Thankful

I am bursting with gratitude today. Here are some people and moments that keep coming to my mind:

• On Tuesday night I was wiping down the kitchen table as Lucy finished her homework, having just tucked in Sophie and Stone. Our windows were open to let in the evening breeze, and suddenly we heard a "Hello there" and looked up to see the handsome, bearded face of our Erik. The kids were over the moon (Soph and Stone got to see him too - they weren't asleep yet)! We weren't expecting him until midnight - he had been missing us so much that he threw his plane ticket to the wind and came home a few hours earlier by train. I love his spontaneity and his love for us.
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• We get to be with our husband/daddy all the time. He eats breakfast with us, we all walk to school together, we often eat lunch (our big meal) together, and even when he's working he is around the house to tease, share the load of housework, tell the best and most hilarious stories, and even sometimes help Stone get to the next level of Star Wars on XBox. Next year Erik will have been my boyfriend for half my life, and he is still my boyfriend and my best friend. We all feel so lucky to be with him all the time!
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• Stone finally went back to school today after staying sick all week - I spoke too soon after the last post when I said he was holding down food. :( Anyway, he's improved now, and any time we're sick for awhile we appreciate our health so much more!
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• There are so many good, kind people in this world. Yesterday as we walked to school, all three girls were clutching their tummies and we returned back home (I suspected hypochondria but didn't want to risk them throwing up in class). On our way Sophie became extremely ill and had to stop on the sidewalk. I crouched down with her, whispering in her ear, and then felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the man who worked at a kiosk on the corner - he was watching us and asked us if we were ok, if we needed help, if we were far from home. For some reason it makes me think of my parents and parents-in-law and how they still care and worry about me, and I think of how grateful I will be for some future person stopping to help my daughter and grand-daughter in a foreign country. 
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• This brings to mind again that kind, sweet man in Madrid when Stone threw up (not just a little - three HUGE times) all over the sidewalk right in front of his kiosk. That kiosk is that man's livelihood - he needs customers to WANT to walk on that sidewalk. If they avoid his newspaper rack he doesn't bring home any money. He had every reason to be upset, but his immediate reaction was to help and reassure me. I think of him sweeping up the mess saying "It's ok, don't worry about it" and I am again in tears.
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• The other day we were walking home from Ballet and the kids' legs were ready to give out, so we caught a bus. As we got on I started quickly fishing through my purse and eventually realized my bus card had run out and I didn't have enough coins - only a 20 euro bill (way too much, and bus drivers don't have that much change). I was so tired and frazzled and Stone was still a limp rag doll (this was before Erik had gotten home), and I told the driver to just let us off at the next stop - I was so sorry but I didn't have coins. He smiled understandingly - he had to have been father - and told me to run into the cafe and get change. He would keep the bus waiting. I ran in, and not only did that driver hold a bus full of passengers for me, the man at the cafe dropped his conversation and ran to his till to grab change for me as fast as he could when he saw what was going on. 
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• The first man I met at the kids's school last month is still one of my favorite people in Sevilla. He works in the school office, and looks like someone you would cast as an older Jean Valjean when he goes to save Cosette. We don't know his name, but the kids call him "Mister Twinkle" because his eyes are so kind and sparkly. I had heard that Stone had had a hard day last week (he told me he had cried at recess), but today the whole story came out that he had cried from recess all the way until the end of school - two full hours. His teacher couldn't get him back to class at all. So they called in Mister Twinkle, and he sat with Stone and colored a tree picture with him and comforted him until the end of school. We hung the tree picture up in the kitchen - I had wondered how that bark got colored in so perfectly. (Any Spanish kid could have colored it, but not my Stone.) :) Thank you, Mister Twinkle

Stone's first nap in months - he has been so tired and sick this week

How do you keep a four-year-old boy from going stir-crazy in the house, home from school day after day? This is the list Erik made for him (you should have heard Stone giggling as he read it)

Last night we went shopping with the Martens in the fancy shopping district of Sevilla. We got Flamenco shoes for the dancers! Now where to find a dress... they seem to be either 15 euros for polyester Made in China dress-ups, or hundreds of dollars for hand-sewn masterpieces.

Our favorite time of day is our walk to school. Erik always pushes Stone in the stroller, and Stone controls it like a spaceship, going super fast, zig-zaggy and turbo speed. Then when they're far ahead of us girls, they hide and wait for us to find them. Can you spot them in this picture? It's tricky because Sevilla is full of statues.

Also a tricky hiding place, on a sidestreet. We walked right past them.

Back to school! So much more fun with Daddy!

Last night on our shopping trip, we bought little chocolate hedgehogs to bring home to Sophie and Stone. They got to take them to school if they would march in this morning with a smile and thumbs-up

Stoney and I making the first Jell-O I have made since I was probably 14. Made me miss my mom!