The Big Four Oh... By Kate

So, I've hit forty. Actually, I would like to think I got there in a more decorous fashion, but it probably wouldn't be true. I could say I have started my fifth decade, but that's a bit scary, so I won't.

What a good job I have a thoughtful, loving husband who appointed himself in charge of celebrating the end of decade number four in such a way that I would at times forget the age aspect of the whole affair. The very fact that he is eleven years my junior is helpful in itself - I can now spend one year and one month bragging about having a husband in his twenties while I'm in my forties. I fully intend to do so at every opportunity.

Anyway, back to the birthday weekend. I wasn't very good at suggesting special fortieth-type birthday presents (a hair-brush and a new baby-carrier were the best I could come up with) so Theo decided his main present would consist of persuading my sister to transplant herself temporarily from the far west of Cornwall, her husband and four children and come and stay. What a winner! I would have been knocked sideways if it had been a surprise, but the fact that I discovered the plan ahead of time meant I could enjoy my birthday present even more by luxuriating in some pleasurable anticipation too.

So Bex duly arrived on the Friday evening and I stayed up beyond my customary nine o'clock bed-time (made necessary by my beloved multiple-waking baby daughter) to greet her and clink glasses of Cava.

The next morning I had a surprise extra birthday present from Rosie in the form of a lie-in until 08.00. Seeing as her customary getting up time is between 06.00 and 07.00, it was a princely gift. OK, she still woke up a few times along the way, but I wasn't about to look a gift-horse in the mouth.
More of the Cava was duly consumed in the form of Buck's Fizz with freshly squeezed orange and after a birthday present opening session (thank you cards now being written to the kind donors...) the four of us set off to the small town of Chinchon, about 50km outside Madrid.
There we met up with our friends Bianca, Stephane and Ollie; Kirsty, Juanmi and Emily Grace and Anne. After a stroll around the picturesque streets of Chinchon (famous for its anise spirit, garlic, local wine and buns in the shapes of breasts and testicles...) we settled down on the terraza of a restaurant in the Plaza Mayor and enjoyed a long and leisurely - and rather tasty - lunch. Even the babies were inclined to remain mellow, either napping in their prams, grinning and allowing themselves to be passed around for cuddles or a bit of high jinx in the town's bull-ring.The next day we took Bex on a fast-paced Sunday tour of Madrid, including a second breakfast of churros; the rastro; Picasso's Guernica; cafe-con-leche in Plaza Mayor and finally lunch at a vegetarian restauran in La Latina, along with our pals Jon, David and Nataly.Not surprisingly, we were all exhausted when we got back. Bex was delivered to the airport by Theo (and then had to put up with a delayed flight and an overnight drive home...I can only appreciate her logistical sacrifices to make the journey...) and I collapsed into bed, feeling every second of my forty-plus years.They say it's when life begins. In that case, I'm going to need more energy. But my forties have been pretty good so far, let's hope they carry on this way.

Rosie and the Boys

She may be only 7 months old, but Rosie is definitely developing an eye for the fellas.

Previously Rosie had disdained to notice Ollie, Bianca and Stefan's little boy, but on a recent visit (for a delicious lunch and swim) she couldn't keep her hands off him. Ollie accepted this female attention with a certain louche Gallic cool that he clearly gets from his Dad. He didn't even seem to mind when Rosie decided his feet were clearly a tastier looking option than the puree Mum and Dad had brought with them.

Rosie is obviously developing a foot fetish. Oh well.

Not content with hitting on her own age group, Rosie has also taken to making eyes at older men, marital status be damned. Here she is flirting with Fermin on a recently pool and picnic trip, although according to his wife Rebecca he has this affect on most women. Naturally, I didn't leave Kate's side...

Food Fights - by Theo

Weaning has begun! Actually we began giving Rosie finger food (baby-led weaning) a while ago, back in June, but never with any kind of regularity, and during our English summer sojourn we actually purchased some baby food. However, being on the move made sticking to a routine somewhat tricky. Also the travel highchair our friends Jero and Jose kindly gave us sadly doesn't fit onto every table, meaning Rosie was often on one of our laps at meal times - hard enough to feed her without getting covered ourselves, let alone eat our own meal.However since we've returned a routine of three meals a day has been established, with the help of a high chair. Indeed, our first stop in Madrid was IKEA! It's not been easy; since finishing the baby porridge and Ella's Kitchen pouches we'd brought with us, finding stuff that a) Rosie will happily eat and b) we will happily give her has proven tricky! Most commercial baby-food we've looked at her has added sugar and/or salt - big no no - or, of course, meat. Meanwhile my first attempts at making pureed baby-food were not met with an enthusiastic welcome, so bread, fruit and green beans to be gummed to death had become a bit of a staple (we'd left Cathy and Jean's with a huge bag of fresh produce from their garden). Nevertheless, with my last two culinary efforts (Pear, peas and broccoli; Carrot, lentils, ginger and garam masala) have been wolfed down. I suspect the war is not yet won, but after defeat in the initial skirmishes victory is definitely mine!!

Keeping our cool - by Theo

Ever since we arrived back in Madrid on Thursday we've been trying to keep our cool.

Well, it's 35 degrees out there, from about 11 until 11, not a cloud in the sky and we've only got a tiny air conditioning unit in the sitting room. We've also got ceiling fans in the sitting room and bedroom, and small portable fan, but they don't bring the temperature down (in fact the small fan gives off heat!) So we've had to come up with other methods to make the interior of the flat liveable.

