Front Yard Pablo: December Color

Granddaddy Uno

Nina Styles, by Lisa: Day 2

The TCU Beats Baylor in Double OT, Half-up, Half-down Fishtail Special.

2015: Thanks

Pablo blessed us with a recitation of an original poem, written by him for the occasion.


Nina sang a song.

Table talk.




These two are die-hard 'Boys fans.

When Tony Romo goes down with another collar-bone injury, it's important to have family members close by.

Nina Styles, by Lisa

The Side Pony.

Caught up

This blog was born a little less than ten years ago, on December 15, 2005. The first trial post included a list of four movies in the theaters at the time that I wanted to see and four movies I didn't want to see.  I have seen five of the movies on that list, and don't feel compelled to see any of them again.

The second post was much more interesting:  a photo of Emilio, age: 35 days.

On February 22, 2006, I created a new blog dedicated entirely to the activities of my eldest son.

Here's that first post:

Mari just called from the Spanish Consulate to say that she has picked up her new Spanish passport and our Libro de Familia, an important Spanish document which we were given when we got married in Chinchón on May 27, 1994. Emilio's name has now been added to the Libro de Familia, a step required to get his Spanish citizenship, which will make him a member of the European Union. Woo hoo!

I gave Emilio his formula around 11 a.m. while I watched episode three on the fourth disc in the 12-disc World at War DVD collection narrated by Lawrence Olivier, which Mari gave me. Today's episode focused on Burma, 1942-1944 (jungle warfare, the Burma Road, Joseph Stillwell, Lord Mountbatten, etc.). I wonder if Emilio and I will be able to get through the entire series this spring. 

After Emilio had finished his bottle, the young European played with his feet (photo above) and then went to sleep. The next feeding should be around 3 p.m.

I later added some backdated posts from this blog to the emiliosdad blog, but the February 22nd post was the first.

Before the twins were born, this blog became a space where I kept a record of my non-parental experiences and included, among other things, quarterly and year-end reports on world developments.

Year one of blogging featured some interesting posts on the experience of blogging itself. And led to some auxiliary blog branches on, among other things, my prolific movie-going experiences.

When Pablo and Nina came along, I thought about creating separate blogs for them, similar to the one I had created for Emilio, but never took the plunge (though I reserved the web addresses). Eventually, this blog became, mostly, the Pablo-and-Nina blog and the commentary on my non-parental experiences dissipated. Now, the primary function of this blog is to serve as a memory book for them, as emiliosdad is for Emilio.

This blog was born in a pre-Facebook era, but I never took the show to Facebook because these posts have always been for a small audience, and I have never found it easy to manage Facebook audiences.

Somewhere along the way, I had more photos and videos than I had time to post. There were long periods of blog silence, noted mostly by my Spanish readership. I kept taking the photos and recording the videos, though. And, when I had a free moment--or, when I had something more important to do that anxiety compelled me to put off (I have papers to grade before we leave for Texas today, for instance)--I worked on filling in the blanks.

This is published post #1275. This is post #783 on emiliosdad.  And as of this moment, after more than 2000 posts on these two blogs combined, I am, for the first time in a long time, caught up.

The family that watches roller derby together . . .

Saturday night, we experienced our first Roller Derby mashup at the Fire Lake Arena in Shawnee.
Valentine Massacre for the Cranberry Crushers was our favorite.

She let us take a picture with her after the mashup.

Polio Plus

Nina explains Operation Birthday-vs.-Polio to ECU's Rotaract presidents Linzi Thompson (2014-15), on the left, and Elsa Moseley (2015-16), on the right.

Pablo and Emilio answer questions and hand over the money they raised by requesting that guests at their pool party make donations instead of bring presents. Result: 710 polio vaccines for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pablo is Eight

Eight plus Eight

$142.24 for Polio-fighting vaccines (that's 710 vaccines!).

That's a new purple coat.

Kidz Bop 30 leads with a cover of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood."

Highlights: The arrival of Grandmother, Grandaddy, and Aunt Carolyn, birthday serenade videos with cake and candles from Rita and Uxue and trans-Atlantic text, Facebook, Skype, and Whassup birthday greetings from Tio Gerardo, Tia Gimena, abuela y abuelo.

Eats:
Special school snacks for the class:  Goldfish (Pablo's class); Cupcakes (Nina's class)
Dinner: At Chili's (thank you, Aunt Carolyn!), featuring two Molten Lava cakes and a wait-staff serenade.

Treasures:
Pablo: Not For Parents Travel Book (Not for Parents Lonely Planet), a first watch, a Star Wars t-shirt, a Philadelphia Eagles punching bag, a blue winter coat from Lands End, The Force Awakens sticker book, Star Wars Classic trivia game, Obsessed with Star Wars: Test Your Knowledge of a Galaxy Far, Far Away , The One and Only Ivan, The Wishing Spell (Land of Stories), The Far Side Gallery, an Avengers Fact-ivity book, a folded flyers book, and a green-and-gray soccer ball hoodie.

Nina: Zita the Spacegirl, Frozen in graphic novel form, a short-sleeved blue shirt with a Native American pattern, purple leggings with stars, a purple dress with stars, blue tights, an art set, a knitting kit, a stereo/CD player, two Kidz Bop CDs (29 and 30), a purple winter coat from Lands End, and a custom-made, two CD-set:  "Eight plus Eight," featuring songs by sixteen women (technically seventeen)--Adele, Ann Wilson, Aretha, Bev Bivens, Bonnie Raitt, Corinne Bailey Rae, Dusty Springfield, Elle Goulding, Grace Slick, The Indigo Girls, Julieta Venegas, Kelly Clarkson, Norah Jones, Sarah Bareilles, Sheryl Crow, and Taylor Swift--with custom-made collectible cards for each singer (plus one of Nina).

A Birthday Pool Party Extravaganza!

Maria, the master party planner, orchestrated a flawless fiesta on Saturday.

And we raised more than $142 to fight polio. With a double match from the Bill Gates Foundation, that's enough for 710 vaccines that can be given to children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the last two countries in the world where polio is still doing its evil business. Watch out, polio: this generation just may take you down.