Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

[Aksannyi]

(Note: I'm going to write this mostly in the present tense, as though I were literally keeping a journal of what happened while I was gone. Also, everything spoken is in Spanish, unless otherwise noted.)

Day One: Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I've been up since 4 AM EST now (which turns out to be 3 AM Central here in Mexico) and already I'm worn out. I haven't even seen the kids yet and all I want to do is go to bed. I'm sitting in a car with my ex mother-in-law, whom I affectionately refer to by nickname of "Mari," short for Maribel. Generally I don't actually call her anything when I speak to her, even if I'm trying to get her attention. Anyway, to continue with who is in the car: We have Mari who is driving, me in the passenger seat, Mari's aunt who is called Lala but actually has a different name (what is it with Mexicans and pet names, I'll never know, but I also know that I'll probably never know Lala's actual name as well as the names of other people in the family.), Lala's sister and also Mari's aunt whose name I do not know, though I'm sure I was told it at some point I can't remember what it is, and chances are I missed it among a flurry of Spanish anyway. Also, there is Faby (short for Fabiola, which is actually her middle name), my ex-husband's sister (Ex-husband, by the way, I call Douchebag.), her youngest son Andre, her oldest son Angel, and that's it, until we actually get to the school and pick up the kids.

Got all that? Looool. Mari, Lala, Lala's Sister, Faby, Me, Isai, Angel.

We stop for a second and surprise Douchebag's dad, who didn't know I was coming. He kind of jumped a little when he saw me. It was pretty funny. He always just says my name when he sees me. Like when he walks in the door of the house and I'm sitting on the couch, it's just "HOO-lia!" and I will usually respond with "Que?!" I guess that's kind of the thing. I don't really talk with him much when I'm in Mexico, but I want to try to change that.

I'm told Nicholas, which is my youngest child, who I named Evan but they have always called him by his middle name at the request of Douchebag, who knew how much I loved the name Evan so had his family call him Nicholas to spite me. Not that I have anything against Nicholas as a name, it's just not what I thought we had agreed on when we'd named the child. At this point, though, he answers to Nicholas, so I'm forced to accept that that's his name - anyway, I'm told that he gets out of school at 1:45 and his brother, who is called Lalito* (and always has been, explanation of the name is in a footnote because I've already over parenthesized this entry as it is) gets out of school at 2:15. It's about 1:30, and we've driven past the school. I recognize it from the last time I was here. The "Kinder" or "Jardin de niños" has a door which looks like several bright crayons with the name of the school scrolled on the side of each. It's very cute. The rest of the school looks a lot more nondescript.

All schools in Mexico are fenced in and the gates locked throughout the day. Good luck cutting class. Or showing up late.

As we drive by, they're all kind of chattering, they know I'm anticipating seeing my kids. Of course, I mean Christ, it has been two years, right? Faby says, in English, "Your heart it is just going boom-boom-boom-boom-boom right now, isn't it?" Her English is not spectacular, but I'm always grateful for what little English I get. Everyone in the family knows a little bit. Even the great aunts (or great-great aunts, in my kids' case) know a little, which surprised me, but both of them live in the United States so you'd figure after 60ish years they'd have picked something up. I suspect they were always afraid I'd judge them if they tried to use English. Kind of like Elmer said about the JPs on those Q&A sessions he had a few years back. That the JPs know stuff, but they're afraid of making an ass of themselves so they don't use it at all to save face. After they kind of got to know me, more and more English would find its way out. I was really surprised with how much they actually knew. Mari especially.

Anyway, the time is getting nearer, and I'm kind of nervous. Earlier I had texted** my friend, the one who'd driven me to the airport (much love for that, he got up around 4 AM to pick me up at 4:30 and drive me around, not many people who would do that).

Me: Landed safely in Brownsville. Excited but kind of worried. What if they dont like me anymore?
Him: Whatever. Now ur thinking too much.
Me: Well you know me. Overthinking everything. Lol.
Him: You'll be fine.
Me: Thanks. Kinda needed to hear it even tho i kinda already knew it. Omg and i was just told my visit is a surprise.
Him: For the kids I hope. Lol.
Me: Yeah for them.
Him: Cool

That was just shortly after crossing the border, also affirming with him that texts still worked in Mexico. About twenty texts later between him and my mother and my dad, I got a free message from Sprint telling me that texts were going to cost me money per text while in Mexico. I couldn't help it, I texted that to my friend, even knowing it was costing me money. Glutton for punishment, I guess, but dammit, I love texting, I'm kind of a textaholic. I did cut back though.

Anyway, I'm super nervous - worried to death about whether the kids would even remember me. I'm less concerned about Lalito as he remembered me the last time I'd come two years ago but with Nicholas I was less sure. On top of that, the fact that the kids didn't know I was coming ... well, yeah. Nervous doesn't begin to cover it.

Anyway, it's that time of day. Mari parks the car - unusual, from what I remembered. There's a kind of picking-up deal set up for the kinder that I remembered from before when Lalito was in kinder. You kind of just stop there, they recognize you, and they bring your kid to the car for you. With the older kids, you'd go to the main school gate and wait for them or if they were older, they'd find you around the corner or whatever. But we're parked today, I'm guessing so that it's easier to pick up Lalito instead of driving around for a half an hour until his classes are done. It's nearly two though, so I guess they let Nicholas wait and play with his friends while we wait for Lalito, so we don't have to make extra trips or park for extended periods of time. (I find out later that he doesn't seem to mind.)

So Mari parks the car, and gets out. She tells me to stay, she's going to get Nicholas. Uh, okay then. Works for me. She collects him from the school and takes his backpack, and I'm just surprised by how big he is. He was three when I'd last seen him, and there's a damn lot of growing between three and five. Holy fuckballs. She opens up the passenger door and sets him on my lap, and they're all like, Quien es? Quien es? He just looks at me, all suspicious. He does not know me. Part of me wants to cry, but the bigger part of me expected him to not really remember me. He hadn't the last time I'd seen him, and Nicholas ... he's not exactly the social butterfly. When he lived with us, he was diagnosed as Autistic.

Anyway, they get him to hug me and give me a kiss, but he's still just looking at me with those big brown eyes of his and I see suspicion. I'm talking to him, telling him hi, asking him how he is, what he did in school, and he says nothing. It isn't until his grandmother talks to him that he starts answering, but he's still not ready to be all like "Hi mommy what's up?" yet. Okay. He's not like, running the fuck off my lap though, so that works, for now, and I know that, like last time, he'll warm up to me. I hug him for now.


I'm reminded of that old song "Suspicious Eyes" when I look at him here. Suspicious indeed.

After all this goes down it's about time for Mari to pick up Lalito, so she gets out of the car again and walks in that direction. Everyone is talking and chatting and a few pictures are apparently taken and later posted on Facebook (thanks Faby, I look like crap after a 4AM wakeup and airport hair) but Nicholas is still pretty quiet. Several minutes pass. I'm waiting for Lalito, because while I love both of my kids, I know Lalito is going to recognize me and be happy to see me.

Finally, there they are, they start crossing the street. I'm sitting in the passenger seat with Nicholas on my lap but I open up the door. Lalito starts walking past, apparently used to being stuffed in the backseat (as he should be) but notices the door open, then looks up and says, "Oh. Hola mami!" and hops right on up to give me a hug and a kiss. Wasn't exactly the "OH HOLY CRAP MOMMY WOW YOU'RE HERE" I'd been looking for but instant recognition was more than enough for me. The tears come. I say hi, ask him how he is. Mari starts to pull him back to the backseat for the drive, but he is having none of it. He wants to sit on my lap. So I've got both of the kids, and this car now has 9 fucking people. Let the Mexican jokes fly ... they are going through my head at that point, too.

