Potty in the Park

February 23rd -- We had a slow start to the day because we spent a big part of the morning looking into future places to stay. Once we got going, we decided to take the Metro to Retiro Park. Wow! It is a huge park (comparable to Central Park in NY), and we only saw a small portion of it today. When we arrived at the park, we walked around for a little bit looking for a place to eat. We ended up leaving the park and eating lunch at VIPS...it's a chain restaurant with Friday's. Not exactly traditional Spanish cuisine, but the kids were starving and we were trying to avoid any meltdowns. After lunch, we walked back to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather. Soon after reentering the park, we noticed 2 outdoor eating places on site. We were a little bummed that we hadn't seen them earlier. Oh well, we'll know for next time. There will definitely be more visits to this awesome park. The kids started playing on one of the many playgrounds when Abby announced she had to go potty. So, she and I took off walking for a bano. In our attempt to find a place to go potty, we discovered a lot more of the park including the beautiful lake in the middle where you can rent boats and paddle around. She quickly didn't have to go potty anymore and wanted to rush back to get Mike and Austin to go ride on the boats. We got Mike and Austin and headed for the boats. You could rent a boat for 45 minutes at a time. So, off we went, paddling a way into this beautiful pond of water. Right after we got on the boat, Austin decided to "dirty" his diaper (he hadn't gone since arriving in Spain). Need I say more! The boat ride was very relaxing and enjoyable by all. Unfortunately, after we left the boat we realized that we left the dirty diaper under the seat on the boat. We felt so sorry for the next people. Oh well! The kids wanted to play on one of the playgrounds in the park just a little bit longer. After they started playing, Abby quickly remembered how badly she had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunatly, We didn't know where to take her to the bathroom. She announced that she could just squat in the park, but Mike kept telling her no, you can't. Well, all of a sudden, she started screaming I'm going to have an accident and before we knew it, she was squatting behind the bench. It was so funny! Both of tour kids definitely left their mark at Retiro Park today! Besides, their potty experiences, they both enjoyed playing on the playground equipment and with the other kids too...language is not a factor with kids, they were laughing and playing. It's really fun to watch.