Yesterday, Pike and Jamin went for an ‘explore’ walk on the beach south of PaaMul. They found the sand rippling and moving with dark objects – they had surreptitiously stumbled upon a nest of hatching tortugitas and they gallantly helped the stragglers to the sea before rushing back to explode with excitement over their adventure. Pike remembered the last hatching we had here so they dug down in the nest and got all the little stragglers, then went back to the nest (after relaying their adventure) to check for any lost stragglers. They were amazed at how fast the nest emptied and I hope it is a memory they keep tucked away for a very long time.

After the MRI (and I could read the report results and knew all was good), Jonna totally MANHANDLES (she even LAID HANDS ON ME!) me into the ENT/Neuro and forces me to undergo yet another $500 consultation.  I think that the next time she pulls that stunt, I’ll have her pay the damn consult fee!    (To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what we would have done without our amazing and caring friends.  We have always loved them and enjoyed being around them, but they have really taken friendship to a new level by concerning themselves and making our health issues their priority and Mimi has been an absolute, well, words escape me, she has been indespensible with the kids.  She so GETS them and enjoys them and they absolutely ADORE her.)  So he has a bevvy of more tests he wants done.  Jonna is foiled in her evil plan to make me financially responsible for the 10th floor of Star Medica when the lab tells her I can’t do the tests because I’ve eaten that day.  Mexico LOVES you to fast for every test.  I was told to fast for the (brain) MRI.  I personally checked with Doc Google and he tells me this is SO NOT necessary.  But it did save me from Star Medica’s lab fees.

So yesterday morning Ellen told me to go get the lab work done.  It was her birthday so I did her bidding.  For some reason, however, I’m pretty sure she was coached by someone to say that.  I walked over to the Plaza de Santiago and tried the laboratorio I’d seen there one day.  I don’t think I’ve ever been poked by two older men.  The receptionist told me they couldn’t do one of the tests but that they could do the rest.  Good enough.  I already know my cholesterol.  So she takes me back to a little room (in a beautiful colonial; I can’t tell you how it hurts my heart to see these amazing colonials used as hardware stores, mechanic shops, etc.) and the 98 year old phlebotomist shows me to a divan (!), has me lie down and procedes to 1/2 squat (it wasn’t even a comfortable squat for him) and jabs what must have been the largest needle he owns up the site of the MRI contrast puncture to draw blood.  Yikes!  Today it looks like I had a nest of snakes nibbling on the inside of my arm.  I almost asked him if he needed help getting up, but he creaked his way to a standing position and told me to come back next day, same time, for the results.  ENT/Neuro also has some ear tests he wants done and I’ll probably do those today.

I could tell by the exams the ENT/Neuro was doing that he was looking to diagnose with vertigo but I couldn’t produce the nystagmus he wanted for that diagnosis.  He also performed the head manuvers that should clear the calcium stones in BPPV but they didn’t work either.  So I guess we keep looking.  I, however, am very happy to just stop now, knowing there is nothing major going on upstairs.

The rest of yesterday was dedicated to Ellen’s birthday and it was packed full.  She has always ADORED animals and when Jonna mentioned the concept of visiting a zoo (I’ve always avoided them with the kids because I won’t support caging animals), Ellen grabbed onto that idea and there was no dissuading her.  Since the birthday child is King/Queen for the day, she dictated a zoo visit.  She really had an amazing time there and was so happy to see all the animals it was almost (but not quite) worth ignoring my values.  After visiting all the animals at least once, she found out that some rides were open (I’m guessing that most of the rides are open only on weekends) and we made sure to donate heavily to the zoo ride fund.  She rode on the back of a minimoto, bumper boats, the train and put away massive quantities of sugar.

When we had visited with Jonna and Mimi earlier, they introduced the kids to the ice rink in the mall next to their RV park (do you notice a recurring theme here?) and Ellen decided this was what she wanted to do next.  We had to buy socks for the kids (yes, my kids have NO socks) and found great clothes deals (Super Bodega in Merida) and picked up 4 shirts and 2 shorts for Sissy, who packed exactly ONE shirt and ONE pair of shorts for a week in Merida.  She reports she has No Clothes.  In reality, her tastes have changed from the skirts, skorts and pretty shirts she used to like to plainer clothes and she gave all her clothes to Ellen who is now swimming in clothes.  Which is actually a good thing, because Ellen changes outfits a minimum of 3 times a day.

