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.

Life in the big city.

Buenos Aires is about 1/3 the size of SF in area, and has about 4x as many people.

Enough said.

Okay, I'll elaborate on this when I get a chance, but after a month of living in the big city I'm pretty sure that this guy won't be living (even part time) in a big city any time soon. That means never!

Walk in the Park

Yesterday evening was moving time again.   Thankfully Carlos, the owner of the apartment we were staying at, offered to drive us in his car.   Wow, he is such a nice guy (especially considering we cancelled our reservation 4 weeks early).   We were able to pack all our bags in Carlos' car (this doesn't include the two suitcases tony took over earlier). The kids and I took a taxi while tony rode with Carlos.  

Our new home, at least for the next five weeks, seems like a walk in the park.

Side by side comparison of the two places(old vs new):

Third floor vs fourth floor

Two bedrooms vs three

Two twin beds vs king bed

Eight minute walk to the supermarket vs five

Fifteen minute walk to the park vs three 

What I like best is that I don't constantly need to watch where The kids or I step nor smell unpleasant aroma.

The kids will certainly miss watching the train gates drop and the trains roar by.  I think that is all I will miss, too.

Last day in Villa Crespo

The castle building

Jesus and a giraffe in the building.   Though no Elvis sighting

A recap of our journey up through this last day of April.

Our journey out of familiar and comfortable surroundings really began in the first week of February (3 months ago) when we began moving out of our house on Buttercup Lane of over 10 years, and all that the kids have known their entire lives (except for Hawaii; which can become familiar and comfortable real quick). It was a brutal move for many reasons I won't address here. But since we made it through we figured we were pros so we'd keep at it. We moved out of Buttercup on March 6th, stayed with parents until we left for Argentina on March 9th, and since then we've:

Lived in an apartment in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires for one week.

...in downtown Cordoba for almost a week.

....in a hotel in Cafayate for a week

.....in our house at La Estancia de Cafayate, which Erika refers to in the previous post, for almost 3 weeks.

...... and currently in our apartment in the Villa Crespo neighborhood of Buenos Aires that I refer to in a post from last week. We've been here for 11 days now.

Throw in about 5 nights in different hotels for less than 18 hours, and that about sums it up. But don't feel sorry for us, it's much easier than you can imagine when you have three young and energetic kids to help you through it all.

Anyway, we've had some really nice times, and some really tough times, but the whole thing has been a great learning experience that will serve us well in the future in many ways, no matter how things end up. And speaking of "ending up" we've booked our last apartment (hopefully) where we'll be staying for our longest stint, and the rest of our time here in Argentina, for the next 5 weeks. Wow, 5 weeks in one place is sounding REALLY nice right now! 

We've actually spent the better part of the last week searching for an apartment through local agents, Craigslist, Airbnb, and other avenues. We visited one all together last Saturday that we had high hopes for (mainly because of it's stunning views of the city from the 24th floor), but in the end decided that it was going to be just a little too small for us (and the double bed in the Master Bedroom didn't help much either; although it would probably be better than the two singles that we have here). I've seen a few other places on my own (it's pretty difficult to mobilize the whole family to go see a place), and have gotten to know BA pretty well from driving and taxiing around to different areas. I even got a great walk in the other day in a quest for suitable parks for Alessandra (she can be a little picky at times). I came to the conclusion that the best parks were the ones around our first apartment, which is where our new apartment is located. The area is called Alto Palermo, and it really is about as central of a location as you can get (in a nice area; our current location is very central, but it's in more of an industrial part of town) in Buenos Aires.

Back to my walk for a second though; as I was walking Gianluca around the block this afternoon trying to get him to fall asleep, I was thinking about my walk from a couple of days ago. I was trying to draw parallels between my trip that day in Buenos Aires to areas of San Francisco so I'd be able to put things in context for most of you that have been following this blog ( yes, all three of you). Anyway, the geographic similarities were pretty amazing: We're currently in Villa Crespo, which is in a central part of the city, very similar to let's say a part of the Mission district. From here I took a taxi to a neighborhood on the border of La Boca and San Telmo, which would be very similar to Hunters Point/ Potrero Hill, and about the same distance in a cab if you took it from an area of the Mission a bit closer to the center of SF. And from there I walked through the downtown area (a few blocks in from the water; as I may in SF) around a bend to the neighborhood  of Palermo, which would be very similar to the Marina district. Yes, the walk was about that far too; I think I was walking for about two hours. From there I took a cab to go check out another place, which was in a more residential part of BA, called Belgrano, which would be similar to the Richmond district. And then I finished my search with a ride back to our apartment in Villa Crespo. When I have more time I'm going to plot my BA loop out and see how close it is to my imaginary SF loop. Just looking at the two images below you can see how similar the walk from La Boca to Palermo is to a similar route one would take in SF from Potrero Hill to the Marina.

