Yesterday I nursed Arlo until he was in his milk-coma and went to the store. Alone. Like, by myself. I haven't gone anywhere by myself since, like, literally last year. Poor Andres has come down with some stomach bug and fever and some sort of unfortunate painful lip-fever blister issue, so I offered to go do a few errands quickly and stealthily (a word?!) When I was out I wasn't pregnant and didn't have my baby, so basically, I was like "before." And I found myself wanting to tell passersby, "I have a baby at home I may look like a regular person but really I'm a mama." It was like I had a tremendous secret I wanted everyone to know about.

And in my perpetual quest for ways to procrastinate from my school work I keep stumbling upon really great knit & crochet projects I want to do except that I seem to have the right yarn and the wrong needle or the wrong needle and the right yarn. Last week when we went to our Chilean baby wearing party I stopped by the Wal Mart formerly known as Hiper Paiz because inside they have a yarn-craft store. However, this store is the lamest because no one who works there knows anything about yarn or needles. And they have the extremes of needle sizes, like "oh we have 1, 2, 3 and 9, 10, 11." So I wasn't able to get the needles I wanted for some patterns I found. That's ok, it's probably divine intervention because I really should be spending my free time (aka Arlo's asleep) on my school work, I guess.

The other night when there was that event in the hall next door, it was followed by a concert in the plaza sponsored by a mayoral candidate. It was louder than the event I was first complaining about. Intrigued (see I am getting more Guatemalan) I took Andres and Norma out around the block to check it out. Sure enough drunk folks doing the merengue and a full-on band complete with three singers doing choreographed moves, congas and colored strobe lights. It was much more enjoyable from in the plaza rather than in our house because in the house all we get is the thumping bass.

Guatemalan kids are afraid of dogs, for good reason since most dogs are inbred, mean chuchos or street dogs that are absolutely not friendly. So when they see Norma - a somewhat "scary" breed being a Boxer - but wearing a soccer jersey (to keep her from licking her aforementioned skin sores) and on a leash, they are intrigued. This little gang of boys (who now make me think: Awww someday Arlo will be that big!) stood their distance but asked if Norma was friendly. I said, Yes of course, but they didn't believe me. They never do. So I crouched down and hugged Norma, pet her, and said, See? They were still skeptical so I just put my hand on her mouth and mushed her schnoze around and they finally approached. After a few minutes one of the boys decided he wanted to hold her leash. Finally it was all good and Norma had her fan club of 7 year old boys. Norma could not care less about anyone these days. She is still somewhat of a ham for petting, of course, but little kids? Meh, boring. She was much more interested in the nasty street food smooshed into the pavement. But I wish I had a picture of the little crew of boys squatting around Norma inspecting and speculating on the growth on the tip of her ear. Like a bunch of little scientists.

Finally we had to go, much to the chagrin of the kid holding her leash. Norma is doing much better. Since starting her antibiotic treatment her funky skin sores have disappeared. Hopefully next week we'll get that ear thing lopped off, or make an appointment to do so. That 2nd party/concert lasted almost til midnight, which means 10 hours, 10 hours, of bass thumping madness in our house that day. I would move if we weren't waiting for Andres' US visa news at this address. I contemplated going to a hotel, but that small little part of me that is mildly frugal could not justify paying for a place to say in the same city I live in. I mean I guess it is like childbirth: at some point it's over.

And Arlo is 7 weeks old now. Here are some recent snapshots:

The infamous rebozo-carry which knocks Arlo out cold.

He's actually sleeping here :)