Monday, June 29, 2009

Summer Reading




I signed Guillermo and Maya up for the summer reading program at the library. Guillermo was really intent on not just meeting his daily goal (30 minutes a day, 5 days a week) but on surpassing it by a lot. "We have to win, mommy. Let's get the prize." The first week he and I read for 4 hours and 40 minute (and a lot of the reading was from a gigantic encyclopedia-type book about Wonder Woman, whose real name, by the way, was Diana). We spent a lot of time reading when we returned home from the pool in the afternoon and Maya was asleep on the couch.

Maya wasn't as interested in meeting the goal or recording her minutes, but she likes to listen to books so she was on board and met her goal, too.

The prize: Four stickers, a book mark and a coupon for a free Italian Ice at Rita's. Maya chose chocolate Italian ice and Guillermo picked root beer.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Swimmingbowlingbuilding

Maya, painting her bird house.

Guillermo, working on his plane.

Today we: Built an Ewok village, went to swim lessons, ate lunch, played at the pool, bought socks, went bowling, bought chocolate chips and a snack at Whole Foods, built a model stealth bomber and a birdhouse (from the $1 wooden kits at Michaels), made muffins, made pancakes, read books and ate dinner before I escaped for an hour before bedtime books. I'm exhausted, but we had fun. 

Guillermo loved bowling, Maya said it was too loud. But, she loved the shoes. I think it's time to sign her up for some tap dance lessons. 


Bob

Guillermo, practicing a back float.

After just a week and two days of swim lessons, Guillermo surprised me on Tuesday.
"Look what I can do," he said as I met him in the pool after his lessons.
"Bob," he said, plugged his nose with his fingers and dunked his head under water.
Yay! I was so happy, so relieved. He finally can do it! He can put his head underwater. After years of sporadic swim lessons, he finally had the nerve to put his head underwater.

He practiced all day Tuesday and then yesterday, he put his head under water and then pushed off the ground so he would sort of glide underwater a bit before coming up for air. He's so excited to show off his new move to his teacher today at lessons.

Maya, on the other hand, has developed a fear of the water and will barely go in by herself, even in the shallowest spot. She will go in if I hold her, but she clings to me pretty tightly. Yesterday afternoon she was a bit more adventurous and walked down the ramp but that was only because her friend Chelsea joined us at the pool and she isn't scared of the water. I think she may be tired of going to the pool and we do go every day for lessons at 10:30 a.m. We have one more week of lessons before vacation and then she'll get a break.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Luke The Skywalker

Maya, playing outside this spring.

Yesterday, Maya and I were playing in her closet and it became evident just how much her brother rubs off on her.
"Maya, this could be your secret hideout," I told her.
"It could be a rocket ship," she exclaimed. "We could blast off."
Without pausing, she said: "I know, we could play The Clone Wars. I will be Luke The Skywalker. Who do you want to be?"
I suppressed my giggle at "Luke THE Skywalker."
"I will be Leia," I answered.
"Ok, blast off," she announced and for the next five minutes, we played Clone Wars and Guillermo wasn't even around. He was at a friend's, playing Star Wars no doubt. 

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day

Celebrating with Will on Father's Day.

We treated Will to a luxurious day of lots of alone time. He slept in, went for a long ride, ate bacon and pancakes for lunch with the kids and then dropped Guillermo off at a friend's house while Maya and I went shopping. He had the afternoon to himself to watch the Cardinals. He grilled for dinner and, I think, had a great day. 

For father's day, the kids made him cards and gave him a coupon so he can buy a baseball glove. We are also going to buy tickets for him, Guillermo and my father to go see the Cardinals play when we are in St. Louis next month. 

"I like the beach. Not the Ocean."


Soon to be a surfer boy. 

We took a day trip to the beach yesterday. Guillermo loved it a year ago when we went with my mother and loved it just as much yesterday. He was adventurous and timid at the same time. For him, he was adventurous. He rushed right out to the shore and waited for the waves to roll in before racing back to the dry sand, over and over again. If he waded out further, he would hold onto Will or me, which I loved. We stood in the sand for quite awhile holding hands and waiting for the big waves to try to knock us down. (And I was so happy, living in the moment because I know next year, he'll likely move into deeper waters and not want my help.) Later, Will scooped Guillermo up and headed to deeper water where they played in the bigger boy waves. 

