SCHOOL'S OUT!!!!

So at the end of July and the beginning of August, all the schools close here for vacaciones. It's basically winter break with no holiday or, as far as I can tell, any particular reason. But it certainly rivals winter break in DC.

In general, Buenos Aires is a lot more kid friendly than Washington. There are a lot of activities, parks, and an overal kid-friendly atmosphere here than back in the District. But about a week before vacaciones we started getting inundated with advertising in all forms of different things that would be happening during vacaciones, which was convenient because I was starting to panic with the thought of trying to figure out how to keep Isa occupied for 2 whole weeks. I mean, I'm new to this whole stay-at-home dad thing and some days I'm completely at a loss of how to entertain her in at least a somewhat educational manner. I mean, 8 hours of television a day is a little too much, right? (Unless, of course, it's the World Cup - that is purely educational and cultural....)

So think about what you did during winter break - either when you were a kid or with your kids - and compare to what we did in two weeks. And please keep in mind that we probably only scratched the surface - there were a ton of things I wanted to take Isa to that were either too far or there just wasn't enough time. (And anyone who did something cool like go skiing in the Alps are immediately disqualified. No travelling allowed for this contest.)

First there was the Children's Book Fair. Now this might only sound fun to a librarian, but they had a TON of things for kids: face painting (that's almost obligatory here), indoor playground, guitar building for older kids, various arts and crafts, story-telling by various Argentine writers, a fun with science show, various dancing, singing, etc. etc. Oh, and probably every book in print for kids in various languages (yes, including swedish...). It was HUGE (an entire convention center) and also had symposiums for writers of children's books, and was going on for two weeks. We went for an afternoon and I planned on returning with Isa to do a lot more stuff, but never had the time.

Then there was children's theater. Isa went to the ballet (twice), and she saw at least 4 plays with various people. At one point she was going to the theatre every day with her abuela and various friends. And I'm not at all exaggerating when I say that if she went to every play in Buenos Aires going on for kids, it would take over a month.

A couple of times we went to museums. Isa really likes art museums (I feel like I'm cheating when she goes to the museum and she likes it - like I've tricked her into eating fruit instead of chocolate). So she saw Lichtenstein, I think Picasso, and a bunch of Argentine contemporary artists. She never made it to the Children's Museum which is supposed to be awesome, because we figured it would be too crowded.

Every mall (probably to attract your spending dollars) had various activities, so on rainy days we headed off to the mall for cooking class (this was a bit of a joke - one of them was how to make ice cream sundaes sponsored by the ice cream store), arts and crafts, and story telling. Plus the malls all have indoor playgrounds (some free, some not) that Isa ran around in even though it's cold and wet outside.

Oh - the movies! Isa saw Cars and an Argentine movie called Raton Perez. You see, apparently the Tooth Fairy had her passport revoked, and she is only allowed to take teeth in the US. In Argentina, there's a rat named Perez who comes and takes your teeth from under your pillow and leaves you either money, candy, or a toy. I think the candy is ironic. Regardless, there is a move that is half cartoon half movie (like Roger Rabbit) about Raton Perez. It's a long story, but at the end it gets kinda' scary for a little kid, so we had to take off. I was bummed because it was totally the big event for the day and Isa and I were going alone for daddy daughter time. She got scared and wanted her mommy. Of course.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Sof was rolling over and asking for Dada. At least one of them loves me.

Playdates - I met more parents from school during vacation than I met from dropping off and picking up Isa at school. She went to so many kids houses (and vice versa). At the last one, I wasn't sure how well it would go, and as soon as we got there, Isa turns to me and quietly says in English "Daddy, you can go now and come back and get me later."

So I went home and played with Sof. She loves me. Of course, I'm the one with the food in her world, so....

And of course she went to the club for her weekly gym class (for lack of a better description) where she plays sports-type activities and swims in an indoor pool for three hours. She loves it. Almost as much as ballet class she started today.

And there was a birthday party. I think I've written about birthday parties here. If not, I'll quickly summarize. Take the best kids birthday party you have been to recently in the US. Add fireworks on the cake, loud music, make it 3 hours with hired professional entertainers, and then give it a shot of steroids, and you might get close. The kids eat so much junk food and soda (3 year olds drink Coke here) that when the cake comes out, most of them don't want any. Can you imagine your four year old saying "No thanks, I don't want cake"? I can't. Isa usually eats it anyway. That's my girl!

But the icing on the cake of vacaciones was the arrival of the abuelas from Washington. Not only did they come bearing gifts (parents beware of grand-parents bearing gifts), but they wanted to spend a lot of time with Isa taking her to all these things that I probably will never know about. Just as it should be....

I can't help but feel like we got ripped off by growing up in America....