Regalos!

Last night I was up really late doing homework in the family room when Carlos came in holding this box-like toy. It's made out of that fabric and plastic ring to make it pop up, like a tent. And it's in the shape of a cube (2x2x2 feet), with a little "oven" with velcro door, a sink with a fabric drain plug, and a stovetop. They bought it for him b/c originally it was 70 euros but it went on clearance for TWO euros. They bought it immediately.

As soon as I saw it, I thought to myself "Yet another place for Dante to store his toy cars that he loves so much."

They also bought the same type of fabric cube in the shape of a washing machine, and then they bought one of those rubber balls that has a handle that you can sit on and bounce.

I was so excited for the moment that Dante saw these gifts. He didn't see them until after he got back from school and daycare, around 7pm.

First they showed him the stove and he just started grabbing everything. As he would touch the parts of the oven/stove, Rocio and Carlos told him what the parts were called.
(Dante grabs the door) Rocio: The oven door!
(Dante grabs the sink) Rocio: The sink and the drain plug!
(Oven knobs) Rocio: The knobs to turn it on and off!

Dante would repeat each part after her.

Then, Carlos started joking "Are you gonna make us dinner? Make some coffee, perhaps a snack of bread and honey? Howabout you do the dishes."

My favorite part was when he pointed to the painted-on stove burners (which are circles) and was like "LOOK! A rectangle! And look! Another rectangle!" And Carlos was like "Those are circles, dude."


Then Rocio asked him if he wanted to see his new washing machine, which was in his room. He kept saying no, until she asked if he wanted to show me the bouncy ball. As we walked down the hall, Rocio asked if he wanted to see the "lavadora" (washing machine). He said yes. He went in and was so excited, and he shouted "HOLAVADORA" (combining hola and lavadora), opening and closing the door of the washer over and over again, and twisting the knobs.




Soon to come: update on my intercambio, the radio, and hike to the mountains (and pics)

DANTE TIME!

Some great Dante moments as of late:

I had my backpack on the floor in the corner of the family room the other day when Dante saw my cell phone sitting on top. He wobbled over to it and saw me watching him, then picked up the phone, rotated it 90 degrees, then set it back down again. I have noticed this is his behavior all the time with my phone: he either picks it up and rotates it, or he picks it up and moves it 3 inches then sets it down again. I have no clue why.


At lunch the other day...
Dante: Quiero agua. (I want water)
Rocio: Si. (she pours him water)
Dante: Quiero jamon (i want ham)
R: (passes him the ham)
D: Quiero mas comida. (I want more food)
R: (she puts more food on his plate)
D: Quiero...cerveza (I want beer)
R: No, no no no...es la cerveza de mama.(No, it's mom's beer)
D: quiero cerveza! (I want beer!)
R: Toma mas agua. (here, take some more water.)


After lunch the other day, Rocio was enjoying a cup of coffee. The sugar bowl was on the table, which Dante spotted and immediately he requested: "Quiero azucar!" Rocio laughed and made a face like "like hell you are eating a spoonful of raw sugar," as she moved the sugar bowl to the other side of the table. Rocio and I were chatting about something, and Dante was playing with his toy cars. He stared at us talking, then did a lap around the table and said "Mama aqui, y Melissa aqui (mom here, and Melissa here) pointing to our seats in which we sat, respectively. Rocio responded with a "si." Then, as she turned to continue our chat, Dante (who had planned this sneak attack all along) started going for the sugar bowl. Rocio spotted it and took the sugar as he was an inch away from obtaining it.


Dante was coloring on some paper with his markers when he picked up the yellow one, took the cap off, then held it with both hands, perfectly straight up in front of his face. He slowly approached Rocio, repeating "Look! Look!" She was like "Yes, I see, the pretty yellow!" Then he was about 5 inches from her face when she realized he was coming so close in order to draw on her face. She laughed and grabbed the marker, saying he couldn't draw on her like they do in school (they have had a body painting unit the past couple weeks). After he cried a bit and after she explained that she wasn't mad at him, she rolled up her sleeves and let him draw on her.
Dante: (eyes wide, with an inquiring face) Te pinto? (can I draw on you?)
Rocio: Si, carino. (Yes, honey.)
He then proceeded to take full advantage of the opportunity, going to town with the green marker all over her forearms.


When it was time for dinner the other day, I found Dante five inches away from the TV, pressing the eject button on the DVD player and watching the tray slide in and out, over and over again. I grabbed his hands to lead him to the dinner table, and he said "NO!" and slowly laid down on the floor with his knees bent. He then used his heels to push him backwards, sliding on the floor on his back.


