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Hello! I’ve got a sleeping baby sitting beside me and an iced lavender latte in hand and thought I’d take advantage of nap time this morning to pop in with a long overdue life update. ♡
I realized the other day that it’s been over a year since I last typed out one of these posts while sitting in our sunny kitchen in Barcelona. Which, to be honest, feels like a lifetime ago. (And also somehow like…yesterday?) It’s hard to know where to even begin to summarize how life has changed since then. We’re now back across the ocean living in Kansas City, which is slowly beginning to feel like home again ever since our whirlwind move back with a toddler, elderly dog, eight suitcases, and a newly-positive pregnancy test last June. Since then, we have…
- moved into a 90-yr-old Tudor, which we (probably over-ambitiously) decided to renovate before our second baby’s arrival, while working to stock the place 100% from scratch with everything from beds to bicycles to blenders and beyond
- walked through our second pregnancy and gave birth in the States, which went mercifully smoothly this time around (and was also a very interesting contrast to how things are done in Spain)
- welcomed a wonderful Costa Rican au pair to our family, who’s going to be living with us and helping with the boys over the coming year
- checked off what felt like a million “getting settled” logistics, including purchasing two cars (a super sad farewell to European walking culture), re-establishing our businesses in Missouri, and diving back into the wonderful world of American healthcare, insurances, taxes, etc
- navigated an intense year of “sandwich generation” learning curves, doing our best to try and care for aging parents and little kids at the same time
And then of course, we brought this little sunbeam home. ♡♡♡
We joked on the day Milo was born that he seemed just “just happy to be here”, and four months later, that still pretty much sums things up! He has turned out to be such an easygoing little baby who’s just happy to eat, happy to sleep (major change from our first!), happy to smile and coo and snuggle with anyone…and we truly could not love him more. It’s remarkable how much joy he has added to our little household. After a fairly disorienting year, his arrival has felt like the missing puzzle piece that’s finally helped Kansas City begin to feel like home again. Of course, the newborn stage has been intense and exhausting in all of its usual ways, but getting to step away from work for a few months to soak up sunny spring walks with Milo and nuzzle his soft skin and and be there for all of his adorable little “firsts” has felt beyond special. It’s never lost on Barclay and me what a privilege this is to get to do this all one more time, especially after the long road to meet him, and we’re just so grateful that he’s finally here.
All that to say, goodness, it has been a year. Definitely one of the more challenging ones on record for our little family, but still with plenty of glimmers of love and joy and fun sprinkled in there all along the way, as life always seems to provide. We’re feeling very grateful to (at least mostly) now be on the other side of the international moving chaos. And while I’ve enjoyed time away from Gimme Some Oven during maternity leave, I’m glad to be getting back into some work rhythms again. More updates on all of that below.
Anyway, clearly, lots to share! So without further ado, here’s the update from our little corner of KC…
Table of Contents
Kansas City 2.0
“So, how’s it feel to be back in Kansas City?”
I feel like we’ve been asked this question a thousand times and I’ve probably answered a thousand different ways depending on the day.
Mmmm…good? Hard? Somehow equally familiar and disorienting? Refreshingly full of green spaces and longtime friends and Trader Joe’s? Far too full of driving and excessive air-conditioning and…guns?
The simple answer is that our daily life here is just so incredibly different than it was back in Barcelona. And while we certainly anticipated a fair dose of reverse culture shock upon returning to the States, I’d say that “settling back in” has generally been harder and taken longer than we expected in pretty much all categories.
The best thing about being back — also our main reason for moving back — has been living near our families again. We intentionally bought a house 5 minutes away from Barclay’s parents and regularly see my folks from Wichita, which has given our boys the chance to spend a record amount of time with their grandparents over the past year. Watching Teo grow so close to each of them, and now getting to watch everyone enjoy the newborn stage with Milo (something our extended family mostly missed out on in-person with Teo while we were living abroad) has been even more special than we had imagined. At the same time, this past year has been one of those deeply good-but-hard seasons when it comes to caring for aging parents — navigating complex health issues together, learning by trial-and-error how to help, family members learning on their end how to let us help — we’re still figuring it all out. But after years of trying to provide support from overseas, it’s such a relief to now be physically nearby for all of the little and big stuff.
