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Sunday, May 29, 2016

BBQ Season Once Again

My Spanish baby fell asleep at the ungodly hour of 7:00pm today!  I know all you Americans are laughing at me right now (either that, or you're staring aghast at the screen wondering what kind of negligent mother I am!), but you must know by now that no Spanish child would ever be asleep for the night at seven o'clock in the "afternoon"--not even in winter when the days are shorter.  So why is my baby suddenly on an American schedule?  The answer is simple: family BBQ means no siesta!

Emily played with her aunts uncles and cousins right through her normal siesta time.  She was the belle of the ball, for sure. :)  Sometimes, I wonder what we all did before she was around to entertain us!  She danced for us and picked us flowers, played in the sandbox, pointed out ants and other small crawling creatures, rode her bike and generally charmed us all with her every move.  ...All of this while her aunties and grandma cooed and cackled and smiled and scolded her.  She is quite the character, my daughter is.

In Spain they have a saying: "hasta el cuarenta de mayo, no te quites el sayo," which translates to "until the 40th of May, don't take your sweater off."  And it is usually true that while we always start having lovely, summer days (80º+) this time of year, May's weather is fickle and we have had our share of cold days and freak thunderstorms.  Yesterday it poured for about 30 minutes and then the sun came out again. Through it all, however, I don't think the temperature dropped below 72º F.

With that in mind, we were slightly worried about the BBQ we'd planned with the family for today, but as it turns out it was just cloudy enough to keep the scorching Spanish sun at bay and we had a wonderful time in my beautiful patio.  There was, as always, too much to eat; and as always Angelines, Emily and I are the ones who will be cleaning up all the leftovers for the next few days, but the laughs and good company were worth it, for sure.

I'm looking forward to more BBQs this summer especially now that we've got some proper shade out there.  The lawn was already beginning to brown from the late spring sun and we realized that if we wanted green grass come September, we needed to put some kind of cover out there.  Angelines had some material that she had used at the old bar for a makeshift awning to shade tables and so we brought that home and hung it up over the lawn.  It is a little small actually, but I think it shades enough to do the trick.  if we are good about watering, we should be okay.  For today's get-together, we also brought home another old umbrella from the bar to shade the upper deck of the patio.  So now that we have nearly sun-proofed our patio it's the perfect place to relax and enjoy company with a cold beer or a glass of wine. ;)  Oh! And good food, too, of course!


(Have I tempted any of you into buying tickets to Spain for your summer vacation??)

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Funnel fun!



Here's a quick video en lieu of a real post, sorry.  I owe you all one, I know.  But I'm sure after you watch Emily entertain herself with this plastic funnel, you'll forgive me for not writting more. ;)


Saturday, May 14, 2016

Rainy Romeria

Granada's Brotherhood of the Virgen de Rocío made a pit stop in La Roda.
This year's Romería de San Pancracio was all but cancelled due to the rain. The saint didn't even leave the church; there was no procession around town; and it was impossible to take him up to the ermita because the roads through the olives were just too muddy.  It was disappointing to say the least. 

Also because of the rain and cold, we didn't dress Emily up in her flamenco dress.  I didn't dress up either.  I hope her dress will still fit her for the fair at the end of June!  On Sunday, when we are usually making the pilgrimage up to the ermita, we all gathered in a covered plaza in town and shared the traditional potaje (garbanzo stew) and sang and danced a few sevillanas. 

It was fun to go out and be with some of the friends we really only see much of during the romeria; but of course it was nothing like doing el camino and being out in the country.  We dressed Emily in jeans and a flowered shirt and a friend even loaned us some of the typical boots.  So even though she was dressless, she was perfectly outfitted for the occasion. ;)  I love the pictures we got of her next to the altar that was raised to San Pancracio.


I like the black and white one best, but this way you get a better idea of her outfit. ;)

Friday, May 13, 2016

Wednesday

It's been raining and cold for a week now and poor Emily is getting cabbin fever.  The sandbox we built her has become a permanent swimming pool and even when it's not raining, the swings and slides at the park are too wet to play on.  We are totally unprepared for this weather and so my little girl doesn't even own a pair of rain boots or a rain jacket...  This late in the season, I think it's not worth buying her any, but they're definitely on the shopping list for her second birthday, because there is nothing she loves more that jumping in puddles!  We have to be fast to grab her whenever a door is accidentally left open as she makes a mad dash to get outside and get wet.  Yesterday the rain caught us outside with Bela on a quasi walk (I had a hunch it would rain and so I wasn't planning to go far...still I had left my umbrella at home!).  Emily started cracking up when I began running home, screaming at Bela to come and dodging puddles along the dirt road (she was on my back). 

This Wednesday, however, we managed to have another wonderful day out with the family despite the dreary weather.  When my sisters were here we went out to eat at an Italian place in Antequera we'd never been too and noticed that right next door is an indoor park/play area for kids.  I was able to find their facebook page to check they were open and after siesta and a morning of household errands, we took off to go explore and play.

It was a great place.  They had a big climbing structure with slides, a trampoline and a ball pit for older kids, a dress-up room with costumes and mirrors, an area to play a little soccer, a "race track" for little tricycles, and even a little baby corner with a small ball pit and mini slide.  And of course, since this is Spain, there was a full bar inside, too. :)  We got a coffee and scoped out the scene before jumping right in. 

When we first arrived there were tons of kids!  Apparently there were two birthday parties and I am sure that the weather was also a factor in the number of children running around in there.  It was a zoo and I was a little worried that maybe we wouldn't even be able to let little Emily play.  The woman taking children's shoes told us one of us could go in with Em since she was so small, and she kicked the bigger kids out of the baby area for us. 

As expected Emily was pretty shocked at first by all the noise, all the kids and all the movement.  She is an observer in these situations.  She is not one to just go out there and get into stuff.  She definitely prefers to wait and watch and figure out just what's going on before she has a go at it, so we took it slow in the baby ball pit first.  When I set her in the balls she stood stalk still.  I think she wasn't sure she could move (and maybe she legitimately couldn't on her own!) with all those balls.  Gradually, though, she got more comfortable and as you can see in the pictures was climbing up and going down the slide all by herself after not too much time.  About 15 minutes after we went in to play, the birthday crowds left and we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves so Emily and I went off exploring the bigger kid toys.

She fell in love with the trampoline!  When we go to the park she always sees older kids jumping around and often tries to immitate them, but she just can't seem to figure out how to get both her feet off the ground at once!  It's pretty cute because she stands there stomping with one foot and flailing her arms up and down like a bird. :)  When she saw some older kids jumping on the trampoline, that was it.  We waited until they got off, and then she climbed up the steps and onto the springy black square.  When I told her to jump, she began her typical flailing and stomping routine, but this time she actually bouced!  She was totally thrilled.  It was adorable to watch her discover how to move and bounce and jump.  She was throwing herself down onto her bottom and then flopping over onto her back, then scrambling up and bouncing around.  It was great!

When we were able to pry her away from the trampoline we headed next door, ordered a pizza to go and had a quick beer while we waited for it.  Emily made it home without too much fuss and we quickly gave her some dinner and put her to bed, then Angelines and I sat down to watch Once Upon a Time on my computer and eat (cold) pizza. 

It was a lovely afternoon.  I was once again thankful for the flexibility of my work schedule which allows me a free day in the middle of the week to enjoy my girls. :)
  
Her first time on a rocking horse--the kid's a natural.  Must get it from Grandma!