Hoarding the Videos

I realize that nearly all my posts lately have been about the girlie. However, it's cold and rainy outside, so we're not getting out much, and therefore about the only source of inspiration I've got!

I've been meaning to post these videos for awhile now, as I know my parents will enjoy seeing them. And if anyone else wants to join them in this shameless Clara-fest, be my guest!

I apologize that the first two are sideways. If anyone can help me straighten them out, using QuickTime or Windows Picture Manager, I'd appreciate it. These were taken maybe a month or two ago.

The last two videos were taken in August, when Clara was really into making monster noises. The makes better noises on the first video, but we didn't have the lights on in the room. So the first video is audio, the second is visual (because I guess she got tired of being a monster five seconds into that video).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Most holidays in the Rodriguez Douglas household don't get the attention that other families give to special days. For example, last Easter, the only means by which we celebrated Easter was to go to mass (much like all the other 51 Sundays in the year). However, that was the only Sunday Clara cried through mass and had to be escorted out. Besides me baking a lemon merangue pie, it was just another Sunday. Had Mario's parents not visited us for Christmas, I have a feeling that Christmas would have come and gone in much the same manner. Rather sad. But Mario just doesn't seem to get excited about holidays and the dates tend to creep up on me and catch me unawares, leaving me completely unprepared to celebrate anything.

So I had no expectations for Valentine's Day. When we were dating, we used to count Valentine's Day as our anniversary, because we knew that we began dating sometime between the end of January and the end of February. Every once in awhile, Mario even went out of his way to make the day special, giving me flowers in 2003, wine and chocolate in 2007.

This year, after trying to fix the shower all day on Saturday, Mario was faced with three months' worth of receipts to enter into the computer for his personal accounting. I knew it would take all day, so did not have any plans to do anything special. However, on Friday he had mentioned that it had been awhile since he cooked and he kind of missed it. To which I responded, "hey--knock yourself out!" I requested pork chops, as the man makes magic with pork chops. As 4pm rolled around, Mario was still in front of the computer, knee-high in receipts, denying being the least big hungry, and announcing that he would not be able to cook after all. Given the amount of work he did all weekend, I completely understood. As Clara and I attacked a liter of yogurt, Mario was apparently doing to reconsidering and decided that he would be able to cook after all, as long as I could wait until 5. No problem.

I poked my head in the kitchen a bit after 5 and noticed that he had buttered and basiled some of the sourdough bread, which was toasting in the oven. A pot of macaroni was on the stove for a first course, and he was preparing the chops as he ordered me out, claiming that the meal was to be special.

So, in the end, we broke Rodriguez Douglas tradition and celebrated Valentine's Day after all with a lovely, delicious, candelit dinner, a bottle of Casa Madero's Merlot (a winner), and dessert of chocolates that we had been hoarding since Christmas. Clara, reinforcing the idea that she is just a little woman, LOVED the chocolate.

Things are rather slow this week, with Clara fighting a cold. However, there is an upside to having the constant stream of snot wiped all over her face--she's taking two-hour naps! I might have expose her to more children and their germs. It's not all bad.

Since she's zonked out and I can't play with her, here's a list of some of the Clara's more recent accomplishments or other ways she keeps herself entertained.

• She has discovered how to insert her index finger into her nostril. No real surprise that Jill is raising a nose-picker. Fortunately, she has not yet realized how to get anything out. Thank goodness I keep her fingernails short.
  

• She has decided that every 2-liter bottle or empty gallon of milk is her toy, whether she actually plays with them or not. I found this out the hard way last week as I was taking out the trash. Clara was happily playing on her blanket with her stuffed animals and measuring cups when, scavenging around the kitchen for more trash to throw out, I callously squashed an empty plastic quart of milk. Immediately, broken-hearted cries issued from the adjoining living room, making it clear that I was throwing away a most treasured companion. I had no idea.
  

I now squash plastic bottles in the dark of the night.

