Mommy!

It's 6:30 in the morning.  I've been awake since about 5:00.  We ran out of night-time diapers a couple of nights ago, so Avery's been wearing her daytime ones.  As a result, she woke up at 5 asking to be changed.  I changed her and gave her some milk, but following that, she just wanted to sleep on me.  I kept trying to put her in the middle of the bed after she fell asleep, but she wouldn't have it.  At one point, D tried to pick her up to comfort her and just wailed and cried, "Mommy! Mommy!"  Finally, I relented and took her back from D.  She stops crying immediately and seems to go straight to sleep on me, then lifts up her head and says, "Daddy!"  That cracked me up!  She was just making sure he was there.  Finally, I managed to get her off me, but I just couldn't get back to sleep.

And now, the cleaning must begin.

Suspended

Loreto Bay News

Well, this is an interesting end to our vacation down here.  The community has been trying to find a new owner for a while now.  We've known they were in serious trouble financially.  And I can't even say we were surprised to receive the following email from Loreto Bay.  Nonetheless, bummer!

Dear Homeowners,

TSD Loreto Partners, S. en C. por A. de C.V. (the “Company”) regrets to inform its clients and stakeholders that, due to the challenging situation in the international real estate and financial markets, all operating and construction activities for Loreto Bay (the “Project”) will be suspended.

To assist in securing new equity funding and a long-term suitable buyer for the Project the Company hired Cushman & Wakefield. Several potential buyers and investors have visited the Project over the last few months, yet in the context of the current economic crisis and credit shortage, the Project has been unable to secure a buyer or new investor.

We regret to inform you that until new funds are secured, as of June 7th, 2009 all hospitality related operations will be suspended and as of June 8th, 2009 all construction related activities will be suspended.

Please note that all homeowners with a home under construction, and all other homeowners will receive further information as it becomes available.
 
At least our home is complete.  This was the first thought that came to my mind after reading the email.  The next one was, if this was going to happen, why the heck couldn't this have happened the day we arrived.  Would have saved us a bit of dust while we've been here. :)
 
As you can imagine, the social networking sites are abuzz with LB homeowners speculating as to what is next.  What I am reading (which is currently unconfirmed rumors) is that Property Management will continue to run.   Since our HOA is run separately from the Loreto Bay project, that means landscaping and maintenance of it will continue as normal.  These two are the most important in terms of our ability to continue to enjoy our home in the future.  The new community pool should continue to be maintained, though I'm sure the pools at the Inn will be closed off and/or emptied since the Inn will be shutting down (temporarily?).  That's not a huge deal, but it's the only restaurant within walking distance.  And the food at the pool bar is awesome.  I kid you not.  So, we're in for a bumpy ride.  I'm so thankful our house is complete.  There are lots of people who have unfinished homes and are in for a lot of money without a usable house.  I feel so badly for them.  I think it's fair to say that both D and I are confident that someone will buy the community eventually,  but we're going to have to hang in here a while.  Hopefully a buyer swoops in because I fear that without that, the flights directly to Loreto will cease.

 
Swim outfit

Continuing with my obsessing about my lovely rash guard for swimming ... I found the first major flaw with it.  Well, maybe not the rash guard since it is very snug fitting.  For bottoms, I've been wearing these black capris (ish - they're a bit shorter than capris and longer than shorts) I bought for yoga.  I must look like I'm climbing into a pool whilst fully clothed, but whatever.  Well, today - the day the pool was the busiest we've seen it with maybe 10 other people - I discovered the flaw.  The more time and movement in the pool, the more air bubbles that build up in the pants and rash guard.  This basically makes it look like I'm farting up a storm in the pool.  I kept saying, very loudly, how annoying the air bubbles were.  I'm not sure if anyone bought it. For the record, I didn't fart a single time in the pool, so those were all air bubbles.

Last Day

For our last day full day, I napped for quite a while this morning while D and Avery hung out in the casa.  Then Avery went down for a nap after I woke up.  After Avery woke from her nap, we decided to hit the pool one last time.  We had planned to go to dinner at what is widely considered to be the nicest restaurant in Loreto, but when we were at the pool, we both decided that hanging out longer and then eating at the pool bar was more our speed.  Avery agreed.  Then we all walked back the the casa with Avery enjoying sitting on the various doorsteps, picking up rocks, and generally being a toddler.  It was perfect.  Even the above email has done little to spoil my love of this place. 
 
