Roasted

Promotion

I promoted myself from the back row to the second to last row in Zumba class today.  I thought I deserved it. 

Dinner

I made the lemon poppyseed cake a couple of times down here, but instead of lemon (can't find lemons here), I used orange.  And it was poppyseed-less.  And I made a warm strawberry sauce rather than rhubarb.  Nonetheless, our guests declared it to be the best cake they've tasted in Loreto.  That's not saying a whole lot, but I was pleased.

The glory of the dinner goes to D who did everything but dessert.  It was delicious. I think his best roast ever.  And he made steamed broccoli and cauliflower with a cheese sauce.  The sauce was a bit runny, but tasted better than the non-runny sauces I've had, so it was perfect.  He also made carrots in sugar water.  When Avery saw him chopping the carrots, she said, "I love carrots!"  She ate fairly well last night, though nothing compared to what she ate at Rob & Debbie's when they had us over last week.  I swear she ate as much meat as I did, as well as a good portion of potatoes and some veggies, followed by a piece of cake.  Debbie said after the dinner that she was amazed at a toddler eating so much.  D and I were pretty stunned, too!

I was also able to enjoy wine for a second time while down here. That means my body allowed me to drink some wine. It still feels like a crap shoot when I taste wine as to whether I'll reject it or will want to drink a glass, but that's not so bad.

Avery didn't want to go down with our guests here last night, but that wasn't shocking.  She fell asleep within 2 minutes of them leaving after fighting sleep they whole time they were here.  She rather likes Rob and Debbie and constantly asks where they are when we go out with them.  "Where's Rob & Debbie?"  as spoken by Avery sounds like "Where's monkey jammies?"  I've repeated the two phrases over and over, but can find no similarity when I say it, but both D and I make the same mistake when she says it. Odd.

Rescue Me

We're getting a bit more into Rescue Me as evidenced by the fact that I look forward to Avery's nap time not to take a nap myself, but to watch another episode.  I find it interesting that all of the characters are pretty much despicable at one point or another.

Paperless Kitchen

I've made great progress in reducing my paper towel use in the kitchen over the past six months or so.  One of the best tricks was putting the paper towels in an inconvenient spot (hat tip to RHG for that idea).  Another thing that works for me is having a lot of cloth rags and not feeling guilty if I only use it once then put it in the hamper to be washed.  I found this blog post today about going paperless and I think it clearly outlines the steps of going paperless very well.  I've never added up the money we save on paper towels, but give our previous use of them, I'm sure it's a good chunk of change.

I've realized I need to bring a large number of cleaning cloths down here to achieve the same goal.  I am going to bring lots of these microfiber cloths for cleaning, and place another order of these napkins on Etsy. (Warning: I'll probably do a post on Casa de Turtle about this, so don't fault me for double-blogging).

Night Sky

One thing that I just never get over is the night sky here.  The stars are so clear and the night is so dark.  I'm not one to ooh and ahhh over the sky, but it's gorgeous.  Hmmm.  Christie, you should learn how to photograph the stars! 

Poorly

Under the weather

Poor Avery is feeling a bit poorly at the moment.  She's had a slight cough and slight runny nose, without any other symptoms, since the morning we flew down here (it started before we left our house, so it was something she caught in Portland).  The cough has gotten worse, but still nothing too concerning since she has no fever and hasn't been bothered by it  or seemed sick. Today, though, she's been not quite herself.  It doesn't help that she decided to touch a cactus on the way back from the farmer's market this morning. Nothing serious, but enough to annoy her.

Picture

Daddy and Avery looking at something on the computer.

Tonight

Rob and Debbie are coming over for dinner tonight. Those are our big plans for the day. We are also into season 2 of Rescue Me, so I'm sure D and I will manage to squeeze a few episodes in tonight.

