Snaggletooth

Any moment now, Gretchen has at least one, possibly two teeth that are about to pop through.  I've been saying this for months, since she is almost 13 months old and still only has 3 teeth.  But considering that I think that this might really be the week the next tooth comes through, I wanted to document the adorable single upper tooth that Gretchen has been sporting over the last few weeks.

Precious singular upper tooth

In other news, she now loves all telephones, and spends much of her day trying to reach the phone we keep in our living room:

"What, Mom?  I'm just getting the phone."

And here is a glimpse into a few of the additional photos that I took in an attempt to get Gretchen's tooth on film.

Here is where she grabs my camera strap:

And here is where she finds it hilarious that I keep backing up out of her reach:

We're on tooth watch!  And we go in for our 12 month doctor's check-up tomorrow - wish us luck!

Visiting Carilo

Carilo's "City Center"

As I mentioned in the Beach Baby post, we took our first full-week vacation in Argentina since arriving here in 2009 and went to a little beach community called Carilo.  This town is about 4 hours outside of Capital, a little south of Pinomar (another popular beach town) and and hour north of Mar del Plata (the grand-all, everyone-goes-there-in-the-summer beach city). It is a great, smaller alternative to the two previously mentioned towns on the Argentine coast, though it is much more low-key with less commercial shops, restaurants and bars.  It is also seen as being a bit more expensive, though we didn't notice a huge difference from the prices in Buenos Aires.

We made the cardinal error of booking our hotel too late.  It is a well known fact that a large portion of Buenos Aires skips town during the summer months (Jan-Feb) and heads to the beach, so recommendation #1, if you're going - book early.  Many places will only book week or two-week stay minimums during these months, so be sure you know what your hotel/apartment's policy is before getting too far into the booking process.  Some places will only rent Sun-Sun, some Sat-Sat and other non-flexible rules like that, so again, be sure you know what you're getting into.  We consulted many of our friends and coworkers, and then Trip Advisor and a number of other websites for hotel recommendations, but found sparse information online when it came to hotel reviews and general information about the town.  After emailing back and forth with a number of hotel/apartments, I finally gave in to calling and trying out my Spanish because the information exchange over email was generally cryptic and incomplete.  For example, a room that sleeps 5 adults may only have one bedroom with a sofa and a futon that provide the beds for 3 of the 5.  Or an apartment with "3 habitaciones" (3 rooms) may actually only have a kitchen, dining area and a bedroom.  This was important in our search because we were looking for a place with a bedroom for Jon and I, a room for my in-laws and a separate room for Gretchen (if we're going to be there for a week, we at least wanted to get some sleep...). I ended up booking a place called Terrazas de Carilo, an apartment with a full kitchen, 2.5 baths and 3 bedrooms.

I could go on and on about how the shower curtain fell on Jon's mom during a shower, or how they gave us watered down dish soap (a used container for washing our dishes that was clearly diluted with water), or how they provided one stained dishcloth with a hole you could fit your whole hand through, or how any room with a drain smelled like a fishing boat - but I won't.  I'll just say - don't stay there until they've done at least US$500,000 in renovations.  On their survey at the end of the week, I gave them a whole lot of "malo's" (bad/unsatisfactory).  But it DID have lots of space, a parilla on the porch and some very friendly staff members.

Gran and Poppa walking along the beach

Most hotels I spoke to offered some sort of "beach service" which generally provides a few chairs and maybe an umbrella on the beach.  Our beach service was a kind of hut with plastic lawn chairs that was a little ways from the actual water - so we abandoned that spot and used the beach service guy, Willie, to rent better chairs (AR$30 for a lay-down chair, AR$15 for a low-sitting beach chair; per day) and put them closer to the water.  I am unclear as to if Willie rents to people that are not included in his beach-service domaine, but I imagine him or someone else provides that service.  Moral of the story is that beach service is different depending on the hotel, and my Spanish is not strong enough to determine between styles of chairs and umbrella/huts - so I would just remove that factor from my decision making process while booking a hotel next time around.

