The Gill Family

Countdown to 1 Year

2012-01-29T22:58:00.000-03:00

We are not quite done with the first year, but we are creeping dangerously close to that big mile marker. I remember a long time ago, my mom telling me that she felt like the year before a "milestone" birthday was always harder than the actual milestone itself. Turning 29 is harder than 30, turning 39 is harder than 40, etc. This is similar to how I feel about Gretchen turning 11 months old. It's the last time we can measure her age only in months. It's the last month I can feel like we have a newborn. It's the last month before we dive into the world of real milk and peanuts. I am completely split between excitement that our baby is growing up, and sadness for the exact same thing. That being said, I know one thing for sure, Gretchen is more and more fun each day, and continues to amaze us with her many new tricks!

So, what do you do on your 11 month birthday?

We start by reaching for things that we are not supposed to have:

Then we pull all of the books off of the shelf. We will do this at least 5 more times before the day is over:

Then we head outside for a picnic and some pigeon watching:

Though we try to catch the pigeons, they are too quick for us. (That's right, she's walking!!)

This happy girl is just about ready for a nap:

After a little snooze, we get all dressed up and head out to a birthday party, our BFF Talia turned 1! We attempt to help her open her presents, but really just like to eat the wrapping paper:

Birthday parties are fun, but very tiring! Good thing Talia is willing to share her crib when we need to take a little rest:

We finish the day with Mom making me take yet another photo. The paparazzi are all over the place when you're 11 months old, say cheese!

Happy 11 Months to our baby girl, and though I cherish the days that your age is still measured in months, I cannot wait for all of the new and exciting things that one year will bring us!

Brown Sugar, For Realsies

2012-01-27T17:58:00.002-03:00

When groups of expats get together, especially if they don't know each other well, tend to gravitate to the topics related to "Have you noticed that ________ is different than back home?" and "Have you been able to find (product x)?" I'm no different, I discuss these topics all the time. One of the food items that habitually comes up is brown sugar. This is an item that I don't use much, but when I want to use it and don't have it, I'm really missing out. For me, the two most common examples are chocolate chip cookies and additive to my oatmeal. I have scoured China Town for an imported version of the rare and delicate brown sugar and though I've gotten some close impersonations, I have yet to stumble across the real thing. The general substitution here is something called Azucar negra, or Azucar de fantasia, as pictured to the right (you can find it in most supermercados). It sounds exotic, right? Sugar of my fantasies, or something like that? I assure you, this is no sugar of your dreams, it's really just kind of weird.

Azucar de fantasia became a hilarious joke for me and my American friends. The hilarity is that there are two ingredients: sugar and comun tipo A colorante caramelo. My hilarious jokes started with the phrase, "I'm not sure who knows what goes in to real brown sugar, but I'm pretty sure it's not this colorante stuff..." and laughter would ensue. Until one day, when I was telling my funny jokes, and someone interrupted me to say, "You know brown sugar is just sugar and molasses, right?"

Um, no, I did not know that. And even better, you know who else knows what goes into brown sugar? The internet. Why didn't I think of that before?

So, here is it, the easiest recipe you'll never use:

Brown Sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 T Molasses

Mix together with a fork until fully incorporated.

Awesome. Now to find some molasses. This is another item that I have never seen in Buenos Aires, but I've been told it exists. So I learned the word for molasses (melaza) and headed off to our local dieteca (a little shop that sells seeds, dried fruits and baking supplies). If you are in the area, I went to the New Garden on Rodriguez Peña, but I've seen lots of these shops all over the city. They knew exactly what I meant, and $18 pesos later, I was the proud owner of:

Melrico. It's muy rico.

The mixing part took some patience. Molasses is really a sticky, gooey mess. I won't name names, but somebody ran out of patience way before I was done mixing.

But before too long I had some good looking brown sugar on my hands. So easy! So much better than the sugar of my fantasies! Chocolate chip cookies, here we come! If you have been missing out on this little gem, miss out no more - go and get your melaza today!

Puesto Viejo

2012-01-21T23:36:00.002-03:00

At some point soon I will elaborate on our recent car purchase, but for now I will just say that we have thoroughly enjoyed the ability to be more mobile in and around the city. In the spirit of breaking out of downtown, last weekend we packed up and headed to an estancia in Lobos, Buenos Aires, called Puesto Viejo.

Puesto Viejo is first and foremost a polo club, so it was not our first choice, but our original reservation called four days before we arrived to say that they had no air conditioning. In summer. And it was literally 100 degrees when they broke this news. So our friends did some quick research and found Puesto Viejo. On Wednesday they were able to book us to arrive on Friday - the weekend was saved!

Puesto Viejo is located 70 km outside of Capital, past Ezeiza Airport in Cañuelas. As with most places that we've gone outside of the city, there is no real address, just a simple map available on their website that was helpful, but not completely accurate. The place is extremely well-kept and serine. I have never seen such vast, and ascetically pleasing, horse stables. They could easily keep 100 horses on the grounds (again, it's a polo club). The stables were immaculate, there wasn't a single piece of tack out of place, and the whole time we were there, people were constantly working, cleaning, grooming and repairing. They offer guided tours of the stables and general horseback riding to guests of the estancia, and have polo lessons for an additional cost.

I opted to get back on a horse, even after my near-death horse experience at La Candelaria. This time was different. We had helmets. We had multiple guides. We signed waivers. And, I had my friend Milena by my side to offer moral support. It was a fun ride, but I was still incredibly sore for the following few days - I don't know how you horse enthusiasts do it!

The ride only lasted 45 minutes, but we were able to see more of the estancia grounds, including their 3 polo fields, sheep pastures and the owner's very large home. We even made a pit-stop during the ride to help an underfed newborn lamb nurse for a little while. I mean, I did nothing but watch, but the guide was able to actually help this little guy. Pretty cool stuff.

Gretchen getting more comfortable on grass

The accommodations at Puesto Viejo were really nice. We had a clean, good-sized room with a nice bathroom, good water pressure and air conditioning. Each room overlooks the polo fields and has a nice, soft grass area for the kids to run around on. The staff was incredibly kid friendly, even though I don't think they have many child-guests. They provided us with a travel crib and offered to serve food to the kids before the scheduled adult mealtime, and as long a the child was able to sleep in a crib, there is no extra charge.

The estancia had a nice, albeit cold, pool (as long as you don't arrive on lawn-mowing day - there were a LOT of grass clippings in the pool the day we arrived) complete with umbrellas and nice lounge chairs. They also have bicycles on site available for guest use and they are helpful in making additional arrangements for the guests (such as golf reservations). There are also lots of animals to see, chickens, a pretty loud rooster, plenty of cows, and a zillion birds.

This place is a bird-watcher's paradise! I really like birds, so I was already excited about this, but the highlight of my weekend was when we came across these guys:

Look close - on the fenceposts

Owls. Bonafide Owls. Lots of them. Just hanging out, acting like it wasn't strange for them to be flying around in the daytime. I was in my glory. I walked this route every day that we were at Pueso Viejo just to see the super-cool owls. I mean, for real, how many times in a lifetime will you come across wild owls? I took lots of photos, just in case this is the only time for me.

The downside to Puesto Viejo was a pretty big portion of the weekend, the food. It was pretty bad. Even the Argentine-style asado was not-so-hot. It was really a shame too, this place could be a great little weekend escape if they could just put together a decent meal.

We had a nice time, and I highly recommend if you are interested in polo or owls. But if you like to eat, you're going to want to pack a sandwich for this trip.

Two Years, and a Little More

2012-01-10T20:24:00.000-03:00

I have written on my to-do list "write annual end-of-year blog", however when I searched for my previous end-of-year blogs, I realized that I have never actually written one. I wrote about our first full year in our apartment, but that anniversary has come and gone. Ironically, this sums up my 2011, great intentions, mildly delayed follow through.

So, welcome to my first annual end-of-year blog, signifying the end to our second (full) year in Buenos Aires. And what a year it was. We had a baby, we took a zillion (actually 8) international flights, we had lots of visitors - expected and surprise, took fewer internal trips but we have big plans to do more in 2012, we bought a car. And the most asked question of 2011: "How much longer do you guys think you'll be in Argentina?" has a slightly more defined answer now: "Longer".

It's always so much easier to reflect on the year in a post of photos, hopefully your 2011 causes you to look back with a smile, as ours does.

2011 contained some of our highest highs, here are some of the things I am most grateful for in the last year:

The clear frontrunner, the birth of our daughter Gretchen:

Our precious little peanut, 2 weeks old

Coming home for the first time as a family of 3

Having a great circle of friends locally that helped us prepare for, and then welcome home our baby girl:

The ladies responsible for our wonderful Buenos Aires baby shower

Watching our parents meet their granddaughter for the first time, and watching them transform from parents of adult children to doting grandparents in the blink of an eye:

Grammy and Papa with Gretchen in March

Poppa and Gran with Gretchen in April

Seeing our brothers all find their way into being Uncles. These big, strong men turn into tender baby-charmers as soon as she is around:

Uncle Chris holding a sleeping Gretchen in June

Uncle Robbie explaining the remote control at Christmas

Uncle Dan holding Santa's little helper Christmas Day

Uncle Ted is all smiles with Gretchen in October

Being able to spend so much time with our families this year, especially during the holidays:

Christmas dinner in Lexington with the Gill Family

Christmas Eve in Clifton with the Giorgiani Family (and Frodo)

Being able to spend time with friends during our trips home, and watching 2 couples that are very close to us say "I do":

Dan and Lian's wedding in June

Sarah and Josh's wedding in August

The Virginia Tech guys together in October

Gretchen meeting many of our friend's children in June

Being able to travel to places I never would have known if we didn't live in Buenos Aires:

Jon and I in Salta in December

Gretchen and Daddy at Temaiken Biopark in September

Our family at La Candelaria in July

Celebrating my first Mother's Day:

A chilly May Mother's Day

And having great friends to help us celebrate the other holidays in the year:

Us with the Newhooks and the Lorangers

Watching our family grow:

And sharing where we live with friends that come to visit:

Jon and I with the Patnos and the Axelrods that visited in July

My college roommate Sandy that stopped by during her vacation in BA

And though every year as an expat we are forced to bid farewell to great friends that move away...

With Anso and Paul that moved back to France in February

The Dooleys and their trio that are starting their next adventure in Mexico

We are thankful for the friendships we have made and the experiences that we have had. We hope for another great year abroad filled with lots of visits from friends and family, new friends, and many more story worthy events.

Happy New Year, and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012!

Salta/Jujuy: Day 3 - Cafayate

2011-12-21T12:49:00.001-03:00

On our third day in Salta, we packed up yet again, and headed out to Cafayate, a town 5 hours south of Purmamarca. To recap, we started in Salta City, drove north to Purmamarca, and then drove south - past Salta City, to Cafayate. In short, Salta is big. Really big. Bigger than we knew when we booked the trip with 2 babies. Apparently, it is bigger than our travel agency knew when they helped us book the trip - they actually had us scheduled to spend more time in the car. Luckily, our awesome guide Yaco advised us to alter our plans and saved us some in-car time.

Anyway, the drive to Cafayate was spectacular, a whole lot of spectacular. Here are some examples of the spectacular-ness:

Some of the rock formations are so unique that they have their own names, we stopped at two, the Amphitheater, named for the obvious reason that it has a great echo potential:

And the Garganta del Diablo, or Devil's Throat. Not to be confused with the Garganta del Diablo waterfall in Iguazu Park, Argentina's got a whole lot of Devil's Throats to be aware of.

Jon and I in one small part of the Garganta del Diablo

This formation makes Jeff look tiny, and he's a tall guy

Gretchen slept through all the stops, which is sad to not have any pictures with her during this portion of the trip, but it made for a much more pleasant drive.

One more photo op stop

Another great part of having a guide is that he steered us to a cool, local restaurant to stop at on our way. The name of the place was "Papabuelo", a mix of Dad and Grandpa in Spanish, and it was a nice, authentic spot with dirt floors and wooden picnic tables under a tent-like roof. We enjoyed humita, empanadas, and tamales that were all straight out of the oven and served with spicy sauces. Good food and cool atmosphere aside, the best part of Papabuelos were the prices. We fed five adults with drinks and salads for under $100 pesos/US$25.

Good times at Papabuelos

Even with the great views and the good food, we were more than ready to arrive at our destination - and it was well worth the wait. We stayed at the Viñas de Cafayate wine resort, and it was beautiful. The resort only had 12 rooms, was surrounded by mountains and grape vines, and had a beautiful pool area - it was truly an oasis after a long day in the car.

Daddies watching babies poolside

Gretchen and Talia were not sure what to make of the grass, we realized we have some very urban babies. We need to get them out into green spaces more often!

