13 Years Ago Today...

...I awoke at 2AM to what I would quickly realize was a contraction. My first child had been due 3 days before, on January 12. I remember January 12 had been a Sunday that year (1997). Dave and I, after realizing that we weren't likely to have a baby that day, had gone garage sailing to pass the time. At one sale, the woman had glanced at my ginormous belly and asked when I was due. She recoiled from me slightly when I exclaimed eagerly, "Today!" I was 20 (soon to be 21, but who's counting?) and Dave was 27 (and a half - as long as we're counting). We lived in a sunny little house full of windows on a darling little hill covered in oak trees in Prunedale, California (yes, they used to grow prunes there - I mean plums). Our street was called Via del Sol (By Way of the Sun) - I loved that address.

It must have been about 2:30AM or so when we called the midwife (AKA "Mom" and soon-to-be-known-as "Gramma" and eventually-known-as "Mimi"). Yes, my mom was our midwife when Cole was born. And, yes, it was kinda weird - sorry, Mom. Anyway, Cole's Birth Day went something like this (I have the exact details written down in a journal and locked away in a fire-proof safe among my other most valuable posessions ie; love letters - I mean letter - from my husband, baby books, and a stack of 8 mm video tapes - remember those? - from before we went digital. No I don't have any heirloom jewelry in there. I keep those in plain sight on my dresser, of course.) But, back to the story for today...Cole's Birth Day:

*2AM - awoke with contractions
*2:30 - called Mom
*3AM - got in the tub
*3:30 - started singing that creepy caterpillar song from Alice in Wonderland (p.s. I just watched that movie with my girls, and I'm pretty sure that caterpillar is stoned. Pretty sure.)
*4AM - barfed in the trash can in the bathroom. Dave got in on video. That video tape is in the fire proof safe, of course.
*5AM - laid back down. Dozed for a while. Cuddled with Dave. Listened to the rain on the roof.
*6AM - mom arrived with Aletha (the other midwife)
*7AM - barfed again. Dilated a centimeter - 6 centimeters now.
*8AM - got back in the tub. Sang some more.
*9AM - imagined floating down a river during contractions - I remember the very vague sensation that I was headed toward a waterfall. Interesting.
*10AM - paced in the living room with Dave
*11AM - barfed again. Dilated to 8 cm.
*12PM - did some squats in the living room. I remember hearing my mom laugh on the phone and I thought to myself, "What the &*%$ is so funny!?" Nearing transition no doubt.
*1PM - felt a switch flip and had the sudden and overwhelming urge to push.
*2:10PM - baby's heart rate slows. Mom says, "Time to push him out." Felt the collective power of all women who had given birth before me and felt my unmistakable connection to them. Felt the "bigness" of what was happening. My connection to the "whole" - way beyond physical.
*2:20PM - Our baby boy is born - a little purple. Tactile stim. A good strong cry.
*2:25 PM - We think about nursing, but my little guy has other plans. He stretches his little turtle neck up, tilts his head back and, with big blue eyes, looks up at me - directly into my eyes. Into my soul. Dave got a picture.
*2:30 PM - You're kidding. I have to push again? Felt a little sorry for myself but pushed anyway. Back into my physical person. The placenta was born.
*2:45 - Dave holds his son. I take a shower. Someone makes lunch.
*4PM - Aletha heads home. We let Morgen in to meet the baby. She'd been wining outside during the birth, worried about me. We have it on video.
*5PM - Mom and the gang head home. (My siblings and my dad were at Cole's birth, too.)
*6PM - Dave makes dinner. Cole and I rock by the fire and nurse. My nipples are on fire, too.
*7PM - Dave tucks us in and then does the dishes. Mom calls.
*8PM - We all fall asleep. Nursing. A new family of three.


Happy Birthday, my darling 13 year old boy. Still a baby. Always my baby.

Happy New Year!

Surf's Up Sayulita.

