She's On A Bike

We finally got Maya on the trail-a-bike today!

We've been trying for more than a year and today was the day. Will started out slow, walking the front bike while she sat on the back but pretty quickly he hopped on and they rode and rode and rode. And, then they came back for Guillermo and me and we rode to Johnny's to celebrate. That was Guillermo's idea. He wanted to celebrate Maya's success (and get himself something good to drink). After Johnny's, we rode to the park and played for awhile and then rode home. Will decided to take us down the big hill leading into our neighborhood. I was pretty nervous about Maya, but Will took it slow until the end when he let up on the break and I heard Maya shout "Woo Hoo!"

We finished the awesome 60-degree day off with sushi and "that chicken I really like" for Maya. (Tempura chicken, by the way.)

Slumber Party x 2

Playing Wii in her princess dress with cat whiskers on her face.

Guillermo is at another slumber party tonight.

Maya is in her room hosting her first sleepover. She and her friend are asleep now, but the night couldn't have gone any smoother.

Maya and her friend played in Maya's castle, played Just Dance for Kids and raced bikes, ate pizza and ice cream and watched a video. I read them a book right before bed and then they fell right to sleep.

Let's hope the rest of the night goes as smoothly.

"I Knew in My Heart I Could Do It"

The family that exercises together ...

Will came home early Tuesday so I decided to sneak in a run before dinner. The kids wanted to go with me so I ran and they rode, with Will keeping pace with Maya. Guillermo and I decided to go through the woods. We tried to convince Maya, who was on her bike without pedals, to turn around with Will and go home, but she was up for the challenge.

Guillermo and I went ahead but slowed down a bit when we came to a few fallen trees blocking our path. We stopped and then waited for Maya to catch up. She was coming down a gradual, but bumpy slope and she had a huge smile on her face.

She came to a perfect stop next to us.

"I knew I could do it!" she beamed.

Will said the whole way down she kept saying "I know in my heart I can do this!"

Slumber and Droids

Guillermo attended his first slumber party this weekend. This one was for his good friend who was turning 8. Guillermo had fun, but he didn't divulge too many details. The birthday boy's mother said the boys fell asleep around 11 p.m. and woke up at 7:30 a.m. The party invitation called for pizza making, wii battling and carrot cake eating and then a morning hike through the woods. The slumber party was right down the road so Guillermo stayed for a good part of the afternoon the next day. He was tired, of course, so he and Will settled in to watch Star Wars on Saturday afternoon while Maya and I did a lot of shopping and playing.

Meanwhile, Maya was pretty excited about her family fun night with Will and I while Guillermo was at his slumber party. It started with her trying to pick up the Wii Lego Star Wars battle that Guillermo had been playing. I tried to help, but didn't really know how to play so I sort of gave up on her. I went to get dinner on the table and told her I couldn't help her for a little bit. A few minutes later, I heard her shout "help, mom." I told her I'd be there in a few minutes but she kept shouting "help." By the time I got to the living room, she looked shell-shocked and then she burst into tears.

"I needed your help. The droids were getting me!"

"I can help you now," I offered.

"I killed them all," she sobbed.

"That's great," I told her.

She was completely frazzled and quickly switched off the game. I could barely contain my laughter.

We finished the night off by watching Ponyo. What a sweet movie.

Another Tooth Gone

Guillermo lost another tooth! It's his third, if you are keeping track.

He lost it Monday evening, after twisting and wiggling it for a good hour in bed when he was supposed to be sleeping. He came into my room at about 10 p.m. to show me the new empty space in his mouth. He was adorable. Well, he was adorable if you find kids with big, gaping holes in their mouths adorable, which I normally don't, but Guillermo is my kid so I thought he looked sweet.

Now, I'm not so sure. Teeth are starting to come in on the bottom room of his mouth, and these teeth are giant, like linebackers next to ballet dancers. His teeth already are crowded as it is (it's hard to get tooth floss between some of them), and Guillermo's dentist warned us it would get worse. She's even advised that he may need braces by the time he is 8, but she was hopeful that we might be able to wait until 10 or so.

