Cold Spaghetti

Will is asleep and our world is quiet. Looking up the street towards the rest of Miraflores.

Warm city lights from our rooftop terrace. Looking out towards the pacific. (The high rises block the view.) 

Another view — with the slide in the fore ground! 

We are here! And tired.

Some notes:
– We changed Will in Houston before the 6 hour flight to Lima. Bad Idea not pre-emptively changing him at least once on the flight (as cumbersome as that would have been on a full flight in coach.) When we landed, he had wet through everything and was positively sopping wet. Poor kid. Have I mentioned he is a totally amazing?
– Lima is lovely. We’re about two blocks from the ocean. Huge cliffs, lined with blooming vines, create a wall around the seaside. The effect is beautiful. We walk two blocks and can stand along a walking path and look down over the sea.
– We walked along the ocean to Larcomar, an upscale shopping area with movie theatre, restaurants, and more. An affordable lunch was munched looking out over the Pacific.
– Swimmers and surfers dot the shore. While they are fun to watch, I would not join them, even on a dare.
– The house is great. Owned by lovely family (nice pictures everywhere). Not quite on the same “neat freak” level as us so we have been working to make space for ourselves without disturbing much. It is nice to be somewhere so clearly lived in and loved by a neat family. Beautiful rooms, big living space, 3 bedrooms, bathrooms, an office, and roof top terrace. The house is filled with toys, making us feel (not for the first time) that we seriously deprive our child. Will was so in to the toys that when asked if he wanted to go outside (we wanted to walk to the grocery to get some essentials) he said “no.” That was the first and only time Will has ever said “no” to going outside. Until he found out there was a little tikes play gym on the roof.
– Expensive and upscale grocery (Vivanda) is a few blocks (7? 8?) away. Walk over, take taxi back for about a buck.
– Paul is set up for work (I’m using his computer right now). He’ll set up the household wireless soon and I’ll be able to plug in at will with my compy. The wonders of technology!
– Vonage is up and working, call us at will! We’re told the connection can be rough — but we experimented and found that it is better when we don’t use the household wireless phone and don’t touch the internet while we are talking. It’s pretty good on our end, though! (And sort of amazing when you consider we can call out and be called as if we were in the States!)
– Will’s new trick: shaking hands and saying “mucho gusto” (pleased to meet you). Combined with his “dame besito” where he blows kisses, it is sort of like a one-two punch of cuteness winning us friends throughout Lima.

We’re happy to be here, excited about the next few weeks, and tired out from the long day!

What: 6 weeks in Lima, Peru, to lay some ground work for a disseration — starting tomorrow.
Where: Corner of Porta and Juan Fanning, Miraflores, Lima, Peru
How: With financial support through the renting of our house while we are gone
Why: To figure out what, exactly, this disseration is going to look like, to be inspired in my field, to improve our spanish, and to collect enough information to write strong applications for disseration funding and go back on a grant

Other tidbits:
– With the blessing of the owners, we are bringing a travel bug to Lima
– We will be on east coast time
– We will have our home phone through the magic of Vonage, so calling us in Lima is exactly the same as calling us in the States (same number, same charges, same everything)

We’re basically packed. Two full-size suitcases, one medium rolling duffle, one medium rolling backpack to check. We could have gotten away with less, but wanted to leave extra room and figured we could always pack the duffle within another bag if we need more space on the way home.

Our intention is to leave the few toys we are taking for Will, as well as the majority of his clothes, with a children’s organization in Lima. The clothes we are taking are almost all from last summer and he won’t be wearing them this summer. And he has a ton of toys. This is a good opportunity to share! Ditto on some of my smaller maternity garb. By the time we get back, I’ll be in the biggest sizes… this tummy of mine is *out*. So we should have a decent amount of space for goodies to bring back.

Carry-ons are much more complicated these days. We’ve got Will’s monster car seat (required now that he is over the age of 2), a cooler for snacks and drinks (did you know that milk is near impossible to get on flights these days?), my backpack (paperwork, our camera, Will’s changing supplies), and the small rolling case for the laptops. With one of us pushing the stroller, two of us dragging bags (the car seat and the rolling case), and one of us with the backpack… it will be a full day. Damn airlines for not having appropriate seating for children (and yet charging us 90% of adult fare for a 2-year old!) 😛

Will lets out a huge, tonsil-displaying laugh as he splashes PapPap with water at bathtime. Will usually gets a shower each night (we don’t have a tub at home, so it’s the method of washing by default) but for fun, we sometimes bathe him when we are at my parent’s house. Tonight was one of those special nights and Will had a blast. Somehow, I managed to snap this just as Will was gearing up to let the water fly. (PapPap was less enthused!)

Will and PapPap laugh at bathtime! 

When Paul and I returned to New Orleans on the morning of the 30th, we left Will with my parents. Before that day, I had never gone a night without seeing him off to bed. Not One Night. So, we left around 10:30 on the morning of the 30th. We returned past his bedtime the next day (around 9pm on the 31st). How did Will do?

Absolutely fine. With the exception of occassional matter-of-fact “Mommy’s brush” or “Mommy’s shirt” that he pointed out when he came across said items during the day, he didn’t even mention us. I am very happy that he did well without me, really. But I have to admit, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if he at least inquired about me before tucking down each night. *sigh* I am trying to tell myself that it is an example of our great parenting — we’ve made a secure child that is comfortable without us and able to trust others. That makes sense, right?

Highlights of our year.

Will. He began the year crawling in onesies and ended the year walking in Big Boy clothes. We find new ways to be proud everyday while we learn that parenting is truly a difficult and challenging adventure full of fear, heartache, love, and trust.

Family. We watched both of our syblings marry wonderful people. I had the pleasure of performing my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding ceremony. We (unexpectedly) spent many weeks of time with family in the fall.

Friends. We visited and were visited by many. Wyatt and Eli for Mardi Gras. Randy and Katherine, Robin and Dave, Dave and Shelley, Paul during a visit to Northern Virginia. Niki, who judged a dance competition in New Orleans last winter. Millard, Violet, Scott, Bethany, Evie, Adam and Jodi and other Michigan friends in Ann Arbor. Both families during the summer weddings. Gwen, Mario, and Gwen’s Dad in St. Simon’s in the fall. Paul’s family in Duck. My girlfriends Christie, David, Steph and Mike in NC. We had the joy of exposing Will to so many people that we care about and hope that he can group up learning from as we have.

Health. I struggled with bacterial pneumonia and signed my first AMA release from medical care. I became pregnant a second time with little trying.

Home. We learned what it means to miss New Orleans. We watched the city we live in drown and felt our hearts ache for the continued ignorance and arrogance of those around us. We can better understand the nature of disaster, having lived for days with questions of whether we would have a place to return home. Luck is something we do not take for granted. Home is something that we look to for people, not things.

Work. Paul continues to enrich our lives with a flexible job that gives him pleasure and allows us to be an incredibly family. I managed to continue to work through the disaster, sought out mentorship, took comprehensive exams, passed them, and became a candidate for a doctoral degree. We somehow have figured out how to both have fulfilling and important careers without long commutes or inflexible demands that give us the ability to spend time each day as a family.

During our drive from New Orleans to Mobile tonight, we talked about the last year and the ones ahead. We talked out some financial concerns, tried to consider other places we could see ourselves living, the kind of lifestyle we wanted, places and things of importance. We are nervous about the tremendousness of the house project we want to take on in the early spring. We are excited about the birth of a second child. We still can’t believe that we leave for Lima in only 3 more days. In short, we are humbled by the year ahead of us and cannot wait to face it together.