regalo, musica vieja, haciendo rodney yee

A few funny things from today.

Regalo...
I was wrapping a gift for my mom's birthday and Amado walked in the room. We all got in together to buy the gift, and tonight was the unveiling.
"Oooh!" he squeeled, kneeling down carefully beside me and the gift. "Que es, mami?"
"Es un regalo para nana", I told him, evading the question. He is at the age where he will blow the secret right away if he knows what it is.
"Pero que es?"
"Vas a ver, mijo" I said, still trying to avoid.
It was a digital camera. They make digital cameras pretty small these days. The box was the size of a grapefruit.
"Es una guitarra?" he asked, really honestly. He got a guitarra for his birthday.
"No, mijo".
"Burbujas?".
I think he was wishful thinking on that one.

Musica Vieja...
My dad was listening to some boring, long, music when we were in the car tonight.
From the back seat, Amado said "Papa, esa musica es vieja. Por favor, cambiar la musica".

Haciendo Rodney Yee...
Amado does some pretty impressive yoga positions. We have never taught Amado any yoga, he has never seen yoga, but I guess thats kind of the point of yoga - its positions that are natural for your body. So, sometimes, he will break out a downward dog or a childs pose. We call this "haciendo Rodney Yee" so that we can have a laugh at his expense. Its all in good fun.
So today, he was getting ready for bed. He had already read two books, already brushed his teeth, already given my mom and dad a kiss. He asked for a drink of water, took a big swig, and then started haciendo rodney yee in the bed. I know his delaying sleep antics.
"Amado, por favor" I said.
He then opened his mouth and let all the water drip out, pooling in a little lake on the sheet.
I was not amused.
"Amado, por que hiciste eso?" I asked.
"Porque no quiero dormir" he said, all matter of fact,
I thanked him for his honesty and turned out the lights.

amado’s first day of school

I know many of you have been wondering, so here is the update, written by jason who dropped him off.


I'm shooting this out as a quick update of Amado's drop off. It was reallyeasy (good work mami on all the prep). It went so smoothly in fact that I semi-left and came back to check after I had already said goodbye because I felt like I looked bad with the other parents, some of whom were still hanging around, or with Amado because other parents had stayed.

The process there in the morning is really conducive to leaving easily. When kids are arriving (9:00-9:15) they hang out outside and ride bikes or play with plays or whatever. There was a patineta that he grabbed immediately, and truth be told, I could have left right then. Instead I let him play, and when talking to another parent found out that the normal process is that they play until all the kids are there, then Ada rings a bell. Then they put their toys in their place, all line up on a bench, and then go inside. After they take off their shoes they have some circle time
where they hang out in a circle, sing buenos dias to everyone, and sing some other songs. After that is some kind of art time, and then free play, then snacks, etc, etc.

The other parent told be that usually parents break out at the bell, so I told Amado that that's what was going to happen. He said "si", then when they rang the bell I told him adios, te quiero mucho, que juegues mucho, y que hay que compartir bien con los otros niños. He said "si" gave me the beso y abrazo y ya... He didn't immediately get the line up thing, in part because most of the kids just sort of milled around and Ada had changed the lining up place, so part of what he did was help himself to toys that other kids had vacated. I helped him find where he was going, hung around and then said goodbye again. In the process I got to see a nice interaction two of the kids where one girl, Nadia, didn't want her mom to leave, and another girl, Sofia, came up to her to ask, "Nadia, quieres venir a jugar conmigo?" with the clear intent of helping her make an easier transition. I ducked out for a couple minutes, then ducked back in. They were in a circle singing, Amado was hanging out watching, with power saw in hand (his favorite toy so far) which he had clear gone immediately to grab, once he had his shoes off. He was playing it mellow, I think in part because another kid was having a really hard time crying and wouldn't let his mom leave. Most of the kids were going nuts singing with feather boas and maracas jumping and dancing around, and Amado running his motocierra. When song time ended, one kid a brought a birds nest to show them, so I said goodbye for the third time, repeated everything I had previously said. Amado was patient every time, always gave me el beso y abrazo, he walked really close to get a good look at the nido, and I bounced.

The one other part that's worth saying is that we drove up, and will drive up every day with Maya. He was really juiced about picking her up. And it's clearly a treat to have two car seats in the car, etc. When she first got in the car, I felt compelled to get the conversation going. Pregunté a Maya que comió para el desayuno. Respondió que no se acordó. But really it wasn't necessary. The two of them started talking pretty much right off. It wasn't perfect. To Maya, some of Amado's words weren't all the way clear. But the reality is that he can't really always talk to other little kids, because they won't understand him at all. With Maya he could, and he definitely could understand what she said. Seeing that made it clear that this is going to be really good for him. It's not at all that he walks through life without being understood or anything, but he now is developing a whole crew of friends that he can communicate with a lot easier. I think he will like that.

Anyway, that's it for now.
Peace,
Jason

fresas

Amado woke up from his nap today way later than I expected and I had planned for us all to go out to the farmers market. So, he wakes up and Im kind of trying to hurry him along in his wake-up process and I think I am luring him with this cool idea.

So I say to him, in my most enthusiastic voice, "Amado, quieres ir al mercado para comprar fresas?"

I mean, whats more enticing than fresas, right? Amado can always go for fresas. Nothing beats fresas.

