.000-05:00

Just the other day I was talking to Damian about how irrationally nervous I was about putting the boy to sleep without his Miracle Blanket. Since he was born, he has slept 98% of the time all swaddled up like a little blue tortilla. This is his signal to sleep - he doesn't flail about, he doesn't hit himself in the face... he sleeps! Then this weekend we swaddled as usual and starting to rock him in his horizontal position (same position that we've done it a gazillion times since his birth), and he just WAILED. WAILED and WAILED. For what seemed like an eternity but was probably about 15 minutes. But 15 minutes of full throttle 16-week old screaming is highly unpleasant. So Damian had the smart idea to unswaddle and just rest him on his knee and rock him with a pacifier in the mouth, and cozy elephant in his hands. And miracle of miracles, he fell asleep! And now here we are in a new phase. Tonight I did the same - a long feed and then much rocking in his sleep sack instead of the tortilla blanket. And he fell asleep, and stayed asleep even when I put him in the hammock. He still biffs himself in the face a bit and so far he hasn't slept as long in this new way, but we are working on it.

He's doing so well with holding things in his hands. He wants so badly to be able to reach out and grab things, but he can't quite do that yet. But he loves getting something in his hands - he just waves it around. So sweet! We got him a Bumbo chair today, and he also loves being able to sit up and see all the things around. I took him back to Palacio today, he slept the way there, of course cried a lot in the store. We had a nursing session in the lovely bathrooms there, and then he was pretty good when I went to Vanessa's for a visit. And he slept on the way home. I made it back just before the storm. It's nice taking these little errand walks with him. I am SO much calmer than I used to be with the stroller, I just zoom up and over curbs and other mayhem. Into and out of the loo. I don't stress out when he is crying in a shop, or when random strangers have 50 opinions about if he's hot/cold/hungry/etc/etc. I just go with the flow.

Here is hoping for a good night of sleep tonight for all of us. Damian was up most of the night with the boy last night and then because he is a super human, he actually went to the bike track at 6:15 this morning, while Jack and I slept in together until 8:15 in our bed. It was so cozy and so sweet. I even got on my bike for the first time in 5+ years just on the trainer. In 2 weeks I'll go to the track too, I am excited to get back into it.

Weekend Quiet

2011-08-21T20:01:00.000-05:00

This has been a lovely weekend. Being back at work, I realized that I need to spend really good time with Jack and Damian on the weekends. I miss the lazy pace of maternity leave... wake up, feed, take a walk, go for a lunch, do a few errands, come home. Especially Paris, where even simple errands were a fun adventure. Hanging out with Kerry and our Paris friends.

Friday night we stayed in, which I reckon will be the new routine. I get so tired on Friday evenings! We did go out to a movie mid-week while Osiris was here to watch Jack. That worked out perfectly. A little date night for us - dinner and a movie at the VIP movie theater - and then a family weekend. On Saturday Damian bravely got up when Jack got up at 6:00 and headed to the Autodromo for a dawn bike ride. I waited for Jack to wake up from his second sleep and had a lovely early morning with him, playing, bathing, feeding. Then the three of us headed to the Mercado San Juan. I carried him around in the Baby Bjorn and we bought vegetable, Asian sauces that are hard to find, and some amazing cheeses.

Saturday night we headed for an early dinner with work friends at the Antara mall, actually to the restaurant we went to the afternoon before I went into labor. Poor Jack was not at his best restaurant behavior. Our friends assured us that on a scale of 1-10 it was just a 4 per their experience with their two, but for us it was like a 9. He cried a lot, needed lots of feeds, lots of nappy changes.. Anyway, we came home, gave him a calming bath which he loved, then I feed him a lot. And he slept from 11:30 to 5:30. YAY. He went right back down at 6:15 after his feed until 8:30. A good sleep in the end after a long evening.

Today he napped all morning, then I took him for a 2-hour walk over to a department store, we had a lovely walk down Horacio which has a beautiful pathway down the middle with trees shading it. It's a perfect place for a walk. He even held onto his elephant doudou and managed to get part of the head into his mouth. Now we've just been playing, laughing, shaking little rattles at an interested little boy. And soon it's sleep (or so we hope). He's asleep in Damian's arms and when he's out of it enough, he'll go into his hammock.

Jack loves his new gym with hanging bits - he just looks up at all the toys and kicks and kicks. He especially loves the ones that make noise. This is a funny time - he is transitioning from sleeping all the time, to being awake by default and taking naps. But it's tough, and he gets so sleepy but also wants to be up. Probably in a few weeks he'll have his nap times, but for now, we just go with the flow and put him down to sleep when he gets fussy.

New Family

2011-08-14T10:11:00.000-05:00

Jack is 13 weeks old and HUGE. I got on the scale with him today and he is over 14 pounds! That means he has more than doubled his birth weight in 3 months. All that nursing is definitely working, and going straight to his thighs. It was cool this morning so I wanted to put some pants on him - somehow he either has huge pants on new born ones, so I put on the pants that we took him home from the hospital in and they are like tight little shorts, and of course when he wore them at 2 days old, his feet didn't even poke out the bottoms.

We have completely settled into our new family life. Both of us feel just much more relaxed with the new arrangement - we get less stressed (or not at all) with his crying, the sleep is so much more regular. At around 12 weeks, he really became a different baby - there was a crazy growth spurt of 2X a night nursing, and he emerged a good sleeper and just a more alert, aware baby. He wakes up once a night to nurse, but that's after sleeping for 6 hours straight. We are no longer exhausted and we have a routine. He's usually up for the day between 6 and 7, but then goes back to sleep for a couple hours an hour after his feed. Today Damian left the house around 6:30 for a bike ride, so I put Jack in the sling after he ate and he's been sleeping on me for 2 hours. What a nice treat for all involved.

Jack can now reach out and grab things, and hold things if you put them in his hand.

He smiles so much, especially at his father. I mean, to me too, but his best, biggest smiles are for Damian, I love it.

He's big enough now for the normal seat on the stroller, and it's like having a new buggy altogether. So light and zippy without the heavy car seat! And he is so cute. We have still been carrying him in the Bjorn or the slings, but it's nice to also have the stroller when it's warmer out in the afternoons.

Aha, he's awake. Off I go.

Back to Mexico

2011-08-09T09:09:00.000-05:00

Well, that was a lot of travel. In a good way. I can't believe how much we've learned as parents, and how much Jack Felix has grown. It isn't that easy to take lots of flights with a small baby, but our system of carrying him onto and off the plane in the Baby Bjorn worked perfectly. We have free hands for bags, etc and he is snug as a bug. Also I realized that one switch is the maximum he can do in a day (and probably us too!). So my plan of an extra night in Denver on the way in to the US and an extra night in Vail on the way was a good one. Just to have a quiet hotel where he could have a proper sleep made him (and us) stronger on the next flights.

He is now a kick kick kicker. We got home and put him in his little chair that has a slightly different angle to the chair in Paris. We turned on the music and he just stared at the little animals and kicked so much, like dancing. Just goes to show that babies go for brightly colored plastic over Scandinavian chic. Who knew?

He is such a different baby. The new diapers compared to the diapers we left here with are so funny. He looks at us, smiles, looks at his little animals on the chair. He is bursting out of his hammock, we'll have to unroll the edges. Even on the nursing chair, he looks so funny on the pillow, just SO BIG. And sleeps so much - now he does 6 and 7 hour stretches. Well, he's done that 2 nights in a row, so we know it's possible. I am ready for him to lose that a bit when he hits 4 months as babies tend to do, but for now, it's wonderful.

The cats were thrilled to see us. Sasso has now twice knocked the same pile of scarves and gloves onto the floor - funny because there are 4 piles next to each other on the shelf, but he keeps knocking over the same one. Passive aggressive cat, happy for us to be home.

Aspen and Colorado were beautiful. It was good from the work side and also just a nice way to round out the break. Last night I fell asleep around 8:30 and except for a short wake up at 2:20 by a certain JF, I slept through until 7:15. So much sleep! And from him. Only one wake up in that whole time is amazing.

So today is my first day back to the office. I already see that it will work out just fine - I'll try to shower and get ready before Jack wakes up, then I'll feed him, play, have breakfast, pump and go. Today was a bit off because I was unpacking and also I slept until 7:15. If I had woken up at 6:45, it would have been fine. But this sleeping thing is such a novelty, I wasn't ready to wake up early yet. So I'll be a bit late, but I'm not exactly concerned about this. I've fed the baby, had breakfast and pumped. So just quick shower and out of here.

Sleep!

2011-07-21T01:24:00.000-05:00

Last night Jack went to sleep at 10, after a huge feed at 9:00. We struggled a bit to get him down but then he slept. He got up at 2:45 as usual, so I started to feed him but he wasn't that keen. So I changed his diaper, and instead of eating he fell right asleep, no feeding! I was shocked but put him in his bed and he fell easily asleep until 6:30 this morning. Most exciting! We all are well rested this morning. He had his breakfast, looked around and smiled for a bit and was back in his bed by 8:00, also without any crying. Wow! One day soon this child will sleep through the night without eating.

France!

2011-07-19T04:46:00.000-05:00

So many things have happened, I'll do a list:

Travel

After a huge delay, we made it to France. Jack a champ on the plane. When we boarded for round 1, everything was calm and good. I had him in the Baby Bjorn and Damian took care of the stroller, car seat etc. We got on the plane, he settled right in, had a feed and fell asleep. Then Air France told us the flight was cancelled due to a maintenance issue in the brake system, so we got off the plane, went to the Hilton hotel and attempted round 2. All was the same for the second day, except it took quite a long time from queuing up until getting on the plane, at which point a certain JFM was Not Happy and Ready for Sleep. So he had a minor meltdown as we were taxiing, but Damian calmed him down. He slept part of the flight in my arms after a feed, and part in his bassinet. It worked out quite well. Our stroller took an age and half to arrive but our ride was waiting and we made it to our apartment. Finally!

We also did a 2-night trip to Saint Paterne, a tiny town with a lovely chateau near Alencon. We rented a car and did the 2 and half hour drive from Paris. Jack mostly slept in the car. We had amazing dinners at the hotel each night. The middle day we did a driving tour to some very cute towns - St Ceneri - and also the Chateau de Carrouges. Jack did good visits in the Baby Bjorn and it was all very fun.

Smiles

Jack smiles, finally!! We got a bunch of half smiles in the days leading up to France, but once here, he has given us full blown, big smiles, dimple included. It is so truly amazing. He has always been the sweetest baby, but getting a good smile back is just what we needed.

Sleep

He's now done 2 nights in a row with a stretch of 5+ hours of sleep! I know! 2 nights ago he slept from 10:00 p.m. to 3:50. Then last night was 9:30 to 3:15. Most exciting! He had been sleeping really since about 6:30 each of those nights and woke up for a feed around 9:00. So we will see how it evolves, but only 1 night feeding is great, and I can see how over time he will phase that one out too - or maybe have a little dream feed around 11:00 or midnight and sleep through til 6:00. Right now he is just too tired for that midnight one, so we are patient. He even falls asleep really easily in the middle of the night - it used to require a good 15-20 minutes of rocking and shushing, but now he often just drifts off, I hold him for a bit, and then gently put him in the hammock with the noise machine on a rain sound. Really different than when he was a tiny thing. The past 2 nights of a longer stretch of sleep have been amazing, I feel so rested and great. When he gets up around 7:00, I bring him in the bed and feed him there, and then we're up for the day and I don't need another lie-in.

Slings

So I have become obsessed with babywearing. This is what I wanted to do since he was born but I couldn't quite figure it out, plus he slept so well in his hammock that we didn't really need it. But in Paris several things are different. First of all, we don't have help, so if we want to get ready, go out, shop, etc he has to come with us and sometimes he just won't sleep. So if we put him in a sling, then he sleeps as we achieve things. Also in Mexico, there is plenty of room for a stroller and a car, but here our stroller is too big for the bus or metro and in some restaurants it would just be awkward. So it has been a breakthrough to take him in various sling contraptions around Paris. Yesterday we did a walk with him on Damian in the Baby Bjorn. He even ate his whole lunch with Jack strapped onto his belly. The day before we went to the Marais on 2 buses. Damian wore him in the Bjorn over there, then I put him in my French sling. I'm still learning all the different ways that I can hold him, but it is great. Yesterday afternoon I took him to the laundromat while strapped on. He slept while I did 3 huge loads of laundry. Most efficient! Plus it is just so cozy and great to have him on you, he stays warm, sleeps well and even gets to look around. In the Baby Bjorn when he wakes up, he looks around and loves to have the breeze on his face. Very Cute.

Apartment

It is all coming together. We had the maintenance guy here to do a few little jobs, including making the wooden rod for the hammock and replacing the ugly glass in the French doors to our room. We got shades to cover the doors for if we have guests. (Actually Manuel came 1 night to stay with us, but we had to leave our doors open to hear Jack when he woke up). In an #Fail, I bought lots of wrong sized sheets for the second bedroom, but did manage a good blanket, duvet cover and 1 pillow case. The changing table I ordered came in (it was on a huge sale), so Jack's little room is all set. And we got a lovely Perrier publicity poster framed and is hanging in the entry way. Ours is more red/pink but it's the same. We still need to fix a few things on the electrics so that the lights in the entryway are decoupled from the ones in the living room. But otherwise, it is looking very good.

Baby!

2011-06-30T13:24:00.000-05:00

This week has been great for Jack - he somehow over the course of a couple of days changed from just being a sweet little package of oblivious cuteness to being an engaged package of cuteness. He looks right into our eyes and is SO SO SO close to giving us a big smile. We bought him a bouncy chair, and he sat in it on his own for about 20 minutes this morning, looking at the animals hanging from it and listening to the little song. It is wonderful to see him growing and learning. It all happens so fast. He just transformed almost overnight from sleeping all the time, to actually being awake at different times and playing, looking, hanging out.

We also got him a bigger bathtub that he loves. So now our evening routine is to let him start sleeping around 6:00. When he wakes up a couple hours later we give him a warm bath which he loves, then I nurse him and play French lullabies. And he sleeps! Some nights it's taken a few tries of convincing him to stay asleep but last night he went down very easily. All Mexican mothers swear by the trick of adding water with boiled romaine lettuce to the bath to calm the baby. Who knows why/how/if this works, but last night Jack slept for 4.5 hours without waking up which is his record, so I am sticking with the lettuce. He also has started falling asleep much easier for the night time feedings. He obviously knows it's nighttime, and gets grumpy if I have to turn the light on for something (usually to observe the diaper situation - though I did manage one last night with the light off). I can see the light at the end of the tunnel where he will truly sleep through the night and not need eat. But until then, I am happy to get up and feed him - it's much easier now than it was even a couple weeks ago.

Father's Day

2011-06-25T15:33:00.000-05:00

Well, I am slow with updates - not sure where the time goes b/c we have help to take care of Jack, but still, it is busy. We had a lovely Father's Day for Damian. In the morning he did a photo shoot with some friends and their 2 kids, so that was a slightly chaotic but very fun morning. I did a lot of playing with Freddy and nursing Jack. Then in the afternoon we headed out to lunch with Laura and Jorge at a newish restaurant called Drakke. It was totally empty and they have a lovely terrace that had a great breeze. Apparently we weren't supposed to even be there b/c it was a smoking area and kids aren't allowed - but since we were the only people in the entire restaurant, they seem to have given us a break. When we back for lunch yesterday we had to eat downstairs, which was also nice, though not quite as nice as upstairs.

Damian was up early and got a half smile from Jack. All week we've gotten half smiles, but so far still no big smile. We spend half our time smiling enthusiastically at him hoping hoping hoping for a return one from him - soon he will do it!

We're adapting to his changing sleeping. Some nights he is a champ and sleeps in 3 to 3.5 hour chunks, but then we have growth spurt nights where he eats and eats and eats, and then passes out for an hour, rinse wash repeat. Now that I realize that none of this is linear it is easier to manage. Some days we sleep better, and some days it is a struggle. And one day he will sleep for 5 hours... I have to remember that he is only 7 weeks old! And usually he is fairly chilled out. This morning he was Mr. Fussy, but that is unusual for him. He exhausted himself after such fussing and wailing (Mom, I am HUNGRY, not enjoying this walk anymore, prefer food please). I played him some little lullabies after the feed and he is going on 2 hours asleep in the hammock.

6 Weeks

2011-06-18T10:57:00.000-05:00

Our little bean sprout has been sprouting. All of a sudden 2 days ago, he needed to eat every hour for about 40 minutes each time. Instead of having his usual 3-hour nap in the evening for the nighttime feed around 9:00, he just couldn't get settled. We'd rock him, change his nappy, give him a pacifier... nothing worked! So finally I thought, maybe he's hungry and he'd just chomp away. Over and over again. He is growing! He still sleeps most of the time, but you can tell that he's at a transition where he can have more awake time, but then he gets fussy - he hasn't settled into his new way yet. After all that eating the other night, he slept for 4 hours in his hammock. Usually we put him to bed in his bassinet but he was too fussy, and the hammock quieted him, so that's what we did! Then last night he reverted in the night to 1 hour eating, 2 hours sleeping... I slept in this morning b/c that schedule exhausts a person after awhile. The good news is that his stomach is getting bigger and very soon he will certainly manage 4-hour stretches of sleep on a more regular basis.

All the nights are becoming a blur. Usually he eats around 9:00, so we go to bed at 10:00. Then he wakes around 12:30 or 1:00 and I feed him, it usually takes an hour for him to eat, change the nappy and rock him to sleep. Then he sleeps until 5:00 more or less. But then all this can change depending on when his late feeding is. Often if I'm super tired, I do the first half of the feed lying down in the bed in his room, then when he needs to be burped and changed, I settle into the nursing chair, which makes it easier to rock him later, plus by then I'm awake and it's actually more comfortable to be in my lovely chair. (Not to mention that it was the most expensive nursing chair ever, so I feel like I should sit in it at least 3 hours a day to justify its exorbitant cost!) If he's very fussy or just AWAKE with Big Awake Eyes, I get Damian to help, he is brilliant at soothing him to sleep, as he did last night when I was so sleepy at midnight and the little bean would not settle into sleep. I suppose this is all v boring, but I want to be able to remember how it was.

We are ready to get out of Mexico City for awhile - the traffic noise, police with stupid whistles, sirens, remodeling our lobby, last fixes to the remodel upstairs... there is just a lot of noise. It will be good to get to Paris. Even if there's noise there our apartment has double glazing on the windows, so it is quiet inside. I haven't left Mexico since end of February and I haven't been out of Mexico city since the first weekend of March - that is a long time! Damian was in France in March but then he's been here at whole time too. We are ready to escape for a bit.

Irene and Hugh are coming a week from today, so that will be very fun. Plus we have other visits with friends planned and few other outings around the neighborhood, so there are more things to look forward to.

Here is my favorite picture of Jack that amazingly, I took.

Citizen

2011-06-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

Little Jack Felix was approved for his US citizenship - I had to explain all my schooling, exact dates of where I studied and when. And they try to trip you up with trick questions - what neighborhood did I live in Cincinnati? Did I leave Chicago at any point during my studies? When did I start working at Cinergy? etc etc It wasn't bad and I answered all satisfactorily. They asked the usual green card type questions about how Damian and I met, where we lived in DC, if we had ever lived apart. They were satisfied that all was good and approved Jack for his passport.