The view from our hotel's pool

Even the nighttime was photo-worthy

We were sad that our stay at Viñas de Cafayate was only one night long. We would seriously consider going back to this resort as a destination, it was the perfect last night of our trip.

The trip wasn't quite over, we needed to head back to Salta to catch our flight the next day. Once again, we ditched our agenda from the travel agency and followed Yaco's advice for our last day in Salta. He made reservations for us at a local winery, Domingo Molina, which is open for wine tastings on a daily basis, but only books tastings in conjunction with food on a private reservation basis. This winery might be located in the most beautiful part of Cafayate.

We had an outstanding meal, drank some fantastic wines and took full advantage of their beautiful grounds.

What a fun vacation! Thank you to the Newhooks for being our great travel buddies! It was a wonderful way to spend a four-day weekend in December, and we highly recommend adding Salta to your list of vacation destinations in Argentina.

Now we change gears and head back to the US for our fourth (and last) trip this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Salta/Jujuy: Day 2 - Purmamarca

2011-12-19T11:15:00.000-03:00

For the second day of our Salta/Jujuy trip, we headed north into the province of Jujuy to a town called Purmamarca. Purmamarca is a very small town, population of only 2,000 people, located 2.5 hours north of Salta City. Purmamarca is part of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a gorge located in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. It's easy to see why this area of the country is protected, the drive (though long) was incredible. Perhaps the most popular site in Purmamarca is the Cerro de Siete Colores, the Hill of Seven Colors. Can you guess which hill they are referring to?

The land in this area is so rich with minerals that it casts off a multitude of different colors. There are many bright red and orange hills in the landscape, but this specific hill really pops against the background of its green, blue and brown neighbors.

Cerro de Siete Colores

Gretchen was unimpressed with the Seven Color Hill, she was far more interested in Daddy's sunglasses.

Our hotel was nestled right next to this colorful hill, and after a morning filled with driving, we were all very excited to get settled at La Comarca. This small hotel was perfect for our needs, the rooms varied in size, ours was small with a nice patio, our friend's was large with no patio, but the location and views could not be beat.

La Comarca

After we had a moment to stretch our legs, it was necessary to get some lunch. We headed into town, where there is a daily market setup with a mix of hand and machine-made goods.

What an amazing backdrop during your shopping experience

At the advice of our guide, Yaco, we stopped at Tierra De Colores for lunch. This small, authentic restaurant gave us our first true taste of Northwest Argentina cuisine. We had tamales, humitas, empanadas and tried Salta beer, all of which were pretty darn good. It was a nice alternative to the normal fare in Buenos Aires, the sauces and entrees actually had some spice.

The last activity that we crammed into this jam-packed day was a visit to the Salinas Grandes, or the Salt Flats. The Salinas Grandes are basically a field of salt that was formed by a combination of volcanic activity and geological movement somewhere around 10 million years ago. Only one road leads to the Salinas Grandes, and it is not for the faint of heart. The trail is not incredibly long, distance wise, but it takes a good 2 hours to get to the flats from Purmamarca.

Windiest road ever. Bring carsick bags just in case.

Additionally, the altitude is incredibly potent on the drive. Altitude sickness is a very real concern, especially for whomever is behind the wheel. One of the symptoms of altitude sickness is drowsiness, and these roads don't leave room for mistake. It was beautiful at the top, a cool 13,680 feet above sea level.

The Salinas Grandes themselves were also very cool. A large expanse of flat land, all white with salt, in the middle of two mountain ranges. The sun was crazy strong, so we were lucky that the babies were sleeping and stayed in the van. We jumped out to take a few pictures but it's not recommended to spend any length of time in the sun due to the strong reflection off of the ground.

Underneath all the salt and dirt lies water, which can be exposed through these large water holes, and then clean salt crystalizes on the surface in a potent, pure form. According to Yaco, sea water is roughly 80% salt, this water is roughly 95% salt. It's pretty salty, we tasted it ourselves.

Once back at La Comarca, we were able to relax, walk around and take some pictures of the landscape. It was also blooming season for the cactus species in the area, so we saw lots of beautiful cactus flowers. We also stayed for a delicious dinner, served at the hotel restaurant, by a friendly and knowledgeable staff.

The next morning, we got up nice and early to start the journey to our final trip destination, Cafayate. We grabbed a quick breakfast, and loaded up the bus, and headed on out. Thank goodness for happy babies, the girls rolled with the punches this weekend.

Purmamarca was a beautiful, remote, unique destination and I'm so glad it was part of our trip. La Comarca was actually our second choice of hotel, but it worked out perfectly, and provided great scenic views of the surrounding mountains. It takes a lot of driving savvy to accomplish this part of the trip, but if you're up for it, Purmamarca and the Salinas Grandes are sites worth seeing.

Salta/Jujuy: Day 1 - Salta City

2011-12-12T22:45:00.003-03:00

This year, the Argentina government added a whole bunch of extra days to their already ample holiday calendar (totaling 14 non-workday holidays in 2011, wow!). For the first set of added holidays, we decided to have a baby (obviously, this was a coincidence that worked amazingly in our favor), for the second set of added holidays, we decided to go to the Salta and Jujuy provinces in the northwest part of Argentina. We were fortunate to be joined by our friends, the Newhooks, who also have an adorable baby girl that is a month older than Gretchen.

For some reason, Salta seems to be a second-tier destination to foreigners living in Buenos Aires. It ranks behind some of the more popular trips, Iguazu Falls, Mendoza, the glaciar in Calafate, but now that we've gone, I'm convinced it is just as spectacular. Salta is the name of a province in Argentina, as well as the capital city of that province, and it is where we began our trip.

The altitude in Salta is something to be aware of, the city itself is 3,780 feet (1,152 meters) above sea level and though that is not enough to bother most people, some of the other destinations nearby can cause altitude sickness. It is approximately 1,000 miles from Buenos Aires, so we decided to fly, which took a little under 2 hours (if you don't count the delays, courtesy of Aerolineas Argentinas). We headed directly to the hotel, Casa Real, which was a simple, but clean and friendly hotel located a few blocks from the main square. They did a hilarious job of setting up the rental crib for Gretchen:

Aside from the fact that the crib is from the 1940s (or so it would appear), they made it up like a little bed! Pillow and turndown service too! This cracked us up at every hotel we stayed at, the Argentines give us a baby pillow and multiple blankets, the Americans believe that a pillow for a baby means certain death. (We did, however, remove the pillow and extra blankets, just to be sure...)

Iglesia y Convento San Francisco

We did have a bit of rain on our first day in, luckily, it stopped raining just long enough for us to stroll around the city. The city of Salta has retained much of it's old-world charm by preventing the construction of new-style buildings. Additionally, there are laws that limit the height of buildings, so there are very few items breaking up the skyline. Some of the tallest buildings in the city are these beautiful churches, including the Iglesia y Convento San Francisco. This church and convent was built sometime during the 18th century, and then the front facade was added in 1870. This is by far the most well-known landmark in Salta, and it stands out due to the height, color and grandiose of the building. We arrived as mass was starting, so we didn't see much of the inside, but the outside was worth quite a few pictures.

Inglesia Catedral

The other landmark that we visited was the Iglesia Catedral, another beautiful church near the main square, Plaza 9 de Julio. This church dates back to 1882 and though it is not quite as intricate as it's partner San Francisco, it is still a nice demonstration of the European architecture that dominates the city's buildings.

Jon and Jeff were driving the babies through town. It was cooler than either of us had expected, we had heard that Salta was going to be unbearably hot, I assume the rain helped us out a bit, and then the altitude makes for cool mornings and nights, even if the days are quite warm.

Daddy Driving Duty

Gretchen loves her stroller and was pretty excited to be pushed around town by her Dad. Here she is kicking back during the walk around Salta.

We made dinner reservations at Jose Balcarce (for reservations: (54) 387 421-1628, at the corner of Mitre y Necochea), which was recommended by more than one of our travel books. It was a fantastic dinner. They had a great mix of regional cuisine and everything we ate was delicious. Check out the cool decoration and ambiance:

Turquoise skulls, I never would have thought of it, but I like it!

We tried all sorts of different dishes, from an octopus appetizer to llama to trout to chocolate volcano dessert, it was all beautifully presented and very tasty. Here is the llama that both guys opted for, served with quinoa and Andean potatoes (though our guide, Yaco, told us later in the trip that all potatoes in this area are Andean). I preferred my beef, but the llama was more tender and delicate than I would have thought.

Here was one of our pretty desserts. I couldn't even tell you what it was, but I know it was delicious.

If you are staying in Salta, Jose Balcarce is a great dinner option. The staff was friendly, they were polite and helpful with our babies, and the food was delicious. Another high-point to Salta, the prices are about half of what you would pay in Buenos Aires. There were a number of bottles of wine on their list that were US$10 - US$15, a price that is virtually non-existant in a US restaurant. We tried some of the regional varietals, especially the Torrontes, which this area of Argentina prides itself on.

Our stay in Salta city was short, but eventful, as we drove out of town, you can look down on the Lerma Valley, and over the whole city. Hasta luego Salta, thanks for the hospitality!

From Salta, we headed north to the province of Jujuy, to a town called Purmamarca, but that will need to wait for my next post. For more pictures of Salta city, and for the rest of our trip, I've added an album to the Shameless Photo Sharing, enjoy!

San Ceferino

2011-12-04T12:17:00.001-03:00

Jon's department does a great job of bringing the employee's families together for an end of the year "Family Day" that takes place at an estancia about 45 minutes from the city. This weekend, we packed up and went out to San Ceferino to enjoy a day of meeting other families, swimming, eating and enjoying the fresh air.

Remarkably, this is the third year that we have participated in Family Day, I still cannot believe that we have lived in Buenos Aires for that long. The weather makes a huge difference in the success of this event, and we had the most perfect day possible for this year's festivities. To add the the excitement of the day, we drove there in our own car, which we just purchased last week, so it was a trip that combined the freedom of owning a vehicle with the anxiety of driving in this slightly-chaotic city - and I'm happy to report that Jon was a natural. I'll have to try my hand behind the wheel another day.

Like most estancias, San Ceferino is a multi-functional facility that can be used for corporate events, weddings, social events or people looking for a little respite from the city. They have 75 rooms , 2 pools, 2 kiddie pools, tennis courts, soccer fields, horses, bikes and carriage rides. It is an easy drive, only 30 miles outside of the city and even better, just two turns off of the highway. There a few banquet rooms, we have attended when there was a served meal, and this year there was a buffet, both rooms were ample for the event.

When we first arrived, there was a large canopy to keep us from the sun. They passed drinks and picada plates while we mingled, and they staff was attentive and friendly. There was a huge turnout, it was great to see everyone from the previous year, and meet lots of new folks too. What was most impressive was the number of new family members that had joined in the last year, Gretchen included, and she really enjoyed playing with the other babies.

I'm not sure how much of the event was organized by the estancia, or if there was an outside company that took care of the flow of events, but they did a fantastic job of providing entertainment for the "older" kids, having an earlier lunch time with kid friendly food, bouncy houses and other playthings with staff to watch the kids, all so that the parents could enjoy a meal together in relative quiet.

Look at all the open, green spaces! If that wasn't enough, there is also a lake which makes for a picture perfect scene when you're riding a horse or taking a carriage ride.

Gretchen was extremely well behaved, and we were able to eat lunch with the adults in relative peace. After lunch it was time to go for a quick swim, but as you can tell from this picture, she was getting sleepy well before we made it to the pool.

Daddy and his sleepy baby girl

After pool time, Gretchen was pretty amped up and needed some extra loving to get to sleep. Jon's boss's wife, Silvina, was a complete baby whisperer and helped Gretchen to sleep while we were able to spend a few minutes of adult time chatting with other people around the pool. This was a lifesaver! Thanks Silvina!

If you're looking for an estancia, there are a thousand to choose from, but San Ceferino has my endorsement. We would certainly consider it for a nice weekend away, and we hope that they will continue to hold the yearly Family Day event at this location.

Long Live the...Milk?

2011-12-02T16:54:00.001-03:00

This is a photo of our cupboard. Our room-temperature cupboard that houses our cereal, crackers, oatmeal and.... milk (insert collective gasp from anyone reading this in the US). That's right, we buy leche larga vida, or ultra-pasteurized (UHT) milk. It is AWESOME. It keeps (unopened) for at least 6 months, so I can buy a whole stock of it and then skip the milk purchases for the next few trips to the grocery store. It saves space in the tiny carts they have here, space better used for things like diapers and yogurt. Why is this not a thing in the US?? Here are some thoughts:

1) Americans are obsessed with refrigeration. I'm not judging, I love my fridge as much as the next guy. But think about it, we balk at other countries that don't keep their eggs in the refrigerated aisle. We cannot imagine an apartment/house/car without air conditioning. We laugh at the Europeans that drink room temperature beverages. We are offended if a restaurant doesn't provide ice with their water. We like our things cold.

