Today in the car, Tucker brought up cigarettes (as we know Abuelo died from lung cancer) and he says “I just don’t know why anyone would sell cigarettes when they make people sick”
I answer honestly, “money”
Tucker thought for a second and said “mom, if you had to choose between family and money,..”
I cut him off and answer definitely “Family”
He chuckles and says “Me too”
Emilia not missing a beat says “Money!!!”
Tucker and I in unison: EMILIA!
To which she simply replied “It’s just so sparkly”
In Ojai with our friends Courtney,Tom and Caris. Emilia and Caris decided to have a sleepover.
Five minutes after the door closed, Emilia walks out and says:
Mom, I changed my mind and she didn’t like it. So I’m leaving.
Emilia then walked to her brothers room where there are two beds. I followed her, tucked her in and reaffirmed – Nice job today. You can always change your mind and if it bothers someone else you can always leave.
Emilia said – Mom, I don’t like chatty friends when I’m trying to sleep.
Me too Mimi. Me too.
After a pretty disheartening experience at the YMCA, we’ve signed up for a real gymnastics class at a real gymnastics gym. Emilia was IN TO IT. I don’t think she walked once, she skipped.
First time out there.
Im particularly impressed with this wallwalk/handstand hold. Really nice form, straight arms and a long time for a four year old to hold it. Effortless! https://youtu.be/QGY8V0ppdmw
Also, I never have a problem spotting my kids in a class. Those Watson genes are towering!
Yesterday, Tucker wanted to fast forward through his program. I was attempting to do it with the universal remote and he subtely but quickly grabbed the remote from my hands “Mom.. Can I… Here, let me do it”. And properly fast forwarded to the point in his show.
Yes, this is a kid blog. But, every once in a decade, Mom and Dad get a vacation sans kids. And this time, we’re going to Barcelona.
Lucky us, i’m here on roller derby business as the representative for the WFTDA Board of Directors at the first European Derby Conference. Super exciting stuff, but before that, Ben and I are checking out Barcelona. Today is day two. So far, we’ve done a lot of walking and eating. And I don’t see much changing over the next few days.
Tonight, we went on a tapas tour of the city with an excellent guide (Javier) and met some rad people who we plan to meet up with tomorrow.
The excitement started back in LA when I got these pictures with LA Kings head coach, Darryl Sutter at the Canadian Air gate. He’s clearly into it. Nice guy.
Ben has no idea I’m taking our picture with Coach Sutter.
After many, many hours in the air and through customs we arrived to our hotel where we were treated with complimentary Sangria on the balcony.
The first restaurant we hit was Cuidad Condal. This is where we were first introduced to Catalan bread, basically a light airy bread, rubbed with garlic and topped with tomato and oil. This has now become a staple of our cuisine.
After eating we did our best to not fall asleep so we could acclimate quickly to the time change. We went back to the hotel, hung out by the pool and read. Then walked Las Rambla and ended up at the Plaza de Rieal where we had our dinner tapas. This picture was taken from our seats.
The general square had a lot of government buildings, Refugees are Welcome here (unlike our own country).
Random art. This is a basket ball net, we think. Ben is at the bottom.
Walking back from lunch, we stumble across El Born Cultural Center that has the remains of the seige of 1714, where the Catalons fell to the Spanish in the War of Spanish Succession.
It’s Pride Week! We avoided the parade, but came across a lot of revelers.
Gorgeous market in La Rambla.
Saturday we opted for a light lunch at Lonja De Tapas, knowing we would head out later. Sangraia, bread, salad and grilled octopus. SO GOOD.
We tried to go to the Cathedral of Barcelona but I was not dressed appropriately. No shorts or undressed shoulders. We’ll try again tomorrow.
On Saturday night, we went on Food Tour of Barcelona. The restaurants we visited were: 2254 Restaurant, Cu-Cut and La Bodegueta. At 2254 we had Vermouth and tapas. We were doing a lot of talking and not a lot of picture taking, lo siento. Here’s a couple shots we did get:
Green Olives with dried orange and a shot of Campari. This was not a favorite.
