Just another Sunday in Barcelona...

Okay, it is 10:40 and the kids are finally asleep and the kitchen is finally cleaned post-dinner. I am officially tired of C.C. telling us what a lousy place Barcelona is, tired of Milo flopping around for an hour each night in bed, gouging me with his sharp little knees and elbows, and really sick of listening to Pete Seeger at bedtime!

Phew. Just needed to get that off my chest. The thing is, by the time the house is quiet and clean, I still need some time to unwind and relax before I go to bed myself. Which means I’ve been getting to bed very late. And come this week, all of that’s got to change—for all of us. This morning I actually slept until nearly 10:30—it’s been years since I slept that late, and it was kind of disorienting.

We had a pretty relaxed day—took the kids to the pool, I took a class at the gym (and understood almost all of it), then made a major push organizing the apartment. You know how it is when you first move in someplace—you unpack and you just need to put everything someplace. Well, today we made some progress in putting things in the right places, and throwing out boxes and stuff left from the previous tenants. It’s looking pretty good now.

We also did some major skyping—first a call with Blanca and Lois (Blanca is in Ocean Grove for the weekend). Although we kept losing the connection, it was good to see them—Blanca’s eyes welled up with tears as she talked to the kids. Then C.C. had a skype date with her friend Maddie, who is in her class back at PS 10. C.C. was literally beaming. We will make more dates, as she is clearly missing her friends. She’s never really talked on the phone before so it was fun to see her laughing and chatting. We closed the door of the living room so that she could have some privacy, but I snuck a peak every now and then. And then Leslie skyped us, and we had a good long chat.

At dinner, C.C. wanted to make a list of all of the things there are in New York that we can’t get here. The milk is different, she says—it’s better in New York. And even though Alec has made several batches of beans, the kids maintain that they don’t hold a candle to Blanca’s. A few days ago Blanca explained to him exactly how she does it (he had neglected to put in the onions) so he made a batch yesterday. “Daddy,” Milo said at dinner, “these beans are your worst ones yet.” We all agreed actually. Alec is not about to give up.

Tomorrow we are up and out early to try once again to get NIE numbers for C.C., Milo and me.