So we drive off on the way to the house and Lalito starts just yammering on and on and on and on and on and I really can't get a word in edge-wise, though he does seem to be asking me questions. At this point, finally, Nicholas starts talking too. He was asking me questions, which I can't remember now, but he always punctuated his questions with a verdad? It's cute. It comes to be one of my favorite things to remember about him. I'm at a loss because much of what they're asking me I can't understand, and it sucks. Mari tells Lalito to use English and he's just like ... fuck that. To be fair though, I'll later find out that he really doesn't know that much.

We get back to the house, and I'm fucking relieved, because Lalito has a bony butt. Skinny damn kid, but he gets that from me, because up until about 14 I was the size that my thigh is now. And I remember people telling me I had a bony butt when I was a kid. So we get in the house, and cooking dinner becomes this big deal. We were having tamales, which I fucking love.

Funny story about tamales. We had them for Lalito's first Christmas, when the power had gone out in the neighborhood because it was actually cold for the first time in like a hundred years - it actually snowed - and so we ate dinner by candlelight. I wouldn't have tried tamales if I'd been able to see them clearly. They don't look all that appetizing. But in the darkness, I couldn't really see what I was eating and I figured I may as well try them if I wanted to eat (of course I fucking did) and I actually liked them. I've learned to be less judgmental about gross looking foods, but gross smelling foods are still off the table.

Anyway, we kind of eat in shifts. There's a bunch of us at the house and only a few seats at the table, so the kids eat first. I'm sitting on the sofa talking with some people. Lalito is getting up every few seconds to talk to me and then being yelled at to sit down and eat.

They finish eating though and decide to play Wii. At this point I've already eaten (still a bit fuzzy on what order that happened in, as I was honestly exhausted) and I'm sitting on the couch in front of the TV while Angel and Lalito play Wii Sports Resort. I'm given the Wiimote and offered the chance to beat on some people with a big stick. How in the hell can I pass that up? I laugh, but I give it back quickly and let them play.


Lalito Playing Wii

Nicholas and Andre (also called Isai, if I spelled that right, it's pronounced EE-sah-EE) are playing amongst themselves, too. He's three. It seems Angel and Lalito are close and Andre and Nicholas are close. In age, there's no more than 5 years between them all, possibly less. I can't remember how old Angel is. Anyway, the younger kids are playing with cans used to collect donations. I took video of it, because it made me laugh.

(Second half is a bit boring. I kind of expected the kids to do more but they didn't, which is why I left the camera on.)

I'm a bit camera happy this first night, as I don't want to forget that I should try to capture as many moments as possible, but I don't want to forget that spending time with the kids is the most important. Nicholas has warmed up to me at this point, but it's unclear yet if he thinks of me as mommy quite yet.


Lalito and Isai


Nicholas refusing to look at the camera


Nicholas and his cousin. Isai loves the camera, Nicholas does not. They were having fun hiding behind the sofa arm though.


Me and Lalito. I took this picture so the angle is ... odd.


Me and Nicholas. I also took this picture, which is why I think Nicholas actually looks at the camera. He doesn't expect a photo op from this angle, I guess.


Lalito's favorite spot on the sofa. The arm.

There are a bunch more photos from the first night on my cell phone, but copying them is a huge hassle and something I haven't gotten around to yet.

Something I begin to notice is that Nicholas doesn't really enjoy having his picture taken. He doesn't smile, and doesn't look at the camera. I'm not sure if that's an Autistic thing or not, but I do know that eye-contact is a particularly difficult thing with Autistic people. Either that or he just despises cameras. I can't blame him, they make me look pretty damn awful, IMO.

People start to leave after a while - Lala and her sister head back over to the States, and someone drives Faby home - she can't drive herself because she has a broken foot. For this reason, Angel stays over at his grandparents' house on school nights, so Faby only has to take care of Isai who is still not in school. Until her foot heals. The kids start to settle a bit at this point. I'm super tired, and ready to crash, but not before the kids do. Lalito is still playing Wii with Angel - they're combatting each other in a best of three match where you knock each other off the platform - and I decide to tape the third match. Lalito wins!! He gets pissed when he loses the first match, though. I know the feeling, when I lose something in a video game I also get mad. My second Maat fight, for example, when I seriously fucking had the bastard and he cheated and won anyway. I'd thrown my controller. So I understand some gaming related frustration.

The kids do start to settle down after everyone takes off, something for which I'm incredibly grateful. At this point, I've been up for at least sixteen hours, I've been told there's no internet at the house (it had been turned off just a few days ago) and I send a bitchy text to Douchebag saying, "You told me there would fucking be internet!" Starts an argument, but that's nothing new. I try to find a nearby connection to leech from but there's none, so I figure I'm gonna have to go without.

I sit down and try to watch TV, but the Spanish is giving me a headache already and I'm really tired. I see that the kids have settled into bed and they're just about asleep, so I go in to give them goodnight kisses and I move to find a place to sleep. Alejandro, Douchebag's younger brother, informs me that I'll be sleeping in his bed and he'll be crashing on the sofa, and shortly afterwards, I'm in bed.

Before drifting off, I make the conscious decision that unlike last time I was here, I'm going to get up with the kids and be a part of their "getting to school" routine. Last time I was in Mexico, I had just joined Excellence (yeah, great priorities, I know, don't go there) and I was terrified to miss too much or get kicked, so I still logged on for core events - Dynamis and Einherjar. Which were fairly late, and because I was just used to playing late with the LS as it was a PST linkshell, I stayed up way after the kids were asleep to get my game on. Then I'd sleep until noon, missing out on time with my kids. Not this time. I have WoW, but it's not really that important to me. Last time I was here, I chose not to rearrange my schedule for the kids. I think the family understood that I was used to a late night schedule and didn't criticize (at least to my knowledge) but I ended up feeling bad that I was so lazy. So I vowed I wouldn't do that this time around.

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*Lalito is the diminuitive form of Lalo. -ito is a suffix meaning "little" so if you have a small car -carro it's called a carrito. Lalo is a pet name in Mexico for Eduardo. I have no fucking idea where they get it from, but that's just what it is.
**For accuracy, spelling and punctuation in texts is going to be transcribed exactly as written.

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I'm about to start on Day two now, and I'm sure it will take me a while, but I don't expect it to be quite as long as this first entry. For one, I'll have been up for a shorter period of time, and for two, I have a lot less background information to explain. XD Hope to have it up in a few hours, but not rushing it. The goal is to finish the whole thing over the weekend. Hope you guys don't mind waiting for the whole deal! Lol.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Day Two: Thursday, March 3, 2011

Sometime around midnight, I'm awoken by the light being turned on in the bedroom I'm sleeping in. I'm not entirely sure if I was asleep or just close to being asleep (it takes me forever to sleep on a strange bed) but I'm definitely annoyed. To me, one of the rudest things you can do when someone is sleeping is turn on a bright ass fucking overhead light. I just lie there and deal with it though, pretending to be asleep, because honestly, I'm staying in their house for free, what right do I have to bitch?

