Marco is SUCH a trooper! We went back into Mexico City today to finally get his Mexican passport - we had an appointment this time - and the baby just behaved like such a good sport during the whole process which took all day. We sat in that office all day it seems. We left our house at 9 ish, and finally got home at about 5:30. We got into the city today, with the sun actually shining (miracle of miracles), and parked in the same place with the same freelance parking attendant waiving us into our spot. Nikis went off to hunt for a bank to pay our fees for the passport before we could go get in line for our appointment. Some grumpy old lady reviewed our documents, and gave us the application form to fill out. Actually I filled it out while Nikis got in the next line. Just that I had to go back to the grumpy lady a couple times to ask for a new form because I kept making mistakes.
We stood in the next line for a long time until we finally got to another lady who again reviewed our documents and had us all stamp our fingerprints on the application. The baby's prints came out pretty funny and smeared all over. And of course he immediately started sucking his thumb with the ink still on it. Oh well, he's sucked on grosser things before.
Then we had to go sit down in the waiting room with 100 other people. I went outside to feed the baby where I wouldn't have to do it under the scrutiny of all those other waiters, and almost as soon as munchkin latched on, Nikis comes running out saying they told him the baby's pictures wouldn't work. I wasn't surprised actually because he was a little sideways on it, kind of like someone just punched him in the face and he hadn't fully turned back yet to punch back. So I ripped the baby off the boob, and we ran off across the street to jam out some new photos. Back across the street and back to the office with better pictures, straight on and with a smidge of a smile. I put the baby back on the boob while Nikis turned in the pics, and then we waited. And waited. And waited . The baby flirted with all the ladies. And with some guys, too.
I talked to a lady who had a 4 month old baby who was giant and looked like he was 9 months old. He had the thickest head of hair - like man hair, thick, long, wavy, black. She said she'd already had to cut it. He made my baby look like a bald little newborn. And some lady had a newborn in there, who couldn't have been more than a week old. That is just wacky to me - to have such a new baby in a place like that - with everyone's germs and bureaucratic government vibes.
We finally got called up to the desk, with a stern looking official with a crew cut. He actually turned out to be really nice though, especially once the baby started working him over with his smile and cute little burbling ways. Then I broke the computer system. It happens all the time - you know why? Because I only have one last name. I can't tell you the problems it causes me here in any computer system. They always ask for your paternal last name and your maternal last name, and I obviously don't have the latter, so they never know what to put in their system. And they look at me like I'm some sort of bastard, illegitimate street orphan. I always have to patiently explain to them that the American system is different, where generally a woman changes her last name to that of her husband when she marries, and the children then have the paternal last name only. The system here in Mexico actually kind of makes more sense to me - where everyone has to last names - the woman keeps her last names when she marries, then the kids take the first last name of their father, and the first last name of their mother to create a new set of two last names. For example, if the dad's last names are Hernandez Romero, and the mom's last names are Contla Galicia, then the kids' last names are Hernandez Contla. That's how my baby's last names are Reyes Grieves. So anyhow, my not having a maternal last name caused a major snafu in the computer system, but the guy was so nice about it, being all cute with the baby, even though he had to call out all kinds of computer tech people to fix the computer. The whole waiting room was giving us the evil eye, kind of like when you're in the checkout line at the grocery store and you're the one where the system has an error and they have to void your sale and ring everything up again. They finally had us go to another desk where the woman's computer was working, and we had to take another photo of the baby, which was tricky because we had to sort of suspend him in the air to get him at the right height of the camera.
Then we had to wait again, and wait and wait, while the baby flirted with people again. So by this time its 2 in the afternoon, and the place is still packed to the gills with people waiting. Then a guy comes out and announces to the entire waiting room that their machine that prints up the laminated identification page that goes in the passports is broken and holds up this completely mangled melted piece of plastic as evidence for us all to see. He says we can either wait to see if they fix it or we can come back on Monday. What surprised me most of all is that almost everyone got up without much fuss or muss and left, apparently resigned to coming back Monday, as if its pointless arguing with the government. We went up to the counter and the stern but nice crewcut guy whose computer I broke was there, and we explained that we'd come from far away to get the passport and was there a problem if we came later next week to get it (after we had the problem with the American one where the messenger service threatened to destroy it if we didn't pick it up within 24 hours). The nice guy gave us a wink and a "hold on" signal, so we sat down and continued waiting for about another half hour at which point we were about the last people sitting in the waiting room and the cleaning ladies were mopping all around us.
Then woohoo, they come out with our baby's passport, and he's even semi-smiling in his picture. Nikis called it like he saw it, that they just made up the story of the broken machine to make sure they'd all be able to close the office and go home at 3 as scheduled, so they had to come up with something to clear out the waiting room fast. We just lucked out because we have a flirty little baby who acts all cute and gets people to do things for him. We're especially lucky because the baby is so patient and willing to wait for hours in a government office without screaming or whining or acting out. He actually is capable of just sitting on my lap doing nothing but peoplewatching for long periods of time. Is it just me or is my baby super cool?!
