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??)

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. ;)

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. ;)

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!

The Best Birthday Surprise

I am long over-due for a post, I know.  April has flown by.  Lately I feel like the scene in an old black and white movie when the wind blows away the calendar pages to fast forward.  Seriously, where does the time go?  Does this sensation come with motherhood? 

Whatever the reason, I can't seem to keep up with myself these days, much less blog...and yet when I sit down to reflect I can't really say what it is I do with all my time.  I have undoubtedly been busier in the past and still managed to blog or read for pleasure or keep up with email correspondence; and yet now, just the thought of any of those things seems like a far off luxury most days.  I don't think I'm wasting my time in any way; I don't think I've suddenly become lazy.  Anymore, I hardly ever have a proper siesta, so you can't blame my adopted culture either!  Don't get me wrong, I am happy, healthy and in love with my life; but it is perplexing when month after month flies by and each time I feel as though I've hardly had time to blink.

...But I digress. 

I wanted to post about the most wonderful and by far the best ever birthday gift from my "Mom".  I say, from my "Mom" because as many of you already know she had the idea and organized the logistics of it all.  She even brought a fair share of the gift over herself when she visited (the other half or so was snuck over unbeknownst to me by my wiley sisters in March);  but in fact, the actual gifts so to speak were from various important people in my life--friends and family. 

I had told my mother, an incessant and prolific gift-giver, specifically NOT to bring me a birthday present (her visit coincided with my birthday).  I asked only for her to bring me a good book in English.  It's not that I can't read Spanish or don't enjoy it, I do; but I sometimes get the feeling that I need to work on my English skills as much if not more than my Spanish.  It's not that I forget English per se, but it is true that many times the words come to me first in Spanish.  And my sisters have endless fodder for teasing when I inadvertantly let slip a literal translation from Spanish: It makes such good weather today! (Not joking, I have been known to say such things).

So I wanted an English book to keep my brain working in English, plus it seems as though more often than not I am attracted to books that were originally written in English (coincidence?) and reading a translation when I could read the original is just silly!  And why didn't I just order a book off Amazon?  Well, it's true that I could have asked for a recommendation and then ordered the book myself, but knowing my mom, she was bound to bring me something no matter what I said to her and so I figured it was best to play it safe and just tell her what I wanted.  What I was not planning on at all were the 22 books I was presented with when my mom lugged her roller bag adorned with a ribbon down the stairs on April 18th. :)

As it turns out, my mother, queen of gifts and surprises, had braved the mysterious and unknown realms of social media to track down college friends of mine and ask them to please send me a book.  She got a book from most of my family--my sisters, dad, aunts, uncles and cousins; and she asked for books from my closest childhood friends and their families. My sister Maggie dubbed it the "Viola Wilbanks Charitable Book Foundation". ;)

I didn't cry, when I opened the suitcase, but I was close.  I was so touched to be receiving this palimpset of love: authors who loved their books into creation; family members who deliberated and carefully selected a book with me in mind--many of them used copies, which I like to think were their own that they have read, lauged and cried with and whose pages they have caressed; my sisters and mother whose love defied the baggage weight limits hauling them all the way across a continent and an ocean to me.  I was struck by the beauty of it.  And of course reading the lovely inscriptions and beautiful birthday wishes from so many of my loved ones, was a gift in itself.

Needless to say I have plenty of reading material for the summer.  Now I guess I'll have to make time to curl up and treat myself to a few pages.  I am tickled to have my own little library.  I've got fiction and non-fiction and virtually everything in between: from historical novels to science fiction to autobiography.  Reading each one throughout this thirty-third year will be a wonderful reminder of how much I am loved and a great excuse to write and thank each one of you who took the time to send me a book.  I can't wait!

I promise more soon, but my book is calling. ;)

The new hire

Just another benefit to having my mom around: endless video footage of Emily. :)  She loves cleaning...truly a Spanish baby, and so we bought her a little broom and dustpan to help out when we clean the bar weekends.  She enjoys it, as you can see in the video, but the jury's still out as to whether or not she is very helpful!

"Special Sister Time"

Sadly, the only picture I have of the three (four) of us together.

When we were kids, my mom used to reward us for getting along by extending bed time or nap time if we were enjoying "special sister time".  As we grew older we learned to take advantage of this.  When bed time rolled around (or anything we didn't want to do such as a dreaded "house job") we would claim to be having "special sister time", immediately inventing some fascinating game to keep up the ruse.  More often than not, we got away with it, so to speak; but looking back on those times now, I think we were really playing right into my mother's grand plan.  Of course, we weren't going to bed on time, or dusting; but we were learning to enjoy each other and those moments of confidence helped cultivate the wonderful relationship we have today.

