Doh, Donuts

I haven't written about my nearly 5-year-old niece, Lily, in awhile, and this was too good to pass up.

Yesterday, my sister was making her way into Lily's preschool room to pick her up at the end of the day when one of Lily's teachers saw Julie. 

"Lily had a really good day, today," the teacher said. You'd think Julie would be happy but as she points out, the teachers don't tell all the parents their kids had a good day because they don't have to. Their kids usually have good days. Lily, well, she's another story. She's a good girl, a nice girl, but full of fire. She can cause trouble, like the time when she should have been napping at school but instead ran around her classroom, waking up all of her classmates. 

So, Lily had a good day, the teacher said. But when Julie walked into the classroom, she found Lily in time out. She had been kicking her friends. My sister said she noticed that Lily had an expression on her face that seemed to indicate she knew she was in trouble but also thought something was sort of funny.

Turns out kicking wasn't the only thing Lily did to cause trouble. For a Father's Day project, the kids in the class each made pretend donuts and then glued real candy sprinkles on top of them that day. At some point, Lily managed to eat the sprinkles (and therefore the glue) off the donut she made. She didn't stop there, though. There are 18 kids in the class and Lily somehow ate the sprinkles (and more glue) off all of the donuts they made, too. 

How in the world a teacher couldn't have stopped her before she got through all 18 donuts is beyond me. I can just imagine Lily making her way down the donut line, taking a quick, but thorough, lick off of a donut, and then moving onto the next. And then I can see the smile sneak across her face when she finished. 

"We don't eat art projects," Julie told Lily later. "And you probably are going to get a stomach ache from all the glue you ate."

The next morning, Lily woke up early, complaining of a stomach ache. "I think it's because I ate glue," she said. Later that morning, she again complained and my sister suggested Lily's stomach hurt because she was hungry. "I think it's because I ate glue," Lily said, but scarfed down breakfast and then went to school.

A few hours later, my sister gets a call from her husband, who got a call from the school. Lily had thrown up at school and was on her way home.

It must have been the glue. 

Cardinals Love

Maya melted Will's heart yesterday. 

She's going through a phase right now that involves a lot of screaming and crying and even running away from Will if he happens to get her out of her crib when she wakes up for the morning or from a nap. She wants me, her mommy. Yesterday, while I was chopping vegetables for a black bean and corn salad, Will got Maya out of her crib. Said screaming ensued and ensued and somehow he finally calmed her down and she snuggled with him on the couch, drinking her milk.

While Maya snuggled, my sister called. Will said Maya's head perked up and she looked around as she heard my voice. Soon, I heard "mama, mama." 

I indulged Maya and picked her up, only to be met with a frown from Will for interrupting his snuggle time. 

Maya redeemed herself though. Will flipped on the TV and found a baseball game, the Cubs versus the Dodgers. 

Maya looked up. 

"Cardinals," she said and the rested her head on my shoulder.

Will smiled, his heart grew a little bigger.

A few minutes later, Guillermo heard the TV. 

"Baseball," he said, settling in next to Will. "Are the Cardinals playing?"

Will was one happy father Monday afternoon.

More buttons

Maya, asleep in the bike trailer after a trip to the Farmers Market.

Guillermo, Maya and I were playing in Guillermo's room today when Maya heard our neighbors working in their front yard.

"Hi, hi, hi," Maya called out to them. "Hi, hi, hi."

"Hi, Maya," one of our neighbors said then returned to her work.

Maya was inspired by the response and undeterred by our neighbors' now lack of attention.

She lifted up her shirt.

"Butt, butt," she shouted, to them, pointing to her belly button.

"Butt, butt," she shouted again, but they weren't paying attention, and if they were they probably wouldn't be able to see her bellybutton because she isn't tall enough for it to be seen through the window.

She pressed on anyway.  

"Butt, butt." 

Part of a tantrum

Guillermo, after strawberry picking earlier this week.

