tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23455301205421493872024-02-21T20:15:47.574-08:00Tracy's Baby BlogTJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.comBlogger151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-84622056972121796642019-10-10T13:54:00.002-07:002019-10-10T13:55:09.952-07:00Crepes and Chocolate Crepes with Chocolate Mascarpone Filling<br />
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As hinted to in another post, I just started working as a contributing writer at <a href="http://diyready.com/">DIYready.com</a>.<br />
So far it has been a great experience, and it gets me baking up some new and fun things. Just take these crepes, for example.<br />
<h4>
I know what you are thinking. Didn't you just claim that you think you are gluten intolerant?!?!<a name='more'></a></h4>
Well, yes.<br />
Of course, the option to make crepes came at a time when I had a family visit, and right after I had come back from the family wedding where I had already introduced a bit of gluten back into my diet once more just to see what would happen.<br />
I have loved making crepes in the past, and figured that as long as I still had gluten in my system, I may as well try them one last time. Plus, they would make a great dessert for my guests. As long as I was making crepes, I might as well make them great and make some crepes with chocolate mascarpone filling.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPIZixdR8bCNSHNSWTV43Y_mmhQbrDkFQkgJ0jNHKw45JC8067ZF-orMT-ynHoyZc7xa9L4CR6JOejL2uBru7wPcoI0fow9eXylKn6-lEUnmX72rqcGGGqDrWipiiuXrKvIMSOFD2P13zq/s1600/DIYIMG_7379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="625" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPIZixdR8bCNSHNSWTV43Y_mmhQbrDkFQkgJ0jNHKw45JC8067ZF-orMT-ynHoyZc7xa9L4CR6JOejL2uBru7wPcoI0fow9eXylKn6-lEUnmX72rqcGGGqDrWipiiuXrKvIMSOFD2P13zq/s640/DIYIMG_7379.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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So, what happened after my second attempt at adding gluten back into my diet?</h4>
Not so surprisingly, my eczema came back at full force. So, no more gluten for me for awhile!<br />I guess I may just have to come up with a gluten free version for my blog.<br />
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Until then, for those who can handle gluten, you can check out my <a href="http://diyready.com/chocolate-crepes-recipe-with-mascarpone-filling/">recipe at DIYready</a>!</h3>
Even if you can't handle gluten, you may want to <a href="http://diyready.com/chocolate-crepes-recipe-with-mascarpone-filling/">head on over anyway</a>, just for the mascarpone filling!!<br />
Enjoy.<br />
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TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-82129453763484106292016-05-24T03:06:00.000-07:002020-01-14T03:07:08.832-08:00Planning a Fun Father's Day Picnic<em>Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. </em><br />
<img alt="A family of four having a picnic- sitting on a blanket and eating fruit." class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13821" data-pin-description="Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. Find the perfect place, fun activities, and give the perfect Father's Day gift. #thethingswellmake #MIY #fathersday #picnic #picnicparty #fathersdaygifts #fathersdaypresents #fathersdayrecipe" data-pin-media="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-pin.jpg" height="500" src="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-1.jpg" width="750" /><br />
Looking for a fun way to celebrate Father’s Day this year that your Dad or the father of your little ones will adore?<br />
Why not plan a delightful Father’s Day picnic? Pack up that cooler, bring some blankets, and head out to a local park to have a beautiful day in the sun celebrating the special Dad in your life.<br />
You're probably wondering why I'm writing a post about a Father's Day picnic on a blog about making things. Well, this started out, years ago, as a guest post written by somebody else. I decided to rewrite it, though, with more of my own ideas and thoughts. Plus, I may just have some suggestions for gifts that you can make your dad. Not a bad idea, right?<br />
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<b>Why plan a Father's Day Picnic?</b></h3>
Picnics are the perfect way to spend and celebrate Father’s Day for a variety of reasons.<br />
Father's Day comes at the perfect time of year for getting outdoors and moving. With spring in the air, the weather should be perfect for getting some sun and some fresh air. Spending time out in nature is good for the body and soul; it encourages physical activity, gives us our necessary dose of Vitamin D, and increases those feel-good sensations.<br />
<img alt="Overhead view of picnic with grill, badminton, and a guitar" class="aligncenter wp-image-13826 size-full" data-pin-description="Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. Find the perfect place, fun activities, and give the perfect Father's Day gift. #thethingswellmake #MIY #fathersday #picnic #picnicparty #fathersdaygifts #fathersdaypresents #fathersdayrecipe" data-pin-media="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-pin.jpg" height="500" src="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-6.jpg" width="750" /><br />
These days, most people don’t spend nearly enough time outside, with the majority of us spending our waking hours in an office or inside our homes. With advances in technology, many of us (me included) spend way too much time indoors in front of a screen. Even kids are feeling the effects, as technology takes precedence in fighting boredom, meaning that most kids spend less than two hours less each week on outdoor activities (a stark contrast from our glory days of childhood). Moving the celebration away from the house will help keep some of those distractions away so that you can move your focus towards spending time with the people who mean the most to you.<br />
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<b>The Best Locations for a picnic</b></h3>
When planning your Father’s Day picnic, be sure to scope out the perfect location.<br />
Parks are a great place for having a picnic. They often have picnic tables and playgrounds or other activities like tennis courts or volleyball nets. If you’re planning on renting out tables at a local park, be sure to reserve it far in advance; it’s likely quite a few families are also looking to take advantage of the gorgeous sunshine that's usually out this time of year.<br />
<img alt="A family having a picnic by a lake with ducks in it." class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13824" data-pin-description="Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. Find the perfect place, fun activities, and give the perfect Father's Day gift. #thethingswellmake #MIY #fathersday #picnic #picnicparty #fathersdaygifts #fathersdaypresents #fathersdayrecipe" data-pin-media="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-pin.jpg" height="500" src="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-4.jpg" width="750" /><br />
Beaches or campgrounds are also great places to plan your family day. If you're lucky enough to have a nice lake nearby, you could maybe rent out a boat for skiing, rafting, or even fishing.<br />
If you don’t have a local park, consider revamping your very own backyard for the occasion! Set out blankets and the like, hang up streamers, and treat your lawn as your very own personal park. You could even hang up a large white sheet and project a movie on it as night time falls. That would be the perfect ending to a fun day.<br />
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<b>The Picnic Food</b></h3>
Dads are usually pretty easy to please when it comes to food, but since this is a day dedicated to him, make sure you prepare all of his favorites —at least the ones that can be easily transported to the picnic location.<br />
<img alt="A barbecue grill filled with a variety of meats and veggies, in front of a family picnic" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13825" data-pin-description="Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. Find the perfect place, fun activities, and give the perfect Father's Day gift. #thethingswellmake #MIY #fathersday #picnic #picnicparty #fathersdaygifts #fathersdaypresents #fathersdayrecipe" data-pin-media="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-pin.jpg" height="750" src="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-5.jpg" width="750" /><br />
If the kids are old enough, you can make it a family affair by assigning a dish to each family member. Don’t forget the drinks!<br />
Some parks will have barbecue grills for using or will allow you to set up your own in designated areas. My favorite grilling recipe is my <a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/pork-souvlaki-marinade-recipe/">pork souvlaki</a>. Check out the regulations for your chosen destination to see if you can have fun grilling up your meal together right at your picnic destination. (Get there early or reserve a grill if you will need one for preparing your lunch. You don't want to end up with only raw food for lunch!)<br />
If you want to simplify the day’s planning, you can always have food delivered right to you at the park; after all, it’s truly the thought that counts. Dad will love chowing down on a meal that his family worked together to create, or, at least, plan.<br />
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<b>The Entertainment</b></h3>
While eating your picnic fare is, of course, the main event, make sure you take along some fun entertainment sources for your hours spent lounging in the sun.<br />
Since you’ll be outdoors, take a look at some fun backyard games you can take along with you. You can always go old school with <a href="https://amzn.to/2SWVbrB" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">croquet</a>, horseshoe sets, or <a href="https://amzn.to/2MfbIVg" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">bocce ball</a>.<br />
<img alt="A family of four playing badminton" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13830" data-pin-description="Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. Find the perfect place, fun activities, and give the perfect Father's Day gift. #thethingswellmake #MIY #fathersday #picnic #picnicparty #fathersdaygifts #fathersdaypresents #fathersdayrecipe" data-pin-media="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-pin.jpg" height="501" src="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-8.jpg" width="750" /><br />
Other portable ideas are <a href="https://amzn.to/2Ddyzxs" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">badminton</a>, frisbees, soccer or volleyball.<br />
A consistent family favorite that’s perfect for all ages is corn hole. These days you can find <a href="https://amzn.to/2DdWKMp" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">portable cornhole games</a> for bringing with you anywhere.<br />
<h3>
<b>Father's Day Presents</b></h3>
While the picnic in itself is a wonderful present to dear ol’ Dad, the day can be even more special if you give your father a homemade gift.<br />
Here on the blog, I've shown you <a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/diy-shaving-soap-recipe-use-shave-soap/">how to make a shave soap</a> that would be a perfect gift given with a <a href="https://amzn.to/2RPyyIh" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">nice shaving set</a>.<br />
[caption id="attachment_9641" align="aligncenter" width="720"]<img alt="Building up lather on a shave soap puck in a bowl. " class="wp-image-9641 size-full" data-pin-description="Enjoy a lovely day in great company when you plan a fun Father's Day picnic for either the whole family or just time alone with your dad. Find the perfect place, fun activities, and give the perfect Father's Day gift. #thethingswellmake #MIY #fathersday #picnic #picnicparty #fathersdaygifts #fathersdaypresents #fathersdayrecipe" data-pin-media="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/198b-planning-a-fun-fathers-day-picnic-pin.jpg" height="1032" src="https://thethingswellmake.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/249-DIY-shaving-soap-recipe-how-to-use-shave-soap-7.jpg" width="720" /> A <a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/diy-shaving-soap-recipe-use-shave-soap/">homemade shave soap</a> would make a great gift for dad![/caption]<br />
<a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/make-simple-basic-homemade-lotion-customize-skin-type/">Homemade lotions</a> or <a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/homemade-moisturizer-oily-acne-prone-skin/">facial moisturizers</a> aren't only for women.<br />
If you’re trying to come up with a unique way to spend your Father’s Day, consider planning a picture-perfect picnic that the whole family can enjoy. After all, spending time with his kids is what every dad truly wants on Father’s Day, and this is the perfect way to do so without the rest of life’s distractions getting in the way. A technology-free day is the way to go, so leave those cell phones and iPads at home.<br />
Are you ready to plan a fun Father's Day picnic? I'd love to hear what you have planned, and your ideas for great picnic foods!TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-58090493885494378412015-10-09T22:45:00.000-07:002020-01-13T22:48:10.670-08:00DIY Eco-Friendly Home Decor<em>Save money when decorating your house by upcycling items that might otherwise be thrown out, and instead creating fun and unique, eco-friendly home decor.</em><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCjenlUElUTgsAsUVkk_RVAvwLhDd3E9T7Kw2wXbzUuJf_Q-VsISHr2Zo6Tf4e1KIQPjxI79PuaYDR2H-QubrFpW9UGZJ_C6EuFwY4LDI9Z5iGSzZXjkXyeLqEnpyDEMI0bbA-vEkfrIb/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMCjenlUElUTgsAsUVkk_RVAvwLhDd3E9T7Kw2wXbzUuJf_Q-VsISHr2Zo6Tf4e1KIQPjxI79PuaYDR2H-QubrFpW9UGZJ_C6EuFwY4LDI9Z5iGSzZXjkXyeLqEnpyDEMI0bbA-vEkfrIb/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-1.jpg" /></a></div>
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Today I'd like to introduce to you another guest author, <strong>Danielle Hegedus</strong>. Dannielle is a freelance writer based in Atlanta, GA. She currently pursues her passion for interior design by writing about all things home decor for <a href="http://modernize.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Modernize.com</a>. She graciously offered to write about something that I enjoy because I've always been a bit crafty, and like to be able to reuse and upcycle whenever possible. If, in the process, I end up with some unique, fun, eco-friendly home decor, well, then, all the better. Right?<br />
<strong>Take it away, Danielle...</strong><br />
When you hear “eco-friendly home decor” that usually translates into expensive. Not necessarily! At <a href="http://modernize.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Modernize</a>, we know that with a little creativity and some basic crafting skills, you can create beautiful, unique home decor that is environmentally sustainable and won’t break the bank. Almost anything that you make yourself, either through crafting or upcycling, is going to be preferable to something you would buy new in the store. Your personally crafted home decor will always be superior in terms of creating original decor that complements your style, saves money, and reduces your environmental footprint.<br />
Items from the store are mass produced. So while you may love that quirky owl vase, chances are you’ll walk into more than one friend’s home who also thought it was the greatest find! Additionally, when you consider the cost (beyond your own money) to the environment that it takes to produce new items—the raw materials, the cost of running a factory, and transporting the goods from various production sites until it finally reaches the store where you shop—those new items may not seem so great after all. Read on for ideas on how to create eco-friendly decor for your home.<br />
<h3>
<b>Craft Smart </b></h3>
You don’t have to consider yourself a great artist to be a quality crafter. Eco-friendly crafting just requires you to be resourceful—finding uses for already existing items like that jar of loose buttons that you swear you are going to sew back onto your clothes <i>one day, </i>or seeing the potential in natural items like seashells and driftwood that you brought back from your most recent beach vacation. Before you head to a mega store to pick up something like a soap dish or a picture frame, think about how you might make it yourself using items that are sentimental to you (childhood toys, mismatched plates from your first apartment, etc.), or that exist in nature and don’t require harvesting or processing.<br />
We love these eco-friendly hot pads, perfect for enjoying a pot of tea on a crisp day. Fashioned from river pebbles, all you need is glue (a hot glue gun would work best) and a base that is sturdy enough to support the pebbles. An old mousepad is a great option!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgbNYSeOo2Qc9AK_YD-KBqgaA6KhcQAYKjsABcly0jhm9Hkrk_18YlO-xMzSYv061T-423x2UPkOWTekMza62otO7MOi-A_K6QXaDiRJ1eDhl8wcQCM7H5sH3fXnvqwe90vMQml2LceEi/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgbNYSeOo2Qc9AK_YD-KBqgaA6KhcQAYKjsABcly0jhm9Hkrk_18YlO-xMzSYv061T-423x2UPkOWTekMza62otO7MOi-A_K6QXaDiRJ1eDhl8wcQCM7H5sH3fXnvqwe90vMQml2LceEi/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Via <a href="http://www.lushome.com/33-creative-interior-decorating-ideas-bringing-natural-materials-handmade-design-eco-homes/91172" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Lushome</a><br />
The holidays are a great time to craft your own home decor because since you’ll get to reuse these objects annually, they will add to your family’s unique traditions, and you can save money for other fun items like great food or special presents. For instance, rather than buying a new Christmas tree each year, and ultimately watching the sad rows of them sitting on curbs waiting for trash pick-up on a January morning, create your own unique tree. This tree was created using driftwood, and though you may have to adhere it to the wall each year, you can still display your favorite ornaments on a “tree” that is special to your family, and you save the cost (economic and environmental) of a new tree, not to mention the daily effort of cleaning up all of the pine needles!<br />
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Via<a href="http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2012/12/favorite-things-friday-christmas-edition/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"> Liz Marie Blog</a><br />
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<h3>
<b>Use What You Have </b></h3>
Why buy something new and standard, when you can repurpose items that you already own to meet the same functional needs and create a truly unexpected design? As an added bonus, you’ll free up storage space by actually using your stuff!<br />
We love this bicycle sink! It conjures up a classic sense of French charm, provides storage for hand towels in the basket, and is a definite conversation piece. Firmly affix the bike’s base (where the seat would normally be) to the counter for a solid-clean look. The bicycle isn’t holding anything up here—you’ll need a counter that is securely anchored to the wall to support the weight of the sink, but it creates a very cool alternative to your basic bathroom cabinet. Utilize floating shelves and a medicine cabinet to store items that you would typically stow under the sink.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMORJQTJShOWlT0EAx6Mu2ZnfF6B1JER_qZZk24CEadzYyfD0mXOnWP8aXZawvLgscGw-eecbWAfARqyMqO8TZnP3PkHkxFf63J0TAjqHhzLDIAc5F53QVZpO6Sk0mNXuWDZj0F2DChFW/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMORJQTJShOWlT0EAx6Mu2ZnfF6B1JER_qZZk24CEadzYyfD0mXOnWP8aXZawvLgscGw-eecbWAfARqyMqO8TZnP3PkHkxFf63J0TAjqHhzLDIAc5F53QVZpO6Sk0mNXuWDZj0F2DChFW/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-4.jpg" /></a></div>
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Via <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/clever-and-unconventional-bathroom-decorating-ideas?sub=2094445_992720#.luWPPOM97w">Buzzfeed </a><br />
We are total suckers for vintage suitcases, even though we know they’re not exactly fit-in-the-overhead-compartment practical. It’s easy to justify owning these suitcases, though, if you can make them functional year round. Stack suitcases next to your bed to create a unique nightstand. The suitcases provide great storage space for items that you don’t need to access all of the time, like out-of-season clothes, linens, photo albums, and books. A recycled mirror or tray provides a steady surface on the top for your to place a lamp, a book, and a carafe of water.<br />
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Via <a href="http://diyready.com/7-diy-ways-upcycle-vintage-suitcases/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">DIY Ready</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHK6eTwtnahH-MQbWm7j2-WJusHSh6AtW5ExVSbXnrdxDpsrKvTy8s_GczOnLurngju8vcv6j1HJ2KjXYc6xc2y9Dgf_k9tnB4mVhhGMK9uWvKr_ufMI1jzkN0vZoEvqSY4noEEL5yvL2U/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHK6eTwtnahH-MQbWm7j2-WJusHSh6AtW5ExVSbXnrdxDpsrKvTy8s_GczOnLurngju8vcv6j1HJ2KjXYc6xc2y9Dgf_k9tnB4mVhhGMK9uWvKr_ufMI1jzkN0vZoEvqSY4noEEL5yvL2U/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-5.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Make an Effort to Rid Your Home of Toxic Chemicals </b></h3>
One of the simplest eco-friendly ways to decorate your home is with plants, but did you know that certain plants can make your home healthier? While you may try your best to avoid toxic cleaning chemicals, the air in your home (and your lungs) is still getting a hearty dose of chemicals from items like carpet glue, wall paint, and plastics. According to <a href="http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/air-purifying-plants#2">Healthline</a>, “In a 2,000 square foot house, bring in 15 to 20 plants in 6-inch pots or larger. Rather than scattering single plants, create group displays in each room for a great look and maximum air quality.” Plants like the peace lily, dracaena, chrysanthemum, and bamboo palm are effective at eliminating dangerous chemicals like formaldehyde, benzene, carbon monoxide, xylene, chloroform, and more that are commonly found in the home.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUbfAP7C_f3MRHmKFhgAffPwEcptd8AMFMtAiGeAW5L0z9YBfwP4nd6d-rm9FqGc5yy4-DiQXtl_37AVZgoT1MhFgGDzg3iQQmGZAmAB1MBgu6TcB4qGjgykl-A3tcHahP__df2ecbxAO/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJUbfAP7C_f3MRHmKFhgAffPwEcptd8AMFMtAiGeAW5L0z9YBfwP4nd6d-rm9FqGc5yy4-DiQXtl_37AVZgoT1MhFgGDzg3iQQmGZAmAB1MBgu6TcB4qGjgykl-A3tcHahP__df2ecbxAO/s1600/DIY-eco-friendly-home-decor-6.jpg" /></a></div>
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Via <a href="http://www.brit.co/potted-plants/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">BRIT + CO</a>TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-5433095664342753822014-04-11T13:04:00.000-07:002019-10-10T13:50:44.422-07:00Cloth Wipes Dispenser: Guest Post on Mama NaturalWhen Genevieve, aka. <a href="http://www.mamanatural.com/">Mama Natural</a>, had her baby and was looking for guest posts to help keep her beautiful blog going strong even during those difficult first months with a new baby, I decided that I had the perfect post to pitch to her at the perfect time.<br />
I wanted to submit something crafty, of course, to represent myself well, but I also wanted something natural that would appeal to her readers.<br />
Years ago I had made myself a cloth wipes dispenser to easily hold <a href="http://thethingswellmake.com/recipe/make-your-own-recycled-cloth-wipes-with-a-homemade-cloth-wipe-solution/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">my cloth wipes</a> in such a way that they could be conveniently (and stylishly) transported easily from place to place, with the extra bonus of allowing a new wipe to pop up after each wipe is removed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXEcB4iBpoJF8GYKOmBWcR1Mb2J0T3w9E_O0miC2DYCae5fZpGgZUZC1lK72Z6KK3mrxuqGp0PdLdYSDVSnYeErRB9I0i_p_YErqPVyfjUcfxBSguzTZbgQ25gG5jdUGrnS9cDV8p7f7z/s1600/Wipesdispenser2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXEcB4iBpoJF8GYKOmBWcR1Mb2J0T3w9E_O0miC2DYCae5fZpGgZUZC1lK72Z6KK3mrxuqGp0PdLdYSDVSnYeErRB9I0i_p_YErqPVyfjUcfxBSguzTZbgQ25gG5jdUGrnS9cDV8p7f7z/s640/Wipesdispenser2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Even though my son is mostly (sigh) potty trained by now, the dispenser still comes in handy for using for a plethora of things. They can be used as tissues, to clean his face, for removing makeup, and for those who have no personal use for them, they could even be used for cleaning around the house.<br />
In any case, I thought the post was more befitting of her blog with the perfect timing of the arrival of her new baby.<br />
Interested in checking it out?<br />
Read my guest post on <a href="http://www.mamanatural.com/diy-cloth-wipe-dispenser/">MamaNatural.com</a>.<br />
See how I made <a href="http://thethingswellmake.com/recipe/make-your-own-recycled-cloth-wipes-with-a-homemade-cloth-wipe-solution/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">my cloth wipes and wipes solution here</a>.<br />
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Nov. 8, 2013<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMRDjd9SGJr9p4RQ1Q7xPLkQ5UF6D5nlpcegMQvqqFppLyFJW1hh-tpv9O4h4d_H0S2YxG-hUyo5BsJgm72qSS05ZZ1wEF7membVpqwxiTppN7yut0DRZbtUjvMx81mr6f87XzwxHIq-7/s1600/BlogDisposableWipes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMRDjd9SGJr9p4RQ1Q7xPLkQ5UF6D5nlpcegMQvqqFppLyFJW1hh-tpv9O4h4d_H0S2YxG-hUyo5BsJgm72qSS05ZZ1wEF7membVpqwxiTppN7yut0DRZbtUjvMx81mr6f87XzwxHIq-7/s640/BlogDisposableWipes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: teal; font-family: "Comic Sans MS", sans-serif;">Looking for a great, inexpensive, non-chemical alternative to store bought wipes? </span><br />
Make your own homemade disposable wipes!<br />
They can be used for babies or even for adults, and are flushable.<br />
I used to use them when I would leave the house with my son when he was a baby in diapers, but lately use them even more. They are a great help for potty training.<br />
Read about them on <a href="http://homegrownandhealthy.com/homemade-disposable-pop-up-wipes/">my guest post on Homegrown & Healthy</a>!!TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-51976160951929922192013-10-01T03:16:00.000-07:002019-10-06T04:19:05.009-07:00Holy Homemade Halloween Costumes, Batman!! The Fun of Celebrating Halloween in Spain<em>Each year Halloween in Spain is more universally celebrated with not just parties at certain bars, but even schools and town halls now organize activities. Here's how we celebrated the last few Halloweens here.</em><br />
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One of the wonderful things about having had my son is that it has given me a new excuse to bring out my inner child and be crafty again. I have always loved Halloween and the dress-up that goes with it. In fact, it is something that I probably will never outgrow. Even more fun than dressing up, though, is the planning and making of a Halloween costume; at least, for me, it is. :)<br />
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Having moved to Spain, of course, meant that Halloween, and all of the fun that came with it, disappeared from my life for awhile... or so, I thought.
Over the last few years Halloween is actually gaining popularity. Each year you can find more Halloween costumes and decor available in stores. In fact, last year I even started to see trick-or-treat-ers. (Or should I say "truck-o-trato"-ers? Hmmmm)
Adding to the fun was the fact that my best friend here in Spain is co-owner of a local nursery school, and who just happens to be another one of the co-owners? Another American.<br />
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Years ago they brought me in to help celebrate Halloween with them. I grew jack-o-lantern pumpkins in my garden and carved a few to bring to the school. We also baked and decorated Halloween cookies. Everybody got into the spirit of things, and it was a lot of fun.
Then, I had my baby boy!!<br />
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Having been born in September, he arrived just in time to celebrate his first Halloween. He roared it in with a lion costume that his mommy made for him out of two polar fleece blankets. (Polar fleece is wonderfully forgiving for sewing when you don't know what you are doing (like me!). It stretches to fit, when needed, and it doesn't unravel; so, you can leave your edges unfinished!)
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The next year, was probably my favorite thus far. My friend was excited to make herself a Batgirl costume, and came to me for some crafty help with its construction. I decided that as long as we were going to make her costume, that my son and I might as well make some to go with the theme too.<br />
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Looking for Batgirl costume ideas, I noticed that there were now girl versions of a lot of the superheroes. One whose colors I particularly liked was Robin's suit. The girl version costume, though, like most of the other superhero costumes, was a tad bit slutty and a bit too "minimalistic" for a children's Halloween party (or for my taste, for that matter). One of the advantages of making one's own costume is that it can be made to suit your own taste. So, I proceeded to design my own version of Robin Girl.<br />
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If we were going to be Batgirl and Robin, we, of course, were going to need a cute little Batman to accompany us.
Looking at the Batman and Robin costumes, I decided that I liked the vintage Batman and Robin the best. Modern batman costumes are all black and just seem to be missing something. To top it off, the only thing that really distinguishes them is the Batman mask that I knew my son would never wear anyway. (I did make him one for his costume, just in case, but it never got worn.)<br />
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So we proceeded to cut out our masks, make stencils for painting on our respective logos, and looking for inexpensive clothing for our costumes. I bought myself a cheap red t-shirt and proceeded to cut off the arms to make room for the green Robin sleeves. I had a hard time finding myself any green fabric that would work for the sleeves and skirt, though. You see, being crafty here in Spain can be a bit of a challenge. It's not like I can just head off to the nearest Michael's or JoAnn Crafts to pick up whatever it is I need.
I did have a little streak of luck, though, and found a table at the flea market that had new t-shirts for 1 Euro each, and they just happened to have a couple of shirts in the green that I wanted for my costume. I bought a couple, and cut off the bottom part of one and sewed it to bottom of the red shirt to make my skirt. Then I cut off the sleeves of a long-sleeved shirt and used the top of the sleeves for new sleeves for my dress, and used the bottom parts for my superhero gloves. It was actually quite easy to make the dress.<br />
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There was another table at the flea market selling basic colored cotton cloths, so I bought some yellow fabric for my cape and all of our belts. My friend worked on pleating our capes while I sewed the edges with my serger and sewed up the belts.<br />
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My son's costume used some old grey tights that somebody had, luckily, just given us. I also had some gray, plain t-shirts that I had bought to decorate for him, so I used one of those for the suit.
Even luckier was the fact that I had an old, blue polar fleece blanket stashed away that I had already started to cut up to make my son a swaddling blanket when he was a baby. With the leftover fabric, I had just enough to make him the rest of his costume, including his blue cape, gloves (in this case sleeves) and <a href="http://thethingswellmake.com/diy-superhero-boots-two-methods/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">boots</a>, which were just "sleeves" to put over his regular shoes.
We painted on our respective logos with fabric paint, using the <a href="http://thethingswellmake.com/2013/07/freezer-paper-mandala-snowflake-t-shirts.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">freezer paper stencils</a> we had cut, and were ready for Halloween with plenty of time to spare.<br />
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That gave me time to look for Halloween food ideas on Pinterest. I wasn't in the mood to make my usual Halloween cookies, so I wanted to find something less time consuming, but just as fun and a bit healthier, I think. (Baby steps!!)
I settled on making a "pumpkin" cheese ball, and <a href="http://thethingswellmake.com/healthy-halloween-how-to-make-a-creepy-prosciutto-face/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">ham "face."</a> The ham face is the perfect mix of Yum! and Yuck! at the same time!!<br />
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Everybody loved the party!
Now that my son has started "real" school this year, I don't know if we'll have to opportunity to participate in any fun Halloween parties. Hopefully, the popularity of the holiday will grow in time to let him do some trick-or-treating, something his mommy always loved.
As for the candy?
My mom always had to throw out the candy from the year before when it was time to go trick-or-treating again; you see I loved the activity and not the "prize." Hopefully my son will be the same way!!
Shouting out an early Happy Halloween to all who love to celebrate, no matter where on the globe you reside!!TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-6151112202674961152013-09-11T04:42:00.000-07:002019-10-06T08:35:55.066-07:00The Truth About Breastfeeding a Toddler<em>Breastfeeding a toddler isn't very socially acceptable, but why not? Should we take the example of other mammals and breastfeed longer?</em><br />
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This week is a busy week for me. Not only has my son begun his first week of classes, but we are in the middle of construction at our house. People are constantly running around the house, and it's hard to be able to get much done. Of course this comes at a time that I am wanting to make new changes to the blog, and when I'm trying to plan out the "perfect" 3rd birthday party for my little boy. I have tons of ideas for posts lately, but don't have any time to get them written out.<br />
<br />
So, after seeing a friend of mine rant on Facebook about how she was "politely" told not to breastfeed at the lunch room where she helps out at her daughters' school, but to, instead, move to a more private place like the library or coaches' office despite the fact that she covered up, I decided that it was a good time to move an <a href="http://tracysbabyblog.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/truth-about-breastfeeding.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">old post</a> from my <a href="http://tracysbabyblog.blogspot.com.es/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">old blog</a> over to the new one.<br />
<br />
Even over a year later, the post is still relevant; it's actually more relevant than ever.<br />
<br />
Why?<br />
Because <strong>as my son gets older, my breastfeeding him becomes "weirder" and more socially unacceptable.</strong><br />
<br />
I write this as I am hiding out in my own house and typing one-handed while breastfeeding my toddler. I hide around corners lest any of the construction workers see me breastfeed my child.
Gasp! The thought!<br />
<br />
I personally rarely breastfed in public (and never do now).<br />
<br />
When I did so it was because I didn't have much of a choice; like when I was waiting to be called into his doctor's appointments, or when I was someplace that didn't have a good place for me to hide.
I used to cut little slits in tank tops that I wore underneath my other clothes and over my nursing bra. They gave "just enough" access for feeding without exposing too much. My son refused to be covered and would even try to rip open the slits of my tank top because he wanted better access.<br />
<br />
<strong>I see some people arguing that one should pump and bring bottles when out in public, but I was never very successful pumping.</strong><br />
<br />
I could only obtain milk from one breast at about 5AM, and regularly woke up for about an hour to obtain some precious milk for emergency situations.<br />
<br />
I did bring a bottle of my milk with me once when we were going out to dinner; I got a comment from a well intentioned family member that I should be breastfeeding my child.
I guess <strong>one can never win!</strong><br />
<br />
Luckily, here in Spain, it isn't as common to get the same judgmental looks and comments as one likely gets back home in the US when you breastfeed in public. Girls are free to go topless at the beach, so it isn't as much of a shock to see a partially bared breast out in the open.<br />
<br />
Anyway, you can imagine that I was happy to see one of my husband's cousins openly breastfeeding her son at the table when we went out for ice cream the other day.
Did I mention that her son is six months older than mine!?!?
She made no attempt to cover it up.<br />
<br />
Despite the fact that I wouldn't ever do the same, I never judged. All I could think was "You go, girl!"
Nobody seemed taken aback. I didn't notice pointing or stares or snickering. Nothing.
Whew!
As long as <i>they</i> are still going strong, I guess what <i>I</i> do is OK. Right?
(No need to answer that!)<br />
<br />
It's dumb that one should be bullied into thinking like that. <strong>One should never feel like they have to hide the fact that they still breastfeed their child</strong>, as if they were some sort of closet drug user. Sadly, a closet drug user probably gets more sympathetic comments than the average mom who chooses to breastfeed her toddler.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>With that introduction, I'll leave you with last year's post:</strong>
...Breastfeeding is a subject that I've been tempted to write about many times, but have finally been annoyed to the point of not being able to help myself anymore. It is a subject that unnecessarily stirs up a lot of controversy, and is something that I never had really even given any thought until having my son, of course.
I mean, really, if I saw somebody breastfeeding, I thought "OK, whatever."
It turns out, though, that not everybody is like me. (Too bad!!) For some, seeing somebody breastfeed or even a picture of somebody breastfeeding, is enough to offend them, anger them or make them aggressive enough to bully others on online forums and, likely, even in person.<br />
<br />
I have a hard time understanding these people. I guess part of the not-just-politically-libertarian me likes to let everybody live as they will as long as they don't interfere with how I live. That said, I can't say that I'm not at least slightly judgmental myself towards those who didn't even attempt to breastfeed. (That judgement is reserved for mothers in this day and age now that the benefits to both mother and baby have been well established.) I might be slightly internally judging such a person, but I wouldn't try to make her feel bad about her decision.<br />
<br />
Lately, however, it seems like breastfeeding mothers are those who are being targeted for their "bad decisions". Whether it be because they are <a href="http://www.bestforbabes.org/target-employees-bully-breastfeeding-mom-despite-corporate-policy" rel="noopener" target="_blank">breastfeeding in a public place</a> (heaven forbid!!), or because they are <a href="http://thestir.cafemom.com/baby/136415/kelly_preston_should_breastfeed_her" rel="noopener" target="_blank">breastfeeding a toddler </a>(way too old!!!), or because they have <a href="http://thebosh.com/archives/2008/11/brad_pitts_parents_upset_over_angelina_jolie_breastfeeding_pictures_for_w.php" rel="noopener" target="_blank">displayed a modest picture of themselves breastfeeding</a> (That is something that is meant to be private, Angelina Jolie!!); it seems that breastfeeding mothers are always offending and upsetting others.<br />
<br />
Then, I was made aware of a recent <a href="http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20120521,00.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">controversial cover of Time magazine</a> in which a mother was breastfeeding her toddler. Since I am still breastfeeding a boy who is approaching the two year point, and who shows no interest in stopping any time soon, I was <span style="text-decoration-line: line-through;">dumb</span> curious enough to check it out, and read the comments section of various places that it was posted online.<br />
<br />
I couldn't believe how rude people were. OK, I must admit that I'm not a fan of the cover because I think it is unnatural and meant to be provocative, but most of the negative comments were not aimed at the cover nor Time Magazine, but rather were aimed at anybody breastfeeding toddlers. In some cases they were directed towards anybody breastfeeding past 6 months as some people didn't think that babies that could eat other foods should be breastfed anymore.<br />
<br />
So, I kept reading the numerous comments, like that once a baby could ask for it, that it meant that he was too old to be breastfeeding anymore. My son demands "tee tee" at times, and has for quite some time now, so I guess I should have stopped long ago.
Then there were others that were worried that a toddler might be old enough to be able to remember breastfeeding, and that that memory would most likely cause him (especially for boys) unnecessary trauma, ruining his sexual future. (I'm sorry, but I don't understand why people feel the need to automatically relate breastfeeding to sex?!?!)<br />
<br />
I then finally found a comment that disagreed with the rest, that physicians now recommend that breastfeeding should continue for as long as both mother and baby are comfortable with it. (True, and the WHO states that "Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended up to 6 months of age, with continued breastfeeding along with appropriate complementary foods up to two years of age or beyond.")<br />
<br />
That, of course, was sadly followed by one of <span style="text-decoration-line: line-through;">my favorite</span> the most annoyingly ignorant comments I've ever read:
<em>"That is just wrong. Sorry but you breast feed BABIES not toddlers and certainly not 6 or 7 year olds..."</em>
(Um, the boy on the cover was 4.)
<em>"...Take a look at dogs, cats, cows and other mammals, when their babies are old enough to eat food, they no longer nurse them! DUHHH!!!!!"</em>
I just wanted to reach through my computer screen and shake some sense into the (me being nice here) idiot that responded that. (You have to wonder about somebody whose main argument includes the word "Duhhh!!!!!")
<strong>Giving her the benefit of the doubt, though, let's give her comment a chance and look at some other mammals.</strong><br />
<h3>
Do Mammals really stop breastfeeding when their babies start eating other foods?</h3>
I prefer to look at wild mammals that are more similar to us, though, as opposed to a litter of puppies that have been unnaturally pulled from their mothers to be given away as soon as can be considered humanely possible.
<br />
<h3>
So, how about primates?</h3>
<strong>Most primates wean their young when they start to get their first permanent molars</strong>, which is also around the time that their immune system fully matures.
So, I remember from dental school that for humans we called the first permanent molars the "6 year molars" because they come in around that time. By that logic, humans would be breastfeeding until <strong>around 6 years of age</strong>.
Maybe that's why "baby" teeth are referred to as "dientes de leche" or "milk teeth" here in Spain.
Larger primates like gorillas and chimpanzees, though, do tend to get their first permanent molars when they reach a third of their adult size and six times their gestational size. So, if we want to shorten the natural breastfeeding time, we could look to when a baby is about one third their adult size, which for humans is calculated to be around 2.8-3.7 years old. (That's still definitely a toddler and not a "baby"!!)
<br />
<h3>
By birth weight?</h3>
Supposedly a lot of animals wean their young <strong>when they reach around a third of their adult weight</strong>. In this case, boys would be breastfed a bit longer than girls, and the length of time could range anywhere <strong>between 4 and 7 years</strong>.
<br />
<h3>
The conclusion?</h3>
<strong>It doesn't really matter what they use to determine the "natural weaning age" by looking at other animals. At the very earliest, when we compare, it's past two and a half years!</strong><br />
<br />
(Did you read that right, Ginger??!?!)
I'm frustrated that everybody thinks it is wrong or unnatural for one to be breastfeeding a toddler.
I often get asked "Are you still breastfeeding?" or, worse yet, "You're still breastfeeding?!?!?!" and it is getting increasingly more tempting to just lie about it when I can't avoid the question.<br />
<br />
As you may recall, I was especially annoyed when I went to the ER for back pain, and the doctor asked me why I was still breastfeeding my then 14 month old. I shouldn't have to lie or feel like I have to hide something that should just be considered natural; a doctor of all people should be promoting that rather than questioning it!
What is wrong with society?<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>That leaves me constantly thinking forward to the future trying to decide when I will wean my happy little breastfed boy.</strong><br />
<br />
Even my husband teases me "Do you plan on breastfeeding him at his first communion?" (That's typically around 6-8 years old here.)
I really don't want to be "that mother" that is breastfeeding a six year old; I don't!!!
(As I type that I'm envisioning the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sownf7vd-D4" rel="noopener" target="_blank">scene from Scrubs</a> when the mother is breastfeeding a teenager in the doctor's imagination, and how I at one time thought that was funnier than I do now.)<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I don't want to quit before my son is emotionally ready, and really see no other reason to rush weaning other than what other people might think.
Most of the time, supposedly, a young child will eventually wean himself when he is ready. What if my little boy, though, is the exception?<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>Should I be setting myself a goal weaning date as a point in which it is just "too old" to breastfeed anymore?</strong> (No need to answer that in my comments section if you are one of the usual, judgmental haters.)<br />
<br />
I don't have an answer to that question; I just don't see it happening with my son any time soon.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>One of the last common comments that really annoys me is that anybody that breastfeeds a toddler is doing it for herself, and not for the benefit of her child.</strong><br />
<br />
I have to look to myself for why that comment bothers me so much...
In my case, I will admit that breastfeeding can be pleasant. It's nice to have a quiet time in which my normally non-stop, crazy boy actually wants to sit still in my arms for at least a few seconds. It's also nice to wake up and have him want to cuddle next to me and breastfeed for a little while first thing in the morning. I can't deny that I will miss those times when (and if) we ever quit. hahaha<br />
<br />
On the other hand, a breastfeeding toddler can also be very demanding. It's not always convenient to have a little boy screaming and pulling down your shirt in public (or in private for that matter).
<br />
<h3>
Breastfeeding a toddler isn't always easy, and it has other inconveniences that one wouldn't always think of.</h3>
First, I'm having a very difficult time trying to lose weight.
About 5 weeks into eating clean and exercising almost daily, I have only lost around 5 lbs. I actually lost those 5 pounds about 3 weeks ago, and have been fluctuating up and down 2-3 pounds ever since. Before my pregnancy, though, I could lose weight fairly quickly whenever I wanted.
Most people think that breastfeeding is going to help them lose weight, and it does usually help you lose the first pounds after giving birth. Even I lost a ton of weight almost instantly, and felt like my tummy was much flatter than I expected when I left the hospital.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>What most people don't realize, though, is that many mothers have a hard time losing the last pounds while breastfeeding</strong>, and comment that it finally melts off as soon as they stop. It seems that the body has a defense mechanism that stores that extra fat so that one can produce milk for her baby- or maybe it's just a hormonal thing. Whatever the reason, I'm not the first woman to experience this. In the past, after a month of doing what I have been doing, I would have most likely easily lost the first 8-10 pounds (especially since the first week tends to take off around 5-6 pounds of water weight almost instantly).<br />
<br />
Maybe that's why the segment on Desperate Housewives (season 2) about the woman in Lynettes's office breastfeeding her 5 year old just so that she could eat donuts and maintain her perfect figure, makes me so mad. There are likely women like that, but I doubt that it's the norm. (Even if it were, it unfairly portrays mothers who breastfeed toddlers as selfish and emotionally unstable.)<br />
<br />
A part of me would love to stop breastfeeding now, and see if I could finally take off my extra "baby weight." In this case, though, I feel like quitting would be much more selfish than continuing. It isn't worth it to me to jeopardize weaning my son before he is emotionally ready for it.<br />
<br />
As for other incentives to stop, I have also been wanting to go in and get laser hair removal. I know that sounds petty and dumb, but I had it done it in the past after having problems with ingrown hairs and I loved it. There is a place nearby that now does it relatively inexpensively, but they recommended I wait until I stop breastfeeding as it can supposedly change the taste of the milk, and could have some other unknown (albeit unlikely) side effects. I really would love to just go in tomorrow and start. I will, however, hold off for now- for my boy!!<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>So, as you can see, I do have reasons for wanting to quit.</strong><br />
<br />
It would be nice to feel like I have my body back to myself. It's my son that motivates me to keep with it, though, and not my psychological need to breastfeed. I really just want to be a good parent to my little boy.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>There are other misconceptions that bother me, like the one that breastfed babies and toddlers tend to have a hard time becoming independent.</strong><br />
<br />
Lately, though, studies have supposedly shown (I say that because I haven't personally read them) that actually quite the opposite is true. Breastfed babies, and those that have been given some sort of "attachment parenting," actually tend to be more self confident and have an easier time of becoming more independent more quickly.<br />
<br />
Add to that the studies that show that <strong>breastfeeding may increase IQ</strong>, that it tends to help defend babies from the possible side effects of vaccines and other more natural attacks on the immune system, that <strong>it is analgesic</strong> (so perfect for comforting and nourishing a teething or sick toddler), and the fact that <strong>prolonged breastfeeding lowers the mother's risk of getting breast cancer</strong>,...
...well, <strong>prolonged breastfeeding actually makes a lot of sense.</strong>
That is, of course, if you can get over the weird looks and judgements from other people, or are actually discreet enough to be able to hide it.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>I understand, to a point, that some people find it weird.</strong>
Many of the women who admit to breastfeeding their toddler also admit to being "weirded out" by women breastfeeding their toddlers before they had their own. Once you are in the situation yourself, though, you realize how natural it is.<br />
<br />
You have a breastfeeding 18 month boy, and 2 years doesn't sound strange anymore.
Then you are breastfeeding until age 2, and 2 and a half doesn't seem that far away...
What it comes down to is that when a friend of mine tells me that they had been breastfed until age 4 (and you know who you are), I don't really find it that weird. Instead of thinking that that mother is strange and has some pathological need to hang onto her child's babyhood or something, I actually secretly admire her for having the guts to keep it up for as long as she did.<br />
<br />
If you had asked me how long I thought I would be breastfeeding before I got pregnant, I would have likely thought only until the recommended 2 years of age, and then I would initiate weaning. The thought of breastfeeding a 3 year old probably would have seemed dumb to me, but that is really only because I hadn't even considered it because I hadn't been in the situation myself.
As I write this, I have found another woman who thinks like I do. Here's the <a href="http://thestir.cafemom.com/toddler/116520/5_Toddler_Breastfeeding_Myths_That" rel="noopener" target="_blank">5 toddler breastfeeding myths that driver her insane</a>. I guess we think a lot alike.<br />
<br />
I also have since found <a href="http://theycallmeoystergirl.com/extended-breastfeeding/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">another great post</a> about extended breastfeeding from a fellow blogger that I have had the pleasure of "meeting" online, Vanessa from They Call Me Oystergirl:<a href="http://theycallmeoystergirl.com/extended-breastfeeding/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"> A Critique of a Critique of Extended Breastfeeding</a>
<br />
<h3>
So, for how long will I be breastfeeding my son?</h3>
As you can probably guess, I haven't a clue, but I'm not in any hurry to stop. I see no real logical reason to do it.
