¡VIVA MÉXICO!

Hola señors and señoritas, we have returned.  Sorry for the delay, there was a bit of a mix-up on who was supposed to write the post for this week, turns out it was me.  Oops!

As you know, the whole crew was off in the Mayan Riviera last week, in Playa del Carmen, specifically.  And no, before you think you’re the 1^st person to make that joke, we did not get shot at or run over and left to die in a ditch.  And you’re an insensitive oaf for thinking such a terrible thing.  How do you sleep at night? [shakes head sadly]

So, on Saturday the 17^th, all of us plunked over to the airport at 4.00am – except Julie, she came in later that day – to catch our 6.20am autogyro to Cancun.  No major issues, really – it was packed (spring break started that week, so many University students were joining us) but we left essentially on time and got to Mexico no problems.  Cleared customs after some minor baggage delays (Alicia’s bag was the absolute last one onto the conveyor) and boarded our fancy coach to drive to our hotel – Riu Playacar in Playa del Carmen.  The ride was nice, its kinda sad to see the relatively poor state of towns in Mexico compared to what we’re used to, and I would suggest Mexico is relatively well off in terms of developing nations around the world.  The highlight of the bus ride was the beer, and not because its delicious (it was, by the way, extremely delicious), but because Amelia felt that she deserved a beer just like everyone else to the point of her grasping the necks of our bottles and going “Beer!  Beer!  Me beer!”  Needless to say, she got a sip (bad Daddy) and that made things worse (duh) and then we ended up having to distract her by various top-secret clever means.  We eventually arrived, got checked in, all good.

One thing I must mention is that the hotel was very nice, the food was good, etc. etc. but Alicia and I had a very strange room.  And by strange I mean, probably dangerous… to our health.  Our room *reeked* of mildew and there was tons of molds (of varying colours and flavours) all over the place.  Needless to say, we were less than impressed, but airing the room out helped and we never had to use the befouled air conditioner which I suggest was the culprit, along with the lack of bathroom fan.  Anyhow, the layout of the resort was nice – Alicia and I agreed that it was lacking a bit of the ‘comfy charms’ that our resort in Cuba last year had, in terms of lighting and atmosphere in the bars, but then, the weather was much more awesome in Mexico so you give & take. 

In general, Amelia was good.  She was fighting a major cold at the time, which is ok but it meant lots of naptime and nose-running and sneezing and coughing, and also some reversion to caveman antics (i.e. not using her words, using her grunts instead).  But all up, she was very well behaved and got lots of sun and playtime in.  She was particularly fond of the main pool, which had a handy-ramp which was apparently the greatest thing in history so we had daily excursions into the pool and Amelia would go up and down the ramp.  My favourite was the time that she proceeded down the ramp until she was completely submerged.  Excellent “noticing” skills.  Gold star!  Amelia didn’t make as many friends this time as in Cuba – she was onstage one night at the MiniDisco, but generally kept a low profile and only really befriended one or two of the waiters in the buffet restaurant.  Alas that didn’t result in any choice steam trays (especialle for you señor) or whatnot, but still.  Good times to be sure.

Among the other highlights:

- Day trip to ruins in Tulum and snorkeling in Xel-Ha (Amelia stayed with Mini & Topo) on Wednesday

- Happy fun SCUBA time for Topo and Pake – six dives in all throughout the week

- Nightly booze and cashews in Pake & Grandmaman’s suite

- Hillarious guests and wildlife (as only Julie’s can do these details justice I have stolen some of her notes complete with pics):

“On arrival what did I see?  This little fella:

 

Because I like to name things myself and not honour their orginal, proper, or “mayan” names, I decided to call this a Jambon, which I think is relatively self-explanatory.  Jambons have the following interesting characteristics and personality traits: they are bigger than a hamster and smaller than my mum’s cat (which isnt saying much); when they sit, their rumps sort of round out and when the sun shines on it, the rump glistens – very pleasing to the eye; they are tricksy, and can often be seen wearing little black masks and carrying bags with a “$” on them; they don’t wear diapers and have been known to go into pyramid formation when properly enticed.  We love us some Jambons.

For your reference:

 2)  In Mexico, people speak “Spanish”.  Apparently, this means that they need to say “hasta la vista, baby” alot.  Now I get it – it means goodbye in “their” language - but seriously, just to save on the fromage factor couldnt they say… “adios”?  or “adieu, adieu to yeu and yeu and yeu”?  This was noted to be especially prevelant with tour guides who would then promptly ask for a tip.

3)  No trip is completed without a pessimist.  Everyday we would get our “doom and gloom report” via Wendy

   The scene would run as follows:

8 am, Riu Playacar Resort and Sanatarium, one cloud in sky – cloud is white and actually smiling and giggling in an innocent fashion.