The appointment wasn't bad, but the process is SO slow. The appointment was for 8:00, we got upstairs to US citizens services around 8:20 (there is a whole security process to get up there), then about an hour later they took my documents and we paid for his Consular Report of a Birth Abroad. Then we waited AGES and AGES - while admiring/mocking the crazy outfits of everyone who was visiting the Embassy and commenting on CNN, changed a diaper, did a fairly long nursing session for a hungry boy - and then at 11:30 they called us for the interview which was over in 15 minutes. We paid for the passport and left. 4 hours! At one point they made an Embassy-wide announcement about a security training taking place at noon "in the area formerly known as XX." We tried to stifle our laughs but it was so funny. Like the area formerly known as Prince...

Jack didn't complain at all, we did have to lull him back to sleep but he was very well behaved, no major crying at all and was fine to nurse under the cover on my lap surrounded by lots of new strange noises.

2 passports down, 2 to go! Though now we need a little break. The French are currently processing his French birth certificate, so I am patiently waiting for that since I am in no rush to do another passport process. Need a break.

1 Month

2011-06-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

Little Jack is 1 month old today. In a way, as time always does, it has gone quickly, but also I feel like so much has happened and so much has changed, that it's been the longest month ever, but in a good way. We went to the pediatrician today for his usual visit, and he's gotten big: 4 kg and 54 cm's. That is 1.1 kilos above his birth weight and 4 cm's more. He is growing! We could tell that he was growing but nice to know the actual numbers.

After 4 weeks of bliss, we had a minor meltdown this week - I guess it's normal in this in between time - before he is fully smiling when he sees our faces and after the initial high of taking in how amazing this baby is. We are figuring out how to be, what it's like to be parents, letting hormones settle, adjusting to never sleeping more than 3 hours at a stretch... But these are minor things, all is back to normal and we are adjusting to the new, better reality.

This week we got Jack's Mexican passport - who ever would have thought that I would have child with a Mexican passport?? We are hoping that his status will allow us to use the shorter passport queue when we come back into the country (our Mexican green cards never allow us into the local line, we always have to stand behind all the tourists who don't know how to fill in their forms). Tomorrow we head to the US Embassy to do the American passport. I have checked and rechecked the documents 100 times, and Damian has done the same another 50 times - so fingers are crossed. We even have to bring Jack's and my hospital bracelets, photos of me pregnant, ultrasounds... It should be straightforward (note to universe: I AM KNOCKING ON A LOT OF WOOD), but until it is done, I won't fully relax. Status update to follow.

Today we took a lovely walk with Jack after the doctor's visit. We went to the frame store to get some quotes on frames for a photo job of Damian's, then we had lunch at Bros where Jack relaxed in his stroller, and last final stop at Superama to get more diapers and food for dinner. It was a nice afternoon, not too hot, and the timing was perfect. Jack loves the elevator in our building, it calms him on the way down and gently wakes him on the way up. He wailed for his afternoon snack almost as soon as we got home (I guess he was a bit thirsty after being out, the same as we all were).

I put many new photos up on Flickr, here are a few:

Those 2 are from a couple of weeks ago but this one is from today

Milestones

2011-06-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

OK, this is crazy because our baby is only 4 weeks old, but today he flipped from his tummy to his back! He had done something similar before, but was helped with a bit of gravity and a slope on his exercise mat. But today he was lying on a perfectly flat surface on his stomach practicing the little push up that babies do. And he leaned to the right and pushed with all his might from his little toes, and he flipped! Damian and I both saw him and we cheered him. He is a strong baby!

I think he is having a growth spurt right now because he is eating a lot. As long as I get at least on session of 3 hours of sleep at night I am OK the next day. Today Damian took over at 7:30 and I had an extra lie in until 9:15, and that made me feel totally normal all day today. However now it is 10:20, I am ready for bed but little Jack hasn't woken up for his nighttime snack.

I have some good videos, but I have to learn how to upload them in an efficient way. Will do that tomorrow!

June

2011-06-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

Our little baby is getting bigger! We go to the pediatrician on Tuesday, so we'll get the official weigh-in but you can just see that his little skinny legs are filling out and he is generally getting a bit more pudgy. That is obvious because he is a good eater, but anyway, it's nice to see. Yesterday he had a slightly fussy day, which for Jack means a few 10-minute crying bursts which are easily calmed with a 'Happiest Baby on the Block Dr. Karp' special: swaddle, shush, rock stomach to stomach. We go from wailing to sleeping in about 5 minutes. This morning we had exploding baby - first he did a projectile spit up onto his head and down the back of him while lounging in his stroller, then he managed to pee all over Damian and separately all over me. We had to clean and change him fully about 3 times. Finally he had a good feed and settled in for a long nap, which he is still having.

Our nanny started today just for a few hours. D and I escaped quickly to a lunch around the corner without the baby. It was strange! But good. Probably today or tomorrow we will introduce a bottle, so then it will be more possible to head out and not worry about the little bloke getting hungry. I figured out how to use the pump and I have been getting a very good amount from each session, so we are optimistic that he will be able to just have breast milk for as long as necessary. She organized all his clothes in his drawers so that we have the newborn things handy, then another drawer for 3 months, and the last one for the bigger clothes.

We took Jack to get his Mexican passport on Wednesday, and tomorrow we go to pick it up. My amazing assistant got one of the women at the passport office to agree to take our case without an appointment, so we got to the front of the queue and gave in all our documents. The cutest bit was taking Jack's tiny fingerprints. He didn't love it b/c he needed to be unwrapped, but he managed. Next week we go for the US passport, and I'll also register his birth with the French government. We are making progress with his official documents.

Probably I should write something about how I am feeling - I don't even know how to explain it. I love his little mouth opening up to eat and his quiet, relaxed body when he is nursing so calmly. And then the moments when he is alert, looking up at us and taking it all in. He loves his sunbaths, and just lies on the mat as if he were on a Mediterranean cruise. He moves his head when he hears a noise and reacts to our voices. It's so strange being someone's mother! But it is really great. We are parents! Wow.

Quiet Day

2011-05-25T21:36:00.000-05:00

We've had so many visitors, repair people, deliveries, etc since Jack was born, today was a lovely day with no one. The intercom only rang once to signal the delivery of a new bottle for our water cooler (had to think of how to say that in English: garrafon is a much better way to describe those big bottles). Not that we haven't enjoyed the visitors! But it was great to just have a quiet day.

I took Jack on a long-ish walk this morning, and actually came home 5 minutes too late, so he wailed the last bit of the walk in anticipation of his food. The Red Sox played an early day game, so Damian started watching that while I fed the baby. Then Jack slept for a good long time. We spent that time attempting to fill out the forms for Jack's US passport - should be easy, is actually confusing. I kept sending the forms to the Embassy and they said that the forms were blank, even though I could see that they weren't blank.. ANNOYING. Turns out that they are blank on the PC and not blank on the Mac. Hence the problem. So we redid them for the 4th time, scanned, and emailed. Then it turned out that I made a mistake filling out all my travels in and outside of the US since my birth (it is a long list! Ah, the joys of reporting Us citizen birth abroad...). So after finally getting the forms sent, I still have to fix one part. That took a long time! Thank goodness Damian thought to upgrade our scanner/printer situation - the scanning was super easy, so that was one good thing in an otherwise tedious paperwork adventure. (The silly part is that I actually worked on all this before Jack was born, I can't even imagine how difficult it would be to be starting from scratch now).

When Jack woke up, we took advantage of his alert time in the afternoon to do his passport photo. You need to have the baby not crying and awake, with a straight-on head shot. Not easy for a 2-week old baby. Damian had set up the studio lights and put the white backdrop on the floor. We had to do some creative pillow positioning under the backdrop to get Jack to actually look straight on at the camera. Damian was quite smart and figured out a perfect way to do it, and we finally got the money shot. Now if I can just fill those forms out properly, then perhaps Jack can get his US Passport, US birth certificate and Social Security number. My favorite part of the form is when you have to put Occupation, so I decided his Occupation could be Infant. Either that or Hungry, Hungry Hippo.

Now we're watching the Phillies game. It is only 9:30 but we are exhausted. I took a great nap this afternoon while Damian gave Jack his 10-minute sun bath and dealt with a messy nappy. I woke up groggily to nurse. We have such an easy baby, but still - he eats every 3 or 4 hours of his life, so we are tired! I investigated everything related to the breast pump this morning, so tomorrow I will see how that goes to start pumping and building up a supply both for D to do some feedings and also to have a supply for when I am back at work. My next project is to work out how to use the sling. It's like each day has 1 or 2 things that can be achieved... and if you don't make too long a list of what to get done, actually it's not too bad at all. I have more pictures, tomorrow I will upload and post.

40 Weeks

2011-05-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

So today is my 40-week due date, and how happy am I that a) I already had the baby and don't have to do that again, and b) he's already here sleeping happily in his hammock and not limiting my ability to walk around the block. He is growing so well, eating well, doing all sorts of cute things - but it also reminds me how very new he still is.

Today was the first time I really felt the whirlwind 'newborn' feeling where the day gets away from you. He must be having a growth spurt, because he ate every 4 hours at night (which has basically been his pattern), but then ate at 9:00 and again at 11:30, and cried even after eating for 20 minutes straight. He usually is OK for a break after 20 minutes! I finally got a shower at 1:00. Some friends from work came over at lunchtime to meet Jack, and then I took him for a nice walk around the block - up to the Canadian Embassy and home, all very pleasant. Then it was time for his nap and my nap, and next thing you know: dinnertime. First his, then ours.

I guess this update is boring to all people except me! Anyway, it will be nice to look back once he sleeps 12 hours a night to remember how it was when he was 2 weeks old, when he could have even still been in my belly!

Doctor's Visit

2011-05-21T10:07:00.001-05:00

We took Jack for his first pediatrician appointment, he now weighs 3.2 kg, so even after losing some weight after his birth his has net gained 330 grams. I can definitely see it in his face and little pudgy legs. He's still 50 cm's. He got his Hep B shot and we learned a bunch of exercises and massages for him. He wasn't thrilled bc he had to be unswaddled and it was time for his afternoon tea snack. But I fed him in the waiting room of the doctors to tide him over. He still wailed for a bit on the way home, but then we had a lovely long feed back in the nursing chair and he slept for 4 hours. He was tired! Actually so was I, my nap wasn't quite as long as his but I did have a good sleep too.

While J gains weight, I am losing. I've lost 20 pounds since I went in to the hospital to deliver him. I was down already 10 pounds when we got home and I've lost another 10 just nursing and losing water weight. I'm eating plenty but really we have no time for snacks and also I haven't had any sweets at all. People say that you are starving while breastfeeding but I havent fully had that. I wake up quite hungry but mostly I get full before I could even contemplate dessert. So 15 more pounds (and some serious toning), and I'm back to the pre-pregnancy weight. Unfortunately all this weight loss has not translated into different clothes. I am still fully in maternity pants and shirts, and even some of the smaller things still feel a bit tight. I'll test them out again today and see if my wardrobe options have expanded at all.

OK crying baby - off I go.

First Week

2011-05-19T23:14:00.000-05:00

Well, having a new baby is a lot of work, even if you have an easy baby (which we do), even if you have someone who does your laundry and cleans your house, and even if you have parents visiting and helping. Hence my late updates.

So far, Jack is a great and easy baby. (One does not like to jinx these things, and of course, things will change in future, but for his first 11 days, this is how it is). For his first couple of days, he slept so much, it was a struggle to get him to eat every 3 hours. But even in the hospital, he was able to latch on and have his colostrum snacks. All my breastfeeding research helped, and we did well right from the start. I adjusted a few things once we came home, actually watching some videos on Youtube about how to nurse. Luckily it has gone well, he latches on very well and I don't have any of the painful issues that a lot of people have. After about 5 days my milk came in, which hurt A LOT, but after just one day it evened itself out and now we are back to a normal production level and I don't feel like I will explode. (To be fair, even though it hurt, nothing will ever hurt as much as labor, so I'd say it hurt a lot in the context of normal daily pain, but nothing I can't endure with a smile.)

Jack is on a good schedule where basically he wakes up or starts squawking after 3 hours to eat. At night he can go 4 hours from the start of one feed to the next one, so I'm usually up around 1 or 2, and then again around 5 or 6. So it's not too bad considering that he has a little tummy and needs to eat quite often. And Damian will come in at the end to help me get him to sleep if he's not dozing right away, though so far we've only had about 2 nights where Jack took some convincing, usually he drifts off quite well. But it is great after being up for an hour, feeding, changing the diaper, etc to have D come in and just close the deal and get the little tyke down for the count and I can go back to sleep.

Jack cries when he has to get a nappy change (though sometimes he manages to endure with just some minor protests), and he hates a sponge bath, poor little guy. But he is easily comforted with techniques from The Happiest Baby on the Block: Swaddle, Shushing, hold him on his Side. Damian is the champion at this, and we have taken him from high pitched screams to silence in less than 5 minutes. Mostly he is just a chilled out, happy, easy baby.

Since he is so little, he's had lots of firsts:

His first walk was to Cafe Belen, and then a short walk around the block in Polanco. His first restaurant outing was to the Au Pied de Cochon for lunch with my parents. Then two nights ago we took him to dinner at the new Lampuga en Polanco. He went to the zoo to see the giraffes.

I am getting the hang of managing his stroller. I do see why people live in quiet gated communities -- much easier than managing the traffic lights and the crossings -- but I am getting more comfortable with the whole thing.

Here are some photos, there are more on Flickr if you click through any of the photos:

He's here!

2011-05-13T21:36:00.003-05:00

Jack Felix
Born Sunday May 8, 2011, Mother's Day 2011
13:54
2.87 kg
51 cm

Before:

After:

We spent Saturday running the last of the baby errands. The weekend before we had a bunch of plans, and together decided to just chill out for the next weekend, finish up the errands and get ready for the baby. So we were up and out to get to the first mall right when it opened at 11:00 to beat the rush of people. First we went to Santa Fe and got a few things for post-partum from a maternity shop and another few nursing supplies from Liverpool. We also wanted to check out this beautiful store with $$$ imported baby furniture. Very nice but way to expensive, plus we already have all the furniture we need, so we just got 2 cute stuffed toys. Then we headed back to Polanco to go to Sears and bought a single bed for our nanny's room. We wanted a new dishwasher too but this being Mexico where people hire a dishwasher rather than have an actual appliance, Sears only had 1 model (I know, funny, right? Can you imagine Sears in the US with only 1 dishwasher for sale?), so Damian had a brilliant idea: head next door to the Antara mall, get the dishwasher at Casa Palacio and then have lunch at our favorite Thai place. (Another Mexico note: often the best restaurants are in the nice mall - whereas I feel like in the States, it would be unlikely to plan an outing around lunch at a mall, right?). So we did that, and I remember walking to the restaurant just exhausted, thinking it was 80 miles away and being so hungry - I ate tons! The last bit on our list was a nursing chair and pillow - and they sell that of course not at any of the 10 stores we had already been to, but another one just up from our apartment. So we looked at each other and thought: let's just do it and be done. Drove there, which is happily so close to our house but there's no parking, so there was a moment where I said, let's just forget it, but Damian persevered and parked at the grocery store. We walked to the store, bought the things, went to the grocery and got a few odds and ends we needed and got home at 5:00 totally beat but so proud of our accomplishments. All the bits were set to be delivered during the week, we cooked a nice dinner and just relaxed at home. I even called my parents around 8:00 - my mom was out but I talked to my dad - he asked how I was feeling, and there was nothing to report except the long day of accomplished errands, usual fatigue etc. And off we went to bed.

I turned off the light around 12:30 and about 15 minutes after, before I had really fallen asleep I felt a funny feeling of SOMETHING happening - but in all the gross pregnancy bits, I just figured it was more of the same somethings that had been happening for a few weeks. I dashed to the loo and realized, nope, my water is breaking. So I dealt with the situation and told Damian the news. There weren't any contractions yet but we called the doctor to let him know. He said if I was fine at home I could stay for awhile to see if the contractions come, and call him when they were 5 minutes apart. I stayed in bed at first, then after a while it all got more intense, so I escaped to the couch in the office. I took a valerian to try to relax. I'd sleep quite deeply, then a contraction would wake me - so lots of breathing through it. But they still felt very far apart and really not as painful as I expected. I even finished ordering a few things on Target between a couple around 2:30 in the morning (I am crazy!). Around 4:30 I got cold and went into the bedroom, had a contraction accompanied but lots of moaning, and Damian woke right up, and got his timer out. I was of course thinking they were 10 mins apart and not that bad, but happily his good sense prevailed - he timed for an hour, letting me sleep between each one, and they were over a minute long and 5 mins apart. So at some point he said calmly, let's finish packing the hospital bag, take a shower and relax. He called the doctor who said we could head to the hospital. Happily it was 7:00 on a Sunday morning so no traffic. He loaded up the car, came up and got me and off we headed.

The contractions definitely hurt, but were completely manageable with yoga breathing, and I really thought it would hurt WAY more, so I was happy when I was already 6 cm's when got to the hospital. I couldn't talk through a contraction, but I was completely myself and present between each one - even signing some hospital registration papers and answering a bunch of health questions. Damian was a champion and dealt with the deposit and signing us in - we had done a preregistration but they still needed the credit card, obviously. Our doula arrived a bit after we did, and I was just easing my way through contractions. I drank some water, some gatorade, and just leaning on the exercise ball and swaying when it got too hard, breathing in through the mouth/out through the nose, and then resting. I got on the table and had to be monitored for the heartbeat and contractions for about 10 minutes. Finally they let me go free since the velcro from the straps was driving me nuts. I got on my hands and knees and managed the contractions for another chunk of time, and before I knew it, I was 9 cm's dilated. So close! Probably around that time my doctor got to the hospital (before that, there was his assistant doctor and a bunch of nurses). Sometimes I'd talk between contractions, or just nap. The doula Mireille and Damian were so amazing as coaches - sometimes the room would empty out of everyone except us, and they would just be quiet and let me sleep between the contractions.

This is the part where I stop remembering so well. I know that to get from 9 cms to 10 cms took a long time. I was pretty relaxed until around 10:00 a.m, but from then until the baby was born at 2:00 was a long process. At some stage they said I was fully dilated, but I didn't really know what to do, but the doula helped me understand. They brought in all the equipment to deliver the baby and I just burst into hysterical tears, overcome by some strange labor emotion. At another point, I got super dizzy and needed to throw up, and I thought I threw up a ton, but apparently it wasn't so bad. The baby was posterior and the head wasn't totally aligned, and also the baby wasn't dropping quickly at all. So I had a couple of hours of pushing to get him ready for delivery. Damian said that the doctor kindly told him that I thought I was pushing but really I wasn't pushing hard enough, so Damian just super engaged and inspired me: give it heaps, he said. And then I found more strength and just pushed and pushed through the contractions. We did a few pushes from a squat position on the floor, as per the doula's recommendation, and that helped to get the baby aligned. I asked the doctor if the baby would be born soon, and if I pushing properly or needed to change something, and he said I was doing fine, just keep going.