During lunch today, Dante's food was hot and his dad instructed him to blow on it. He would do these short bursts of air, almost near hyperventilation, until it was cool enough to eat.


I found his little ball-popper toy in the hallway on the floor, so I picked it up. Dante was walking towards the dining room, so I took the popper and rolled it towards him, kind of chasing him. He kept looking behind himself at the toy, grinning at whatever game we were playing. I chased him around the 3 foot diameter coffee table about 20 times before I had to stop because I was getting really dizzy. He LOVED it.



After I came home from my cooking class, Dante was eating dinner in the kitchen: tiny noodle stars with butter or something. They were all over his face, some noodle stars even were under his eye, or near his temple. I love how he eats so haphazardly. Later, when he got up, there were some noodles stuck to his pants behind his right ankle.


Rocio, who was out for the night, called Carlos on his phone. Carlos handed it to Dante, who picked it up and had the following conversation:
Dante: Ma-MA!
Rocio (you can hear her on the other end) Si, Carino (yes honey)
Dante: ma-MA!
Rocio: Si, carino.
D: Ma-MA!
R: Si, carino, que quieres (what do you want)
D: Ma-MA! (he then took the phone off his ear, brought it to the front of his face, and yelled MAMA into the receiver five or six more times until Carlos took it back)


After his dinner, Dante followed me to my room, where he grabbed his favorite thing: my house keys. He sat there playing with them for a while, until he suddenly looked at me and asked ...
Dante: Tienes hambre? Has comido? Quieres comer? (Are you hungry? did you eat? Want to eat?)
Me: No, he comido en la clase de cocina. He hecho la comida. (No, I ate in cooking class. I cooked the meal)
Dante: Has...has...has hecho la comida? (Did you, did you, did you make the food?)
Me: Si, he hecho la comida. (yes, I made the food)
Dante: Has hecho la comida? (you made the food?)
Me: Si, he hecho la comida. (yes, I made the food)
I love when Dante acts like the host of the household.


While in the kitchen, Dante took his empty cup and held it up to his mouth and shouted into it "MELISSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAA" and kept doing so until I responded with a deep "DANTEEEEE", to which he responded with a grin and a squealing giggle.


He had one of those party blowers that makes noise and unfurls a piece of paper, and he just honked and honked in the kitchen, scaring the crap out of Lola, who was frantically looking for an escape.


Once he was done with the party noisemaker, he told Lola he just wanted to give her a kiss. He got on his hands and knees and tried to catch Lola so he could kiss her. Traumatized by the previous noise, she was running in circles around him. Dante tried to crawl and catch up to her but was way too slow. He at one point grabbed her tail while she wailed in pain, but she wriggled free. The best part is that the kitchen is about 12 by 5 feet wide, so this was all happening in a fairly tiny space. He started getting upset, repeatedly saying "I JUST WANT TO KISS YOU, LOLA!" I was dying of laughter. Finally, Carlos yelled at Lola to sit. Lola, hesitant and fearful, stood still, then warily sat down. Dante leaped onto her, grabbing her body and kissing her side. Lola wriggled free once again, leaving Dante to fall over.


Finally, after playing (and by playing I mean "picking up various objects and moving them around the room) in my room, Carlos came in to tell him it was time for bed. I have never seen Dante get so upset to part with me! He started crying and saying how he didn't want to say "hasta manana" (until tomorrow) to me, and he wanted to keep playing.

Today was a good day.

bad dreams:sad::ice skating:happy

I was in the family room area with Carlos and Rocio, while Dante was napping in their room, and I heard some quiet tapping noise. I get up and turn on the light in the hall, and it is just what I thought: Dante hurriedly running in the dark hallway towards the family room on the verge of tears. I am pretty sure he had a nightmare. Carlos quickly ran into the hall and swept him up and handed him his "chupa" (pacifier). He quietly sobbed in Carlos' arms, then Carlos took him to sit on the sofa chair. Dante quietly sucked on his pacifier as he calmed down.

Eventually, Dante got up and laid on Rocio, who was napping on the couch. She woke up and wrapped the blanket around him and they cuddled. It was so adorable. Carlos continued watching TV while Rocio and Dante laid quietly on the couch, until Dante perked up at a TV show that Carlos flipped to. Dante, as usual when it comes to television, zoned out, mystified by the moving pictures. It was partner figure skating ("patinaje" en espanol).

