Ringing in the new year

It has been awhile since I last blogged, and a lot has happened!  Shortly after the election, we embarked on a holiday whirlwind that has just about wrapped up now.  We had Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and Christmas all here at home, which was nice for all of us. During the Christmas seasons in particular, we got to see our families, we ate good food, we all opened lots of gifts, and we had lots of good time together as a family.  Especially in light of the shootings in our area and across the country, it has been especially nice to get two weeks to spend time with our kids, each other, and our families. 

I have been unable to get the Newtown events out of my mind, but I don't have anything very coherent to say about them that hasn't been expressed elsewhere.  Having small children and a spouse who is a teacher made it all hit very close to home.  My only hope is that some kind of forward progress on gun control will come from this. 

On that happy note, I thought I would write a quick round-up of some of the events of the last year that I'd like to remember, and some things we have been up to lately.

As has been the case with the last several years, we have had a big year!  This time last year, we had just sold our old house and were settling into our new one.  I was schlepping the kids back to our old neighborhood twice a week for preschool, which was fun for no one!  We were all glad to see that routine come to an end, as much as we loved their old school. 

Then, we had the summer, which was glorious in every way, complete with satisfying travel, lots of family time, lots of dinners outside on our patio, kids playing on our new play structure, and all sorts of other experiences. 

We were sad to see the summer come to an end, but happy to start new routines for almost everyone.  Mateo started kindergarten, Natalia started a new preschool, and Sacha started her first split class at a new school.  It has been a big adjustment for everyone, but everyone is thriving.  And, I am enjoying having alone time with Rosie two mornings a week, and time with the two girls on the other mornings.   Somehow, I feel like I am running around more than ever, even with Mateo in school all day, but it is all for a good cause.

Among the satisfying things about our new neighborhood is that we have found a church we really like.  We had been searching for some kind of spiritual home for years and hadn't found anywhere that drew us back.  When we moved here, we noticed that there was a progressive-looking church on the corner just two blocks away, but we didn't do much other than notice it.  Then, one day, when Sacha was floating (another new experience for her this year) she felt inspired that we should check it out.   We did, and we loved it right from the beginning.  We have been back just about every Sunday since then, and it has become a beloved part of our weekends.  Rosie seems to feel at home in the nursery and both big kids are liking Sunday school there.  We have found the pastor to be inspiring and the rest of the congregation welcoming and friendly.  It is especially nice to feel explicitly welcomed as a same-sex couple/family, and to see other gay people and families there. 

It has also been really nice to live so close to my grandmother, who lives just about half a mile from us.  We have enjoyed spontaneous get-togethers and being able to walk to her house.  And, the kids love it when she drops by to bring them treats or Advent calendars, or just to say hi!

We have had an eventful holiday season in a couple of ways that I haven't mentioned yet.  First, following Rosie's lead, we have gotten her just about completely potty trained!  With our older kids, we worked with them on the potty pretty much starting at birth, and they were both using the potty full-time when they were about 18 months old.  With Rosa, I just didn't have it in me to manage getting her used to the potty while also dealing with the older two, so we decided to just do diapers (and disposables at that - gasp!) while she was little.  However, she has been increasingly showing signs that she is ready, so we decided to take winter break, while we were both home, and see what progress we could make. 

As it turned out, she was completely ready.  She had several accidents in the first week, but then she hit her stride and has been dry for at least the last four or five days, including naps and nighttime. We are sooo proud of her and happy that this has worked out so well.  We have even been on several outings, including going to the zoo, where she kept herself dry.  I have a lot of confidence now that I can carry on with this after the school and work routine starts up again.  Go Rosie!!

Finally, we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat, Yarn, about a week ago.  Over the course of several days, she went from acting normal to just sitting on the heating vent in the bathroom all the time.  Then she began to act disoriented and from there it was a quick downhill slide.  A trip to the emergency vet confirmed that she was in bad shape, and that she had gone completely blind.  They didn't know why, but suspected a blood clot or brain tumor.  Poor baby :(  By the next day, it was absolutely clear to us that she was suffering and that it was time to let her go.  Thanks to the recommendation of some friends, we were able to have a vet come to our home and gently put her to sleep. 

We all loved Yarn very much, and the kids did particularly.  When we were in Europe this summer, we went to one of those Locks of Love bridges in Paris and my sister got the kids some locks to put on the bridge.  We asked them to think of their favorite person in the world, so we could put their name on the lock, and they both immediately said, "Yarn!"  We got Yarn as an adult cat, so we knew that we might not have her for very long, but were hoping she would live to a ripe old age.  Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.  We are thankful that we got to have time to snuggle her at the end and say goodbye.  It was especially hard for Mateo to process all this, and we are all pretty sad about it.  We will miss you, Yarn!

On that note, I am going to wrap this up.  We are planning to enjoy our last couple of days of break, celebrate the new year coming, and then get back to our regular routines.  Happy New Year to all!

Relief

Well, my plan of blogging every day this month isn't working out too well, but at least I have posted more this month than in quite awhile :)  Of all the things I have learned since we had Rosie, finding my own limits has been one of the biggest.  When we had one and two kids and then when we had three but the third wasn't walking yet, I always had something left at the end of the day and blogging seemed to fit in well.  Now that all three of them are at full speed, I just don't have it at the end of most days.  I'm working on making writing a priority, because I love looking back at the years of blog books that we have and remembering all the things we have done.  However, I'm also working on letting myself off the hook.  I am pretty much at capacity right now and I am doing the best I can.

Ahem.  Back to what I was going to say:

Oh my goodness, I am SO RELIEVED.  I hadn't realized how much I was worrying about the election until it was over.  I had fully prepared myself for weeks of legal wrangling over what seemed like a very close presidential race, so I was beside myself when they called it for Obama so relatively early on.  And, that he went on to win convincingly.  Whew.  Seriously, so relieved.

And, we are over the moon happy about the great marriage wins in Maine, Maryland, and Washington, and about the defeat of the amendment in Minnesota.  As much as I was hoping that at least Washington would have a good outcome, it was still just amazing to see the results come in, and then jaw-dropping to see them all win.  Love won.  As much as it doesn't feel great to have people voting on what they think of our family and families and couples like ours, what does feel great is when the tide goes our way!  I think we both feel affirmed and much more hopeful about the future.  And, I have to say, it was pretty great to say to our kids on the day after the election that Mommy and Mama will be able to get married now.  Well, married again.  Legally this time!

We are thinking that we are, in fact, going to drive across the river and get hitched one more time.  We think this might actually be our last time of exchanging vows, because if Oregon eventually legalizes gay marriage, then a Washington marriage would almost certainly be recognized in-state.  And, if something changes on the federal level at some point, again, our Washington marriage would be valid federally.  So, we are going to do it!

We think we are going to wait a year, though.  We are thinking about next October 26th, which will be our tenth wedding anniversary.  Of our real but non-legal wedding.  Seems like a good day to add the legal part.  We've already had our big-deal wedding, so this would be just a small ceremony...but we are excited, and, more importantly, so are the kids!  Natalia, our resident fashion expert, is already plotting for Mommy to get a new dress. 

Election eve

I have been casting about for something to blog about, but really all I can think about is the election tomorrow!  I have a lot of guilt about not being more involved in it.  However, having volunteered to make political calls and pound the pavement in elections past, it has become abundantly clear that (#1) I am not good at those things and (#2) I hate trying to convince strangers of anything.  What I am good at, though, is writing checks.  And, worrying!  Sacha and I have done our share of the former and I, personally, have done a lot of the latter. 