She looks happy now, but force her off that towel and look out ...

Last year, Maya didn't like the sand in her shoes and didn't want to go in the water. Yesterday, she didn't mind the sand, in fact, she loved it, but she hated the ocean, even more so it seemed than last year. It was partly my fault. Will dropped us off at the beach and went to park the car. I was setting our stuff up but Guillermo and Maya wanted to play so I told them they could stand at the edge of the water. Their feet weren't even covered with water at first but soon a wave came in and it caught Maya off guard because even though it was tiny, it knocked her down. The rest of the day was doomed. She wouldn't walk along the shore and if she was playing in the sand and a wave came close to her, she would cry. I felt awful for her. It was so hot (though there was a nice breeze) and she seemed pretty miserable a good part of the time. We built sand castles, played with a few other kids and took a long walk in search of friends we were hoping to meet up with so she did OK. But then she had to go to the bathroom and refused to go in the ocean so she and I walked and walked until we finally found one. Later, I asked her if she liked the beach. 
"I like the beach. Not the ocean." 
"I mean, I like the sand. Not the ocean," she clarified.  
But she said she would go back and I can't wait to take her.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Almost Ready to Submerge

Guillermo finished his first week of summer swim lessons today and he loved them. That makes my summer so much easier because for the next few weeks we'll spend every morning at the pool.

He resisted going to other swim lessons before and never made much progress, but this week he was great. He still wouldn't put his head completely under water, but he put his entire face in so he could blow bubbles and he floated on his back with the help of his teacher, who is fabulous. Plus, he can now get around the pool on a kickboard and seems to love being in the water.

Maya, on the other hand, is resisting the water. My former water baby used to jump into the pool if I would catch her but now gets very wimpy and wants me to carry her in the water. The pool we joined this summer has a huge area that is 2 1/2 feet deep and I don't think Maya is used to being able to stand so much in the water. I've asked her a few times if she wants to take swim lessons but she refuses.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Monsters, A to Z


Making Monsters

The summer project I dreamed up the other night while reading Greece! Rome! Monsters! to Guillermo sadly came to a quick end this afternoon at the kitchen table. 

Greece! Rome! Monsters! profiles mythological monsters. They are listed in alphabetical order, which confused Guillermo because there wasn't a monster for each letter of the alphabet. So, I suggested that make our own book of monsters and come up with names for each letter.

If you know me well, you have to know how excited I was for this project. My mother has a drawer full of books I wrote when I was in elementary school. Guillermo seemed pretty excited, too. And when Maya saw how excited Guillermo was to draw monsters, she was on board, insisting she get to draw a pink and purple monster. 

The first monster Guillermo drew was supposed to be cyclops but when Guillermo was spelling it's name and accidentally turned Cyclop's second "c" turned into an "o" we decided to name him "Cyoptic." Pretty clever, I thought, until Guillermo made seven more pictures and decided that all of them were to be named Cyoptic. 

The new name of our book: Monster C, featuring the Pink and Purple Monster and Ladybug Monster.

Monsters A-Z

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Star Wars

I've been reluctant to write this post because it shows how quickly I caved to the pressure from the boys in my house. Well, that's not entirely fair. They didn't really pressure me, but mostly I just figured, well, what the heck ...

We let Guillermo watch Star Wars this week. We started with episode four, A New Hope. Guillermo loved it.

Will was equally excited. He invited several friends over to watch and pulled down the projection screen to show it. In the end, only Guillermo's good friend and his parents came over but that was good enough.

Guillermo and Charlie snuggled up on the couch. Guillermo barely took his eyes off the movie and didn't say much, but when it was all over, he and his friend quickly turned into Star Wars characters, taking on Darth Vader. For the next few days, all we heard about in our house was Star Wars, though I guess we've he's had ongoing discussions about Star Wars for months, especially after we found Wookieepedia online. I thought the Star Wars conversations might slow down in the next few days, but I'm afraid they won't.

Guillermo and Will went to visit Charlie and his parents tonight because their neighborhood has a large outdoor movie screen and occasionally shows movies during the summer. Tonight's movie: The Empire Strikes Back.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Guillermo Graduates



Guillermo's preschool graduation ceremony was today.

The ceremony was short and sweet. The kids filed into the church and sang two songs, "Jesus Loves Me" and one about going to kindergarten. They received their diplomas and then filed out, about 10 minutes after they arrived. Will says it's the best graduation he has ever attended.