So Sissy is now stocked with clothing and Jesse has 2 pairs of shorts.  Ellen, of course, could not be left out, especially when clothing was involved, so she got 2 skorts and 1 new shirt.  Next time I need to get socks, I’ll go alone.  Unfortunately, Ellen did not love the ice.  Jamie and I could not go out on the ice to help her (no socks, so no ice skates and we couldn’t walk in our shoes) so she simply hung onto the rail, cried a little and refused to let anyone help her until the very end when Jesse took one hand and an ice rink attendant took the other and led her to the gate.  I have to say that the attendants at this ice rink were exemplary; anytime one of the kids fell at least two of them would immediately be at their side to help them up.  I think that Ellen has shown herself the superior shopper as she out-shopped Jamie last night.  The man LOVES to shop and window shop, but Ellen dragged him from store to store to store until he thought he might just have to have a coronary to stop.  Fortunately her hunger kicked in and we headed to our favorite taqueria and filled up, except for postre (they were out), so we headed to WalMart to pick up cake, cherries, mandarinas and spend MORE TIME shopping, looking at stuff (toys) and generally wishing we could make time speed up so the damn birthday would be over already and we could stop the insanity of shopping (or die trying).

We got back to the hotel in time to have a cake and kiss her 7th birthday good freaking bye.

Today I have more tests, need to pick up the keys to the car from the mechanic (I somehow left them with the mechanic – did I mention we replaced the starter?), pick up lab results and maybe we’ll see something of this beautiful city other than shopping malls and hospitals.

We have always known that Pike was a true worshipper of the God of Food, but I never realized how much I had underestimated my last-born.  Last night she made up her Birthday Menu, and it reads as follows (in the order she dictated):

Piñata
Chocolate cake with powdered chocolate (like for chocolate milk) on top and caramel icing

Breakfast:
bacon
toast
cereal
sausage, coffee, little smokies and donuts

Dinner:
fried chicken
tortillas
salad
fruit salad (grapes, cherries, strawberries, watermellon and cantelope)
steak

(do I sense a true carnivore here?)

Lunch:
spaghetti
hamburgers

Snacks (this list about killed me)
crackers
gum
cookies
candies
apples
cheetos
small round pieces of sausage (Jamie makes sausage patties from ground pork)
orange juice
apple juice
water
chips
cut up pineapple
muffins
corn
ham and cheese sandwiches on crap bread

I predict she will eat about 5% of the food here.  She weighs about 20 kilos dripping wet.

Somehow I blanked on the fact that we will be in Merida on her birthday and she is totally rolling with it.  And is very much looking forward to TWO parties – one in Merida and one when we return.

Edited in – the title comes from http://winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.html Enjoy.

So, I keep nagging him about ass cancer and how I’d much rather have brain cancer and even die than have ASS cancer – I mean, what a horribly embarrassing cancer to have, ASS CANCER?!!!??  And we finally got his ass to the doctor this morning.  This referral doc ($35USD) was a gastro doc who verified that the tumor is really not anywhere near the gastro devices (well, geez, *I* could have told him that) and that it is hard and fixed and since it waxes and wanes in size related to Jamie’s cycling, is probably cycling-induced and benign and maybe a fibrous tumor.  But we definitely need to get it checked out.  So he refers us to an orthopedist (which is who we should have gone to in the first place if we’d been thinking and all, but what with my brain cancer…) and tells us while we’re at it to get a pelvic x-ray and take that to the ortho.  He called the ortho and explained the whole situation and I left a message with the Ortho to get an appointment in the next couple days.  We hope.  So we’re on top of the ass cancer situation.  Except we really don’t expect ass cancer.  I mean, cancer is bad enough, but to say you have ASS cancer would REALLY suck.  If it were me, I’d just change it to something less laughable.  If you’re unfortunate enough to have cancer it would really suck to have people laugh at you when you told them what kind.  And ass cancer isn’t really something people are going to respect.  I told you our humour is dark.

While we were out doing our doctor tramites we decided to try and follow the very vague directions the receptionist gave me for the ENT referral and see if talking in person might give some insight into the exam and prices.  After the last doctor visit, I called the ENT I was referred to, was told the consult fee was $500MN (but depending on what he did it could be $500 or $700 but I really had no idea what made the difference).  They gave me vague directions to find the place – 5 blocks from Bodgea look to the left, something about 2 green houses, something maybe about Plaza Chihhuaha, something I obviously missed – and strangely enough we could NOT find the place!  I know!  Surprised me too!  So we stopped at Bodega and got some groceries and headed to Hospiten to see if they have an ENT and what they charge.  Their ENT is at a congresso (I’m guessing a convention or something) but they have an ENT coming down from Cancun on Tuesday and Thursday to cover.  Their charge is only $495MN and I took the bait.  The boys have a dentist appointment tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll be bleeding pesos really soon.

