American Holidays

Ok, I have been absent for a bit, but I just had to share this all with you:

One thing is to be able to buy ingredients and such to try and replicate a traditional American holiday such as Thanksgiving... another is to be marketed to directly...when there is no such celebration in Spain at all!!!

I suppose I will give it about 3-5 years and we will start to see Spanish adaptations of Thanksgiving (Día de Acción de Gracias). Afterall, they are beginning to embrace Halloween even if it isn't socially accepted in all circles... and Santa Claus (Papá Noel) has found his place on the store shelves between the Belénes (Nativity scenes) and Reyes Magos (Three Kings).

Who knows??

A Toddler's Busy Social Life

When I was single, I needed a planner/agenda to keep my professional and social life straight.

As a married woman, I found modern technology to be helpful with a shared online calendar with DH and a PDA that could be synchronized with my agenda in my computer.

As a mother, I am about to pull the hair out of my head! I don't know how to keep it all straight. The playgroup that I started for AR is on summer hiatus, like the rest of Spain. However, we have joined another one which meets twice weekly during the summer. Our playgroup will enter full swing in September with a rhythm and music class planned as well as a repeat visit to Burrolandia. There are discussions about starting dance classes in English as well. Anything to get AR communicating as much as possible in English.

Apart from the playgroups we have the playdates and the birthday parties and trips to Safari Madrid. Forget Mommy's social life. She is too busy keeping AR's social life under control.

In addition to his social life, he has a busy traveling life as well. In getting ready for a trip to Russia, we've had to renew his Spanish passport...already!! And the boy has been around with at least 3 trips to the USA under his belt in his young life. Now Russia... Ah, the life of an expat's child. And that isn't counting the number of kilometers he has logged in various road trips with Mommy and Papá ... a couple of times to Soria, to Valencia, Segovia, Toledo, around Madrid Community, and soon to the Sierra de Francia. We will be heading there for a long weekend and it's my job to plan and organize the trip. It will be AR's first tent camping adventure!

We will come back just in time to celebrate the annual festivities of San Sebastián de los Reyes. This will be AR's second time at these encierros. It has been an annual event that my father-in-law loves to go to. We can't let him down this year!!

Seven Long Years

Well, I finally did it! After seven long years, I finally busted out and dusted off my rollerblades! Can you believe it? At 40 years of age, I am finally skating again! It's about time, I say. My saddlebags or "cartucheros" as they are called in Spanish were getting the better of me. You can blame only so much on pregnancy and motherhood.

I am out of the blaming mode and into the action! Of course, the first time out of the gate I had to fall and skin my knee. Well, skin my knee is putting it lightly. More like skin all the layers of the skin off my knee!

Next step, to convince DH to invest in bicycles so we can take advantage of the wonderful bike path that winds through our neighborhood. Certainly AR will enjoy riding on the back of one of them!

Umbrella, car, bus, OK! And the words come tumbling out!

AR is at an age where the experts say that the words come tumbling out for monolingual kids.

Since he is being raised bilingually, he has twice the amount of words to process and learn as a monolingual child. Needless to say his linguistic production is a bit behind the monolingual kids his age. However, being a first time mom, I can't help being a little over anxious about the situation, worried that he will get left behind (but intellectually knowing that he won't). Fortunately, through conversations with friends of bilingual children, I see that he really is on track. Added to the complication of being bilingual, according to his pediatrician, it's quite normal for celiac children to lag behind other non-celiac children their age. Should I breathe a sigh of relief or just worry some more??

How many of you understand baby talk? You know, the unique way toddlers have of expressing their wants, needs and desires (between emotional meltdowns). Sometimes real words, sometimes their own words. Difficult huh? Especially if it isn't your child. Now try understanding baby talk from a child who speaks a different language. Ha!

How many of you understand Spanglish? You know, that unique way that some (U.S.) Latinos speak among themselves effortlessly blending English and Spanish in the same sentence. Now try understanding Spanglish baby talk!

That's the language of AR! It really is quite amusing and you need to be a cryptologist to figure out what he is saying at times. For the most part I understand him because I have the advantage of understanding Spanish and being his mother.

His word for train is "tah-tah". We don't know if it is Spanish or English. One day we were waiting for the surface level metro when he suddenly said "ahí tah tah tah ahí ahí tah"! He was clearly excited as the train came slowly to a stop. To others it might have sounded like babble, but his mother clearly understood his Spanish/English/babytalk. Of course he was saying "Ahí está el tren/the train. There! There it is!"

This really is a fascinating ride!

Five Trips

Five trips. Five magical trips. What can you do in five trips? Five was the average number of trips I made to Spain each year when DH and I were "dating". Five also represents the number of trips I usually make back and forth to the car when I return from grocery shopping alone.

