Arantxa's school work

We recently had the conference with Arantxa's teacher and we got some of her projects back. Here is what she has been working on at school for the last couple of months.

in Technology, she made this self-portrait.


This is a patterned Anansi the Spider. She usually enjoys doing more complicated patterns, but for this she kept it simple.


This is word problem/story they got to create as part of their SALMON unit. She dictated the story to the teacher, after having created its visual representation.


Here is the story.I guess it doesn't work with the picture, so I am typing it over.
6 big salmon were ready to come home to the river. They started. After a while, they heard some roaring noise. A bear was looking down at the salmon. He got 1 of them., but the others kept swimming.
They swam for one hour without anything happening to them. But then they saw a fish net. 1 of the fish just went up to it. He wanted to explore the fish net. He had never seen one before. he got caught in the fish net. But the other four kept on swimming.
Soon they would reach the hatchery. Three of them were so excited, they started to swim extra fast! Then they were back to the hatchery. They were making nests for their eggs. The other salmon was still not in the right place to lay its eggs. It swam and swam and swam until it reached the others, and it began making a redd, too!
How many salmon survived the journey back to their spawing grounds?
6-1-1=4.

This is another word problem/story. Arantxa's work is easy to spot in her classroom because her stories are the longest. Her teacher says she can barely keep up with her dictated stories. She continues to be an obsessive story teller. Some other kids have more complicated equations. This was Halloween themed.


This is her story. Can it be read? Do I need to transctibe it again?




This is a mirror image Jack'o-lantern.


This is another Technology project, "things I like". That includes our home and family, mermaids, painting, unicorns and castles, reading, etc.



Finally, a collection of SOME of the various items she makes during "choice" time. There are a ton of assorted magic wands, fans, crowns, boxes, inventions, etc.

A few things, including Ax's hang glider

A few weeks ago, Arantxa came back with a piece of fabric from school that had some wood sticks taped to it. She told me she has made a hang glider and I did not give it a second thought.

This is what it looks like.

Some days later, she announced that she wanted to try it out. She went out with Pablo, and got her helmet on. Pablo was just following along to see what she would do. He says she suddenly had a disappointed look in her face the moment she realized that the hanging frame was too small for her. Phew!

He quickly suggested that they try it with a bear instead.

Here is the video showing the brief flight.

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She is really thinking about this flying business. We have talked about it and we have to remind her from time to time about our conversation. For any attempt of trying to fly, she has to start from ground level, and essentially don't jump down, not even from a chair. (She jumps off chairs/sofas all the time but that is not for flying).

Halloween Costumes

Lorena decided some time ago that she wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood. We bought a cute costume on Ebay, and complemented it with a basket. Before the first Halloween party, she had already undone the cape's ribbons. Other than that, all was set. She was especially excited about her red (á là Dorothy) sparkly shoes.



Of course I had to be Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother. A quick trip to Value Village was all I needed. I asked Lorena to help me find a "white" wig, and she kept pointing to those super blonde ones. When I finally found a grandma one, she pointed out that it was gray, not white. I think too many people are dying their hair now!!!

So:
Wig, $7.00
used flannel night gown, $4.00
Baby powder/cornstarch, $0.05
Getting this look: priceless!



I must have looked really odd, as Lorena did not want to be in the picture with me. I had to sneak from the back. Oh, and when Agnes (neighbor) came in she quietly asked Lorena if I was her mom.


Arantxa's costume was easier than I expected. She wanted a unicorn that was also a pegasus. Apparently many girls want both, because we were able to buy this, again from Ebay. They don't make this one anymore.




Both of them, before our 6th annual Halloween Playgroup party (which we hosted for the first time. It'd always been at Cathia's).


Arantxa had also wanted to have a WALL-E costume. She really enjoyed the movie, and has spent a lot of time playing WALL-E and even making creative Wall-E and things from the movie out of Legos.

So, here is the video showing how we got it together. It was a real family enterprise, even Lorena helped looking for the right box. Arantxa had started the idea by using her yellow binoculars as WALL-E's eyes. If you have no idea who WALL-E is (robot in futuristic Pixar movie), then click here to see a Wall-E trailer.

Here is the video.

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And here she is, as WALL-E ready for her school's Halloween Parade. The costume was a huge success, by the way. We heard a lot of excited kids point at her and say "WALL-E" with Wall-e's characteristic robotic voice.

Country Dance

There was a hoe down at school a couple of weeks ago. The 3rd graders (I think) have a big pioneer/Lewis and Clark unit, and starting last year they will have this as an annual event for the whole school community.

I had scheduled long before we knew about it, a mom's night out with the playgroup moms; so I was unable to attend. Pablo said he'd take the girls. After careful review of their wardrobe, it was clear that we did NOT have anything remotely appropriate. Luckily, I ran into Krystyna at Costco that morning, and she came in with some clothes later on.

Lorena, decided, by just glancing at the clothes, that there was nothing girlish enough for her to even consider wearing. Luckily, she had come home with a HUGE stash of clothes, hand me downs from our neighbors (her teacher's kids). I guess I have to go into those. Terri had set aside some clothes on Thursday for the families to look at. By the time Pablo picked her from school, Lorena had already picked a ton of outfits (some went straight to Arantxa's drawers). Thanks again Terri. Lorena then settled on a dress.

Arantxa, as usual, gets into everything, and she goes full speed ahead. She asked me if she could wear the flannel shirt, from Nicolas (2.5). It did fit her, and she was even able to close the buttons, the sleeves, naturally, come 3/4. She also got Agnes's dress on.

here go the pictures. Arantxa, all ready to go.



Pablo, looking super handsome and even wearing boots.


I just love this picture and I am not sure why. I think it reminds me of Patricia (my sister) as a little kid, wearing a green cowgirl costume, with a similar hat. We had so much fun when we got a big trunk of costumes from Tía Laurita (sibling fact checker???). anyway, outside of the party place.


and her, the girls in action. Pablo says they could barely follow the instructions, but both of them have shown me some of the moves, and explained the name of the dances.




Mostly, he says, they had a good time running around, and they got to have a good dessert.

Stuck in the bathroom

Pablo was on a trip. Lorena had had a bad night; she'd kept waking up so I finally let her come to our bed. Arantxa had had nightmares so I had to go to her room to soothe her (but she never woke up). I was unable to fall sleep again, so I was awake from 2 to almost 6, and then fell asleep. I woke up again, later than when I usually start. I had to get going fast since it was a school day. In fact, we had to leave a bit earlier than usual as I had to drop off Lorena at her friend's house (close by) since I had to take the other kids to school and had to stay for a class.

She wanted to take a shower with me but I did not let her. She resigned herself to being with me in the bathroom. As I was getting in the shower, she started kicking the bathroom door (it is one of those pocket or sliding doors, it slides into the wall when open). I asked her to stop, she said, "OK, mom" and did with no complain. A little while later she tried to get out but she couldn't. I instructed her to unlock the door (a bit tricky, twisty lock). She still was unable, so she had to wait for me.

As I got out of the shower and tried to open I realize that her kicking had stuck the door, moving it off its rail. Getting on my serious mommy voice I told her that we were stuck in the bathroom since her kicking had stuck the door. Well, I did not expect that to be totally true, but it was. I tried pulling the door, but of course I had little leverage. I tried pushing it back in place, but after 5 or so minutes I realized that I couldn't.

I called Arantxa who was sleeping (I was not sleeping mom, I was playing in my room and making a story). She came running into the room (I was expecting to get my big morning hug) but was surprised to find nobody ("hey, where is everybody" I thought, why did my mom call me if she was not here).

She came to the bathroom door and I explained what had happened and what she had to do. Now, Lorena is naturally strong while Arantxa is more like Bruce Banner and can only be super strong when angry, so just in Hulk mode. She kept trying though, but unable to get it.

I was naturally, ready to go to plan B, have Arantxa call the neighbors, get her to unlock the door, and embarrassingly wait for Nacho to come. Her only phone experience has been when we pass the phone to her, and we've showed her how to dial 911.

