Congratulations in order

Our congratulations to Tasha (Rob's cousin) and Phillip who were married this last Saturday in Bellingham. We're sorry we missed the wedding, and especially the cake!!! All our best wishes go out to you guys.

(photos courtesy of Scott)

Baby Aitken Makes an Appearance

Well, a week has come and gone and with it the arrival and departure of Lindsay, Ewart, and Owen. We had a fantastic week together of sand, surf, food and a lot of settling. (Settler's of Catan - our favorite board game for those of you not in the know!)

The boys were so cute together, although we really had to try and keep giant Lucas from squishing baby Owen flat. After Lucas got over the confusion of Owen not playing cars with him, he quite took to having him around; sitting beside him and watching him every once in a while.

Look carefully at Lucas' left hand in the above picture. We believe he may be saying, "hey dude, you're a little close buddy." teeheee...

Pretty good looking families, hey?!

What a looker!

Ouch!

Happy Easter!

I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you all. Here we were spoiled with gifts from Grandmas and a warm swim in the pool. It was especially exciting to have chocolate bunnies left by the Herman's when they came to visit. Just look at the pleasure on Lucas' face!

As Easter, of course, is primarily a religious holiday (and a very important one) in a predominantly Catholic country such as Mexico, there were no bunnies to be seen around here. Just a few chickens running around and cock-a-doodle-dooing as usual! The Easter thrill here was a visit from Sub-commander General Marcos - the highly esteemed as well as mysterious leader of the Mexican Zapatista movement. Rob was very disappointed to have missed his two appearances, but I think perhaps it was a good thing; I don't really think we would have fit in... ;~P Rob seemed to think we should try and get a photo of him and Lucas... well...I didn't really think that it was such a great idea! I've posted a stolen photo that someone else took yesterday. Those of you who have been to visit will recognize the main downtown basketball court.

I hear it's raining a lot in Vancouver; we'll send thoughts of sunshine to you. Ting

Barra de Potosi

It seems as though it's been an awfully long time since Rob has had a day to play, so this morning (after a little lazing about) we got off to Barra de Potosi for a day of fun. We had only ever been there once before with George, Justine and Logan, and so we thought it was time to give it another try. This time we opted to hang out on the lagoon side of the area, where it meets the sea. After checking on the security of swimming in potentially crocodile infested waters, we chose a great little shady spot with knee-deep lagoon water for Lucas to paddle about in. He's really mastering his water wings, I'll tell you!

Anyways, we spent a great day kayaking through the lagoon, (Lucas fell asleep it was so peaceful) eating all sorts of yummy seafood creations, swimming, kicking a ball around and laughing. Lucas was the charmer as usual, making friends with other kids and posing for photos for Mexican tourists. Today Lucas also surprised us by showing us he could shake his head for no (apparently he's been watching us intently when vendors come by to sell us stuff!) as well as for signing "please" when the ice-cream man came by. How could we resist?!

I hope you all had a great weekend too!

A Peek into my Day

Happy April!

I thought I'd share a little slice of Ting life with you today.

This morning was quite an insightful for me when I took the dogs and Lucas to the beach for our normal dog exercise after dropping Rob off at work. It started quite badly with Pillo clothes-lining Lucas from the side and knocking him very hard onto the ground. This, of course, was followed by abundant tears and much sand wiping on my part as Pillo lay submissively (not bouncing) as his punishment. Crisis solved with a lovely little stroll in the shade. Then everything got out of control. First, Chola went for a swim, which means incredible barking to announce that she is in the water and I'd better watch her NOW in case she gets blindsided by a wave and needs assistance. At the same time Pillo was refusing to retrieve his ball which was quite a ways down the beach from me. So what does Lucas do to help? Runs, (which is truly a run, not jog) down the beach in the opposite direction from all the doggy action. As I ran off after Lucas and hauled him back screaming, I was dropping every dog and kid toy with me (too many) and avoiding the pointed stares of the tourists having their breakfast at the cafe. Erk. This is when it came to me; I really am, whatever others may think, a much more patient person than I was pre-baby. I didn't scream once, nor did I shed tears; even though wanted to!(And this is a very good thing I think!) Haha! A little moment for you to picture me in.

I can't tell you how much I miss being in Vancouver as the Cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the buds poke their heads out to see the world. I especially miss those cool rains and wandering through the neighborhood with dogs, strollers a cup of coffee and good friends! This all comes as the heat begins to rise here in Zihuatanejo. Those lovely cool breezes are starting to fade away into searing heat and sticky humidity once again. Rob and I put the air conditioner on last night for the first time in what seems like many months. Ah well, I can finally bare getting into the pool again! (It was actually too cold for a while! HA! I've never been one much for cold water; even here I still prefer a warm shower.) We are, however, seeing lots of spring blooms on the trees here as well. Mom tells me the bright orange ones are Acacia trees, but alas the rest I do not know. I am simply enjoying them. We are also seeing a reduction in the visibility of tourists in the area, although Semana Santa (Holy Week) should bring a swack more.

