Hablando Espanol (Talking Spanish)

We came down to visit Nana and celebrate her birthday. We missed the date by a few days as we waited for Sarah to finish her last week of classes.

Papa: Sarita, ahora vamos a hablar solamente en espanol, porque vamos a Mexico, donde todos hablan espanol. No quieremos hablar ingles aqui, porque vamos a hacer sentir mal a nuestros familiares, quienes todos hablan espanol, y no saben hablar ingles.

So after that, Sarah kept catching Mama talking in English instead of Spanish.

Sarah: Mama! Habla en espanol!

Mama: Ok, gracias Sarita!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy Birthday to Nana Elvia, who celebrated 77 years this May 21!

Park Photos

After visiting Tata, we went to the park next door to play on the equipment. There is a nice view there of some fields below with some cattle and horses.

(Stairs To The "Big Mountain" In Background)

Drinking Water With Nana's Little Cup

Little Monkey #1 And Little Monkey In Training

(He Had Some Help Getting Up There)

Two other posts from this visit: Nana Swings With The Kids On The Swingset and Sarah Running Home

Tata

We visited Tata in the cemetery in Bacerac...

Sarah and Nana

Sarah had a bit of a bumpy relationship with Nana. She preferred to go spend time with her aunts and uncles rather than spend much with Nana. It probably has something to do with Nana correcting her and the other people not.

Nana told me the following story:

Tu suegro me decia, Elvia, si disciplinas a los ninos, no te van a querer. Si les das todo lo que quieren, te van a querer. Y asi fue, el no les pegaba, y yo si. Y todos me dicen, mi papa fue bueno conmigo, pero mi mama no. Pero ves, todos, todos crecieron derechitos, gracias a mi Tata Dios.

(Your father-in-law used to say to me, Elvia, if you discipline the kids, they are not going to like you. If you give them whatever they want, they'll love you. And it was like that, he didn't hit them, and I did. And they all tell me, my dad was good to me, but not my mom. But look, each and every one of them all grew up honest, thanks to my Grandpappy God.)

Leaving Nana's

Yes, Some Peanut Butter Did Make It
Past The Face And Into The Mouth

Another Picture That Completely Fails To Capture
The Awesomeness of "La Cruz  Del Diablo"

The Ladies

Sarah: Says It's A School, Wants To Go To School Here
(Huasabas, Mexico)

Visiting Loreto And Pregnant Lorena In Moctezuma,
Where We Picked Up Some Huge Bags Of Beans

Made It To A.P.

Playing Nice With The Toy Sarah Always Asks For

Now Stephen's Turn

Then a trip to Walmart before hitting the road again.

Tortillas

Nana makes delicious, home-made flour tortillas. Sarah helped her one time. Or should I say, Nana let her carry around a dough ball in her hands. A very black, dirty dough ball by the time I saw it.

Mmmm. Delicious.

Siii!

In Nana's kitchen, Stephen hides behind kitchen door.

Papa: Ramoncito, estas atras de esta puerta? (Stephen, are you behind that door?)

Stephen, from behind the door, shouts gleefully: SIII!!! (YES!!!)

(Then comes out from behind the door, beaming)

Bike Ride

Adilene Helps Fill The Tires With Air

Mama Goes For A Spin

Video of the bike ride here

Cutting Firewood

Stephen came over and wanted to help Papa take care of the woodsplitting duties. (Papa was not too much better at splitting wood than Stephen was).

Where's Stephen?

Stephen was in the room for a while without making any noise. It was discovered that he was playing with a piece of string and the bedframe. 

In Bavispe

With Daira

With Tia Meche

Monkey #1 Looking A Bit Evil

Random Photo

OK, That's Nicer

Early Morning

Papa Can We Go Outside? (Where Is That Jacket?)

Who Needs A Jacket When I Have This Sweatshirt?

Not Me!

Improvising

What Happens When Papa Can't Find Monkey #2's Jacket

Kitten

Yesterday morning, as Mama tried to catch up on some sleep, Papa took Stephen out to walk around. We got to play with a little white kitten that was hanging out outside, climbing up a tree and running back and forth between the plants along the fence by the road. Stephen petted it and was having a real good time. Unfortunately, Papa left the camera charging in the bedroom and didn't want to wake Mama up, so no photos. :(

Note to future generations: Currently, photos of kittens are popular to view on the Internet, so much that people commonly make jokes about it.

Spiders

How fears are learned.

The other day, while playing in the Secret Room, we discovered a spider web, complete with big black spider and wrapped up cocoon things. Mama freaked out and had Papa get rid of the spider, which ended up being dead and dried out already.

Sarah: Why are you afraid? I'm not afraid of the spider.

Today, while playing outside, Sarah came across a small little spider and started freaking out.

Sarah: Aaah! Aaah! I'm afraid of the spider!

Papa looks at Mama.

Mama: She's a girl.

Papa: No, she wasn't afraid of spiders the other day. She learned to be afraid of spiders.

The Christ

Sarah: (looking at a picture of a bloody Christ figure at Nana's house)

Why he has owie in his piernas? (his legs) (pause) Why he has owie in his face? (pause) Why he has owie aqui? (Here, pointing to chest)

Later...

He was fighting! He was fighting! Look, he was fighting! (pause) I no like it. (making face) Let's put it in the trash!

El Cuarto Secreto

There is a closed-off room at Nana's house off of the kitchen that we have converted into "El Cuarto Secreto," the Secret Room. Sarah likes to go in there to play and to eat sometimes. It has a sofa and some pictures and momentoes, and has its windows covered, giving it a private, secret feel. It also has a couple of coolers that serve as kid-size tables and play objects. It's a perfect secret place, even if a bit dusty.

Little Monkey On Nana's Table

It's Like This All. The. Time.

Time With Sarah

This morning, besides trying to teach Sarah how to use a hoe, I spent time teaching her how to use an axe to split wood and how to light a wood fire in the water heater.

She gets interested in the things that she sees and I do my best to involve her and introduce her to how things work and why. She gets frustrated though when she is not allowed to do every part of the process, like in starting a fire or splitting wood (she can hardly hold the axe up herself).

She got interested in the hoe after seeing me use it on the fruit trees that were recently planted for Nana. There are apple, peach, apricot, and pear trees back there now that Nana wanted me to help dig holes to capture water for.

Sarah is a good worker and does some of her most useful work with Stephen, playing with him, talking to him and helping him not to cry sometimes when Mama is too busy with something else.

Sarah was spending so much time with Tio Guero and others that it was nice to spend some time with her.