Twenty-three months and loving it

Uma and I have been in Mexico for a almost two weeks. We have settled down in the same town we came to last winter, Sayulita. We arrived during the holiday season and the gringos were a plenty. Apparently, the New York Times cited Sayulita as the number one best winter get away. So much for unknown little beach villa. In the last few days, the masses have cleared and it’s the same sweet place that we remember.
Uma adores Mexico. The first few days were a bit spotty, as she was out of her little routine and comfort zone, but now she is totally in her element, a dirty little nina with a wild smile on her face, running around like a loony bin.

We have established our daily rhythm which goes something like this: wake up with the roosters, scramble down to the zocolo (zokeo) for some coffee and hot cocoa, feed the ids, run around, watch the early morning surfers, eat some breakfast, head to the beach, swim, build holes, dodge the tide, take a nap on the beach, come home and play in the pool, eat guacamole (wokawohlie), watch the sunset, run around the garden, go the the zoloco at dark, get a sweet treat, climb and jump off of everything, get extremely dirty, and come home and go to sleep. That’s our day.

Uma loves to find other little routines throughout the day. Every time we walk over one bridge, we look for the big beautiful brown cow below, Uma will say “cow hungry?” or “cow sleeping?” if she’s out of sight. When we walk over the other bridge she wants to sing the Muppet show theme.
It’s been so interesting watching her little brain unplug from her normal life. At first, she sang her normal repertoire of songs all day long (alphabet, twinkle, happy birthday), asked to go to the neighbors house, wanted to watch her snowman video, and said she wanted to go home several times a day (this killed me). Now, she is totally here, asks to go to the ocean or to go to the zocolo, and babbles Spanish phrases.
Now, her “no!” is tempered by her saying “no gracias” (she hears me says this through out the day), and she will say “me gusta”, “hola”, “ados”, and “bomba” (plunger- we had to borrow one once and we learned the word together).
Uma is now fully talking in complete sentences ( in English). She is kissing me all the time, and tells me that she loves me throughout the day without any prompting. She is at once the very best travel partner and also at times the worst. She still throws fits and gets fixated on what she loves and wants, but these small moments have nothing on the joy that we are sharing.
There are tons of families here with kids. It’s so wonderful to meet wonderful folks from all over who are all here for the same reason (to escape!) There’s such a common understanding and camaraderie with parents. We get it. It’s very comforting.
More later- it’s time for ice cream.