I don't want to forget... from the month of April.

Sam is pointing at everything now. He strains against me, his whole body reaching out to what he's seen, little index finger stoutly pointing, every fiber of his being riveted on the object of his attention. The bear! Those three portraits. They had been Lara's when she was a baby. Now as I'm getting him dressed he repeats his solemn "ohs" over and over as he gets a glimpse of them over my shoulder. The bear finding the three eggs and showing them to the hedgehog. "Oh". The bear jumping into the water, splash!! and sending the poor fish into a backward summersault. "Oh, oh." Point, point. The bear swimming in the water - look! There are the three ducks. One, two, three. "Oh." Point. Smiling. He loves that bear. And the three owls too. The green one, the purple one and the blue one. "Oooh." He pats the box the owls are painted on, and they stare back at him in a rather friendly way with yellow unblinking eyes.


This week has brought new second hand bikes for the older children. Paul's red bike was getting hopelessly small for him and Lara, although her biking stlye is, shall we say, a little more serene than Paul's, also needed an upgrade. She is growing fast and her long legs were almost reaching her chin!


Paul has entered into a new biking dimension now - with his double suspension and 7 speeds, he controls the bike remarkably well for his age, and will grow into it soon. He hops around on one foot while he tries to sit on the seat now, and then he's off - who knows when his feet will touch the ground again.

Today was Father's Day - it has been beautiful. We had pancakes for breakfast with letter pancakes spelling out Papa for Dani, complete with Nocilla, sprinkles and whipped cream. We had a special lunch of hamburgers with all the toppings and French fries. The children presented Dani the cards they had made - Lara's a funny story about her as a baby and choosing her father, and Paul's with big letters complete with glitter. Lara read out the poem I wrote for Dani, and it was a general success - we all felt the love going around.

Early evening

Mmmmm... It's half past eight and the babies are sleeping... What am I going to do with so much time in my hands before dropping into bed?

Dani is making supper. Hamburgers and chips. Something fast and easy. And then a niiiice warm shower. I'm already blogging, so that's taken care of. :-)

Anecdote of the day: Paul sucked his fist the whole time he was in the bathtub, oblivious to his hair being shampooed and Lara throwing cupfuls of water on his tummy.

As you can see, I'm not too inspired today. But I thought I'd leave today's footprint for posterity... a normal, nothing-real-interesting-has-happened day.

Oh, yes. We went to Parc Catalunya and took Lara for a ride on the bike. We took turns, being with Paul in the pram (not in with him, pushing him around, of course) and riding the bike. Lara enjoyed it immensely!

WHAM

That's what my head is going to do - wham - when it hits the pillow. Mmmmm, can't wait. So, this is going to be a short one!

Anecdote of the day: Dani prayed as usual before starting breakfast, and when he was done, Lara wouldn't let go our hands and said, quite rebuckingly, "Food!!". Dani had prayed and given thanks for pretty much everything except... the food. We were quite tickled that our little tot had to remind us.

A few recent pictures:

Lara playing with Tiet Roger's blocks

Happy Paul

Morning scene

Family dinner

Whew!! All went well. We were over 30 people (we ate at a restaurant in Barcelona), all descendants of my father-in-law, Martín Valcárcel, and his siblings, plus extended family. It was funny because most of us didn't know each other... especially in-laws with other in-laws!

Paul slept most of the time (he actually pulled a 6-hour on me) and Lara amused herself with her books while adult conversation droned on. I had "Boeuf Bourguignon", not sure about the spelling - a delicious French stew with bull's meat (proper name for that?). I saw it on the menu and thought I would try it because they made a great deal about it in the movie "Julie and Julia", which I watched a couple of days ago... By the way, it's a great movie. I killed myself laughing. Meryl does a wonderful job, as usual.

Anecdote of the day: Lara woke up at 10:30 am today... she slept 14 hours straight!! What a luxury. She woke up all bright eyed and bushy tailed with her usual "Firerruck!! Indian ride!!" expletives.

I shall go now and read a book. Something I haven't done for ages.

Bathtime

And here is a photo from yesterday's bathtime... Lara was showing Paul the owange and gween balls :-)

It is 10 am and Lara is still sleeping... what a luxury! Paul is crooning in his baby chair... And today we have the Valcárcel clan's dinner at Barcelona! Will tell you about it...tricky business with a toddler and a baby! Hope they behave :-)

This time it's for real... honest.

Okay, I know you think this will be short-lived and that I won't post anything else in the next year or two; but I have firmly resolved, and call it a New Year's Resolution if you want, to write something every week at least.

Not only to keep up a blog, but perhaps also for the mere sake of writing... something which I enjoy thoroughly but have so little time to do. Well, I shall make the time then.

For instance, this evening we put Lara and Paul to bed at the same time... 8:30 pm. I had supper already made (zuchinni, potato, leek, and carrot cream soup, and some ham and cheese sandwiches that Dani volunteered). By the time we finished, it wasn't even 9 pm. So... a whole evening ahead of me! And the clothes are folded!! The dishes are in the dishwasher!!

I managed to get up to date on Facebook - an arduous task when you haven't been on it since yesterday. But those of you that have the immense honour of being part of my 100,000 friends will see that I more than made up for my inexcusable 24-hour long absence.

Funny anecdote of the day: Lara was reading her abc book, and the letter K had a picture of a kettle. So after hesitating for a minute, she read... "K is for... Kea-pot!" She doesn't know what a kettle is... but it looked a lot like a tea-pot!!

We bathed them together today... Lara enjoyed it. He did too... crooning and smiling the whole time!

Recipe of the day: I made the spaghetti sauce with onion fried in butter, bacon, a tiny bit of tomato sauce to give it colour, and cream. Yummy!

Until the next, readers.

Wet Behind the Ears

He may seem to be apprehensive about his first exposure to my blog, but he's actually just not too sure about his first bath experience. He is a little wet behind the ears in both regards... But welcome, Paul, to Mama's blog, and to your bathtub.