We take Daisy to baby massage class, a new thing for San Cristobal. Paul is sure he will be the only man there, but this turns out not to be the case. How times change. Now, instead of the traditional Mexican machismo, there are three men eager to share their wives’ birth experiences with the rest of the class. One even bursts into tears when he talks about how wonderful it was to meet his five week old baby. Another has adopted a child after a long struggle. They have only had him four days, but already they look like naturals.
Daisy is in her element. The other babies there are all boys, and all have tons of hair. Compared to all the babies here, Daisy is very bald, but people keep telling us she is beautiful anyway (and we are totally biased). The other babies are very tranquil – although some of them cry a bit. Daisy chats loudly over all of the instructors, and proceeds to tear the baby massage leaflet to pieces. After the class the instructor says she responded really well to the massage, since she was smiling so much. I don’t have the heart to tell her she was just flirting with baby Pablo.
In the evening, however, we meet a more typical Mexican man, who has children in France and America, who he doesn’t see very often. We take Daisy to a birthday party at our neighbours’ flat, and she sleeps peacefully upstairs while we chat and deal with the very smoky fire. Paul carries her home in her travel cot at 11pm and she doesn’t even wake.
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