At my parents...

We started our holidays, and have "moved" to my parents home for a couple weeks. They live by the sea, and luckily have a house big enough for all of us and, more important, they want us here...

How it feels to have a stroke

I just thought it was very interesting...

Gardening (nothing wrong, Buffalo, just busy)

A few months ago I planted tomato seeds, strawberries and herbs... The tomatoes are just starting to grow but they're still quite tiny. I had no idea tomato plants made lovely yellow flowers...

I also had the brilliant idea of tipping my daughters when they pick up their toys and tidy the room before going to bed. 50 cents was my top payment and it worked great for a while... until Alicia figured she had enough money to buy a tiny russian hamster. I offered to buy the cage. Yes. And now much of the motivation to clean and help pick things up is at a minimum. (I was so smart) Why couldn't she think of something more expensive to buy, like an apartment??
She loves the hamster (I like it too, I must confess) and at first insisted on letting him/her wander through a bigger cage, like her princess castle: (click to enlarge if you don't see our mouse)



Apparently, life at the castle was too bourgeois for our royal hamster, and he/she decided to flee from the oppression of palace life, knocking the princess down in the process, and headed for the bus stop.



He/she now resides in her tiny cage with a wheel to exercise when the stress of daily life becomes unbearable!

Pst: I might start another career in september, a degree in teaching. I wonder if I'll find the time to study. I've alredy filled the online application. All I need now is to take some papers to the university and... hope I'll be accepted...
School is over now, we plan to stay next month with my parents, at the beach, and late in july we'll travel to Austria...

Things about Cristina that try my patience...

1- Finishing a meal takes ages for her. And the food just tumbles in her mouth like in some washing machine. And you know, washing machines have that circular window (whatever that's called), so I get to see the food in her mouth whirpooling... again, and again, and again, until she decides to pull the plug out and let the food go down.

2- She usually demands a very clear answer. If she makes a question and I say "maybe" or "I think so", she gets quite upset and insists on getting a real answer. Which to her is usually YES.

3- She only uses diapers at night, but she feels she's too big for that, and doesn't want them, even though in the morning they're always soiled. So before going to bed I have to be very careful not to use the word "diaper", because that would make her furious. Instead, I say "now let's put this on". This is a diaper. But it mollifies her somewhat if I don't use the ugly word....

But she's cute when she's asleep, isn't she?

I can almost hear her soft breathing...

I love to watch them sleep. She was so tired this morning she didn't even stir when I was taking pictures. Even the noise I made opening the window so I had more light didn't wake her...

Update: Hubby and his team lost their second game 19-0. But they're having a great time which was also one of their goals, so it's ok. Their second goal was to come back home in one piece (so far so good) and the third one was winning a game but this seems unatainable given the level of the other teams...

I told you...

Just as I predicted...
First game. Catalans 1, Danish 15

Apparently, the Catalan is, by far, the most amateur of the teams. It was supposed to be a championship for non-professionals, but word got out that Catalans would have one of the best teams. It's a gossip story, in one country they're saying that this team will have such and such, in the next the same happens and everyone starts building a more professional team.... except.... us! Well. at least they're having a good time!

Stairs going nowhere

Maybe they didn't want me to hear their secrets...

H will be on a soccer tournament for eight days... he'll be leaving tomorrow night on a bus, along with the members of the Catalan team. This tournament is called Europeada. It's a European soccer championship for national minorities. He's with the "Katalans from Spain". I've seen them play, and I don't think they'll get too far, unless, of course, the other teams are even more amateur... That tournament will leave me to handle the Gremlins alone for eight days... shouldn't be too bad. My parents and sister will be off too, on a trip to Italy...

Here's a map of the regions/languages involved in the championship. Click to enlarge, if you're interested in our European ethnic/linguistic chaos...


UPDATE:
They will be playing today (sunday) at 5pm. I do hope they win, ok??? Gosh I felt so mean when I reread this post through Buff and James' eyes :-(

Here's the link http://www.europeada2008.net/

My poor neglected blog

I took these pictures last month, on Saint George, which is a big holiday here. According to the legend, a knight (Saint George) saved a princess and an entire town from a fierce dragon. Where the dragon's blood fell, roses flourished so each year women get roses from their husbands/boyfriends/fathers, and women are supposed to buy a book for the men... Roses come in almost all colors. Our roses were classical red.


It's a very special day so even if you're working, most people can have a break from their job and stroll down our rambla...




There are groups of amateurs like these people representing the legend and playing music on the street... The woman in the picture above is actually the princess, and the guy in green next to her, the dragon.



This is what we call the "tarlà". According to another legend, he was some sort of acrobat who entertained the neighbours of Argenteria street during a quarantine for an epidemic. Now we have this acrobat toy hanging on Argenteria on special occasions. It rotates from time to time...