And then magically all of a sudden, the whole room burst into activity: everybody was scrubbing up, nurses, doctors, the pediatrician, the doula... A thought entered my head that with all this help and all these people, I was the one that had to push him out, and I had to find something inside myself to get it done. I had about 4 rounds of pushes, with the assistant doctor helping to push down on my stomach, and my main doctor helping to pull the head out, and I gave one more push with a big scream, and out he popped. In fact I wanted to give another push b/c he was only half out and it STILL HURT, but he said that I should not do anything else, he was on his way. I didn't even hear the first cry b/c I was so relieved to be out of pain and stress, but then I saw the little guy on the table and heard his cry. The pediatrician handed him to us and it was so amazing. And from the photos, I look so good, which I guess is the relief and happiness - somehow the physical exhaustion just doesn't show on my face but I was spent. I suppose it was adrenaline.

All I know is that I could never have achieved that without a few things: Damian being so supportive and such a strong coach, the doula in my ear the whole time helping me with breathing, telling me what positions would be good, and the doctor who was patient and waited for the baby to be ready to come out. 95% of doctors in Mexico would have brought me in for a c-section hours earlier. So 13 hours of labor, best husband ever, good coaching and some inner strength that I didn't know I had, and now, we have Jack! (To be fair, we would have had him anyway, but this is the way we wanted him to enter the world.) And he is a great baby!

Oh, and P.S. I actually did have to have an episiotomy b/c of how long I was pushing and how hard it was to get his head out and keep it out, so my dream was oddly prescient.

Miracle

2011-05-06T07:39:00.000-05:00

I have slept for 6+ hours for 2 nights in a row. Wow! I can't remember the last time this happened. The Internet is smart with it's suggestion of Maalox, that is helping so much. Plus I've been super careful with what I eat - no chocolate, no rich foods, no tomato sauce, no coffee. It is all helping.

Last night I had a dream that I had the baby, and to have it, you had to do this special type of episiotomy, so we did that, and then like in 2 seconds, out popped the baby. Then I felt bad bc we had just asked the doctor about his episiotomy policy, and he said he only does it in rare cases if necessary (that is actually true). And I thought, oh no, after asking about it and saying I'd prefer not to have it, then I just got it done myself! But it turned out in the dream that I had nothing to worry about because the next step after the 2 second delivery was to put the baby back in so that the doctor could deliver him and not feel usurped. It was one of those dreams where you feel like you've wrecked something irreparably (as in: time to panic, I didn't let my doctor deliver the baby and now it's too late forever), but then my brain kicked in and No, you Silly, this is a Dream, Chill Out!

In sum: no baby yet, and I don't plan to deliver secretly with my own imaginary medical procedures.

I'm so glad it's Friday. This week there's been work to do, but mostly just to get ready for going on maternity leave, which is not an insignificant task. The good part is that in my job I don't actually personally do much of the work, I just organize, align, move things forward, launch new projects. So life can go on without me, bc the actual reports, presentations, analysis, etc will still happen without any intervention from me. I just need to document all the things that need to happen when I'm out, and that is happily almost done and communicated. (I have no illusion or ego that somehow we cannot survive without me for 3 months). Today I can work at home, and next week many bosses will be in Miami, so I'll be home as much as possible.

Our to do list is quickly evaporating - we have a few more baby things to get (more diapers for example), and we need some basic furniture like a bed and a TV for the nanny's room, plus we have the worst dishwasher ever, so perhaps after 5.5 years we might actually replace it this weekend. I suppose this is all called nesting. Hospital bag is basically packed, I just have to put in something for me to wear home (it is more fun to think of the baby outfit than one's own outfit). Happily I have some good maternity clothes that are now too small and should be just right for 3 days post baby. (Hmm, must remember to ask friends how big they still were after the birth. I do not want to feel like I am squishing into my clothes, however, I also don't want the clothes to fall off).

Bruno is being v cute right now, flopped horizontally across Damian's sleeping midsection, all snuggled in. V cute. I am propped up on a bunch of pillows waiting until it's time for our family breakfast routine (cats dash to kitchen bc they never want to eat before we get there even though the food is out and they can have it whenever they want). But I'll let D sleep a bit later, no need to get up quite so early when we have nowhere to go!

At Long Last, May

2011-05-03T23:36:00.000-05:00

I am now happily in bed after not going out all day. Last night was a terrible night out of a pregnancy book: came home from work super tired, had a feverish feeling with no fever, could barely keep my eyes open to have dinner... Then I fell asleep around 10:30 but kept waking up every hour with reflux and a loop of an Alison Krause song torturously trapped in my head (I know, weird!) Finally at 2:00 I moved to the couch and attempted to sleep sitting up. I listened to Cat Stevens and rested, though still woke up a lot. Finally around 4:00 I slept until 8:00 but there was no way I could go into the office, so I worked by phone but also did some serious napping.

At this point my appetite has vanished. I eat, but I have to focus on getting enough calories. And the misery of the reflux! I eat rice, yogurt, plain chicken... Nothing helps. I upgraded from Tums to Maalox, that I had someone order for home delivery from the pharmacy. I love Mexico! Anyway, I will survive this bit and it will go away soon enough.

Tomorrow I have one meeting that I'll go in for, then out to Lomas to pick up a crib from a departing expat. Convenient and should save us a lot of money given how expensive all the dept store cribs are. Then I will return to my couch, and head to yoga at night. We just have a few more errands for pre-baby. I have to order some things online and we need a few more basic supplies. This weekend we'll calm down our social calendar and just get organized and rest. I've prepared my maternity leave plan, so everything is set to just start slowing down and waiting for the baby. Hopefully he'll be here soon!

36 Weeks 1 Day vs 36 Weeks 5 Days

2011-04-29T00:20:00.000-05:00

Behold! This was Sunday:

This was today:

Bigger, no? D-Day is (hopefully) fast approaching.

36 Weeks

2011-04-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

So pre-natal yoga is the best! Today I was so achy, so I left the office around 2:00 and worked from home in the afternoon. By 5:30 I was taking a nap - just so achy, tired. Damian woke me up before 7:00 and inspired me to go to yoga, and even though I felt like I was at the bottom of a well, I got changed and we went (Damian is best husband ever because he drove me over in the middle of the Red Sox game - it is close, but still!)... and by the end of the hour, I felt great! I've been going twice a week, Monday and Wednesday nights, and it helps so much. Both with the aches and pains, but also strategies and positions for labor and dealing with the pain.

What else to say? I am v huge (pictures coming soon), and just more tired. The belly is starting to drop, the baby is still squirming a kicking a bunch. We went to the doctor's on Tuesday, he says the baby is already around 2.9 kilos, or 6.4 pounds. That is big! He doesn't think I'll go a full 40 weeks, but we shall see. Hospital bag is packed, and I have a list for everything that's not in the bag that I'm still using (who knew that even maternity clothes get too tight? V limited wardrobe at this point). Work is under control, I've delegated, organized, assigned: life will truly go on without me, which is actually a great feeling. We are truly in the home stretch. It is So Exciting!

Ah, Mexico!

2011-04-21T21:17:00.000-05:00

So yesterday we went to get Damian a Mexican driver's license. I did this when we first moved here, so I wasn't particularly surprised about the process, but still, it does make you chuckle.

This is what is required to get a driver's license:
1. Copy and original of passport (which they didn't look at)
2. Copy and original of visa (which they did)
3. Copy and original of phone bill as proof of residence (copy taken - our name isn't even on the phone bill since it's in the landlord's father's name, but that is never an issue)
4. Receipt for payment of 607 pesos.
5. Paper with appointment number
This is what is NOT required to get a driver's license:
1. Any information or proof remotely related to driving rules, knowledge of operation of a vehicle, written or practical test, eye test, etc.

This is true even if you're Mexican (I guess you show some other ID instead of the visa) - so it's no wonder that this isn't a country of brilliant drivers. I got my driver's license in PA when I was 17, and the test was quite easy, and in my opinion, I didn't drive well enough to pass it, but they gave me the license anyway. (For the record, I then learned to drive much better). But at least it involved getting in a car and doing a few things. But here! Just show up with smiling face, the right documents, and the payment, and you are done.

To make it all even easier, my assistant figured out the whole appointment situation - booked it, arranged for payment, gave me all the documents copied etc, and then b/c I am a princess, we got our driver to take us over to the place, so we didn't even have to look on the map to figure out how to get there. Actually it was simple and close, but we hadn't been there before and it was easier to just have someone pick us up and take care of it. So we left the house at 9:00 without having to figure anything out, and by 9:45 we were home with Damian's new license. So easy! But so odd.

**********
We've had a lovely relaxing Easter week, today especially. I woke up early and finished my book, had breakfast, and then promptly needed a nap while Damian worked. Then we took a big walk around the neighborhood and ended up at a great Argentine restaurant called Puerto Madero where we had a lovely lunch on a breezy patio. All very nice. Though Damian got a massive allergy attack earlier in the day so he was dopey from antihistamine after effects, and I was tired from all our walking, so somehow we dragged our 2 sleepy selves home by 4:00 and did some more serious resting. At my last doctor's appointment he recommended that I work less and nap more, and I have definitely been following his orders! (Not that I have a choice: I am exhausted).

The baby continues to kick a lot, often now we see an outline of a foot zoom across the belly. I did my 2 pre-natal yoga classes this week, they are hard but afterwards I always feel good. The hardest part is when we are doing something involving lying on the floor and we either have to switch sides or get up, but I manage! One more month to go... can't wait until he's here!!

St Regis Escape

2011-04-17T20:03:00.000-05:00

So it is Semana Santa, wherein all of Mexico City takes a break and escapes either to the beach, to the weekend house in Cuernavaca or Valle de Bravo, or just leaves the country altogether. We do this every year too. But of course, this year I am just too big/tired to go anywhere, so we decided to take a holiday 1 km from our house at the St Regis hotel. They were having a huge sale, so it was a good deal and so fun. We got there Friday (the traffic was so bad, that it took about 25 minutes, so it felt like we were going far). I had a great nap, Damian watched baseball, and then we had dinner in the restaurant and got a drink at the bar (well, I just had a smoothie).

Amazing painting in the St Regis bar.. I love it!

On Saturday after sleeping in, we went exploring in the Zona Rosa. It finally rained on Friday night so that air was cooler and crisper, and so fresh and nice. What a relief! It has just been this heavy, dusty weather for a month. We wandered off Reforma and discovered this lovely antique market called Plaza del Angel. It was like being at the Puces of Clignancourt - just really amazing antiques, some from Mexico, others from Europe or the States. Such a lovely surprise. Damian got an old Turner microphone that he has polished up, and it looks fab. I got a Pedro Freideberg print of elephants (click down to the second link with elephants, obviously). We went to the pool for a swim, and had lunch out on the terrace of the Four Seasons (lest we leave for one minute the heaven of luxury escapes). Our friends came to meet us on Saturday for another drink and snacks at the bar. There was a MASSIVE rain storm on Saturday night - lots of roads flooded and there was tons of ice and hail. Pretty impressive. This morning we had brunch looking at the Angel sculpture to one side and the Castillo to the other. All v good.

I can't believe it's only really a month to go until the little guy gets here. Yay! After we got home from our little holiday (Sunday afternoon of Semana Santa, we were home in literally 6 minutes), Damian assembled the bathtub/changing table plastic sort-of ugly contraption that we found. Conveniently it fits in the bathroom in the baby's room, so we don't actually have to look at it too much. And I arranged all the diapers, creams, wipes, towels, etc in there. This is the probably with baby furniture in Mexico: very expensive and (often) very ugly. The money doesn't bother me per se (I mean, all things being equal, one prefers to spend less), but I especially hate spending a lot of money on things that I don't like - sometimes I torture myself by looking on ebay at the perfect cute thing for literally 30% of the price. But anyway, mostly I do not do that, because this is where we live and that's how it has to be. The bassinet is great b/c we got it at a special Mexican store, where they sell all sorts of lovely things in traditional fabrics. It offsets the $$$ offending plastic items. In the end, we decided that we needed to bathe him, and bending over and hurting our backs didn't seem like a good solution, and this plastic thing was in the shop and available, so anyway, that is done. Here is the perfect bassinet.

And here is my evolving belly. I need to learn to put better expressions on my face - trying to take my own picture is obviously an activity that requires a lot of concentration, with a slightly furrowed brow.

34 Weeks

This one is from today, 35 Weeks

I look slightly goofy, but Sasso is v cute snuggled in next to me

34 Weeks

2011-04-10T22:52:00.000-05:00

And now for a completely obvious and uninteresting revelation: it takes a long time to grow a baby! I feel like I have been pregnant FOREVER. It's getting harder to sleep, most nights I end up on the couch in the office with all the comfy pillows. We bought new fans this weekend so that I could be cooler in bed, but still - I just wake up and can't get back to sleep. The little guy moves around so much - lots of big leg movements across my belly, lots of hiccups. I am so excited for him to be here, though he still needs to grow a bit more, and I still have some more things to get done. We toured the Labor and Delivery area of the hospital on Thursday so we could start to see how it would be. Now we just need the baby to be ready to make an appearance.

On Friday my friends from work gave me a baby shower, and it was very fun! Damian was at home and I asked if at some stage he wouldn't mind to switch the location of my desk b/c its old spot is a dead zone for my cell phone. He moved the whole desk and bookshelf while I was at my baby shower, and I love the new set up. Closer to the window and the phone works.

Here is Damian with his best cat friend Sasso

On Saturday we were going to head out to dinner and a movie with friends, but they had to cancel at the last minute, so we zoomed over to the Zona MACO exhibit at the Banamex Center. Somehow I managed to walk around for almost 2 hours at an art exhibit of many galleries from Latam, Europe, the States. Super inspirational - it's amazing what people come up with. We left around 8:30 and went for an early-ish (for Mexico) dinner at China Grill, which is so good. It was fun! And we were exhausted in a good way when we got home.

Today was mostly quiet. We woke up late because I ended up being awake for an hour between 4:30 and 5:30. As I was having breakfast, I thought I spilled my tea on my ipad. Wiped it up and it reappeared. After drop 3, I realized that it was leaking from the ceiling and I was not in fact completely mad (who spills drop after drop of tea on their ipad without noticing?). Then we realized that half of the ceiling in the kitchen was damp with water just waiting to leak through. Ugh. Our upstairs neighbors are super nice, so we went up to show them more or less where it was coming from. Their kitchen is newly redone, and gorgeous. Then we came down to see the ceiling. Ours is like a 1970's revival - anyway, I don't mind our kitchen until it was compared with gorgeous upstairs (leaking) kitchen. Tomorrow their architect/engineer guy will come and see what is up. Maybe this will be an opportunity to repaint and redo the ceiling, which it needs. I'm sure it's been leaking a bit for days but it took this long to actually reveal itself.

And in final news, look at our baby! Apparently he is on the bigger end of the size spectrum, so I have more than average amniotic fluid, which gives really good photos on the 3D ultrasound. He has an umbilical cord around his wrist, and he is cute!

32 (Almost 33) Weeks

2011-04-01T00:22:00.000-06:00

I am getting very big! I keep saying that, but I keep getting bigger (this is of course normal, but it's weird when it's you). It's actually all fine, but I get tired faster - even a short walk and I am out of breath. My ankles seem to be less swollen than before, but my back is starting to hurt a bit more. Mostly I'm so excited/ready for the baby to be here. A lot of people have told us that they focused so much on the pregnancy that they didn't really think about what to do when the baby was here -- and at first I thought that was crazy. But now I get it: as you approach the end, your entire brain is Filled With Pregnancy thoughts, so you forget to think about how it will be to take care of the little thing when it's out. So I am trying to learn about swaddling and rocking, and breastfeeding. But to be fair, I spend most of the time thinking about giving birth and how incredibly huge I am. I've gained 30 pounds so far, and it's stayed at that for the past few weeks. Perhaps my goal to keep it to 35 pounds will work.

Other than that, I am attempting to zoom my way through my 90-day transition plan at work. It's going well but it's a lot to do. Oddly I'm not getting too tired because mostly I don't move very far from my house and office, but yesterday and today were long days.

Here are some more photos:

Here are the cute cats. Right now they are on the bed with me, Sasso above Damian's pillow and Bruno tucked into the covers. V cute!

31 Weeks

2011-03-24T08:53:00.000-06:00

All is well in the land of the Big Belly. I went to my prenatal yoga last night and it was so hard, but in the end, really good. I was exhausted when the class was over, but by the time I got home (like 10 minutes later), Damian was saying that I looked great and was glowing, and in fact, I did feel really good. So I'm glad I'm doing that, and will try to keep on until the end even though it feels like a massive effort to get from the floor to standing up. But the downward facing dogs are lovely for the back.

Today we go for the 3rd trimester 3D ultrasound, then another usual doctor's appointment in 2 weeks. Probably after that I'll start going to the doctor a bit more often than once a month. The baby is still kicking a lot and you can see a lot of the kicks through the belly too. I've started noticing hiccups - like a funny rhythmic thud coming from my tummy and realize it's not my heartbeat and not his heartbeat, so I assume it is hiccups.

Damian got home from a fab trip to France last Friday, so we had a great long weekend together just relaxing and visiting friends. Here is the bassinet that we got for the little guy over the weekend:

We still have to figure out a crib situation. The cribs here are really expensive (like $700+) but also v ugly, and most don't even convert to a toddler bed. So perhaps we will try to import one from the US. Anyway, at least now we have some months until we have to worry about that. And I figured after he outgrows the bassinet it will make a good changing table since it has higher sides. (To be fair, I don't know much about babies and changing tables, so I might change my mind on that one, but it seemed a good justification). Plus this was the floor model so we got it on sale.

On Sunday we went to a BBQ at some friends' house and got to meet the owners of our favorite restaurant Jaso. So exciting! Plus they were super nice and fun, and they live really close to us, so it was nice to make new friends.

Then Monday was a day off for Benito Juarez day and we just did a whole lot of nothing. It's been gorgeous spring weather here, even nicer than usual, so we did go out and take several walks. My ability to go for long 5 or 6 km walks has been rather diminished, so I took a rest after 1km and then had to pause in the middle of the 2nd km, but it still felt good. Though I was as tired after that as I usually would be for a normal walk. I got a craving for frozen yogurt one day, so we took a nice walk through the neighborhood to the yogurt place - very close by but felt like a long walk.

Here are some more pics of the belly.

This is a goofy picture, obviously taken by me but with little ability to get the right angle or right look on my face, but anyway, good view of the Huge Bump.

Presunto Culpable

2011-03-17T23:42:00.000-06:00

I just saw the most incredible documentary called Presumed Guilty about the Mexican justice system. It goes through the story of Jose Antonio Zuniga who is sentenced to 20 years prison for a homicide he did not commit - in fact, for a homicide where he didn't know the victim, didn't know and had never set eyes on the witness, had 3 solid alibis for the time of the crime - really just a random guy convicted of a crime that he had zero connection to and was not anywhere near when it occurred. The filmmakers were able to get footage of his life in prison, and also were able to film his retrial, which happens at a desk in a sort of open office, with a stenographer using a 1980's computer (when was the last time you saw a floppy disk?), and the defendant behind a sort of odd cage-like cell.