<strong>Only time will tell.</strong>TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-14617075085257637442013-08-14T16:50:00.001-07:002013-08-14T16:50:20.054-07:00Mommy's Little HelperLately I have been getting a lot of help around the house. Some of that help is more helpful than the rest, but all help is welcome because it shows that somebody is actually trying to do what is right.<br />
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Anything from watering the plants to helping me move the clothes from the washer to the dryer is fair game, and Eric, "Mommy No!!!!", wants to do it.</div>
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For now, I take advantage of the help. Sometimes, like when he moves the clothes to the dryer, he actually does help. At other times I have to set aside some extra time for the chores in which he is "helping me." I have to admit that it often feels like he only wants to do the things that I don't want him to do himself, and wants help with the things that I do want him to do himself, like taking down and pulling up his pants, or eating.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mommy, No!!! Eric!!!!</td></tr>
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I guess with time, he'll start to want to do those things on his own, too. With school starting relatively soon, though, I hope it is sooner rather than later. I have to admit that I'm a bit worried about how not doing those tasks alone well will affect him when he begins. </div>
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I do like the extra help of him wanting to get into his car seat alone, and think it would probably be a good idea to start to set aside some little toddler "chores" for him to get used to the idea of helping around the house when he still wants to do just that. I have seen people online who have made little chore charts for their toddlers, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that quite yet.</div>
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Meanwhile, I'll just try to keep his interest up, and enjoy the "help." Above is a video showing how he helps me around the house. You can see how he puts the clothes in the dryer, waters the plants, brings me the hens, even when I don't want him too! Poor hens!! You can also see how he's talking more and how he has fun playing with his umbrella. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">mmmmmm smoothie!</td></tr>
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As for potty training, it is going pretty well. He is wearing a diaper in the video because he had just woken up from his nap and I hadn't taken it off yet, but he only uses them for sleeping. He is pretty good about doing pee pee in the potty no matter where we are, but mostly waits until we are home and he is with me for poo poo. At least he is now telling me when he needs to go and he goes in the potty. </div>
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Everything else is going well. We're enjoying what's left of summer, for now.</div>
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<br />TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-80918759892988768372013-07-18T10:03:00.001-07:002013-07-23T04:30:52.754-07:00Fiestas Time Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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With the beginning of July comes the week of fiestas here in Dénia. Last year Eric didn't really understand most of what was going on. This year, I guess, he still didn't understand it all, but he was able to appreciate more of it. On the plus side, his cousin Noa was spending the week with her father, so Eric was able to see her and play with her more often.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was watching Noa jump with the older kids while Mauri stayed with Eric in the smaller castle.</td></tr>
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To begin the week, we walked around the town a bit, and took advantage of the kids' activities that are planned each day on one of the streets. They set up inflatable castles for the kids to jump on, and some of those include water with slides. Noa wanted to go with us, so we brought her along. She was well prepared with a bikini, but we didn't have anything for Eric. <br />
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They first jumped for awhile in the dry inflatable castles. Noa was jumping with the older kids, and Mauri was watching Eric in the other castle. So, I didn't get any pictures of him. While I was there, I ran into some girls that I knew from working at the UNED. They were also there with their kids. <br />
It was getting late, but Noa still wanted to try out the water inflatables. Most of them were too big for Eric, but he, of course, wanted to be part of it all too. Luckily with potty training I always have a change of underwear available. :)<br />
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So, they headed to the smaller slide for little kids which was completely empty. Of course, the second the older, rowdier kids that were playing on the nearby slide saw them go there, they pushed their way over there too. I was worried about Eric because they were playing very rough. The slide had a steep slope, too, and there wasn't enough water in the pool below to really cushion the hard blow when Eric reached the bottom. At one point his head hit the ground. We thought it would be enough to make him want to leave, but he wanted to keep playing. We had to deal with a huge temper tantrum when it was time to leave. Maybe that's one of the reasons we didn't make it back there again this year. Next year should be better.<br />
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When we were leaving, Noa told us she was hungry. So we let her and Eric decide where we were going to go eat. Eric chose Mc Donald's because he has just finally learned how to use their big slide there. He can even go up it backwards!! Plus, they are featuring the minions from Despicable Me in the Happy Meals right now, and Eric has become obsessed with that movie recently. I can't complain because I'd much rather watch Gru every day than to have to play Kinectimals on the xbox. <br />
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The next day, Noa was to have a party in the barrio (where their grandparents live). We are part of the celebration in the street, so during fallas and fiestas we spend a lot of time there. They close off the street to cars, and the kids have fun playing in the street together. Eric is too young to play with most of them, but he does have fun with Noa and one other little girl named Llum. Noa was expecting a slumber party, but there was a bit of a misunderstanding. In Spanish, a "slumber party" is translated to "pijama party" and their grandmother understood that she wanted to have everyone play in pijamas in the street. :) In the end, most of the kids were gone that day, so Noa invited a friend to come over, and I painted their faces. They wanted to be princesses, of course.<br />
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A few other kids came over when it was time to eat, but most of the "party" was really just Noa and her friend. Eric would periodically go over and try to play with them, but most of the time they were doing things that he couldn't really do. So, he did his own thing, and played with his papi for awhile. They tried out somebody's skates, and Eric loved them!<br />
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The next day was the day of the paella in the street. They made a huge paella for 90+ people, and it turned out really well. Eating out in the street in the middle of July, though, can get a bit hot. So, we prepared for it by going to Tita's pool that morning. <br />
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Over the last week or so, Eric has really begun to enjoy the pool again. His new favorite thing to do is to jump off the stairs and swim across our pool. You can see in the video above how he went from being deathly afraid of being in the pool, to being fearless when jumping in. You can also see how I've been making use of the pool time to help him improve his counting skills in both Spanish and English. He can count to ten perfectly in both languages since then. <br />
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I didn't know how Eric was going to react to Tita's bigger pool, but he ended up loving it!! We spent the entire morning with him jumping into the pool from the edge. He wanted to do it over and over again, and had fun playing with the other kids in the pool. I used up all of my memory card at the pool, so I wasn't able to get pictures of the paella, but it was another great afternoon.<br />
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The nest day, Thursday, is the day set aside for the "cucañas" in the street for the kids. I was hopeful that this year Eric would be able to participate in more of the fun. As usual, he mostly did his own thing, but did get into the fun at certain points of the afternoon.<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cD5FVsydDlg/Ud9RZF1HvTI/AAAAAAAASkY/0pxlA9n2y14/s1600/FixedIMG_7049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cD5FVsydDlg/Ud9RZF1HvTI/AAAAAAAASkY/0pxlA9n2y14/s640/FixedIMG_7049.jpg" width="640" /></a>The cucañas begin each year with the ribbon race. The kids line up and ride their bikes down the street. As they approach the string of envelopes, they are supposed to pull on the tab to win a ribbon without stopping. In the group, though, the rules aren't very strict, and all of the kids are able to win their ribbons. At first, Eric didn't want any part of the fun. The other kids were all participating, and he was riding around on his (actually Noa's old) motorcycle down the street.<br />
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Once we forced him to try it, he decided that it was a lot of fun, and kept going over to the envelopes to try to pull out ribbons. It didn't matter to him when the other kids were going or not. He wanted to pull out ribbons on the way down the street and again on the way back up it again.<br />
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The other kids proceeded to play a few more games. Luckily Eric was too preoccupied with his new ribbons to want to be a part of the food fight games. I think Eric would have hated them anyway. He doesn't like to get dirty or messy, and even refuses to let anyone paint his face or draw on him. I remember one time that he got some pen on his hand, and was inconsolable for over half an hour. :)<br />
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The older kids began to run an egg and spoon race. We gave Eric an egg on a spoon, which he held for awhile. He decided, though, that using the spoon just wasn't practical, so he threw it on the ground, and held the egg.<br />
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Once the races were over, the water fight began. Every year they prepare water balloons for the kids to throw at each other. They also bring out the hoses and even the adults get involved.<br />
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Eric is obsessed with balloons, but I don't think he liked the idea of them breaking. At one point, his grandmother threw one at him, and he got wet and cried. That didn't prevent him from trying to throw a few himself, though.<br />
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The water balloons quickly disappeared, so everyone turned to their hoses to get other people wet. Eric is used to helping me water the plants outside, and he quickly ran to take over the job of watering the people.<br />
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Even when musical chairs began, Eric didn't want to stop spraying people. So, the poor kids playing musical chairs ended up getting a bit wetter. <br />
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After the games were all over, the presents were handed out. Last year I bought the kids of the family water pistols because the parents of the street decided that their kids were too old for presents anymore and just wanted to hand out candy instead of the usual surprises that they bought for the kids. They would hand out a few inexpensive toys, and the kids would spend the rest of the afternoon playing with them there in the street. <br />
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Not only does the dentist in me not love them handing him candy every time we go anywhere, but I was a bit upset that they were changing the whole tradition just as Eric was getting old enough to enjoy it. I mean, we pay our part in the fiesta just like all of the other parents, right? So, I went on my own and bought the water guns for Eric, Noa, and a few other kids that were there with us. <br />
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We ended up leaving too early to actually get to play with them last year, but it seems that the idea was a good one because this year the presents were back, and they were water pistols. I didn't think that Eric would be able to use them yet, but he figured it out, and had a blast trying to spray anybody and everybody!!<br />
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They also started to hand out big balloons filled with rice. The idea was to shake the balloons like maracas to make the rice sound. Sadly, either the balloons were very fragile, or the rice was very pointy, because many of the balloons ended up breaking right away. Eric's was no exception, and he was very sad when it broke. "Mommy, fix the balloon!!"<br />
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Running around with his water gun some more distracted him from the trauma of his balloon bursting. His happiness was short-lived, though, and he threw another tantrum when it was time to go home for dinner and bedtime!!<br />
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Every day during fiestas seems to have some activity or another planned in the street. Friday is no exception, and Friday night the "festers" of San Juan perform a play out in the street. To raise some money for our week of fiestas, the people of the barrio sell some drinks and hold a raffle for the people who come and watch. Mauri and I have never won anything at the raffle, and I never understand anything going on in the play. The play is performed in Valenciano, and, despite understanding almost all of it in conversations and tv, I can't hear it well enough to ever really understand the play. I get the feeling, though, that I'm not missing out on too much. (Did I just write that?)<br />
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People from all over town come to the group to see it, though. The only problem is it ends up getting very late, and the big dinner is always held after the play. It was probably around 11PM before we were setting up tables for dinner time. I don't know how, exactly, Eric was able to handle it. Once we began eating, though, he couldn't handle anymore. So, we ate a few bites and went on our way!<br />
After the late night, Eric slept in, but woke up in time for lunch and dinner in the street. Before dinner, though, we went to the annual float parade.<br />
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Every year, the different fallas sectors make floats and compete to make the best float of the city. They get dressed up in costumes that fit with the theme of their float, and are also judged on any dances/actuations performed during the parade. <br />
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Normally each falla makes two floats, a bigger one for the adults, and a smaller one for the kids. Because of the financial situation here, though, this year each falla only made one (adult) float with the exception of one falla, Baix la Mar. One of the floats (Falla Diana) was even repeated from last year with a few minor changes. <br />
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Eric was pretty tired by the end of the parade. Fiestas can be exhausting, I guess. He did have fun running around on the street between floats, though, and running for candy when the various fallas threw some out for the kids. <br />
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Sunday brought the last day of fiestas. We decided to not participate in any more activities in the barrio. Instead we stayed home relaxing. In the afternoon, we did decide to go to the last session of "Bous a La Mar." Mauri's brother has a small speedboat, and we took it out to where the plaza has been set up on the port to watch the show from there. It is more comfortable, and cheaper, than watching from the plaza.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mami, cows!!</td></tr>
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Eric did point out at the "cows" several times. That said, he didn't sit and watch any of it for very long. He found jumping on papi and Noa a lot more fun!<br />
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Both kids were a little tired of it all by the end, and they were ready to go home. <br />
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The cows and bulls that day were pretty entertaining, though. Some days the show can be pretty boring, but our show had good animals that made a lot of people jump in the water, and a few jumped in themselves. <br />
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I would have liked to take Eric to the closing show of the fiestas, the giant fireworks display. The fireworks are set off from the water in the port, and the show is usually pretty. Eric is still obsessed with fireworks since fallas time, and I know he would have loved it. The problem is that they set the fireworks off at midnight, much to late for both Eric and Mauri. So, after seeing the bulls, we went home and said goodbye to the fiestas until next year.<br />
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Each year Eric should be able to participate in more things and appreciate the fiestas more!<br />
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I'll sign off with another video that pretty much sums up the whole week of events:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uTrqc7NjaUw" width="640"></iframe><br />TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-10728409945666737052013-06-21T05:11:00.001-07:002013-06-21T05:44:35.342-07:00Graduation! My baby is growing up!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Thursday, June 20th, L'Escoleta celebrated the graduation of the two classes of older kids, the giraffes and the elephants; Eric is a Giraffe. In September he will already be starting regular school here, even though he won't even be 3 yet! It's a bit bittersweet to see him graduate from his nursery school; especially with everything happening there this year.<br />
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Just as Eric is finishing up the school year, the school is being emptied because the new company will be taking over in a week. So, it's not just the end of a school year for Eric, but it is the end of an era. It is the end of his days playing there, the end of my days helping out there, and it is the end of my friends working there. Seeing as I was already spending time there before I got pregnant, it will be hard to say goodbye to the school. We have all enjoyed spending time there, playing with the kids, and seeing a lot of our own kids grow up there.<br />
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In preparation for the graduation, the kids have been practicing dancing to several songs. Eric, though, refused to rehearse along with the other kids. They were usually practicing when I dropped Eric off in the morning, and one day, he was so adamant about not dancing with the other kids, that I ended up dropping him off in another class with the younger kids! It's just like when we try to sing along to a song on the radio, and Eric screams out "Baila No!!!" We try to tell him that we aren't dancing, and that we are only singing, but he doesn't care. He doesn't want to have anything to do with any of it.<br />
For the graduation day, school got out early, at 1PM. Since I lose about an hour daily between dropping him off and picking him up, it didn't really seem worth it for me to bring him for a half day. So, he stayed home to play with me. I noticed that he wouldn't stop shoving his hand in his mouth, and the skin around his mouth was scabbed up again, so I decided to look to see if his back molars were finally coming in. I had just checked on Monday, and I noticed that they were close, but that they hadn't broken through his gums. On Thursday, the day of graduation, though, both lower back molars were already half way through!!<br />
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I was starting to understand why he was behaving a bit worse this week. Even at school they said he was being more stubborn. He had also had several accidents both at school and at home after a couple of weeks of successfully asking to go pee pee in the potty and staying mostly dry. He has otherwise been pretty much pee pee potty trained. Poo poo, however, is another story.<br />
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Having him home with me, it was much easier to read his actions, and I could tell when it was time for poo poo. He still had never done any poo poo's sitting on the toilet yet, nor does he demand to go. What he does do, though, which alerts me to what might be coming, is say that he needs to go pee pee, but then when he gets there doesn't have any.<br />
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Over the course of a little over half an hour, we kept going back to the toilet, and I would sit him on it with toys and books to keep him occupied. The first few times he got sick of being there, and so I let him get up and run around again, only to try a few minutes later. After a few unsuccessful tries, we got lucky, and there was poo poo in the potty for the very first time!! Yay, Eric!!<br />
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I decided to get him ready for graduation by playing one of his songs for him. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_3h7ubHZZU" target="_blank">I found it on youtube</a>, and he loved the video and wanted to keep watching it over and over and over again!! Unfortunately, I didn't know their dance, so I couldn't practice with him at home, but I did get him used to listening to it. <br />
After his nap, I got him dressed for his graduation. I was tempted to put a diaper on him to avoid having problems during the performance, but instead brought several changes of clothes, and kept my fingers crossed. We picked Tita up on the way to the school, and she took him from me right from the car. We were worried that if he were to go inside with me, that he would start crying if I left or tried to drop him off with them later on. So, I went in by myself, and used the time to say hi to one of the secretaries at the UNED, where the graduation was held. <br />
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By the time I got to where the celebration was being held, I had to sit pretty far back. I chose seats that were near an aisle so that I could get up and try to get better pictures and video. I saved seats for Mauri and his mom, who were going to be coming later on, but because of his work, they arrived pretty late into the ceremony.<br />
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Eric actually surprised me. I didn't expect him to dance with the other kids, but I also didn't expect him to ham it up on stage and clap and go along with it all. I imagined him crying and fussing and yelling for his mommy. So, I was quite happy to see that he even seemed to be enjoying himself.<br />
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Eric didn't do what he was supposed to do. He didn't follow the motions, he didn't wear his sunglasses, he didn't put on his graduation cap when he went to pick up his diploma, but he didn't cry either. Not only that, but he didn't pee in his pants! Later on, I noticed in my video, that he seems to be holding in some pee pee at the very beginning of it all. He still made it through all of the dancing and through the list of all of the kids picking up their diplomas. It wasn't until afterwards that he told mommy, "Pee pee potty!!" With all of the people between us and the bathrooms, I figured there was no way that we were going to make it there in time, but Eric pleasantly surprised mommy one more time!! <br />
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The part where the kids were being handed their diplomas was also quite comical. Eric would periodically peek out between the curtains and run out when it was other kids' turns. Then, when it was his turn, he ran out the other side, ran across the stage, and pretty much kept doing whatever he wanted to do. The other kids all obediently wore their caps and sat down holding their diplomas and class photos. Eric, on the other hand, just kept running back and forth from one side of the stage to the other, backstage, onstage, backstage... in front of the other kids picking up their diplomas... wherever he wanted to run. Good thing that there was only one Eric in the classes, or the festival would have been utter chaos. <br />
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I guess that part of it is his personality, and part of it has to do with his birthday. There are kids in the classes that turned 3 in January or February. Eric, though, is still 2 and will be 2 until the end of September. For kids as young as these, those few months make a huge difference!! Eric is now the age that the older kids were during the Christmas festival, and, looking back, very few kids were able to do any dancing back then! So, I guess I shouldn't feel to bad about it. <br />
You shouldn't feel too bad about missing it, either, because I got most of it on video!!<br />
Here's the HD youtube video:
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TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-54137895191049706942013-06-17T15:49:00.000-07:002013-07-23T04:31:23.424-07:00Summer and the Pool PoolThis year the weather has been very unusual. It was Spain's coldest May since the 80's!! Apart from a few very warm days, most days brought much cooler-than-usual temperatures. Even at the beginning of June it felt like summer would never arrive. <br />
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I have a somewhat unusual way of determining when the weather gets summer-like; I have determined I'm at my happiest when my coconut oil is in its liquid state. Usually as summer nears, there are several days or weeks when it is in a gel-like stage because it is no longer solid, but hasn't quite been able to completely liquify. This past week, though, my coconut oil went from completely solid one morning to completely liquid that afternoon. I went from not knowing whether or not to dress Eric in shorts or long pants, to wanting to turn on my air conditioner.<br />
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With the warmer weather, my desire to buy a new above-ground pool had escalated. So, I convinced Mauri to go pool shopping with me. He decided that our last pool was a bit too small, and after seeing that this year the stores were offering much larger pools right in store, he ended up choosing a larger pool. <br />
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While the pool is slightly longer than our last pool, it is quite a bit narrower, allowing us space around the pool on all sides. It is also quite a bit deeper, meaning that Eric can no longer touch bottom. I wasn't sure that it was a great idea to buy a deep pool just quite yet, but ended up going along with the idea. I had already bought a very shallow kids pool, which I set up outside our front door, so Eric can splash around on the days that he wants to play in the water. The deeper pool might make it easier to try to teach Eric how to swim; at least that's what I try to tell myself. In any case, with the pool being narrower, he can't jump into it from the nearby wall anymore. That was one of my greatest concerns with last year's pool.<br />
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The pool is also way too high for him to be able to enter it without the ladder in it. So, we have to be careful about taking the ladder out of the pool each time we finish using it. If we are careful doing that, I actually think this pool will be a bit safer because not only is it impossible for him to get in by himself if the ladder isn't up, but we won't have a false sense of security that we might have had in a pool where he touches ground.<br />
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So, on Saturday afternoon we bought the pool, and immediately proceeded to set it up and start to fill it. Eric loved helping with that process, just like he likes "helping" me water the plants each day. I put helping in quotes because he always makes sure to tell me, "Mommy, no!! Eric!!" So I guess I'm really the one who is helping him water the plants.<br />
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It took awhile to fill the pool, so all afternoon Eric was able to stand in the water. The next day, though, the water was already too high for him. We told him that he needed to wear his "Guau guau's" if he wanted to go into the pool. <br />
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At first it was almost impossible to get him to wear them, but we finally convinced him. The water was a bit too cold for him, though, and he started to shake shortly after bringing him in the water with me. I tried to let go of him so that he could try floating on his own, but he was way too scared to do it.<br />
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Later in the afternoon I tried again, and he was on his own for a few seconds, but he was screaming for me, so I quickly held him once again. He started to shake again, so we got out right away. Little by little we'll have to try to get him used to it.<br />
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Since then, he hasn't wanted to go back in the "pool pool." Maybe I traumatized him a bit too soon. Last year he had fun floating on his own in Tita's pool, so it isn't impossible to get him to want to do it. As the water warms up, I'll have to try again and let you know how it all goes. <br />
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Meanwhile, I may be posting a little less often on this blog now that I have started the other blog. After posting some popular <a href="http://www.instructables.com/member/tidje/" target="_blank">instructables</a> from my <a href="http://thethingswellmake.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blog</a>, it has also been getting a lot more traffic. So, I think I'll try to keep at it and see what I can do with it. I'll keep this blog more personal for those that are genuinely interested in what is going on with us and Eric, and leave the other stuff for the other blog. So, no, I don't plan on abandoning this blog. It's just that some of the stuff that I may have posted here in the past will be heading to the other blog. Overall, I'll probably be posting more often now, but with different types of content. So, for those who are interested, follow both! <br />
TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-84644873969220745002013-05-31T15:47:00.000-07:002013-07-23T04:30:35.603-07:00A Puzzling Development <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over the last few weeks, Eric has gotten much better at doing a lot of things. Just a few weeks ago, he was only able to do simple tasks like putting single puzzle pieces into children's puzzles. Something a little more complex, like a puzzle with various pieces, was definitely above his level.<br />
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Last week, though, I decided to bring out a small puzzle for him to try again. I was surprised by how quickly he learned how to put the puzzle together. At first, sometimes he would pause, feeling like he was doing the puzzle incorrectly, even when they were in the right places, because of all of the open space around the pieces. He also had a difficult time of figuring out when the pieces were upside down (it is a wooden puzzle with paint on all sides). <br />
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After a <strike>little</strike> lot of practice, though, he almost always immediately puts it together. I think that he is so proud of himself that he likes to do it over and over and over again. <br />
He is also starting to recognize animals, and the sounds that they make, in all of his different languages (Castellano, Valenciano, and English). Last time we were in the US, we bought him a two-block puzzle with 6 different animals that can be put together. When the blocks are put together correctly, the animal formed makes a sound.<br />
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His favorite is putting the chicken together. He is fascinated by chickens, ever since we got our hens, and is constantly wanting to watch youtube videos about hens. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the hen videos reach celebrity status eventually, considering the number of times that Eric wants to watch them daily. I doubt that the guy who builds his hen house from found materials realizes how much his video is being seen here in Spain. The guy with hens in Edmonton, and the guy who shows off his two pet hens, are also other favorites. It makes me laugh to think how oblivious they are to the fact that their videos are watched over and over again at our house. We probably know their videos better than they do. :) For those who want to watch these wonderful videos, all you have to do is type HENS into the search function of youtube, and you can see our watchlist. Ironically, the only one he refuses to watch, is the one that has cartoon hens, which is probably the only one geared towards younger children. I have never been able to see the end of that one, but I'm guessing that I'm probably not missing out on much.<br />
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Anyway, going back to the block puzzle, all I have to do is say to Eric, "Put the dog together," and he finally knows how to do it. Mommy is so proud!<br />
The only real confusion comes between the sheep and the cow. You need to hear the background story, though, to understand why. Several weeks back, we brought him to Mc Donald's and bought him a happy meal. The box and toy were dedicated to "Shaun the Sheep." Mauri, however, thought that Shaun the Sheep was a cow. So, he kept calling it a "vaca." I said that he looked nothing like a "vaca," and that it was a "sheep." I had to find the name of the animal on the box to prove it to him. (Should I be worried about the Spanish education system!?!?!?)<br />
Smart Eric sided with mommy. So, over the course of the next several days, every time Eric saw Mauri or the sheep, he would say "Papi, vaca no!! Sheep!!" <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Besito a Mommy!"</td></tr>
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The problem isn't with the sheep. He sees the sheep on the puzzle and identifies it correctly. The problem is identifying the cow, to which he has automatically wanted to shout out, "Vaca no!! Sheep!!"<br />
I think I have finally convinced him, though, that the cow is a "Cow" and that it says "Moo" and makes him milk. Considering how much Eric loves milk, that should help him take notice and learn it.<br />
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Meanwhile, I have been promoting my <a href="http://thethingswellmake.blogspot.com/">other blog</a> crafts on Instructables.com, and my first two Instructables were instantly featured and used on their homepage, earning me 6 months of free pro membership so far. I have heard of cases where people with Instructables have been called upon to use their ideas in books. Whether or not something that exciting will ever happen to me remains to be seen, but, in any case, it is a lot of fun to have a lot of people see something you made and tell you they like it. :)<br />
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As for Eric's school, things have taken a turn for the worse. June brings the last month of classes at his current school, that I have grown to know so well and love, and it is a bit depressing. A new, large company from the north of Spain will be taking over in June, and they have already started the process to steal away the girls who are currently working there. (It is in their best interest because parents aren't going to want to bring their kids in July if they and their kids don't know anybody working there). Of course, nobody is interested in the moral implications. They have already taken one of the girls, who has been appointed as the new director, leaving her class without a teacher without any notice. It's sad to see what the politicians here have caused. I have even heard speculation about canceling the preschool graduation this year, which would obviously make me very sad because a proud mommy wants to see her child graduate, even if it is only preschool. Hopefully that won't really happen.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The picture is out of focus, but here he reminds me of his papi</td></tr>
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Here's a video of Eric with his puzzles: <br />
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TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-63512746433907241972013-05-25T14:23:00.001-07:002013-05-25T14:24:31.882-07:00Potty Training Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My big boy!</td></tr>
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As you may recall. last summer we toyed around with potty training Eric. We were able to successfully get him to go both peepee and poopoo in the potty. With our September cruise coming up, though, we figured it wasn't going to be very convenient to potty train him completely at the time. It didn't help that everybody was trying to tell me that he was too young, nor did it help that he was often asking me for diapers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last year's potty training attempt</td></tr>
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Looking back now, though, I think that maybe I should have stuck with it and gotten him potty trained before he became any more stubborn than he already was. Had summer been any longer, I probably would have done it. I guess it's too late for regrets, though.<br />
Several weeks ago, when the weather started to warm up again, I decided to have at it again. I guess that with the thought of Eric having to start school in September, potty trained, I wanted to get a good head start. Eric, at first, refused to even get near to either the toilet or the urinal. He cried every time I even suggested it. Had this been some other child, I would have just thought, "Oh, he's not ready yet," and I would have waited to try again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric modeling his new boxers</td></tr>
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Eric, though, is very stubborn. I'll give you the example of his shoes. Whenever we switch sizes or seasons, it is very difficult to get him to wear the new shoes at first. Even with his favorite red Cars shoes that he wears every day now, at first he refused to put them on. He screamed and cried hysterically while we forced them onto his feet. We had to be persistent, to get him accustomed to something new. Now, he throws a fit if I even suggest that he wear any other pairs of shoes.<br />
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I'm guessing that potty training will be the same way at every step of the process. Even his teacher at school says that Eric is very set in his ways, and that it is hard to get him to do new things. She suggested that it was just about time to try potty training again. Considering that he needs to be fully potty trained before school starts in September, I wanted to get a start on things, to have time to perfect everything before then.<br />