Here we have foi gras made up to look like an ice cream cone. It did not taste like an ice cream cone.
For the 2016-2017 school year, Emilia is heading to a new school (Juan De Anza), conveniently located around the block from our house. She hasn’t graduated pre-school yet, but they decided to include her in the end of year ceremony as she’s been part of St. Michaels since she was six months old.
Emilia, however, was not in the mood for the ceremony. She left the group to sit with me during the reading of “The Hungry Caterpillar” and while the students stood for their certificates and parents took pictures of their children Emilia could be heard yelling (multiple times) “Mommy, don’t take a picture of me, okay???”
OKAY.
And while the graduation ceremony was rough, I took Emilia shopping with me afterwards which is something she very much enjoys. We both bought handkerchief dresses for the birthday party the next day, which just so happened to be a SPA party. Post party, the whole family went for boba’s and chocolate shakes.
Mimi and I at St. Michaels during the ceremony.
A lovely picture of Ms. Vanessa. Ms. Vanessa has just loved Emilia the past year in her class, she even bought her a birthday present this year (which teachers never do!). Emilia’s certificate said “thank you for sharing your spunky personality and love all things sparkly”.
New dresses at the spa party.
First time getting our fingernails painted. Emilia did not mind.
Tucker just finished his first year at Broadway Elementary. Broadway is a language school, Tucker is enrolled in Spanish Immersion. He spends half of his day learning in Spanish and the other half learning in English. The unfortunate thing is Broadway is nowhere near where we (happily) live. It takes me about 45 minutes to drive him to school in the morning, then another hour for me to drive to my work. Add a drop off for Emilia and it’s a two hour commute.
On the other hand, he is speaking Spanish comfortably around my house and to my family. And that makes the commute #worthit.
It’s been a long year for the Bub. He’s really struggled with learning how to follow directions and keep his hands to himself (manos!). There were many, many, parent teacher meetings and a handful of reward systems including: stars, chocolate milks and smiley faces on post-its. Like everything else this far, we had to wait until Tucker was ready.
It doesn’t help that he is pretty bored. I’ve stopped drilling so much math with him in hopes that he won’t be too far ahead of the class (in the three major tests he had two perfect scores and a 98). Tucker has also started reading voraciously. Which has been a bit of a savior in the behavior area because now he can be challenged to do work and projects on his own.
The last few weeks of school Tucker has been able to really pull it together. He was awarded a second stripe in Jui Jitsu, received an award for 100 books read and earned Star of the Week. Congrats buddy, you’ve worked hard for it and we are so proud of you.
pictured with Professor Rodrigo (of Rodrigo Freitas Brazilian Jui Jitzu).
This photo KILLS ME. First and last day of kindergarten (note the tippy toes in the before picture).
I realize it has been a long, long time since I updated the blog. For that I apologize. But rather than dwell on the matter, let’s move into update mode.
Christmas was swell.
Tucker turned 6 with a gigantic Kylo Ren party at Scooter’s Jungle. It was epic. Emilia turned 4 with a day at an amusement park, Knotts Berry Farm. That was also epic. We’ve decided that Mom & Dad can really only plan 1 birthday party a year and since we <3 amusement parks, we alternate birthday celebrations. It’s a good system.
My daughter does not like to smile for a camera. In one of her first conscious decisions to be unlike her brother, she has very clearly wanted us to know she doesn’t like having her photo taken for a long time.
This is a shame. My daughter is a beautiful, wonderfully happy and devilishly mischievous little girl. And in this day and age of camera phones I can’t help but want to catch this very special moment in time forever. But the second she sees the phone come out and pointed she gives us the frowniest frown you’ve ever seen.
Luckily, as I mentioned, she really is quite happy and has a great sense of humor. What works time and time again is to tel her in a warning voice – don’t you smile. DO. NOT. SMILE. Oh, no, you’re smiling!
And here is what that progression looks like:
