Fallas, Papú and the Eggs

Eric has been keeping very busy over the last several weeks.  Between family visits, Fallas, trying to clear out the garden, and taking care of the hens, he has been having a great time.  He's definitely becoming a big boy.  No only does he speak more every day, but he also tries to help me out more and more at home all of the time.

Fallas lasted much longer this year.  Well, to be fair, it's not really that the fiesta lasted longer, but it seemed that way because Mauri was free for more days of the fiesta than he has ever been before, meaning that we were free to participate in more of the fiesta this year.

In Spain, they have been debating changing some fiestas so that they will be celebrated on the nearest Monday, thereby assuring a weekday holiday which is connected to a weekend, preventing the formation of holiday "bridges."  Holiday bridges are formed when, for example, a holiday lands on a Tuesday, causing many companies to make Monday a holiday, too, so that they can have a long weekend off.
San Jose, the holiday that the Fallas fiesta is based upon, the day that concludes the fiesta, and the day that includes most of the activities, happens to be one of the debated holidays.  Being a fiesta that is based upon tradition, though, there was a lot of opposition to changing the day of the holiday.  San José, or Saint Joseph's day, follows the catholic saint's calendar, meaning that it is always the 19th of March.  It doesn't really make much sense to observe the holiday on the nearest Monday when you consider the tradition of fallas.  If it were done that way, in a year, like this year, when San José falls on a Tuesday, either the fallas would have to be burned on the day before the actual day of San José, or most people would be expected to work on the biggest day of the fiesta.  With such a large percentage of the population participating, it would be difficult (and illogical) to make the change.  

So, instead of changing the fiesta to Monday, the Valencian Community decided to make an official holiday bridge this year, and they gave us the 18th of March off.  Mauri had off Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and we were able to participate in a lot more of the fiesta than ever before!
The Friday before the weekend of fallas, Eric and I went on a fun field day trip with the kids of the escoleta.  We got to ride on the "chiqui-tren" again, moving from falla to falla on the touristic city "train." It was a lot of fun, but ended up being exhausting for Eric, and he started to fall asleep on our trip back to the school.

On Saturday, we got a family visit when Aunt Carmen and Uncle Roberto from Spain dropped off Eric's Grandpa and Tía Diana.  So, instead of heading out to check out the fallas, we took the day off and went out to eat.  The amazing thing about eating at a restaurant near the beach was that instead of running away from the sand, and screaming upon touching it, Eric actually showed interest in it and played with a pile of sand that was in the parking lot!

On Sunday, though, the fiestas immediately began for us.  We had been invited to an almuerzo (brunch) in the barrio where Eric's Yayos live, but by the time we arrived, all of the food had already been eaten.  So, we went out for breakfast and afterwards played in the nearby park for little while before walking around to see some of the fallas.  That kept us busy until lunchtime in the barrio.

We ate in the street, and Eric played with another little girl there.  He also had fun playing with his throw poppers.  We went home afterwards, and the rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

On Monday, we missed another breakfast/brunch in the street, and ended up going out for breakfast and lunch.  It had been a really long time since we have gone to my favorite restaurant because it is pretty far away and is usually only open for dinner.  With Eric's early bedtime, it just isn't practical to try to go eat dinner there.  The restaurant, though, is open for lunch on Sundays and holidays.
Since that the 17th was officially a Valencian holiday this year, they were open for lunch.

The food was great, and I loved how they brought out colored pencils and a kids menu with coloring book pictures on it to keep Eric occupied.  Those who live in the US probably wouldn't understand my excitement, because that is the norm there, but here, it never happens.  We ordered him a hamburger, which came without a bun, but covered with some very cute smiley-face fried potatoes.  It also came with ice cream, but that was more for his daddy, because Eric refuses to eat ice cream; maybe he is put off by the cold.  In any case, the meal was great.  We were able to get both families together and to take a bit of a break from the fiestas.