It's Douchebag's youngest sister, Grecia, who I hadn't seen yet. I assumed she'd had work after school and was just getting home. I lie awake while she shuffled around getting her clothes to change into and talking to the dog (a tiny Chihuahua named Lecha who walks sideways like she's drunk and is afraid of everything) and waited for her to turn the light off so I could go back to sleep. This would happen every single night I was in Mexico, and would be a prime reason for my general exhaustion the duration of the trip. Interrupted sleep + chasing energetic 6 and 5-year olds + uncomfortable bed + lack of hot water for showers = tired, tired mommy.

Anyway, I do eventually get back to sleep but I'm awakened all too soon by the sound of my own child. I needn't have worried about sleeping late this time around - I'd become all too used to sleeping alone in absolute blessed silence - something I'd come to forget about whilst living with terrible roommates. Lalito is an early riser, and he doesn't seem to care all that much about waking people up. Then again, it's not like he's yelling. He's talking in a normal volume, it's just that he's talking. I lie around a bit longer, until Mari comes in to wake up Grecia, who apparently has to be up early to go to school or work or whatever it is she does (I don't find out her actual schedule until later in the week) and she turns on the light. Well, okay. Lalito comes in the room and starts talking to her, and Grecia tells him to be quiet, that his mama is sleeping.

"Not anymore," I mumble in English, sitting up and grabbing my cell phone to look at the time. 6:30. Ish. She says hi to me, as we'd not seen each other previously. I'm not entirely sure how much sleep I'd gotten the night before, but I knew that it wasn't even close to being enough. The early morning wake-up would become the pattern of the week, with everyone's chatter preventing me from sleeping in any day of the week. I put on my flip flops and make my way to the bathroom for early morning hygiene, then sit down at the kitchen table and watch Lalito eat some cereal. I grab the camera.


Lalito eating breakfast first thing in the morning.

At this point I wonder where Nicholas is, but I've been told over the phone a few times that he's not a morning person. I know where he gets that shit from. You're looking at a person who gets up ten minutes before she has to leave for work; a person who combs her hair in the truck and eats breakfast as she does her first morning duty at work. (To be fair, it's usually just a couple of Pop Tarts, nothing elaborate.) So I definitely relate with Nicholas. Getting up to cook and then eat breakfast when I could sleep in for another twenty minutes? Come on. I once had a coworker tell me I should get up early to curl my hair. Let's just say she got that "Youre joking, right?" look.

Anyway. I see him in the other bedroom and he's all sleepy and grumpy and I'm all like, "Heyyyyyyyyyy Nicholas! Good morning!" And he just looks at me like, "Dude, it's morning, go away." I can't help but laugh a little because again, I know the feeling. I can hear him whining to his buelita (Mari) as I head back out to the kitchen and sit down with Lalito again. I'm not offered breakfast, which is unusual, but I figure they're busy with their regular morning routine and not too concerned about me eating when I have all day while the kids are at school to grab something.

Nicholas finally emerges from the bedroom, dressed in his school uniform except for his jacket. He sits down at the table and also starts to eat, and in all the effort to be equal, I snap a shot of him, too. He looks off to the side again - as usual - but I'm not gonna push it, as he's definitely grumpy and I don't want to piss him off.


Nicholas refusing to look at the camera. V2

After the kids have eaten, Mari takes them each individually and wets their hair to comb it, as their hair tends to get a bit unruly overnight. After this is accomplished, they get the kids into their uniforms and they head outside, where I take the opportunity to get a couple more photos.


Nicholas!! Look at the damn camera!


Well that's uh ... somewhat better ...

After that, it's a bit of a rush to get the kids off to school, so we pile in the car. Angel doesn't have school until 8, so he stays behind and gets ready, eating his breakfast and organizing his stuff so he can be dropped off shortly after we return - I will stay behind for this drop-off though, as it doesn't really concern me. Strangely enough, there are some days when all three kids pile in the car for drop-off and some days when a second trip is made for Angel. I'm not really sure of this system or why they do it this way, but whatever.

I take a picture of the kids in the car together. I take one first on my cell phone, which turns out much nicer and I send it to my mom, dad, and some friends, and then this one, with my regular camera. At this point, the kids are both talking so they look possessed.


Demon children!

Lalito is dropped off first. He heads into the gate of the main school - the Primaria side. There are three separate entrances aside from the Kinder entrance: Primaria, Secondaria, and Preparatoria. I couldn't even begin to tell you what grades fit into which divisions, just that they are listed in order. I'm told later that Lalito is in the equivalent of first grade, which fits, as his school also calls it first grade. I don't know if the grades always line up evenly with American schools, but I know Douchebag went there and while he's a, well, douchebag, he got a good education here.

Anyway, his classes start at 7:15, so it's right around that time we drop him off. He gets out, heads into the gate, and then walks along the gate waving to us until we can't see him anymore. I'm told then by Mari that he does it often. We wave to him and blow him kisses (besitos) and I kind of chuckle to myself at how cute it is.

Then we pull forward and up to the kinder entrance, which is on the same side as the Primaria. So it's fairly convenient for now. I've never seen anyone use the other two entrances that I mentioned, though, so it's possible everyone just uses this one but the others are there for show or something. One of life's mysteries, at least to me, until I learn enough Spanish to actually ask.

So we get to the point where Nicholas is dropped off and Mari's telling him to be good and all that, making sure he has his backpack and all that, and here at the kinder, they come up to your car and pick your kids out from it. Unless you park your car and want to walk them to the door, the teachers will collect your kids from you. As the teacher (whose name I can't recall) grabs Nicholas from the car, he says, "Alli esta mi mama." (There's my mom.) Mari says quietly to me, "You hear that? There's my mom," and I nod. The teacher asks Nicholas to introduce me, and he does. I smile and say that it's nice to meet her. I'm so happy, because for the first time on my trip, Nicholas has acknowledged that I'm his mother. That was a huge victory for me. I don't think he's ever intentionally called me that before, not without being told over the phone to say, "Hi, mommy," which doesn't count because he could be talking to a giraffe for all he knows.

We drop him off and pull away from the curb. Mari and I talk for a bit on the drive back to the house. She asks me the usual questions, like if I have a boyfriend and where I'm working. If I'm going to school. I answer to the best of my ability. In the car, Mari and I will talk a lot driving to and from the school to drop off/pick up the kids. I'm not fluent, but we communicate well. We've spoken a lot over the past six years so she kind of is able to pick up on what I'm trying to say, and helps me learn, as well. So that turns out to be our usual catching up time.

We get back to the house and she and her husband - who the kids know as Ako, for whatever reason, but his name is actually Eduardo, just like my son and Douchebag, and thus is known to his wife as Lalo - head off to somewhere, I'm assuming for work related stuff. I sit on the couch and grab my book, figuring since there's no internet, I'll just read. Hoping that it gets fixed soon, because I can easily read a whole book in a few hours if I've got little else to do, and then I'll really be in a bind without anything.

I nod off for a bit, but I'm wakened up when Mari comes in the door. Earlier she'd said we'd go to Faby's house and I could use the internet there. I was more than happy for that. She said she'd probably get the internet paid tomorrow but I could go over there and use it for a bit just to check up on things, since I'd mentioned needing to claim my weeks for unemployment and check my bank account. Good thing, as Bank of America decided I'd shown irregular debit card activity by using my card in Mexico and required me to call them to remove the restriction. I did that, and went to facebook for a second just to post:

Facebook
In Mexico. Won't have a lot of internet time but I will check in when I can. Kids are great! ♥ So big. More details later.

