La Casa en La Purificación

The entrance from where we will park our car:

The inside of the dome:
The foyer/sunroom:
The kitchen:
Death trap stairs:
The back corner of the yard:
The orchard:
The secret plant room:


The back patio:

The avocado tree, it has fruit the size of limes now:

Falling Into Place

It just seems to work that way for us. Just as I'm getting annoyed with this "minimalist" lifestyle everything is falling into place. Last week we got our official visas and our "get out of jail free cards." The day after we had them in hand Esten booked a flight home. We just returned from that very short trip to Texas and were able to bring back several things that I was missing. Spices, soaps, candles, baby essentials, Mason pecans, etc.. We got the "red" light at customs but they very briefly searched our bags and let us through without a problem. We got our diplomatic license plates for our car so we can say goodbye to our expired paper plates now. We're looking at a big house with a big yard to rent in a small village just about 10 minutes up the mountain from where we are now. We went to meet the gardener this morning and checked it out. It's old and there are some things I don't like but the yard is fabulous. It's probably close to an acre completely surrounded by a brick wall covered in ivy. There is an avocado tree, peach trees, a guava tree, several citrus trees, apple trees, fennel, and who knows what else that isn't blooming yet. Our dogs will love it. CIMMYT gives us a stipend to do some work on any home off campus so with that and a little love, this place might just be our new home. Just in time too, because our shipment with all of our belongings that has been sitting somewhere in Texas since December should be heading south this week. We'll be waiting here to accept the shipment, move it under a roof somewhere and packing up the car to drive to Obregón for a few months. We have an apartment there that Esten rented when he was there a few weeks ago. He left me and Rowan here to go scope it out and I was lucky enough to have my mom come and stay. The highlight of her trip this time was a visit to the Pyramids. It was a first for all of us and they are amazing. Come visit and we'll take you too. That's a quick synopsis of what we've been doing and here are some pictures taken recently.

The two snow covered peaks in the background are the volcanoes that we live really close to. The half finished building in the foreground is very a typical sight in Mexico.

Here are my boys with their new sombreros we bought at the pyramids. We should have bought them in the morning instead of just before we left.

The pyramid of the Sun in the background is the one that Esten and I climbed. We'll climb the Moon next.
Rowan and I bought sunglasses at a market in Texcoco. He loves putting them on by himself and will wear them for a long time before throwing them off.
My mom and Esten with their Coca-cola sweetened with real sugar, imagine that. I've noticed that a lot of foods that are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup in the US are sweetened with sugar instead here.
Ro still likes to climb stairs, especially in the nude. These are the very hard stairs in our current house.
I love this photo of Esten and Ro because of the eyes. Esten may or may not have been drinking at the Rincón that night :)

Watering Plants

I was trying to water these plants yesterday that were in desperate need of water. Rowan decided to "help."







The carpenter brought us the gates for our stairs and surprise, surprise, Ro thinks they are to try climb over, squeeze through or hold on to and jump. We bought some soft ABC letters to put around the bottom of the stairs to try and avoid an ER visit.

Book Worm

Rowan loves to read! He'll bring you a book, turn around, sit in your lap and let you read him as many as you'd like. We've also discovered that he knows a lot of words. He'll point to several things in his books like, juice, cow, ball (and pelota), baby, strawberry, banana, tomato, hat, eyes and tons of others. But wait, I'm not sure I'm getting my point across, he is obsessed with reading so much that he takes his books outside to read. In his spare time, when he is not reading, our boy is also learning Spanish. He knows, hola and pelota. If someone says, "Hola, bebe.", he'll wave at them.

We went to El Mercado a Chapingo last Saturday. There are tons of vendors selling fruits and veggies, meats, toys, garage sale quality clothing, etc... Look at these yummy chickens with heads and no refrigeration.
We're sticking with the fruits and veggies for now, except that chorizo we couldn't resist.

We have new wheels. Sorry VW but the Nissan is free. We got the ride yesterday and with the help of someone who knew someone, Esten got a driver's license. It's official we're mobile. We ventured out to Wal-Mart last night since it's the only place we knew for sure how to get to. But we have plans to try to get to a health foods store, back to Chapingo, and to the pyramids in the next week.

I love our little clothes line setup so much that I just had to show you a view from our tiny balcony. This is Ro and Esten on the balcony that overlooks the front courtyard.

This is where we hang our clothes to dry. The doorway in the far right corner of our wall is the maids room where the washing machine is and where Socorro keeps all of her cleaning supplies. She also changes her clothes in there. She comes well dressed and changes before she cleans.

The Masons and Mexico seem to be getting along just fine for now.

Week One in Mexico

Wondering about our experience so far, here is a long recap of last week.

