Or so I thought when I woke this morning…!

She’s been really good, just one feed a night now for a few consecutive nights, we’ve our eye on that last feed now..

We’ve been struggling with the Catalan/carnival concept. The school gave us a piece of paper with Catalan poetry which tells us what the kids do each day and what they need to take etc. Yesterday was the slipper fiasco. Today they were making xato (a traditional dish) so we sent in the ingredients necessary; it was only at the bus stop that we realised they also needed to be dressed as chefs. All these kids with professional chefs hats and aprons wandering about, amazing. Our poor kids, they didn’t seem fazed at all.

This afternoon school finished early in preparation for the meringue throwing. Not so much the hard meringues but more the uncooked, wet variety. I ventured in with the kids and managed not to get ‘too’ sticky, although we still all had to strip off to pants and socks in the garage on our return.

They had a hot air balloon and a couple of suspended platforms from which they were throwing bags of meringues into the crowd. They then started parachuting them in and there was a scramble to get them as they landed. Me being 6 foot 4 I had a head start and managed to grab one but it took a few attempts and wasn’t that easy, I nearly had to trample a little girl to get through

I took a few pics – the last one was on the way home, some of the parents had made a tamer version for the younger kids in one of the squares near where live.

I’ve finally joined Facebook after Alisa badgered me to (so she could have more friends).

I was quite surprised – of the approx 600 people in my email address book about 100 were on Facebook. I haven’t spent that much time on it but it seems that I have a section of friends/family who are into this kind of thing and have an online presence of some sort in multiple places, whether it be youtube, myspace, twitter, linkedin etc, and a large section that just don’t register at all.

It’s a shame, being abroad and not having much time I’m relying more and more on communicating this way – it doesn’t compare with going for a beer with mates but it’s better than nothing – but there are big holes in my list of friends who are just not interested.

It’s Carnival time again.

The kids have to go to school each day this week with different weird and wonderful things.Today we understood that they had to go to school with something ‘different’ on their feet so we sent them in their slippers. It turns out that it was more specific: either odd socks or odd shoes, i.e. a trainer on one foot and a shoe on the other. One of Gabe’s friends said that we hadn’t read the note to which (so he says) he replied that we had, that we’re English and that we’re learning/trying!

Jonah (a friend in a different school) has to go to school tomorrow dressed as a girl, so let’s hope they’ve got that right!

Luckily we sent them with their shoes in their bag as well

They have half days at school on Thursday and Friday, and Monday and Tuesday off completely. Luckily Jo’s at home this year to help out (i.e. step and and take the kids).

I forget all the different things going on but here’s the things that stand out from last year:

- Saturday afternoon fancy dress

- Sunday the Compasa (not sure of the spelling)

The whole town turns out for the fancy dress, adults and children alike.

The Compasa is when different groups within Vilanova parade round the town with a band and a group of dancers. The dancers throw sweets to onlookers to the point where the streets are completely covered with sweets. Last year we had to throw all our shoes away after the event – no exaggeration – they were just covered in sticky goo.

There’s loads of people, the streets are thronging and it’s a great atmosphere. I’ll try and give a bit more info/pics as it happens

just a quick note as I am waiting to see if Esmé is going to go to sleep (currently wide awake in her cot).

Last night was good. She woke once at 5:30, so no complaints there. Ironically I didn’t sleep as well. When she was waking 3-4 times a night my head only had to hit the pillow and I was asleep, but last night I struggled to get back after 5:30. This is partly because I’m in the thick of things with work and my head was spinning with ideas/things to etc etc.

Went running this morning with Jo – we took advantage of the fact that the in-laws are with us, making it the was the first time we’ve ever run together. It was good to get out – cold, but good for clearing the head.

Gabriel’s mate Ivan, who is a year older, has been telling him that Caga Tio is not real. We had the first murmurings of this yesterday and then this morning Gabe came straight out with it:

“Ivan says that Caga Tio is dumb, that he’s just a log and that it’s the parents who put the presents out, and that when I’m eight my mum and dad will tell me. ”

Then came the killer direct question: “Is it you dad, do you put the presents out?”

This was over breakfast and in front of Olivia, who’s five and loves the whole idea. I’d got my back to Gabe and was struggling to control my face into a blank so that I could deliver “of course it’s true”. I just about managed to shake my head, before trying lamely to change the subject.

I repented once Olivia was out of earshot. We’ve put a lot in store with Gabriel about telling the truth and felt it was the right thing. Now there’s the tricky subject of Father Christmas…

It went better than expected: she woke for the first time at 3 am, when we gave her a feed. Jo timed it – 6 minutes. She then woke at 5:30 am when I calmed her and put her back in her cot where she played till 6:15 when she needed rocking off.

