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My Dislocated-Broken Arm… One Year Update

17 May

One year ago this week I dislocated and broke my arm during a weekend visit to Tulum.

This will be my very last update about my arm. For the most part it feels normal. Sometimes there is some clicking and clacking and it does feel a little odd when I do certain movements.

Compare these two pictures to the ones in this post and you will see the progress I have made! At one point the doctor told me that I might not be able to touch hands above my head anymore, but as you can see…I can!

$physical therapy fractured humerus$

I hope that weight training and stretching will help to improve the second position even more. I also hope to make another weekend visit to Tulum soon, one without any accidents!

4 Comments

Posted in Dislocated Shoulder and Fractured Humerus

Mother’s Day in Mexico

10 May

Today, May 10, is Mother’s Day in Mexico and I am having a wonderful day!

In Mexico, Mother’s Day is on May 10th every year, not on the second Sunday in May like in the U.S., Canada, and some other countries.

It’s hard to find the words to describe just how happy I am to be a mother. It is the single most important thing in my life. Period. I love my son with all my heart and soul and being.

Today, my boss took all the moms out to lunch at a lovely seafood restaurant, Mocambo, in the Hotel Zone.

This was our view…not bad!

Then he sent us home for the rest of the day! Nice surprise!

Bebe is too young to understand what Mother’s Day is. Papi forgot it is Mother’s Day. It’s OK though, I was a mother yesterday, and I’ll be one tomorrow.

Now if you’ll excuse me Mami is off to the mall! Feliz Dia de las Madres!

3 Comments

Posted in I'm a Wife and a Mommy, Living in Mexico

My Bebé on Isla Mujeres

30 Apr

A week ago last Sunday we took another trip to Isla Mujeres. As usual it was because we had some friends visiting, and Isla is just the perfect place for a day trip.

As we went on our usual picture taking rounds, I thought about how many times my Bebé has taken this day trip in his 2 years and 6 months. According to my calculations it is 6 times. Then I started thinking about how different he must look in the pictures from the first trip compared to the pictures from the most recent trip.

1st Trip – with my bro, his beloved uncle

Waiting for the ferry…so little!

Love this one…

Awwwww…

2nd trip – with great friends from Chicago

We had the perfect day.

And this is the perfect picture! He’s grown a bit.

3rd Trip – with BFF and her husband

Group picture while waiting for the ferry…

PLEASE look at the camera!

4th Trip – with great friends from Wisconsin

Another perfects shot. Difficult to take bad pictures here.

Practicing for parenthood!

5th Trip – Grammy’s here!

He was happy about it even though he doesn’t look like it here. He’s looking huge too.

6th Trip (last week) – Great friends from Wisconsin are back and they brought more friends with them.

Yeah definitely huge now. Weighs a ton too.

This was the first time I didn’t hold him on the golf cart. In fact he wanted to ride in the other one! (we got two)

My Bebé sure has grown. We are so lucky that he is healthy and safe, but why is looking at baby pictures always a little bittersweet for a mommy?

2 Comments

Posted in I'm a Wife and a Mommy, Living in Mexico

Mamá’s Food Frustration

09 Apr

It has been awhile since I posted something that didn’t have a lot to do with Mexico, and had more to do with me as a mommy and all of the challenges that come with the job. I have something that I need to get off of my (shrunken and deflated since I stopping breast feeding) chest.

Let me make my Mommy Disclaimer first: I LOVE my Bebé. He is the best thing that ever happened to me. He is smart and cute and affectionate and I miss him desperately whenever I am not with him. Now, on to the frustration…

um, my kid only eats like 4 things!

