Travels of the Bay family and the Yoda Van

By Allison

The excitement continues. At some point you would think that things would slow down for us here in Mexico, but they don’t. William has had a bit of a cold, nothing unusual, but for the last couple of days he has been complaining that his ear hurts and I suspected he had an ear infection. There are two pharmacies within a stone’s throw of where we are living and when Theo sliced his cheek open we made a trip to both of them to get a second opinion. I was hoping they would both tell us that he didn’t need stitches again. Our first visit was to Similares (a pharmacy that specializes in generics – or medicine that is similar to the real stuff). The “doctor” there was very kind and suggested we take him to a real doctor for stitches for aesthetic reasons. Her facilities were anything but similar to a doctor’s office. It was a dirty room with a desk and a bench. The other pharmacy, the one selling the real medicine, also had a consulting doctor. I could tell she really took time to clean the wound and give a good assessment of the situation which was, unfortunately, also a verdict of stitches. We are flying home on Saturday and I want William to be in good health for the flight and his soccer camp for next week, so I felt a trip to the consulting doctor was necessary. Indeed it is an ear infection and we’ve started William on a course of antibiotics and anti-phlegm medicine. Luckily William is a great sport about it and I almost feel he is happy to take the medicine.

Earlier in the day we stopped at a hairdresser after summer camp to get Julian a haircut. Many of the hair salons advertise themselves as Unisex hairdressers. When we were travelling in 2006 I often wondered why anyone would want a gender-neutral hairstyle, but eventually I came to the conclusion that they just cut both men AND women’s hair. Either way, we stopped into a place and were greeted by a young girl who probably wasn’t even 20 years old. Her friends were also hanging out texting and intensely laughing to cartoons, so I think I’m pretty accurate with my speculation of how old they were. Whenever she smiled we were bombarded with a very gummy smile with lots of long, overlapping teeth. If I had examined her hairstyle before we went in I think I would have kept walking and tried to find another place. I guess it is kind of like Supercuts in the States, you don’t go in there if you want inspiration or advice for a haircut. You either know what you want or you find another place. Luckily I was able to explain to her in Spanish how I wanted his hair and Julian walked out with a great cut. And at 35 pesos (about 3 US dollars), it felt like quite a bargain compared to the $25 dollar hair-cuts that are common for kids in Seattle.

Earlier this year we sold our house and bought a new one. We weren’t able to move in until the end of June since our new house was rented out and we had to honor the lease. In the interim we were living in a condo and in the courtyard there was a whirlpool all tenants could use. There was a funny sign next to the whirlpool that read “No Sex in the Spa!” William is 9 and still has no idea what sex is and doesn’t show any curiosity in that respect, but he’s been throwing the word around a bit lately. Mainly he thinks sex equates to kissing and one day before we moved out William gave Julian a hug and a kiss in the hot tub and said “Look! We’re having sex in the spa!” The word came up again today, and I told him “But you don’t even know what sex is.” I’ve always kind of been dreading “the talk” and always hoped Matthias would take this parental task on. For whatever reason at this moment I felt like I could talk to William about this and would be comfortable talking about it. I asked him if he wanted know, which of course he did, so I gave him a bare bones account of the physical aspect and said that sometimes women become pregnant afterwards. He heard “penis” and “vagina” and just started to giggle. His response… “They become pregnant because the guy pees. Um, can we watch Kung Fu Panda 2?” So I think he’s still not ready for this information, but the seed has been planted, and I imagine the hit counts will skyrocket since I included words like ‘sex,’ ‘penis’ and ‘vagina’ in this entry.

My boys have 2 days left of summer camp. On Friday the parents are invited for a potluck and I’m thinking I’ll bring a German potato salad. I’m already practicing my speech for when it is my turn to explain to the group in Spanish what dish I brought. When I think what all we’ve been through so far (hospital visit after hospital visit + a brief birds and the bees talk) I’m not going to make any bets on what will happen the next few days. The upheaval seems to be accelerating and I’m ready for a little down time, or at least a little help from Matthias, once we are back home in Seattle.

Theo talking to a Mexican girl comparing their ages

William in Cuernavaca Centro

Parents Picking up their kids from summer camp

Sweets stand in Ocotopec

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