Altogether 10 minutes had passed and it was getting really late. Finally, Arantxa was our heroine and was able to push the door back in place. We rushed through breakfast and Arantxa got to buy lunch at school instead of taking from home. We got Lorena to Mia's house. She was SO excited, they were still in PJ's.

We were a bit late for picking up our carpool buddy, but still on time to arrive punctually at school.

All is well that ends well.

Who is making that noise?

Lorena is clicking her tongue frequently. Her teacher says she does it as a happy sound, when she is working on something else. For us, she mostly does it in the car. Oh, and she does it very loudly. Pablo and I don't like it, we can live with it though, but it gets on Ax's nerves, especially as it interferes with her car reading.
Yesterday, we were driving home and Ax was reading (I know, what a surprise!), Lo covered her mouth with one finger and began the clicking. She would stop and say, "Arantxa, stop making that noise, Arantxa, why are you making that noise with your tongue?" Pablo told her that we knew it was her, "no, it is not, it is Arantxa."

It was similar to last week. We went to one of those new water park/hotels (awesome!!), and we had to separate the girls into 2 beds since Lorena was not letting her sister sleep. The room was pitch dark, and we start hearing this big noise from Lo's side (thumping the mattress with her leg). "Who is making that noise? I can't sleep with that noise! Can you please stop that noise?" We told her to stop kicking the mattress. She then starts moving in the bed saying "what is that swishing sound? I can't sleep with that swishing sound?" I must admit she was right, the sheets were noisy ;).

The last 2 pee accidents

I know, who wants to hear about those? On the other hand, you really are no parent of a young child if those don't form part of your consciousness whether your kids have them or not.

TWO.
Lorena had been begging to have a play date with her best friends from school, Vivian and Grace for months. We finally got that to happen yesterday. She was even thrilled to have Blake (G's brother) over; she really has come a long way in accepting that boys form part of everyday life whether you like it or not.

Some of the kids were playing outside as I was making tea, I heard them running and screaming. At some point I realized Lorena was screaming, "I NEED TO GO POTTY!!!!" (in English). I came out puzzled and wondering why she called instead of coming. I found her sitting in one of those push cars, all buckled in and unable to free herself. By the time I got to her, she just said, "it is too late; it's coming out.."In no time she was back playing with a new set of clothes; clearly not the end of the world for her.

ONE.
A few weeks ago, we had returned home from school. I reminded Arantxa to go to the bathroom and off she went. I was washing clotes and running around doing things. Quite some time later, I hear Lorena frantically crying, "!!!Bañito, abre la puerta, necesito ir al baño!!!" (Potty, open the door, I need to use the bathroom!!!". I came running down, knowing EXACTLY what was going on. I asked Arantxa to unlock the door, and by the time she did, Lorena could not hold it and she had an accident in front of the potty.

So, what, you are wondering, was Arantxa doing and how did I know? She was lost in a story. This is the way I describe when she is making up a story and telling it aloud. She went into the bathroom, started thinking of a story, and, like the Energizer bunny, kept going and going... She just recently began locking the bathroom door. I ended up making one of those, not quite rules, but expectations. One of those you imagine is so specific, no one has ever needed to make that rule. Arantxa, from now, you can't lock the bathroom door and tell a story. Oh, and yes, you are supposed to make those into positives so it can go like this, Arantxa, if you are in the bathroom telling a story, the door has to remain unlocked. Pablo wanted to add that this only applied to the downstairs bathroom; it really is easy to make it to the other bathroom if you are upstairs. I say this is already too narrow as it is.

We lose Arantxa to her stories frequently... she is having dinner with us, and suddenly, she is off in her world, mumbling and so happy. Other times she goes to put socks on, and 15 minutes later, she is sitting in the floor of her room, folded socks in one hand, blah, blah, blah-bbing....

Turning volcanoes off and Arantxa shares about school.

Lorena loves to talk, chat, and visit with people. At 3, she is much better at holding phone conversations than Arantxa. Sure, it comes more naturally to her, but mostly she enjoys doing it. She is definitely a "people's person". She says "HI" and engages in little talk with the cashier, the parking lot attendant, etc. Her teacher ir probably hearing lots of random things about us, like we went to dinner at the Olive Garden. We should be carefull now not to do anything too embarrassing! However, the other side of this is that we also get to hear bits about other people. So we know, that Terri (teacher) also went to the Olive Garden last week ;).

I can't complain about Arantxa, she does tell us a good deal about what happened at school. For instance, last time I picked them up, she was showing me who her "second grade buddy was". She and Bailey sometimes talk about what happened in school. Sometimes, Arantxa doesn't want to talk to Pablo about school, "because I already said that in the car". Now, at dinner, we are having a different problem; Lorena begins to relate all of Arantxa's school day! She really wants to talk and share that, and Arantxa, naturally, gets super upset about it!!! We have told Arantxa that the best way to avoid that is to tell things first. We are also explaining to Lorena that it'd be nice if she let her big sister do the talking. :) the kind of complicated sibling scenarios that we did not anticipate'.

On a different topic, Lorena and I were listening to a CD in the car, those personalized ones that include their names. "Cuando sea grande quiero ser..." (When I grow up I want to be a ...). We hadn't heard that CD in a while, so instead of saying "a mommy and a painter"; she asked what a soldier was (why didn't she ask about a journalist?). My lousy explanation could be summarized as "soldiers=war countries=bad". After stumbling on that, I realized that due to transitivity, my explanation had equated soldier with bad person. I then added that soldiers=help/natural disasters". One of my examples was setting sand bags for preventing flooding. After some thought she said "oh, and then they can throw sand inside the volcanoes!". No, I had to explain it doesn't quite work, but it does sound like a good idea ;). She then said, "well, then they can drop water in them".

Arantxa's summer reading

I had promised this list a couple of times. Halfway through the summer I thought it would be cool to see the books had read over the summer. We were keeping a loose record for a couple of summer reading programs (time for some, # of books for others). I decided to start a spreadsheet, thinking that many years from now she'd find it interesting. We printed her list to take to her new schoo's library. To my surprise, she loved reading her reading list!!

The list, I am sure, is incomplete, but not that bad I guess. The books on the list were read by her except otherwise noted. It includes only what she read after summer vacation had started and up until the first day of school. I think the list stopped around 150 books. I am jealous of her!!! A great deal of them come from the library, we'd be broke otherwise!

CHAPTER BOOKS
Bailey School Kids. Author: Dadey, D./Thornton Jones, M.
Elves don't wear hard hats
Ghosts do splash in puddles
Leprechauns Don't Play Basketball
Monsters don't scuba dive
Mummies don't coach softball
Pirates do ride scooters
Pirates don't wear pink sunglasses
Wizards don't need computers

Cam Jansen by David Adler.
Young Cam Jansen and the Spotted Cat Mystery
Cam Jensen and the summer camp mysteries (3 in 1 book)

Cobble Street Cousins by Cynthia Rylant.
A little shopping
In Aunt Lucy's kitchen
Some good news
Summer Party
Wedding flowers

Disney Fairies. (Different authors)
A masterpiece for Bess (Bergen, Lara)
Beck and the great berry battle (Driscoll, Laura)
Vidia and the Fairy Crown (Driscoll, Laura )
Fira and the full moon (Herman, Gail)
Silvermist and the ladybug curse (Herman, Gail)
Lily's pesky plant (Kirsten, Larsen)
Prilla and the butterfly lie (Richards, Kitty)
The trouble with Tink (Thorpe, Kiki)
Tink, north of Neverland (Thorpe, Kiki)
Rani in the mermaid lagoon

Elmer and the Dragon by Rutt Stiles Gannett. (Absolutely adored this simple and silly tale).
my Father's dragon
Elmer and the Dragon
The dragons of Blueland

Horrible Harry by Suzy Kline.
Horrible harry and the Dragon Wars Kline
Horrible Harry and the Purple People Kline