Every time the partners would do jumps or acrobatics like flipping upside down, Dante had this huge grin on his face. Like I've mentioned before, when Dante likes something, he just grins and screams/squeals at it. He did this earlier when he was attacking Lola (the dog) with his push-and-pop roll-y toy.


(Imagine a 2 yr old child traumatizing a 2 yr old puppy by aggressively and repeatedly ramming this toy into it as he laughs maniacally)


He grinned and laughed and squealed for a good half hour. Carlos, Rocio and I especially liked the Matrix routine (2 people dressed as The Matrix characters and skating to a soundtrack song) when the girl did a flip over the man (who was laying down) and was an inch away from spearing his forehead with her ice skate.

After watching happy ice skating for an hour or so, you could tell Dante felt much better.

If my world were a musical...

Who am I kidding? It practically is with all of these songs that are sung around the house for Dante to do things.

One example is sleep time:
A la cama, con Dante! A la cama, con Dante! (time for bed, with Dante)

(when they happily sang this after dinner, Dante just broke down to tears because he didn't want to go...it was kind of funny because it was so spontaneous)

Eat time:
A comer, a comer... (and other lyrics...that are about eating)

Cleaning up after playing:
...todo tiene su lugar!...(everything in its place)

As well as an abundance of other songs that I hear Dante sing with his mom in his room or when playing. Sometimes when he is playing with his toys alone, he'll sing to himself. Not songs, but just singing instead of talking. He'll just sing things like "the car goes into the garage! The red one, the blue one, the green one!"

CUTE OVERLOAD

So finally I got to Alicante, I waited outside in the cold (45 or 50 degrees, so cold but not too cold) while I waited for my host mom to arrive. And no, that wasn't supposed to happen. She arrived, and she spoke perfect English! That was a big disappointment. So then she showed me around the apartment, in English. I responded to everything in Spanish. (After dinner tonight, it came about that they said they'd only speak Spanish from now on...but they still say English every now and then)
I took a nap, then when I woke up, I heard a tiny little spanish voice down the hall. When I first arrived, only my host mom was home, and now she had picked up her 2 yr old son from school (which I am curious about...what school is there for 2 yr olds?). Remember in one san sebastian entry where I said children's voices are even cuter when they're in Spanish? Well, IT IS TRUE.
Dante doesn't know any words in English, so he is super duper cute. When I went to the kitchen and he came out from the patio, the voice in my head made this noise: gaajkshdgksueyrgh. That is an affectionate gargling noise of a CUTENESS OVERLOAD!

He was really shy at first, where he hid behind his parents, the table, the door, a chair, or anything that he could just peek around from, since I was a stranger.
He soon warmed up to me, and he got into his little show and tell mode that kids get into, where they just want to show you EVERYTHING. Instead of "lookit! lookit!" he's shouting "mira! Mira!" as he shoves various toys, a placemat, a shoe, and a cereal box in my face. Later I saw him wandering the hallway alone and asked him if he'd show me his room. He got SO excited at the idea of this, and immediately ran into his room and showed me all of his toys and the mini plastic slide in the middle of the room. When he showed me his chair in the den, I pointed to his shirt to ask him if he knew what number it was, and my hand brushed across the super sticky surface. Later, my host mom informed me that he likes honey. A lot. Like, 3 or 4 times a day.
In the den is also MY favorite toy of the bunch, a Mr. Potato Head doll named "Darth Tater."

Later, after dinner, he sat and watched a 7 minute clip from his favorite cartoon [edit: Pocoyo] as we finished eating. During the clip (from youtube) he was in a trance. After the clip, he was calling papa to fix it for him so it would play more. I have never seen a child refuse desserts and chocolate, but he did just that as he zoned out to the red octopus and yellow boot-shaped duck on screen. Then, of course, when it was time to go to bed, he was all "NOW I want chocolate." Then he just began naming random foods he wanted, and it was hilarious. He even said "pine nuts" at one point. Then he just began naming more and more foods. At one point, my host dad said "would you like me to make you something? perhaps a strawberry souffle?" Dante, with the most serious face, thought for a moment, then said, "Yes, I do."

Eventually he left to go to his room, but before he put on his jammies, his mom carried him in my room, and she said "what do you say? hmm? Oh, he wanted to give you a kiss before bed." And so I ducked down a bit and he gave me a peck on the cheek, with a huge grin on his face! SOOOO CUTE!