celeb

I would really like to be a celebrity for at least a week. I don´t think a day would be long enough, but I think more than a week and I´d be sick of people following me around and taking pictures of me while I pick up my dry cleaning, go to the gym, and decide which Campbell´s soup I´d like for dinner.

I think it would be fun to have your hair and make-up done every day. To have a closet bigger than the state of Texas and to have adoring fans praising you for your new hairstyle and fabulous sense of fashion.

I was watching Ellen and David Letterman yesterday and I gotta tell you..I think I could ROCK those shows...if you don´t mind the fact that I can´t act or sing or have any sort of talent really. I think the Kardashian´s plus Sara Fisel has a nice ring to it. I mean what the HELL do they even do? No Talent ASS clowns is what they are..yet they are famous. I can surely win someone over with my OK looks and amazing personality. No? Nothing? A girl can dream...

My parents cerca 1970

yes

It was just a phase! Loves her bath and is going to bed easy again...thank you LORD!

boo

Night time is starting to turn into NIGHTMARE around here!

All of the sudden N HATES her baths and screams the ENTIRE time while in the tub..seriously? She also cries for at least thirty minutes after putting her into her crib screaming MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMYYYYYYYYYYY the entire time...seriously?

WHY are kids really annoying sometimes? ha!

Also, how long did your kids eat baby cereal??????

7 years.

2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
That´s seven entire years of Spanish side Thanksgivings. You´d think that after SEVEN years I´d be over it...Thanksgiving? What´s that? But it still stinks in 2011 just like it did in 2005. Thanksgiving is such an AMERICAN holiday..no matter how hard my friends and I try to re-enact the day or the food or the atmosphere it will NEVER be the same.

At least we tried. And I´ll just keep on trying....

Regardless of where you are on this day may it be a special time with family and friends. Sure do have SO much to be Thankful for this year!!!!

Holiday Photo Shoot

Ah, pictures. I don´t think I´ve ever taken so many pics in my LIFE since N has been born. I love it though. I realized we hadn´t had any fam pics done since she was 3 months old so I asked my friend and wonderful photographer Anna to take some. Here are the results. I hope you like them and Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

21 mths

My Dear Nora, you are going to be 2 before I know it! You are weighing in at a hefty 31 lbs and you like to be carried everywhere...go figure! You are hating your stroller at the moment which is a real downer! Everyone kinda laughs at your hair cuz its wild..but I love it because it fits your personality. You have the cutest face in the world and your laugh melts my heart. You are super tall and everyone thinks you are 3...your shoes are size 7.. You have been getting your molars recently and this has caused a big interruption at night for sleep...you wake at 3 or 4 am crying..hope this passes soon. You've made the transition to one long nap in the afternoon which has been great. You have been talking so much more this month and I love when you say "good morning and love you mama" you are a ham and very sensitive...kissing everyone in sight saying "sorry" hahha. I love you so much and am so happy you're in my life. Xo mama

fly on the wall

I am so immature. I laugh at people tripping all the time and especially when I see people with their zippers down. That was so me yesterday at a party. I was leaning against the counter for a long time just chatting away and I realized my zipper was down.

AWESOME!

:(

My daughter is standing at the door screaming, ¨ABUELA¨ (grandma) and crying....makes a mama feel good!

20 max

I recently started a new class with some lawyers and found out that here in Spain the maximum punishment for any crime is 20 years. Imagine the most terrible horrible crime ever done to anyone and the longest anyone ever has to serve is 20 years.

I expressed how outrageous I thought this was and was surprised that they thought I was outrageous for feeling outrageous. They thought 20 years was perfectly acceptable.

WHAT??????

And then we started to talk about the death pentalty which is a whole different cup of tea.

What are your thoughts??

early bird

N was up too early today so I brought her to bed. I pretended to be asleep on my back and a minute later she crawled on top of me, grabbed my face, kissed my lips and said "morning mama." Guess she wasn't tired.

69

Coincidence? I think not. The number of children 1 woman had in Russia. More on this later...

advice.

If you have a blog and you have a kid..you have to know that 98.4% of what you write on your blog will probably have to do w your kid. We hope that other mothers out there in cyberspace will write us advice, or tell us they´ve been there, done that. It makes us feel better. For a little while anyways.

N has always been a good sleeper. Bath, book, milk, bed. ¨Night night! Love you, see you tomorrow.¨ Crib and zzzzzzzzzzzz.

The past two nights as soon as we try to put her in her crib she FLIPS OUT and clings to me like a newborn monkey. The past two nights I´ve had to rock her to sleep and the night before last she woke up hysterical from 3 to 5 am. Thoughts?

ROOM

Last week we had our first meeting. A friend of ours started a book club. How fun is this? I feel like an adult again. I got giddy getting on Amazon to order the book and Amazon is in Spain now...Amazon.es...YES!