On the top row of teeth, it just looks empty. I am not entirely sure what happened up there. One day around winter break, his teeth were lined up in a row the way most teeth are and the next day, it looked like he was missing one. Somehow, the front right tooth had shifted toward the middle and was pretty loose. Now, he has a pretty wide gap. I'll work on getting a photo in the next few days.

Happy birthday, Baby G

Guillermo turned 7 today! We celebrated with mid-day gifts and a store-bought carrot cake. Ugh. Carrot cake! He picked it out after a suggestion from one of his best friends and then had the nerve to ask if I could buy it from a store. Maya had suggested a few weeks ago that she wanted to buy a cake from a bakery after she saw the magic they could do with frosting. Anyway, enough about my hurt feelings ... :)

Guillermo had a great day. He picked up a few video games, a Lego Star Wars book, a book about Greek Myths, a Ninjago Lego set and a magic potions kit. Score!

We celebrated his birthday at a friend's house Friday night and then hosted a birthday party for him on Saturday at Frankie's Fun Park. He had a great time. It was a bit overwhelming for me, trying with Will to keep an eye on all of the kids, but he had a great time. They played in the fun house and played video games, and ended it with laser tag. Guillermo saved the tickets he won from video games, hoping to collect enough on future visits so he can buy a pop gun like his friend was able to do.

It was a good weekend. I can't believe my baby is 7!

RIP Grandma

My grandmother passed away this week. I didn't make it to the funeral, but my sister and I wrote this to be read during the service. We love you, grandma!

We are sad not to be here today to honor our grandmother in person, but we wanted to share with you some of the things we loved about her.

Our grandma was loyal, extremely hardworking, and loving and feisty at the same time. It never occurred to us as kids, of course, how ahead of her time she really was, working full time while having children at home. Or, how it was unusual for grandpa to wash dishes after dinner or help around the house as much as he did. Thank you both for teaching us that at such an early age. As for the feisty part, we got it and love and appreciate it. Our husbands might say we inherited that gene from you, grandma.

It’s hard to talk about grandma without talking about our grandfather. For us, they just go together as a solid pair. We use to giggle when they would talk about going square dancing. Now, we admire the sweet way they showed their love to each other.

Through both of them, we learned to love camping, playing cards and water slides, Mallomars, Dilly Bars and corn diggers, family thanksgivings with grandma’s homemade noodles that we still haven’t been able to make on our own, Pepsi (except for Julie) and shopping trips to Quincy and Walmart.

We must admit, we never grew to love your Red Devil ham.

I’m sure Julie would have had fond memories of her trip to Disney World with our grandparents if she hadn’t started missing our parents so badly halfway through the trip, forcing them to turn around and take her home. Of course, she was just four.

Grandma, thank you for the beautiful quilts you made each of us. They keep us warm throughout the year and remind us of you every time we see them. They are so much more to us than just blankets.

But, mostly, thank you both, grandma and grandpa, for the love and compassion you gave us. We know how lucky we are that you were so much apart of our lives as we were growing up.

Grandma, we are so happy that you are now reunited with grandpa in Heaven. We’ve missed him, but we know how much you have missed him, too.

Grandpa, knowing you, and your love for our grandmother, we bet you have quilting needles waiting for her and you’ve already found her a Hickory Stick so she can start quilting again. And, we hope the two of you can spend an eternity laughing, loving, playing cards, dancing and even find some time to check in on us.

Sign Language

Maya told me at the beginning of the school year that she wanted to learn sign language. She said it a few days after school started so I thought she might have learned a little at school. I told her I would get a book at the library so we could learn together, but I forgot each time I went to pick out new books, of course.

But, I remembered during Christmas shopping and for Christmas, in her box of books, she found a sign language book. She is loving it. We have learned baby, milk, eat, water, happy, sad, soccer, dance, basketball, baseball, cat, TV, refrigerator, mom, dad, brother and sister. Maybe more.

It was S week at her school this week and for show and share, she decided to share her knowledge of sign language. I was so proud of her. She brought her book to school so she could demonstrate the signs and her teachers could follow along or help teach the class. She was so proud, and the whole family is having fun learning a new language. It's especially fun this week (at least for me) because Will's grandmother is here so we are practicing words in three languages: English, Spanish and Sign.