This election feels big in a lot of ways for our country, and, more personally, for my family.  Of course, there are many large and pressing issues at stake that I care about, but there's a personal one as well.  On the presidential level, there's a stark choice between a president who is openly for gay marriage and one who has said unpleasant things about gay people and especially those with children.  Obama might actually work for increased rights and safety and such on our behalf.  Romney would almost certainly work against those things. 

On the state level, we have a heated gay marriage battle going on just across the border in Washington, as well as in other states.  Washington is Sacha's home state and she would like us to be married there if this thing passes.  We've been married or domestic partnered a number of times by this point, but I am always up for doing it again!  We are both hoping to get the opportunity.  In any case, this election will directly affect us.

I didn't manage to blog about it, but we just had our ninth wedding anniversary, from our real but not legal wedding in October 2003.  And, we have been a couple for nearly 12 years.  Moreover, now that we have children, said children are getting old enough to ask questions about things.  Today, I found myself explaining to Natalia the difference between gay and straight, as she pedaled her tricycle around the garage. 

I don't know how it came up, but she was curious and it seemed as good a time as ever.  I kept it simple, but explained that gay people fall in love with and want to marry other people of their same sex, like Mommy and Mama.  Then, we have straight people, who fall in love with and want to marry people of the opposite sex, like Grammy and Grandpa, Bubbe and Poppa, and the vast majority of people we know.  She said something about how she would choose when she was bigger and I said, well, we don't get to choose.  It's just the way we are born. 

I have also found myself struggling with how to talk to them about marriage in general and our marriage specifically.  How to explain that Mommy and Mama are married but not married at the same time.  Of course, we are married and we have wedding photos in our house and we want the kids to feel secure in having happily married parents.  On the other hand, we aren't married and we want the kids to be prepared, in an age appropriate way, for what they might hear about our family out in the world. 

Too, there is a great deal of interest amongst Mateo's classmates about the election and who is "voting" for whom, and I want him to have some idea of what this election might mean for our family, but it's been hard for me to find a way to explain it in a way that feels right. 

Of course, as an article that I linked to on Facebook the other day so eloquently stated, no matter what happens, we will be fine.  We will keep on loving each other and doing our best to be good members of our community.  In addition to feeling safe and accepted and valued among our family and friends, we also have chosen to live in a place where we feel generally safe and accepted and valued as part of a larger community.  No matter who wins, we will keep on pursuing our radical gay agenda:  buying groceries, doing laundry, trying to find all those missing socks, frantically making lunches and buckling the kids into the minivan, and trying to remember to feed the cat. 

It would be great, though, to wake up in a week or a month or a year and be able to know that our president is working for our family, too.  And, to maybe even get to exchange vows again, knowing that this time, it will stick legally, and maybe even on the federal level at some point.  We know that we will stick.  I think it's about time that the leaders and the laws catch up.

Mateo's six-year-old letter

Dear Mateo,
You have gone and turned six.  Somehow, this seems more impossible than when you turned five!  Time just keeps marching along, and you have been growing by leaps and bounds.  Here are some of the things you've been up to in the last year.

This year has been a time of lots of transitions and adventures.  We moved to a new house, sold our old house, you finished preschool, we traveled many places (including Europe) this summer, you started kindergarten, and now you have had a birthday.  Change has been hard for you in the past.  Really, it's hard for most people!  However, you shown a lot of flexibility in the last year, and a heightened ability to understand what was going on and why.  In fact, a lot of your worries have calmed down in the last year.  It is nice for us to see and it must be nice for you, too!

In fact, this has been a year of maturing for you overall.  Your relationship with your sister, Natalia, went through a rough patch in the spring and then, when we hit summer, things calmed down and have been relatively good and peaceful ever since!  Of course, you have your moments, but overall, the two of you play very nicely together.  She is very protective of you and you of her, especially when we are out in public.  Today, we were in church and the two of you went off to Sunday school together.  You came back in to meet us at the end and you were holding hands.  It was very sweet.

You have also really grown into the role of big brother to your sister, Rosa.  She has become much more interesting to you since she has gotten a little bigger.  Again, you have your moments of frustration with her, but you also love to shepherd her around, help her with things, and try to make her laugh.  I took the two of you out last Friday and you had a lot of fun playing together at the Children's Museum.

You learned how to ride a pedal bike this summer, which was very exciting for all of us.  It was one of those moments where Mommy and Mama realized that the tiny baby we brought home from the hospital had become a big boy and was, in fact, riding away from us on a two-wheeler!  Needless to say, we were very proud.  We were equally proud when you not only made it through a total of 25 hours on a plane with all of us, but handled it with good humor and patience. 

Of course, some things have stayed the same for you, and number one among those is your love of books.  You have continued to love reading more than anything.  You have made your way from picture books, which you still love, to short chapter books, and now you are really going for longer and more complicated reading material.  You will read pretty much anything that you come across, because stories just fascinate you no matter what they are about, but you are loving Harry Potter right now.  We have been reading it out loud to you to slow things down and limit the scariness, but you are more than capable of reading it on your own and have enjoyed re-reading the books when we have finished them.  You just got book #4 for your birthday, and, after your bath this morning, I came out of the bathroom and found you like this.  Based on what you can describe after you read things, there is no question that you are understanding what you read. 

One of the great things about your kindergarten class is that there are several other kids who can read just as well as you can.  It's amazing for you to have some peers in this area, and also nice for your moms to know that you're in good company at school.  In fact, you are loving almost everything about your class and school.  Thanks to Grammy, you are going to an amazing school with the resources to offer you lots of both academic and enrichment options. 

At school, you have time in woodshop with real tools and saws and hammers and such, music time, story workshop time, art time, and PE four days a week.  You are right where you should be in terms of other academic stuff, like writing and math.  You are really excited about patterns right now.  You have teachers who are getting to know you and what makes you tick.  You have jumped into the social scene and made friends that you really seem to enjoy.

And, you are playing lots of pretend games out at recess.  The most recent, although you just informed me that it's going out of style, is an absolutely hysterical game called Killer Whale Circus.  It involves one very dramatic kid playing the part of a beached killer whale and lots of other kids running around trying to save the whale.  I hope, that if and when you read this when you're older, that the memory of that game jogs your memory of what it was like to be a kindergartener, playing your heart out on the playground.

Of course, the long school day and going to school five days a week has been a big adjustment for you, but you are thriving and we couldn't be happier.

Of course, like all kids, you have your challenges.  You sometimes get very frustrated and that can lead to some explosive behavior.  You do a great job of being a model citizen at school, but that means that your temper can be short at home and with those closest to you.  We are working together on learning how to use words first instead of lashing out and how to say sorry when things have gone awry.  You are really adjusting to a lot right now and we understand that you are going to have some growing pains!

Here's an update on your night times:  your sleeping, which has always been an area of challenge, is going pretty well.  We have had some growing pains since being in our new house, which have mainly involved Mama trying to get you to sleep through the night upstairs in your own room, where you feel scared and not like sleeping through the night.  Since Mama finally threw in the towel on that idea, you have moved into the guest room right across from Mommy and Mama's room and you are much happier there. 

On good nights, you sleep until about 5 or 5:30 am and then come get one of us.  You have gotten much better at snuggling with one of us until 6 or 6:30, instead of insisting on getting out of bed right away.  On not-so-great nights, you wake up as early at 11 pm and want one of us to sleep with you.  It has been so difficult to get you back to sleep on your own for any length of time that right now we are just going with it and having one of us sleep with you.  For whatever reason, it's really hard for you to be alone at night.  At some point, you will either grow out of this or we will find a better solution! 

