A hamster named Tissue Packet

Cheese, poo, and smash apple

Attempting to get back into the habit of blogging...

I have a notebook I write humorous phrases in that I hear people say during the day - mostly my family.

My latest entry is from yesterday morning:
Josie had just staggered out of her room first thing in the morning and was looking all angelic in that soft sweaty still sleepy kid way. I said, "Good morning, baby!" We had a great big hug. She paused and said, "You smell like cheese and poo."

I asked Lili (who now prefers her name be spelled this way, despite previously preferring it be spelled 'Lily') to draw up this scene in her comic book way.

Here is her interpretation:

The third, additional scene is me remembering I had bought cheese and poo scented perfume the day before.

In other news, Lili wrote up this story today. I love the turn of phrase and understated ending.

The Porig & Poo Pans series

Lili's newest passion is writing short comics about two characters she invented: Porig & Poo Pans. Porig is pronounced 'porridge' and Poo Pans, while having poo in his pants, is NOT named Poo Pants with a T.

At weekends she will scurry away and stand for long periods giggling to herself, nose bent close to the page as she sounds out words and determines just what stroke of the pencil to use to give Poo Pans' poo that truly stinky look.

For your reading pleasure, you will find a series of posts here with the first few installments of the Porig and Poo Pans adventures.

Note: Lili's spells English words as if they were Spanish or Catalan, so translations have been provided :) Don't worry, she's in an English reading/writing club now and we're starting to get somewhere with the spelling.

Poo Pans & Porig (1)

Porig and and Poo Pans (2)

Porig and and Poo Pans (3)

Porig and and Poo Pans 3

Porig and and Poo Pans

By: Liliana Seeley

One day Porig and Poo Pans were reading their favorite comics.

Then Poo Pans poo-ed on the bench and said "Let's swap benches" and Porig said yes.

Porig sat on the poo and died of the stink.

(I especially like the porridge leaking out of Porig's bowl head.)

Porig & Poo Pans 2

Porig and and Poo Pans

By: Liliana Seeley

Poo Pans was hungry. he looked for Porig.

At last he found Porig.

And ate Porig's porridge.

(I like Porig's frowny face here.)

Poop Pans & Porig

Poop Pans and Porig

By: Liliana Seeley

One day Porig split some of his porridge and Poop Pans had to clean it up.

Porig's mummy got cross with Porig.

Porig's mummy got so angry she kicked Porig and Porig's porridge fell out and the ambulance came.

Lili's second piano recital

Result of four months of lessons.... She asked and asked for lessons and practices (plays around) on her own on the piano every day, even when I don't sit down with her for real practice. It's nice to see her have her own thing.

Action Lili

Disclaimer: Lili's mother does not approve of these videos.

Star Wars

Lili is a giant Star Wars fan.

As of late, she collects Star Wars cards to trade at school, though mostly just enjoys laying them out and drooling over them with Oliver, and watches the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series (You should watch this. It is good and on Cartoon Network.).

We've also checked out Star Wars: La Guía Definitiva from the library, which has led to her in-depth knowledge of characters, both major and minor. 

One day while discussing Anakin's change to Darth Vader she asked Oli, 'Wait. Did Shmee know?' (Shmee is Anakin's mother, seen in Episodes I and II.) 

Oli asked, 'Do you mean, did she know that he was turning bad?' 

'Yes,' She clarified.

'Well, she was dead then,' Oli replied.

Now, from time to time, in reference to other things one of us will say, 'Wait. Does Shmee know?' 

Here is a recent sketch Lili did of Obi-wan and Anakin from the Clone Wars series. I especially like that Anakin's face scar is depicted.

Compare to:

Lili's 6th birthday, take 2 - The snowstorm that never was

My parents were here the week of Lili's birthday and Oli's parents came out for the day of (Just for the day! A morning flight from London and night flight back from Barcelona.)

The day before her b-day we made a massive yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

On her birthday Lili went to school to celebrate with her friends and the adults all went out to lunch. At 2.20pm I got a call on my cell from Lili's teacher telling me that the Education Dept. had ordered all schools to send children home at 3pm because of the possibility of snow.

So we all finished our coffees, ran to the train station, garbage picked a cool green bamboo chair, caught the train and got the girl just in time.

It never snowed, but we had an extra hour and a half for presents.

Carnaval 2012

Carnaval time!

The theme for the year at Lili's school is 'Get out in your neighborhood. Do things for your neighborhood." (It sounds better in Catalan - Mou-te al barri. Mou-te pel barri.) Thus, the suggested costume choice for carnaval was People in the Neighborhood.