2) It doesn't taste good. The first time my mom drank it while visiting us, she poured a glass of milk from the fridge, then promptly reported that the milk had gone bad. As I pointed to the expiration date that was 5 months in the future, I thought she was going to barf. I get it, it is not as tasty as normal milk, but I think it's been 15 years since I had a plain glass of milk so this stuff works when I add it to my coffee, make my oatmeal or cook with it. It just can't hold it's own without something else to mask the flavor.

3) We've never tried it. Or have we? According to the 100% accurate website, Wikipedia, if you've had a McFlurry from McDonald's or had milk on an airplane, you've probably had UHT milk and just not realized it. That being said, you can't just put a display of room temperature milk in the middle of a Wegman's and expect people to jump on board.

The difference is in the pasteurization method, it is pasteurized at a much higher temperature, for less time than regular milk. This does change the taste and smell, but again, it's only noticeable for me when you're serving milk alone.

I think it's amazing. It's doesn't take up all of the space in your fridge and you can buy in bulk without worrying about spoilage. I imagine anyone who has had a long-lasting power outage wishes that they had some standby milk to turn to. I'd also be willing to bet that anyone with multiple children would love to have a secret stash of milk in their pantry. If you see it on your grocery shelf, give it a go, don't be afraid!

Viva la leche larga vida!

Marcelo Cocina Italiana

2011-11-23T14:24:00.000-03:00

We have heard of this Italian restaurant, Marcelo's, in Puerto Madero from a few of our friends. As nice as that area is, we tend to go out to eat in other areas of town, if nothing else because Puerto Madero is able to hike up their prices due to it's popularity among tourists. It was our lucky day when Marcelo's opened a second location right down the street from us, and ironically, now that I'm researching it a little for this blog post, it is reviewed as being more expensive than the Puerto Madero location. Oh well, c'est la vie.

We visited Marcelo's Recoleta location (Av. Callao 1764: 5533-4050, Recoleta) which is in the bottom level of the Hotel Intersur Recoleta. It worked out perfectly for us, since the Village Recoleta Mall and movie theater has now reopened, we saw a movie and then had an Argentine-style-dinner that started at 10:30pm. The only hiccup in our plan was that we saw the movie Contagion, which if you've seen it, you know that it makes you never want to have contact with any other person again, and you definitely do not want to ever eat at a restaurant again. So, though I recommend both the restaurant and the movie, try not to do them in the same night.

Moving on, Marcelo's is a relatively small restaurant, maybe 40 tables, so you really want to make a reservation before going. The service is prompt, friendly, and hilariously, we recognized a number of the staff from our visits to Sottovoce, another great Italian restaurant in the area. The menu is extensive, albeit mildly confusing as their "House Specialties" are listed on the inner cover of the menu, and then the rest of their offerings are grouped by topic throughout the other 5 or 6 pages. They have a great wine list, including more than one option of each type of wine by the glass (generally here you will have only one red and one white by-the-glass option).

We started with the mozzarella milenesa, which seems to be a fancy way of preparing mozzarella sticks. These poor little guys were so lonely on the plate, even though we ordered the roasted red pepper version, you can see that added little to the visual enticement. This dish was good, better than this picture suggests, but it got a whole lot better when we requested marinara sauce. I would highly recommend taking this American-inspired step, the marinara made the appetizer. Next time, I will request marinara right when we order the dish, so that there's no lag time between cheesy goodness and it's perfect partner, the dipping sauce.

The "secret", if you will, to ordering at Marcelo's is that you can order half-portions, and split dishes. Our waiter graciously informed us of this fact as we were debating between items to order. Our plan of attack was to order two items and share them, and the waiter's suggestion was to order one dish, have it divided into half portions (ie, my choice in one half and Jon's in the other half) and then split the order. Essentially, this means that our dish was divided into quarters. Even better, the waiter brought each half of the dish separately, as a first and second course, and then split them onto our plates before serving. This eliminated our inevitably messy attempt at dividing the dishes ourselves. It's easier to explain with photos.

The first part of our meal was rigatoni with a filetto sauce, fresh tomatoes, basil and herb butter. This picture shows my portion of the dish. To recap, this photo is 25% of one item on their menu. Can you imagine if we had each ordered our own entree? The rigatoni was "pasta seco" meaning that it was a dried pasta, not fresh, but it was still outstanding. Everything was balanced, and the ingredients were fresh and flavorful. It's so nice when a dish is so simply done, and so well executed.

The other half of our order, which we also split, was somewhere between the thickness of angel hair and spaghetti and served with pomodoro sauce. This time around the pasta was fresh, and for this style of pasta, it really made the dish. The two sauces were remarkably similar, but they were so good that we were glad to have them.

Our one menu item, divided four ways, left us with enough leftovers to each have a full lunch the next day. Holy portion sizes.

The only disappointment, for me, was the dessert. Again, we were debating between two different items, white and dark chocolate mousse, and the waiter suggested that we order one dessert and have one scoop of each type of mousse served in the same dish. Sold. The problem was that they just weren't all that fantastic. The white chocolate mousse tasted like a very bland vanilla ice cream, it was strangely icy, and the chocolate was so dark and potent that I had used the white chocolate just to cut it. Neither one was particularly good, which was peculiar, since the rest of the meal had been so tasty. We must have ordered the wrong dessert item, because I'm convinced that Marcelo knows how to make some good food.

All in all, Marcelo's was a big hit. We will certainly go back, and will keep this restaurant as an option for a larger group where we could go family style next time around.

The Adventures of Joanna and Gretel

2011-11-21T21:15:00.001-03:00

Dawn.

Break of day.

Such an easy word in English, who knew it would be so complex when I left the comfort of the US.

Apparently, this name is a complete anomaly in Spanish. It's not a name in Argentina, and it's impossible for locals to pronounce.

For the last two years, I have developed an alter ego named Joanna, which is how Dawn seems to be pronounced in Castellano. A normal conversation goes something like this:

Starbucks Employee: "Como se llama?"

Me: "Dawn"

Starbucks Employee: "Como?"

Me: "Dawn"

Starbucks Employee: "ummmm, Joanna?"

Me: "Si."

And then I end up with this:

Dawn = Gioranna

Luckily, the newest Twilight movie has opened here in Buenos Aires, and the English title is "Breaking Dawn", a huge stride in the advance of my name. Unfortunately, in Spanish, my name is actually a verb "amanecer" (as is the Argentine working title of the Twilight movie) but I can't very well go around saying that my name is Amanecer, it just doesn't flow. It doesn't even make sense. It's like saying my name is "the sun is coming up". To avoid confusion, I started telling people that my name was actually Joanna. It worked like a charm.

And then I had Gretchen.

I know for a fact that there has been at least one other Gretchen born in Argentina because there is a list of acceptable names (no really, there is, we had to be sure that our baby's name was on this list: Argentine Name List. You can have names added to the list, but it can be a real pain) and Gretchen is on the list, however, no one has ever heard of this name.

A typical conversation regarding Gretchen's name:

Random Stranger: "Que linda bebe, como se llama?" (What a beautiful baby, what is her name?)

Me: "Gretchen"

Random Stranger: "Como?" (What?)

Me: "Gretchen"

Random Stranger: "Como, Gretel?" (Like, Gretel?)

Me: "Sure."

That's right. My daughter's name is just like Gretel. Like Hansel and Gretel.

So that's us, just Joanna and Gretel, hanging out in town.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:02:00.000-03:00

Halloween is one of those emerging holidays here in Argentina. They are starting to celebrate, but haven't quite gotten the concept at this point. Most of the costumes that we've seen on locals involve either an outfit covered in blood or the outfit they wore during the day coupled with a mask. It's a work in progress.

It is nice to have the weather on the upswing as Halloween approaches. On Sunday, when all of the Halloween festivities took place, we had a beautiful, sunny 73 degree day. It makes me wish that I had been in Buenos Aires all those years that I had to wear a jacket over my costume while trick-or-treating. In order to take full advantage of the day, some of my mom's group friends and I ran in the AmCham 10K in Puerto Madero. It was a perfect day for a race, and we got to keep these highly fashionable bright orange shirts!

We were excited to get Gretchen dressed up for her first Halloween, obviously, since dressing up babies in adorable costumes may be the cutest thing ever. We are lucky enough to have some great friends that threw a fantastic Halloween party through BAIN, which was a great substitute for our traditional Halloween festivities. We all got dressed up and had a great time, and though we didn't have the benefit of a whole bunch of American candy, we did have this little lovebug:

Thank you Gran for getting this precious vaquita de San Antonio/Ladybug costume.

The adults were requested to dress up, so we threw together a chef and teacher outfit, though it didn't matter since Gretchen stole the show.

And as with every childhood Halloween I can remember, tiredness took over toward the end of the party and we ended up with a very sleepy, sad ladybug. It was time for a nap. Let me just say that a baby crying in an adorable costume might be the funniest thing ever. I hope to catch future Halloween meltdowns on camera, because it is comic genius.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with our little bug while she made us laugh, practiced standing, and enjoyed the simple joy of a baby in a costume.

As an additional bonus, little miss got her second tooth on Halloween! She has a completed pair of bottom teeth now. Congratulations to our little ladybug, and Happy Halloween to all of our friends and family back home!

I Do It Myself

2011-10-27T21:22:00.000-03:00

Along with this new world of mothering comes a plethora of books and information on what your child is doing, what they should be doing, what they are no longer doing and, finally, what they will do. One of the phases in our near future is the inevitable "I do it myself!" phase, in which your child wants to take control, assert leadership, and do simple tasks like eating and getting dressed for themselves. Thankfully, in babies this phase is not in our immediate future, but the "I do it myself" phase seems to resurface in adults.
Specifically in adults that are around 30 and living abroad.
More specifically, in me.

Exhibit 1:
Over the weekend my in-laws sent us an email request that seemed to be a bit of a last resort. A family friend owns a coffee/espresso maker that is only sold in South America and one of their house guests inadvertently threw away the metal filter attachment needed to brew a cup of coffee. For a coffee maker, this seems to be a pretty important part, considering that you cannot brew a cup without it. After numerous attempts to contact the company, contact different suppliers in the US, etc, they were unable to find a place to buy this part. Considering that we live in South America, they thought we may be able to help in locating the part.

Let me pause to say that a year ago, I would have literally laughed at this request. I cannot find 90% of the things I am looking for here, much less find such a specific piece of equipment. If you would like a specific example of how maddening my searches can be, please refer to my attempt to purchase a food processor. But that was a year ago. This year, I'm empowered. And I need to redeem myself after the food processor incident.

So, after I contacted Oster Argentina, in a request sent in Spanish I might add, they responded with a local shop where I could purchase the filter. I went there on Tuesday, and to my incredible surprise, the little ancient-looking shop at 870 Esmeralda Street had a huge inventory of Oster products, they understood what I needed, and actually had the part I was looking for. In a matter of 48 hours I had saved the coffee maker from a lonely life of not brewing coffee. I am unabashedly proud. I do it myself.

Exhibit 2:

You may remember from my Need For Change post that it is a bear to obtain change here in the city. This is also the only form of payment that the buses accepted... until now. Recently they have started a card system called SUBE, where you can add value to a card and use it to ride any bus or subway line. Jon uses the bus every day to commute to work, so I decided to look into getting him a card. It is easier than you might think, but more difficult than it should be. Just bring an identification document (or photocopy) to any of the locations listed on the Retira tu Tarjeta site, complete a short form and leave with an empty SUBE card. The first card is free, so is the second, but if you loose your card again there is some sort of charge.
Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to obtain and put value on your SUBE card in the same location, so you then need to bring the card to any of the Carga tu Tarjeta site locations. You can pay with cash or credit card, there is no service charge, and then use that value to pay for your trips. Rumor has it that these cards will eventually be accepted in taxis as well.
I took on this challenge. I got each of us a card. I waited at a Correo Argentina location only to be told that this location doesn't add value to SUBE cards. I traveled to another location. I charged the cards. I do it myself.

That's all, just two exhibits, but two tasks that gave me an enormous sense of accomplishment. So thank you, house guest that threw away the coffee filter. Thank you, new card system for making me figure it out. It's things like this that make me realize how far I've come since we first moved here and we called on our Spanish speaking friends when things were complicated. It's a week like this that makes so many of the other, more frustrating weeks worth it.

It's a week like this that makes me proud to say, yeah, I do it myself.

Astrid & Gaston

2011-10-24T20:32:00.002-03:00

Did the loveable yet geeky supporting actress from Fringe and the pompous loverboy from Beauty & the Beast get together and create a Peruvian restaurant? I wish. But this combination works out even better, and it makes a much nicer love story. According to their website, this pair was in school, him to study law and her to study medicine, when their passion for food and Paris took over and they both quit school to become chefs. Eventually, he convinced her (a blond German) to follow him to Peru where they opened their first restaurant, and the rest is history. The website leaves out who is Astrid and who is Gaston, but I am still envisioning the girl from Fringe and the cartoon Gaston, so I'll just leave it at that.