With his teachers, Ms. Bahija and Miss Georgia.


Saturday, June 6, 2009

Through the Bouncy House, Past the Wagon Wishing Well...

Maya's birthday party was today. It was a Dora the Explorer Birthday party and she had so much fun.



We invited four friends. After they received their Dora the Explorer tatoos, we immediately set out to break the party pinata except instead of the pinata we found a note from swiper:


Guillermo played Swiper and helped set up the Dora adventure.

Maya found a map in her backpack that showed her that to get the pinata back, she and her friends would have to go through the Bouncy Birthday Castle, then pop the bubbles in Bubble Valley and then finally go to the Wagon Wishing Well to collect the gold coins to give to Swiper (the extortionist).

It is so fun to watch 2 and 3 year olds gather the goods from a pinata. Instead of grabbing everything in sight, like older kids would, they grab one thing and then proudly show it off to their parents. It took a good 10 minutes for them to pick up everything.

Next, I read them the Dora and the Mermaid Kingdom book and then they made magic crowns just like in the book.


Modeling her magic crown.

After that, a quesadilla lunch and then finally cake, which Maya said was her favorite part.


I couldn't find the Dora candle I bought to go on top of the cake so I printed out a picture of Dora from the Internet, colored it, taped it to two toothpicks and stuck it in the cake. I think it turned out pretty good.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Happy 3rd Birthday Maya!


For as long as I can remember, Maya has loved snow globes and begs me to buy one every time she sees one. I finally found a snow globe where the mother and daughter have brown hair.

At dinner tonight, Maya declared "this is the best birthday ever!"

She did have a fun day and her party is still to come.

We started the day with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, her request, and moved quickly into present opening. Guillermo gave her a pink Leapster. She plays Guillermo's all the time and has been asking for her own PINK Leapster for months. She spent every free minute playing today, though sometimes she had to fight Guillermo for it. Her's has different built-in games than his and he was pretty excited to try hers out so he could "teach" her. She didn't mind.


Opening her Leapster.

For her special day, Maya decided she wanted to go toKidzu in Chapel Hill. We had a great time and played for more than two hours. We arrived at noon and the place was nearly empty. We made butterflies, ladybugs and bumblebees, read books and played kitchen and garden and tons of other fun stuff.

Afterward, she took a good nap, played Leapster some more and enjoyed a birthday sundae at home.

Her party is tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Store Robbery, Baby Superheroes

Guillermo, so in love with that weapon.

I anticipated this summer would be tough but I have been so busy with some writing projects that I hadn't put much thought into how we would spend the days other than going to the pool. 

I now know. Guillermo likes to play with Legos and action figures and he also likes to role play, pretending we are characters from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lego Power Miners or Mars Mission. Maya likes to play board games, puzzles, bubbles, soccer, kitchen and she likes to color and draw. She's not really that girly, but he is all boy.

Over the past two days, we've incorporated a bit from each to make some interesting games. Yesterday, Maya and I were playing cupcake and pizza shop when out of nowhere came Guillermo the robber, who stole our pizza and our money. Maya and I quickly transformed from pizza store owners to police officers and tried to capture him. 

Today, Guillermo was playing with his action figures when Maya turned me into a baby and she became the mom. Guillermo continued with his action figures for a bit and then turned himself into a baby, but a baby who loved to hit other babies. 

I can't wait for our pool membership to start!!

The ant city they built. Later, Guillermo decided it was a Revolutionary War re-enactment scene, with the larger pile of sticks and rocks serving as the American compound and the rock on the left that is propped up by a smaller rock and sticks serving as the British compound.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Summer Vacation Starts Now



I decided to pull Guillermo out of preschool for the summer so we could have a few relaxing months before the Rest of His Life Starts when he goes to kindergarten in the fall. And, I also needed to use his preschool money to pay for our summer pool membership (don't judge me!).

His last day of school was Friday so today was officially the start of our summer. By 10:30 a.m. I was ready to take him back to school (even though he never went to school on Mondays) and drop Maya off with him. 

We regrouped, had a picnic at the park, bought some supplies for Maya's birthday party and then read books at the bookstore. It wasn't the most exciting day, but they did great. And, I am 1 1/2 assignments away from a carefree summer.

Our pool membership starts next week!