Swimming for Friends

I have been thinking for a while now that the solution to my work-out-woes is to find someone to trade with. I watch her kid for an hour while she does whatever she needs to and then she watches Gabe for an hour while I go to the gym (or use my hour of escape however I see fit...). So I have assessed all of my current contacts - mostly through my church - and there are none suitable. My guidelines are simple, you must live in a 3 block radius and have only one kid as well. So I must expand my search. Thus I decided I should start attending mommy-baby swim class with Gabe again. It's at the gym I want to go to anyway (which is withing 3 blocks of my house) and if you have more than one kid you can't go to mommy-baby swim class! (I am brilliant, I know)

The class has yet to pick up really after the summer holiday here, so the pickings were pretty slim, but I started to assess anyway so I could then wade closer and try to start a conversation.... cut arms, maybe she wants to work out too? no, too skinny to care. s on about 4 or 5 months older than Gabe, good. looks cool (based on her cute bathing suit and way of managing wet hair) maybe we can be friends....

The last time we attended class was in December before we went to the USA for the holidays. At that time, Gabe was still calmly hanging out in the water with me so I just pulled up my hair to keep it dry and if another kid splashed too much, I gave them a dirty look and waded away. Gabe is now a completely out-of-control splasher, and within two minutes of entering the pool I am drenched and at one point actually blinded by the mascara running into my eyes.

When the class ended I got out of the pool and accidentally passed a mirror in the dressing room, and had to laugh out loud. Here I am sorting potential friends based on bathing suits and body fat and the mirror glares back at me: hair of drowned rat style with a random pink heart clip - the only thing I could find in my bag, must be left over from recent trip with niece - frumpy, faded bathing suit that I wear because I don't care what the chlorine in the pool does to it; mascara running down my entire face; thighs so rippled in celulite that does it really matter that they aren't necesarily of greater circumference than when I was 21??

I hope the other women in the pool aren't as shallow as I am!

In other, more photographic, news...

I've been unsuccessfully trying to take pictures of Gabe's teeth. Here we can kind of see the two on botton...

...and the one side, vampire-style, upper one. The one on the oposite side is also coming in. Nothing in the middle yet!
I had to take this picture of Gabe last night in his adorable pijamas from Paige. Not a great picture, because everytime I got him standing and then called his name to get his attention,
he immediately came crawling over to me to get picked up, and to play with the camera.
We had friends over from dinner last night, and although I don't have a picture of them, I do have a picture of the massive chorizo link I "grilled" on the stovetop. I was the only meat I had in the freezer, and it had to do because you can't actually buy meat in this country right now!
p.s. good thing I am a sausage lover...

Here Gabe creates his own personal fountain with the bidet. Seriously, I can't keep him away from this thing.

In Chile was the first time Gabe's really been on grass. He did NOT like it! He would see me and want to crawl to me, but after putting one hand down he would lift it up, look at me with a horrified face, and cry for me to get him. When I did not, he overcame his dislike and crawled over the grass, but everytime he paused a minute before putting his hands down on it.