Enter Wendy

Wendy:  Damn this weather.  The report shows this cloud hanging around for the next week.  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday…Bah!  Just not our luck!

Cloud runs away because it is sad.

Wendy:  Hey look, it’s clearing up; but it probably won’t last. I’m expecting hail in an hour.

Julie promptly gets a beer.

End scene. (In all honesty, of course, we love Wendy because of her weather reports, not in spite of them, and I certainly needed an excuse for another beer)

4) Most days we’d camp out at our favourite spot by the pool.  There’s a wheelchair ramp which was a source of endless amusement to Amelia.

 

Now us older folk weren’t quite so amused by the ramp (which is probably a good thing when you think about it).  Instead, we were amused with people watching.  Two people in particular really stood out for us:  Shlongo the Yoga Man, and Swizzle Teets.  Now – no really calm down – these two were a SIGHT.  I’ll start with Shlongo.  Shlongo is an older gentleman, I’d say roughly 70, heavily tanned and sporting a fantastic black, white and red striped budgie smuggler. I’m not a fan of speedos (except for you, daniel craig, rawr) at the best of times, so when Shlongo is in his lounger and he feels the unjustifiable and relentless need to raise BOTH his legs OVER his head, I was aghast.  I mean good for him and all, but there were children around!  Swizzle Teets, though she has an interesting name, is largely more disappointing.  Basically the lesson learned is as follows:  You may be 32, but that DOESN’T mean that you have a great rack. So put the sagbags away. It was harsh, but it needed to be said.

5) The Animación Team.  I swear to the sweet lord jebus and the camel by which he rode. These people are inately evil.  They actually had a game they called Revolution.  “Hey there chica, hey lady, you want to play Revolution?” “No.”  “Awww c’mon lady, it’s fun!” “No, you pest, leave me.”  Animación man prances away to find another victim.  Oh wait a second!  Did I mention that the Animación guy is carrying a rifle?  Oops!

At one point the Animación men were seen doing what I would call “inapporpriate” things – throwing scantilly clad underage girls in the pool, dry humping sixty year old ladies, and so on.  When I pointed this out to Jeff, he suggested that perhaps they would go to Jailo.  I, in turn, suggested that it was maybe Consolado.  And so was born our only Falsi-mexi. Thank YOU Animación team!”

- Top of the notch weather for all days basically but one – greatsuccess!

Alas, all good things must come to an end, so we trundled off on Saturday morning back to Cancun airport, where a 1.5h line awaited us to check in (the line stretched the length of the terminal), but we finally got out about an hour late and were home in Toronto by 5.00pm that afternoon.  It was pretty much a right length for me, I was starting to go a little squirrelly.  Amelia was also getting very homesick it seemed, she kept requesting her other books, toys, and most of all she missed her daycare people – Hezzie and the crew are very very loved, that is not in doubt.

This past weekend, as a minor bit of boni news, Richie was in town, en route to Muskoka with his Bishops peoples.  We got to meet Harry and Marnie, who are a) real live friends of Rich and b) super fun and nice.  We had dinner with those guys on Saturday evening, then on Sunday dragged Rich and Harry with us to Costco and Cheese Boutique to help re-load the Gooch Estate pantry.  I must say, it was the 1^st time I’ve ever been one of ‘those guys’ at Costco, with a full shopping cart over the brim.  In my defense, there was also a dork there with a buggy full of milk (the 4L bags, not in bulk) so I wasn’t the official mascot of ‘that guy’ at least.  Sunday night we went to my parent’s for dinner (no, we weren’t sick of each other yet) and had lovely steaks – a real treat.

This week – not much is new, back to work and daycare for us, along with winter weather which frankly I could do without but hey.  We’re glad to be home and are looking forward to spring.

Adios!!!

Okay well all packed (I think) and the alarm is set (3:30am OUCH) and we are all EXCITED!!!

 I’ll posts lots of pics when we get back but till then here are a few from teh last couple weeks.

Video

Mexico Countdown!!!

I can’t wait only 5 more days till we leave. Amelia is most excited too and walks around chanting Mexico (Heather thinks she is trying to make all her daycaremates jealous). John and Denise went and got her a life jacket this weekend and I got her a ton of water diapers and sunscreen so I think we are set Well before I get ahead of myself I should probably give an update for the past couple weeks. Life has been busy, work has been nuts for me but good nuts, I am actually really enjoying work these days which is a first for me. Jeff is also very busy at work and as usual Heather has been keeping Amelia oh her toes with lots of fun indoor daycare projects. This past week Heather had a tropical day for the kids to help beat away the cold weather blues. Heather had a wading pool in her living room and the sand table out (yes, I know, she is a very brave girl…). By all accounts Amelia loved it, she jumped right into the water (once she had her bathing suit on) and started blowing bubbles and stayed long after all the other kids had lost interest, she finally had to be bribed out.

