So the princess and I went over to visit the museums at the Hotel Santo Domingo today, and then to hang out in the bar (drinking juice and hot chocolate) and taking advantage of their padded carpeting and low tables for walking practice.Liana LOVES art galleries. We spent about two hours walking around and looking at paintings and sculptures. She would get excited when we walked into a new room, and start pointing here and there. We would stop and examine certain pieces, sometimes spending minutes on a single painting or statue. She is 14 months old. Oh, I wish my parents were alive. They both so loved galleries, and I know that I was a regular gallery-go-er by 2 or 3. I don’t even know how young I started. But I cannot believe how much this little girl loves to look at art! As I’ve mentioned before, she is mostly drawn to images of people, animals or fruit. But today she enjoyed some rather abstract paintings as well. And she continues to LOVE wooden sculpture. Which is good, since mom has lots of wood at home.I cannot wait to share my dad’s art with her. I have a sketch that he did of me when I was just a few months old, hanging in Liana’s room. I am already imagining her pointing at it excitedly, examining it with a steady gaze, and then looking to me to see if my eyes are still on it as well. The San Miguel de Allende pieces I have in my living room might be too difficult for her to understand, but we will see. The images are so much like Antigua, they might appeal to her on a different level.I hope she likes the other things I have on her wall in her room… the textile piece from Peru with llamas and pretty people running around… the animal images, the mobile. Now that I know her tastes, I look forward to taking her shopping and letting her pick out more exciting things for her walls.Hey moms and dads out there…. Isn’t this fascination with art at such a young age a little unusual? I mean, gazing intently at a given piece for minutes, and then moving on to the next? Am I so taken with this amazing little person that I am in awe of things that she does that every kid just does? Or is there really something a little special about this fascination? Here in the apartment, there are certain pieces that we look at several times a day. She gets real pleasure examinging one particular embroidery over and over... and there is a face carved on a bench outside that she cannot get enough of.Unlike my dad, I have NO artistic talent. What do I need to be doing to encourage her to not only appreciate, but hopefully to also create art? We tried a marker on paper the other day, with only moderate success. It spent more time in her mouth than on the paper. What are the first media? Thick crayons? She’s way too young for play doh, right? Way too early for textiles, right? What should I be doing here? Her gross motor skills are a bit delayed, as are her verbalizations, (she communicates clearly with gestures) but her fine motor skills are excellent. (She unscrewed the cap to her bottle today and spilled canteloupe juice all over the sidewalk.) However, she is at the age in which everything goes in the mouth, and I am terrified of things that are toxic or that she could choke on. What should I be doing? Give me words of wisdom! Art and music? Well music is a constant presense in our lives, both live performances and my ipod selections, and stuff playing in stores or restaraunts or whatever. But art? I am so out of my element!

While Liana is taking her afternoon nap, I’m usually here at my computer in the next room, about 20 feet away. When she wakes up she lets out an loud, rather anxious vocalization, and I go running into the bedroom, where I am greeted with her amazing big smile, followed by bounces and squeals and just silliness and joy.

Except for today.

At a certain point I went in, just to check on her. She was awake, with her face buried in the mattress, weeping. She had been crying a long time it seems, but silently, like she did the first few days after her foster family dropped her off. She saw me, and continued to cry, but reached out to be held. I cuddled her a bit, but could not interest her in her bottle or toys. She just kept weeping. Her very wet diaper was in desperate need of a change, and she cried inconsolably during the process. I then cuddled her more, but she just buried her face in my shoulder and wept. I pointed at the things that she loves to look at, art, toys, the window. We even went outside to look at flowers. But she was just sad.

I am so glad that I decided to take this time with Liana here in Antigua. This is a hard time for her, even though most of the time she is joyous and wonderful. This is a big transition in her life, leaving the only family she has ever known to be with me. The first few days were really hard, and even the first full week had its challenges. Even now when I think we are all settled in and just being a happy family, it seems that she is still, on many levels, grieving her losses.
Eventually she cheered up, and became herself. She played with the courtyard kids, and later she and I went out to dinner and had lots of fun. She was very silly this evening when I tried to get her to go to sleep, crawling around the bed and rolling, and blowing bubbles on my arms and giggling. But when she is in that adorable mode, it is hard not to tickle her and just give in and play and be silly. When I finally felt her taking those deep, regular breaths that signaled she was really asleep, I crept back out here to the computer. But with a little less confidence now. I depend on her to communicate her needs to me, and she usually does. But this afternoon she wept silently alone, and I was not even there to help.

For a while we were making very clear progress with this whole walking thing. Then we sort of hit a plateau. The new shoes do seem to be helping somewhat. But clearly the princess is going to progress at her own pace, not the pace that mommy sets.

The most exciting accomplishment has been the “squat and pick up” development. At first things fell, and mommy learned how to play fetch. Now the princess can recover objects herself. And mommy’s back is thankful.

