Pardon the Interruption

But we were "homeless" and parading ourselves and baby around Texas visiting. We had lots of fun and took 0 photos to prove it. Fast forward to Jan. 4th when we left for Mexico and we'll pick up there. We made it to the airport in Houston with more luggage than anyone should ever have to deal and hopped on our short flight to Mexico City. Rowan slept pretty much the entire way and was an angel, just as expected. We got the green light in customs, so no searching of our luggage and then we were picked up by a CIMMYT driver in a 15 passenger van to accommodate our luggage. We came to Mexico thinking we were getting a one bedroom apartment, but were pleasantly surprised to get a 3 bedroom hacienda. Flamingo pink too! The place is empty but once we get our belongings here Casa Siete will be HOME. Rowan and I battled the altitude for about 24 hours but we are both feeling much better and are getting settled in. Here are some pictures of Casa Siete.

This is the view from the front. Like the color?


This is our backyard, small and fenced in by hedges. But just beyond the yard is a huge playground area for Rowan.


This is Rowan on his first expedition to the playground.


Our view of the mountains. That's where we want to live when we move off campus.


Rowan "helping" sweep the kitchen this morning.


So all is well here in Mexico and I'm going to do my best to keep all of you updated much more frequently. Come see us!
P.S. Happy Anniversary to Us, 3 years.

Happy Birthday!

One year ago today our beautiful baby boy was born. Can you believe it? He has gone from our helpless, "noodle" of a baby to the oh, so mobile and curious toddler in 365 days. Amazing. We had his first party at his Aunt Bunny and Uncle Tom's house in Austin. I made him a birthday banner which we hung on their porch.


And Esten and I slaved over these monkey cupcakes which were homemade carrot cake with maple cream cheese frosting. The face is a ginger snap, the eyes are M&M's, the ears are mini oreos and the nose is chocolate ganache. They were soooo good.

Rowan was impressed with our singing as you can tell.

And he even tried a little bit of the icing. He's still not big on the eating thing and so my mental picture of him covered in icing and having cake all over himself didn't happen. This is what I got.

There was not a shortage of gifts for this little man. He got musical instruments, puzzles, trucks, blocks, a barn with animals, blocks, books, crayons and did I mention blocks? He for some reason loves this little Papa Smurf that John and Jess gave him.

It was a fun day and we had a great time. This past Saturday we had another party for Rowan at the San Antonio Zoo. We invited kids to this one and they all had a blast.
We started off feeding fish and goats. Then the kids got to pet a hedgehog like creature. Here is cousin Mara petting Sophie.
This is Rowan being helped by Daddy, petting Sophie.
Rowan having a second round of happy birthday and a bit of cake afterward.



The rest of the day was spent exploring the zoo. This is a group shot at the end of the day.

Dr. Mason

After many long days and late nights of writing his 200 page dissertation, Esten is officially Dr. Mason. He defended his dissertation last Thursday. His parents came to town and we celebrated with a happy hour and dinner. Now it's crunch time with our packing and preparing for Mexico.

This is Dr. Hays and Esten.



Title Slide from Esten's seminar.

Walking

I think we now have to say that Rowan is walking. It's his primary mode of transportation. I can't believe it. Today was one of his first days to try walking in the grass with his shoes. Here is a video clip of his walking:

Bluesy Ro

I mentioned the Harmonica skills a few posts ago, well...

Happy Belated Halloween

We opted to dress Rowan and stay home this Halloween. Ro handed out candy to a few trick-or-treaters and showed off some unforeseen walking skills to his Grandma and Grandpa. It was like he had been walking for months. But no worries he's back to his falling self again.




We stayed home because we took Rowan to his first Aggie football game. He was tired after all of that excitement. Here is Esten and Ro at the game.



Our packing is getting underway over here. My parents took a trailer and truck full of stuff this weekend and I'm wheeling and dealing on craigslist. Our dresser and bar stools are gone today. Hmmm, what to do with all of the clothes in the dresser...

Nos estamos moviendo a México

We have some big news; we're moving to Mexico in January! Esten took a job at CIMMYT near Mexico City and that's where we will be for the next three years. We are very excited to step out of our comfort zone into a world that most people never get a chance to experience. I'll admit the not knowing what to expect and the "How DO you move to Mexico?" parts are challenging but they are not stopping us from embarking on this great adventure.
Dr. Borlaug, who was credited with saving over a billion lives from starvation, was a distinguished professor at A&M and he was on Esten's committee for a few years until he became ill and had to be removed. He recently passed away and Esten was an "usher" at his memorial on campus. Listening to his colleagues talk of him and what he did to save the world really made me hope that we were going to Mexico. Dr. Borlaug worked at CIMMYT for 40+ years and received the Nobel Peace Prize while he was working there. He once said, "I personally cannot live comfortably in the midst of abject hunger and poverty and human misery." He also believed that the world cannot be at peace until these people are helped to feed themselves and escape poverty. I love that Esten is choosing a job with dignity over a job for a huge corporation (where he would make a lot more money) like Monsanto. And if the corn fed boy from Iowa, Dr. Borlaug, survived Mexico so can we! VAMOS!
We'll be living on campus at first until we learn enough Spanish and feel comfortable living elsewhere. We're going to be about 3 hours from beautiful beaches both ways, east and west and a few minutes from Mexico City. We will be taking visitors as often as possible and CIMMYT kindly pays for us to come home once a year (hopefully we'll make it more often than that.) I'm currently selling things on craigslist and looking for responsible, loving homes for some of our belongings that I just can't part with. Enough about Mexico, how's that baby?
Rowan will be one next month. Can you believe it? He is getting more adorable everyday. He is on the cusp of walking and walks first, until he falls, then crawls to whatever the destination might be. He has a Radio Flyer walker that his aunt bought him last year and he pushes that thing around with speed. Any day now he's going to be full on walking.
He picked up the harmonica this past week. At first he couldn't play it but after we showed him several times he figured it out. He can also wave bye'bye, but only with his right hand. He gives open mouth kisses, tries to sort shapes and puts his socks inside his shoes when you take them off of him. This is video of some of Rowan's latest cuteness, including a Halloween sneak peek.