Speaking of all this, your basic preference for being with someone nearly all the time is unchanged.  This may be different at school, but, when you are home, you prefer to be with one of your parents nearly all the time.  Occasionally, like when we get home from the library, you will go into what we call a book coma and be fine with us doing other things.  Mostly, though, you are happier and more comfortable with someone with you.  In the mornings, for example, you would rather get up and play right when you first wake up, but you know that you would be up by yourself if you did that, and so you opt to have company in bed instead.  We are sure that this quality will evolve as you get older, but, for right now, we are just trying to meet you where you are.

We are going to wrap this up, but, quickly, here is a list of other things you love right now:  being pushed as high as possible on the swings (no pumping with your legs yet, but someday!), being ambushed with tickles, eating waffles, building things with Legos and magnetic tiles, figuring out puzzles, making up rhymes, telling jokes, climbing like a monkey on the playground, playing with your car collection, riding in the way back of our van, playing with friends, going out for special time with Mommy or Mama, seeing Apa, and seeing all your other special people, like your grandparents and great-grandmother and aunties, uncles, and cousins. 

Mateo, there are a zillion other things we could say about you, but this sums things up for now.  You are our big boy but you will always be our baby.  We love you more than we could possibly say.  We cherish the time we have with you at this age right now and we look forward to what tomorrow will bring.

All our love,
Mommy and Mama

Out and about

One of the things I have enjoyed most about this year so far is the chance to hang out with our kids in groups of two instead of three. Most of the time, that means that I get a lot of quality time with the girls. Sometimes, like today, Mateo has the day off from school while Tali does have school. That gives me a chance to spend some time with just Mateo and Rosie, which is always a high-spirited combination!

Today, we dropped our preschooler off and headed to the Children's Museum for the morning. Mateo and Rosie are quite compatible playmates, as both like to flit around here and there while checking everything out.

We had fun inside, mostly playing at the pretend vet clinic and in the dig pit. Then, we went outside and they went nuts in the new outdoor maze. Here are some photos of the two of them:













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Catching up

 I'm going to give a shot at posting every day in November for NaBloPoMo.  It is probably going to be a bigger challenge than in years past, as I haven't been blogging at all, but maybe it will get me back on the horse!

Here are some photos that have been sitting on my phone, waiting to see the light of day...or, at least, the glowing light of a computer screen :)

Here's Rosie in mid-October, just after she helped me pick up my bib for the Portland Half Marathon, which I ran with a friend two days later.  It was a great experience and the sun shined on us and I'm already looking forward to doing another one.

Here I am after the race, although Rosa is conveniently obscuring the word "half" at the bottom of the shirt, thereby making me look like a marathon finisher.  Maybe one day! Also, note our backyard in the background.  We thoroughly enjoyed spending the summer back there, but did not one whit of landscaping during the nice weather.  Now, the weather is no longer nice and it appears that our window of opportunity has passed.  Maybe next summer?

Clearly, I take proportionally more photos of Rosie than anyone else.  I can see that now.  Here she is again, after essentially bathing in cream cheese one morning at the bagel shop.  Those big brown eyes get me every time.

Here, we have Natalia, posing in her outdoor regalia in the sandbox at preschool.  She has been absolutely loving her new school!  She even loves outdoor Fridays, and even in the rain and cold we've been having lately.  This has translated to home, too, as all the kids now want to get into their rain gear and go outside and play on the swing set whenever it rains.  We love it.  Go Oregon natives!

Now that the weather has started to turn, Tali has added a warm hat and mittens to her ensemble.  Also, you can see Rosie behind her and Mateo in a blur next to her.  He doesn't usually get to come to preschool with us, as he is almost always at his own school by then, but he had the day off. 

Remember what I said about the kids loving the wet weather?  I give Rosie the award for most water-loving kid.  In this picture, she is wearing her rain pants and rain boots and splashing in our wading pool, filled with water from the nice weather a few days before, for all she is worth.  She LOVES going outside and will stand at the door and plead "Ow-side! Ow-side!" until we take her out.  She is going to be a perfect match for Tali's preschool when the time comes.

 Here's our big boy just after losing his fifth (fifth!) tooth!  It had been hanging on by a thread and finally just popped out.  His kindergarten teacher and I had a friendly competition going on over where Mateo would finally lose his tooth, and I am happy to report that it happened at home.  This was particularly convenient for the tooth fairy!  Needless to say, we can't believe he is so big already and that he is six now.  His six-year-old letter will be coming soon.

Here is a common morning scene.  This is the sidewalk leading from the parking lot to Mateo's school.  Other parents have commented that we always seem so serene, walking calmly and sloooowly to Mateo's classroom.  The real story is that Rosie loses her mind if I don't let her walk, so she walks at her own pace and the big kids often like to hold her hands.  This also (sort of) prevents her from detouring into the bushes at every opportunity. 

Here is our beautiful girl in the van one day.  She is feeling motivated to grow out her bangs, and isn't she looking so big now?  She and I have been having a lot of fun together lately.  It's been great to spend so much time with her this fall...and Rosie, of course!

Here I am with the little one, visiting Sacha's classroom.  She is feeling much more settled in at her new school now that she has been there for a couple of months.  Of course, now we have embarked on the long fall/winter period where she is constantly sick.  She has been taking vitamin D, echinacea, vitamin C, etc, but I think her immune system is just adjusting to a new school.  And our kids' new schools.  Germs, ack!

 Here's a photo of Natalia on one of the first times that she climbed a tree by herself!  She had been mostly sticking with the sandbox during outside time at school, but has been slowly branching out (ha ha!) more and more.  On this Friday, I picked her up after her outside day and she just scampered right up this little tree.  I was so proud of her! Also, note her industrial strength rain pants.  It was initially difficult for our little princess (yes, we are heavily into a princess/fairy/ballerina phase) that the pants only came in red and blue, but Sacha talked her into choosing red because it was the most like pink.  I have to say, I never thought I would be excited about the princess thing, but I find it hopelessly adorable.  Tali has always had me wrapped around her little finger, I guess!

We live about a half a mile from my grandmother and one of the best parts about it is that we can just drop in on each other.  Right before Halloween, she and her caregiver stopped by spontaneously with some cute cupcakes!  Since there are five of us in our family AND we had a friend over, the cupcakes vanished almost as soon as they came in the door.  Thanks, Grandmommy!

Finally, here's a photo of Mateo surrounded by corn.  I have been lucky enough to get to parent-help in Natalia's classroom once a month and to spend some time with Mateo's class, too.  I got to go on a field trip with the kindergarteners to a local farm at the beginning of October.  Mateo and I had a really fun time together and we both ate raw corn for the first time (delicious!).  He was so wiped out at the end that he fell asleep in my lap on the way back to school in the bus.  It was a sweet little time and it made me think of when he was much littler.  He's at a pretty great age now, though, too! 

This concludes my photo essay :)  Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a letter for our big kid!

Rosa's 18-month letter

Dear Rosie,
You turned 18 months old yesterday!  Since you have a big brother and sister who love to celebrate half-birthdays, you got a lot of family fanfare.  We didn't have time to do much yesterday, but today both your siblings were home sick from school and they insisted that we make you a cake.  So, we did!  You didn't care much for it, actually, but you LOVED tasting the batter and eating the strawberry ice cream that came along with it, so that was something.

Here you are with the half-birthday crown bestowed upon you by your siblings.  It was way too big, but you and all of us thought it was the funniest thing ever.  That one eye peeking out was just too much!

It's been about six months since we wrote you a letter and a lot has changed.  It's time for an update!