I have told Liana that it is my very strong preference that she carry her own luggage through the airport on the trip home. She nods emphatically when we discuss it, but something tells me that mom will be carrying not only Liana’s luggage, but the princess herself through airport checkpoints. I have no idea how we are going to get all of this junk home. I am trying so hard not to buy stuff. But I can’t resist a new book now and then. You know about the shoes. I really need new pants for her… because mostly she crawls and makes the knees of her pretty tights and light colored pants really dirty. A new toy here and there does not seem like too much. I brought all the soft, cute, educational stuff. She seems to really like hard plastic toys. Hmmm. So I got a plastic bucket (fun to put stuff in) and the plastic tea set was a real hit. And then there is the stuff that I really want to bring home… the weavings, embroidery, maybe some wooden items, a mask perhaps. I would love to get her at least one indigenous outfit. Have I told you about the bedspreads? Oh my.

Doesn’t anyone out there want to come spend a tropical holiday here in Guatemala, (having arrived with only one suitcase) and then travel home with us to NY, carrying all of the princess’s goodies? Think about it….

Oh my! I think I just got a whole bunch of new readers, and I have nothing insightful or profound to say today! I guess I’ll just tell you a little bit about courtyard life. I do love my neighbors, most of whom are also adopting moms and kids. The kids have fun playing together. Here are some photos of tea parties and bubbles and even a photo of sweet Sonia, whose mom misses her so much!

Did I tell you that a few nights ago at dinner I met a family from Minnesota who adopted their daughter from Guatemala 22 years ago? The young woman was beautiful, poised and articulate, and flushed with the excitement of having met her birth mother for the first time a few days before. The parents were so happy and proud of their lovely daughter, and the whole family made a hit with the princess Liana, who made them carry her about and practice walking up and down the courtyard and whatnot. The young woman now works as an adoption facilitator with families adopting from Ethiopia. This young woman was adopted in the middle of the civil war, at a time when adoptions from Guatemala were rare. Her parents were returning to Guatemala for the first time since they adopted her, and the young woman was on her second visit. I kept looking at this young woman, and then at Liana, and hoping that my precious daughter will become a woman as smart and wonderful and happy and successful as the daughter of this lovely family.

Yeah, this kid is a magnet. We went out and bought some new shoes this morning (softer, flexible, no slip) in hopes of improving our walking skills. We then went to the park to take the new shoes for a test drive. In no time at all we hade a whole crowd keeping the princess entertained.

I’ve gotten to know quite a few of the women and children who sell stuff in the park. One woman has invited me to visit her village, which is about 8 kilometers away. I’ve asked her how we would get there, and she asked if I had a car, which of course I don’t. She then said that there is a bus. I am a little nervous about taking Liana on the chicken bus, and I also know that the village might be quite a walk from where the bus drops us off. But an invitation like this seems like something I should not turn down. Would it be really obnoxious and ostentatious to take a taxi?

In addition to the street vendors, I have gotten to know a number of the beggars. There is one woman I pass every day. I stop and talk, and she fusses over Liana. She is quite old, and her husband has broken his hip, it seems. She does not speak Spanish very well, and mixes in many indigenous words that I do not understand. But she tells me about her son, who worked in Guatemala City for a while, but now seems to be somewhere else. His wife just had a baby, a boy. He was born healthy. She is uncertain if she should send her injured husband to stay with family somewhere, because she seems unable to care for him. He is heavy, and needs to be lifted. She then talks about Liana and how beautiful she is, and blesses her and blesses me, and tells me about a relative who went to NY, and wishes us wonderful things in our lives together. I was walking down the street lost the other day, looking for a cross street and not paying attention, and I did not see this woman walking towards us. She grabbed me and kissed me, and then put both of her hands on Liana’s head. I am not accustomed to being kissed on the streets of Antigua, so I was quite startled. I am really starting to feel at home in this sweet city/town.
Haha… my boss wrote me this morning with comments on this blog and pictures of Liana, and she said she is concerned that it sounds like I like it here too much. Don’t worry. I really am coming home. I promise.

Some moments are just so amazing. There is nothing more wonderful than watching Liana learn and figure things out. We just got back from a shopping expedition, and mom is exhausted. I tossed Liana in that space between the couch and the wooden chest so that she can pull herself up and play with toys on the chest and walk sideways and whatnot. It was hot outside, so I threw a bottle of cantaloupe juice on the chest, assuming she would help herself when she was thirsty. I then went to wash the milk bottle and put away the groceries and whatnot, and Liana was playing with the juice bottle, putting her plastic teacup on top of it like a lid. She really likes lids and containers of all sorts. Well clearly she was not satisfied with the teacup as a lid, so she got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the bedroom and started digging around in the big plastic basket that houses all of her toys. I mean all of her toys that are not on the floor, the wooden chest, or the bed at any given moment. (Mom is not the best housekeeper, as those of you how know me, are already aware of.) Well after digging for quite a while, she managed to find, of all things, the proper cap to her bottle! So she crawled back to the wooden chest, removed the teacup, and put the proper lid on the bottle.

She is also fascinated with belts and harnesses. You know, the sort that I am always fussing with in her stroller or her high chair. If I just toss her into her stroller to take her into the bathroom with me for a second, without fastening the stroller belt, she tries to fasten it herself. And sometimes she manages to get it fastened, too! Not, of course, threaded through the thing between her legs, which is meant to keep her from falling out. She does not quite understand WHY it needs to be fastened. But she understands that it should be fastened. In the long run, of course, I will teach her that “the whys” are always more important than “the becauses.” Oh my what exciting lessons those will be. A completely different kind of problem solving!