Lili was a pastry chef.

We had ordered a super cute pink polka-dot hat and apron...but 2 days before carnaval, the company sent me an email saying they were out of stock and waiting for it to come. A shame since we were going to make Lil into a super sweet pinkalicious pastry lady. Alas, we came up with this at the last minute and were still pleased.

And as ever, her class participated in the neighborhood carnaval parade :)

We painted

Lili got a bunch of cool new pots of paint from various friends for her birthday. I had bought a bunch of nice fat new paintbrushes for her birthday party craft. And we already had a big roll of paper. Thus, fun sloppy painting.

 

Lili recently learned about Picasso at school and went to the Picasso museum here in Barcelona. She was inspired to paint this cup and two flowers into our mural. I can't figure out which painting of his it is...but she swears she saw it...a cup and two flowers in these colors. ?

The blocks in this one are inspired by a painting I bought in Seattle that hangs in our bedroom. The doodles in between were meant to be Miró-esque (Lili sudied him last year and likes copying his doodles).... but we ended up with a Picasso cup and BIG flowers once we opened up that pink and saw how great it was. 

Baby for sale

Lili's 6th birthday, take 1

Lili seems to have multiple birthday celebrations each year.

This year party one was a get together with her best school girlfriends to make 'stained glass' candle holders from recycled glass jars and tissue paper - which I messed up by accidentally buying crepe paper...that was being sold in tissue paper shape. Boo.

Oh well, the girls didn't care and we all had fun.

After the activity, chocolate-filled croissants and juice, we headed downstairs and outside to our patio where the girls, each dressed in one of Lili's princess dresses, skated around on the in-line skates and scooters they had all brought along.

Despite some histrionics from Lili when I let her best friend wear one of Lili's favorite real dresses, which she had forgotten she owned (we were one princess dress short), and the general complications involved in managing 9 little girls and moving them from outside, to the 11th floor, and back out again, fun was had.

Skeleton

Lily drew this the other day. Why a skeleton? Don't know.

I liked that he had knees and elbows.

Those things between the two 'Lili's are hearts, by the way.

Scooting Lily

Colònies 2011

So colònies is like camp in Catalunya. Kids as young as 4 go on overnight camp trips (staying in buildings, not tents!) with their classes. Lily will be going on her first one next week, to a seaside camp.

There are a vast number of companies that have rural or coastal houses or complexes where schools can take these trips. Sometimes they include 'monitors' or camp counselors that can lead the kids on different activities, sometimes the school staff do this. They also usually have a cafeteria with staff who provide the food.

Some of these places also let families pay to come for weekends or weeks and hang out/meet other families. Think Kellerman's in Dirty Dancing.

Some of the parents in Lily's class thought it would be fun for a bunch of us to go do this....and we did.

We went to Pou de Glaç (Ice well), one of may complexes run by a company called Rosa dels Vents.

The kids went off with a monitor in the mornings and afternoons to do things like bake pastries, go on a zip line and do an obstacle course in the woods. Parents did a higher zip line, wall climbing and archery. It was all very laid back, so if a kid wanted to stay with his or her parents, or if you preferred to go on a walk instead of doing the activities....it was just fine.

We ended day one with a post-dinner birthday party for some of the kids from Lily's class, and a dance party hosted by the camp monitors. Lily had some MOVES out there on the dance floor with her little friends. I was having fun dancing, too, but at 10:40 she stopped dead and said quietly, 'Mom, I just can't dance anymore. Can I go to bed?'

Check out all the Colònies 2011 photos here.

A weekend with Sika (Cap de setmana amb la Sika)

This weekend we had the class mascot Sika spend the weekend with us. Each kid in Lili's class gets a weekend and draws a picture and writes a sentence about what Sika liked doing with them. You can also add a sheet with some photos and descriptions, and then on Monday the kid gets to talk about what they did with Sika. Is nice.

Here is Sika:

Here is Lili's picture about what Sika liked:

'I liked playing with Lili's cars.'

And here is the longer version of what we did. Click for full size.


Translation:

On Saturday my dad, Sika and I went to Sitges. We had a lot of fun on the train. We wanted to build a sandcastle but it was too cold, so we ate roast chicken and french fries instead. I was really tired and fell asleep on a bench, so Dad and Sika played alone.

That night I made Sika a little table and she ate her dinner under our table. I also made her a bed with my dolls' pillow and blanket. Before bedtime we read a Charlie and Lola story.

On Saturday Dad showed us how to make paper airplanes we we threw them off our balcony.

Later we went to Nora's house to play and have lunch. Nora, Sika and I really like cous cous!