The vertigo is getting really really bad but I’m pretty sure it is bad-attitude vertigo and not brain cancer, though jamie has his money on brain cancer.  Considering that SSD would pay my dependents about $3000USD/month and I have a $300K USD life insurance policy on my head, he’s picked the winner.  I think it is time to knock-off the mommy.  I’m worth MUCH more dead than alive.

In other news, due to the Grito and my vertigo getting incredibly worse, all our routines pretty much fell apart.  I stopped tracking my food intake (but am hanging solidly at 79 kilos – didn’t check this morning – could be I’ve regained all 11 kilos overnight – you never know), stopped exercising (vertigo much worse towards the end of day and due to the heat, we always exercise at the end of the day), stopped reading to the kids, stopped all academics, and yesterday decided to start getting back on track.  Pikey, however, has been motoring right along, continuing with his math, copywork and reading.  I can’t tell you all how incredibly proud I am of that boy.  He learned to read around 10 (just didn’t put it together well until then) and then only read for information; never for pleasure.  I accepted that; I didn’t really like it as I really would have loved to share the joy of reading with him, but accepted that it was just different for him.  The last couple months, however, he has developed a joy of reading.  He picks out books and enjoys them.  I am so happy he has found this little world of reading good books – it just warms my heart.  And he continues to methodically work through his math, even when it is difficult, and strives to understand and master the concepts.  He’s not just going through the motions.  I am just so very very proud of him.

We do a Tuesday Tea Time each Tuesday (or Wednesday or Sunday – however it works out) and a Friday Freewrite (where the boys and I write for 10 minutes straight – no editing, no composing, a free-flow of words) for a few months now.  Last Friday (or whatever day it ended up that we did it) Jesse wrote some lovely prose about fireworks.  I’ll have to see if he’s interested in sharing, but it was so beautiful to see the writing come alive in him.

We’re still slogging through Japan and today I think we’re starting on Korea (but I’m not exactly sure).  I’m finalizing the plans for our stuides of the Ancient Cultures and can’t wait to begin and at the same time, wish I’d done a better job on World Cultures.  If nothing else, I’ll be able to do a better job with the girls on their 2nd go around.  I need to update the homeschool blog but that means I’d have to organize stuff on my end and that’s just not going to happen.

The police have TRAFFIC CONES!  (runs around picking up all the Mexican bloggers who just fell off their chairs).  I know!  It is crazy-talk but it is true!  They have cans of fire also, but they actually use traffic cones to creat a road block or revision or inspection or speed trap.

WE HAVE SPEED TRAPS.  Well, not really speed traps, but (ok, everyone from the rest of Mexico take a deep breath, hit of something, and brace yourselves) the transitos and state police have Radar guns (just lost the Veracruzanos), HowFastIsYourSpeed displays (just lost the Cozumeleños), and ENFORCE THE SPEED LIMIT (just lost the rest of the country).  It is crazy-talk, I know, but the Solidaridad cops really want you to drive 80(kph) and make no bones about it.  And they TICKET people (shit, just lost Minnesota).

We have 4 lanes of good road and it is (shhhhh) illuminated.  Insanity, I know.  It is absolutely insane.  When you drive at night, you can See The Road.  I’m still coming to grips with this one and each and every time I see the streetlights I’m amazed all over again.

We have a season.  High season (many many toursits, locals are happy, money is flowing) and Low Season (no tourists, money is tight and people get desperate).  This year we had a bottom-of-the-barrell season when the low season was impossibly low.

English is spoken EVERYWHERE.  There are countless radio advertisements on the radio and much English music on the radio.  Very little to no banda.  But we also, since our radio station comes from Cozumel, have an entire day of Cuban music (Sunday).  Billboards along the carretera are in English.

Supers have amazing variety of food.  It used to be, before we came to Quintana Roo, that there were some staples (whole wheat flour, cheddar cheese) that you just were not going to find until you hit Costco.  And even then it was iffy.  Here almost all the supers carry ORGANIC food.  Imported, of course.  This blows my mind so badly but then I remember the Superama just north of Queretaro that had organic food and the organic coffee you can (or at least could) buy all over San Miguel de Allende.

