Did You Know?

Maya is excited for Will's father to visit this weekend, but was a little confused this afternoon when I called him her grandfather. "He's not my grandpa," she said. "He's Big Papa."

"That's right, he's Big Papa," I said. "That's what we call him but he is your grandfather. He is papa's father and that means he is your grandfather."

"Oh, I get it," Maya said.

A few seconds later, she leaned over to Sophia in the back seat of the car.

"Did you know, my papa has parents," Maya whispered.

Sophia nodded.

"It's like he's a kid," Maya said and the girls erupted into giggles.

Elephant and Piggie

I absolutely love Mo Willems! Guillermo's class has been reading his books a lot this year and they crack me up. I think I like them more than my kids, though they really like them, too. Over the holidays, we read a lots of Elephant and Piggie, and took turns being each character. The best part of the books, though, are the expressions on the character faces.

On the River

Our friends are moving to Europe for a few years and the only good thing to come of it is that they loaned us their canoe while they are gone.

Will has really missed paddling since college. We nearly purchased a canoe a few years ago but then something big at our house broke, though I'm not sure what it was, and we had to spend money on that. So this loaner is going to be great.

We took it out last weekend on the Eno River. We were going to start at a nearby lake but it is still closed for the winter so we braved the river, especially because we paddled on the flatwater section of the river (though it was near the dam, which made me a little nervous and caused Guillermo say the word dam over and over and giggle).

We paddled upstream and admired all of the turtles (it's too early for the snakes to come out!). On the way back, the kids got a little restless so we pulled over and hiked up the trails and found a tee pee that Guillermo insisted was still in use. When we pulled back into our starting place, without going over the dam, I was so happy about our wonderful family day. I can't wait for more!

Catching a Leprechaun

Catching a leprechaun is not easy, especially when you start building your trap five minutes before book time at night.

All day Guillermo talked about making a Lego trap for the leprechauns but he kept finding something else to do instead of building the trap. It didn't help that it was a soccer practice night, followed by a special dinner of Lucky Charms (that counts as festive for St. Patrick's Day, doesn't it?) then a Nerf battle, and finally read-out-loud time.

But we started at 7:55 p.m. Guillermo made the Lego trap while I searched for a giant rubber band. We ended up with a bungee cord. We hung it to the door and hooked the other end to a Bakugan carrying case, but that didn't really do much. So we propped a large book against a giant green Lego board to trap the leprechaun as soon as he came into the room. That seemed like a good idea but we couldn't figure out how to get Guillermo's trap to fall on top of the leprechaun. We kept trying until Guillermo told me that if you catch a leprechaun, you have to watch it for 25 hours without blinking. ("I hope you can wink, mom.")

And then it occurred to Guillermo that the leprechaun might not come into our room through the door. It might come in through the window. "I can't secure all of that," he said. And, instantly, and a little sadly, our effort was finished. I kissed him goodnight and he went back to his Lego table to play while Will continued to read him his bedtime story.

I'm trying to decide if a leprechaun should trash his room tonight while he sleeps. I love the idea, but I know I'd be the one who would have to clean it up. (And yes, I know we are a day late, but he doesn't so that's Ok, right?)

GOAAAL!

Watch out Twisters! Maya is just getting warmed up!

In her first game of her career, Maya stole the ball from the herd, dribbled down the field and then slammed the ball into the top left corner of the net! Goaaaal!

OK, I'm not sure all of that is true, but she did score in her first game. She rocked it. She wasn't timid. She was ready and full of confidence. She ran hard the whole game, never got wimpy and even kicked the ball in the net once. I wish I could tell you the details. Sadly, I missed it as I was at the boy's game, but she was so proud. Her league is made up of 3 and 4 year olds, so it helps that she is one of the older (though not bigger) kids on the field. More importantly than the goal, though, is that she had so much fun and has been counting down the days until her next practice.

Guillermo running with the big boys.

Guillermo had his first game in more than year this weekend and he did great. He ran hard, played some good defense and had fun. He is on a great team. Many of them have been together for the past four seasons and some of them have together for five or six. His coaches are wonderful. They know the game and, more importantly, know how to handle boys this age. Some of his teammates are pretty good, and pretty serious, which is a big change from the last time Guillermo played in this league (though he was 4 at the time). They spread out a little more and played their positions a lot better than I expected and some can knock the ball really far and really hard.

Ready for Soccer

Soccer season has started. Guillermo has his first practice tonight. Maya's first practice was rained out but both have games on Saturday!