Astrid & Gaston (Lafinur 3222, Palermo: 4802-2991) was a recommendation from one of our friends that has very high standards for restaurants, so when it was where she spent her birthday, we knew we needed to try it. The setting is beautiful, an old converted mansion that offers intimate rooms complete with only 10-12 tables per room, making you feel that you are in a much smaller place. As we entered the restaurant we passed by the expo line and were able to see into the kitchen which told me two things; 1) I was going to like almost anything they served, the food all looked amazing, and 2) This was the most organized expo line I had ever seen. Quiet. Clean. Civil. Quite different from my restaurant days where this area was a free-for-all of yelling and mildly organized chaos. So far, this place was batting a thousand.

We followed the hostess up a very steep and windy set of stairs and were seated in a room with heavy red velvet curtains where there were only a handful of other people seated (this was a Saturday night at 9:30pm). Our server was pleasant, helpful and patient as we asked him about dishes on the menu and asked that he define Spanish words that we had never encountered. After all was said and done, we should have closed our menus and let him order for us, we followed (almost) all of his recommendations.

We started with a ceviche appetizer, actually we got the sampler so it was more like 3 ceviche appetizers. The flavors were great, crisp, fresh and flavorful - though this was not our favorite course. There was nothing wrong with the dish, it just so happened to bring out some food weirdnesses in both Jon and I. The fish was presented in large cubes, which kind of weirds me out, I'm used to a smaller dice (crazy, I know) and Jon has some sort of biological dislike for cilantro, which is obviously in almost every ceviche dish out there.

I ordered Salmón Blanco con Arroz Arvejado (I think, again, I just took the waiter's word for it), pictured below, and it was outstanding. It was a piece of white salmon served on a bed of risotto-style rice and surrounded by all sorts of goodies; shittake mushrooms, scallions, shrimp, caramelized onions, and delicious sauce.

Jon went the meat route, he ordered the lamb served two ways (Cordero Dos Cocciones), each way supplemented with a different style side. The more tender lomo had a creamy mashed potato-style side and the other cut (piled high in the photo) was served over a potato lasagna. Both were delicious.

I should mention that my friend's recommendation came with the advice that we needed to order the cabrito, baby goat. We couldn't do it. It's the kind of thing that I want someone else to order and then I take a bite so that I can say I tried it. Maybe I'll like it, but we only get out every once in a while these days, so I can't risk it.

I'm conflicted about the dessert. There were a number of good-looking options, including a sampler, but we decided to go with our gut and order the chocolate option. It was good, the raspberry compote was really tasty and the chocolate was really good quality, but the heart of the dessert was a chocolate ball filled with "creme brulee foam" which basically disintegrated when the waiter poured the warm chocolate sauce on top. I think this would have worked better with a high quality vanilla ice cream in the center. Or gelato. Or partner with Arkakao and add one of their flavors to the middle. It was good, it just wasn't as impressive as the rest of the meal.

This was a great date night out. It is a date night though, the prices at Astrid & Gaston warrant a special occasion meal, and though they are worth it - they're probably not worth it every week.

Additionally, this was the first time we were able to use Restorando.com to make our reservation and it worked like a charm. We were able to make the reservation, and immediately after the confirmation stage we received an email AND a text message confirming the reservation. Perfect. And perfect for the non-native Spanish speaker that fears the telephone. Fear no more - Restorando.com is here for you.

Happy Tooth Day!

2011-10-20T21:26:00.002-03:00

If you that thought that Thursday, October 20th was just going to be an ordinary day, I admit, I was once like you. Then, somewhere between waking up (bright and early at 6:30am) and going down for a nap at 10:30am, we discovered something extraordinary.

A tooth! A little pointy white nub poking through the lower front right space, where just yesterday only gums existed. Our little girl is growing up so quickly, I can hardly wrap my mind around it.

I will so that this is a bit of a long time coming. You may have noticed that there are very few photos of Gretchen in which she is not wearing a bib. She has been drooling for many moons, and if I were a betting girl, I would have put my money on her getting teeth at least a month or so ago. I can actually see them under the surface, little toothy outlines just waiting to be seen by the outside world.

So what do we do on First Tooth Day? Here's a little recap:

First we drink some juice using our newest skill of drinking from a sippy cup. As of a week ago, Gretchen couldn't make heads or tails out of what to do with this crazy new cup, and now she's an expert. By the way, thank you to our friends the Elys for having the foresight to gift us a sippy cup at our baby shower last year. Amazing how an item that seems so advanced comes in handy before you know it.

After juice, we spend some time gnawing on Sophie the hard teething giraffe. I believe we're working on more teeth to come in the very near future.

We pause and do our best Ed Asner impression.

We spend some time with Daddy as he admires our new tooth.

We have fun practicing our steps.

We love on our favorite penguin pillow (thank you Uncle Chris!),

Then we try to eat our favorite penguin pillow,

Then we try to eat a blanket,

And then we settle on chewing up Sophie again. It sure was a fun filled day of working out that tooth, today is truly the first day of a whole new phase of life! So many things to chew!

Congratulations baby girl! Happy First Tooth Day!

3 Down, 1 To Go

2011-10-18T21:31:00.000-03:00

I promise that we actually live in Argentina, although we just returned from our third trip back to the US. This year has been good to us, we have been able to attend two very important weddings (Dan and Lian in June and Sarah and Josh in August) and we plan on spending the holidays stateside with our families, since they were so great and all came to Buenos Aires last year. But in between these events, Jon had a work training at UNC, and Gretchen and I just couldn't miss out on the fun of traveling. Some (myself included) may call this crazy, and as Gretchen grows before my very eyes, I completely understand this sentiment. I will say this, although we are tempting fate, she has been an angel on all of our flights so far. I know this doesn't apply to everyone, but so far, I feel that traveling with an infant/young baby has got to be fathoms easier than traveling with a toddler. I'll keep you posted with my feelings on that subject next year.

Anyways, we had a fantastic trip home, chaotic at times, but we were able to see quite a few of our friends and remarkably, all of our immediate family (almost all, we missed you Lian!). I fully intended to copy photos from everyone's photo cards, but alas, I did not. So, with a completely disproportionate amount of photo evidence, here are some highlights of the trip:

The day we arrived, we traveled to Jon's parent's house where we showered, ate, and waited for the crowds to ascend. A HUGE "Thank You!!" to everyone who drove or flew or flew then drove to come and see us, we appreciate it so much. The following day, we gathered up the troops and drove down to Virginia Tech to watch the Hokies play Miami. It was a beautiful day in Blacksburg, and we had a great time tailgating, though it was quite different from the tailgates we used to have.

For example, this is the first tailgate that included an exer-saucer, and it was a hit! Gretchen, Evan and Jude all took turns playing with this amazing toy. If you are taking a baby to a tailgate, this is a must.

The line for the exer-saucer was all queued up

It was also the first tailgate that we had that included a napping corner. Here are the first round of nappers, Jude, Bridget, Gretchen and Evan lead the pack, Harper joined soon after. We had to push the strollers next to the cars to keep them in the shade, and there were so many sleepers that we started a new row of strollers next to another car.

Nap Time

While Gretchen was awake, and not playing in the exer-saucer, she was busy being entertained by Poppa and Uncle Dan. This little one was the star of the show, especially in her head-to-toe Hokie gear.

Daddy took a quick time out from manning the grill to snap a quick family photo. We could not believe our luck with the beautiful weather.

It doesn't matter how long it's been, it's always great to see all the German Club guys (and girls, and families) at the tailgate, and we were so happy to fit right back in the mix.

While the guys went to the stadium, Kristen, Kelli, Lornie and I stayed back with the kiddos. Evan, Harper and Gretchen were busy little bees during the game, though not actually watching any football.

After the game was over, we parted ways with Daddy while he attended his work training. Gretchen and I spent the rest of the weekend with Gran, Poppa and family. Gretchen was especially enamored with the pups, Buckley and Baxter, way more so now than when we saw them back in August. She especially loved to pat their fur, and luckily, they were happy to oblige.

Gretchen was thoroughly spoiled throughout the visit, with lots of snuggles from everyone, she's a super fun snuggler, as captured in the photos below.

Big hugs for my girl

Snuggles with Uncle Dan

And a few more from Uncle Ted

We spent the remainder of the trip up in Northern Virginia with Grammy, Papa and Uncle Chris where we had a few relaxing days. A few highlights were me going out for a girl's night with Cara and Stephanie, visiting with our friend Ellen and meeting up with previous boss Louise and her husband John who drove down from Maryland. I fortunately got this nice picture of Gretchen with Louise, though I unfortunately did not get any other photos to document the week.

Aunt Louis gave Gretchen this precious apple jumper when she was born

As usual, we had a great time, everyone was incredibly helpful with taking care of our little peanut. Honestly, the help and support that our families give us really make these trips worth while. We certainly missed Daddy throughout the week, but took comfort in knowing that he was undoubtedly getting more sleep than I was. Let's hope our luck continues and our December travels are just as smooth, as usual, it will all depend on our little traveling girl.

7 Months! (+ 1 day)

2011-09-29T23:00:00.001-03:00

I haven't done a full baby update since Gretchen turned 3 months old, and so much has changed. Gretchen has accomplished so much in the last few months, here are a few highlights.

The planets mat continues to be one of her favorite toys, and it has been there to help her every step of the way. The planets mat was there the night that Gretchen sat up by herself for the first time, she held on to one of the supports for a while, then let go and sat up proud and strong. This photo is from just after her 5 month birthday, check out those big baby blues!

You may remember that Gretchen hates laying on her tummy. Tummy time was a struggle at best,
so you can imagine her excitement to complete this amazing task:

Step 1

Step 2

Success!

Gretchen rolled over for the first time a day before her 6-month birthday and she has been non-stop ever since. With her new found skills, it is near impossible to keep her on her belly, and with that in mind, it took almost a full month for her to roll over the other way. I imagine that her thought process is something like this: "Roll to my tummy, why on earth would I want to do that?!" But alas, her desire to reach for toys prevailed and she rolled back to front while we were at a friend's house on September 20th. That being said, I have full faith that she will not crawl for a while yet - we can't keep her on her tummy long enough to give it a shot! She can stand while holding on to your hands, but she's still very wobbly, so I really have no thoughts that she will be an early crawler or walker. Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself...

September also brought the beginning of Gretchen's first Hokie football season, much to her Daddy's excitement. We have plans to visit Blacksburg in October for her first trip to Virginia Tech, where we will certainly pick up some more Hokie gear. Here she is on the first day of the season, ready to watch the game with Daddy.

Gretchen loves music. She also loves her exersaucer, so here she is enjoying those two loves simultaneously with Poppa back in August.

She is a world-class giggler, and we spend most of our nights trying to figure out new ways to make her laugh. This one night we discovered that if you take really quick steps toward her while she was in the exersaucer she would laugh hysterically. Clearly, we did this a zillion times, because nothing is sweeter sounding than her laughter.

She has always been a good little traveler, but she has specifically enjoyed riding in the Baby Ergo. here we are with Grammy at Great Falls Park in Virginia, it's hard to see her face while she's in the carrier, but you see her adorable little arm reaching out on the side.

Gretchen continues to love riding in her stroller, and now she has a fancy new jogging stroller to help us weather the bumps and rough terrain that the streets of Buenos Aires have in store for us. She also loves Captain Calamari, her stroller-friend. She frequently falls asleep in the stroller while grasping one of the Captains tentacles.

Thanks Grammy and Papa for my new stroller!

And as I mentioned earlier this week, we have started solid food, and so far so good. She's a good little eater and we have been having fun trying new foods.

What we haven't been so go with this month is sleeping. Our little amazing-sleeper has decided that we should visit her a few times during the night to replace her pacifier, rock her a bit or just say hello. She generally doesn't require much during the night, but we were going strong with a few months of 10 -12 hours of unbroken sleep at night, so this has been a bit of a downgrade. She has been drooling and chewing on things like crazy, so we suspect it has something to do with some teeth trying to make their way to the surface - but we haven't seen any yet, so that theory goes unsubstantiated. Such is life, she is a charmer during the day, so who can complain?

I know that all parents say this, but I cannot believe it has been 7 months. She is growing before our very eyes with a new adventure every day. We are excited to visit the US (again!) in October and show all of our family how much their little girl has accomplished in the few weeks that we've been gone. What an amazing 7 months, baby girl, you have completely captured our hearts.

Happy 7 month birthday! May the future bring restful nights and giggle-filled days!

Solid Food, Who Knew?

