Days Off

...No, the title of this long awaited blog does not refer to my cyber absence. ;)  A lot has been happening and has happened since last I wrote (Feb. 17th?!), but my mental posts haven't manifested themselves on the worldwide web.  I'm sure that in the not too distant future, we'll be able to think our facebook posts, blogs, etc... creepy thought, eh?  Although, I must admit that it would be nice to be able to share with you all so easily.  I really do begin composing posts in my head...and then life gets in the way of ever sitting down to type them out.

View of Seville from Triana: La Torre del Oro in foreground
and La Giralda to the right.

I want to share the most recent stuff first, but I promise to get it together enough to share some pictures and stories from my parents' visit (nearly all of March), and Semana Santa, too. :)

The Thursday before Semana Santa (Easter week, for those of you who may not remember) I ended up having to work the afternoon shift along with my morning shift because the other teacher got sick.  Rather than paying me for the hours, she prefered to swap days with me and so this Tuesday after our week-long vacation, I didn't have to work.  This was great because Wednesday is my normal day off and so I've virtually had a weekend mid-week! :)  And the best part is that the whole family could be together since Angelines only works Thurs.-Sun.

We have taken full advantage of these two days, let me assure you.  Yesterday, we headed to Seville as it has become tradition to visit the Virgen de Esperanza de Triana in the days after Semana Santa.  She's still on her paso and so we can see her up close along with the paso which accompanies her: Las tres caídas.  They are both impressive in person and some year I would love to see them in the street... On television, my hair stands on end to see they way they bailan; I can only imagine seeing it in person.

El paso de "Las tres caídas".  This one's got four figures AND a horse on it!  Huge!

La Esperanza de Triana

Typical tourist shot on the banks of the Guadalquivir river.

After visiting the casa hermandad we spent the rest of the morning wandering the streets of Seville and "exploring", as Emily called it.  As we passed the Torre del Oro, a well-known monument in Seville that stands on the shores of the Guadalquivir, Emily exclaimed, "Let's go in there!".  I love that she is so enthusiastic and adventurous.  I love how much she appreciates seeing new things and enjoys museums, so of course she and I headed in to climb the tower and explore the naval museum. 

The ducklings were a highlight for Emily.

It was a perfect day only made better for Emily by the ice cream we got before heading back to the car on the metro.  After nearly a full month of rain (mind you I'm not complaining!) these sunny spring days are very welcome.  It was a bit chilly in the morning, but as the morning wore on, we had to begin taking off layers to stay cool under that hot sevillian sun. ;)

Today we were off again, but this time headed east to Granada.  We finally made it to the snow!  When my parents were here the weather was so bad that we decided it wouldn't even be fun to go to the mountains, but today was another perfect day-- despite temperatures in the high 30's, not a breath of wind and sunny. 

Frosty is a Betis fan...Norte is curious.

We went sledding and built our annual snowman, made some snow castles and got pretty wet.  After a picnic lunch in the snow, we headed down to the ski resort to take a walk around and have a cervecita and hot chocolate.  Emily wanted to go on the chair lift and reaptedly said she wanted to go skiing. :)  I guess one of these years we'll have to get ourselves to Tahoe for Christmas so her Ga can teach her!

The snow was a first for little Norte, who came with us on today's excursion, and he LOVED it!  He is currently snoring on his bed, so I think we successfully wore him out. ;)  He was running all around eating snow and chasing snowballs.  Norte blended right in with the nieve and he's quite a clumsy puppy...no very athletic shots of him in the snow.  We missed our Bela.  Emily commented on our way to the Sierra Nevada, "I wish Bela could play with us and Norte in the snow..." She is still very present with us.

It's been a lovely two days.  Tomorrow I'll be back at work again, but just two days away from the weekend, so I'm easing my way back to work after my "holidays".

I'll leave you with a few more pictures:

From the top of the tower with my explorer. ;)

Please note the homemade snow pants confectioned by yours truly from a garbage bag! ;)  Emily thought that was pretty cool.  ...They kept her dry!

One of the better shots of our little klutz.

The Next Generation

So as is so often the case, I am very behind with updating you all.  My appologies.  However, this will not be a long-winded catch-up blog; I just want to share with you the pictures from today's carrera solidaria contra el cancer. This was Emily's first footrace!