Oddly, she really knows how to bluff. I noticed it first weeks ago, when we were having dinner with a couple of other adoptive families, adults and kids all sitting around the table. When an adult said something funny, that made everyone laugh, she would laugh too, in earnest, as if she had indeed understood the joke. When I squat down to her eye level, and explain something complex like “Mommy needs to wash her hands and empty the garbage and wash out your bottle and pack up before we can go out, ok?,” she gazes solemnly into my eyes and nods, pretending to understand. Sometimes that nod means she really does understand. Like when I toss her in her stroller and take her into the bathroom while I take a shower. Before I get in, I explain that I am going to close the curtain, but that I am going to be on the other side. I point to the curtain, and open and close it a few times. She gives me that solemn nod. Then I get in, and close the curtain. I then open it again to show that I am on the other side, and this time she grins widely as she nods, proud of the fact that she indeed understands what is going on, and also, still, a little relieved that I really am behind the curtain. Every couple of minutes (or less) she makes a nervous vocalization, and I open the curtain and she smiles, happy that I am still there. Towards the end of the shower the whole process of waiting has become quite difficult. I open the shower curtain and show her that I am pouring conditioner into my hand. I tell her that I am doing it, and she nods. Then I rub it into my hair, and she nods, sometimes touching her own hair at the same time. The 60 seconds the conditioner is supposed to just sit there, however, is a painful time, lacking in activity and already way way past her level of patience waiting for this shower thing to be over. I’ve tried taking advantage of this time to bring her into the bath with me, putting her in the baby tub, but inevitably that turns into screaming and flailing, and with both of us wet and soapy and slippery, I’ve decided it is not the best routine to try to develop.

Oh, so much to learn together. Life is good.

Lots of emails today, and even a visit to my favorite SL discussion group (!!!), so I am afraid that any profound thoughts, insightful observations, or personal disclosure that might have graced my blog today, has ended up elsewhere in cyberspace.

The festivities continued today, with more street music and crowded sidewalks and I am certain that we will have firecrackers again late into the night. There was supposed to be a procession going on right about now, but the princess got very very cranky over dinner, and mom didn’t get to drink her wine or eat dessert, and after yet another diaper change, we decided to call it a night.

Here is a picture of the busy street and the famous arch. And another of the princess standing on the couch here in the apartment. Tell me the truth. Could she be any more beautiful????

You know, I really like living in Antigua! This weekend there are many festivities celebrating the famous Arco of Santa Catalina. No one has really explained the gist of the whole thing to me. Someone said it was the 500th Anniversary of the arch, but I’m not sure I buy that. Liana and I want to a concert tonight in what I’m pretty sure was the Convent of Santa Catalina, adjacent to the arch. We got there about 20 minutes before the concert started, and sitting and waiting was hard. Then there were about 10 minutes of introductions, most of which I missed because I was tempting the princess with cheerios and putting her shoes back on her feet, but I did hear the Santa Catalina was a virgin and a martyr, both facts being sad in my opinion, which of course, no one asked. Once the music started, we got through about 20 minutes. All and all pretty good I think. The setting was surreal ruin lit with hundreds of candles, the stars serving as our roof. As we left, I saw two firefighters with helmets and a fire extinguisher standing outside. The thought of candles catching someone’s dress or scarf did enter my thoughts. I am glad the city was prepared.

Ruins here are more surreal than I could ever get you, dear reader, to believe. My lovely apartment complex is right next door, literally, to an amazing ruin of an ancient church. I will post pictures some day. Statues whose heads and arms long disappeared grace the front entranceway, and an enormous piece of stone or something, the size of a volkswagon, has fallen just past the main entranceway. Have I visited this ruin next door, you might ask. Well, no. It is actually in use. As a men’s prison and meeting place for local boyscout troop 73. I know you think I am joking, but I am not. Young men with machine guns wander around the roofless edges. I tried to take a picture once, but the young man with a machine gun wagged his gloved finger, making that universal sign of “no.” I don’t argue with men bearing automatic weapons. I nodded, put my camera away with exaggerated motions, and waved politely. He waved back. Family of the prisoners line up in the mornings for visits. Boyscouts in full uniform meet there in the evenings, in a room with a side entrance. A woman who babysits for Rose’s kids here at the apartments told me that the building’s use as a prison/boyscout center is quite controversial, because many residents believe that it should be treated as the ruins of a church, and open to the public, who have not seen it in years. In the US, a facility housing a prison/boyscout center might in itself be controversial, even if it were not occupying the ruins of an ancient church. Here, I can’t get any of the locals to see the irony.

Years from now when the images of our days and nights together in Antigua are just a blur in my mind, I will remember vividly the images of last night. Rose, mom to Lily and Francesca, of Park Slope Brooklyn, created a post-Thanksgiving feast in our courtyard last night. And I mean feast! The whole turkey, potatoes, corn, stuffing, salad, with home baked bread and pumpkin pie and some fancy banana dessert. We set up tables in the courtyard around the fountain, and lit dozens of candles, and all the residents and staff feasted together. The kids squealed and ran around, and the grown ups got a glass or two of wine in, and everyone left stuffed and delighted.

