Lulu the Music maker

Today was Maya's last music class. She's been in it on and off since last fall, when I signed her up at the last minute to give her something special to do when Guillermo was at school. She loved it right away and she love her teacher, Lulu, just as much.  

On most days, the class would alternate between sitting down and playing with instruments during one song and then dancing around the room with instruments during the next. Later, Lulu started reading a story to the class and even added a small parachute that the kids would play with during the class. The end of class always ended with the parents blowing bubbles while the kids jumped around, popping them. At first, Maya would dance next to me during the dance part of the class, but eventually she started dancing next to Lulu, saddling up next to her, trying to mimic her moves as they danced in a circle around the room. She always tried to make eye contact with Lulu, as if seeking approval. Lulu always obliged. 

Today, was a really fun class. Maya seemed happier than normal, or maybe I was. We played with scarves during one song, waving them in the air as we danced and twirled in circles. At the end of the song, Maya draped the red scarf she was holding over her face. She was beaming and laughing. She was beautiful. I tried to take a mental snapshot of her shinning eyes and big smile. I thought briefly about the veil she may wear one day if she gets married, but my mind wouldn't let me imagine her on that day. For that, I'm grateful because today she was perfect. 

During another song, we laid down on our backs on a blanket and listened to Lulu's voice on her relaxation CD. Maya was concentrating so hard on the deep breaths and mouthing the words to the songs. I couldn't resist. I reached over and squeezed her and she hugged me right back. 

Props to Will

I should have posted this last week, when it first ran. Better late than never. It's a profile of Will and his research that ran in the Daily Tar Heel last week, front page. Check it out.

Soccer Star

Maya, finding her new ball on Easter morning.

Maya loves her new soccer ball. She was so excited to take it to Guillermo's soccer practice today and it's a good thing she did. 

We were running late so as we neared the field, I told Guillermo to run ahead so he could join his teammates already playing. 

When she and I reached the field, Maya started kicking her ball and then declared "I want to talk to Guillermo's coach." 

She took her ball on the field.

"Do you want to play?" he asked her.

She shook her head yes.

"What's your name?" he asked. She told him. 

"Well, line up with everyone else," he told her. 

And, she did. And for the next 45 minutes, she practiced with the team and she was so happy. 

They did a dribbling drill around three cones that ended with a shot on goal. She was last, but she didn't give up. When she kicked the ball too far ahead of her, she chased after it, but kept going. Every time she looked up, she had a smile on her face. 

At water break, I put her hair in a ponytail. 

"You like it?" she asked the coach. 

She whined once, when another kid took her ball out of the goal, and cried once when a kid purposely pulled her down, but she got back into the practice. 

For another drill, the coach had the kids run backward and dribble the ball (why you would ask a bunch of 3-4-5 year olds to do such a thing is beyond me).  Maya either didn't understand the instructions or didn't hear them, but she lined up like everyone else and started running backward, except she was without a ball. When she saw what everyone else was doing, she laughed and went back to the starting line to get her ball.

I can't wait for Wednesday. Neither can she.

Easter Rock and Roll

"I love to paint Easter eggs!"


"These are battle eggs!"

Maya woke up first today.

I kept her in her room until Guillermo woke up so she didn't see her Easter surprises before he saw his.

She was excited to see what the Easter bunny brought but as I changed her into a "beautiful Easter dancing dress" she became a little concerned.

"The Easter bunny doesn't know I'm beautiful," she said.

"I told him," I reassured her.

A little later they both were pleased with their baskets. Guillermo found two Lego sets and a batman coloring book. Maya found a green and white soccer ball, sidewalk chalk and a Dora coloring book.

My parents sent them eggs with cash inside and that made Guillermo pretty happy, happy enough that he declared "rock and roll." Maya was more excited about the M&Ms they sent.

The Easter bunny had hid eggs outside. Maya's were hid on one side of our house and Guillermo's on the other to make sure that Maya didn't come up empty handed.

We had friends over for brunch and then set up the bouncy castle. Maya was crashing from hard from her sugar high so we finished off the visit with a little bit of Peep jousting. It wasn't as impressive as I've seen on Youtube, but it still was entertaining. The orange peep chick easily defeated the purple one.

"Let's go find the eggs!"

Peep Fest

If I was Guillermo or Maya, I would think today was a pretty awesome day.

Soccer, Peeps, Bouncy Castle, McDonalds, Sleepover. 

We started the day at Guillermo's soccer game. He was great. He scored a few times and took the ball away from the other team a lot of times. He even passed. 

Later, I took them to PeepFest hosted by Market Street Books. We arrived in time for the kids to take a swing at the pink bunny pinata. The kids were lined up from shortest to tallest. Maya was first. She didn't complain about the blindfold and even hit the peep a few times. Guillermo was a few people behind her and got the bat on the pinata too. They also participated in the Peep spoon race. Maya and Guillermo were only a quarter of the way through the course when nearly half had already finished. Maya was having fun at first but then a look of panic washed over her face. "It keeps falling off the spoon," she said. One of the race helpers came to her rescue, sort of. The helper put a peep on her spoon and joined Maya. Guillermo did pretty well, but then realized everyone else was finished and he wasn't close. We gave them a reprieve and told them just to eat their peeps. Later, they did some Peep Science, mixing Peeps with Coke, vinegar, baking soda and bubbles. They also found out that if you put a pop snap (is that what they are called?) in a peep and throw them on the ground, the peep will pop! We missed peep jousting, but will try to replicate at home. 

We came home, put up the bouncy castle, they laughed, had fun, Guillermo's friend came over and we took them to McDonalds. Now, this was a special event because we usually only go when we travel, but G was so excited that Happy Meals came with Monsters vs Alien toys so we caved. Guillermo picked Bob with his Happy Meal, his friend picked Insectasorous and Maya got Ginormica. 

Now, I have three sleeping kids at my house. They fell asleep with no fusses, no crying, no complaints. yea!

April Pools

Trying to catch butterflies earlier this week

To keep Guillermo and Maya amused while we sat in the waiting room at the doctor's office today, I taught Guillermo the finer points of April Fools Day. 

"Tonight for dinner, we are going to have cookies, cake and candy," I whispered. "April Fools."

I was greeted with laughter. Guillermo quickly got into the act, in a rather gross way.

"Tonight for dinner, we are going to eat underwear and diapers," he said. "April Fools."

"Look, Maya has two shoes on," I said pointing to her feet, one wearing a shoe and the other not. "April Fools."

Maya joined in the fun. She kicked off both shoes.

"Look, I have two shoes," she said. "April Pools."

On and on, hamburgers falling from the sky, a truck with eyes, rainbows covering the sky, etc. Maya finally turned her "April Pools" into "April Fools."

Later, they amused Will with their April Fools Day jokes.

"The stop signs are falling on our car," Guillermo shouted as we drove home. "April Fools, ha,ha,ha."

"The street lights are falling on our car," Guillermo shoulted. "April Fools."

"The street lights are falling on our car," Maya shouted. "April Fools.

"Don't apeat me," Guillermo told her.

"The purple lights are falling on our car," Maya shouted. "April Fools."

"Your hand is going to get cut off," Guillermo shouted. "April Fools."

"The purple lights are falling on our car," Maya shouted. "April Fools."

Finally, the game wore on them, too.