Joshua Zamrycki’s Weblog

We jump off of steps and the couch. We climb up benches and pillow forts. But on rainy days we jump and climb in the soft playpark.

All of our practice jumps on the bed are put to the test in the bouncy castle. Great heights are achieved but the dismount is what steals the show.

Then we fly through the rat maze. “Little kids” aren’t supposed to venture into the “big kids” area, but there aren’t many people there on a Sunday afternoon and the monitors oblige by turning a blind eye.

The obstacle course is also in the “big kids” zone, and for good reason. The little ones may very well get knocked over by swing bridges or zip lines or tumble to their doom from dizzying heights. This picture is actually taken two stories up:

Here we can see Emily looking down, contemplating the spikes a boiling oil below.

I’m in the bathroom with Emily this morning. She’s sitting on the toilet and, in a moment of reflection, says:

Emily: I have hair on my legs.
Me: Yes, you do.
Emily: I need to shave it off.

She’s two and a half years old.

Everyday, we put Emily to bed at 2pm for her afternoon nap. We usually tuck her in and give her a reassuring kiss atop her head and quietly leave the room. Today, Jan told Emily it was time for a nap so our little girl picked up her Teddy and went to her room. Jan followed but, when she got to Emily’s room, was met by a door in the face. Through the door:

Jan: Can I come in?
Emily: No!
Jan: But it’s time for your nap.
Emily: I can do it by myself!

And she did. She’s two and a half years old.

This evening, Jan prepared both kids for a bath – first Sebastian, then Emily. When Sebastian was finished with his bath, Jan brought him into the bedroom to dry off. Emily quickly dragged a step stool into the bathroom and shouted, “I can take a bath by myself!”. She proceeded to climb into the bath on her own, wash herself, climb out, grab a towel, and dry herself off. Jan stuck her head in a couple of times to make sure there was no drowning going on but didn’t attempt to intervene. This little girl is two and a half years old going on 10.

You know how, when you start exercising for the first time, you should start slow? You gotta build up strength and endurance? How you can’t just run a marathon the first time out? I don’t know what I was thinking…

I played beach volleyball yesterday for the first time in almost three years. True, I have been playing volleyball occasionally at work. But not on the beach. Not hard-hitting two-on-two. Not in the merciless Spanish summer sun. Not for four hours straight!!!

I remember a point, about three hours into it, where my body just wouldn’t do what my mind was asking it to do. It couldn’t. And then soon after, my mind stopped working altogether. I was swinging into the bottom of the net and sending serves clear down the beach. I felt like a rag doll. But that was mostly on the inside. I kept up a strong enough front to go 7-3 and be crowned King of the Beach at the end of the day. It was fantastic.

I somehow made it home on the fumes of the adrenaline that I had been burning and, after a quick shower, dinner, and putting Emily to bed, I lied down on the floor in the living room. And then it all gets blurry. I remember telling Jan that I was going to go to bed early, totally in denial of the complete and utter exhaustion that had consumed me. I think I woke up about an hour later, still on the floor, and saw Jan turning on the TV above me. I couldn’t speak. And then I passed out again. I woke up a couple of hours later to see Jan turning off the TV (after having watched three episodes of Scrubs, none of which do I remember) and going to bed. I tried to get up and go to bed but my body was apparently on strike. So I gave up and went back to sleep on the floor. I think I woke up at around 3am and dragged my sorry butt to bed.

All in all, I had a great time. It was so nice to be back on the beach where I had spent so much of the first half of my Barcelona life. I even bumped into three different friends whom I hadn’t seen in three years! I wish I could get down there more often, but my weekends are mostly Emily-laden these days. So, if anyone would like to come down to the beach and make sand castles with Emily for a few hours on the weekend, please let me know!!!

Watch this space as new tour dates are added. The Zamrycki family just might be coming to your town!

The fun begins the minute Emily’s school goes on summer holiday. Already on the hit list are the stunning beaches of the beautiful island paradise of Menorca, the razzle-dazzle of the city that never sleeps – New York, and Outwell, England (they have creeks!). Here’s how it’s gonna go down:

July 17 – last day of summer school
July 18-25 – England
August ? (TBA) – Menorca
August 27 – September 10 – New York
September 14 – first day of school

Negotiations are currently underway to tack Germany onto the end of this list but talks are still in the early stages.

Would you like to spend some time with your favorite Zamrycki while they’re in your town? Get in touch now and make your reservation!

A Tibetan monk walks into a sandwich shop and says to the guy behind the counter, “Make me one with everything”. The guy makes the sandwich, hands it to the monk, and says, “That’ll be $4″. The monk hands the guy a 20 dollar bill, the guy put it in the cash register and just sits there. After a while, the monks stares at the guy and says, “And my change?”. The guy looks the monk in the eyes and replies, “Change comes from within”.

That joke was the basic premise of a short film that I shot today. A friend of mine, Peter, contacted me last night and asked if I’d be interested in acting in this short film competition that he had entered. They had 72 hours to script, storyboard, scout a location, cast, costume, design light and sound, shoot, and edit a 3-minute short based on the theme of “change”. It sounded like a hoot so I agreed. There were only two actors in the piece and I was the one wearing the Tibetan robes. I even buzzed my head a bit closer than usual for the part. I enjoyed being at one with the universe as I totally zenned out during the breakneck four-hour shoot. I even got to walk around the city barefoot for a while. I look forward to seeing the finished product. If they let me, I’ll post (or link) a copy of the video.

Emily woke up last night at 3am and decided to attempt to break the world record for the most times a person could throw up in 12 hours. After numerous emergency wake-ups, a stinky basket full of stained sheets, shirts, socks, and shoes, about a dozen unfulfilling catnaps on the couch, and mopping the same part of the floor over and over again, we are sorry to say that she fell short of her goal but we are very proud of her for giving it her all. Bonus points were scored for making the record attempt immediately after the cleaning lady had left for the week. Nice one.

So Emily stayed home from school today, took a very early and much needed nap, and felt much better this afternoon. Good enough, in fact, to accompany us to Nick and Sally’s joint birthday party. Kids got to play, the food was scrummy, drink was plentiful, and we stayed out much later than responsible parents with a daughter on the mend should stay out. But the feature event of the evening was Sebastian giggling for the first time ever, which he decided to do four or five times over the course of the night. Such a lovely sight! And it was particularly nice to be holding him when he did giggle, feeling his little chest bounce as he laughed.

Everyone’s asleep right now. I think I’ll do the same.

Emily experienced a bit of a mind explosion today. In retrospect, it’s probably been building up for a while now. She’s been swinging between moments of developmental brilliance and frustrating regression. But today, Jan picked Emily up from school and was told by her teacher that, after spending the first eight months of daycare speaking to everyone in nothing but rapid-fire English, Emily decided to start speaking in Catalan. And not just a few random words. Complete sentences!

We’ve seen this before with her songs. She hears a song a bunch of times but never shows any interest in attempting to sing it. Then she’ll turn around one day and just sing the entire thing. She must be practicing in her bedroom at night when no one’s listening.

Here are a few pictures from a recent trip to the park:

Stepping Stones

Emily and Cata: Da Gals

Tom and Emily On A Bench