Tomorrow we now have a full day of chores.  We had planned to pay for a check-out cleaning, but given the email above, I don't think that will be possible.  So clean and launder we must.  Shouldn't be too bad.  We've done a fairly good job of cleaning up during our stay.

TV

Animal Planet, TV, and all things Avery

Avery and I watched about 30 minutes of the Animal Planet together this afternoon.  I've slowly been easing my strict no-TV rule.  Not for any particular reason other than I've been loosening my grip on things in general.  I had forgotten until today that Avery's doc said TV was OK (in small amounts, of course) as long as you watch it with the kids.  I don't think I got why at the time, but two things have made me realize why this is so.  First, I saw the article online that said babies who watch a lot of TV tend to develop language skills more slowly.  In that article, it noted that it was likely less about TV and more about the fact that when the TV is on, there is often less conversation between adult and child.  This makes logical sense to me.  Second, as we were watching Animal Planet together, Avery was identifying the various animals she saw, or identifying what they were doing.  If the lion was eating, she'd do the eat sign and I'd confirm that the lion was indeed eating.  Or she'd say "cat" and do the sign for cat.  Interestingly, she always thought the female lion is a dog, despite me saying, "No, it's not a dog, it's a cat.  A big cat called a lion," about 50 times in the span of 15 minutes.  However, she always recognized the male lion as a lion.  The mane clearly makes a big difference for her.  When I explained that cubs are baby lions and she would sign baby and then roar like a lion. 

I also learned something I wouldn't have learned in Portland (oh sweet TiVo God, I thank thee!): Avery does not like commercials.  Everytime the break would start, she would say, "No, no."  I would explain it was a commercial and we'd have to wait for the show to resume.  Eventually I found that muting the commercials and then identifing what we were watching (e.g. "That's a man. That's a man and a woman." etc), she was more tolerant of the commercial time. 

Also, she has watched bits of Finding Nemo (back home - we didn't bring any DVDs for her) maybe 4-5 times.  Anywhere from 5-20 minutes per viewing.  After the first viewing,  she would say "mo, mo?" for Nemo.  It's possible she's saying remote knowing I use the remote to turn on Nemo, but either way the point is she remembered immediately. 

In language development, she's regularly stringing two words together - at least for phrases we use commonly.  The main one that comes to mind is when she wants up.  She knows her best shot at a positive response is to say please, so she comes over and says, "Peeeaass?"  I'd say, "You want up?  Are you sure?" and she'd answer, "Ye-ah."  Anyway, the end result is that she now comes and says, "Peeeeaas.  Y-eh-ssss."  It's a very exaggerated yes since I've been emphasizing the s in an effort to convert yeah to yes.  She also is quite efficient in answering my are-you-sure question before I ask it. 

Oh, the other word she picked up immediately is cookie.  I've offered her bites of cookies and things before, but she has mostly turned up her nose at them.  We bought these chocolate cookies down here and she loves them.  She runs over to the cabinet in which we keep them and says, "Cookie, cookie!"  We have also let her have some potato chips.  She totally loves those, too.  If she spies the bag, there's no stopping her insistence at getting some chips.

Happily, she now accurately identifies whether she needs a diaper change due to pee or poo.  She comes up immediately after she's pooed (this is new because she's never really minded having poo in her diaper), asks to be changed using the sign, we ask, "Did you pee or poo?" and she'll answer.  So far, she's been correct everytime I've asked the question (see footnote 1, then footnote 2 for an update on this fascinating story).  She also runs up to the toilet and says, "Peeeeeee!"  She doesn't want to go on the potty - though she's not scared to sit on it for a bit.  I think she's just letting me know she associates the toilet and pee. 

Finally, during the time we've been down here, she has learned how to take off her diaper.  This can't be good.