The dogs, I'm happy to report, are feeling much better. Pillo, who is becoming fat, is currently obsessed with what we think may be geckos living in or around the stove. Yesterday he managed to pull the stove apart into metal pieces in his attempt at gecko liberation. Chola has become my little shadow as she follows me faithfully around the house now. We all change, I suppose and Chola is just needing a little more Mommy time these days.

Speaking of Moms, it's great to have Mom back and we are slowly sorting out our rightful roles in the household. Lucas has been enjoying having another person to boss around, that's for sure!

Wowzers...

I can't believe I haven't posted since the first of March! Thanks to Mom's friends for their encouragement to keep it up. I had sort of gotten caught up in other writing projects and have been ignoring this.

It has been a busy month so far with the cycle of visitors starting again. We had Emily, whom I taught with at Bodwell, visit for a week at the beginning of the month, and now we are enjoying a visit with Rob's parents. I am jumpy with excitement as the date for mom's return creeps nearer. She arrives on Monday and then on Tuesday morning we are all piling into a mini van and driving to Acapulco for two nights. It should be a crazy week! I'm sure it is going to take Lucas a couple of weeks to wind down after all the excitement of seeing his grandparents...but so much fun!

Rob has been really busy at the club with 100% occupancy. As exciting as this has been we find ourselves looking forward to the end of the high season so that we can have a bit more time together. Rob has been working a pretty grueling schedule of six days a week and very long days. Ironically he will now be home before Lucas and I as the manager's retreat this year is in Vancouver! I was a bit stunned at the news since had we planned it better we could have gone home together, but that's the way it works sometimes. I think they'll have him pretty booked up anyways.

The weather here as been quite lovely the last month with gentle breezes coming in and out most of the days. Lucas and I have slipped quite comfortably into a nice routine of dog walking, car playing, eating, dancing and laughing together. He is an increasingly active boy. He happily walks several kilometers on his own when we walk the dogs. It's not usually in a straight line...but the stroller is rusty from unuse! He is trying very hard to get more words out and has mastered some of the basic baby signs we've taught him. Thus communication is getting easier and easier. He is growing upwards very fast, and those feet of his that were unnaturally large when he was born; well they are still unnaturally large! I think the shoe shops here are going to like us. Even if they constantly try and discourage me from buying such big shoes for a 1 1/2 year old!

We've had lots of doggy adventures in the last month or so. Unfortunately these have not been so good. Chola had a terrible encounter with an angry, angry hippie who decided to punt her like a football from two feet away. Granted she had peed on his dirty blanket that was on the ground, but I was right beside her and would have happily paid for his hemp bracelets. Poor Chola, who is mostly deaf and blind, just couldn't fathom what had happened and literally cried in pain as she curled up like a little bug. Needless to say, all of Mom's unintentional training in how to swear is Spanish came in very useful. I'm afraid I made quite a scene yelling in Spanish and then English when words failed me. Anyways, I scooped up Lucas and picked Chola up off the ground to see if she could get home. The man said nothing and sheepishly began to clean up his wares. It took us a disproportionate amount of time to get home, where I finally crumbled and called Rob in tears. The idiocy of some people I will never understand.

Since the incident, Chola has been pretty sore, but in good spirits. I think she likes the extra attention. She has however developed a worse limp than normal, so we thought we should take the dogs off to the vet for a check-up since Pillo was also due for some vaccines. Well, we always try and do a bit of a better groom before the vet (you wouldn't wear dirty underwear to the doctor would you?) and what would I find to my horror and disgust? Ticks. Nasty, nasty, blood-sucking ticks. I shudder even now just to remember. When Chola was a pup she had once had fleas and I had though that was just about the grossest thing. I was wrong. Ticks are worse.

It turns out the anti-tick flea etc. stuff we had been giving them just wasn't strong enough for the Mexican variety. So our vet appointment turned into a 24 hour gong-show of de-ticking the dogs and de-yuckifying the house. The war on bugs just never seems to end in this tropical environment. The dogs, for the most part however, are doing much better now. We figure Chola was feeling pretty sick with all those ticks sucking the life out of her. Poor thing.

Well, I hope no-one is gagging from that story. I think maybe I needed some blogging-therapy to get it out of my own system. I was having trouble sleeping because I kept waking up dreaming about ticks! Perhaps you can carry that weight for me now?!!

This morning a Jehova's Witness without a word of Spanish knocked on our door to try and convert Rob. We laughed to learn that he was from Vancouver Island and his wife had gone to the same high school as Rob. So weird.

Have a super weekend. Ting

My Boys Again...