• She is trying really hard to sit up on her own. That is, she tries really hard whenever she feels like it, and two days can pass before she remembers that it might just be useful to be able to push herself up to a sitting position when she gets tired of laying down. So most of the time whenever she falls over, she's content to just roll around on the floor. No doubt she already knows that if she happily rolls around for long enough and then protests, I'll come and rescue her. However, whenever I do offer my hand as an anchor, she can pull herself up the rest of the way. Unfortunately though, that's probably not really helping her figure out how to do it on her own. She'll get there. And I really do try not to interfere.
  

• A spoon loaded with food and propelled by the girlie now makes it into her mouth! This is brand-new as of this week. I still load up the spoon for her, but now that she's having some success maybe next week I'll see what she does if I put a bowl of oatmeal in front of her. Then again, maybe I'll wait until it gets warmer, so we can eat outside and I can hose her off afterward.
  

• And, despite the very cool set of plastic pots and pans that Mario's mom gave her for her birthday (and are a hit), her favorite toys are still the box of baby wipes, the box of eyedrops, and the nail clippers. Really, why is there such a market out there for infant/toddler toys? Despite the amazing selection of "real" toys laying around our house, she still prefers those everyday, useful little tools. No surprise. However, those which pose an element of danger are exceptionally appealing.
  

Thank goodness she can't get around on her own yet.

Happy Birthday, Clara!

Today we celebrated one year that Clara has been making her mark on the world. Being a weekday, we couldn't do anything super-special (Mario had to work, of course). However, I invited my friend Sheila and her daughter to spend the day with us.

After the girls had breakfast, we walked to the playground in the Alameda. For the first time in weeks, Clara's swing was free (the only piece of play equipment she is able to enjoy). We hung out by the swings, watching Katya and Sheila try out all the other stairs and slides.

Clara was just about finished with the swing when a class of second-graders came to the park for recess. They started flirting with us from a distance with shouts of "Hello!" "Hello!" What's you name?" "Hello!" A few kids got a big more adventurous and asked a number of questions, especially about Clara. Once they found out it was her first birthday, they got really excited and sang her both "Las Mananitas" and the Happy Birthday song. After that, they got really friendly and Clara decided she was a bit overwhelmed. I thought it was pretty cute.

On the way home, both girls zonked out and continued to sleep for an hour once we were home. Awesome. When they woke up, we had macaroni and cheese for lunch (Clara's new favorite) and then we went to the patio to play until both Katya's and Clara's dads came home.

Once Mario came home, we sang her Happy Birthday again, I tried to teach her how to blow out a candle (but she didn't catch on at all), and we attacked the cherry cake. Despite all the sugar, she was more than ready for bed and out by 7:30.

But before she crashed, she did want to share with her admirers her thoughts on the significance of being able to count her age in years, instead of just weeks for months.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

For those of you who haven't read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I highly recommend it. For years I've become increasingly aware that one of the most effective ways to improve the economy and live in an eco-friendly lifestyle is to shop locally. Ms. Kingsolver candidly brings this point home via a plethora of personal stories, often uproariously funny and seldom preachy (although just by picking up the book, the reader shows a bit of interest for the topic). Recently, I lent the book to a friend here in Saltillo,which prompted the question: how does one be a "locavore" in Mexico, particularly in the middle of the deserts of the north?

While we may not have the farmers' markets found in the US (and the produce in traditional Mexican markets is 95% of the time NOT local), we've got a number of options open to us. My favorite is the fact that small, locally owned businesses are not dead yet. Mexico's family-owned stores are now facing the fight that their US counterparts lost a decade or two ago.

Beyond the obvious convenience of the big supermarkets, Mexico's supermarkets have the additional incentive of the vale. I call it Magic Money. It's an additional benefit that most large employers offer their employees. Essentially, vales are tax-exempt "gift certificates" to be used specifically at a large number of large stores, which comes in handy for grocery shopping. I put gift certificates in quotes because the money is part of the employee's salary. However, once designated to the vale account, that money is tax-free. Hence the incentive to use this program.

Unfortunately, by using these vales, we bypass the locally-owned stores.

