More lessons learned

I have learned much in Antigua. Some things, per my earlier post, are not Fun Things. Some things are Language Things (like how to ask someone to write the price of something down because if left to your own devices and issues with numbers in Spanish, you will simply empty your wallet and ask them to take the money they need). And some things are Interesting and Confidence-Building Things.

I have learned that if Madelena does not like a particular food she can spit it out with a distance of at least 12 inches and with great velocity and glee.

I have learned that walking four miles with a baby strapped to your chest in 90 degree heat is beyond strenuous, but is nothing that a little Quiche Lorraine, a tall glass of Rosa de Jamaica and a baby who is happily occupied squishing a banana for 20 minutes can't fix.

I have learned to look away and pretend to be occupied when a cockroach scuttles across the common area, knowing it's probably on its way to someone else's kitchen.

I have learned how to sterilize bottles and nipples and spoons and more in less than three trips from the room to the purifier to the kitchen, and how to pick up nipples from boiling water using only two pre-sterilized baby spoons and a microwaved towel as a resting place.

I have learned where to get the best frozen coffee after a long, hot walk, which music Madelena will bounce to (salsa) and which she will ignore (classical), which shop imports Trader Joe's boxed soups, how to ease bug bites with toothpaste, where the one park with the swings can be found, where to get the best palmeros, which stores carry Spanish-language board books, how to talk to strangers who share the rooftop garden and even get a nice glass of Chilean red out of it as Madelena and I watch the sun set between the volcanoes, when to say yes, yes, you can watch my baby nap while I get one of the best massages of my life for $30 and just down the garden path from my sleeping baby, and how to one-handedly make a bottle, draw a baby bath, pour coffee and cream, eat a meal, sit down gracefully in a hammock and never drop the baby, her bottle, the jacket I must carry so the Guatemalans do not accuse me of negligence, and my own diet coke.

All in all, it was a very good day.