Another great pic of my two favorite boys for your viewing pleasure.

Rice Face

He's just so darned cute...

A Chilly Weekend???

Last weekend it was off to Patzcuaro again for a chilly yet refreshing get-away from Zihuatanejo. We have come to love this little town that has so much to offer and were not disappointed in this third trip.

Our first night found us arriving a little on the late side. One of the quaint things about Patzcuaro to us is some of the mystery enshrouding it; one of which was that we couldn't find any reasonably-priced hotels to book on-line. We decided to gamble and just arrive and find a place to stay. After touring several hotels, we settled on the best option...brrrrrrrrr... I'm not sure sure what we were thinking. The double bed was definitively not big enough for three, and it could not have been any colder to our poor tropically-acclimatized bodies. I think Lucas slept ok, but Rob and I surely did not. I can't tell you how happy we were to get out in the morning and warm up in the sun with a mug of coffee and a plate of hot cakes. Lucas was in heaven feeding and chasing the pigeons (emphasis on the chasing since I don't really think that running after them with large cracker chunks counts as feeding.) We did several wanders through the market and oohed and awed at all the knock-offs. We didn't buy much because we mostly just saw clothes that would only work in winter and heaven knows we're already out of style I can only imagine what we'd look like if we showed up back in Vancouver in a couple of years in those... tee hee. Lucas of course cashed in on DVD's and socks.

This extended visit allowed us the time to visit some of the churches around the town, always a treat. We were a little awed to be able to see the tomb of Don Vasco de Quiroga, the beloved founder of the region.

For our second night's stay we found a gorgeous plant-filled, terraced hotel with a mega bed. Ahhhh... After a some hysterical antics from an over-tired and over-excited Lucas, we fell into deep and blissful sleep that didn't have us reminiscing of camping at Strawberry Point on the May 24.

Sunday began with another fabulous breakfast before we headed out to Isla Janitzio, as seen in the photo above. Although our Lonely Planet guide said it wasn't highly recommended except for during the day of the dead festivities, we really enjoyed our morning. The boat ride was quite beautiful and the island itself very interesting in its own unique way.

Lucas hams it up an on the boat ride.

Fishermen "performing" in the lake for the tourists.

This is a picture of the little graveyard on Janitzio. I can imagine that it really would be something else to see this island during the day of the dead, as places like this, which to me seem so picturesque already, would jump out at you with even more colour, history and emotion. We walked all the way to the top of the island, winding our way through homes, shops, a basketball court and this cemetery.

We really could have spent more time here exploring and enjoying the people, but a toddler's needs are a toddler's needs, and we left without climbing yet another set of stairs (something we always seems to do a lot of when traveling, anyone else?!)

Thus we headed home on Sunday afternoon pleasantly pooped and missing our pooches.

It was a great trip for Rob, Lucas and I, all in all (except for the food poisoning I brought home. Blech...but that's another story.)

The final photo here is of Lucas showing off his break-dancing moves in his slick new Adidas track suit and DVS sneaks courtesy of his homies Uncle Fred and Uncle Lanny...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our own 'lil Cupid wishes you all a day of friendship and love!

I know, I've got too much time on my hands...

This is Lucas saying, "Come on Mom, you can't be serious..." After which he ripped the wings off in seconds flat. I think they stayed on all of about twenty seconds in total after numerous attempts on my part. Ah well, you all get the point. And yes, I know...Rob's going to kill me!

Sleepy Head

Just a few Lucas pics (surprise, surprise!) to get your week off to a good start...

I really didn't want to share that banana split you know... it's just that...well...

By the way, I keep forgetting to put a link to my friend Randy's blog called Harper 3, Abbey 1. He's been posting a comic strip he created about his daughters, and I've really been enjoying it. I think many of you other parents would too. Randy is of Tracey and Randy who lived in Vancouver not too long ago, then moved back to Ontario. Harper was just little little then. Abbey is a couple of months older than Lucas.

budding artist

Well, I finally feel like the holiday season is now over. All our guests have come and gone for the time being, and Rob, Lucas, the dogs and I find ourselves alone in the house for the first time in months. We are looking forward to slipping into a bit of a routine of work and play. It is going to take a little juggling of schedules as the class I'm teaching is at the very inconvenient time of bath and bed time. On the flipside, it has been really great to see Rob and Lucas develop their own bedtime routine when I'm out at work, and it is a great relief to me to know that Lucas will go down happily for his Dad. Might I dream of a night away one day soon?!

I've been trying very hard to find some other kids for Lucas to play with. The new play place that opened has given me the opportunity to meet two other moms, but the class I enrolled Lucas in was a bust. The anticipated enrollment turned out to be just Lucas... so he had the class to himself. Needless to say, it wasn't really what we had in mind. I'm going to give a try again in February. This week I also tried to organize a Mom and Tot get-together at our house. Had everyone who said they would shown, we would have been eight moms. Unfortunately we were only three. The two who came loved the songs I taught them, but they both have itty bitty babes, so Lucas was VERY disinterested. Again, I will try again in couple of weeks and see if I have any more success.

