Anamaria's Visit

Anamaria, Carlos' wonderful caretaker from 2 months to 17 months came to visit. She is a 63 year old woman from Mexico who grew up getting her water out of a well in the town of Merida. She raised three kids on her own and worked as a seamstress for twenty years in New Orleans before Katrina. After Katrina, she came to work for us and pretty much taught us everything about babies and Carlos. She understood him way before we did calling him a "bandido" at about four months of age - a description that still fits him quite well.

As we could never pay the hourly wage that we feel in gratitude, we thought we would use our miles to bring her here for a visit and take her to see a few things. Taking a Mexican grandmother of 6 around Japan was very fun and funny. First of all, she turned everything into a tortilla...somehow whatever we were eating turned into something she could scoop into something else to eat. Also cute, was when she was done she stacked all of the plates. When I took a nap one day she cleaned the entire (500 sq feet) apartment - despite me telling her that she was a guest.

She arrived on a Wednesday and Carlos was about as big of an a-hole to her as a two year old can be. He wanted NOTHING to do with her. He pretended she did not exist. If she spoke he yelled at her. It was not pretty. Slowly... after a few days.. he warmed up and all was well. We figured out that if we left them alone for a bit he would stop his nonsense. Sure enough, they played and had a great tme.

Here are some photos of her trip...click here. There are way too many too look at... sorry