Erik’s Blog

Parking in nearby beach tourist town, Laredo, is really a nightmare in July and August, especially for those of us that go there year round. But never is the parking problem worse than on the last Friday of August, when Laredo hosts their famous Batalla de Flores (Flower Battle), a parade of floats with 100% real flowers. So this year we came up with a parking strategy.

I’ve been walking a lot lately, so we decided that I would drive the car to Laredo in the morning, park it as close to the downtown parade site as possible, and then walk back home. I took Nora with me since she isn’t any extra work on walks (when bribed with cookies), but she is a handful to care for around the house. Then, at 17:00, we set out walking to Laredo. Immediately the sky began to look ominous, and about halfway there, it began to rain. We managed to find a little shelter and soon the rain slowed and then stopped. We got there late for the initial lap (for the judges to see the floats), but we caught the entire second lap (for the awards to be given) and a little of the third lap (for the awards to be paraded, literally, around the town).
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Ever since migrating back north after her three week hiatus in southern Spain, there has been something very peculiar about Nora, besides being able to walk: it has been an absolute pleasure putting her to bed at night. Only the very tip top of her consciousness protests the day’s end. She cries when we shut the door and turn out the light, but only as long as the air in her lungs from the previous breath lasts. She totally understands what being put in the crib means. Tonight I forgot to take off her shoes before putting her in the crib, and she was already lying down with her head on the pillow by the time I bent down to take them off her. It’s really super-eerie for her parents, who remember her lasting up to and past the ninety minute mark of bedtime wailing. I suspect the phrase, “She never ceases to surprise me,” will only become more and more true in the coming years.
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Today, my internet friend, Andrea, posted a video of her daughter, Eva, who is three months older than Nora, exhibiting one of the most annoying toddler behaviors: dropping whatever cute thing she is doing and coming to examine the video camera her parent has clutched so importantly. It’s a very reasonable thing to do, but awfully frustrating for the documentarian. While I was playing the video, Nora heard Eva talking and entered my office. So I propped her up on my desk and showed her the video. The resulting video (captured with my new HD-recording iPhone 4) reminds me a little of the green screen game they play on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, where one improv “contestant” is placed in front of a green screen and has to guess, from the commentary of the other contestants what is going on behind him.
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This week, without a daughter to care for, my mornings have been free. I’ve been taking advantage of the good weather to get some exercise, walking up to 16 km (10 miles) around the neighboring towns. The first few days, I just walked to the beach at Laredo and walked up and down the maritime walkway several times. It occurred to me yesterday that I might have been caught on the yacht club’s webcam, but alas I was not there on the hour or 15, 30, or 45 minutes past the hour on any day. The archived panoramas I was looking through for Monday, August 18, were so pretty that I decided to make a timelapse video out of them.
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It’s been over a week since I’ve seen my daughter, and I miss her a lot. Her grandparents will be bringing her back on Sunday. If words from the front line are to be beleived, Nora is being extremely well behaved, is being polite to strangers, and even offering up her cheek to be kissed by total strangers (giving kisses is reserved for loved ones). Perhaps this kiss reception was learned with her “friend” Carla.

Carla is the daughter of one of Marga’s best friends from Extremadura. Nora and Carla first “met” last June in Madrid. Even though Carla was born 25 days after Nora, she is waaaay more advanced than Nora by just about every available metric. She walks freely, speaks several words, follows instructions, and gives people kisses…man, does she give some kisses! Carla’s parents suggest that it might be from spending 7 hours in daycare every day (Nora spends 3) with older kids that challenges her to excel. Nora won’t be where Carla is now for another four months.
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I am unable to watch this video without laughing. It’s my favorite video I recorded last weekend. It demonstrates both how Nora does a good job of commanding her mother to do her bidding and just now irritated she gets when her great-grandfather does or says anything. I declined to subtitle it because the conversation is so mundane. At one point, she does call him something that sounded to all the Spanish ears like “malo” (bad).
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While she’s down in Extremadura, Nora is spending a lot of time playing the pool or simply with water in buckets. It’s pretty cute how she flexes her knees enough to get just a little bit more of herself wet, and then repeats that motion, going a little lower each time until she’s sitting down. She did the same in the larger wading pool.
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Sometimes when Marga gets back from picking Nora up at daycare, they stop by to see me before going on a walk. I often have music playing in my office when I’m working, and sometimes Nora starts to dance. Only after watching her for a while last week did I think to get the camera to record a little of it. Pretty cute, if you ask me.
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One thing having my daughter off on vacation has allowed me to do is pick up the ol’ six string again. Since she was born, I haven’t had much time alone to strum. This morning I finally got around to recording one of my favorite songs I know how to play and sing decently. It’s a song by Toby Lightman called Devils and Angels. I first became aware of the song and of Toby Lightman because Apple and iTunes were giving it some play when it first came out because the video for it (watch my performance first!!) is more or less an advertisement for the first generation iPod.
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From last night’s Colbert Report.

It has been a huge year for Spanish sports, or España Esports. Spain’s soccer team won the World Cup, Rafael Nadal conquered Wimbledon, Alberto Contador took the Tour de France, and Javier Bardem took the world record in the Thousand Yard Smolder. His prize? Himself. But there has been a major setback in Spanish athletics.

[cut to CNN footage]

The controversial tradition of bullfighting is now illegal in one region of Spain, the Catalonia region, which includes Barcelona.

[cut back to Colbert]

I don’t understand! Barcelona should be used to horrors. Their streets are already running red with the sangria vomited by thousands of American backpackers. I’ll say it again, folks. Barcelona is just the San Francisco of Spain. They’re a bunch of effete liberal elites talking down to the rest of Spain with their sthmug Sthpanish listhps. They don’t undershtand! Heartland Spanish values like Mom and apple paella. I’m with the pro-bullfighting community who have called the ban a “political manipulation”.

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