The life and times of Oscar Marcos Perez-Cytron. Born Thanksgiving Day 11/22/01.
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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...
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Sunday, May 22, 2005
6:04 PM posted by Oscar
I'm procrastinating... I have a test tomorrow that I should be studying for... I went to Tampa last weekend for Liz's wedding. It was a crazy whirlwind trip, but great to meet Jim--Liz's now husband--and see Bridget and Liz. I also got to spend the night with Lala. We talked late into the night about the meaning of life and poetry and we ate Cuban food with Robbie and the triplets. It was surprising how normal it felt to be there... I didn't really experience culture shock--it just felt so different to be by myself away from Christian and Oscar that maybe that was over-riding the Americanness of it all.
I'm in the midst of exams and still trying to figure out my educational destiny next year. Oscar and I spent the day together today. We listened to music, sang, danced. We listened to Purple Rain, the Magnetic Fields, Manu Chao, Celia Cruz, Stevie Wonder. He loves music so much--he just goes through our big CD case pulling stuff out and putting it in the CD player. Sometimes he'll bring one over and ask me to clean off a "pawprint". We made an omelet with camembert and jamon and ate cherries from the Valle del Jerte.
Spirata--the snail--is no more--long live Spirata. As seems to be my way, the minute I noticed Spirata and started taking care of her, her quality of life declined significantly and before we knew it, she was a mere empty shell. This has been a source of much soul searching for all of us. Oscar and his class went on a field trip to a farm somewhere on the outskirts of Madrid. He came back wanting a horse and a cat. I told him we may be able to start off with a few very small fish...
What else? Our neighbors Ester and Alex had their baby--Sofia. The prince and princess of Spain are expecting a baby--in the daily free papers here the day after they announced that Princess Leticia was pregnant, they showed a picture of a fetus that was the same age as hers. Another paper published an article showing Leticia wearing high heels a week before the announcement with an admonishment from several physicians about the danger of mixing pregnancy with "tacones lejanos."
It's actually rather hard to keep this journal for Oscar now, because he has such a strong personality of his own that it's not so easy to project my own thoughts on to him... He's so sensitive and boisterous and contrary and sweet and tempermental and intense and flighty and imaginative. He has the Cytron photographic memory of places and things--it's frightening at times the things that he can recall. Just this weekend, he saw a bottle of shampoo that we got from a hotel in Zamora back in December and said "that's from Zamora." And then he also has the lack of common sense. He still gets the words for "table" and "chair" mixed up in English and he just finally learned how to go down the stairs properly. He's really speaking "Espanglish" these days. It will be good to get him into an English speaking environment for a few weeks this summer, because he can be lazy with us. Today he told me that Spanish was more beautiful than English. I have to say, I concur...
He is very adamant about saying "I am American" even though he has no idea what that means. Yesterday he saw a picture of the Statue of Liberty and thought she was a Mexican buddha (she does kind of look like Guadalupe). His childhood is quite mixed up--I wonder how he'll make sense of it all. The kids in his class are from all over--probably over half are Spanish and the rest from Colombia, Ecuador, Morocco, Argentina, China, the Phillipines, etc. They all speak Spanish like typical little Madrilenos...
This past week was the Festival of San Isidro. I missed the beginning of it, but there were puppet shows all week in Plaza de la Paja and Plaza Humilladero. We saw a Czech version of Snow White (Blancanieves), Punch and Judy, and an amazing Chinese dragon and kung fu puppet show.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
10:14 PM posted by Oscar
Oscar has a little pet. It's a snail and his/her (they are hermaphrodites) name is "spirata". He/she lives out on our balcony overlooking La Latina. Today she ate a tomato slice. It's getting very dry and hot here, so we don't know how long we'll have her/him with us... I think we'll need to get him a real pet soon.
So long since I've written and I'm too worn out to really catch up. We've had some great visits from Harry and Deepak and Gabriela and Claudia. We loved having everyone--especially since we won't be able to get back to DC this summer.
Oscar officially got diagnosed with flat feet. He is supposed to walk on his tippy toes as much as possible between now and his fourth birthday. If that doesn't help then he may need special shoes to help with all the tripping and general uncoordination. Most of our other respiratory/sinus issues have finally gotten better. The otorrinolaringologa (ear, nose and throat doctor) told us we should go to the beach, which we are doing in June when Bridget comes to visit and in July when we go to Tampa.
Madrid is so beautiful this time of year. Today was the day of the worker. Lots of communist/socialist rallies demanding better work conditions. Since it fell on a Sunday, we'll get Tuesday off. Monday is May 2nd--another celebration marking the day when Madrid rose up against Napoleon's troops.
Suddenly everyone is out in the street. The terrazas (outdoor bars/cafes) are all open again. The sunny and shady spots are taking on more significance. And all of a sudden we've lost our big city anonymity. Madrid is such a city of little towns and everywhere we go we run into people we know--professors, classmates, expats, kids and parents from Oscar's school, neighbors... just a sea of humanity out in the streets.
Oscar has become quite antisocial--a little misanthrope. I think it's the influence of school, being the smallest and youngest in his class has hardened him quite a bit. I'm hoping he will grow out of it this summer... He and I have been having some power struggles.
I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I'm going to do next year. All of my efforts to study History at Complutense are being thwarted. So I'm thinking about studying Spanish Literature, since it is more relevant to what I studied before and I may be able to use my degree to enter the program. We'll see...
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