Mexico Beginnings

Blog 1-18-2008

Johari’s hair needs no product help here in the warm, humid weather of Mexico. It stays curled up tight here. But homemade salt dough to play with does NOT work in this weather. It just gets stickier and gooier. Not a warm weather play invention.
She has met Mary Carmen, the baby that is about 1 year old. Mary Carmen is pretty serious so far. And amazingly Johari is pretty serious around her as well and very shy. It is hard to believe considering how much she loves to play with babies. I guess it is all a lot to take in and see if she is comfortable with. We went down to the restaurant Lool Che here today. The one that is on the property where my dad’s house is. We had lunch there and Johari really enjoyed it. Rice, beans, guacamole, chicken, chips, and TOMATOES. She was really diggin’ those tomatoes.
She likes to direct people. So on the walk back from the restaurant, she was telling us who should take turns holding whose hand and when. She had us rotate through various hand holding matches.
Her grandpa got her a little plastic table and chairs which she sits at some, but more than sitting, she likes to push and carry the chairs all around. Or put one of her babies in it and push it around.
1-19-08
I learned how to pat tortilla dough into a tortilla today. It is as good as playing with play dough, it is just you have to get it into a perfect circle every time. Johari watched while I worked with other women on making tortillas. She held a bit of dough in her hand and then sucked on some cooked tortilla.
She found a toy truck to play with. And she began to warm up to the kids. They are preparing for a wedding celebration tomorrow. Soooooo much cooking to do! They are making a pit to cook a stew of many meats in the ground. They slaughtered a pig early this morning. Which means that the lunch meal had a mound of fried pork skins to accompany the black beans. Johari chewed on a bit of the cracklin’ and ate a few of the black beans. She wore the Mayan traditional dress today. It kept falling off her shoulder and baring her chest. Oh, well.
Her grandpa got her a beautiful handmade high chair to use while she is here which is making it easier to feed her.
It rained heavily all night. I think that made it so she slept pretty well. It also made everything incredibly muddy today. Mud can’t stop playing though.

1-21-08
Yesterday was the big wedding celebration out here at Lol Che restaurant. Johari had a good time. She played with a few other kids. She ran around. She watched and listened to the Mariachi band. She danced to the DJs music. She enjoyed the food, much to my surprise.
She is constantly talking about dogs and signing ‘dog’. She says Lola a whole lot too. It is as if she associates all dogs with Lola. I am not sure why. And babies are another great topic of conversation (of sorts). The other tale that she recounts over and over is how grandpa took her to see a horse on the property and how the horse has a ‘hurt’ on its leg. And the horse eats grass and drinks water. She has also started using the sign for ‘scared’ a lot. Some of it seems like it is used in a context that makes sense but some of the time, I am not sure what she is referring to being scared.
Today we went to the ocean for a short visit. It wasn’t exactly beach weather, kind of cool and overcast and a bit drizzly. But she enjoyed playing in the sand with her shovel and sieve. And then we went to put our feet in the water and she ended up getting wet and being naked and playing the surf. She liked it a lot but got cold pretty quickly. Mama didn’t think to bring an extra set of clothes so she had to just wear a diaper for the rest of our errands. You live and you learn. Next time we carry an extra set of clothes.
Johari is introduced and known as “Joya” to the Itza family here. Joya is jewel in Spanish.