Well life here is just one big party! I got a flier a few days ago about a dance troop from El Salvador that was going to be performing today in one of Antigua’s many parks. Made my way out to a part of the city I had not yet seen. The princess loved watching the kids playing in the park before the show started, and enjoyed flirting with lots of old ladies, who she held her arms out to and begged to be held. Well, I passed her around until the show started, and then tried to get her interested. The very very very long Guatemalan National Anthem left her restless and squiggly and cranky, and the shorter but more festive Salvadoran National Anthem was not much more interesting. The dancers also seemed to hold little interest for the princess either, and she was much more interested in leaves and flowers and dogs and throwing the cap to her bottle as far as she could.

She fell fast asleep on the long, bumpy walk home. Note to self: Live music-YES, Statues-YES, Paintings of people and animals and fruit and a gallaries in general-YES, Dance exhibitions-NO, Cobblestone-YES

Well much confusion with the whole doctor appointment thing. My ride insisted on coming at 7:30, and so I asked the porter to knock on my door and make sure we were up by 6:30. Now I have to tell you, the princess has been sleeping until 8, so 6:30 is early. And she woke up a few times last night… at 1 and at 3 and at 5. When the knock came at 6:30 I was fast fast asleep. Hopped into the shower and left her in bed. And then the phone rang. And she woke up. I went running through the apartment soaking wet, make the tile floors slippery and dangerous, only to learn from one of my lawyer’s staff that Liana is not supposed to eat anything after 7 AM. Well dammit. So I get her up, make a quick bottle, and throw some cheerios at her while I start making coffee and searching for some clothes and attempt to wipe up the slippery floor. Diaper change time, and it is messy. Knock on the door… my ride is here. Well he is early, so he can wait.

En route to Guatemala City, my lawyer calls the driver’s cell phone, and the driver passes it to me. My lawyer is sick, and cannot meet me at the doctor’s office. Liana is screaming. The cell phone is fading in and out. Something about some names of people I am supposed to look for… I don’t know. Now I’ve been in Guatemala less than a month, and my lawyer has been out of the country three times. Perhaps that is why he is sick.

When we get to the doctor’s office, the driver decides to hang out with me because I am clearly getting crankier by the minute, as is the hungry princess. They say they can’t do the DNA until the lawyer tells them which lab to send it to. I know the lab is Intellegenics. So we are back on track. We do the swab, and then we need to wait for the doctor to examine here. I have the princess entertained leaning against a table, which has live poinsettias on it. Ummm…. Aren’t they poisonous? There are babies and toddlers everywhere, and poinsettias in easy reach, everywhere. In the doctor’s waiting room. **sigh**
Well at a certain point two different staff members from my lawyer’s office arrive, and each of them seems to decide that she is superfluous, and so they leave. They exam goes fine, and Liana needs no more shots until 18 months. The paperwork, including Liana’s passport, are left for the lawyer to pick up. My goodness did it feel good to get back to Antigua! Lawyer and I played telephone tag a bit, and then Liana and I went out to get some proper food into her. And here she is! Dining happily after a rather irritating morning.

Ha! The first Thanksgiving dinner together started in an open air garden of a restaurant near the central park. I ordered something off the vegetarian part of the menu that promised to be veggies in some Guatemalan sauce with tamales on the side. Sounded good! The princess does love tamales. Well before the food even came we found ourselves invited to sit with a bunch of interesting folks from the US who are here working with an organization named Common Hope. They seem to be doing some really great stuff here, and Liana and I enjoyed the company of the staff and volunteers. http://www.commonhope.org/ The princess got lots of attention, including hugs, lots of silly faces, assistance emptying out the diaper bag, and even got to be read to by someone who wasn’t mom! Mom got to have extended periods of adult conversation, sometimes lasting for minutes! AND the princess dined on tamales in a really nice picante sauce, had a little potato and I think we managed to get a little squash and carrot into her too! It could not have been a finer meal. In addition, mom solicited parenting advise from the various medical professionals and experienced parents around the table, who seemed to think I’m not screwing up too badly at all! And to top it all off, the whole event turned out to be not just Thanksgiving in Guatemala, but also the 5th anniversary of the 21st birthday of one of the women present! If she and I had had the time to talk a little more, I would have enjoyed hearing details of her time here in Guatemala during hurricane Stan. She is a pediatric nurse, and although she was in Guatemala City at the time of the storm, she headed over to Atitlan to provide professional assistance, and apparently stayed quite a while. She got sort of dazed and sad and with that look of suspended disbelief as she described the aftermath of the mudslides. I thought about being a young woman, just about her age, living through the aftermath of the Mexico City earthquake. The pain and disbelief in the young woman’s eyes looked almost like I might have looked in a mirror a couple of decades ago. I would have told her as much, but our precious minutes of exclusive adult conversation had ended, and the princess again dominated my attention.

It is evening time, and the princess is asleep. Fireworks are going off, and I’m not sure why. We need to get up early in the morning, to be in Guatemala City by what started out as a 9 AM appointment but seems to have transformed into an 8:30 appointment. Please may the princess sleep well. I think all of her congestion is gone, and I hope that she will sleep through the night.

