Not a bad way to start off a morning

No matter how chaotic the surroundings are, all is well in my world when I see Alessandra and Anthony holding hands.

Why is that?  Does it mean that they are connecting as siblings? Or that Alessandra is going to try her best to take care of her brother?  Or is it just plain cute?  Perhaps a combo of the three.

Lucky for me, I get to see them holding hands every day as they are dropped off at school.  We are greeted at the entrance to the school by their teachers; I hand them their plastic bags which contain their juice and notebook (I feel guilty as the other kids have their favorite cartoon character backpacks, but (phew) Alessandra and Anthony don't seem to care)  Tony, Gianluca and I give them goodbye kisses; and then Alessandra takes Anthony's hand, and off they go to their classrooms with a teacher.  

Oops, did I forget to mention that this also gives Tony and me a couple hours of free time?  Yippee!

News Flash: Alessandra's park is out. Calesita park is in.

Walking to school this morning, Alessandra told me not to call Alessandra's park her park anymore.  Stunned, I could not believe she said that as my thoughts flashed back to the time she was so proud to lock the gates to her park for the night (we were the last ones to leave).  

She simply stated that the swing at her park was crooked.  Since she could not swing very high on it, there was no desire to go there again.

Now, we go to the Calesita park, where she plays on the money bars followed by rides on the merry go round.  The operator ( see picture) must really like Alessandra as every time she is there, he quickly switches the music to the Frozen soundtrack.  It is cute to hear her sing "Let It Go" in Spanish.

Surprise Sweet for our Sweetie

Walking to school every day we pass by several bakeries.  For Alessandra, the cakes in the San Martin bakery have always caught her eye.  She would always.  tell us that she wants the cherry cake.   When they would display cupcakes, she would want to try them too.  We would have our daily excuses, most of the time it would be "maybe another time".

Well, the "another time" finally arrived.   We told her that we had a surprise for her. She of course loves surprises, so we went for a walk, but took a different route. Turning back onto our street, Salguero, she asked where her surprise was and was adamant that "we can't go home yet".   

Several steps later we arrived in front of the bakery and said "Surprise-You get to pick out your cake."  

See video here: http://youtu.be/fxOfP3GIQt0

Alessandra's parks

Tony and Gianluca have scouted out almost every park in buenos aires for Alessandra.  We based our apartment location on the proximity to a park.  And she has certain criteria for a good park: Does it have a swing?  Monkey bars?  Slide?  Does the play structure have a rock wall with a bell at the top?  Most importantly, does it have a merry go round?

There are about four parks that she likes.   They are called:  Alessandra's park, Monkey Park, Apple Park, and Church park.   

We go to the park every day, sometimes two or three times. (The church park is half a block away).  The only time I went to the park that much was spending the summers in japan to keep from driving my grandmother crazy.  

Alessandra's Park- this was the first park we went to on our first morning in Argentina

Monkey Park

Apple Park

Church Park

Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh,My!

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more.

This trip abroad is supposed to be an adventure, right? Tony and I have seen much of Buenos Aires on our two previous trips.  Ah (sigh) the buildings in Recoleta are still breathtaking, but with three kids, ther are only so many buildings we can admire before they start asking us where is the nearest park.  

On the top 10 things to do in Buenos Aires with kids, it mentioned a nice day trip to the Lujan Zoo.  This sounded pretty appealing to us as we have never been to Lujan (about 30 miles outside of Buenos Aires) and the kids love the zoo.  

The kids had a day off from school so off we went.  The adventure started off by taking an 1 1/2 hour bus ride.

This is the bus stop at Plaza Italia.

Thankfully, we had the back of the bus all to ourselves for much of the trip.

Luckily, the girl told us our stop or we would have missed it.

Did I forget to mention that Lujan Zoo has been called the world's most dangerous zoo?  Alessandra was pretty excited to pet the baby tiger.

So was Anthony.  I was nervous.

Of course, Alessandra wanted to pet the lion cub too.

Having no fear, Alessandra petted the python.

And now we are feeding the animals.  They loved feeding the camel carrots.

 

Feeding the tropical birds.

And of course, feeding the bears.  Here's a little video of it. http://youtu.be/01U5Z36OPxA

Alessandra, Anthony and I got pictures holding an iguana, tropical bird, and Python.  I purchased a cd with the images, but my computer died.   I will post them when I am back in CA.   

Right before leaving, I decided that I should take a picture with a big cat.  When was I going to have this opportunity again?  I noticed that the line to the beautiful white tiger was short, so I told Tony that I was going in.  Alessandra got upset because she was too small to enter (they do have safety standards here (ha ha)...you have to be 16 years old to enter).  I gave her a kid's Clif Bar and she felt a little better.  