Many things about this movie just make you so disappointed and frustrated with Mexico - so much systemic corruption and inefficiency. Of course, somebody committed that homicide and that somebody is NOT IN JAIL. Meanwhile, random innocent guy serving 20 years... The burden of proof is on the accused to prove innocence, not on the police or government to prove guilt. In America, obviously innocent people go to jail, and of course there is corruption - but I think that in general, if you are the witness and say in court under oath, that the first time you heard the defendant's name was when the police told it to you, and that you didn't see the defendant with a gun or fire a gun, and if the ballistics tests came up negative and you have 3 solid alibis, usually there would be a mistrial and the defendant would be found not guilty. Well, such a case would never even make it to court. Perhaps I am naive, but I think that in America, even corruption needs to do a bit better than that to put an innocent person in jail. In this situation in Mexico, all of that was just like la la la la... guilty. AAAARG. Maddening really. A crime was committed, but obviously NOT BY THAT PERSON. Ignore facts, confirm guilt.

I think this is now the highest grossing documentary film in Mexico. The mayor Ebrard has said he will support filming of all trials (well, these weird desk sessions where the judge repeats everything the lawyers ask and the witness answers). The film has become even more popular b/c in a lovely twist of irony, a judge blocked Cinemex from distributing the film for a few days b/c the witness in the movie said that as a result of the film, his privacy and safety were compromised. A few days later, another judge ruled that the film could be shown, and hence why I zoomed out to see it. It was popular anyway, but the additional press has made it even more visible. As soon as I saw there was a scandal around it, I definitely wanted to see it. I missed a little bit of the Spanish in a few parts around the trial, but I got almost all of it, and it's really well done.

Maybe the film will bring about legal reforms here. It is just so difficult to imagine what it's like to be a judge with the power to declare someone innocent - the power over the future of a young life - when the evidence is so clearly in favor of Not Guilty, and to not want to do the right thing. It is obviously complicated - many different special interests, and a system that encourages guilty verdicts just to check the box and receive compensation. But still. It's hard to imagine how Mexico will be able to change a system that is so ingrained (and not even the corruption, but the actual laws that make it so easy to accuse an innocent person who then has very few rights to defend him or herself against a false accusation once it has been legally entered into the official case file), but on the other hand, this movie is so powerful and has been so widely seen, it's hard to imagine things not changing at least a little bit too.

http://www.presuntoculpable.org/inicio.aspx

29 Weeks

2011-03-10T22:40:00.000-06:00

So now it's the third trimester. I can't believe it's this far along, yet still so long to go! I am ready for the baby to be out! I mean, not to be out now of course b/c he's too small, but I'm ready for the rest of the time to pass and have him come out when he's big enough. He is 3.3 pounds now and already head down. We had an ultrasound this week at the doctors, we saw his cute cheeks and face. His feet are up on my right side which explains all the kicks I get over there. But it's all getting to be a lot more: my feet are so swollen every night in spite of drinking tons of water, hardly eating any salt and putting the feet up on a chair as much as possible, in fact, even my legs are swollen. I hate it! But that's OK, it's all just part of it and I am so grateful that so far all has been textbook, normal, and that for all my little complaints, it's all standard stuff and I've had it fairly easy.

I started pre-natal yoga a couple of weeks ago, and that is quite good. She teaches us techniques to deal with pain, contractions and helps us stretch out. It's funny being with all these women with different size tummies.

I now have huge respect for anyone who is a single mother. Impossible to imagine going through all this without the support of best husband ever. I also have renewed respect for anyone who is carrying more than one. Can't imagine that at all. Huge respect, that is for sure.

Today I got a big kick (I get lots of kicks all the time, but sometimes they make my whole stomach jump), and I just thought how excited I am to meet the little guy. It's so exciting, pretty amazing really.

The other week we got our visas renewed, now we have permanent residency status in Mexico. Highly coveted, of course, the Mexican green card. It is WAY easier to get a Mexican green card than an American one, just for the record. I can't believe we've lived here 5 years and now we're going to have a little Mexican baby. Conveniently he'll have a bunch of other citizenships too: fast passport line wherever he goes!

We went for a lovely escape last weekend to a beautiful hotel on Playa del Carmen. I had a massage, we went swimming, relaxed, read. It was so wonderful. Here are some photos:

And so it Goes

2011-02-25T00:07:00.000-06:00

Happily, I am on the mend. I have all the usual pregnancy symptoms, which seem so odd until I read What to Expect when you're Expecting and realize that it's completely normal for 27 weeks. Ankles that feel like you just got off a plane? Check. Random but strong leg cramps upon waking? Check. Ridiculous loud snoring? Check. So all is normal. I am getting v huge, most people think I'm about to give birth at any minute. Nope, 3 more months still. He kicks a lot and I get a lot of funny tickles and other odd feelings, but I like it. In fact, that is my favorite part of the pregnancy. All above symptoms plus huge weight gain and lack of waist... I could skip those bits quite easily.

Tonight when I got in bed, the cats were already installed. Sasso on the pillow above me and Bruno at my feet. It's cute when they wait for you to get to bed.

Even though I didn't go to work for 3 days this week, I actually did a lot of work from home, so I'm happy tomorrow is Friday. plus I was so sleepy a lot of the time.. I'll be happy to take walks this weekend, even have plans to get a facial and watch the Oscars at some friends. We need to pick paint for the baby's room- normally I wouldn't be into such a thing, but the construction upstairs put these huge cracks in our walls, so while we're getting that plastered, we might as well pick a color. We're going for slate gray. And maybe we will go searching for a crib. I am picky bc I just don't like so many cribs, so hopefully the one that seems to have some style won't cost too much. Ha! Hello Mexican import taxes...

Flu

2011-02-21T22:42:00.000-06:00

Well, no wonder I felt so terrible,I have the flu. Which is odd since I had my flu shot but maybe it didn't cover seasonal flu and only was H1N1? Who knows. Anyway, I am starting to feel better now that I have medicine. Though still super tired, coughing, sneezing... Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm hoping this will make the rest of the pregnancy seem easy - at least I won't have the flu! The baby is growing and kicking so much. He moves a lot when there's music or food, so it's fairly predictable. I still wake up most nights from about 3 or 4 a.m. for an hour, but I'm getting used to it. I guess it's nature's way of getting you ready for the baby.

We had a great trip but it is so nice to be home. The cats a have been snuggling up next to me in bed. Plus it was good to see the doctor who squeezed me in without an appointment. And the warm weather without heating or air conditioning is good for my lungs. That's the report. Apparently by tomorrow I should feel a lot better, so fingers crossed!

Sick As, Bro

2011-02-18T22:53:00.000-06:00

Well I'm now 27 weeks on and I have the worst head cold ever. I would feel terrible anyway, but the combination of starting to get uncomfortable anyway, not being able to lie on my back and being so congested.. it's not good. But I am optimistic that I will recover soon. The doctor has let me take decongestants for a couple of days, so that is helping.

Aside from that, other happy things have happened. We had a fabulous Super Bowl party in Mexico a couple weeks ago (obviously, on the day of the Super Bowl). Then we went to Miami fora week for work which was nice. I didn't get to take full advantage b/c they were long days, but we did make it out to hear a German orchestra performance at the Adrienne Arsht Center which was incredible. Damian planned it and it was a great treat. Then we went to Philadelphia for 5 days, saw all the family and had a great baby shower. Aside from a 24-hour fire drill to finish a work project, it was a relaxing nice visit. And now we are in NYC - gorgeous weather, nice hotel on the LES... and happily a great shower and big bed where I am trying to fight off this annoying cold. My goal is to rest up a lot to get to the wedding tomorrow night no problem, which is the actual purpose of the visit. Tomorrow I'll upload some photos, but for now - sleep!

To the Beach and Back

2011-01-31T23:03:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we went to Ixtapa, which is near Acapulco on the Pacific Coast. It's a quick flight from Mex City (less than a hour) and more relaxed than Acapulco. The beaches aren't as lovely as Cancun - no white sand or crystalline blue waters - but the sunsets were still lovely and the temperature was great. Even though we were at an all-inclusive resort (we went for a work event, so even though I am not fully against an all-inclusive, let's just say that this particular place, with its Flinstones themed restaurants would not have been my first choice), there was a completely deserted beach a short walk away which was so peaceful and lovely for a walk.

They even preserved a small area for crocodiles, turtles and iguanas... so we got a nice view of the beasts. I bought a coconut from a local stand and had the nicest drink of coconut water fresh out of the fruit: SO GOOD. She charged me 15 pesos, and it should have been about 5, but it brought me so much joy, I didn't mind to pay it. Plus tourism seemed rather reduced and most tourists were (very large sized) gringos and didn't seem to venture out of the hotels to purchase coconuts. They don't know what they are missing.

The belly is getting bigger.

We got back in the early evening and crashed out. I ended up waking up around 5:30 until 6:30, then slept again until about 7:45.. and then made a mad dash to get ready for work feeling all woozy and weird. I need to figure out how to manage these v early morning wake-ups so that I don't oversleep, rush and then get low blood pressure and feel strange. After eating I felt normal again, but oof, need to avoid that in future.

Here are some older photos.

My birthday this year - I have gained about 15 pounds since this moment, half in my cheeks, no?

Damian's birthday in July

Bruno hanging out in the bar

Surprise - these don't work! It's a boy!

23 Weeks

2011-01-23T23:13:00.000-06:00

Today I finished 3 how-to type books: 2 related to work (accounting, finance, CFO type things - boring but a good refresher), and then Dr. Karp's The Happiest Baby on the Block. Then I realized that I needed another swaddling blanket, which I ordered.

This morning we took a great walk out in the park for about 4 km's. Then got cleaned up and headed to a new mall they opened up nearby, just out of curiosity. It only has about 5 shops in it so far, including one Mac store and we got a wireless keyboard that we needed. They sell so few things there, it was kind of lucky that we found something we actually had been looking for. They also have a Saks 5th Avenue, which is very glamorous and nice.

Here are a few more photos of the bump. He was kicking so much today. I guess he likes football.

Quiet Weekend

2011-01-22T20:14:00.000-06:00

We had many plans for this weekend but then various conflicts came up for the friends involved, and it's ended up being quiet in a pleasant way. Last night we decided at the last minute after the original plans got cancelled to eat at Jaso which I think is my favorite restaurant in Mexico City (though not my favorite website. note this: neversaidaboutrestaurantwebsites.tumblr.com). They always remember us and we had such a good meal. Damian did the champagne drinking, and I had a great vanilla tea at dessert. They even gave us 4 little tarts from their new bakery as a present. So nice. However, after my visit to the nutritionist we realized that the 4 tarts had to end up somewhere else other than with me, so we gifted them our doormen who were most pleased.

Today Damo woke up at 5:30 to go cycle at the Autodromo which is the old Formula 1 track out by the airport. He came home at 10:00 a new person, inspired to live here forever and cycle 30 miles one morning every weekend. Well, perhaps not quite so dramatic, but he loved it and I was jealous because I want to go cycling too! Post baby, I will! We did take a long walk this afternoon and picked up a few cute baby tops and some blankets. We got our Stokke stroller this week, which is so cool. I love it! We got it in red and I love how you don't have to bend down to get the baby, and he can be sitting at the table with you. We just need to get the bassinet part which they don't sell in Mexico, and then he can sleep in that when he's little.

I didn't get it together to take photos of the belly today, but I'll take some tomorrow. In the meantime, I got a good one of Bruno who was holding court on the huge pregnancy pillow in the unmade bed. He even brought up a few toy mice for good measure.

I am still feeling good, but it's all getting more: back hurting more, more sleepy, feet swelling (I tried to find slightly bigger shoes today but the shoe selection in this country is either $800 perfect little Prada flats that would be great but, um expensive for 4 months of the wrong size shoe, or miserable $100 nightmare hideous platform heels. I need to keep looking. I wish we had Zappos and I could just order 5 pairs and return all that didn't fit). But I'm not sick and the pregnancy itself is going along just fine. He is kicking so much now, if I wake up in the night it's sometimes hard to fall back asleep b/c of all the kicking (I will remember this when the part that makes it hard to fall asleep is the loud crying, and wish for the kicking days).

Tonight we are watching Grosse Point Blank, roasting arrachera on the grill and reading, after a nice bath. All good in Mexico.

Various and Sundry

2011-01-19T23:21:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I got a flu shot because I have heard about so many people in Mexico with flu. Way more than during the famous swine flu episode. Last year I got a flu shot but this year I sort of forgot. So I went yesterday to vaccine up. I also had to get a bunch of blood drawn for test (one useful test to review the thyroid -- all good -- and many useless tests to give to the IMSS doctor to redo tests I already had done by my usual doctor, except 2 months ago). Since I was already at the lab I did the vaccine. The blood needed to be taken after 12 hours fasting, so I felt mostly hungry yesterday. I ate right after but I just never recovered properly. And then today I sort of felt the after effects of the flu shot (a bit dizzy, a bit tired, just not 100%). So I will be happy to sleep and hope that tomorrow I am back to new.

In spite of said wooziness, I had a good day. I can't believe I'm already 5 months pregnant. My belly is so big. I think I am just going to have a very huge belly by the end of all this. More pictures to follow this weekend. Aside from the vaccine-induced wooziness, I've been feeling really good. I started to exercise a lot more which has given me more energy and helped me feel less like a beached whale (like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA). The baby kicks a lot.. the whole thing is pretty incredible. At the start I wasn't that keen on being pregnant -- and to be fair, it's hard to gain so much weight, be so big -- but I am finally feeling physically quite good. It's nice. I'll never be one of those people who loves being pregnant, but I am enjoying the experience. We shall see what I think in the 3rd trimester!

22 Weeks

2011-01-17T22:47:00.000-06:00

The belly: it is getting big.

Unproductive Productivity

2011-01-13T23:14:00.000-06:00

I had grand ideas this morning of achieving so much tonight. Reorganize my messy desk area! Download photos from the camera! Tidy up clothes in anticipation of cleaning lady! Blast through my to do list! Actual activities? Sitting on the couch, catching up on emails (to be fair, also on the to do list), cozily enjoying post-shower warm coziness, blogging. Oh well! But I have a good excuse.

Yesterday I had a marathon trip. We had to go meet some people in Tijuana and Ensenada for a meeting. Conveniently the boss's private plane was available, which made the trip possible, but still long. I left home at 6:30 a.m., got to the Toluca airport at 7:30, then we had to wait 1 hour for the thin layer of ice on the plane to melt. There is no deicer in Toluca even though it is often below zero at dawn, so the methodology to de-ice was to wait for the sun to come up and the plane to sit on the tarmac in a sunbeam. By 8:30 our high tech de-icing was complete and we left for Tijuana on a 3.5 hour flight. We stayed there for about an hour and half, then got back on the plane and did a quick 15-minute zoom to Ensenada. Stayed there for about 2.5 hours, and then the 3 hours home. I got back to my house at 9:30. Long day! The night before I had barely slept -- general pregnancy aches and discomforts I think -- so last night I slept a lot.

So one would think that I would be super energetic today. Somehow, not exactly. I had to go to the IMSS today to register for the medical services. In Mexico, in order to get government paid maternity leave benefits, you need to have appointments at the actual public health hospitals (IMSS) even if you are under the care of a private doctor. The place was actually way better than I thought and I didn't have to wait long at all to register. It's a new building, with good equipment. Because I am an expat princess, I of course have never been to an IMSS hospital, but it was quite good and if that's your primary care, I think you'd be well taken care of.

Seeing the doctor took a lot longer since I didn't have an appointment and I thought she was a bit mean and against my princess-like non-public health approach to pregnancy (case in point - she decided to listen to the heart beat with her stethoscope. Checks for about 10 seconds with no luck and then asks if I've felt the baby move and if he's moved today. Listen lady, the baby is only 400 grams and 20 centimeters long, and therefore, IT'S HARD TO FIND A HEARTBEAT IF YOU'RE NOT PATIENT, but asking if I felt him move today as if something is wrong when all that is wrong is that you're in a rush is NOT NICE. She then found the heartbeat). I also think she hated me because I made her repeat about every second question. She was wearing one of those flu masks, and I finally just apologized when she was obviously cross with me, saying that Spanish isn't my first language and it's harder to understand when you can't see someone's lips move. Ak. My follow-up activities from the visit were to eat fruits and vegetables, stop wearing shoes with high heels (though I didn't think mine were high!), and to come back in a week after redoing a bunch of tests that my usual doctor already had me do. Ah, government bureaucracy is lovely. I feel like I spent my life at the doctor. So that was 10:30 to 1:00. This could be related to my somewhat tired feeling this evening. At some point I must have gotten some work done today, but who knows! I feel like in all the zooming to doctor, assembling original and copy of MANY documents both for the IMSS visit and to renew our visas which expire at the end of January every year, etc etc I just have no time to make calls of follow up on things. Anyway, email is a very good work tool for when one is swamped in bureaucracy (and this is swamped in spite of many people helping me wind my way through all these mazes).

Aside from my complaints about being over cared for (evidence of princess status #412), the pregnancy is going well. I feel surprisingly good -- some pain in my joints which Dr. Google has informed me is round ligament pain, more reflux than is pleasant or than Tums can conquer, pudge central -- but I feel really good. I'm almost 22 weeks along and getting so excited for everything that is still to come. I can barely believe it's all happening!

In the end, I multitasked and did upload some photos. Here are a couple from Laura and Jorge's wedding.

I love this picture of Damian so much

I even took some of our sweet Sasso. He is very cute!

New Year

2011-01-05T20:14:00.000-06:00

We are back from our wonderful trip to France. It was just so relaxing, cozy (many evenings spent by the fire with a cup of tea for me/scotch for Damo), great to visit family, see friends, set up the apartment. It was just such a great break. We had a lovely New Year's Eve. I cooked this recipe along with mashed potatoes and french vinaigrette green beans. We watched the old movie Three Days of the Condor and then switched on French TV at ten to midnight. As an aside, as much as US new year's eve shows in Times Square might be a little silly, at least they are well done for what they are. The French equivalent of same is SO GOOFY. One imagines that they wish it were several people around a table commenting on the impact of the prior year and thoughts on the coming one, but instead they are forced to be celebratory and just can't quite figure it out. We saw one that was like a dinner theater with some middle aged presenter flirting with pretty young things, and then various song and dance numbers in between. GOOFY. Anyway, we counted down to midnight, had our champagne, watched the goofy TV for about half an hour and fully guilt free, fell asleep at 12:30. Perfect! After such a good break I feel refreshed for the new year.

This is so totally opposite to how we felt last year. It was really nice to go back to the office today with a big smile and a bigger belly, give my team some French chocolates and just generally feel good. I didn't even mind that they usual Thursday traffic-inducing market was held on a Wednesday in anticipation of the Dia de Reyes tomorrow, hence delaying my arrival by approx 30 minutes. I was just cheery. Yay for that. We had a Rosca de Reyes cake at work today (those round cakes where there are little prizes baked in - in Mexico it's like a little doll). Whoever gets it has to provide a lunch of tamales on February 2. So of course I got the prize. Happily so did Monica so she will help me with the tamales. Apparently she is going to make them at home. I don't think my cooking skills extend to tamales, plus you have to make them with lard which is definitely beyond my cooking skills. In France they have the galette des rois which we also had while in France. It's a yummier cake - flaky crust and almond paste filling, while the Mexican one is fluffy pastry with candied fruits on top (also good but not quite as good). Damian got the prize in that one we both wore our paper crowns. Perhaps we should mail over some tamales on Feb 2.

The little bean (well, he is now probably more like an avocado) has been moving around a lot. Sometimes it tickles me, it's funny. It is already getting a bit achy in the hips when I sleep, so I guess it's time for one of those huge pregnancy pillows. Must investigate where to buy that.

