Thoughts from Barcelona

barcelona, life, random thoughts

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Just over one year ago we packed up all our belongings, three children and dog and headed for Spain. We drove for three days through France and landed in Barcelona with inflatable beds, a few plates and a handful of cutlery. Sometimes these decisions make perfect sense when you are in the middle of them and only later do you think….”wow, we were mad!”.
Here are my thoughts 14 months on:
– Catalania is one of the most beautiful and vibrant places on earth.
– Spanish food is very tasty. Fifteen pounds tasty to be exact!
– Children are more resilient than we give them credit for.
– Being a stay at home Mum takes an enormous amount of energy and patience.
– Learning a new language as an adult is  takes longer than you would think.
– You meet many, many interesting and truly incredible people in an international community.
– The Spanish know how to celebrate life in a way I have never seen before.
– Beach life never gets old.
– Living in wine country is beautiful, interesting and dangerous.
– Reaching outside your comfort zone to attain new life and personal goals rewards you in amazing and unexpected ways.

The Teachers

children

It’s often said that you learn more from your children than they learn from you. The difficult part is seeing the teachings when they are presented. I’ve been working on being more cognizant and in the moment to cherish these little lessons.

I’ve had a big one recently and I’m bursting to share…

On Sunday we had our standard roast for dinner. For dessert, I decided to make a couple small cakes to serve with a custard I had just learned to make in my recent Waitrose cookery course. I heard a scuffle coming from upstairs and in my standard Mummy mode, I quickly grabbed some sprinkles and icing and called my little cake decorators downstairs. Thankfully two of them appeared and the scuffle was forgotten. They spent the next 20 minutes adding mounds of sprinkles to the cake with delight!!! It’s magical to see the excitement sprinkles can bring to their eyes.

As the cake decorating wound down, my little girl started searching for candles. My grown up self started asking questions like why did we need candles when it wasn’t someone’s birthday? Wouldn’t I need those later when it was someone’s birthday? Etc, etc? Thankfully, before I had to ask, my sweet little angel said “we are celebrating putting up the Christmas Tree”. Of course we were!

As we lit the candles and sang “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” I found myself bursting with happiness and pride.

It’s these teachings that you cherish forever!

Space

children, toddlers

Two is such a lovely number. And such a fantastic age for a little boy who has his whole life in front of him.
The brilliant thing about the second time around is that you can re-live those sweet little moments all over again.
Our little baby is growing up. He is starting to string words together. He is showing his independence!
My heart melts when I walk in the room and he shouts ‘space, space’ forcing all three children to shuffle down and make room for me on the couch. How can I bottle up these sweet little moments cause in a few more years they will be filling the couch so I can’t sit down.

Goals, Goals, Goals

Boring Life, random thoughts

It’s 2013!!

2012 has flown by at lightening speed and I find myself once again reviewing my accomplishments and setting new goals for the year ahead. I love new starts. I cherish new beginnings. A new year excites and invigorates me like no other time of year. I pull out my shiny new calendar and record all my birthdays, anniversaries, tidbits of information and motivational quotes and I hit the ground running.

However…..this year I’ve found that my goals for 2013 are…….ditto 2012.
Does this  mean I am not moving forward as a person? Have I been stagnant for the past year?
I haven’t! I’ve been overwhelmingly busy! But, am I filling my jar with pebbles instead of rocks? I can only hope that this year was a lovely time to relax and pause after chasing three lovely children and getting the last one out of his baby stage and onto todderdom.

I cherish 2013 even more now that I have two years worth of goals to accomplish!

Bring on 2013

Throw some money at it…

children, toddlers

As I was spending my Sunday morning recovering from a surgery and several glasses of wine the night before, I did what most mother’s in this state would do and persuaded my five year old to play Mario Kart. I am sure that Gina Ford and other experts on the art of parenting would be in total agreement with me here….

He switches on the TV, controller in hand and nothing happens. After some grumbling about losing Wii games and taking care of our things I insert a new disc into the Wii and try to persuade him that he really preferred to dance.

The disc won’t go in. Hmmmm….unplugging things usually fixes them right up.

As I pull at the device to uplug the cords I hear a lovely jingling inside.