Little House early chapter
Laura and Mr. Edwards (Henson, Heather) co-read

Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne. (All co-read except for last one.)
Blizzard of the Blue Moon
Dragon of the Red Dawn
Hour of the Olympics
Monday with a mad genius
Night of the new magicians
Season of the Sandstorms
Dark Day of the Deep Sea

Nate the Great by MarjorieSharmat.
Nate the Great and the Lost List

Rainbow Fairies by Daisy Meadows. Her other HUGE obsession. Read and re-read all of them. she finished the series when we got the rest from the library after summer vacation was over.
Amber the Orange Fairy
Amy the Amethyst Fairy(Jewel)
Belle the Bunny Fairy (Pet)
Chloe and the Topaz Fairy (Jewel)
Emily, the emerald fairy (Jewel)
Evie, the mist fairy (Weather)
Georgia the Guinea Pig Fairy (Pet)
Heather the Violet Fairy
Hallie the Rain Fairy (Weather)
Holly the Christmas Fairy (special fairies)
India the moonstone Fairy (Jewel)
Inky the Indigo fairy
Katie the Kitten Fairy (Pet)
Kylie the Carnival Fairy (Special fairies ; 3 in 1 book)
Lucy and the Diamond Fairy (Jewel)
Megan the Monday Fairy (Fun days)
Molly the Goldfish Fairy (Pet)
Pearl the Cloud Fairy (Weather)
Penny the Pony Fairy (Pet)
Ruby the Red Fairy
Scarlett the Garnet Fairy (Jewel)
Sophie the Sapphire Fairy (Jewel)
Tara the Tuesday Fairy (Fun Days)

Frindle Clements, Andrew chapter

Wall-E (Junior Novelization, chapter)

Mercy Watson: princess in disguise (DiCamilo, Kate)

Nim's Island (by Wendy Orr) co-read
Nim at Sea
Nim's Island

My parents think I am sleeping (Prelutsky, Jack)

PICTURE BOOKS
Audio cuentos Disney
Blanca Nieves (Spanish)
La Bella y la Bestia (Spanish)
La Sirenita (Spanish)

Disney's Wonderful World of Reading. Longer picture books.
A Twist in Time (Cinderella III)
Aladdin
Back on track
Bambi
Beauty and the Beast
Blanca Nieves y los 7 enanos (Spanish)
Brother Bear
Chicken Little
Cinderella Spanish
Dumbo
Gift of the Magi
Goofy and the magic fish
Jungle Book 2
La bella durmiente (Spanish)
Lady and the Tramp
Lambert
Los 3 cochinitos Spanish
Pooh's Grand Adventure
Simba and Nala help Bomo
Sleeping Beauty Spanish
Snow white and the 7 Dwarfs
The Jungle book
The Lion King
The lion king 1.5
Tinkerbelle's Secret Adventure
Wall-E

Elephant and Piggie
I Love my new toy (Willems, Mo)
Today I will fly( Willems, Mo)

Charlie and Lola by Lauren Child
I am not sleepy and I will not go to bed
I am too absolutely small for school
Snow is my favorite and my best

Martina, the beautiful cockroach: a Cuban folktale (Agra, Carmen)
Each person pear plum (Ahlberg, Alan)
Previously (Ahlberg, Alan)
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs (Barrett, Judi)
Madeline in London (Bemelmans, Ludwig)
Little Gorila (Bornstein, Ruth)
Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel (Burton, Virginia Lee)
Clarice Bean, That is me (Child, Lauren)
Best best friends (Chodos-Irvine, Margaret)
Good night, pillow fight (Cook, Sally)
Ella the elegant elephant (D'Amico, Carmela and Steven)
Meet the Barkers: Morgan and Moffat go to school (De Paola, Tomie)
The boy who painted dragons (Demi)
Tell me something happy before I go to bed (Dunbar, Joyce)
Horace and Morris, but mostly Dolores (Howe, James)
Friends are Sweet (Liberts, Jennifer)
Baby bear, baby bear, what do you see? (Martin, Bill)
Blueberries for Sal (McCloskey, Robert)
Make way for ducklings (McCloskey, Robert)
The Kiss that missed (Melling, David)
Fancy Nancy's favorite words: from accessories to zany (O'Connor, Jane)
Backyard Bear (Rockwell, Anne)
Richard Scarry's a day at the fire station (Scarry, Richard)
The true story of the 3 little pigs, by A. Wolf (Sciezka, Jon)
Olivia the other Reindeer (Seibold/Walsh)
Brr! (Stevenson, James)
Disney Princess (Weinberg, Jennifer)
Falling for Rapunzel (Wilcox, Leah)
Waking Beauty (Wilcox, Leah)
Deep in the jungle (Yaccarino, Dan)
Big Black Bear (Yee, Wong Herbert)
Alice in Wonderland (longish Disney version)
MANY stories from Disney collections collection
The 3 Little Bears
Corduroy (Freeman, Don)

NON-FICTION
The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library On Beyond bugs! All about insects (Rabe, Tish)
Hellen Keller (Adler, David)
Owen and Mzee: the true story of a remarkabla friendship (Hatkoff, Isabella and Craig)
Grizzly Bears (Kendell, Patricia)
Baby Grizzly (Lang, Aubrey)
Runaway Jack (Lees, Stewart)
Tree (Llewellyn, Claire)
Bear: Watch me grow (Magloff, Lisa)
From Tree to Paper (Marshall, Pam)
Knights and Castles (Simon, Seymour)
Why don’t Polar bears have stripes (Smith, Katherine)

As you can see, she much more rather read fiction! She continues to read at a super fast rate, but with school she has less leisure time. She does, however, have car rides and she is able to read without getting car sick.

Her K class is participating in a Scholastic program. If the class reads 100 books, Scholastic will donate 100 books to kids that need them. I asked her to, this time, write her list by herself. It has been good practice. I think she came to 16. AT some point she had read 11 out of the 46 books in her class.

Field trip and school update.

Arantxa was really looking forward to riding the school bus and was disappointed when she learned she would not be taking it. However, she saw a small bus parked in the school in one of the new family events. she wondered if they used it for field trips, so she asked her friend's brother. She has been waiting for the day where she'd ride it ever since.

The day came last week when the K class had their first field trip. They went to see the locks (exclusas), where Lake Union communicates to the Puget Sound (mar).

It was interesting because she came back from school, the day before, repeating almost word by word I am guessing the instructions. "Since Kindergarteners can't reach the floor on the bus, whenever the bus is breaking or taking a sharp turn, we have to extend our arms like this, and hold on to the seat in front of us. It can be very cold next to the water, and it is a rain or shine field trip, therefore we have to dress in layers". Am I glad she is an auditory learner and that she pays so much attention! I later remembered to look in her backpack and found the flyer with all the details.

She gave us a full report: they saw hydroplanes taking off and landing (is that the right word?); they saw seagulls, including one seated and one standing. The current main theme for their class is SALMON, so she was very excited to share that they had seen a ton of salmon jumping! "Even better, once your eyes got adjusted to the light, you could even see them, a lot of them, swimming", she said.

The bus was super late to pick them up, so they passed the time singing and playing games. I am glad I did not get to volunteer to go: "this is my very first field trip on my own".

I drop them ( she and Bailey, our carpool buddy) off that day and stayed in school helping out by stuffing envelopes. I later was a "lunch room volunteer". It was lots of fun to see the kids eating, and to note the differences between the younger and the older students. Joanna had already mentioned that by 3rd or 4th grade, they completely segregate themselves by gender. Another big difference was how they asked for food; a typical 5th grader said "pasta in a bowl with meat sauce and 2 breadsticks". The little ones still are figuring it all out. It is like standing in line in Starbucks and hearing the novices or casual goers, and contrast them with the typical Seattle costumer that can blurt out a 7 word coffee order.

One of the perks for volunteering for the cafeteria is that you get to eat lunch with your child.

I have to share more about the school later on, but it is really an amazing place. There are so many books in the Kindergarten classroom that it really looks like a small library. I have to ask Ms. L. if she has an estimate! One of Arantxa's favorite places is the reading loft (tapanco). I really love that they have books in many different levels: a ton of super early BOB type readers (Sid sat on the mat); but you can also see books such as Charlotte's web (about 4th grade level).