No-one jumps on your hood and washes your windshield.  I remember some particularly aggressive guys in Mazatlan and just south of Ciudad Valles, but generally, I really appreciated these guys – especially since the van has forever had a gigantic hole in our windshield water holder thingie and we rely on these guys to get our windshields clean, as, like most of Mexico, the Pemex station NEVER has windshield cleaning stuff available.

The deli folks don’t yell at you to come try this or that.  In most of Mexico if you happen to stray anywhere NEAR the cheese and deli area, the deli ladies will yell out to you asking you what you want.  i have NEVER left a store without something from the deli, whether I wanted it or not, when the deli ladies yell at me.  And they love to give you samples and especially love to give the kids samples.  You can still get this in the smaller stores (San Francisco and Super Maz) but it just never happens at the bigger stores (Mega, Chedraui, Bodega Aurrera, Soriana).  I actually don’t buy deli food anymore and blame it on the lack of people yelling at me.  Go figure.

We have no preferico.  Neither does Cancun.  Merida does and even Felipe Carrillo Puerto does, but we don’t.  Maybe because of the 4 lanes each direction.  That is just wrong.  I’m sure this must go against some a law of nature.

No municipal market.  Though, I think I caught sight of something close to that in the Colosio but I wasn’t sure.  We have relied on municpal markets everywhere else for cheap, good produce, waching futbol for free, amazing homemade chorizo, cheeses, chicharones and other stuff we didn’t even know we needed.  It just doesn’t feel right without one.

Incredibly high prices.  Everything here is so much more expensive than the rest of the country but where we really feel it is in medical costs.  I haven’t yet found a consulta for less than ($275MN (con IVA) – about $27.50USD).  If someone ever gets really sick here, I’m taking them to Merida.  Even though Merida is expensive (compared to other Mexican cities, it is quite a bit cheaper than Playa.

I’m sure there is more; what have you found and does any of this ring true for you?

We are headed to Valladolid for a couple days to experience the Grito from Real® Mexico.  We’re staying at a hotel on the square and hope to watch the festivities from the rooftop and zocalo, depending.  I’m really looking forward to rediscovering my camera.  I’m hoping to drag the kids back to Dzitnup too see if it has changed much and also Ek Balam.  And of course, the jail.  For hammocks, what else!!???!

Oh, and if you’re still following along, 79 kilos.  I ate about 3 kilos of chocolate chip cookies last night though, so I’ll probably be working all this coming week to get rid of that plus whatever is involved, calorie-wise, with Chiles en Nogada.  After all, it wouldn’t be independence day without Chiles en Nogada.

I had a long talk with the boys about the academia we are starting to delve into, having never had any formal schooling, and they are enjoying the ride.  Well, the ride so far has been incredibly easy and we only do that which they have chosen and decided they want to do.  Pike is interested in honing his mad speling skilz, math, writing, reading and art.  Jesse is not loving the idea of writing (which to me is so ironic because I think he has a real gift waiting to be discovered), but enjoys math, reading and Spanish.  He has decided to try the Art stuff I bought but will probably bow out.  So, we’re heading off to curriculm land where Sonlight will still rule the base of our daily flow.  I’m sticking with 1+2 for the girls and will go with Core 6 for the boys.  Jesse says he likes learning about new math concepts but (this is where he really shows his healthy self-esteem) it doesn’t do anything for a sense of self-achievement or satisfaction.  Pike says he gets a real feeling of achievement from the math and writing.  Since all we’re doing right now is math, writing (once a week) and me reading to them nightly, it hasn’t been a huge change in routine.  As per usual though, Runescape is providing their best education.  Jesse says he is really noticing punctuation and asked today if quotes could indicate sarcasm and can really see the unimaginable concept of a million (since he has something like 6.5 million GP).  So, if you’d like to personally come down and collect my unschooling membership card, can you bring some curriculum with you?

We have a backyard that backs up to a jungle so why am I surprised to find a family of snakes living in the bushes?  Jamie, the boys and I watched them the other day and then employed Dr. Google to figure out what they were.  Other than the fact that they were trying to get INTO the recamera (the doors are now duct-taped shut) we’re ok with them.  They seem to tunnel down though and one was trying to dig a tunnel (snakes dig a tunnel with their heads) right next to the door.  Little creepy.

Jody requested a budget post, so here is my attempt.  When we first started traveling i looked around the blogoshere and found a couple who had planned on spending $40 a day average to stay on budget.  I figured out that $100 a day for our famiy would be about what we were already spending in a stick home and we strove for that.  i kept track of expenses in Notepad and kept a running average.  As long as we were under $100 for the average, I was fine.