Another thing we’ve really appreciated about being back is how supportive our longtime friends and family have been when it comes to giving us space to reimagine our lives here in this new season of life. (Or Kansas City 2.0, as we like to call it. 😉) One of my biggest concerns upon returning was that everyone was going to expect us to immediately click back into the exact same rhythms and roles that we had when we left seven years ago, some of which no longer feel like a fit after our time in Europe. But our friends here have kindly reminded us that they expected us to come back changed. And, of course, so many things here evolved while we were away. So it feels like we’ve been given the best of both worlds — a warm welcome back, plus the full freedom to recreate our lives here — which has been a lovely surprise.
Speaking of surprises, it’s been funny (and a bit humbling) to realize upon moving back how little we knew about Kansas City when it comes to raising kids! We were obviously childfree before we left and learned pretty much everything we knew about pregnancy, birth and parenting the Spanish way over the past few years. So it’s been an interesting experience to relearn how to do things the American way — shifting all of our daily schedules about 2 hours earlier, adjusting to long stretches between ultrasounds, major waitlists and high costs for childcare, hoisting kids in and out of carseats all day long, learning our favorite parks and pools and playgrounds around the city, scheduling all things kid-related in advance (I can count the number of spontaneous playdates we’ve had this year on one hand), plus a hundred other big and little things. There are many elements of Spanish parenting that we really miss. But I have to say, we’ve discovered that the Midwest is a decidedly fantastic place to raise a toddler, especially when it comes to the abundance of playgrounds, swimming pools, public libraries, children’s museums, and backyards for play. It’s also been really fun to experience American holidays through the eyes of our toddler for the first time (hello adorable trick-or-treating, 4th of July fireworks, finally meeting Santa and the Easter Bunny!). As a fairly anxious person when it comes to pregnancy and parenting, it has also been comforting to return to a culture that errs on the side of over-explaining medical stuff and provides lots of early intervention screenings and resources for kids, topics that I found quite frustrating in Spain’s (for better and for worse) laid-back “wait and see” culture.
Anyway, lots of change this year. American and Spanish cultures honestly just feel like apples and oranges in so many ways that it’s hard not to constantly compare the two. But we’re trying to grow where we’re planted and soak up the things (namely, the people) we love most about life in Kansas City right now. Thankfully, there are many. ♡
Hello, Milo!
Ok, the mama in me can’t help but just share a few more updates about this sweet little pea. ♡
As I shared before, Milo was our last-chance embryo from our second full round of IVF in Barcelona. The jury was out last spring as to whether or not we were going to have time to squeeze in a final embryo transfer before our move. But in the end, the stars aligned and the transfer took place and we found out 4 days before leaving Barcelona that we were officially pregnant. (An emotional week, to say the least!) Thankfully, the rest of our pregnancy progressed smoothly after our move and we were thrilled to welcome Milo to our family this past Valentine’s.
From the very beginning, he has just had the sweetest little spirit. And from the very beginning, his older brother has been absolutely smitten with him. We were prepared for any number of scenarios when introducing a new baby to a toddler, but it’s honestly been pretty much pure cuteness so far. Teo is constantly giving Milo his toys and hugs and kisses and “gentle pats” (lol, the lingo with our dog conveniently transferred to the baby), and Milo in turn reserves some of his biggest grins for his adoring big brother. Oh, and they look a lot alike, which I know is totally predictable but still kind of wild to see your DNA replicated in another kid!
I also have to say that it’s been really nice to do the whole newborn stage again when we’re not in the middle of a global pandemic, lol. There are a number of things we missed out on the first time around — getting to go to in-person prenatal yoga classes and baby showers, having a mask-free birth, being able to plop our newborn freely into the arms of friends and family — that have been fun to experience with Milo. Our friends here also loaded us up with a million hand-me-downs, which have been super helpful since we gave away all of Teo’s stuff before leaving Spain.
That said, two-kid life is still taking some getting used to. Getting out of the house with both boys and all of their stuff still feels like a bit of a circus. Barclay and I can’t seem to stay awake long enough to watch an entire show after they go to bed. The boys have an impressive knack for melting down at the exact same time. And weekends feel like they last — oh — about an eternity. 😅 But we know how quickly this all flies by. And lately, I find myself desperately trying to memorize the feel of Milo’s soft head pressed against my cheek, the earnest sparkle in Teo’s eyes when we play with his trains, the nostalgic summer smells of sandboxes and sunscreen, the countless quirky and adorable toddler conversations happening lately — how do parents do it?! There’s just so much to take in, and it’s moving so fast, and it’s so very (very) hard at times, but goodness, it’s also so very very good. What a ride.