Now that you are 18 months old, you are babbling a blue streak.  You stuck with a familiar few words for some time, but now you are adding new ones almost every day.  This must be the language explosion that often happens around this time.  You have always been a great mimic, which has helped a lot with learning spoken language.

We're not sure we can list all your words, but here's a sampling from today:  Mommy, Mama, Te Te, sister or sissy (you haven't mastered Tali's name quite yet), cat, dog, meow, woof, quack, baa, milk, more, all done, outside (this is a one of your favorites), FOOD (another favorite), water, cheese, swing, rock, belly, belly button, peekaboo, bath, slide, bye bye, baby, and so on.

One of your cutest words is "yeah!" which we think you might have picked up from our friends' son, who is a bit older than you are.  You haven't figured out how to say "no" yet, but you will say "yeah!" in response to random questions.  In some cases, like if Mama asks you if you want to go outside, you will say it with added emphasis:  "YEAH!"

Since your last letter, you have learned to walk and are on the verge of running.  You have an independent streak (the understatement of the year) and think it is fine, and funny, actually, to take off at random times.  You particularly enjoy this when we are in the middle of, say, a parking lot, or an airport, or even in the backyard, when you like to try to get away around the side of the house.  Generally, you prefer to do things yourself, such as walking by yourself, feeding yourself, going up and down the stairs yourself, etc.  You will consent to holding someone's hand most of the time, if we are out walking, but if you had your way, you would be self-directed on the sidewalk most of the time.

You are starting to get in the routine of dropping off your siblings and picking them up after school.  At Mateo's school, you have learned that there are clusters of rosemary on the way to his classroom, and that if you run your hands through them and then sniff them, they will smell good.  Watching you sniff your rosemary-scented hands is really very cute. 

At Tali's school, you have learned that there is a big, fun forest right outside her classroom.  On Fridays, which are her outside mornings, you love to play in the woods with her after we pick her up.  The two of you slide around on your bottoms, getting as dirty as possible, and having the best time. 

We should mention here that you love to get dirty and you really love dirt in all its forms, as well as rocks and any other object that could possibly be stuffed into your mouth.  That photo above, of you in the garden by the tomato plants, is classic of you.

That brings us to your favorite things in life:  your sister and brother.  You love them like nobody else, and you want to be as big as they are quite badly.  You follow them around adoringly, bulldozing their creations and forts and art projects because you just want to be a part of things.  Sometimes we lovingly call you our wrecking ball baby, because you are just so determined and so, well, destructive to four- and five-year-olds' projects!

Despite the occasional blowup, though, you and your siblings have a great relationship.  Your sister, Natalia, loves you like you were her own baby, and, in fact, pretends all the time that she is your mommy.  She helps feed you, change your diaper, put you down for naps and bedtime, shares everything with you, plays with you all around the house and outside, bestows countless hugs and kisses on you, and generally just loves you for all she is worth.

Your brother, Mateo, adores you in his own way.  He tries to cheer you up if you are crying, he wrestles with you, he reads baby books to you, he plays games with you on the slide in our backyard, and he holds your hand and speeds you along when we are walking.  Mama caught all three of you on video earlier today and thought you might like to have them here for posterity:

You continue to be our hungriest child.  You cannot pass an edible object without crying out "FOOD!! FOOD!!" and lunging for it.  You would think that we never feed you, but, on the contrary, we feed you constantly.  Of course, as one of our children, you are on the small side, but you would never know it from how much you eat!  Of course, you are also incredibly active, so you need lots of calories to keep your tiny body going.  Favorites right now include most fruits, and particularly pears, apples, grapes (cut in half still), plums, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and so on.  You also really go for cheese, pasta, yogurt, peanut butter, cream cheese, waffles, oatmeal, and pretty much anything grown-up-like that we put in front of you.

If we had written this a week ago, we would have had mixed reviews of the sleep front, but it is suddenly going better.  After a long period of sleeping half the night in your crib and half the night in our bed, you suddenly learned how to vault out of your crib!  This happened last weekend.  Since then, you have moved to a mattress on the floor of your room and, after a rough first night, you have made some seriously good strides.  The last several nights, Mama has only had to go in once to put you back in bed, and you have gone back to sleep without a fuss.  This is huge for you and we hope that it will continue.

You have never been a big fan of books, but that, too, may be beginning to change.  You have developed an affinity for babies, and we have several board books about babies that are beginning to catch your attention.  You will go over to our book bins and pull out the baby books and say "baby!!" or "hi baby!!", which, again, is really very cute. You are also starting to like Goodnight Moon and Moo, Baa, La La La.  Of course, as the baby of the family, you have listened in on some very grown-up books, including the reading of two Harry Potter books to your brother, so you may have some refined tastes in literature by the time you can read :)

Finally, you continue to be easy-going, flexible, and friendly to almost everyone you meet.  Occasionally, you have a burst of separation anxiety, or sometimes you will try to hide behind Mama if you meet a new person, but mostly you are open to new people and friends alike.  You love Mommy so, so much and are always one of the most vocal welcomers when she comes home from school.  You also seem perfectly happy with Mama, although she is almost always with you, so it's hard to judge your reaction to being separated.  When you do stay with a babysitter during the day, you usually go to that person happily and also react quite happily when we get home.

Here you are sleeping with Mommy after her first day of work this fall:

One of your most favorite people in the world right now is your Apa.  You and he have an adorable love affair going on and you always light up when he is around.

And, you love all your grandparents and your great-grandmother and enjoy playing with them and babbling with them when they are here.  You got to spend some good time with both sets of grandparents this summer, which was nice for everyone.

Rosie, you are so loved.  Really, it's hard to imagine a baby ever being so adored.  You just light up our family with your sunny personality, your independent streak, your determination to be a big kid, and your rare but infectious belly laughs.  We are soaking up your babyhood - or is it toddlerhood now? - as much as possible, because we know how fleeting it will be.  We are so proud to be your moms, and, as always, look forward to what the next months will bring.

With all our love,
Mama and Mommy

Long days!

We are still in the process of adjusting to our new normal over here.  Things are going well, just lots of big changes all around. 

First of all, Sacha is getting used to her new blended class.  She's teaching second AND third grade - wow!  Having my hands full with three kids, I can't imagine how she keeps 28 kiddos occupied all day, and much less how she teaches them anything!  But, she is amazing and she's got things headed in the right direction.  She is at a school close to where we used to live, and we have a couple of families that we know who live in the neighborhood and who are sending their kids there, so she is already feeling part of the school community.  

Sacha and I have been making a really exciting pair in the evenings.  After we make it through the day, Sacha puts the kids to bed, I clean up, and then we watch an episode of Parenthood (our new addiction) and go to bed!  I know, thrilling.  Sleep is winning out over everything else at this point...

...especially because we have two regular nighttime visitors in our bed.  Rosie has a long-running bad habit of coming into our bed midway through the night, and we so far haven't been up for the challenge of putting her back into her own bed without waking up both the older kids in the middle of the night.  And, Mateo is adjusting to a lot with his new school schedule, plus he got badly scared by our trying to get him to watch an animated movie right before school started (yes, he is scared of every movie on Earth except for Cars), so he's been needing some nighttime companionship as well.  One day, we will all sleep through the night in our own beds, right?

Anyway, school is going well for Mateo, once he gets there.  He has been putting on quite a show in the mornings, and, as frustrating as it can be, I totally get it.  He's spending all day every day at school and he's with new kids, new teachers, and in a totally new place with brand new expectations.  Of course he's overwhelmed.  Luckily for all of us, he has been pulling it together once we actually get to school, so drop-offs have been pretty good.  That's a good thing for everyone, because it still breaks my heart to leave him there, even though he seems fine and I know he's having fun!  I miss him during the day and I think his sisters do, too.