The roads in Carilo are made of sand, and therefore behave the way that packed sand generally does.  They are nice to look at and made the town feel more quaint, but we had some serious pothole issues both on our way in and out of the town, and there was some significant flooding during the 4 nights of rain we experienced (to the point where I didn't think our car was going to make it out of town).  The other factor regarding the road is the popularity of 4-wheelers and motorbikes - great for fun-loving kids, not so great for sleeping babies.  I would choose to stay in a place either further from the beach access or in a room away from the street if I were doing it over again - those suckers were loud.

Don't get me wrong, we really liked the town - we would just do some things different when we travel next time around.  The downtown area was adorable, and we were able to pick up a few keepsake items from a great little shop we found on the last afternoon we were in town.  We also tried a number of restaurants in the town, our favorites being Bar de Tapas (great for a sit down meal) and Jalisco (an impressively good Mexican restaurant that offers delivery - and a commemorative tote bag to boot!).  The beach is very similar to the eastern shore of the US, North Carolina or New Jersey, it was clean, well maintained, and had surprisingly competent lifeguards every 100 meters.  Our sunny days were wonderful, though we had an unanticipated number of rainy days (which, according to the locals, happens every year in late February at the beach), so the weather, combined with the hotel really tainted my view of this specific vacation.

If you're headed to Carilo, or anywhere on the Argentine coast, do your research, try not to travel at the same time as everyone else in the country - and, for goodness sakes, book in advance!

Gretchen Turns ONE!

Wowza, our baby girl is ONE YEAR old!  I cannot believe it.  My sweet little girl is actually turning into a sweet little girl - not a sweet little bundle of baby.

One year ago we had one of the biggest surprises of our lives when 26 days before my due date I was woken up (at 8:00am, how times have changed that I was still sleeping past 8:00...) to a baby belly that was ready to burst.

Monday, February 28, 2011 - just before we hailed a cab to the hospital

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - I feel like the only thing similar about these two mornings is that I was wearing the same shorts.  

One Year Old Gretchen!

This year I woke to a happy little girl with a belly full of cupcake that just needed a balloon to keep her busy for hours on end.  Argentina was lovely enough to give us a holiday on Monday, February 27, so we held Gretchen's birthday party a day early and then spent her actual birthday with just family.

So lets rewind to the day before Gretchen turned one and describe a little bit about her adorable birthday party.

Originally, I had pretty casual expectations for a pretty simple party, but my mother-in-law and I were talking about party themes, I mentioned giraffes, and there was no going back.  I'm pretty sure Jon's parents packed anything giraffe-related within a 25 mile radius of their home and transported it to Argentina in their luggage.  The theme was a huge success.

In addition to the actual giraffe items that were purchased for the party, I tried my hand at cake pops for the second time, and though they were a bit more challenging than the first batch (they were too moist or something, but the chocolate kept slipping off and the poor little heads actually fell off of a few of the sticks.  It was giraffe-carnage in our refrigerator for a while) they turned out really cute!  Thank you to the numerous family members and family member's girlfriends that both helped, and witnessed my disappointment when I didn't think they were going to work out.

In a moment of dessert-inspired panic, we also made a funfetti cake and red velvet cupcakes.  Yum!

Here we are with the birthday girl before anyone arrived.  She was so funny all morning, when she had a balloon in hand, she was the happiest girl in the world, when she was deprived of her balloon, she was incredibly serious-faced.

Note the serious face...

We compromised and gave Gretchen a few balloons while we took some pictures, but that didn't seem to help the serious-face.  

With Gran and Poppa on my birthday!

We just had a few close friends over, but all of the little kiddos played together incredibly well!  I couldn't believe how everyone seemed to find a partner and a toy and just sat, playing quietly, through most of the party.  It inspired me to hide some of Gretchen's toys, and rotate them out in a few weeks so that they are new and exciting again.