The Pee Tree

Template

I just messed around with changing my template and even went so far as to do it.  However, I didn't like it and then didn't have the patience to fix the new template to be something I do like. Anyway, the result is the I had to do a few things over again.  If you see a blog missing from the "blog by people I know" section on the right, let me know and I'll re-add it.  It wasn't intentionally removed.

Beach

Avery has learned the fine art of squatting on the beach to pee.  She had to go while we were out yesterday, so we wandered over to a tree trunk that is downed on the beach (not sure where it came from since it's a lone tree and there are no trees on the beach).  So we were back at the beach today and she needs to go again.  We were a good 100 yards down the beach from the tree, but she just takes off running to the tree yelling, "I go poopy!*"  Funny how that is now her designated spot to pee on the beach.  These are the joys of having an entire beach to yourselves!  I'm not sure what I would do in a beach with, well, anyone else on it.

*She often says poopy when she means just pee.

Pool

This afternoon was another visit to the pool where Avery is now starting to use her arms when swimming.  It's still a dog paddle, but she's getting faster and is definitely confident in the water.  I brought some balls that float down and D basically plays fetch with her in the pool.  I got what I hope will be good video, but I don't have the patience to edit the video on the laptop we have down here. 

Thump

That's the sound of me falling off the weight loss wagon.  I plan to get right back on it when we get back, but staying on it down here is hard. I am a boredom eater.  And there is some element of boredom whilst down here. Meanwhile the trash talking emails about the fat loss contest keep cluttering up my inbox and I have to resist the urge to send a self-deprecating response back.

Frustration

Get dressed already!

Sure the things I love about parenthood far outweigh the things I do not.  But at this moment, I'm so sick of one of my least favorite things: trying to get Avery dressed. Invariably, she runs away like it's a big game. Clearly, to her, it is.  However, when I'm trying to get her dressed so we can do an activity I don't even particularly want to do (e.g. go to the beach, walk the dogs, etc) and she's making it more difficult, that's when I really get mad. It drives me crazy. 

Just now, when I gave up trying to get her dressed and came over to complain about trying to get her dressed, she did come over and say, "OK, I get dressed now," and brought me her clothes.  However, once we got her underwear and pants on, she decided it was time for another 20 laps around the casa, which she's still working on now.

I guess what it boils down to is that, when I'm about to do something I don't want to do, and then Avery delays me and makes it difficult, I get so frustrated!  I don't have this problem (the frustration, that is; she is almost always difficult to get dressed) when I'm trying to get her dressed for something I really want to do.

Boredom

Apparently, two-weeks is when boredom hits for all three of us.  Avery asked for "home" last night and keeps asking for Josie (which is ironic since, of all her friends, we see Josie the least!)  In the car yesterday, she kept insisting we go home.  We'd say, no, we're going to the casa and she'd say, "No! Home!"  Poor girl. I feel like an abusive parent making her be on vacation.

Now, I would like to at least leave the casa, but since I can't get the little one dressed without becoming enraged, I am blogging instead. 

Halloween

Avery, for the past few weeks, likes to put things on her head and declare it, "Halloween! I wear costume!" 

Changes

It feels like Avery has entered the into EVERYTHING phase.  The moment I turn around, she's pulled out the contents of an entire drawer, or pulled everything off the counter.  It's not like she didn't get into things before, but she's stepped it up to a whole new level where she's lightening fast and wants what she wants.  Point in case: she was pulling the leaves off a plant in our courtyard just now until I finally noticed.  That wouldn't have happened a couple of weeks ago.

Also a new obsession with her is peanut butter.  She requests it often and then just sits there and eats it straight out of a cup with a spoon.  I debate whether this is a good food to let her eat, but then I figure I would give her a PB&J sandwich without much thought.  This is just leaving the jam and bread out of the equation. 

