anna in barcelona

What is a foreign city like for a 9-month old? For Anna, Spain meant lots of tasty foods but limited room for free movement.

In terms of the food, Anna discovered that she likes chicken a lot. On the first evening we were served some meat at a restaurant near the beach, and Epp let Anna -- who was mesmerized by the food -- chew on a chicken bone.

I thought this was kind of gross, but when I tried to pry the bone out of Anna's hand, she would not budge. So, there I was, pushing Anna down the street as she sucked the flavor off a chicken bone, totally consumed by its taste.

Other people glanced with interest at this small, fat child with her beloved chicken bone, which I anxiously monitored.

On a separate evening, we let Anna have another bone to play with. My poor daughter, she has so much in common with a small dog. But she loved that bone. She liked our crema de catalunya ice cream, too. I didn't give her any spicy fried green peppers, though. That would have been too cruel.

One of the main challenges of our trip was containing Anna. Our room was on the second floor of a building, and it was very hard to let Anna roam without her finding -- and trying to eat -- one of our shoes.

One day in the museum of contemporary art, we decided to let the kids crawl around. Man, it made me anxious. "No, don't touch that!" "No, don't go in there." But they loved it.

One exhibit was particularly suitable for small children. It had lots of geometric boxes and stairs to climb. I was glad when we got out of there, though. I don't know what I would have done if they were to trash some part of the exhibit. Say "lo siento" I guess.

A final character in our trip was the pink bandanna, which we bought from a vendor on La Rambla (see below).

Anna looked really cool and tough in her pink bandanna. If you could combine the pink bandanna with the chicken bone, well, you would have Anna's Barcelona experience right there.

Unfortunately, on the last day Anna's bandanna got lost. It just fell off while we were walking. We searched high and low. I checked every garbage bin along our path, but I couldn't find it.

My sad, final conclusion is that some kleptomaniac in Barcelona saw it drop, picked it up, and brought it home to give to their own kid. That seems like the only plausible explanation.

So wherever you are, with your brand new {stolen} bandanna, I hope you are enjoying it, hombre.