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.