They have "specialists" like Technology, Music, Art, P.E. (Educación Fisica), and Spanish twice a week. For those classes, they form a line and go as a class to the other teachers' rooms. They also go to the library once a week and they are allowed to check 3 books for a week. Parents can check out more books for them. They have 3 recesses (15", 20", 10") and snack and lunch separate from those.

Arantxa is bringing lunch 4 times a week, and we are letting her buy at the cafeteria on Wednesdays.

Her favorite class is ART. Here is a cool project she did in Technology, a self-portrait. She was wearing a blue shirt with a busy print that day;).



She just started her first after school activity and she absolutely adores it. It is DRAMA (K and 1st grade). They will be performing "The Valiant Taylor". We got the script yesterday. I was surprised that it was a real script! We'll see how that goes, their show is in early December.

Lorena's Haircut!

Our days start with the girls getting their hair done after they are dressed and before breakfast. Most of the time, Lorena is happy to participate in the process: she loves saying how she wants her hair, which bows or barrettes (sp?) to wear, color of the elastic bands, etc.

Invariably, though, a few hours later at most, she has pulled the hairbands off and her hair is all over her face. I try to at least tuck it behind her ears, but she doesn't like that. Here she is working on a science experiment with cornstarch and water (more about our little scientist in a future installment).

Finally, we offered her the choice of getting a BIG haircut and she gladly accepted. This week we took her in. The hairdresser said that there'd be no way of keeping the hair out of her face without bangs. I liked her with bangs, but several months ago she had asked to have her hair like the rest of us. After some questioning we realized she meant no bangs. We gave her a new alternative: a) short hair with bangs and no need for hairbands, or b) no bangs, but keeping the hair pulled up. She was quick to accept the bangs!

Here she is right before the haircut.

And during. Oh, a funny note. Lorena's English is for the most part very good, but she has a few bilingual issues. She asked the hairdresser "I want to have the little's one" referring to the cover. She is referring to the puppy one in the picture for the "little ones". She hasn't caught on that you can't use a possessive for that type of thing. People just stare at her and have NO clue what she is talking about.

Here is Arantxa waiting. Can you guess what she is doing? Reading, of course! That reminds me that I haven't posted the list of books she read over the summer.

And finally, the finished hairdo! We all love it!

Since I am in updating mode, there is one more bit of news that is important. Lorena and Arantxa are both just about 40 pounds (18.2 kg). Lorena probably weighs a bit more. The car seat Lorena was in (Britax Roundabout) has a weight limit of 40#s. Arantxa had outgrown that one because of the height, and she is in one (Britax Marathon) that keeps her harnessed in until 65 lbs (at this rate probably age 10!!).

We debated what to do, and got help from a friend who is certified as a Child Passenger Safety Technician (thanks Rachel!!). So, instead of transferring Lorena to Arantxa's and getting a humongous car seat for her; we opted for getting the big one for Lorena, since a) she is our BIG girl, and b) she always gets hand me downs seats.

The Britax Regent is really huge and it harnesses up to 80 lbs or so. We had also been having difficulties getting Arantxa in her car seat at school pickup: she had to drop her backpack on Lorena's side (copilot), and jump over to her seat. We then switched their locations. Since the Regent is not convertible (can't be installed rear facing), it sits lower on the seat, so now Lorena can no longer reach the van's ceiling :(. The disadvantage for Arantxa is that she can no longer close the door with her feet (press button). Overall, it seems to be working really well!

Lorena with new haircut and new pants in her new Regent. She is so happy about the whole thing and mostly likes that her seat has a lot of pink. The rest of the print is the same as Arantxa's.

The TROLL under the bridge

This is an old one. We took Gustavo to see Fremont's Troll under the bridge. What a hit! The 3 kids had a blast climbing on and around it.
Este es de hace tiempo. Llevamos a Gustavo a ver el Ogro de Fremont, que vive bajo un mega puente. !Todo un éxito! Los 3 se la pasaron re-bien escalando al ogro y a sus alrededores.

Fremont is a Seattle neighborhood, and it is the self-proclaimed Center of the Universe. It is a very interesting place, just a few blocks from Arantxa's new school. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Troll . By the way, I also recommend you click on Fremont there to read its article.
Fremont es una "colonia" en Seattle que se ha autoproclamdo el Centro del Universo. ES un lugar muy interesante, a unas cuadras de la nueva escuela de Arantxa. He aquí un artículo en Wikpedia del famoso ogro (y les recomiendo leer el link de Fremont).

On the way over, we heard the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" story on the car (Thanks Apu for that CD/book from many Christmas ago). Ever since, Lorena loves to listen to the story and is always asking for it.
En el camino escuchamos el cuento de "Los 3 Cabritillos Traviesos" (gracias Apu por ese regalo de Navidad de hace muchos años). A Lorena, desde entonces, le encanta escuchar ese cuento.

And, here the pictures. He aquí las fotos.

I must admit that I was the one suggesting this pose but of course he loved it. Debo admitir que yo fui la que sugerí que se pusiera así, pero por supuesto le encantó.

In contrast, this is Arantxa hugging the troll. Contraste con Arantxa, abrazando cariñosamente al ogro.

Just hanging out..... Pasando el rato.

The big kids climbed in and out, up and down the sculpture. Lorena played with the sand (yuck!). Los grandes de la pasaron trepándose por toda la escultura, mientras que Lorena sólo jugó con la arena (!guácala!).

If you are not a local, please note the real VW Beetle in his hand. Para los fuereños, noten el vocho de a de veraz en su mano.

Finally, another famous sculpture from Fremont, waiting for the bus. Para terminar, otra de las famosas esculturas de Fremont, los que esperan el camión.'

First day of School

Our baby has stated school!
The first 3 paragraphs deal with orientation and the school. You might want to skip this and delve right into the pictures. English only. I mostly want to get pictures posted.

Orientation
We had orientation yesterday. We learned who her teacher and classmates are going to be. I am very happy. There is a new K teacher in the school, and the other one has a ton of experience and we got the "old" one, yay! (I have no idea of the other one). It is also very cool because she has a tank fish with salmon in her room. The kindergarteners (niños de preprimaria) have a salmon unit and they eventually release the salmon. Arantxa is with her friend from preschool, and the girls were happy to be with each other.

Pablo and I took her to the classroom for an hour while we were explained more of the day to day functioning of the school. A ton of information to process! The Spanish teacher quickly identified us and came to talk to me. She said she was excited to have Arantxa in her classroom (from what I gather they don't have any other native Spanish speakers in the school, but I might be wrong). She said she had already prepared some things for her, and that if Ax wanted to help in class she could; but if she didn't it was OK also. She asked me whether she was reading or not and the same for writing. she then said, she would be working on some writing with her. I love how the "reading" question can be asked naturally, and both a yes and a no answer received the same way. Nice! My hopes are not too high for that (Spanish class), but I am glad she approached us.

I loved the lower elementary head (K-3). I have talked to her in the past and I think she does a great job. She eats lunch with kids every day and is therefore current on what they are talking about and can address issues before they are too big. She reassured us that we can call and ask questions any time: from concerns about whether they are eating lunch or not, to issues in the playground, academics, etc. She also made us all laugh when she said that most kids don't eat at school, that in her 20+ years teaching she has accepted that as a fact. She will return a kid back to the cafeteria line if the plate does not have protein or has too many cookies (so if parents do not have a problem with kids eating only cookies for lunch, then they should let her know).

Here she is exploring her classroom. Notice how they have the "BOB" books for those that are JUST beginning to read as well as chapter books. I have to look for more advanced chapter books, but she still will have access to those in the library.

FIRST DAY
She woke up early and by herself and got dressed right away.


Then, she helped me prepare smoothies as a special first day treat.



I had written the school's acronym in the glasses (melted white chocolate tinted green). She loved the idea.


