Max & Tamira

Max & Tamira

Max and his buddy Tamira (aka Bob the Builder and a Lion) at a Halloween party this weekend.

Believe it or not, Guatemala (at least the Guatemalan upper/middle class) have really gone nuts with the Halloween thing. It caught us by surprise last year...I had no candy at all and ended up turning off all of the lights and hiding out from the incessant flow of trick or treaters.

This year we have not one, but two costumes ready for Max, a jack o' lantern, a huge bag of candy to hand out, and trick-or-treating at the U.S. embassy and in our neighborhood. Should be fun...more pictures tomorrow.

Max and the Thunderbirds

Max and the Thunderbirds
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

We just got back from the Thunderbirds air show.

I’ve never been to an air show before…really freakin’ loud. And MAN! those things are fast…and apparently only interesting to a 3 year old for about 7 minutes… after that the multi-million dollar jets, best of the best pilots and cutting edge aerial acrobatics lose out to a pile of rocks and sand.

Oh well…

Actually, to hear how he tells the story to his mom, you would think that it was the highlight of his young life, rather then a loud noise that distracted him from piling the biggest rocks he could find.

Nappin' 'n' Grinnin'

Nappin' 'n' Grinnin'
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Max and Zoe hanging out on a sunny afternoon.

Tomorrow the U.S.A.F. Thunderbirds are having a air show here in Guate...should have a few good shots from that...

Guate Sunset

Guate Sunset
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

The view from our balcony...on a good day...if you stand on the ledge...and zoom in a little bit...and crop out some of the trees...

Zoe in a blanket

Zoe in a blanket
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Not much to say today...

Here is Zoe relaxing on her blanket.

Kim's mom is leaving early in the morning tomorrow (5am) so I'll cut short for today...

Kim in Antigua

Kim in Antigua
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Just a quick one...should be going to bed...

But I really like this picture of Kim. She's just relaxing in the sun at the Posada del Angel in Antigua, Guatemala. (same B&B Bill Clinton stayed at when he visited Guatemala).

Abuelita

Abuelita
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Kim's mom, Carol, has been visiting with us this week.

She's been a great help and Max has really really enjoyed having her here. She is indefatigable when it comes to stories, that's for sure!

We spent the weekend in an Antigua, but most of the week just hangning out in the capital. Because of the damage caused by Hurricane Stan, we were not able to travel with her much around the country.

I'll try and post some more pictures and links from Stan this week...

It's late and it's almost my turn to put Zoe to sleep...so enough for now.

Convent's Basement

Convent's Basement
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Kim really liked this picture...It's a weird large ciruluar room under the cells that the nuns stayed in...before the earthquakes destroyed the convent.

You can't see it in this picture but there are 6-7 hooks set high in the ceiling. No one has been able to figure out what the hooks were used for, nor what the full purpose of the room was. It is the only room in the convent that survived the earthquake intact.

er...This is from Antigua, just outside of the capital...Used to be the capital, but suffered a major earthquake a couple of hundred years ago...

Perrito

Perrito
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

We were in Antigua this weekend for Max's Clausura.

For the uninitiated, Antigua is an old colonial city about 45 minutes away from Guatemala city. It's a small charming town with old houses, tons of ruins, cobblestone streets and is surrounded by hills and dominated on one side by the striking inactive Volcano Agua. A Clausura is an end of year show for Guatemalan schools.

Max was, as you can see, a dog. He and his classmates sang and danced in front of around 200 family and friends of the school. Afterward the song/dance, Max went up to the mic and recited a fairly long poem entirely in Spanish. Neither Kim, Kim's Mom (who is in town for the week), nor I could stop crying. he was so adorable and he had learned this long poem without Kim or I realizing it. I think it was the first time that I can remember where I felt the overwhelming urge to grab the nearest stranger and say through my tears of pride, "That's my son!"

Of course, I have no idea what the poem was about...

Some more pictures of Zoe coming soon...I think she is starting to look almost exactly like max did when he was a baby.

Max's New Jungle

Max's New Jungle
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Zoe is getting so much attention we thought we would even out the scales a little bit by having Max's room turned into a jungle...

Reminds me a bit of Max's room from 'Where the Wild Things Are"...

I was going to suggest putting one of the Wild Things gnashing their horrible teeth in one of the corners, but thought better of it.

Kim's mom is in town this week. Max and I went to the airport to pick her up, but where 15 minutes late because of traffic. She realized she only had my cell phone number and no idea where our house was. She borrowed a phone from a Guatemalan guy who happened to speak English.

I foolishly told her we were walking in the door and hung up before finding out where she was standing. I found the guy with the phone, but couldn't find her! 10 minutes of frantic searching later she called again from another guys phone...and we finally found her.

Not a good way to start a trip in a strange country! Hopefully we can improve on it a little bit this week....

