El Día Del Niño

Today is Children's Day in Mexico. School children have the day off and the park (with the zoo) is having a huge party to honor children. Our neighbor and I decided to take Ro and Vimal.
As soon as we walked in, government employees were handing out goodie bags. I cringed but let Rowan look at the junk food. Candy, cupcake, more candy, cheetos, cookies, etc... Here's Ro with his loot. They were also giving free vaccinations, yikes. They were throwing eyedrops and nosedrops at all of the kids as they entered. A little Mexican welcome. I passed.


First, to the carousel. Ro loves this thing, but all of the horses were taken so he had to settle for the carriage. This is our neighbor, Shaun and her son, Vimal with Ro.



Next, roller coaster. It was Rowan's first time to ride a roller coaster and he was really excited about it. This is when he realized that the little balls in this "toy" were candy.



And then he decided he couldn't wait and would proceed to the front of the line.



He didn't want to wait in this line.



For this.



His excitement was over after the ride. This is how he felt.



But all was well again when he saw this.



And this. He stood on the fence and mooed at the cow for 10 minutes. She never responded.



He had fun and even got to eat a few bites of candy. Feliz Día del Niño Rowan. Most of the parents had a wrapped gift for their children but Rowan will have to wait until we get stateside. Have I mentioned how overpriced quality toys are here? Three to four times the price.

Barley Circus

We took Rowan to the circus last night. It was a one-tent circus with seats up to the edge of the ring. No cages, no nets, nothing much in the way of safety. The first animals Ro saw were elephants. He was mesmerized and sat perfectly still, barely blinking, for probably 30 minutes. He wasn't so much for the highflying acts but the animals were right up his alley. The baboons were rowdy and on leashes (scary) as were some of the llamas. Have you ever seen a chimpanzee pole dancing, I'm talking taking his pants off and slapping his behind? We have! Jealous? But the act that blew my mind was the hippopotamus. How do keep a hippo in the circus, don't they need water? And even more disturbing, they let kids ride him, 5 at a time. It was wild. So once again, Esten and I were appalled by the lives those poor animals live and Rowan was thoroughly impressed, just like the zoo. But this, this was Rowan's favorite part. The voiceover is his Pops' song, Ride Em' Cowboy.

A Boy and His Hats

Esten has perma-hat hair and I'm usually wearing a souvenir hat (you know, the ones you don't really like but have around because it was free) most of the day. Try taking it off and Rowan will tap the top of his head, which means put your hat on. And then try telling him, “I don’t want to wear a hat right now, we’re going to bed.” Ha! He will whine and proceed to cry if you don’t submit, hence the perma-hat hair.

As for himself, the A&M baseball hat in the bottom right picture is his favorite. He sees it around the house, picks it up, puts it on, nods his head (as if to say, “Yep, now I’m ready.”) and looks at you with a big smile. So consider yourself warned, next time Rowan comes around, either hide all of your hats or get ready for a hat party.

Makeover

I'm ready for a makeover! Of this blog of course. I'm attempting to do this on my own instead of paying someone. Please pardon my dust as I do this and let me know if I killed any links or if you hate it.
Today's accomplishment: a new banner. I can change the photos (and I will) but I just thought I would use professional pics so I didn't have to edit my own images today.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Well it didn't happen, I failed to dye eggs with Rowan. We didn't see one basket, bunny, plastic egg or marshmallow chicken this year. The thing to do on Easter weekend here is fly a kite. People sell them at virtually every stop light and along the beaches. We bought one for 35 pesos ($3) and we fit right in with the locals at the beach. It was little things like a cheap kite



and watching the sunset on a beautiful horizon that brought joy to us this Easter.