But now five trips means something else for me. Five trips means irreplaceable tenderness. The other night DH and I were sleeping soundly in bed. I was dreaming, but don't recall what I was dreaming about. All of a sudden I felt a soft "plop" between my hubby and I. I was stirred from my sleep as I heard the pitter patter of little feet run up then back down the hallway. Then, another soft "plop"....then more pitter patter of little feet. This situation repeated itself five times. After the fifth soft "plop" and pitter patter of little feet I felt the covers of the bed slowly slide down from my shoulders. There was a bit of a struggle and then there he was... our little guy snuggled between DH and I along with Elmo, Bear, Doggie, Perro and Carlos the Caballo (we weren't very original in the names department) and of course his nana (blankie). He has taken to sneaking to our room in the middle of the night lately. But this was the first time he made so many trips to bring all of his little friends with him. It's a good thing he didn't decide to lob his large plastic truck that he likes to sleep with over the side of the bed as well. Five marvelous trips.

my little guy

Who needs a dog when you have a burro??

AR's playgroup (Northern Stars) took a trip to Burrolandia, an animal sanctuary dedicated to saving the Spanish burro which is running into danger of extinction. Needless to say, a good time was had by all!

Spring Is In The Air

Some sure signs that spring is just around the corner in Spain:

Melon wrapped in ham appears as one of the appetizer choices on the menú del día.
Strawberries with whipped cream appear on the dessert menu.
The baby bucket brigade begins to show up at the park
It stays light out until 7:30-8pm.

A Tribute to Pretty P.
Pretty P., Ravashing R. and Beautiful B. That was our gal-pal group. We spent many a nights together having fun in Old City. In fact, our catchy nicknames were given to us by the parking lot attendant. Those were our single days when we were all living in the Philly area. Hard to believe just 7 years later two of us not only not live in Phila but we live in different countries! Add to that two of us now being married with children. So, we have added Adorable A. and Enchanting E.

All of these fun names are to the credit of Pretty P. who was always really effective at scoring a discount at the parking lot with her demure smile.

Catching Up on Life

Wow, almost a year has passed since my last post. Where does time go? I suppose I keep pretty busy with work, the dining club and the playgroup. One friend asked me how I keep up with everything...well now you know...sometimes things just slip through my fingers.

Celiac Disease
I suppose the "big news" since I last posted is that AR has been diagnosed celiac which has forced us to rethink our eating habits. Celiac, for those unfamiliar with the disease, is an intolerance to gluten, a protein found in wheat and other main grains...specifically: rye, barley, and oats. "Safe" grains for AR are rice and corn among a few other lesser known grains.

Initially we thought the transition to gluten free was going to be difficult. However, with just a few minor adjustments and the help of the ACM (Asociación de Celiacos de Madrid) food guide we develop our weekly shopping list around the brands that have certified their products gluten-free. What also helps is that we don't have the habit of buying many prepared foods. Most everything we eat is prepared from scratch which means less preservatives and other gluten-containing ingredients. I have learned to make gluten-free muffins which have become AR's favorite. As soon as he sees the cookie jar filled with them he doesn't want to eat anything else for breakfast.

The road to his diagnosis was a long one and started when he was just 8 months old and demonstrated serious digestive problems. More serious, however, was the plateau he hit in his growth chart. He literally stopped growing for a few months. All of this occurred around the time that we started him on cereal. After various blood tests and on other investigations, a test for intolerance to gluten came back positive and our pediatrician sent us to a specialist who then recommended the biopsy of the small intestine. This was the defining proof that AR is intolerant to gluten. However, it doesn't end here. Around 6 years old we will have to re-introduce gluten in his diet and then run tests again and check his tolerance.

Bilingual Babbling
AR's vocabulary and verbal skills continue to grow. He has begun to produce 2-3 word sentences, primarily in Spanish but a couple in English as well. His English is a bit weaker, but that is to be expected. Eventually he will get better. I continue with his bedtime routine of reading him 3-4 books. He also has the chorus of Row Row Row your boat down pat and loves to sing it with both Mommy and Papá.

The Northern Stars English Playgroup has also been a big help to his linguistic development. At least that is what I think...and perhaps I am a bit biased since I started the group. We are now about 50 families strong who get together on a monthly basis to "play" in English. There is a nice core group of families who participate regularly and it has been wonderful developing friendships with others going through the same challenge of raising a bilingual child. Most of the families are following the OPOL method so that makes it even easier to compare notes.

Future Plans
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.... isn't that a blast from the 80's past! We are trying to be optimistic and plan ahead. There will be big changes for one of us in terms of employment so with that in mind we have decided to look into other entrepreneurial ventures. Do keep tuned as we move ahead with our development and share details here!

Wishing everyone a wonderul Easter!