1 YEAR & 5½ MONTHS - 13 Dec 2011

It's been a lovely but rough 2 weeks.... Dec 6 and 8 are holidays here, this year they were on a Tuesday and a Thursday. Albert wasn't working but the shops were open. Tuesday morning I met up with a friend while Albert cleaned the apartment. In the afternoon my mother-in-law came at 16:00 and Albert and I went into town. We did some shopping, went out for dinner, and had a feeling of Saturday all day. Wednesday morning our babysitter sent me an sms that she was sick and wouldn't be coming. We can all get sick, but seriously?? She'd been working here two weeks and it was her second day of sickness. AND last week she was only supposed to be working Monday and Wednesday - she can't even make it to work two days in one week? So I fired her via e-mail. We contacted an American girl we've been in contact with before, she came to meet us all on Friday and seemed sweet. The problem was that I had a translation due Thursday which I had thought I could finish Wednesday morning while Charlotte was with the girls. Instead I was up late Wednesday evening finishing it off.
Thursday we all four went out to a christmas market and a playground, Saturday afternoon my mother-in-law came in the afternoon and Albert and I had our second Saturday of the week. Sunday we went to a christmas lunch with Barcelona Børn, a group for Danish or half-Danish families in Barcelona. It was fun seeing the older kids speak Danish with one parent and Catalan or Spanish with the other. It was great to see that it's not a problem for the kids!
Monday afternoon our new American babysitter Emily came. We all four went to a playground, then Emily was with Liva and Laia while I prepared their dinner. It worked great, they liked her straight away. She came back this morning and Liva and Laia were thrilled. They used to cry when Charlotte came, there was no reaction when Anne Louise came. It was lovely to see them actually happy when Emily came. We all went to a playground together, and met up with Susan and Luca. This way Liva and Laia have gotten used to Emily with me around. Tomorrow she'll take them to the playground on her own, I'm sure there won't be any problems. The main problem has been, however, that when I handed in the translation on Thursday, I was sent a new one the same day - the biggest translation I've had since Liva and Laia were born. Having to introduce a new babysitter and so losing working hours during the day has been quite rough! I've been up until at least midnight every night for the past 3 days, working on the translation. Deadline is on Thursday, I'm looking forward to getting a few hours tomorrow morning and hopefully being able to go to bed at a normal time. Tonight I'll be up late again, the few hours I'll get tomorrow are unfortunately not enough.
But Emily is great, she's married to a Catalan and they will be here until the summer. At least we seem to have the babysitter-problem solved for the next 6-7 months! I'm convinced 2012 will be a lot easier than 2011 has been; Liva and Laia are bigger, and though they're more work they're also easier and more fun to take care of and be with. And though they'll keep being more work, they'll keep getting bigger and bigger, and easier and easier in many ways!

Liva & Laia 17½ months