Speaking of sisters, Natalia had a big breakthrough at school the other day.  She talked!  She had started the year off really well and interacted with other kids at school, but both times she did it were days that I was the parent-helped, so I was with her all day.  Without a familiar face there, she seemed to be sliding back into the more withdrawn kid that we saw all year at preschool last year.  This also just totally broke my heart.  I didn't want to be leaving her somewhere where she didn't feel comfortable, but, at the same time, I knew she was just adjusting and probably needed more time.  I picked her up from preschool yesterday and the parent helper pulled me aside to tell me that Tali had had a great day and had started talking and just wouldn't stop!  This was a big new step for her and Sacha and I were so proud of her.  It may not be a linear pattern, but at least we know that she is getting more comfortable there.  Whew!

Finally, Natalia and Rosie and I have been having a lot of fun together on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when we have no plans and Natalia gets to pick what we do.  We've gone twice back to the park in our old neighborhood to play, which has been fun.  It's not the biggest or most well-attended park, which is perfect for us!  Today, the baseball diamond had been overwatered and was full of muddy puddles, so I, being a mom of three kids who has let go of many of my expectations about cleanliness, let the girls have a wildly fun time in the mud puddles.  This started with them pleasantly stomping around and ended with Natalia sitting in the mud, getting dirt and water over much of her body, while Rosie attempted to eat dirt, water, leaves, rocks, and whatever else was handy.  Sometimes I wonder how I am going to survive her toddlerhood, but luckily, she is adorable even when she is attempting to eat dirt.  They got so muddy that I had to strip them down when we got back to the van!  Isn't that what childhood is all about anyway?

On that note, it's time for my early bedtime!  Here are a few photos of the girls from the past week.  Looking at these makes me realize I need to get more photos of Mateo at his new school. 

Oh, and one final thing:  we have been spending (literally) hours at Mateo's school every afternoon.  All the kids love the large playground and fir grove there, plus the elementary school library, so we have been picking him up at 2:50 and staying often until 4:30, just hanging out and playing.  I never expected to spend so much time at school after school, but it has been great.  I hope the trend continues and the weather stays nice so that we can enjoy some more time there before the rain and cold start!

Here are the photos:

Here's our ever-more-confident preschooler, holding forth about something:

Here's our most rough-and-tumble child, displaying the shiner she got from tipping over her push-toy when it hit a crack in our driveway:

Here she is again today, just a couple of days later, all healed up and with a new haircut:

And, finally, a funny portrait of me by Tali.  Not sure what I was thinking at this moment, but must have been complicated, whatever it was!

The woods

We had been planning to go on s family retreat with our church this weekend, but by the time the end of the week rolled around, we realized that Sacha and the kids were completely wiped out from their respective new schools. So, we decided to stay home and lay low.

Sacha hung out with the kids this morning while I went for my long run of the week. The half marathon is in a month, so I was up for 11 miles this weekend. I'm hopefully going to make it to 13 in a couple of weeks and then take the weekend before the race really easy. That's what I did last time and I was full of energy on race day.

Anyway, I had a great run up in the hills and got myself a coffee drink in the way home. When I got home, I found that Sacha and the kids had been harvesting tomatoes and potatoes from our garden. Not too long after that, Mateo and Apa went out for some boy time, Rosie and Sacha went down for naps, and Tali and I had an absolutely priceless conversation about where babies come from.

I don't know how it came up, but we started with our standard story about how babies grow in their mommy or mama's belly and their other parent's heart. We went through all the variations of that (how I grew in Grammy's belly and Grandpa's heart, how Sacha grew in Bubbe's belly and Poppa's heart, etc...) and then we got silly. She wanted to hear about all the silly places she could have grown, like in the refrigerator or the garden or in the car! She is just growing more delightful by the day and I was really glad to spend some one on one time with her.

After that, after everyone woke up and/or got home, we trooped out to visit Tali's school. It is in the lower level of a church, but it backs up to an amazing little forest and wetland area. We went to check out the trail that they hike in and to play in the shade. The kids all LOVE the forest there. It was fun for all of us, and particularly to see Natalia leading the way. I hope that, as we spend more time there, she will get more comfortable and branch out from her position in the sandbox during school hours.

Here are some photos of our gang of forest friends!









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First day = done!

Mateo had a great first day today!  The kids and I got ourselves together early this morning and drove Mateo to school, only to find absolute parking insanity happening when we got there.  We live only about 5 minutes from school and had left with plenty of time to spare, but arrived to find a huge traffic jam going into campus and then a massive, sports-stadium-like parking disaster inside.  The main parking lot was completely full and the overflow lot was also full.  There was literally nowhere to park, and people were circling like vultures looking for slots.  It became clear much later that there was an upper school convocation thing happening at the same time as the drop-off time for little kids and it just exceeded the parking lot's capacity.  Poor Mateo was getting very worried that we were going to circle forever and never find a space, but then, luckily, someone finally pulled out in front of us and we parked.  Whew!

We went in and there was quite a crowd there already, as the kindergarten and pre-K parents were all dropping off at the same time.  We found Mateo's cubby and shoehorned all his stuff into it (lunch, snack, water bottle, change of clothes, rain boots (necessary from day one because of the little manufactured creek that runs through their playground), and backpack).  Poor Natalia was completely overwhelmed by all the people, but she hung in there. Then, we went into the classroom, where Mateo's teacher greeted him and sat him down to play with wooden tiles along with all the other kids who were already there.

I could barely say goodbye to him because I was so choked up, but Tali and I both gave him hugs and wished him a good day and then we were out and his day had started!  He seemed completely fine - no tears or looking over his shoulder or anything.  It reinforced my gut feeling that he is totally ready for this.  We went outside to try to join the parent coffee, but Tali was overwhelmed by all the chatting adults and Rosie was trying out her loudest vocal inflections, so I ended up just taking them to the playground for a few minutes instead of talking to the other parents.

From there, the girls and I went on to have a full day.  We went to OMSI for the whole morning and part of the afternoon and then came home briefly to play before picking up Mateo.  I have to say, it was pretty jarring to go right from the emotional drop-off moments to regular, everyday mom stuff again.  I wish there had been some way for me to have a few quiet minutes to regroup before embarking on the day with the girls...but, that was impossible, and it did make it impossible for me to mope around feeling sentimental!

Tali and Rosie and I had a lot of fun together at OMSI.  I think Tali really liked being able to decide where she wanted to go and how long she wanted to stay at each exhibit.  I mean, I usually let the two big kids decide together, or alternate deciding if they're having a hard time, but I'm sure it was very different and fun to get to choose things completely on her own!  We stayed at OMSI for almost 4 hours!  Fun was had by all.  Rosie even held off on napping until 1 pm, when we left, which is way late for her.  She was asleep within seconds of getting strapped into her carseat!

Before we knew it, it was time to get our big boy again.  From what he said about his first day, it sounds like it was a resounding success.  He loves the school, his teacher, and is excited to have made a friend today.  His favorite part of the day was their visit to the lower school library, which we reprised after we picked him up.  Our book-obsessed boy practically dragged the girls and me straight there.  In fact, one of the most impressive things about the day, to me, was that the librarian greeted Mateo by name when we walked in after school.  I was so impressed that he remembered him after meeting him only one time!

Tomorrow is another day, and is going to be the first day when both big kids are in school at the same time!  I am hoping that Tali will have a good day at school, as she has been very quiet during her last couple of days there.  Here's hoping that she's just adjusting and that she will come out of her shell a bit more as time goes on.

