city kids

Although Liam and Malachy were back home in Dublin, Jaime, Lorcan and I still got an invitation to Uma and Thomas' birthday party at the park! Here's Uma with her little brother Kiran and Thomas with his little sis Carme.

This group of funky cousins was there too.. Nico and his little brother Jan and Lola and her little sis Rita!


 

cats and dogs

Whilst strolling around old town Barcelona, we stumbled across this shocking, utterly disgusting and very morbid specimen outside a building site where an ancient (and obviously long abandoned) building was being gutted for renovation. "Picasso's Cat - €100"... uurgh... gross!

Luckily, a much livelier animal friend came to visit us the following day... all the way from France... Carmen's new poodle puppy: Daudet! 

getting out...

Lorcan's recovery went really well right from the start. He was out of hospital in 3 days (2 nights) and, although his scar was extra sensitive and the arm restraints he had to wear (for over 3 weeks) were hard to get used to, he didn't complain half as much as most of us would have! Here he is shortly before being discharged from the Sant Joan de Deu hospital...

... and in the taxi on the way home...

That very afternoon we met up with Jorge for a walk around El Born and lunch at El Económic

Operation Lorcan

As you all know, Lorcan had his lip operation in Barcelona on 31 October (Halloween!) just after he turned 6 months. He was the bravest, best baby ever and went through it all really well. Here he is the day before the operation -oblivious to why we had taken him off to Barcelona again!
He started eating solids early, at around 5 months, to prepare his little body for the post-op eating difficulties (no breat, no bottle, no sucking allowed -just syringe and soft silicone spoon). He's a fabulous eater and has never (yet) turned his nose up at anything!

Handing him over to the doctors outside the operating room for his surgery was so difficult. We knew he was in good hands, but that didn't make the 3-hour wait much easier! What did help was meeting another couple with a little girl -Lua- who had already gone through surgery once. They gave us loads of advice and put our minds at rest. Thank you!

All the nurses and doctors said that most babies come out of general aneasthetic and just drift into a nice peaceful sleep. Not Lorcan! His 12-hour fast meant that he was hungry -and that, coupled with the restraints on his arms and all the strange faces he saw when he opened his eyes, really made him cry. Roar! So the first face we saw when they brought him to his room, where we were waiting, was this sad face... but through his frown we could see the wonderful job the surgeons had done on his lovely little lip.

After sipping some milk through a syringe for a while and getting some cuddles from his Mammy and Daddy, he became more serene...

And shortly after that he was back to his playful self!!!

and these...

look into my eyes...
say cheeeeeeeese...
my cheeks just couldn't be any chubbier!

dancing brothers (yes, his t-shirt says 'hell raiser'!) 

three boys

The day before we left for Lorcan's operation, I took these snaps of the three boys playing in the attick...



 

old friends

On the last day of school before the Halloween mid-term break, all the kids were allowed to go to school in fancy dress! Liam dressed up as Superman (yes, again!) and was proud as punch walking into his classroom with his red cape on!

That afternoon my old friend Rachel came over to our place with her kids: Jasmine, Dylan and Elliot.

Or should I say, Princess Jasmine! She was great with our baby Lorcan!

And Dylan gave us his best rendition of "Scarborough Fair" on the keyboard!

And we topped the afternoon off with some dancing in the dining room! :) 

new friends

We missed Halloween when we were away in Barcelona. But we made up for lost time when we got back by having a lovely dinner party with Annette and Jens, a couple we have befriended through Liam! Their son Ciarán and him are classmates and friends.

And this is Liam's neighbour and 'girlfriend' Hannah! She's every bar of Liam (in female form) and gets great laughs out of him and Malachy...

This is her dad, Jeremy!

See what I mean about those smiles?!... The picture is a Halloween drawing that Hannah did for Liam -it's still hanging on our fridge door! 

going home #1

On our last day we had a nice meal at a Thai restaurant in the old city.

Lorcan napping peacefully...
Squeaky clean after bathtime!

When we got home from our week in Barcelona, Liam and Malachy (with a little help from Granny) had made us a welcoming cake! 

I had a ladies' night at Laia's with the gals. Left to right: Circe, me, Assumpta, Molly, Beatriz, Silvia, Laia and Clara. Great food, fun, gossip and laughs all round ;)

And Jaime had a lad's night with Jorge (check out the bleary-eyes!)

I met up with MariCarmen and Marta briefly (sorry about the blurry pic!)

Barcelona in October... 

Back in BCN

At the beginning of October Jaime and I took Lorcan to Barcelona for his pre-op tests at the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu.

Though we really missed Liam and Malachy, who stayed in Dublin with Granny and Granddad, it was nice to be on our own with Lorcan and back in busy Barcelona again for a few days.

Lorcan's tests all went well and he revelled in the warm Meditarranean clime and all the one-to-one attention!

We met up with Yasser, one of our Palestinean friends in Barcelona. Himself and his lovely Catalan wife recently started up a lovely little coffee shop on Gran Vía (at the Rocafort metro stop). We're delighted that it's going well for them.