I chose not to take a long time as Mari still had some errands to run, so that was about all I got out. I decided when I got back to the house, though, I'd crack open the laptop and at least put the new pictures on my computer so I wouldn't run out of memory card space. Shortly after that, it's time to pick up the kids, so we head there. The kids are excited to see me and tell me about their days. Nicholas insists that he's been good - I find out later he's not always good in school - and Lalito just wants to build a pistola out of Legos.


Lalito on the way home from school


Nicholas on the way home from school

We get into the house and the first thing we do is eat lunch, after that, the kids play. Mari takes the kids one at a time to get a bath, so Nicholas gets changed before Lalito does and we head outside to play. Nicholas plays with his bike - a toy I've realized he absolutely loves - and Lalito plays with the scooter, since his bike actually has a missing pedal. We run around inside and outside of the house, and I'm beginning to notice two things: Lalito is talkative as hell, and Nicholas is freaking naughty.


Lalito messing with the scooter.


Lalito smiling for a scooter photo-op.


Riding the bike.


What? A smile? Not intended. He was trying to ride away from me and he thought it was hilarious.

A little while later after both of the kids have been bathed, we're all just about ready to settle in for the night. We have a late dinner - and by late, I mean around 8:30, after which Nicholas is ready for bed. He goes to bed around 9, and Lalito turns in about 9:30. Again, after the kids go to bed, I'm ready to cut out, too. 9:30 is pretty early for me, honestly, but I'm already worn out from chasing the kids. Even having "time off" while they're at school isn't really helping out with my exhaustion. I'm starting to wonder if I was ever really cut out for this parenting thing at all, and start to wonder if I'd be able to even handle it if I did have the kids. Thinking such a thing really sucks, but the more I dwell on it, the more I wonder how the hell I'd manage with them. Maybe I'd be a crappy mother. Maybe I already am. The kids don't seem to care, though, so I'm just resolved to enjoy my time with them and dwell on those thoughts later.

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The remainder of the trip is going to be put off until tomorrow. Getting kind of tired. Hope those of you who are reading it so far are enjoying my diary. I kind of wish I'd done this on a day-to-day basis but I'm not even gonna lie, I was tired out of my mind every night by the time the kids were in bed. There were only a couple nights by the end of my trip that I stayed up past the kids.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Okay, I'll be the one to ask. Why not just make a blog?

[Armando]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Probably because the people she wants to share this with is us. Making a blog and linking it here would be a really roundabout way of going about it, since then we'd have to bother to check the blog periodically.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Because the last time I had a blog, I got constant e-mail spam from botters. Hell, my last blog was about five years ago and I still get shit referencing my old LJ username which I had hoped would be deleted by now. I deleted everything actually in the blog itself and still got shit. And on top of that, this is only 8 posts, I'm not planning a continuous blog. And some people have expressed interest in hearing about my trip.

Or if everyone would rather a big post with about 95 pictures and a dozen YouTube vids, I could do that, but I thought it might be somewhat more interesting this way.

[Firewind]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

I'm enjoying reading this. The pictures of your kids are adorable

[Vyuru]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Seconding what Armando said, and also some of us kinda like to know how the people we've come to know on these forums over the years are doing.

Cute kids btw, and now...

/stares at dialup speeds and 95 pics

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Day Three: Friday, March 4, 2011

I'm up with the kids again, bright and early. The morning routine seems to be the same every day. Lalito wakes up first without coaxing, slowly followed by Nicholas who has to be woken up and gets angry because of it. The kids are late though, so its a bit more of a rush than usual. We take Lalito to school by himself because his classes start earlier than the other two kids and it's easier to leave the others behind and get him to school on time than try to force Nicholas to be ready early. I do manage to get a couple of quick pics though.


Lalito before school


Okay got the picture taken now? Let's go, we're late! Gogogo!

We run out the door and get Lalito piled in the car. Mari is driving a bit crazily, but that's nothing I'm not used to, as pretty much all Mexicans are terrible drivers. This isn't meant to be racist or anything, just a general observation that I've held on to the "oh shit" handle more than a few times since I've been here.

We get back to the house to pick up Nicholas and Angel, and Nicholas is all dressed and ready to go. He begs me to come outside with him, because he wants to ride his bike some more. How can I argue with that? So we head out for a bit and I watch him ride around in circles in his school uniform, and I actually get him to stand up for a photo, too, before we leave. But look at the camera? Again, not happening. He opposes everything.


See me, Mommy? This is what I do every single day!


It's almost as if he's posing this time.


If I pretend to smile, will you leave me alone with the damn camera?

We head back to the house again, and I chill out on the sofa with my laptop. The internet still isn't back yet, so I play some Bejeweled while under the cover of a blanket because the solo AC unit in the house points directly at the sofa and I'm freezing. Mari and I decide that after school today we'll take the kids to Peter Piper Pizza, which is Mexico's version of Chuck E Cheese. She doesn't feel like cooking tonight, and the kids love it there (obviously). And w00t, while I really do enjoy Mexican food, I'm looking forward to having something my body is a bit more used to.

So I settle for a bit, kind of lie down and rest, in a sense, though not sleeping. I have my laptop connected to the router just in case the net does come back on (as I was told it may be turned back on today) and I pass my time while the TV yammers on in Spanish, as usual. Time passes slowly without internet. Bejeweled gets old after a while and I'm trying not to finish reading my one book as I'll want at least something to read on the plane ride back. That is, after all, the reason I bought the damn thing. I decide to work on some fiction writing, something I hadn't done in a while, but nothing seems to be coming into my mind and I realize it's because the Spanish running through my head is seriously hindering my ability to concentrate. I turn on iTunes and start singing to some of my music - Closer, especially, which makes me laugh because if they only knew what I was singing - while playing some Spider Solitaire and Minesweeper.

Eventually, it's time to go for the kids. We get to Angel's school first, as he gets out much earlier than my kids do, and then we park the car and Mari gets out to grab the kids. I snap a quick pic of them as they're about to cross the street back to the car.


Off to the left a bit is the entrance to the kinder. Cute!

We tell them we're going to "la Pizza" (Don't ask me where that comes from, as it's certainly not the only Pizza place in Mexico - in fact, earlier I'd been surprised to see a Little Caesars on one of the main drags.) and the kids are excited. Of course. Going to PPP is a treat. We get there, sit down at a table for a bit and let the kids run around. I figure it might be a bit odd for them to be running around in their school clothes but other kids are doing the same, so I guess it's not all that uncommon to not go home and change before going back out.

The kids play around on this huge jungle gym thing, and I'm told Lalito is scared to climb up really high, but Nicholas has no problem with it, and I watch him rapidly climb up to the very top. Lalito kind of stays on the lower parts. I remember when he was younger he didn't like the high areas, either, but I didn't remember him being outright afraid of it. Later, I'm told he doesn't even like being sat up on someone's shoulders or tossed around upside-down. Nicholas, on the other hand, would bug the crap out of me for more, even when I told him he was getting too heavy.

We put in our order, and I'm pleased that Mari remembers to order 4 slices of the pizza cheese only for my sake, as I can't eat pepperoni, and we also get our card for the kids to play some games. Instead of using the card wisely and paying for the cheaper games (the ones that you might actually get some tickets from), they want to play the expensive arcade games, which uses up the card pretty fast. Lalito and Nicholas both have some fun with an Army target-shooting game, because my kids are very into guns right now. I have no problem with this, as I was of course in the Army myself (and so is their father) and I also used to hunt.