At first, it was impossible to get him to pee so that I could try to make it go into the potty. I would take his diaper off, and would give him a lot to drink to try to get him to go. He just refused, though. I brought his little urinal around with us, but he screamed and cried every time he saw it. (Oh, but last year he was so proud to use it!!) I finally got him to go outside without the urinal. It took awhile, though, and a bit of bribing with stickers. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here he is wearing his new favorite t-shirt. If you want to see how we made it, check out the <a href="http://thethingswellmake.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/toddler-stamped-up-balloon-shirt.html">new blog</a>.</td></tr>
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While most websites seem to say that if your child is crying about the urinal, then he isn't ready yet, and you should wait a couple of weeks and try again. With stubborn Eric, though, I could see myself waiting two more weeks an endless number of times all throughout the summer. So, I decided to just rip the bandage off; quit cold turkey! If he were to have any say in things, things would stay the same way as always, and he would wear his diaper and his red Cars shoes for the rest of his life.<br />
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So, whenever he got home from school, off came his diaper. (I sent him to school with his diaper on, so that I could progressively get him used to the idea before sticking the girls at school with the potty training protestor.) That, of course, also went against the traditional advice about potty training. Once you go for it, you should just make the diaper disappear!<br />
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Somehow, though, my strategy seemed to work for us. The first few days Eric would protest as I took his diaper off, and put him into his new underwear. He cried every time I suggested going "pee pee in the potty," too, so I stopped asking/suggesting and just brought him to a potty and pulled down his pants and told him to pee. He usually whined a little bit before finally going a few drops. <br />
Papi made it into a game with him one day, and that seemed to get him to go for a little bit longer. He still, though, had the annoying habit of saying he was done after peeing just a little bit, only to pee in his pants 5 minutes later. It was hard not to get upset with him, but I didn't want to traumatize him any more than I already was. <br />
Then came the weekend, and we decided to go the entire weekend without a diaper. Saturday actually went quite well, and he still had the same dry pants on until an accident late in the evening, right before bed time!! Sunday, though, didn't go quite so smoothly, and Eric seemed to rebel against the whole notion of potty training, and I started to doubt whether or not to bring him to school on Monday without his diaper. <br />
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Still, I just decided to go for it, and see what happened. I'd let the girls handle him on Monday, and tell me what they thought about what I should do. If things didn't go well, we could always return to the diaper, and try again in two weeks after his teacher's week off. While he did end up going through a couple of changes of clothes that day, the girls told me to go with it and to try again the next day. <br />
After an evening of having to change him several times, though, I was starting to have my doubts again, but again I brought him to school without a diaper on Tuesday. I told his teacher about my doubts, and she once again reassured me. She told me that as they start going together, they get more excited about heading to the bathroom to go pee pee in a group. <br />
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So, you can imagine that I was in utter shock when I went to pick Eric up on Tuesday, and he was wearing the same pants as he had been that morning!! I jumped up in the air from excitement when I noticed that and they told me how well the day had gone!! It wasn't any less exciting when the same thing happened on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, though, brought a poo poo accident, and that is a whole other messy issue that we will eventually need to address. (He has learned to go pee pee standing up, and refuses to sit on the potty!!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wearing a diaper for a little nap.</td></tr>
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For now, though, I'm pretty proud of the little guy and the progress that he has made throughout the week. He wears a diaper at nap-time, so I decided to put a diaper on him today for his nap at home. That's when he surprised me with "no, diaper, no!!" for the very first time. Sigh. I did eventually get it on him. <br />
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<br />TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-58592569663653821662013-05-18T04:16:00.003-07:002013-05-18T04:16:50.272-07:00The Price of an Education<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The last week has been quite busy for me. It is now the time of year to start fighting for a place in your child's school-to-be here in Spain. As I have mentioned before, here you are not automatically assigned to the nearest school, instead you are given a certain number of points with which you can try to get into a certain school. People with the most points, get first dibbs on the school of their choice. People with least points aren't quite so lucky. How do you obtain these points? Well, by being poor enough (can get you half a point), disabled enough (1-2 points, depending upon who in the family is disabled and the amount of disability), if your child is an elite athlete (2 points, yes, really!!)...<br />
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Your location also factors in, but not very well. They have made the entire city of Denia one zone, so I get just as many points for living nearby Carmelitas as I do for the school to which I'd have to drive 15 minutes to get to. So, I could live next door to a school, but be sent to the other side of the city to a different school- to which I would need to drive every day. Yes, you would have to drive, because there isn't any really sort of public school bus system. (How could there be when kids from all over the city are going to schools in all parts of the city!?!?!?) With the way the school day is divided at lunch, that means that a lot of people have to drive to the school 4 separate times each day. <br />
If you have more than one child, you are given a lot of points for having a child already in one school, but there is no guarantee that your other child will be able to go to that school. So, you could potentially have to go drive to several different schools several times a day!! (Even if you have a school right next to your house!!!)<br />
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Not only do you have to worry about which school you want to go to, but you also have to worry about the program that you want your child to get into. Seeing as how we live in the Valencian Community Region, the Valencian language (as they call it) plays a big part of the schooling process. Some schools have two options: a program in Castellano (Spanish) which progressively incorporates Valencian, and a program which is basically almost 100% in Valencian. Other schools only offer the Valencian program!!<br />
The school we have nearest to us is a half private half public school that used to be run by nuns for only girls. It has certain advantages, especially in terms of location, and I do like the fact that the school, although no longer run by nuns, does try to teach the children certain values that will supposedly help them be more conscientious people later on in life -or so that's how it was explained to us in a meeting on Monday. The half and half schools do charge a "voluntary" quota each month, but it is a mere 25 euros or so each month, so it's not really a huge deal. There are three half and halfs in Denia, and they are usually the hardest schools to get into because they are famed to give the best education and have the best installations, but with the way things are going economically here in Spain, it seems like in the last year or two, the quota is enough to put a lot of people off from wanting to go to them.<br />
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Mauri would have had an extra point at Maristas, another half and half, because he is a Maristas Alumnus. It is another school with a religious history, and one that almost everybody wants their kids to go to. For me, though, the inconvenience of the school turns me off. It is right in the middle of town where there are tiny, narrow streets, no parking and no place to stop your car nearby for a moment to drop your kids off. If I were living within town, I could just walk, but I have to drive to town, where I would have to find parking and then walk, numerous times daily. Otherwise it would have probably been my favorite school of the three because it is the only one that doesn't have a mandatory uniform, except for the gym class days in which one must wear their gym clothes all day. (All of the schools seem to do that because none of them seem to have changing rooms for the kids.)<br />
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So, I decided that Carmelitas was the way to go, and although the thought of their ugly 100% polyester uniform makes me want to vomit, it still seems like the best option, amongst the schools, none of which have me 100% convinced.<br />
I went to the school to fill out their form to show them that I had an interest in the school. They called me several weeks later to tell me when I could come pick up the package of papers (the school application pack), and told me that there would be a meeting on Monday, for the new, interested parents. It actually ended up being a tour of the school. A lot of parents brought their kids with them, but since I had known about the meeting in advance, I had talked to Mauri's mom, and brought Eric to her house. There were a couple of power point presentations, over a lot of kids screaming and crying, but it really wasn't that big of a deal. <br />
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The school has a new building, which is actually pretty nice, but overall the installations aren't what I expected. I had imagined a bigger patio and bigger gym, but was met by a school, supposed to house the kids from age 3-16 together, smaller than any of the elementary schools I had ever gone to. What surprised me more was that Mauri would be the one to complain about it. (I knew that none of the schools here were going to be anything near to what I was accustomed to, but Mauri should have a better idea of what to expect.) He hated the gravel filled patio as much as, if not more than, I did. When we got to the tiny "gym," he complained about not being able to breathe in it. I have to admit that it did have a closed up, humid, heavy atmosphere that didn't really make you want to stay there very long.<br />
The first power point presentation, though, with the girl who was in charge of the younger kids was actually pretty nice. She talked about their activities: how they Skype with classrooms in the US to practice English, how they pair up with other towns for certain activities...overall she was upbeat and seemed to really enjoy what she does. That, of course, makes a parent happy.<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h_xgJLl0lQA/UZKvqpu_9VI/AAAAAAAARQc/BCJkSfK8__s/s1600/FixedIMG_0681.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h_xgJLl0lQA/UZKvqpu_9VI/AAAAAAAARQc/BCJkSfK8__s/s640/FixedIMG_0681.jpg" width="640" /></a>Sadly, though, things took a turn for the worse when we finished the tour of the new building where the older kids have classes. I try not to be too picky, but I wasn't impressed by the power point presentation of the "pedagogue." The formatting was horrible, and there were words floating over the category headings on almost every slide!!! It is something that I would never accept from one of my students, so I don't really expect it from a teacher, especially not one who is trying to attract me to his school. To make things worse, the presentation was all about how important the "voluntary" quota is for the school, and how we all need to be contributing (I don't really need a lecture on that topic. I get it.) That said, the worst part, for me, was when he tried to show off how multi-languaged their school is, and finished the presentation with "Thank you for your atention." (Wow, that was hard to write as my computer automatically wants to change it to "attention," as it should be spelled.) I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that he isn't the person who will be trying to teach poor Eric English!! <br />
Despite the schools shortcomings, I figured that none of the other schools were going to be much better. I had liked the girl who seemed to be in charge of the younger kids, and I did like a lot of their ideas. <br />
While I was there, I noticed 3 signs that announced a meeting for the very next day at 5:30PM. One sign was in English, one in Spanish and one in Valencian, and they invited parents to come with any questions that they might have about the school application paperwork.<br />
You see, the paperwork is actually quite complicated, overall the whole application process is. You have to choose the order of the schools that you want, and you have to turn in extra paperwork to prove that you are who you are and that you live where you live. You only have a few days in which you can turn in the paperwork, and, even then, it is during a very limited schedule. <br />
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I couldn't figure out one of the papers, so Mauri told me that I should go to the meeting. It was right after school, and I was going to bring Eric to Mauri's mother's house again later on because Mauri wanted me to accompany him to the dentist's office afterwards. Not only was it too early for me to bring Eric to her, but I also wanted to be able to spend a little time with Eric since we barely got to spend time with him the day before with our tour, and I wouldn't be able to spend time with him afterwards because we would be at the dentist. So, Mauri convinced me to go to the meeting with Eric. <br />
Yesterday, after all, most people had brought their kids. Plus, the meeting couldn't be too formal, since it was targeted equally to people in English and Spanish and Valencian.<br />
Eric and I arrived at the school a few minutes before the meeting was supposed to start. I wanted to ask somebody about it, but the girl at the counter was busy chatting with somebody else. I felt a little out of place, and Eric had a lot of built up energy from school still, and he started running around. I had to run after him, convincing him not to go up the stairs. While running after him, I noticed that everybody started heading towards the small school library.so, I grabbed Eric and followed everybody inside.<br />
I sat Eric down next to me, in one of the seats furthest away from the front of the room, and decided to give him my cell phone to try to keep him in his seat and quiet. The guy who gave the power point presentation the night before started to talk in Valencian, and asked if everybody understood it. While I do understand it, for the most part, I wanted to make sure that I understood the paperwork well, and so I called attention to myself by saying that I preferred the meeting be in Spanish. <br />
No sooner had the meeting begun, than Eric started to turn the volume up on my phone. He was playing a counting game that counts out from 1 to 10 items, and then cheers when finished. Eric started to cheer with it. I quietly told him to turn the volume down, but he started to yell out "Más fort" (louder!) A few people turned to look at us. <br />
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I wasn't given any sort of opportunity to try to get the volume down, or to try to get him to play with something else. The guy stopped talking and looked at me, saying, "We can't continue like this." Still looking at me, he waited for me to respond.<br />
Humiliated, I held back the tears, and packed up my stuff. I could hardly believe that I was being thrown out of the meeting that I didn't want to go to in the first place!! Worse, I had been thrown out in front of everybody else.<br />
I mumbled something about having short notice for the meeting, and not being able to find someone to take care of Eric. Then I mumbled something else about having a few questions about the paperwork, to which he said something about coming back at 7 and then, "perhaps," somebody could help me. Of course, we were supposed to be at the dentist at 7, and I didn't have any interest in coming back after what had happened.<br />
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By the time I reached the door, I was crying, and I called Mauri to tell him about what had happened. He couldn't believe it, and got mad about it, telling me to come to the port to talk about it. He decided that he wanted to go to the school to confront them, and he wanted to go back in with Eric. I, though, was horrified, and there was no way that I was going back there. By that point, I just wanted to bring Eric to another school. <br />
I mean, I understand that Eric was disrupting the beginning of the meeting, but this was a school, and nobody made any effort to help me out. Nobody offered Eric toys or something to try to distract him nor did they announce that kids couldn't come to the meeting. In any case, yes, there were a few other kids at the meeting, but they were a bit older, and weren't making noise like Eric. It wasn't so much what had happened, but rather the way that it was handled.<br />
Mauri and Eric went inside, and I waited for them in the car outside. When the other parents started to leave, I ducked my head so they wouldn't see me. I still felt completely ridiculous about what had happened.<br />
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Soon afterwards Mauri called me inside, but I didn't want to go in, especially since I didn't know what was happening inside. He insisted, though, and I didn't feel like I could refuse. I wiped my eyes, and reluctantly made my way back in, this time, though, with my head down, looking at the ground.<br />
The guy who had thrown me out of the meeting seemed surprised that I was upset. He apologized and said that it was all a misunderstanding on my part. He had wanted to help me out later on. Whether or not that was true, I still hated the way it had been handled, but I now had no other choice than to accept the apology. They asked me what my questions were, but I was still so upset about the situation that I could barely think or talk. <br />
So, I just pointed to the second page, saying that I didn't understand it at all. He and Mauri started to talk about it in Valencian, and I was then even more annoyed, but was so flustered from before, that I was barely listening anyway. Somehow we got through it all, and managed to leave the school just about the time that we were supposed to be at the dentist's office.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the farmer's market, I went to a different stand and was sold a bunch of mushy strawberries! The hens didn't seem to mind, though.</td></tr>
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Over the next few days I finished gathering up the needed papers, and filling out the paperwork. With a day to spare, I went back to the school to turn it all in. I arrived at 10:58 since that day's schedule for turning in the paperwork was from 11-1. They seemed to be following Spanish time, though, and didn't start collecting paperwork until 11:15. Lucky for me, guess who was there to collect it!!!<br />
The meeting was awkward, but I got through it as best and as quickly as possible. They checked to make sure that all of my paperwork was complete, and checked the photocopies of our documents with all of the originals. When finished, I was relieved to be able to leave. First, though, I did ask about the uniforms, mentioning how Eric has sensitive, atopic dermatitis, and how we try to keep him in mostly cotton clothing. He told us that we could probably get ahold of the uniform in cotton, but that it would cost more. (That said, I went back a few days later, and it seemed most kids were wearing different pants and shirts. They were all navy pants with a white polo, though.)<br />
In the end, I feel like I no longer really care about where they send Eric, but I'm guessing that, most likely, he will end up at that school. There are 50 openings there this year, 25 in castellano and 25 in Valencian. Most people shouldn't have more points than us because this school is unusual in that it doesn't give an extra points to the kids for their parents having gone to school. So, we aren't at a disadvantage despite Mauri (and I, obviously) having gone to another school. Plus, we have the "advantage" of Mauri having a handicap because of his burn scars from his accident years ago.<br />
We'll just have to wait and see!<br />
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<br />TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-76602829166200291692013-05-09T06:06:00.000-07:002013-05-25T14:24:58.571-07:00Spring Returns<br />
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I wrote this last Friday, and, somehow, never got around to posting it. I guess I've been busy since this weekend, and I'll tell you about it all very soon!! </div>
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Meanwhile...</div>
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Today (Friday) Eric has the day off; just like yesterday. </div>
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In my last post, I had spoken too soon about summer finally arriving. While I was celebrating the beautiful weather, a big wave of cold and rain wiped the smile off my face, and it lasted for much longer than I would have liked. Luckily, though, yesterday the nicer weather finally came back. So, to celebrate, once again, we decided to take the day off, and I brought Eric to the place with the balls that he likes so much. Much to my surprise, though, the place is closed on Thursday mornings. <br />
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Eric didn't quite understand the concept of the place being closed, and he was rather mad at mommy for bringing him so close to his favorite place, and then not letting him go in to play!! I thought about bringing him to school afterwards, in exchange for bringing him back here today, but he was already so upset about me not letting him go in, that I ended up bringing him back home with me. </div>
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With the nice weather, I was still able to get a little bit of work done outside while Eric was playing beside me. I still hadn't decided about today, though. </div>
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That's when a friend of mine messaged me about getting together. She needed help with an English monologue for an English class, and I am in great need of a hair trim (and she cuts hair). She could only get together starting at 3PM, though, and that's about the time that I would be going to pick up Eric. I decided that it wouldn't be worth bringing him to school, then, so here we are again!!</div>
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Other than the extreme changes in weather, not much else is new. I have been trying to get some spring cleaning done at home, and have been working a lot on planting and weeding in the garden. I had gotten my vegetables planted just in time for the rainy weather, so hopefully they are now well established and will grow well. </div>
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The hens have been supplying us with a constant supply of four eggs daily. There are some days that there are only three, but more often than not, we have a third of a dozen. We were considering buying another, white, hen, but decided against it because of the number of eggs that we already are getting.</div>
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Eric has been slightly broadening his Disney/Pixar horizons. We actually rarely watch Cars anymore, and he is more likely asking for Wall-E, Up, or Bolt, but he has even let us watch a few more movies now. We have seen Monsters Inc. and Toy Story 2, and he surprised me by wanting to watch Toy Story 2 again the other day. I guess with all of the rain outside, and not much to do, we've been watching a few too many movies lately, and Eric seems to have them memorized. He tells me what the characters are going to say at times, and tells me when something is going to happen or someone is going to show up.</div>
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We finished getting Eric's new house up. It now has been painted with a wood protector, and Mauri got the roof asphalt up just in time before the rain came. We just need to place some sort of flooring inside, and then we can move in all of Eric's toys.</div>
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Luckily, the nice weather has come back, and hopefully this time it is here to stay. I wasn't looking forward to dealing with winter clothes and using the fireplace any more!!</div>
TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-4981152106834131822013-04-17T05:47:00.000-07:002013-05-25T14:25:17.468-07:00Easter Time for the Beach!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Eric with the Easter Bunny at school</td></tr>
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Spring has finally arrived. The weather was actually quite nice this year, even in February when we were working on the hen house, despite the unusually persistent winds. Getting the spring weather to stick here, though, seems to have been unusually tricky. Looking back on pictures of other years, by fallas time, I'm usually out of my long sleeves, and am dressing more for spring. There were days that are warm enough for that, but somehow this year cooler, wetter weather always seemed to keep coming back. That said, summer-like weather seems to have finally arrived and I think that this time it might even stay.<br />
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Last Easter, you may recall, we began a tradition of getting together with Mauri's cousins and their kids over the holiday. The tradition here is to bring a "mona" outside to eat somewhere. Last year we chose the beach, and found that Eric hated the sand.<br />
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I was excited to go to the beach this year, now that Eric seems to like it much better, but the weather didn't cooperate on the date we chose to get together. I didn't let that stop me from getting there with Eric, though. On the Thursday before Easter, Jueves Santo, I took Eric to the beach. There was only a half day of school, and I didn't figure that it was worth my while to bring Eric to school for such a short period of time. So, I took advantage of the day off for our field trip.<br />
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Eric had lots of fun playing with the sand and the toys that I brought him. At first, he didn't want to take his shoes off, but after awhile he got used to it and forgot all about them. He didn't want to take his pants off to go in the water, though, so I didn't let him go in.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric with Mauri's cousin's son, Martín</td></tr>
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The beach was packed with people, but after a little while it started to rain a few drops. Everybody cleared off the beach, and we had it all to ourselves. Eric had a great time, and it was hard to get him to leave.<br />
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We didn't let the bad weather keep up from getting together, though. Instead we decided to go to "Mon de Festa," the place where we had celebrated Sheyla's birthday a few weeks back. The adults, trying to talk over the sound of lots of kids playing in the background, all left with headaches and sore throats from yelling over the noise. The kids, on the other hand, had a blast.<br />
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At one point Eric started to cry after being hit in the head by a ball. Of course, he had been throwing just as many himself. <br />
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This time, I had been able to avoid the whole taking-shoes-off tantrum because Eric was so excited about being there again that he just wanted to get playing. That was a nice change.<br />
We also had Mauri's cousin, who was visiting from Valencia for the holidays, over to our house. Her husband wanted to make us a paella to thank Mauri for giving them fish and shrimp. Eric and their daughter, Mariola, had fun playing outside with the hens and the trampoline. <br />
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Eric keeps thinking about the beach, though. So, on last Thursday, when I picked him up from school, I brought him directly to the beach. It was really warm outside, so I figured it was a perfect evening to have fun playing with the sand. <br />
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I didn't expect that Eric would want to play in the water. At first, once again, he didn't want to take his shoes off. Once he saw me take mine off, though, and wet my feet in the water, he wanted to do the very same thing. <br />
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I took his shoes off and rolled up his pants, and he happily started to run along the water line. Once he decided to jump in the water, I had to take his pants off because his pants kept unrolling and getting wet. Even then, he ended up soaking his t-shirt. <br />
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The real fun for Eric began, though, when a random dog showed up wanting to play with Eric. I, of course, was very hesitant, especially at first. Try stopping Eric from throwing fistfuls of sand towards the dog in the water, though. You can see some of the fun in this vídeo:<br />
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Since then, over the weekend, we were mostly working on a new playhouse for Eric. Maite had an old wood house that she wanted to remove, and she wanted to give it to her Godson, Eric, to be used as a playhouse. For now, Mauri would just love to use it to get some of Eric's toys out of his own <strike>playhouse,</strike> ahem, tool shed. <br />
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It was painted white, but Mauri wanted it to be the same natural wood color as the hen house. So, while we began the task together of cleaning off the old paint a couple of weekends ago, I spent the better part of last week finishing it up. This past weekend, Mauri helped me put it back together. The work isn't done, though. This week, I have been painting it. Now it just needs the roofing material and an "Eric's house" sign!<br />
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As a break from the work, I convinced Mauri to take us to the beach Sunday evening. We went to a deserted, seaweed filled area so that we could take the dogs. It was Kahlua's first visit to the beach, but once she saw Sheena jump into the water, she quickly followed behind her. They, and Eric, had a lot of fun. <br />
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Eric keeps telling me "Mommy, beach!!" So, I decided to go out and buy a little pool for him to be able to play in the water on the days that I don't want to have sand everywhere. That said, I have been contemplating trying to make him a sandbox out of pallets, too. I'll write more about all of the that, and show more pictures, in the next post. Here's one picture, though, to give you an idea of the fun. Did I mention that it's been warm out lately?!?!?<br />
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You may have noticed in the beach pictures, that Eric is wearing a homemade Wall-E shirt. No, it's not Cars! I know, I know!! <br />
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Lately he has been asking for new movies to watch. His favorites are Wall-E, "Balloons" (aka. Up), and "este guau guau" (aka. Bolt). He seems to especially love Wall-E, though, so I have since made him several Wall-E t-shirts. My freezer paper stenciled t-shirts just seem to keep getting more and more complex!<br />
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All of this, though, brings me to one last topic...<br />
I have decided to branch off and make a "making things" blog. I'm calling it that, for now, because I think I will include a lot of different topics like crafting, baking, decorating, building, hen care... You get the idea. My reason is that I have been monitoring traffic on this blog, and I'm starting to get a lot more views from people I don't know. (Or, at least, I'm assuming that from the way the numbers are rising.) <br />
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I like sharing the things I make, and the "how to's" of it all, but this blog wasn't really meant for that. It was meant for me to keep my family and friends up to date with all of Eric's fun new activities. So, by creating a new blog, I hope to send interested crafty people that way, and keep family and friends here on this more personal blog.<br />
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For those of you that are interested in the crafty side of it all, I will try to remember to send links to the new entries from here. For now, <a href="http://thethingswellmake.blogspot.com.es/">here is the link to the new blog</a>, but there isn't much there yet. I have only just set it up!!<br />
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I hope to tell you more about it all very soon!!<br />
TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-5529738819883412982013-04-16T02:11:00.000-07:002019-10-06T04:22:44.596-07:00Saving older, sentimental posts from my New Blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I first began blogging, it was a way for me to share what was happening here in Spain with family and friends in the US.<br />
I was sharing my pregnancy experiences, my birth story, and all sorts of personal experiences.<br />
This blog has housed everything from my thoughts on becoming a mother to the difficult task of having to say goodbye to our furry friends.<br />
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With time, I started sharing some fun projects I had made for my son, and people began finding this blog. I wasn't sure I wanted my personal online diary to be read by so many people.<br />
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That's why I decided to move my projects to a new blog, <a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/" target="_blank">Oh, The Things We'll Make!</a><br />
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On April 16, 2014 I wrote my first post, <a href="https://thethingswellmake.com/starting-new-blog/" target="_blank">Starting a New Blog</a>.<br />
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Over the years, that blog has grown and evolved.<br />
It started as a hodpodge of my thoughts, experiences, projects, and recipes, and developed into a business for me.<br />
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Now, I have realized that some of those older posts no longer are benefiting that blog in any way. In fact, having posts that people won't ever search for can hurt my rankings.<br />
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I was faced with a new dilemma-<br />
Delete them?<br />
Completely change them?<br />
No-index them?<br />
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My first thought was to no-index them, but having so many posts that aren't really helping my blog just confuses me.<br />
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So, I've decided to move those posts here.<br />
I'll share the posts and share when I originally wrote them.TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-62445668343496129532013-04-06T04:54:00.000-07:002013-04-12T14:58:53.415-07:00Fallas, Papú and the Eggs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_0-vMV1lt4/UU2WqLlehaI/AAAAAAAAPLA/_RBxPZEDzLg/s1600/FixedIMG_9681.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_0-vMV1lt4/UU2WqLlehaI/AAAAAAAAPLA/_RBxPZEDzLg/s640/FixedIMG_9681.jpg" width="640" /></a>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. <br />
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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!<br />
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. <br />
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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! <br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
Since that the 17th was officially a Valencian holiday this year, they were open for lunch. <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=502969079739827&set=a.502965303073538.1073741846.144305915606147&type=1&theater">Vírgen de los Desamparados</a> (the Virgen of the Forsaken), the patroness of Valencia. <br />
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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. <br />
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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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. <br />
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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. <br />
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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. <br />
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. <br />
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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. <br />
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. <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our first 3 eggs</td></tr>
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bright yellow tortilla made from our eggs</td></tr>
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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!! <br />
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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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. TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-70704649330222948882013-03-13T05:28:00.002-07:002013-04-12T14:58:24.985-07:00Ups and Downs<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have been looking forward to fallas for quite some time. Now, that we no longer live within the city limits and can avoid the constant noise of all night verbenas and mascletás and despertás, fallas is actually fun. I enjoy riding in the chiquí-tren of the Escoleta, dressing Eric up like a little fallero, and participating in the outdoor meals and activities of the barrio where Mauri's parents live.<br />
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I am still looking forward to all of these things, but it just seems a bit bittersweet this year. I feel like all of the good times are coming to an end. As I have written earlier, Eric, who turns 3 this year, is supposed to begin school this September. That isn't the only reason, though. This year the Ayuntamiento (town hall) of Denia has decided that Eric's nursery school (partially public) is not profitable to them, and they prefer to do what they can to make it impossible for anybody to run it. So, all of my friends who have run it and worked there for years now, will be forced to abandon the school that we have all grown to love.<br />
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Years ago, soon after the school opened, my ties to the Escoleta began when my friends called upon me to help out with the fiesta of Halloween. Being American, I was automatically deemed an "expert" on the subject, and had fun decorating cookies and a jack-o-lantern for the school. Each year I would go and participate in the fiesta in one way or another, and they would also invite me to other events and fiestas like fallas. So, even before I ever started to work there, or even thought about having a baby that would go there, I had fun occasionally visiting and helping out however I could. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Halloween cookies that I made for the Escoleta one year </td></tr>
