Guatemala 1: a different kind of place

I had never been to a developing country before. I was surprised to note that while some things were very much the same:


(that's a mall in Guatemala city)

Others were strikingly different:
For example, you can do your grocery shopping at a very normal looking store owned by Wal-mart, or you could shop here, at the central market:

Also, McDonald's serves fried chicken, or "Pollo McCrispy."

On a drive in the city I saw this:

Those are vultures. Lots of vultures.

You can sit on Santa's lap in the mall, just like in the U.S. Only he doesn't have a hat and somewhat resembles Jerry Garcia.

I thought Guatemala was a pretty amazing place. Some aspects of the history and culture are simply incredible, but you can't drink the water and have to watch your back at all times. I can't wait to write more about our experiences, but I just heard Livia wake up, so you'll all just have to wait!

P.S. I didn't think the first photo needed a caption. It speaks for itself.

Livia at 21 months

Periodically I like to post about what Livia's up to. This is mainly for the benefit of friends and family...okay, mainly grandparents...who are interested in the smaller details of her life.

• Livia takes after her father. She likes symmetry. That means that if one of the visors in the car is down, and the other is up, she throws a fit until they are either both up or both down. Weird.
• She likes to have a plate and fork or spoon when eating. Even if it's only a vitamin.
• She was obsessed with the song Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, precisely up until Christmas day had passed. Now how did she know Christmas songs are supposed to end that day?? By that point she could name all the reindeer, and if you haven't heard a one and half year old try to say Vixen and Blitzen, you are SO missing out!
• She knows colors now, and gets them right about 80% of the time. She still mixes up a few of them, but has blue, purple, and green down pat!
• Livia is officially speaking in sentences. Most of them are 2-3 words long, but she's done a couple with 5-6 words! The only downside is that we're getting a LOT more commands from our little girl. For example, if she thinks something we did was funny (like Chase saying "hey you!" in a funny voice) she'll say, "Daddy, hey you, one more." And she'll say it over, and over, and over again until you do it.
• She's still mildly obsessed with jackets, buckles, and her backpack.
• Her coloring skills have drastically improved. She can now do highlights AND lowlights.... Just kidding! But really, sometimes she will carefully select a color, scribble just the ear, or eye, or foot of a picture, and then move on. She also holds the crayons correctly almost all the time now.

That's probably enough. So....is anyone ready for me to finally post about Guatemala now??

Haircuts

Livia and I both got our hair cut recently.

It was Livia's very first!

Before: (very shaggy)


After: (much better!)



And I decided to finally do what I've been talking about for years and cut my hair short!

Here's a refresher of how long it was before: Aaaaand after!

Quiet book

Well, here it is! It took me countless hours, plus some more for things that I messed up and had to do over again at the last minute, but it's done! I've realized, once again, that being crafty is not one of my natural-born talents, but it was fun to create something.

This picture is of most of the pages I made:


1. Noah's ark
2. teepee
3. maypole
4. paper and pencil
5. mailbox (to put notes or drawings in from previous page)
6. tic-tac-toe
7. balloons that go up and down
8. shapes
9. clock
10. make a jack-o-lantern
11. colors for a rainy day
12 and 13. alphabet
14. tie a bow
15. apple tree with snap-on apples

I also made a set of pages with a closet full of little clothes on one side:
and a drawn-on person on the other. So you can dress it up! I had way too much fun with this page, and even made accessories (including the obligatory pair of red heels).

This is the completed book (before a minor disaster occurred and I had to alter the cover a bit. I'm posting this picture because it looks better than the way it looks now. :(

I also have a page where you button on flowers, but I don't have a picture of it, and it's in a room with a sleeping child at the moment, so I'll just have to do without it.

Thanksgiving

Here's our thanksgiving in pictures (I know, I know...it's about time!)


My uncle David, pulling his favorite face for the camera. Ü
Me and Chase, helping prepare thanksgiving dinner

Yummy food! For our family, thanksgiving is simply not complete without a visit from Santa Clause.

Livia did just fine with Santa...as long as she was on my lap.
Playing with Great-Grandma

Meeting the newest member of my parent's family: Tiger

(He was SO patient with Livia. She would chase him, corner him, maul him, and he never once scratched or bit her. And he's only about 7 months old!)

Hanging out with Dave!

Everyone.

Playing with Great-Grandpa. (Can you tell Livia had a great time? She was actually really sick the whole time we were there, but had so much fun with everyone that you would never have guessed it)

Mmmm. Candycane. This is mom's new secret weapon in the grocery store.

Playing in the pile of leaves outside.

Where's (little) David?