I was so worried about his diaper the whole time, too, because there was no place to change it. Thank the gods he didn't poop, but I could tell that his diaper was getting progressively more and more swollen with pee as the hours ticked by. He never complained about it, but I finally furtively changed it on a counter top after the waiting room cleared out at the end of the day. Anyway, now after being such a trooper with all that bureaucracy and soggy diaper, Marco officially has dual citizenship!! He's Mexican and he's American!
We stood in the next line for a long time until we finally got to another lady who again reviewed our documents and had us all stamp our fingerprints on the application. The baby's prints came out pretty funny and smeared all over. And of course he immediately started sucking his thumb with the ink still on it. Oh well, he's sucked on grosser things before.
Then we had to go sit down in the waiting room with 100 other people. I went outside to feed the baby where I wouldn't have to do it under the scrutiny of all those other waiters, and almost as soon as munchkin latched on, Nikis comes running out saying they told him the baby's pictures wouldn't work. I wasn't surprised actually because he was a little sideways on it, kind of like someone just punched him in the face and he hadn't fully turned back yet to punch back. So I ripped the baby off the boob, and we ran off across the street to jam out some new photos. Back across the street and back to the office with better pictures, straight on and with a smidge of a smile. I put the baby back on the boob while Nikis turned in the pics, and then we waited. And waited. And waited . The baby flirted with all the ladies. And with some guys, too.
I talked to a lady who had a 4 month old baby who was giant and looked like he was 9 months old. He had the thickest head of hair - like man hair, thick, long, wavy, black. She said she'd already had to cut it. He made my baby look like a bald little newborn. And some lady had a newborn in there, who couldn't have been more than a week old. That is just wacky to me - to have such a new baby in a place like that - with everyone's germs and bureaucratic government vibes.
We finally got called up to the desk, with a stern looking official with a crew cut. He actually turned out to be really nice though, especially once the baby started working him over with his smile and cute little burbling ways. Then I broke the computer system. It happens all the time - you know why? Because I only have one last name. I can't tell you the problems it causes me here in any computer system. They always ask for your paternal last name and your maternal last name, and I obviously don't have the latter, so they never know what to put in their system. And they look at me like I'm some sort of bastard, illegitimate street orphan. I always have to patiently explain to them that the American system is different, where generally a woman changes her last name to that of her husband when she marries, and the children then have the paternal last name only. The system here in Mexico actually kind of makes more sense to me - where everyone has to last names - the woman keeps her last names when she marries, then the kids take the first last name of their father, and the first last name of their mother to create a new set of two last names. For example, if the dad's last names are Hernandez Romero, and the mom's last names are Contla Galicia, then the kids' last names are Hernandez Contla. That's how my baby's last names are Reyes Grieves. So anyhow, my not having a maternal last name caused a major snafu in the computer system, but the guy was so nice about it, being all cute with the baby, even though he had to call out all kinds of computer tech people to fix the computer. The whole waiting room was giving us the evil eye, kind of like when you're in the checkout line at the grocery store and you're the one where the system has an error and they have to void your sale and ring everything up again. They finally had us go to another desk where the woman's computer was working, and we had to take another photo of the baby, which was tricky because we had to sort of suspend him in the air to get him at the right height of the camera.
Then we had to wait again, and wait and wait, while the baby flirted with people again. So by this time its 2 in the afternoon, and the place is still packed to the gills with people waiting. Then a guy comes out and announces to the entire waiting room that their machine that prints up the laminated identification page that goes in the passports is broken and holds up this completely mangled melted piece of plastic as evidence for us all to see. He says we can either wait to see if they fix it or we can come back on Monday. What surprised me most of all is that almost everyone got up without much fuss or muss and left, apparently resigned to coming back Monday, as if its pointless arguing with the government. We went up to the counter and the stern but nice crewcut guy whose computer I broke was there, and we explained that we'd come from far away to get the passport and was there a problem if we came later next week to get it (after we had the problem with the American one where the messenger service threatened to destroy it if we didn't pick it up within 24 hours). The nice guy gave us a wink and a "hold on" signal, so we sat down and continued waiting for about another half hour at which point we were about the last people sitting in the waiting room and the cleaning ladies were mopping all around us.
Then woohoo, they come out with our baby's passport, and he's even semi-smiling in his picture. Nikis called it like he saw it, that they just made up the story of the broken machine to make sure they'd all be able to close the office and go home at 3 as scheduled, so they had to come up with something to clear out the waiting room fast. We just lucked out because we have a flirty little baby who acts all cute and gets people to do things for him. We're especially lucky because the baby is so patient and willing to wait for hours in a government office without screaming or whining or acting out. He actually is capable of just sitting on my lap doing nothing but peoplewatching for long periods of time. Is it just me or is my baby super cool?!
I was so worried about his diaper the whole time, too, because there was no place to change it. Thank the gods he didn't poop, but I could tell that his diaper was getting progressively more and more swollen with pee as the hours ticked by. He never complained about it, but I finally furtively changed it on a counter top after the waiting room cleared out at the end of the day. Anyway, now after being such a trooper with all that bureaucracy and soggy diaper, Marco officially has dual citizenship!! He's Mexican and he's American!
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