When we decided we wanted to stay out on the road longer than a year, I decided I’d need something better than Notepad and stole acquired Excel.  I just found out I have Office 2003 around and should upgrade poor little Excel 97 which won’t even install anymore.  Spreadsheets made it easier to track and now I had a year of data I could use to create a budget.  We weren’t really strict with the budget (as you can tell from some months) but generally came even on a yearly basis.  This year I really wanted to get serious with the budget and even cut $5000 from our operating expenses.  That has made it more dirricult but I still think the numbers are achievable.  Jamie would probably disagree.  He HATES the idea of limiting spending.

For me, the first step is determining what is a need and what is a want.  For example, we must have some means to obtain purified water.  We cannot drink from the tap.  So a dispenser of some kind is a necessity.  it could be a 3 peso pump thingie but we soon found, by the limitations of all designs, that it would leak and we would waste water.  It was also very difficult to use and the kids would dump water.  So a cheap solution but not effective.  At the other end of the scale, most people here in PaaMul have fancy water dispensers that dispense hot and cold water.  I can’t think of anything more lovely than a cold glass of water on a typical day down here.  They are pricey though, at $2000+ pesos.  I figured that we could buy a sack of ice at the restaurant (local) each and every day, and it would take us 3 YEARS to come to 1/2 the cost of the dispenser and by that time the dispenser would have rusted and need to be replaced.  We found some $70 peso dispensers which can sit on the counter, not leak, dispense water and buy ice if we want cold water.

It is easier for me to stick to a budget because I don’t see it as a deprivation.  I’m very conscious of conspicious consumption (thanks to my Dad!) and we’ve never been terribly materialistic.  When I decide I don’t want to spend money on something and can do without or do with lesser, I see it as a positive – we’re able to spend money somewhere else or save money towards something (debt, treat, emergency fund, etc.) so there is no deprivation involved.

I’ll proofread and maybe add more tomorrow, but if I don’t get this out tonight (well it is 12:37am) it may leak out my brain and be lost forever.

Anyway, Bead Beach is situated at the end of two MegaResorts. I honestly don’t even know which ones. That would probably make it easier to find, but I just look for the access road I’ve managed to memorize. Through massive throngs of resort-people our family trudged looking for our spot where we usually look for treasure. Past the red red red sunburnt people. Do people not realize when they are sunburnt? I have to ask because almost each and every person we saw was RED RED RED and NOT covering up! No t-shirts, no towels – nothing to save them from the sun (they’d obviously had WAY too much of). Course, it did provide much entertainment for Jamie and I while the kids frolicked. I had a really hard time finding “our spot” because the resort has gotten MUCH larger since the last time we were there and we finally figured out that they had almost (but not quite) obliterated “our spot”.

I know we MUST have stuck out like six giant sore thumbs trudging up the beach with plaid plastic bag of towels (colorful, not the blue resort ones), bag of horses (doesn’t everyone travel with a bag of plastic horses?), cooler bag with giant water bottle, mucho snorkel equipment and our treasure hunting materials, a plastic box, a small garbage can lid (honestly!), and other crap. Yes. Sore Thumbs indeed.

We’ll be going back soon though, as lounging on the loungers under a shady palapa, watching all the RED tourists, the kids playing on the whales (protectors of the beach erosion) and hunting for treasure makes for a more than marvelous afternoon. I’m not sure it gets any better than this.

Treasure courtesy of El Matancero. Sissy picks our destination next week, but we’ll definitely be coming back to Bead Beach. This time we’ll drag food down too.

UPDATE:  Why, oh why, did NO-ONE alert me to the plethora of typos in this post???

Jamie and I had been living in our teensy little house (though mansion-like in comparison to our current home, the trailer) for about 2 whole weeks when this journey began. I was only about 38 weeks along and had expected a long haul, especially when my mom told me I was a 10-month baby, but during the Tour de France, when Abdoujaparov was attacking like no-one’s business, I went into labor while doing the dishes. At first I though I’d peed my pants; that happens sometimes when you’re carrying a watermellon above your bladder, so I headed to the bathroom to check things out. Jamie continued, oblivious, focused on the TV, to watch Le Tour.