Back to Guatemala City tomorrow to do the final DNA test and the required medical exam blah blah blah. Today is Thanksgiving, which seems like an odd holiday here in Guatemala. Some Europeans arrived in what was to become the US, and had a really nice harvest celebration with the indigenous people, whose ancestors would be slaughtered by later European arrivals. Here in Guatemala the indigenous people were basically enslaved, and forced to work on the land that they had worked for centuries, even though it was no longer theirs. Today, most of the ancestors of those indigenous people who lived on this land before the arrival of the Europeans continue to be landless on the land that they ruled for centuries. Many many things have happened since. If you have not seen this video of the evictions last January, of indigenous people who live where some foreigners want to set up their mining practice, please take the time to view it.

I know I promised I would not talk politics here, but I cannot resist this one piece. It has tens of thousands of views, so one little link on my blog should not be a problem.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q20YxkM-CGI

The princess and I had our Thanksgiving breakfast at the “best coffee in town” place again today. They staff there really like her, and she has fun running around.

The young Senorita Williams and I braved traffic jams and bureaucratic obstacles and missed nap time and faced threat of rain and many tears and even a slight fever with a little congestion to obtain her FIRST PASSPORT! Oh, my love, may this be the first of many many passports in your life, and may each one be graced with dog-eared pages and multi-colored stamps of distant ports and airports.

I have been thinking a lot lately about coral reefs and glaciers. In the entire history of humanity, such a small percentage of beings has ever seen either. And with coral bleaching and melting icecaps, very few members of future generations, in spite of ease of travel to the extreme ends of the earth and the bottom of the oceans, will see these wonders. But Liana and I have the privilege of having been born during this brief window of opportunity. Together, we will see both. I so look forward to taking her on her first snorkeling trip, to see a shallow reef full of coral and anemone and fish and crustations. And together we will see our first glacier. Of course there will also be jungles and pine forests and deserts and sparkling cities and savannahs. And in her lifetime, perhaps orbital hotels or bubble enclosed cities on our moon, or even farther away.

We began our lives together here in the shadow of the volcanoes of Fuego and Agua. This passport will allow her to join me on a journey to the city of legends, which will soon become her home.

When the giant tree outside of my bedroom window is bare, I can see the Empire State Building, and each night it lights up different color. Perhaps one of our winter evening rituals will be looking out at the colors of the Empire State Building. Summer evening rituals will certainly take us outside.

On the streets of Jackson Heights, the princess will meet people from every corner of planet earth, and learn about what they think and believe, and how their traditions survive in a strange place, and hear about their memories of distant lands. And we will travel, and visit some of those distant lands. And we will return here to Guatemala over the years as well.

My first passport was issued in another era. My mom, my dad and a seven or eight year old me are smiling into the camera together. A single, family passport. My dad loved that image, and we found a copy of that photo in his wallet after he died. We first put that passport to use to run around Europe like vagabonds for months one summer. My mother instilled in me the wonder of traveling so far away. I remember sitting at the gate waiting to board the 747 for Amsterdam, feeling my mother’s excitement build. This, she explained, was the trip of a lifetime. THE trip to Europe.

My parents would visit Europe perhaps a dozen more times in their lives. Tour the America’s from Alaska to Antarctica, and in between sweat in the Amazon jungle, and see seemingly lifeless deserts and dine in Latin America’s most dazzling cities. They took cruises through the Caribbean, Greece, Alaska, the Panama Canel, Scandanavia, and even around the tip of South America. They got the travel bug into me young. And little Liana, I plan to get the travel bug into you. Consider it a gift from your grandparents.

I cannot begin to describe the joy this little girl has brought into my life. She is so smart and funny and joyous and quirky. Think quirky is gonna fit in with my family history? :)

I am so in love with the process of getting to know her. And she has so much to teach me! I know everyone says babies love routines, but I am really not the routine type. And fortunately the princess is doing pretty well changing living environments and eating at different places and with different people having schedules change and whatnot. But I need to pay attention to the things that are important to her. For example, before she goes to sleep, there are a lot of little rituals that need to take place, which involve holding and cuddling and singing and her bottle and whatnot. And she also really likes to look out the window for a minute or so, just as she is really sleepy. And then she wants me to close the shutters.

Really.

A number of times we had quite a struggle going to sleep, and she was pointing to the window and fussing. She wants to look out the window, (both for afternoon nap and evening sleep) and then when she is done, she likes to help me close the shutters. I have really pretty blinds in her room at home, and just got a nice valance. An air conditioner is going to go in the window too. But maybe I will need to get shutters, huh?

