Don't Hate, Appreciate

I'm sitting here watching on tv the huge festivities going on in Madrid, with the arrival of the Spanish team back into the country, and their giant open-air bus trip through the city and I just can't help but admit that I've slightly fallen in love with them. The whole team! They're just so happy and fun and friendly and great and they're dancing all over the place (I mean who wouldn't be after winning the WORLD CUPPP?!?!?). Being that I am living in Spain at this time, I had to adopt them as my team after Argentina and USA got out of course. Not a bad decision after all...champs for the first time and I saw it happen!

I watched the game at the house with the family and some neighbors. It was so fun and then when Spain finally won we popped champagne and celebrated and there were fireworks going off everywhere and cars honking and it was just crazy!

That was definitely the highlight of the weekend. The rest of the weekend went a little like this: saturday: breakfast, pool, lunch, siesta, pool, dinner. sunday: breakfast, mall, pool, lunch, siesta, pool, the big game, dinner.

As above mentioned, since the opening of the pool on Friday (finallyyyy) Iván has wanted to take a dip at every possible moment...even when his friends aren't there to play with him...which brings me to a segment I like to call "Really?!?!?!" (SNL anyone?).

1:30 pm: "Iván, really, I know you get bored easily and that after 3.5 minutes of swimming alone you want to go get a toy or a friend, but can't you just play a game with me or have me count how long you can hold your breath underwater (one of his favs.)? No? Really? Ok fine, go get a toy from home real quick. Oh you want to grab a raft? Ok that'll be fun for you. (5 minutes later). Oh... a nicely folded in a plastic bag new raft? Really? (Raft is shoved in my face insinuating its inflation) Blow it up?! Um, REALLY?!!?! In 99 degree weather? In the blazing sun?! REALLY?!?! (30 minutes and many Iván sighs later) Here (gasp) you (gasp) go. A fully inflated raft. (Iván runs away into the pool area with the raft). YOU'RE WELCOMEEEEEE! really. really?

So this little moment was brought to you by the letters P and T.

Please and thank you. A very basic set of words that most children learn to use to get their way. This little pipsqueak (is that actually a word?) gets what he wants sans the application of these words. Oh my my. He also has the eye roll attitude act down to an art. And only at the age of 7? Someone get this kid an agent! No, but really, now I understand why my mom would get so mad at me for rolling my eyes (sorry maaammm). It probably is one of the most disrespectful and obnoxious faces I have ever seen. And lucky for me, I get to see it everyday when me and the mom try to get him to practice his English words and phrases. Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn. But not only that, he's feisty and just sometimes plain rude. I know he's only a child, but if I'm supposed to be the "big sister" of the family, there are certain things that will not fly. Of course sometimes his mom is around and she sees or hears him so luckily I don't have to be the bad guy, but if this continues on a constant basis there could be major problems. Just this morning, we had finished breakfast and it was time for our daily spanish, math, and english lesson. I found Iván in the hallway and asked him if he was ready. Ready to go upstairs and get down to business. His response? (Please insert your own bad attitude where necessary, aka everywhere) "Of course I'm ready, if I weren't ready then what would be the purpose of you even being here in this house."

OUCH. That's all I'm sayin'.

And it's not just me he's rude to. This evening his mom told him to go set the table and he comes into the kitchen (where she's cooking and trying to control the baby who refuses to let me feed him, more on that later) and says "No. Why don't you do it?!"

Psh. Kiddies.

In other non 7-year-old news, the baby Hector has been on a 3-day hate Gabi streak. I thought we had gotten past all the "you're a stranger get away from me" but alas, it has returned. Any time i get near him he's all screamy screamy "No No NOOOOO". That's particularly helpful when I'm trying to feed him while the mom is cooking. Let's just say that the consistency of baby food is very prime for being flung around when a baby decides to bat the spoon or your arm out of the way. Mmm creamed peas.

Ok so I know this sounds like a lot of bad things (or just me complaining?) but it really isn't that that bad. The parents are really nice and we talk a lot so that's good. On Sunday the mom took me to the mall and some outlets and although I didn't buy anything (I wanted to...Mom we're going to need to discuss this suitcase situation once again haha) it was cool seeing the Spanish stores and different styles and just getting out of the house was a relief. This Friday they said they would take me to visit Segovia and I'm VERY excited about that.

That's all I've got for right now. I always seem to blog really late at night when I should be sleeping and gaining strength to combat the little monsters (HAH joke.) 'Til next time :)

-G

PS. Today, officially, I have been in Europe for ONE month! Crazy talk in my opinion. 5 more to go!