Yes, he likes everything sweet like cookies and candy and he loves yogurt and crackers and cereal and baby carrots and popcorn but I am talking about dinner food. Most of the 4 things he likes aren’t even good for you. His number one favorite food is chicken nuggets. Great. I feel especially good about this after seeing all those pink slime reports. He also likes french fries. Shocking I know. Let’s move on… fish sticks. I originally bought them because I was desperate for him to eat something different and since they look similar to chicken nuggets I figured he’d eat them. He did. He does eat spaghetti with sauce, the good kind of mixed colored spaghetti, not the all white kind. Although this is my one shining light at the end of the tunnel, I have tried to sneak things in like ground beef but no dice, he freaked out and refused to eat it. He ate quesadillas for awhile (On whole wheat tortillas!) but I think I depended on them a little too much and he got sick of them.

Every time I make something new, IF he tries it, he definitely doesn’t like it. It’s so depressing for a girl who doesn’t love to cook in the first place and isn’t great at it (ask my husband). Last week I made tuna nuggets, baked not fried. He looked at them “Chicken!” he exclaimed. He sunk his teeth in and a terrible disappointed look came over his face and a sound something like “Blaaaaaa.” came out of his mouth. The tuna nugget came out of his mouth too.

Thank God for daycare. He eats tuna nuggets there, and rice and beans, and all kinds of Mexican food that a gringa like me has never heard of.

My mom says, “Just give him what he likes,” and someone once told me, “No kid goes off to college eating only chicken nuggets,” but then I saw a girl on the news who did.

6 Comments

Posted in I'm a Wife and a Mommy

Crococun Zoo in Cancun: What got into me?

30 Mar

Crococun is a zoo about 30 minutes south of Cancún. My friend and I got some free passes so we took our boys on a Saturday afternoon. The cool thing about Crococun is it’s interactive, you can feed many of the animals and many of them just live there, they aren’t confined. Some were rescued as well.

I am most definitely not a snake, alligator, etc. kind of person, but ever since I went ziplining…I have felt a little crazy…like I can do anything! So I held a baby alligator, and a snake. Yikes!

Since I wasn’t afraid (or at least I didn’t appear to be), Bebé felt pretty comfortable around the animals and touched many of them. His favorites were the monkeys, who take banana right out of your hand, and the deer, because they are completely tame and you can feed them!

This doggie is a Mexican Hairless Dog or a Xoloitzcuintli. I used to think they were kind of gross looking but now I love them. They are very sweet dogs. This one was named “Guera” (White Girl). Many people call me that here so I decided we should have a picture taken together. I love how we are posing the same way. Don’t we look alike?

The most interesting part about Crococun is probably the fact that there is a section that visitors can walk through where crocodiles roam free. The guide assured us that they are well fed and used to visitors. I hadn’t heard any news stories about anyone being eaten at Crococun, so we just walked in. Seems kind of crazy now. The boys had their picture taken with a huge croc (Bebé almost sat on him!) and so did I. (Pay attention…that’s not a rock at the bottom of those photos…it’s a huge crocodile!)

There were also parrots, lizards, turtles…this is a really fun place to spend an hour or so. It is very clean and well-maintained. I believe we’ll have to make a yearly visit!

4 Comments

Posted in Living in Mexico

A 1st Day of Spring Parade

24 Mar

I really like Bebé’s daycare. On Monday they had a parade to celebrate the first day of Spring. His class was dressed as bumblebees and butterflies…and what is better than bumblebees and butterflies?

Here they come!

Mine is the one with his mouth open and a balloon in front of his face.

A bumblebee and a butterfly.

Doesn’t he look thrilled?

He did eventually have some fun…

Can’t wait to see what they come up with for Mother’s Day!

6 Comments

Posted in I'm a Wife and a Mommy

Cool Turtle Release Event at Xcaret

20 Mar

This week I was invited to Xcaret to cover a turtle release for work. They raise the turtles at Xcaret until they are 15 months old and then release them, hoping they will have a better chance of survival as they are bigger. Visitors and school children watch/participate in the release.

Some of my pictures have nothing to do with the turtles, but there are lots of cool things to take pictures of at Xcaret!

We had a delicious lunch after the turtle release. I had 3 desserts! Bad girl!

Xcaret is an amazing place to spend a day, whether you are on vacation or you live in the area.

