A Little Conversation

This is a snippet of a conversation I had with Blaise today:
(Blaise and I are looking at a book of animals)
Blaise - "That Mama?"
Amber - "That's a turkey."
B - (Pause) "Why not?"
A - (laughs)
B - "Mama raisins?" (sneeze, cough) "That Mama?" (back to the book, looking at the ripped cover)
A - "Somebody ripped your book."
B - "Blaise rip este?" (este=this)
A - "Mmmhmm"
B - "Blaise cracker?" (Goes and finds his bowl with his snack in it, then lays down on the carpet) "Mama yook! Mama too? Mama yay down? Yook! (I lay down beside him)
B - "Mama no yeep (sleep). Blaise sit Mama?" (He proceeds to jump on my back)
A - "No Blaise you're too heavy." (Blaise climbs up my back and throws himself down on me) "Hey I though we were looking at books?
B - (Laughing) "Mama more? Mama fun?"
A - "No, not fun. Silly."
B - "Mama silly?"
A - (Laughing) Yes. Now no more - you're going to get hurt." (Tries to climb and body slam me again) "What did Mama say?" (Stops and lets out some fake cries, but soon recovers:).

I do enjoy my little boy.

Bugged

I haven't had anything I've wanted to blog about lately, but now I am ready to rant. The bugs are really getting to me. Tonight I opened a package of pasta only to discover tiny holes throughout the noodles and some nasty looking little critters in the bottom of the bag. Yuck. Last night I was about to put Acadia in her bed when I spotted a cockroach near my closet. I grabbed my sandal and proceeded to unsuccessfully chase it around the room. At least my cursing didn't wake up Zaak or the kids. Then there are these crickets that are so loud at night it's difficult to sleep. There are house flies everywhere even though I hunt them faithfully and kill handfulls at a time. We've also been over-run with ants of several varieties. Blaise barely finishes his lunch before they're ON THE TABLE looking for whatever he didn't eat. We all get bitten in the night by who knows what kind of greeblies that hide in our beds. Sigh. Trust me I could go on. I know it could be worse, we could have scorpions or snakes or something really awful, but this is my swan song so I'm singing it. I do like the fireflies that are in the grass at night, they're very pretty and whimsical looking.

Happy 7th Wedding Anniversary to Us!

Yesterday Zaak and I celebrated 7 years of marriage. We spent most of the day apart unfortunately, but spending time with the kids is like spending time with Zaak in that they are half him:) In the evening we enjoyed a movie and dessert together after putting Blaise and Acadia to bed. Zaak "tricked" me into watching "Scent of A Woman" (since I thought it was going to be romantic and he had seen it before and so he knew it wasn't!) Great film though, strange I just now saw it when it came out in the early 90's. But then I guess I wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies in the early 90's:) Here's a shot of us looking tired but happy - here's to many more years together! I love you Zaak.

B & A

Wow these two look alike in this shot! Maybe it's because they have the same expression on their faces. In general I find that Blaise takes more after me and Acadia more like her Papa (minus the goatee:)

Much to My Chagrin

This week I locked my keys and Blaise in the car. I hadn't done that yet, so I guess it was bound to happen. It seems to be something Mom's do, what with constantly multi-tasking and lack of sleep:) I arrived at the bank and promptly got a phonecall on my cel, so I was talking while getting Acadia out of the car, rolling up the windows and locking the doors. Next thing I knew I had sealed up the car with Blaise still inside, buckled into his seat:( With my heart sinking down into my shoes I call Zaak to see if he can come rescue me. Unfortunately he is with a group doing a medical clinic in a village half an hour away. So he says he will send Ericka, one of the teachers, on a microbus with his key. I go in and quickly do my banking, thankful that both kids aren't locked in the car but worried about Blaise. I go back out to the car and look in on Blaise, who is happily eating his bunny crackers. I tell the guard at the bank my dilemma, and he tells the other guard and workers inside. A lady from the church comes by and asks what's going on. Soon I have drawn a crowd, with people from shops across the street coming to peer into the car at Blaise. "Foolish Gringa Locks Young Child in Car" is flashing through my brain, as well as everyone else's I imagine. One of the bank workers is a friend of ours, Alejandro. He and the manager try a few of their keys in the car lock - this doesn't work of course. They tell me there's a guy who can open things, so he shows up on his motorbike about 10 minutes later. By this time Blaise has been in the car for 20 minutes and is getting understandably ansy. The guy gets into the car with the little wood wedges in the window and a piece of wire in about two minutes. I feel like kissing him but restrain myself, haivng already made enough of a spectacle for one day. I take Blaise out of the car and he is sweaty but fine, and instantly distracted by a passing stray dog. Gracias a Dios! We go for icecream a few doors down to alleviate my guilt a bit, and Ericka shows up ten minutes later with Zaak's key.