Here are the first day photos of both kiddos.  I'm just so proud of both of them!

Tomorrow

Well, the big day is almost here.  Mateo starts kindergarten tomorrow!  He had his orientation today, in which we visited his classroom, did a scavenger hunt, got his picture taken, and met his teachers.  There are two main teachers, both of whom he will interact with, but his primary one is a tall, bearded, lovely man named Isaac.  Either teacher would have been great, but we are thrilled that he's going to have the male option, being largely surrounded by girls in the rest of his life.

I have been saying this to anyone who will listen, but I'll just say it again:  I cannot believe that we have already gotten to this point.  Wasn't he just an infant like five minutes ago?  It's not like the last almost-six years have flashed by, but somehow we've gotten here faster than I thought we would.  I'm sure this is just the beginning, with first grade, middle school, high school, and college being right around each successive corner!

Anyway, mixed feelings and all, I'll be dropping off our big boy around 8:20 tomorrow morning and he'll be off to the races.  I'm so excited for him and everything that he'll learn this year.  He's so ready for new things to learn, new kids and adults to meet, and a new place that he can start to call his own. 

There's a kindergarten parent coffee right after drop-off that I'm hoping to bring the girls to, provided I'm not weeping in the van!  Then, I guess we'll get started with our new Thursday routine, which is going to be one of the two days each week that I get with both girls together.  Natalia is going to get to call the shots a lot more this year, which I think will be really good for her.  She is growing up by the minute and I'm excited to spend some more focused time with her this year.  I can't believe that she'll be starting kindergarten in a year.  Ack!!

Meanwhile, Sacha had her first day with students today!  It sounds like it was a bit of a rollercoaster, but she got through it.  Moving down a couple of grade levels has resulted in having much younger, squirmier kids to teach!  Luckily, she knows that if she could teach kindergarten for a year (which she did when Mateo was a newborn), she can do anything.  Today, she had the good fortune of having her mom in the classroom with her, which she very much appreciated.  Sacha's dad was also here for the first couple of days of the week, so she had both parents helping get her classroom ready before the students came.  Thanks, guys!

I'll have first day of school photos to post tomorrow, of both older kids.  I have Natalia's from last week that I have been saving for this occasion :)  Wish us luck tomorrow!

End of summer

I have recently come to terms with the fact that I have written all I am going to about our Europe trip.  I kept thinking that I would finish writing about it, but it seemed overwhelming to try to reconstruct each day, especially when my mom had already done such a complete job with that in her travel letters...and I managed to post a bunch of photos of our travels on Facebook, as well as making a book for our family full of all the pictures we took, but, again, never managed to transfer them to the blog.  If anyone out there is (1) still reading this and (2) isn't friends with me on Facebook and (3) would like to see photos, leave a comment and we'll work it out!

In other news, summer is ending fast!  We have had an amazing summer.  It has been fantastic.  It would be hard to overstate how great it has been.  We have had time at home, time to explore our region and overseas, time with kids in day camps, time with our whole family together, and time to connect with both sets of our parents and my extended family.  It has been everything a summer should be and more.  The combination of sustained beautiful weather, our new play structure, and our suburban patio allowed us many, many lovely dinners outside while the kids romped in the yard.  And, because of some focused time in her classroom at the beginning of summer and at the end, Sacha hardly had to work at all. 

Suddenly, here we are at the beginning of the school year again, and it is going to be a big one for several of us!  Sacha is in a new position at a new school.  She's going to be teaching a blended class of two different grades.  She is back at work, organizing and setting up desks and madly studying the two different sets of standards and curricula. 

Mateo is going to be starting kindergarten on Thursday.  Our baby!  In kindergarten!  How can this be happening?  We're very excited for him, of course, and thrilled and relieved to have him in a school that fits him so well.  We played there this evening, peeking into the windows of his classroom and talking about all the things he might do in the coming year.

And, Natalia has already had her first week at her new preschool!  Again, cue the thrilled and relieved feelings that we have found a school that seems to be such a good fit.  It is a very small (12 kids in her class, with two teachers and a parent helper every day), nature-based school with a real live forest right across the parking lot.  They are based in the lower level of a church, with a cute classroom that has lots of opportunities for art projects and pretend play.  They also get to spend time exploring their wooded surroundings, which Tali has already enjoyed a lot.  Moreover, she has already befriended a couple of little girls in her class, which is really, really big for her.  She seems much more comfortable there than she did at her first preschool, and we hope that this will be a great year for her there. 

As for Rosie and I, we are going to get to spend lots of one-on-one time together this year, while the bigger kids are in school.  I'm looking forward to doing some of the baby/toddler things with her that I used to do with her older siblings, but haven't been able to do with her yet.  For example, we wil now be able to go to the storytime for one- and two-year-olds at the local library, to which I never could have brought all three kids.  I have to laugh a little at how overwhelmed I sometimes felt when Mateo was a baby, and how blissfully easy spending time with one baby seems now.  I guess it's all about perspective!

I'm also hoping to do some running during the days with Rosie in tow.  We got a jogging stroller this summer and I've used it a few times already.  I'm getting ready for another half-marathon in October and have had an easy time fitting in training time while Sacha has been home, but that is about to change!  Here's hoping the jogging stroller lets me get in some miles while the big kids are at school.

That's about it for now.  Happy end of summer and new school year to everybody!

Home!

We are home! We got back last night, after another marathon journey. We had a direct, 11-hour flight from Paris to Seattle, and then a several hour wait and a last short hop to Portland. Just as I suppose happens on any trip, we had some ups and downs. The ups included the wonderful behavior and patience displayed by our older children on the planes, and the lovely people that sat behind us on the long flight, who spent hours playing with Rosie through the seats.

The downs included Rosie throwing up all over the cab on the way to the Paris airport and the earth-shaking tantrum Mateo threw as we were trying to check in and go through security. People were actually stopping to gape at us.

Also, once we got on the plane, Rosie tuned up her earsplitting shrieking voice and spent much of the flight, when not eating, briefly sleeping, or playing with the people behind us, loudly expressing her displeasure at the situation. Yes, we were _those_ people with the obnoxious baby in tow, for a very long flight. I felt bad for the people around us, but we were doing the best we could.

But, we made it back. By the skin of our teeth, but we made it. We were really happy to see Apa when we got though security!! And, happier still to get home to our house. I couldn't stop humming "God Bless America." thankfully, we got home around 6, gave the kids some time to unwind and play, and were all in bed by 8 or so. Everybody but Rosie (surprise, surprise, I know!) slept through the night, and even she was only up twice.

We were up about 7 this morning, although by that point Mateo had been up since 5 and Rosie since 4, but everybody was mobilized by 7. We went out for bagels, mostly because we had no food in the house, and have spent the day unpacking and managing our crazed kiddos, who are certainly entitled to act a little crazy after all the change they have had in the past couple of days. I thought a big dose of caffeine would help me this morning, but, alas, it had very little effect. Hoping for a better mood and more patience tomorrow.

I spent some time earlier going through all of our photos and remembering the trip. It really was amazing and well worth the challenges that came along with it. We, both adults and kids, had all kinds of new and fun experiences, plus a lot of great family time. I feel like we really made the most of each place we visited, and that we did a good job of focusing on what would be interesting to the kids when we planned out our days.

Here are a few things, big and small, that I learned on our trip:

1. I love European coffee, and wow is it strong!

2. Natalia can sleep anywhere and is immune to jet lag, for the most part.

3. Sacha is amazing (which I already knew, but watching her navigate the trip and all the ups and downs just made me that much more impressed).