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A few years later, I worked a few hours daily at the school, helping out during peak hours at the most difficult times of the year. One year I even managed to balance those hours with my hours in the UNED with the Calvin program. I got to know all of the girls that worked there, and loved being welcomed into their little family. They always teased me about when I would have a baby of my own, and I would always joke about how I was busy enough taking care of our dogs, or furry babies. <br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bdkIggwQLvA/UUBb1JbiHxI/AAAAAAAAO3c/5jc0L0iYNpg/s1600/FixedIMG_9248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bdkIggwQLvA/UUBb1JbiHxI/AAAAAAAAO3c/5jc0L0iYNpg/s640/FixedIMG_9248.jpg" width="640" /></a>Later, though, we decided that it was time to take the step and have a baby, if we were ever going to do so, and decided to just let happen whatever would happen, which, of course, ended up with our being blessed with little Eric.<br />
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Once Eric began to walk, I experienced the Escoleta in yet another way: as a parent. Having worked with the girls in the past, and seeing how they work, I was able to bring my son there with complete confidence. I still participate in the fiestas whenever I can, as you have seen in my blog. Now, though, I am realizing that those fun times are coming to an end. Not only is the ayuntamiento basically forcing them out, they are also months and months behind on their payments. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric with the mermaid I painted in the background. :)</td></tr>
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So, in the best case scenario, my Eric will have his school with all of the teachers and friends he has finally gotten to know and love, for a few more months; until June. In the worst case scenario, the school will close in two weeks if the town hall refuses to pay part of what they owe to the girls, to keep them from going further and further into debt.<br />
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As you may also know, I am a Libertarian at heart. So, I shouldn't be upset when a partially public nursery school is closed. To be fair, I don't even know of any partially public nursery schools like the Escoleta in the U.S., so I shouldn't expect the government to keep it going, right? In a Libertarian world, of course, it wouldn't have been open in the first place, and it wouldn't be a problem. The problem I have with the situation, though, comes from the environment we live in as a result of being in a more socialized country.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric wanted pizza, so mommy made homemade pizza for him.</td></tr>
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Once the government decides to take things over, and, in turn, charges you oppressive taxes on everything, making you dependent upon them, they have brought upon themselves the responsibility of managing all of the things they have promised to manage. I personally don't think that the government should have complete control of the health system, for example, like they do here, and I could go into a lot of my reasoning for that some other day. (Anybody who has read my other blog about when Mauri was hospitalized for a month after his burn accident, will know about my experiences with horrible treatment in an abandoned, falling apart burn unit of a public hospital here.) Once they take on that responsibility, though, they should follow through on what they have promised. They shouldn't be able to charge people for a promised service, and then just decide that they no longer have the money to follow through with that service. Unfortunately, that is what ultimately seems to always happen, and that is my main problem with having the government control so many aspects of life in the first place.<br />
Once they opened the doors of the Escoleta, they took on the responsibility of keeping it up, and paying the people who are working there. As can be expected of government, though, it was never destined to last. Our taxes are constantly raised, but our services are constantly minimized. <br />
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On a happier note, I got our falla ninot finished. It is a Lightning McQueen (was there a doubt?!?!) that I plan on using later as a pull string piñata for Eric's Cars themed birthday party, assuming that Eric still loves Cars by then. It had been years since I had made anything paper mache, so it was tricky at first, but I think it turned out pretty well in the end.<br />
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I actually played with a few different techniques, to try to them out, and had a lot of fun in the process. Parts of the process, though, were also a bit frustrating. I used boxes and wads of paper and tape for the main structure. Then I did a normal flour and water paper mache strip process over top using old recycled magazines. I didn't like the texture of the flour paste nor did I like the thickness of the magazine paper, so I tried another layer of newspaper strips with a heated cornstarch paste. It was a lot smoother that way. Afterwards, I decided that a few places needed to be built up a bit more, so I built it up with a paper mache pulp made of white glue and toilet paper. It worked well for building up the structure to exactly how I wanted it to be. (I think I would be more careful about accurately forming the shape of the structure next time.)<br />
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To smooth it completely, after some internet research, I decided to try making a homemade gesso using white glue and wall putty paste. My "gesso" was too thick, though, and ended up cracking. So, I had to scrape it off and start again on the last weekend. I ended up covering it all with one last layer of paper strips, to cover up the badly scraped off areas, and finished it off with a thinner layer of homemade gesso. This time it worked. I was able to sand it and paint it, just in time for the plantá at school!! <br />
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Eric likes his "McQueen." He even tried helping me to paint it. Of course, I fixed those areas afterwards. :) </div>
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We've also been keeping busy with other things lately. Last weekend we went to the taller fallero at the new nursery school, El Portet. "Tita" and "Yaya" made buñuelos, which are typicial at this time of year. A lot of the kids worked on making a falla ninot from newpaper and tape, and later painted it. Eric, though, showed no interest in it and preferred to run around and play in the patio. He refused to try the buñuelos, which he loved so much last year!!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taller Fallero at El Portet</td></tr>
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On Monday, he also went to Sheyla's 3rd birthday party. Sheyla is the daughter of one of the girls who worked at the Escoleta, who is, this year, working at El Portet. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheyla opens her presents.</td></tr>
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At first Eric threw a fit because I took his shoes off so that he could play with the kids in the play area. He threw a tantrum on the floor and kept running to try to put his shoes back on. Once some of his friends from school showed up, and he forgot about his shoes, he eventually started to play with the other kids. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All of the kids at the table...except for- notice who is playing in the balls in the background!!</td></tr>
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By the time he got into playing, though, it was time for the kids to sit at a table and eat some sandwiches and snacks. Eric didn't want to stop playing, and ended up being the only kid who wasn't at the table. Of course, he started to get hungry and thirsty, and finally made his way to the table just as the other kids got back to playing. </div>
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After eating a little, and drinking some water, he got back to playing, and I went to sit with the adults at another table. We frustratedly talked about the whole situation of the Escoleta until it was time for the kids to go back to their table for the birthday cake. </div>
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Eric, of course, didn't want to stop playing, and it wasn't until I had a piece of chocolate cake in my hand that I was finally able to coax him out of the play area. The kids had fun eating cake and feeding some of it to Ana, who also ended up coming. </div>
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If it hadn't been for María ("Tata") coming, though, and fishing him out of the balls that night to go home, I would probably still be there now!! He definitely had a blast at the party, and Mauri and I may just have to go back to the place to let him play some day soon. It turns out that you can go there and pay 1 euro to let the kids play for as long as they like while you have something to drink there. The only thing that worries me is never being able to leave!</div>
TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-26649621950682415392013-02-23T15:27:00.002-08:002013-03-04T06:25:02.311-08:00With Chickens Come Chicken Pox?!?!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The last couple of weeks have been filled with ups and downs. We kept Eric home with us several days to help us finish the chicken coop, and then, finally, to go pick out some hens. We had gone with the intention of buying one or two hens that were going to serve as mothers for some fertilized eggs of a pretty breed being offered to us by a friend, but ended up being convinced to buy 4 hens and leave the trying to get baby chicks for later, when Eric is older and we have more experience.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finishing up our pallet chicken coop</td></tr>
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So, we went with the plan of just checking out what was available, but came home with 4 new laying hens, two black and two brown, a feeder water dispenser, a sack of hen feed and a sack of hay. We were told that we should leave the hens enclosed in their coop for a few days so that they would identify it as their new home, so we figured that that would give us time to prepare a safe area for the chickens to go outside meanwhile. <br />
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If you will recall, when Eric was still crawling around, we built a movable fence out of pallets to keep him in a smaller, safe areas outside. We decided to use that pallet "fence" around the chicken coop to keep the hens in an area away from the dogs. Sheena seemed to pay no attention to them, but active, crazy Kahlua seemed very interested in "playing" with the new members of our family. <br />
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To keep the hens from flying out of the area, we got a large piece of fishing net that had been thrown away in the port, and used that to cover our fenced in area. It all seemed to work quite well, and had the added benefit of being portable, meaning that the hens would be able to free-range, to a certain extent, over our entire property. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adventuresome Maggie May was the first hen out of the coop</td></tr>
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So, after they spent their first day and night in the coop, we excitedly opened the door, and eventually the most adventuresome hen, the darker brown one, was the first to head down the ramp and start pecking at the ground. Soon after, the other hens followed her lead. <br />
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I was excited to watch them explore the new area, and studied their differences in hopes of being able to distinguish them to name them. Distinguishing the brown hens was actually easy, and I noticed that the more friendly and adventuresome hen was a darker brown and had less white feathers than the other one. So, I decided that she was my favorite hen and that she would be named Maggie May because I decided that she looked like a Maggie. <br />
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Kahlua seemed to enjoy watching them a bit too much, too, but I assumed that that was normal, considering they were such a new addition to her territory. We figured that the hens were safe from the dogs as long as they were in their safe little run, so we weren't too worried about it. I noticed that Maggie was approaching the area underneath the chicken coop, but Mauri took a look from the other side and didn't think that they would be able get out there, but shoved a few pallet pieces into the spaces just in case.<br />
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Throughout the day we periodically checked on them. They seemed happy and would occasionally go out and explore and go back into their pallet chalet to rest. By nighttime, when it was time to figure out how to get them into their coop, they made it easy for us since they had already gone back in by themselves, and we closed up the coop for the night. <br />
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The next day Eric wanted to go see the "llines" (which comes from gallines- the Valencian word for hens). So we went out and opened the door, and the girls immediately came hopping out. We were happy that the girls seemed so well adjusted to their new habitat. Since the day before had gone so well, we had a false sense of security, and went out to breakfast without a second thought. <br />
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Mauri had to go work on the boat that morning, so I went to buy some new food for the girls on the way home, after having noticed that their chicken feed was almost completely comprised on genetically modified corn and soy and their derivatives!! One of the main reasons that we wanted to have hens in the first place was to have access to healthier eggs!! <br />
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Unfortunately the place we bought the hens from did not have any "ecologic" (aka. organic) chicken feed available. In their store, though, they did have some grain mixes for birds that included an unknown mix of grains and seeds (wheat, barley, sorghum, sunflower seeds) and lentils, etc. It did have some corn (likely also genetically modified, but, of course, unmarked) and what looked like soybeans, but both were in a much lesser quantity as compared to the chicken feed. So, I bought them some, along with some extra black sunflower seeds, and decided I would do some more research online as to what I was going to feed them. The girl at the store told me that they were looking to get some ecologic chicken feed soon, so she took down my phone number to call me when it was available.<br />
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I got home, excited to give the girls their new, healthier food. To my horror, though, as I drove into our driveway, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, poor little Maggie May lying dead on the ground. My heart started to pound rapidly, and I started to shake. What if the dogs had managed to push over the fence and had killed all of the hens!?!?<br />
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I screamed at the dogs and quickly opened the door and locked them inside the house, just in case, and immediately went running down to see what had happened. The whole setup seemed to be in place, and I didn't see anything else unusual around, except for our neighbor sitting on the wall between our houses. He only speaks German, and I was still completely flustered and I somehow managed to ask him what was going on. As I was trying to figure it out, I opened up the doors of the coop and was relieved to see the other 3 hens inside and OK.<br />
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My neighbor tried to explain to me that there was a problem with our wall, but I was too preoccupied to really care about trying to figure out what he was saying. He left, and I went inside to call Mauri, but immediately got a ring at the doorbell. Of course, it was the neighbor again, who wanted to come in and look at the wall from our side. I let him in and we had to walk right past poor little Maggie on the ground. The neighbor mumbled something about dogs and chickens, and headed to the wall. He soon came back with a piece of broken tile that was meant to keep the rain from falling between our wall and his outdoor porch, and mumbled something else about "Spanish construction."<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where we got the fishing net</td></tr>
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I told him we would fix it, so he left, and I was finally alone to try to deal with my situation. I collected Maggie in a plastic bag, and put her in the fridge because I didn't know what else to do. On the way, though, I couldn't help but show the dogs and yell at them again. The poor girls, though, probably had no idea what I was so upset about. <br />
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I decided to try to go fix the chicken run so that the girls could go out and safely pasture again. I cut part of the fishing net and shoved it into the open area underneath the coop so that the girls wouldn't be able to escape again. I also paid attention to where the pallets made contact with the chicken coop so that there were no small areas uncovered with the net from which the hens could escape.<br />
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My main concern was the chickens not escaping, but I hadn't counted on Kahlua's new obsession with the hens after having hunted one down. We weren't completely convinced by our setup anymore, but I figured it was more secure now. So, I let the dogs back out while I got ready to go out to lunch with Mauri. My plan was to get the chickens closed up in the coop before leaving so as not to leave them out with the dogs unattended. Before being able to even get dressed, though, I saw through the window that Kahlua had pried one of the gates opened and was inside our chicken run!!!<br />
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My heart started beating again, and, half-dressed and barefoot, I went running to try to save the remaining three hens. By that point, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know exactly how long she had been there nor did I know if the hens were all out or not.<br />
I screamed at Kahlua to get out!! She was stuck, though. So, I tried to call her to the gate, which I opened. She, though, was afraid by my extreme reaction to her being in the chicken coop, so she refused to come. I finally had to pull her out from between the pallets and the coop after ripping off the net in that area. That's when I noticed the three hens, motionless, lying below the ramp to the entrance of the coop.<br />
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By that point I thought that she had finished off the rest of our hens. I saw lots of feathers on the ground, and the hens refused to move. I heard one starting to make noises, though, and thought, well, at least one had survived. I hoped that she wasn't too badly hurt!!! She got up on her own and jumped up into the chicken coop!!<br />
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I then removed the ramp to get a look at the other two hens. That caused another hen to get up and jump into the coop. I was relieved to see that two of the hens seemed to have escaped unhurt. <br />
I reached for the third hen, who moved in my hands, and rested her on the entrance to the coop, and she went in on her own.<br />
I couldn't check how badly, if at all, any of them were hurt, but didn't want to scare them any more than they already were. So, I decided to shut the door and leave them to rest while I went out to eat. I was relieved that they had all survived the ordeal, but was worried about all of the feathers that I had seen on the ground.<br />
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In the end, all of the hens seemed to have survived unhurt. They must have shed the feathers in the stress of the situation. I wasn't ready to take any more chances, though, and the hens stayed inside for the next couple of days while we decided on what to do to give them a safe place to roam outside.<br />
Mauri began to build them a new, taller fence out of pallets, but I wasn't at all convinced by the new plan. I also wanted to have an enclosure that we could easily enter to be able to interact with the hens, and get to their coop to clean it well.<br />
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We decided to put up a 2 meter tall chain link fence which would completely surround the chicken coop, giving the hens an 8.3m by 4.5m enclosure. We decided to leave the litchee tree in their new chicken run. So, the next few days were dedicated to getting the fence up so that we could finally let the poor girls out.<br />
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We only had time to get up two of the sides of the fence up before Mauri had to go back to work this past Monday. Luckily, that was enough to finally be able to let the girls out again. We let them out for a little while that night, and were afraid that we had almost lost one of the hens! One of the black hens had jumped up on the compost bin made out of pallets, and from there was looking over the fence. We were afraid she was going to fly away.<br />
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By night time, I had gone inside with Eric, and Mauri went out to close the chicken coop, but realized that one of the black hens wasn't inside. Of course, with her being black, she's harder to see at night, and since it had been a black hen that looked like she was going to escape...<br />
Luckily, he found her hidden under the coop, so he asked me to go outside and help him nudge her back inside.<br />
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Over the next few days, the girls have become adjusted to their new habitat. They go inside by themselves at night, and no longer run away when they see me. If anything, they usually come running towards me because I give them a plate full of seeds. That makes it harder for me to go inside their area. Not only do I have to look on my side to make sure that Kahlua doesn't get in, but I also have to make sure that they don't run out trying to get to me.<br />
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As for Eric, on Monday, they called me from school to say that he had a bit of a fever. So, on Monday morning, I only had time to move the compost bin out of the chicken run and to clean the coop a little bit, changing the food and water. I removed what was left of the genetically modified chicken feed, and put in my mix of seeds, grains and legumes. <br />
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Eric seemed to be fine by the time I picked him up. I made him something to eat because he hadn't wanted to eat at school and seemed hungry. After eating, he took a nap, and later woke up and wanted to go out to feed the hens. He played around and seemed fine, but at nighttime his temperature was exactly at 37ºC, probably because of his cold. <br />
The next day, I planned to take him to school again, but changed my mind when he went out to feed the hens, and was bit whinier and clingier than usual. I decided to keep him home, just in case. He didn't have a fever, though, and ended up being fine all day. Unfortunately, our recent summer-like weather decided to take the day off. It became windy and rained a little, so there wasn't much that I could do with Eric at home. We ended up watching the two Cars movies several times while playing with cars and legos. I even got him to help me to start working on his falla ninot for the school falla which I plan to later use for a pull-string piñata for his Cars-themed birthday party. That is, of course, if he is still in love with Cars by then.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The infrastructure of our falla ninot: Lightning McQueen, of course</td></tr>
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It ended up being a long day with Eric inside, and I was ready to get him back to school the next day. That night, though, Eric's always sensitive skin showed bumps that, once again, looked like they could possibly be chocken pox. It was dark, so I couldn't see them very well. So, I decided to ask Maite if the chicken pox were going around the school. They weren't. We decided that if they were indeed the chicken pox, that he would have more the next day...<br />
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He didn't. So, the next morning I was pretty sure that they weren't chicken pox. Plus, I remembered the last time I had taken Eric to the doctor for red raised bumps and they had been diagnosed as mosquito bites. They, like these, had a small white-head like bump on the top which is why I didn't think they would be mosquito bites. <br />
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I got Eric dressed and we went down to let the hens out and feed them. Eric loves feeding them!! That's when I heard, though, that the word had gotten to the school that I was going to take him in to have them take a look at the new bumps, and that I was being questioned for not taking him to the emergency room immediately if I thought that there was a possibility that they might be chicken pox.<br />
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Of course, I have already made the mistake of bringing Eric to the ER twice for possible chicken pox. Since they do not do testing for them, they diagnose them based on seeing the pox in several stages (spots to bumps to blisters to crusts). So, the only way they would be able to diagnose them or rule them out would be to wait to see if any more came.<br />
I was pretty sure that he didn't have the chicken pox, but decided I wasn't going to waste my morning at the med center to have someone else tell me the same thing. Eric was fine, but I also decided that I would avoid any possible problems at school by not bringing him there.<br />
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So, Eric and I planned a small field trip. We decided to go get a "replacement" hen to bring our happy group back to 2 red and 2 black hens. When we arrived at the place that we bought them from, the guy we had talked to last time was unloading a truck full of hay. He was surprised to see me back so soon, and asked why we wanted another hen. I was a bit embarrassed, but explained what had happened. He was too busy to get me a new hen, so he told me to look for his uncle. <br />
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I found his uncle, who brought me to the place where they keep the laying hens. There were quite a few more red hens than last time, but there weren't very many black hens left. He caught me a red hen, and I noticed that she was darker than the one we had at home. She also had more of a crest and waddle, so maybe she will be the closest to being ready to lay eggs. <br />
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When he brought the hen to my car for me, I told him that I had a gift for him. I was bringing him back my sack of chicken feed because I didn't want to give my hens genetically modified food. He brought it to his nephew to see what his nephew had to say about it. They both seemed very surprised.<br />
I tried to tell him that one of the biggest reasons that we decided to get hens in the first place was because we wanted to have control over what they ate so that, in turn, we had more control over the eggs we ate. <br />
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In the end, they exchanged the bag of feed for the hen, and didn't charge me anything. I felt a bit bad about that, but, on the other hand, was happy that, in a way, my money hadn't gone towards genetically modified food.<br />
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He told me that they were waiting for some ecologic feed to come in, and I told him that I had already left my name and phone number with the girl in their store. So, hopefully, that will be available soon. Meanwhile, the girls will be eating the mix of seeds and grains I bought for them, to which I added more lentils, some quinoa and some split peas for an added dose of protein to make up for the soy. So, along with the food scraps and insects that they get from the new compost bin I've started for them, they should have a pretty complete diet for now. I would like to add some sesame seeds for more calcium, and will buy an oyster shell-like supplement for them if I need it when they start to lay eggs.<br />
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Eric went back to school on Thursday, so, no, the chickens didn't give him chicken pox. I took advantage of the beautiful weather to try to finish cleaning up outside and to dog-proof the fence. (I have seen Kahlua sticking her nose under the fence and figured that is was only so long until Kahlua dug under the fence to get at the hens). Pictures of that will come next time...<br />
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<br />TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-80498072765141856112013-02-11T13:25:00.001-08:002013-03-04T06:25:52.132-08:00Happy New Year!!! (Happy Carnaval!!)<br />
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OK, yes, I know I have a lot of explaining to do. It has actually now been months since my last post, and I do apologize. 2012 came to a close, and we already have a good start on the new year. As you may guess, we have been keeping very busy. Apart from family visits, and Mauri having time off, I also allowed my computer time to be almost exclusively dedicated to making some photo books because I had some Groupons for two books that were to expire on February 9th. No, it isn't that I have been working on the two books for months, but since I didn't know what to actually include in the books, I had been editing a lot of the family pictures that I had scanned on my last visit to the US, and that takes up a lot of time! In the end, I ended up making some books of my baby pictures and some pictures from growing up. We'll see how they turn out.<br />
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So, anyway, let me get you caught up on our lives since my last post...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How Kahlua usually sleeps!!</td></tr>
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Kahlua has been growing at the astounding rate of over a kilo per week!!! She is still smaller than Sheena, but barely. Eric and Kahlua have an intense love-hate relationship. Well, that, I guess, is from Eric's point of view. Kahlua is all about intense love!! She almost loves him (and us) too much. </div>
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How can a puppy love too much??? Well, from the moment we wake up in the morning or when we arrive in the car, she is so excited to see us that she can't help but pee. She runs and jumps around, and doesn't realize that the intensity of her greeting can scare little Eric, who obviously isn't growing at the same rate she is. Sometimes she even knocks him over. </div>
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Once she has settled down a bit, though, Eric loves to go try to play with her. He jumps on her, pulls at her, and no matter what he throws her way, she seems to just love every minute of it and is very gentle with him. </div>
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Eric gets very mad at Kahlua at times, because she has the audacity to play with her own toys. Of course, in Eric's mind, all toys are his. So he scolds her for playing with her chew toys or with the dogs' Frisbees. He runs to pull these things away from her, and then laughs hysterically as she runs after him to try to get them back. Of course the second she gets them away from him, he is back to crying and being upset about her playing with her toys.</div>
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The weather has been decent lately, and on the days that it isn't too windy, it definitely feels like spring. Unfortunately, the last few days have been quite windy making it much cooler outside, but we have been able to enjoy a few sunny days in which, when you are out in the sun, you are hot in even a tank top!! I can't complain about that. </div>
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We have been making great use of those days. Mauri is on another biological stop, so apart from some maintenance work on the fishing boat, he has had a bit more free time this month. We have decided to use that time for a project that we had been debating for years...a chicken coop/hen house. </div>
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Apart from making photo books and writing on the blog, a huge part of my computer time is dedicated to reading about food, nutrition and healthy lifestyles. So, despite it being less well cared for and somewhat abandoned these last few years (since the pregnancy), I have continued to grow an organic vegetable garden each year. Now that Eric is growing to an age in which he actually wants to try to help (sometimes), I think that this year I can actually get out of my rut, and get back into healthy eating/living in fuller force this year. One way to do this is to have a way of getting our own (organic and free range) eggs. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric fell asleep on the trampoline several days that we were working outside.</td></tr>
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To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of eggs. I refuse to eat them fried...or scrambled... and if I had to name the one food that repulses me the most (apart from chocolate covered worms or grasshoppers, maybe) would have to be the hard boiled egg!! That said, I have been growing to love vegetable and cheese omelets, and two-ingredient "pancakes" made with eggs and pumpkin (or butternut squash) or eggs and bananas. Plus, the hens will provide me with lots of free, organic fertilizer for my vegetable garden, and will help keep the lawn somewhat pest free. </div>
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So, Mauri and I have spent the sunny mornings of the last week or two working on making a hen house out of pallets. It has been an interesting project. We started out with something much more, um, rustic in mind. We kept just nailing and screwing pallets together until a house began to appear, but then our perfectionist natures made us take things apart and redo this and that until we actually came up with a pretty nice hen house, if I do say so myself!!</div>
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Eric had to be part of the fun, so we kept him home from school several days to help out with the project. He mostly spent the time running around the garden, stealing the dogs' Frisbees and bringing me the occasional kumquat which he proudly picked off my tree for me. He did, however, also try to help out a bit, and would run to the drill, which we were using as a screwdriver, and had fun pushing the button and "drilling" all over the chicken coop. He also helped me pick up the wood scraps that got left all over the garden. </div>
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Also keeping me busy was my deciding to make us costumes, once again, for the final costume holiday that Eric will spend at the Escoleta. I figured that next year, when he is supposed to start school, I wouldn't have the opportunity to get into the fun again. So, since Maite had decided to make herself a Minnie Mouse costume, I decided that I would go along with the Disney theme. I wanted to be one of the Disney princesses, and ended up choosing Snow White, mostly because her hair is the most similar to mine, and I didn't feel like wearing any type of wig. I also liked the fact that her dress was very distinctive because of its color pattern, but it was less formal than some of the other princess dresses.</div>
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I didn't have a pattern, and I don't know a lot about sewing dresses, so I ended up winging it with the help of a few idea pages online. The trickiest parts were the sleeves and the collar, but I got a general idea of how to sew puffy sleeves online, and just crossed my fingers and got sewing. Overall I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, taking everything into consideration. </div>
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To fit with the theme, I wanted to make Eric into one of the seven Dwarfs, but knew that he would never wear a beard for the occasion. So, I figured my only choice would be Dopey. I decided to make the hat, hoping that he would wear it since we have finally gotten him to wear baseball caps again occasionally for short periods of time. </div>
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Of course, there was no way, when the time came, that he was going to wear the hat. I actually got him to wear it for a few seconds, but he whipped it off his head right when I was about to take a picture. So, I don't have any pictures of the full costume, but I think the tunic/top turned out pretty well too. I made it one morning quickly before bringing Eric to school.</div>
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Anyway, that is what we have been up to lately. I'll try to take a little look a little further back to tell you some of the other things that have happened since then, and to tell a little more about Eric at this stage of life. For now, though, I'll get this post up because it's definitely about time!!</div>
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TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-49911165359112637132012-11-21T06:49:00.000-08:002013-03-04T06:26:14.625-08:00It's a Dog's Life.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's been quite the week here.<br />
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It all started out last week when we got a call telling us that they were ready to send us the puppy that had been reserved for us. Mauri had had his eye on Bernese Mountain Dogs for awhile, but unfortunately it is a breed of dog that is impossible to find in our area. We did find a litter, but it was somewhere in the province of Sevilla. They were willing to send the puppy to us, though, by a special pet courier service. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first picture that they sent us of our soon to be puppy</td></tr>
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Originally we were expecting the puppy on Thursday, then on Friday, and finally on Saturday when the puppy did actually arrive. Somehow the people who were going to send the puppy our way couldn't get their act together, and they kept giving us excuse about why the puppy's arrival would be later and later. In the end, it was probably better that she arrive on a Saturday because Mauri was home to go pick up the puppy with me.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We cleaned her off after her long trip home</td></tr>
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At around 9AM we received a message that our puppy had arrived. So, we rushed to the courier's office here in Denia to go meet our new baby. We were a bit nervous, especially after all of the seller's strange excuses and lies about when the puppy had been sent out (she had actually been sent out the night before and not two days before as the seller had stated), and we were worried that maybe they were going to try to give us a different puppy. By that point I probably wouldn't have been <i>too</i> surprised to see a poodle puppy or something, and I had prepared myself to be ready for a disappointment in the case that we were to receive something that we did not want. <br />