Our first night in Mexico was miserable to say the least. Rowan and I were both sick from the altitude. It's 7,250 ft above sea level here and College Station was about 400ft. Rowan was up at least every 30 minutes and we were all COLD. The weather is temperate here but at night in these old, concrete homes with no heating, it gets cold. After about 24 hours both Rowan and I started feeling better and we are both acclimated now. We also scored a space heater, so no more cold nights.
Sybil, a new colleague of Esten's, took us to Wal-Mart the day we got here to buy food. Wal-Mart is new, clean, and very nice compared to everything around it. We had low expectations of what we were going to be able to find here. This is what we found:
*The organic section is about the size of what our old grocery store had for diabetics. Ketchup, rice, soymilk(thank my lucky stars), spaghetti - the basics.
*The produce department is ok and everything is sold by the kilogram. I'm clueless right now of what things cost. We bought potatoes, apples, bananas, strawberries, onions(with the outer layers peeled), lettuce, tomatoes, etc...
*The eggs and milk are not refrigerated here which is different. I know from Esten's parents that eggs can go without refrigeration for a long time if they haven't been washed, so I guess that's the theory here. It is just odd to pick your eggs up off a pallet in the produce section.

Later in the week we went to the Bodega in Texcoco to grocery shop again. We were told there is less international food but cheaper prices. When we walked in I wasn't sure if we were at the club or the grocery store. They play music, loud and all of the locals are singing and dancing along. The selection there wasn't great but we'll survive. One thing Esten and I noticed was the vast amounts of mayonesa they sell. Half of an isle was all mayonnaise. We walked the isles and gathered easy to prepare food stuffs and then we made the last turn and BLISS, the bakery. A kilo of corn tortillas for 5 pesos, conchas, bolitos, and all of the Mexican pasteries I LOVE. We bought Manchego (sheep's milk) cheese and cheese from Chihuahua Mexico to melt on those fresh corn tortillas. Well worth the selection sacrifice from Wal-Mart.

Since we are limited as to what we can cook due to our skeleton of a kitchen, the stores seem fine for now. Our "furnished" kitchen came with three pots, we bought a frying pan, 4 forks and knives but only one spoon. We called to request more spoons and they brought us a blender and toaster in addition to the spoons. I wouldn't say we are roughing it but we are living as minimalist for sure. I'll be so excited to reunite with our belongings. Our permanent visas are being applied for this week so fingers crossed, we'll have our stuff by the end of February.

I was told that living on campus is good in the beginning because it's safe and people speak English. Safe, yes! Gated and guards on duty 24/7, people don't even lock their doors here. People speak English, NO! My Spanish speaking skills and comprehension have been put to the test from the second we walked in our house. Sabina, the housing lady, quickly walked us through the house speaking Spanish the entire time, just as quickly as she was walking, with the occasional head nod and Si! We just kindly nodded back and replied, Si! Although I only understood about 50% of what she said, I heard, "Do you need help cleaning?" as if she were speaking English. Esten said my eyes lit up and I replied, "Si, Si!" The next day, Socorro, came to ask me when I needed her. We had to get the neighbor to come and help us secure the days and times but I hired a cleaning lady within 3 days of being here. She came for the first time on Saturday and I must say she out cleans any maid I've seen in the US. She cleaned all of the floors, did the dishes, ironed our clothes, cleaned the bathrooms(even wiped down all of the walls), swept our front porch and who knows what else. She left here with 120 pesos (~$11) and was grateful for it. She'll be back Wednesday. I LOVE Socorro! After we get our belongings we are going to ask her to cook dinner once a week and pay her a little extra. My only duty now is the laundry. We have a new washing machine and a closed in patio that has rope strung to hang the laundry on. It's different and you have to keep on top of it or you'll never catch up. No complaints from me.

Because we live on-campus, we have to catch a ride into town to shop and it has left us feeling isolated. However, we found out that Esten is getting a car this week so we'll get to do some exploring soon.

Today I picked up the paperwork to enroll Rowan, part-time, in the daycare here. As I write this I can see the daycare out of our bedroom window. There are several boys here about his age and I think he will benefit from playing with them and learning Spanish from the caretakers there. We'll see how it goes. It's $100 a month so why not try it, right?

I haven't updated you with all of the new things Rowan does and says so I thought I should catch up. He is running and climbing with the best of them now. He was actually climbing up a slide yesterday! This past weekend he learned to spin around in circles to make himself dizzy. Watch:

Crazy baby! He is starting to talk, he makes the correct sounds for lots of words but can say Mama, Dada, and hot clearly. He also knows the sounds for cows and chickens thanks to a few weeks that we spent in Fredericksburg with Moms and Pops (They have cows and chickens.) He is starting to eat better for us, which means he is actually trying things. Today he had 1/4 of a bagel with cream cheese and strawberries, chicken salad and cheese and a coconut cookie. If you know Ro, you know he turned a corner in the eating department. So much has improved in a week, probably because he has some stability in his life, after that month of couch surfing.

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.