Adventures in Baby-Raising: Week 5

It's hard to believe that El Senor is already five weeks old.  I suppose each day seems like it lasts forever, but then the individual weeks go by quickly.  Rest assured the little guy is doing well, and has become quite the accomplished border-crosser.  Speaking of the border, let's talk about getting from Mexico to the US and back again.  

Behold the mighty Rio Grande!  Believe it or not, I think this may be most water I've seen in the riverbed since I have been here, although it did rain the day before I took this picture.  Life in the Borderland consists of a lot of international crossings, for things like grocery shopping (which is surprisingly much cheaper in the US), doctor's appointments, and other errands.

For most folks, crossing the border can take an hour or more, as you slowly inch across the four-lane bridge and wait to get through the security inspection.  However, for people who cross all the time, it makes more sense to enroll in a sort of trusted traveler program, that can get you from Mexico into the US in about five minutes or less.  If you are crossing three or four times a week, it is definitely worth applying.

But that's where our problem lies.  Although Sarah and I are members of this program, our son is not.  We have to schedule an interview for him with border security, and getting his trusted traveler card can take a couple of weeks.  So while we wait for his card, we have two options.  We can go through the regular slow lane and wait with our newborn in the car for over an hour.  Or, we can have one person walk across the bridge with El Senor, while the other person drives the car through in the fast lane, and then waits on the other side.  Although slightly inconvenient, this can actually save us about 45 minutes to an hour while we wait for our son's trusted traveler card to arrive.

As you can imagine, we generally opt to walk across the bridge to save ourselves a few minutes and a lot of frustration.  The other day I got to walk across the bridge with the little man, and decided to document this unique part of his upbringing.  Here he is with one foot in both countries, much like many of the people that live around here. 

And here he is, passport in hand, waiting patiently in the line of pedestrians on their way into the US.  Sometimes it can take a few minutes, and get a bit boring, as demonstrated by the photo on the right.  I know that feeling, amigo.

Thankfully, El Senor's trusted traveler card should be arriving this week, which means no more walks from one country to another.  Thanks for being such a trooper, little guy!