The Mexico!: Progress at the pool

We hit the Sunday Market this morning and it was pretty much as I expected it would be. Stand after stand filled with various foods, clothes, kitchenwares, and people. But not so many people that it felt packed. There were two men rolling little carts selling frozen treats, one half of a skinned goat(?), a stand selling what Megan guessed to be pig's skin (think pork rinds but much, much larger), and several tiny Chihuahuas. Music was playing from one stand selling speakers and once the kids caught the first chords, they stopped in the center of the aisle and started to dance. It didn't take long before a small crowd of locals formed around them, smiling at the exuberance of the two tots. We went a little nuts buying fruit - cantalope, watermelon, grapes, bananas, oranges, and mangoes. And the kids, both parched and hungry after all that dancing, enjoyed a very juicy orange that Penny peeled. Ah, sticky fruit and toddlers. It didn't take us long to buy our goods and be on our way. Our day included a few more grocery store stops and more torillas! (Dang, those tortillas are good.)

We arrived home and it was more of the same - eat, nap, hit the pool. Henry is still hesitant in the water and it was a bit disappointing because even at his most cautious, he's never held out this long. Plus, Avery is a natural water dog. That girl is all over the place in the water, swimming great distances and just having an overall grand time all over the pool. In contrast, Henry was in toddler calf-deep water dipping his hands in, waving them around and saying "I'm an ockpus! I'm an ockpus, mama!" (He called his mama an otter, a seal, and dolphin depending on what I was doing in the pool.) No amount of cajoling could convince him to budge from his chartered out safety zone.

And then it occurred to me that the lad likes danger, and that jumping into the pool just might be dangerous enough to get his little feet off the floor of the pool. So I started jumping in. And I kept jumping in again and again and again. And I let him "push" his mama into the pool. And finally after we did this for a while, he requested to jump in. We had a pool breakthrough, ladies and gents! Henry couldn't get enough jumping into the deep end of the pool. He loved it! He was laughing and jumping and it was awesome. I even got him to learn about kicking his legs for swimming. The boy didn't want to leave the pool when it came time to leave he was having so much fun. I suspect we'll be back today.

There was just enough time for a quick shower before a dinner of chicken fajitas and watermelon. Megan will be cooking dinner tomorrow and I'm very much excited. Who likes a good roast? Me! And Henry is a red meat eater all the way. It doesn't feel as if we've been here for a week already but our vacation is rapidly approaching its end. What I have learned, besides that Nopolo, Mexico is absolutely beautiful, is that Henry loves backpacks. So I can finally dig this out of the closet and give it to him so he can carry stuff to his heart's content.

In other news, I finished another book so I have met my goal of 26 books for the year - woot!