Hero of Hidalgo

Hello everyone!

Yes, I know it's been almost a month since my last update.  My excuse is that my computer cord stopped working and it took over 3 weeks to get a new one.  Well, the new cord arrived today so I can finally post an update.

I have lots of updates.  The biggest news is that we took Juliet on her first big trip.  We went to a little island off the coast of Cancun called Isla Mujeres.  It really is a little island - it's only about 7 km long and about half a km wide.  It's sort of our "go-to" beach vacation spot so we were excited to bring Juliet there. 

Let's start from the beginning.  This was Juliet's first plane trip and to say that travelling with a baby is stressful is an understatement.  Juliet comes with so much stuff - diapers, food, toys, clothes, stroller - that there was barely any room for me and Leo to pack anything for ourselves!  But the good news is that Juliet did pretty well on the plane (4 hour plane ride).  Her ears didn't seem to bother her on takeoff or landing (she breastfed).  The main issue is that she got restless and had trouble sleeping while on the flight, which happens to the best of us.

Leo and Juliet wait for the monorail at the Toronto airport.

She looked so peaceful - she had no idea of the crazy journey ahead of her at this point!

We eventually got to Isla Mujeres using nearly every mode of transportation known to man (car, monorail, plane, car, ferry) and Juliet was a trooper.  We finally arrived at our rented condo and it was very nice.  In the past Leo and I would stay in a hotel room but with Juliet we needed a separate room for her to sleep in and some added amenities like a microwave to heat up her food, so we chose a condo.

Ok, now I have to tell the Hero of Hidalgo story.  The island has a pedestrian-only street called Hidalgo that is lined with open air restaurants and shops.  Every night after dinner, one of us would be carrying Juliet as we would walk back to the condo using this street.  One of Juliet's new favourite skills is waving hi/bye so she would excitedly wave to all the patrons dining outside and they would wave back.  Many of the patrons had likely been drinking for hours at this point, so they were especially charmed by Juliet and many would call out, "hi baby!" or "look at the cute baby, she's waving at me!".   I don't know if I'm describing it properly, but it was quite magical - it was like Juliet was the queen in a parade.  At some point Leo appointed her the Hero of Hidalgo.

This picture is really dark but this is Leo and Juliet (in non-waving mode) on Hidalgo.  Note that they both have the same super serious expression.

We generally had a pretty low key vacation where we ate out a lot, went for walks, and hung out by the pool.  With Juliet we obviously couldn't just veg out by the pool and read for hours on end but most days we simply brought a playpen outside and took turns playing with Juliet and taking her in the pool.

We love eating at the restaurants on Isla because they use simple, fresh ingredients and the cost is very reasonable.  I was a little worried about bringing Juliet to restaurants all week, but all of the restaurants were very accommodating and the other patrons fell in love with her.  Everyone would comment on how "smiley" she was and it was interesting to see how older ladies and gentlemen would gravitate towards her to get their "grandkid fix".

Here's Juliet with a couple of grandmas.

 

"Mmmmmmmmmmm margarita!  I can't wait to have one in about 18 years!"



This is us at our last dinner on Isla at an awesome Mediterranean restaurant called Olivia's.  They had the best hummus ever, which of course Juliet loved.

Here's another new thing Juliet is doing.  While you're holding her, she'll throw herself back because she wants to be dipped.  It's pretty funny but we also need to be careful or she'll just jump out of our arms.


Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

  On one of our walks, we came across a shabby old blue door and decided to stage a photo shoot. 

Sidebar: the dress I'm wearing was a purchase made when I was on a family vacation to Hawaii when I was about 14.  Amen to the breastfeeding weightloss program!

And here are some pictures of Juliet in the pool, at the beach, and experiencing the ocean for the first time.  I think she was more intrigued with the sand between her toes than the ocean itself.

It was a fun but exhausting week.  Juliet just couldn't keep her eyes open while we were at the Cancun airport waiting to get on our flight home.  She slept for almost half of the flight which made it easier on us as well.

PS. Other new things:
- Juliet got a few new teeth - two more on the bottom, one more on top (7 total at this point)
- Juliet now attempts to feed us when she is eating a cookie - she'll hold it out for us to take a bite as well - and she loves this role reversal
- She's not really cruising yet, but she tries to pull herself up on almost everything
- I think she tried to say "Butters" but it came out "ba ba".  But that could also have just been random sounds she was making :)