And so begins Year 6 in Mexico. How has all this time passed? Damian and I have spent most of our life together in Mexico. Just boggles the mind since this is such a random place for us to live, though to be fair, as good as any. And probably much better than most.

18 Weeks

2010-12-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I'll be 19 weeks but here is a photo from last week. The belly is getting big! Big enough that now strangers will ask if I am pregnant - though to be fair only if I'm standing up and not wearing a coat. But still, the belly has definitely popped. It is Christmas Eve, all of Paris is (apparently) in chaos, but we are shielded from it happily tucked into our flat, a fire in the fireplace, warm tea (or scotch with one ice cube if you're Damian), nice music, full fridge of goodies from the various butchers and cheese chops... All good!

Moving Around

2010-12-22T07:41:00.000-06:00

So I think I felt the little bean move around this morning. Per endless googling, I know to look for a funny bubble popping sensation that could be your tummy but then you realize it's not. So I think that was it but since I've never felt such a thing before, it's hard to be completely sure. We will see what happens in the next days.

Paris is lovely. In spite of grey skies, slushy streets, traffic to rival Mexico City (good thing I've learned the Mexico City Traffic Rule: never get into a car - amended to also include metro - without first going to the loo even if you don't actually have to go because you never know how long it will take to get where you're going, also now amended to include a clause related to pregnancy, viz. needing to use the loo on average every 70 minutes even if it seems like YOU JUST WENT).

Of course being on holiday helps, no real appointments or places to be. We can just go at our own pace, doing errands, visiting people, exploring, painting... Today I am taking full advantage of that and using up almost all available day light sitting in the flat and writing emails and updating my blog. Yesterday I went on a huge adventure of 18th to 13th to Vincennes to Meudon back to Vincennes back to the 18th, and then out again to the 9th and back. So today I deserve until 2:30 going from bed to kitchen to couch. Yesterday I covered 80% of Paris, today I have covered about 80 square meters.

Here is the Arc de Triomphe under snow fall. It is nice.

And here I am in the Marche aux Puces of Clignancourt.

Cozy in Paris

2010-12-16T15:13:00.000-06:00

We are making good progress on the apartment -- fireplace is in working order, more walls have been painted, TV has been delivered... All is good!

Here is a goofy picture I took of myself last week... the belly is getting bigger. Soon I'll get Damian to take a photo and I won't look so goofy.

La Parisienne

2010-12-13T17:04:00.000-06:00

We are so happy in Paris! Damian arrived earlier than I did and he got so much done. He's repainted the bedrooms and bathroom in a perfect white, and today did the entry in a turquoise-robin's egg blue. It looks really good. We're having fun just getting everything organized, discovering the neighborhood and getting our place in order. Who knew that an errand to the BHV could be so satisfying? They are open these Sundays for Christmas, which allowed us to go nuts in the paint, lighting, washing machine, and hardware sections. This was all good until I was just zonked: pregnancy + jet lag + lots of shopping = time for lunch. So we hopped in a cab back to the 18th to Abbesses and had a great spot-hitting lunch. I had the best crepe with ground beef, egg and vegetables... SO GOOD. Then we walked back home laden with our purchases in our little caddy.

Today we ventured out to the Marais to have lunch with a friend and found tons of good house stuff on the way home. Quiet evening in (to be fair, Damian kept on with the painting and then had his quiet evening, but I had a nap starting fairly early). All very cozy and relaxed. I even like the cold weather, I suppose if you only have to have 3 weeks of winter, it is easier to take. To be fair, it has been so cold in Mexico (2 degrees Celcius out in the country on Thursday night and only up to 8 by our house). But it is certainly colder here.

Tomorrow we embark on more sofa bed search and restaurant discovery adventures. At some point I reckon we will go to a museum or perhaps a movie, but for now, it's just fun to explore and enjoy being here.

Expansion

2010-12-05T11:32:00.000-06:00

I feel like over the past few days my stomach has just popped out. All of a sudden I am definitely showing, gaining more weight, feeling way more pregnant. Is afternoon I'll take a photo, but the bump is definitely present! I was spared any type of morning sickness other than just feeling sort of ugh a few mornings when I woke up, but now at 16 weeks I'm getting all sorts of weird symptoms, all survivable, but not so pleasant. Pregnancy is just a surreal experience. On Tuesday I go to my usual appointment to get checked out so I am looking forward to that.

Yesterday we went for the best lunch at Dulce Patria in Polanco. It was so good. It's the same people who used to run Aguila y Sol before it was closed down under mysterious circumstances by the local government a few years ago. The plating was so original and fun, the food is traditional Mexican but done in a modern way and just presented in such a lovely way. So that was fabulous. We went rather late, around 4:00 which is late even for Mexican lunch but still reasonable for a Saturday, which meant that we didn't need dinner and were just happy to stay in for the evening. I hadn't been home since we left for Thanksgiving on the 23rd, and when I got home on Friday we immediately had to go out for a party. So it was nice to just stay in. To make it even better, we discovered Glee on the recommendation of our lunch partners, and then watched 5 episodes in quick succession from the Apple TV. It is so good and addictive. We loved it. I had dreams about Glee all night.

So, more of that is on the agenda for today. Cant wait to watch more Glee. It is a beautiful day so I should perhaps consider also going out and taking a walk. I just had to intererupt this blog post to observe about 300 motorcycles take off down Reforma downstairs from the apartment. Loud! And so many! At first I thought it was just standard traffic noise but then even for here it was a lot, it was funny to see them all lined up out there. Just business as usual.

The Reveal

2010-11-21T21:56:00.000-06:00

My blogging resolve is only slowly returning. Today has been a 100% pajamas and football day. I had ideas of taking a walk in the lovely suny day, going to the grocery store.. instead I ordered groceries online and had them delivered, read my book on the couch and watched lots of football. We just figured out how to get local channels so it's the first time we've had football all season and it is oddly satisfying, especially since the Eagles are winning right now.

I'm reading a book about the history of Veuve Cliquot champagne. The topic is interesting but the book is written in a way that drives me slightly nuts (for example, and I'm making this up but it is good paraphrasing, "We can only imagine the Widow Cliquot sitting in her wine cellar pondering the challenges ahead of her, how to provide for her young child and how to turn around a struggling business in a world where few women succeeded in such an industry." ARG!). Anyway, aside from historical musings based on nothing but conjecture, I am learning a lot about champagne and I agree with the author that it is fascinating that a woman from a wealthy family ended up transforming the world market for champagne in the early 19th century. Even today, wine is a men's world. But zooming into her psyche without quoting from her letters or writings is totally annoying. It's a short book, so I'll be moving on fairly soon.

:::::::

As for the news, internet, I am pregnant! 14 weeks today and due in May. I have so many things to say about this, I don't even know where to start. Obviously the main thing to say is that we are happy. But it's been a long time waiting for the weeks to pass, for tests and test results, to feel like it might actually be real. But we do finally believe it. The last time I was pregnant, I kept such a good journal, took tons of pics of my belly.. this time I've been basically in denial until just the other week. But I am hoping with this bloggy revelation that I'll get back into my journal and start back with the pics. I do want to remember everything, and it does go by so fast. I have the best most supportive husband ever, and we're happy.

Where to begin

2010-11-13T19:44:00.000-06:00

It is my birthday so this seemed as good a day as any to relaunch my poor blog. I have just gotten Out Of The Mode of Blogging. Not that tons of things haven't happened. We went to Paris a couple of times and bought an apartment. Perhaps I might even post pics. We spent several weeks in several trips in Miami, in fact we just got back from a week in Miami and a week in DC. DC was great, the fall leaves were just past their peak and it was gorgeous and sunny every day. I really miss fall living in Mexico, so it was a perfect dose of great November weather, the kind that reminds me of my birthday.

Oddly enough, upon returning to Mexico, we are having a bit of a cold spell, so our morning walk was cut short because we were freezing! I guess it was in the 50s but in the shade there was a definite chill In the air. To be fair, by 3:00 it was close to the 70's, but still, for us it was a cold morning. It's nice to be home. Miami was work, but we finished by Thursday night and then spent 2 great days relaxing, taking long walks by the water... But it's great to be back in our own bed, with our cute cats who are thrilled to have us back. One can barely sit down without one of them snuggling up next to you for a nap. I am a champion napper so I am always happy to oblige.

It's a long weekend, so the birthday options with friends are limited: everyone is out of town. However the closest few are here, so we'll have a quiet dinner at a nearby restaurant. I had ideas of going to the St Regis or some such but we've just been away, home seemed even more luxurious. I just took a great bath with bath salts in our super huge tub, so it felt a bit St Regis-ish anyway.

Its been a funny last year - ultimately good but with some super sad moments. Too sad! But we also had great trips and things to celebrate - Paris for Gwen's 80th, Sonoma CA and dinner at French Laundry with Manuel and Ceci timed for our 5th anniversary, Cancun for my parents 40th anniversary, lots of visitors, back to Paris to close on our apartment. So here is looking forward to 38, and hoping the happy continues to always outpace the sad.

San Carlos

2010-08-08T13:53:00.000-05:00

We've been in San Carlos since Thursday night. I think this is my favorite beach in Mexico. On the Sea of Cortez, 1.5 hours from Hermosillo, it's just a quiet little beach town. Many retired Americans but also many Mexicans. It's a v small town, and it's not too developed. The desert mountains come right up to the deep blue sea. I love the desert each. This time we rented a condo next to the estuary rather than staying in a hotel. We have a perfect view of the Tetakawi mountain, and the sea is warm without too many waves. We've gone a couple of times to El Bronco which was the best steak ever, and yesterday we had a quiet lunch at a little beachside place under some palapas. It's REALLY HOT but if you sit in the shade and get the breeze from the water, it is fine. This weekend has actually been really windy so we couldn't take the sunset boat ride that I wanted to do yesterday. The last time we did it, we followed some dolphins for about 10 minutes as they swam next to the boat, it was great. Instead we went to Ruby's Wine Bar on the marina and watched the sunset from there which was very nice. Jose lent us his Jeep, so we will drive through the desert back to Hermosillo with windows down. We'll bring water, we'll just arrive with hair rather out of the control. Perhaps I'll take a before and after photo.

Best Eggs Ever

2010-05-17T22:53:00.002-05:00

Tonight I came home from work and had all sorts of questions about how to develop a strategy. So I sat with Damian at our bar, had 2 small glasses of this new wine he bought called The Little Penguin in our new Reidel wine glasses and discussed strategy. Next thing we knew it was 9:45 and we were hungry. It was the bottom of the 9th Yankees vs Red Sox. Red Sox leading 9-7. Then Alex Rodriguez hit a 2-run home run and it was 9-9 Yankess, so we decided it was now dinner time.

So we turned on the iPad, opened to Saveur magazine and discovered an egg recipe:

Beat 4 eggs. Heat up a wok until smoking hot and add 1 tbs of canola oil, swirling around the wok. Add the eggs and mix around 1 minute with chopsticks. Set aside on a plate. Wipe out wok and let it heat up again until smoking. Add 2 tbs oil, and swirl around. Add 3 roma tomatoes chopped into 8 parts each, and 3 garlic cloves chopped thinly. Cook 60 seconds. Add 1 tbs sugar. Add eggs back into the wok 30 seconds. Add salt and 1 thinly chopped scallion. Serve and eat. I should have taken a picture, but we were too busy snarfing.

YUM. We ate this 1 hour ago and the house still smells delicately of garlic, and in all my life I swear I have never had better eggs ever. The garlic gives it a delicate flavor but not too garlicky at all (in fact I usually don't like garlic but in this case it is amazing), perhaps b/c of the high heat. I might never eat eggs without wok and chopsticks again.

Hopeless!

2010-04-28T23:22:00.001-05:00

Why am I so hopeless at updating my blog? Actually, I have some theories about this:
1. This started out as Mexico Adventures. But the problem is that now, Mexico is no longer an adventure, it's just my normal life. Nothing now could be more normal to me than living in Mexico. I do not want to live here forever, but I honestly sort of can't imagine living anywhere else. Scary. But my ability to note interesting little things about life here has definitely diminished: it is the new normal. I should change the title to American Adventures: I notice more little odd things when I travel back to the States than I do here.

2. I still feel over emotional and I don't like writing super emotional things here. I've never been someone to have a journal or a diary. This could be a space to work through feelings, but it just isn't. However, when I have a lot of big feelings, I just get writer's block for normal stuff (see point 1).

3. I have a lot of work these days and just come home with an empty brain. Plus work stuff does not make for good blog fodder. And to be fair, nothing actually interesting is happening, it's just super full days of 50 meetings, phone calls, reviewing numbers, zooming around the city. I wouldn't want to write about it and no one would want to read it. At least it's not stressful busy, just a lot of running around and brain on full capacity.

****

What has been going on? Well, our cats are super cute. Bruno is getting bigger and has taken to spending hours of the night asleep on my lap. Cute! Today when I came home from work he sat on my lap snuggled up for an hour.

Last weekend was Anzac Day, so we went to the cricket for the Anzac Day match. I even made Anzac Biscuits with real Golden Syrup that I got from some Australian friends before they moved back to Oz. They were good and Damian said they tasted just as they should. (Oddly the only Anzac Biscuits I have ever eaten are the ones I've baked. Must fix that next trip down under).

In other Australian news, I am in the Milverton family footy tipping competition again this year (I skipped it the last 2: it is a LONG season of betting each week on 8 games. I get exhausted by August, but after 2 years I guess I forget how long it is). Anyway, I was doing terribly until this week when I got 6 right and finished 1st out of 25 Australian cousins and now I am 7th or 8th overall (could check but am lazy). Not bad for a gringo, I say.

We announced this week that Bill Clinton will be Honorary Chancellor of Laureate International Universities, and he was in Mexico last week and did a talk at one of our campuses. So I went Saturday morning to hear him speak and it was cool. I'll even get it together to post pictures of said event.

One student asked him what were 3 traits of his that brought him from a normal kid in Arkansas to president of the United States. This is what he said:
First thing: an insatiable curiosity and interest in people, politics and policy. He said interest in one wouldn't have been enough, it had to be all 3.
Second thing: he grew up without TV or money to travel, so entertainment was sitting around and listening to stories and telling stories. And this gave him a real understanding of people, their needs and an ability to really listen.
Third thing: an ability to work on many complex things at the same time for long hours and with deep concentration.

And now we know.

Caleta Blanca

2010-04-02T10:27:00.001-06:00

CUIX6, originally uploaded by sylvmilv.

Where we spent the day yesterday, on a private beach. At lunch they brought us a picnic. Life is good.

Champagne on Top of the World

2010-03-30T20:37:00.000-06:00

This is a photo of Damian on top of the Remarkables in Queenstown, New Zealand. We took a helicopter ride up and had champagne will enjoying the view. It was all Damian's idea, and it is one of the coolest things I've ever done.

Tomorrow we head to the beach near Manzanillo, to a nature preserve where we should have private beaches, snorkeling and lots of animal sightings. I'll post pictures from therel

Routines

2010-03-15T22:51:00.000-06:00

We had a long weekend here. The actual holiday - in honor of Benito Juarez - is on March 21 which falls on a Sunday. So, for reasons completely unknown, and to the surprise of many, they moved it to Monday, March 15. Most people didn't even know it was a long weekend until last Thursday or so. We did know but decided not to travel and just enjoy the quiet. And we've had a great time.

Lately our new routine on Saturday morning is to head to the new bakery Le Pain Quotidien to have our breakfast. Of the many things to love about Mexico is the lovely tradition of going out to breakfast. It's not brunch, it's definitely breakfast. During the week, many business meetings happen over breakfasts. And on weekends, everyone is out with the family to have eggs and coffee on terraces and in open restaurants. So this Saturday we headed out into the warm sunshine to enjoy breakfast.

We also took a walk each day around the park downstairs from our apartment. On Saturday night we headed out to Calle Regina in the Centro Historico. We went to a fabulous bar with friends and then to a small place for dinner around the corner. We hardly ever go out to new places on Saturday nights, especially not downtown (though we often go out to dinner our own neighborhood), so it felt quite fun. When I told Damian that I wanted to go somewhere I'd never been in Mexico City for the long weekend, he said, what about the kitchen! Ha, I guess I set myself up for that. This was a good compromise for both.

Today after our walk I was completely starving and decided I needed a steak, so we went to a lovely French bistro nearby. We had such good steaks with lovely wine. Then more post-lunch walking, and I discovered a cute tea shop called Teavana which apparently is located all over the US and also - who knew - here. So I bought a bunch of green teas in the hope that I will now wean myself off coffee. Little by little I have completely returned to 2 strong cups of coffee / day, so must get back to tea, and eventually to non-caffeinated tea. But one step at a time...

We got a ton of housekeeping organization done too: taxes, organizing accounts, cleaning up photos on the computer. I posted a TON of photos on Flickr. A few more to go and I will be all caught up. Not that exciting but so satisfying to have finished.

I finished reading The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. Then, after that I had to re-read the actual 9/11 Commission Report which we happen to have in our house. So I have been thinking about 9/11 for most of the weekend. A bit of an odd choice, but so interesting. It is really interesting to read the 2 books together. Even though the 9/11 Commission doesn't really assign blame or get to the bottom of every issue, it does go through a detailed history of the activities and backgrounds of all the terrorists and the parallel (or not so parallel) activities of the US government agencies. And then to get the journalist's perspective on the whole behind-the-scenes reality of pulling all that information together... it is quite cool. I am in a Washington gossip mood now, so I think I'm going to read Game Change next. (Yay for the Kindle - I can just buy it and be reading w/in 2 minutes rather than wait until I am in America in 2 weeks to buy the book. Love the Kindle). It is not quite as intellectual as the 9/11 situation, but I think after all that, I need something a bit lighter. Plus reading that goofy interview with Rielle Hunter in GQ today completely got me in the mood for trivial political candidate gossip.

Next I will read Lord of the Rings, which was inspired by New Zealand. Many more photos on Flickr...

More Pictures

2010-02-21T10:59:00.003-06:00

Here is a photo of little Bruno:

Let's see if I can figure out how to link to 2 photos from Flickr in the same post:

I did it! Finally... Now I am going to organize all my Flickr photos and attempt to post many more. Hopefully this will lead to a) more photography, b) more photos on my blog and c) more blog updates.

View from the Apartment

2010-02-20T15:54:00.001-06:00

View from the Apartment, originally uploaded by sylvmilv.

Books and Movies

2010-02-07T14:34:00.000-06:00

I've seen and read a few things that have been good, so I thought I'd share:

Movies:
Avatar in 3D: I went into this movie with no expectations. I figured it was an overhyped movie with a lot of odd blue people in it, that I was mildly curious about, but didn't think that I would ever see. Then a plan was made with friends to see it, so we went. And I loved it. So much. It is so well done, and the world that James Cameron creates is just incredible. I want to escape back there and hang out some more. Especially when I'm stuck in traffic on ugly streets of Mexico City. The writing could have done with a bit of editing... but otherwise, loved it and will try to see it again before it leaves the theaters. Conveniently, movies cost about $4.50 here, so it's not a big deal.

Up In the Air: Interesting movie that was also good to watch. Loved the girl who played Natalie, and George Clooney was very good as well. Had good twists and wasn't typical Hollywood.