Footnote 1 - dang it, she's just back with her first incorrect response - ah well, can't win 'em all
Footnote 2 - wait! she came to me about 2 minutes after D changed her diaper and did change again and indicated poo and she pooed! could she have been letting us know she was going to go? Oh man, that is just too awesome to think about

Mexico

Same old story: we continue to have a wonderful time.  Today we went to the hotel pool since it's cleaner and has a bar in which we can eat lunch afterwards.  I realized during this trip to the pool another reason I love the rash guard vs a regular swim suit.  The more skin I have exposed, the more need I have to apply lotion after I get out.  I'm obsessive about it (not sun block, but lotion because I cannot stand dry skin).  It's all so much work.  Having more skin covered not only allows me to be much cooler, but also makes it such that I don't obsess about lotioning as much surface.  That rocks.  Finally - and I know this cannot possibly be a topic that interests anyone but myself so I'll stop going on and on about this at some point ... probably when we get back to PDX - I also love covering up more skin and being cooler because it means I can lie in the sun.  I actually love to lie in the sun, but I've always gone straight for the shade to avoid burns and heat. 

The pool today had one other family there - it totally rocked.  I know that for some people, they'd think it crazy for this place to be considered an ideal vacation spot.  And in many ways, it's so not.  But for my personality, the positives of it so far outweigh the negatives.

Politics

I loathe both Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha.  As a proud liberal, I just want to note that.

Pictures

Time for some pictures.  I have lost all interest in taking pictures, which is why you haven't seen many new pictures of Avery, or anything/anyone else, lately.   I'm going to put up pictures of Avery on her blog soon.  In the meantime, here are some random shots.

D with a power tool - manual labor must be documented!

This is how I roll

New art in our great room

Pee!

This will, hopefully, be a quick post since I want to head up to bed soon.

Pee!

Avery might be ready for potty training since she will tell us before she has to go pee now. She won't pee on the potty when we put her on the toilet, but I figure it's a good sign when she lets us know she has to pee. Since she doesn't like putting her diaper on and we're in a house with tile floors, she runs around diaperless quite a bit. After she pees on the floor, she yells, "Pee! Pee!" and then usually slips in it. I know, TMI, but urine is sterile so get over it. Anyway, it means I'm cleaning up a fair bit of urine, but I have to clean the floors here so much anyway, what's a little urine gonna do? Answer: just make that part of the floor that much cleaner after I clean up the urine.

She'll also let us know she's going to poo (by doing the change sign in advance of said poo), but for that, she allows us to put on a diaper. We've yet to see a poo in a diaperless state. I'd like to keep it that way.

I actually ordered a potty for her before we left, so hopefully that will arrive soon after we arrive. Of course, now that I've blogged this, she'll clearly be so not ready for it.

Art & Home

D purchased a really nice piece of art for the living room today. Our little casa is starting to look like a real home. I'll post pictures tomorrow if I get around to it. Much laying around doing nothing must occur tomorrow in order to meet my sloth goals for this trip.

Pool

We spent a good bit of time this morning at the pool. Again, we were the only people there. Avery couldn't get enough of the water. Any trying to get her out would result in pleas of "more, more, more!"

She now knows what jump means, though she can't actually jump. However, D would be in the pool, Avery would stand on the side and squat as if she were about to jump in, then eventually she would make it into the water. She's fine when she gets dunked under, but does not like to float on her back. She also has zero trust in any sort of floaty device.

I am now wearing a pair of black, stretchy capri/shorts as bottoms and my rash guard as a top. I love being nearly fully covered. First, it's much cooler that way. I can walk around in the extreme heat after getting wet and don't get hot. That rocks. Next, I'm not always adjusting straps and making sure all the bits and pieces that should be covered are covered. Finally, I don't feel self-conscious. I should since I look a bit, um, strange. But it turns out I don't give a crap about that (man, I love being in my 30's such that I care way more about not getting burned and being comfortable than I do about what others might think - of course, by the time I'm 40 I'll have to tone it back a bit so as not to embarrass Avery). In a bathing suit, it doesn't matter how good of shape I'm in, I feel totally self-conscious. I attribute this to being completely white. White fat is never as attractive as tanned fat. That's all there is too it.

Workarounds

Creative Genius

Being down here with a toddler has brought out the creative genius in both D and me.  Well, maybe not genius, but we do have think of new ways to do things.  Case in point: Avery's meal time.  For a while, we propped her up on a new bag of diapers on a dining room chair and put her at the dining table.  That worked all right, but felt a bit less than safe given the surrounding surfaces are all very, very hard.  The other day, I saw a little plastic chair while we were in town, so we bought it.  Now, Avery sits in that little chair, we open up the doors under the coffee table, scoot her under and we have an instant toddler sized table.

