Bath Time with Xela

I can't decide which part I like the best:

getting wet?


getting dry?


or showing off my clean, cute bod afterwards?



Yeah. They're ALL good!

Best.Visit.Ever.

Mama Pamcita and Abuelita are spoiling me silly... and I'm loving it

I love strolling about in the stroller:

I love bouncing in the bouncey seat
that Mama found on CraigsList for $10
and schlepped all the way from Sodenland
in Tante Tina's suitcase:

I love hitching rides on Mama's
belly like a baby kangaroo:

Most of all, I love playing with my new
American family. They're showering me
with attention, presents, kisses and TLC.

Oy!

with all the spoiling, loving, strolling, bouncing, hitching, playing and showering, I'm about to plotz. Gerunds are exhausting. I'll be back after a nap...

Meeting my new Mama and Abuela

Today was a big day...
after months of anticipation, my new Mama held me in her arms!
I checked her out for a moment.
Like the little baby bird, I wondered:
Are you my mother?


Yes! She is my mother!

We hit it off right away.
She was a little awkward with the first bottle,
but I showed her what to do.



We played and laughed and cuddled... so much fun!



Then, Mama handed me to Abuelita,
who gave me even more kisses and cuddles.

So much love, all for me!

Mama and Abuelita talked in a strange language with funny sounds.
But the love in their hearts... that needed no translation.


It will be so sad when they leave in 4 days. How will we say goodbye?
I hope it won't be long before we're a forever family.

Where in the World is Tia Catha?

Tia Catha is one of my wonderful, talented aunts. She grew up in Brasil, then made a life in New York. Her roots are split, driven deep both north and south. I can't wait to meet her. That is, if I can find her.

Catha travels the globe in search of strong coffee and conversation.
She hopscotches continents, defies time zones, transcends the laws of quantum mechanics and special relativity... When our paths finally cross, she'll be younger than I am. She's that fast.

Maybe it's her funky shoes.

Liberated from paid employment, Catha nimbly employs quiet charm and a freakish gift for languages (she speaks dozens fluently) to accrue frequent flyer miles, fans, and stories you'll soon be reading in The New Yorker.

Is she in Sao Paolo this week? Manhattan? Vienna? Dublin?

Lord knows. I'm an infant. I can't locate my toes, let alone a lithe, indefatigable vector of lean muscle mass and caffeine. With a titanium heart bigger than the Amazon, she slips across borders undetectable by radar. Blink and she's gone, a kinetic flash of red on the horizon, trailing turtle's breath and lime. The girl's a blur. To find Catha, you need GPS. Fortunately, she documents her adventures in her blogs:
Calitoves and days without a job

Don't you just hate it...

when you lose your neck?



Bodies are so confusing!

Happy Mama's Day

Margery Glovin is my Abuelita, my mama Pamcita's mama.
She's a talented artist. She lives on Cape Cod and paints the
beauty she finds in the world around her.

Doesn't this sliced orange look good enough to eat?



As soon as I get some teeth,
I want to sink them into the apple on the right:



You can see more of Abuelita's work on her blog:
Margery's Watercolors and Oil Paintings

Maybe someday she'll teach me to paint.
For now, I probably need to focus on the basics -
burping and pooping and being cute.

On Mother's Day, here's to all the different kinds of mamas,
near and far, spanning time, distance and definition...
xoxox

3 weeks, 3 Mamas

My 1st Mama fed and cared for me for 9 months.
She did a good job:
I was a big, healthy baby - 7 pounds!

I don't know much about her:
She was 22 and originally from Honduras,
Guatemala's neighbor to the south:



She couldn't keep me with her,
and left me in the hospital,
right after I was born
(which had to be tough,
considering how cute I am...)

Now I live in Antigua, Guatemala
with my 2nd, foster mama.
She likes to dress me up in frilly lace:


(note that she's in a comfy tee-shirt)


On March 23, I got my 3rd Mama:
Pamcita in Sodenland, USA
I haven't met her yet.
She says she's going to adopt me,
introduce me to all her family and friends,
bring me to live with her & Gabe & Athena,
be my 'forever family.'
I've got a wait-and-see attitude.
After 3 mamas in 3 weeks,
I'm taking life one Mama at a time.