Saturday I felt like a mom. (I kind of liked it, anyone surprised? :)) It was our neighbor Paola's 10th birthday party and she didn't have anything for her party. I'm not sure why, but I volunteered to help her shop in Gracias. She, Ramon and I headed down in the morning in the back of a pickup truck with about 9 other kids (there had been a free doctor at the school so we brought them home) and we started shopping. Well, first Ramon and I had to go to the bank and get money, so Paola came and sat on my lap and waited with me to talk to someone. Then we walked around and got plates and napkins and basic stuff like that. We stopped and had lunch and one of Paola's friends came by so she ate with us too. I told Paola she could order anything she wanted on the menu so she got this pork dish that came with fries.... she ate the fries and like one bite of the expensive meat. :) Then, it was on to the party store. This is where I think I learned parent lesson number 1. Do not ever bring a child into a party store if you don't really want to spend a lot of money! We walked in and there were a billion piñatas hanging from the ceiling. Paola expressed interest in a life-sized guitar (actually I'm pretty sure it was bigger than a real guitar) piñata because it had Hannah Montana's name on it and little picture of her face on there as well. I was not planning on getting a piñata, and especially not one that big, but there weren't any other age appropriate options so I ended up telling her we probably couldn't get one. She was really sweet about it, but the storekeeper had noticed the whole Hannah Montana exchange and definitely used it to his advantage. He was laying out banners and balloons and bags for candy and hats (including a really special, more expensive one for the birthday girl, of course!) candles and invitations and packages of 7 plastic cups .... all overpriced, none of which I really wanted to get.... but Paola was so excited!!! So we got all those things except the cups and invitations (the party was that night, duh) and she was so happy so it was mostly worth it ;)
We stopped at a choco-fruit store (frozen fruit dipped in fondue chocolate and then covered with a variety of things) that's owned by a mom of one of Paola's friends. We chatted with Lorean's mom for awhile while Paola played in the back. I think one of things that made me feel like a mom was that she kept asking permission for things- she asked if she could go to the pulperia with the girls and asked to go across the street and talk to her aunt, things like that - I felt like I was really in charge!
We got cake and some candy and finally headed up the mountain (we were in town for like 5 hours, I was pretty exhausted). Paola fell asleep and drooled all over my shirt on the way home , it was precious :) We got home and instead of taking a nap like I really wanted to, I filled all the bags with candy for favors and helped her pick out something to wear and painted her fingernails and nice bright pink. Her mom and aunt had made a huge pot of Chinese rice for all the guests (it's like a delicacy here, everyone is in love with Chinese rice) so when everyone got there, us girls helped pass out plates and then cleaned up. Paola was so happy and had such a lovely day. It was great to see her with all her presents and friends, but I was tired after all my errands so I went to bed, and let her real mom take over for the rest of the night and weekend ;) All in all it was a great day, and a great party even without the piñata ;)
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