Thoughts from the road...

We've been in Spain for almost a month now and the time has really flown by. Between tooling around with my nephew in Nerja and Barcelona, showing him a bit of Madrid and relaxing with the family around the pool in Encinar, the days have just been eaten up. Nacho arrived just over a week ago and that too has kept the wheels in motion. The constant in all of this is that traveling with a toddler takes a certain amount of planning and good timing. And though we aren't moving around the country much at all and we're fortunate to stay with family the whole time, it still means that I am a bit of a fish out of water when it comes to planning her meals, shopping for her and generally knowing what the family has in store for us day in and day out. Before Elisa, I didn't mind too much not knowing what was going to happen, but these days that can really throw a wrench in things. Case in point, today we came to Madrid and thought we had a crib all mapped out, but it failed to materialize for Elisa's nap. Anyone who knows her, knows that the girl doesn't just pass out, so it was only after a lengthy struggle that she settled down on the floor for long enough to call it a siesta. Not great, but better than nothing in a pinch.

And while I'm not one to plan too far ahead on any given day, it can definitely be a struggle to go with the flow when things start to feel too foreign. Because, let's face it, the way we parent in America--as varied as it can be--is still a long way from how others do it in Europe and beyond. And there's a generational gap here that reminds me more of how my grandparents probably raised kids. There's a certain hands off-ness that I can appreciate intellectually, but find it hard to live by. Letting Elisa go solo on a flight of stone steps treacherously steep? Naw. Letting Elisa saunter around the pool's edge without someone to hold her hand? Nope. Am I a helicopter mom afterall? Luckily, I have caught most of the oversize or inappropriate food samplings given to Elisa (whole almonds and peanuts, whole olives, large chewy pieces of dried chorizo). And Elisa has only fallen face first in the pool once and that was with me by her side (go figure). But somehow, I am beginning to feel the fatigue of being Elisa's safety net and interpreter. Maybe I just really miss all of our friends and my fellow moms back in NYC where I at least know what's for lunch? It feels somehow rude to moan about a vacation like this when I realize how very fortunate we are to be here and to be able to spend this amount of time with our relatives. But there is a kind of nostalgia for home and for the ways you know that always creeps in when you travel. I guess traveling with a child is really no different. So now I'm longing for those easy mornings at home, fixing eggs and biscuits, and hitting the park for a while just to see who shows up. Oh, September, how I can't wait to see you again...