The week before last they made dough sculptures that were baked and painted, according to Amelia hers was a fishy or Canada depending on when you asked her. Today they were would going to make bird feeders, I think Heather is abit insane but is Amelia ever lucky to get to do these things.

Heather told me over the weekend about her and Amelia’s morning ritual, Amelia is the first to arrive every morning and after we leave Amelia and Heather snuggle on the couch, Amelia with a blanket on her, and they watch Breakfast Television. About a half hour after Amelia arrives Macy gets there, Macy is Amelia’s best bud at daycare and usually they are pretty inseparable but I guess most mornings Amelia starts saying “No Macy No!! Go, Go!” and waving her hands around, I guess she likes her quiet relaxation time with Heather on the couch in the morning.

So let’s see what have we been up to? This past week was relatively quiet, Mom and Julie came over on Wednesday for dinner, Monday Jeff had hockey and Thursday I had spinning. Friday night we had Danielle and Rory over for dinner, which they picked up. I tried my first Trini Roti it was tres yummm!!! Meals liked it too and stole a bunch. Saturday morning Amelia had swimming and Pake took her. According to Pake, Amelia is almost floating by herself; I think the salty ocean will help that along…

After swimming I went to get Amelia some sandals and get my hair cut. Jeff and Meals did their thing at home. Saturday afternoon we did family groceries, which Amelia seems to enjoy cause she inspects all then things we buy.

Saturday night I headed out with Leigh and Heather for dinner and drinks, I got home at 12:30 and the next morning was pretty dead when Amelia woke up at 7am. Amelia came into bed with us and lay there quietly then her nose started whistling when she breathed, I wasn’t she if it was her, Jeff or the cat but after a few whistles I her a giggles then “Mia nose, TWEET TWEET”, made me laugh. Jeff took pity on me and got up with her and I got to sleep in till 10am.

After a slow start Jeff, Meals and I had some dancing time to the kids music station and did some of Amelia’s daycare “exercises” which she loves and gets all excited about. I have some videos I will try uploading when I get a chance. We all had such a nice morning together, Amelia was so funny and happy and we all had lots of laughs. I think we have been so busy we haven’t all just hung out together and Jeff and I both said what a nice weekend we had.

While Amelia napped (the mother of all naps 12 to 4) we did some cooking and tidying, when Denise came over and we all went for a walk in High Park (brrr) before heading to Julie’s for a very yummy dinner.

Not much else new, tonight we are off to John and Denise’s cause I have a dentist appointment out there then tomorrow Jeff and I are going out for dinner for Valentines day.

Slacker Mom

Yes we are still alive just been crazy busy both at work and not. We are doing well, Meals has been good.  She has an ever growing repitiore of songs, including Twinkle twinkle, ABCs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Happy Birthday, Row Row Row Your Boat and she is now working on “Demme Bones” and “Hokey Pokey”, much to our amusment. I was home sick last week and she was excellent for me, when I was looking really pathetic she came running over yelling Huggie and flopped on my with a giant hug and a kiss, it made my month.

Thanks to Julie for the swimming update and the new recipe on the other tab. I have been fighting a cold and very busy at work and I have been slacking on the posts. oops.

It is friggin’ cold here but the count down for Mexico has started, only 10 days!!! I have been teasing Amelia with talk of swimming everyday and another airplane ride. 

Flotation devices, spider monkeys and bubble blowing

Well I know that Alicia has been illin’ and is always a busy bee so I have taken it upon myself to add a bit of an update to this here bloggedy.

On Saturday, bright and early, I took the wee Meals to her swimming lesson.  I wouldn’t exactly call it an overly structured class but on Saturday they brought out the life jackets for the first time.  and what good times we had!  Just imagine Amelia, arms sticking relatively straight out in the air, ensconced in a large red square.  She wasn’t exactly over the moon about it. Luckily her boyfriend Ronan was there and the two of them bobbed over to each other, blew bubbles (some sort of pre-school mating ritual) and then every now and then Meals would touch his cheek with her hand.  In a sort of affectionate “well done Ronan, you are my favourite and your skin is so pretty”. 

I managed to get her to float on her own, but this took some time and effort – she sort of lolls around and the kicking isn’t completely down.  More often than not I’d let go and she’d freak a bit and scramble up me like I was a banana tree type of flora.  ergo Spider monkey (see above for details).

I had a great time and I know we both went home and had naps.  *high five*