It’s by no means a done deal, experience tells me that we can get her into a routine but that she can just as easily come off it again due any any number of reasons (sickness, changes to her other daily routine due to traveling etc etc). It’s also worth noting that one improved night doesn’t make a routine!

Given that she only fed for 6 minutes we don’t think she needs the feed at all but don’t want to push it – worst case scenario is that we try and rock her off when she’s properly hungry and won’t be satisfied with being rocked off, with the result that we eventually have to give in and give her a feed. This sets a precedent and she will know that if she cries enough she’ll get fed – not good!

The important thing is to set the groundwork*:

• make sure she’s fed enough during the day
• make sure she’s slept enough, but not too much, during the day
• make sure that you both agree on how you’re going to deal with things during the night
• mentally prepare yourself for no sleep, then any sleep you get is a bonus!!
• be consistent, stick to what you’ve decided in advance
• be realistic in your goals, don’t aim too high and then have to give in

It’s amazing how your perspective changes at 4 am with a crying baby. Knowing in advance what you’re going to do and knowing that you are both in agreement makes it much easier to deal with.

We’ve the in-laws arriving today for a few days. I think we’ll try and continue as per last night and then once they’ve gone will see if we can’t get rid of the final feed.

*disclaimer: I’m no expert, my training has only been ‘on the job’, but this is what I’ve found useful

It’s third time round so you’d think we would have some idea of how to get our baby to sleep through the night. Getting her into a routine is a good start, sleeping at the right times for the right amount of time during the day, eating enough etc., but despite this a good night’s sleep entails just two wake-ups, a not so good night is being woken five times.

We just started Esmé on solids in the last few days and she was clearly ready for it, so we thought that once that kicked in she’d start sleeping better, but so far no real sign of it.

Last night she woke at midnight, then 3 am, when she was breasfed. When she woke fifteen minutes later at 3:30 I tried to rock her off. I’ve tried this previously with no success. Anyway, last night she went off in my arms, and into her cot. When she woke at 4 am I figured it would be every half hour from then on, but she went back in again and slept for the rest of the night.

So… tonight we’re going to try and not feed her, although will possibly relent at 3-4 am, we’ll see. The idea behind this is that once she realises that she’s not going to get fed every time she wakes she’ll get bored of it and sleep through. That’s the theory anyway.

It’s worth noting that when rocking her she was kicking and screaming until I relented and sang to her – it was a last ditch attempt and not something I had any expectations of working, but she stopped kicking and screaming pretty much immediately. I’m not sure if she’s just extremely un-discerning or whether I should be looking for a new career, what do you think?

Fingers crossed for tonight.

Gabriel has been talking about his friend Ivan for a while – he’s in the year above at his school and we didn’t know his parents so had no easy way of inviting him around. Anyway we finally managed to get in touch and he came to play yesterday.

He’s a nice kid and they larked around laughing at nothing (I’m getting old, I just didn’t get it!) as 7-8 year old boys should. Gabe isn’t a rough and tumble football crazy boy and doesn’t make good friends at the drop of a hat. That in conjunction with the fact that we put him into a Catalan school without any real knowledge of Catalan or Spanish meant that he’s had a while of having ‘friends’, but no real best friend.

Anyway it was really great to see him having a laugh, we reckon he’s made a good friend in Ivan.

it’s an annual event, I’m not sure of exactly when it falls but if memory serves me right it was on a Thursday last year (as it was this year), so perhaps it’s the third Thursday in January?

I knew it as donkey day but it is in fact the fiesta de sant antoni , who is the patron saint of horses.

It’s quite a big event, they bus in horses from all over Catalunya, from teeny shetlands to those massive plough pulling horses (I forget their name) and horse ‘trains’ pulling tree trunks etc. There are horses with riders, horses and traps, horses pulling all manner of things and all of them decked out in different traditional costumes etc.

They all do three big loops of the town, with lots of bystanders cheering them on. They obviously put a lot into it, all the shops and schools etc are shut and there are a lot of people on the streets to watch. It was the same last year – exactly the same.

The fiestas are – by their nature – very traditional and get very ‘samey’ after a while. The Spanish don’t seem to mind, they love it and come out in their droves to watch every time. We don’t really have the equivalent in the UK and I suspect that most brits would see an event one year and think ‘seen that, done that’ the next (my very reaction!).

It’s worth noting that there were LOTS of horses here from all over, which would point to the fact that Vilanova celebrates the fiesta de sant antoni more than other areas – there’s not enough horses to go around. If there’s an excuse for a fiesta, you can be sure they’ll be celebrating it here. Nice, there are some that I love, but it gets pretty disruptive. If I had a choice donkey day would be one I’d miss out (yeh yeh, bah humbug).

I’ve got a few pics/vids but won’t bother putting them up unless specifically requested.