cosas del niño
I knew I shouldn’t choose the toys the kids would to bring to Spain, even though I wanted to.  Handing over that process gave them a little sense control in completely uncharted waters.  (And saved me from any future blame).  Of course, what they really wanted was to dump the entire contents of their bedrooms into a suitcase.  But I had to give them parameters and they had to make tough decisions.  They could each fill a  boot-sized shoe box.  That’s it.  Cruel?  We’ll see…
So for posterity (and for anyone contemplating a similar move) this is what the boy chose, and how much he has played with each item so far:
A wooden snake he painted with Samuel. Â (Play time: once or twice. Â It mostly hangs on the wall as decoration.)
His favorite matchbox cars. Â (Playtime: once or twice)
A build-your-own motorcycle kit. Â (Playtime: obviously zero)
His favorite stuffed animals. Â Mom & Dad Knit Penguins are missing from the photo… probably under the bed. Â Â (Playtime: they mostly just live under the covers, but provide a lot of comfort.) Â 
Nesting penguins.
As you can see, they didn’t take up much space. Â Â (Playtime: Once or twice, including an amazing stop-motion video.)
Bowling penguins. Â Â Â (Playtime: once or twice. Â To be fair, it’s impossible to bowl in a straight line anywhere in the Albayzin. Â But he has made jaunty origami hats for them.)
***
Coming soon: Â what the girl chose
Wow, such an odd assortment. He doesn’t seem to care that he doesn’t have a roomful of toys. It will seem like Christmas when he gets back to Austin.
It wouldn’t be hard to tell who’s assortment this belongs to. I once asked Graham what he liked about penguins . He simply (and very seriously) said, “I like the way they look.” Interesting chemistry…I wonder what his first teenage crush will look like. Do you think she’ll wear a lot of black and white?