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I was very nervous by this point because I already felt guilty for having the poor puppy travel for so long, but if we had to return her, she would have twice the trauma. Luckily, we saw that she was definitely a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, and that she was beautiful. So, no sending her back. We still aren't sure she is the same puppy as the one we reserved in the first photo, but by this point it really doesn't matter. Her spots are mostly in the same areas, and although it seems like she has less white fur on her face, her nose has obviously grown out and the rest of her head has grown, so I guess its reasonable to think that the patterns of fur on the face will also be slightly different now. <br />
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Having another little hyperactive, get-into-everything little one can be quite the experience. Sadly, though, we haven't had that many opportunities to experience what that is like. From the very beginning the puppy wasn't as puppy-like as we thought she should be. She didn't want to eat very much either, but when we brought her to a vet that first day, the vet thought that it was likely due to her long trip and to so many life changes that she was experiencing.<br />
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Mauri felt bad for her, so he went out to buy some more types of puppy food to try out. She didn't seem very interested in any of them. We started to wonder if the puppy hadn't been fed puppy food yet or what the problem was. On Sunday, though, not only was she eating even less, but she vomited twice, and by that night, she had diarrhea. I started to give her rice to try to help with the symptoms, but she only ate a little. Ironically, on Sunday night, I also started to feel sick, and by bedtime I was also vomiting. I woke up several times throughout the night for more.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying out one of the new beds that I made for Sheena and her</td></tr>
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Throughout this whole ordeal, the weather just kept getting worse and worse. By Monday, it was so rainy and windy that not only did Mauri not go fishing, but Eric's school was cancelled. Our puppy still didn't want her dog food, so we brought her back to the vet. He thought that the puppy was likely just still adapting to her new household, and told us to give her rice, made with a little broth bouillon for flavor, with one of the puppy foods until moving slowly to only puppy food. We tried to do just that, but she wasn't showing much interest in the food. I felt pretty sick too, and mostly just stayed on the couch all day. <br />
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So, on Tuesday, we contacted the sellers to try to figure out what food she had been eating to try to give her the food that she liked and was accustomed to. We, then, went out to buy it to add just one more bag of puppy food to our collection. They told us to mix the food with a baby food chicken and rice jar, so we also bought some of those. Even with the mix, she ate some, but didn't show a huge interest in eating the mix. I was starting to feel a little bit better, and was even hungry enough to eat breakfast with Mauri, who had stayed home again due to the weather.<br />
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With me not feeling well, we brought Eric to school, but picked him up early when he refused to eat and take his nap. It seems that he knew that papi was home, and he wanted to be home with us. By lunchtime, though, I was no longer interested in eating, and wasn't feeling great again. I could only hope that Mauri would stay home again on Wednesday to help out with the puppy situation.<br />
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Of course, I had no such luck. Not only did Mauri go to work, but they decided to close all of the schools again, despite the fact that the weather advisory had been lifted and the morning was quite sunny. So, I was stuck taking care of the two little ones while sick on a day that I also had a laser hair removal appointment to which Eric could not go. I also knew that I was going to have to take the puppy back to the vet because she was now refusing to eat anything at all.<br />
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First thing in the morning I tried to work everything out. They told me that the vet's schedule was busy all day, but when I explained the situation, they told me to bring her in right away. When I brought her in and explained her turn for the worse, the vet told me that she was going to have to stay there for the day. He said she was dehydrated and that she needed IV fluids. I was actually relieved to have one less thing to worry about that day. <br />
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By that point, the vet decided that she probably had a gastroenteritis, and said that "Sorry, but the puppy and you look alike right now." We concluded that puppy and I may have ended up with the same virus.<br />
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After the visit to the vet, I called to cancel my laser appointment, but they told me to come in anyway with Eric. Since I only had to remove the hairs from my face that day, which only takes a few minutes, the girl said that one of the other girls of the office would watch Eric meanwhile. I wasn't really prepared for the appointment, not expecting that they'd tell me to come anyway, but I didn't want to lose it. So, knowing that the puppy was accounted for, Eric and I headed to the mall for my appointment. It was a good excuse to get out of the house for awhile after having been cooped up there for the last few days with a sick puppy and non-stop rainstorms.<br />
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Eric didn't really cooperate with the poor girl, and the girl who was doing my appointment really rushed through the procedure so that Eric wouldn't have to be separated from his mommy more that need-be. I'm not sure she did a great job because it was so rushed, but I guess I at least didn't completely lose my appointment.<br />
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We hung out at the mall for a little while longer, and Eric played on the coin operated cars. He loves to climb on them and play with the steering wheel. As soon as you put money into them, though, he gets scared and starts crying. So, for now, it ends up being a cheap way to let him play. The only annoying thing about them, is they have been placed randomly all over the entire mall, so it is impossible to walk any real distance without having to stop or lug a screaming kid away from them. "Coches, mommy, coches!!!!!"<br />
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Mauri picked our still nameless puppy up from the vet on his way home that night. She looked a little bit better, but we mostly let her be that night. In the morning, though, she seemed like a new puppy!! She was going crazy for her puppy food, and she ate quite a bit and no longer had diarrhea. Feeling a bit better, she kept trying to play with Sheena, she tends to be constantly pouncing on inanimate objects and running around like crazy. If you try to cross the room, she'll bite on your pants legs just to play. In fact, if you didn't know any better, you'd think she was a not-so-independent cat.<br />
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Over the next couple of days, our cat dog seemed to be much, much better. She was constantly playing, and constantly peeing!! I am not exaggerating to say that she peed at least 30-40 times throughout the day. No sooner had I cleaned one up, but I turned around to find another waiting for me; side effects of being hooked up to IV fluids all day Wednesday, I guess. At least I was able to dedicate more time to her since school was finally open again; no more rain days!! <br />
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Meanwhile, on Friday night, Mauri came home with a name for our nameless little bundle of joy. I had made a list of different names that I either liked or that I thought fit with her color or breed or personality. Most, though, only worked in one language or another, and for some reason or another they just didn't seem to work. I had names based on female goddesses, like Juno, protector of women and Children (since Bernese Mountain dogs are very protective of their families), names based on Swiss cities, like Zurich or Luzern, and names based on her colors like Sable or Cocoa or Ginger or Penny. There was Sierra or Aspen, for being a mountain dog, and Swiss regional names like Lily or Leisl. Finally, I had names that I either just liked or that otherwise seemed to fit her, like Lana or Laika or Maggie or Zoey... In the end, though, we couldn't agree on any.<br />
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So, I kept looking for something based on her coloring. I didn't really like Cookie, though, and I had thought about Baileys for some reason, but Bailey is a name for a boy. Mauri took over my brainstorm, though, and came up with a Baileys alternative, Kahlua. His reasoning was that both the liqueur and bottle are dark brown or black. I, at first, wasn't sure about the name. Not only did I doubt naming a dog after a liqueur, but I had preferred a two syllable name for her. Once I realized, though, that nobody here knows what Kahlua even means, and I figured it was nearly impossible for us to find another name that we could both agree on, I decided that Kahlua it was. It took me a couple of days to get used to it, and I was almost embarrassed by the name at first. I got such good reactions to the name, though (oooh, exotic!), that I got over it quickly enough. <br />
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Sadly, Kahlua's improvement didn't last long. On Saturday morning, Mauri noticed that she was no longer running to eat all of her puppy food. She seemed to be feeling pretty well all day, though, and did eat a little bit. By Sunday, though, things were just getting worse again. She was wanting to eat less and less food, and the diarrhea had started up again!! Since she was eating a little bit, we decided to forgo the expensive emergency Sunday vet visit, and I waited until Monday morning to bring her back in. <br />
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When the vet saw her, he said that she was almost to the point of needing to stay with him for the day again on IV fluids all day. He was indecisive, though, so I told him if she stayed with me I would keep a close eye on her. He gave her a few shots to help her feel better, and we were on our way. I was to come back the next morning...<br />
By then, yesterday, Kahlua was greatly improved, but still wasn't completely recovered. She was only eating a little bit, and the vet said that although she did look better, that he could tell that she wasn't feeling 100% yet. So, he gave her a couple more shots, and told me to bring her back once more the next day. <br />
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So, this morning, I brought her to what I thought was the last vet visit. Kahlua seemed too be much better, except for the fact that she wasn't eating as well as she had been last Friday. The vet now diagnosed a new problem, though; she had pharyngitis. He said that the throat irritation would keep her from eating as much as she did when well. Both Kahlua and Sheena had been coughing up something for the last two days. I had mistakenly thought that it was from the dental chewing bones that I had bought for our teething baby. They were both chewing them into little pieces that I was finding all over the floor, and I had assumed that the little pieces were getting stuck in the back of their throat and that that was what was making them cough so much. So, I took them away and replaced them with rope knots.<br />
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The vet promised my poor little ball of fur that she wouldn't get any shots today, but then had to go back on his word. He also sent me home with some pills for Sheena. <br />
Hopefully by her next appointment in two days, she'll finally be doing well... We'll just have to wait and see. At least she is starting to really fit in with the rest of the family. Sheena has gone from ignoring her to sometimes playing with her. Eric, whom she loves to follow around, likes to laugh hysterically at her when she pounces around. He does get upset when she nips ar him when trying to play with him, though. <br />
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It's interesting to see how quickly she has adapted to her new family. She excitedly cries, happily wagging her tail, each morning when she sees us, or when Mauri comes home from work. We've only had her for a little over a week now, but she now always wants to be near us, and gets very sad whenever we leave. So, I guess I have adopted another little baby who just wants to be held and wants to play with her family. It seems that toddlers of any type can be frustrating and exasperating at times, but they are also so cute and very sweet and a lot of fun! <br />
<br />TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-66178807406336645692012-11-09T16:37:00.000-08:002013-03-04T06:26:55.683-08:00Holy Halloween, Batman!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lately it seems like I've been getting my posts out two at a time. (Foreshadowing for a post-to-come) I keep procrastinating until I have another big event coming up, and decide I'd better quickly post before I get too far behind. Not wanting to give away my surprise as to what our new life event is, I'll just get to the story of how we spent Halloween this year.<br />
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Last year I had bought Eric an inexpensive bat costume for Halloween. When it came time to celebrate, though, I realized that the costume was slightly too large, and just wasn't that cute anyway without the cute bat-head hood that Eric refused to wear. So, I just put him into one of his bear ear hooded suits, and left the bat costume for this year.<br />
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Maite, though, had another idea for us; well, sort of. She was excited to make herself a Batgirl costume, and came to me for some crafty help with its construction. A bat wouldn't have gone too bad with Batgirl, but I didn't know what I could be to try to fit in with them. Looking for Batgirl costume ideas, though, I noticed that there were now girl versions of a lot of the superheroes. <br />
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One whose colors I particularly liked was Robin's suit. The girl version costume, like most of the other superhero costumes, was a tad bit slutty and a bit too minimalistic for a childrens' Halloween party (or for my taste, for that matter). One of the advantages of making one's own costume, though, is that it can be made to suit your own taste. So, I proceeded to design my own version of Robin Girl.<br />
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If we were going to be Batgirl and Robin, we, of course, were going to need a cute little Batman to accompany us. So, we took advantage of the time that Maite usually comes to visit on Sunday evenings to plan and fabricate our costumes. <br />
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Looking at the Batman and Robin costumes, I decided that I liked the original vintage Batman and Robin the best. Modern batman costumes are all black and just seem to be missing something. To top it off, the only thing that really distinguishes them is the Batman mask that I knew Eric would never wear anyway. (I did make him one for his costume, just in case, but it never got worn.)<br />
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So we proceeded to cut out our masks, make stencils for painting on our respective logos, and looking for inexpensive clothing for our costumes. I bought myself a cheap red t-shirt and proceeded to cut off the arms to make room for the green Robin sleeves. I had a hard time finding myself any green fabric that would work for the sleeves and skirt. You see, being crafty here in Spain can be a bit of a challenge. It's not like I can just head off to the nearest Michael's or JoAnn Crafts to pick up whatever it is I need. <br />
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I did have a little streak of luck, though, and found a table at the flea market that had new t shirts for 1 Euro, and they just happened to have a couple of shirts in the green that I wanted for my costume. So, I bought a couple, and cut off the bottom part of one and sewed it to bottom of the red shirt to make my skirt. Then I cut off the sleeves and used the top of the sleeves for new sleeves for my dress, and used the bottom parts for my superhero gloves. It was actually quite easy to make the dress.<br />
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There was another table at the flea market selling basic colored cotton cloths, so I bought some yellow fabric for my cape and all of our belts. Maite worked on pleating our capes while I sewed the edges with my serger and sewed up the belts. <br />
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Eric's costume used some old grey tights that somebody had, luckily, just given us. I also had some gray. plain t-shirts that I had bought to decorate for him, so I used that for the suit. Even luckier was the fact that I had an old polar fleece blanket stashed away that I had already started to cut up to make Eric a swaddling blanket when he was a baby. With the leftover fabric I had just enough to make him the rest of his costume, including his blue cape, gloves (in this case sleeves) and boots, which were just "sleeves" to put over Eric's regular shoes.<br />
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We painted on our respective logos with fabric paint, and were ready for Halloween with plenty of time to spare. That gave me time to look for Halloween food ideas on Pinterest. I wasn't in the mood to make my usual Halloween cookies, so I wanted to find something less time consuming, but just as fun. <br />
I settled on making a "pumpkin" cheese ball, and ham "face" and a gravestone "dirt" (aka Oreo) cake.<br />
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Overall the school Halloween party was a lot of fun. In the end I'm glad Eric didn't go as a bat because there were already two other bats there in the same exact bat costume!! Halloween, though, wasn't over yet after the party, and I got Eric dressed up again at night to go Trick-or-Treating with the kids in Mauri's parents' neighborhood like I had on Eric's first Halloween. (Last year I was too tired to bother.) Unfortunately, the kids of the barrio didn't care much about having little Eric go with them, I guess, because they kept postponing the time to get dressed in their costumes to go "Trick-or-treating." In the end, we got tired of waiting, and decided to just go home. We found out days later that they didn't stop by Mauri's parents' house until 10:30 at night!!! I said that I wouldn't have even opened the door for them by that time, but it seems that here knocking on someone's door at 10:30 at night isn't seen as rude as it would be in the US. Or maybe people just don't know how to react to the American holiday and just go along with whatever. Either way it is obvious that Halloween here in Spain gets more and more popular every year. Someday soon I'm sure there will be "real" trick-or-treating for kids. Hopefully it will arrive before Eric is too old for it. TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-56952541583654666382012-10-18T04:56:00.000-07:002013-03-04T06:27:17.805-08:00Eric Turns 2!!<br />
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Despite not having a lot of time after the cruise for planning Eric's birthday party, a little pre-planning before the cruise helped me to pull it off much better than I imagined. Because of Eric's obsession with "guau guau's," I knew he had to have a birthday party filled with them. So, I surfed Pinterest looking for ideas for the perfect puppy party.<br />
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First, I looked for ideas for his cake. I wanted to make sure that I had the fondant prepared and wanted to pre-sculpt any fondant figurines that I could make ahead of time. I didn't really have an idea of how exactly I wanted the cake to look, but I decided that I wanted it to be a simple two-tiered cake as a base, that would somehow be decorated with fondant dogs. Luckily, there were lots of ideas on how to sculpt dogs on youtube, and I got some ideas of how to make some easy fondant dogs, and made a lot of them before leaving for the cruise.</div>
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After seeing other parties online, I decided that I also would need to work on some decorations for the party, so I looked for some cute dog napkins online. Unfortunately, although I found some really cute ones available in the U.S., it would have been way too expensive to have them shipped to me. So, I decided that I would stamp my own. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">stamped paper napkins</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">I couldn't find any cute, inexpensive, dog-related stamps that would be small enough to work for stamping the napkins, though, so I ended up crafting my own from cheap rubber erasers. It was easier and worked out much better than I could have imagined. I tried stamping them with rubber stamp ink, but none of the colors I had showed up well on the napkins, so I stamped them with white acrylic ink instead.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adult goodie bag contents</td></tr>
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Maite came over one weekend to help me work on getting things ready for the party. So, while I was working on stamping napkins, Maite helped me decorate some goody bags for the kids. I ordered some little paper bags online since here they are not a common item that one can find in the supermarket. To decorate them, I made another couple of homemade stamps, one of Eric's name and one of a paw print, this time using foam sheets glued onto an old cd case top. Since the top was transparent, it was easy to line up the stamp to paint it in just the right place.</div>
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Originally the goody bags were going to be just for the kids, but I ended up making something for the women who attended the party too. At first, when I didn't find any napkins I liked, I had toyed with the idea of making some cute cloth napkins that would also serve as a souvenir of the party. I bought an inexpensive striped jersey fitted sheet to use as the fabric for those napkins, making them simply using a serger border, and I decorated them with Eric's name. I felt bad about using them as napkins at the party, though, and so I decided to just give them out at the party instead when I came up with the idea of stamping the paper napkins.</div>
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After making those, I had leftover fabric, and decided to use it to make a cute pennant banner that said "Feliz Cumpleaños Eric." In order to have a variety of colors in the banner, I recycled some fabric from old t-shirts for some of the banners. It ended up being pretty cute, if I do say so myself.</div>
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After all of that, I had some cute goody bags, but didn't have much to put into them. So, I decided I would be making some dog biscuits out of sugar cookie dough. I was worried about making them too far ahead of time, though, so instead of making the cookies ahead of time, I made the dough and froze it. </div>
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There wasn't much more that I could do ahead of time except for decorating the dog bowls that I wanted to use as food receptacles. I looked for cute ideas for the party, and liked the idea of having a puppy adoption station, but I couldn't find any cute, inexpensive puppies that I could buy for the kids. The people in the puppy parties on Pinterest had been lucky enough to find cute stuffed dogs in local dollar stores. Here, though, dollar stores just don't exist. There were some 100 pesetas stores years ago, but even those never had everything for 100 pesetas. </div>
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Nowadays, people shop at the "chinos" which are the inexpensive, find-anything stores. Even after visiting many of those, though, I couldn't find any type of dog that I liked for the kids. I was open to finding little dog keychains or stuffed animals or even some sort of figurine, but I just wasn't having any luck.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adopt a dog</td></tr>
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After the cruise, after having given up on the whole idea, I found a new chino that I didn't know about before. I decided to check it out just for fun, and was pleasantly surprised to find that they had some perfect dog stuffed animals available for a reasonable price (No, not a dollar, but they didn't break the budget either). I wasn't going to need that many anyway, so I decided to buy them. The nice thing about them was that they all had a cute cloth tag hanging from the collar, which would be perfect for the kids to decorate with the name of their new puppy.</div>
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So, I made some cute adoption certificates. I had found a cute download freebie for the certificates, but they, of course, were in the wrong language, so I translated them and made a few changes. I ended up using the same border from the certificates to make up some cute labels for my sugar cookie doggie treats.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rainbow cake with swiss buttercream frosting</td></tr>
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The last few days before the party, I spent time looking for doggy activities, and worked on making a pin the tail on the doggy game, amongst other things. When it came time for the party, though, that ended up being wasted time. Having both adults and kids at the party made it impossible to focus on everybody while trying to play activities. The kids kept busy playing by themselves, though, and we didn't end up playing any of the games, but I don't feel like the party was lacking because of it either. The kids did enjoy adopting their dogs, though, and the older kids had fun filling out the adoption certificates. It turns out that after the party, a lot of the kids were very happy with their souvenir from the party, some of them wanting to bring their new puppies everywhere with them.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric's small cake for the Escoleta</td></tr>
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The cake ended up being a bit of a challenge for me. I made a little mini cake for the party at the Escoleta, and it turned out pretty cute. It was a rainbow cake on the inside, which is what I made for the base of the party cake too. The tiny cake for the school ended up being easy to decorate because there was only one level with a lot of space on top for placing the fondant dogs and the candle. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"mommy, guau-guau!!"</td></tr>
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When making the bigger cake for his party at home, though, I didn't have a lot of space for placing the dogs. I could put a few on the very top, but none would fit on the ledge of the lower cake that surrounded the top layer. So, I had an idea to move the upper cake a bit to the side to make room for them.<br />
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In theory, it was a really great idea, but it practice it was much more difficult than I had originally imagined. You see, the cakes were staked together with a wooden skewer, and the lower level also had supports which were set directly in the center of the cake. So, when I was moving the cake, I had a problem with the center stake, and I caught it on something, probably the straw around one of the lower supports, making my upper level cake, complete with fondant dogs and all, flip over and fall on top of the lower cake, smashing both of them and breaking the ears off of most of the fondant dogs!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjye15gkq1EzDlmPIyZpZsXp7L6N6DX7HG6KCR06EhiducF3gCefFYw0zBCXr3E5LX1wvWAmX-3Qgk5Dwfy58Neb2CBUgXI7b_EdtwoMfu2s7XzrT_4ncetwUdBCR2Xw1hl-X7utqYq3Fvb/s1600/FixedIMG_4801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjye15gkq1EzDlmPIyZpZsXp7L6N6DX7HG6KCR06EhiducF3gCefFYw0zBCXr3E5LX1wvWAmX-3Qgk5Dwfy58Neb2CBUgXI7b_EdtwoMfu2s7XzrT_4ncetwUdBCR2Xw1hl-X7utqYq3Fvb/s640/FixedIMG_4801.jpg" width="640" /></a>Of course I freaked out! Once I calmed down a bit, though, I realized that things could have been a lot worse. The upper cake fell directly on top of the lower cake and not on the floor or even the countertop. So, I was able to still use it if I could make it presentable again. Being such a dense chocolate cake, the upper layer didn't really become too deformed. The lower layer also held itself up pretty well, but one of the edges was smashed in beyond being able to push it back into shape perfectly where one of the fondant dogs had gotten between the two cakes during the fall. Luckily, the dogs, being pretty hard after drying while we were gone on our cruise, held up pretty well and weren't as damaged as they could have been. A few were lacking ears, though, and I had to replace those.<br />
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I decided that despite a few noticeable flaws, that the cake was still salvageable. I needed a plan for covering up some of the more noticeable defects, though, and I decided upon making the dogs fondant blankets that would drape over the problem areas. In the end, the cake turned out better because of the error because the blankets added some needed color and interest to the finished cake. I also was able to strategically place the fondant bones, dog paws and Eric's name to cover other little flaws. So, by the time I was done, you really would have had to know what had happened to be able to, well, know what had happened. In the end I was happy with it overall.<br />
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The party at school was fun. It was just a short little party at the usual breakfast/snack time. The kids gather around and sing to the birthday boy or girl. They sing "Happy Birthday" in Castellano, Valenciano and English. They also sang another birthday song, which can be seen in my short video of Eric blowing out his candles. <br />
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At first he didn't really catch on to the whole blowing out the candles routine, but once he figured it out, it was hard to get him to stop. He kept asking for more and more and more. So, we had to keep lighting the candles and let him blow them out again and again and again. Here's a short video showing how he liked blowing out the candles at both parties. You can see that the other kids were trying to keep him from blowing out the candles until the end of the song.</div>
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Last year Eric's birthday party at home basically only consisted of family and a few close friends. The only other kid who came was Eric's cousin Noa. He's now getting to the age that he is more aware of what is going on, though. So, in order to have a few kids for Eric to play with at the party, we invited the girls who work at the Escoleta and their little girls. Maite also brought a few kids from her neighborhood. </div>
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On the day of the party, Maite came early to help get things together. She helped me fix the goodie bags and made little dog bone shaped sandwiches for the kids. Mauri helped me put my pennant banner up and set up the tables. He also put out the artificial grass and some of Eric's toys for the kids to play on. </div>
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We had a nice mix of friends, family and kids at the party. It was better that way, but also made it impossible to spend time with everybody. It also distracted me to the point of forgetting to set up the games I had prepared for the kids. Some people had to leave early, so I tried to spend more time with them at first, but then others also had to leave and I felt like I hadn't paid any attention to them. I guess that's just how these sorts of parties end up being, though. <br />
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We brought out the cake pretty early on so that everybody could see it and have a piece before leaving, but I think that actually ended up triggering more people to leave early. In any case, it was fun. The kids had a hard time believing that the dogs on the cake were edible, and they were pulling off the dogs ears, legs and heads to get a taste. I quickly grabbed a few of the figurines to save as a little souvenir of the party. <br />
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So, there were a few little issues, but overall the party went well and was a lot of fun. We were so busy throughout, that we didn't fill out the puppy adoption certificates until some of the kids had already left with their dogs and empty certificates. The kids that were still there had fun with it, though. I also realized that we hadn't even bothered to open Eric's presents, so we did that at the very end.<br />
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Eric already has lots of clothes from our last trip to the U.S., and has lots of toys. So, we asked for some Blue Ray DVD movies, if possible with dogs. Unfortunately, there aren't many DVD's available around here. So, there weren't any dog movies available on Blue Ray, but we did get the two Cars movies, the new Muppet movie and Up. We've since seen all of them. Just days after the party, Eric became obsessed with the Cars movies, and would constantly beg me for "coches, coches." Do I see a possible theme for next year's party?<br />
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TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-76483310691384617342012-10-17T12:52:00.001-07:002013-03-04T06:30:57.500-08:00Eric's First Cruise, Part 2: Days 5-8<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ship docked in Ajaccio</td></tr>
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Sorry to have taken so long to get to the second part. With Eric's 2nd birthday party, and Eric and Mauri getting back to school and work, I've been busy and haven't had a lot of time to write. I'll post about Eric's second birthday and parties as soon as I can, though, too.<br />
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So, when I left off last, we were headed towards Ajaccio. We woke up the next morning in the port, and decided to explore the town a little. It was a nice, quiet town, and it was very easy to get from the ship to the center of the town. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric playing in one of the plazas. Notice the Napoleon statue in the background.</td></tr>
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Ajaccio is the birthplace of Napoleon, and you can tell that they are very proud of that fact because most of the tourist attractions have something to do with Napoleon. We didn't try to go see any of them, but were looking for plazas in which Eric could run around, and most of the bigger plazas had statues of Napoleon in them. <br />
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After letting Eric run around the bigger plaza, we decided to walk along the water, and headed towards what looked like a park with a play area for kids. Eric really enjoyed playing on all of the toys in the park. <br />
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The weather was nice, but as the day went on, things didn't really look as great out at sea. It was starting to get cloudy and windy, and the water was looking a bit choppy. Being on such a large ship, though, I wasn't really too worried about it. <br />
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We made our way back to the ship for lunch and so that Eric could get in his daily nap. Up until this point, I took advantage of his naps to write my blog posts, but on the last days of the cruise, I decided to just go with the flow and take naps with everybody else. <br />
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Towards the end of Eric's nap, I did get up to get some writing in, and Mauri left the room to go see the ship leave the port from the peek-a-boo bridge. The peek-a-boo bridge was an area towards the front of the ship on the eleventh deck that had windows that looked down on the bridge. This, of course, was probably Mauri's favorite area of the ship, and he would have us go there numerous times daily. <br />
He had gone with intentions to see how they maneuvered the ship through the port, but came back a bit disappointed and annoyed. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To write or to sleep? That is the question.</td></tr>
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It turns out that they decided to have a private party for some of the higher-than-us levels of the Crown and Anchor Society right on the peek-a-boo bridge area. So, when Mauri finally had an opportunity to see the ship leave at a time that we weren't supposed to be eating dinner, he got kicked out of the area where he wanted to be.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emptying pools due to bad weather</td></tr>
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I watched the ship leave the port from the porthole of our stateroom, and noticed how choppy the water really had gotten. It amazed me how much the ship was beginning to move, considering its size. We have been in similar weather on smaller ships, and they have moved much, much less.<br />
I have a tendency to get seasick very easily, but I think I was too worried about Eric to actually get sick myself. I wasn't feeling great, though, so when Mauri got back to the room, he suggested we go up and get some fresh air up on the eleventh deck. When we got there, we noticed that they had already tied up the lounge chairs and had emptied the pool.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poor, sick Eric only wanted water to drink.</td></tr>
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The idea of fresh air was a good one, but going up so many decks to get it really wasn't. Up on the higher decks the ship moved much, much more, and I noticed Eric starting to get really pale and yellow. I told Mauri that I felt a bit sicker up there too, despite the fresh air, and just as I said it, Eric started to throw up on Mauri. Seeing as the weather was only going to get worse, I decided that maybe I should take a pill, just in case, and see if there was anything available for someone as young as Eric. <br />
The girls in the customer service area said that there were no medications for someone as young as Eric, and suggested we give him green apples or something like that to make him feel better. Of course, though, nothing was open for food at that time other than the Promenade Café which only had coffee, tea, pizza, sandwiches and sweets. I found some ginger tea there, though, and decided to try to make some for Eric to see if it would help. Being as sick as he was, though, he wasn't interested in eating nor drinking.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Once in the water, Eric seemed to feel much better.</td></tr>
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We went back down to our stateroom to clean Eric up and change his shirt, and we decided that giving him a bath would be the best way to clean him up. The water seemed to really help him feel better, and he wanted to splash around and play with the shower head, so we let him.<br />