She loves to look and see if I approve. When she stands up on her own, and I cheer, she beams with pride. I am teaching her to touch things gently. Suave! Suave! When she touches babies or flowers or other delicate things, I say “suave” and show her how to touch gently. Then she gently touches a baby’s face, and looks to see if I saw. When I praise her and say “Suave! Eso si!!!” and kiss her head or tickle her belly, she beams in delight, and gives that suave touch again. And shoes! She loves to take off her shoes and offer them to strangers. She also likes to take adult shoes, and try and put them on her feet! Twelve or her little feet could fit in one of my shoes, but her efforts are quite earnest.
On the other hand, she is so darn cute, it is hard sometimes not to encourage her to do things she shouldn’t. When she is done eating, she throws her plate on the floor. Then she looks to see who was watching, and claps her hand and laughs. Now she is so cute and funny, it is hard not to laugh too. But I really don’t want to encourage this throwing of stuff. **Sigh**

Great news! The birth certificate has been issued with my last name, and the princess is mine under Guatemalan law. Might go to Guatemala City tomorrow to apply for her passport and get her fingerprints taken. Sure hope she has a clean criminal record, and that nothing too serious shows up in her fingerprints! If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, (you’re hearing a lot from me today!) it is because we are in transit.
Once the passport is issued, we then have to translate all the documents and submit them to the US Embassy, and if they are satisfied, they will schedule an appointment to get yet another DNA test done. Once the results are sent to a lab in the US, and then back to the Embassy, and the Embassy is satisfied with the results, they will schedule an appointment for me to go in with all of my paperwork and whatnot. Things are moving along smoothly!

Well we arrived home after breakfast to a busy courtyard full of activity at the apartment, and I announced that I had found the best coffee in town. Everyone asked the name of the place, and ummm… I don’t remember. It is right around the corner. An unlikely place, in my opinion. Not the lush garden courtyard scene that I am so drawn to for my large and elaborate breakfasts. Instead, this place was a storefront, with sleek lines, a cool guy behind the counter who said “que onda” when his cell phone rang, Manu Chao blasting from the cd player in the back, and impossibly young women from Australia who are en route to somewhere on the border with El Salvador to save the turtles.

The food was surprisingly good, but the princess was not hungry I’m afraid. I think I sort of liked the set up though. Low tables that she could reach from either her stroller or standing, as opposed to the whole high chair scene. I had my usual breakfast of scrambled eggs, black beans, fried plantains, and instead of fruit, I got a few slices of yummy fried tomato. The princess enjoyed her juice… orange/pineapple mix, and ate a couple of bites of plantain and bread, but that was it. A lot of beggars came in. I gave a slice of bread to one woman with two children who was asking for food. Another woman came in with a medical prescription that she was fundraising to buy, and I offered her a quetzal. An elderly woman who walked stooped over, with no story in particular got another quetzal. Another family came in asking for food, and I gave them a few slices of plantain. Apparently business was slow that day. It seems that many of the people who came in asking for food were accustomed to getting the scraps that customers leave on our plates, and there had not been enough of us that day.

Liana will grow up in a world in which it is almost a virtue to leave food one ones plate. We certainly don’t want to be fat. And already she enjoys the privilege. She was not hungry this morning. She will eat later. At her convenience. Food that appeals to her. If she does not want the left over bread and plantains, we will try cantaloupe. Or soup. Or refried beans. Or perhaps we will give spaghetti another try. We have unlimited options.

Ok. Since it seems that both the princess and mom have survived yesterday’s fall, it is time to tell you about what fun we had on Saturday night.

My friend Christina needs to go back to work, and so she is leaving for Europe on Monday morning, and Sonia is going back to the orphanage for a few weeks. Since it was Saturday night, the four of us went out to paint the town red in anticipation of Christina’s departure. I had suggested treating them to dinner at Santo Domingo, but Christina had other things in mind. She had gotten a flier about a musical performance at a cultural center that was also a bar/restaurant. Hey. Sounds good to me.

Now sadly Christina’s navigational skills are on par with my own. We thought we were going close by. But once we got on the street and started asking directions, we realized it was quite a haul. Just as I was starting to whine about having to drag the stroller over many many many blocks of crowded cobblestone, one of those horse-drawn-carriage taxis stopped right in front of us and let the passengers off. Well, that was a clear sign to me! Horse drawn carriage taxi to our destination was the clear solution!

Liana really seems to like a variety of modes of transportation, and enjoyed the trip immensely. However, when the driver asked if she would like to pet the horse just as we were leaving, she got quite scared.

The place was great. Run by an American couple, who doted over the girls. Liana and I had spaghetti. Messy. But fun! The music was Andean, with many references to Bolivia, but the band members were all from Guatemala, with the exception of the percussionist who was the American co-owner of the establishment. Well even though it was later than usual, and even though her diaper was very very wet, Liana bobbed around and clapped her hands and had a great time. And mom went all out and had two, count them TWO glasses of a really nice wine from Argentina! Then they dumped us into a traditional cab, and we made it home in no time.

I must tell you about the other primary form of transportation here. It is called a tuc tuc. It is a little three-wheeled motor vehicle with a roof but no walls, and it is the most common type of taxi. I took one home from the supermarket last week, and Liana enjoyed the trip as well. I expect that once my friend Christina is not here to help me get up and down all of those dreadful curbs, I may become a tuc tuc regular!

Buen Viaje Christina! And we will miss you too little Sonia.

Well the princess scared me silly this morning. I got up and made her a bottle, and crawled back into bed to watch CNN and wake up slowly. She was being silly and standing and rolling and crawling and laughing and carrying on, and she rolled right off the side of the bed. Now I swear to you that she went down head first. She screamed. I jumped up and grabbed her, and she buried her face in my shoulder. I bounced her and tried to look at her face, which I was sure was covered in blood, with what was certainly a broken nose, concussion, etc. I was still in my pajamas, but I headed to the door to get help, thinking we would go straight to the hospital. Now I need to explain that she has been falling a lot. I mean, she is at that age where she can stand, but not stay standing. So there have been many falls and many tears. Normally, I cuddle her a minute, and then point at something pretty and say “mira!” and she looks and is fine.

