Links to some videos

I've uploaded some video onto YouTube. There is a slide show of our time in Spain so far and a video of Maya's Birthday day. I also made a beautiful one hour movie of our videos in Spain, but I'm having a problem converting it from the Microsoft format into a publishable and useable format! Going to redo with a new software I guess...

Getting ready for Morocco

Several weeks in Cambrils relaxing with family, and we are definitely ready to get moving again. Our time here has been a mix of routine and family time, interspersed with some exciting (and TOO exciting events)....Zvoulon suffered a minor heart angina and spent several nights in the hospital, Maya turned 2, and we spent a wonderful week in Barcelona with Maya's best friend Ava and her parents, our dear friends Simon and Natasha.

Internet has been a MAJOR challenge in Spain....there are internet cafes around, but we are SOOOO used to internet in the house, that it's hard to break the habit. We think that it will be easier to have permanent mobile internet in Morocco, so that should make Haim's work a bit easier to manage...as well as letting me keep posting more regularly.

We bought a car in Spain, a Hyundai Galloper, that should give us plenty of possibilities in morocco and beyond. The car purchase was a challenge, but I persevered and finally accomplished it. As a foreigner you need a NIE (sort of a tax number) in Spain to purchase/ own major items....house, car, bank account, cell phone and internet that are NOT pre-paid, ect...To get a NIE you have to go to the Foreigner's Bureau of the Policia Nacional and apply, bringing with you a letter from your bank or notary as to why you need the number. After about a week, I finally figured that I could get our bank to prepare the letter, even though they did not require the NIE, and then once I had the NIE I could use it for the purchase...since they do not let a vehicle purchase be justification for an NIE....bureaucracy takes some getting used to and creativity to get around!

So now we have our car, and are packing in the next day or 2 to head through Valencia, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada, and across to Tangier at Tarifa. Planning to spend a couple days couch surfing in Sevilla with a family who has a child Maya's age, which I hope she will enjoy. We also have a surf set up in Tangier, but not much planned beyond that. Haim's parents, both born in Morocco, have given us various places to visit, family houses and graveyards, ect...it will definitely bring our travels to life in a different way.

Maya, is really starting to enjoy and adjust to the traveling. She constantly plays "packing" generally with freshly laundered clothes, which can be frustrating....and we have to constantly find the things that she has packed away....Natasha accuses her of being a klepto, but I think she just likes to pack....everything!

My favorite time with her is in the morning, the first hour that she is awake, we lay in bed cuddling, nursing, giggling and playing. That is when I really know that home truly is where the heart is; for us home is the Family Bed....wherever in the world we are. As she comes into her own more, knowing her desires, communicating more, ect, it is a time of joy, amazement and occasionally "want-to-squeeze-her-till-her-eyes-pop" frustration.

She is so smart and creative and good at finding the ways to the things that she wants to accomplish....whether or not we want them accomplished! I guess that is what toddlers do.... I try to channel my zen, get the nasty tone out of my voice when I ask her to (or not to) do something for the umpteenth time, and enjoy her spark, creativity and strong personality. It is especially cool to watch her begin to communicate in multiple languages to different people, sizing strangers up before deciding which to approach in. Anyway, off to pack a bit while Haim and Maya are out....it's better when she's not here to "help"!