We left the house a couple minutes later than planned, but still within range of what I considered optimal. It went really smoothly. We got there in time to look for parking (very tricky in a school on top of a hill within a residential area with lots of old homes with one car garages). We'll start carpooling tomorrow.

Here she is walking up the hill.


Lorena was very excited to be part of it. She was upset when we told her she would not go to orientation (but stayed super happy playing with Galia (1) and possibly talking Rocío's ear off), she said she "also wanted to know Arantxa's teacher name". The obligatory picture with the sign. Oh, and you can't miss Lorena being cautiously calm about being next to a big dog. She did great! Way to go Lorena!


In front of her classroom with the bear in the door. How lucky is our bear loving girl!!! The other K class doesn't have the bear, although both classes start with MAMMALS, so she got to bring a stuffed bear to school! She appears to have very good school Karma.


While she was in school (only half day for the first three days), Lorena and I hung out in U Village (nice outdoor shopping mall). I must confess that I could not resist this, so I ended up getting her Corduroy (book and plush). It is such a classic story that she has read and re-read many times from the library.


Here she comes, so excited, walking down to meet us!

Her only complaint was that the teacher still has not told them the loft rules, so she can't climb the stair to get there and read. She explained a lot of the lingo to me (jobs, they have "after snack recess" and "afternoon recess", etc.). She is super excited and SO ready for this!

Arantxa can ride a bike!

Si quieren saltarse el rollo, acá está el video.
If you want to skip my ramblings, here is the video.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hace un par de meses, Arantxa nos dijo que quería aprender a andar en bicicleta sin rueditas. Después de haber presenciado el rotundo fracaso con las bicis que les trajo Santa a algunos niños (pasando de la ilusión, al desaliento y frustración, y finalmente a abondanar el intento); decidí buscar algo de información.
A couple of months ago, Arantxa told us she wanted to ride a bike without traning wheels. After witnessing the utter failure with bikes that Santa brought to some kids (going from illusion to frustration and lack of confidence to quitting); I decided to look for some information.

Mi mamá decía que lo importante era más bien el balance y estar en una bici suficientemente baja para poder pisar bien. Encontré en línea referencias a de plano olvidarse de los pedales (usando una bici de balance de plano quitándoselos). Entendiendo que lo mejor era una bici chica, decidí buscar una en "Freecycle" (gente que pasa cosas que ya no usa a desconocidos en lugar de venderlas o botarlas en la basura). Tuvimos suerte y fuimos a recoger una de 14, al recogerla vimos que era de 12". Pensamos que una de 14" estaría mejor, así que también en Freecycle conseguimos una de 14" a la que le tuvimos que cambiar la cámara y llanta.
My mom said that the most important parts were learning to balance/coast and use a small enough bike where they can touch the ground easily. I found references to a method in which pedals are completely forgotten (use a balance bike or simply remove them). Instead of buying a short one to use only for a while, I tried Freecycle (where people get rid of items they no longer use instead of selling them or dumping them), and got a 14"one. When we picked it up, we realized it was 12"; so we looked for another one. Thanks to Freecycle we got a 14" one! This one needed a change of tire and tube (word?).

Pablo y yo descubrimos que le puedes quitar los pedales pero no la cadena, así que le quitamos los pedales a la chica, y le amarró la cadena para que no estuviera suelta. Con las dos bicis estaba ideal, así que dejamos una con y una sin pedales. Empezamos a practicar un poco a mediados de Julio, pero con Gustavo, lo dejamos.
Pablo and I discovered that we could remove the pedals but not the chain from the small one, and he tied the chain so it wouldn't be loose. With 2 bycicles, we had the perfect set up so we kept one with pedals and one without.We began practicing some in July, but with Gustavo here it was harder t find time for that.

El principio fue lo más difícil, pero después de un par de días, logró atravesar el garage sin poner los pies. A lo largo de todo el proceso, Arantxa se ponía metas intermedias y pedía premios al lograrlas: casi siempre un beso o abrazo, pero un par de veces me pidió un dulce. Después pacticamos distancias más largas en la calle.
The beginning was, as usual, the hardest, but after a couple of tries she managed to coast our driveway without feet. Throughout the process, Arantxa set herself with intermediate goals and asked for small rewards (mostly kisses or hugs, but she did ask for a treat a couple of times). The driveway conquered, we practiced longer distances in the street.

Decidió que estaba lista para pedales, así que practicó 2 o 3 ratos con esa en la cancha. Logró atravesarla una vez, y luego se cayó varias veces. Finalmente hoy que tuvimos un día seco nuevamente, volvimos a intentar. Dijo que le tocaría un abrazo si lograba dar la vuelta a la glorieta, y para sorpresa de ambas lo logró a la segunda. Fuimos por Pablo para que la viera, y la pudiéramos filmar.
She deemed herself ready for pedals, so she practiced a couple of times on the court. She managed the length once, but fell a few times after that. Today, finally with dry weather again, we decided to try again. She wanted a hug if she completed the roundabout in our cul-de-sac, and surprised both of us (Ax and mom) she achieved that in her second try. We went to get Pablo, proud to show off and to be able to document the momentous occassion.

Le prometimos que le compraríamos su propia bici, así que búscaremos una pronto. Lorena tiene los ojos puestos en la de Dora (14") que hasta tiene una mochilita. A ella le prometimos que será suya en cuanto aprenda. Una vez que lo logré, pondremos la chica en Freecycle para que otra niño(a) pueda aprender.
We promised we'd get her a bike when she could ride one, so we'll be searching for one soon. Lorena is quite keen on the Dora (14") one that even has a little backpack. We promised her it was hers to keep as soon as she learned. Once she does, we'll be freecycling the small one again, so that another child can learn.

Las moralejas de la historia son:
1) Más chicos tienen menos miedo.
2) Uno puede intentar lo de siempre, o investigar un poco. El sito con el libro (si no funciona le devolvemos su dinero, http://www.ridingmadeeasy.com/) que podías bajar de internet decía que no perdieras tiempo empujando y corriendo atrás del niño, que empezar por el balance era lo más importante. Decidí intentar con eso, y pensaba pagar por el libro si nos atorábamos.
3) Las predicciones de desarrollo de nuestros hijos muchas veces son equivocadas. A los 3.5 años, Arantxa no podía pedalear el triciclo bien, eso lo dominó el verano pasado. Yo pensaba que iba a aprender mucho más tarde. Lo mismo me pasó con la leída, yo pensaba que iba a entrar a preprimaria sin saber leer; y está entrando leyendo libros de capítulos avanzados, justo antes de formalmente entrar a la escuela en preprimaria.
The morals of the story are:
1) Younger kids are less scared.
2) One can try the same as always, or research some. The website of the book you could download (money back gurantee, http://www.ridingmadeeasy.com/) said that you should not just chase after them, that learning to coast and balance needed to be learned before. We decided to give it a try with just that, but I was ready to pay the download if we got stuck.
3) The development predictions we make of our kids can frequently be erroneous. AT 3.5, Arantxa could barely pedal her trike; she finally managed well at 4.5, last summer. I thought she would go on 2 wheels much later. The same thing happened with reading. I was sure she'd enter K without knowing how to read, and here she is reading advanced chapter books right before school starts.

A bizarre day

Stating the obvious

Lorena pointed to a truck as we were driving to the Science museum asking me what it was carrying. I answered that it had plants. "Look mom!", she said excitedly, "a truck carrying plants!!!"

The girls love the Science Center and we visited the areas we usually see; we then headed to the cafeteria for lunch. Both lines wrapped around one of the food islands; it was really crowded and the cashier was moving slowly. After the girls picked up a PB&J sandwich, carrots, and apples; Arantxa decided to go look for a table. Lorena followed her and I couldn't see them, even though I knew the direction that they were headed had no other exits. I saved my spot and went to check on them, Lorena was already strapped to her high chair.

