More Isabelisms

Yesterday, you were playing on the stools at the kitchen bar with Dad. You were on one and calling it a train. Dad got on a stool and called it a bike. Then he lifted both hands up in the air and said "No Hands". You hustled over to him and started pushing on his hands. Not pushing them down to the "handle-bars", but towards his arms. Dad was confused until you said "There, hands back on."

From there, you put back on all the body parts, just to be sure.

Also yesterday, Sunday, you were an angel in the Christmas pageant at church. Somehow it seemed appropriate that your halo was always a little askew. You did pretty well during the walk up to the front of the church, although you didn't twirl like you were supposed to. But then you got all your twirling in, since you didn't stop twirling for almost all the rest of the pageant. You slowly twirled around the front of the alter, and almost into the Christmas tree. After a while you twirls started to look a little drunken as you got dizzy. After the service, everyone said they were just waiting for you to fall down, but you never did.

You had terrible coughing last night, and threw up 3 times from coughing so hard. Today we went to your Doctor, Dr. Lufti, who said you have a sinus infection and prescribed an antibiotic (amoxicillan). I was pleased after the swine flu that only I got a sinus infection, not you. But then....you got one too.

Isabel-isms

Every day there are new phrases you use that aren't quite right but show how your mind works. When you were describing where the ginger bread houses were to Dad, you said they were on the "radio desk". They were on the armoire, which is where we used to keep the TV and radio receiver. Dad gave you a funny look, so you figured out that what you called it wasn't quite right, so then you called it "the open and close", because the doors of it open and close.

A few days ago you told me that Daddy had given you some "nipple glue" and you had put it on. This made me really curious, so I asked you about it. You thought for a minute, then said it was so you wouldn't stink. At that point I knew what you were talking about. When you ask Dad why he puts on deodorant he tells you "So I don't stink." Lately he's been letting you use it when he does, and you tend to put it on your chest rather than under your arms.

My Whirly Twirly Baby

Isabel, you love to dance and sing, but most of all you love to climb and tumble. You climb up both your dad and I.

Can they come over?

Today you were endlessly asking if Tino and Francis could come over. I set your analog wind-up clock with the alarm so you could see how long it was until we picked them up (and I could sneak in a lesson on telling time) and you carried the clock all over the house with you and still kept asking me.

I decided that if I don't lay down to take a nap with you, getting you to take a nap is impossible. This week and the last part of last week, I let you stay up if you give me an hour of peace and quiet. I thought it would be impossible for you to not keep after me constantly, so it was going to be more of an excuse for me to put your in your room than a viable solution, but you were very good. You needed to be reminded several times, but not that many. You mostly just played by yourself (something that never happens otherwise), giving your dolls instructions on how to slide down the slide.

New things

You started screaming when I call Isbre. It took me a while to realize that was your imitation of my whistling.

No nap, but yes to Elmo underwear

I could not get you to go down for a nap today. In fact, you ended up in one of your tantrums/fits where you want to kick and hit (and foam at the mouth because you try to spit) but you don't want to be put down. You'll ask to be put down, but then you'll scream to be picked back up again. It wore me out. After you came out of it you were happy as a lamb until after dinner. Then it was obvious that you NEEDED some sleep. Your dad took the bed shift tonight, which was nice for me.

Even on days like today, when you are a screaming, flailing mass, I am still astonished at how much you've added to my life. At how glad I am that you're here and how much I love you. You are smart and funny and dynamic and it's beyond fascinating to see parts of myself, my way of talking and being, reflected and changed in you. You may not have my DNA, but I can see parts of myself in you already and that's a lot of fun.

You are driven and always on the go. You can't wait to master the world and the things in it. You want to push against everything, try it all, have the world on your terms. I think it will make some things harder for you, but your life will not be boring. You won't let it be.

Potty Training Continues

Six months after we thought we were getting somewhere with potty training, we actually may be moving forward. As far as I can tell, the important thing is to make you believe it's something you may not be able to do, or to be very blase. Then you start to think it must be something cool and want to do it. We even got some Elmo underwear, with high hopes.