2011-09-27T21:43:00.001-03:00

Gretchen is officially eating solid food and it takes a whole lot more thought that I had ever expected. It all started with offering her little snacks and bites of food when she turned 5 months old, and it has very slowly but surely developed into a solid 2 "meals" a day of real, solid, food. She is still drinking milk (either by nursing or a bottle) 4 times a day, which is down from 5 times a day a month ago, so we've essentially replaced one milk feeding with two solids feedings. I could go on about her eating habits for hours, I think I spend more time thinking about her eating routine than anything else that goes on in my day. I know that as with most things in parenthood, this new frontier will become more defined as time goes on, but until then I really wish there were an instruction manual!

We started with easy to smash foods like bananas and avocados. Gretchen was not interested in the actual eating part, but she loved playing with the spoon. Here she is just over 5 months trying some avocados.

Sticking her tongue out says it all

As of her 6-month birthday, this was the approximate amount of food she was eating on a daily basis. One mouthful.

She looks adorable while eating, even if it's only for a bite

And she much preferred to be eating her toys, like this:

We have graduated to eating 1oz portions of food at a time, generally mid-morning and again in the late afternoon. So far, her favorite food (by a landslide) is carrots and she does not give broccoli the time of day. She has tried quite a few different foods, but we are a bit limited due to the time of year here - which I'll discuss more below. As for the foods that she has tried, we've got; bananas, avocado, blueberries, mango, carrots, squash, broccoli, kiwi, yogurt and more recently (thanks to our generous friends Milena and Talia) Cheerios.

When you're just nursing, it's easy: baby hungry = milk. But now that we've added variety to her diet it's hard to know when she will be hungry, when she's full and what sort of ratio we're going for. My doctor has been pretty laid back about offering advice, so my main go-to is the Baby 411 book, which appears to have just released a new addition in September 2011. If you're having a baby, buy this book, it is a great resource for when the little ones throws a wrench your way, aka - everyday.

Delicious sugar cereal

A main issue that I've had is the availability of traditional baby foods here in Buenos Aires. My first challenge was rice cereal, the basic of all basics when it comes to baby food. My issue here is that they all contain sugar. I'm not crazy about not allowing my child to have sugar, but this stuff contains quite a bit, it actually smells like powdered sugar when you pour it in the bowl. The ingredient list says: rice flour, sugar, etc. - sugar is ingredient #2! I'll interject here that before I had Gretchen I thought that people really over-thought the introduction of sugar to kids' diets - I guess that changes when it's your own. Hilariously, in the instructions on the box of rice cereal it actually states that you "do not need to add sugar". Was anyone sitting back making food for their 6-month old and wondering how much sugar they needed to add? I was hesitant to have this be the first thing that she ever eats, concerned that she will be addicted to sweets her whole life. Which brings me to challenge number two: yogurt.

Here she is with the yummy Greek yogurt

I have now found a yogurt brand that I like, and better yet, that Gretchen likes, but you need to be careful with this item as well. I was on the hunt for whole milk, natural flavor yogurt, and I assumed that natural flavor meant no sugar. It turns out that this is incorrect. I purchased some natural flavored Greek yogurt, which she LOVED, and then when Daddy tried to feed her a different brand that was truly natural, she literally spit it out. All over the floor. Turns out the Greek yogurt (Griego, for those that are interested) is more like vanilla flavoring in any other brand. No wonder the healthy stuff got the ax.

I have also been making baby food for Gretchen, which is really the easiest thing, but there are slight challenges here as well. Not all foods are available all year long here, so some of the staples that people generally start with, peaches, peas, apricots, etc, are not in the stores until the summer months. Though I have given up on my search for a food processor we've been using the blender, which works just fine. It's actually been kind of fun to search for different things I think she'll enjoy.

After all of the challenges, it's still a pretty neat thing watching our little girl develop her own likes and dislikes and learn how to eat like a big girl. I have to say that I am more than a little jealous when I see all of the convenience items available for transitioning babies to solid foods.

tø Be, or not tø Be

2011-09-21T20:56:00.003-03:00

The fabulous door of "to" restaurant

This new place with an incredibly interesting door opened a few months ago and after walking by 50 or 60 times, I finally decided to see what was behind the cool door. The answer is twofold, there is a small restaurant and bar, and a boutique hotel with somewhere around 20 rooms. The restaurant is called tø, (the "o" actually has one of those little carrot top accents over it, but I don't know how to make that work on the keyboard) it's pronounced "toe" and we decided to take our date night there last weekend.

Tø's full name is "tø frapanese cuisine" and the location in Recoleta (Quintana 465; 5295-8585) that I am referring to is actually their second, the other one being in Palermo (Costa Rice 6000; 4772-8569). As the full name suggests, they have a mix of French and Japanese dishes along with an interesting cocktail menu and, of course, full wine list. Our plan was to have a drink at their bar and then continue to a different restaurant for dinner, so I can only speak to one of their dishes, but we plan to go back for a full meal sometime in the future.

Just as the attached hotel is boutique-style, tø only has 5 or 6 bar stools and a maximum of 20 tables. They have a small indoor/outdoor patio that offers 2 tables next to a beautiful water feature that would be a great place for a glass of wine on a sunny day. We had to laugh a little as we sat down on our barstools because although the bar itself is visually interesting (it almost looks like a carved tree was laid down to make the bar top), the stools are a few inches too short so we looked like we were sitting at the kiddie table for Thanksgiving dinner. The bartender, Guillermo, was friendly and attentive, though he suckered both of us into an upsale - me with a glass of wine that wasn't on the menu and Jon with some sort of liquor in his mojito, but we thoroughly enjoyed our drinks and at the end of the day our bar tab was still less than we would pay in any big city in the US. Our buddy Guillermo explained that the restaurant and hotel were both owned by a relative of the Catena Zapata family (flashback to our Mendoza trip) and that the wood to make the super-cool entrance door and the bar were both imported from Mendoza. We hold out hope that Guillermo can help us get a wine barrel from Mendoza brought to Buenos Aires for a reasonable price, we've been keeping those in mind since our trip last year as well.

As for the food, we shared a tempura roll appetizer, and we really weren't that impressed. Obviously, the roll was salmon, as most of the sushi rolls here are, but it seemed to be a flaky, cooked salmon that wasn't very flavorful. Also, the "tempura" seemed to be rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, unlike actual tempura battering that we're used to. All in all, if you want a tempura roll, I suggest you go to Gran Bar Danzon, where the roll is far superior. That being said, we have heard really good things about the rest of their menu, and the ambiance is enough to keep us coming back for at least a pre-dinner drink. The prices are a little steep, considering the area of town and the "boutique-ness" to the restaurant it kind of comes with the territory, but overall tø is a nice place to stop in.

If nothing else, walk by and check out the front door.

UPDATE: November 6, 2011 - We went back to Tø this past weekend for a drink before going out to dinner and the bartender informed us that the restaurant was no longer serving food. No explanation, just that they pulled the menus and were keeping the bar open sans food. Apparently we weren't the only ones that weren't overwhelmed by the appetizers. Also, we have yet to see Guillermo again, so I'm guessing that my search for a wine barrel from Mendoza continues...

Temaikén Bioparque

2011-09-16T22:19:00.001-03:00

This weekend we packed up our things and headed out of town to a zoo of a different kind, a biopark. You might ask what a biopark is, and I would tell you - it's a nice zoo. Not in a sarcastic way, an actual, nice zoo. To the point that I'm hoping that there is no communication line between the animals at Temaiken and the animals at the Palermo Zoo because it is pretty obvious who got the short end of that stick.

Temaiken is in Escobar, which is about 30 miles (~50km.) northwest of the center of Buenos Aires. To get there you can either drive or take one of two types of bus, the Route 60 semi-rapido or the Chevallier Costera Metropolitana. The information regarding each mode of transportation is limited on the Temaiken website, so we used what information we received from friends and other websites and used the Route 60 bus. It was easier than we expected.

The ticket kiosk on Sarmiento Street

The Route 60 bus stop is on Sarmiento Street immediately in front of La Rural Exposition Center. They are on the same side of the street as the US Embassy, across the street from the Palermo Zoo near Plaza Italia. There is a small kiosk marking the bus stop, this also serves as a ticket counter. You can buy day passes for Temaiken (which I recommend in order to avoid a potentially long line at the park) and a bus ticket to the park at this kiosk. As of Sunday, the one-time park entry ticket is $78 pesos, $60 for children ages 3 - 10 and free for children under 3. They offer a discounted rate of $39 adult/$30 children, on Tuesdays (the park is closed on Mondays) and if you plan on going more than twice in a year, it makes sense to purchase a yearly pass for $145 adult/$110 children, Yearly passes are available on Ticketek or at the park entrance ticket office. Bus passes are $6.50 pesos each way, though you can only purchase a one-way pass at the kiosk, you need to buy the return pass at the returning bus stop at the park.

The Rt. 60 bus indeed is semi-rapido, it still makes quite a few stops. That considered, it took us an hour and 15 minutes to arrive to the gates of the park, and the ride was pretty pleasant. This bus is a bit different from the regular collectivos that you ride in town; the seats are a bit nicer, more spacious and in general a more civilized ride. As a side note, we brought our stroller with us and it took up an entire row of seats. I'm not sure the other riders appreciated this and we found out later that you can rent a nice-looking stroller from the park, a service that appeared to be free.

Since we bought our tickets ahead of time we were able to bypass the long lines and walk right into the park after we arrived at Temaiken. You want to stop at the information booth inside the gates on the left to get a map, the park is well marked but a map is incredibly helpful. The park is large and though they don't have the array of exotic animals that the Palermo Zoo has, but the animals that they do have are kept in much nicer habitats. We brought our jogging stroller, but the pathways were nice enough that a little umbrella stroller would have sufficed, something that we are generally not used to here in the city.

The zoo is spacious and even on a busy weekend day we didn't feel cramped in the park. There were times when the animals were doing something particularly interesting that it was hard to see through the front line of viewers, but that is bound to happen anywhere you go with lots of children on a weekend. The exhibits are well marked and coordinate perfectly with the park map, and each exhibit has a sign that is the shape of that animal, so even if you don't speak Spanish, you can ascertain what you're looking at.

Daddy checking in on Gretchen

One of the highlighted parts of the biopark is the "El Lugar de Las Aves" or the birdpark. It is hard to impress me since we've been to the birdpark on Brazil's side of Iguazu Falls, but this exhibit was not too shabby. There were lots of "normal" songbirds and such in smaller cages, and then there were large walk-through cages that had more exotic birds like toucans and parrots. I am completely in love with toucans so this part was great for me. The toucan pictured below actually hit Jon in the head as it flew by, notice that the cage is on the opposite side of the bird.

I am not quite as big of a fan of parrots, they are noisy and generally seem pretty mean so I was surprised that the bird exhibit path guided us right into another walk-through cage that housed parrots. Again, a parrot flew right at Jon's head, and then they seemed to guard the exit as we were leaving. I think we both envisioned a parrot flying right into Gretchen's stroller, so we hightailed it out of the parrot exhibit. If you aren't a parrot-coward like me, this would have been a really nice place to take pictures.

The park has quite a few places to stop and eat, the food isn't fantastic, but we made out just fine. Gretchen needed a break from sitting in the stroller, so here she is enjoying sitting on our lunch table.

In all honesty, we could have used more umbrellas in the food area, but what you can't see here is a water feature that was crazy fun for the older kids which makes up for the lack of umbrellas. Their parents were able to eat in peace while the kids marveled at the water. And here we are together, simultaneously trying to get some sun for me while trying to shield Gretchen from it's harmful rays.

Aside from the bird exhibit, there were several really great animal habitats to see; the aquarium was impressive with it's variety of sharks, stingrays and other large fish, we enjoyed the hippos, zebras, wallabies, and these adorable meerkats pictured below. I especially like the little guy in the rock who is looking at a plane passing by.

And as we were on our way out, we caught one last photo by the entrance sign.

We had a wonderful day outside of the city. I think Gretchen would enjoy the biopark much more in 6 months or so when she is able to run around and play on the grass. We avoided going to Temaiken for close to 2 years because we thought the bus would be too big of a hassle, and it was really not that big of a deal. We should have tried this last year, it was really worth the trip. Hooray for Temaiken!

A Triumphant Return... sort of

2011-09-07T19:13:00.000-03:00

This past weekend we returned from yet another wonderful trip to the US. We visited both my and Jon's sides of the family, watched one of my best friends get married, met lots of people that we've been hearing about for awhile, shopped to our heart's content, and did all of this with the most well-behaved baby in the world. I will certainly write more about the trip itself, but as the baby naps this afternoon, I can't help but reflect on the strange pull of emotions that happens every time we return from the US.