A good while later I was close enough to see that the cashier had a cell phone in hand which he was using as a calculator! Mmh... As my turn finally came, he input numbers in his phone and said "let's call it an even $14". I showed my credit card, but of course the whole system was down. "Just go and I'll look for you later" he replied as I explained that I had no cash. We were all hungry, so I just did. Halfway through lunch I went back and everything appeared to be working. The cashier effusively thanked me for going back to pay. Unusual day!

Before we left, Arantxa announced that she wanted to eat her remaining sandwich half later. I told her I would not be carrying it around, and forgot about the matter since I did not see the sandwich again. You, however, my dear reader, will not forget.

We visited some more exhibits and headed back to the parking lot. We were to return books from the Seattle Library (we usually do King County) so I tried typing the Queen Anne's address, but the GPS did not recognize it. I asked it to show me the 5 nearest cities: "there are no cities". Quite funny being where we were. I decided that maybe the parking structure was interfering with the receiver. Arantxa then told me that her straps were too tight and she needed help getting harnessed in. I was about to help her when she said, "maybe it is the sandwich". She proceeded to pull out the sandwich from her pants' front pocket!!!! Luckily she had wrapped it in the cling wrap plastic. She was very sad that her sandwich had been deformed, I, on the other hand, had to try hard not to laugh! I finally convinced her that it could have been MUCH worse and she ate it.

I backed up and saw a minivan struggling to get out. I mean, really struggling. I got out of the car to help the driver: a grandmother that was probably using a van that was not hers. Even with my help she kept running down the orange plastic tube barrier and going over the curb. I finally suggested she backed up the other way, "but, isn't it one way?". Yes, I explained, but she was pretty much stuck and out of other options, she could then use 2 open stalls to turn around. I went back to the car to back up and give her more space. She still had a very hard time, I had to use the horn to stop her from going over the curb and tube again. Another guy came up to his car and he watched in amusement. We made eye contact and shared a comprehension and slightly mischievous smile.

When she finally made it out (still going over the curb once more as she went down the ramp), the girls and I started cracking up. You know how it goes, begin with a smile and then laugh hard. I couldn't stop myself from laughing. In between laughs, I tried to explain to the girls that we could laugh now that we had helped her and knowing that she had made it out. I am sure those were the longest 10 minutes in her life.

We got out and I parked to find the library. Nothing! It kept suggesting places in PA and the east coast. It then dawned on me: the search area was not the NW. I remembered the battery had died the other day, so it forgot our settings. That fixed, I was able to find the location. As we were driving out there, Lorena said, "mom, look, my bruise is now tiny, do you know what it is like now? PLUTO!" Again, I thought she really wasn't paying much attention as we had played with a planets small exhibit. Apparently she was.

After the library it was already past 4 pm, too late for Lorena's nap; but they were both exhausted. I had to keep them awake. We managed that, on Lorena's suggestion, by playing "fortunately, unfortunately". We take turns telling a story that keeps getting worse and better, starting with one of those words and alternating. It can be fun.

They stayed awake and were super excited to see Agnes, Nicolas and Krystyna who returned from their summer in Poland this week. The kids really wanted to go outside, and it was cloudy and cold. We had to remind ourselves that "dry is good" so they went out in sweaters or jackets. This is still August, our summer was SO short.

The real sad ending...
Afterwards we went out for dinner. We decided to go to the Old Country Buffet, the girls absolute favorite place. We should have known there was something going on when there were plenty of parking spots available; the place is always packed! Then we saw the lights were out. I found flyers on all windows (interior) from another restaurant. Then I saw a different one "Come to Denny's, mention OCB is closed and get a 15% discount". Finally, in the door to the mall, a sign that explained the OCB was closed. The girls were SO sad. They SO loved to go there, eat baby corn, mac'n cheese, baked beans, beets, and especially, that soft serve ice cream with all the toppings. They will miss the pet BEE walking around handing out balloons. Lorena got SO excited every time it walked past us, talking to it.

This was already long, and I did skip over the little things, believe it or not.

Your favorite 100 books or Arantxa's summer reading.

Decidí mejor hacer este en inglés únicamente, incluyendo solo explicaciones relevantes en español.

N.B. Since I have been mainly writing about Lorena, this one will be devoted to Arantxa.

When I was a senior in high school (=6to de prepa), my friends and I found a "vocational orientation book" in the school's library. By the way, this was SO cool, the library was actually close to the classrooms and you could actually go there, which was not the case when we were sophomores and juniors, in the other campus (en 4to y 5to la biblioteca era prácticamente inaccesible). Anyway, this book had a series of quizzes to help you choose a "career". Oh, since I am already rambling on cultural differences, this one is definitely note-worthy. In Mexico, you don't major in anything; you choose a career: you come out of university a lawyer, a doctor, a mathematician, philospher, accountant, etc. There is no pre-med or law school. Granted, becoming a doctor takes longer than anything else; but that is not the case for lawyers since they start taking all the relevant classes from the beginning.

OK, back to our book. One of the questions was to "LIST YOUR FAVORITE 100 BOOKS". My close friends and I chuckled at the concept. We joked that probably if you combined all the books read by each student in a classroom, you probably would not get to 100; and we were talking about lifetime reading. Mexico is definitely not a country of readers. Some people might feel that I should not be saying this, but it gives you some context.

I still think that the question is a hard one. Can you list your favorite 100 books? I might be able to do 50, and I can now add a dozen or so great children/picture books. I mean, I have read and liked many books, but how would I determine the best 100, I have no idea.

So, what does all of this have to do with Arantxa? Arantxa is an avid reader. She began reading last March, at age 4 and 2 months; and became really independent and fluent after a summer hiatus. Then, it all moved really fast, and she's been reading at a high level (at least 4th grade for several months). Of course, the more she reads, the better she gets, the easier it is.

Summer is meant for outside play, swimming in the lake, BBQs, etc; but it is also about reading. The King county library had the challenge of reading/being read 1000 minutes. She was done with those by mid-July. Barnes and Noble offered a free book for kids who had read 8 books. She got her free book (chose Frindle, by Andrew Clements http://frindle.com/) and quickly read that. Here you can read a page http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0689818769/ref=sib_dp_pop_sup?ie=UTF8&p=random#reader-link

Her new school also has a reading summer program. Kids get their names on a postcard and a small prize if they read 12 books (every 100 pages count as one book for books over 200 pages long). So, I decided to get her reading log started. I thought of asking her to write at least a word from each title, but soon I realized that it would be too much. After all, she hasn't even started school yet. If we had done if from the beginning, we could have managed. I still have asked her to write some.

So, I start typing a spreadsheet and I am SHOCKED! We still have to walk around the house to see if we can remember what she has read, but so far, the list has 105 books!!!!

Some of those are simple picture books, a good chunk of them are from the Disney Wonderful world of Reading (about 45 pages, 1 to 5 paragraphs per page). But there are MANY, MANY early chapter books. She has read a ton of the Rainbow Fairy books since being introuced to them early August. She has also read several Disney Fairy books which contain decent language (not overly simplified), and are over 100 pages long. In addition, she has read other "regular" chapter books.

My guess is that this summer, and perhaps the next one, will be the ones in which she reads most books. I assume that later she'll naturally choose longer books. For now, she has loved reading new books, and re-reading her favorite chapter books like My Father's Dragon and all of those fairy books.

The list doesn't include the 5 or so she's read today. She was so happy when Lorena was taking a nap, and she said "Woo hoo! I read a full Disney fairy book, without interruption!".

I really don't need to do the list, but I think it will be fun for her to "read" when she is older, the books she devoured the summer before starting school.

This past couple of weeks, we've gotten to the point of wondering when it gets to the point of "too much reading". For now, she continues to play a lot and she is even managing to learn to ride her bike w/o training wheels and to swim. Aren't I the proud mom?

So, now, and just for fun, a couple of questions for my readers. When did you read the most? and what are your 100 favorite books? Well, you can at least mention a few ;).

