Nicoalecus

Christmas summary! Resumen de Navidad!

2008-01-23T13:30:00.000-08:00

Tengo el blog bastante abandonado desde que he vuelto al trabajo ya no tengo tanto tiempo para ponerme a escribir, por las noches estoy algo más cansada y nunca veo el momento de actualizar este blog. Hemos pasado el mes de Diciembre y el de Enero y hemos hecho muchas cosas, nos hubiera gustado hacer muchas más pero todo llegará. En Diciembre tuvimos el cumpleaños de Marco en su casa y tanto Nicolas como Alec se lo pasaron bomba!!! de esto no tengo foto pero seguro que se vais al blog de Nuria podeis ver alguna. Su blog es http://www.marcobella.com/ Despues llegaron las vacaciones de Navidad y se puso Alec muy malito con gastroenteritis, esto ha sido lo peor de estos dos meses, no paraba de vomitar y de tener diarrea y aunque lo hidratábamos con suero al final tambien vomitaba esto, con lo cual tuvo que ser ingresado en el hospital para que no se deshidratara. Estuvo alli dos días, hasta la noche de nochebuena que pudimos, menos mal, pasarla con la familia. Forgeting this bad episode we had many days of fun after that. The happiness when you see your kids faces open up the Christmas presents or looking at the Three Wise Men in the parade makes us forget about the bad times!!!! We also spend one day in the Christmas Carnival called ExpoNadal and they loved it!!!

We had the typical meals with the family although we missed a lot the other half of the family (on Tracy´s side) At least we got to talk to Brett on his birthday for a long time and it was cool because we talked to him when Tracy was driving and we all could hear him and talk. It was just like if he was hanging out in the car with us!!!

New Years Eve!!!! We stayed home with the kids, uncle David came for dinner and uncle Hector came right before midnight to share the tradition with us, eating the twelve grapes at midnight. Nicolas was so excited I could not believe he was going to make it to that time and he did. I tried to get drunk during dinner but it didnt work, I guess I ate too much!!!!!!!!! just joking. After the grapes we danced for a little bit, we got a phone call from Loreto, Emilio, Nuria and Kike and their kids and Nicolas got to say Happy New Year at 1 am, to his little friends isnt´t it crazy? right after that he passed out! Pongo una foto de Nicolas conmigo bailando con los gorritos y otra de los abuelos que pasaron antes de la cena para traernos calamares rellenos de carne!!! esta abuela es una caña, no tiene solución. El caso es que se iban de marcha y antes pararon por casa. Pongo una foto de ellos porque se merecen "everything" por todo lo que hacen por nosotros y por sus nietos. Sois los mejores!!!!!!!!!!!

Por último no quiero olvidarme del concierto de Estefanía, Matt is working, promoting her as a new singer, she is very young and she has a great voice. We went to El Gran Teatro at Elche to see this Christmas concert on the 4th of January, we left Alec with abu and abuela and we took Nicolas with us. He had no clue what a concert was like and he enjoyed it!! He said his favorite part was when Santa Claus came on stage with a bunch of kids!!!

I also turned 38 this Christmas!!! but I will post this in the next entry since we got to go out for dinner with our friends WITHOUT KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We usually celebrate my birthday together with Alicias and Mavi´s birthday, since our birthdays are in January. it was a shame though that not every body made it to come wiht us for dinner. Eli and Christian, Loreto and Emilio and Matt and Nuria couldn´t make it . Hopefully next year!

trip on the trolley!!!

2007-11-25T14:13:00.000-08:00

Nicolas loves to ride the new trolley that takes us downtown. For him it is like going on an adventure. He is having a hard time lately, we think it has to do with me going back to work. I am working only part time and I get home at 1´15 pm monday thru friday. I spend most of the day with them, I pick them up at school, eat lunch with them, snacks later, take them to the playground after school or music class on tuesdays.... and then dinner, bath... everything, but even though I am with them most of the day, Nicolas feels the difference because when he wakes up I am already at work and I dont give him breakfast anymore or dress him during the week anymore.
So, we took this trip to downtown Alicante and we left Alec with daddy. We decided to go to the city hall square after waking around the harbor for a while, buying balloons, talking... The city hall square becomes an antique market on sundays and "abu" (that's how nicolas and alec call my dad, their grandpa from Spain) has a stall with other friend over there. He exchanges old postcards, coins, stamps...and other things, they buy and sell and he loves it; it is his hobby. Nicolas hangs out with him every saturday all day long and half a day on sundays he loves his abu. After a short visit to his table in this market place, we continued with our field trip waking to the beach and then going back home on the trolley again. I will post a couple of pictures of this day!!