Tuesday, though, was San José, the main day of the Fallas celebration.  We surprisingly succeeded in dressing up Eric in his saragüell without too much of a fuss, but skipped the fight to put on the corresponding shoes, the espardeñas.  His red Cars Adidas actually didn't look that bad with the outfit, and let him be much more comfortable, and modern, I guess.

We also finally managed to arrive for breakfast/brunch in the barrio before all of the food had been eaten.  The meal consisted of fried fish, grilled sausages of sorts (chorizo, morcilla, longaniza), spanish tortilla (fried potato omelet), and bread.

After fueling up, we headed towards the ofrenda, the procession where all of the falleros of the different fallas go down the main street towards the Plaza de San Antonio, where the falleras offer their bouquets of flowers to the Vírgen de los Desamparados (the Virgen of the Forsaken), the patroness of Valencia.

Eric had fun running down the street around the various falleros in the procession.  Whenever they stopped, he had fun crossing the street, and proudly marching back to us.  I think he must have noticed that a lot of people were watching him, including some of the falleros in the procession.
I had spent the morning trying to get ahold of a cute little fallera so that I could take a picture of Eric with one of them.  A few of my friends here have daughters who were going to dress up in their dresses, so I figured that it would be easy.

Unfortunately, luck didn't go my way.  One of the young girls had dressed up every day, and by the time the big day arrived, she was sick of it and didn't want to get dressed up again.  Sheyla, the girl whose birthday party we had been to a few weeks ago, did dress up that last day, but got sick before making it to the procession.

Not having a cute little fallero for the picture, I decided to just try to find somebody that I knew in the street to take a picture with Eric.  I ended up finding Maite's cousin and her daughter, who happens to be Maite's other Godchild.  They kindly stopped to take a picture with Eric, so we did get a picture of him with a couple of falleras in the end.

After watching most of the ofrenda, we headed to the port, where some of the women of the street, including Mauri's mother, were making the paella that we were going to eat later in the barrio.  Eric fell asleep in his stroller on the way there.  So, we stayed and tried to help, but mostly watched them cook the paella.

By the time the paella was ready, Eric was awake, and we all headed back to the barrio for lunch.  We changed his clothes so that he would be more comfortable for lunch.  The paella was great, but there were still lots of comments, especially from men who have never cooked in their lives, about how it could have been improved.  Eric didn't seem to find the faults and happily ate his rice.

Tired from days of constant activity, we went home until it was just about time for the burning of the fallas.  As always, the falla in the barrio is the first to be burned.  It is also the only falla that we usually go see anymore.  The others are all burned in order of prize won, beginning with the last place falla, ending with the first place one.  This process begins with the smaller children's fallas, and the process is repeated with the larger, adult fallas once all of the children's fallas have already been burned.
So, fallas were fun, albeit exhausting.  The next couple of days we tried to relax a bit more.  Eric took time off from school to spend time with Grandpa and Tía Diana, who were planning on getting back to Alicante from where they were to fly back to the US.

So, Aunt Carmen and Uncle Roberto came back to Dénia to pick them up, and we all went out to eat at  Bona Platja, a restaurant that is situated right along the beach.  Some of you may recall that Eric has never particularly enjoyed the beach, and has rather always screamed endlessly anytime that he got anywhere near the sand!! That, though, seems to have changed, and he pulled Diana to the beach with him before and after we ate.

They collected shells and played with the sand, and tried to avoid the incoming waves.  That is, of course, until Eric decided that it would be more fun to just jump in.  The cold water brought him immediately out of the water.  Luckily I had a change of pants in the car.  I didn't have more socks or shoes for him, though.  After eating, we stopped by the port with a barefooted Eric to say goodbye to Mauri before everybody headed off to Alicante.
On Friday, I brought Eric to school for the last day of the week.  Maybe it was because it was such a short week, or maybe it was just a bit of luck, but on Friday, Eric was finally able to take Papú home with him for the weekend.

