There are five days in the work week. Well, not this week, because Tuesday is a holiday, and Monday is a puente, so there are only really three work days this week… but I digress. So there must be five new videos of Sebastian added to the interwebs. There simply must. Let’s get this thing started the only way we really know how: yodeling.

We went out to La Floresta today for an amazing curry lunch at Alex and Nadia’s house (homegrown hot peppers and homemade ginger chutney!), followed by a fun little evening Halloween party in a playground/plaza just down the hill from the town center. Emily was a cat and Sebastian was Bob The Builder. Jan was a witch and I was a hippie. There were a few dozen other people there, all dressed up. After setting the clocks back an hour just last night, the party got dark rather quickly. The jack-o-lanterns looked awesome.

It got to the point where no one could see what exactly they were grabbing from the snacks table. I used my phone to light my way to the “arm” cake and “blood” juice. Jan came up to me and said, “Have you tried these crisps? They’re really stale and really dry. But there’s a peanut in the middle of each one. Here try one.” And she put one in my mouth. She was right: it tasted stale and dry. And there was a peanut in the middle! Wait a minute… “You idiot, those are peanuts!” I groaned to Jan as I began spitting out the remaining pieces of peanut shell that were stuck in my teeth. I don’t know how many Jan had already eaten at this point. We shared a good laugh before Jan pointed out that Emily was still eating them. It was time to go home.

Hey, wanna see the lovely photos I took in Perpignan in July of last year?

In The Heights

Yes, I know. That was 15 months ago! I am equally mortified that my photo uploading has actually been lapped by the calendar year. But I am making a concerted effort to catch up. Here is the beginning of that effort.

Taking advantage of the fact that the school year had ended and that Spain was in the finals of the World Cup, my buddy Joe decided to pop over to Barcelona for a visit. Once Spain was victorious and the football festivities had subsided, we rented a car and drove up to the Perpignan region of southern France to go wine tasting and castle hunting. Fun!

Perpignan had a lovely rustic and quaint feel to it and provided plentiful outdoor restaurants for our dining enjoyment. But we spent most of our three days outside of the city, driving around the verdant hills of the region, exploring lost and decrepit Cathar castles, discovering picturesque little villages hidden away in the sprawling French Pyrenees mountains, putting to good use our appalling French, and sampling more than our fair share of the delicious local wines. We concluded our trip with an intimate guided tour of a local vineyard, owned and run by a very friendly couple from England, who lived in New York before moving to Australia and ending up in France. If you’re ever in the area, do stop by for a tour and tasting.

If you’d like to view a smattering of the photos from our adventure, just click on the following link and be whisked away:

Here’s a little note to all you budding cat burglars out there: we’ll be out of our house for most of the month of December. That’s right, we’ve just booked our December travel plans!

Our adventures begin just after we close Private Eyes when we’ll be flying to Florida on December 6. We’ll be splitting our time between my Nana’s house, my Mom’s, and my Dad’s. We’ll have two full weeks to soak up the winter sun in Miami and Tampa before we fly back to Barcelona on December 20. I hope we’ll be able to sort out our jet lag in 48 hours because we then fly to England on December 22. After our traditional Christmas with Jan’s parents and a few snowball fights, we fly back to Barcelona on December 28, just in time for New Year’s grapes and Cava in Catalunya.

So, anyone planning on being in the North Miami Beach area? Or Tampa? Or Outwell? Let’s set a play date!

[Mostly copied from last year. I couldn’t be asked.]

Yesterday I held auditions for my next play, Private Eyes by Steven Dietz. We had a really great turnout. I think there were about 20 people auditioning for five roles. And (almost) all of them were excellent! I’ll keep the intimate details to a minimum as you never can tell who is lurking around here and I don’t want to offend anyone. But suffice it to say that I will have my work cut out for me if I hope to cast this thing within the next couple of days so that we can start rehearsals next week. It’ll be a very short rehearsal period (probably 14 in total) before we perform over the last two weekends of November. I can’t wait to get this ball rolling!

On our way to the swimming pool today, a bus drove past us with a picture of Jesus Christ on the back, advertising some art exhibition at some museum or something. Emily watched it drive by, paused for a moment, and then said:

Emily: I’ve seen that man before.

Me: Oh yeah?

Emily: I’ve seen him lots of times!

Me: Really? Where have you seen him lots of times?

Emily: Whenever we play cards. I think he’s the Jack.

10 years ago today, Jan and I were returning from our month-long Mexican vacation. It was one of the best holidays I have ever taken; and that’s taking into account that the temperature (and resulting tempers) were so high at one point in Merida that we actually broke up for a few hours. But I digress.