The Hurt Locker: This was hard to watch, but so good. The filming adds to the intensity of the story, and I had so much respect for the soldiers in Iraq. Not easy at all. Plus she really captures the dynamic between the soldiers, something that lives between love and rage. I hope it wins for Best Picture because I've never seen a movie like it. Felt like a documentary except made as a movie... it was pretty amazing, but I don't want to see it again. Too stressful! Hence my respect: here I can barely watch the movie and some people have to live that over and over again.

Invictus: I read this book, so I was looking forward to the movie and really enjoyed it. Unlike the Hurt Locker or Up in the Air, this movie is all about the happy, so you leave feeling inspired and great. Matt Damon was incredible as Francois Pienaar -- the accent, the body language, the whole thing. He made the movie. The only bit that I wished they had clarified more was the significance of the national anthems -- I was waiting to hear how the 2 anthems worked the day of the big game, but it seemed like it got a bit lost if you weren't already familiar with all the words. But otherwise, highly recommended.

Books:
Open by Andre Agassi -- such a pleasant and gripping read. It's written in his own voice, and goes through his whole tennis career from childhood to retirement, and then the plans post-tennis. I have been wondering why I was so taken with it. Perhaps because he writes it at somewhat the stage of life I am as well -- he's found the person who he is meant to be with, he's in love and happy. Thinking of what he's achieved up to his late 30's and thinking of what to do next... I don't know. But something about the comfortable, happy supportive relationship he describes with Steffi Graf reminded me much of my own happy marriage, and how much we carry each other through. I read through different parts of it several times, and something about his description of the experience resonated with me.

The Great Gatsby - very fun to re-read classics completely lost on my middle school self.
Love and Other Impossible Pursuits by Ayelet Waldman
The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
And now I'm reading The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. I'm just at the start, but so far it's quite gripping -- and I love all these type of stories that tell about all the politics behind what you read in the news. I've read the Commission report, so it's not like I don't know what comes out in the end, but it is fascinating to hear how it all got put together.

*********

We're invited a big gang over to watch the Super Bowl. So far I've made a big bowl of chocolate mousse (recipe looks v easy but in fact it was quite labor intensive and MESSY!), a big salad of lentils, bulgur wheat, tomatoes, bell peppers, fresh herbs, etc (also looked easier than it was -- I am not an expert in making these grains, but I seem to have managed), and after I take a walk, I'm going to make a cheese souffle. Photos to be posted later. The mousse looks lovely but after basically taking a bath in chocolate this morning and using 8 bowls, all our mixing equipment and just about every spoon, I don't know if I'll be able to eat any, but I'm hoping every else enjoys...

Restored

2010-02-01T22:37:00.000-06:00

It's been 6 weeks since we lost the baby, and I am doing better. Much better. I still think about it every day, but not every minute of every day. Each milestone has been a stage to get through, and somehow in 6 weeks we've gotten through many. First was to leave Melbourne. I cried a lot leaving Melbourne -- the last place I was pregnant, the place where it all happened. Then we went to the Gold Coast which was a blur. A beautiful blur of family, holidays, beach, naps. Then New Zealand which was so incredible, we had an amazing trip. I cried after a helicopter ride to the top of the Remarkables and I cried during the new year's eve fireworks. We had a good weekend in Sydney with Leigh and Phil. Then we had to come home, and that was hard. I cried in the L.A. airport. On the flight across the Pacific we were sitting between 3 babies, a veritable nursery, and I just had to laugh at the complete ridiculousness of the whole thing. Being home was actually a relief: reunited with our sweet cats, back in our own bed. The first day at the office was very hard but the second day was better. Now it's completely normal again. This weekend we went to Philadelphia and I saw my family for the first time, and I again cried a lot.

When it all first happened, we were suspended in disbelief. We will face what to do next when we are home. When we see our cats. When we can go to the US and see another doctor. And now all those when's have happened. 6 weeks have passed and we made it through all those hurdles. I can fit into some of my pre-pregnancy clothes, maternity pants are too big. I feel basically like myself again.

At first I thought that having to tell everyone the sad news would be terrible. Friends would be OK, but at work... everyone knows me, even lots of people who I barely know. And having to tell them all seemed so terrible. I just wished that no one had ever known I was pregnant. But then an amazing thing happened: over all these weeks, so many people have said how sorry they are. And told me all about their own experiences. Until this happens, you have no idea no how many have lost pregnancies.. a lot! And they tell you about it, and tell you that it will be OK. It has really helped. It would have been worse if no one had known, if I had lived this whole experience as if it had never happened. Telling was healing.

And I realize that at least for me, I've made it through the worst of the hurt. It won't go away, and I won't ever forget -- the details of this which I won't go into here were complicated enough that it will always stay with me -- but I know that it won't always hurt so much, because it already hurts less. When it first happened it felt like I would feel sad and bad for the rest of my life, but of course that's not true. I already have many, many more happy moments than sad ones.

Even though these things are quite common, the truth is that you don't ever expect such a thing to happen to you. I have such a truly happy life: really happy fun marriage, good job that is challenging and interesting with good coworkers, wonderful place to live, close family, good friends, financial stability... truly blessed and happy. I never take it for granted. In fact, I am amazed at my good fortune that life has worked out so well. But even though I don't take it for granted, I accepted it: I have a happy life. And then this. Losing a pregnancy at almost 17 weeks is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. There have been other sad things of course, but nothing so acute, nothing that happened in one specific moment, nothing that was such a bad surprise, where I can remember every detail of the specific event.

At first I thought, why should this have happened to us? People get pregnant all the time and have healthy babies, why was ours the statistic that you read about after hours of googling? Why couldn't we have been fine and someone else have been the one? The cruel things you think when you are too sad to cope. Yet in the same moment when I wanted to trade my sad fate with some else's happy ending, I also thought: this is a terrible thing to endure and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. In the end, we can't make deals with the devil. Bad stuff happens. Someone has to be on the unlucky end of odds, and this time unfortunately it was us. And we survived. We have each other, and we are still happy.

Bob's Cove, New Zealand

2010-01-09T15:01:00.006-06:00

Bob's Cove, New Zealand
Originally uploaded by sylvmilv

I'm having trouble figuring out how to update my blog. What do you write when you've lived through the worst? I don't even know what to say or how to write it. Plus, I never use this blog to share feelings, but now my brain is occupied only with big feelings and I can't bring to myself to think of anything else, let alone post holiday pics or muse about Mexico City being rainy in the January dry season (though, for the record, I do find this odd).

So I thought I'd post a quick video that I did when we were in Queenstown, New Zealand. We drove a few miles along the lake road to this quiet little cove. The water was a beautiful color green, the sky a perfect blue. It was warm but there was a nice breeze. And we just stayed there for a bit, thinking and just appreciating everything good. So I'll post this for my first post back, and we'll see where to go from here. This video just reminds me a lot of how I felt in those first terrible days of trying to adjust to the new, sad reality: so sad for the bad luck, and yet so grateful for the good things.

Observing

2009-11-02T11:06:00.002-06:00

Observing, originally uploaded by sylvmilv.

A curious kitten.

Here are the rest of the shots.

Bruno

2009-11-02T09:33:00.000-06:00

This is our new kitten. We weren't exactly planning on getting a kitten, but when Damian picked Sasso up from the kennel they mentioned a kitten that they just rescued. So we decided to adopt him and call him Bruno.

Untitled from Sylvie Milverton on Vimeo.

Fall Days

2009-10-27T21:40:00.000-06:00

Last week I had some meetings in Miami, and afterwards I took a flight up to Washington to meet up with Damian. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Sperryville, VA which was beautiful. I finally got to see fall leaves, fall colors... smell the fall air. It was great. I love the weather in Mexico City, but can't let a year go by without a bit of fall.

Thoughts on the News

2009-10-19T00:19:00.000-05:00

1. Why is America interested in the Gosselins? I mean, I am as guilty (if not more!) as the next person of silly TV (Project Runway, Top Chef, and on and on)... but why do people care about what is happening with this completely annoying and average couple? Because they did IVF before the trend was not to transfer 6 embryos? Because they are breaking up? I admit to getting some interest in hearing about George Clooney's latest fling, or seeing photos of Alex Rodriguez hanging out with Madonna.. but I genuinely don't understand why these people are in the news. I moved to Mexico and all of a sudden there are all these weird shows and boring people. Does anyone really care? Apparently yes.

2. The Balloon Hoax. All I can say is: shame on whoever would lie about the fact that a young child's life might be in danger. Of course, no one is going to assume at first that you are lying... they will do all it takes to save the child. I just can't imagine what madness, lack of judgment, cruelty would persuade anyone -- let alone a parent! -- to lie about such a thing.

3. The piece by David Rohde in the New York Times about his kidnapping in Afganistan is fascinating. No criticism here, just waiting to read the rest of it.

Adjustment

2009-10-08T12:36:00.000-05:00

All is well in Mexico. I usually have quite a lot of work at this time of year, so most of my time has been either working or resting. The weather has been really good -- usually it starts to get cooler in October, but so far we have had warm, sunny days. Not a lot of rain either. I have been curled up at home reading my Kindle and taking naps. Not a bad way to start October, I suppose.

I realized that with all the work, I was letting myself get annoyed all the time. To be fair, a lot of people can be annoying! Waiting and waiting (and waiting!) for someone (i.e. me!) to tell them how to do a thing and what to do. And in such a whiny way! Somehow I just reached a breaking point. Which is odd because that hasn't really happened in all the time I've been here. Perhaps it is because it's late in year and I'm ready for a holiday. Also, while it's been a great work year personally, the situation in Mexico has made the business environment a lot more complicated, so there is a general feeling of stress and anxiety, which is normal.

But then I had a realization: the annoying people aren't the slightest bit annoyed, they are happy. The only person who is suffering for being such a grump is me. (Well, and perhaps my darling husband). So on Tuesday I came to work with a big attitude adjustment, and it has helped. I decided just not to deal directly with the annoyers and cheer up: Whiny way of talking? delegate the discussion. Not getting a helpful answer? tell someone else to follow up. Lack of initiative? give someone else the task. And just in general, smile through a thing when I feel that irritation feeling welling up inside me. So far it is working like a charm. Part of it is certainly cultural -- I get frustrated when I can't communicate well, when my point doesn't get across, when things don't go fast enough because I haven't been able to align it properly. Hence my attitude adjustment: the problem is me, not them. And being annoyed only succeeds in giving me a bad day, and it certainly doesn't improve my communication. Plently of people understand English well enough that when I feel that it hasn't been explained, I can repeat in English. What a better way of dealing with something than turning into a grumpy mess! Who knew... With this new approach, I am sailing through our budgeting season without snapping at every poor soul who dares cross my path.

...................................................

Recently on the Kindle, I have read:

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Commitment by Dan Savage
The Kid by Dan Savage
The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald
Traffic
An Irreverant Curiosity by David Farley
Drown by Junot Diaz (almost finished)

All are highly recommended. Except for Traffic which was a most pleasant read (perhaps because I spend what feels like 20% of my life in Mexico City traffic), but unless one is the mood for particulars of why so many cars going the same way can't seem to actually go anywhere, you could give it a miss. I enjoyed it. Can't wait for Junot Diaz to write another book, he is brilliant. Have I already listed all these books in another post? Can't remember and am too lazy to check!

America

2009-10-02T23:13:00.000-05:00

I was in the US last week for a meeting, and had the pleasure of zooming to Philadelphia and seeing the family, and then zooming to DC to see Lisa. My sweet nieces were very sweet indeed. Sasha was singing away to her Laurie Berkner songs... every time there was a short break in the DVD she would squeal, I want Laurie Berkner! And then about 8 seconds later, another song would come on. Wash, rinse, repeat. Very cute. We took the girls to a place where you can play on bouncy bit inflatable things, but it was ideal because there's no division between where bigger kids play and where little kids play. Sasha was happy until some kids started bouncing too close to her. Pearl yelped at Sasha, get out! get out! The look of terror on her little 2-year old face was so cute, even though I felt bad. So then we played on a smaller one, and tried to avoid the bigger kids. That activity lasted 30 minutes before tears (Pearl's, not Sasha's) and to appease that, we went for Dairy Queen. Sasha wanted white ice cream and Pearl got a little sundae. And they sat in the back of the car having it quite happily.

I went to DC on Saturday night a bit late. Lisa and I had a lovely dinner at the Logan Tavern on a rainy and cold night. It was so fun to catch up, we haven't seen each other since December 2007 in Australia. Now she lives in DC again. Sunday we went shopping in Georgetown and did something that I think I have never done. We bought exactly the same dress and exactly the same bag. The shoes I got in Baltimore as a complete splurge after a long 2 weeks of powerpoint. They go quite well with the dress, I reckon.

Rekindled

2009-09-20T23:35:00.002-05:00

For an embarrassingly long amount of time, I have been in a reading lull. I read books, but it's not like I constantly have a book that I'm going through. I'll have a good one, and then it's a month of searching for another inspiration. We have a houseful of books, so there is really no excuse. Partly b/c I have such busy and full-on days, I just come home and read magazines or watch TV/movies/etc. Partly it's because we're in Mexico, so there's not a convenient way to buy new books. But then I feel guilty because we already have so many books in the house, I shouldn't need new ones... then guilty again because I love reading and can't seem to get into a reading groove... but the end result is the same: no reading plus useless guilt.

Enter: The Kindle

I love my new Kindle! Damian was the US the other week so he picked it up for me. I chose some books for him to download while in America, and in 1 week, I have already read 3 books. That is 3 more than I have read in... well, never mind.

I read Traffic which is, surprisingly, about Traffic. Not the most amazing thing in the world but read a review of it in the NY Times about a year ago and have been curious about it ever since, and I enjoyed it. Then I read a brilliant novel called The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Loved so much. And today I finished An Irrevent Curiosity by David Farley. Also great.

Everything about the Kindle is so pleasing -- it's so nice to hold, and read. No glare, no holding down pages. It's like hands-free reading. Last weekend we were at Playa del Carmen and it was super windy, but I just set the kindle on the table and read while I ate. No pages blowing around. No losing of place. I read a book a day on that trip! You can still easily move around the book -- check Table of Contents and Acknowledgements, it tells you how far along you are. It also has a built-in Oxford English Dictionary, so if you come across a new word, just click and it pulls up the definition. Usually I am MUCH too lazy to actually look up words, so I skip over, but it's nice to actually pause and work it out. Damian generally knows more words than I do, so he is usually my dictionary, but the other day I found a word even he didn't know, so thanks OED.

You can't do the wireless downloading in Mexico, but it's easy enough to buy books from Amazon.com with a US credit card, download to the computer and drag over to the Kindle. The books are usually $10/each, so it's less of an investment than paper. Easy to carry around. It is fab.

I am not generally an early adopter of technology (unlike my husband who is the early adopter of all things -- I usually wait for the hand-me-down version of his old things that seem just fine to me). But in this case, I took the plunge and I am so into it. I have found my reading groove.

Video

2009-09-10T23:48:00.002-05:00

Sasha Waiting to go to the Beach
Originally uploaded by sylvmilv

I have never posted a video on my blog, but I just got a Flip camera... so let's see how this goes.

Beach

2009-09-04T00:50:00.001-05:00

Beach, originally uploaded by sylvmilv.

It is a cool night, a bit rainy, just had a lovely dinner with 2 friends. The cat was not happy because he was alone all day, but I made up for it by giving him wet food for dinner. We are happy, fed and snuggled up in a warm house on a cool rainy night.

Doctored

2009-08-29T11:25:00.002-05:00

Overall my experience with health care in Mexico has been amazing. To be fair, I am not talking about the government or public hospitals, and as part of my job, I have a good insurance provider. We can pick our own doctors, and we are (knock on lots of wood) lucky enough to just need routine care. But that's not actually that different to our situation when we lived in the US. What is different is the level of care and service we've gotten here.

We have the nicest dentist. Went there to just get a cleaning, and he recommended replacement of some old fillings -- some need to have, some nice to have. But the point is that for not a lot of money and over about a 3 month period I have a new set of fillings to last for a good long time, none of them of the dark metal type that I received when I was 12. Nice new mouth with all white teeth. Very happy. So happy in fact that Damian has embarked on the same project. The dentist has a tiny little office in the neighborhood and it's just him and his assistant. He schedules one person at a time, so there's no waiting. He just deals with your case directly and quickly -- and in a most cheery manner -- and you come back the next week. No assembly line feeling. It is nice! I actually LIKE GOING TO THE DENTIST. Claudia the assistant phones every 6 months to remind you to come back in. It's all very good.

Next example: the Mexican "check-up". Even in Spanish, they call it a check-up. Likely I have already written about this, but for laziness of looking up an old post, I'll review. All Mexican hospitals have a department of preventive medicine where they are specially set up for these check-ups. You arrive around 7:00 a.m., they give you a set of sweat pants and sweatshirt, and you go through a round of 10 or so tests: blood work, lungs, xrays, bone scans, nutrition review, eye test, dental review, etc etc. Different hospitals do different tests. Most companies, mine included, subsidize this check-up. So about every 2 years, you can go a just get a general medical review. What a good idea! And the whole thing costs around $8,000 pesos -- so if the peso were $10 to the dollar, which at the this moment it is not --- that is like $800 and 5 hours for about 10 doctor visits. Not bad.

The first time I did this in 2007, I realized I had a thyroid condition. Likely if I hadn't done the check-up I never would have thought to investigate this option, but it explained all sorts of general odd feelings that I can best sum up as feeling like I just got run over by a bus. Slowly. Over 6 months. So what joy to realize that by taking thyroid hormones every day, that bus feeling can go away and one can survive the day without drinking 4 cups of coffee between 4 - 7 pm, and still falling asleep in your soup at dinner. In the end, if you have to have something, it's a fairly OK thing to have and is not a big deal: is hereditary, grandmother and aunt have it, is very common, is very easy to treat.

However, while it's easy to treat, it should be monitored carefully. However, for some reason, it never occurred to me to find a specific doctor for it. I just dealt with this through a primary care doctor and my gynecologist. The last time I went to see the gynecologist, she said, so, who is your endocrinologist? And I sort of stuttered, oh, um Dr. Google. Apparently one is meant to have a very precise dose of thyroid hormone and I sort of just monitor on my own. Just go get a blood test every 3-5 months, see if I like my TSH level and adjust accordingly. Um, not exactly the most brilliant method. (You don't need a prescription here for the thyroid medicine -- and probably by my typing this entry the Mexican health system will now adjust this situation and make all pharmacies ask for it -- so the point is I can buy as much of the stuff that I want at any time and just take the dose that seems right. Even the lab is brilliant -- no prescription needed, walk up to the counter, give name and request tests, pay, 1 minute later the nurse calls your name, takes a vial of blood, and you're out, start to finish in usually under 8 minutes, results back by 6 p.m.)

So this week I finally went to an endocrinologist, recommended to me by my very friendly chiropractor (ha ha! the praise never ends! he speaks English perfectly and his sister-in-law is from Bala Cynwyd. Go figure). And the endocrinologist is so good. I had a 40-minute appointment just with him. No nurse. He went through in full detail my whole medical history. He reviewed all the data from all my stealth blood tests. All the data from the check-up blood work. Sat me up on the table and checked not on the actual thyroid but my eyes, ears, reflexes, blood pressure, heart, lungs. I have had my reflexes checked in every single doctor's appointment I've been to in Mexico (which have been many), and the last time before Mexico was at the pediatrician likely when I was 10 years old. No one helped him, and he wrote everything out by hand. We fixed the dose of the medicine and I go back in 2 months. The visit cost $1300 pesos, so probably similar to or cheaper than a standard doctor visit in the states, I have some co-pay and the insurance pays the rest. But 40 minutes with the actual doctor totally focused on your case? And my case is about as routine and boring as you can get for this condition (which, for the record is called Hashimoto's Disease -- sounds very dramatic and exotic with that name, I think it's funny). And all this occurred in the nicest, most modern beautiful new hospital you can imagine. Love the private Mexican health system.