Papú is like the school mascot.  Their books and learning materials all use Papú, and each weekend one of the kids is able to bring Papú home with them.  They are to document the weekend with pictures and a description of what they did with Papú over the weekend.  Bringing Papú home, though, isn't just a matter of luck, it is a privilege bestowed upon only children who have behaved that week.
Considering that spring is here, and the end of the school year is getting nearer and nearer, I was beginning to wonder if Eric was ever going to behave enough to be able to bring Papú home with him.  Instead, I hear about how he hits the other kids, or about the numerous other ways that he has managed to misbehave over the week.  So, you can imagine my excitement when I saw him ready to bring Papú home that weekend.

Even more exciting, though, was that once we arrived home with Papú, we were surprised to find our first egg from one of our hens.  To be completely honest, I wasn't too surprised.  Their new organic food had arrived earlier that day, and right after feeding the hens a bit of it to try it, one of my brown hens ran immediately to the nesting box.  She kept going into and coming out of it, and was squawking and making other unusual noises.  She had also been doing what others call the "hen squat" whenever I touched her back for the last couple of days.  So, I knew she would be laying any time now.

In any case, it was just as surprising and exciting.  Papú, of course, was also very excited to be at our house for our very first egg.  So, he wanted to pose with the egg for a picture.

Our first 3 eggs

Looking back a few days, the hens had all been sleeping, all four of them, one on top of another, in the nesting box.  This, of course, is frowned upon because they soil the nesting box which should be kept clean for cleaner eggs.  None of them wanted to sleep on the perch that we had built for them.  So, I decided to read about how to prevent them from sleeping in the nesting box, and how to get them to sleep on the perch.

Some people suggested closing off the nesting box at night.  Others, though, didn't like that idea because sometimes their hens would lay in the early morning, before they open up, and having a closed off nesting box would prevent the hens from laying there.
I read a ridiculous suggestion.  The idea was to physically move the hens out of the box and to set them onto the perch so that they would stay there all night.  Two of my hens, though, wouldn't even let me touch them, so how did I expect to be able to grab them long enough to be able to try to put them onto the perch?  Even if that were possible, how did I expect them to stay there, especially while I would be moving all of the others onto the perch with them.

Surprisingly, though, it wasn't such a ridiculous idea.  I almost hadn't even bothered to try it out, but was completely shocked when it actually worked.  The hens temperament completely changed at night in the hen house, and they all let me pick them up and put them on the perch.  Not only that, but they had stayed there all night!!  The next day I woke up to find a clean nesting box for the first time.
Since then, I have been doing that every night when closing up the hen house.  The three of my hens that are, by now, laying eggs have all learned to go to their perch by themselves each night.  I no longer have to physically move them there.  The slow hen, though, the only one who doesn't lay yet, is also the only one to have not learned yet.  So, I have to move her out of the nesting box and onto the perch each night.    

The bright yellow tortilla made from our eggs

Having put hollowed out eggs that I had filled with plaster into the nesting box also seemed to have worked to teach my hens where they were supposed to lay their eggs.  By now three of the four hens are laying, and every single egg that has been laid in the (now clean) box.  I am very proud of my girls!!    

Going back to the story, though, Papú spent a very busy weekend with us.  We brought Papú to the port to see Mauri's boat.  He went out to breakfast with us, and then he went home with us to help us feed the hens and to get some work done around the house.  Later, he went with us to Alicante to say our final goodbyes to Grandpa and Diana, and got to see Carmen's house and to eat at a Galician restaurant there.

The next day he went out to breakfast with us again, and, afterwards, played with Eric in the park.  We then all went out for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant with Tita and Hans.  We brought Papú and Eric's new buddy, Talking Ben, the stuffed version of Eric's favorite mobile phone app.

Papú spent a very enjoyable weekend with us, and we were very happy to have him here with us.  He behaved so well, that he is welcome to come back at any time he chooses.