4 Comments

Posted in Living in Mexico

Carnaval Cancun 2012

25 Feb

Hola! It’s Carnaval time all over the world, as well as in Cancun. My favorite part of Carnaval has always been the parade. This post is not going to have a lot of pictures because it is really difficult to take photos of a parade (um yeah it’s constantly moving) at night with a regular old non-professional camera! However, I managed to get a few nice ones.

Waiting...

I LOVE the costumes...want one!

Latinas...they learn how to shake it early!

More great costumes...

When he wasn't dancing and clapping his mouth was open in awe.

La Reina!

The Sol float.

We really enjoyed the parade, although I wish it would have been longer. Who knows maybe Bebé will be in it someday, or maybe someday I will squeeze into one of those costumes and be in it myself!

2 Comments

Posted in Living in Mexico

Our Weekend at the Cancun Cup 2012

16 Feb

Last weekend I had to cover a beach soccer tournament, the Cancun Cup 2012 for work. I wasn’t really that excited about it, except for the fact that it would mean getting out of the office for a few hours on Friday afternoon, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a total blast and I loved it. I took Bebé on Saturday and went with Papi, Bebé and a bunch of friends on Sunday.

I won’t bore you with the game details. You can see that here.

I was pretty excited on the first day.

My credential. Whoo-hoo! Little ol' me and Fox Sports.

The temporary stadium was pretty impressive, and what a view!

C'mon, everyone likes the Corona Girls.

Here they are again. They would pose for me which is more than I can say for the soccer players.

My bubba and the goalie from the US team.

He did well in the bleachers because Mommy brought popcorn. Smart Mommy.

Bebé gets popcorn, Mommy gets beer.

The third day was the most fun, although it was the hardest day to actually get my work done because my family and friends where there. Plus I drank a lot more beer that day. The crowd was larger than it had been the two previous days which made it louder and more exciting. The final game was Mexico vs. USA. My friend brought paint for the boys faces and Bebé had a Mexico shirt on. Photographers came over to take pictures of them and my boss saw Bebé on TV!

Day 3, Papi came with!

Someone had fun...and Mexico won the tournament!

Viva Mexico!

8 Comments

Posted in Living in Mexico

Our Day at La Playa Xpu-ha in the Riviera Maya

09 Feb

On Sunday we escaped Cancun for the day and drove a little over an hour to La Playa Xpu-ha Beach Club, which is south of Playa del Carmen. We had never been there before so it was kind of a little adventure. We found it without any problems and as we pulled into the dirt road entrance we were stopped by a rope and a little boy who charged us 25 pesos (about 2 US Dollars) per person (Bebé didn’t have to pay) to enter. If we spent at least 100 pesos at the beach club (Um, no problem there!) we would get our money back when we left.

Almost there.

After we parked and walked through the restaurant to the beach club, this is what we saw…

Ahhhhh!

Of course we grabbed the best seats in the house, two lounge chairs and an umbrella right on the shore. As soon as we got settled a waiter came to inform us that you had to RENT the first row, for 250 pesos! What a rip off! No wonder most of them were empty.

We told him forget it and moved back a row. Papi was pretty irritated but Bebé didn’t seem to mind.

The expensive seats.

This is the best Mommy!

A little while later, Bebé met some friends. He was so happy to have someone to play with.

Can I play with you chicas?

I love to play with Papá too.

Next, it was time for Mommy to make some new friends! All they did was buy me a tequila and I moved all of our stuff over by them and hung around for the rest of the day! LOL

Mommy's new Canadian friends. Please move to Cancun!

Then, as if we weren’t having enough fun…the live Salsa group started! Bebé and I went to check ‘em out.

Nothing better than live Salsa music on the beach.

Bebé was sizin' up the group. His papá is a musician after all.

It never rained but it was raining somewhere!

We were hoping the day would never end, but eventually the Canadians and the band started packing up. Papi went to chat with the musicians and Bebé went to play with their equipment.