As an expat, you essentially have two "homes"; wherever you consider home to be in the states, and where you actually live (in my case, Argentina). The positive side is that you have two homes, the negative is that you really don't have a home at all. I feel this bizarre mix of emotions that comes from liking where I live, yet being sad to return. The crazy thing is that I love being in both places. The US offers familiarity, family and friends, ease of language, knowing exactly where to go to get something done. Argentina is fun, exotic, beautiful, something I pride myself in making my own, and where my everyday life takes place. When I'm in Argentina, I anxiously await my next trip to the US. When I'm in the US, my life in Argentina is on hold. Friendships are paused, my plants start to die and I feel like I'm starting from square one each time our plane touches ground.

Quite the juxtaposition.

I think this happens whenever you have close family ties that you live apart from, whether it be in a different town or a different part of the world. Perhaps it's just a little stronger in my case because our two homes are so far from each other. When we leave the US, we pack the maximum amount of items possible in our suitcases and try to simulate life as it was before we moved (this also occurs when people come to visit us) yet we value our time in Argentina and are happy to stay living here for the foreseeable future.

I guess the moral of the story is to live in the moment because the day will come when we are no longer expats and we can got to Target as many times as we want without worrying about how much our new purchases weigh. We will miss living in such a wonderful city and swear to our new friends that we used to speak Spanish. At least this is what I tell myself as I count the days until our next trip stateside.

El Salto de las Ranas

2011-08-16T09:17:00.000-03:00

Buenos Aires has a great restaurant culture and there are a zillion great restaurants to try, but one of the constant complaints you hear (at least among the expats) is that there is a severe lack of Mexican cuisine. It's true, we have only found a handful of Mexican restaurants and, of those, only a select few that we would return to. We have eaten at El Salto de las Ranas (Rodriguez Peña 1169, Recoleta: 4811-2635) once, over a year ago and had a good meal, but Guia Oleo panned the place so we were hesitant to recommend it to others. Not only that, during my pregnancy I was super-craving Mexican, so we walked to Las Ranas late on a Tuesday night, only to be told that they had no electricity. It must have been during some sort of hormonal swing for me, because this information sent me to tears, and we haven't been back.

We returned this past weekend and had a similarly good experience, I'm feeling confident enough to give it my recommendation. Las Ranas is in a row of 3 restaurants on Rodriquez Peña, that if you didn't know better, you would think that they were all the same place. The inside is mildly decorated with Mexican-themed items and the small tables are lined against the walls in a long, narrow, corridor. We completely threw them for a loop by bringing our stroller, which barely fit down the aisle between the two rows of tables. All in all, the ambiance is decent, excluding the music selection - which consisted of only Black Eyed Peas songs.

Our service was friendly and prompt, it helped that Gretchen was flirting and giggling at our waiter the whole time, and only a complete Scrooge could resist her charms. They started us off with a small basket of chips and a tiny dish of salsa, laughably small portions compared to American standards. The salsa had spice, but it was the consistency of hot sauce, no chunks of any kind. We ordered guacamole to start, they have two kinds to choose from, guacamole with shrimp or with chips. I'm guessing that the shrimp are the dipping instruments in the latter option - but we stuck with what we know and ordered the chips variety. The guac was fine, more of an avocado puree, but the chips were good and salty and my standards for Mexican food are generally lower in Argentina.

For dinner, I had the mixed fajitas (chicken and steak, there are several other options - shrimp, pork, vegetables and any combination of the options) and they were pretty darn good. The meat was cooked well, of good quality and served with peppers and onions. The condiments were pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, black beans, rice and tortillas - the highlight being the good tortillas. This is an item that I can not find in stores here, the closest thing is a brand called Rapiditos, and they are a pretty poor substitute (and like 5 inches in diameter). Jon had tacos, which were also quite good - to the point that by the time I remembered to take a picture, he was finishing the 3rd (and last) taco. We were pleased.

The other test of a good Mexican restaurant is the quality of their margaritas. We did not give them a try this go-around, but the last time we ate there (granted, it was over a year ago), the margarita was so tart and strong it was almost undrinkable. Almost. I think this is due to a lack of margarita mix here (though it's easy enough to make that yourself) so the margaritas generally consist of tequila, triple sec, lime juice and ice. Maybe that's good for the diehards, but I'm going to need some sugar in that baby to make it good. Ironic, considering that you can't even buy infant rice cereal that doesn't contain sugar - Argentine's love sweets.

Regardless, Las Ranas is as decent Mexican food option in the city as we've seen. They offer delivery, which may be the next step for us, our delivery options are getting sparse. Considering that it is withing walking distance to our apartment, we'll add this one back to the list of casual dining options - and hope they keep the electricity flowing.

Maraton Reebok 10K

2011-08-14T19:15:00.000-03:00

Last Sunday marked quite a few firsts for me. My first 10K, my first race in Buenos Aires, and my first competitive run since Gretchen was born. Recently, I remarked to my friend Adena that I needed some inspiration to give me a workout goal, something like a local competitive race. Low and behold, she emails me the following week and said that she had signed up for the Reerun 10K Reebok run in Palermo, and she hoped that I would join her. I could back out like a chump, or join her and make good on my statement. So, with 10 days until racetime, I signed up to join in a 10K.

In all honesty, I have only participated in two races in my life, and it was the same race (the Philadelphia 10-mile run) two years in a row. I have been running recently, so the thought of running continuously for 6.25 miles wasn't completely out of the question. The more complicated part was figuring out what we needed to do to sign up and participate. The coordination of this type of event is generally not the strong suit of the local culture - organization, availability of information and managing large groups of people have the potential to go very poorly. I am happy to report that this event was managed quite well from start to finish, I was impressed.

The race website was easy to navigate and clearly listed all information regarding the race. I was able to pay the $120 peso entry fee online, with a credit card (abnormal for here) and was emailed a contract and a list of documents I would need to pick up my race kit. The only item I was not accustomed to providing was a doctor's note stating that I was healthy enough to participate. Though it was mildly annoying to get this note from a doctor, I can imagine that it is a good idea to require this sort of certification for a race of this size.

Mid-Race Photo-Op

Adena and I picked up our race packets, showed our doctors notes and photo IDs and we were ready to run. As a side note, it seems as though all races are referred to as "maratons" here, which is an interesting phenomenon. It send me into panic mode when I saw that I had entered the "Maraton Reebok", because there is a HUGE difference between running 10 kilometers and a ~42 kilometer marathon. I have absolutely no interest in the latter. Anyways, the day of the race, we took a taxi to the corner of Alem and Sarmiento streets and waited for 9:00am. The organization had a coat check to keep our jackets and bags during the race and there were a ton of vendors selling water bottle belts, hats and all sorts of other racing paraphernalia. We made the mistake of arriving "on time" at 8:00am, which means we were some of the first people on scene, so we were asked to sign a number of petitions, were interviewed in some sort of pro-Buenos Aires video and had lots of time to stand around and people-watch.

The race was at it's capacity of 10,000 runners, which was quite a sight to see considering that all participants were required to wear the issued neon orange race shirt. Daddy and Gretchen, and Adena's husband Paul and her son Trey came out to cheer us on - it was great to see their smiling faces as we ran by. This was especially important during this race for me, because although I know it was a 10K, I still am not completely accustomed to thinking in kilometers...it took me until "mile marker" 4 to realize that they were actually kilometer markers. Considering that a kilometer is just a little over half of a mile, this was a decent blow to me ego.

All things considered, I came in 4,079th place - better than I would have expected. It was lots of fun and a really great way to continue pushing my running goals.

It was a great time, and I really enjoyed the route which went around Palermo Lake and past the Hippodromo (the horse racetrack). The weather cooperated nicely and it was a great way to feel like we were really getting out and enjoying the city. I will definitely look to participate in other local races, a great calendar of events is located on the Club de Corredores website. Thanks to Adena for the companionship and the motivation!

iCentral Market

2011-08-09T21:57:00.002-03:00

I have probably been to iCentral Market (Puerto Madero - esq. Pierina Dealessiy Macacha Güemes; 011 5775 0330) a dozen times, and for some reason I have not yet posted about it. I love this place. It's a great stopping point when we bring visitors to Puerto Madero to walk around, it is one of the few places I know will have a good salad, they have a great outdoor seating area and they are accommodating to groups, babies and English speakers.

There are two sister restaurants, iCentral and iFresh Market, both located in Puerto Madero one cross-bridge away from one another. iCentral has a take-out counter for quick meals on the run, which is a rarity in the cafe culture of Buenos Aires, and if you proceed through their housewares and gift shop area you will walk right into the restaurant.

Eating lunch with our friends visiting from the US at iCentral

The tables are nicely spaced out, so you don't feel like you are sitting on top of each other and the chairs are plush and comfortable. The menu is ample, with a few items in each category; salads, sandwiches, entrees and desserts. As far as drinks are concerned, they offer the usual water and soda selection, but they also have lemonade and fresh squeezed juices that are excellent. I usually get the mint and ginger lemonade, which is served half frozen and is great as a summertime beverage. It is even better when enjoyed with my smiling husband, as pictured on the left.

They start you off with a nice selection of bread, served with herbed butter pats covered in sea salt. Being a salt lover, I enjoy this touch. Additionally, the waiter brings an amuse bouche to the table as they come to take your beverage order. These have ranged from pate to a cream cheese based bite. One of the more recent additions to the service is a bowl of hot water and towels that is brought to the table for you to wash your hands. The towels look a lot like dinner mints, so don't be fooled, but when you submerge them in water they grow - similar to the pills-that-become-dinosaur-sponges that were so popular in the 80s. I have never ordered anything that I didn't like, but recently, I've stuck to ordering either a salad or a sandwich. They have interesting salad combinations, unusual for Buenos Aires, such as a pear and Gorgonzola with Dijon dressing (pictured below) or smoked salmon with poached egg and capers. They also have a daily soup, the most recent time we were there it was squash and carrot and it was outstanding.

iCentral's summer menu has a delicious grilled chicken sandwich that I usually gravitate to, but since they have switched over to the winter menu, I have had to deviate from my norm. The vegetarian sandwich is good with eggplant, squash and zucchini, but the real treat when you order a sandwich is the little bowl of fried potatoes that come with it. This is their take on french fries, little crudely cut potatoes that are served the same as french fries. One of our friends ordered the pastrami sandwich with arugula and his only complaint was that it came with too much brie cheese.

If you have room for coffee or dessert there are several options. They have just recently started serving ice cream, and although it is not quite as good as Arkakao, it is respectable. I prefer their coffee drinks, which are as pretty as they are good, for example, here is my cappuccino:

With any sort of coffee order, they serve these meringue dulce de leche filled cookies. I'm not big on the meringue part, but the dulce de leche is delish.

So here is the downside of iCentral, it is pricey. Not Cabana Las Lilas expensive, but over the last month or so they have raised their prices by 20 - 30 pesos per entree. I expect these sort of prices in Puerto Madero, it's one of the more expensive areas of town, but it is frustrating to have the same meal that two weeks ago was US$8 cheaper.

I still enjoy iCentral, and as long as they don't continue to raise their prices at this ridiculous rate, I will continue to meet friends here for lunch and bring our people from out of town to enjoy their hand towels and meringue cookies.

Tanto Tiempo

2011-08-04T16:24:00.000-03:00

The most common question that I am asked is how my life is different living in Argentina. The answer is difficult to put into words because, in many ways, living in any big city would be similar to living in Buenos Aires. The traffic is crazy, you need defensively cross the street, stores are smaller and people seem to be everywhere. Aside from the language, I have to say that the biggest difference in my everyday life is the unpredictability of everything. Daily tasks seem to inexplicably take longer. For the longest time, I had a hard time thinking of specific examples of this...but the opportunity has once again presented itself, and I had my camera phone ready to document the experience.

Mission: Purchase a food processor.

We had a great food processor that was a wedding present, but unfortunately, the 220v power supply fried the motor. Since Gretchen will soon be diving into the world of solid food, I was hoping to replace this appliance with something purchased locally to avoid the power supply issue in the future. So I packed up the baby, and we walked to Carrefour, a local grocery store that has an appliance section. Here is what we found:

Yep, good old Carrefour (on Vicente Lopez y Rodriguez Peña, for those in the area) is closed for the month of August. No sign, no warning, just boarded up.

No worries, we'll just stop by a couple of dress shops that we passed on the walk here, I am looking for a dress for a friend's wedding at the end of the month, so that will at least make the trip worth while.

First dress shop:

Second dress shop:

Never mind that it was 2:45pm so at least one of the shops should have been open - but the greater point being, really?! You're just closed in the middle of the day? These little lamented signs that you stick up with tape when you decide to leave are for real? You may even notice in the window of shop 2 that the hours are printed on the glass. They read: Mon - Fri 10am - 8pm, Sat, Sun & holidays 10am - 7pm. I guess the closed for and hour in the middle of the day part was too much to include.