The most obvious is judicious use of windows, shutters, blinds and awnings. At least one advantage of Rosie waking us up at 7pm is that we can at least enjoy a few hours with the windows wide open to catch the cool early morning breezes. This is when I've been doing all the cooking for the day, before the kitchen becomes a sauna. Then the shutters and awning come down to stop the sun hitting the glass, then finally the windows close at 10.30ish as the air outside increases in temperature. Time to bring out the home made air conditioning.

We've been freezing large tupperware containers of water and placing them, open, in front of the small fan so the air chills as it blows over the melting ice. Then, following a tip from my parents' Sudan days, we stand frozen bottles of water in buckets of cold water and cover the bottles with socks. Not sure of the physics here (an inverse convection current?) but it does seem to work. Finally, generous servings of iced smoothies throughout the day have been keeping us sane. Anyone else got any tips?

lessons in communication - by Theo

Me: "Where's Rosie's mug?"
Kate: "Huh?"
Me: "her mug."
K: "what?"
Me: "her mug. that she drinks from?"
K: "what mug?"
M: "what do you mean 'what mug?'! Her mug!"
K: "what mug?"
M: "Her mug! that we bought for her!"
K: "You mean her sippy cup? it's under the pram."

San Sebastian - by Theo

We'd driven past it several times, it had been enthusiastically recommended to us in English, French and Spanish, it's halfway between Madrid and Kate's Mum's, so it seemed a very sensible idea to stop off in the Basque port and seaside resort of San Sebastian on our way home.
We'd been hoping that the sea-breezes coming off the Atlantic might have helped keep the temperatures down, but it was a sweltering 34 degrees as we pulled into town just after 2pm. We were staying in Hotel Plaza Zaragoza, one street back from the Playa de la Concha and just a few blocks from the Cathedral. After I eventually found a parking with enough head room to take Deliah's 2.06metres we headed off on a little stroll, our first stop being the Cathedral where the late afternoon sun was projecting beautiful array of colours onto the walls.

We headed out, through the Area Romantica to the edge of the Port. The beach was rammed - it was high season after all and the high tide wasn't helping matters. Enterprising teenagers had pitched their towels along a jetty (ignoring the clearly marked "no bathing" signs) and were diving in. The city is based around a bay, with two massive headlands guarding the entrances, the western one topped by a Hotel, the eastern an impressively large statue of Jesus, while the island of Santa Clara sits in the mouth of the bay. As a result it's pretty sheltered and a natural harbour.
The old town is situated below the eastern headland and a brief walk around it's narrow if regular streets followed, before we returned to the beach for a swim (me) and paddle (Kate). The water was perfect - a far cry from the freezing Cornish coast! We'll be back I feel.

Loafing in the Lot - by Theo

After the wonderful hospitality of different generations of the Kuhfelds in London and Kent we arrived at Dover docks at 7.15am braced for a short crossing and then a mammoth drive. Rosie, who has proved a better flier than her mother and better sailor than her father, is not the world's greatest car passenger so we dreading the long haul from Calais down to Ste Croix in the Lot valley region. However, some judicious timing, several breaks on route and Kate's tireless entertainment efforts kept our PFB generally pretty chilled when she wasn't asleep, so when we finally arrived Chez Cathy & Jean at 10.15pm we were merely frazzled and not on the edge of mental breakdown as we'd anticipated. The warm welcome and soup we were met with at our home from home went a long way to restoring us.As we were not the only visitors at Labouysse, Cathy & Jean's converted former tobacco drying house was at capacity. They had very kindly given us their double room, allowing us to be able to actually move around without tripping over various baby paraphernalia, while Kate's Aunt Frances was in the spare room we usually occupy, her cousin Erica was in the caravan that usually serves as Cathy's painting studio while our hosts themselves had set up a bed in the old oven room in one of the other buildings. Amazingly bathroom queues were at a minimum all week!I only met Frances briefly at our wedding and had never previously met Erica (who Kate last saw over 10 years ago), but they were excellent company, taking to Rosie immediately (and vice versa), politely allowing me to win at backgammon and keeping the franglish flowing over the lunchtime banquets Cathy provided. Trips to the local swimming lake as well as various friends of Cathy's with swimming pools were very much on the menu. Rosie was rather lukewarm about swimming, unlike the pools which were generally a bit cooler, though with much patience she was generally enticed in.Kate's sisters Anne-Marie and Claire were also in the area, staying with Kate's former step-dad Tim round the corner at Lebreil, so a trip round there for lunch was very much in order as was a delicious lunch (again) at fellow expats Mike and Brenda. On a slightly cooler day yesterday Claire and Mia walked round to spend the day chez Cathy and join us loafing around in Cathy's garden, eating her food and playing games. Frances and Erica have departed today, heading on to visit friends in Germany, and we are leaving tomorrow ourselves, thoroughly relaxed and fed-up (in a good way!), heading home to Madrid via San Sebastian.

apologies - by Theo

1. For not having updated the blog for a while. Aside from being full time parents we've been dashing about South West England for the past 3 weeks visiting various friends and relatives. This has been lovely, if slightly exhausting, but it hasn't left much time for blogging.

2. To those we haven't managed to visit, or have spent too little time with. Please come and visit us in Madrid - we have a spare room!

3. For not uploading any photos for a while - we left our card-reader in Madrid so can't get photos off the camera.

Anyway, we're off to London tomorrow, then Kent, then France for a week.

Love, T, K & R x