I was exhausted today, like I've been all week. I can't seem to get enough sleep, partly because I don't go to bed until 11 p.m. or later and one night, 12:30 a.m., but normally I can get through the day if I'm up that late. Not today.

I put Maya down for her nap this afternoon and so desperately wanted to nap myself but Guillermo was in his room playing so I took a magazine into his room and said: "We can make muffins in a little bit (I had promised earlier), but first I'm going to lay down on your bed and read this article and rest."

"Ok, mom."

Not a minute later, Guillermo said he had to go to the bathroom. I went in to check on him a few minutes later.

"Mom, can I play a computer game?" he asked.

"Not right now. I'm going to finish my magazine and then we are going to make muffins."

"Mom, please."

"Not right now. I'll help you in five minutes. Mommy needs a break."

"You are making me angry," he said. 

"I'll help you in five minutes but if you keep asking me I won't help you. Give me five minutes."

I could hear him getting frustrated but I walked out, fully aware that within a minute he would likely  be in full-blown tantrum mode and would wake up Maya. I didn't care. I was too tired myself.

Funny thing happened, though. I didn't hear much from Guillermo, except some footsteps from the bathroom. I finished my article and then found Guillermo where I had left him. 

 

"Are you ready?" I asked. "Thanks for waiting patiently." 

"I was waiting, mom. I didn't throw a tantrum."

"Good," I said. "And, now I'll help you with your game. Thanks for not getting angry and throwing a tantrum."

"I was angry and I threw my underwear across the bathroom," he said. "But I put them back on."

"Good, I'm glad you didn't get really angry and have a big tantrum."

"I just had a tiny part of tantrum," he said proudly.

With that, I helped him into the computer chair so he could play a few games of Wow Wow Wubbzy before his friend arrived for a playdate.

Green hands

I turn my back for a few seconds and this is what happens. Maya ditched the paint brush and decided to finger paint, or hand paint. 

It's not that I minded so much, it's just that I wasn't expecting her to do it and now I'm afraid she's going to do it over and over and over again. She was so proud of herself (and I encouraged her by taking pictures) that when the garbage truck driver pulled up in front of our house, she ran to the end of the driveway to show him her Incredible Hulk-like hands.

Oh, and notice her new shoes. They are from my niece's collection that came in the mail with a ton of other shoes, clothes, swim suits and leotards that no longer fit Lily. Maya was so happy to be wearing these that she stopped nearly everyone she saw this morning to point them out. "Shoes, shoes," she would say pointing at them. When she first put them on, I heard her say "shoes, beauiful." That was before they had green paint all over them. 

 I took the kids strawberry picking with some friends yesterday. We had a great time and came away with a lot of strawberries (I even made a strawberry pie with them today). Last year when we went, Maya was so little I carried her on my back while Guillermo and I picked. This year, she wanted two baskets for picking. She mostly just held out her baskets and I filled them with strawberries. It took her awhile before she realized she could eat them while we picked. Then she wasn't of much help at all. 

Guillermo took off with his friends. They picked for awhile and then just ran and ran between the rows of strawberries. It had rained the day before, making the strawberry patch pretty muddy. All the more fun for him. 

Perfect Day

Check out Guillermo's new ride.

Saturday was a wonderful day. It was my birthday day celebration since Will was gone for my real birthday. 

I got my hair cut then hit the garage sales and scored big.  I bought a trail-a-bike for $40. Guillermo likes it, but is still getting used to balancing. Yesterday he complained that it was too windy for him to ride. Will doesn't feel completely comfortable pulling it yet, but said it will just take some practice. I think he is going to start taking Guillermo to school using it. I also bought lots of books and games that I can store under my bed and pull out on rainy days. 

Came home, opened presents, ate ice cream and then we went for a hike with the family in the woods behind our house. It was a beautiful day for a hike  and we ended up in the neighborhood next to ours with a huge pond (or tiny lake) filled with fish and turtles. A friend had told me there was a gigantic turtle in the pond named Holy Moly. We didn't see it, but we met a man who had several fishing poles with him and he shared one with us. Will and Guillermo even caught a fish. The man was so nice he took it off the pole and threw it back in the lake for Will (who wouldn't know the first thing about taking a fish off a hook). Maya chased a dog around, giggled with the turtles and threw grass at the ducks. 