Las interminables preguntas... Never ending questions

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ARGH! I HAD STARTED THE NEW POST EARLIER, SO WHEN I PUBLISHED IT, BLOGGER PLACED IT BELOW THIS ONE. PLEASE READ AFTER THIS ONE, OR SELECT ON THE RIGHT SIDE "THE BIG BAD WOLF.."
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Lorena está. desde hace unas semanas en la edad del porqué; pero no solo es porqué, sino cómo, qué tal si, cuándo, quién, etc. Algunas de sus preguntas son súper sencillas, otras filosóficas, complicadas, etc. Nos bombardea con preguntas todo el tiempo, muchas veces en el coche, son decenas por hora.
Lorena, in the last few weeks has reached the "age of "the whys". But it is not only why, but how, how come, what if, who, when, where... Some of her questions are pretty basic, others are philosophical, complicated, etc. We are bombarded by tens of questions per hour at some points; particularly in the car.

Aquí están algunas, en orden aleatorio.
So, here we go, in no particular order.

Lleva ya rato obsesionada con todo lo de bebés: acordándose, preguntando qué hacía de bebé, qué le gustaba, etc. Está guardando cosas para cuando sea grande y tenga su bebé Taryn. Lorena va a vivir con nosotros y yo voy a cuidar a sus bebés junto con ella.

"Mamá, ¿cómo me metiste a tu pancita? y ¿cómo me sacaste?"

She has been obsessed with her being a baby, remembering about that, asking what she was like, what she liked, etc. By the way, she is planning to keep some items for her baby Taryn; they are going to live with us, and I am going to take care of her babies with her.

"Mom, how did you get me in your tummy? And, how did you get me out?".

Todas estas preguntas, al ser respondidas, generan nuevas preguntas.
¿Cómo se hacen los zapatos?
¿Qué es el metal?
¿Cómo encuentran el metal?
¿Porqué las cortadas son rojas?
¿Porqué la sangre es roja?
¿Cómo hacen los coches?
All of these questions, of course, generate more questions when answered.
How are shoes made?
What is metal?
how is metal found?
Why are cuts (skin) red?
Why is blood red?
how do they make cars?

Hablando de los personajes de Disney.
¿Porqué Maléfica es mala? ?Porqué no la invitaron a la fiesta de Aurora bebé? ?Porqué los papás aceptaron el regalo/maleficio de Maléfica?
¿Qué animal es Daisy? No, no es un pato, es un personaje: habla y hace cosas que los patos no hacen. Es muy chistoso.
¿Porqué los personajes malos son villanos?
¿Son malos los lobos de la Bella y la Bestia? ¿Porqué no son malos? ¿Es mala la madrastra de Cenicienta?
Speaking of Disney stories and characters.
Why is Maleficent evil? Why wasn't she invited to Aurora's baby party? Why did her parents accept her gift/curse?
What animal is Daisy? No, she is not a duck, she is a character: she talks and does things that animals don't do. It is very silly!
Why are the evil characters villains?
ARe the wolves from Beauty and the Beast evil? Why aren't they? Is Cinderella's stepmother evil?

sigue preguntando SIEMPRE, ¿porqué se llama así? Le pido que se conteste y siempre me recita mi respuesta: porque así le pusieron.
¿qué es "el mal"? Después de rezar el Padre Nuestro.
¿qué es dormir? Muchas de sus preguntas son semánticas, y son de las más difíciles de contestar. Se la pasa preguntando el significado de palabras nuevas, pero sobre todo de palabras aparentemente sencillas.
She continues to ask constantly one of her favorites. "Why is she/he named like that?". I now ask her to answer herself and she recites my response, "because that is how they named her/him".
After praying Our Father: "what is Evil?
What is "sleep"? Many of her questions are semantic, and those end up being among the hardest to answer. she constantly asks about new words she hears, but mostly, she asks about words she has used forever, and that are apparently easy.

!nos deja mentalmente agotados al final de cada día! Cuando me canso, le pregunto, "¿por qué me haces tantas preguntas?". y le enseñé a responderme: mamá, porque tengo 3 años y quiero aprender todo.
She leaves us mentally wiped by the end of every day! When I get tired, I ask her, "why are you making so many questions?". I have taught her to respond this way: mom. because I am 3 and I want to learn everything.

The Big Bad Wolf and other funnies

Más de Lorena. Le encanta probar nuevas palabras, y a veces abusa de las nuevas o las que le gustan más. Como se darán cuenta, está obsesionada con el lobo feroz, los 3 cochinitos, Caperucita Roja, etc.

Pasando frente a una peluquería: "Me URGE un corte de pelo".

A few more funnies. Lorena loves to try new words, and many times she overuses one that she really likes. As you'll notice, she is currently obsessed with the big bad wolf, the 3 little pigs, Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH), etc.

We went past a barber shop in Pike Place Market, and she said, "I am in URGENT need of a haircut".

"Todas las cosas carnivoras viven en el bosque, así que todos, Maurice (el papá de Bella), Bella, la Bestia, Caperucita.... no debían de haber ido ahí.... se los pueden comer. Suspiro. Qué bueno que no se los comieron. Todos ellos decidieron volver a ir al bosque, pero no debieron, porque las criaturas carnivoras viven ahí"

"All of the carnivore things live in the forest, so all of them: Maurice (belle's dad), Belle, LRRH, the Beast,... should not have gone there.... they can be eaten. Phew, they were not eaten, good. They all decided to go back through the forest, but they shouldn't have, beause the carnivore creatures live there".

"No me sé el nombre de todos los lobos"
"I don't know the name of al the wolves".

Para mejor entender las siguientes, es necesario que recuerden/sepan que Lorena es súper sensible. Lloraba cuando cantaba Cielito Lindo (canta y no llores.. BUAH!), y muchas otras historias, canciones, etc. la hacen llorar. Hace unas semanas se la pasó llorando la mitad de la película de WALL-E, "dónde está EVA, por qué no están juntos?".

Le estoy leyendo una versión de Caperucita en la que el lobo sí se las come a las dos. El cuento, naturalmente, tiene un final feliz cuando un cazador las saca a las dos de la panza, "todavía vivas". Sin embargo, lo siguiente lo dijo antes de que llegáramos a esa parte. Por cierto, le encanta comparar y contrastar las versiones de los cuentos.

"Espero que el lobo se haya tragado a la abuelita rápido. Si no, le puede pasar lo que me pasó esta mañana cuando se me atoró el cereal en la espalda (eso dijo en la mañana, yo creo que se le fue chueco y así lo describió)".

"Yo creo que le quitó la capa antes de comerse a Capeucita".

To better understand the following, it is important to remember that Lorena has always been hyper-sensitive. Even a few months ago she would cry when hearing "Rock-A-Bye Baby"; even versions that were purely silly. Many songs, stories, music, books make her cry. Just a couple of weeks ago, cried half of Wall-E (movie) because the 2 robots were separated.

She, by the way, loves to compare and contrast stories and books versions of the same or different tales. I was reading to her a version of Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH) in which the wolf actually eats both of them. Naturally, there is a happy ending when a hunter takes them out of the belly "still alive". However, when she made her comments, we had not reached that part.

"I hope the wolf swallowed the grandma quickly, if not, it could happen to him like me, when the cereal got stuck in my back (in the AM she had complained like that, I think she swallowed wrong)".


"I think he removed the cape first, before eating LRRH, it would be much easier that way".

Después de mi shock inicial, me di cuenta que es una buena señal. Hace poco, todavía era incapaz de ver la historia desde otro punto de vista. No entendía "por qué el Rey y la Reina aceptaron el regalo/maleficio de Maléfica".

After my initial shock, I realized that it is a good sign. She is now able to see the story from different perspectives, and a little while ago she couldn't. she'd say things like: why did Aurora receive Maleficent's"gift/curse".

"El lobo debía de haber ido a la tienda a comprar su comida". Creánlo o no, le explicamos con frecuencia que las chuletas son de marrano/puerco, la carne de res es de vacas, etc. y que somos omnívoros. Aparentemente no le importa siempre que llegue a su plato sin forma discernible.

"The wolf should have gone to the store to buy his food instead of trying to eat the pigs". Believe it or not, we make a big point of us being omnivores, that the pork chops come from pigs, beef from cows, etc. Apparently, as long as they come already cut in pieces, she has no problem with it.

