Heat and Teeth - by Theo

Well the summer has now well and truly arrived, bringing with it cloudless blue skies and temperatures that hit the 30s around 10am and stay there until well after midnight. This seems, as ever, to have come as a huge surprise to the Spanish who unfailing great you and each other with comments about the heat - "Que calor!" - as if the weather was somehow unusual!

The spike in temperatures, which began last Thursday coincided with both Cathy, Kate's mum coming to visit, and Rosie's canines making their entrance. The latter in particular, coupled with the sweaty night-times made for a general lack of sleep all round. Until now Rosie's teeth hadn't given her many problems, but the canines trying to squeeze between her incisors and pre-molars was clearly causing our dear one a lot of pain. It was heart-breaking watching her at meal-times as she enthusiastically stuffed an over-cooked (for softness) bit of pasta in her mouth only to erupt in tears at the first bite. For the first time in ages she suffered herself to be spoonfed purees!

It was lovely to see Cathy, although it wasn't a very exciting visit for her. With Rosie in such a grump due to lack of sleep we ditched plans for an expedition to the Mazanares and stuck instead to more local parks, the Retiro, el Calero and los Molinos. There's far more shade there anyway.