Holiday?

We just came back from our short trip in Barcelona. Should we call it a holiday?? Mmm...Daren and me ponder for a while and decided it was not - not with a 2 year old, or to be precise, 3 days to 2.

We don't mind the extra trouble manoeuvring our little sweetheart, but because he reach the age of massive exploration, we had 10 times extra effort to get him to listen.

Gabriel fell in love with 'boat' in Barcelona. When he saw them, his mood heighten and he ignored us completely. His 2nd love - car. When he see AUDI and HONDA, he call 'daddy' excitedly to tell us it is daddy's car. If you ignore him, he will explode into a monstrous state. His 3rd love - ball, this include anything come in the shape of ball. If he see any of them, you are in with him for a roller-coaster ball-search ride! SO....on top of our sightseeing trips on foot, our days in Barcelona were to deal with his interest chases, plus his occasional tantrum outburst - by end or mid of day, we were a wreak.

The beach.......

Barcelona beach is beautiful. It was packed with beach lovers, largely holidaymakers. We are not beach person, so no sun bathing. We stroll along the beach while Gaby slept soundly in the buggy. By time we came to end of beach, he woke. I brought him to the beach - for a fair bit of Barcelona-sand experience.

Barcelona is a seafood paradise, but no chilli crab for Singaporean ; - ) Market Boqueria is very interesting and attracting. It is a good place to have seafood the local way. We didn't experience eating in the market, no way with a 2 year old!! We love seafood paella, so does Gabriel. You can find paella everywhere but taste vary largely. We were disappointed as the seafood weren't fresh as we expected. Must go to right place for good taste. This restaurant is good, must rememeber in case we visit Barcelona again, it is call ' '.

We had good time in Barcelona as a family. Most memorable was the nite at the beach, daddy and son were playing catch with the penguin. The scene is warm and beautiful, with Gabriel giggling loudly. City walk was not easy with Gabriel, but the running about at the port proved to be fun, and challenging.

Generally, holiday with toddler is tricky. You get to learn the challenge but before you are able to respond, new things come up. Everytime I said 'this will be last'....but it is hard to say no. Before I recuperate energy, I think for next holiday, swear to be a better one. I must say for all trips we did last 2 year, despite the catastrophes we attracted one after another, we never fail to enjoy our time with Gabriel, however short and exhausting! When you see his smile, your heart melt.

...the following photos are edited, they are my favourite.

We concluded from this trip - no more city tour with Gabriel until he is older. So next holiday we will be planning around Disney....until then, next travel to asia in Dec, visit home.

The slide is a good memory for Gabriel for his 1st visit to Spain.

...Gabriel, you drained daddy mummy completely during this trip but you had good fun. You were excited to see boat, you enjoyed so much at the port. Mummy wonder would that be an indication of you becoming a sailor one day?! Please let mummy know how you think. I love you.