For the cupboards that contain glass items or things Avery shouldn't get into, we are using her hairbands to rope around each of the cabinent knobs thereby preventing toddler thievery.  For the super long blind cords, we are using her hair clips to clip them up and out of the way.   Turns out hair accessories come in very handy down here.

Shopping

We went art shopping in town this morning.  We are required to decorate our home with art in order to be in the rental program.  We are fully aware that our place will likely not be rented for a very long time, but there are other benefits to getting in the rental program sooner (e.g. then we don't have to pay the property management fees).

We may have found a painting we like well enough for the living room, but have to tape out measurements on the wall to see if it's the right size.  We thought we found a table runner for our dining room table, and purchased it, but the colors are too muted for our tastes.  Hopefully we can use it in the upper bedroom.  Among other actual purchases today: a pitcher and a square bowl.  Yep, we didn't make much progress.

I was pleased with us both as we did negotiate for the items we did buy.  Now, I'm quite sure we still got ripped, but given we don't speak Spanish (a fact which becomes more and more embarrassing each passing day), I was just pleased we both successfully bartered the price down from the albino gringo price to the fair skinned gringo one.  I will be content to reach the well-tanned gringo price.

Avery

Avery is still having a wonderful time.  It's rather endearing that she started using Mommy and Daddy regularly pretty much on the day we left Portland.  She had said them before, but they are now fully a part of her daily vocabulary.  D will be upstairs and she'll says, "Mommy?" and I'll say, "Yes, Young One?" and she'll then say, "Daddy?" and I will say, "He's upstairs right now."  She then says, "Ohhhh," and knowingly nods her head.  I kid you not.  It is so freakin' cute for about the first hour of the day.  Then it starts to get a little dull having the same conversation over and over.  But then she says bubble and it's cute all over again.  I love when she says bubble.  It's my favorite word of hers.

Also hilarious, is her consistent use of the words thank you.   She's very good about saying it at the proper time.  But she also uses when she picks up something she shouldn't have (e.g. the remote control).  She picks it up, looks at me, says dank koo, and the toddles along her merry way until I take it away from her.  Cracks me up. 

She also officially knows what the beach is and why it's fun.  At some point during the day she starts to say beach over and over.  Then she'll start repeating words that she associates with the beach: hat, bubble, bath (because of the water), shirt (because she puts on her sun shirt to go to the beach).  When we do go to the beach, it's tough to get her out of the water.  She loves the water.  Mostly she likes to pretend that she's swimming from Daddy to Mommy and then back.  She also loves to watch the birds fly above, or watch the pelicans dive for fish. 

Quite confusing to Avery is that pelicans are not ducks.  She keeps insisting they are ducks.  We say, no, pelicans, but she just keeps on quacking and signing for duck.

Her sleep has basically normalized.  We don't follow a strict schedule here, but she sleeps through the night fine and is now going down to sleep and for naps without too much effort.  It is so much easier to be down here with her at this age than it was just six months ago.

 
DVDs

Bringing DVDs down here was a stroke of genius.  We have finished season 1 of The Wire.  I so wish we had bought and brought the other seasons.  D is watching Firefly without me; I am watching The Office season 1 without him.  We have a Bones DVD that I imagine we'll start watching tomorrow night.

Weather

Tomorrow is supposed to be 98 degrees, but it says it will feel like 111.  Egads.  However, it's not as bad as it sounds.  In the mornings, it's a tolerable 70-85, then we spend the hottest hours back at the casa where there is lovely air conditioning and when Avery needs to nap anyway.  The evenings cool down a bit more, too.

 
General Goings On

We went to the farmer's market in town on Sunday.  As much as I want to be a person who thrives in a foreign market environment, I am simply not.  I'm curious to see them, but once I'm there, I just kind of freeze up and can't wait to get away from the crowds.  I had the same feeling when we went to the bazaar in Istanbul - I was so uncomfortable.  I don't particularly enjoy farmers' markets in the US, either.  I like them once in a while, but find it difficult to be there long. Anyway, there were a lot of people and it was hot and we didn't bring Avery's stroller and we don't speak Spanish and ... end result is that D had to do all the purchasing while I waited on the sidelines with Avery.  In addition to food, we bought Avery a ball, as well as a little stroller for her doll.  Both of these items thrilled her.  It is also good to know this is a place where we can get a lot of functional items.  They sold food, of course, but it was like a big Goodwill with many used and unused items being sold by various folks. 