Close Call

We almost ended up with a third dog.  Not really, but I was so tempted!  This little dog was following us around in town yesterday.  It was the cutest small dog I've ever seen.  And, in general, I do not like small dogs.  I always say I like them on an individual basis.  Anyway, there's no way that anyone wouldn't fall in love with this dog.  Even D was enamored.  I was ready to snatch him up, take him to the local vet for shots, etc, then pack him on the plane and take him home.  However, I was 90% sure that he wasn't a stray.  Few people keep their dogs on leashes or behind fences down here.  And he looked very well fed and wasn't skittish.  He was like a little yellow lab, but the size of a dachshund.

Speaking of strays, there are far fewer strays in town than when we first started coming down.  A bunch of the Loreto Bay homeowners took up an animal charity as their cause and helped them do drives (yearly?) to get the strays rounded up and spayed/neutered.  You can really tell the difference.  In fact, I can't say for sure that I've seen any strays since the dogs I have seen are well fed.

Let the record show ...

... that it only took 40 minutes to get Avery dressed for the beach (that is, without forcing her. Clearly I could have forced her, but I didn't have the energy or drive to do so). 

Position

Assume the Position

This morning, Avery said she needed to go poopy, so off she trots over to the potty.  She does her business, D looks over and says, "Very good, baby!  Assume the position."  Avery then bends down and touches her toes so D can wipe her bottom.  D said it's the first time he's said that to her.  She just apparently knew the best position for bottom wiping.

Rain

It's raining here.  It's more like a light drizzle, which is still very rare nonetheless.  The wind was blowing last night and this morning.  It was hard enough to make me head up to our viewing tower to flip the chairs so they wouldn't blow over.  

Of course, this weather also makes going to the pool a less likely activity for the day.  Avery is currently occupying herself pretending to make me lunch and serve it to me.  Earlier she occupied herself by playing with the flashlight.  She came over to D and wanded both of his feet, them came over to me insisting I remove my shoes so she could wand my feet too.

Avery has now moved onto playing with a bottle opener.  First she pushed it up and down Daddy's feet, now she's come over to me, made me take off my shoes, pushed it on my feet and said, "Mommy's turn.  Let's see.  Feel better!"

Pages

Did you see that Blogger (at least Blogger in Draft has it) finally has pages capability?  It can do tabs across the top, but I think I must have a template that doesn't support that, so for now, I put them as links on the side bar.  I removed the Slacker Tracker and Movies Seen sections of my sidebar and made them pages. 

I just figured out how to do tabs across the top, but they don't look too good right now. Ah well, I'll make them look better later, but I like the idea of horizontal tabs more than links on the sidebar.

Rescue Me

We were completely out of DVDs to watch down here. Fortunately, our neighbors have seasons 1-4 of Rescue Me on DVD.  I like it better than Entourage, but less than Mad Men. Yes, we could read at night, but darn it, that's not as easy as watching TV.

Timeout

Travel

It seems that neither my travel nor my incoming visitors have slowed much in 2010. I always think, "Now it will slow down."  Then something else comes up and it doesn't. I like it that way, though, so it's all good.

• My mom is visiting for a week almost immediately when we get back from Mexico.  That'll be a huge help.  They were having good airfare deals and she wanted to come out in February, so this works out very well. 
• My best friend from HS, Jen, is visiting for a couple of days.  She arrives less than a week after my mom leaves. 
• My dad is (tentatively) coming for a quick visit at the end of February. 
• I am (tentatively) planning to take a cheap flight somewhere for a weekend away sometimes before March 15.  This serves as a weekend away and a way to ensure I make status.  If anyone is up for a girls' weekend away, let me know!  Right now, the cheapest flight seems to be to Bend and I've never been there and they have an awesome cupcake place, so I am leaning that way.  I'd love to have company, so if anyone is up for it, let me know!  I'm targeting the weekend of March 6 & 7.
  