So that's where I'm at now. We have a couple of possible play-dates this week, and I think Lucas and I will wander over to a couple of the daycares and see what we think. Other than that we are happily playing cars, smushing playdough, drawing, dog-walking, cooking, watering plants, and of course endlessly sweeping up sand and dog hair! (One of Lucas' favorite activities.) My apologies to many of you to whom I owe emails, I'm simply not finding the time these days, and am exhausted when I get back from work in the evenings.

Uncle Scottie and Trucks

It has been a very busy, and very testosterone-filled couple of weeks...! Lucas was thrilled when Uncle Scott arrived; especially because he came bearing a new hummer to add to the collection. Lucas has been inseparable from both the truck and his Uncle since. I'm afraid my "way" of playing trucks just won't be the same when Scott leaves!

Lucas compares the colour of a maraschino cherry to Uncle Scott's burn (day 1... I promised not sure show pictures of the next set of burns.)

The Herman boys plays trucks over morning coffee.

New Years, Friends, and Starts

On the 27th of December we welcomed our friends from Vancouver Rob, Paula and Nate. (I'm not sure who the woman with the braids on the left is!) They joined us for six days of surf and sun, and helped us ring in the New Year. It was wonderful to get to know them better and share some laughs. It was also fun for Lucas to have a friend to play with...although at this age playing seemed to consist of toy-stealing and crying for Lucas! Nonetheless the boys were laughing and interacting by the time Nate left. It was really great to re-connect with Paula, get to know Rob, and see how much Nate had changed.
We also shared some wickedly-competitive games of Pick Two; our newest game obsession. (Thanks Santa Justine!) New Years was rung in amongst shouts of "pick two!" fireworks, and gunshots, of course. Quite exciting.

Quite likely due to Nate's older-boy influence, Lucas has begun to really put the push on developing his linguistic abilities. He is now grunting a little less and trying to form some "real" words beside his current repetoire of mama, dada, aba, dog, and mangled versions of car and truck. Yesterday it was ball and boat that he was obsessed with. He went to bed talking to himself happily. I was a little worried that he was talking in tongues and we were dealing with some sort of a religious prophet until I remembered that Logan did much the same thing at this age. Phew...

Pics: Enjoying Troncones with the Gills.

Sadly we said goodbye to everyone, including Mom, yesterday. The house has seemed quiet and I'm finding that morning nap is not quite the same without mom to distract me with food and conversation. Lucas dragged me into her room to play "Abuela games" this morning, and seemed a bit miffed at me for what I suspect was the fact I was playing them wrong. We hope she has a great visit in Vancouver and look forward to her return in February.

A new circus has arrived in town, so we are off tonight to give it a whirl. We'll see how long Lucas lasts! Tomorrow Scott is arriving to spend a couple of weeks with us. He thinks he's coming to lay on the beach... but Lucas may have other plans for his uncle, I see the cars are all lined up for some sort of a derby?!

Christmas in Zihua

Merry Christmas to you all! We hope you shared good food and good times with good people this holiday. Here's a little photo tour of how we spent ours.


Mom and I sat up late on Christmas Eve sewing some last minute stockings and chatting. I woke up at midnight, after having fallen asleep on the sofa, to the sound of fireworks and dogs howling. It seems as though just about any occasion will do as an excuse to make loud bangs here. Rob rolled in at two in the morning after a very busy and also very successful dinner service at the club.

It was very hard to keep Lucas away from the tree and the taunting new digger at six thirty in the morning, so after half an hour of me trying to convince him to watch just a little more Pooh's Christmas, we were up rousing the house with loud sounds of delight. A big thank you to Deb who graciously lugged the ten-pound vehicle to Zihua in her suitcase for us. Lucas is in love with it. It was quite a struggle to get him into bed last night without tucking the digger in beside him for the night ...

Lucas was very intrigued with his Christmas stocking, and dutifully showed Daddy everything he found in his, and then in Abuelita's. He was, however, slightly disgruntled that Daddy received a Hot Wheels ATV in his stocking, and was sure Santa had made a mistake.

We were thoroughly spoiled by family who generously sent things down to make Christmas very special indeed. Although we missed everyone terribly, it was a warm reminder of how much we all do value our family and our friends. We were touched by the phone calls and emails we received. Here is Lucas with his new easel. Mmmm...chalk tastes goooooood...

After a lovely day of swimming, ice cream and relaxing, we ended the evening with shrimp ceviche, a roast pork, roast potatoes, carrots, a bottle of good wine and a game of Settlers.

Happy Boxing Day!