I got in line and a worker told me to come back in 30 minutes.  He said that they were going to feed the tigers now.  I tried to play dumb and not understand what he meant and stood in line.  There were people still ahead of me going in.  Then, the tigers started to roar and play with each other.  Yup, I got out of line really quickly.  Did not need to be in there with them.  

No, I didn't have my picture taken with a big cat and I am OK with it.  It was late in the day, the kids missed there nap and we had a long bus ride home plus I did not want to be their snack food.

Random pictures of Lujan Zoo

As luck was on our side, the bus came quickly and we all got seats.   The kids were able to take small naps and traffic back to Buenos Aires wasn't bad.   With the new found energy, we decided to take advantage of being out and about.  Of course, our first stop was a park near Congreso.

Making our way to the Casa Rosada aka The Pink House (similar to our White House), we stopped off for a quick dinner where Gianluca passed out.

We made it to the Casa Rosada with a beautiful full moon in the sky.  Alessandra lit up when she saw the pink house.

The third child

After getting over the shock of being pregnant again (about week 23), I called my little one "the Bonus Baby".   Tony and I have been blessed with one girl and one boy, this baby was quite simply a special bonus.

Similar to what I have heard, Gianluca is a typical third child.   Alessandra was put on a schedule right away.   We stuck with the schedule very closely.  Heaven forbid if she took a late nap.  Tony's and my life revolved around it.  We were rewarded with her very good sleeping habits.  Anthony came along and we tried our best to stick with a schedule, but things slipped just a little.  

Gianluca has a schedule. It just isn't set by time.   It is set by whatever activities his older siblings have.  He doesn't know differently.  Rather than taking him straight home from the hospital, we stopped off at the race track so Alessandra and Anthony could ride their Striders.  Not more than 10 days old, he was off on a family road trip to Reno (again for Strider racing) and South Lake Tahoe.  

Gianluca has worn only a handful of new clothes, plays with Alessandra's old baby toys (yes, some are pink), and cries a little longer before getting picked up. I have been trying to keep up with a baby album.  When he was younger and didn't talk much, I would get distracted with Alessandra and Anthony and forget that he was even there.  He was content just hanging out.

The poor third child.

But he is pretty darn smart.   As the third child, he put this whole trip in motion.   Huh, you say?  We would have not sold our home (our place was too small) and I would still be working part time if he hadn't come along. 

But now he is getting attention- and lots of it!

From the moment Tony started taking Gianluca on walks with the baby Bjorn, people would stop Tony to say hello to Gianluca.  In Cafayate, a very sweet older couple "Los Abuelos" would play with Gianluca at breakfast, which was a lifesaver, as Tony and I were able to eat a little.  His abuelos would affectionately call him "Gordito".  Gianluca would squeal with delight.

On several occasions, Tony would mention that people would comment on how happy and cute Gianluca is.   I didn't believe it.  Yes, he is cute and sweet and yummy, but he is also my son.  Then, I took him to  the store a couple of times.  Sure enough, people would ask me if he was my son and comment on how cute he is.  

I guess Tony was right.  I am thankful that Gianluca is getting all the attention that he deserves.  It is truly a blessing to have such a happy smiling little "Gordo".

Gianluca is all smiles when he is with Daddy

Meal time

No matter where I am, one of the hardest parts of the day is planning our meals.  If I could make the same meals every day, I probably would.  Life would be so much easier.  Trips to the market would be quicker.   Costco would be my new best friend.  This of course would last about 3 days.  Not two days as our family thankfully eats leftovers.

In Buenos Aires, it has been hard for me to get into my cooking groove.  I must be doing something wrong as it is dreamy to be able to eat pastas, pizza, and empanadas while sipping wine all the time.  These foods have almost become a staple for tony and me.   We used to eat pizza about once a month and pasta only to energize ourselves before a century (100 mile) bike ride.  I feel like I am in a spinning wheel making the same meals for everyone.

Gianluca: bananas, pears, butternut squash, avocados and kabocha. 

Anthony and Alessandra: cereal, bananas, apples, eggs, oatmeal, cucumber, hamburgers, pasta and pizza.  Anthony has decided that he prefers baby food.   He points to what Gianluca is eating and asks for it.  My go to foods for him have been carrots and yogurt.   He eats them at least once a day.

I have experimented making new things.  Some turned out really good (black bean soup) and some were big failures (bird food mush). It's called bird food because I soaked  pre packaged mixture of split peas, rice, corn, barley, and lentils for Gianluca's baby food.  If it tasted good, I would have branded it vegetable soup, but since it tasted horrible, it is forever called bird food yuck.  Poor Gianluca.  

Tonight the plan is to have hamburgers.   This might change as there might be a festival at a local park.

Stocking up on the weekly fruits and vegetables 

It's labeled "garden of vegetables".   I call it bird food.