4. Going for a run in the south of France has got to be the most perfect thing ever.

5. Our kids are loud. Especially when they are supposed to be being quiet!

6. Tali despises agua con gas (fizzy water).

7. The Eiffel Tower is really very tall and I have no desire to visit the top.

8. One could get very used to regular dining at two- and three-star restaurants.

9. Attempting to visit Notre Dame in the middle of a mass with aforementioned loud children might not be a great idea.

10. Staying at a hotel near the Tuilleries, a massive garden and amusement park complete with trampolines and casual cafes, is an inspired idea (thanks, Mom and Dad!)

11. Our kiddos are flexible enough to hang with a variety of babysitters, regardless of their English abilities. We left them for seven evenings and one afternoon out of the two weeks we were there and they seemed fine with it. We had planned ahead and requested the same babysitter when it was going to be multiple nights in one place, so they had some consistency. It was also good that much of the babysitting occurred near or bedtime, so they were with us for the vast majority of their waking hours.

12. It was fun and good to experience other cultures and ways of doing things, and it also made us appreciate this country all the more.

13. We are ever so grateful to my parents for having the idea and inviting us along and making it all possible and taking such good care of us, and to my sister for making the time to be there. And, to all three of them for helping out so much and spending so much time with the kids. Sacha and I were pretty much chopped liver with Auntie E and Grammy and Grandpa around, which was fine with us!

14. Bringing a 15-month-old, a four-year-old, and a five-year-old on an international journey might have been the craziest thing we could have done, but we made it! (Before we left, I read a blog post that posited that kids who are a year and a half old are hardest to travel with, especially on long flights. That is TRUE. Wow, did Rosie give us, and the rest of the plane, a run for our money! I am endlessly grateful that she will be older next time we attempt a big trip.)

As we were boarding our first flight of the trip, I felt like we were at the top of a roller coaster with no way to get off! But, as Sacha said as we were descending into Paris, if we could do this, we can do anything, travel anywhere. Already, plans are being hatched. Not for anytime soon, though. For right now, all we want is our home, our beds, and maybe even, if we're lucky, a little sleep.

PS: Now that we are back and have a little more time, I am going to go back and add photos and blog about the second week of the trip. Not today - the Olympics are calling, if I can stay up that long! - but soon.

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The south of France

First, let me say that sleep is not going very well. Natalia stands alone among our children in her adjustment to our new time zone and I would like to publicly thank her for that! She has been staying in her bed all night since the first night, and, although she has had some periods of wakefulness, she has not needed one iota of nighttime support since the first night. Thank you, Tali!

Our other children, on the other hand, are vying for the title of Worst Jetlag Adjustment, having had periods of nighttime wakefulness of approximately two hours in length every night since we arrived. They are neck and neck rit now, with last night having been particularly bad for both. Needless to say, their moms are feeling like walking zombies, although a grandparent-assisted nap this afternoon did a lot for us.

I haven't thought this much about sleep since the various kids were newborns! I keep hoping every night that it will get better. I am hoping again for tonight. I would say that it couldn't get much worse, but i would hate to test that out!

Anyway, despite the sleep deprivation, we have been having a lovely time in Provence. We had quite the day getting here on Friday. We took an early taxi to the sweltering train station on Friday morning, wrestled our 100 pounds of luggage on and off of two trains, and attempted to keep our kids from running amok on said trains while slowly succumbing to motion sickness and lamenting our aging stomachs!

Then, my parents rented a mini van that truly was mini and we crammed all of us and all our stuff into it. We wound around the narrow parking garage until we got to the ticket taking machine, at which point we discovered that the rental company had forgotten to give my dad a ticket to get out! Oops. I was proud of all of us that we took it mostly in stride. My dad calmly backed the van into a corner and went to retrieve the ticket in the train station. Then, we were out and onto the streets of Nimes, France!

My parents did an admirable job of navigating and getting us to Les Baux, the area where our hotel was located. Sacha and I did our best in the back, but containing all three kids with only one belted in led to some lengthy moments of screaming, although I guess we were lucky that it was the kids wailing and not their parents!

We arrived at our hotel and checked in, got to our suite, and I laid down on the bed and burst into tears. I was so tired and carsick that I just lost it. Not the best moment.

However, I soon calmed down and started looking around and realized that we were in PARADISE. Seriously. Our room was gorgeous and smelled like lavender. The grounds of the hotel were beautiful and there was a deep blue pool. There were goats and even a small playground for the kids. There was an organic garden with tomatoes, eggplants, and even grapes free for the picking. And, the surrounding countryside was so beautiful as to defy description. Things were looking up in a serious way!

Since then, things during the day have been great. We have been having breakfast in the mornings on our little terrace. We have been swimming and lunching by the pool. We have been playing at the playground, visiting the goats, and having a couple of unbelievable dinners. Most of all, we have been soaking up the sun and having fun with my parents and sister, who joined us here from Boston. The kids are in heaven to have their auntie and their grandparents around all the time!

And...tomorrow we leave for Paris! We are a bit daunted by getting there, but also really looking forward to exploring such an amazing city. And, of course, experiencing the culinary adventure that my dad has planned.

More later, from Paris! In the meantime, good thoughts for us to actually sleep at night would be much appreciated!


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The last few days

We have had quite the last few days! We finished up our stay in Barcelona with a day of a bit more sight seeing and a return to the aquarium area, where I got to jump on a big bungee cord/trampoline contraption. That was really fun, but hard on my stomach, which has taken a beating since we have been here. At first, I thought it was just the effects of jet lag, but it has lasted much longer than I would have expected. I have been waking up every morning feeling sick, a feeling that fades gradually as the day goes on. It had been nice to enjoy our dinners every night, but I would prefer to just feel good during the day, too!

Anyway, today has been a little better, thank goodness. I hope it is the start of a trend.

So, our last day in Barcelona was good, although very hot, and we were all fading. We visited an outrageous cathedral called the Sagrada Familia in the morning, although the line was so long that we decided to just walk around the outside. It was very, very hot and our littlest traveling companion was really struggling. Despite all our efforts, she has not really adjusted to the time change, which has been rough on everybody. She has been wakeful at night and sleepy during the day, which is a cycle that perpetuates itself!

We bought ourselves some time by offering Rosa some slushies at the Sagrada Familia, which perked her up for awhile, and then headed over to the aquarium area, where I did the aforementioned jumping, the kids drove around some small motorboats, and then Sacha took the big kids back via taxi and my parents and I walked back with Rosie in the stroller, which caused her to take yet another nap.

We had some quiet time and then Janet the babysitter arrived so that the adults could go to dinner. She warned us that a big protest, presumably against the Spanish austerity measures, was about to come down our street, so we should leave now. In fact, just as we were leaving, we looked to our right and there was a HUGE demonstration starting just a few blocks down. As we gaped at the throng of people, we heard some loud booms and saw a cloud of smoke erupt over the protesters. We weren't completely sure, but thought it was probably tear gas. Ack! We thought it behooved us to leave quickly, which we did! Although, then we had some worries about our hotel and the tear gas and such, but it appeared that things were being broken up well before they reached our hotel. In any case, it was quite sobering and a dose of reality outside our tourist bubble.

We walked for quite awhile until we reached our restaurant, which was rated a two-star restaurant by Michelin. The juxtaposition of this and the people getting tear gassed just a couple of moles away was not lost on us.

