March 3rd. Afterthoughts

Photo: Little toes

Well, as we face another cold at home and the tail end of another cold front, I look forward to a very warm weekend. Warm days bring little naked toes out! Oh, I had forgotten the joys of a little baby! And the hardships... The good news is that the newest addition is definitively related to us... He wants to be on the move all the time, discovering new things and visiting new places! So this last weekend we went on a day trip to Coatepec.
It is so strange to be going on a trip to the place we called home just last year. It brings back good memories, but it also reminds us why, oh why, we left Coatepec for Xalapa. Such a charming, quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet town! That is until the gas truck or the newspaper guys or the tortilla vendors blare their adds over their loud speaker attached to the top of their cars ... But still we like to drop by our favorite places, say hello to friends and enjoy the quiet, just for a little bit.
This time we visited the Coatl Organic Market at the Casa de la Culture (Cultural Center) and found that not much has changed. Change here is good and bad. Good, because change could mean more prosperity, more vendors, more products, more buyers. Bad, because it could mean not finding the products you are there to find, or the familiar faces. So, unfortunately, no, they are not doing too much better than a year ago, but, fortunately, they still carry our all time favorites! My eldest and husband went for the organic, homemade, German sausage with red pepper and onion. Baby and I went for my spices.
My sole reason to visiting last Saturday was to get a good amount of Cardamom. This is one of my very favorite spices and a must for making a killer Chai, and we are lucky that this region is the perfect climate for growing it. I have to say that I find it rather strange in many ways that, being Mexican, I can’t seem to be able to live without my Indian spices: ginger, turmeric, mustard, cardamom. I also find it even stranger, but very serendipitous, that all those spices are grown here or very close to here, so I can always find them.
So, Cardamom acquired (and a good amount of other goodies), we headed for another one of our favorite places for lunch. It is a little Japanese restaurant by the plaza called Sakura. No, it’s not much to look at and the owner just opened another similar but nicer one in Xalapa, but we keep coming to the one in Coatepec. Some people find it strange that we head to Coatepec for a Japanese lunch, but the food is good and the prices are great. Besides, my eldest is a fan of Ramen (thanks to Naruto) and there is no better place for a huge bowl with fresh veggies and shrimp. I wonder if the littlest one will embrace our diverse tastes when he gets older.

Finally, March!

Photo: Dry weather takes a toll on Bromeliads and the inhabitants.

It just dawned on me this morning that I have not written anything in more than a month! I have been slipping more and more, writting less and less. I do have an excuse, last year was a really bad pregnancy, this year is a really cute little baby...

Anyway, Febraury went by as a mirror image of last Feb. Sickness struck everyone as the last remnants of January were fading away. The first one to go down was Diego, which is normal, but he quickly came back, as is was not the case last year. Then it was Armando's turn. He usually gets them really bad and excerbates his asthma. We were expecting bronchitis for both, only one got it. In turn, Jevon had his share and finally me, which was good because baby got antibodies and escaped the cold. But as we were about to start celebrating the end of the "sick season", the vomit started.

This time it was the baby and, lo and behold, it was a nasty case of Amoebas! So everyone, minus the dog, had to get medicine to kill Amoebas.

Then, one week gone by, vomit overtook Armando and a friend of his. That one passed with no more victims... then the Chicken Pox hit!

Well, we are really not too sure it was the Chicken Pox, but it looked like it, sort of acted like it, but it was really mild. Good thing, since the only one that had not had it before was the baby. He is fine now.

Today both the oldest woke up with a cold... yeepee!

So, we enter March counting our blessings and taking our vitamin C. We are finally off the radiator heat, or at least we hope, as the Cold Front number 38 passes by. The days are getting lovlier but also drier: Xalapa looks dreadful when it gets this dry for a long time. The rain will come soon enough and then green will be living everywhere... even on our shoes and clothes!

Sometimes I wonder... does anyone actually read this blog?