So we went home, changed the most impressive blow out diaper I have ever seen, gave Gretchen a bath and then headed out to another Carrefour location that has an even larger electronics section.

The second Carrefour had approximately 15 different models of juicers, but only 1 food processor, the box of which had so much dust on it I would guess it had been there for no less than 2 years. And it was bigger than our microwave. And it was US$200. I walked upstairs to the electronics store located above the Carrefour only to find that they also carried this same model of food processor, more or less in the same condition, but this time it was US$250.

Since we were already bundled up (remember it's still winter down here), we headed over to Starbucks, where I knew exactly what I was getting into. On our way home I stopped and picked up some cough drops for my and Jon's multi-week long colds.

Gretchen and I had been home for 10 minutes or so when Daddy got home from work.

"So, what did you do today?" he asks.

"I got a coffee and some Halls."

Mission: FAILED

La Candelaria

2011-07-19T23:42:00.002-03:00

With the gloomy winter upon us here in Buenos Aires, we decided to take a weekend trip with some friends to an estancia outside of the city. An estancia is essentially a ranch that has opened itself up to visitors, like a South American Bed & Breakfast, and there are many different styles to choose from. The only other experience I have with estancias was in March of 2010 when I went to La Oriental with my mom and we had a blast, so when this opportunity came about I was more than excited. The requirements for the estancia were; 1) Child friendly, 2) Within 2 hours of the city and 3) Nothing too rustic. La Candelaria fit the bill.

La Candelaria is located just outside of Lobos, a small town approximately 115 km outside the city of Buenos Aires. As with most places we've visited outside of town, it doesn't have an address per se, just a kilometer marker where you turn right onto an unnamed road. The GPS will help you on your way to this place, but you don't want to rely on it exclusively. We made it there in just under 2 hours, though without traffic it is closer to an hour and 15 minutes.

Our "family" portrait

The claim to fame at La Candelaria is the castle pictured above which is a working part of the estancia where you are able to stay as long as you travel without children. If you bring your kids, there are rooms available that are simple, but nice, with a "living" room complete with a working fireplace that is separated from the bedroom by a door (perfect for a sleeping/napping baby). If you are interested in going inside the castle, they offer daily tours in English and Spanish, and though the tour was short, it was really great to see the antiques and incredible decorative detail.

Our rooms were all located in this separate building

They offer 4 meals a day, so there is almost always food to be had. We arrived just in time to check in, get our rooms organized and head to the Salon Criollo for merienda (otherwise known as the meal of dessert offered between lunch and dinner). Here are Gretchen and I enjoying our merienda.

It was such a nice reprieve to get out of town, the air was crisp and clean and there was nothing but fields and open space to explore. There were a ton of things to do and see on the ranch, we spent our free time sightseeing and walking the grounds.

Gretchen and Daddy enjoying the day

The Newhook family with adorable baby Talia

We made a new friend during one of our walks, this extremely tall pup followed us for hours during the day. Somehow, Jon seems to attract dogs wherever he goes, I'm hoping one day this will persuade him to not be angry when I come home with one.

On Saturday there was a whole dia del campo that is offered as a part of your weekend stay at the estancia or as a single day trip. This event consisted of a full asado meal, mid-meal entertainment and a gaucho show later in the afternoon. We enjoyed the full range of events - and it really drew a crowd of people that were just participating in the day trip.

Here is the beef cooking at the beginning of the day. I love the indirect heat method they use here, this photo was taken at 10:00am and the lunch wasn't served until 1:00pm.

Before

At lunch, each table was served a little grill filled with meat. Some of the pieces are things we eat, and some are interesting strange-parts such as intestine and sweetbreads. The grill is a great little item, it keeps everything hot throughout the meal.

After

The mid-meal entertainment was a bit like Argentine River Dance. It was a bit cheesy, but the kids were captivated throughout the show. It was a little funny to recognize the performers as the same folks that worked on the estancia during the day.

One of the more hilarious points in the weekend occurred during the gaucho show after lunch. The Argentine cowboys were really incredible horsemen, doing all sorts of cool and impressive tricks. At the end of the show they laid out two cow hides and asked for volunteers to participate in the show. Our friend Paul promptly volunteered and was then dragged behind one of the horsed by a rope in this sort of bobsled race. I can't imagine this happens at any resort in the US.

Paul is in the red, I think he won the race

Gretchen loved the horse show

Paul and Trey enjoying the bikes

La Candelaria offered all sorts of activities that were included in the cost of your stay. Some of the activities included; bicycles available for use, pool and ping pong tables, a swimming pool for the summer months, a mini playground for kids, and daily horseback riding. You can also go fishing, golfing, take a polo lesson or learn to fly a plane - but these activities cost extra.

After 2 days of watching these horses sit waiting for riders, I decided to try my hand at riding for the first time since I was 13. My mom goes riding all the time, how hard can it be??

The answer: pretty freaking hard. Here I am all smiles before the ride begins. In my defense, take note of the big pad and blankets that are tied onto the horses back - there was not really a full saddle to speak of. Also, the stirrups are just wooden rings AND I'm wearing leggins and tennis shoes (and no helmet - there wasn't even a helmet on the property). There, those are all of my excuses.

The guide I went out with was not content with the leisurely walking tour that I was expecting and he somehow thought that I was going to have control of my horse. My little buddy walked right int the white plastic chair in the photo above and then continued on to, not one, but TWO clothes lines before walking into a tree. After the tree incident, the guide tied the rope from my horses bridle to his stirrup and then cantered for 20 minutes. For those not familiar with cantering, it is the speed between trot and gallop that makes you squeeze with your legs harder than you thought possible and hold on to your pad-saddle so tight that your arm is sore for 3 days afterward. It's also the fastest I've ever gone on a horse - back in the day when I had been taking lessons for months and had all the right gear. Cantering is also the speed at which I forget how to say "slower please" en español so I just hang on tight, watch my life pass before my eyes and wait until we come to a stop to catch my breath and wipe the tears from my eyes.

The weekend was great, we had an absolute blast. I would recommend an estancia to anyone who needs a break from the city, and La Candelaria was a great place to spend the weekend. We had lots of fun with our friends, came away from the weekend with lots of funny stories and cannot wait until we can spend another weekend in the campo.

Vacunatorio

2011-07-14T09:45:00.001-03:00

This past Monday we had Gretchen's 4-month doctor's appointment (albeit a bit late considering she is a few weeks over four months) and she is progressing just fine. She is now at 6.8 kilos (15 pounds) and 63 cm (24.8 inches) our little grower keeps packing on the pounds, which is exactly what we want her to do.

And here are a couple of the pictures I took on her actual 4-month birthday. The first photo was taken just seconds before the entire outfit (minus the socks) was covered in spit-up. Second photo was just too precious to leave out. Notice the socks were spared.

Although I was excited to see how Gretchen was progressing, I was also dreading this checkup because it meant that she was due for another round of vaccines. I am a complete pansy when it comes to shots of any sort, and although it has gotten better since I've gotten older, I still needed my college roommate to hold my hand when I got my flu shot every year at school (thanks again Jules!), and it's just as difficult to see my little baby get shots. Jon and I are of the mindset that since we are technically living in a third-world country and taking our baby on long distance flights multiple times in her first year, we'll go ahead and trust the AAP recommended vaccine schedule. Honestly, we would have done so anyways, but these reasons just seal the deal.

Since the last round of vaccines that Gretchen went through at 2 months, we have had a change (for the better) in our medical coverage. We are now covered by local insurance, which makes my life overwhelmingly easier considering that I don't have to submit receipts to our insurance company back home. But, as with any change, I was a little nervous about the new process, especially when it comes to vaccines.

The biggest difference between what I'm used to in the US and here is that vaccines are not commonly given in doctor's offices. We actually chose our pediatrician because he administers vaccines himself in the office (and, obviously, we liked his way of practicing medicine, etc, etc). Also, if we have the doctor administer the vaccines, we have to pay in full, in cash and then wait for an 80% reimbursement from the US insurance company. We went through that procedure back in April and the vaccines ended up costing us close to US$75 after the reimbursement. Compare that to this week, when the shots were free. And no paperwork. Sign me up.

So, after our appointment on Monday, Gretchen and I took a decently long walk to the Vacunatorio. There are quite a few locations in the city, our doctor recommended Stamboulian (Barrio Norte, 4515-3000; Pacheco de Melo 2941) and it was as good as a place that gives shots can be. Clean, short lines and friendly staff. And I'm no hypocrite, I got my flu shot at the same time so I can vouch firsthand for how gentle they were. For the record, Gretchen was an absolute trooper, she barely cried and just needed some extra loving and cuddles that night. All in all it was a fine experience and it was made even better by the $0.00 bill we received at the end of our visit. Not only that, they gave us a voucher for free parking (if we had driven). Instead, we dodged pile after pile of dog poop on Pacheco de Melo (seriously, it must be a common dog walker route or something, it was intense) and walked home on a beautiful 60 degree night in the dead of winter here. See you in 2 months, Vacunatorio, for the next round of vaccines!

Grand Cru

2011-07-10T20:56:00.001-03:00

We have passed by the Grand Cru wine shop almost every day since we've moved to Buenos Aires, and though we've talked about going in to see if they offer tastings, we've never actually gone inside. I am pretty sure the doorman actually recognizes Jon and I due to the number of times that we've walked by, so when we finally went to a tasting this past weekend we both felt that it was past due. The tasting was the most well rounded we've attended in Buenos Aires, more professional that the Anuva tasting and less expensive than the Park Hyatt.

Grand Cru (Rodriguez Peña 1886: 4816-3975)We booked the tasting for Saturday afternoon from 4:00 - 6:00pm and were told to be prompt. The tasting room was quite nice and deceivingly large considering the storefront view from the street. The atmosphere was nice, the chairs were comfortable, the table was made of wine delivery crates, it was a really cool spot. We chose the Malbec tasting where they served four bottles of wine, each from a different Argentine winery and from different price points. Here are the varieties we tried:

Pulenta - 2009 Gran Malbec
Doña Paula - 2007 Selection de Bodega
Catena Zapata - 2005 Malbec Argentino
Don Miguel Gascon - 2006 Don

We started by tasting each wine and discussing it with the sommelier, Ezekial. After we tasted the four, we each discussed our favorites and Ezekial divulged the cost of each bottle. We were then able to sit and leisurely finish the bottles of wine while they brought out a plate of cheeses and raisins. You may notice the Nespresso machine in the background of the photo to the left, none of us requested coffee, but I'm assuming they would have been happy to serve us coffee after the tasting.

It wasn't an inexpensive evening, the tasting was $1800 pesos total, regardless of the number of people in the tasting. In addition to the tasting room, Grand Cru has a fantastic selection of wines in their store. There were a few very specific requests that our group had for certain bottles of wine (not necessarily all Argentine wines) and the shop had all of them.

It was a really fun, nice evening and we had a great time. I would recommend the Grand Cru tasting as a nice thing to do with guests or a great evening with friends.

Oreo Cheesecake

2011-07-06T21:36:00.001-03:00

This month the temperature is about as cold as it gets here in Buenos Aires so 'tis the season for expats to flee the "cold" and spend a generally long period of time back in the US. Although we are not planning on spending prolonged periods of time in the US, we can certainly relate to the desire for products from home. In the time that we've lived here we've discovered that there are things that we cannot find here and request that people bring us when they visit, but there are other things, specifically, food related items, that we are able to adapt to local ingredients. Here is one of those recipes.

As far as I know, there are no graham crackers in Argentina. There are crackers you can use that are similar, but no actual graham crackers. For me, this means no s'mores and (more importantly) no cheesecake crust. Behold! There is an alternative! Oreo cookies for the crust! And Oreo cookies are an internationally enjoyed dessert. So are two of my mom's recipes mashed into one, Buenos Aires friendly, delicious cheesecake.

Oreo Cookie Cheesecake

1/4 cup (60 g) melted margarine or butter
2, 8 oz (225 g) packages cream cheese softened
14 oz (400 g) can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups crushed Oreos (about 18), plus 3-5 more for topping

Preheat oven to 300. Combine crumbs and butter pat firmly on bottom of 9" spring form pan.

In a large mixer beat cheese until fluffy. Add condensed milk beat until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla mix well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from oven and sprinkle remaining 3-5 crushed Oreos on top. Cool to room temperature. Chill and remove side of spring form pan.

I like to serve this dessert with strawberries and whipped cream. If I were Martha Stewart I would make my own whipped cream, but instead I buy whipped cream from a can (Chantilly brand here) and serve it that way. Also, as with most fruits here, strawberries are only in season when they are actually in season so I substitute blueberries or mangos or peaches for the fruit as well. Disfruten!

