Mexico Getaway - Take 2

For the second time in seven months, we took another trip down to Mexico for vacation.  (See blog post for the first time here -  Cancun)  This time, we went as our little family of three.  We figured it was time to introduce Olivia to the beach since she's beyond the point where we have to worry about her eating sand.  While Houston is in relatively close proximity to the majority of the Caribbean, the easiest place for us to get to and shortest flight duration (only around 2 hours!) was just to head back down to Mexico.  Of course, we had to get Olivia a passport before we could leave the country.  Here is her passport photo:

She is going to look a lot different from her passport photo when it expire in 2017!  

Since we went to Cancun and the Gulf of Mexico side back in the fall, we decided to hit the Pacific coast and headed to Puerto Vallarta.  We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, which is definitely the way to go, and never left the property the whole time we were there.  

View from our suite

Our days were spent like this: 

• breakfast
• after breakfast, go back to the room and get ready to head to the swimming pool
• hang out at the pool for a couple hours
• back to the room for afternoon nap time
• after naps were over, go back to the pool 
• get ready for dinner
• dine at one of the resort's five restaurants 
• back to the room for play
• bed
• repeat the next day

When we first got there, Olivia was not a very big fan of the pool.  She didn't want to get in the water.  So we decided to take her down to the beach.  She was even less of a fan...she hated the sand.  Didn't want to get her feet in it or touch it at all, demanding to be held.  Needless to say, we were worried it was going to be a very long trip if she didn't like the pool or the beach.  Fortunately, she finally got over her fear of the swimming pool.  The pools had pretty big ledges around the edge, 5-6 feet wide with water only about 6 inches deep.  This was perfect for her to play around in at her own leisure.  She was pretty hesitant to get into the deeper water even with one of us holding her, but by day 4 she finally ventured in with us a couple of times.

She never did warm up to the beach but that's ok.  We had plenty of fun at the pool.  I'm happy to say that despite all three of us have pale, pasty skin, none of us got sunburned thanks to some SPF 85 sunscreen and even returned back to Houston with the slightest of tans.

The restaurants at the resort were great.  However, dinner frequently proved to be the most challenging part of the day as anyone with small children can relate to.  Olivia had difficulties being able to sit in the highchair for very long, instead wanting to be free so she could run around, climb on all the regular chairs or just sit in our laps.  Fortunately, the resort was not busy while we were there so the restaurants weren't crowded.   In fact, on several occasions, we were the only ones even in the restaurant!

On our last evening there, we got a babysitter to come to the room to watch Olivia for a couple hours while Geoff and I had ourselves an adults only dinner at a fancy French restaurant at the resort.  It was so great to be able to enjoy our dinner in peace without worrying about how much food was falling to the floor or if Olivia's loud noises were disturbing the nearby patrons.  

I noticed while we were there that many of the Mexican people, whether it be the cabana boys at the pool or waiters / waitresses at the restaurant liked to touch Olivia's hair or pat her shoulder in a simple  gesture of friendliness.  There was even one older lady that came up to us in the Puerto Vallarta airport while I was holding Olivia and just rubbed Olivia's arms for about for about ten seconds.  She didn't say anything but just smiled and looked at Olivia.  It was a little unusual and something that I'm not used to.  I don't know if it's a Mexican culture thing or if it's just that they don't see many little girls with blond hair and blue eyes.  Fortunately, she never seemed to mind.

I'm so very thankful that we were able to get away as a family.  My work schedule was pretty busy the first 3-4 months of the year and Geoff is always working hard so we both needed time to just recharge. And of course, spending lots of time with Olivia was the biggest benefit (most of the time :) ).  I love making new memories with our little family.  I know she won't remember the trip, but we'll have the pictures and the stories to share with her someday.  

20 months

I've gotten a little behind on capturing some of Olivia's recent developmental updates.  I can't believe she's 20 months already.  I'm amazed when I look at her and see more and more of a little girl than a baby.

Her word vocabulary is still pretty small.  We like to tell ourselves this is because she is hearing and learning two languages (English and Spanish from our nanny).  I don't know if that really has much to do with it or not.   She babbles all the time and she understands pretty much anything we tell her, so I'm sure the words will follow soon.  Her main words are Ball and Bath, which she's been saying for a long time.  Sometimes she says Mama and sometimes she says Daddy.  Whenever she says Daddy, she always whispers it for whatever reason.  Lately she started saying "Ow" for owl and "Uh" for up when we are going up the stairs.  She doesn't say No yet, but she emphatically shakes her head when she doesn't want something.

When asked to close her eyes, she closes them really tight and scrunches her face all up.

When asked what noise a dog makes, she making woofing noises or pants.  She also makes a noise that sorta sounds like a roar when asked what noise the lion makes.

She does sign language for "More", "Please" and "Thank you".

Points to different body parts when asked where they are.  She especially loves belly buttons and recently she has become very fascinated with eyebrows.

Whenever she goes poo-poo in her diaper, she looks at us and grabs her nose, knowing she's stinky.

Olivia is continually exhibiting more and more signs of independence, wanting to do things herself.  She has started to try to put her clothes on herself and wants to open food containers on her own.

When she can't find something or it's gone, she raises her arms with her palms facing up.

Within the last week, she has discovered how to take her diaper off.  Not a good thing!  We bought her a little potty chair at the beginning of the year for her to get use to seeing it and there have been a couple times she's sat down and gone to the bathroom.  Hopefully she's get more interested in it now that she knows how to take off her diaper.

She loves to just come up out of the blue and hug our legs.  Unsolicited kisses are also the best.  She is very much a snuggle baby.  Since one of my dominant love languages is physical touch, and it's becoming apparent that it's one of hers as well, I just can't get enough of her snuggles.