Our New Sunday Hangout

We recently bought annual passes to the Barcelona Zoo. And being that virtually everything besides the church is closed on Sundays, we've designated Sunday as fun day again. Yay!

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There are lots of green areas to bring your lunch and have a picnic.
A rhino.
Giraffes!

Fernando literally yelled out, "Giraffes!"
An elephant searches for food with his snout.
Best bud camels forever.
Monkeys are known to hang around giraffes often.Stripey.
"Miami Vice" or....

..."Three's Company"
Tired hippo.
I think these are otters. They started to gross me out after staring at 80 of them together that I had to delete almost all their shots.
Except for this one. Fight! Fight!
I'm sending this to National Geographic.
We caught a zebra sighting again.And a camel one...
And another monkey.
Oh, and an owl. Sorry, couldn't help it.
Fooled ya! It was a backdrop!

I won't bore you with my other photographs of the other many animals. I'll save that for later ;-)

Feliz Undécimo Cumplemes!

The past month has been huge for Paloma. Development speed has increased fivefold! She can wave "hi" and "bye". She can play "Fetch" with a soft ball (only she gives it to us with her hand, not her mouth!) She can do the very first gestures when we sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". Must I babble on? Here are the highlights...

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Pulling herself up on the crib rail. She has an incentive: getting a view of the city through the window.

A few days later. Standing. Cake. Next!

She's rejected being spoonfed. Unless it's creamy yogurt, then she jumps in her seat. So now she's a pro at hand feeding herself and loves to feed us too.
Practicing with a spoon.
Standing up is hours of fun.
Sharing a conversation with Pau about how cool standing is.

Pau and his daddy.

We got to steal our nephew to see how it would feel having another kid. Not bad!
Aliens with triangular snouts recently invaded.
Sound of the month: obsessive razzing noises. The joy. Of successfully placing an object where she wants it. Simple pleasures. Squeal!

I've started to take P to playgrounds. Instant hit! Who would have guessed?
I think summer is finally here. Park time!
Picnics everyday!

Next month is the big one. Uno! Byeeeeee!

Wait -- one last riveting video.

Razz Time from Justine Ancheta on Vimeo.

Paloma's Nest

Can I get an "amen"! We finally did it. After months of collecting pretty knickknacks and making craft projects, Paloma's room has finally come together. The room, being 6.5 feet by 10 feet is practically a walk-in closet by some people's standards. But I think we maximized the space as much as possible without having it look so cramped. Here's a tour...

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Ikea Expedit bookcase -- affordable and clean.

I spotted these charming embroidered cards at the Sant Antoni Sunday market a long time ago.

We decided to put a toddler mattress on the floor for several reasons. A bed frame would have consumed all of the narrow space. Being on the floor, it can also be her play area.

See? Playing.

My handmade paper medallion.

Being from earthquake country, I tried not to put shelves directly above her head. So I put these mini shelves further away and put light paper birdies on them.

There were a ton of unflattering cushions here left in the apartment, so I whipped up these cushion covers with some fabric from my collection. Go me! I can sew straight lines!

My proudest craft project involving more complicated sewing. Birdie friends on a branch. And it only took a year to finish!

More playing.

Thanks for looking, friends and family!