I'm curious to see how I do with the last part of our stay. I AM NOT A CITY BOY. The longest stay I've ever had in a big city has probably been the last eleven days, and so far- NOT SO GOOD. Well, the circumstances haven't been the best (with the issues with our current apartment and such) so I'll wait and base my judgement of city life on the next five weeks. 

As you can probably tell from Erika's previous post; she can probably adapt to country life a lot easier than I think I'll be able to do with city life. Especially if we can keep the spiders away from her. But we'll wait and see. The kids can be pretty happy anywhere, but something tells me Alessandra is leaning towards being a city girl. We took her to Manhattan when she was about two, and she absolutely loved it. She seems pretty happy here too.

This is the center of Buenos Aires. See the Obelisk in the background.

...and Teatro Colon behind the fountain.

On the road again

Think Willie Nelson... On the road again.  I just can't wait to get on the road again.

That was not the case for us.   After living in a spacious home for three weeks, it was hard to get excited about being squished in a car for many hours.  

Before leaving La Estancia, Alessandra and I squeaked in a morning horseback ride.  She rode her favorite horse, Aseviche.  We took a nice trail along the golf course and vineyards with the Spanish style houses and mountains as our backdrop. Not a bad way to say goodbye to Cafayate.

I will miss the friends we made, the daily routine we established, and the serene surroundings.  Some things I won't miss are the giant spiders the size of my palm (so relieved they did not eat Gianluca) and the daily battle with ants in the house (FYI the mosquitos lost).

As a side note, our daily routine included:

Waking up and going into the hot tub

Getting the kids ready for school

Tony dropping off the kids at school followed by grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping meant going to several stores (fruit and veggie store, butcher, two different mercados as one doesn't have fresh bread and the other has a better selection of deli meats).  Tony had it all figured out.  My job was to create the grocery list.

Going for a walk with Gianluca 

Picking up the kids, feeding them lunch and getting them down for a nap

Pool time at the fitness center and eating apples and raisins 

Karate class for Alessandra on Tuesday and Thursday nights 

Tony working some magic on our parilla (bbq) 

Playing games and falling asleep

We didn't have a tv and thankfully, we didn't miss it too much.   We got a little teaser when someone dropped off a tv screen, but unfortunately it didn't have any speakers!

Back to the road trip.   Our first stop was Termas De Rio Hondo. Only about 4 hours away and is considered quite a tourist destination.  Tony wanted to visit this place because they were hosting a World Motorcycle Gran Prix race the next weekend, and he wanted to see the race track.   

I did not figure out why it is a popular destination, but the highlight for us was the park.  Alessandra and Anthony went on the merry go round and jumping houses while Gianluca watched.  We tried to see the race track, but could only get as far as the entrance gate.  (We will have to see the track on TV)

The next day, we got up early and hit the road again.   This would be our longest stint.  Not sure how we did it, but we managed to drive 10 hours that day!  The kids only watched Frozen one time, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse three times and Toy Trains twice.   Meltdowns were avoided by feeding the kids food and a special treat of honey nut cherrios. (Now think Jackson Brown...)  We were literally running on empty.

The big decision was to stay at Marcos Juarez, a small town we stayed at before on the way to Cordoba or drive an extra hour and go to Rosario.   Alessandra chose Rosario because it was a bigger city.  We agreed and could say we saw it.   

For the third largest city in Argentina, one would think it would be simple to find a hotel on the Main Street.  Wrong.  After an hour of searching and inquiring at three hotels, we arrive at our apartel at 9 pm.  

We walked around Rosario for a little bit and headed on the road.  Tony best summed it up as "the guidebook summed up Rosario pretty well by only writing three lines about a city that has over 1,000,000 ( one of only three in the whole country).

And off we were to Buenos Aires.

Full moon

Alessandra and Aseviche. (You can't see it, but she is wearing her dress with a horse on it.  That is her riding attire)

Ruins de Quilmes

I wished I took a video of this.  The dogs did a great job herding the horses across the road.

Alessandra reflecting on days in Cafayate 

Running on empty.   The car actually sputtered as we coasted into the gas station!

Passed out in Rosario

Made it to Buenos Aires (and no, we did not drive with him on top). Remember National Lampoon's Vacation.