A thing or two.

-- We've been enjoying a Spanish holiday that gave Josh several days off work, and the kids a break from school. It's the "Puente de Mayo" (puente means bridge), and so the kids only had 2 days of classes last week, giving us a 5-day weekend. It's been great, but tomorrow is back to reality.

-- Then again, my reality is pretty nice, so it's not a problem.

-- Alex technically had a 6-day weekend, though she didn't enjoy the beginning part. She woke up on Tuesday too sick to go to school, with a fever and complaining that her tummy hurt. The fever was really high and wouldn't stay away for long, and she also had a few middle-of-the-night puking sessions before I finally realized what the culprit was. The tummy complaints had overshadowed the sore throat, but when I got a good look in the back of her throat she quite obviously had strep throat. Poor baby was feeling so sick.
Thankfully the doctor was willing to call in a prescription to the pharmacy just based on my description of her illness (they are much more relaxed here about that kind of thing) and she was feeling better after a couple of doses of antibiotics.

-- Josh had a birthday during the break, but we kept it low-key since Alex was recovering. And also because we always keep it low-key. We're lame like that. His gifts were some of his favorite American snacks from the Embassy store. Woohoo. Jalepeno pretzels and twizzlers.
And then for his birthday dinner we had IKEA hot dogs while we were buying a new kitchen table.
We walk on the wild side.
I'm sorry Josh. I'll do better next year.
But now we're both the same age, so all is right with the world. I don't like being the older woman.

-- We made another trip to the amusement park over the weekend. The weather is beautiful and it is so nice to be out in the mild temperatures with the grass and trees so green, and all the flowers blooming.

Alex about to ride something that makes me nauseous to watch.

A bad translation...

We promised the kids at least once we would stay until after dark when the lights came on.
We had to do it quick, since the days keep getting longer.

-- Retiro Park is officially my favorite springtime location in Madrid. The park is so huge that we're still finding new places to explore. I wish I could hit "pause" on the weather and keep it just like this.

 

We figured out what was producing the giant bird droppings in the gardens.

(It's not Derek)

 

-- Derek came into the living room the other day wiping a bloody nose. The following conversation ensued:

D: There's a bead in there.
Me: In where?
D: In my nose.
(Josh runs out of the room to get some tissue.)
Me: Okay, honey, just breathe out of your mouth for a minute. What kind of a bead is it?
D: An orange one.

At this point I try to not laugh but don't succeed.
He blows it out successfully.

His bloody fingernail tells me he worked very hard to try to avoid letting us know about it.

Now all is well.

 Happy Cinco de Mayo.