Boricua en la Lima

This weekend we continued with the birthday celebrations for Gabi (and boy am I glad it's done!).  Friday we took TEN girls to the movie theater to see a local movie (partly Peruvian and partly Argentinian) about a mouse who needs to find a princesses' tooth in order to save his kingdom.  I got a mini van to take all the kids from school to the mall and then we brought them home to sing Happy Birthday to Gabi and have some cupcake before all the kids got picked up.  I was totally pooped by the end of the day but Gabi was so happy to share with her new friends from school. Saturday we had Sports Day at Gabi's school and then a family BBQ here at Jose's grandma's house to celebrate four family birthdays including Gabi's.  We had a great time with all the family and ate like champs, but boy was I glad to wake up Sunday morning and realize there were no more kids' birthday activities on the agenda! Sunday morning Gabi had her first marinera class and w...

My girl is all grown up.  I got one of those personalized emails from Baby Center yesterday which said the following: Congrats! You're entering one of the most rewarding phases of parenthood. Now your child requires  less hands-on supervision and care , but he still looks up to you for guidance and support. His curiosity, excitement, and eagerness to learn make him a charming companion in the year ahead. His academic interests begin to take shape, too. Growing exposure to science,  writing ,  math , and other subjects will give you a sense of where his natural interests lie. This sounds like peaches and cream right?  Except for the fact that she has a 4.5 year old brother with whom she wakes up fighting every day and goes to sleep fighting every night.  So individually my daughter is all that this email describes, but in a sister-brother team we still have a long way to go towards the "lovable sevens". That's no reason to hold back on celebrating th...

I am back from Puerto Rico with what can only be described as a huge relocation identity crisis.  This seems to happen to me a couple of months after I move anywhere, and from talking to other "expert relocates" I'm not the only one it happens to.  But this one seems to have been triggered earlier in the relocation process, likely as a result of the 20th year high school reunion and the fact that this relocation is unlike any other one I have experienced.  On the one hand there are many familiar things about this relo -- I've come here for 2-3 weeks pretty much every year for the last 10 years or so, we are close to family, it's a Spanish speaking country, etc. etc. So I should be better than I have been in other relos where I don't know the people, the language, etc.  But with this one I've pretty much said goodbye to my life as I know it -- I have no job, no house, no car, even 2 months after having moved.  I know this may seem like a blessing in disguis...

This weekend the government mandated Monday and Tuesday to be holidays because of a conference happening in Lima, so we went to Paracas, a resort/beach town about 300 Km south of Lima.  Sometimes it's still a little cold for my Caribbean tastes, but it was still a great experience to get to know Peru more and more.  While we went with just plans to get some sun in contrast to all the cloudiness in Lima, we ended up going on some really cool sightseeing trips.  The first one was to Islas Ballestas , which is a really cool marine life reserve a boat's ride from Paracas. As the Wikipedia entry states on the boat ride to Islas Ballestas you pass a huge drawing in the sand called "El Candelabro", whose origins remain unknown. Then in Islas Ballestas you see penguins, sea lions and tons and tons of local birds flying in formation.  We froze our butts off on the boat to and from as you can see from Sebas' "ET" face.  :) The next day we went to Res...