Welcome to my blog sisters!

This is a great photo of Oliver and his two aunts. What a lucky little boy!
This is Oliver and me with his Kansas breakfast birthday cake. Thanks auntie Liz, it was delicious!

Oliver and his Kansas cousins

Oliver with cousins Nathan and Philip.

Oliver with cousin Grace.

Oliver's current fascination is children. His whole face lights up when he sees little people around. Lucky for him, he has lots of little cousins in both Kansas and Mexico. While here on our visit he thoroughly enjoyed playing with his cousins who came over on Saturday evening. Little Grace, who is three and has a little 4 month old sister, was especially adorable interacting with Oliver. As she put it, "Now I've got another baby to take care of." And wow, did she do a great job! As she explained to Oliver how to play with his set of rings, Oliver looked up to her like she really knew what she was talking about. And Grace was satisfied indeed, to finally have a baby react to her instructions!

Top ten book list

Steph tagged me on this awhile ago, but life has been crazy with moving and now a quick trip to Kansas to celebrate my older sister's wedding. While wading through my old books, I got inspired to finally make my own list. So here's my list, although it's in no particular order and as many of you have said on yours, I'm sure there's some book I've overlooked!

Here goes...

1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Just a wonderful book. I've read a number of her books, but this was my favorite. I loved that it took place in Africa rather than in the Southwest as I enjoy reading about other parts of the world.

2. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie.
All I can say is incredible!! I absolutely loved his characters and the whole intricate magical mess of it all.

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Again incredible!! I am very into magical realism. To me Mexico itself has a magical quality, and life here tends to feel as if out of a novel sometimes. I intend to post more on that.

4. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Can you see a trend here? More magical realism, but this one exudes steamy sensuality plus I love the recipes and the way it centers around the kitchen. I love reading about food because I love preparing it, eating it and serving it. Food is so much more than just nurishment to me, it's beauty, it's color, it's something to share, to present beautifully, to relish and to celebrate. My husband mentioned starting our own slow food group with friends down in Guadalajara, something I'm really looking forward to.

5. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
I really enjoyed this book because it gave me another glance into Chinese culture & tradition, and especially into the difficult transition for Chinese immigrants moving to the US, as well as the perspective of their second generation immigrant children. Now that I live between two cultures myself, and my son will have two cultural identies, I appreciate this book even more.

6. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
This was an eye-opening book for me while learning about the racism in the old South while at the same time seeing the modern day predjudice and racism in my own high school.

7. The World According to Garp by John Irving
This book, recommended to me by my sophmore English teacher, was another high school eye opener for me. I was somewhat naive in my sexuality at that point, so this book was a real page-turner!

8. Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins
This was another favorite later in high school. I enjoyed Tom Robbins writing style and his reference to ancient goddesses as I was questioning my own beliefs at the time and was interested in feminism and women's role in religion.

9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
This book was just a great read.

10. Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austen
This was another favorite of mine in high school. A wonderfully classiclove story!

Phew! I did it. Late, but done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVER!

Today Oliver turns one year old!

This afternoon we will be celebrating his birthday at his great-grandparents' house. Hopefully, I'll be able to upload some photos later this afternoon.

Ditto, ditto, ditto

This post is from Monday, October 2. Once again, sorry for the delay, but it's hard to get these posts uploaded without internet at home!


I just have to say that once again that I am the world’s happiest mom! Today Oliver and I had another pie in the sky awesome Guadalajara day. I swear, this city is mama/baby heaven. Today, neither of us was bored for a second. We woke up, had breakfast, and then strolled over to Lupita’s. Oliver fell asleep on the way so that I could put the wash in the washer, then I showered and joined him for a nap myself. After a nice snooze, the phone woke us up. It was Ricardo, a good friend of Jaime’s inviting us all to lunch.

Ricardo, a sweet lanky type with a large unibrow also known as “Muppet” but would kill me for writing that here, came to pick us up. Now that he’s a professional working man, he’s really trying to rid himself of his old nickname, even though some people still know him by nothing other than Muppet. Sinclair, another good friend, who came over with Ricardo, absolutely fascinated Oliver with his dark glasses, goat-tee, and funny faces. Before heading over to the restaurant we picked up Mauricio, better know as Masso, a sporty type with a great head of curly hair. (If there are any single women reading along, none of these great guys is hooked yet!)