We read a book called ¨Room¨ and it was good. I would suggest it:O)

Now I´m ordering our book for Nov called...¨When God was a Rabbit.¨ Sounds interesting and can´t wait to start!

end of an era..

Antonio lost his job when N was born. It was kind of a blessing in disguise. We´ve been like the three musketeers ever since. The three of us. Together. Always.

Tomorrow A starts a new course that starts M to F 8 to 2. No more three musketeers in the morning and I work in the evening.

I´m excited for him for this new adventure that will hopefully lead to a new job, but part of me is WAY sad that our time is up. We´ll still always be the three musketeers though, even if it is only on the weekends!

ramblings!

What a beautiful day today! Fall is finally here...it´s 70º and perfect! We took a nice long walk downtown and went to a beautiful garden w Nora. She saw a lot of huge carp in the pond and they had several peacocks which she got a HUGE kick out of. She was giving them her crackers screaming, ¨PEACOCK! CRACKERS!¨ Hilarious.

I am also SO happy because I am the proud owner of my OWN bike! I´ve been using the public bike system and it´s such a pain in the arse! Sometimes I am late for work and there are no bikes at the station or the chain is broken or the brakes don´t work or the seat is gone........and I swear I feel like I ran a marathon after riding when there actually is a bike...they are the bikes that you feel like you just peddled so that your legs are going to fall off and you moved..an inch. Terrible! So, A bought me a bike for 30 euros at the market last week and it was not looking good...but he FIXED it and it looks awesome...I call it my smurf bike because it´s blue and white. I rode it to work tonight and I felt like I barely peddled and I was ZOOMING down the bike trails with a fireball behind my tires and people were eating my dust. Or maybe that was them that turned to dust as I rode by? So excited!

Also, N usually goes to bed no prob alone. Crib, dolly, talks to herself for awhile and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Tonight she was hysterical crying and nearly LEAPED out of her crib into my arms and every time I was in the rocker in the fam room and tried to take her back to her crib she was clinging on to my shirt for dear life and would start to cry again. (weird!) I had a nice lovely dinner waiting for me that my husband had just prepared and I was HUNGRY but for some reason N needed some more cuddles tonight. So, I pulled her close (along with Dolly, Dora, Blankie and monkey...I think I had a daughter under there somewhere) and rocked that baby girl right to sleep. I almost got teary eyed thinking that she´s turning 2 soon and I need to enjoy EVERY SINGLE ONE of these minutes because there will be a time when she will no longer fit on my lap, no longer cling to her mama, and no longer want to be held close by me. So, in the meantime I will cherish these moments with everything I am!

I saw 2 lines!

Ok ladies, thanks for your comments. I feel better now.

So, funny story. On Sunday we got some coffee w our Spanish friends. After about an hour hanging out one of the girls casually mentioned that she thought she might be prego. She has a 3 year old daughter and was NOT trying to get prego at the moment beacause she likes to drink, smoke, she just lost a TON of weight, and she has some huge exams coming up in summer. She also said there was no way she could be prego because w the first one she stopped smoking cold turkey because the thought of tobacco made her sick. At any rate, she mentioned her period was 9 days late (and that it´s always on time) and that she had had sex like 3 times w out using any condoms.

While we are at this cafeteria her husband went out and bought a pregnancy test. Of course ALL of us four girls went into the bathroom. Funniest five minutes of my life. The girl that was taking the pregnancy test is a BIG germ-a-phobe and she was SOOOOOOO nervous to take the test because she didn´t want to be prego and she didn´t want to pee on a stick in a restaurant but we peer pressured her! She ended up SITTING DOWN on the public toilet seat w three of us watching her pee on a stick..her handing her friend the stick and me screaming THERE ARE TWO LINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (prego!) BUT the other girls COVERED UP the stick and were like ¨no, the directions say wait five min!¨ I´m thinking...is a line going to disappear? NO! Ya, she went to the doc the next day and..she´s prego!

I think she´s more worried about the germs that she caught from that toilet seat than she is the actual fetus growing inside of her belly...

blah

I haven´t been blogging because I feel like no one is reading. Is anyone out there? If you read my blog leave me a comment to tell me you´re alive and reading!

happy halloween!

Halloween is really catching on around here which I couldn´t be more thrilled about! I have so many fabulous and fun memories of Halloween as a kid and I want N to have that too.

Last night I took her dressed up in her ladybug costume to a friends flat. They have a giant courtyard and there were about fifteen kids there dressed up too. My friend had gone to about six neighbors before asking if they would be willing to dress up and hand out candy. Trick or Treat! It was really cute and fun until N fell off of a ramp onto her forehead and has the biggest goose egg in the world! Ah, good times good times.