The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
If you want to add something to Oscar's baby-blog, send an email to megan@alpha60.com and we can set it up so you can post...
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
4:06 AM posted by Oscar
So much stuff has been going on the past weeks... Bett and Dixon visiting, Uncle Cooper's very sudden death, Christian's trip down to Pensacola, Skip's visit, the pro-choice march here in DC, and Kathy and Bill's visit this past weekend. I'll have to post photos and more about all of this soon.
Right now, we're just diligently working our way through a list of over a hundred things that we have to do before we leave. We are almost ready to apply for our visa. We've got a couple of big projects on the house left and then just a whole bunch of little things. We've decided to rent it out through a property management company, mainly because we just don't want to have to deal with tenants directly...
Oscar's linguistic abilities are expanding exponentially. He doesn't mix Spanish and English much at all anymore, though he still confuses syntax. He even corrects our mistakes sometimes ("camisa roja, no camisa rojo") and he's just learning so much every day. He's still so emotional and loving. He's developed a very deep attachment to a little "trolley" that I bought him at Union Station. It is clenched in his hand all day long and he takes it everywhere. He also now has a daytime gator that he carries around in the house (but puts down when he goes outside). When he goes to bed, he very passionately says "adios" to his daytime friends and sleeps with Gator, Bunny and Kangaroo. He's very disciplined about all of this. In fact, he's disciplined about most things. He's not messy, he loves putting things away, and he can't stand to have even the smallest stain on his clothing. In short, he's nothing like us!
He is getting easier to communicate with, though he can still get overwhelmed emotionally at times. The tantrums have subsided and he's more able to tell us things. Tonight I said "es la hora" (it is time) and he said "de dormir" (to sleep) and he went upstairs to bed. He now understands the concept of delayed gratification: first you do this, then you can do that. He really thrives on routine. I'm a little concerned about our first few weeks in Madrid, because the routine will be pretty seriously disrupted, but we'll get through it...
I still haven't really gotten much of a chance to really absorb that we are leaving in two months. There's just too much to do between now and then. I am starting to feel a bit nostalgic about DC. All of the things we love about this place where we have lived for over ten years. So we're not doing anything extravagant before we go, we're just going to keep doing all of the little things that we love, like going to the parks we like, eating at our favorite places, spending time with people we care about. And it's funny, our house is actually starting to be a nice place to live. It's no longer a crazy hovel. People who expect basic living standards will be able to live here. And we'll be going to Madrid to live in an apartment that will be tinier than our first one here in DC. Life is funny.
But a nice long break will do us good. We're just about at the end of our rope in terms of the work we have been doing and need to figure out the next stage. And, even though we are going to really miss friends and family, we have both always loved Spain and have wanted to live there. We've basically scrimped and saved for years to be able to do something like this (though we may not have realized it all along) and now have the good fortune of having this house which makes it even more feasible. I know this will be a mind-expanding for all of us, but especially for Oscar. It will ensure that he is a completely bilingual and multicultural person for life. And I think Spain is a very good place to raise children. The philosophy of family is so different there. The idea of a city and public life is so much more open and vibrant. So we are starting to get excited. I'm reading a really well-written travel memoir on Spain called "Roads to Santiago." There is just so much complicated history there. I can't wait to study it and immerse ourselves in it. And of course Christian is looking forward to the food. We'll miss our pupusas, but we'll have a lot to compensate for it.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