Max's end of school play is tomorrow in Antigua...more later.

Zoe's Room

Zoe's Room
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Just a quick little post. Zoe & Kim are doing well. Kim said today that she's not as tired as she expected to be...so far.

Zoe is about as well rested as any creature could hope to be. I don't see her eyes open very often.

I'll be sending emails out with info on how to order pictures through www.shutterfly.com if you are interested...

More tomorrow.

Max & Zoe II

IMG_3435

This is a duplicate picture...

I'm having some problems getting blogspot.com interface to work today, so I'm actually posting from my flickr account. Unfortunately, that doesn't allow me much opportunity for fancy formatting (and doesn't allow me to edit my poor spelling or grammer once I have posted the picture and text)

I'll try and iron out the details this week and repost/reorganize as I am able.

I will also get some better copies of this pictures up on shutterfly.com so whomever is interested can order prints online. Most of the pictures I have posted here might be good enough quality to print...but shutterfly will be quite a bit better.

Also, apologies if you were not on our email list for our original anouncement. That was a detail we neglected we when were preparing for the birth.

I basically made up the list and sent out the announcement as I was rushing to get Max to the hospital to meet his sister. I'll go through the next couple of days and update my contact book and at least send out the link to this site (and flickr) and the shutterfly photo site.

More later....

Finally, a cuddle and smile

IMG_3395
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Max was pretty shy with Zoe to start out with...

When I brought her into the room the first time he stayed on the other side of the room and cracked up laughing.

We told him her name for the first time and he said, "Zoe is terrible name." and laughed uncontrollably for awhile.

Then, for the next half hour or so, he pointedly ignored her completely.

Slowly by slowly since then he has gotten closer and closer. Max and I made a cake, a sign, balloons, and ribbons for Zoe's homecoming/birthday party, which he did enjoy doing.

Now he loves kissing her and touching her. And he always follows the directions of Dr. Gracioso who told him to wash his hands first and always kiss the back of her head instead of her face so that he doesn't make her sick.

So he's slowly coming around.

Tonight he tried to feed her cake. I guess the sharing thing has worked a little bit...

G & Zoe

IMG_3357
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

I lobbie for months to get a nice new digital SLR, I've taken a million pictures with it to figure out how to get good results...

...and Kim just picks up the thing and takes this really great picture...

Kim & Zoe

IMG_3345
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

'nuff said.

Cast & Crew

IMG_3324
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Doctores Gracioso y Sanjose, Kim, Zoe y Marcia (from left to right)

Dr. Gracioso was the pediatrician. He didn't come in until Zoe was born. No complications and everything healthy so he didn't have a lot to do...not sure what the Apgar score was...

Dr. Sanjose, in addition to being a pretty good looking guy(in a mustache sort of way), was an excellent doctor. Unlike most Guatemalan doctors, he was willing to do everything he could to faciliate a natural birth. Guate Doctors perform C-Sections at the drop of a hat for the most part. Even the term natural birth means basically any birth that is NOT a C-Section, including epidurals or otherwise medicated/facilitated births. He was fantastic from beginning to end.

Marcia was our doula, sort of like a birth coach. She was excellent as well. She is the wife of one of Kim's colleagues. She put up with one of our pecuilar requests, which was not to know anything about how the labor was progressing (namely how far along Kim was dialated). She was of great help in getting the baby to engage properly and avoid any medical procedures.

Kim and Zoe were incredible.

I am really proud of them.

as a ghost...

IMG_3311
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Zoe was born in a big bathtub in our hospital room. She was born a little over a week early, hence a pretty healthy coating of Vernix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernix_caseosa).

It's odd stuff...almost like a white wax. Comes off after the first bath...er...except I guess that in this case it would be the second bath.

Big difference between movie newborns and real ones, huh?

Max & Zoe

IMG_3395
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

no...we did not pick Zoe because it is a three letter name, like Max...

...and no we did not pick Zoe based on any Firefly/Serenity characters...although we are quite pleased at the coincidence.

We turned an American family down the street onto Firefly a couple of months ago. They've become pretty hardcore Browncoats. Both of them assumed that we would name the baby after one of the characters (although they both thought River or Kayla before Zoe...)

Zoe Roselie Lopez

IMG_3334
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Zoe Rosalie Lopez has arrived!

Born Friday Oct. 7, 2005 at 6:30 AM Guatemalan time (8:30 Eastern)

8 pounds, 6 oz.
19.5 inches long
14.25 inch head (circumfrence)

Welcome Home/Happy Birthday Zoe!

IMG_3437
Originally uploaded by gerardlopez2001.

Max & Kim hold up the sign Max helped make for his little sister. Spider-web of ribbons was his idea...he wants to call his sister "Zoe Spider-man".

Max & Zoe