When I worked at the American School, my vales could only be used in any of the 8 chains owned by Wal-Mart. This was at the height of my hatred toward Wal-Mart, and it infuriated me to no end that a part of my salary (albeit a small part) went straight toward stuffing Wal-Mart's already super-sized pockets. In an attempt to bring some good out of the evil empire, I saved up my vales and used them on the kids at NPH.

It also helped that I didn't have many groceries to buy in that stage of my life.

Now that we're a family of three (and in his days of a bachelor, Mario never had to excersize restraint with his vales), we run through Mario's vales in just two weeks. This forces us to decide on that which is worthwhile to buy at the grocery store and what money is better spent strengthening our local economy.

For instance, we have a butcher across the street. His meat tastes just as good, if not better, than Wal-Mart or Soriana's. It's also roughly the same price, if not cheaper. Furthermore, being a small business, he is likely to buy his meat from local ranches than from the large feedlots that Soriana uses. (Keep in mind, I haven't asked him about this. However, it is more likely. After all, Mario's uncle who has a successful small ranch only sells his meat to local butchers.) So one more guilt-free purchase!

I also noticed the other day that our butcher sells cheese. I got the guts to ask for a ball of it (either asadero or ranchero, neither of which I had tried before). Both kinds are AMAZING--so much better than the cheeses from the major brands. And as the butcher's cheese comes label-free, I'm fairly confident that it's made locally. Although again, I have not yet asked him.

While I know that our vegetables come from the ends of the earth, I am making more of an effort to buy them in the market in the centro, instead of at Soriana. After all, Soriana doesn't really care if I shop there or not, but my veggie man does visibly appreciate the fact that I purchase my fruit from him.

And, lest I forget, our wine comes from Casa Madero--just two hours away in Parras. Mmm . . .

Thanks for sticking with me while I stood on this soapbox for longer than I planned. Does anyone else have any more good ideas for incorporating more local selections into their purchasing habits?

She Thinks She's a Jedi

Clara thinks she has Jedi powers. Half the time, when she sees something she wants that's beyond her reach, instead of scooting herself over to get that object of her desires she simply stretches out her arm with all her might, willing that the Force will do the rest of the work and bring it to her.

So far she's been unsuccessful.


She also discovered a new favorite food this week: macaroni and cheese. It was homeade and baked in the oven and oh, so wonderful. However, as Clara thought this was the best thing that has ever found its way into her mouth, she has eaten the lion's share of the pan. Next time (for her birthday) I'll be making a double batch.

Merry Christmas!

We had hoped to visit Indiana for Christmas this year, but Mario's factory only shut down for the 25th, so going anywhere was out of the question. Fortunately, Mario's family was able to come and visit us. And fortunately, Mario's brother just bought a new minivan, so both Mario's parents, his aunt, brother, sister, sister-in-law, and 2 nephews could make the 10-hour trip in "relative" comfort. Last March we saw the same amount of people squeeze into Nacho's Pontiac Grand Am . . . yikes!



Mario's family arrived at about 10pm on Christmas Eve and immediately commandeered the kitchen, warming up bacalao, a traditional Mexican Christmas fish dish, and a variety of other food they brought with them, even though Mario spent all evening making pork. Christmas dinner in Mexico is traditionally eaten after the late-night mass on Christmas Eve, so generally around midnight. Ugh. I'd so rather be in bed at midnight. But I can't fight tradition.


As my nieces and nephews get visits from the 3 Kings on January 6th, Santa Claus tends to skip our house. Therefore, only Clara was up at the crack of dawn (which of course had nothing to do with the fact that it was Christmas). Once all eleven of us made our way in and out of our only bathroom, the plan was to attend mass downtown and then come back home and feast on leftovers. However, eleven people don't more through one bathroom very quickly, especially after staying up well past midnight the previous night, so we wandered around downtown until the 6pm mass. The Plaza de Armas has been decked out for Christmas for the past month, and we meandered down to the children's playground in the Alameda so the boys could run off some steam.



Clara decided that she had all the Christmas she could handle, and dozed off on the way to the park.

All in all, it was a great day, and I've loved having Mario's family here!