She loves to run and play "racing cars" as she calls it...not sure where the name came from.  The game consists in standing about 16 feet away from me--hunkered in a crouching position with my arms spread wide-- and on the count of three, she races to me and gives me a big hug.  If she can knock me off balance it's a bonus. :)

When I saw the posters around town for the Race for the Cure run with an age group for her, I asked if she wanted to run in a real race--"Yes!" was her immediate reply.  I was a little worried that she'd chicken out at the last minute because there were so many people and other kids, but she was great.  Of course, I did run along behind her and she grabbed my hand about half way through the 100 meter dash...but still, I was pretty proud of my little athlete.

She was glowing afterwards (see picture) and we topped off the afternoon with a little face paint and then an ice cream sandwich at the bar with her Mamá.  She was a happy camper. 

I hope to get back to running myself sooner rather than later.  I've been a long time away from it and I do miss it dearly.  It would be wonderful to race with Emily when she's older... It was pretty wonderful to race with her today!

That post-race glow

And just for good measure, I'll leave you with one last pic. also from today.  We have begun taking Norte out for walks now because we just can't wait the last five days for his shots to really kick in... He is finally beginning to be a "normal" puppy, which means he's chewing everything in sight.  Today we took him for three long walks and he is snoring happily by the fire as I type. ;) 

He's my new workout regimen!  ...I don't think I'll be running with him too soon, though.

Norte

 When Bela died, I thought it would be a long time before we were ready to have another dog in our family.  The pain was too raw, too fresh and she was and is irreplaceable, for sure.  Still, our routine was totally thrown off when suddenly we weren't going for our twice daily walks; and although not having a dog was (I am ashamed to even admit it in writing) liberating to some extent, all three of us were in need of canine company.

Toward the end of my Christmas vacation we began talking seriously about getting another dog.  At first we thought maybe we'd adopt an older dog to avoid the hassle of puppyhood...but the more I looked online and the more we thought about it, the more it felt as though getting a big dog, would actually feel like trying to replace Bela--it would be like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound.

We decided that a puppy would ultimately adjust better to our family because it would really be a part of the family rather than ours just being another home.  Don't get me wrong.  I am all for adopting animals and I know plenty of people who have adopted great pets.  I love the idea of giving abandoned animals a second chance in life, but it can be risky to a certain extent.  You don't know the animal's history or what might trigger agressive behaviour (towards humans or other animals), and with a small child, we decided that risk was too great.  Besides, getting a puppy would mean that it would grow up with Emily.  Bela was great with Emily, but she sort of treated her like a piece of furniture: she was totally indifferent to her presence.  A dog that grows up with Emily will ultimately be a better friend and companion for her.

So at the beginning of January the search for a puppy began...

We wanted another lab, but decided that we would get a completely different dog from Bela: a yellow male.  Little Norte (we vetoed Emily's name ideas: "Mari Paz", "Cocodrila", "Prince Tree") came home with us on January 11th.  He's almost three months old now, but it turns out that even though he'd had his first shot before we bought him, the breeder had given him such a bare bones vaccination that he may as well not have had it at all!  That means we still cannot take him out on walks where he'll be in contact with other dogs because he's highly suceptible to viruses that are common among grown dogs and can be fatal for puppies.  We gave him his first "real" shot on Wed, because he had a bout of diarrhea after we first brought him home and we didn't want to overload his little system.  As it is it'll be nearly March before we can take him on walks because his little body takes about 15 days to build up the immunity after the shot and he needs still another one before he's all covered!

Thankfully, he's a very agreeable and fairly calm little fellow.  Of course, as he gets older he's going to need to spend that puppy energy...so I think we'll be just very narrowly avoiding disaster with his vaccination schedule.  At four months we'll finally be able to wear him out among the olive trees. :)  For now, though he's happy to be inside and really spends most of his time sleeping on his bed.  He has a few toys and so far limits himself to playing/chewing them.  And after just two or three days of mopping up puppy pee in the house, he's learned to go outside in the patio.  I am only a little worried that because he needs to be quarantiened for so long that he'll develop the unbreakable habbit of taking care of his "business" in the patio--yuck! :(

Emily was a little luke warm about Norte at first because puppies are so different from adult dogs and he has very sharp teeth and claws. If he nipped at her or her things she'd begin to cry saying, "I want a big dog!  I don't want a puppy!"... but she's warming up to him now and learning to be patient and also assertive with him when he bites her ballet tutús. ;)  This will be a good experience for her, and I know that in the end Norte is going to be a really great buddy.  So there you have it.  We are officially, once again, a family of four. :)

Christmas Vacation

Emily was pretty into it.

I am pleased to say that I feel I've been doing a pretty good job of balancing things this vacation.  My time off is drawing to an end...Monday I'll be back at work, but I've got some good work done (nearly all caught up) and also managed to have lots of play time.