Meal Train Magic
Ok, the food blogger in me has to give a shout-out to another major highlight of this year — the incredible meal train our friends organized for us.
Meal trains aren’t really a thing in Spain, so this was not something we experienced with our first baby. But this time around, we had friends stopping by to deliver meals multiple times a week for three (three!) full months after Milo’s birth, which was beyond generous and easily the most helpful gift we received postpartum. The food that everyone brought — from homemade casseroles to tacos, takeout to Trader Joe’s favorites, bottles of Spanish wine to jars of homemade margaritas — was just perfect. And it felt like such a comfort to know that we’d have familiar faces showing up regularly for a quick hug or some baby snuggles along with their food delivery, especially during some of those blurry, time-warp-y newborn days when we didn’t feel like leaving the house.
I’ve always said that feeding people is my love language, but these past few months reminded me that the reverse is likewise true — being fed by everyone made us feel incredibly loved and cared for too. The whole experience definitely renewed my belief in the magic of a good meal train, so I can’t wait to pay it forward again soon.
Welcoming Our Au Pair
One other unexpected surprise for our family this year was deciding to have an au pair come live with us!
I honestly knew next to nothing about au pair cultural exchange programs a year ago. But a friend mentioned the idea while we were exploring childcare options for Milo (since Teo’s school doesn’t provide infant care) and the possibility quickly resonated with us, especially once we realized we could match with an au pair who was a native Spanish speaker.
So last fall, we researched various agencies and completed the application and evaluation process to become a host family. And after doing video interviews with au pairs from various Spanish-speaking countries (the process feels a lot like online dating!), we ended up matching with a wonderful 24-yr-old preschool teacher from Costa Rica who came to live with us in January. It’s been so fun getting to learn from her about all things Costa Rica and introduce her to a million little nuances about life in the States. And Barclay and I are thrilled to have the house filled with Spanish again each day, which was one thing we’ve dearly missed about our life in Barcelona. (We currently do about a 50/50 mix of Spanish and English all day long.)
Our house has also turned into the main hangout for her local au pair friends, who are regularly popping by during their time off for a hang or a meal or to give our boys a hug. So it all just feels kind of like one big, bustling, multicultural family around here lately. We love getting to raise our boys around all of his tías from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico, and hope to do everything we can to support these young women (all of whom have bravely left their countries for the first time) and help make their time in the States as special as possible.
Back To Blogging
Anyway, after a much-appreciated maternity leave, it’s felt really nice to get back to working part-time over these past few weeks. I have a lonnnng list of recipe ideas I’ve been jotting down over the past few months that have been fun to start working through. We’re also working on a site redesign and some other techy updates behind the scenes that will hopefully make your experience navigating this site even better soon.
That said, it feels like a bit of a weird time right now to be returning to work on the internet. Many food blogs have been hit hard recently by Google algorithm changes and the introduction of AI overviews (which you may have noticed now answer any cooking questions directly at the top of Google’s search results, rather than offering a list of sites to click on like mine). Here’s a podcast episode that explains things fairly well if you’d like to learn more. But in a nutshell, these developments are raising lots of questions lately about the future of online “content creation” and whether or not individual blogs like this one will survive the seismic AI shift that seems to be hitting the internet right now. I really hope they do, but who knows, the internet is still so young and constantly evolving. So we’ll see if I still have a job in a few years!
What I do know is that the most important thing you can do right now to support this blog and any other websites that you love is to sign up for their email newsletters. With Google and social media being so unpredictable, email is quite simply the easiest and most reliable way for me to stay in touch. You can sign up for our free emails right here if you’re interested. Then we can be sure to keep you up to date with all of the new recipes, seasonal favorites, and product recommendations that are shared around here.
We’re coming up on the 15th anniversary of Gimme Some Oven next month, which is downright surreal, and I’m feeling more lucky than ever to still call this my job. So for all of you who have continued to follow along and try new recipes here on our little corner of the internet, thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so grateful you’re here.
XOXO
Anyway, that’s the latest! Thank you so much for reading. I really hope that you’re all doing well and somehow staying cool this summer (holy heat wave!) and soaking up all the backyard bbqs and juicy watermelon and long days that the season has to offer. We’re sending lots of love your way today from Kansas City.
Love,
Ali