So before causing panic in the entire courtyard, I decided to try and point at a flower. “Mira!” I said. And she looked. And pointed. And stopped crying. There was no blood. There we no apparent damage at all!

Now I still see a little mark under her eye, and I am terrified that we are going to get her passport photo done next week and that she is going to have a black eye for the photo and that everyone is going to think I abuse or neglect her. But honestly, she is fine! Did she just bounce? Now my friend put some arnica on her eye as a precaution, and I have stopped every parent I could find on the street today to tell them the story and make them look at her eye. No one seems concerned.

As proof of her apparent well-being, here she is with Sonia at breakfast!

Now I was going to dedicate my blog today to the WONDERFUL night we had last night, but this just seemed too important. Perhaps I’ll tell you all about it later.

Well it is Saturday, which means it must be “wear-high-heels-on-the cobblestone-day!” Yeah. Guatemalan City folks come out to Antigua in their best get ups and enjoy a little fresh air and sunshine and greenery. During the week there are not many strollers on the streets either. The locals carry their kids wrapped in gorgeous weavings until they kids can stumble along by themselves. But come the weekend, stroller abound. Like high heel shoes I guess. Impractical. Imported. A silly sign of affluence.

I have developed a love/hate relationship with my stroller. I really really really could not carry this kid everywhere there is to go. But my back and arms and legs face a constant challenge on the rough local terrain. Oh my. The NYC sidewalks will be so easy compared to this. Though no doubt I will be complaining about the sleet and snow and especially the miserable cold.

Now high chairs are another thing entirely. The princess loves her stroller, but she really loves high chairs. Well, she loves them when they are being put to proper use. There is nothing more frustrating than arriving in a high chair and not being offered anything to eat. And when the princess is done eating, it is time to get down. NOW. But during that nice period of time that she is picking at her food, the high chair is a wonderful place to be.

Oddly, it seems that she has started getting a little fussier about food in the past few days. She suddenly does not care for eggs, hard boiled or scrambled, and they quickly end up on the floor. Cheese is less interesting. Papaya….ehhh…. not too interesting anymore either. Cantaloupe and watermelon continue to be winners. And one can NEVER go wrong with bananas….either freshly peeling, or the fried plantain variety. And bread. Ummm… white bread. Mommy says ick. But what does mommy know?

She is drinking more bottles now. She gulps them down and often has two in one sitting. I am not delighted. I would rather see her eat more food food. But I swear she is gaining weight, so she can’t be too neglected. Doesn't her face look a little chubbier?

Hey readers! Here is a pretty decent media piece on upcoming changes in Guatemalan adoption. It is from a local Milwaukee station. Click on the link at the end of of this entry.

For those of you who are not following the whole Guatemalan adoption process, it is a very complicated situation. Basically, there is an international treaty on international adoption called the Hague Treaty. It was created with the idea of protecting children, birth parents and adoptive parents. Sadly, like many bureaucratic attempts at solutions to complex human situations, the treaty solves some problems, and creates new problems.

The US plans to become compliant with this treaty some time in the Spring of 2008. Guatemala, which has been criticized for corruption in many areas, including adoptions, surprised the international adoption community recently by announcing that they would become compliant with the treaty on December 31, 2007, ahead of the US. No country that is complaint with the treaty can conduct an adoption with a country that has signed the treaty (like the US) but has not fully implemented it. That means that if Guatemala does what it says it is going to do in December, Guatemala will not be able to conduct adoptions with the US until the US fully implements the Hague.

Now my case has already finished what needs to be done on the Guatemalan side, so my adoption is not in danger, even if I am not home by the end of December. But for many other families, they are very frightened by what might happen to their children. Guatemala has no infrastructure in place to take care of the children who are currently living in foster homes or orphanages at the expense of the families who plan to adopt them. No one knows what will happen to these children if Guatemala shuts down adoptions to the US.

http://www.wisn.com/video/14602976/index.html

As many of you know, I used to talk to my mom on the phone every morning before work. I miss talking to her so much. But on many levels, writing this blog is sort of like talking to her….even though it is a one-way conversation. Every morning we talked about the details of our lives. People and incidents and observations. And together, we found humor in everything. I really have to say that there is no one I ever laughed with as much as I laughed with my mom. As I write these blog entries, I use the voice that I used when I talked with her. Light humor. Seeking irony in the ordinary. Taking delight in unexpected juxtaposition. If you like my blogs, you either loved my mom, or would have loved her if you had known her.

Liana has an amazing sense of humor. There is nothing more marvelous than making the princess laugh. And it is quite easy actually. And her laughter is certainly contagious. I will always miss laughing with my mother. But the joy of laughing with my daughter is a new and wonderful life experience that will certainly grow and evolve. And I suspect that Liana too, will enjoy seeking irony in the ordinary, and taking delight in unexpected juxtaposition. But unlike my mother, who was always haunted by a layer of melancholy that always sat just under the surface, Liana seems to share my genuine verve.

