Stylin' Guillermo

Guillermo, hamming it up. 

Look out!

Check out the Style section of today's News & Observer. You'll find a picture of normally camera-shy Guillermo hamming it up for an article called "Fashion, frugal, fun."

That's the real reason we were in Raleigh last week. My friend, Sarah, who runs the Trianglemom2mom Website, where I'm a featured blogger, sent out a note asking if we knew of any kids who might want to pose for the newspaper. We jumped at the chance. We're always looking for something new to do, and well, Guillermo's never had his picture in the newspaper. He normally detests having his picture taken, too, but I figured he'd like being in a studio, with the cool lights and a professional photographer. I was right. He had so much fun, so much fun in fact, that I stopped watching so I could talk to a friend.  

Guillermo was most excited about the prospect of having his picture in the newspaper. He said he wants to pick up copies to show his teacher. The best part of the photo shoot is that the Style editor said she'd send me a disc with all the pictures on it. If only they had needed a 2-year-old, too, I'd have my Christmas cards taken care of. 

Hockey Sticks

Guillermo, on ice

Guillermo tried out hockey today and loved it. I hope it doesn't remember how much fun he had because I don't want to have to start hauling him to hockey practices any time soon (or ever!)

I took Guillermo and Maya to Marbles, the children's museum in Raleigh. In one exhibit, Marbles Olympics, kids can jump over hurdles, do a long jump, play ping pong, walk on a balance beam and participate in other games. The main attraction is Center Ice, a synthetic rink where kids can play hockey. I was surprised that Guillermo was interested, but he put on a red jersey, traded in his Crocs for a pair of black socks that the museum loans the kids (I know, yuck!!) and grabbed a stick. He had so much fun and did pretty well. There were a ton of pucks on the ice so the kids pretty much had a free-for-all. The rink was slippery enough that Guillermo even fell a couple of times, but he got back up and kept playing. The first time he scored, he turned to cheer with Maya and I, but after that, he didn't lose concentration. His face fell when I told him it was time to leave the rink. Neither Will or I are hockey fans but on the way home, I couldn't stop myself. "Do you ever want to go see a real hockey game?" I asked him, thinking of the Hurricanes. Of course he did. Then, he told me, he could see some fighting. 

Before we left the museum, we stopped to make ourselves gold medals that the kids wore around their necks on the way home. I'm so ready for the summer Olympics to begin.

Tea Party

Messy Maya, at the sand table

When Guillermo and Will went to build castles at Kidzu the other day, Maya and I threw ourselves a tea party. 

We invited her baby and we sat in front of her pretend Little Tikes kitchen. We drank pretend tea and ate pretend cheese, grapes, and apple pie. I think Maya was a bit disappointed when she saw that it wasn't a real party, but she got in the spirit pretty fast. She helped cut the pie and pour the drinks and made sure her baby was comfortable. It was so sweet to see her care for her doll, feeding it and, of course, checking its diaper. But after the party was over and we started to clean up, she showed me her more dispassionate side, or that of a 2-year-old who is done playing with her toys. She threw the baby, along with the tea cups and tea pot, and food, into her toy oven, shut the door, and walked away. 

Today, we had another tea party. She insisted on having desert, but the pretend pie didn't satisfy her. Since I had thrown out most of the pretend junk food, I started offering her pretend fruit and when that didn't work, I offered her a pretend chicken leg. That made her angry, angry enough that she lifted her arm like she was going to throw the leg, but she heeded my warning and stopped. And, then she smiled. She saw a pretend piece of bacon and gobbled it up. 

Photo catchup

Guillermo, in front of our house

Maya, outside our house

Princess Maya, getting ready for bed

My hipster son

Showing off his castle

We had a low-key weekend and that was wonderful. I've had two migraines in four days and needed a break. I got one. I've napped every day since Thursday and am finally feeling better. We took the kids to the track this morning. I ran while the kids played and then Will and I convinced them to play a game that had them running back and forth on the track over and over and over again. Migraine number two started to kick in so I drove home with Maya while Guillermo and Will stayed and walked home later. It's about a mile, a pretty good walk for a 4-year-old but Will said he didn't complain, of course it helped that when he stopped to play with a friend who had been gone all summer he also got a handful of gummy bears to give him the energy to make it home.

Later, Will took him to the kid's museum, where I had signed him up for a castle building workshop.  They stopped at the comic book store on the way home. Guillermo is a horrible secret keeper and later told me they also stopped at the mediterranean deli, where he got an orange drink that was really cold and good. Guillermo was wiped out tonight! And, somehow I led Maya to believe that we would be swimming in the morning and that girl doesn't forget anything so I need to find a pool we can splash in first thing. 

I love Carrboro

There are lots of reasons why I love living in Carrboro. We can ride our bikes everywhere. The farmer's market is wonderful. The city hosts really fun festivals.

Then, there are things like this that make living here even better. When police officers have the time to build a nest for an unattended bird, you know you live in a good city.

kiss a boo boo

Maya, working on a science experiment at the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. 

When he was 2 or 3, Guillermo went through a phase of demanding a band-aid or two, or three, every night at bedtime, whether he needed it or not. Then, as we read books, he would take it off and put it somewhere else on his body and then take it off and put it somewhere else. Inevitably, he'd wake up in the middle of the night a few times a week crying because he couldn't find his band-aid. We stopped buying Superman and Dora Band-aids because they were too expensive and resorted to the plain, brown generic bandages to try to kick his habit. Eventually he gave it up, though I can't remember when.

I was prepared to stop Maya head on if she tried this stunt. Instead, she's come up with a better way to stop the tears after she gets hurt.  Everything with her these days is about "Maya's turn." It's "Maya's turn" to put puzzles together, "Maya's turn" to snap part of her car seat seat belt into place, "Maya's turn" to carry my keys into the gym. Now, it's "Maya's turn" to make her scraped knees feel better. So, after a spill, I pick her up, hold her and tell her she's OK. That's where my job ends. If I try to kiss her boo boo, she stops me. "Maya's turn," and she bends down, kisses her boo boo and is off to play somewhere else. 

Hives

I took Maya and Guillermo to the organic blueberry patch today and ended up with hives all over my arms, stomach, back and thighs. I itch and the Benadryl is making me tired and, therefore, crabby. I've never had this reaction to blueberries before but I can't think of what else could have caused it. Luckily, my kids haven't had any reaction. 

Meanwhile, we had a wonderful weekend. We visited family in Atlanta, where most of Will's aunts and uncles and cousins live. It was our first long car ride in awhile and the kids were great. It helped that they were wiped out on the return trip. All of Will's cousins have young children, which means a treasure of new toys for my kids to explore when we visit them. Guillermo even brought home his first real light saber. He is beyond excited about it. 

Fourth of July Photos

Pre-parade photo

Relaxing after the parade.

"Face paint, please," Maya begged.

Their first sparklers.

I'm so tired. So, here are a few pictures from our 4th of July. We had a great day. First, we were in the parade, then we went to the town party. The rain forced us to miss the fireworks, but we were so tired that it didn't matter anyway. Plus, it was nice listening to the rain as we fell asleep.

From Texas

At the playground today, a boy who turns 3 in a few days walked up to Maya. 

"What's your name?" he asked. 

She stared at him, but didn't answer. 

"What's your name?" he asked. 

She stayed frozen. "Tell him your name, Maya," I said gently.

"Maya," she said quietly and the boy went on his way.

A little bit later, he found Guillermo, nearly at the top of a four-step ladder that led up to the playscape.

"What's your name?" the boy asked. 

"Guillermo, from Texas," he said and then ran off to play. 

I love his Texas pride.