Other than that, not much to report.  We're just hanging out and having a good time.  Life is good.

Still Loving Loreto Bay

Pool

We went to the new community pool as a family this morning.  I wore my new swimsuit (bought at the hotel gift shop) and my sun protection rash guard for a top.  I LOVE my rash guard.  Why I didn't think of wearing this instead of a swim suit earlier, I do not know.  I'm going to buy some shorts to go with it and that will be my bathing suit from now on.  Not stylish, but definitely functional and healthy.

The pool is beautiful.  And the best part: we were the only ones there.  I love it here!  Yes, they were jackhammering this morning, but I think I prefer the occassional jack hammering to throngs of people. 

Avery had a good time swimming with D while I floated around in a tube left at the pool by someone else - after all, who's going to take it? 

Right now, Avery is upstairs napping. D is in town shopping for some essentials and non-essentials (art and decor for the casa).  I thought about napping, but decided to use Avery's nap time to sneak in a bit of computer time.

Conveniences

We bought a few things yesterday that have made life here so much easier: a trash can for the kitchen, a bin for recylables, a little chair for Avery.  The chair enables Avery to sit at our coffee table and eat.  She does well sitting at the dining room table, but I have been boosting her up with a package of diapers, so I feel the need to be somewhat more vigilant than I normally would. 

I am finding myself saving things that I wouldn't back home.  I saved two jars and two milk jugs.  It seems I find myself having to be creative to make things work.  It's rather fun. 

One thing I've asked D to look for while in town is a laundry line stand (not sure of what those are called) that we can put in our courtyard to dry clothes.  It feels absurd to use the dryer when it would take so little time for things to dry were they hung outside to be dried.  We're not allowed to have lines up on the deck or the viewing tower (fair enough since we have an open air courtyard that will work fine). 

We've also got our system down for making sure we have fresh water available for washing of fruits and vegetables.  The water is still flagging high for bacteria, apparently, so we do the usual boiling thing.  It's so much easier now that we don't have bottles to deal with.

 
Beach

Last night we went for a spontaneous walk on the beach right before dark set in.  In fact, we walked home in the dark.  Avery had a good time splashing in the water (yes, it's just that warm at 9:00 at night!) and playing with the little sea shells and things.  I think we'll head down there again tonight, but a little bit earlier this time.  It's way too hot to go during the midday hours (at least for a wuss like me), but the mornings and evenings are awesome. 

I've become used to getting my feet dirty, though it's still a mad rush to get back to the house so I can wash them off.  Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Online shopping

At the moment, I'm looking for surf shorts (for sun protection) online.  I'm also perusing Etsy to see if I can find any throw pillows that look Mexican and that I like.  This is not an easy thing for me since I don't naturally gravitate towards Mexican decor.  That said, neither D nor I want this place to look like Pottery Barn.

 

Bubble

Bubble

In case you were wondering what the word of the day would be, it's bubble. Avery says it near perfectly now and spends a vast majority of her time asking for bubbles. I bought the Gymboree bubble blower and bubble solution before we left Portland. Since I pulled it out, she walks around saying bubble all the time. Last night, she and I went into the courtyard just outside our casa and blew bubbles. There's only so much bubble blowing an adult can handle, so after a while I put the bubbles back inside and signaled we were all done with that activity. She spent the rest of our time outside exploring the walk ways around here looking for bubbles.

The first night was a bit rough with Avery having trouble getting to sleep, then waking up at 4 AM crying. We just pulled her into our bed at 4 and she then slept until 8:30. Last night, she had less trouble getting to sleep and slept through the night until 7:30. Hopefully this trend continues and we have a nice, well-rested family on vacation.

Avery is so much easier down here now that she can walk. I thought it would be harder, but I was wrong. She loves to explore the casa and our indoor courtyard, but really, really loves to get out and about. D took her to the new community pool yesterday and said she loved it. We went later in the day for a walk on the beach. As we were leaving, she kept signing water and pointing back to the sea because she wanted to go back. And, since the girl loves to pick up rocks, she's in heaven.

