xmas 2010

Untitled from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Christmas Cookies 2010

Lily vs. Paintbrush

Lily draws on the computer using Paintbrush.

Letter to Santa

Some home movie footage of Lil and Angela writing their Christmas list, with a special guest appearance by everyone's favorite log.

Taller de camisetas

Lily and I were invited to this event (It's a shirt-making workshop):



It involved everyone buying or recycling blank shirts and bringing buttons, cloth scraps and fabric paint to spend an afternoon making improved shirts. There was some awesome stuff made (I await images via Facebook).

I mostly supported Lily as she made this:



...while intermittently speaking to people and trying to focus my thoughts. Very late in the game I came up with this:





It's not so amazing, which was difficult for me to bear since everyone was making such cool things, and it's not even finished, but, I ripped up an old stained shirt of Lily's that had a print I liked in order to make the white arrow. So, it's sentimental. And recycled. At the same time.

PS - I want a sewing machine for Christmas, Santa.

Carretera de les aigües

A great Barcelona outing that we don't do as often as we'd like is walking Carretera de les aigües.

For thse who don't live in Barcelona, the city is trapped between the sea and a small mountain whose peak is called Tibidabo. A big flat path called Carretera de les aigües runs along the face of the mountain that overlooks the city. We've done it a couple times since it is pretty easy to get to, but next time, we definitely want to rent some mountain bikes, with a kid seat :)

For those who do live in Barcelona but have never tried it out:
- Take the ferrocarril L7 to its last stop, Avinguda Tibidabo.
- Walk up Avinguda Tibidabo, or take the blue trolley, to the base of the Funicular de Tibidabo.
- Don't take the funicular, but rather, head right, round the curve and further up 'til you reach a parking lot. This is the beginning of the path.
- If you walk south for about an hour, you'll reach the Funicular de Vallvidrera and can go up to Collserola or down into BCN where the funicular will drop you at the Ferrocarril stop Peu de Funicular.
- From the main flat path, there are a number of small windy paths that go off up and down in the scrubby woods, up to Tibidabo or Collserola.

Calamares

Lily loves calamares. But for some reason, we haven't made them at home for a really long time. Bought some from the market and put Lily to work. Last time we put breading on fish she loved making it, so now if we bread things, she does it all on her own and I just have to throw it in the pan or hot oil. Noice.

Word wall -or- Oh my gosh, a post!

It's been a while...and is time we post something here!

What's new is the Word Wall. Funny thing about living in another country is that even though Lily will come out of this thing speaking three languages, if we don't help her out, she won't be able to read or write English :(

Thus, the Word Wall.

Lily and I started working our way through the Dolch Word List a few weeks ago. To get her psyched, we started by making a pretty mosaic poster for our wall. Then got down to learning.

A few days a week, sometimes before school, sometimes after dinner, we pick a word from the current group we're on, sound it out, then cut letters and pretty colorful things out of magazines to make a card for that word. It then gets stuck on the wall.

Then, from time to time we'll randomly ask Lily to grab a word off the wall and bring it to us, and we ask her to sound it out to prove it's the right word. She can also send us to get words. We've also started making silly phrases by putting the cards on the floor and changing their order.

Lily was not initially impressed by the 'learning something new' aspect of the task. The first time I tried to get her to sit down and look at the word list and sound things out, she was pissed. I actually had to be all mean mom and say "You're going to sit here and learn letter sounds or go sit in your thinking chair!" - I'm sure that's standard practice in pedagogy. In any case, as soon as she worked out the first word ('cat'), she was so pleased that we've rarely had to revisit that phase. In any case, I try to keep the 'sessions' to 10 minutes or less, and often to just a few seconds so she doesn't get bored and resentful...though I'm sure we'll have to keep varying the activities every few week, or she will anyway.

Any other ideas on teaching phonics, reading or writing?

We haven't really ventured too much into writing because my Lil gets hot headed. I can remember my sister trying to teach me borrowing in Math and how I screamed at her 'No, you CAN'T DO THAT!' when she 'took' 10 from one column and put it in the next....so really, have no idea where Lily could get this stubborn thing from.

Anyway, she can write all the letters, but getting her to make words is like [insert simile about how difficult something is here].