• In April, Avery and I are heading out to Colorado for a week.  D will join us over the weekend in Denver.  The purpose of this trip is twofold: see my family and a reunion/baby-meet in Denver with friends who have moved away.  The G's will be heading out there at the same time (though we're not on the same flights).
• In May, Mom is back out to Portland, then we fly down to Mexico with Christie & Henry!  We'll be borrowing our friend's car, so that takes care of transportation and saves money.  

After that, we have no plans for the rest of the year ... so far.  It seems something always comes up.

Timeout Conundrum - Advice Sought

OK, those of you who use timeouts, what would you do in the following situation. We are following the method in 1-2-3 Magic.  Since she's under 3*, when we put Avery in timeout, we let her continue to cry or whatever while she's in timeout.  My area of uncertainty comes at the end of timeout.  When we open the door and tell her timeout is over, she screams, "No!" and then either closes the door and cries, or just screams much louder.  If I look at her, she screams louder.  If I try to engage in any way, she screams louder.

While down here, we've been ignoring the crying behavior following the end of timeout.   Back in Portland, I tried putting her back in timeout over and over until she calmed down, but this can cycle well over an hour.  Down here, we are ignoring the crying afterwards (not trying to soothe it away, but not giving her another timeout because of it).  I believe what she's trying to do is take back some control.  I've tried offering various choices to give her some sense of control back, but this doesn't work.  She just screams louder and louder if I (or D) try to engage in any way other than a "do you want milk?" way.  Giving her milk is like giving other kids chocolate.

So my conundrum is do we keep doing timeout over and over until she stops, with the over-and-over timeouts being because she's having a fit vs. anything to do with the original transgression?  Or, do we do what we've been doing and just ignore the fit as long as it doesn't come with an additional transgression (throwing toys, screaming AT us, etc)?  I guess there's a third option and that is extending the time of the timeout until the time is long enough that she stops crying.  However, I think this time is probably in the hours not the minutes and that seems very over the top to me.  Am I being too sensitive?  Do you think if we extended the timeout time a few times that she'd then dial it back and we wouldn't need such a long timeout? 

* The books says that once they're 3yo, then you wait for them to finish their fit, then start the timeout.

Run

Hot

I went for a run this morning.  I jogged further than before, but not by too much.  It was still too hot at 9 am, so I'm going to have to go before Zumba tomorrow.  We leave here at 7:45, so if I leave the house by 7:00, that should get in my 20 minutes jog.  I know 20 minutes isn't long, but I'm starting slowly!

Lunch Fail

We tried to go to Vista del Mar for lunch, a little place on the beach a bit south of here.  Unfortunately, they were closed.  We'll give it a whirl another day.  We did get some groceries in town, including ingredients for a cake. 

Potty

We've only had a single potty accident since we've been down here.  There were no issues on the plane or traveling, which was a welcome change.  When she was in diapers, we inevitably had a leak and had to change her mid-flight.  

I no longer have to ask her when/if she goes potty, at least not down here.  This afternoon, she went pee on the potty, which we keep in the living room because of the configuration of the house.  We can't just leave the doors open for her to get to the bathroom since then we have to leave several doors open to our indoor courtyard and then the temps are all over the place.  Anyway, she went pee, so I took the potty to dump it in the toilet.  While I was in there, I decided I needed to go, too.  As I'm sitting there, Avery trots herself right in, takes the potty, runs off.  By the time I got back to the living room, she'd put the potty back and sat down and continued with her #2 business.  I found it amusing that she took the potty all the way back to its spot in the living room vs doing her business in the bathroom. 

Sleep

Blissfully, this is back on track.  This morning, she didn't wake until 6:30, and then continued to sleep until about 7:15 once I joined her in her room.  Better than the sleeping nicely through the night is the no protest, near happiness, to go to sleep at night and for a nap. I think it probably has a lot to do with being exhausted from doggy paddling the length of the pool several times each day.  We'll see since we didn't go to the pool today.  The weather was ideal, but neither D nor I were up for it.