As we grew older, we made fun of the sweet term my mother had coined that smacked of cliché.  We would repeat it in any of our many voices used to incessantly tease her, but the truth is those times really were special.  There is no other word for them; and this past week was undoubtedly special, too.

If not both at once, Em always had one of them by the hand!

Aunties Maggie and Lucy arrived on Saturday and I picked them up alone at the airport.  Angelines was working and I didn't dare drive the hour to Málaga with Emily alone in the back...she's bad enough at times with someone back there to entertain her!  Nor did I want to ask my sister or mother-in-law to accompany me to the airport.  I wanted my (now coveted) "special sister time".  In the end I asked my sister-in-law to come to the house and stay with Emily; and so it was just me and my sissies on the drive home--free to be silly and talk non-stop without a certain little person there to demand our attention.

Special sister time disolved to "special auntie time" as soon as we arrived home, however.  Emily was quite taken by her aunties from the get-go and she made clear from the beginning that they were here solely to do her bidding.  From Saturday evening through the end of their visit, our time together was limited to nap-time and post bed-time, otherwise I was only able to be with one sister at a time as the other was inevitably playing with stuffed animals or reading stories to Emily.

The light was gorgeous, but Em wouldn't cooperate...too busy looking around!

They were here for just a week, but I think we did a very good job of filling our days to the maximum and still managing to enjoy ourselves.  Rather than take any very long trips, we opted to stay close to home, making three trips to Antequera (only 20 min. away) except Monday when we visited Benalmadena on the coast.  On our day trips, we visited the wonderful city park I've posted about previously, had churros with chocolate; toured the dolmens (megalithic funerary monuments) and also spent a day hiking at the Torcal.

At the park with her Aunties :)

A windy, but glorious day at the Torcal...my legs were sore for the remainder of the week!

Friday and Saturday were stay at home days.  They are also two biggest days of Holy Week here in La Roda.  The brotherhood that does Friday's procession is the one that Angelines and most of her family belong to.  For the second year now, little Emily dressed up in the brotherhood's purple tunic and white cape to watch the procession.  Though she didn't take part, she wore her outfit from before the saints were out of the church until around 10 o'clock (bed time for my Spanish baby). ;)  She was enthralled with it all and after an initial scare on Thursday, Friday evening she was perfectly happy to walk among the pennitents lined up behind the pasos.

The cutest penitent in La Roda ready to go!

Emmy sandwich with Jesús Nazareno in the background.

Of course, she was the talk of the town in her tiny little outfit with her blond, blond hair, blue, blue eyes and pretty purple ribbon in her hair.  Even members of the rival brotherhood (the one that goes out Saturday), had to admit that she was the cutest thing they'd ever seen in a purple tunic. ;)

Maggie and Lucy, who have never been here for Semana Santa, were duely impressed by the music, the dedication and the people's show of faith, if not a bit put off at first by the penitents outfits which but for the colors are identical to those of the Ku Klux Klan.  It certainly is a spectacle, and one that I enjoy.  It was nice to have my sisters here as an excuse not to follow the processions all around town as I have in previous years; but the little that we did go out to watch reminded me just how much I really do like it.

Alseep at lunch on Easter Sunday.

After watching the procession Saturday and having dinner at a friends house, we came home to begin egg dying for Emily's first ever egg hunt. Emily was asleep, of course, but I don't think she would have enjoyed it much.  She's still too young to have patience for that sort of thing and anyway she probably would have ended up dying herself more than any of the eggs!  It was another late night for us, but the eggs turned out lovely despite my worries that brown eggs wouldn't take the colors well.  I was plesantly surprised.


Sunday Angelines decided not to open the bar, which was fantastic because it meant we were all together for Maggie and Lucy's last day in Spain.  It was rainy in the morning so our egg hunt was postponed, but we had bunny-shaped pancakes for breakfast to welcome Easter the the all-American way.

Around six in the evening, when we got home from our late lunch out (we had daylight savings Saturday night...), we discovered that the Easter bunny had come and hid our eggs around the patio.  Emily wasn't quite sure what to do at first, and her basket was a bit unweildy, but she caught on fast and seemed to really enjoy herself once she got the idea.  She even spotted a few eggs herself!  One of the most beautiful eggs that had been broken just after being dyed (knocked to the floor in an alleged fit of jealousy on my part...), was too tempting for little fingers.  Before we'd even finished the hunt, Em had it peeled and without any reservations dug right into her first Easter egg. :)

Nothing like a freshly hunted Easter Egg for a snack!

The house is awfully quite now without the aunties around and Emily really misses the undivided attention.  Lovely visits like this one remind me how far away we are from each other; skype and whatsapp can only do so much.  I am so grateful that we were able to spend this week together (thank you, mom), and especially thankful that I was off work!  It was without a doubt a "special sister week".