While the cat is away ....

While the cat is away, the mice will eat BACON. Bacon, bacon, bacon.

Guillermo and I love bacon but Will doesn't eat pork so we don't eat bacon too much around here. But with Will gone last week and me celebrating my birthday just about every day, we splurged. Thursday we had one of my favorite meals: Banana, chocolate chip pancakes and bacon.  

All right, all right. We didn't splurge that much. It was turkey bacon. But still, it was bacon. And Guillermo devoured it. Maya too.

Isn't she great

She even carries my bags!

I finally found my yellow pumps. Not the peep-toe, platform, slingback, patent yellow pumps I was searching for, but a pair of yellow pumps. And, Maya, my girl, insisted on carrying my bag. How could I put her in preschool?

A, B, C, CH

We were really good about speaking to Guillermo in Spanish when he was a baby. We would try to say everything twice, once in English and once in Spanish. Neither one of us are fluent, but we can hold our own and we did our best.  

With Maya, I tried at first, but it wasn't as easy because I was home with her all day, every day and it was hard enough trying to figure out what to do with my kids all day, keep Guillermo occupied and take care of a new baby. Adding translation to the mix just seemed like too much. So, Maya heard far less Spanish that Guillermo did as a baby. 

So, her response tonight when I tried to sing the ABC's, or the ACC's as she calls them, in Spanish shouldn't have surprised me. 

I did it first in English. "More," she said. I then sang in Spanish, adding the extra letters in the Spanish alphabet to the mix. She stopped me at "LL." "No," she said and went back to her milk. I tried again and got as far as "LL" before she stopped me. "No," she said. 

I started over and sang the English version. She shook her head yes, smiled, and finished her milk. 

We spent a wonderful evening at our friends' house. They made me dinner for my birthday and even had a chocolate cake. It was fabulous.

Snake Charmer

The snake

The snake charmer

Guillermo has this adorable green t-shirt. On it is an outline of a yellow snake and above the snake is the word charmer. After he wore the t-shirt a few times I showed him pictures on the Internet of snake charmers. Social studies lesson completed.

The other night we found a snake near the front of our house and we watched it slither out to our mailbox, back to our driveway, into what should be a flower garden, and then into the grass again. I don't know much about snakes, except that I don't like them, but we did a quick check and didn't think this one was poisonous (please tell me if you have a different opinion). After watching the snake for awhile, Guillermo came up with an idea. "I will be a snake charmer," he screamed and  ran into the house. He came out with maraca and played it for a bit. Guillermo noticed that the snake didn't seem interested so he ran back into the house. He returned outside, holding a harmonica, which is the closet thing he could find to resemble a pungi.

The snake paid him no attention, but Guillermo didn't mind. He soon was distracted by a gross dead spider on the driveway.

Will in the UAE

The beach and the Abu Dhabi skyline

Abu Dhabi

Will, at the U.A.E. Historical Village

Will just returned from a five-day trip to the United Arab Emirates for work, though he was in the U.A.E for just three days and in the plane for the other two. He took a 14-hour flight from New York to Abu Dhabi on Monday and arrived Tuesday morning. He left early, early, early Friday morning and arrived in North Carolina at 2 p.m. The U.A.E is eight hours ahead of us. 

Besides being sleep deprived, he had a great time. He ate great food, shopped at the markets, where he picked up a beautiful purse and picture frame for me for Mother's Day, worked a lot, toured the Emirati palace and checked out other cool stuff. In the  city, there is the U.A.E. Historical Village, which was is a representation of the way people in the country used to live. It looks like a desert and has a mosque, a market, a stable, animals and traditional mud-brick huts. 

Will is planning a trip back there in March. 

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. I slept in, went shopping, played with my kids. They drew cute Mother's Day cards for me and were on pretty good behavior all day.

