To have a piñata or to not have a piñata....

...that is the question. I think we stepped into a time warp and somehow Suzy's 2nd b-day is quickly approaching. I have no idea how this happened, since just last month we were in NC, celebrating her 1st bday. Here in El salvador, a typical b-day revolves around the child's favorite cartoon character, of which they buy a piñata (or numerous pinatas) to later be smashed to smithereens while other children (and their competitive, high-heel clad mothers) dive under a swinging pole wielded by a tot that is probably already on a sugar high in order to grab cheap candy. I think I may have just found the root of the gang problem in Latin America: violence against piñatas. On the plus side, here, we typically do not use blindfolds on the child smashing the piñata, which must lower the casualty rate by a large percentage.

Oh, and you have to serve homemade chicken salad sandwiches and horchata (a drink made of milk, cinnamon, rice, and spices). I've ruled out horchata from suzy's bday celebration already due to the fact that i am highly, highly allergic to it (think Hitch x 10), something i realized only after downing a huge glass of it on one of me and elvis's first real dates. Nice move, ash. Morph into a hive-covered, vomiting distortion of yourself with lips that Angelina Jolie would be jealous of in front of the guy who wants to marry you. I knew Elvis was a keeper when he didn't get freaked out, not even when it happened again a month later. So, all that to say that we will not be following the tradition of having horchata at her party.

Actually, Suzy went to a party for one of her neighborhood buds, Emma, last weekend. The pinata action was pretty chill, probably because Emma was turning 1 year old, and so Suzy decided she wanted to actually hit a pinata for the first time. Well, maybe "hit" is not the correct term. "Tap", "rub", "gently knock" might better describe what she did, while commenting on how pretty the Pony's eyes and nose were. I love that she inherited her Papi's gentle nature!

Emma, the b-day girl, who Suzy plays with in the neighborhood almost every day:

We probably will not have brownies at her party, either. Last night, we had some American co-workers over for a taco night, and so Suzy helped me make some brownies. She helped me put mint chocolate chips in the brownies (one in the brownies, three in her mouth...) and then she had a couple of bites of a brownie after dinner. I'm not sure if that was the trigger, but she threw up about 5 minutes after i put her down to sleep last night. Over the monitor we heard, "Uh oh, blankie! Uh oh blankie!" I knew she had her blankie with her, but i went to check it out when she kept getting more upset. Apparently she had thrown up on her blankie which caused the distress, then said "Uh oh mami shirt!" when she threw up again on my shirt. After getting all cleaned up, we laid her down in our bed to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't get sick anymore. A close friend of ours just took her 2 yr old son home from the hospital this weekend after spending 5 days in there with what they suspect may be H1N1. Apparently there's been another outbreak here and I wanted to keep a close eye on Suz.

She's not much of a snuggler, but rather likes to flop around in every direction in the bed. At one point, however, she flopped into my arms and snuggled up to me. I took one arm off of her so she wouldn't feel smothered, but she took my arm and put it back around her. By this point, this Mami was in heaven, and then she clapped, as if to say, "I love being right here with you, feeling so safe and comfy." It lasted about 3 more minutes before she wanted to wiggle around, but in those 3 minutes, I realized how little I cared that she had thrown up on me, how tired I was, how much our lives have changed in the past almost-2 years; it is so worth it.