Hola Madrid!

I arrived at The Ritz at 8am, and they let me check in early (they were so nice of course). I wouldn't realize this until later, but the Ritz Madrid is one of only three original hotels designed and built by César Ritz, who was an architect, in collaboration with King Alfonso XIII, who needed a place to have good parties.  The other two original hotels are in London and Paris; after those three originals were built, the Carlton family purchased the Ritz name and went on to build many hotels. This one was built in 1910 and is absolutely beautiful; it’s considered a baroque palace! 

 Here's the outside of the hotel.  Look at the decorations!! The whole hotel is really magnificent. 

 

 Here's my room from the entrance

And here, from the bathroom

I love my bar!! It was literally a little door in the wall.  I love Europe. 

 

Inside the bar

 Bathroom

 

View from my window

 

After a short nap, I decided to freshen up and walk around Madrid.  I hadn't eaten since I left Philly and was pretty hungry.  I found an adorable little café, and ordered my first (very Spanish) meal:
Café con leche, a side of olives (I never realized how well they go with coffee!), and a huge hot sandwich of Chorizo paste with melted cheese. Brian Mangual would have been proud.  It was delicious!!

The waitress at the cafe was very friendly and, it turned out, spoke excellent English.  I do have to say, that during this trip my old feelings of frustration with Papa came up again.  Why didn’t he teach us Spanish? It is my biggest childhood regret.  I have a Mexican colleague, whose husband is German, and they live in Shelburne and are raising their kids tri-lingual (she doesn’t speak German, and he doesn’t speak Spanish, but they only speak their mother language to the children). It would have been so easy Papa! You can only speak Spanish to my kids from now on.  Anyway, at first, I tried to speak Spanish.  When I'm traveling, I always feel it is really important to respect the fact that I am in another country, and it is (in my opinion) disrespectful not to appreciate their language and acknowledge that they might not speak English.  Here's how it went:

Waitress: "Hola, buenos dias."
Me: "buenos dias.  Café con leche por favor."
Waitress: Caliente?
Me: "Oui."

Oops! She laughed and started speaking English. 

After I enjoyed my amazing lunch, I asked her where I could go to get some gifts (this was my only free afternoon so I need to get that done ASAP.  She told me where to go, gave me a map, then said if I come back she'll wrap up some olive oil for me (they sold some at the restaurant).  She explained all the different types of olive oil that they sell, and I told her I would come back later so I wouldn't have to carry them all over Madrid. 

She sent me to an area called Plaza Mayor, which is near the old part of the city.  It was a wonderful walk and absolutely beautiful.  I walked all over, got some presents, and after a few hours made my way back (it was 3pm and I was exhausted from the jetlag).  I stopped at the café, got my olive oil, and headed back to the hotel. It was a wonderful, warm, and friendly first day in Madrid.

En route to Madrid!!

Have I forgotten how to think clearly when there isn't complete chaos around? I'm so used to dealing with constant whining, tugging, and crying, that I think I have lost the ability to function on my own.  As a mother of two young children (and one child of a husband - just kidding - but not really), I have somehow, perhaps with the help of hormones, found a way to optimize my mental performance in almost any hectic situation.  But not so much in the peaceful moments, it seems.   

Starting right away in Burlington, in a totally quiet airport on a Monday afternoon, I could barely check in using the US Airways kiosk without the help of the attendant standing next to me.  Seriously.  I have a PhD, and common sense, I really do! But I almost paid $15 to check in early and would have if she hadn't explained that was an optional fee.  Then I couldn't get the machine to scan my passport and she gently took it from my hands and said "you have to swipe it up here." I was totally honest and told her I don't know what I would have done without her! What do the normal people do? Or the people that don't use computers regularly? Am I just really dumb and don't realize it? What will I do when I'm 65 and totally clueless? Oh God, I can see it now.  You know who I'll be? My Mother. 

On the way to Philly, I think "I can do this.  I can relax on my own.  Alone.  I'll take a nap." Nope, that didn't happen. So I drank my favorite chamomile with lavender tea, read People Magazine from front to back, then just stared out the window until we landed.  The mountains were peaking out through the clouds, and I wished that Sapphie and Kevin were with me to be amazed at the view.  I took a picture for them. 

