This morning, Amado woke me up, and said, "Antes, cuando tu estabas dormida, tu veias como una reina".

talking to the baby

This morning, when we were laying in bed waking up, Amado said, "yo tengo una pregunta para el bebe".

I asked him what it is.

Then, he leaned down to my belly, and said "Baby? Cuando es tu cumpleanos?"

Then he put his ear down to see if he would get a response.

He stayed there for a long time, and I was wondering if he was gonna hear an answer.

"Solo puedo oir tus rinones" he said.

according to amado, its a girl

We took Amado with us a couple weeks ago to the sonogram appointment. Last night, him and I were talking about the baby, and he pulled out this stuffed cow he has had since he was a baby.

"Esta vaca es para un bebe" he told me.

I asked him if he wanted to keep it for our baby. He does.

"Sabes, mami. Es una bebita. Una nina" he told me.

"Tu crees?" I asked.

"No creo. Yo se." he told me, with a smile.

"Como tu sabes?" I asked,

"Porque la vi, en la computadora. Yo vi su cara, y es nina. Que bueno porque eso es lo que yo queria. No podemos eligir, pero yo se - es nina."

sweet boy

Amado and a friend of his take a swim class together. The other day, they got to swim class and the regular teacher was sick, so there was a substitute. Amado was surprised, but his fishiness took over and he jumped in. His friend was much more thrown, and was really reticent to get in. He wasn't up for this curveball. His mom was trying to coax him into the water, but wasn't being successful.

Jason suggested to Amado that maybe he wanted to go help out. Amado hopped out of the water, went over to him, and said, "Luca, como estas? Estas bien?" Then, totally unprompted, he said "Luca, yo tambien extrano a nuestra maestra. Pero yo puedo ir con esta maestra. Yo puedo hacerlo. Puedes hacerlo conmigo? Vamonos." It worked.

What floored me about this with that this is textbook parenting book style. He delt with the situation in exactly the way the parenting books say you should: he validated his feelings, and then tried to make him comfortable with the situation by letting him know that they were in it together.

How awesome. What a sweet, tender, mature way to interact with the situation. I so love his sweetness.

easy to impress

Yesterday, we were on the porch about to leave for school. It was pouring rain, and this guy rode by on his bike, and he was wearing one of those very practical but very-silly-looking bright plastic full body rain coverup jumpsuit things. (If you are not sure what I am talking about, I found this super dorky couple on google images that really do a great job at conveying the outfit). He looked funny, and as he rode by I looked at Amado so I could make a joke, but he was looking in the other direction.

"Mira, mijo! Mira ese traje!" I told him.

I thought we could have a good laugh at it.

"Wow." says Amado, very deadpan.

"Que elegante."

I'm still not sure if he was making a joke or not. It's hard to tell with this witty guy.

pulpo mama

The other day, I was trying to get Amado ready for school, get myself ready for work, and do about 14 other things. I was getting his socks on him, and he fired out 3 requests/mandatos in a row - I don't even remember what they were. "hand me that, do this, do that...."

I was losing patience, and I told him the same thing I have told him many times - "Amado, soy una persona. Yo tengo dos manos. Solo puedo hacer una cosa a la vez. "

"Perdon, mami" he said, truly apologetic.

We were silent for a couple seconds, as I struggled with his socks, and then he said - slowly, thoughfully - "pero los pulpos si. los pulpos si pueden hacer muchas cosas, porque tienen muchas manos! pero esta bien, mami. tu no eres un pulpo. esta bien".

through amado's eyes

The other day, we were rushing down Telegraph Ave to get to Sproul Plaza for the televised view of Obama's inaguration. As we rushed by the new Beard Papa's (logo on left) cream puff place, Amado pratically collapses in a fit of laughter.

"Que paso?" we ask.

"Mira!" he can hardly get the words out. "Ese senor esta comiendo un telefono!"

way to be a jerk, mom

When I picked up Amado from school yesterday, I noticed he was wearing different pants than when I had dropped him off. The teacher was talking to other parents so I waited to ask her about it. When I got him in the car, I asked "how come you have different pants on?" even though I already knew the answer.

"Oh." he said. "Yo hice pipi".

Now, I'll be honest, I was frustrated. In my defense, Amado had a couple other accidents this week, because he insited he didn't have to go, because he didn't want to stop playing.

So, I was trying hard to not make him feel bad, but I was frustrated at his lack of attention and effort. I told him, "look man, if this keeps happening, I am going to make you sit on the toilet every 30 minutes regardless of how much you complain". He apologizes. I tell him he doesn't need to apologize, but he does need to pay better attention to his body. He agrees.

So today, when I am dropping him off at school, I look in his cubby because of course there must be some pants in his little bag, in need of washing. As I pull them out, his teacher Ada sees me, and says, "Oh! I forgot to tell you! He had an accident yesterday". I told her, "yeah, I figured, because he had different pants on". Then she said, "yeah, it was cute. what happened was that he was laughing so hard, he was just cracking up, he was laughing so so hard, that he accidentally peed".

Oh man.

My lovely, silly, joyous kid who loves to laugh and make other people laugh had an accident because he was having a good time. Way to be a jerk, mom. Its so easy to get frustrated over dirty laundry or a sloppy clean-up job, that sometimes I forget to appreciate that when you are loving life and having a good time, things can get messy.