DVDs

So we finished Seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men and didn't buy/bring Season 3.  We're on to Season 2 of Entourage, a show that doesn't really hold my interest. Mad Men is a much better show, and much better for the type of TV-series-via-DVD-marathon watching we typically do down here while Avery's asleep.  The really sucky thing is that we're going to be done with Entourage soon and then we'll be, gasp!, out of DVDs to watch!  We didn't bring enough this visit.  D just informed me our neighbors have some TV shows on DVD.  Hopefully they have some we haven't seen.

Bizzaro

Guest Blogger

Hello.  Megan asked me to step in and guest blog for her while she's away for the day.  I'm Bizzaro Megan (henceforth known as BM).  When I asked Megan what I should blog about, she instructed me to just talk about my day and update her readership on the general goings on with Avery and the casa. 

Zumba

I started off the day by waking to the alarm and heading off to Zumba class.  Megan does not like gym classes of any kind, and rather avoids events that are not in English.  I (BM), on the other hand, am able to slip right into a Zumba class with ease.  We headed into a part of Loreto I've not yet seen, walked into a building with things that I suppose could be considered walls, and proceeded to dance our way to fitness.  I thought the crowing roosters audible through the 5 foot gap running along the top of the ceiling were a nice touch to round out the true Mexican Zumba experience.  I was just as uncoordinated trying to follow any instructions yelled in Spanish as I am in English.  At least I went in place of Megan because Megan might have found the whole thing a bit mortifying.  I, however, agreed to go back on Wednesday morning.

Cooking

Upon arriving home, I decided to get started prepping dinner.  Megan does not cook in Mexico, so I decided to help out.  I put together the filling for tonight's lasagna, then decided it was time to do something with the salmon D bought.  First, I cooked the salmon.  Then I decided there must be some sort of sauce I could make that would go with with the salmon and some pasta.  Not having too many options, I figured a nice yogurt sauce would do.  Megan would have likely just let the salmon go to waste because she didn't have a planned-out-recipe beforehand.  As BM, I cannot let this happen, so I whipped up a lovely citrus yogurt sauce with some help from an Epicurious recipe, mixed it with some elbow pasta, added the salmon, and had a lovely early lunch.

Beach

Next, I decided that Megan has not been creative enough in keeping Avery occupied at the beach.  So I brought an empty egg carton to the beach when Avery and I went for a walk.  It not only encouraged Avery to get to the beach faster because she wanted to fill up the carton with sea shells and stones, but it also made a little game of collecting the sea shells.

Thank you

Megan will be back tomorrow, likely blogging about napping and not cooking and not doing anything adventurous like Zumba class with crowing roosters.
                                             -- Bizzaro Megan

Brief

Today

Farmer's Market. Nap. Pool. Dinner with friends at their casa.  Starting Entourage Season 1 tonight.  Done with Season 2 of Mad Men.

Tomorrow

Not much different from today, though I'm going to Zumba in town with a friend tomorrow. It costs 100 pesos for a week of classes.  Wish me luck.

Oh Yeah

I forgot to mention that D and I have both signed up the run the inaugural Portland Half Marathon on 10/10/10.  I think, in honor of that date, it should only be 10 miles.  Do you thinK I can convince them to change the rules?

Digger

Activities

Much of yesterday was spent wandering aimlessly around the community with Avery leading the way.  Our HOA is having gravel spread over the vacant lots and having fencing installed around them (otherwise they become dumping grounds for construction debris from houses being built/repaired/remodeled).  As such, they are using a digger to spread the gravel around.  For Avery, this means a good chunk of time was spent watching that digger. 

In the morning, Avery and I walked down to the beach.  I figured she'd want to pick up sea shells or play in the sand, but in a rare moment of calm, she just wanted to sit on my lap and watch the waves.  We probably sat there for a good 20 minutes just watching the waves.  That's about as ideal as you can get for my tastes. 

