Planting

One afternoon, Emma decided to do some planting with her Emma girl.

They got all their tools ready.

Little Man and Mommy were spectators.  

(That finger!!!)

Emma was a very good helper.  Even Oma herself was amazed with how well she did.  She collected the rocks to put on the bottom of the pans, put the dirt in, placed the seeds, then covered with dirt again.  

What was Mommy doing during this time?

Taking pictures of my handsome Mexican boy.

Avocados

A certain perk from being in Mexico was giving my avocado-loving-girl as many avocados as she wanted without feeling like my wallet was leaking.  She loved eating her avocado "like ice cream."

Baking with Oma

Emma also enjoyed baking with Oma. 

It's so funny for me that the sound of the mixer bothers her so much, she needs to cover her ears... always!

Problems

Our little hurricane-of-a-son was not spared from injury while in Mexico.  A new walker himself, he tripped on his own feet and his head landed right on the edge of a brick wall.  A nice, quarter-sized goose-egg was left as a temporary reminder of this fall.

Also, moooosssquiiiitooos!!!!  Good grief... these suckers found my sweet children and feasted on them if I did not put mosquito repellent on them.  

Bellow is a picture of Byron's legs after being attacked during the night.  Even though it's been a month since this took place, he still has some scars from this attack. 

Legos

What 15-month old boy does not love Legos?  His favorite part was the Lego car, which he enjoyed wheeling against any surface, with sound effects such as:  "fffuuuummmm."

Picnic with Oma

On my second Sunday in Mexico, I left the kids at home with my mom to enjoy to let her enjoy some time alone with them.  Emma requested a picnic outside, and the kids enjoyed some yummy food and great company.

Home entertainment

The kids got to enjoy lots of time at Oma's house.  Here are a few pics to show all that we did while we were there--

Reading books with Oma (of course, this pic was taken during the 10 second period where BB sat still... he eventually tore the page off the book before we put him down *sigh*).

Candy Land was a board game Emma and Oma got to play and enjoy together a lot.  

Lots of wagon time.

And lots of cute little helpers.

Coloring in the backseat while driving to and from Oma's house (about 20-40 minute drive one way, depending on where we were going).

Emma became good friends with Freddy the Frog, and by the end of our time there, she was changing his diaper and putting him to bed as well.

What a mama!

There were always lots of oranges around the house, which was absolutely perfect for BB who loved pretending they were his balls.  He enjoyed throwing them out of the basket, walk around with the empty basket, then pretending to putting them back in.

Day of the Dead

One of my personal highlights from the trip was getting to enjoy the food from the Day of the Dead celebrations. 

I would dare say Day of the Dead as our Thanksgiving equivalent.  Full of food, tradition, and national pride.

All in life is good when you have your pib, xec, and glass of Coke.

Produce

We got to enjoy plenty of fresh produce while in Mexico.

Oma lives in a small village outside of Merida (city where I was raised).  One evening she wanted to give Emma the experience of riding on a Tricitaxi to the village's main square to buy some produce.  There were, of course, no car seats... welcome to "Anywhere Outside the States."

Emma got her own little shopping bag and got to choose her own produce to bring home.

Also, among many other trees, Oma has an orange tree in her front yard.  Most mornings Oma and Emma would go out picking oranges to then squeeze into fresh orange juice.

Most certainly one of Emma's trip highlights.

Daddy's last day

On Daddy's last day with us in Mexico, we took the kids to one of the malls Byron and I spent a lot of time at while living in Mexico-- Gallerias Merida.  We got some crepes for us to eat for lunch (which became a tradition for us to do while living there), showed Emma the ice rink (Frozen!), and got on the little train.

Cousin playdates

One of my favorite parts of this trip was all the cousin time I got in.

With so many of my cousins with children around the age of mine, it was a no brainer to get together and play.

On our second night in Mexico, my cousins Yamel and Farizet brought their children to play.  Emma still hadn't gotten the memo about children in Mexico not speaking English, so we still found her saying things like:

"Okay, boys and girls..."

"Friend..."

"Come on..."

At one point that evening, Adrian (the older boy) told Emma:  "No hablamos Ingles!!!" (We don't speak English!!!).

Later that week we met two other cousins for a playdate at a Children's Museum type place.

"Dawg, dawg..."

Then another evening we met with another cousin to hang out with her 7 y.o. son Manuel.

And another night with my cousins Karime and Aqueber at a home playdate.

Our home

We took the kids to see the first home Mommy and Daddy lived at while in Mexico as newly weds.

While they were in school

While the kids were in school, most morning Byron and I (and later only I) would go to Starbucks and enjoy some reading time turned-into date time.

One morning we had an early-for-Mexico lunch (at around noon) at Pollo Brujo.

A must have in our opinion :p