¡Mira lo que hago!

Synopsis

The holidays have arrived, but Mum and Dad are not quite free yet. Álex learned to make a paper fortune teller at camp and is desperate to show his family: it is his way of saying look what I can do, look what I'm capable of. But Mum is jotting down something for work while he talks, takes a call for a meeting and drifts away before he reaches the end of his sentence. When Álex looks for his older sister Olivia, she would rather play with her costumes: she's too grown-up for those games now. He feels completely alone, even though he is surrounded by people who love him.

At dinner that evening, the adults cut the children's camp stories short because it's getting late. And in bed, during their nightly ritual of reaching across until their hands meet and sharing the best and worst of the day, Álex confesses what has really hurt: not having played with anyone, not having been able to show off his fortune teller. Olivia, who was going to talk about her cabin, is left waiting when her brother cannot find a clear answer to and the best part?

What the children don't know is that Mum and Dad have heard them, as they do every night, when they look in to say goodnight. And they decide something has to change. The next morning they come singing into the bedrooms with a surprise: instead of the usual routine, today means the pool — but properly this time, with the parents in the water too. Dad jumps in first to a chorus of laughter, Mum does a cannonball — something the children have never seen her do — and the four of them end up competing to show each other somersaults, jumps and different ways to dive.

Out of that recovered closeness, Mum has an idea: invent a secret word the family can use whenever they need to feel connected. Amid laughter and outlandish suggestions — «edamame», «capibara», «gamusino» — they finally settle on «suricata», chosen by Dad because meerkats always stay together, look after one another, and every member of the colony matters and is needed. That night, the four of them fall asleep together, hands joined, knowing they have lived, wide awake, the best dream of their lives.

¡Mira lo que hago! closes with a note for parents and educators on the sense of belonging, secure attachment and the importance of present, attentive parenting in everyday life, written by Alejandra Melús drawing on more than fifteen years of working alongside families.

Machine translation, pending review.