Once I landed in Philly, I got so confused that I:

• went to the currency exchange and forgot that Kevin gave me cash to switch over, so tried my Amex and the lady wouldn't take it.  
• Then I forgot that there is an exchange rate so that if I ask for 100 Euro, it is going to cost me more than $100...so when she said the total was $169, and that she wouldn't take my Amex, I walked away.  Then after about ten minutes of walking, I decided I should turn around and get some Euro so I could pay for my cab in Madrid (no, I decided not to go with Hannah's hilarious suggestion to call the Ritz and ask where the car is that was supposed to pick me up, and please send one immediately at no charge!).
• After the woman rang me through using my bank card, I opened my wallet and saw all the cash Kevin had given me.  She laughed and said "well, you can spend that when you get home!"
• Then, I forgot that most of the food at the airport venders is, of course, to take away (yes, I asked the woman if the wraps are to-go!). 

Feeling pretty silly, I boarded the plane.  

Now I'm on the plane, on my way to Madrid.  I got in my seat, and quickly found out that my entire row of 4 seats is empty.  I eat my caprese wrap, then hear the flight attendant speaking Spanish.  This unexpected wave of comfort comes over me.  I can feel Mama Sonia sitting next to me.  I wonder if she's happy that I brought some of her jewelry with me for good luck: the Tiffany gold leaf earrings, and the Gumps beads that I know Papa Roger got for her.  I miss her so much.  I miss both of them so much. 

Next came the beverages.  I thought I should have some wine to help me sleep, so I order two "mini-bottles" of the Cabernet.  The flight attendant, who is very pleasant, is somewhat flirtatious and hands me two. I realize that they are bigger than I expected, so I just take one.  He says he loves my name.  I turn on an episode of Glee and sip my wine.  I forgot how much I love Glee.  Love it.  Of course those wine bottles only hold about 1 large glass, so after about 40 minutes I was ready for another. I catch his eye and go over to him, and tell him I think I need another one after all.  I said "it went down so smoothly...come over whenever you can, no hurry."  Within minutes he's handing me another one, and as I hand him my card he says "no, don't be silly." I wonder, would he have been so flirtatious and friendly if I had my little darlings with me? I'm not sure...but I certainly would not have noticed it if he was!

As I enjoyed my second glass of wine, I noticed that the person behind me is persistently and repeatedly pushing on the back of my seat.  What the heck could they be doing? I was considering giving a dirty look but I decided to wait it out, and turn on another episode of Glee.  We were in a fancy new plane.  I pushed the touch screen for "play" and nothing happened.  Pushed again, longer and harder.  I took five tries and by the end, I realized that's what the person behind me was doing! Whoever decided to install these touch screens didn't realize that it is extremely uncomfortable for the person sitting in the seat in front....if they had tested it out, they would have quickly decided a touch screen on the back of someone's head? Bad idea.  

Anyway, all in all it was a wonderful flight over.  Now I'm here!!! More soon.  xo

On the loose: independent and fearless woman, age 3!

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to the last few months, these pictures pretty much sum up my life right now:

Best buds

Sapphie and Teo have been playing so well together these days.  Of course there are times when they are fighting over toys, and Teo always loses his temper when Sapphie takes things away from him.  But for the most part, they really enjoy one another.  I love watching them play, especially when they are in their little kitchen, or playing music with their instruments.
 
Most of the new things with Sapphie are the huge additions to her vocabulary.  A lot of really funny words and phrases have come up, as well as some that I could do without ("I hate you!" or "you're stupid!" or "what the heck?").  For the most part I ignore her tests; she always says something and then waits for a reaction.  She just LOVES getting a reaction, so if we ignore the stuff we don't like it quickly loses it's thrill.  Some of the more funny and cute things she's been saying lately:
"I'm wearing percreeks today." (Capris)

"what do foxes eat? Mice? That's right mummy, it's part of the food train!"

Tananna = Banana
Tamilla = Vanilla ("I love tamilla ice cream!")

"do you understand?" she says this to me all the time, which is not surprising because I always conclude my lectures to her with "do you understand?"

Not every night anymore, but she still often says "can we go swimming with Aven Elisa Zoe Brett Amelia Uncle Ollie Soe Hannah and Uncle Richard when it gets hot in the summertime?" She sometimes lists everyone she knows and it takes her a good two minutes to ask the question!

In the bathtub, with Teo, I caught her putting the washcloth into his bottom.  I asked her to stop and she said "But mummy, I'm washing his bones!" Another time, she was scrubbing him quite hard with the washcloth, and informed me that she was washing off all the blood.  Yes, that's right.  She's weird.

