ONE

How fast does a year pass?

One minute old.

One year old.

under the sea

I loved the magical feeling of birthdays as a kid....um...not so magical now. When I think back to all my many birthdays, there's one that I immediately recall.  I'm not sure it even happened like this, and there's no way to verify it, but I went to bed with nothing and woke up to a table of beautifully wrapped presents.  I have a blurred memory of a stuffed T-Rex sitting among them.  

I think it's interesting that this is my favorite memory.  So naturally, this is what I try to recreate for my own children.  And why this sleep-deprived mama stayed up in the dark hours of the night to prepare a magical underwater table for one ocean-loving five year old.

A thirteen dollar trip to the dollar store was what made this come together.  That and stuff from around the house:  the growing collection of stuffed ocean animals, shells from my uncle in Florida, craft projects from past weeks.

Two bags of balloons, a plastic table cloth with matching napkins, some wind-up fish, a box of swedish fish, and some happy birthday candles.  Who knew they'd have an underwater theme at the $1 store?

OK.  So those chattering teeth aren't fish, but I knew he'd love them.

We made this cute whale for the letter "W" some weeks ago.

 And the giant squid was another strange craft project we came up with.  Diego is fascinated with giant squid, so naturally one was clinging to his chair when he woke up.

The boys were raring to go after the two hour ride to VA Beach.

That spy next to JP is his Dad.  (The kids were excitingly whispering that those sunglasses made him look like a spy.)  Abuelo has been staying with us for a month now.  The best part is that grandpa speaks only Spanish, so the kids have plenty of chances to practice.  Diego's seen the most improvement, since he spends the most time around him.  The other day, when the big kids had arrived from school, I asked them which one had gone to spanish class...Diego piped up, "I did!'

On to the aquarium tour.

This catfish was strangely swimming at the top of this tank which is why you see that reflection above him.  They're bottom feeders, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was floating up there the next day.  But then, I know nothing about fish.

Check out the tiny teeth on this gar.

It turns out the komodo dragon is really gross.  They like to eat dead things, so their mouthes are full of deadly bacterias...one spit from them, and you could be their next meal.

This caiman was pretty creepy too...just sat there frozen in the water with that weird smile on its face.

I can't mention the sting rays without telling this famous story.  Juan Pablo and I were getting ready to have Isabela and had taken one last trip as a couple to the beach aquarium.  JP was standing among  several classes of elementary students crowded around the tank, the lone adult in the bunch.  The guide went over the rules, specifically, not to touch the sting rays underneath where their mouthes were.  So what does he do?  All I hear blaring from the microphone speakers, "Sir, please don't touch the bottom of the sting rays!"  There's one in every bunch.

This little turtle was quite friendly.

And the sharks definitely had their eye on the baby.

Diego got a little wild throughout the aquarium, running around like he owned the place.

I guess you can do that when it's your birthday.

Isabela was dying to put the candles into the cake.  A few minutes later she wasn't so interested.  That's weird...OK, so I'll do it.  H-A-P-P....hey, did you break the Y?

Diego was serious about this wish.

I hope they all come true for him.  He is perpetually happy, funny, loving, and any other adjectives worth being.  I light up just like those candles when I see him coming.  Happy number 5, Diego!

minja

A peek at FIVE.  Life is happy.  

If we could all be five...

We took a road trip to celebrate Diego's fifth birthday.  And while I sort through the photos, I'll quickly share about a little 'minja' project we did.  Minja is obviously ninja in five-speek.

We made our own felt softie the other day in less than an hour.  I made a paper template and quick cut out the felt pieces.  I had Diego choose two button eyes from our button stash while I did that.  It's always fun to play in a pile of buttons.

(Not sure why he looks so lint-covered here, my new lens is real good at picking up unwanted details sometimes.)

Diego was eager to help, too.  Still cautious with the needle after the finger-prick incident when we were threading pompoms for a simple garland...ouch that hurts!  But we had fun guessing where the needle would come up as we sewed on the buttons.  The simple stitch around the face was very doable for him, the blanket stitch around the edge of the ninja was a little harder.  I did most of that as he hovered nearby.

I didn't expect him to be so in to the sewing.  But the other day, he saw me crocheting (a new thing Isabela and I learned to do from a free class at the library) and wished he could do it, too.  I thought that was an interesting wish for a five year old boy.  I broke it down for him, but half-way through, flipping and faking kicking his new ninja was way more interesting.