Facing The Moon Pyramid

On September 11, 2001, Jan and I boarded an early-morning transatlantic flight from Mexico City to Barcelona via Amsterdam. The flight path had us traveling up along the east coast of the US before crossing the north Atlantic and heading back to Europe. We passed over New York City at approximately 7:30 a.m., roughly one hour before Flight 11 crashed into the north face of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. We, of course, had no idea. Nor was there mention of the incident at any point during our flight, which makes very good sense.

We landed in Amsterdam to switch planes for our connecting flight back to Barcelona and, as we were passing through airport security, the girl checking passports noticed that I was American and said to me, “We were just talking about your country.” Oblivious me wryly asked, “Oh yeah? Good or bad?” To which she coldly replied, “Bad. Very bad.” And she proceeded to share the little information that they had received at that point, namely that airplanes had crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Tired and confused, I did not know how to process this information so I thanked her for the news and was on my way… to board another plane.

I remember Jan asking me if I thought they were mistaken and I decided that they must have been mistaken because the World Trade Center and the Pentagon aren’t anywhere near each other. They’re in completely different states. With about 200 miles between them. Yes, they were definitely mistaken.

Other passengers must have also heard something before boarding that flight to Barcelona with us, yet not a word was spoken the entire journey.

We landed safely and made our way home. All I remember next is spending the next six hours in front of the television with my mouth open.

Sebastian is two and a half! Eight more of these and he’ll have graduated from college.

Purple in the Park

I look at photos of Sebastian from six months ago – heck, even a year ago – and he doesn’t look all that different from the fresh-faced cheeky young go-getter he is today. But that’s just on the outside. Everything under the hood has been upgraded.

Independence Cupcakes

Here’s a short(!) set of two-and-a-half-year-old bullet points to give you a glimpse into some of the things our little boy has been up to these days:

• When it comes to gymnastics and yoga, Sebastian is a natural. He has very good balance and coordination. I guess having Emily around helps a lot. If they can manage to take turns in an orderly fashion, they love doing gymnastics or daredevil stunts together. And they’re a good match physically. But his forward rolls, triple jumps, arabesques, splits, headstands on the couch, and one-legged downward dog are amazing. And he loves it. He’s all about the death-defying jumps, too. Off the arm of the couch, down flights of stairs, off walls. Real kamikaze stuff. He hasn’t attempted cartwheels yet. I think his arms aren’t long enough. But if he has both hands on the floor and one leg up in the air, and he tries to take a hand off the floor, he knows instinctively which hand to raise. Awesome.
• The tiger is out of his cage. About four months ago, we took the bars off of Sebastian’s crib and he’s now sleeping in a Big Boy Bed. He shifted very gracefully with no trouble at all. He fell out for a while but he doesn’t do that so much anymore. We were afraid he’d refuse to go to sleep if we removed the bars, running free around the house at all hours of the night. But after we laid him down at night, he didn’t move a muscle, safely enclosed by his Pavlovian bars. And this lasted for an entire month! Yes, things are a bit different now. We were particularly excited to remove the bars because we thought that, instead of screaming, “Mummy!” every morning until we went in and got him, he could now just climb into our bed and hopefully fall back to sleep for just 20 more minutes. That’s all we wanted. 20 more minutes. Please! But no dice. We’re still woken with morning screaming and we have to go fetch him. Drats. Emily hasn’t mentioned bunk beds in a while, but that’ll probably be the next step.
• Sebastian’s talking has improved by leaps and bounds since we went to England last month. Instead of “No” he says, “No, not right now.” He copies everything he hears (especially from Emily). And though still quite slurry, his pronunciation is absolutely almost understandable now. And he can almost pronounce words that start with “s”! It’s not uncommon for us to find him chuntering away to himself, repeating names, counting, singing, etc. This may be why he’s finding it difficult getting to sleep at night; his brain is whirring at a million miles an hour.