She loves to walk around holding Teo's hand.  It is absolutely the cutest thing and it makes me melt.  He just started walking on his own, but for a long time now he would walk around while holding both of Sapphie's hands.  The other morning, we had a thunderstorm and they were walking around holding hands, trying to hide from the thunderstorm  (that's what she said anyway, but he was just following her around).

"I'm actually not doing that.  Actually that is actually mine."

And Teo.  What a little devil he is! So cute and loving, and what a hot Latin temper he's got.  He throws the most amazing fits! Sometimes I laugh and then other times, I'm a little embarassed.  He thrashes, swats, squeals, and throws himself on the ground if provoked, and sometimes it takes almost nothing to set him off. 

Teo still loves to dance and shake his bum from side to side.  It's so cute.  He growls when he's angry (often at Sapphie), and a growl is usually a warning followed by swatting or biting. 
He always laughs at Sapphie while she's dancing around, or making funny faces at him.  He adores her.  He loves to soft hair.  He really likes to color and I often find him lying on his belly with a piece of paper and a crayon, which he gets all by himself out of Sapphie's desk.  He's also at the age where he wants to do what the big kids are doing.  He likes to eat his lunch at the kids table, not in his high chair, when Sapphie has friends over. 

As I mentioned, he just started walking about a week ago.  He's not much of a talker; at this age, Sapphie had a lot more words.  But he does say a few: mama, daddy, dog, fish, baby, bye-bye, that, and dirty (yes, he's a Kouri).  He also loves books, just like his sister.  Here are some pictures of them playing.

 In the cubes, where we keep their toys.

 Coloring!!

 Morning snuggles, which are very popular.

 

Snack with Aven and Zoe

 More snuggles

Sprinkler fun in the yard!! They absolutely love it.

 Best buddies xxxxx

Cha-cha-cha chia!

I'm not one for fads, but I have to say I have gotten totally sucked into the chia seed craze.  I'm so addicted to the chia seed energy cubes from City Market (dates, chia seeds, coconut...YUM).  Last week, Mindy - my raw food bestie - brought over some chia seed pudding to share with me.  It was a delicious blend of chia seeds soaked in almond milk, maple syrup, banana, and cashews.  The soaked chia seeds have a tapioca-like texture, which I loved.  Teo and Sapphie gobbled it down too! I was hooked.  I immediately purchased some organic white chia seeds and today, had two helpings of the most amazing treat for breakfast (Kevin did too!).  Here's my recipe, which I modified from one I found online.  It is raw, vegan, healthy, very filling, and SO easy!! Here I combined orange with cranberry - one of my favorite combos - but you can do whatever you want. Next time I might try cinnamon raisin.  Also I bet lemon zest with dried blueberries would be perfect in the summer...the possibilities are endless!



Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups soy milk (actually you can use whatever milk you like.  I prefer soy because of the creamy texture)
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla, or any extract, depending on the flavor you're going for)
a sprinkle of powdered ginger
1/4 to 1/2 cup of maple syrup
2/3 cup chia seeds
a teaspoon of orange zest
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped raw unsalted pistachios
1/4 cup wide-flake unsweetened coconut

In a medium bowl, combine the soy milk, maple syrup, almond extract, and ginger powder.  Whisk to combine. Add the chia seeds and orange zest and whisk until to fully combined. Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least 5 hours (overnight is better). When ready to serve, add dried cranberries, pistachios, and coconut, and stir well. Serve and enjoy!!

Softing

In my family, many of us like to do something we call "softing." Softing describes a soothing activity that involves rubbing something between your fingers, and it often is accompanied by thumb sucking.  Sometimes it's a scarf, or a hankercheif, and often for us girls (actually my dad too), it was our hair. 
It has been really fascinating for me to see both of my children inherit the need for softing.  With Sapphie it wasn't totally obvious; when she was a newborn and crying, she always calmed down if I shoved a silk scarf into her hands (when we went running, we always brought the silk scarf in case she had a screaming fit).  As she got older, she liked to rub the skin of her neck between her fingers and I still catch her doing it sometimes.  But I've never seen her show much interest in hair, or blankets.   
With Teo, it was clear from the start that he was a passionate softer.  He has always rubbed my hair between his fingers while he's nursing.  If I turn to look at him, he angrily pushes my face away so that he can reach my hair.  It's really funny and so cute.   