It's always so wonderful to go home. I have the most amazing family...someday I'll have to blog about each and every one of them, but now it's time to work on my quiet book (I've finished 7 pages now. Woo!).

A few things

I've got a zillion things to do tonight, not the least of which is the quiet book I'm making for Livia for Christmas (why did I think this was a good idea considering my blatant lack of creativity and craft ability??), but I've also got about 6 things I want to write about swimming around in my head. So I'm giving myself 20 minutes to get down as many of them as possible.

1. Some things in life are just innate. Like putting olives on your fingers.

Also, saying "eleleleop" during the alphabet. Livia can repeat each letter really well, and recognizes A, B, and C. But as soon as I say "K," she's off and running all the way to Q. Now who taught her that??

2. Today Livia was eating crackers under our desk (maybe it's a cool little hideaway, I don't know), and when I checked on her she had managed to crush one cracker into a dozen pieces on the carpet. "Oh no, Livia!" I said, "Look at that mess!"

"Woah!" she replied, and ran away into the kitchen.

I was pleasantly surprised when a moment later she reappeared with a napkin and crawled under the desk to begin scrubbing! She soon realized, however, that that wasn't doing much good, and started eating the crumbs off of the carpet instead. Whatever works, I guess. Ü

3. We tried to have Livia sit on Santa's lap the other night at a tree lighting. She screamed.

4. Livia is growing up so fast. She understands so much, and is learning how to communicate it to us. She likes to use her words, but a lot of them sound identical to each other (namely jacket, daddy, and car seat) so sometimes it's frustrating for her when we don't understand right away. But her pronounciation is improving everyday, and it's really fun to actually be able to talk with my daughter now, instead of simply to her.

She loves to sing songs. Well, technically she can't sing yet, but she really pays attention, and jumps in whenever there's a word she knows. For example, when I sing Jingle Bells she always jumps in on the "hey!" and "hahaha!" and other little bits like that. Sometimes I'll stop singing and point to her, and she'll surprise me by knowing the next word that's coming. I don't think I always give her enough credit. She's the same way with books. She knows what's coming, and sometimes will say the words before I have a chance to. Especially in "Mr. Brown can moo, can you?"

My time is up. I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving yet! But I'll get around to it eventually, I suppose.

Who grocery shops with a toddler??

I'm beginning to think I shouldn't, anymore. On Friday afternoon Livia and I went grocery shopping, and though she's begun trying to stand up in the front of the cart (yes, she can get out of the belt), the whole process usually goes fairly well. Not this time.

About 20 minutes into the trip (meaning I still had a good 40 minutes to go) Livia began crying. Not just a little cry, we're talking big tears here. Huge. The kind where everyone in the aisle is now giving you dirty looks and you start to panic a little. And here's where I made my big mistake. I got her out of the cart to comfort her.

She calmed down after a minute or so, so I tried to put her back in the front of the cart. And she flatly refused. Some of you may think you can force a child to sit down. Au contraire! Knees locked, arms flailed, lungs screamed. Have you ever tried to get a kid to bend their knees once they've decided they don't want to? It's near impossible.

Plan B: put her in the back of the cart with all the food. I'd never done this before, and at first she just sat there, pleased with the turn of events and content to view the world from this new vantage point. Then she was standing up. Then she was dancing to the music playing over the loudspeakers (made me a little nervous, but was pretty cute). THEN she discovered the joy of stomping, and proceeded to intentionally stomp on two loaves of bread, a box of tissues, and a box of lasagna noodles before I could stop her (significantly less cute).

Yeah, sitting in the back wasn't going to work.

So I tried the front of the cart again and was treated to an encore performance of locked knees, flailing arms, and screaming.

What now??

I tried to hold her on my hip, but she wiggled out of my arms to the ground and started pushing the grocery cart with me. "This could work," I thought. We were almost done, so I just needed her to be entertained by helping me push for a few minutes. Unfortunately the novelty wore off after about 30 seconds, and I spent the next two minutes chasing her all over the bakery section, enjoying more dirty looks from fellow shoppers. I was so exasperated at this point that I seriously contemplated leaving the store right then, cart and all, and going home. But then I'd just have to come back and do it all over again...

Finally captured, Livia was put back into the back of the cart, and wedged in between cans and other non-squashable items.

We finally made it to the checkout stand, where a store manager was eyeing me warily, and the bagger looked at me with a clear question in his eyes, "Where should I put the groceries?" So I told him there was no way she was going to sit in the front today, and just to put them all around her. So he did. She was standing in the middle of the cart surrounded by bags, and staring at me with very wide eyes.

After a few more outbursts all the bags were in the trunk, Livia was buckled in, and I promptly called Chase to beg him to come home as soon. as. possible.

The end.