There are of course many injustices in all this, that this sort of care is available only to a small part of the population, and that is a post for another day. But from my perspective, the care is so much better compared to what I would have in the US, so much quicker -- want an appointment with a doctor? usually you can come in within 2 days -- and so much more focused -- leave a message and the actual doctor calls back with next steps and advice. They know you and remember you. At first I thought that I've just needed more doctor visits since I moved here, but then I realized that it's more a question of value -- little things that used to bother me a bit, I'd just let them go b/c it was such a hassle. Here it is easy to get things looked at and taken seriously. I just really appreciate it, and will miss it when I have to leave.

Resuscitation

2009-08-23T19:50:00.004-05:00

I have lost my blogging momentum. All summer has passed with hardly a post! Meanwhile during that time I have achieved many things:

1. Spent a lovely weekend in Miami with my sister.
2. Went to Boston for 10 days to my cousin's wedding, and also saw Red Sox, Cape Cod, partied on a bus.
3. Made new friends in Mexico and had many barbecues.
4. Got a blog-worthy terrible haircut, and an almost-fix in Boston
5. Bought lots of fun dresses, the most fun being a pink one with a bow a puffy sleeves - yet is somehow age appropriate and lovely
6. Started dance lessons
7. Took long walks in the park
8. Planned a trip to Australia and New Zealand for December
9. Bought a Flip video camera

Perhaps this post will get me out of my funk. Here are a few photos.

Here are some more photos.

View from the Window

2009-07-06T17:17:00.004-05:00

Today I am in Veracruz. This is a port city, so I didn't expect so much beach. A pleasant surprise.

Week in Review

2009-07-05T22:34:00.007-05:00

It was a whirlwind week -- just very busy at work, which makes sense after being out of the office for 10 days. To be fair, I was out of the office for a work thing, but that doesn't exactly slow down the operation. Thursday night we went to a fun cantina for some friends' going away drinks (they are moving back to the UK). The bar is about 2 neighborhoods away from here. Probably 10-15 minutes driving, but you could even do it quicker. On Thursday we left home around 9:15 and got to the bar after 10:00. ARG! It was rainy and the traffic was just so terrible. At some point I just wanted to forget it and go home, but of course one is stuck and you can't go home. We made it, had some drinks and dinner, and it was fun in the end... but all added to the general feeling of TIRED of the week. We stayed in Friday night and watched that late 70's movie The China Syndrome. Neither of us had any interest in getting into any type of car. How young and cute is Michael Douglas in that movie? Jane Fonda is fab too. She has mastered the art of neutral colors.

Saturday we watched Wimbledon, and then took a long walk around the neighborhood. It is such nice weather during the day here -- warm, not humid, just perfectly sunny and great. We discovered this fabulous European bakery a few blocks away (has been there for years, why did we not know this?), and had pain au chocolat and brioche with our coffee at a next door coffee shop. In honor of the 4th we went to a last minute party at some American friends' place: hot dogs, bourbon, American beer. Only missing the fireworks. It just doesn't feel like July 4 without fireworks. The irony is that we see fireworks out our front window a lot, some close, some far -- like not every day, but almost every week. Last night? Not a one. Must check which saint is honored on July 4 and figure out why they don't set off fireworks in his/her honor.

Sunday was more Wimbledon. How good was that match? Recovering from that, we took an even longer walk. There is a running track downstairs from our place, so we walked on that for a long time which felt really good. Today was an even nicer day than yesterday (until it started to BUCKET down rain around 7:00 p.m.). It was the mid-term election today, so generally things were quiet. We went to lunch at a new seafood place around the corner. Lovely outside table. We were only asked to purchase lottery tickets 3 times, herbs/plants about 5 times, organ grinder music happened once, limited impact of car alarms and honking. In summary, more pleasant than usual for a Sunday on that street.

This evening we hung up some of Damian's photos in new frames. First we put them on the floor to see the general pattern.

Then we hung them on the wall. I should have either used a flash or a tripod, but you get the idea. Cool, no?

Here are a couple of photos from Valle de Bravo a few weeks ago:

And the baseball game in Philadelphia in May:

Miami, FL

2009-06-26T10:00:00.002-05:00

Again ages have passed since I updated this blog, I don't even remember where I left off. We are now in Miami, where it is beautiful and sunny, but then out of nowhere the sky opens up and a huge storm appears. HUGE. Buckets of rain. Then you drive about 10 minutes away and it is as dry as can be. D rented a fabulous convertible, so we have been zooming around, top up during rain and top down during sun. Very fun. Last night was our 4th wedding anniversary, so we went to dinner at Azul on Brickell Island. I am not too into anniversaries, because usually that day you're just not necessarily in the mood for a celebration. You might just want to make pasta and watch a baseball game on TV. And that is fine. But this year it worked out perfectly to actually celebrate on the actual day because we are a) in Miami, b) my meetings just finished, c) I found a pretty wrap dress on Lincoln road just that afternoon, d) we have a very cool car. All things aligned for us to be fully in the mood to go out for a fabulous dinner on the actual day of the anniversary. I highly recommend Azul.

I called the vet once this week already to check in on poor Sasso. He apparently had a biopsy yesterday to determine the true source of his scratching. I have to call again to see how it went. Perhaps I worry too much about my cat? Anyway, when I called on Tuesday the vet said he was getting better, less scratching and more relaxed. Hopefully it is indeed a food allergy and the new hypoallergenic food will have him back to normal.

We are escaping this hotel and moving to South Beach to the Raleigh hotel on Collins Avenue. This Key Biscayne hotel is beautiful but it's a little out of the way and I've been trapped inside here for about 3 days of meetings, so I need a change of scene and a bit of anonymity.. is exhausting to run into your colleagues every 2 minutes even if one likes them very much. Which, for the record, I do!

All in all it has been a great trip, it's been 10 days so far since I've been here. Now it feels like vacation and I'm looking forward to a fun weekend of swimming, walking around and nice drinks by the pool.

Onward and Upward

2009-06-10T01:14:00.002-05:00

This weekend I finally did a thing that I have long wanted to do: culling of old items from the closet. I got rid of 3 huge trash bags of various things that were of another time. Some were of another time when I had a smaller mid section, but most still fit and just were somehow wrong wrong wrong. My house keeper's daughter is as happy as can be with the new finds. After cleaning, I reorganized all the hangers so that similar things all had similar hangers: usually I am not so organized, but I was inspired. Today I wore a suit that I sort of forgot that I had, and got many compliments. Yay for a clean closet.

Also in the spirit of moving forward, I started salsa classes. My profesor de baile comes to the house for 1 hour every Monday night. I seem to be well coordinated, but have an 'area of opportunity' on the rhythm side.. Anyway, after 2 classes I can do several steps. This week I have to practice moving my arms in a vaguely nice looking way without losing my step. Ha! I am enjoying it.

In a less pleasant development, Sasso has developed an itchy neck. He just licks and bites until it's raw and terrible, he rips all the fur away. It is truly breaking my heart. You just can't get him to leave it alone. I took him to the vet on Sunday and she gave him antibiotics and a topical flea treatment. Since then it's gone from a nickel-size situation, to about 4 quarters worth. Arg! I think we need to take him back so she can look at it again and give a better diagnosis. We have a special shampoo to put on the affected area for 2 weeks, but nothing is making it better. I just want to rub his head and distract him from the incessant scratching. Today I was working in the kitchen, so I moved his blanket in there and gave him extra cat nip, just so he would settle in and STOP SCRATCHING. It mostly worked. I held him a lot so he would relax. Poor thing, it is heartbreaking to see him all ripped up. Most worried about the favored feline.

Sailing

2009-06-04T08:39:00.002-05:00

Here we are sailing the other weekend:

I have many things to blog about, but have just not be inspired to write. Here we are at the Phillies game last weekend with Pearl:

Flash of Sasso

2009-05-19T23:54:00.004-05:00

I just discovered (I think) how to upload a set of photos to Flickr. Somehow some old pics of Pearl and Sasha have creeped in, but the girls are quite cute, so no problem! Here are some recent photos of the ANZAC cricket, our trip to Punta Mita and some photos from last weekend at the San Angel market. This is actually not that hard, perhaps I can get more in the habit of a) taking and b) posting pictures.

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

Update!

2009-05-11T23:11:00.002-05:00

Ak, so many days have passed since I've written on my blog, and SO MUCH has happened:

1. We escaped the flu frenzy by going on a most wonderful holiday to Punta Mita near Puerto Vallarta. It was awesome and great, and the photos are STILL IN THE CAMERA. Why can't I download them? I could even do it now! But that involves getting up and actually, um, doing it. Switching to the Mac side of this laptop. Many things. You will see them soon.

2. Then we had a whole day at home lazing around while 'working' and thinking about returning to work.

3. Finally I went back to work. Soon after, the rest of the Mexico City followed suit. Restaurants reopened. People still aren't wearing ties (what, you haven't heard about the microorganismos that can congregate on your ties?), but the face masks seem to be by the wayside. (To be fair, it is a week after the frenzy has officially died down)

4. At some point, we started visiting people again. Friday we went to dinner with Raul and Vanessa which was quite lovely. Saturday morning, we had brunch at the Casa Portugues and then did a huge hike with Colin, his brother, and Ania up the Desierto de los Leones park on the way out to la Marquesa. It was a huge, dusty hill, but was worth it for the view and white wine (ha! we are healthy hikers) at the top.

So often I have an idea of what I can blog about, but then I don't get around to it, and then it seems like too much has happened to update. So this is a post just to get out of the non-blog funk. Today I had one of those busy days when I don't have 5 minutes to even think. But then I came home at 9:00 and Damian had cooked me the most wonderful tortilla soup with fresh stock and fresh chicken in it. Life is good.

Tapaboca

2009-04-29T23:43:00.002-05:00

10 Thoughts on the Influenza Porcina:

1. We are fine. So fine, in fact, that you'd never know anything was wrong. Oddly so. You think something MUST be wrong, or why such a response, but being here it's hard to KNOW what's wrong.

2. Mexico City is lovely in April, warm and springlike, lovely breeze. Especially lovely when it's so quiet without traffic.

3. Damian was quoted in a Sydney Morning Herald story yesterday: the expats are staying put! Where else would we go? We are already home.

4. My ANZAC biscuits turned out wonderfully! OK, that has little to do with the flu, but I made them by inventing golden syrup and they tasted just as they should, per the resident Aussie. Yay!

5. Mexicans have a good sense of humor, and after all these rules, confusing information, unclear communication, they have resorted to humor. People draw faces on their face masks and one Senator was photographed using the masks as a bra. Funny! If nothing else, we can laugh. Even if people are a bit worried.

6. It is strange to live somewhere where every restaurant is closed by public order. Take-away only. We walked home from our evening walk with a pizza last night.

7. Damian also got a photo of the Australian parliamentary delegation for the SMH. Click on this article and then go back to the World summary to see Damian's photo. They didn't want to be found, but he found them and got them in full face mask glory.

8. My friend Catherine wrote a GREAT article about Calderon and his (lack of) response to the flu. Go Cath!

9. In all I have read, the best defense against this flu is washing your hands. So that's what I'm doing.

10. Tomorrow night we are escaping this ghost-town, earthquaking, face-masked, restaurant free city and going to the beach. See you on Monday.

Quarantines and Quakes

2009-04-27T17:21:00.003-05:00

As Porfirio Diaz apparently once said, "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States." Poor Mexico indeed. First there are months of press on the terrible drug wars. They are terrible, but I would bet that the chance of getting caught in the cross fire is more likely in some neighborhoods of Baltimore than it is in Ciudad Juarez, assuming you are not involved in the drug trade. Perhaps not. It is a bad situation, but I can't help but think that the international press has exaggerated a bit. A Cancun holiday is still OK. Then comes the economic crisis, weakening of the peso, lower remittances from the US. Then the swine flu. And then this morning, we had a 5.7 earthquake rock the city. What next?

Today the federal government ordered all schools closed until May 6. That affects, per Reforma newspaper, 33 million people. Our campuses are closed. The offices are open but we're trying to have people work at home as much as possible, and no one is admitted to any building with sign of flu or if anyone in their house is fluish. It's like God snapped his fingers and everyone in this city of 20 million people just vanished. All are hiding at home behind face masks. We say hello with a wave, which in a country of greeting everyone with a handshake (men) or a kiss on the cheek (women), it is an odd change. Restaurants are closed. All the museums and government buildings are closed.

This is surreal. I hope that all this quarantine is helping stop the spread of the 'influenza porcina' but who knows. At least it's lovely weather and there is no traffic!

Up Up and Away

2009-04-21T21:28:00.008-05:00

At the end of our holiday, we went to Brendan and Andrea's wedding in Charlottesville, VA at the Boar's Head Inn. The people at the hotel gave us a nice little brochure when we arrived, and it mentioned a balloon ride. Call Rick and see if there is space last minute! Because I am completely mad and all of a sudden a balloon sounded AMAZING, I called him. He had time on Sunday. At 6:30 a.m. Right after a wedding. But anyway, he is quick on the phone and there was no time to discuss anything, so we agreed and that was that.

Here we are in the balloon. It not only sounded amazing, but it was amazing.

We flew above Charlottesville for about 45 minutes at sunrise, it was beautiful and peaceful. Highly recommended. There was another balloon there too. Here is my photo from our balloon of the second balloon.

****

This weekend is ANZAC day, a holiday in Australia to commemorate the troops who fought at Gallipoli in World War I. The cricket club always hosts an ANZAC day game which is Australia vs Rest of the World. Anyone with a connection to Australia can play on the team. Like if I were Australian and Damian were my American cricket-inclined husband (wow, that sounds weird), he would still play on the Aussie side. They always serve lamb on the grill with a bunch of salads, and it is a fun day of cricket and good food. To this feast, Damian decided that it would be good to make some ANZAC biscuits. We have never made these before, and in looking for the recipe I discovered various interesting things.

We have a cookbook from Bill's restaurant in Sydney with an ANZAC biscuit recipe. Flour, check. Brown sugar, check. Oats, check. Coconut, check. Butter, check. Golden syrup, hmm. Damian, what is golden syrup? He doesn't remember. I have never heard of such a thing. I assume it is an Australian way of saying simple syrup and imagining myself melting a cup of sugar in a saucepan. Wrong! It is a whole other type of syrup. Similar to honey, molasses and corn syrup, but not exactly the same.

More googling reveals that golden syrup is not available in America, which I quickly conclude means that it is also not available in Mexico.

I then discover that substituting any of the ingredients (with, perhaps the exception of the syrup for something available in this part of the world) is somewhat less than illegal and somewhat more than blasphemous. Observe the Department of Veteran's Affairs website. This is serious business, and it has my full respect.

Conveniently, it has never occurred to me to substitute the term 'cookie' for 'biscuit.' I found a website of an American woman with an Australia husband and she was trying to make some ANZAC cookies... AK! They are biscuits! I would never make that mistake, I thought to myself smugly. I am a WAY BETTER American wife to an Australian husband because I know about the biscuits. But to be fair to her, and in all honesty, that is only because in my brain biscuit = flat savory item similar to a cracker or a melba toast. I'm sure it is only for this reason that I've never made the biscuit/cookie slip-up. Because unless I really think about it, I don't really equate a biscuit with a sweet item that is nice if it also has chocolate chips.

So on Saturday, I'll do a batch of ANZAC biscuits with a mixture of honey/corn syrup/molasses. Will report back on how that goes.

A Long Way from Home

2009-04-16T10:23:00.002-05:00

We have just had such a lovely holiday in France. 12 days away from home... a really good break. We stayed in a sweet little apartment near the Canal Saint Martin in Paris which was just perfect. I had all the tarte tatin, Burgundy wine and steak au poivre that I wanted. All good. We fit in lots of visits to the rellies. On Monday (lundi de Pacques, therefore rather quiet) we took the train out to Fontainebleau to see Napoleon's former pied-a-terre. My favorite was Napoleon's throne room complete with bees on the velvet draperies.

Now we are in DC for a day before going to Charlottesville, VA tomorrow for a weekend wedding, and then finally back to Mexico on Sunday. Seems like AGES since we've been in our own bed, though conveniently the several beds in between have not been bad at all. Today Mr. Obama is apparently staying around the corner from our apartment in Mexico. Our office is inaccessible and everyone has relocated to the office in Santa Fe as a result. It would be a cool day to be in DF. But all good -- we are staying with our friends in DC who have all the scoop on the latest drama with Bo the first dog. Observe this and this. This is the biggest story here, though I suppose I should also keep up on US-Mexico relations.

OK, off with me to continue on my astonishingly unproductive day. Although I have done little work, I finally achieved one thing in determining that my suitcase is (apparently) now at JFK airport and hopefully one of the baggage service people in either NY or DC will soon call me to arrange delivery of said bag. Hopefully before tomorrow. In the end I could only get someone from the Dublin baggage services to let me know where my luggage is. I am blaming the suitcase misplacement for the loss of productivity. First, who can work in yesterday's travel clothes without any face cream? Feels too much like a weekend. Second, who can work when you have to call baggage services every two second to hope that SOMEONE WILL ANSWER THE PHONE. All good excuses...

Avril en France

2009-04-05T16:59:00.002-05:00

I was just about to write Abril rather than Avril, yet again proving my point that there is but one location in my brain for 'languages that are not English' and over the last 3 years, Spanish is beating French for square footage. Here we are on a 10-day holiday in the Bourgogne and Paris and I can barely get one complete sentence out in French before I start filling in with various Spanish expressions. This confuses the general listening audience because Damian and I are speaking English with each other. They then seem to think that I don't understand the French, but it's not that. It's me, not you. I understand, but somehow 'no gracias' just doesn't sound right next to Burgundy vineyards. Anyway. We are managing.

In spite of my linguistic confusion of all the romance languages I know, we are having a really great time. We slept until noon today because jet lag is terrible thing. But then we drove and drove, and had lunch, took a walk, saw cousins, drove some more and had a lovely quiet dinner close to Mercurey which it seems is a very quaint wine town that produces lots of good wines.

Tomorrow we plan to visit some chateaux (so far, Sully and Couches seem like good options) and taste some wine. I guess we will go to Beaune because they say it is pretty. And I am about to read about off the beaten path sneaks. It is just the start of tourist season, so it's quiet, but nice to find where it's very quiet.

We are staying in a Chambre d'Hotes run by a couple from Denmark and Holland. We are staying in the St Andoche room and we each just had a lovely bath in a big tub. See it? It is a good tub. Last night they cooked us a perfect dinner of lamb and cabbage, served with wine from nearby. Now it's time for bed.