This morning, with no wind and lots of sun, Avery and I headed over to the pool while D was in town buying groceries.  Avery has already developed quite a reputation around here.  A woman I've not met/seen before showed up and said, "This must be the little fish!"  She said her husband has been at the pool a couple of times when Avery's been there and was quite impressed with her swimming and love of the water. Of course, that she's the *only* little girl around doesn't hurt these things, either. 

In pool progress, Avery can now get in and out of the pool by herself, both via the gradual walk-in area and via the metal ladder in the deeper area.  She can also get in and out of the hot tub (which, because it's not very heated, is like a warmer version of the pool, but certainly not anywhere near a "hot" tub). 

Independence

Not only is Avery doing all activities at the pool on her own, she has started to get herself out of the Pack N Play after naps.  She gets out (via the bed), then she goes potty, then she opens the door and basically is in a foul mood until we find some sort of key to unlock her happiness.  Today it was me telling her she looked like Cousin It.  She immediately stopped pouting and said, "Yes!"  I think she might have thought I was saying Cousin Dylan was here since I always call him "Cousin Dylan" when talking about him and not just Dylan. 

Chores

I asked our neighbor how she got the tiles in their village house clean.  She apparently used good old-fashioned labor and went tile by tile through her whole house chipping away the concrete stains.  Then she indicated that others have bought a type of cleaner to get the stains removed.  I am going to try that today, I think.  The problem is the tile never looks clean, even when it is.  I've certainly relaxed much more about the dirt down here than I thought was possible.  I just kind of accept it's there and move on.  Anyway, maybe I'll take before and after pictures.

Plans

We are heading to the Sunday Farmer's Market tomorrow morning, then will have dinner with friends at their house tomorrow night.  Right now, D is heading off to the pool for Avery's second trip of the day. 

Memories

Avery seems to remember further back in time than I assumed toddlers remember.  Two examples:

• When I asked Avery which swimming shirt she wanted to wear (from a choice of three different colors), she pointed to the shirt that I put Elise in this summer when they were playing in the water at our house and said, "Elise's shirt!"  
• Avery likes to play on the wood covering for a power transformer here.  On our last trip in May, I took a lot of pictures when Avery was sitting on it and let her take some pictures, too.  This time, she went immediately to that spot and asked to take pictures. 
  

Windy

Another day in Mexico

It's rather windy today.  I'm hoping it eases up a bit so Avery and I can head to the pool this afternoon.  If not, we can just go for a walk, but when it's windy here, it's also kinda dirty.  Nothing too awful, but enough that I'd rather hole up than go for a walk. (Sweet! Since I started this post, the wind had died down quite a bit.)

We found a new arrangement for our living room furniture down here.  We have a lot of furniture for our little living room. There was one particular corner that was a tight squeeze.  It occurred to me that we could switch the direction of the dining room table.  While it makes things a little askew, it is a much better space layout than before.  It makes the room much more functional and usable.  So now the table is not located squarely beneath the dining room light, nor is it square with the art work on the wall.  However, it is much better. 

The newly purchased (and then replaced) water dispenser rocks.  It's amazing what a difference that makes.

Avery

Avery is napping like a rock star down here.  Not necessarily taking longer than normal naps, but she's happy to go down, does so without any prodding, and has no protests at any point.  She's also, thankfully, going down easily at night.  The only snag is that she wakes up around 2 am and cries.  We are alternating nights and one of us heads down to her room and then sleeps in that room with her.  We've been pulling her out of the Pack N Play and letting her sleep in bed with whomever is on duty that night, but we're going to try just going in to sleep in the room with her to see if that helps.  This is the first time we've had her sleep in her own room down here, so I'm thinking she just needs a little help getting used to the room at night.  It doesn't help that she's got a slight cold (runny nose, non-wet cough, no fever, all else normal).