And he looks at me and says, "No, mami. No necesitamos fresas. Tenemos fresas en la casa."

bilingualism

Amado is really working through the fact that he is learning two languages. He is constantly talking about it - "en espanol, dice _", "Asi se dicen en espanol".

What's funny is that, for whatever reason, he thinks that espanol is the other language, the one he doesn't know many words in.
"Aqui estan mi zapatos, mami. En espanol, se dicen 'shoes'" he informs me.
"En espanol, se dicen 'how ya doin'".

The other day, Jason was giving him a bath. Quick aside - since Amado has never seen TV, he doesn't really know about these random characters. The only ones he even recognizes are Dora and Elmo, and he doesn't know that they are anything more than pictures in a book/action figures. Related to this, he has historically mixed the two of them up.

So, the other day, Jason is bathing Amado. Amado has this little Elmo squeezy squirty bath toy that he got for his birthday form my cousin. He was playing with this Elmo toy, and he said, "Mira, papi, es Dora".

Jason gently reminded him, "no, mijo, es Elmo".

To which Amado informed his papi, "Si, es Elmo. En espanol, se llama Dora".

the life of a nino grande

So, Amado is changing schools. He is starting preschool. Jason and I have joined with some other families to found a Spanish-speaking preschool cooperative. Check it out at lassemillitas.org. Its exciting and inspiring, it also means that Amado has to say goodbye to his old escuelita, where he has been since he was nine months old.

We made him a book, about a boy names Amado who is now a nino grande and is going to be going to a new school. In the book, Amado bakes cupcakes for his friends and teachers to say goodbye and thank you to them. Last night, we baked our cupcakes (carrot muffins) and this morning, he put the finishing touches on them by dousing them with canela. He told me he was triste, when I reminded him it was his last day. I wanted to cry.

Man, goodbyes suck. Today, when we dropped him off, we walked into the backyard of his escuelita, and all his amiguitos were sitting around the snack table, waiting for him. They had prepared a big poster for him that said "Adios, Amado, Te Vamos A Extranar". Amado unveiled his cupcakes with pride, showed them around, and took his seat at the head of the table.

Carmen reminded the kids that today is Amado's last day because he is going to a new school.

"No, don't go, Amado!" the kids called out.
"But, we love Amado!" they said.

Im not kidding. It was like a movie. Amado beamed, looking around at his friends, pleading with him to stay.

Xander, one of his good buddies, is mad. He sat at the table with his arms crossed, kind of scowling at the whole situation. I dont blame him, man. This is awful.

The kids continued with their opinions.

"We love Amado!"
"We don't want him to go!"
"Stay at this school!"

Tonito, his other good buddy, was an especially vocal member of the peanut gallery with his statement:
"Do what we say!"

We left as the despedida started, a feast of plain yogurt with strawberries mixed in, a big jug of water, some toast, and special goodbye cupcakes, just like in the book.

I almost cried. Im sure I will when we go back to pick him up at 1:30.

As a mom, you want to shield your kid from sadness, from hurtful goodbyes, from scary new situations, from leaving good friends, from having to move on.

It made me wonder how many of these he has been on the other side of. Maybe some friends he has really liked have had this same party, maybe he was the Xander who sat with his arms crossed, scowling at how unfair it is when someone you really love doesnt come to school here anymore. I wonder if one day, when he was difficult to manage and frustrated easily when he couldn't get the puzzle right, I wonder if he had said a goodbye that day, but didnt have the words at that point to tell me that he wasnt frustrated or mad, but sad because sometimes ninos grandes have to say goodbye to someone they love.

And yeah, I know, we cant shield them from everything. He grows stronger as a person by going through situations that are challenging, by trying new things, by starting something new and being able to do something scary without mami and papi.

I know. But sometimes, I really wish he could be this Amado forever. Two years, two months, and 23 days old - sitting her in the company of good friends who love him, at a place he feels safe, happy and content and proud.

feliz, mami?

The morning, I was trying to do a lot of house cleaning in a short time and Amado was being a difficult participant. There were a couple back-to-back incidents and I was frustrated. Not like lose your mind and yell kind of frustrated, but the kind of frustrated where you stop talking and just focus on what you are trying to get done. I say this because it was pretty subtle, my mood.

I was folding some clothes and he climbed up on the bed, put his little hand on my knee, and got his little face all close to mine. I was sitting kind of hunched over, so he bent his neck so he could look up at me, right in the eyes.

"Feliz, mami?" he asked, smiling at me.

I wasnt sure if he was genuinely asking, or if he knew it wasnt my most feliz moment so he was trying to make me feliz, or both. Probably both.

I smiled at this beatiful face, inches from my own, and told him, "si, mijo, estoy feliz".

"Si!" he yelled, jumping up with his arms in the air.

"Porque yo soy tu mijo!"

today, naptime

Things Amado said after he got put in his crib today for naptime. This spanned a period of about an hour. He really didn't want to nap - you can see the variety of tactics he used.

Papi!

Quiero Agua.

Tengo Poo Poo.

Ven Nana Papa!

Ven Nana Papa - tengo algo un mi cuna para ti!

Tengo un owe.

Me deule.

Mami!

Papi!

NanaPapa!

Ven NanaPapa.