Have you sewed anything lately?

random thoughts before spring

I'm awaiting spring with an eagerness in my spirit like a child on Christmas morning.

Could spring be my new favorite holiday?  I think so.

While I'm busy trying to forget the two weeks my husband was in Bolivia and the stomach bug came and stayed at our house instead, spring is peeking out with buds on the trees and daffodils.  

Instead of an almost-five-year-old crawling into my bed and throwing up all over it two minutes later, I will choose to remember the beautiful rainbows of St. Patrick's Day.  (If you like crafty things, you should be reading Krokotak and OhHappyDay.  Just saying'.)

I don't care if we made this holiday up or not, after the winter we just had, I'm all about colorful and sparkly.

I came across a cool mom at FantasticFunandLearning  that made gold glitter play dough for her kids to celebrate those sneaky little leprechauns and their pots o' gold.  (An invitation to play is a genius concept, by the way.  You set the stuff out before they have nothing to do, even before they wake up, and they can get right to it.  One day, I plan on getting up before them.  Although, why not do it the night before?)

Anyway, I asked my sick kids if they'd like to make some glittery dough and Diego promptly said no.

So I was happy to oblige my 10 year old and make it with her.

But gold glitter play dough can only be ignored for so long.  They played with it for two hours.

And while Carmen's bout with roseola was no picnic, she did learn to snuggle with me in the bed...what's a baby for, if not snuggling?  

I'll happily say goodbye to the winter snow and freeze that had us cuddled under the comforters and welcome in the warmer temperatures with some outdoor time that can finally thaw us out.

Carmen is almost ONE, and could it be this is the first time she's crawling around on actual grass and leaves?

There's nothing so thrilling in the world.

Spring means it's time for some exploring.  The world is new again.

And while I silently fumed at Juan Pablo's absence during our fight against invisible, microscopic enemies, he did come home with some cool presents.

These little wooden puzzles were begging for their pieces to be lost, so I used some sticky velcro and attached them all.  Now they can be a decoration on the wall, as cute as they are, but the kids can still play with them.

I've always been in love with these colorful wooden figures we discovered many years ago in La Paz, but they're very expensive.  We've only had two, forever...but he surprised me with this funky llama with a cut-out of the Illimani mountain in his belly.

And Diego and I have chosen our favorite threading bead, the dragon.  Isn't he cute?

I like how the string came with a huge bead at the end, to keep them from falling off, and a wooden peg at the beginning to help thread them on.  Toys from other countries are cool.

We've got two big birthdays coming up at the end of this month!  Spring is coming.  Thankfully.

What are you looking forward to?

totes adorb

I've been meaning to write about this for awhile now.  It cracks me up every time I say it.

The other day, Isabela, Carmen and I were sorting through Carmen's little clothes in my closet. Every now and then, they can get quite unruly, being that I usually just toss them on top of her wire shelf unit instead of organizing them.

It was kinda fun... just us girls in the closet.  It's so much easier to have a conversation.  At least you know no one will mention farts.  Oh wait, I just did.

Anyway, Isabela was watching Carmen toss through the socks and blurted out, "She's totes adorb."  

And you know I was like, "What?"

"Totes adorb, Mom."  And her hand even did a little flip in the air when she said it.

"Don't tell me that means totally adorable! Are people really saying that?!" = my uncool mom response.

Oh, they're saying it.

And once you say it once, you'll being saying it, too.  It's quite addictive.  My immediate response was, "Well, that's totes weird."

And we went on a 'totes' rampage for every little phrase we said, and you could hear us laughing all the way down the hall.

Isabela asked me what slang we used to say when I was a kid.  The first thing that came to mind was 'rad'.  "That's rad, man."  

Ewww.  Did we really say that?  Gag me with a spoon!

Okay.  That one's way worse.

You know I ended up googling it later...and apparently a whole lot of people were saying way worse stuff than me. (Although anyone remember adding the letter A to a really bad word?  Why did that make it cool?)

I do remember distinctly trying to pick up some California slang from a friend I met at a summer ballet school.  "And she was all...and he was all...and I was all...".  

I'm glad slang changes over time.  Aren't you?  What slang words do you remember saying growing up?

On a side note...my totes adorb baby has ROSEOLA!!  A rash all over her body from head to toe.  That's totes uncool.