At the playground with "tía Mamen"

2007-11-25T13:50:00.000-08:00

I promised tia Mamen I was going to post this picture on the blog. This was at the beggining of november. She spent that evening with us and she´s been friends with me forever, we met each other when we were 9 years old. In spite of not being a relative we call her aunt (tia) Mamen. We don´t see each other as often as we would like, due to our schedules,kids... and the crazy busy life everybody lives nowadays. Here goes the picture playing with Alec in the park.

Special time with daddy!

2007-11-23T07:22:00.000-08:00

Nicolas loves to go hiking with his daddy. Here they are a few weekends ago in the cape near home. It is beautiful because there are rocks, mountain and the mediterranean sea all together.

Nicolas had a blast and Tracy too!!!!!!!

All Saint´s Day

2007-11-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Here in Spain Halloween is not a holiday at all, althoug it is gaining popularity and we are sure in about 10 years it will be big (globalization consequence) Anyways the holiday here is November first, it is called All Saint´s Day. It is a day to remember loved ones that passed away and most people go to the cementery to put flowers in the tumbstones of relatives, friends... Usually today the amount of people going there makes it impossible to park and it is better if you go another day (although the custom is going today). So today November first we went to eat a typical meal in a village nearby. You can eat this kind of Gaspachos only in Alicante region. It is a pasta soup with chicken, although in the village where this dish was created they eat them with rabbit also. We went there today it is called Castalla. Our family friend MCarmen was visiting from England, we had a different day out, sharing memories of the relatives that passed away. She is a friend of my mom since they were very little.

Here they are: my aunt, my mom and her friend Mari Carmen. They are friends since they were todlers, isn`t it great to have friends from that time of our lives still??

Halloween party at Matt and Nuria´s

2007-11-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

This was our first real Halloween party here in Spain. I am so glad Nuria and Matt invited us to their urbanization to enjoy this party. Thank you Nuria and Matt!!!!!!!! Nicolas was very excited all day thinking about his ghost custom and about going there. Alec did not have a clue why we all look like nuts dressing up with customs and why were we dressing him up like a little devil!!! why would we???

We decorate our house every year but they hadn´t lived a halloween night for real before, so it was great. Nuria and her helpers in the complex did a great job. All the food was halloween theme. Pizzas had fake teeth on top, scary face drawing....and so on. They decorated the big room where the food was with cool drawings of ghosts, pumpkings... and everybody was wearing a custom. They have another clubhouse in the urbanization and they turned it into a haunted house. All the kids waited in line to go in there, Tracy was one of the grown ups hidden in the haunted house scaring the hell out of the kids. Nico was so scared that he would only go in there if I picked him up. I am posting a picture of us pretty scary. I will try to post the rest of them in picassa so you can check them.

A GREAT DAY OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS!

2007-10-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

Last sunday we decided to spend the whole day out up in the mountains. We went to a nearby village called Alcoy. The area Font rotja or red fountain is only an hour away from the beach. That´s the name of the sanctuary in "el carrascal" de Alcoy (name of the mountains in that area).

Nicolas had a great time and so did Alec and us. We went with some friends and their kids (Cristina 7 years old, Carmela 3, Marta 3, Nicolas 4 and Alec 1) they all climbed up everywhere they could, and they did like most kids do, nonstop playing all day. Then we had a nice picnic at stone tables under the trees. Some of us took the kids hiking, they loved it. Nicolas wanted to see some wild pigs, deer or bears, but we had no luck.

Anyways we had a great day out.We´ll try something similar again, visiting other villages, mountains....etc

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!! DE VUELTA AL COLE!!!

2007-09-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

Nicolas went back to school on September 7th. He was wishing to start again, he loves school, he is excited about everything,new classroom,new teacher...seeing his friends,when I picked him up the first day you could see the excitement in his face. I can´t say the same about Alec. He´s been going for a week approximately and he cries when I drop him there, during, and when I pick him up he is still crying!!! only one day last week he played for a while without crying and then went back to the tears!!! I hope he gets used to it soon!!! We started leaving him half and hour with me in the classroom, a few children and a few parents, then we increased to an hour with no parents, and now we are in the two hour stage. I took plenty of photos of Nicolas but I couldn't take any picture of Alec at school yet. Here is one of him when we tried his uniform on. It is huge on him and it is the smallest size in the store!

DOS DÍAS DIVERTIDOS. TWO FUN DAYS!!