Look at those big baby blues!

 The big finale was Gretchen's first time eating sweets - and we gave her a whole cupcake to enjoy.  I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but our little girl is a fantastic eater.  She puts virtually every other child I know to shame in that department.  She likes everything, she tries everything and she eats with conviction - none of this playing-around-with-my-food nonsense.  Knowing this, we were prepared for a cupcake demolition, and she did not disappoint.....

Right after the Happy Birthday song...

Getting a little taste of this delicious little cake...

Two hands grabbing the cupcake to eat the "stump" first (just like Mom likes to eat cupcakes, saving the delicious frosting for the end)....

Cupcake carnage...

Finishing with a tongue-stick-out move that could only mean "why are all these people looking at me??"

It was hilarious and fun to watch Gretchen enjoy her first cupcake, and we'll hope she's not destined for the dessert-craving life that her Mom has endured.  

Before we bid farewell to everyone, we got a quick photo of Gretchen with two of her besties, Trey and Talia.  Look how much our kiddos have grown since the 4th of July (when we last posed them in a picture together)!!!

July, 2011 - They're all just babies!!

February, 2012 - only big kids here!

Gretchen had a wonderful birthday!  She also took this monumental occasion to switch to one nap per day...a schedule that has been working out great for us.  She has been so full of life and fun - as difficult as it is to see my baby girl grow up - it has been wonderful watching her discover her world and develop a personality.  She has started mimicking little things like yawns, crinkling her nose and sticking out her tongue.  She loves her pacifier and giraffe blankie, but knows that they stay in the crib after she's done sleeping.  She is incredibly curious and knows exactly how to get in to trouble, but she has also started giving hugs and kisses (they're open mouth, be prepared...) which completely melts our hearts.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!  And may you always be as happy as you were with your balloons.

Beach Baby

We have spent the last week in Carilo, a little beach town about 4 hours outside of Buenos Aires city.  It has been a nice, quiet getaway (with some quirks, which I will discuss later) that allowed us to show Jon's parent's a different side of Argentina.  

This trip also marks Gretchen's first time on the beach - with the sand and the waves and the 1,000,000 things to put in her mouth.  She loved it!  We had so much fun playing with our little girl!  So, before I write a post about the ins and outs of Carilo as I see them, here are some pictures of our little beach baby.

This is the first time we put Gretchen on the sand, her face says it all: "I'm not totally sure what this is about, but I don't dislike it..."

After applying full sun protection to our fair child, through a very broad hat, loads of sun screen and this fashionable sun-blocking swim suit, we were ready for the water!  Here is Gretchen's first, very confident steps into the ocean.

And here she is dragging Poppa back to the water, which she did over and over again.  This little one has no fear.

We were able to hold her still for a quick family shot - but only for a second, she has things to do!

Like hunt for shells with Poppa.  She is lucky to have such a patient Poppa that helps remind her not to eat the shells. Even if she tries to eat them every 3 seconds.

Our good friends the Kempfs also decided to vacation in Carilo this week, and we are so glad they did!  We got to hang out with friends, and Gretchen was able to spend lots of time playing with their adorable daughter, Claire.  Here Claire is, showing off her Iowa-girl-side and eating some corn on the beach.

And a close-up of this little duckling in her super-cute robe.

Though Gretchen and Claire have lots of fun together, they are still 4 months apart, which is a lot in baby time.  I love this picture, Gretchen has this huge smile on her face, which Claire seems to be so sad that she can't move fast enough.  In due time little Claire!  

We did have some (lots) of questionable weather during the week. This particular day, it was sunny but extremely windy, so we took Gretchen upstairs to the terrace of our hotel which had some little kid toys.  

She was particularly fond of this little pen filled with plastic balls. She played with the balls, tossing them out of the pen, and putting them in again, longer than she'll play with any of her toys back home.  

