Three years on

This was three years ago. Our first trip to Madrid in the winter with Elisa. It feels like more time has passed and yet, sometimes it feels like yesterday. Elisa was almost 18 months--the same age as Carolina is now. We were still figuring out how to adjust to traveling with a child and how to enjoy ourselves in the midst of all the unknowns. So much of parenting is about routine. But what I learned by traveling with Elisa was that sometimes it's good to be thrown for a loop. It helps you see what is essential and what you can do without. I'm glad both of my girls have the opportunity to travel as much as they do. I hope they never stop.

Madrid!

It's the end of January, so we must be in Madrid. This is our 4th year in a row coming to Spain in the cold of winter, but with flight loads so empty it's worth it. So on Monday evening we took off and now that we've made it through the first cold day, I think I can say the traveling is getter easier.  The girls did pretty well on the 6 hour flight and we all napped a bit the first afternoon. Elisa was overjoyed with her gifts from the Three Kings and has barely taken her Snow White costume off. Carolina didn't exactly rock her night time sleep, but she made up for it by staying down til 1:30 p.m. The fact that Mercedes had churros ready and waiting for me when I woke up was another bonus. Have I mentioned here how much I love that fried dough? We visited with the cousins this afternoon and tomorrow we'll hit the city. Looking forward to lots more family meals and maybe a night out with Nacho if we're lucky. It's a bit far to travel for a date night, but hey, sometimes you just have to go for it. More soon!

Ice Festival

Sometimes in January you need incentive to get out of the warm, coziness of the apartment and brave the elements. So when I heard about the Central Park Ice Festival last weekend, I thought this could be a good outing. We get to wander through the park, see some ice sculptures, drink hot cocoa and head home. Easy peasy. And it kind of was. Except that the wandering took much longer than I anticipated. Carolina was enjoying her newfound freedom from the stroller a bit too much and took forever to make it down the Poet's Walk. We finally found Elisa a bathroom at the Boat House after much moaning and one closed restroom and then of course the automatic toilets kept flushing and she didn't want to go. By the time we made it to Belvedere Castle near the Great Lawn, the festival should have been in full swing.  But an hour and a half of sculpture time proved too soon and the block of ice still looked like, well, a block of ice. And when I approached the table for the "free" hot cocoa, they said it would be a half hour while they restocked. Ugh. This was starting to prove worthless. But I did manage to take Elisa up to the top of the castle while Nacho stayed put with a wailing Carolina.  I include these details only to remember how it really was. The highlight of the day being the walk through The Ramble as we headed to Shake Shack to make amends for our meager outing. And that burger definitely made up for a lackluster park outing. Even eating it on a bench in the cold outside the Natural History Museum. Sometimes, you just have to try. And we did. Now back inside where it's warm!

Where we're at

Some days I feel like the luckiest mom in the world because I get to be home with this girl. Even now that the tantrums have started and the shrieking can get out of control, she is still the sweetest. And she loves to cuddle when it's just the two of us. After nap she will sit in the crook of my arm or lay on my chest for a bit while we hang out on the couch.  She makes it so easy to play because everything delights her...until it doesn't.  But somehow even in her anger, she is funny. Her frowns and throwing spells have accelerated lately which must mean she's got some of her sister's temper. But it's still nothing compared to Elisa.  She really broke me in. I must remember to thank her some day because truly nothing fazes me now.  I see this toddler stage for what it is which is fleeting. The words are coming. They are almost here. The physical frustrations will give way to verbal ones soon enough. But for now, it's like playing with a mime all day. A very cheery mime.

When Elisa was about this same age I got laid off. It was a shock, though maybe it shouldn't have been.  Work just didn't have the same pull for me, and I was never in the right place at the right time.  I didn't know it then, but getting canned was the best thing that could have happened to us as a family. It gave me back some sanity and helped us forge a path ahead as a couple with a child. We were just becoming a family and being home to take care of everyone was a joy and a relief. I learned I could be good at that which made our happiness grow. And now, three years later, we have added to this mix, but found more balance. I feel we are in a safe little groove right now and I just want to protect it and cherish it. 

Because as comfortable as I feel right now in this routine of preschool drop offs and pick ups, I know it will all be changing soon enough. Last weekend I took Elisa for the Kindergarten G&T admissions testing at one of the public schools in Astoria. It was the first hurdle in a long process toward figuring out where she will go to school next fall. And I have no idea how it went, but I've lowered my expectations accordingly. It's not even a program I'm sure I'd want her to get into.  My sincere hope is that we get the Dual Language program at our zoned public school, P.S. 150.  That would be amazing.  But otherwise, I will just have to wait and see how things shake out. I can already tell it's going to be a long six months of making decisions and second guessing things.  That's just how I am.  But in the end, it will all be fine. It's only Kindergarten. I know that. And yet, for the first time this week, I realized it was so much more. I can't believe that Elisa is already here on the cusp of real school. She's come so far from that little girl I played with during the winter of my discontent.  I can see that now. And just as I do, I realize this other little girl won't be sitting in my lap for much longer. So I took a picture. I hope it never fades. 