The last game

Today was Guillermo's last soccer game for the season. His team did great, really. They haven't done that well all season, but today they rocked. Who knows if they won. Both teams scored too much to keep track, plus I was busy chasing Maya off the field or away from the cake. 

Guillermo was a rock star on defense. Even people on the sidelines were saying so. He's never been one for offense, but he'll charge right into the player with the ball on the opponent's team and kick it away from him or her. Anyway, he was doing great and then all of a sudden he ran over to me in tears. Apparently he fell down (I missed that) and when he fell down, another player started laughing at him, he said. He was so upset and it took a lot to calm him down, but eventually he went back into the game. 

The sponsor of Guillermo's team, Coldwell Bankers, has been great all season. Some of the agents have brought snacks and gatorade to the games and today they brought a cake, balloons, and certificates for the kids.  Maya saw that cake, still in a box, at halftime and I couldn't drag her away from the it. "Cake. Yumm. Maya like." She stared, then would move away and then wander back to the cake to look at it. Toward the end of the game, I distracted her and then she joined the team for their final team cheer. Then she and the others devoured the cake.  

Cookies, shoes and castles

There's not much Maya likes more than cookies. She runs to a cabinet where we keep them nearly every day to ask for one or just to see if they are still there. She shakes her head in satisfaction when she eats one. 

Today, I gave her a piece of a cookie on our way home from Whole Foods. I'm not sure if she ate it because she fell asleep pretty quickly in the car. When we arrived home, I tried to lay her down on the couch so she could continue her nap and I could have some free time. Instead, she woke up, looked around and said "Cookie. Cookie? Cookie?"

I was in trouble. The problem with her asking for her cookie was that while she slept in the car, I literally tore that cookie up. I didn't eat the cookie itself, but I broke it up into tiny pieces so I could eat the chocolate chips in it. I couldn't very well give her a bag of crumbs and expect her to be happy. I'd be pretty mad too if someone tried to pass that off as a cookie for me. 

Luckily, we had more cookies in the house. I gave her a Newman-O's. She studied the cookie for a bit as though she knew this wasn't the cookie she fell asleep thinking about, dreaming about, but couldn't resist and took a bite. "Ummm, good."

Later I took her shoe shopping for me. I'm looking for a pair of Yellow pumps, platforms, or even wedges for a wedding I'm going to in June. Maya was a dream. I pulled one shoe off the shelf and tried it on.

"Like? Like?" she asked immediately. "Yes, I like it," I answered.

"Walk, walk," she commanded. I walked. Too big, I determined. 

On to another pair. 

"Like? Like?" she asked. "Walk, walk," she commanded. 

After walking a bit, I returned to her command post where she bent down and felt my toe to make sure there was enough room. She needs a job at Nordstrom. She'd rock the house. Unfortunately, I left without shoes. Couldn't find the right color of yellow. 

I'll leave you with this thought:

Guillermo was in school today while Maya and I played. 

When he got in the car, he didn't say much about his day, but said this: "Castles to the sky, forever and after."

What does that mean?

One, two, three

Maya is going to cause me trouble. I know I've written it before, but every day she seems to affirm my fears. 

An example: 

If Guillermo is stalling when we ask him to do something, such as pick up his toys or put his shoes on, etc., we start counting to four. If we make it to four and he still hasn't done what he's been asked to do, he goes to time out. We rarely make it to four anymore because he knows the drill. Apparently Maya does too.

Maya has been standing up in her chair at the table lately. (She sits in regular chairs because she refuses to sit in a booster seat). The other night, with my father- and sister-in-law at the table, she was standing up again.

I asked her a few times to sit down and then said "Maya, do I need to start counting?"

Apparently there was no need. 

"One, two, three..." Maya said as she raised her arm above her head and then pulled it down with a force for each number. 

Will was astonished, almost proud. His father and sister thought it was hilarious. I was NOT amused. Maya was quite proud of herself and her show and repeated it several times that night.

Justin Roberts, We love You!

Liam and Justin at the The ArtsCenter. 

