Day 40-46 Jan. 1-7

We spent the last week trying to get as much "baby time" in as possible before we left. I wonder if she will even remember Mom Rob and I when we go back in March. We also spent a alot of time looking for the right Nanny to help Dad with Bella Carmen when he is alone. We put a 3 day ad in the newspaper and got over 200 responses! At just to get a brake from the ringing every now and then we had to unplug the phone. Literally the second that you plugged the phone back in, it would start ringing again. Eventually after 5 days we picked our favourite one, a middle aged woman named Socorro. I may have been fate because socorro is the word "help" in Spanish.
After many goodbye hugs and a bit of crying from some people our family split at the airport. Dad and the baby going back to Mazatlan and Mom Rob and I going home to Canada. after 3 bag x-rays and searches we were told our plane was 2 hours late. When we got to our stop over in Phoenix we were standing in the line for customs when a sniffer dagstarted to lick the handbag I was holding. Luckily we were able to say that we had some ham sandwiches in there so they let us go after yet another x-ray and the confiscation of our sammies. As we were going through security for our second plane we heard the x-ray operator exclaim, "What are those?!?!?!" when he saw our toner cartridges go through. We had bought 2 special toner cartridges for a printer at a school in Belize but we ended up not taking them because of Bella. We were hoping to return them at the store in Richmond. The guys at the security check point made us wait for almost an hour while they disected and bomb sniffed our bags because apparently toner cartridges have been outlawed on planes for the last 6 months even though we had taken these cartridges on 3 flights in the last month. When we finally arrived in Vancouver and yet again our bags were torn apart, by the customs guys this time. Eventually (2:30 in the morning) we stumbled into bed. Today I got up to find the pool covered in an inch of ice, I am already looking forward to going back to Mexico in March.

Day 39-42 Dec. 28-31

Now that we have settled down in our new house life has become not that interesting. I could write about taking Bella Carmen to get tested for TB or I could write about going grocery shopping but it would bore you and it would bore me. Hopefully something amazingly exciting will happen soon but I fear any adventures are over for this year. We are on a new adventure, battling with the Mexican government and mixing baby formula.

Later today we are picking up my grandma from the airport. She is spending a week here with her new granddaughter.

Day 28-38 Dec. 17-27

For the last 10 days I have been sick to various degrees. I’ve had every sort of sickness you can think of and it all blended together into a slur of running around town looking at houses and apartments. Some of these places are really scary with cockroaches scurrying under the beds, puddles of questionable liquids in the bathrooms and the paint peeling off the walls while other places cost a million dollars but they had 50 m pools and white furniture so clean that you are afraid to sit on it. I only remember a couple places clearly but I do remember a general feeling of not bonding with any of the homes. 3 days ago we moved into a huge stone palace that we decided to rent, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms plus the maids quarters. The way we have decided to justify having the huge place is that first of all it is very cheap by Canadian standards and also with this many bedrooms relatives coming to stay here can be in the same house as us and the cost of hotels they would have stayed in pays off the difference. Of course we are in Mexico so the house isn’t perfect. The first night the toilet in my bedroom broke and managed to flood my room with 4 inches of water by 2 in the morning when dad noticed the water in the hall. Several days have been spent cleaning all the floors and outdoor areas. When we first moved in our bare feet were black as beans after 5 minutes of walking around. Now that we have a permanent house we bought a high chair and nice stroller for Bella. This involved going to 7 different Wal-Mart like stores all over town, which was quite an ordeal. Today we worked on getting the internet/phone/tv hooked up. We went to the cable place first and they sent us to the Ley mall and they sent us to Wal-Mart and they sent us to the bus station and they said come back at 5:00. Oh, also Christmas was in there somewhere. We tried to make sushi for Christmas dinner and watched Nacho Libre.

Day 20-27 Dec. 9-16

All the days blended together into one awful montage of Mexico City that I believe lasted another 3 days. We managed to find a slightly better hotel but the nights were still icy. Everyone got sick at least a little in those days and I had a fever most of the time. There were 2 mis-diagnoses of the car but they got it on the third day and we drove to Las Barcas. There were lots of celebrations for Guadelupe Day and we street food but we think that that was what made dad sick. Next day we drove to Mazatlan. The last few days have been spent on the beach mostly. We managed to sell most of our fishing rods that we won’t need now that we aren’t going to Belize. Every beach day we have built huge sandcastles in a style we call drip castles. The last 2 days have been spent hunting for a house or apartment to rent here in Mazatlan. We have decided to make this our place of residency. Today we drove all around town and collected a page of phone numbers for potential houses.

Day 19 Dec. 8

We finally got our car this morning. As we attempted to drive out of Mexico City the van stalled every few minutes. The traffic was so bad that it probably would have been faster to walk. Eventually we were forced to stop and find a mechanic in the town of Cojimalpa, which is really just another part of Mexico City. Right now the car is in the shop so we found a hotel. I’m trying to fall asleep but it is proving quite evasive as the baby screams and the trucks with engine brakes go roaring by, 20 feet from our window. The air is thin due to the altitude and full of carbon monoxide. I am struggling to breath, my throat is parched. The room is so cold that I am forced to share the blanket with Rob. Every now and then his feet will come across the bed and try to wiggle into the warmth under my body like two little wet mice. Hopefully we will be able to get out of here tomorrow but I’m not too hopeful about the car being done soon.

Day 18 Dec. 7

At noon we took a 5 hour bus ride to Mexico City. Mexicans really know how to make bus rides nice. All the seats were huge and were transformable into beds. At the door they give you little goody bags full of snacks and drinks, also there were TV’s that folded down from the roof. Unfortunately they only played Disney movies in Spanish so that part wasn’t too great. We have so much baggage that at the bus station in Mexico City we had to take 2 separate taxis. Mom and I were right behind the other cab until about a minute before we got to the hotel but then Rob and dad got ahead. There is some tricky navigating to get to the hotel and we thought the driver knew what he was doing when he drove right by the hotel. I only caught on that we were in trouble when he asked us what hotel we were going to about 20 minutes later. We told him and he replied with, “hmmmm… Never heard of it.” After asking 6 different people and roaming around the city of 30000000 people for an hour and a half we made it to our hotel. Dad and Rob were extremely worried. They thought that we were in an accident or that the cab driver had kidnapped us.

Day 16-17 Dec. 5-6

We spent the last couple days filling out documents for the Mexican government and waiting at the adoption office. We finally did manage to get to the beach a couple of times. Dad has decided that he dislikes Acapulco with a passion.