Allie in the South of Spain

My parents recently stopped here on the tail-end of a trip they took to Italy. They were here for about four days and since we hadn't seen Poppa Walrus since summer or Noonie since Christmas it was a fun time for the girls. They couldn't believe how big Laura and Vera have gotten and I have to admit that they are growing by the day. Vera is now walking by herself, wobbly when unaided and practically sprinting if she can get someone's fingers to hold on to. Laura is crab crawling along behind her and is more stable when standing. We are working on her pulling herself up.  While my parents were here we avoided going into Seville since their visit coincided with April's Fair which makes the downtown area a zoo. The fair was originally a time when people would bring their livestock into town and there would be parties and celebrations as happens when people gather together. Now it involves carnival rides, tents with food and dancing, music, traditional flamenco dre...

Ok I am going to preface this post by warning that it is going to be full of pictures, more than usual since we had a pretty chock-full week of photo-worthy moments. We kicked off Holy Week (which you probably know is a big deal around these parts) with an Easter egg hunt hosted by the American Women's Club of Seville which I have belonged to for several years. It is a club for English speakers from around the world which organizes all kinds of events throughout with year and though I think maybe Laura and Vera were a bit young for this last party, I had a good time with them looking for eggs and meeting a few new moms. Domingo de Ramos or Palm Sunday is sort of the official start to Holy Week. It is customary for people to wear a new outfit on this day as they go out to see the processions taking place all over. Vera and Laura were no different, they wore new dresses and looked adorable. We went to see the procession in Jose's hometown and the weather was beautiful...

Another month has come and gone and dare I say that spring has sprung in the south of Spain. It sure does feel like it! Today and for the rest of this week we are supposed to have 80 degree days and sun which will hopefully clear up Laura's continuing bronchitis. She has it yet again. And this is with me staying home with her. I can't imagine how bad it would be if she had stayed in daycare. Although admittedly I do miss having adult conversation and a life outside of my girls. Luckily Jose has some time off soon for Holy Week. Then my parents are coming for a short visit on the tail end of a trip they are taking. We haven't really been up to anything this month. Just the normal one year old stuff, playing, practicing walking, eating, music class. For that reason and since I can't imagine it is very exciting to read about the same month after month, I am switching to not-so-monthly updates, meaning I will post whenever something exciting happens or I have a spare ...

Taaaaa daaaaaa! We made it through our first year and everyone survived! It has been rough at times (I have spent more time with doctors and in the hospital with the girls in this past 12 months than I had in my entire 30 years). But here we are with two beautiful, happy little chunks who just celebrated their birthdays on March 1st. February was a low key month for us. The weather hasn't been that great (although it is feeling more like spring with every passing day) so we have mostly stayed in. We did spend the last weekend of the month in Portugal for a change of scenery and because it was a long, holiday weekend but other than that we have been here. The girls started a music class and they love it. It is once a week for 45 minutes and they are generally the youngest and yet most enthusiastic kids in the class. They get to use all kinds of handheld musical instruments like bells and maracas. The most fun they have are with the drumsticks which become deadly weapons...

I know I have just recently posted two blog entries that pretty much sum up our last month but for posterity I am going to include this one as well for the girls' 11 month update. As always, you can check out past monthly updates either in the blog archive or by clicking on the monthly update label found on the left side of the page. This month started out great! We celebrated the Vera and Laura's first Christmas and were off work until the 9th which was nice. My mom was here to visit for a week and Jose's sister and our niece were also in town from France. I would never have guessed how tough things would get, especially considering that the month of December had been relatively easy in terms of the girls' health.  I won't go into all the details of Laura's hospital stay since I wrote an entire blog post about it which you can check out but basically we spent two weeks of the month being sick and away from home. Vera spent that time with my in-laws wher...