Lalito playing a driving game


Nicholas playing an arcade game


Nicholas driving.


Lalito showing me a game he likes to play with his father.

The pizza comes to our table so I collect the kids to eat. I'm starving at this point, so I have no trouble eating my four slices designated to me. The kids, however, are not as interested in eating, but we get them to settle down long enough to eat at least a little bit.


Nicholas eating pizza


Lalito eating pizza. They say he hates cheese but he doesn't seem to mind it on pizza.

After they finish eating, they run around for a bit more, then we gather them back up and have them run up to the counter to get their ice cream cones they hadn't yet gotten. They come back with their cones and hang out eating, making messes of their faces. Eventually, Nicholas gets tired of eating his ice cream cone so I end up taking it, which I'm secretly glad for, as I wasn't asked when we ordered if I'd want my own ice cream. Mari had done the ordering because she's the one who speaks Spanish after all, and I hadn't even known she'd ordered cones for the kids. If I had, I would have been all like, "Make that cuatro, por favor." So I get my ice cream in the end.


Me and the kids


Mari and the kids

We order another pizza to take home to Alejandro and Ako and box up the other remaining slices to take with us and get back into the car. Now's the time to take Angel home since it's Friday night and he stays home with his mother on the weekends. I find out later that Faby's husband, Rolando, is in Houston working. Doing what, I'm not sure exactly, but hey, we gotta make money somehow, even if it means leaving our families. No one understands this more than me.

We hang out with Faby and Isai for a while and it turns out the kids usually stay at Faby's house for a few hours every Friday night, because they love playing there and it gives Mari a much needed break. Hell, she's 52 and she's taking care of three young boys almost every day of the week, so I give her mad props. She knows how incredibly grateful I am for that, as well, by the way, because I know damn well the kids are much better off with her than Douchebag. Or myself, for that matter, which sucks to admit but at least I know the truth and I don't have to be ashamed of it. Well, maybe somewhat, but I am mature enough to realize that kids being better off is much better than me selfishly trying to be their mother when I can't even pay my own bills, let alone theirs. And that's not even the half of it. But I digress.

So the kids beg to stay at Faby's house as usual, and I'm like, "But I came to see you guys, you don't want to stay with me?" I'm messing with them, though. Let them blow off some steam, I'll also take a break, as much as I love them, they're tiring me out, and how can I say no to them? So I hug them and tell them to be good and Mari and I take off, and she says she'll be heading out to get them in a few hours.

We get back to the house and LO AND BEHOLD, the internet's back! If I weren't so tired, I'd jump for joy! First thing I do is post on Facebook:

Facebook
The internet here in Mexico is back on. Which means I will have some time to check in and post after the kids go to bed. They're at their aunt's house now, apparently every time they go there they don't wanna leave so they're playing (blowing off some steam) for a few hours after their super fun afternoon at Peter Piper Pizza.

A few seconds later, Faby likes the post.

I catch up on my internetting while I have the time, and before I get too involved, I start the process of uploading some of my photos so my family can see them. Forty-three new pictures. It takes about 20 minutes to load them all up, and I'm tabbing over to my other sites and checking them as the pictures load.

I also decide for shits and giggles to log in for a bit and play some WoW, if for no other reason then to say hi to my friends and indicate that I'm not dead. I'm blocked from my account, though, because I changed location, and I need to change my password. The reset e-mails aren't getting to me, though, so I open up a ticket and try to get that straightened out. I do eventually figure out the problem the following day, but for the evening, it seems, there will be no WoW, and it's just as well, I suppose.

The pics are uploaded and I'm adding captions, and at this point, Mari asks me if I want to go with her to get the kids from Faby's. I tell her not this time, as I'm uploading pictures into Facebook and I won't get much of a chance to do it when the kids are here. She's understanding, so she heads out, and I work on finishing up what I'm doing so I can put the laptop away.

I needn't have rushed, as it turns out she didn't return with the kids right away. They were probably resistant to leaving their aunt's house and I'm sure Mari and Faby were also talking for a while, too.

When they get home, it's a bit later in the evening than I'd expected. Pretty much almost time for the kids to crash, so we play a little bit before then. I make sure to keep telling them "I love you" and "Te quiero" damn near constantly, so they'll remember it. Lalito responds in kind, in English if I say it in English and in Spanish if I choose Spanish. If he hits me or bumps me and I say, "Ow!" He says, (oh-so-super-cutely) "I sorry." I tell him it's okay. He understands that I don't know Spanish perfectly. I think Nicholas, does, too, because he keeps asking me how to say certain things in English. One word I'm sure they'll remember is "crazy," because every time Nicholas does something funny, I tell him, "You're crazy!!!" And Lalito laughs his ass off, saying, "creeezy!" in his cute accent. And if I tell Lalito he's crazy, he says, "Noooo, Nicholas is crazy!" And I tell him, "You're just a little crazy, Nicholas is a lot crazy." And he laughs.

After a bit of Spanish/English nonsense, the kids are ready to crash. Lalito does stay up a bit later than his brother, I check my e-mail and regular sites a for a few more minutes after they go to bed, but I'm in bed shortly after they are.

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I'm glad some people are indeed enjoying these. @Vyuru, it probably won't be all of the pictures I'd taken. A lot of them are kind of redundant, some of them are just crappy quality (extreme closeups or flash making the pics look extremely washed-out), etc.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Sooooo I had every intention of finishing this up tonight, and I'm probably halfway (or so) through my fourth post, but I got suckered (okay not really) into going out with a friend for a bit and well ... I'll get back to it tomorrow. Sorry for those of you who were waiting to read more about my exciting adventures. (Lol)

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Day Four: Saturday, March 5, 2011

Weekends apparently consist of being lazy. This is something I can get on board with, however, in my book, being lazy means I can sleep in, and Lalito did not let me sleep in. Big surprise, huh? I mean, if I'd been able to sleep through his chatter I'm sure he would have left me alone to snooze, but since there was no point in even trying to sleep, I got up anyway and hung out with the kids.

First thing, though, I got on the computer to check up on my usual sites. Mari and Ako are lying down in their room watching TV, and really, there's no real privacy anywhere in Mexico except the bathroom. People go in and out of rooms at random, so I don't feel odd going into the "master" bedroom. Lalito is running around, and Nicholas is kind of being a bit lazy, though not asleep.

I finish checking my stuff and then I decide to get myself something for breakfast, and I realize the kids probably haven't eaten either so I ask them if they're hungry. They are, so I get all three of us bowls of cereal and we sit down and eat breakfast. It's kind of a lazy day in general - it's sort of drizzly and rainy outside so I figure we're gonna be mostly cooped up inside. When the kids are done eating, Lalito decides he wants to play Battalion Wars II on Wii. It's not really a game meant for six-year-olds, but he enjoys it so I watch him play and try to help him out a little bit, when I can. ("No, that way! Up there! Bomber! Kill it! Kill it! Nooooo!") And when he wins, he says in his cute accent, "Miss-E-on Cohm-PLEETE, Cohm-MAHN-dair!" He reads all of the onscreen instructions in English, too. It's really funny how well he reads in English without really understanding a lot of it. However, I'm quite similar in nature. If you handed me a Mexican newspaper and told me to read it out loud, I would. And my accent would be pretty decent. But I would only understand about half of what I was reading/saying. That's how Lalito reads in English. But I'm impressed with this, because while I learned to read at three, I certainly couldn't read another language out loud with any sense of correctness at the age of six.

But if I talk to him too much in English, he's lost. He says the basics: Hi, bye, thank you, you're welcome, I'm sorry, I love you. And he understands very basic sentence structure, like: "Noun verb object." "Nicholas is creeeezy!" for example. I try to talk to both of the kids in English a lot so they can get used to hearing it. Though if I actually want them to understand me, I have to use Spanish. I find myself repeating myself (w00t redundancy) a lot. "You hungry? Tienes hambre?" but mostly so they hear both versions and maybe pick up a little on the English as I say it. I know they will get a lot of English from their school - that is, after all, how Faby and Alejandro know it (Grecia is going to a different school than her older siblings) and Douchebag learned both in school and from video games and cartoons. Lalito is really, really smart. I know all parents say that about their kids but no. Nicholas is also pretty smart but not the same way. I'm betting Lalito would test very high. And not usually one to toot my own horn, I am also an extremely intelligent person. I learn exceptionally quickly and I had (but passed up, because I was just a kid and didn't really know any better) the chance to skip a grade as a child, because I was miles above anyone else in my grade when I was in grade school. Lalito gets it from me. Douchebag is smart, too, but not on our level. And I don't say that to be a dickwad. It's truth. I was looked at as somewhat of a prodigy as a child. I remember people telling me how smart I was. I remember as a little girl I didn't want to be smart, I wanted to be pretty. We had this one "Celebrate YOU!" day when I was a kid, about six years old, and everyone in the school got their own little paper "ribbon" that says what's unique about them. Mine said, "Julia is BRIGHT!" and I was upset that mine didn't say I was pretty or popular. Even then I understood the importance of looks. Brains would come into play when I was older, but I definitely didn't appreciate it as a child. I don't think Lalito is the same way, but without having a very good knowledge of Spanish in order to ask, I don't know how he compares with his classmates. If he, like me, gets annoyed when people don't get things. If he overhears adults talking about how gifted he is. These were things I did. I wonder now if he's the same way.

Anyway, long tangent aside ... we're playing Wii. Well, he is. He passes me the Wiimote for a few rounds but I'm having more fun watching him play. Nicholas, on the other hand, is climbing all over me, trying to take my glasses. Nicholas loves to play with keys. This is something I'd not really paid attention to before because most of the time when he'd come home after school, they'd eat, play for a few hours, and go to bed. But now that it's Saturday, I see that from the previous days when he'd have some keys, he wouldn't want to give them up. So he has the keys in his hand and he's playing with them, but he's trying to grab my glasses. So I tell him that if he wants my glasses, he's gonna have to give me the keys. He always chooses the keys. But not before he hits me, usually. And if he doesn't already have the keys, he whines to Mari or anyone who will listen, "Donde estan las llaves?" And I mean whine. This kid is good at whining.

I don't really know how to discipline him, because just saying no doesn't do much of anything. He's not the type of kid to listen when you tell him to do something. You have to tell him a few times usually. Though if I tell him to take my empty cup and put it in the sink, he will. I just have to butter him up. Lalito does his fair share of complaining about things or getting pissed off at the game when he loses, but he's an angel compared to his brother. When I think about it, Lalito was an easy pregnancy, I wasn't uncomfortable with him or morning sick really at all, but with Nicholas, I couldn't wait for him to be born. I guess he's always been a pain in the ass from day one. Lol. And I feel bad for thinking that way but man, he is one stubborn little fucker, and everyone knows it. I think that's where he learned the term muchacho cabezón from - people calling him that. And it means "stubborn/pig-headed guy." So when he gets annoyed with someone, that's what he calls them. I had to look up cabezón since it was not a term with which I was familiar. He also learned "STOP TALKING!" from one of his teachers at school, and he never hesitates to use it. "Eh-STOHP TAHKKENG!" Except when you read that, put added emphasis on every syllable.

The thing is, he's bad, he's always getting into trouble - and I saw the notes sent home about him being bad in school - but he's a big sweetheart when he wants to be. He doesn't just come up to you and give you a hug, but if you're playing with him, he's all smiles. I think he just wants attention, which he seriously can't get 100% of the time, and that's why he acts out. He gets in the way of the TV when his brother is playing Wii. He sometimes changes the channel. He climbs all over you when you're trying to read a page on the computer, or he climbs up on the counter to get some cookies. I think he wants to be like, everywhere and everything sometimes, and when he gets frustrated because he can't, he lashes out and gets pissed off and hits people. And then we have to punish him.

And I find out that the best way to do it is to sit him down in the other room. The bedroom I sleep in - Grecia and Alejandro's bedroom (isn't it weird how brother and sister share a room? That wouldn't happen in the States, in fact I think there are laws against it in some states) is the room he is sent to for "time out." And he hates it, but he learns his lessons. At least briefly.

The rain kind of lets up so I take him outside for a bit to let off steam. He goes right for the bike again, and I chase him around for a bit, though I also sit down and mess with him from the chair.


Hmm, this looks familiar, doesn't it?


Getting off the bike? What?


Playing with the keys as usual.


Running!

After he gets tired of riding the bike (at least in theory), he starts to grab all of the toys that are outside and line them up. He used to do this when he was younger; when he lived with my mother and I. He would line everything up in a perfect row. If you'd move something, he'd move it back. I'd attributed it somewhat to his autism, as some kids do things like that as "tics" or coping mechanisms. It was just one of his things. He lines all of the bikes, scooters, the wagon, and a trike all in a row and kind of in the doorway, and treats it kind of like a house. He lies down in the wagon and says it's night time and we should sleep, so I lean my head back and close my eyes. Two seconds later it's morning again, so he gets up, runs around for a bit, then gets back in the wagon and it's night time again.

He gets tired of that after about 5 or six rounds, then rearranges the wagon and the bikes. They're still lined up, just differently now. Then he decides to go back in the house. Partially because I tell him that it's starting to rain again (and I do legitimately feel raindrops, though honestly I'm tired as shit and want to sit down on a comfy sofa but won't let him play outside with no one to supervise him) and so we head back inside. At some point, we all sit down for lunch, but I'll be honest when I say I'm not sure if that was before or after the outdoor playing. Lalito has since finished playing Wii for now and is watching YouTube videos of the game on the Wii. Interested in learning strategies, I'd suppose, but probably not having much luck since A. the quality is shit and B. the narratives are all in English. But he doesn't seem to mind. Nicholas starts to act up again and I'm getting sick of telling him no, so Mari calls him into the other room. He runs back out with a black wig on his head and a sequined vest! I laugh at him, and he goes back in the bedroom before I can grab my camera. But before I know it, he's back out with another costume and I get him to pose for a photo in that one, and the subsequent costumes he puts on:


This is Nicholas's Carmen Miranda impersonation.


He seems to enjoy this, he runs right over to the door for this second pic.


I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a Mexican in-joke or not.


Looks like a gypsy or something. But he actually posed!

I have the camera out and he's bugging me to let him use it, so I let him snap a quick photo of his brother so he'll shut up about it.


Yes, that's Nicholas's finger on the left side.