• “Mine!” “My do it!!” “No want to!!!” Houston, we have temper tantrums. But I’m talking about violent temper tantrums. This just started a couple of weeks ago. He had never done anything remotely like this before. It all started with the scream. That gnarly high-pitched shriek of displeasure. But that has developed into this. I had to actually put him in a cold shower the other day to hose him down. He was swinging, he was shrieking, he was kicking, he was sweating. It could be the smallest thing that sets him off, like not wanting to brush his teeth, and you’re in for a violent and noisy half-hour battle of the wills. And I’m damn stubborn. Thank god it doesn’t happen very often. No, it could definitely be worse. He’s certainly not one of those kids who makes us afraid to bring him out in public. I guess this is The terrible twos.
• Sebastian is obsessed with the movie Cars, or as he calls it, Lightning McQueen. He was somewhat obsessed with Little Einsteins in the past, but this is his first film obsession. The marketing all around us doesn’t help. When we see a bottle of detergent in the supermarket, that damn car is on it. And now, of course, he has the toy car. And the underpants! And it’s nice that Emily is into it now, as well. I love how he laughs at certain things every time, and he turns to Emily so that they can laugh together. I think his favorite bit is when the Pixar lamp hops across the screen before the film even starts and he laughs, “He squashed the 1!”
• Sebastian is not wearing diapers anymore! It’s been two weeks now and he’s doing very well (all things considered). Sure, the occasional wee slips out, but he’s quick to point it out and make it to the toilet for the remainder. The problem is the poo. But it’s already getting better! Last week, he was pooing all over the place. On the balcony. In the living room. He pooed three times in one day the other day. Three times. He never pooed three times in one day when he was wearing diapers. He was apparently saving it up. And he never told us when he’d done it. We had to discover it. And if we asked him about it, he lied. “Did you make a caca?” “Nooooo” (accompanied by shifty eyes). But he’s starting to get the hang of it now. Oh, and the potty only lasted a couple of days. We’re all about the toilet now, which is perfectly fine with me. One less thing to clean. Now I can’t wait until I don’t have to scrape out his Lightning McQueens anymore.
• Sebastian is an instigator. He can really be a jerk. He sizes people up and then goes for the jugular, knowing exactly which buttons to push. Especially with Emily. They have a wonderful yet tumultuous relationship. But she is still his big sister and he follows her around, he copies her, and he gives her hugs. And then he hits her. They’ll have a great time just lying in bed together, rearranging stuffed animals and making blanket forts. And then Emily will want him out of her bed but he won’t go because he knows it will piss her off. And it does. He will sit at the top of the slide in the playground and if someone wants to go down behind him he doesn’t move. He just sits there. Similarly, he’ll stand at the bottom of the slide and not let anyone go down. He’ll stand in front of another child on a scooter or bike and not let them pass because he knows it will get a rise out of them. Jerk. He loves trashing Emily’s creations. He’ll scribble on her drawings or just stand on them. He stands on lots of things. But he’s got a winning smile. A devil’s smile. He looks like Jan’s dad but acts like my dad (I love you, dad!).
• Sebastian’s counting skills are hot diggety damn now. Especially now that he’s got seven. He used to go …4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 20, 13, 20, 13, 20… Now he’s a counting master. At least up to 15. Except when there’s a lot of something, there’s 5! When he’s thirsty, he wants 5 milks! That’s as much milk as he can fathom. Sometimes he starts counting faster than his fingers can move and he has to stop and go back a number. Very cute.
• I sometimes hide outside the bedroom when Jan puts Sebastian to bed and sings to him because he loves to join in. Sebastian loves to sing. He’s just not very good at it. First of all, he doesn’t know that many songs. The Rainbow Song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Que Será Será, Doe A Deer, Wind The Bobbin Up, the theme song from Little Einsteins, and that’s about it. Completely out of tune but with gusto. Hasn’t got a great memory for lyrics. It’s more about the action, not the singing. He just wants to go ballistic with the choreography. Emily was more into the lyrics, Sebastian is all about the actions.
• His likes: TV, Cars, Little Einstein, books, horchata, ice cream, his stuffed cat, his blanket, trains, swimming, playing in/with water, football, riding in cars, airplanes, airports, cats and dogs (he’s much better with them now), roughhousing, Blue-Tack, getting messy, baths, showers, bubbles, leaves and flowers, building, drawing, hitting his head on things, jumping on the bed, spinning, his tongue, licking things, holding hands, fruit (especially melon), juice, follow the leader
• His dislikes: avocados, rice, beans, when I wet his hair, diapers, eating when he’s not 100% ready, letting others choose the TV program

Crystal Blue Tamariu

The future? Well, the school year starts here in just two weeks and Sebastian, for the first time, will count himself as one of the enrolled. He’ll be attending the same nursery school that Emily went to when she was two. He’ll be there everyday from 9 to 1:30. We’re very excited. And, as always, we’ll be jetting around the world a bit. We’re off to Mallorca tomorrow(!) for a repeat of last year’s wondrous all-inclusive island holiday. And then we’ll definitely be doing the Florida/England thing this December. And then, one day before my next birthday, Sebastian will turn three.

Joan Blanques Fairyland

And finally, here’s a video of Sebastian attempting to warn us of the impending attack of The Monster. Hide!

They say you’re not supposed to compare your kids. This is why:

Emily, 2 years 4 months

Sebastian, 2 years 4 months

Ouch.