life from my point of view

Now that I (Ivory) am a year old, it's about time I took my turn on the blog. I shall blog about our last couple days, because that gives me plenty of material... it has been crazy.

It all started on our way home from taking the Young family to the airport on Tuesday. I have enough of my mom in me to love socializing and enough of my dad in me to sleep afterwards, so I was deep in la la land when Dad got the call from the immigration lawyer. The fact that I was asleep meant that I didn't get any say in the matter, and that I was clueless as to why mom and dad were rushing around all afternoon and ignoring me. I tried the scream-at-the-top-of-my-lungs-in-hopes-that-someone-will-play-with-me act, but all that did was get me to bed earlier than usual.

I was abruptly pulled out of bed and tossed into my carseat at 11:00 and we headed off to Zamora. Then, believe it or not, we got on a bus! Boy was I excited! I guess excited and confused at the same time... I couldn't figure out if it was real life or if I was dreaming.

 Dad was sure excited.

Well, as soon as I got on the bus, the excitement of going on vacation kicked in. I got my own seat all by myself, I had my paci and blankie and sippie cup, dad gave me ear phones with kid's music on them, and the bus people turned on a movie on the screen right above me. Isn't life great? (except mom didn't want me to watch the movie because it wasn't very good).

My parents kept telling me to go to sleep, but I just kept telling them they were old and out of style. I preferred the thrill of trying to stand up on the seat without holding on while the bus was moving. I successfully stayed awake and kept Mom and Dad awake from 12:00 until 2:00 in the morning.

I guess Mom got this photo while I was sleeping

The bus got to Mexico City at 5:30 in the morning. That was my cue to wake up and be high energy all over again. We were on vacation!!!! Mom and Dad didn't look as excited as they did the night before, but that just goes to show that they really are old and out of style. Our visa appointment in Mexico City wasn't until 9:00, so mom threw all our bags on the floor, laid on top of them, and went to sleep. Dad and I took a tour of Mexico City bus station. I really enjoyed meeting and connecting with all the other American one-year-olds who were traveling around Mexico on buses with their dad and 7-months pregnant mom.

Well, after hanging out for a while, we jumped in a taxi and slowly made our way through Mexico City morning rush hour traffic to the Immigration office. Without exaggerating, I think that Dad made the comment "Man, I'm glad we didn't try driving here ourselves" at least 253 times on that 45 minute taxi ride.

I didn't follow everything that happened that morning, but it must have been successful because Mom and Dad were both smiling at the end... or maybe they were just laughing at Dad. I don't know what he was thinking or where his cross-cultural skills were, but he tried to give the immigration lawyer a half-hug as he was telling her goodbye at the same time that she tried to give him a kiss on the cheek. Awkward...

Here's a quick picture Mom and Dad had me take at lunch that day

So then we hopped in another taxi and headed to another bus station in Mexico City. Now begins the part when mom started to change. First she just acted tired. That's understandable... we all were after getting about 3 hours of sleep the night before. But then she wouldn't even hold me, then she wouldn't let me touch her, then she just shut her eyes in a real tight determined sort of way. Then, the next thing I knew she had opened the door of the taxi as he was stopped in traffic and emptied everything she had eaten for the last four days. I want to be just like her when I grow up.

Well, Mom popped a mint in her mouth and we jumped on a bus headed towards Taxco. It's about a three-hour trip on very curvy roads... not a good situation to add to Mom's discomfort. Dad was even feeling carsick. I thought about throwing up everything in my stomach like I did the last time we had traveled all day, but decided to take a nap instead. Mom and Dad kept saying afterwards something about God knowing how much they could handle. It must have been getting bad - they kept handing me back and forth between themselves about every 30 seconds until I fell asleep on Dad's lap.

From the bus station in Taxco to the hotel, we took a taxi. All the taxis in Taxco are small, and we had a significant amount of baggage. We kind of ended up all piled on top of each other in the back seat. Mom still felt pretty much horrible and Dad was starting to get pretty grumpy too. I operate under the philosophy that if you can't beat them, join them, so I added some high-pitched screaming to the taxi ride. I felt that I should contribute something to the situation.

After getting settled into our room, we decided that we all would be happier with food in our stomachs, so we headed to the hotel restaurant.

I'm starting to get sick of these uncomfortable high chairs...

Well, Mom got some vegetable soup. I'm going to skip some of the details here, but from my perspective, she didn't like it. The vegetable soup along with everything she had eaten since the taxi ride in Mexico City got nicely placed into a flower pot on the restaurant patio. They must make bathrooms harder to find in Taxco...

We all got to bed in good time that night, and woke up feeling much better. But, Mom still wasn't 100% and it was raining, so we stayed at the hotel most of the day. It's a pretty cool place. "Pretty" from the standpoint of being able to have a great view of Taxco, and "cool" from the standpoint of the rain made it too cold to swim. Here's some pictures of the place:

 The view I was talking about

 The pool I hope to get in if it would warm up...

 Part of the hotel

 Dad and I are getting some good bonding time this week.

 This is the restaurant floor - the place I go when I get sick of those dumb highchairs

 Our room

 We were all excited because the hotel advertised mini golf. Yep, you're looking at it right there...

 I got so bored that I started calling some friends

Well, it finally stopped raining and Mom had gotten some good rest, so we headed into town. One of the first things we did was get Dad and me a sweatshirt. We had been planning on the weather being insanely hot, which is usually how it is in this part of Mexico in May.

 Lots has changed for Mommy since she stood here four years ago...

Another restaurant highchair... sigh.

Last stop for the night was a favorite coffee shop of Mom's. Dad wouldn't give me any of his chai tea though :(

Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow we hope to head back into town and find some people that Mom knows. Saturday morning we'll head down to Barra, Lord willing.

P.S.  Mom and Dad wouldn't let me post this until they proof-read it. They finally got around to reading it and now they are worried that all of you readers are going to think that they aren't enjoying themselves. So, I just need to include here that Mom and Dad are very happy. We've have some good "down time". 

Toodles!