Well this morning on the way to breakfast we knew SOMETHING was going on. Streets were blocked off to traffic, and as we approached 5th Av., the crowds were lining up on the streets. We asked what was going on, and sure enough! It was the annual Watch-Local-Waiters-Run-Down-Cobblestone-Streets-Carrying-Trays-Of-Drinks Day!!!!! Actually it was called something else in Spanish. But one cannot overstate the importance of this event. Nor the difficulty! Regular readers are already aware of the challenges of getting a sturdy stroller down the cobblestone. Imagine running with drinks! Shortly after we arrived, vans blasting music and announcing the event sped down the street. And then they started coming. Hundreds of them! Yes! Waiters! Carrying drinks on trays! Down the cobblestone! Who knew?

We joined the excited onlookers and clapped and cheered, and then as the last runner stumbled sadly by in clear defeat, we went to a restaurant and attempted to order breakfast, only to learn that....ummmmm... ALL the city's waiters had participated in the event, including the staff of that restaurant. The cook attempted to wait the table for us. Eggs were cold. Bread came half way through the meal. Took 20 minutes to find out they did not have the hot chocolate my friend ordered. Fried plantains arrived just as we had about finished everything else. But hey, they guy was cooking and waiting tables, and clearly waiting tables takes a little getting used to. The whole event was followed by an extensive awards ceremony, which seemed to name every participating institution, with applause and much merriment as each one was named.

In other news... the princess's many journeys around the table yesterday certainly did some impressive skill building. Last night while waiting for dinner, she, for the very first time, did a bit of walking holding ONE of my hands, not both!!! Today we tried to replicate the success, but today we've been just a little cranky and clingy, in spite of the local festivities. Perhaps this evening or tomorrow. But we did find another suitable table to entertain ourselves around briefly.

Just thought I would share some fun pics of the princess dining. Have I told you what an amazing eater she is? Other than the offensive oat cereal, and the even more offensive baby food I tried once, she has really enjoyed just about everything I have given her. Well, maybe not avocado. But eggs and pancakes and french toast and bread and tortillas and tamales (LOVES tamales) and beans and all fruit and cheese and tomatoes and potatoes and soups and yogurt and juice and pasta and she didn't mind some beets and nopales I took from a salad bar once and I already told you about the mole!

So here she is... enjoying all the fine cuisine that Guatemala has to offer.

Oh my. An absolutely amazingly marvelous idyllic day. The princess and I both slept late, and even when we woke up we didn’t want to get out of bed. She practiced standing and falling on the mattress while I clapped and cheered. Then we cuddled and she drank her bottle. We played peek-a-boo with the sheets. More standing and falling and cheering. Simply a lovely morning.

Then we met our friends and went out and had a great breakfast, and then finally headed over to the famous Hotel Santo Domingo, which my Aunt Irene and Uncle Gregory raved about on their visit to Antigua. Now this place must be one of the truly great hotels in the world. Built around ancient ruins, with lush gardens, the grounds go on for acres. Little black rock-like objects camouflage the speaker system which pumps Gregorian chants throughout the ample outdoor area. We stopped and spoke with some vendors, and had an almost identitial conversation to the one I had with a vendor my first day here in Antigua. The woman asked where Liana was from, and I said she was born in Mixco. Then woman then said “but she is indigenous like us.” I agreed, and the woman went on to say that she was Mam, which is one of the indigenous groups from the region. The woman said she could tell from her mouth and the shape of her face. I am dying to know more about Liana’s background, and the woman was so definitive, that I am almost certain she is right! Time to start reading about the Mam people and their history!

We then wandered the grounds some more, and looked at the art. You will think I am joking, but I have to tell you this. Liana LOVES art. She loves paintings and statues, and gets excited as we approach, and she points excitedly, and can look at a piece for a ridiculously long period of time. Even in the Marriott, she got excited by the plaster faux marble “Greek/Roman” statues that graced the lobby and the hallways. But today what caught her attention were the 17th century wood carvings.

After doing our cultural tour of the area, we asked if we could sit in the restaurant and just have a hot chocolate. We were directed to the bar, which I must tell you, is going to really become my hang out when my friend goes back to Europe. The low table and plushly carpeted floor made the perfect perfect perfect place for Liana to explore. She went round and round and round the table on her two feet, and then sometimes made the dash for a cushioned chair or sofa a few steps away. Sometimes she fell, but that was no problem on the soft carpet. And the table was oddly shaped, sort of like a trough, with a deep indentation in the center. That made rolling things around the table incredibly fun. We must have sat there two hours, while Liana played and explored and little Sonia slept, and Cristina and I cheered at Liana’s accomplishments and even had some adult conversation. Oh. And did I mention the dancing? With one hand on the table, and the rest of us in full view, the princess bopped around and shock her hips and waved her hand in the air with an ease I don’t think I have ever possessed. What an amazing human being! So drawn to music and art and children and plants, and food, and so in love with the world around her. Cristina says she is an old soul.

On the walk back home, we were approached by more vendors with kids. Liana is a toddler magnet, and these kids were all over her. She touched their faces, and watched in amazement as the two year old walked with such confidence. Then a very rough cobblestone journey home put her right to sleep.