 The Thursday after Christmas I finally got the gingerbread made. :)  I had really been looking forward to making and decorating cookies with Emily this year because I was sure she'd be into it.  And to make the event more fun/festive, I invited our young cousins to come over too.  In the end there were a total of six kids ranging from 3-12.  Thankfully, Angelines' cousin decided to stay and help maintain order because it was a little bit crazy with  dough-rolling, cookie cutting, hot cookie sheets in and out of the oven, decorating, etc.  We had a nice evening and when the kids got tired of decorating, Sonia and I did a few ourselves while the cousins turned off the lights in the living room, dug into Emily's new dress-up box and had a dance party with flashlights! :) 

New Year's was a crazy rush for Angelines as it is every year, which means that for Emily, abuelita and I there was plenty of cleaning to be done.  We had New Year's Eve dinner at my sister-in-law's house as we have now for the past four or five years.  This year it was just our two families and abuelita, though.  It was a small gathering, but I think that made for a nice, more relaxing evening.  At 11:59pm, Emily dragged her tita into the bathroom with her and so tita Toñi missed the grapes thanks to Emily's timely bowls! 

In fact, we all missed the traditional twelve grapes that are eaten with the tweleve strokes of midnight on New Year's Eve to usher in the New Year!  We had the TV on a channel we don't usually watch and they did some weird electronic boing sound with each second, rather that bell tolls...  We all just sat there wondering what was happening until about the seventh boing, we realized we were behind and started cramming grapes in our mouths like crazy!  I'm not sure how that bodes for the new year... ;)

I interupted the dance party for a picture. :)

Angelines ended the "night" at 9am.  Needless to say we were all glad when Tuesday, January 2nd rolled around!  We spent the day being at home and relaxing, but then headed out in the evening to see the Christmas lights in Puente Genil. 

Emily has taken to not napping.  Or perhaps I should rephrase that, I have decided to stop wearing her to sleep in the middle of the day.  Since she was a little baby, I've put her in the back pack and nursed her to sleep for her nap.  She is quite heavy now and so partially for my back's sake and partially as a step toward weening, I have decided not to use the back pack anymore.  This means, however that afternoon naps are out the window.

Cousin love on New Year's Eve

We are making a switch to "quiet time" (my mom will laugh at that inherited tradition) during which we read and stretch or chat in the bedroom and try to generally relax and be quiet.  She doesn't fall asleep though...  This means that come 8pm she is so tired that everything provokes tears.  It hasn't been much fun, but it is true that getting her to sleep around 9:00-9:30 gives A and I lots of time to ourselves before heading to bed.  Last night we watched a whole movie (without falling asleep) and were still in bed by 11pm!

Yesterday was our last full day together as a family before I head back to work because Angelines is working today (Thursday).  We woke up and despite cloudy skies in La Roda, decided to head to the beach.  Abuelita came along too.  On the coast it was sunny and warm without even a wisp of a breeze--a perfect day.  We brought along Emily's bike and strolled along the waterfront for about half an hour then played in the sand and waves and had a seafood lunch.  It was wonderful to get out of Dodge for a bit and abuelita was so happy to have a day out with her granddaughter even if she couldn't play in the sand or wade. :)

Today Angelines wasn't planning to open, but rain is predicted for tomorrow and Saturday which means that the city decided to move the King's Day parade up to the 4th of January.  This year the parade started on abuelita's street so after "quiet time" we went over there to be pelted by candies thrown from the floats and watch the Kings go by.    It's such a terrible waste because more than half of it just gets swept up by the street sweepers that go behind the parade.  Emily was pretty excited about the candy though; I tried to see it through her eyes. ;)

Christmas lights

Little cyclist

What a beautiful family I have!

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas. Santa made a visit to our house last night and left some real treasures for Emily: a dress-up chest to keep all her tutús and fancy clothes in, a PlayMobile doll house, a basket for her bicycle, some yellow (her favorite color!) tights and a few other treasures.  She's been playing all morning.  The gilttery shirt/dress was something my mom brought over here for her, but didn't get a chance to give...so Santa took advantage to "give" a little something extra in her dress-up box. ;)

Christmas has been really nice this year.  Last night, Christmas Eve, my mother-in-law was the only one to come over and eat with us.  She arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon, just right after Emily had gone down for her nap and so ended up sweeping my whole patio looking for things to keep herself busy (bless her, she cannot hold still!) until her granddaughter woke up.