2007-09-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here is something else we did this summer.The bottom photos are from Terra Natura which is a Theme Park (combination of a zoo and a water park). Nicolas loved seeing the big owls, some lions, elephants...but he really loves to swim and play in the water like most kids, Alec loves it too. So they had a blast, at the end of the day we were all exhausted,but it was well-worth the visit.

The first three photos are from another park for kids called Pola Park. This is a permanent carnival, with a bunch of rides. As everybody can imagine the top right picture is after the whole day at the park, we changed alec into his pijammas and they both passed out as soon as we sat in the car to go back home at midnight.

HOGUERAS DE SANT JOAN 2007-SAINT JOHN´S BONFIRES

2007-09-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

No puedo terminar mi resumen del verano sin nombrar las hogueras. Explicaré brevemente lo que es esta fiesta para los que no la conocen.

I can´t finish my summer summary if I don´t mention Alicante´s annual Festival called HOGUERAS DE SANT JOAN (SAINT JOHN´S BONFIRES). It happens every year in June, starting officially on the 21st and ending on the 24th. It is really amazing to see the transformation of the city a few days before and during the festival.

Lights ornaments everywhere, music in all the neighborhoods all night long until the day comes. Parades in the evening.fireworks and firecrackers at any time of the day. During a week after the festival is over, the city has a huge firework exhibition every night, like the fireworks on the fourth of July in the States but during 7 nights.The beautiful sculptures all over the town, over 50 of them, like the ones that you can see in the pictures. These big sculptures, some of them are three or four story tall, are made during the year by specialized artists. Each piece costs thousands of dollars, you can see them for only four days because on the night of June 24th they are burnt!!!!!!! Isn´t it crazy???

Well, young people wait to see the bonfire burning, as near as the firemen and authorities allow them to be, and once the fire is controlled, the fun starts!! Everybody that wants to get wet starts to yell, jump, sing, and even insult the firemen. The insults are also a tradition and firemen don´t take them personal, they know that´s the way it is, so they aim their hose at the crowd , it is fun, fun!!!

People live the festival in many different ways, you can choose how you want to participate, or only be a spectator. The traditional customs people wear during the festival are beautiful, they are an adaptation of the old bridal outfits, and the clothing people wore more than a hundred years ago in this part of Spain. This festival has been declared an international touristic interest.

Each sculpture has a theme, they are usually satirical. A joke about national or international politics, or any actual subject, for instance world pollution... Plan your next vacation and come to check it out yourself!!!!!!!!

ALEC STARTED TO WALK THIS SUMMER!!!!

2007-09-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

Alec started to walk with some help from us or holding on to the furniture around June but he took off in July when he turned 13 months old, now he is almost 15 months old and he runs, dances... it is funny to see how he copies Nicolas dancing, they love Led Zeppelin, Alec shakes his head and stumps his foot like if he is crazy about rock and roll, really cute. We crack up!!!

NICOLAS AT SCHOOL

2007-09-01T05:56:00.001-07:00

Nicolas ended his first year of pre-school. Here in Spain they start school when they are 3 years old and they stay in that school until they are 12. He will have three years of pre-school before he starts FIRST GRADE after that it goes like in the States, 1st grade, 2nd grade...

He loves school ,here is a picture of his school party the last day,June 20th 2007. I will send you soon another one of his first day next week,when he´ll start in the classroom of the four year old!!!!

Summer 2007

2007-08-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! family and friends.I am new at this so I am not sure how it is going to come out .I decided to start a blog so you know what we are up to, how the kids are doing and fun things we do, vacations and so on. I hope you like it. Hey, by the way,what´s going on with you guys? drop me a line.
First of all I want to thank Nuria for giving me the idea of doing the blog. Well ,I copied her idea. She is Matt´s wife. They are good friends of ours. Matt is Tracy´s american bud. They moved here from California, Miami... a couple of years ago.

Now I will tell you about our long summer starting when Nicolas ended the school year back in june. As most of you will Know once you have kids everything is about them. Sometimes we wish they would grow faster to be able to do more things, like grownup things, whereas now a pleasent day out could end up a potential nightmare, yelling, crying when you are in a restaurant, retrieving the kid from behind the bar or kitchen, that´s what Alec has been doing lately.... or ending the day cleaning body fluids from the car seat, clothing etc..

But on the other hand when I think twice about all this, I thank for all this times we can be together, because one day they will not be our little ones any more and we will probably remember this ,like a great time in our lives.

Since I started this blog just a few days ago and summer is ending I will give you a quick summary with some photos and commentaries of things we did during the summer.