However, dinner was absolutely amazing. Sublime, even. I hope I remember it forever! We took some photos of our food, which are trapped on my iPhone along with all my other photos. It doesn't seem to be communicating well with the hotel wireless network, but I will post them eventually!

Anyway, it was a stellar end to the first part of our trip.

We are now in the south of France at an incredible little hotel called La Cabro D'Or. We had a big day of travel yesterday, including taxis, trains, and a cramped rental minivan, which ended at last in the French countryside. We are about to go to dinner, so I will continue this tomorrow!


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First few days in Barcelona

So, we had landed in Paris and the most challenging part was behind us, or so we thought! In reality, that was true, but the last hours of our trip were pretty rough in their own right. We were just so tired by that point.

We got off the plane, and, guided by some advice from my parents, who had done the same thing the day before, we started looking for the gate for our last flight to Barcelona. It was in terminal 2F, which was right next to the terminal we were in. Easy, right? There was supposed to be a shuttle between the terminals, so we started following the signs to 2F while looking for the shuttle. We followed the signs religiously until suddenly our passports were being stamped, which seemed strange, since we weren't supposed to be going through customs until Barcelona, and then suddenly we were outside the airport. As in, in the place where people we waiting to greet international travelers. As in, outside of security. Ack!!

We regrouped, because we had no other choice, and walked through an eternal maze of corridors toward security. We got there and started through the line, but were stopped by a guard who motioned at our tiny umbrella stroller, which had been cheap but a crucial part of our plan to survive walking though Europe, and indicated that we couldn't bring it through. It was, he said, simply too big to fit onto the small intra-Europe flights in this terminal. After some hemming and hawing, we finally just ditched it and left it behind. We had to laugh, or maybe cry, when we got to our gate and found that we were getting onto a regular sized jumbo jet, with plenty of room for strollers!

We were all majorly cranky, hungry, and tired by the time we made it to the gate. Luckily, we had enough time for food, so we wolfed down some sandwiches and some fabulous French espresso, along with some yogurt for the girls and nothing for Mateo, who was losing it but refusing to eat anything.

The flight to Barcelona, once we finally got on it, was uneventful and proved me in thinking that we couldn't handle even one more minute of flying. We made it! We touched down in Spain, found our way to our bags, and located my parents outside the baggage claim with great relief! It was so good to see them after such a long journey. Two days, 14 hours of flying, not enough sleeping, but we had done it!

We got into two taxis and within about 20 minutes, we were checking into our room at the hotel. We had gotten our second winds by that point, so we tried to go to the rooftop pool, but it was crowded and there was no place to sit down, so we went back to our room and ordered room service.

It was then that Mateo showed us how truly tired he was. True to form, the kid who has never acted drowsy in his entire life was not sleepy. No, he was crazed. Practically hysterical. Jumping on the beds, getting loud and crazy, and unable to listen to any words about calming down.

Finally, mercifully, Sacha got all the kids into the bath, and then into bed, where the big kids passed out literally as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Turns out, all we needed was 14 hours in the air to land us the easiest bedtime ever!

Rosie was eventually convinced to sleep and Sacha and I weren't far behind. We should have been set for the night, right? We were all so exhausted that we should have slept for a long time.

In fact, no, our experience of jet lag was just beginning. The kids, all of them, were up and raring to go at 3:30 am. They were hungry and ready to get going! This was when I began to experience something akin to despair.

However, again, there was nothing to be done but to keep going, so Sacha and I took an hour at a time and pretty soon two hours had gone by and, miracle of miracles, Mateo was rubbing his eyes. I decided it was now or never, so I announced that we were taking a nap and the lights were going off. Thank God, it must have been some sort of divine intervention, the kids fell back asleep. We all passed out and woke up to find that it was 10:45 am! We had slept for five more hours!

Breakfast was closing at 11 am, so Mateo and I hustled down to eat, leaving the girls to snooze a bit longer. Having delicious Spanish coffee, good food, and good company put me on a high that lasted for the rest of the day. We had a truly magical first day in Barcelona. We walked to the harbor, visited a restored Spanish galleon ship, went on a merry go round, went to a huge aquarium, consumed lots of caffeine, walked back to the hotel, went out for an earlyish dinner at a nearby tapas place (the kids were losing it by this point, but held on for a delicious ice cream dessert after a very mediocre dinner) and went back to the hotel, where we all crashed for the night. Or, did we?

No, Rosa and Mateo had other plans. They both slept for about an hour and then woke up at 11 pm, raring to go. Again, cue the despair! I had wondered, before our trip, what our experience of jet lag would be, and, it turns out, ours involves wakeful children in the middle of the night.

Three hours later, at 2 am, after copious pacing around the hotel room with Rosie in the Ergo, she finally fell asleep. Mateo eventually followed suit, and their parents collapsed again. Again, we slept late and got up on Tuesday morning just in time for breakfast. We had another good day, although we were VERY tired and it was hot.

We visited Parque Guell, a Gaudi creation that is neat and also extremely popular. We ended up with a tour by a guy named Killian who was half Irish and half Chilean. We explored for quite awhile, until the heat finally did us in, at which point we returned to the hotel and stayed in the air conditioning for the rest of the afternoon.

We rallied at some point to go to a cafe down the street for ice cream, where Rosie continued her trend of eating everything in sight, polishing off my mom's entire ice cream sundae!

After another hour or so of down time, we rallied again for dinner at another, much better tapas place, where we ate an incredible quantity of food and drink and polished off four big desserts. Mateo was captivated by the cartoons on the tv, Tali was asleep on Sacha's lap, and Rosie was eating everything she could reach, so we actually had a pretty peaceful dinner!

And, to top it off, we finally had a night in which most of us actually slept! Rosie was still up for a few hours in the middle, but Sacha was in charge of her instead of me and she is much better at sleeping through interruptions than I am. Mateo, likewise, woke up when Rosie did, but was amenable to being cuddled in the dark and eventually fell back asleep. Again we awoke on Wednesday morning (today) late and got to breakfast around 10. This morning was much better, although Sacha and I still felt pretty wiped out from everything.

Today, Wednesday, we decided to hit the Barcelona Zoo, which was both fun and shady, which was welcome because it was, again, very hot. We saw an incredible dolphin show, a terrible sea lion show, and lots of other cool animals. Mateo expressed great concern over the "escaped" peacocks we saw wandering around and wanted to report them to the authorities! Rosie napped briefly in her stroller, although she was roasting hot and didn't snooze for too long. Around 3 pm, we had had enough of the heat, so we taxied back to our hotel and had some rest time.

Now, Sacha and my mom and the kids are playing at the park around the corner and I have been taking some time to write the longest blog entry ever!

A few final things - it has been wonderful traveling with my parents. We have all been having fun experiencing new things together and reminiscing about trips we took when I and my siblings were younger. We are in Barcelona until Friday morning, when we will need to mobilize early to catch a train to Les Baux, a place in the French countryside where we will stay for a few days and meet up with my sister. We are hoping to do lots of playing in the pool, eating, and checking out the goats that are supposed to be on the hotel's property.

Then, we will be off to Paris for a week of exploring and visiting fancy restaurants with my parents. Our kids will get to experience having French babysitters (well, just one if all goes according to plan) in the evenings. they will actually also have a Spanish babysitter tonight and tomorrow night, as the adults go out for a couple of late Spanish dinners.

We can't believe how lucky we are to be on this trip! We are hoping that the jet lag situation will continue to improve and that we will be able to be at least somewhat well-rested for most of trip...at least until we return to the States and do the whole thing in reverse!

Oh, and we have a stroller again, rented from the hotel. We are very happy to have wheels again to help with the kid schlepping!

More in a few days....


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