I had very much considered a homebirth with this baby, but when we were figuring these particulars out we had no place to live and had so much chaos in our lives that it was enough just to focus on simply growing the baby. I did, however, go on to have the following 3 at home. Once I figured out that contractions followed the water breaking I let Jamie in on the secret and he did the perfect Dick van Dyke impression. I was CERTAIN the baby was coming out NOW as, after an hour, the contractions moved to 2 minutes apart (and stayed that way until transition). Unfortunately, I had many hours to go. Labor was only 14 hours or so – for a first time mom, that’s not bad (and they got progressively faster; Pike was 6 hours, Sissy was 3 and Ellen was 3 or 2?) and we had a sweet little baby boy at the end of it. He was a SKINNY little thing with almost no fat on him and we had to strip him and keep him against our skin so they wouldn’t take him to the warming table.

He was also a sleepy little thing and I had to lie to the nurses and tell them, “oh, he took 2 ounces” (or 4 oz or whatever – I mean how can a brand new mom even imagine how much a baby nurses the day after giving birth???) so they wouldn’t give him formula. We filled up a huge box of photos that first year, that continue to live in our storage area and he has blazed the trail for his siblings.

I don’t think he minds being the guinea pig; he probably did when he was younger, but he has taken on the role without a peep. He is So Very Much Like Me that I think I can see inside his head and honestly, it is so refreshing because Jamie confuses the HELL out of me and it is nice, for once, to know what is going on with at least ONE member of the family. He will still let me pull him onto my lap and call him my baby boy at 14. He becomes more tolerant as the years pass, as the maturation factor grows, but will always, I suspect be very much like his mother in that regard.

He has taught me so much, along with the other 3, that I will be in debt for a lifetime for the lessons they have given me. He was the first to change me and I will always be in his debt for that. We were stupidly simple with him, as a baby, and I hope he forgives us. He is a beautiful young man and I am so incredibly proud of my mini-me. He rises to almost any challenge and I think the best is yet to come. He brings me joy, he brings me hope, he lights up my life. (sniff sniff) He teaches me SO MUCH and I am so much better for having learned the lessons he shows me. He challenges me to grow and be a better person. And I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Happy birthday my boy. May each year get better and better.

(I meant to do this on Pike’s birthday also, but I was so terribly sick that I’ll do Pike’s tomorrow)

We’re going to try with Jesse’s first choice, a kitty, in a week, after we’re able to clean everything well enough to get rid of whatever is bothering Jamie, and see what happens.

I’m not sure what else to say, we’re all rather sad here…

I’ve been able to practice some form of Yoga for the past week and am really happy that I’m finally getting back to Yoga.  I’d always thought I would need to stop the exercise walks with Jamie or carve out an enormous block of time to practice but I’ve found that really isn’t true; I’m generally happy with 5A’s and 5B’s.  I have a Yoga blog so I’ll shaddup about Yoga now.

Pike is on the mend!  Thank you SO MUCH to everyone for their sweet concern, Vanessa; please NEVER feel like you’re intruding!  He has gone a solid week (or more?) without food and his mouth just is not getting better.  He really had us fooled as he and Sissy and the “good” toothbrushers but apparently he had a HUGE change in his little mouth (many molars up and down pushing all his teeth about) and he pretty much stopped brushing.  Why he didn’t tell us this I have no idea.  I have a feeling the tonsil infection might have been caused by the mouth bacteria.  At any rate, while he dropped the fever after a day of antibiotics, he was still weak, not eating and not out of bed.  While the tonsil infection had cleared his mouth still was red and swollen.  So today we headed off to our favorite dentist in Playa del Carmen, Dr. Jorge Armenta.  He took a good look, talked to us for quite a bit and did a light cleaning.  He gave Pike very detailed and explicit instructions on brushing, frequency and a suggestion for a different type of mouth wash.  We then took Pike to the grocery store and tried hard to find food he would consider eating.  Almost all his little teeth are loose as these molars move in (it is a testament to Jesse’s personality that he never mentioned any of this when it happened to him) and he HATES eating with loose teeth.  That and his gums hurt him badly.  For a boy who LOVES to eat almost anything served, it was a shock to have him dismiss food after food.  We finally ended up with strawberries, cottage cheese, little sausages and salmon.  He is sleeping after his big excursion to the dentist and store (he could barely walk in the store but soldiered through) after eating two bowls of cottage cheese, a decent serving of strawberries and some little sausages.  He has a followup appointment on Monday and we are hoping that there will be great improvement.

And that’s about it; Yoga; doing well on our spending, Pike on a treatment plan and the weather holds chilly.