Virginia in June

2011-06-27T10:00:00.002-03:00

Before I get too behind, let me finish our recent vacation recap. After we left beautiful Los Angeles, we took the cross country LA to DC flight and spent the last few days of our US trip in Virginia with my family. Let me just interject that our flight did not have a single baby changing table on board (what?!). Poor Gretchen had to endure diaper changes in some pretty creative places during this 5 hour flight. (If anyone from Continental is reading this, please install changing tables in your planes! Have you ever known a baby to use the same diaper for 5 hours??)

Once we landed in DC, Gretchen met her other two, very excited uncles!

Gretchen hanging out with Uncle Chris

Look at those thighs! Uncle Robbie and Gretchen bonding.

During our DC stay, we had a good mix of general housekeeping appointments (the dentist, the DMV, etc.) and fun visits with friends and family. It was an especially big week for us because Jon and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary (wow!), my 30th birthday (even bigger wow!) and Robbie's 22nd birthday. Here is the adorable joint birthday cake Chris got for Robbie and I:

Check out our cutie, younger selves

In addition, my parents graciously hosted a whole slew of our friends and their babies at their house so that we could see as many people as possible on our short trip. It was so wonderful to see everyone, thank you all so much for traveling all the way out to see us, especially on a Friday afternoon. It was fun, chaotic, and exciting to introduce Gretchen to all of her little buddies (many of them new to us too!) Here is our attempt at capturing all of the little ones in one photo:

As you can imagine, it was exciting

Also, Gretchen met her buddy Evan Humkey for the first time, the two were born only TWO DAYS apart! I know Gretchen will be grateful to say she is the older one of the two (until she's about 25) and we look forward to future joint birthdays with the Humkeys.

During the extremely hot week, we were able to take Gretchen to a friend's pool for her first non-bath-water experience. Mom accidentally forgot her hat, so we had to be extra careful, but she seemed to really like the water.

Pay no attention to our lack of tan...it's winter by us!

It was an amazing, whirlwind, fun and much-needed trip home. Thank you to everyone to came out to visit us, our friends are so understanding and thoughtful about our always-packed schedule when we're in the US. Thank you to my parents for making this week as fulfilling and easy as possible, it was a great recharge for us. Our trip back to Argentina did not include any celebrity sitings, but it was just as seamless as the trip to the states.

Since we aren't there to celebrate together, I want to send a big "Happy Birthday" message to my dad, who's birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Dad! Gretchen talks about you all the time, and can't wait to see you in a couple of months!

Happy Birthday Papa!

The Newest Mr. & Mrs. Gill!

2011-06-16T16:36:00.002-03:00

Wow, is it over already? It's crazy when an event is planned for so far in advance, and anticipated for so long, and then it's just over. That's how I feel about Dan & Lian's wedding, along with our recent whirlwind trip to the US. I cannot believe it's already over.

There were so many factors brought in to make this trip a success and I am pleased to say that they all came through with flying colors. First off, the documentation. Gretchen's Argentine passport was the last piece of the travel-ready puzzle and it arrived a mere 4 days before our departure. (I also had to chase the delivery man down the street in my slippers because he said I took too long to answer the door, but that's another story...)

Then there was the mildly insane travel itinerary. Could we really take our 3-month old on a multi-leg, multi-continent, and cross-country trip all in a matter of 10 days? The answer is yes, with a beautifully behaved 3-month old, you certainly can.

She's already sleeping, before even taking off

Gretchen took the flight with a grain of salt. I was skeptical once I saw that the bassinet that we had rented was this strange plastic thing that attaches to the wall, but it worked like a charm and gave us the freedom to get some shut eye on the plane. You will notice that she is wearing her fashionable "gorgeous" bib. This comes into play when I tell you that on the other side of Gretchen's bassinet wall, in the last row of first class, the champ himself, Mike Tyson, sat with his family (I think I read that it's his 3rd wife, and he's turned over a new leaf...) and 4-month old baby. When we landed in Houston for our connection to LA, we shared an elevator with the Tysons, which is when Mike (we're on a first name basis now.) asked "Is that the gorgeous baby from the plane?". Yup, Mike Tyson called our baby gorgeous. He had a little help from the power of suggestions from the bib, but he said it nonetheless. Needless to say, Gretchen was an angel on the flight and she continued her amazing behavior throughout our trip.

Our reason for flying home, and the first stop on our trip was to Los Angeles for Dan and Lian's wedding festivities. I was not my normal paparazzi-self, but I did get a few shots of Gretchen at the beautiful kick off party that was held at the Santa Monica beach club on Friday night. It was a wonderful way to start the weekend off right, and Lornie and Thom were thoughtful enough to even include a birthday cake for me, Lian, her brother Jake and cousin Matt, who (incredibly) all have birthdays in a 4 day period.

Here is Grechen lovin' on her Auntie Missy

And everyone can see she only has eyes for Daddy

The weekend continued with a Joshua Jackson sighting at our hotel pool/restaurant. Note that we were too weenie to ask for a picture of him (as we were with Tyson), so we took this ridiculous shot with him in the background. He is also with his girlfriend, Diane Kruger, who (I'm told) is apparently much more famous, but since Jon and I are currently obsessed with the TV show Fringe, and we are both of the Dawson's Creek fan club, we were pretty pumped about JJ.

More importantly, that night was the Bloch/Gill wedding, which was a complete blast! Here are some photos of the lovliness:

This picture of the 2 families is beautiful, but check out the background! The whole inside of their wedding venue was lined with these unbelievable plants. My poor little windowsill planters were jealous.

Me and my handsome husband at an early June outside wedding that was not 100 degrees. Ahhh, the memories of sweating through my wedding dress 3 short years ago.

The picture-perfect bride and groom with Dave Durante officiating the wedding in what has to be the most sincere, touching ceremony that I have ever heard. Bravo, Dave, Bravo.

In a rare moment of awake-ness, Jon and I posing with our precious baby girl.

And this black and white clad angel is Roberta (pictured with Lauren Durante and thrilled-mother-of-the-groom, Lornie), the savior of reception fun. She voluntarily held little Gretchen for hours while Daddy and I tore up the dance floor. Thank you so much to Roberta and Diane for allowing us to have a fun-filled and worry-free reception night.

We had a fantastic time in LA, only to be followed by a wonderful visit to Virginia (available in an upcoming post). Thank you to the Gills and the Blochs for a wonderful wedding weekend, thank you to Dan for finally giving Jon and I a sister and Gretchen a real-live aunt, and special congratulations to the new Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Gill - one of the happiest couples I know.

Eat At Randall's!

2011-05-30T20:44:00.000-03:00

Seriously. Go there. Today. Randall's (Malabia 1530 between Honduras y Gorriti, Palermo: 4832-5070) is a new American-diner-style restaurant that just opened in February. This place is great! All (well, most) of the conveniences of a diner are available in this quaint new place, things that you didn't even know you missed from the US. We went on a Sunday morning for breakfast and for the first time in over a year and a half I ordered a cup of coffee that came in a large mug! And they asked if I wanted more when it was low! Compared to the Barbie-sized teenie cups of espresso-style high-octane coffee you would receive anywhere else, this was a great way to start your Sunday.

The laminated place mat menus are chocked full of traditional American breakfast items; pancakes, Belgian waffles, biscuits and gravy, build your own omelet - and those are just the breakfast items. Should we have stayed for lunch we could choose between, buffalo wings, BLT, chili, mac and cheese and more. Best of all?? All items are available at all hours of the day! I never thought that the Denny's business model would be such a welcomed change!

We ordered and ate like fools. Nix that, we ordered and ate like Americans. Our plates came with sides of syrup, Heinz katsup and French's mustard were brought with the diced potatoes and my husband's Coke Light was never empty (free refills! Can you believe it?!). Obviously, there were subtle differences between our items and what you would see on a plate at IHOP, but the bacon was right, the syrup was there and we were happy little campers.

Don't get me wrong, this is not just a breakfast spot. Randall's offers a full dinner menu as well along with happy hour deals, most notably the 2 for 1 beers. The website, their business cards and some other details are still in the works, but we will give them a pass considering they are still so new. The restaurant opens at 6am Tues - Sun, a risky venture for a place in Bs. As. considering that most people aren't even away until midday on the weekends, but we appreciated it. We arrived at 11:30am for breakfast and we were the only people in the place for at least 45 minutes. This worked out well for us, considering we had a total of 4 babies under the age of 1. The place was definitely family friendly, although I would definitely request that they add a changing table in the restrooms.

We highly recommend this place for an American-style meal. And I would love to see it succeed, so like I said at the beginning, go there! Right now. Today. And enjoy!

***UPDATE: As of November 17, 2011, Randall's has closed permanently. RIP, American breakfast. :(

Gretchen's Favorite Things

2011-05-28T23:04:00.000-03:00

Today, Gretchen is three months old! These last three months have been incredible in so many different ways, as we get to know our little girl and as she gets to know herself. Most recently, she has begun to develop preferences to games, toys and activities - and she has been very clear about things that she dislikes as well.

So, in honor of this three month milestone, and the fact that it coincides with the Oprah show's last week on air, I call this post "Gretchen's Favorite Things".

Gretchen loves anything that floats above her head. She loves the bear mobile in her crib, although she only spends nap time in her crib, at night we still have her in the pack and play.

Her most favorite toy since the day we brought her home is the space-themed activity mat that we lovingly refer to as "the planets". She loves to kick her legs and smile at her floating buddies.

She likes sitting up like an adult. We started this for pictures and because it looked funny, but she has started to really enjoy it. I love how her arms just hang there, she hasn't quite mastered what to do with them yet.

Her preferred method of sleeping is while she's being held.

If that is not available, she sleeps best in the swaddle blanket. Although this is not necessarily one of her favorite things, it is a favorite of mom and dad because she sleeps for 8-10 hours at a stretch when she's all wrapped up.

Smiling is her new favorite activity. This smile just warms my heart.

Gretchen loves riding in her stroller. Thank goodness, because it is our preferred method of transportation.

This baby stretches more than anyone I have ever seen. I absolutely love it, it is also one of my favorite things.

Gretchen loves sucking on her hands and staring at lights. This picture captures both of these activities perfectly.

She has recently discovered her own reflection and it is remarkable to watch her discover herself.

The one thing she dislikes more than everything, you may even call it her least favorite thing, is tummy time. Supposedly she should spend at least 20 minutes a day on her tummy, however she only tolerates it without crying for two or three minutes at a time. We keep working on it, but we have a long way to go before she likes it.

She is a wonderful baby and we have enjoyed every minute of these last three months together. Happy 3 month birthday baby girl!

Have Passport, Will Travel

2011-05-27T20:12:00.001-03:00

Someone was looking out for us because today something magical happened... Gretchen's Argentine passport arrived! We are now safe to travel outside of the country.

This officially ends the Legalizing Your Baby series. It has been a crazy road, and considering that Gretchen will be 3 months old tomorrow, I truly believe that we accomplished this in the least amount of time possible.

Look at how excited our little princess is! We cannot wait for her to meet the rest of her family, and now we are finally able to take a breath and just be excited for our trip.

I dare you to say this isn't the cutest photo ever

Legalizing Your Baby: Permiso a Viajar

2011-05-26T22:58:00.001-03:00

The next step of our process doesn't actually legalize your baby, but it does allow you to travel legally with your child. I have heard this document called a number of different things, for the purpose of this post I will refer to it as the "permiso".

The permiso is a legal authorization signed by both parents and notarized (by an Argentine notary public or escribano) that states that the minor child can leave the country. This document can be obtained for each individual trip, or as a universal permission for all future trips for the child. The permiso is designed to prevent child abduction - by making it more difficult for a single parent to take a minor child out of the country without the consent of the other parent. In theory the only time you would need this document is if you were traveling alone with your minor child, however, as with most things in Argentina, it is smart to be over prepared. Depending on the immigrations agent that you have, you may be asked to produce this document even if both parents are traveling together, be prepared. Also, if you have a minor child, this is something you want to get taken care of as soon as possible just in case some sort of emergency arises and you need to travel solo.

Anyways, as far as obtaining a permiso is concerned, I am a little fuzzy on the details, but I'll tell you what I know. An escribano can prepare and authorize this document for you, and we went to Escribania Maschwitz - Tucuman 715. Here are the documents we needed to complete the permiso:

Original passports of both parents
Original DNIs of both parents
Original DNI of the baby

We verified that all of the information was complete and correct in the document and then both Jon and I signed the page. Three days later we had the completed permiso in hand, complete with notarized legalization. This will now be one of the documents that is always in our travel portfolio when Gretchen is with us. I have looked for more thorough information to share about obtaining this document, and the best information I have found is on the US Embassy website and the Ministerio del Interior site, but these resources aren't really that thorough (my apologies).

Now that we have this, we are just missing one last piece of the puzzle. The Argentine passport. Let us hope it arrives sometime within the next 6 days... Or someone is going to be a not-so-happy camper.