Leader Girls Unite: Grand Finale

So, we were driving out towards the coast with the idea of spending my mom and sister's last day with us there, but took a spontaneous detour off the highway to stop and say hello to Roberto, our dear friend and the director of the music conservatory where Bernardo teaches. Spontaneous detours are almost always brilliant. This one, of course, turned into the most beautiful, extended afternoon and meal in Roberto's home and breathtaking backyard...


The view from Roberto's yard


Having just arrived, sweet father and son shot


It doesn't take long for this one to get warmed up.


Happily passed from one to another, here with Aunt Fitzie


In the backyard, under the grapevines, watching the neighborhood goats feed

Good company, beautiful surroundings and Lula, Guinness' Spanish soulmate

I had to include at least one picture where you can appreciate some of the goat entertainment next door; and I love this image of Mateo and B.


Watching the goats and playing in the grapevines with Gram

This memory will make me smile for the rest of my life.

The whole group minus Mateo, on the terrace where we had lunch

What a lovely visit we had with these two, and how sad to let them go.

(...although if your mom and sister are going to leave you somewhere, Asturias makes a pretty wonderful place from which to miss them. I dream of some day living with our gaggle of children in one of those houses on the other side of the river there.)

Leader Girls Unite: Mid-week

Morning view of the street from our dining room

...and raising our eyes to the hills

Our afternoon in Gijón:

Gram and Mateo's café tenderness

Elizabeth's very appropriate response to a first trimester craving

Mateo's very first cookie, courtesy of the older woman sitting next to us at the café

His face upon finishing his very first cookie!

Walking along the port...

...and walking along the ocean

Walking back and forth...

...back and forth, in the park overlooking Gijón and the Cantabric Sea

Life doesn't get any better than this.

happiness in the waning light

Clothes dry and we walk down the hill to head back home.

Leader Girls Unite: First Days

The only thing that could have possibly made this reunion more exciting than anticipated was the revelation, upon her arrival, that Elizabeth is pregnant. Hallelujah! There is new life among us! October 2010 (oops--2009) holds great promise for this extended family. While this news really took the cake when sister and mom got to Spain, here are a collection of pictures detailing how the rest of our days together in Asturias were not half-bad either:


In the park in Oviedo, milestones for everyone: Elizabeth beautifully pregnant and Mateo sniffling as his first tooth breaks through his poor little gums.


"Is this good, Aunt Fitzie?"

Concentrating hard with Gram

With mom



Her body may be presently directing its greatest resources to creating the baby inside of her, but that girl can still snap the shutter! (All that to say that the following beautiful shots of Oviedo are courtesy of Aunt Fitzie.)

Cathedral view

Plaza del Fontán, in front of the library


The greatest view of all.

Back at home to eat:

Oh Mateo, those eyes melt me.

A coquettish offering of the sock:

Why this photo didn't initially make my cut for the "March Review" is beyond me. Consider the situation amended.

March Review: Part 2

Almost 8 months old:

We are in love with this guy. Each day is even better than the last.

An afternoon with Javier:

We spent a recent afternoon with Javier, who is staying at the diocesan home for priests in Oviedo while he recovers from hip surgery. Javier baptized Mateo last October, is one of the priests who married us almost 3 years ago, and is a very dear friend.

Above, a view from the sunroom on the roof of the diocesan house. The tower of the Cathedral of Oviedo (where we were married) is seen in the background.

A poignant interaction unfolded while we soaked in our surroundings in this sunroom: Mateo was toddling back and forth in the sunlit passageway, grasping our hands for balance. Meanwhile, one of the elderly priests who lives in the home was slowly shuffling back and forth down this same sunny passage, supported on both sides by two younger priests who gently assisted him. When we all crossed paths, the older priest stopped and smiled. He pointed to Mateo and said, "the beginning," paused and pointed to himself, "and the end." He smiled again and slowly continued on his way. May we all be at such peace with life's course and accepting of the circularity of it all, the way that "the end" begins to look very much like "the beginning."

A breathtaking view of the Cathedral and its surroundings. The tile-roofed terrace and wooden-framed window panes seen at the bottom right of the picture belong to the music conservatory where Bernardo studied for 8 years.


A Saturday in Gijón:

Mateo in pursuit of the latest fiction...

...and in the children's section with Papá.


The most recent cousin hand-me-down:

Please appreciate the intermingling of Mateo's multiple multi-colored plastic accessories and his grandfather's stately wood and marble furniture. Thank you, Mario, for letting this munchkin take over your living room.


What Bernardo brought home from Salamanca:

An Iberian ham (jamón ibérico)! Weighing just a bit less than Mateo, and measuring a bit longer, this ham is of the bellota variety, meaning that at the end of this pig's life its diet was restricted to acorns. This kind of ham may just be the most delicious thing that any of us has ever tasted. You need not ask what we will be having for dinner, and as an appetizer for all other meals, for the next several weeks. (No joke.)

Behind Berni's right shoulder shines the crowning achievement of this kitchen: the fruit sticker collection. Approximately 26 years ago, Bernardo put the sticker from a piece of fruit onto the kitchen wall. His mother, Mercedes, began to do the same every time that she brought home a piece of fruit with a different sticker. We all continue to do so now each time that we spot a unique sticker on the fruit that we bring home. It has become a colorful gastronomical history of this family and an interesting narrative of Spanish fruit and importation. We do wonder, though, how much longer this almost 30-year family tradition will last in the presence of the small pair of hands that has recently become very attracted to the colors and convenient placement of these stickers and has taken to trying to pull them off at every opportunity. Stay tuned.

Hanging out with abuelo:

These two really do bring out the best in one another. It only takes a few minutes in their presence to pick up on this endearing reality.

March Review: Part 1

Nighttime play with abuelito:

Haircut buddies:

(Mateo obviously didn't get the memo.  He thought I said hair-pulling buddies.)  I took him along with me to get my biannual haircut without realizing that the little guy would quickly become the star of the show.  No sooner was I sitting in the swivel chair than Mateo was occupying the adjacent seat, drawing all licensed hairdressers in the immediate vicinity to his side, cooing, calling, entertaining, and, yes, perhaps doing a bit of justificatory clipping around his little ears while all the other abandoned clients looked on with dangling curlers, foil and half-styled locks.  

Bedtime for bonzos:

Truer words have never been spoken:

Uncle Chuck Nagle's wisdom is confirmed in synchronizing this gift with Mateo's teething days.  (I use "days" very optimistically...the teeth haven't quite made their appearance yet, but we have to hope that it's coming along.)

Multi-generational love:

Talking to our moms:

I assume that Mateo is not the only little boy in the world who prefers a cell phone to all toys in the house.  

Nap, Interrupted