Lunch was mostly time to catch up since we all hadn’t seen each other since last time we were in Guadalajara, and of course there was lots of business talk. Since Ricardo, Masso, and Sinclair are all associates at Saurio Films, a video house that makes commercials, videos, etc. Jaime hopes to do photography work for them too. After Lunch, Ricardo dropped Oliver and me off; Jaime stayed on with Ricardo to work on his business cards and hunt for a car. (Tonight when he got home he told me he’d found one—a 1974 Datsun, “It’s my age” as he put it and in our price range.) At home, Oliver and I had some fun smashing old water bottles to put in the trash, etc. but once I started to get tired and realized Oliver wasn’t in anyway wanting to take another nap, we went next door to visit Javier and Lorena. If I hadn’t already mentioned it, Javier and Lorena are Jaime’s aunt and uncle who are lending us one of their vacant apartments right next to theirs. It’s wonderfully gracious of them because the place is wonderful—3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, kitchen, living room, patio. It’s really more space than we can possible fill up with furniture considering we’re on a budget, but it’s awesome nonetheless. The garden/patio area is what really inspires me. I want to put grass in for Oliver to play on and plant some herbs and other plants as well. It’s the first time in a long while that we’ve had a place with an outdoor area. It’s oh so exciting!

Back to the events of the day... As I was saying, we went next door to find Lorena, her daughter Jesusita and Jesusita’s absolutely adorable two and a half year old son Alvaro. Some day I’m going to post a photo of him for you all to gawk over. This little boy is not only gorgeous with his dark hair, blue eyes and never-ending eyelashing , he’s also incredibly sweet. Oliver had an absolute ball with Alvaro. Alvaro made him laugh, Alvaro lent him his toys and they both climbed up the stairs over and over again to visit his grandad’s big shoes upstairs. Kids have fun with the strangest of games! Later, Lorena’s daughter Lorena and her husband Oscar stopped in too, although their little son Joshua, was fast asleep after his first day at Kindergarten.

After plenty of chasing Oliver up the stairs and then carrying him back down—he didn’t like the look of going down—I decided I was ready to take off and treat my tired but happy self to some caffeine. Half a block from our apartment is a wonderful little spot that sells cappuccinos and nieve de garafa, homemade ice cream. I ordered a 15 peso cappuccino, (Starbucks can’t beat that price!) and then Oliver and I headed out to the café’s little playground for a swing before my drink arrived. The café/neveria ended up being the perfect spot for a mom and baby. There were other moms with their kids, plus a live-in cat and another patron’s tiny poodle for Oliver to entertain himself with. We had a great time, and then headed home. At home Oliver ate his dinner like a pro, picking up little pieces of carrot, potato, and chicken with his newly- aquired pincer grip. Then I bathed him, read him his nighttime book and nursed him off to sleep. For a mom like me, today is what life is all about.

Happy Baby, Happy Mama

This post is from Saturday, October 1, 2006, but since we don't have internet at our new place yet and since I'm still in the midst of unpacking this post has been patiently waiting for me to upload it.

Today was one of those five star mothering days that totally reaffirmed for me our decision to move to Guadalajara as we wait out the result of Jaime’s US visa application. Saturday and Sunday are traditional family days in Mexico in which the whole extended family gathers for a meal and together time. My in-laws are no exception. When Jaime was growing up, his family would spend each Saturday with his mom’s extended family at his grandparents’ house and each Sunday with his dad’s enormous extended family, his dad is from a family of 13, at his Aunt Rosamaria’s ranch outside of the city. Each Sunday they would gather at least 50, everyone bringing their own food, and then hanging out according to their stage in life—kids together, unmarried young adults together, etc. His dad’s enormous extended family no longer meets each Sunday--I’m sure that organizing all those people got complicated, however his mom’s side still meet each Saturday without fail at his grandparent’s lovely house with a special outdoor eating area used almost exclusively for their traditional Saturday meal or for other special family functions.

This Saturday afternoon the menu was based around carne asada, steaks on the grill, but luckily for me, the only semi-vegetarian in the group, the menu also included pico de gallo jaliscience, panela, nopales, frijoles de la olla, and tortillas, of course. To wash all of that down we had agua de guayaba, agua de limon, and siempre coca cola—always coca cola. And with that said, there’s always Diet Coke too for all of Jaime’s aunts who are keeping close watch over their figures. And for dessert there were those delightful store-bought Mexican wedding cookies, and jelly filled sandwich cookies too.

With all my goings on about food, I’ve just about gotten away form why it is I’m so happy today, although the good food and good conversation certainly played a part. It was seeing Oliver so absolutely content and at ease that really made the day for me! Minutes after arriving, Jaime plopped Oliver down in the grass with his “cousins” for lack of a better word (what should Oliver call his dad’s cousin Marta’s two year old son Diego? Or his dad’s uncle Jaime’s five year old son Santiago?). They were playing with limes and limas picked straight from the trees in the garden. Oliver was mesmerized by everything—his “cousins” jumping about, the smell and texture of the limes and limas, the strange sight of the the smoke coming off the grill, and by the wonderfully lively chatter of the large group seated around the table on the patio near by. After almost a week of teething pain and only mommy’s arms will do, I can’t sufficiently express the joy I felt to watch Oliver so contentedly playing away with his cousins as if I didn’t even exist. As a matter of fact, the whole afternoon he was happy as can be, so happy that Lupita offered to stay longer just so Oliver could keep playing and exploring. It was such a great afternoon, that Oliver fell asleep on the ride home.