Toddler man has decided to stick his spare change in the opening. Someone told him that throwing money at it fixes anything!

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Re-entering Life

Boring Life

“Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.” – Oprah

Some days you wake up feeling like the luckiest girl in the world. Your children are healthy, your children are happy and you are doing a wonderful job as a mother.

Other days you wake up to a wailing, puking child and wonder where things have gone terribly wrong.

There is also a day when you wake up and remember yourself. It’s usually after 18 months of feeding/changing/feeding/changing/
crawling/feeding/changing/changing/feeding/walking/
feeding/changing/tantrums/feeding/changing/a few glasses of wine.

There it is. Laying in front of you. There is a life outside of this and you can join.

An invite into the secret club of people who go out past dark. People who laugh at adult jokes. People who put on eyeliner and perfume. People who enjoy life outside of Birthday parties and family swim. People who enjoy making that Barbie cake for the 100th time just for fun, but also enjoy a nice glass of vino and a lovely dress.

It’s been a long time, but I’m delighted to be back in the club!

Separation Anxiety

Boring Life, children, toddlers

sep·a·ra·tion (noun) \ˌse-pə-ˈrā-shən\ the act or process of separating : the state of being separated

anx·i·ety (noun) \aŋ-ˈzī-ə-tē\ an abnormal and overwhelming sense of apprehension and fear often marked by physiological signs (as sweating, tension, and increased pulse), by doubt concerning the reality and nature of the threat, and by self-doubt about one’s capacity to cope with it

Separation anxiety (noun) the art of a small crawling child following their Mother around until said Mother locks herself in a confined space (see bathroom). This is generally followed by very loud wails sounding as if the small crawling child will soon expire from either crying or hyperventilating.

Mother extracts herself from bathroom and cuddles the smallie. Wailing stops.

Mother gently places smallie on floor and goes back into bathroom. Wailing starts.

Repeat (infinity sign)

I have been incredibly blessed with a third child and yet I ask myself at least once per week…”how did I do this with two?”.

Off to pickup a wailing child.

Hello World!

children, random thoughts

I’m back!

It’s been awhile and life has moved on without my daily account and acknowledgment of its existence. We’ve been so busy since my last post that I’m not sure where to begin.

From my very lagging memory, I’ve neglected to record the following happenings:
– we sold our house
– we rented our house back from the buyer (who charged us for random things such as lightbulbs when we eventually left 3 months later)
– we bought a new house
– Ava & Jake changed nurseries
– we moved from St. Albans
– Darragh got a promotion and started traveling EMEA
– Ava & Jake got their own rooms! (no more sharing!)
– we went to Ireland
– we vowed we would never fly again until they were 10
– we flew again
– Ava & Jake got bikes
– we bought a lawnmower (and a trimmer)
– darragh bought the mother of all toolboxes
– we officially entered suburbia
– Ava & Jake consistently started sleeping through the night (I hope this doesn’t jinx it)

Whew, I need a nap!

Lots to look forward to the rest of 2010.
Stay tuned!

Where’s the Trampoline?

children, life

We’ve just arrived back home from a lovely visit to Cork.

Ava and Jake visited their cousins and we saw their fabulous new house.

Their house is a to die for mix of a country setting yet close enough to ammenities that you never feel isolated. Looking out their windows it feels as if you nestled in the wilds of Ireland. It’s so peaceful that I could have moved us all in had their not been protests from the current inhabitants. The inside is equally as idyllic.
Needless to say, we had a fabulous time as did the little ones.

They spent much of the days jumping on the trampoline, going down the slide and playing with the hens. The fresh air was lovely for them and especially lovely for the restful nights it provided for us!

After our fun filled weekend, we arrived home Sunday afternoon to a cold and cloudy day. Jake immediately ran outside to his own garden. Dressed in full gear (coat, hat, gloves) he stood next to our metal bin and gazed at the fence (3 feet away).

Me: “Jake, do you want to ride your scooter?”

Jake: “No.”

Me: “Jake, do you want to ride your bike?”

Jake: “No.”

I felt a bit sad as I closed the door and watched him stare longingly at the fence.

I just know he was waiting for a trampoline and a bigger garden to appear.

Bring on the new house!