It's hillarious to hear you sing "Frer a Jacque a". It comes out something like "Where a sock is? Where a sock is? Door mate. Door mate. Song a lot Amia. Song a lot Amia. Din din don." You have the last verse right, but the rest is really funny. I hope I can capture it on tape.

The kitchen is a street

Isabel has decided that the wood kitchen floor is a street, and we need to take her hand to cross it the way she needs to take our hand to cross the street. You gotta love the imagination.

You are swimming like a fish now. Well, you can't actually "swim", but you can propel yourself with a life jacket on in the deep end of the pool and you wear swim goggles and put your head under water and kind-of swim in the shallow end.

You talk all the time now, and you spend your day's asking "Whatcha doin?" and "What was that noise?" and "Why?" and "Why not?" You've hit the point where your vocabulary is exploding and you pick up several new words a day.

You're favorite shows are "song" shows with the muppets and "Blue's Clues". I like both of them, so I don't mind listening to them when you watch.

First Bike Ride of the Season

Last night we took our first bike ride of spring and it was wonderful.  The sun was out, the temperature was perfect.  You went out and helped Dad get the bikes ready before dinner, and all during dinner all you could talk about was going for a bike ride.  You even put on your helmet without much fuss. 

You rode behind Dad, and kept telling him "Not too fast", "Not too far", "Sit straight"(you're not sure about leaning over for turns and stops).  You loved it, and every time I could see your face you were beaming.  You didn't want to come out of the seat when we got home.

You were a really good traveler to Grandma and Grandpa Hash's house last weekend.  Even though the trip was 11 hours (counting breaks) you watched Elmo and listened to songs and slept for almost the whole trip both ways.  We got up horribly early (3am) for traveling and then took a long stop for breakfast with a place to play.  You are really starting to get interested in other kids and watching them play.

You now talk pretty much all the time, asking, telling, ordering, complaining.  We can have real conversations (simple ones) now, which is fun.   

Home and Blog Writing

Writing away.

We're Home!

Ya gotta love the USA. Clean, big houses, cars, nice roads. It's like coming to a country club.

Belize - Caye Caulker

Belize - Black Orchid and Creole Home Stay

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Belize Trip - Mayan Home Stay

 

Right after our stay in Dangraga, we spent one night in a Mayan lodge and one in a Mayan home stay. The lodge was so-so, but the home stay with Alba and Emilio Pop and their 3 children was amazingly wonderful. We were supposed to stay for 2 nights, but there was some mix-up with the Aurora, who arranges the home-stays, so we only got to stay for one night. Alba and her family were so welcoming and so fun that I was really sorry it ended up being for only one night.

Alba's kids were Alvin (11), Amelia (9), and Chimera (5). The house was small and concrete with a kitchen and a bedroom. The Pop's had a stove, oven and refrigerator, so they were doing well. The yard was fenced off with chain-link and there were 2 roosters, 10 chickens, and 4 chicks in the yard, along with a little kitten and 2 dogs that were tied up until they got used to the kitten.

We stayed in a wooden room with a palm-frond ceiling right behind the house that the Pop's use for home stays. It was nice and airy and we all slept on a full size bed that we put mosquito netting up over.

Doves roosted on the ceiling, the dogs ran around at night and liked to bump into the walls of our room, and the rooster liked to be right next to our room to crow BEFORE the sun came up. I thought it was lovely.

Alba made us tomalitos, tamalis made with unripe corn and nothing inside, that all three of us adored. I can hardly wait to have another one. We had chicken and rice and beans for dinner, which was wonderful as well. It was Sunday night, so I went to church that night with Alba and Emilio. It was a Roman Catholic service in Mopan, the Mayan language Alba and her family and the Mayans in the area speak. Alba and her family speak Mopan and English, but no Spanish. Emilio and another man played guitar at the service and someone from the congregation led the service. Every couple of weeks a priest comes from one of the towns to celebrate mass with them. The Mopan language, with it's x's, is lovely.

Isabel ran around with Alba's kids and took the broom to sweep and played with the kitten (poor kitten) and followed Alba around and had a fabulous time. Robert and Emilio talked soccer (there was a match in the field right in front of their house) and trees and building. Alba and I talked about adoption and food and the students she's had stay at her house. The kitchen/dining room was one of the warmest and coziest I've ever been in, and that was because the family was so friendly and close.

Belize Trip - Tikal

We took a day trip to Tikal, Guatemala, a giant ancient Mayan site, and took Isabel with us on that excursion.

It took us about 45 minutes to get through the border crossing into Guatemala because the Guatemalans want you to take their vans to the Tikal and so they make it obnoxiously difficult for vans from Belize to go across the border. You need a bunch of paper-work and they look for nit-picky things to deny you access to cross. They spent 20 minutes looking for the VIN number of our van to be sure it matched the VIN on all the documents for the van. We got through, but another van from Chaa Creek had to turn around because one number in the VIN was missing in one of the documents. Chaa Creek even sent Dosio up to the crossing with more documentation, but they still wouldn't let them in. Joe, our driver, was organized and efficient. And fun to talk to. He and his wife both create curriculum for the Belize school system for their full-time jobs, and Joe does these tours on his off days.

We climbed to the top of Temple 4 first and got a breath taking look at the jungle around us and of the site. Unlike Chichinitza, we didn't have to climb the stone steps but there were wooden steps on the side. Not as exciting and authentic, but easier and less scary. Seeing how high the temples are and how large the site is (with temples and sleeping quarters for royalty and other things like plazzas and ball fields), it suddenly became clear how important and complex the Mayan society here was and how many people lived close by. When the Mayans were living in the area, Belize had more than 3 times the population it has today!! This was a big deal.

Belize Trip - ATM Cave and the Crystal Maidan

4 days ago Robert and I took the ATM Cave excursion. It was fabulous and exhausting (at least for me, since I've been fighting a cold). You hike for about 45 minutes, crossing a river 3 times by wading through it, to get to the entrance to the cave. At the entrance you swim about 30 feet to get into the cave (brrrrr!), then wade up the cave for about an hour or so using the headlamps on your helmets for light. There are beautiful crystaline formations in the cave as intricate stalagtites. It's like the rock is diamond-encrusted.

The cave goes back for 3 1/2 miles, but we only go back about 1/2 mile, which is the only part of the cave with Mayan artifacts. At about 1/2 mile in, you climb up onto a high shelf, take your shoes off, and walk barefoot through a crystaline cathedral. It's really the only way to describe it. It's easy to see why the Mayan's thought this place was sacred and close to the gods. There are vaulted ceilings and delicate sparkling stone sculptures. And right there, on the ground, are original Mayan pots and fire structures. Further inside are calcified bones from sacrifices, 15 in all. At the back is a complete skeleton of a young woman that sparkles from calcification.

After we came out the sun was shining (it was raining when we went in) and we ate our lunch at a small palapia. Another group came out at the same time we did, and we all vied for space in the sunshine. The walk back in the sunshine was lovely, and our guide, Orlando, even talked us into eating some tree termites he found in a nest, which really do taste like carrots when you bite into them. (I admit I wouldn't have done it if everyone else in our group of 5 hadn't tried them, but I didn't want to be the only wuss). Orlando had tricked us into tasking a horrible tasting plant on the way in. I'm sure it has great medicinal properties, but it tasted really horrible - I might opt for having worms or malaria if the cure was eating that plant. So, for the termites, we all waited until Orlando ate one before we did.

Belize - Chaa Creek

Chaa Creek is a Five Star resort in the middle of the jungle. It's nicer than any resort I've stayed in anywhere. We stayed at the lodge for 4 nights, and our room had a huge granite shower with 2 shower heads, an outdoor shower in a private outdoor patio, a big room with fans and a palm-frond sloped roof. The food is gourmet for all the meals and dinner is 4 wonderful courses.

Then we spent 4 nights in the camp, which is just as wonderful in it's own way. We have a big stilted cabin to ourselves and share hot showers and bathrooms. Dosio, who runs the camp, is an amazing guy, and he makes sure we have what we need and are taken care of. Breakfast and dinner are included and are typical Belizian fare, with lots of eggs and rice and bisquits.

Carmelita, a woman from Cristo Rey (across the river) who works in the laundry here babysat for us when we wanted some time to ourselves or when we went to the ATM cave or horse-back riding, where Isabel couldn't go. Isabel loved being with her, although she was still upset for a couple of minutes when we left her. Carmelita was wonderful with Isabel, taking her to town and to the staff quarters where she got attention from everyone. All the staff here know her and are wishing her goodbye since this is our last day here.

Belize - Dangriga

Our room at the Chaleanor.

The view from our window in the Chaleanor.

Washing day.

Go carts, Dangriga style.

Main Street Dangriga

 

Roots Kitchen.  Good Garifuno soul food (whole fish cooked in coconut milk, hudut).

Fun, laid back, good food (like southern cooking, lots of fat), family-oriented, dirty, dusty, beautiful, interesting.

We stayed at the Chaleanor Hotel, and the people who run it are wonderful. We got corn tortillas at Rosalinda's Tortilla Factory (just a largish building) where they sell them by the pound. We went to the store several times to stock up on provisions, and found out all the stores are owned by Chinese people. We walked across the whole town watching people doing their washing (often by hand) and hanging it out to dry under their stilted wood houses. We ate at Roots (tiny shack with slanted floor and 4 tiny tables and great food). Lots of people with dread-locks, and a very casual feel to the whole town. The main ethnic group is Garafuno and the language sounds a little like English but is impossible to understand with Swahili and Karib and Spanish mixed in.

Isabel got sick for one day here, but fortunately it cleared up in time for us to feel good about moving on.

Belize - South Water Caye

Plane to Dangriga.

First sandy beach, at Pelican Resort in Dangriga.

Our room at South Water.

Hammock baby.

5 squids all in a row.

 

We stayed at The Pelican Pouch at South Water Caye and it was like being at a zen garden with walk-in snorkeling. Every day they rake the sand on the third of the island that is owned by Pelican Pouch so that it is clean and soothing. We stayed in the only cabana without a name, high on stilts and a distance from any of the other cabanas.

Robert went on two snorkeling trips and 4 diving trips. I stayed at the resort and lay on the beach and walked into the surf for stunning snorkeling. Near the beach we saw 11 squid, lined up in a row almost by size and just swaying in the tide with their tentacles bent over the top like a mop head. They would get darker when we'd come closer and lighter when we went further away.

We got burned to a toasty red when we first got there, thanks to taking doxycycline for malaria prevention.

While we were there the resort brought in a babysitter for Isabel from Dangriga (the closest city on the mainland), Tomasita, who brought her 2 year old daughter Tiara with her. Isabel went with Tomasita every day for several hours while I read books and Robert dove or snorkeled. It was lovely. Isabel never liked going with her, but she got more and more used to it and would be playing with Tiara when we went to pick her up.

Usually we'd go swimming in the morning with Isabel, then again around 3pm. Isabel liked the water and riding around on Daddy's back, being buried in the sand, and looking for star fish.

Belize - the trip down and Belize City

picture - Belize City from the air.

The trip down took 8 hours, and it wasn't so bad.  I got 7 different toys from the dollar store and one from New Seasons.  I had plastic lizards and bugs, a new doll, pattern picture flash cards, and an African animals and veterinarian set.  They worked well.  About once an hour I'd pull out a new toy and it would be new and interesting enough to keep you busy for 15 or 20 minutes

On the trip to Houston (the longest leg of the trip), you wanted to get up so we walked (you ran) up and down the aisle of the plane for about 45 minutes. 

When we got to the Belize International Airport, it was hot and humid and we were all in our jeans. 

In Belize City (for one night) we stayed at Hotel Mopan.  Our cab driver from the airport told us to be careful in Belize City because most of it is dangerous.  This is why he lives with his family outside of town.  The tour books and web sites had told me the same thing.  We were in down town, near the Tourist Village (I swear, that's what it's called) where the cruise ships bring their passengers.