Mexico and Babies!

Preface: I attempted my Christmas blog the other day and one quick video was going to take 394 minutes to upload...I decided I'd retire the idea until we get home....Although I strongly detest Christmas after it's proper season....

We ran into some funny happenings with Harper and the local Mexican people!

Yesterday we were out of the house a lot!  Chela, the sweet little maid who is always one of my favorite parts of visiting Jack and Jo, needed to clean around us so we decided to go out to breakfast at the marina.  We got there and ordered quickly.  The man of the husband and wife duo, who owned the restaurant in the bahia, was stacking lawn chairs next to us as he was taking our order.  Joanne figured their breakfast rush was over, so he was cleaning up the tables and chairs.  I paid little attention as I was shoveling snacks into Harper's hands...He always has to have one for each hand to walk around with!  As soon as he had three chairs stacked he said, "Here, this is for your baby" ::insert best Mexican accent here::.  So we laughed all morning about the high-chair mexicanada!  It sure was a high chair...that he could fall out of!  We sat him in there but he would rather run around the other tables and pull his hat off in the wind!  We ran out of the house so quickly that I forgot to take the camera....but still, it's a great memory!

Secondly, we had a late lunch at the Marina Cantina (yes, I took my baby to a cantina...When in Mexico, do as the Mexicans).  Harper, Gus and I got there before Jack and Joanne.  We had to bring two cars because the Seahawks were playing and Gus wanted to catch the whole game.  Our cute little waitress came up to us and asked us if she could hold our baby.  We said okay, and she stood by us for a few minutes trying to get him to talk and smile.  He was slightly overwhelmed by the fact that he was in a bar, and there were people all around yelling at the televisions.

Then she asked me if he eats little candies.  I said no, he doesn't.  Then the sweet little lady who was barely twenty-one, asked if he really wouldn't eat them, or if I didn't let him.  I said he's never had sugar or sweets.  We got quite the look from her.  It was almost like she thought we were from a different planet.

She soon brought our cerveza and margarita, and asked for our order.  After she took it, she explained that she would hurry up with her other patrons and hold Harper while we ate because she has a 15-month old baby girl herself and she knows how it is, and doesn't want our food to get cold before we eat it.  She was extremely insistent upon taking him for me, and seeing as our food didn't all come out together there was only about five minutes of over-lap between Jo and I, so she couldn't hold Harper.  She was pretty bummed about it.  I would've been fine with her playing with him inside the cantina, but he had been outside with Joanne and she went all the way around the building trying to find them to take over!   I just can't imagine this happening in America.

I understand there is a lot of hostility in much of Mexico, and many are scared to travel through most of it.  But I have noticed, in traveling with a baby that everywhere we turn, everyone wants to play with him or kiss his cheeks.  He has caught eyes from the officials at the airport, random men and women in the marketplace in Guaymas who stop to touch his head, people on the beach, in stores, street-side vendors, out at the orphanage, you name it.  This boy is well loved in this country, and it makes me proud...and it makes me feel like the good of the world is out there...you just have to search for it.