Check out our big girl!  

We also stole a few of the balls to bring into the pool (the indoor pool, that we visited on a different bad-weather day).  The balls were a hit there too!  We decided to forego the bathing suit for the baby this time around, no one seemed to mind.

And one last shot of an incredibly happy baby, enjoying her warm, sunny days on the beach.  Happy February everyone!

Casa Mun

 Finally!  After contemplating dinner at Casa Mun for months, we finally had a great reason to go.  In a stroke of luck, Jon's parents visit coordinated perfectly with his cousin Luke's rugby team trip to Buenos Aires, we couldn't have planned it better ourselves.  We wanted to show Luke, his girlfriend Jenn, and the rest of the coaching staff something different to do in Buenos Aires, so we decided to take them to the most recent addition to the closed-door restaurant club.  It's not the most Argentine thing they did during their trip, but it certainly highlighted a cool little underground culture piece of the city.

We have already taken Jon's parents to dinner at Casa Salt Shaker and to a wine tasting at Anuva, so it fit really well that we could also bring them to Casa Mun during this trip.  In another strange twist of events, Casa Mun has recently moved out of their home and into a shared space with Anuva, though we did not try the wine tasting on this trip.

Cousin Luke and his beautiful girlfriend Jenn

As with many of these closed-door places, you reserve your spot in advance, and have a set menu for the entire seating.  Casa Mun offers a 5-course meal, with soda or water for AR$205 or with a 5-course wine paring for AR$250.  He accepts Argentine pesos or US dollars, and if you are willing to pay in advance, you can use Pay Pal - a great alternative.  Diners are encouraged to come at 9:00pm and enjoy a glass of champagne, but required to arrive before 9:30pm or risk being turned away.

The dinner started promptly with a brief explanation from Chef Mun discussing how his restaurant came to be, and gave a little preview on what to expect for the evening's meal.

We started with a sesame crusted tuna salad. The dressing was outstanding, and the portion size was good, but I was expecting a little more from the tuna.  It was extremely high quality fish, which is rare in BsAs, but I would have liked a little more seasoning to complete the dish.  Chef Mun's cooking method is unique, he uses a blow torch to sear the edges of the tuna, and the dish was beautifully presented.





 The next item was a chilled chicken and mushroom soup that I found interesting, though quite tasty.  Again, the presentation was nice, all of the ingredients were cooked to perfection and it was a great way to cut the heat of the day.

The following course was my favorite, and it was also the only dish I did not get a picture of.  It consisted of different types of sushi, a shrimp & California maki sushi and a spicy tuna on pan fried rice.  The spicy tuna was one of the best Asian dishes I have ever had, I could have eaten 10 more.  It had a great amount of spicy, but wasn't overly spicy as to drown out the other flavors.  Outstanding.

The next, and last, dinner course was a pork bun with a side of cucumber kimchi.  The pork bun was a tad sweet with a little bit of spice and the roll was melt-in-your-mouth good.  I had no idea what kimchi was, and I'm still not 100% sure, but I really, really did not like it.  This was considered "young" kimchi, which is supposedly more mild than the old stuff, but it was really just not my bag.  Others at the dinner loved it - Me, not so much.

The dessert was light, fresh and a great way to finish off the meal.  I wish I could remember exactly what it was, a cream based ice-cream-style something that was beautifully presented and delicious.

Each course was paired with a different wine, the pairings were spot on, though not all of them were my favorite.  I enjoy that though, it's a great way to expose yourself to new wines without having to close your eyes and point at a menu.

So that was Casa Mun, we would go back anytime. It is a great, interactive dinner that allows you to either book with a large group (maximum of 24 seats) or go as a couple and interact with other folks at your table.  It seemed to be a hit with the Canadian crowd, and it was a nice way to socialize, while not having to cook.

Bravo, Chef Mun!  We'll be back!