He's getting grouchy though. Grecia's boyfriend Israel is here at this point, and Nicholas is bugging them as well as me. I have cracked open my laptop again (honestly I can't resist the allure of the internet, though I try to keep it brief) and he's trying to turn it off, grab the mouse, pull out the power cable, and everything else he can think of to annoy me. It's working. Grecia sends him to the room again, and he starts to whine and cry about it, until we realize what he really needs is a fucking nap. Grecia sits with him in the other room for a few minutes and he crashes. It's about 5:30 at this point, so I just know he's not going to sleep all night which is one reason late naps suck, as most parents will tell you, but hell if I'm going to put up with a pissy kid for another four hours when it's clear he needs the rest.

Lalito and I hang out and watch TV. He sits on my lap, and I show him some videos on YouTube. They take forever to load, though, so as we're waiting, I'm checking other sites, and I show Lalito the pictures on Facebook. Mostly some funny cats, which he gets quite a kick out of (me too, for that matter) but also the Jazz Dog I posted here a few months ago - the one that had some really fucking weird ass bark but that someone played some Jazz over and made it sound like the dog was actually singing the song. Lalito loved that. He begged me to show it again, and again, and again. Later on, he would ask me to show it to Nicholas, and to Angel, and to Mari, and pretty much everyone. I don't think he ever realized the dog wasn't actually dancing and singing to the song in the original, but he didn't care, he found it hilarious. After I'd returned from Mexico, I sent that video to Faby and told her to show it to the kids when she remembered.

(The retarded Jazz dog)

After a while, Mari has to go out - not sure what for - and Lalito wants to go with her. I'm like, "Don't you want to stay here with me?" Teasing, of course, so I let him go. They're gone for a few hours, and I use the time to browse the hell out of the internet, log on to WoW for a bit and chat to a few people, and finish writing something that had been trolling around in my head for a few hours. The Spanish had been an impediment to that a few days earlier, but today I just pop my earbuds in and turn on iTunes and tune Spanish TV out. Grecia and Israel had taken off at this point and I'm alone with the sleeping Nicholas and Ako, who was working at the kitchen table. Aside from a few blips of conversation here and there, I'm able to concentrate on my writing and manage to finish something to some level of satisfaction.

A few hours pass in this time, and I'm tired but I don't want to go to bed before Lalito gets home with Mari. When he does come home, he's got a new toy - a pistola that looks like a small version of an M-16 that makes a noise when you pull the trigger. Hard to describe, but doesn't really sound like a machine gun firing, let's just say that much. He's super excited to show me it, and when he comes in he trips over the handle of the wagon, which Nicholas had left out. He gets pissed at his brother and goes to ask him why he left things out like that, but never gets an answer, so he just kind of shrugs it off. He is in love with this toy - been using Legos all week to make guns and shoot at Nicholas ("Nicholas ees enemeee Cohm-MAHN-dair!") so now he has one in reality, which means I am relegated to the Lego guns with which to shoot. Nicholas is awake (of course) and he of course wants to play with the gun so there's a bit of a fight there, but we get that resolved and we have a late dinner and I sit down with the kids and more YouTube videos - showing Nicholas the retarded jazz dog and getting the expected reaction out of him - but soon enough the kids are ready to crash for the night, and after another check of my regular stuff, so am I.

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I apologize about the delay in posting this. Went out last night, and today I'm way too engrossed in the trolling and general idiocy on the official forums for my own good. Lol oops. XD

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Day Five: Sunday, March 6, 2011

Another day of the weekend, and I'm already ready for the kids to be at school. Does this make me a bad mother? It probably does, but man, I'm so tired. I love them so, so much, don't get me wrong, but wow, I just can't keep up with them. I have to assume that if I'd never let Douchebag bring them here, I'd be used to chasing them around and I'd probably be a little less tired. Or at least used to it. You know, acclimation?

Anyway, I get up and we eat breakfast, as usual. The kids start off the day playing around the house. Lalito and Nicholas fight over Mario Kart Wii. They start off trying to race but Nicholas can't figure out the controls so he gets mad and asks Lalito to start it over. Lalito refuses and tries to show him how to do it, but Nicholas won't let him. Words are exchanged, most of which I don't understand, and Nicholas goes again with the hitting. Mari intervenes and the Wii is turned off in favor of the TV. We watch some NickToons. Jimmy Neutron comes on at some point and Lalito says he hates this show, which I can't disagree with. I've never liked that show, something about the animation style just bugs me, and it's also just not funny. Lalito and I like and dislike a lot of the same things - though his dislike of cheese seriously puzzles me - and he has my intelligence, but Nicholas got my stubbornness and inability to be a morning person.

Anyway, we have the TV on in the background, and I open up the laptop. I check my sites but soon the kids are on me and want to watch more funny videos, so I go to my YouTube channel and show them videos of when they were younger. There's about a dozen of them on my channel, and the kids are entertained by these. They ask me what "peekaboo" is, as I have two peekaboo videos (one of Lalito and one of Nicholas) so I explain that to them, and that's another new English word they've learned. Throughout the rest of the week, I'll be bugged to show them both the peekaboo videos and the dancing dog. (Which I know as the retarded dog.)

After a bit keeping the kids entertained with the videos - even as they take forever to load on the connection here and I'm switching to different tabs in the meantime - Lalito is allowed to play the Wii again and Nicholas is beckoned to go outside with Mari, who is going to clean up some of the dead grass/leaves/dirt from outside the house. They might have their own little modest piece of property but they have pride enough in it to keep it looking nice, which I can respect. And of course Nicholas is interested in going outside. He'd live outside if he could, I think.

Since the kids are good for the moment, I use the opportunity to heat myself up some water and get a shower. When I'm done, Lalito is still sitting around on the Wii and Nicholas is outside helping Mari clean up.


Yes, let's hear it, Mexicans landscaping ... ha ha ha ...


I always find it funny to see kids using brooms like that when the handle is so long.

I get Lalito to turn off the Wii for now and come outside. It's a beautiful day and since the gate is open today for a change, the kids have a little more room to run around. Also, Mari mentioned she would give both of the kids a bath this afternoon, so I'd love to give them the chance to dirty themselves up before that happens rather than after. Besides, I don't need Lalito, skinny as he is, to turn into me: lazy couch potato gamer person.

So I bring them outside, let them play around in the road and on the mound across the street, watching for cars, of course, though their street isn't all that busy. The kids bring the bike and scooter out as well, and of course, Lalito is hell bent on killing Nicholas (figuratively, though Freud might disagree), the "enemee." I'm supposedly on Lalito's team, as well, because if I try to aim my Lego-made machine gun at him, he tells me, "No! I'm not the enemy! Nicholas is!" And I just kind of laugh/nod and say, "Okay."

They climb up and down the mound playing their little war game and basically climbing up and down - I fall down and break my flip flop, so I fix it and then go into the house to get a different pair of shoes, because I'm not fucking around with trying to fix my flip flop every two seconds when I'm chasing after the kids.


Posing with ... the enemy?


Just a closer version.


Shooting down an air bomber.


Nicholas talking to his brother.


Running away from being "shot."


Lalito bugged me until I took this pic - a second time.


Lalito running around instead of helping.

While the kids are running around, I use the opportunity to take a shot of the house and the neighborhood to show my friends and family on Facebook who'd never been there. Mexico is, in many ways, another world. I've mused on that many times in the past, and I could go into that for a lengthy description of Mexico, but this is already going to be one of the longer posts just on account of the number of pictures I've already got.


