Definitions:

tiangui: street market
gordita: masa-based tortilla filled with fried meat sold at tianguis; also means a fat lady (in this case we're talking about the former, although both are found at tianguis)

peligro: danger

I'll spare you the details. not pretty!

Halloween

i'm ready for Halloween - albeit a little early.
which means I'll have to leave Mexico City
and miss out on Dia de los Muertos.
hmm let's see - nietos, trick-or-treating, all the candy I can eat, or purple and orange flowers, "Katrina" skeletons and visiting graves.
Houston, here I come!!

And Leah makes six

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm sure you'll enjoy these more than any entry I could write.

my pretty babies!

the NICU staff
big sisters
beautiful couple =
beautiful baby!

and since I don't have many pictures of Annie, her words are worth a thousand pictures.
My favorites:

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! - on seeing Bethany breastfeeding Leah for the first time
YUMMMMMMMM!!! - on driving into the parking lot of Ooh, La La (cupcake store)

and Mabel sang this song over and over and over and over . . .

Project Sanity

Thanks to DTB, I will be leaving for Texas tomorrow morning via Toluca, since the Mexico City airport is currently closed due to a hijacked flight from Cancun. My hero!!

Things I learned today . . .

1. Dad-the-bad doesn't answer his phone when I need him.
2. I sometimes I think I need him when I really don't.
3. Actually, I'm quite capable of calling the insurance company, reporting my accident and directing the insurance evaluator to the accident site.
4. I am also capable of writing an accident report - although my written Spanish is around 3rd grade level, but they don't seem to mind.
5. If you enter the wrong shopping mall parking, realize your mistake then continue out the other side, you still have to pay for parking, even if you never left the ramp (at least here in Mexico.)
6. If you don't know that, your ticket won't open the gate. Then you have to leave your car on the ramp, blocking all out-going cars, walk all the way down the ramp two floors where you can pay for your ticket, then walk all the way back up with people yelling at you, then put your ticket in the machine to open the gate (OR crash through the gate with your car. However, since I had already called the insurance company once that morning, I chose the former.)
7. Swearing at the machine is futile.
8. Rolling down the window and yelling to surrounding pedestrians that you will NEVER EVER patronize said shopping mall again, however, is quite therapeutic.
It's been one of those days.

Frustration

I think the power company is trying to convince me to move back to the US. Almost every day for the past month or two I have come home to blinking clocks. In the past week I have made two attempts to get some cute little nieto outfits at Zara (local clothing store.) Each time I get to the mall, all of the stores are closed due to power outage. They do, however, have a generator for the parking garage so that you can park, walk into the mall, see that all of the stores are closed, pay 12 pesos, and leave (apparently no grace period.) I'm loving it here.

Feria del Adulto Mayor

A few weeks ago, we had a "Feria del Adulto Mayor" in the Clinica Amistad. The clinica movil was shut down for the event and all patients (adults only) came to our clinic in Sante Fe. Since none of the adultos mayores needed a pediatrician, I became the photographer. The nurses (enfermeras) were busy for weeks cutting, coloring and pasting in anticipation of the event.(perhaps they should have become Kindergarten teachers.)

Some of the highlights I wanted to remember:enthusiastic Dra. Tanya greeting patients
Peter and Blanca, our psychologists
one of the dentists, MarisolDr. Jacome came dressed for his presentation on sleep.
PAP lady, Dra. Diana (only Mexicans can make a party out of getting a PAP)
and finally, enfermera Paola with one of our patients.