And this is Alicia, holding the rose her father gave her...
So what do you say, James, Buffalo, Jessica ... would you come over for a visit? ;-)

Have a nice day

On the whole, I'm happy being a mom and I love my kids almost everyday ....
But it's hard to be around them when they're having a bad day, which happened today. Especially with the three year old. I think she was alternatively crying/whining at least 70% of the time. Which is a lot. For my nerves. I ended up wanting to scream and cry myself. To give you an idea, they looked like this today (this pics were actually taken half a year ago)...





At the supermarket, C threw a tantrum. One of those that make other customers look discreetly towards you and your kids, but wishing you and your brats just disappeared. The woman at the counter had the audacity to say "have a nice day". I'm sure she, along with the other customers in line, burst out laughing when I was out of sight!



And at the end of the day, I looked exactly like the "portrait of mom" Cristina drew just a few days ago. YES, THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FELT AND LOOKED TODAY!!!! My hair, my mouth, I'm surprised my three year old could be so precise!!!



PD: Just for the record, the previous days were pretty good. Maybe I'm whining too??

Spring...

I worked from home today and took a break to go buy groceries...
I passed by this tree on the way to the supermarket. My mother says it's called "the love tree" I really have no idea what it is, really. But I think it's so pretty.


Just in front of the supermarket there's a small store with fresh fruit and vegetables... expensive too. This bunch of things cost 13 euros. By the way, have you ever tried raw fresh peas? They're good!
I must have passed at least three couples cuddling... Spring... or maybe it's just because tomorrow is Saint George, the most romantic day here?

It's been now 5 months since my husband had a seizure, I can't believe it! We feel so relieved, and think it's probably due to the addition of Zonegran to his regular pills....

The best of times doing nothing...

That's what we did this sunday, nothing. And it was great. It was a lazy morning, with Hubby organizing his music, me just... well reading and working in the house (not that much, really)... and the girls just playing and dressing up. They set up a "school for fairies", and A was Cinderella (not a fairy but she was in the school anyway) and C was Tinkerbell. As you can see, she was a groovy kind of Tinkerbell, because she didn't bother to take of her pyjama before dressing up, and decided that sunglasses gave her the perfect touch. Along with what she thought was lipstick. She found it in a drawer but was, in fact, concealer. She applied it to her lips, anyway... Then we went out for lunch at a tapas bar, strolled through the old part of town and went back home. A found my secret game... Playstation. Yes, I admit, at 38, I still like to play Tomb Raider. It's an old playstation, that I rescued some days ago from a forgotten box, and tried the game again. EHEM... A tried it but it was too hard for her. C decided to imitate Lara Croft and tried to climb on the shelves Lara's style... she's great at mimicking people...
Anyway, just a post so that this blog doesn't die completely...

Being a toddler is hard work

I took this pic of Cristina at a friend's house...
Doesn't it look like she's stressed??

Art class

We (I) signed up the whole family for an art class. It's every saturday morning, for three hours, and only during April. The first one was great. Our first job was to paint an animal on our hand. I did an octopus, and I was quite proud of my job. I felt like a kid again, even hoping that our teacher would praise my octopus, but no such luck, she seemed to save all her praises for the kids ;-)
A did something close to a butterfly... and C just put layer after layer of paint on her hand. She just loved seeing new colors appear everytime she put a new color on her hand... All the pictures came out blurred, so no pic of A's hand. As for my husband, I think he was trained too successfully by his mom, and he just wouldn't get his hands "dirty"... HA HA HA
Afterwards we played (there were four families), returned to class, did a small boat out of walnuts and a dolphin using a banana, which we ate too. We had a great day...

Have you heard?

Alicia, our 5 year old, lost her first baby tooth today. It must be on CNN, because she's been talking about this tooth endlessly for the last two days... As she reported, she lost her tooth at lunchtime in school, and her teacher taped it on a small pink card so she could show us. And we heard all the details several times, as I'm sure everyone in school did. She's so excited I doubt she'll sleep well, because she knows the tooth mouse (it's not a tooth fairy in this part of the world), will visit at night and leave a present...

Playing with puddles

Rainy day

It rained all day, so we were mainly indoors again, but this time at my in-laws. In the afternoon we made "brunyols", which is our typical pastry for Easter. We did it in the old house, because my MIL can't stand all the mess we seem to make :-)

Paint chaos

We stayed mostly home today... painting, modeling with playdoh and clay, playing with memory cards (I lost to A even though I tried so very hard, I must really be getting old), and watching a movie: The Nightmare before Christmas. I love the lyrics in this movie...
Does it sound like fun? Everything except picking up after them even though they did help... and cleaning paint all over the kitchen floor

This is the entrance of an old town, not far from where we live...

Have you ever tried....

sea urchin roe?
We had some at my parents'
It's considered a delicacy...