 

He has also become extremely attached to two blankets made for he and Sapphie - both of which he has now claimed -by Lauren's mother.  If we try to put him to bed with anything else, he cries until we bring his blankets out of the laundry! As soon as he sees them, he calms down and starts quickly rubbing them between his fingers.  The other day, I was desperate to wash them and so I gave him cashmere.  Would you believe he looked at it, touched it, then growled and hit the blanket?! I could not believe a child of mine would turn down cashmere! Here he is sleeping on one of his blankets:   

 He also loves to ride on my shoulders or in the ergo on my back, because there he can easily reach my hair and rub it between his fingers.  He also likes to lean in and give a hug every now and then.  

What a little lover. 

Spring is here!

Yes, Spring is here and I am determined to break this no-blog cycle! We have had such an insanely busy last couple of months, and so much has happened. To tell you the truth, I'm totally overwhelmed at the idea of putting a bunch of photos up right now. So, I'll just include a couple, along with updates, and give you the link to our online photo albums if you want to see more.

Teo turned one in February and he's really blossoming into a funny character. A few notes on him: he's officially sleeping through the night (yes, 12 hours!). He goes down so well although recently, he's started becoming quite the comedian. If he's not tired when we put him down, he'll play in his crib. We used to let Sapphie do that, which was fine because she would just read and sing. But Teo tends to get rowdy and starts whooping it up. So we'll go in and as soon as we open the door, he screams with laughter and throws himself into the mattress. It's hilarious. Every time he wakes up in the mornings, Kevin brings him in to our bedroom and he looks at me and starts smacking his lips (this means he wants to nurse, which he still does 2-3 times a day). That's pretty cute too.

He LOVES to take a bath with Sapphie and he just started doing "Tsunami," this crazy splash-wave thing with his hands. He really cracks himself up! He's also a total hog and at some meals he eats more than me. It's crazy how much he can put away! As a result, he's quickly catching up to Sapphie and in about 3 more pounds they'll be the same weight. Believe it or not, people regularly ask me if they're twins.

I think the funniest and most interesting development with Teo is that he is not always the little lover I had originally thought. I was so worried that Sapphie would constantly be pushing him around and he would just take it. Not so much. Teo has started squealing, swatting, throwing, and yes, biting, when Sapphie crosses the line. This is also really funny and it's all I can do not to crack a smile. He's got spunk. Piss him off and he stares you down. If you don't back off, he follows up with a swat, or if you're lucky, he does this think that looks like a cross between a merman and a sea lion. He'll arch his back and squawk at you! I'd love to get it on video one of these days, but the camera usually distracts him too much.

Sapphie, on the other hand, is developing just as I expected: confidence and attitude increasing (yes, she's constantly trying to boss us around), meltdowns are insane, wants to pick her own outfits and dress herself (of course we let her; she almost always wears a tutu to school). She's exactly like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead: at times, she is just the sweetest thing ever and it melts your heart. At other times, she comes out of bed with messy hair and an attitude you wouldn't believe! It's hard to manage because I don't want to suppress her personality, but I do feel like I'm constantly arguing with her. I had no idea this would be happening at 3...thought she'd at least wait until she was a teenager! When she irritates me, I say "Sapphie, I'm not impressed." Now when Teo does something, she'll be like "Teo, I'm impressed!" It's pretty cute.

She's afraid of the dark now. This is new...but a couple nights a week she usually tries to come in our bed. I feel badly; I remember the feeling of being scared at night (actually when Kevin is gone, I still go a little crazy with my imagination).
Sapphie loves to sing and she's really into watching singing videos on YouTube. We watch songs from Annie, Mary Poppins, and the Little Mermaid. She loves it!

Okay here are a few pictures from the last few months:

Sledding

Morning snuggles

Teo's 1st birthday!

Yes, she chose this outfit (and posed for the camera) all on her own.

Learning to ski!!

Tired after a day of skiing.

They love to read together. It's adorable.

Teo and Amelia. We watch Amelia 3 days a week now, and it's so fun!!

Amelia ("Meals") sleeping in the sling. She loves it in there.

Since I'm rehearsing on Sunday, Kevin is with the kids. Yes, he feeds them chocolate for lunch.

My lover boy, home sick so we got some QT together just the two of us. It was a heat wave!! 85 degrees in March.

Something I pulled out of Sapphie's nose (that's right). It was a present she got from her first dentist visit, and we almost made it to the ER. Aileen, I thought of you and all the creepy things you see!

Teo's first time playing in our sandbox, during the heatwave. He LOVED it!! And Sapphie loved having a playmate.

HAPPY SPRING!!!