En el súper, tratando de convencerme. "Mamá, porfa cómprame ese yogurt, me ayuda a concentrarme mejor". y eso, viniendo de una niña que no ve anuncios....

In the supermarket. trying her best to convince me, "Mom, please buy me that yogurt, it helps me concentrate better". That coming from a girl that doesn't even see TV ads..

Antes de ir a casa de unos amigos a cenar. "Tenemos que investigar que juguetes tiene Galia para saber con qué vamos a jugar en su casa".

En la cena, ve que la mesa está puesta con mantelitos de esos de mezclilla que parecen jeans. "Mira, convirtieron la mesa en pantalones!".

Before going to our friends' house for dinner. "We need to research which toys G has so that we know what we'll play with at her house".

We got their house and the placemats were those denim ones with pockets (look like jeans). "Look, they converted the table into some pants!".

Viendo la inauguración de las Olimpiadas hubo un anuncio con un dragón. Mmh, sí ha visto anuncios de TV.
Lorena: !qué difícil para el dragón escupir fuego!
Arantxa: Son robots, Lorena.

Watching the Olympics opening ceremony there was an ad with a dragon that scared her. Oops! I guess she has seen TV ads!

Lorena: How difficult for the dragon (the one in the new TV ads, GE I think) to spit fire!"
Arantxa: They are robots Lorena.

Arantxa me quería contar un secreto, y le dije que Lorena se iba a sentir. Así que llamó a su hermana y le dijo cualquier cosa como secreto. Un rato después me llamó a su cuarto para decirme el verdadero secreto. "Mamá, !creo que tengo oro de a de veraz en mi cuarto! Lo encontré en mi cofre de tesoro". O sea que debemos ir más seguido a McDonald's... hace meses daban oro en sus cofres de Piratas del Caribe, pero no nos dimos cuenta a tiempo.

Arantxa wanted to tell me a secret and I told her Lorena would feel bad, that she could tell me later. she instead called Lorena and told her something. Later, she called me into her room for the real secret. "Mom, I think I have real gold in my room! I found some in my treasure chest" Too bad we did not realize on time, we would have headed for more Happy Meal toys from McDonald's a few months ago when they had the Pirates of the Caribbean theme.

I hope you got a chuckle out of these!

Espero que algunas de estas los hayan hecho reir....

Some of the funny things Lorena says

THINGS LORENA SAYS. LO QUE LORENA DICE.

Cada disfraz necesita tener un símbolo para que sepan de qué es el disfraz, o de qué princesa es.
Each costume needs to have a symbol so that they know what the costume is, or what princess it is.

Gustavo was tickling her during lunch so she said, "People don't like being tickled while they are eating".
Gustavo le estaba haciendo cosquillas en la comida. "a las personas no les gusta que les hagan cosquillas mientras comen."

Pablo is away for the week. "Dad is a bit angry because he is not with his little ones".
Pablo está fuera esta semana. "Papá está un poco enojado porque no está con sus chiquitas".

The last day Gustavo was here, again while eating, she turned to him frowning, and sad "Hey, the day you got here, I was VERY hungry". How is that for holding a grudge? He arrived at 6, so we ate dinner at the airport. We reminded her of that and let her know that it was really not Gustavo's fault. She replied, like the caterpillar, "but I was still hungry". We did have to eat fast in order to be there when he came.
El último día que Gustavo estvo aquí, otra vez durante la comida, se voltea y le dice frunciendo el ceño: "Hey, el día que llegaste tenía MUCHA hambre". ?Qué tal la guardada del rencor, eh? Leegó a las 6 así que cenamos en el aeropuerto. Le recordamos eso y le aclaramos que no era culp de Gusi. Respondió, como la oruga del libro de Carle, "pero todavía tenía hambre". Claro, tuvimos que carrerearlas para irlo a recibir.

A couple of months ago she had a pee accident, and when I asked her why, she explained "because I am not very fast".
Hace unos meses tuvo un accidente de pipí y cuando le pregunté el porqué, me respondió "es que no soy muy rápida".

"It would seem that my dinosaur had a horse's mane"
"Pareciera que mi dinosaurio tuviera una crin.". Sus construcciones me siguen impresionando.

Lorena painted me a mug and committed the crime of giving Pablo some coffee in it. "Mothers can't give coffee to their fathers (instead of saying husbands) in their special mother's day mugs".
Lorena me había pintado un tarro, y yo osé servirle café a Pablo en él. "Las mamás no pueden darle café sus papás (en lugar de decir esposos) en sus tarros especiales del día de las madres".

Sometimes she gets confused with words...
Ejemplos de cuando se confunde de palabras.

We were out for dinner, and she said in Spanish "?sabes cómo se dice albóndigas en Inglés? (Do you know how meatballas are called in English?). Then she answers herself, full volume, in English of course, NIPPLES!!! NIPPLES!
Fuimos a cenar y dijo en Españo, "?sabes cómo se dice albóndigas en Inglés?". Y se respondió en voz alta, a todo volumen: NIPPLES! NIPPLES! (pezones).

The other one would make sense only in Spanish. She said Mia and she had eaten "Original" tortillas for lunch. I asked her what those were, and she said the ones with little dots on them. Ah, "whole wheat". the words in Spanish are integral and original. Not even that close, but also rhyming. I think she is ready for more rhyming games.
La recogimos de la escuela (summer camp) y nos dijo que ella y Mia habían comido tortillas originales en la comida. Le pregunté que cuáles eran las tortillas originales, y me explicó que las que tenían puntitos . !Eran integrales!

Yesterday it was only the 2 of us in the car and she says angrily "Hey, who did not arrange my shirt? It has lines and I feel my skin!". She hates for her shirt to get wrinkled in her car seat, or that the shirt rides up and leaves some exposed skin. This is another example of how she loves to say things indirectly.
Ayer estábamos en el coche las dos solas y me dice enojada, "Hey, ?quién no me arregló la blusa? !Tiene rayitas y siento mi piel!". LE choca que su blusa se haga "rayitas" (arrugas) en la silla del coche o que la blusa se le suba y le deje piel expuesta.

One from Arantxa . "the cake was not pretty, it was delightful".
Una de Arantxa: "el pastel no está bonito, está encantador".

Mañana voy a escribir de las preguntas que me traen loca....
Tomorrow I'll share some of the questions that are drivng me crazy.

Winter blueberry picking?

Last Sunday evening we got ready to pick the first crop of blueberries from our yard this season. Lorena went to her bedroom to attire herself appropriately. Here she is. She has her snowman PJ's on, then her purple big jacket and she found a hat also. Needless to say, it was a very warm day!
El domingo en la tarde decidimos recoger las primeras moras de la temporada de nuestro jardín. Lorena corrió a su cuarto y regreso toda ajuareada. Aquí está, con su piyama de monos de nieve, su chamarrota morada y hasta se encontró un gorro.

Here you can see part of our yummy crop. Oh, we've also harvested our potatoes which turned out much better than last year. Yesterday I made a nice potato soup with some thyme from our Aerogarden. We had so much garlic, that the girls and dad went around Cherry Lane (our street) delivering some to our neighbors. New figs are coming in, so there is hope we'll get to eat some; the birds ate all the first ones. We also got some strawberries from the front garden; squirrells beat us to the ones in the backyard.
Aquí se alcanza a ver parte de nuestra exquisita cosecha. También acabamos de cosechar papas. El año pasado estuvieron de risa, pero esta vez muy buenas. Ayer comimos una rica sopa de papa con tomillo de nuestro "Aerogarden". Tuvimos tanto ajo, que Pablo y las niñas salieron a repartir entre nuestros vecinos de Cherry Lane. Nuestro pequeña higuera está dando fruta nuevamente; toda la primera ronda fue consumida por pájaros; esperemos lograr comer unos. También ya comimos fresas. Las del jardín de adelante estuvieron bien; las de atrás se las comieron las ardillas.

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