Me, Justin, and Guillermo. Sigh

I think Guillermo is already embarrassed by me, even at 4. 

We went to see Justin Roberts today. Yeah! As we settled into our seats, I told Guillermo to be prepared for a lot of singing and dancing because we were going to rock out. 

"No singing or dancing, mom, OK?" Guillermo said.

"How about a little?" I asked.

"No singing or dancing," he said. 

All right, all right, I thought. Of course I danced and sang the whole concert. I've been waiting for this show for a year. Guillermo had fun because, well, Justin rocks! He gets the kids dancing by asking them to wave their arms in the air, make giant circles with their arms, or jump around at different parts in his songs. The kids love it. 

After the show we bought a CD and waited in line to get it autographed. This is where I embarrassed myself. 

A neighbor was at the show and she knows Justin (well enough that they go out to dinner and he's been at her house!). Earlier at the concert I had told her about my blog post about Justin on Trianglemom2mom.com. She was sitting close to Justin while he was autographing CDs, shirts, etc., and I asked her to take our picture. We talked to Justin first. Guillermo said he saw him at the Durham Bulls game and I told him it was a great show and we had been waiting for a year to see him again. Small talk, you know. 

Then, my neighbor told him I wrote about him on my blog and she would forward him the link. I told him it was for the News & Observer's moms' Web site and he said "Oh, yeah, I heard about that." (Thanks, Sarah). 

As we knelt down next to Justin for the picture, I told him. "In my blog, I professed my love for all things Justin Roberts." 

He laughed, though I didn't dare look at his face when I said it. 

When she went to snap the picture, I leaned into Justin and said "I'll crop out the kid." 

He laughed again. 

I decided not to tell him he was on my short list of potential future spouses in case anything ever happened to my husband. 

I didn't want to scare him even more.

Tears at the Zoo

Jennefer and I took Maya and Guillermo to the zoo today. Guillermo had a great time, even if he was a bit wimpy about walking so much, but poor Maya ended the day on antibiotics for an ear infection. 

She fell asleep on the way to the zoo and when she woke up, she was pretty crabby. She cheered up a bit at the zoo, especially when she got a close up look at the gorillas, but broke down when we tried to eat lunch. I couldn't get her to stop crying, even with offers of pizza, ice cream, and cookies and knew then it must be bad. So, we boarded the tram back to the start of the zoo and I shelled out $15 ($15!) for infant Tylenol. Lucky for us, the Tylenol  kicked in right away and she fell asleep on the way home (all 90 minutes of our drive). 

She was better tonight, and actually played with Guillermo a bit. He didn't mind that we left the zoo early. I don't think he realized we saw only a quarter of it. Jennefer bought him a stuffed poisonous dart frog that I'm sure he will snuggle up to each night, right next to his stuffed shark. 

Tomorrow, we get to see Justin Roberts!! 

At the park

Maya, with the flowers Guillermo picked for her.

Jennefer and Guillermo at the Durham Bulls game.

Last fall I took Maya to the park and couldn't get her off the carousel. She cried and cried when the ride ended and I took her off the horse she was riding. 

I took her to the same park today and I couldn't get her on the carousel. "Loud," she said and covered her ears when we approached it. She seemed happy enough watching the carousel spin that I attempted to give her a ride when it was our turn. We followed behind Guillermo, who was determined to ride on the black horse he spied earlier. It was a guarder horse, he said. As soon as I tried to put Maya on the horse, though, she cried and cried and cried so we left. 

Earlier she cried when we sat on the kiddie train, waiting for it to go. "Dark, dark," she said, noticing the tunnel up ahead. We made her ride it anyway and she had a great time, once we made it through the tunnel. 

Later, Jennefer, my sister-in-law, and I took Guillermo on the paddle boats. He was the captain (but a horrible driver!). They had so much fun. 

We've been having a great week. Tuesday they went a Durham Bulls game and tomorrow we are headed to the zoo. Saturday is my long-awaited Justin Roberts concert and I'm bringing Guillermo as my date.