Mexico City, Day 6: Museum of Anthropology
It rained today, the first day we've had that wasn't beautiful. The girls and I were stuck inside all morning and most of the afternoon. I couldn't even take them out for a rainy walk--it was quite cold, and the stroller has no adequate coverings. So we were inside. All day. With the minimal toys I'd packed for them. They did okay, for the most part, though there was a good bit of jumping on the couches and screaming, which seems ten times louder than usual in our tiled apartment. The girls did stickers, played with Squinkies, threw Go-Fish cards all over the floor, read our books a zillion times, and played with the felt sandwich set. We finally ran out of things to do just before naptime/Quiet Time, so I let them watch an episode of Sofia the First. I always feel so guilty when I let them watch TV during the day, but it happens only very rarely--and being in a foreign country with next to no toys on a rainy day seems like acceptable circumstances.
When Andrew got home around 3:30pm, the rain had stopped, so we loaded up the girls and set out for the Museum of Anthropology, one of Mexico City's top attractions. This is a world-class museum, filled with artifacts that are thousands of years old, and there were plenty of interesting things to see even for someone like me, with next to no knowledge of (and, admittedly, little interest in) pre-Columbian Mexico.
Lucia and Greta did well. Lucia walked around the museum, excitedly pointing things out in her bossy preschooler way--"Daddy. Daddy. Look at this. Come over here. I want to show you this. Daddy!"--but obediently refraining from touching anything. "Spooky!" she declared when we looked at a display of skeletons. Greta sat calmly in the stroller, eating Ritz crackers. We didn't get through the whole museum; after an hour or so, the natives started getting restless, so we left and let them run around in the puddles outside for a while before heading home.
Two more thoughts:
Traveling by its nature demands flexibility, and I'm doing my best to not obsess about what the girls are--or aren't--eating while we're here. They are eating a lot of Ritz crackers. They're eating a lot of bread and butter, and peanut butter and jelly. They're eating a lot of bananas, Cheerios, and plain pasta. I bought some Kraft singles, but the cheese is strangely soft and mushy--I wouldn't eat it either. They are not eating fruits and vegetables, because I'm afraid to feed them any, though perhaps if I boil the vegetables to death they'll be okay. Lucia keeps asking for apples and pears, but I just have visions of terrible illness. I made French toast this week, but the only "syrup" we could find was this strange stuff that kind of stuck together in one blob like melted plastic. Lackluster, to say the least. And so they're subsisting on a very strange diet. Tonight they had frozen fish sticks. It's two weeks--two weeks of less-than-great eating won't hurt them. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Second, the girls are sharing a room here--Greta in a (rickety) crib; Lucia in a twin bed--and this is a challenge. Right now, for example, at 8:15pm, both girls are awake because Greta is not going to sleep. Lucia is just lying there patiently. This is not always the case. A couple of times this week, Lucia has said she wants to nap in her bed instead of have Quiet Time in my and Andrew's bedroom. This hasn't really worked. She likes to get up and put things in Greta's crib, despite the fact that Greta is napping, or trying to--pillows, blankets, her own stuffed animals. Greta, spotting Lucia, just wants to play. It adds another entire element to bedtime/naptime.
When Andrew got home around 3:30pm, the rain had stopped, so we loaded up the girls and set out for the Museum of Anthropology, one of Mexico City's top attractions. This is a world-class museum, filled with artifacts that are thousands of years old, and there were plenty of interesting things to see even for someone like me, with next to no knowledge of (and, admittedly, little interest in) pre-Columbian Mexico.
Lucia and Greta did well. Lucia walked around the museum, excitedly pointing things out in her bossy preschooler way--"Daddy. Daddy. Look at this. Come over here. I want to show you this. Daddy!"--but obediently refraining from touching anything. "Spooky!" she declared when we looked at a display of skeletons. Greta sat calmly in the stroller, eating Ritz crackers. We didn't get through the whole museum; after an hour or so, the natives started getting restless, so we left and let them run around in the puddles outside for a while before heading home.
Two more thoughts:
Traveling by its nature demands flexibility, and I'm doing my best to not obsess about what the girls are--or aren't--eating while we're here. They are eating a lot of Ritz crackers. They're eating a lot of bread and butter, and peanut butter and jelly. They're eating a lot of bananas, Cheerios, and plain pasta. I bought some Kraft singles, but the cheese is strangely soft and mushy--I wouldn't eat it either. They are not eating fruits and vegetables, because I'm afraid to feed them any, though perhaps if I boil the vegetables to death they'll be okay. Lucia keeps asking for apples and pears, but I just have visions of terrible illness. I made French toast this week, but the only "syrup" we could find was this strange stuff that kind of stuck together in one blob like melted plastic. Lackluster, to say the least. And so they're subsisting on a very strange diet. Tonight they had frozen fish sticks. It's two weeks--two weeks of less-than-great eating won't hurt them. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Second, the girls are sharing a room here--Greta in a (rickety) crib; Lucia in a twin bed--and this is a challenge. Right now, for example, at 8:15pm, both girls are awake because Greta is not going to sleep. Lucia is just lying there patiently. This is not always the case. A couple of times this week, Lucia has said she wants to nap in her bed instead of have Quiet Time in my and Andrew's bedroom. This hasn't really worked. She likes to get up and put things in Greta's crib, despite the fact that Greta is napping, or trying to--pillows, blankets, her own stuffed animals. Greta, spotting Lucia, just wants to play. It adds another entire element to bedtime/naptime.
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