Their house.


Their neighborhood.

The kids are helping Mari finish up the sweeping and bagging up of all the shit on the side of the house, and they grab the bike and scooter and start riding around in the street. I get in front of Lalito and force him to stop and say he can't pass, that he has to pay me to go any further. He says he doesn't have any money, so I say he has to give me a hug and a kiss and then he can go. So he does, and he continues on. I grab Nicholas and demand the same thing before he can go. They ride around three or four times doing this before they decide to move on to something else (kids never stay on the same thing for long, me, I can sit all day doing one thing if it entertains me, especially if it involves the internet and a comfortable chair) and Mari finishes up cleaning and tells them to come on inside, we're closing up the gate and it's time for them to get their baths.

I use that time to post the newest batch of pictures on Facebook. I send my friend (the one who drove me to the airport) a message saying to check out my pictures. He's rarely on Facebook anymore and the only way he checks it is if someone sends him a message. I also tell him how great it has been to see the kids, and how I wish I could make them understand (Spanish or not) how fucking much I love them. I don't think our kids ever really get it until they have their own kids.

I finish up what I'm doing around the time the kids are done with their baths and I text my mom to call at the house in Mexico, as she has the number there. She does, and I let her talk to the kids, she of course talks to me and also to Mari for a bit. I try to get my dad, too, but he isn't answering his text or he's not able to call to Mexico. Without a phone card, I'm unable to dial him, either. After that, we pile in the car and head out to buy some carne, as we're having a barbecue tonight. Not like, inviting people over, just cooking outside on the grill as opposed to inside. While we're in the car, Lalito has his toy gun, Nicholas has found a plastic gun that I think was once a squirt gun, and I've got some Legos from which I've crafted two guns (dual wielding ftw!) and Lalito has determined since this time Nicholas has a gun of his own, the enemy is other cars. We pass a guy on a bike and I ask if he's the enemy, too, and Lalito says that he's not. He's one of the good guys.

We get to the place where the meat is sold, and I'm honestly wondering where in the hell we are. I've never been to this part of town before. I ask Mari if it's close to their old house, and she says it isn't, not really. But she tells us to wait in the car and she'll go in and buy the meat so we hang out playing with our guns and playing with the radio. Nicholas bugs me for the keys (shocking) which I do not give him because we're listening to the radio and Lalito jumps up to the front seat and pretends to drive. Soon after, Nicholas crashes the front seat as well, and I take a few pictures of them.


Nicholas. And part of my face.


Nicholas. He hates having his hair in his eyes when it's wet so we put the headband on him.


Nicholas and the back of Lalito's head.

Mari comes back out of the car, and just as she does, a song I like comes on, and I tell her as much. That I have it on my iPod. I guess that's not really important, but it was an actual American song (obviously) and we were listening to one of the Brownsville rock stations, and I guess I didn't want her to change it, at least while that song was on.

We get back to the house, and the minute we do, Nicholas is bugging for the keys again. We bring the food in, and Ako starts to cook the meat on the grill. I'm outside with the kids while they're running around - within the gate, this time - and they decide to climb up on the car and be soldiers or something. Lalito tells me the car is a light tank, which is one of the vehicles used in Battalion Wars. I take a bunch of pictures, but after a while, Ako tells them to get down off of the car. They do, but we have to keep yelling at Nicholas to get down.


Lalito shooting down another bomber.


Posing.


Lalito on the "light tank."


The kids on top of the car again.


The kids in the prone position. Sort of.


Lalito prone.


Lalito prone again, Nicholas unable to sit still for a picture.

The kids run around with me chasing them, as I'm apparently the monster now. Nicholas moves all of the bikes and miscellaneous toy vehicles - and the chair - to the small area behind the car where Ako is grilling the meat, and I sit down in the chair for a few minutes and talk with him, yelling at Nicholas every few minutes to get down off the damn car.


Nicholas moving the bigger bike, the one which is missing a pedal.


Nicholas riding rapidly past me, because I'm apparently a big scary monster.


Nicholas trying to climb up on the car after we've yelled at him.

I've somehow come in possession of a toy sword, so the kids run around either side of the car and I just kind of point the sword at them and they run away, laughing. I get up every so often and chase them around the car, and they run away laughing. I have very little energy, honestly, but I'll chase them as much as I can so they'll sleep really, really well. Does that make me a bad mother? Lol. They are having fun, though, which is what really matters.


Running away from the monster!


Prepared for war!


Back out to the mound for one more photo.

The food is finally ready, and damn, I'm fucking starving. We all sit down and eat our carne asada along with some quesadillas and the kids eat some beans (hate beans. hate. hate. hate. hate.) and when they're done, we sit around at the table for a little bit, and Nicholas grabs a pair of reading glasses and puts them on. I think he's cute so I take a picture of him.


Cutie!

After we're done playing around with the reading glasses, we sit down again in front of the TV, and I'm told that in order to check what homework Lalito has, we check online. They have internet but no working computer (all they have is the Wii, oddly enough) so they ask me to go to the site and look up my son's homework. Colegio De La Salle I do that, and Lalito reads it out loud. Ako is like, "See how fast he reads?" I wasn't terribly impressed to be honest (as I've said he's very smart, I expected him to read quickly, I do as well.) but I acted impressed. Of course. He had some math problems to do, so we helped him with those. Math in Spanish I can do. Numbers never change. In addition to the math problems (and my six-year-old is doing problems like 25+38+43 ... I don't think I did those in first grade, though that was nearly a quarter of a century ago so maybe I did), he is supposed to get some stickers of animals that he'd see at a zoo. It's late at this point, so we decide that we'll just look a few animals up and write up some data about them instead, since they don't have a printer or anything to grab some pictures of animals from. So I boot up wikipedia, and in the interest of the fact that I'm fairly certain I won't be able to translate what I find into Spanish, I use the Spanish wiki to find the information we're looking for. That makes it a little easier, and in the process, I learn a few more vocabulary words. So does Lalito, for that matter. I'm told that any time I want to look up what he's learning, I can check out his homework online. I bookmark the site.

After he finishes his homework, it's off to bed. I make a quick Facebook post about how hard it is to help my kid with his homework when we don't speak the same language, upload the rest of my pics, and get ready for bed, though I do stay up a little bit later tonight for random internet checking. It's been a good day with the kids, and I'll have time to rest (if I want to) tomorrow while they're at school. I don't stay up too terribly late, though.

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This is the most pic and video heavy post. The remaining posts will have much, much less in terms of pics. I had a lot to work with though as it was the day I spent the most time with the kids.

[Malacite]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

tl;dr (for now, will take the time to read it all later ^^b) but ya might want to use a whitening brand of toothpaste or something... just saying


(not trying to be a dick here just being frank)

Also cute looking kids :3

[NightShayde]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Mas! Quiero mas!

I'm enjoying your trip report, Aks. Your boys are really cute.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Haha. I will try to finish it up tonight. I was looking through my phone and my camera, it turns out I have no pictures at all from Monday, so I was going back trying to figure out if I posted stuff from the wrong day, but I guess I didn't, and I really took no pictures on Monday at all.

So that's what this delay is about. And also, laziness. Sorry guys.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Aksannyi's Trip Journal - A Reunion

Im going to be 100% honest when I say this.

I would love to read this... but my attention span is garbage. I'm not saying I WON'T... but just that it might take me a very long time to get through it.