She can get herself out of the PNP, but it's fairly safe since we wedged it between the two beds in her room.  She just climbs up on the bed and then gets down.  We would let her sleep in the bed without us, but she is still prone to falling out of bed and with tile floors and plaster walls, that just seems like a bad idea. 

Entertainment

We are now through the first season of Mad Men. It's good, but I definitely wouldn't rave about it.  I think The Wire is much better. Next, we'll watch season 2 of Mad Men, then get started on Entourage.

Avery has a few things to watch: Finding Nemo, Cars, Peppa Pig, Charlie & Lola, and Monsters, Inc. Thanks to Christie for loaning us the first four of those DVDs!  Right now, her favorite is Peppa Pig, which she requests by asking for "piggy!"  Peppa Pig is adorable for the first few mintues.  Then it's just freakin' annoying.  Fortunately, it's easier to distract Avery away from the TV down here since there are new places to explore.

Keeping Busy

I have now finished labeling all the light switches.  I didn't label our switches in Portland, but most of those switches are somewhat logical.  The switches here are random and sometimes completely illogical. We also discovered what the mysterious switch turns on!  It is an outlet behind the armoire.  In our new living room arrangement, it now turns on the floor lamp that was previously not in use.

I want to put together a Google Map of the various places in town to buy groceries, but for that effort I need the help of a neighbor.

Prod

Walk

Avery and I took a nice long walk this morning. I think I should actually call it a nice long prod. It turned out to be too far by toddler standards, but we made it home in one piece. I had to carry her piggy-back style for the end of the walk, and had to prod her along for much of it, but we made it. We didn't bring the stroller down and I forgot to bring the Beco. One of those is essential to being able to walk around for any length of time down here.

Read

I'm about to head up to the roof deck to read in the sun. Lovely. It's also my first outdoor reading with my Kindle. That seems like a milestone of some sort.

HOA

One of our neighbors to whom we're closet down here (the ones who let us use their car) is the head of the HOA committees down here. He is spending, I kid you not, 20 hours per week trying to clean up this mess. I cannot imagine spending that kind of time, dealing with aggravation I can't even begin to explain, and not getting paid for it. And he's really good at getting stuff moving and done. Thank goodness for people like him.

No Toddler School (for the moment)

I was pretty much all set to sign Avery up for toddler school, but it started to feel like we were jumping in a little too fast. I want to tour The International School since, if they have an opening, I would like Avery to be in an immersion environment. I would very much like her to speak another language. After all, someone in our family has got to be able to translate for us down here! Kidding. But I would like her to learn another language. We'll see. As much as I was looking forward to getting back and having time galore on my hands since she'd be in "school," I'd rather make an informed decision after touring a few more places. Of course, finding a place with open slots is always tough.

Mexico in May

I am going to book a replacement-trip down here in May with Mom and Avery. Since we never made it down last September due to the hurricane, we need to get Mom and I down to use those plane fares. May is pretty ideal for us for a number of reasons.

Up

Things are looking up ...

...which is good since things were a bit topsy turvey when we got here.  We just had a water softener installed.  That caused some problems with a leak (ongoing, but minor) and then, consquently, the courtyard flooded as a result when the water was turned back on.  So we had to get our property manager over here on a Sunday to help out.  She's awesome, I must say.  Other issues we've been dealing with include

• Broken dishwasher (now repaired)
• Broken water dispenser (newly purchased, now returned, awaiting a new one tomorrow)
• Beeping smoke alarm in Avery's room last night, so she had to sleep with us which went shockingly well.  I didn't even notice her in bed.  If she slept like that all the time, we wouldn't be so averse to the occasional co-sleeping stint.
• Internet and TV not hooked up (fixed, obviously)
• Moldly closet (ongoing in dealing with it - nothing too serious)

Avery and I went for a walk just now (see Casa de Trio post for more fascinating details on that walk).  She and D are now at the pool, giving me a bit of a break.  While we've been splitting child care pretty darn 50/50 over the last two weeks, I just had zero patience for her today.  The whining was killing me.  And the fact that she had to poop, but couldn't do her usual go to the potty, try, come back, try, go back, try.  Well, she could, but she needed our assistance and that wasn't fun just because I'm not used to having to be there for each attempt.

