We made it back, safe and sound, from the visit to my sister's house. It was a nice trip, without too much excitement. My nephew does have a knack of injuring himself - every morning he would have a new scrape, bruise, cut, etc. which would seem to mysteriously appear. Of course, he is a bit of a monkey, and the flying leaps off the back of the couch could be one explanation for a bruise or two.
While visiting, we traveled to the Mexico border. If you were to form an impression from that border town alone, you would say that Mexico is a country of pharmacies, liquor stores, and trinket shops. While there, we had children coming up to us to see if we wanted our shoes shined. One child first offered a shoeshine for $10, then $20 (going up in price after I said no), then $1. My sister was talking to one of the boy, he was but one year older than my son and was working to help support his family. I tried to use this as a life lesson for my son....he did not listen too well.
Our only excitement was as we crossed back into the US. As of right now, you do not need a passport to get into the states. I had my license for me and the "child find" ID card for Josh (definitely not a legal ID). The border guard asks me where I was born, which really made no sense since it is not listed on my license, and then asked
Jman his name.
Jman was not paying attention, so I nudged him to answer the woman, which he did. She then asked "who is this woman?".
Jman looked at me, then turned to the border patrol and said "I don't know".
ARGHHH!!! At that point border patrol looked back at him and said, "if you don't know, then you will be staying in Mexico". He quickly answered her after that. I was ready to choke him - he just did not understand the seriousness of the border. Needless to say, we had quite a discussion after that about when it is OK to joke around and when you need to be serious.