The Big 02

On July 13th my little boy turned two. The night before I sang him "You'll Never Be One Again," a song from my childhood that we had on a record by Alabama. It was a bit sad that my first baby is no longer a baby, but I've got a 3 month old Acadia to enjoy so I can't complain:)
Blaise was very into his birthday this year, he tore into his presents and blew out the candles on his cake by himself. The only thing he didn't do was hit his pinata, after days of talking about it and how there were candies inside:) Oh well, maybe next year! Actually next year we will hopefully be in Montreal for Blaise's birthday, so we can celebrate with Auntie April and little buddy Noah:)

Vacation to Copan, Honduras

We made the trek this past week to our favorite vacation spot with Will, Mariah and the two kids in tow. This was our first trip since Acadia was born and it went better than I expected. We had a hotel room with two beds so Zaak ended up sleeping with Blaise and I slept with Acadia. Not the most romantic set up but definitely the most sleep condusive:) The highlights of the trip for me were the Hot Springs and eating out. The last time we were there was this past November and I had wanted to go to the Hot Springs but we never made it. So this time we drove the hour on a windy dirt road to ge there and it was well worth it! The hot water from the springs flow into a river, so you can have whatever temperature you desire, from boiling hot to refreshingly cool. It was the closest thing I've had to a bath since we were in Canada and it was marvelous:)
Our meals we ate mostly at our favorite restaurant in Copan, the Via Via, a Belgian owned restaurant that has 11 other locations around the world. The draw for us to this place is that their menu has several vegetarian options, which is rare in Guatemala. We had one supper at a more expensive place because of the salmon on their menu, another food we never eat here. I also got a few new books at a book exchange. I believe a good time was had by all, and now it's back to the laundry and cooking of everyday life:) Oh well, there's no place like home right?

Walk with a View

I have realized that I rarely put any photos of scenery on my blog. So today I stuck the camera in the stroller and captured what I see on my walk. It's a good little climb part of the way but levels off again soon so I get my breath back:) I think walking is my favorite type of excercise and I always enjoy getting out in the fresh air. I often catch glimpses of little green and black speckled lizards, as well as many lovely butterflies and interesting insects. I was really happy when I found this road because walking on the highway is not my cup of tea, what with screeching engine brakes, people hurling garbage willy-nilly from car windows, loud honking that scares me half to death, and the exhaust funes that leave me feeling nauseous. Also getting above the town reminds me of what a beautiful place I live - and makes me feel at peace with the world. I usually listen to my ipod and think and pray while I walk. I have to say a big thanks to my Mom who culminated the walker in me, with all our long walks to get the mail when I was a young girl.

Post Bath Fun

A Whisper of a Smile

The Bug Bite Blues

"Mini-Bum" gum anyone???

Mmmmm - Root Beer!

What I've Been Up To...

Acadia will be 8 weeks old tomorrow and life is feeling a new kind of normal:) She's such a sweet baby and is less demanding than Blaise was/is. Blaise has been fighting his nap and bedtimes like a little wild animal, saying "Blaise - wake" when we tell him it's time to get ready for bed. The poor little guy has a bit of a runny nose and has been getting up with a few more bug bites each morning so he's looking pretty rough. I'm still enjoying that there are no teams from Canada right now, Zaak is around more which means more help for me. After lunch when the kids are napping I get a chance to either run errands, nap, or go for a walk. I'm already looking forward to visits from 2 of my sisters this winter - Alanna plans to be here for my birthday in November and April for Christmas. So that's exciting to the utmost! I will have been here 2 years in this September with no visits yet from my family. Alright I better get myself to bed, Acadia will need to eat in a few hours.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I'm finally blogging again after a shameless week of Facebook addiction. A question people often ask us here is "What do you miss about Canada?" Besides family and friends, this is my list of things I miss most (in no particular order):
1. Grocery stores like Safeway and Superstore 2. Libraries 3. Laws about sound pollution and the use of air brakes in urban areas. 4. Baths and Showers with proper water pressure and steady temperature. 5. Ethnic Restaurants. So to my North American friends and family out there, I hope you enjoy and appreciate that you have all these things at your fingertips:) And if you were living in a foreign country, what do you thin you'd miss?

Congrats April!

A big congrats to my sister April who not only is a mean lemon meringue pie maker, but just landed her first "real" job! She will be starting a teaching job in the fall in the lovely city of Montreal. She must have made quite an impression because she hasn't even graduated yet and they hired her! Way to go SIs!

A Marvelous Mothers Day

Here are some shots from Mothers Day. I've enjoyed reading other people's blogs about what they did on Mothers Day, it's neat we have a day to appreciate moms and all they do. I got to chat with my own Mom a bit too, which was nice but made me miss her a lot. So I awoke to rustlings and bangings out in the kitchen which is a very unusual sound. Then Blaise brought me a card Zaak had made, and he told me "Happy Day, Mama" at Zaak's prompting - very sweet. The card included the gift of a massage at a place on the way to Coban with babysitting provided by Papa. I then got up to 3 beautiful bouquets of flowers and some treats from the market for breakfast. After that we watched the home movie DVD Zaak had just finished of our first few months in Guatemala. Blaise loves watching "Baby Blaise" on TV:) Even better than Baby Eistein (his current favorite). Later Zaak asked "So do you want to go out for lunch?" Of course I did, and ended up having brunch. We played outside afterwards and then went home for naps. At church that evening we were blessed by having Acadia dedicated. It was a full and wonderful day, I'm already looking forward to next years!

Sleeping Beauty

For the Love of Tea...

This is what I look forward to every morning. I have a nice hot cup of Mildred Tea (the closest thing to Earl Grey that I can get here), and a "Pan Mexicana" which is a cinnamon-y sweet bread from our local bakery. I used to be a bit into coffee for awhile, but I've returned to my first love; tea. Also I have a special mug that I like my morning tea in, the red gardenia one in the photo. I have particular mugs for hot chocolate and herbal tea as well. Does that make me eccentric I wonder? Nah:)

Diaper Daze

We were hoping to have Blaise out of diapers by the time the baby came, but unfortunately he has a mind of his own and is not ready to bid the diaper farewell. So here we are, two kids in diapers. I'm sure glad Zaak and I are a team, because changing two kids' bums on my own would be rather taxing. I'm not sure who's easier to change, because Blaise fights getting changed but Acadia often pees just when I'm switching from the dirty diaper to the clean one (hence wetting her clothes).