Los Reyes Magos

Before the holidays fade completely, I have to commemorate our first annual celebration of January 6th or Three Kings' Day.  For a while now it was bothering me that Nacho didn't get to honor his own family's traditions around the Christmas holidays.  In Spain the 6th, also known as Epiphany, is the day you receive your gifts in honor of the three wisemen who bestowed Christ with gifts. So naturally, the night of the 5th is akin to Christmas Eve and full of anticipation of the visit from the three kings.  Kids go to bed early leaving out a shoe for the magi to fill with sweets alongside a few presents. Now that Elisa is old enough to appreciate this tradition (and what kid wouldn't want another day of gifts?), I think we both realized it was time to start going through the motions. We aren't a religious household so explaining Christ and the three kings is a little tricky. But I guess there's something about the traditions of your childhood that makes it easy to go along with the whole story. It just feels good. So a few weeks ago, we found a Mexican bakery in Corona, Queens that had the Three Kings cake, or Roscón de Reyes, for sale and made a special trip out there to get one. It was fun to see all the people out and about on that special night preparing for the next day. We made it home and Nacho laid out the cake and some very nice scotch for our thirsty kings to enjoy....

And then there was the next morning's surprise of finding candy and presents awaiting them on the couch. Elisa got a couple of small gifts she'd talked about since Christmas and Carolina was happy with a few odds and ends--and dum dums. Did I mention the suckers? Oh yes, we are firmly in the suckers for toddlers camp.  It all started so much sooner this time. But there you go. Candy and cake and all the excitement of another holiday morning, so you might as well go with it. And since our friends Carmen and Leonardo are also celebrating the three kings, we invited them over to have some cake. Fortunately, the roscon had not one, but two kings baked inside so each kid got to be the "king" for the day thanks to my clever cutting and spotting of the prizes. 

And later, Nacho even took Elisa off to see a Three Kings' Day Parade in Williamsburg, Brooklyn which wasn't that great, but I think he was glad he tried. The much bigger and better parade sponsored by El Museo del Barrio in Harlem was on Friday the 4th which made it difficult to attend. Maybe next year we can check it out. But for our first celebration, this was good enough. There's always room to improve!

The Marbles Museum

So before I pack up the holiday posts entirely, I have to write about a couple of things. First, we were still in North Carolina for New Year's Eve so we opted to take Elisa out for a little "Noon Year's Eve" action at the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. It was a great space with lots of clever interactive displays, and I think leaving Carolina back home to nap while we played was a great idea. Sometimes just taking Elisa out and about is so much easier.  Stace and Mark joined us and I think they did a fantastic job of living through the eyes of a 4 year old again because, let's face it--it's been a while.  Every activity was indulged as we watched Elisa raced from collecting balls in the piggy bank area to wearing a tutu in the dance studio and playing with the polar bear cut outs in the waterworks. She climbed a pirate ship, steered a submarine and even commandeered a city bus. She pretty much owned the place. And this museum really offered a lot of choices which was great and kind of unexpected for a place this size. To be honest, I think every family in Raleigh was there that day and it still didn't feel too crazy. We missed the confetti and ball drop by just a few minutes (Elisa didn't want to wait), but that gave us a little quiet time to see some of the rooms before the crowds swelled again. 

And after a couple of hours, we were ready to hit the coffee shop nearby for lunch and then head on back to Stacey's house for the rest of the NYE celebrations.  Turns out we played Apples to Apples while drinking heavily and Mark made us all homemade pizzas which was more fun than I could have expected elsewhere.  Oh, and the girls were already asleep at that point so it was a double score. Yes, I look forward to the days when I can let them play and stay up for the big ball drop, but for now, they need their beauty rest. And so do I. We counted down the clock at 11 p.m. which was just fine by me and 20 minutes later I was in bed--a perfect start to the new year since I plan to make "MORE sleep" my number one resolution!

Happy New Year!

I never really believe the year has changed until I have to write a check. Is that weird? Somehow it's in the writing and thinking hard about what day it is that gives me a moment to appreciate the newness.  And it always signals my birthday is near (one week to go!) which is also fun and new. Today we are traveling back to NYC and I will miss hearing Elisa bouncing from family member to family member starting every sentence with "[Insert name], can I tell you something?"  She always waits to make sure they say yes which is both funny and incredibly annoying. But that's where we are right now. She's definitely mellowed a tad bit in the last few months. So far, 4 is looking much better than 3. And that's a good thing because Carolina is only ramping up for the full glory of toddlerdom.  I love the line in the newest season of my guilty pleasure Downton Abbey where Dame Maggie's character says about chaperoning her grand-niece "I forgot about parenting...the on and on-ness of it all." And that's exactly how I feel right now. It's so on and on...all the time.  But I predict the year ahead will bring some big changes in our home life or at least the structure of things. I hope to find work sometime in the new year--maybe after summer when Carolina is 2 and can start a local nursery school and Elisa will begin Kindergarten. And even in writing that, I am amazed I am at this place. I feel very fortunate to be a mom twice over and to have a great partner in life. We will be heading out to visit our family in Spain in a few weeks time and that brings another reminder that life is about being with the ones you love. I hope we have lots more of that this year. For me, the number 13 has always been a personal favorite of mine and I'm hoping this means a banner year. Only time will tell.