When Emily did wake up, they headed out to the park and then abuelita and Emily entertained themselves in the living room for the remainder of the evening while I got dinner ready and whished a Merry Christmas to several friends on the phone.  I was even able to chat with my dear Miriam for about an hour and a half.  It was wonderful to be able to get things ready with no rush and without Emily getting her hands into everything.  I was so inspired, I even decided to whip up some brownies for dessert...at that point Emily came into the kitchen and when she saw the bowl of batter, there was no way she'd go back to the living room with abuelita! ;)

Angelines came home for dinner around 10 o'clock and then stayed home.  In past years, you may remember that she has a shower and heads back to open for the night...but Christmas eve night is not such a big bar night as New Year's Eve and for the past few years she's been saying that it's not worth it to open and "next" year she'll close. This was finally the year.  I set the table with our good china and we had a lovely salmon dinner with mashed potatoes and veggies accompanied by the customary jamón and cheese.  There were brownies and whipped cream for dessert.  Delicious.

This morning was especially fun since Angelines had been able to get to bed "early" and so wasn't totally exhausted.  She was really able to enjoy the magic of discovering gifts under the tree and in stockings with Emily. :)  We played for a while then had breakfast and headed to the bar to clean up before making our way to Tita Toñi's house for Christmas day lunch--another seasonal tradition.

Now I'm getting a few chores done around the house and will probably do a bit of work for my Montessori classes.  I am a bit behind and I need to use these days of vacation to get caught up and so must do a little bit every day or you know what will happen...!  I also want to make gingerbread, but maybe that's not in the cards for today.  We'll see.

It's so wonderful to be on vacation!  I feel like I've needed this break more than I've ever needed a break from work before!  I am basking in this moment of looking ahead to two whole weeks stretching out before me full of possibility... I know that inevitably the time will speed by and I'll be back to work all too soon and probably without having done even half of what I'd like to have done, but for now I am content to sit and contemplate all the many possibilities...and if I feel like just sitting and blogging, that's a perfectly wonderful way to spend an afternoon as well!

Memories...

Some of you will remember this video.  Bela was just a year old here... We cried when we took that snowman out of the Christmas box this year.

A Prayer for Bela-Rooskie

For three weeks I've had writer's block... but not for lack of things to share.  November 30th our dog, our first baby, Bela, died.  I haven't been able to write about it; but writing about anything else seemed like ignoring the elephant in the room and a disservice to her importance in our home.

She's left a huge hole in our hearts and home.  I tear up when I throw away the cheese rinds I would normally have given to her, my schedule still feels strange without two daily walks; and when I do get out to the campo I swear I can see her running through the trees just ahead of me--I expect her to come panting up to me with her pink tongue hanging out, her Dobby ears pulled back in little half moons on either side of her head and her lips curled up almost into a smile.

I cannot push the button to open the garage door without remembering how she'd wriggle out before it was even a foot open to come bounding out and greet the car.  I expect to see her spread out in the sunny spots of the lawn on nice days and when I get up at night for a drink, I still automatically look to her corner by the fire hoping to see her curled into a sleeping ball.

We are very slowly beginning to heal.  She was hit by a train.  I am comforted slightly knowing that it was very quick and I'm sure she didn't suffer at all.  Angelines and I burried her by the tracks, something for which I am also very grateful because we have a place near home to be able to visit and mourn.  She was such an extraordinary dog that even other people have taken flowers to her grave.

This has been Emily's first introduction to death and it's been very interesting to watch her go through the mourning process.  We told her right away that Bela had died.  I am not a fan of those who hide death from kids with euphemisms or avoid the subject altogether.  She spent the first days saying that she missed Bela and asking where she was and why she wasn't in her house.  Then she started calling herself "heaven" and many of her animals die and are burried under blankets.  She happily declares that they're dead and then says she's visiting the grave and taking flowers...  She still gets sad, like we all do.

I am amazed by how deep her feelings are and how well she expresses herself.  The day after Bela died, we took Emily to put flowers on her grave and say "good bye".  She didn't want to say good bye, of course and I think was a little confused by the pile of rocks we were calling Bela; but before we left she bent down and gently stroked one of the larger stones saying, "Goodnight, Bela. Goodnight".  And then as we held hands on the way home she stopped and said, "I don't like missing Bela."  "Neither do I," was all I could answer.

Today I was going back through old blog posts and looking at videos and pictures from when Bela was a puppy.  I don't like missing her, but it feels good to remember all the wonderful times we had together and the pure joy and energy she brought to the home.

We love you Bela.  I will always remember you like this:

Emily was "painting" Bela's "fingernails" with chalk!

My girls: ready for adventure

Last year in the snow...