Homecoming

More meaningful even than having the three of us Leader kids home for the first time together in several years was getting to watch my sister and brother become Aunt Fitzie and Uncle Robert with Mateo in their arms.








































(My only regret is our failure to complete the tentatively-planned, Beijing-inspired synchronized swimming competition in the back yard. We got no farther than Elizabeth and Chad's synchronized stretching in the kitchen and Bernardo's and my rehearsal of a mean final routine. It will have to wait for next summer, the upside, of course, being that we have another whole year to study the Russians' routines and recreate our own.)

Tia Anna in the house

Three cheers (Mateo displays a hearty two of them below) for Aunt Anna, who graced us with her presence during our first week in VA, creating an insuperably affectionate grandmother tag team in the Leader house.

Off to Virginia

Two passports (plus two interesting attempts to take adequate passport pictures of a 7-day-old Mateo), two trips to the U.S. Consulate in Madrid and 2.5 plane tickets later, we are headed to our home base in Virginia, with very precious cargo.

Mateo was born to be a traveling man it seems.  His first

 trans-Atlantic flight experience consisted of an 8-hour nap in a high-altitude crib (thanks, Iberia Airlines).  The flight attendants were enamored of him. 

Gram: Part Deux

La abuelita herself with Mateo. Mercedes and abuelo Mario looking on.

A Canga, a Leader and a little Canga Leader. Great-grandfather Roberto is thrilled with the newest addition to our family and not afraid to say that he was counting on having a great-grandson before considering his life complete. Almost once a day, he admits that he cannot wait until this little guy is running around the hallway of our apartment.

Mateo and grandmother

We all had dinner and listened to lively jazz in Madrid's Santa Ana plaza the night before abuela flew home

Only two more weeks until we reunite in Virginia for the last month of our summer and Mateo's introduction to his abuelo, his Aunt Fitz and Uncle Robert, his great-grandmother and great-Aunt Anna and the U.S. of A.

The grandmother arrives!

The much-anticipated visit from Mateo's loving abuela has come and gone, leaving us longing for more of her company.  Thank goodness only two weeks separate this grandmother's departure from Spain and our trip to Virginia to spend a month basking in more Leader lovin'.

Here's an image of Berni and Mateo during our drive down to Madrid to pick up Mom/Grandma and introduce her to her first grandchild.  (Mateo is destined to be a traveling man, as he made it down to Madrid and back twice before he was 14 days old.)     

   We love those frog legs!

An afternoon walk along the port of Gijón:

Good people: Godfather and grandmother (with Mateo peeping out in his green socks).   

We adore this little boy.  Obviously.

The scene of most of our early afternoons in Mieres this summer: cold drinks, conversation and complimentary tapas before our mid-day meal.  Mom had no problem getting into the swing of such an enjoyable routine during her week here.