Emerson's got the "hang" of it.

"Look, Mom! I caught a hermit crab! Can I keep him?"

Up...

Up...

and Away!

Baby Leatherbacks heading to sea.

The palm tree Dave and the kids planted at the Casita, affectionately referred to as "Barefoot House" (available to rent May 2010)

Welcome 2010!

(A friend took this awesome pic - Thanks Donna.)

Feliz Navidad

Christmas Day 2009
Eve - 7, Cole ~ 13, Soleil - 3 1/2, Emerson - 9 1/2

My Christmas Birthday Girl

Did you know Evie was born on Christmas Eve? Seven years ago, today? Indeed she was, and that's how she got her pretty name


So this year, to celebrate her day, we had a beach side birthday party complete with pinata and pina coladas. That was on the 23rd and today (I guess technically it was yesterday since it's currently way past midnight- merry christmas) she opened presents under her birthday tree, we went out to breakfast at "Rollie's" and then, per her request, she and I went horseback riding on the beach - just the two of us. She is such a delight and I am so thankful to be her mama. I love you, Sissy. Here are some highlights:

"A bunny? A begging poodle? A...Idunno. What? Oh, duh. A reindeer."

Those two could almost be twins.

My best Christmas present ever.

With Edgar.

I love this one.

Sissy - you get more beautiful inside and out every year. I am so lucky to be your mama. I love you so much. Happy Birthday.

P.S. I just checked NORAD - Santa's in Greenland. I'm off to bed before he gets to my house. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to Me

Internet's back! And I take back everything bad I ever said about the Telmex guy. He did show up "manana" as promised and was able to track the problema. He's my new BFF. (You don't think it's weird that I saved his number in my cell phone, do you?)

Anyway, just wanted to say "hi" because I can. And here's a fun pick for your viewing enjoyment.

"gonna take it right into the danger zone...right intoooooo the Danger Zone"

All he needs are his aviators.

Manana

Internet's down at our casa. And, in true Mexico form, the Telmex guy is coming to fix it "manana". We've been waiting for...a while.

Here's an uber fast update while we wait for the check at breakfast:

*Dave & Em are fully recovered from Dengue. Yeah. (And I am becoming quite skilled at mosquito hunting.)

*The kids are doing great in school...learning all the bad words Senora Hernandez never taught me in high school. Who knew.

*Dave is surfing his heart out whenever possible and his abs are delicious proof of his new favorite sport.

*Our casita (did I tell you we were building a little casita on our lot?) is coming along nicely. Lots of decisions to be made. Lots of trips to the Home Depot in Puerto Vallarta. (Apparently, there's no escaping the H.D. no matter where you live.)

*Me -- I'm trying to find my groove. Sometimes I feel like my entire existence is devoted to making sure everyone else is taken care of. And, currently, everyone is fairing rather well, and I'm feeling rather...well...like I lost my compass. Ya know? (And I'm embarrassed to admit that having no internet makes me cranky.) I think I need some Mama time. Maybe I'll try yogalates (but I'm scared). Retail therapy is always helpful...and more coffee (yeah, yeah yogalates is a far healthier choice...whatever.)

Anyway, thanks for checking in and Feliz Navidad!!

I'll leave you with this image that we used for our Christmas card this year. Click to make bigger -- check out Soli's face.

And, since some of you have already seen that one and I still have a good signal, here's a few more...

Cocos helados by the river.

The river that's also a road...

The view of Monkey Mountain at sunset from the master of the casita.

Tribulations of the Tropics continued...

Dave and Emerson have Dengue Fever. The good news is that at this point it does not appear to be life threatening. That's a bonus. In fact, it seems that in these parts (and many other tropical areas) it runs rather rampant. Apparently, it is caused by a virus (actually one of four viruses) which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Lovely. Whose idea was this? Anyway, they've been sick for about five days and their symptoms are bad headaches, eye pain, and Emerson has had a fever, althouth they both seem better today. I became suspicious when no one else in the fam came down with the "flu". Then when I told another mom at school this morning what their symptoms were she said, "Dengue". Ohhh. It almost sounded like a swear word.

