Hawaiian Party

This afternoon we went to a birthday party with a Hawaiian theme. The gift bags followed the same theme, so they included flowers, sunglasses, and other girly things. When we got home Bella put it all in her head. She looked pretty silly.

Himno a la alegria

Maybe it's just me, because I am her mom and therefore bias, but I think Sofia is picking up piano quite nicely.  Her current favorite song, which she just learned, is Ode to Joy.

Elmo Live

Yesterday my mom and I took the girls to Elmo Live since she got four tickets from her work. Sofia is probably a bit older for it now, but she is always happy to come along when it is just us girls. And she really liked couple of the dances, especially one about butterflies. Bella I think liked the whole thing, because she wouldn't take her eyes off the stage and didn't even want to sit on my lap as she usually does when she is scared.

During the break Sofia and I went to get couple drinks, and VERY VERY hesitantly allowed me to take a picture of her with Oscar next to his trash can because  - and I quote - "Mami, that is silly, I am not garbage".

When the show was over I also wanted to take couple pictures of Bella, but they ushered us really quickly out of the place. They said the next show was starting soon. That was too bad, but at least I did get one shot with the three of them.

Junior Scrabble

Sofia got a scrabble junior for her birthday so she and I have been playing for the last few days. Tonight she even tried to teach Bella, although needless to say she only got about half the concepts. This caused Sofia to call her a cheater, which Bella didn't quite appreciate, but luckily an argument didn't ensue. Eventually I sat down to play as well and Bella's job was to hand us a chip every time we completed a word. Truth be told I won, but since Sofia also lost last time around I didn't want to rub it in.

Enfermita

Bella was sick pretty much the entire week. She went to school on Monday, but Tuesday morning she woke up with a fever and has had a stomach bug ever since. Needless to say, it has been a very long week. Poor girl. She doesn't get sick often, but when she does it tends to kick her butt.

Art drying rack

The other day I finally realized that we could use Zoey's crate for something other than keeping our couches safe. We can also use it as an art drying rack!

Art fair

Yesterday afternoon I volunteered at Sofia's school for the art fair. I was at the framing station for couple hours, and although it was nice to help out it was also pretty intense. At times we had several parents waiting in line to see their kids' art, which was stressful because they were obviously anxious as we went through tons and tons of drawings hoping to find the right one. I did get to hear some funny comments, and some sad ones. The funniest was from the mom of a little boy that when she saw her son's drawings flat out told me: "Oh, wow. Look at this. I was hoping there would be a nice one to frame, but these ones are just nasty". Before you judge her I must say that they were definitely on the disturbing side. The saddest comment was from the mom who chose two drawings and told her kid: "Look honey. Let's pick these two. One for our house, and one for your dad's house".

Tough Critic

Earlier tonight Sofia was practicing Piano and I was in the bathroom trying to help Bella brush her teeth when she looked at me and told me: "Mami, please go help Sofia. She is not doing it correctly".

The biggest loss

Tonight I got an email from one of my coworkers whose wife was due any day now with their first child. The subject of the email had the baby's name, so I assumed he was sharing with us the happy news that their baby girl was born today. Not so much... He sent that message to let us know they had lost the baby earlier in the day with no apparent explanation. Simply there was no heartbeat anymore.

I can't even imagine what they must be going through right now. I just know that if that happened to me the pain would be so profound and irreparable that I would lose my mind.

My thoughts are with them tonight.

Mean girls

Some girls were mean to my Sofia at school today. When I picked her up she was devastated, and she cried the entire way to her tennis class. She kept telling me how they told her they all went to this one party where she was not invited, and that they had so much fun without her. In between sobs she told me this was the first time in her life that her friends became her enemies, and that since they were mean to her she had nobody else to play with in the after school program. She cried and cried...

As a mom it is heartbreaking to see your kid sad like that and not being able to do anything for them.

So what did I tell her? "Don't listen to them. Look for somebody else to play with". I took the high road because that is what moms are supposed to do. But what did I REALLY want to tell her? Even though I don't believe in violence, I kind of wanted to tell her to punch them in the face. Truth be told, that is the nicest thought I had. Who do they think they are to treat my sweet girl that way?!?!

Luckily she calmed down during her tennis class. Her coach is very nice, and she managed to distract her and even brought her smile back. Even better, she didn't talk about the mean girls for the rest of the day.

Bye Bye Chamuco

Yesterday we had Dieguito's baptism at St Mary's. I like that church, and now it has special meaning for all of us because that is where Raj and Gabi got married, and Bella was baptized. Lionel and I were the Godparents, so I guess that means I am now in charge of rescuing Diego now and then from the paws of his tiger mom. I am just kidding here .... then again, no, I am not.

Diego was not in the best mood, not surprising for a 6 month old who has to be in church with no food, no freedom of movement, and nothing to chew. He fussed a little bit when the priest put oil and water on him, but for the most part he hung in there.

A few of our friends came as well. It is always nice to see them, but it was even nicer considering that our family is so small. Hopefully Dieguito will be a good Catholic, or at least as good as all of us.

Sofifi turns 7

It's hard to believe, but last Friday Sofia turned 7 years old. It is true what they say, that time flies when you are having fun.

Since she had a stuffy nose she ended up not going to school. Bella of course decided that if Sofia was not going to school then she was not going to daycare either, so both ended up spending the day at home. I had to work, so they both played until about 12:30 when I finally took a break for lunch. I then left work early and we went to run errands, including buying all the stuff for the goodie bags for her party the next day.

After work we all cut cake at home. My dad was sick, so unfortunately he couldn't come. But Lionel's parents were here, as well and Abuelita, Tia, Tio, Diego and of course Lionel, me and the girls. It is a family tradition – started by me - that regardless of when the party is we must cut cake on the exact birthday. Much to Lionel’s dismay, we also sing “the longest birthday song ever” and take tons of pictures.

On Saturday we hosted the birthday party for Sofia and her little friends. It was in the same place as last year, since she chose it that way. Parties are always a stressful thing because as a mom you hope that your kid doesn't have to celebrate their birthday by themselves. Luckily that was not the case. We had 14 children, so it was a good turnout and she had fun running around with all of them. Bella of course enjoyed the party and even told me “It was my party as well!”

Sofia enjoyed all her gifts, although she is still missing the one from us. For her 7th birthday we are buying her a bike. We didn't have time to get it over the weekend, but hopefully this coming weekend we can get it for her. She still doesn't know how to ride one, so we think it is way overdue.

So that was it! My girl’s 7th special day came and went. But I can still say one last time: Happy Birthday to her!

7 years ago...

Lunch at Panera

Dinner out

Mean Sister Bella

This morning, as we were getting ready for school and work, I noticed Sofia had written the note below. It made me laugh, partially because of the spelling, and partially because there is some truth to that.

Hairspray

Sofia swears that my t-shirt says "Hairs pray". So religious of her...

Easter

This morning, despite my best efforts, we arrived late for church. But at least we made it and even though it was standing room only, somebody was kind enough to give up his seat so that I could sit down with the girls. After mass we stopped by Ault Park to take some pictures, per my request. I was hoping to get at least one good picture, but the girls were not in the mood to cooperate. We then went back home, changed, went back out for lunch, picked my mom up, and went to the zoo. I love going to the zoo in the spring, so I was disappointed to find out that most of the tulips were ruined by the changing weather of the last few days - it got really hot, and then really cold. Luckily we found a few spots with nice ones, and managed to take a handful of pictures even though the girls were still not eager to cooperate.