Plane Story

(Blogging this because Facebook statuses don't save forever and I want to remember this in the blog).  Best moment of our flight yesterday: Avery, sick of being belted into her car seat on the plane, deliberately hits me, then yells (loud enough for the people around us to hear): "I need a time out!" I was rather proud that she figured getting a time out was the best way to be placed elsewhere. Unfortunately, I just had to turn the other cheek and laugh.

Monitor

Way back before Loreto Bay (the company) went bankrupt, we outfitted our house with the ammenities required to be in the rental program.  That was a giant waste of money, but oh well, what's done is done.  As a result of this effort, though, we have flat screen TVs in the living room, downstairs bedroom, and upstairs bedroom.  We only watch TV in the living room. But we only have a little itty bitty mini-PC with us.  So, D bought a cable that allows us to use one of the flat screens as a computer monitor.  It works quite nicely! 

Tonight

We are planning to head into town for dinner.  Tomorrow our friends will hopefully be able to join us, but tonight, they're letting us use their car.  They even put D on their insurance as designated driver when they changed their policy, so that takes a load off our mind. 

Speaking of our friends, they started out with a village home like ours.  However, they wanted enough space for their kids & grandkids (they're in their 50's - had kids young) to come down and stay with them, so they needed more bedrooms.  They bought a custom lot and built a bigger house.  A MUCH bigger house.  We had a tour of it yesterday.  I now feel like we're living in squalor here!  Not really, of course, but it's a very nice house.   They also know all the places to buy various groceries, which will help us out since we have been buying from the largest and most expensive grocery store in town.  They have a circuit of about six places they hit.  Piecing together information down here is part of the challenge.  I don't revel in the challenge, but I accept that it's the way it is. 

Capris & Weight

I can now fit into one of my Lucy capris (meaning non-Ross, non-butt ugly)!  Woohoo!  They're a little snug still, but nothing unsightly and nothing uncomfortable. 

I think the hotel gym is still closed, though there were rumors it was to be re-opened this week.  Tomorrow I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and go jogging to get in a workout.  Ugh.  It's not too hot for jogging, though, so that is good.

Changes in Loreto Bay

The last time we were here, the company was still in existence.  It was on our last day of that trip when we got the email the company was bankrupt and construction would be halted immediately.  Progress has continued on the landscaping since that is maintained by the HOA fees we pay.  It's very nice in the areas around us. Areas that were still a bit of an eye sore have been landscaped and are pretty.  The golf course is also still in very good shape.  Not quite as good as it was from what our friend told us, but still good enough shape that it looks like a course you'd want to play.

There seem to be a lot more people living down here, or at least visiting.  There are more cars around and it definitely doesn't feel like a dead zone.  I was expecting that perhaps it would feel like a place that has gone bankrupt.  It probably does over in the Agua Viva section (those were houses in progress when the announcement came through), but in Founders', it's a good feeling.

We also have a grocery store within walking distance!  It's literally about a minute or two walk away.  It's a small one, but it's owned and run by an American family.  This is good because they know what we want and need.  It's a rather odd mixture of stuff carried, but it's all functional and useful.  And we can buy groceries in a pinch.  Today, for example, we realized we were completely out of laundry detergent.  Five minutes later, I'm home with a container of OxyClean.  Sweet!

There doesn't seem to be much damage remaining from the hurricane, at least not on the landscaping and common areas which I'd heard were hard hit. 

In summary, I can still see the possibility of this community, but it's a far cry from what we dreamed it would be when we bought here.  I think in twenty years, we'll have made a good investment.  Right now, I'm just thankful we didn't buy it as an investment, but rather as a place we wanted.