Currently

Happy August, friends!

Teo and I are comin’ to you live kiddie-poolside this morning from our back terrace, where we’ve been splish-splashing around (or as they say in Spanish, chapa chapa) multiple times a day lately to try and beat the heat.

Not gonna lie, our first summer with a toddler here in Barcelona’s beautiful-yet-severly-lacking-in-green-spaces city center has definitely had us missing the grassy backyards and modern playgrounds and easily-accessible swimming pools that we always used to take for granted back in Kansas City. But I feel like we’ve made some good headway in learning the tips and tricks of urban parenting here in Barcelona lately, especially using our new baby bike seat to adventure to more kid-friendly spaces around the city. And we’ve done what the locals do and escaped a few times to the Costa Brava with friends, which is always a welcome breath of fresh air and great chance for kiddos to run wild. There’s no doubt now that our little guy is being raised with very different kinds of summers here than we had in the Midwest growing up. But I have to say, this one overall has been incredibly sweet.

From watching Teo’s sheer delight biting into a fresh peach for the first time as the juice dribbles down his chin, to splashing through the adorable chaos that is baby swimming lessons, to putzing all around Barcelona together with his new patinete (scooter), to playing with countless new friends (in baby Spanish, extra cute) during our daily playground routes, to teaching him to build his first tiny sandcastles by the sea…all of the summer toddler “firsts” this year have been even cuter than we could had imagined. We’re also now card-carrying zoo members who frequent the Barcelona Zoo multiple times a week, partly because Teo is obsessed with the giraffes and Pedro the Rhinoceros, but mainly because the it’s one of the few shaded green spaces in the city center where kids can run around safely without traffic. And during this year’s record-breaking heat wave, lol, shade is everything.

Another surprise highlight of our summer has been getting to host two guests here in our home from Ukraine — a mother and her 14-year-old daughter — while they have been awaiting paperwork for their temporary protection visas here in Spain. We all knew very little about one another (mainly just names and ages) before they arrived. But it turns out that these two couldn’t be more wonderful, and our time together has been such a gift to our little family. Getting to sit around the table together in the evenings and eat together and Google Translate galore and laugh and tell stories and learn more about one another’s lives has just been so special. And I’ve especially loved the time we’ve spent together in the kitchen introducing each other to traditional Ukranian dishes (love love their buckwheat soup) and American dishes (the 14-year-old wanted to learn how to make a layer cake, so we decorated one with alllll the sprinkles, which was the literal sweetest). It’s going to be so emotional to say goodbye today as they bravely take off for the next stage of their journey in Poland. But we are just so grateful for this summer together and know for certain that these two will be part of our lives for many years to come.

Anyway, on the traveling note, we’re actually headed to Italy today for the month of August and couldn’t be more excited. But before we leave town, I wanted to pop in with a few updates and just say hello. ♡♡♡

Wherever in the world this may find you today, I hope that you’re doing well. And especially during these final days of summertime, I hope that you’re bringing home that extra watermelon, squeezing in a few final swims, lingering in the evening light a bit longer, and saying yes as often as possible to summertime hangs together with those you love. Life just feels like it’s moving so quickly lately, and the world around us is getting so heavy, and cultivating moments of joy seems to be more and more like one of the most helpful, human things we can do right now. So as Mary Oliver says, whenever that joy can be yours, “Don’t Hesitate. Give in to it.”

Wishing you all the end-of-summer joy and sunshine and peaches that you can find today. And without further ado, here’s the latest from our corner of Barcelona.

(more…)

source https://www.gimmesomeoven.com/life/currently-34/