Holiday!!

In 48 hours, I packed all our belongings into six boxes and two suitcases. We overslept our alarm and raced off to the airport for our next adventure. Maya thought flying was a great lark, and proceeded to smile at everybody on the plane, even poking her head between the seats to smile at the people in the seats behind, to make sure they didn't miss out on one of her charming grins. Little coquette!


Maya's first plane trip

Ixtapa: Sticky 35 degrees, lush palm trees, and Club Med. We settled in for a week of blissful laziness and forgetting all our woes. Maya had a ball at the Baby Club, meeting lots of other wee babies and kids, and exhausting herself with all their amazing toys and lovely carers. I had a ball, just sitting by the beach or pool, reading, eating, and feeling human again. Every evening at about 5pm, Maya and I would go for a swim, then she'd settle in on the day bed for a big nap. By 7pm, it would be getting dark, everyone else would have gone for dinner, the beach towel attendants would have packed up their booth and gone, and I would still be sitting by the pool waiting for snoozy baby to wake up!


Maya conked out after a hard day's playing at Baby Club

By about day four, I was able to venture slightly beyond pure, simple relaxing and try a few of the activities. Plans were: yoga, aqua aerobics, volleyball, trapeze, kayaking and perhaps sailing. In fact, I never made it beyond trapeze, which become a new addiction. Sadly cut short by the resulting callouses after about 5 swings, which also got ripped off. And bruises behind my knees. And pulled calf muscle. And sore everything. Very painful! Ahhh, but so much fun.


The trapeze!!!

Typical Club Med conversation
Person: Oh what a beautiful baby. How old is she?
Me: Thank you, she's 8 months old.
Person: Oh, are you from Australia?
Me: No, New Zealand - pretty close!
Person: Wow, you've travelled a long way to come here.
Me: Well, actually, we live in Tijuana, so it's not too far.
Person: Oh...Tijuana? (I can now see person thinking: huh??! Why on earth would a seemingly sane New Zealand woman & baby be living in Tijuana? I can't help it, I have to put them out of their misery)
Me: Well, actually I've been there for nearly 8 months, and my husband and I are adopting Maya, and until the end of the process, she can't leave the country, which is why we've come here, and my husband's on the other side of the world at the moment, unfortunately, in Abu Dhabi, so it's just the two of us.
Person: Wow.

I could just not say anything and have people constantly wander around wondering what on earth we're doing in Tijuana. Especially since it's in the news a lot at the moment with dead drug-lord bodies and shoot outs.

Or just say: Yeah, it is a long way to travel to come here from NZ!

We had a wonderful week. Club Med is definitely a kid-friendly place, Maya made a tonne of wee baby friends, I did a back flip into a net, we swam in the sea, saw iguanas, ate new food (peaches for Maya and lots of variations on chocolate cake for me), Maya learned to crawl forwards, and we came back to Tijuana ready for the final stages of the adoption. Bring it on!