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That night was supposed to be the second formal night of the cruise, and, because the ship's pictures were so expensive, I had been planning on using the self timer to get some great pictures of the three of us in formal attire. With the bad weather, though, I didn't want Eric to be any more uncomfortable than he already was. I decided to just put on him the tie t-shirt that I had made him before the cruise, and convinced Mauri that we should at least go to dinner to see if he would eat anything.<br />
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At dinner, though, Eric got sick again, and once again threw up all over Mauri. Luckily, Mauri had predicted it ahead of time, and didn't wear his more formal suit, and instead just put on another shirt with his dress slacks. The sight of Eric being sick took away his appetite, and neither of them really ate much at dinner. Eric then wanted to sit in my arms, and actually fell asleep there. So, the waiters put together two chairs so that I could move sleeping Eric there and comfortably finish dinner. <br />
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Before dessert, though, Mauri decided to bring Eric down to the stateroom so that he could change and so Eric could be more comfortable. I decided to stay and finish dessert and talk with the people of our table. We had the most interesting conversation thus far, and I found out that the eldest couple were 83 and 84 years old, and they had been married for 66 years. The other couple surprised me when they announced that they were also about to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary (They seemed too young for that to me). The eldest couple shared stories of past cruises and how they had won the "Newlywed Game," often played on most cruises, soon after having been married. The other couple seemed ready to leave the table, but each time they were about to leave, the eldest couple started talking again, reminiscing about past trips and events. I thought it was funny, though, and actually found their stories interesting for once. We ended up being one of the last tables to leave the dining room.<br />
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Trying to get down the steps from the dining room to our stateroom in heels, though, was quite a feat. I had to grab onto the handrails tightly with both hands. Once back in our stateroom, and, knowing that things were only getting worse, I decided that I would join the boys and go to bed. We were all in bed and ready to sleep by 9:30PM that night. It turns out that we didn't miss much by going to bed early because the show had been cancelled. The singer that had been scheduled was too seasick to perform.<br />
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We all woke up several times throughout the night and noticed that things just kept getting worse and worse. At one point, Mauri got up to go to the bathroom and, around 4AM, he said that he could barely walk there. To understand just how crazy that is, one must remember that he is the captain of a fishing boat, and is accustomed to walking on a much smaller boat in bad weather. Our biggest concern, though, was Eric, and we were worried what the next day would bring. The next day was our second navigation day, so we would be stuck at sea all day with no stop at port and no break from the weather.<br />
Friday: Day At Sea<br />
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The next morning we were very happy to see that the weather had radically calmed. We, affected by the bad weather, had actually slept in later than usual, despite having gone to bed much earlier than usual. Luckily Eric had slept through most of the worst weather, and as the morning went by, the water just kept getting calmer and calmer.<br />
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Being a day at sea, everybody was aboard the ship all day today. We noticed on the way to breakfast that people were already reserving lounge chairs by the pool, despite all of the signs saying that reserving chairs is prohibited. We also noticed that there were still small waves in the pool, even though the seas were pretty calm. On other cruises, the water has had to be much rougher for the ship to move enough to cause waves in the pool, and we couldn't help but comment on how much this ship moves in comparison to cruise ships we've been on in the past. Poor Eric was unlucky enough to have his first cruise on it.<br />
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We spent a lot of the day outside, looking at the water, and as we got closer and closer to Spain, the waters got calmer and calmer. At one point the water was so calm and smooth that it was very difficult to believe how rough the seas had been only hours before. By that point, we weren't having any more pictures taken by the photographers onboard because I was too annoyed by the prices of the photos. So, I kept playing with the self timer to get some pictures of the three of us on our trip.<br />
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Finally on Friday, too, the highly publicized ice skating rink aboard the ship was finally open for short sessions for open skating. I had brought long pants and socks aboard, just in case we were going to go skating. In the end, though, we just ended up watching. If Eric had been a little bit older, we would have probably tried going skating together. With things as they were, though, we decided that it just wasn't worth it. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">During the day, people were fighting over overpriced t-shirts and gift boxes</td></tr>
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We headed back outside to Mauri's favorite area, the peek-a-boo bridge, and Mauri noticed that the people in the bridge seemed uneasy and were looking out to an area of the water. He followed their line of vision, and noticed a small inflatable boat filled with people. <br />
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It isn't unusual for people to try to escape northern Africa to come to Spain for more opportunities to earn money or for a better life. We see it on the news all of the time, but seeing it in real life was a bit different because it was easy to see how these people had ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere and to really realize how desperate their situation really was. Had they been stuck there in yesterday's weather, they wouldn't have likely survived the experience. Lucky for them, though, the waters couldn't be calmer, and they had been spotted by us. <br />
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The people aboard the zodiac were motioning to us, and Mauri and I were debating whether or not we were going to go to their rescue and let them onboard the ship. Not too much later, an announcement was made throughout the ship. We were told that they had spotted a small boat with people aboard, and that they had contacted the Spanish Coast Guard. The Coast Guard had requested that we stay in the area until they arrived, and that meanwhile we would be sending people out to see if they needed any immediate emergency help.<br />
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Of course, once the announcement was made, everybody flocked to see the boat. Everybody was squeezed into all of the open decks aboard, and were all on the same side of the ship, the one with the view of the small boat. Mauri and I joked about how they were going to have to make an announcement for half of the people to move to the other side of the ship so as not to have the ship tip over, but luckily, despite all of the extra weight on that side of the ship, the ship seemed to hold itself up pretty well. :) <br />
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When the ship sent out help, everybody started to cheer. From that point, though, there wasn't much else to see. We were told that a helicopter would be coming, but that it would take about 40 minutes to arrive. So we decided to take advantage of everybody aboard being at the same place outside, and we headed in to the normally packed Promenade Café to get some crappy free coffee (espresso coffee types were expensive, especially when adding on the tip and VAT charges), and to get Eric some pizza to snack on. We actually were able to get premium seats that looked out on the live music being performed there. Eric, after eating his pizza, once again showed how much he loved the music by dancing in the middle of the Promenade, occasionally running into the people who were trying to cross the ship. <br />
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We stayed until the announcement was made that the helicopter was arriving. So, we headed outside to see the suspenseful rescue that never actually happened. When the helicopter arrived, instead of nearing the zodiac, it only circled the boat over and over again. Everybody was questioning what they were doing until it was finally announced that we were no longer needed. The helicopter was going to stay with the boat until a Coast Guard boat could arrive and aid them. We, however, were free to go on our way to Malaga. Our stop was going to affect our arrival time in Malaga a little, but they did speed up the ship a little to keep it from affecting us much.<br />
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You see, the majority of people aboard, supposedly around 3,000 people, were going to disembark in Malaga the next day. There were only around 300 of us who were leaving in Valencia. A lot of those people had flights planned for the next morning, so a late arrival could be have been disastrous for many people.<br />
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At dinner, Eric took lots of pictures, and ended up getting a few of the people of our table. Being the final night for most of the people aboard, we were given a farewell song at dinner, and a farewell message during the show afterwards. <br />
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After the show, we walked around the ship for a little while and let Eric dance to the music being played in the different lounges. One of his favorite places to dance was during the "Name that Tune" game being played almost nightly in the small Schooner Lounge. We couldn't really fit into the small lounge packed with people, but Eric danced in the hallway near the entrance. After more dancing, and a little more going up and down the stairways, we ended up going to bed, where a cute towel bird, with chocolates in his wings, was awaiting our arrival.<br />
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Saturday: Malaga Port<br />
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When we woke up the next morning, we were docked in the Malaga port, and the ship was already very empty. We were able to eat a peaceful breakfast, and enjoyed having most of the ship to ourselves. The center of Malaga looked to be such a long walk from where the ship was docked, and it was so nice to be able to enjoy the empty ship, that we decided that it wasn't really worth our while to get off the ship in Malaga.<br />
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Instead, we tried out some of the things that we hadn't been able to try out until that point. The sports deck was completely empty, so we played a round of mini golf, played a little soccer on the small field, and played some ping pong.<br />
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After playing on the sports deck, we headed to the pool to relax a bit. Not much later, we noticed that the new passengers were already embarking the ship. The new passengers were unable to access their staterooms until later on, though, so most of them didn't have access to their personal items, like swimsuits, either. That left the pool area empty for us to enjoy for quite awhile longer. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Enjoying the empty ship while docked at Malaga</td></tr>
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That last day, we made the mistake of setting up Eric's inflatable pool in an area where he could more easily see the main pool. As soon as Mauri headed over to the pool for a quick swim, Eric was obsessed with wanting to go into it too. That day the pool was very cold, so we were hoping that by letting him step into the shallow part of the pool, that he would find it too cold, and he wouldn't want to go in anymore.<br />
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We, of course, were wrong. Letting him step into the main pool, only made him want to play in it more. We let him walk across it once, and then pulled him out of the water. He screamed and screamed "pool, pool," "pool, pool!!"<br />
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We ended up having to move to lounge chairs nearer the area where we had set up his pool in the past. Moving it, though, didn't really seem to help matters. In the end, we decided to leave the pool area and went to go eat.<br />
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After lunch, we got self serve ice cream, which, up until this point, Eric had refused to try. He is very sensitive to things that are either hot or cold, and has never wanted to eat ice cream anywhere. Once he tried it, though, he seemed to really enjoy it, and ended up finishing off my cone.<br />
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Later on, we looked for activities to participate in, and saw that they had Wii bowling scheduled for the Imperial Lounge. We decided to check it out, but were once again unimpressed by the lack of organization for activities aboard. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The exciting Wii bowling</td></tr>
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The Imperial Lounge was completely empty, and there was a screen set up in the front with wii bowling on it. Two wii remotes were in a small table in the front, but there was nobody there to explain any of it or to overlook to make sure that all was running well. <br />
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After a bit of playing with it, Mauri was able to bowl one ball until Eric got ahold of the other remote and touched something that made it so that he couldn't play the game any longer. So, instead of continuing with trying to play, we took a few more pictures and went on our way.<br />
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. We brought Eric back to the room for his nap, and he miraculously slept through the entire muster drill for new passengers that was annoyingly loudly broadcast over the entire ship, including our stateroom where Eric was sleeping. Mauri headed towards the peek-a-boo bridge for one final attempt at seeing how they maneuvered the ship when leaving the port, but was disappointed to find that he really couldn't see much in the bridge. It seems that the captain sits out of view to the side of the area which can be seen from above. So, there was really nothing to see.<br />
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It also got frustrating to go to the various places aboard the ship and having them keep welcoming us aboard. "Are you kidding? I've been aboard for almost a week now and I'm leaving tomorrow." We got more of a welcome that last day than we really had when we had arrived. <br />
The show that ended up being the very best of the week so far, not counting the intro done by the cruise director who basically repeated the entire monologue of jokes that he had told the night before. Didn't he remember that some of us were still here?!?! <br />
What made the show even more interesting was that during the break for the performer to change his clothes, our table mates became part of the show. The cruise director was asking for the couple who had been married the longest, and the eldest couple from our table won with their 66 years of marriage thus far. For their prize, the couple who had snuck aboard 7 small bottles of cava won a big bottle of cava for their very last night of the cruise.<br />
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Once the show was over, we wanted to make the most of our last night on the ship, but we were too tired and didn't really know what else to do. So, we made it back to our stateroom to finish packing, and went to bed.<br />
Our final day on the ship was pretty uneventful. No longer having our suitcases, which had been set outside our stateroom the night before, we didn't have our swimsuits or other clothes available for any of activities. Knowing we were supposed to disembark around 1pm, we decided to try to eat early so that we could eat both breakfast and lunch aboard before leaving.<br />
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On our way to breakfast, we were able to see the coastline of the areas south of Denia. A week before coming on this cruise, we had seen a cruise ship from our house on Sunday morning heading north, and knew that it must have been our ship. After breakfast, right around the same time that we had seen the ship the week before, we were able to see the Denia coastline from the ship. I was looking forward to seeing our ship go by each week since then, but sadly, the ship no longer does the same route. It was scheduled to do go by our house one last time, the Sunday after Eric's birthday, but with my mind on the party of the day before, I completely forgot to look out for the ship again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Civitavecchia port</td></tr>
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The last few hours aboard actually ended up dragging on and on. We couldn't do much because we had to leave the stateroom and had to hang on to all of our carry on items. Plus, like I said, we didn't have our swimsuits or clothes for other activities. So, we just went from lounge to lounge, waiting for lunchtime, and then we were off to the Imperial Lounge from where we would be escorted off the ship. I was sad to leave, but by that point was just ready to get home. <br />
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We had one last interaction with the younger of the couples that we ate with each night. They were sitting in the Imperial Lounge and had some of the only open seats left next to them. So, we went to sit with them and talk to them about the final night. We told them about how the other couple had won yet another bottle of cava at the show, and how they had missed the best show. The other couple was nowhere to be seen, so they were likely in a more comfortable lounge, being higher level members of the Crown and Anchor Society.<br />
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Soon after, we were called to disembark. It was tricky because we had a stroller with us, and the elevators didn't go down to the bottom floor. Plus, the elevators were so busy that we got sick of waiting. They had roped off one set of stairs going down, so we had to fight with everybody else, going down and up, to try to make our way from the 5th floor down the the first floor where the exit was. Still, it was quick. A bus brought us to the terminal where we picked up our luggage, and we were on our way.<br />
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We had survived our first cruise with Eric, and it was a lot of fun. Despite it sounding like I'm complaining about a lot of things, overall the cruise was great- even with a toddler along. So comes the question about if it is worth cruising with a toddler, and I would have to say "Yes!" It's not like cruising as a couple, but I would definitely do it over again. <br />
Well, I will leave off with a video I made of some clips of us around the ship and in the ports of call. It's a relatively long video, which is also why it took me so long to get it, and the rest of this post, up. It will give you a better idea of what the ship looked like, though, and how Eric enjoyed himself running around, going up and down stairs, pushing the buttons to open the doors, opening the stateroom with his key, and dancing around. He obviously had a great time too!!<br />
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The background music is comprised of songs with a creative commons license which allows for use in these sorts of projects. The names of the songs and artists are posted in the description of the video on youtube for those who are interested!</div>
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TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2345530120542149387.post-44943596663542711342012-09-19T16:53:00.000-07:002013-03-04T06:31:22.718-08:00Eric's First Cruise, Part 1: Days 1-4<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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We had an idea that cruising with Eric was going to be different, but until getting aboard, we really had no idea of what to expect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As seems to be the norm when traveling with Eric, he doesn’t nap at the times we expect him to nap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, while we expected him to nap on the car ride to Valencia after eating lunch, he didn’t actually fall asleep until we had almost arrived at the port.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That, of course, is worse because he wakes up feeling like he’s already taken a nap, but is actually completely exhausted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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As luck would have it, though, embarkation in Valencia was the best we have ever experienced on a cruise- EVER!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is likely because the majority of the people had embarked in Malaga, so we didn’t have to deal with as many other people trying to get checked in at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We arrived a bit early, which also probably helped quite a bit, and quickly sped right through the security points, check-in, and were soon on a shuttle bus on our way to the ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our stateroom</td></tr>
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When we arrived, after Eric had locked himself in the cabin bathroom, and luckily unlocked it and got out, we decided to try to check out the ship a little bit, but with Eric, it was almost impossible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He refused to go in his stroller, and wanted to be the one to decide where it is we will go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He decided that the elevators and stairways were a lot of fun, and didn’t want to leave them to go and see anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We hadn’t had a chance to see much by the time we were scheduled to go to our muster station emergency drill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was actually also much better than usual because they didn’t make us go up to the stations with our uncomfortable life jackets on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead we checked in and sat in a lounge while monitors showed us how to put our lifejackets on, and explained what to do in the case of an emergency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the short meeting, which didn’t seem quite as short because we were preoccupied with trying to keep Eric quiet and also because of the fact that we had to sit through the same meeting twice, once in English and once in Spanish, we were escorted to our muster stations from which we were then free to leave.</div>
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By that point it was actually almost our dinner time, 7PM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t have our suitcases yet, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we headed to the reception desk to try to find out what we were supposed to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In theory, you are not supposed to wear shorts to dinner, but Mauri didn’t have a choice, having no other clothes to wear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We told them that we didn’t think we were going to arrive to dinner on time, but they told us not to worry, and that we could go at any time up until 8PM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, since Mauri badly wanted to shower and change, we decided to wait for his suitcase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, it seems that mine had been held up in security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was asked if I had attempted to bring in any of the prohibited items such a clothes irons, scissors, or alcohol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to admit that I had been tempted to bring alcohol aboard, and in hindsight, I also have to admit that I wish I had because they really weren’t as psychotic in their screening as I had been led to believe, and it would have been very easy to get alcohol on board.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, we had to go back down to the entrance of the ship, and mine had been tagged with having a metal item in it, which happened to be my curling iron.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They rescreened it with the x-ray machines, and told me there was no need to open the suitcase, and that we were free to take it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exploring the ship. This is "Jesters."</td></tr>
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The whole thing had only been a mild inconvenience up until now, but ended up getting more and more inconvenient.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out that we don’t find this ship very well organized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we had first come aboard, we were able to immediately find our cabin which was only one floor up from the entrance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seeing as there was a huge line of people waiting to take the elevators up, I suggested we take the stairs up, seeing as it was only one flight of stairs, despite having to lug up our heaviest suitcase with us.</div>
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After managing to get up the flight of stairs with both Eric and the heavy suitcase, though, we were stuck in an area which was completely isolated from our cabin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interestingly enough, we asked a guy who was cleaning the ship how to get to our cabin, and he had no idea himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He started to call people on his walkie talkie to try to figure it out for us, and pointed us in the wrong direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns out that we were on the wrong side of the ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do I mean by the wrong side of the ship?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, stupidly enough, the front side of the ship and the back side of the ship are separated by a small area, and there is absolutely no way to get around it on our floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, you have to go to a different floor to be able to cross the ship, and then you can come back and go back around to the cabin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The elevators are always very busy, and you are stuck waiting to go up, and once again to come back down if you want to travel to your room comfortably with either a stroller or a heavy suitcase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here you can see the annoying separation between the forward part and aft part of the ship.</td></tr>
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No big deal, you think, we have already gone up one flight of stairs; just go up one more to get across the ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, that would be too logical, and you would be thinking wrong!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the third floor, you can’t get across the ship because it is separated by the ice skating rink, which, despite being highly publicized, seems to always be closed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tomorrow afternoon, it opens for the first time for a short show, but there were huge lines of people in the morning, fighting over the few seats available, and the tickets were all gone very quickly. (They only have 400+ tickets for around 3,400 people aboard!!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With Eric, we decided it wasn’t worth our time trying to get him to stay still long enough for us to make it through the long line, only for tickets to a show that we didn’t know if he would be able to sit still to watch.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The narrow, awkward Royal Promenade, which we would have to cross the ship numerous times daily.</td></tr>
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If you go up one more flight of stairs, you can finally cross the ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, you can, but we aren’t supposed to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You see, the fourth floor is separated by the casino, and nobody under 18 is supposed to enter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course that didn’t stop us from occasionally doing so to cut through when we were sick of having to go up and down 3 flights of stairs several times daily just to be able to get to our cabin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Nobody ever said anything to us about it. </span>We ended up having to go up the 3 floors, cut across the heavily trafficked and narrow “Royal Promenade” with Eric and suitcase in hand, go back down the 3 floors, and cut back around to our cabin. After our short adventure, we were finally there with Eric’s and my suitcase.</div>
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I started unpacking, but our 8PM limit time for dinner was quickly approaching, and Mauri still didn’t have his suitcase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we headed back up to the desk to once again ask about the suitcase, and make sure that Mauri’s hadn’t been stopped by security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had arrived 4 hours earlier, and it made absolutely no sense that we shouldn’t have our luggage by now, especially considering that not that many people had embarked in Valencia with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They told us to they would check on the suitcase, but to head to dinner dressed as we were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we made it to dinner an hour late and in our street clothes, feeling a bit grimy and underdressed.</div>
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Of course, the rest of our table was already full, and we had to interrupt the meal that had already started, but even more unnerving was the fact that we were surprised that Royal Caribbean had made absolutely no effort in trying to sit us at an “appropriate” table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had embarked as a family of Spanish citizens, and they give us all of our cruise information in Spanish each day, yet our table was full of what seemed to be non-Spanish speaking, British retirees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amongst us, Mauri and I always speak in Spanish, so you can imagine the dynamics of our table were uncomfortable and awkward, at least at first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mauri and I spent most of dinner trying to keep Eric from running around and screaming, and, if even luckier, to try to get him to try to eat something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we were speaking amongst ourselves in Spanish, while the rest of the table was having their own separate conversation about something else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They seemed to have no interest in sitting at a table with a young family with a crazy little toddler, and we really had little interest in their conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if we had, they spoke so softly amongst themselves, that we didn't feel included.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dining room</td></tr>
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Despite all of that, dinner went quite smoothly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The first night, though, </span>I felt like the waiters seemed more interested in trying to get us to pay for expensive water, coffee or alcohol, than they were in introducing themselves or trying to get to know us. To be fair, maybe it was because we came to dinner so late, when the waiters were swamped with work, and it made it impossible for them to give us the usual attention. I remember past cruises where the waiters surprised us with napkins folded up like animals, and room stewards folded our towels like animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They got to know us and had the things we liked waiting for us from night to night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> So far, though, t</span>his cruise has had none of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our room never actually had the crib in it that I had reserved with them when booking the cruise, and no room steward ever came to introduce themselves to us to see if we needed anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t even have a child sized life jacket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I left dinner not even remembering who our waiters were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only remembered thinking how absolutely absent and busy they were the entire dinner, and how strange they had seemed when we arrived.</div>
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You see, I don’t remember them even introducing themselves (although Mauri later on said they did. Maybe I was distracted.) Nor did they bother to ask us if we needed a high chair, so Eric spent dinner time sitting on Mauri’s lap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, when we asked for bread, they asked about each of us, but ended up putting my roll on a plate, Mauri’s (or Eric’s?) on the same plate, and never gave us the other roll for the third person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric didn’t even get his own glass of water, and, before even asking what Eric wanted to eat, they brought him out a bowl of chicken soup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mauri proceeded to tell the waiter that he had asked for the ceaser salad, not soup, when the waiter told us that the soup was for Eric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We knew Eric would never eat that, so we finally asked if there was a menu for kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ordered some chicken fingers, but told them to make it very small because he wouldn’t eat much, and the plate of chicken fingers turned out to be bigger than our tiny portions of adult food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me the portions were fine, because I want to try a bit of everything without gaining too much weight on the cruise. Mauri, on the other hand, was ready to head up to the buffet shortly after leaving the dinner table. <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span> </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cranberry mango soup that Eric ended up finishing</td></tr>
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Eric ended up liking our food better, and he ate what was left of my fruit soup once he finally tried it, so I finished his less-tasty chicken soup that nobody had ordered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, Eric ate all of Mauri’s mashed potatoes, so Mauri ended up eating most of his chicken fingers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once we finished the meal, the last to arrive were the first to leave, and I quickly excused us from the awkward table, and we were on our way back to the stateroom.</div>
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As luck would have it, Mauri’s suitcase had finally arrived, so he decided to shower and change while I braved my way through the ship to hunt down some milk for Eric’s night bottle before the buffet was going to shortly close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only milk I could find was warm, low-fat milk in a pitcher for coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I filled him up a bottle, and headed back downstairs and across the busy promenade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By that time, the only place to get something to drink for free seems to be a little café on the promenade, so it was almost impossible to cut through and get past that area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone was fighting over watered down coffee, to avoid having to pay for $3 or more coffees +%15 gratuities + %10 VAT on top of all of it (meaning the coffees are really over $4).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I kept thinking how maybe we should have done what I had wanted to do in the first place, and take the flight to La Coruna to get on the cruise from Pullmantur that ended in Valencia later this month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Royal Caribbean seems to have become very greedy, and all about trying to milk you for every last cent they can throughout the entire vacation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They make you feel like an intruder, in a way, when going to the bars and lounges when you don’t want to buy their $8-$10 cocktails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They keep coming around to offer them to you. No matter where you are (even in your stateroom on the tv or in the expensive mini fridge), they are always trying to sell you something or other.</div>
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I got to the room, and we decided to go for a walk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this point, we were surprised to find that Eric was going to let us bring him around in his stroller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (He even called out "carro.") </span>Mauri couldn’t find what he had done with Eric’s card, which is his identification on board, so we had to head up to guest services, yet again, and ask about that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They made it very easy to get a new card and cancel the old one, and didn’t make us feel at all guilty about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The girls at guest services, by this point, also already had gotten to know Eric and flirt with him a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of them even came out with chocolates for him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, while we were there, we asked about some other things like maybe being able to change our dinner table, and about the activities for toddlers because they aren’t advertised at all anywhere on the agendas each day despite being advertised on the Royal Caribbean website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They instructed us to go up to Adventure Ocean in the morning to get the information with the schedule for kids, and told us to go to the dining room the next morning to ask about a new table.</div>
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After going for more of a walk around the ship with Eric in the stroller, Eric ended up falling asleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We figured we had the ideal situation for doing something onboard in peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After looking through the ship’s activities, though, it didn’t seem like there was much to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The scheduled activities were in the promenade and tiny Jesters night club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We already knew not to try to go into the night club with a stroller, but the promenade was packed with people (they were holding a 70's night party there), and with it being so narrow and packed, it isn’t the ideal place for a sleeping baby with a stroller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If this had been a Pullmantur cruise, we would have looked for a quiet lounge to get a drink before heading off to bed, but with the annoyance of the overpriced drinks with lots of hidden charges on them, we decided it just wasn’t worth it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we strolled Eric back to the room, and all went to bed.</div>