So we went to the clinic here in town, and the doctor said that it did appear to be Dengue. Luckily, neither of them are currently showing any signs of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever which affects a smaller number of people and can cause serious internal bleeding and all kinds of other bad problems (that we don't need to get into, right?). So, I think that as long as it doesn't evolve into Hemorrhagic Fever then it's just a matter of time (10-14 days) while treating the symptoms, resting and drinking lots of fluids. So Emerson's out of school for the rest of the week and Dave has to try to take it easy, too. The doctor gave us two boxes of paracetamol (which I believe is a form of acetaminophen) to treat the symptoms as needed. (Did you know that public health care in Mexico is free? I wanted to kiss the floor - but I refrained.) Send healing thoughts our way if you're so inclined.

On the school front, I will tell you that the Honeymoon appears to be over. In other words, the novelty of a new school has worn off. Dave coined the following stages of adjusting to a new school: fear, excitement, resistance, acceptance. Towards the end of last week we started to see some of the "resistance stage". We heard the classic, "I don't have to go if I don't want to" and my favorite, "I'll homeschool myself." Cole had an especially hard time on Friday morning (they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Mexico, of course, so the kids had school all week) so Dave sat in on a few of his classes which I think made Cole feel understood. I think it was helpful for him to see Dave communicating succesfully with limited Spanish. I think he had been disengaging in class because he was timid to try and communicate. He gained some confidence by watching Dave and seeing that even though he didn't speak perfectly he was able to communicate and no one made fun of him. And Dave was able to gain some insight into Cole's struggles and gave some suggestions on how he could be more successful in his classes. Yeah for dads. Already today we're starting to see signs of acceptance: "I don't really want to go to school today, but I'm going to." That's the attitude. And he had a successful day.

Emerson had a tough go at the beginning of the week because a "ginormous fifth grader" stole his collection of pogs right out of his hand while he was playing with some friends (the big kid also stole the friends' pogs). So he was pretty distraught (and I was peeved), but it gave us the opportunity to talk with him (Emerson's a rather docile fellow) about standing up for himself and not allowing himself to be bullied, using his BIG voice, etc. The other good to come of it was when Cole heard what happened he wanted to go to bat for his brother. He asked me if he could take Em to school the next day so he could "get it sorted". Nothing like a bully to unite brothers. As it turned out, the principal had made a new rule that pogs were no longer allowed at school and this boy had appointed himself pog sherriff and had "confiscated" the boys' pogs to turn them in to the principal. Brown noser.

Evie is adjusting very well. She has several little "best friends" in her class and she loves to take some pesos to school to buy little snacks and popsicles and aguas. On one of her first days she tried to buy an "agua" - one of the few words she knew - or thought she did. The lady gave her a juice because in Mexico an "agua" is a fruit flavored water - or a juice. She came home from school and said, "Mom, I asked for a water and she gave me a juice." We had a good laugh and now she knows. I went to school with her on Wednesday morning for an hour to see how she was getting by. Of course she loved having me in her class, and I was impressed to see how well she's getting along. She just does what the other kids do and copies into her notebook anything the teacher writes on the whiteboard.

And little Miss Soleil is totally flying under the radar. Being that she doesn't have school and she doesn't have Dengue the poor girl is just not gettin' any airtime. I might look into a little preschool after the Navidad, but the truth is, right this minute, I feel tapped out. I'm not prepared to handle the needs of another child adjusting to a new program. You know? Right now she is very happy hangin' with Mama and Daddy and we are just as happy to have her company. The other day I said to the gang as we were heading out the door, "Come on, Kiddies" and Soli said, "Yeah, come on Doggies." She cracks us up.

Thanks for checking in. H