Wales from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

The Marker Prince

The Marker Prince from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

The Freedom Hater

The Freedom Hater from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Wisconsin Summer 2010

Wisconsin Summer 2010 from Oliver Seeley on Vimeo.

Loft bed

I've changed Lily's room...AGAIN.

This time, there's a loft bed involved.

See photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=202282&id=659342526&l=46bab63edf

Christmas 2009

VIEW THE PHOTOS HERE

Christmas morning


Santa's boot



Christmas lunch


Opening presents

Lily dances to The Clash

One Sunday morning, Lily was really in the groove. I had just put music on and she got inspired to "Suit up" in her dance gear. With each song that came on, she changed style and got really into the music.

See what I mean?

Next time, we'll really take bets

The original





The sequel

Good day

POINT NUMBER 1: Caga Tio

Yes, I already posted this Caga Tio video on Facebook. Now I post it on my blog (not everyone is on Facebook!) with extended detail.

Talking to a neighbor the other day, I finally got what I think is the straight dope on Caga Tio. Why a log that we feed, then beat until it shits out presents?!!?!

Well, back in the days of the pagès (pah-zhes), the peasant farmers who populated the valleys of northern Spain and Southern France, etching out a living where no invading Moor bothered go, leaving behind massive stone houses (masias) that have endured 700+ years, man's dependence on and subjection to nature was foremost on the collective mind.

So, at Christmas time, or possibly pagan holiday time, families took to wandering the woods to find a hollow log to love and care for as a way to give back to Nature. On the big night, they may or may not have hit it, but certainly would have filled the hollow log with dry fruits, nuts, bread and other simple foods that "Nature" would then give back to them, possibly by shitting, as a reward for their weeks of care. This was Christmas dinner.

I like this tradition more and more each year, and this year, for the first time, we plan to get our own Caga Tio (today in the Christmas market near the cathedral!) which we will take to England, hide and the woods, and take Lily and other to go find. Yeah!

POINT NUMBER 2: What a great day.

It's confirmed that I have the job with this indie record label, correcting their English lyrics and artists accents when they sing. Sweet.

I spent the morning making pumpkin/carrot cream soup and egg croquetas (so we can stay out late as a family later and have food to warm up for dinner), am off to work to collaborate on developing a resource wiki (fun!), and then to meet Oli and Lily at the Christmas market.

Life is good.

~

Wah-wah

I write about what Lily does a lot, but what about meeee?

Today I worked on some online inscription and payment forms for work, in preparation for a meeting tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will work on an online job board and an html email with tips for our students preparing English certificate exams.
Oh, and will meet with colleague about setting up the term end party which is also a film fest.

Lately, one day a week I work on learning MySQL and PHP for me, you know, for kicks. (Thanks Marty for suggesting that; it has worked out perfectly since a friend is doing a degree and her current course is with experts in database driven websites, so we can study together.)

I think you all now see why I write about Lily.

:)

My glasses!

Glasses broke. Until I can afford new ones, had to figure out a way to mend them enough so I could at least still wear them at home at night when the eyes are tired of contacts.

In the end, I resorted to melting them back together.

The old poop and talk

Recently Lily has taken to reading while on the toilet. This means that she will often disappear for up to 20 minutes when doing a number 2. Generally about 18 minutes of that is reading time, during which she might call me twice to show me a magazine photo.

Yesterday Lily was on the toilet when her cousin Hannah called from England, having very recently returned from visiting her mother's family in South Korea. Lily was thrilled to be reading, pooping and talking, though most of the conversation consisted of "No Hannah, YOU'RE a stinker bum. No, you're a WASHING machine! Ha ha, ha ha."



After about 10 minutes, the conversation moved on to our front hallway where Lily carried on like a 13-year-old. Incredible.


In other news, Lily still loves Santa in a deferent, worshipful sort of way. She calls him Christmas because the British call him Father Christmas, and she doesn't quite get that you're supposed to say Father and Christmas.

We walked past a bakery yesterday with this jazz-playing Santa and in typical Lily-loves-Santa style, when she spotted him, she stopped abruptly and gasped in a quiet, serious, awe-struck voice, "Christmas."


We stayed 10 minutes watching him play jazz. She hugged him. She gently held his hand. Amazing what a big bit of dancing plastic can summon from the depths of a child.