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Yes, it probably sounds like we went to bed a bit frustrated with the cruise, and you wouldn’t be wrong to think that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That first night we were a little bit disappointed with how things were going.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We weren’t impressed with the layout of the ship (well, we still aren’t), and we thought that the service had greatly deteriorated on Royal Caribbean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went to bed even more upset after banging my already broken big toenail on a chair in the stateroom, and almost completely ripping it off.</div>
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So, with each not-so-great thing that would happen or that we would find, we would notice it more than we normally would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I noticed that in one corner, the carpet of our stateroom wasn’t cut to fit into its place, and Eric went automatically to that area to play with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lifted it up and found a piece of x-acto knife blade right where Eric was playing!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We pushed the blade underneath the carpet as far as we could so that Eric couldn’t reach it again, thinking how security wouldn’t let us bring scissors aboard, but they could leave blades in the room for kids to play with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One closet door hinge in the stateroom was also broken, and it would keep falling so far into the center that it was impossible to close the doors well without pushing the broken door out of the way each time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These things were only mildly annoying, but surprising to find on a ship of this supposed caliber.</div>
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The next day, we woke up with a bit of the same attitude, and it didn’t help that when we went to possibly try to get tickets for the ice skating show, we realized there were huge lines of people waiting to get them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were going to go eat breakfast in the dining room, but once again it seems like whoever plans things aboard didn’t think things through very well, and instead of opening any of the other levels, they only opened the level where everyone was waiting in line for the ice show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The line went all the way from the ice skating rink to cover the entire entrance to the dining room, so, to avoid the hassle of braving the crowd, we turned around and decided to just go up to the breakfast buffet upstairs.</div>
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After breakfast, in which Eric decided he didn’t want to eat anything, we brought him up to check out the kids’ center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t find much information, and the only thing that appeared to be open was the club for kids between 9-11 years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We waited to speak to the monitor there, and she gave us the schedule with the activities for kids Eric’s age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically, I already knew what to expect for the mornings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fisher Price has a program in which they have an hour for each baby/toddler age group to play with their toys aboard each morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric fell into the 18month-24 month age group which was scheduled for play time at 11:00 AM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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The whole playtime experience was a little strange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They picked a very tiny little room onboard (with a grand piano somewhat in the way), and basically threw a bunch of toys on the floor and let the kids have at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was one guy there to watch what was going on, but he didn’t have much to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think he was basically just there to see that you didn’t walk off with the toys, although apparently they do give you the option of a toy lending program for the cruise.</div>
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Mauri got tired of the playtime, so we left after Eric played for awhile and had thrown a few tantrums when other kids tried to play with “his” toys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, the tantrum that had surprised people most had occurred when Mauri took Eric’s shoes off to play on the matt, and Eric kept screaming out “shoes, shoes!!!!!”</div>
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The ship was absolutely packed!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were no seats available by the pool (well, they were unoccupied, but were reserved with towels despite the numerous signs prohibiting reserving chairs by the pool), and when we tried to fix our dinner seating arrangement, we were told that all of the tables were full, but that in the evening we could try again to get a different, more comfortable table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We stopped by the guest relations desk, once again, to ask for a bandaid so that my nail wouldn’t get caught on things anymore and completely rip off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While there, we decided to ask about getting a child-size life jacket.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The girl at the desk seemed surprised that we didn’t have one, and told us to talk to our room steward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said that we didn’t know who he or she was yet, and the girl seemed even more surprised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She seemed to remember our stateroom number by that point (really!!!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said are we really here that often?!?!?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She responded that, no, it was because she was in love with our son, and that she had already told her husband that he should be worried.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span> Every time we go past guest relations, which is often because we have to cross the ship to get to our stateroom, the girls are always yelling out “Eric,” and trying to get his attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also seem to like trying to give him little gifts like chocolate and Royal Caribbean luggage tags.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric loved the floor at the entrance of the casino, despite being afraid to step on it at first.</td></tr>
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From that point of the day, things seemed to get a little better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a bit of an awkward lunch after being seated at a table with people who knew each other and were speaking to each other in English the entire time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, we were a bit annoyed when we went to the buffet to get something for Eric to eat because he hadn’t liked what was available for lunch in the dining room. We were told there were around 600 people waiting for a table, and that it would be a 25 minute wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We decided to just get him some chicken and mashed potatoes, and head outside for him to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric ate some mashed potatoes from the buffet by the pool</td></tr>
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It was frustrating how many people were everywhere, but once all of that was over, and after Eric took a long nap, things started to go more our way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our room stewardess came to the room and introduced herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She told us that she had placed a child sized life jacket in the closet, and I thanked her and said I hadn’t noticed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I was thinking that she had likely placed it there this morning when she had made up our room, and it had likely been there already when we had gone to ask about it.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We felt a little bad, because it seemed like she was really going out of her way to make sure we were happy and comfortable, and we were hoping that it wasn’t because they had yelled at her about the whole life jacket situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had moved our suitcases under the beds and out of the way, and had moved the side tables to one side and placed pillows on them because she had noticed that we had placed pillows against the suitcases the night before, and had thought that it was probably so that we could sleep without Eric falling out of the bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was right, we had ended up sleeping together since the bed really is wide enough for us to comfortably sleep that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She offered us a crib, but by that point we had decided that we didn’t want one anymore because the staterooms are just too small for another big object in the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were comfortable enough sleeping as we were.</div>
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Mauri was grumbling about having to dress for formal night, but I was excited about seeing my two guys looking all distinguished and handsome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had brought a floor length formal dress, and found myself to be one of the only girls dressed that way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems that even Royal Caribbean cruises are less formal here in Europe, or maybe it is just that things have gotten less formal over the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved seeing all of the tuxes and formal gowns on my first cruise, now over twenty years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By our honeymoon cruise, things were already much less formal, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought that was because of the whole freestyle cruising style of Norwegian Cruise lines, but apparently there is more to it than that.</div>
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Everyone seemed to love seeing Eric all dressed up, though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People everywhere were pointing him out and telling us how cute he looked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had ordered a suit for him, over a month ago, from an obnoxious ebay seller who likely never even bothered to send it to me, but had luckily found a cute blazer on sale at the mall (only 10 euros!!), so it wasn’t a problem that it never arrived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The blazer I bought was very comfortable because it’s made of a jersey stretch material, but it actually looks quite dressy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first Eric didn’t want to put it on, but once on, at dinner, he threw a fit when Mauri tried to take it off of him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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We spoke to the head waiter outside the dining room, and he said there was a table available just for us!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Great!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only problem was that it was right next to our original table, and Mauri noticed that just as we were approaching it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told the Maitre that he felt bad about sitting at a different table right in front of our old table mates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would have also been seriously embarrassed by that, so we decided to just go back to our original table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mauri tries to get Eric to take the cloth shoe that the waiter made him.</td></tr>
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Our table was much better that night, and not only did we have a high chair waiting for us, but Eric even sat in it for most of the dinner!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The people at our table spoke to us a lot more that night too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The waiters even asked us what we wanted for Eric to eat, and they made Eric a napkin shoe. The head waiter was also constantly stopping by to check on us and Eric, and asked to make sure that our waiter had given him his "surprise". <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric refused to take it, but I did get a quick (bad) picture of Mauri trying to give it to him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The maitre told us on the way out that he would look for another table for us the next day, but we told him that the dinner had been much better that night, and that he shouldn’t worry about it. By the second night, we were much more impressed with our room stewardess and our waiters. Little by little over the course of the cruise, we grew to really like all of them, and they constantly went out of their way to help us out.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the captain's reception</td></tr>
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So, we got a few pictures taken by the photographers on board, and started to wander around in our formal attire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> We went to the captain's reception, but someone had the stupid idea of holding it on the uncomfortable Royal Promenade, a place which can't hold the more than 3,000 passengers aboard by any stretch of the imagination. So, we squeezed in and got our glasses of complimentary cava, and ran away so that we could begin to breathe again. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric drinks his cava (aka. water) ;)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the second night, we had a towel person waiting for us in bed.</td></tr>
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Without much more to do onboard, we decided to try to brave a show with Eric.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made our way to the back of the theater, but it turns out that those back seats are reserved for people with wheelchairs and canes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the staff members pointed us to some other chairs, but as soon as we sat there, another staff member told us not to sit there because if somebody with a wheelchair or cane wanted to sit there, he would have to ask us to get up and move!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were about to give up, especially after seeing another couple able to sit in the original chairs because they had come with their small child sleeping in the stroller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting for the show to begin</td></tr>
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We decided to head back to the stateroom to get Eric’s stroller, seeing as there were still 15 minutes before the show was to start, and there was no way that Eric was going to sit still for that long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we came back with Eric in the stroller, we headed towards the upper deck of the theater, and were lucky to find some seats in the very back there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric actually behaved quite well throughout the show, probably because he loves music and dancing, and he even started to quietly fall asleep by the end.</div>
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We brought him back to the room, and decided to give him his night bath using the 2 euro small inflatable pool that I had brought with me for this very purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the very best thing that I brought on the trip for Eric was just that, the inflatable pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It served as a basket for his inflatable ball during the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It let him play in the water on the pool deck, despite not being able to use the big pools because he isn’t potty trained yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(That said, we did notice numerous other parents bringing kids in the pool who were obviously wearing diapers under their swimsuits.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, like now, it served as the perfect baby bathtub, which fit perfectly in the stateroom shower.</div>
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We went to bed, and the next morning we were happy to find that the ship was already quite a bit emptier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most people had gotten up as early as they could to get to Rome as quickly as possible, to see everything they wanted to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took our time to get to breakfast, and didn’t have to wait to sit down and eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to explore Civitavecchia a little bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There wasn’t much to see there, but we let Eric run around a little bit, and got some cheaper-and-probably-better-than-onboard cappuccinos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A cappuccino in a nice place in a plaza in Livorno, Italy –where we were able to sit, and the nice waitress brought it to us-cost us 2 Euros a piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is quite a bit more than a café con leche in Spain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That said, it is still much cheaper than the $2.75 for the smallest cappuccino onboard at the place on the Promenade where you have to stand in line and get it yourself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, even though you get it yourself, you have to add the 15% gratuity and then another 10% VAT charge on top of the price + the gratuity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all of that is done, you have to pay another 3% for them to exchange your Euros into dollars, which is how they charge onboard!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric went to give the waitress the 4 Euros, and she happily took them from him and said “Belissimo.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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After our coffee, we headed back to the ship and brought Eric’s inflatable pool up to the pool deck along with a small pail and some beach toys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got a few pails of water out of the Jacuzzi, and put them into Eric’s pool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He happily splashed away there, and was so busy playing with the water that he didn’t want to leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was getting late for lunch, though, so we headed to the buffet to get something to eat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a much nicer day with everybody else off the ship visiting Rome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We didn’t have the usual problems of getting across the ship or waiting for elevators, and there was no wait for a table at lunchtime.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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After lunch, we brought Eric back to the room, and he was so exhausted from running around the town and onboard, that he took a long nap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mauri wanted to watch the cruise ship depart from Civitavecchia from the peek-a-boo bridge that lets guests see into the bridge of the ship through windows in the deck above, but leaving once again coincided with our dinner time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus, Eric was throwing a fit on the deck while waiting for his papi.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(We are now no longer mamá and papá, but are now mommy and papi.)</div>
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We arrived to dinner a bit late after trying to see the ship leave the port, and were once again the last at our table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our dinner was a bit awkward once again, and I started to realize what the problem was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the couples was in their early 80s, while the other was likely in their early 60s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We, of course are in our late 30s to 40s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, there are probably around twenty years between each couple at the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The person who speaks the most at the table is the eldest man, and he automatically speaks directly to the other man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He only speaks to us when I am listening in and decide to add something to the conversation, and he wants to add to that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I actually think that the other woman would prefer to speak with us, but she is too quiet to say much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She seems more interested in what I have to say, though, than what the other couple does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In actuality, the eldest woman never has much to say, and, when she does, it is impossible to hear her.</div>
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As is quite common on cruise ships, the waiters stopped after the main course to sing a song for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sang “O Sole Mio,” after having danced around while waving their napkins over their heads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric got excited and wanted to dance around and wave his napkin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then he saw a waiter with a napkin bunny on his hand that he moved like a hand puppet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric got very excited and said “guau guau” and kept running after the waiter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric dances and waves his napkin</td></tr>
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So, later on, we asked our waiter to try to make the bunny for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the maitre game by to give it a try, but he said it had been years since he made it, and it didn’t come out very well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When our waiter came by with one, Eric had lost interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, despite his going out of his way to make Eric happy with the napkin bunny, and despite Eric’s earlier obsession with it, Eric was too busy playing with our iPod to even show any interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The waiter gave Eric a napkin mouse, and we left the table.</div>
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We walked around for awhile trying to look for something to do, and came across a packed “Name that Tune” game in a very tiny, packed bar on our way back to our stateroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric heard the songs and started to excitedly dance to each song in the area by the elevators right outside the bar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He kept dancing in circles until he fell down, over and over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was laughing so hard I was about to cry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After we let Eric dance for awhile, we decided to get him something more to eat at the always-open Café Promenade. After that, not having much else to do, we headed back to our stateroom and went to bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We once again had a towel figure waiting for us in bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time it was a little samurai.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric's late night pizza snack in the Café Promenade</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2nd towel figure, a samurai</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">The next morning we woke up in Livorno.</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">We took a look at the new schedule for the day, and found that the ice skating rink was going to be open for awhile at night, but only from 7-8:30, during our dinner time.</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">(Are you kidding me?!?!?!?!)</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><span style="text-align: center;">We have also been invited to a reception for Crown and Anchor members, people who have cruised with Royal Caribbean before at 8:30, which we will likely attend if we get done with dinner in time.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakfast the next day</td></tr>
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We decided to head into town after breakfast, and found that in Livorno, to get off the ship, you are forced to pay 5 Euros per person for a shuttle that brings you from the ship into the town center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not allow you the option of leaving by foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We headed into town, but there wasn’t much to see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We got due capuccini at a café with free wifi, and tried to quickly get caught up on emails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I only checked to see if I had anything important, which I didn’t, deleted unwanted mail without opening it, and didn’t bother to open anything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to get into Facebook to see if anything exciting was going on there, but I couldn’t get into may account, and it seemed to be blocked because of trying to access it from an unknown location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They gave no problems to Mauri, though, and he was able to access his without a hitch.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Livorno port</td></tr>
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During a very short coffee break, we were interrupted by 3 or 4 men trying to sell us things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mauri ended up buying Eric some inexpensive little plastic bracelets from one of them, right before paying so that we could leave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our cappuccinos cost even more here in Livorno, 6 Euros, or 3 Euros each!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the cost of going into town, and the fact that there is nothing there interesting to see, I don’t think I would ever get off of a ship here ever again unless I wanted to go back to Pisa or Florence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just wasn’t worth it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking email in Livorno</td></tr>
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We went back to the ship, after I bought a new bead for my charm bracelet, and brought Eric up to the pool deck to play again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was much colder and he seemed less interested in the pool, so after a short play time, we decided to go to lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric loved their Tandoori fish, and ate more than he had at any other meal so far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After lunch, we brought an exhausted Eric back to our room for another long nap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He never takes such long naps at home, so he must really be exhausting himself from all of his running around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mauri says that Eric is the person who is going to enjoy this vacation the most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></div>
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Once again, his nap was so long that we didn’t have much time for anything else before dinner time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We went up to the sports deck because the climbing wall was going to finally be open, and we wanted to see some people climb it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, we got ready for dinner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tonight was the first night that we weren’t the last to arrive at the table, but we did arrive right after the middle aged couple, and started to talk to them for awhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the lunch buffet, Eric loved the tandoori fish!!</td></tr>
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The eldest couple arrived shortly after, and they had a seat and the older man seemed a bit upset that we were already in the middle of a conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would periodically mumble something about a different subject, but I would end up continuing the previous conversation, and he didn’t have as much to say that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did talk quite a bit about the weather as it was quite windy, and the pool party above had been cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other couple admitted to also having a stateroom on the other side of the second deck, and we were debating whether or not the waves were going to be banging against our window that night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They asked for Mauri’s "professional opinion", and he said that it was highly likely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, it didn’t turn out to be too bad, and, although the waves came close to our window, and we did notice the occasional splash, it wasn’t enough to keep us up all night.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric loved the stairways and elevators on the ship.</td></tr>
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At dinner time the waiters once again danced, and wanted us to dance the Macarena with them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After making such a scene dancing yesterday, we figured Eric would love it, but he just didn’t get as into it this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The only thing that ended up happening was that we had taken him out of his high chair, right after finally getting him into it, and he refused to go back in afterwards. The eldest couple excused themselves from the table, before dessert was served, so we were able to enjoy the rest of the dinner talking with the other couple.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the Crown and Anchor reception</td></tr>
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We, though, were also in a bit of a rush to leave, having the reception for Crown and Anchor members to go to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, once again the scheduling of this ship seemed a bit off, and they had scheduled it for 8:30, but we didn’t finish dinner until around 10 to 9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We made our way, as quickly as we could with Eric, to the Imperial Lounge, which is a relatively small lounge, especially when you consider the size of the ship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There didn’t seem to be any seats left, so we sat on some chairs that they had placed against the back wall of the lounge, but they didn’t have a table nearby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked in during a small dancing show, and soon after the Captain spoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had been passing around cava and wine, and we crossed with one of the waiters on our way to our seats, and he gave us each a glass of cava.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking around, I saw a lot of empty glasses, and it seems that they had also served some sort of cocktail, and other people had already been served several times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time we arrived, though, the waiters weren’t really passing out drinks anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They offered us canapés, but since we had just finished eating, we, of course, politely declined. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A towel kangaroo awaited us in our stateroom after dinner.</td></tr>
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Basically the reception was over, but they said that they had one last surprise for us, and it was to be able to talk to the performers of the ice show that we had been unable to attend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They asked us if we had enjoyed it, and we thought if only there had been room for us to see it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Eric was running around and couldn’t sit still, and it didn’t seem like there was going to be much for us there, shortly after having arrived, we left.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor Mauri had dressed in slacks for nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Jeans and tanks tops were not allowed in at the reception.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t help but marvel at how bad the scheduling was once again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I complained that everything went against the people at the first seating of dinner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t use the ice skating rink, and we missed most of the best part of the reception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then Mauri pointed out that the people in the second seating of dinner had to miss the night show if they wanted to attend the reception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It, once again, just didn’t seem to make any sense, no matter how you looked at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I thought back to our last reception of this sort, on the Norwegian Wind. It had been planned so much better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They held it in the afternoon, when everybody could attend, and it was held in the larger theater/lounge that was more than large enough for everybody to comfortably sit in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even handed out little gifts to the members, Norwegian Cruise line pins.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By the elevator floor, you could always tell which day it was. Today was Wednesday.</td></tr>
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After the reception, we went to see some of our photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not to sound like I am constantly complaining about this cruise, because I really did enjoy myself, but we were very surprised by how much the price of photos had increased.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On past cruises, we have always bought most of the photos that they have taken of us, be it on formal night, photos with the captain, photos on the gangway…</div>
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On this cruise, though, the prices are no longer a much more reasonable 6-7 dollars a piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have been raised to $19.95 a photo (plus 21% VAT, of course, and who knows about gratuities)!!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem is that we actually do like some of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, we will have to decide what we are going to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have made it so cost prohibitive to do anything on this cruise, that you just have no interest in buying anything from them anywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have printed out so many pictures, that they are just going to end up throwing away anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It just makes no sense to me why they would make it so cost prohibitive for you to get your pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t imagine that they are making more money this way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anything, I think they are only pissing people off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other two couples at our dinner table, who are also frequent cruisers, have refused to let them take their pictures anymore and have also mentioned how surprised they were by how ridiculously expensive things had become on this cruise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The eldest couple had even smuggled 6 bottles of champagne aboard!! Despite wanting some of the pictures, I’m tempted to just save our money and get a photographer at home to do a session with us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, no, the pictures wouldn’t be a souvenir from our cruise, but we have plenty of other memories from it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After the show, there was supposed to be a big party on the small Promenade again. Are you serious!?!?!<br />
We don't fit!!!!!</td></tr>
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To be fair, they have photo packages available, but you are to buy several pictures at once, and it is almost impossible to find each of your photos to be able to do so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To make things worse, they keep moving them around each day, and are often hiding some under others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found two photos of one little girl under a stack of our pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would have been impossible for her to find them had I not put them somewhere else for her to see them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The packages aren’t really a great deal either, and the cheapest package only gives you four photos that they have taken of you aboard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you buy those four pictures, they give you a picture of the ship in a special portfolio/frame thing. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric's night bottle with whole milk from cartons available in the breakfast buffet.</td></tr>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">There is another, more expensive package for people who want the cruise DVD (yawn), with the annoying cruise director and activities manager, and 5 small pictures of the ship/ports of call, along with their four pictures. </span>I really couldn’t care less about any of that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How about giving me 5 smaller pictures of us?!?!?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’d still be making a huge profit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If anything, they’d be making more money because they’d be giving away photos that they are going to throw away anyways instead of pictures of the ship that somebody else might actually be interested in purchasing.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Next post begins in Ajaccio, Corsica</td></tr>
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As you can tell, I’m not as impressed with Royal Caribbean as I once was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are only so many times and ways one can feel like someone is trying to take advantage of them before getting upset about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They even want to charge you $13 (plus VAT) to watch a movie in your cabin, despite having free movies in the conference center daily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, really, if I get stopped by one more crew member trying to peddle me his $5 (plus) one liter bottle of Evian…!!! </div>
TJhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14024745695151269186noreply@blogger.com0