Odd as it sounds, I know there will come a day when I'll miss this phase of the community. Yes, the construction makes things a bit more challenging sometimes. There's a lot of dust as a result and it can be noisy during the day at times (though I haven't been bothered by it since it's minimal right now). But the great thing is that it feels like we own the whole community. I can let Avery have a bit more slack in her exploring leash, so to speak. She and I had the best time last night just wandering around, with me looking at the beautiful yellow birds in the trees and her looking for those elusive bubbles.

Thus Far ...

It's almost 10 AM. We got up about 7:30 and piddled around. Then I went out into our courtyard and swept the stairs and got the dust off as much of the walls as I could. After that, I swept and mopped the courtyard. The dust is constant, though it's bothering me a lot less this time around. I am making a list of cleaning supplies needed next time we come down, or if we happen to see them while in town down here. RHG, you get props for introducing me to these sponges. I bought a pack of six large ones figuring I could just use one each visit. However, I'm discovering that since I can easily put them in the dishwasher to be santized, they're much easier to use for cleaning than a cloth would be. Perfect. So I shall just bring several packs down next time, made especially easy by their initial small size.

We were planning to head to the beach again today, but since we're taking our friend Bob to the airport around 2:30, I was thinking it would be a good time to head into town to do some shopping.

Bob leaves today after a six-week stint down here. He was actually our salesguy from Loreto Bay, but has since moved on to other activities. He's also a homeowner, though his house is not yet complete. It was great to have someone to pick us up at the airport when we arrived, as well as to have dinner with both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Tuesday we went out to the Giggling Dolphin. The food was excellent and cheap, and the atmosphere was fun for Avery (once she woke up - she actually slept in her car seat* in the restaurant for the first time since she was 3-4 months old.) Last night, Bob BBQ'd some chicken thighs and brought those over.  We had a nice meal of chicken, pasta, salad, and garlic shrimp. There wasn't much selection at the grocery store in terms of fresh produce when D went on Tuesday, but we're hoping there will be a better selection today. The farmer's market has started back up, so we can hit that on Sunday morning.

Once Bob leaves, we'll be using the car he was using.  The car belongs to another couple who have a casa near us. It's so nice not to have to rent a car! Not to mention the money it saves.  Same goes for the massive money we save having the G's do airport drop-off and pick-up AND dog sitting.  Thank you so much, G's!

We both expected it to be WAY hotter down here than it has been the first few days. It's actually very nice. Don't get me wrong: it is hot. Undeniably. It's just less oppressive than I expected. I am prefering the weather this visit to the weather in December. It's a bit on the cool side, relatively speaking, in the winter months. in the spring/summer months, I like that I can walk out in the night air and never need a jacket. That rocks.

Familarity was the first feeling I got when we stepped off the plane.  Our casa and the community feel more like our home this time around. We moved some of the furniture around since the layout didn't quite work for how we actually live here with Avery. Now it's just perfect. Unlike home and other vacations, I prefer to have Avery sleep in our room. Since the temperature controls are separate in each room, I like to know that she's not too hot or too cold.  I also have two mental blocks related to her sleeping location here: I don't like her sleeping on a different floor; and I don't like that I have to go outside** to get from the upstairs room to the downstairs one. 

* We are using her infant car seat down here because it is so much easier to travel with and it's good to use until she's 30 lb. Perfect!

** It's not outside our casa, but it is outdoors since the stairs leading downstairs are in the open-air courtyard.

Car Seat & Flying

We bought Avery a seat this time, as we will be doing for all future flights. I had no issue last time I flew with her & her car seat, but this time, on the leg from Portland to LA, the flight attendants told us that we had to take her out of the car seat and hold her on our laps for taxi, take off, and landing. The reason they stated was that we cannot have the lap belt over the car seat. We explained that this is the proper installation for this car seat, but they said they couldn't allow it.

I emailed RHG (aka Megan's Google) and told her about it. Turns out that as long as you have an FAA approved car seat (we do), it is acceptable to install it according to the instructions from the manufacturerer. We had no issue on the leg from LA to Loreto.

I emailed Alaska Airlines to complain (and I should note I was shockingly nice and calm about this whole thing during the indicent and in my complaint email). We'll see what, if anything, they do.