Tech Saavy

2009-03-26T00:07:00.002-06:00

Well, my brilliant plan to synchronize my computer using the WD Passport external drive was a BIG FAILURE. Their synchronizing software only keeps the computer linked to the hard drive, but you can't edit the synchronized files at all. And all my cutting and pasting of files and drives was not working. So I finally resorted to an infinitely simpler solution: all my files, including my personal folders of email, are on the external drive. My Documents is empty. I just carry around the files and leave the computers in one place. It works! Today was a bit crazy b/c the techs botched the email bit rather a lot, and I couldn't actually send any emails. The only solution was to get in the car, drive to the other office and have the guy put back what he did. Now it works. Last step (finally, right?) is to head to CostCo and get another external drive so I have a backup of my files somewhere else.

Then I actually have to do some work and sort the tons of email that I have left hanging about while I waited to encounter the perfect solution.

15 Minutes of Fame

2009-03-19T23:51:00.002-06:00

Here are some photos of the awards cocktail party from last night. If you flip through the pics, there's one of me pointing at my portrait.

It was a nice party. Actually after the event, I'm even more amazed that I got chosen for this thing -- it is more of a big deal than I realized, and it's quite an honor. I met very interesting people both from this year's list and prior years. They did it at a funky new modern hotel called Distrito Capital out in Santa Fe. It was SO COLD -- not US winter cold, but it was outside on a windy rooftop -- so I wore my favorite poncho from Takashimaya all night.

The whole thing has been much more uplifting and inspiring than I realized it would be. I feel ready to take big leaps now!

In other fabulous news, we just found out that my super brother-in-law Ari got into law school today. I just KNEW he would, but anyway, it was the nicest acceptance letter I've ever read and he deserves every bit of it. Now to see what the rest of them say. But judging from response #1, I reckon it all bodes quite well.

AAUGH!!

2009-03-16T22:15:00.004-06:00

Another age and a half has passed, and my resolve to post more has yielded nothing! However, in between, I read Schulz and Peanuts which was most enjoyable. All I want to write is Good Grief and give little Snoopy a hug.

This weekend we went to Guanajuato with Anthony. It was so lovely! Why have we never been? Well, it's because it's just that distance that seems too far to drive (4 hours +) but too short to fly (40 minutes). So we opted for flying, but of course on Friday there was a fog situation which caused our 40-minute flight to be delayed by 3 hours. In the end we made it but did almost have a heart attack when the announcement said 40 minutes flying time. Something just isn't right about waiting 3 hours to go 40 minutes. But we did. And it was well worth it. To make up for it, the return was as perfect as could be. We took off from there at 4:20 and were in the house before 6:00. Pretty amazing when one of the bits was landing on Monday of a long weekend in Mexico City.

It has been a whirlwind of wonderful tourism, parties, visits, and work. Last week we went to see Australia play Cuba in the World Baseball Classic in Mexico. Australia almost won! There is no reason why Cuba shouldn't have won by many runs, but it was a close 1-run game. Usually when I go to Australian sporting events it's something like Aussie Rules Football or cricket, where I can follow, but I'm not on top of it. What a joy, then, to be able to explain baseball rules to the Australia Embassy crowd. I might not know much, but I can explain the balk rule. Our cab driver missed the exit, so he lied his way into the Foro del Sol which involved him taking our little tin can of a taxi on the Formula 1 track near the stadium. It was quite funny... the car could barely hold gear, but there we were on an open track zooming along. He laughed when we called him Michael Schumacher.

I have actually taken many photos lately, so I will do several things. First, post them on Flickr. Second, figure out why my Flickr badge no longer works on my blog. Third, UPDATE MY BLOG MORE OFTEN and include pictures. I am not actually that busy... but I get behind on blogging and then I get writer's block. Plus, I seem to be in the thinking mode these days (not useful for my type of blogging) rather than the doing mode (well, we are filled with activities but my head is processing rather than storytelling). Life and work sometimes become one massive to do list. I always get everything done, but sometimes it is easier to do it offline. Though nothing particularly interesting to report, I just have a crowded brain.

My last news is that I am in a magazine this week. Cool, eh?

Ak!

2009-03-02T23:52:00.002-06:00

I have writer's block. I mean, I have things to blog about but then 10 more days pass and NO UPDATES MAKE IT TO THE BLOG. This is not good. In very exciting news, Anthony has made a guest appearance into our Mexican life for 18 days from Australia. Big news indeed! Almost as exciting, we actually drove to the airport and picked him up. This is after 3 years of picking people up by sending them a nice note with a map and taxi directions to our flat. Sometimes I send a driver. This time we upgraded the service and sent ourselves. Wow! It turned out it was quite easy to do, though we had to wait ages for him to clear immigration and customs, but all good in the end.

Tonight for dinner Damian made us a really good tagine with chicken thighs, spiced apricots, limes, onions, peri peri spice and tomatoes. Really, really good. I got home quite later (had to listen to some late focus groups) and walked into a culinary delight.

Bookwise, I'm ready the biography of Charles Schulz and Peanuts. It is surprisingly gripping.

Now it is bedtime. Perhaps tomorrow I'll post another update just so that days and days do not keeping passing with no updates to my blog.

Backup

2009-02-22T23:09:00.002-06:00

Well, my brilliant plan to use the WD Passport drive to its fullest did not really work. The WD Sync program is hopeless: it is missing a key functionality which is to keep 2 computers synched with each other. It only keeps the drive synched with the original computer. But what to do if you want to edit a file? Or keep a folder the same on 2 computers? Unclear. So now, I am creating copies of all key folders on my MacBook and I think with some old fashioned copy - paste - recopy, I should be able to keep the 2 computers synched. Which is what I wanted all along.

The Mionet program, on the other hand, is brilliant. I can spy on my work computer whenever I want assuming that it doesn't spontaneously turn itself off when I am away from it. So far that has only happened once. It is very convenient to be able to open the actual files on the actual computer rather than all the copy - paste - recopy. But as security in case the Mionet isn't working, I have the 2 systems.

Tonight is Sunday, which means (no, not Oscars) Big Love. What a fascinating show. First of all, Chloe Sevigny is so good. She has created the perfect very creepy, yet somehow very lovely character (underneath it all). This week's episode was good in that it showed the kids more than they have all season. To be fair, this is the first season I've watched, so maybe all these little boys and girls were more involved in earlier seasons. (HBO is sometimes odd with little kids. I remember on Six Feet Under, we never saw little Maya, who was by then 2 or 3, actually moving around on her own. She was always in someone's arms and quiet. I realize that the show wasn't about her, but instead about her parents, but still: no child that age is that quiet and immobile.) The point being, it was nice to hear the younger kids talking and being part of that family. Because truly, isn't that what we're interested in: how WEIRD to have a family where your dad is married to 3 people, and you and all your full and half siblings are one big family in one big house. What would that feel like from all sides? My other thought about Big Love is just an innocent question which is, why is polygamy illegal? I mean, I wouldn't want to live like that, but if there are people who choose that, and they are happy, and they aren't hurting anyone, why not? This is a real question: why (other than that clearly most people seem creeped out by such an arrangement) should the US Congress have cared in the early 20th century when it made it illegal? My issue with polygamy, as portrayed in Big Love, is that it seems like a very complicated arrangement: just generally A LOT of people around all the time, and an environment ripe for jealousy and chaos. I like a quiet house with 1 husband and 1 cat (not to mention the obvious of only being in love with one person, but anyway, OBVIOUS). Somehow the idea of 3 fighting spouses just doesn't seem in line with a happy life. However, even 'normal' people can want more complication and more chaos. In Mexico, I know of several families where the father basically supports 2 families at the same time. The difference is that it's all very (openly) secret having the official family in public and for formal events, but then a full second family with mistress and kids, who require support, money and time. Is that any better? I wouldn't live like that either (and for the record, that type of arrangement is very creepy in my opinion). What is fascinating about the family in Big Love, and what makes it compelling, is that they found a way to create one big family out of the complex web of relationships. There are still secrets and lies, but they are secrets of the day to day rather than lies about the existence of people. They can fight out their jealousies face to face, and they all care about each other. My last comment about Big Love is that I didn't even know I HAD an opinion about polygamy, I've never spent any time thinking about it. And here I go writing a long post about it. Who knew?

Happy

2009-02-16T00:00:00.002-06:00

So far, 2009 is off to a good start. First of all, I have CHILLED OUT! I think workwise, 2008 was a really hard year. So many new things to adjust to. It was fun, but there was a lot of stress too. And now it is 2009 and things are less new and therefore less stressful, and I am enjoying all of it a lot more. Tonight I did a radical thing and actually arranged my things for Monday, to avoid the panicked running around, lateness, forgetting, remembering, worrying, of a usual Monday. Such an innovation. I could have thought about that, oh say, years ago, but anyway, this is as good a time as any.

Secondly, we are doing lots of fun things. This weekend was a party weekend. Party Friday night and Saturday night. Lovely late sleeping to recover from late nights. Today I battled the tired, groggy feeling with a 2pm walk to the health club (40 minutes away) and an amazing 1 km swim, and then a bit of lying in the sun. We are planning trips to Oaxaca and Guanajuato, also DC and at some point Philadelphia. Just seems like many nice things to enjoy and look forward to.

TV Updates:
I am so disappointed that Jamie was eliminated from Top Chef. I wanted her to win! Now I fear that we are in for Stefan as Top Chef. He is good, but I just loved that Jamie, what with her good ideas and calm manner. Stupid over-salted braised celery!! Now I'm going for Carla or Fabio.

This week on Big Love was a sort of placeholder episode. Things happened, but I would say, not enough things. More of a set up for next week. These HBO shows are dangerous because they are so well done, it's tough not to get addicted. Nothing can ever be as good as The Wire, but I am enjoying Big Love a lot.

Here is Damian's post on his cool menu for an evening of Asian culinary delights the other week. I am married to a spoon-wielding ninja.

Loss of Words

2009-02-08T21:31:00.004-06:00

Somehow I have been out of the blogging rhythm lately. I think of posts all the time, but for some reason, my ideas are just not making it onto the blog. So to counter this, I suggest a list.

Thoughts on TV: Right now I am watching Iron Chef America. On Friday, when I was waiting for Damian to get back from DC, I stumbled upon a Big Love marathon on HBO. That is a really good show! D is not convinced, because the last time it came on someone was singing Amazing Grace and it drove him bonkers. But in general, it is really interesting, good acting, good writing. I am hooked. I have to find sneaky times to watch it. Conveniently, we just got a DVR, so hopefully I should be able to record and then watch when D is off doing something else.

Saturday: Started off with work until 4:00. Conveniently, I wasn't doing too much of the work, just organizing and reviewing the work. We left in time to still have an afternoon at home. Then D and I went for a walk around Polanco. I love this neighborhood so much. We walked through the park and saw the kids playing with the remote-control boats in the pond. We got whacked in the face with a huge set of helium balloons for sale next to the swings. Then we went for a glass of wine on the terasse of a cute restaurant. The woman next to us had a bag from Dumas Gourmet which is a Whole Foods type of deli, very unusual for Mexico -- so we went there and stocked up on several plastic containers of brown rice, chicken curry, filet mignon and eggplant salad. We were trying to arrange dinner plans, but all phone calls to various friends ended in voice mails. But then I called Raul and suggested French food. Turns our he and Vanessa were also thinking of French food, and next thing I knew we were sitting at a table with 12 people around the corner from our place at L'Artichaut sharing red wine with old friends and new and it was all very fun.

Winter in Mexico: It is colder this winter than last. At night, it is easily 40 degrees. Which is hardly really cold, but you must remember that we don't actually have heat, so it does feel cold. In the day however, it's 70's and 80's. Perfect with a soft breeze. Today I went swimming outside for a long time and then sat in the sun. It is such a lovely thing of living here: afternoons spent sun tanning and evenings spent snuggled up in a wool sweater with a glass of red wine. Best of all worlds, really.

Food: Lately I have been craving salt. What I just ate: a bowl of chopped up apple drizzled with lime juice and covered in salt. Weird, eh? I have never liked salt, yet somehow over the past 6 or so months, I am all about salt. Raw vegetables (and apparently fruits) are but vehicles for me fulfill this craving. Why could this be?

Health club: Per above, I really love my health club. Great swimming pool, lovely grounds. But there are things about it that are so tedious and strange. Mostly, it is sort of faded glory from 70's. They try to be fancy and exclusive, but really it feels like it's 1978 when you go in there. And it has an elitist vibe that is tiresome. Today, while I was attempting to relax and enjoy the steam in the Vapor Suave room, 2 women were talking as loud as is humanly possible about how expensive the parking is, don't we think the club should provide shampoo and soap, didn't you hear how person X did this... ARG! So I went into the Vapor Fuerte to get away from their loud chattering. Unfortunately, soon the vapor was too fuerte and I had to escape that too.

Mondays: Usually, I am rather grumpy on Monday mornings. I just don't like getting back into the work week. Though to be fair, always after about 30 minutes into the new work week, I am no longer grumpy. So why be so grumpy from the start? Damian is patient with me and has endured this routine for 6 years. Let us see if tomorrow I can be magically chilled out and non-stressed. He will the say, Who are you and what have you done with Sylvie? I will report back on actual results.

Beautiful

2009-02-02T22:38:00.004-06:00

We are home from the most wonderful long weekend away. I am really tired even though it's not late and I actually have a few things to do before tomorrow. Here are some photos in the meantime.

Sunday Morning

2009-01-25T10:54:00.003-06:00

We are having amazing winter weather. During the day, it is really warm -- 70's or 80's. Yesterday I was lounging by the pool at 5:00, it was so nice, then swam for about 40 minutes. By the time I got out the sun was hidden behind some buildings and it was a bit cold to be drenched and in the breeze, but it was hardly wintery. I went into the warm steam bath and was happy as could be. The evenings have been cooler than normal, but it's nice to come home and rug up. Today is another day of blue skies marred only by low layer of smog, and not even such bad smog (we have gradients of pollution here.)

Friday night some friends came over for dinner with their very cute almost 6-year old boy. He was happy watching Monsters, Inc for the first half of the evening. We were about to transition to Finding Nemo when the controller for the Wii caught his eye. "You have a Wii!!" So began a 2-hour boxing, bowling, baseball, tennis fest. He is good. Really good. He played every game (many bowling strikes and many home runs), and the 4 adults endured his boxing strength in turns. One feels bad punching a (cartoon) 5-year old, but then not so much once he's KO'ed you 3 times. It ended up being so fun, we were all laughing. By midnight when they left, Marcel could have kept on another couple hours for sure. We were all zonked.

*****

I've spent a lot of time this week trying to reach computer-file management perfection. Perhaps this is boring, but it took me HOURS to get this right, so I am writing it down to remember or for random people googling "how WD sync works" as I was doing last night and coming up empty.

This is the situation:

I have a (sort of) big laptop for work. When I worked in Polanco, it would stay in my office most of the time. I'd bring it home occasionally to finish something in the evening or on the weekends, but mostly I could go to work with just a handbag. Now I work miles away north of here, and tend to do one day north, one day Polanco. My schedule always changes... and I end up having my laptop with me every day, and I (sort of) hate it. Over Christmas, I got Damian's hand-me-down MacBook Air. It is light and sleek and he installed Windows on it for me. So the challenge is: how to manage all the files assuming that the work computer is Fixed and the Air is mobile? How to have an efficient work day in Polanco or at home without having to bring the actual work computer with me all those places?

My friends, I have the solution! It took me most of yesterday evening to work this out, because even though the technology is there, they might have also installed a file called Read Me or Tutorial. But in the end, I have mostly worked it out.

Part I: Backup
We got a WD Passport external hard drive. I backed up all the files from the work computer to it. So now, if the laptop breaks or gets stolen, everything is saved somewhere else. It boasts of "WD Anywhere" but I still have not fully worked out what that means. TBD.

Part II: Synchronization
Separately to the backup, I've synchronized the folders that I tend to use and change all the time. This way I just bring the external drive with me, open the Sync program and work from the file on the Macbook Air. If I make edits to files from the Air, when I re-sync with the work computer, all my changes appear there too. It also works with Outlook personal folders, so I can access old emails easily and even clean out the Inbox when I'm not at work. Cool! But this is why Part I is key, because if you delete something in the sync or make an odd change, you might accidentally delete the file from the master computer. So just to be sure, good to have a backup. Took me a LONG time to work out the difference between the backing up and the sync-ing.

Part III: MioNet
This is just in case I don't have the actual WD external drive with me and also because it is neat. You can sign up all your computers into your own mini network. So I have the 2 computers signed up. As long as you leave them both on and connected to the internet, you can see and access all the files from one computer on the other computer. You can also remotely control either computer. Still TBD how much I'll actually use this, but I like the idea and it's cool to see in action.

On Wednesday I went to Hermosillo (before spending what ended up being hours working all this out) thinking I was All Set. Intead, I was less than All Set and had headed there with only the Mac yet without the presentation scheduled for 9:00 the next day. Ak. Conveniently, I had sent the last draft to someone to review, so it was available in the email. But if I had had this MioNet thing, I would have just taken the exact version off my work computer, no stress.

OK, so that was all HIGHLY BORING, but I can't resist explaining when I have reached a new level of efficiency with a thing. Also, maybe the people at WD will link to this in their FAQ's as opposed to just having FAQ's like "WD Sync error: "The Dynamic Link Library LIBEAY32.DLL could not be found in the specified path". Here is an FAQ that would be useful: "How to use WD Sync and WD Backup to manage files on multiple computers." Anyway.

*****

We are still working out what to do for the rest of the day. Damian is finishing some powerpoint charts. I am in the final stages of reaching Highest Levels of Computer Efficiency. After this, I want to go see the Che movie with Benicio del Toro, but perhaps we'll go swimming first. In other good news, all my detoxing and Wii Fitting is paying off... I wouldn't have even noticed if not tracking it, but I've lost almost 10 pounds since Thanksgiving! Wow! I wore pants last week that haven't fit for a year. What a good feeling.

Letter to Mexico

2009-01-16T07:44:00.002-06:00

Dear Person Who is Standing Really Close Behind me in Line while I Wait Renew my Health Club Membership,

Just because you keep touching my back with your bag and your papers, you are not making the line move any faster. You are just increasing the chance that I will turn around and whack you on the head.

Sincerely, me

Transition

2009-01-13T23:55:00.002-06:00

So far the post-detox week has been a slow return to normal eating. Having endured the caffeine withdrawal, I am NOT going back to that any time soon. I've decided to treat myself to a nice coffee every few months if we are somewhere with amazing coffee, but otherwise, caf or decaf is out for the day to day. In general, I am going to have less dairy and less wheat because it seems to make my stomach feel better (though perhaps this is all in my head). Neither of those are out fully, but I'm trying to keep them rather reduced. So far so good. And otherwise, I'm just keeping to smaller meals, more vegetables, yummy smoothies, rich dressing with ginger and carrot, and great salads. Some wine and chocolate and other decadent items as required/desired. So far I'm still happy with that.

In other news, it's just me and Sass this week as Damian has escaped back to DC for a few days. Sasso's first response to his best mate's departure was to barf all over the hallway. Yuck! I cleaned it up, and then it was 7:35 a.m. Conveniently the rest of the day has been all rather cheerier -- got a lot of work done, had some good chats with sister and mother, planned a fun escape to a hacienda in a few weeks.

It was hard to go back to work this week... I had such a nice day on Sunday: long walk in the park with Damian, lunch, Eagles win, nap, 500 meter swim at the pool, basking in the sun, relax in the sauna. Mexico has a lot of crazy in it, but the weather is amazing: sunny days, blue skies, warm afternoons, cool evenings. It is a great place to live.