Okay, so Derek is all jetlagged and screwed up from flying at night, so he’s napping, and it’s a great time to catch up on this blogging business.

What have we been up to? Well, we went to Alberta in December to spend Christmas with my family. Short visit because Mike doesn’t get vacation time, but nice all the same. Also, got to dress the baby up in a Santa suit. I am not looking forward to the day that Derek refuses to wear stupid stuff for my amusement. I’ll have to have another baby then or something, because this is just way too much fun.

We spent New Years at Ryan’s again, which was lovely. Played Cards Against Humanity and Just Dance and enjoyed a full baby free night as Auntie Julie kindly took our young man for an overnight.

My birthday was on a Saturday this year, and I got a SURPRISE KARAOKE PARTY! Best birthday ever!!

Other than that, most of January was spent working on school (2 courses down, 38 to go!) and getting back to work. We have a daycare situation sorted out – yay! And I should be closing in on a job soon – extra yay!

My grandparents are retired and as such do fun retired people things like go on month-long vacations to Mexico. This year, they decided to rent a 2-bedroom condo instead of a 1-bedroom and then have various family members come for a week at a time to stay with them. Which is awesome and very generous of them! Mike unfortunately had to work, so just Derek and I went down. Can’t really complain about that – I’d rather play in the sun than stay home and work any day!

Puerto Vallarta with a kid!

Before we left, I had to get a travel letter signed by Mike and notorized by a notary public saying that he gave permission for me to travel to Mexico with Derek. We actually lucked out on this one – they are just about to change their immigration policies to require minors not traveling with all custodial parents to have a letter in English and Spanish guaranteed by the Mexican consulate. Hopefully Mike will be with us next time and we won’t need it.

The best thing I brought to Mexico was my big Bob stroller. We stayed in the older part of PV, and there are a lot of cobblestones and whatnot – I was happy to have the big wheels. Derek was happy to roll and nap in comfort.

There were a fair few stairs in the streets, but other than that, I found Mexico very baby friendly. The locals made a fuss of him, which he liked, and all of the restaurants we went to had high chairs and room to park a stroller.

There are a lot of things to see and do in Mexico, but nothing really special for babies. If Derek were a few years older, we would have been pirate boat cruising and swimming with dolphins. He’s still only one though, so was super happy playing with his great grandparents in the condo.

And playing in the pool with his Auntie.

And playing on the beach.

And strolling the Malecon with me.

Mexico was absolutely lovely. I can’t wait to go back with Mike in the future!