Los Peruanos

Do all Peruanos wear Llamas on their shirts?

Just Like.....

You may all INSIST that Sofía looks just like Papi…..but her personalidad is allllllll MINE!

іFeliz Cumpleaños Nacho y Fulanito!

Nacho is celebrating his first cumpleaños without his twin FuFu.  We remembered FuFu today and tried to put out an honorary pastelito for him, but someone ate it!  іJa ja jee jee! 

And joining the celebration this year are our new gatitos!!  We will be making a formal introduction later when we finalize their names….but for now; they joined Nacho in celebrating his sesto cumpleaños!

іFelicidades Nachito!

Verano Fun Coverage Restaurante Review #1 Sette Osteria

 

Verano Fun Coverage

Restaurante Review #1:  Sette Osteria

Mi esposo and I try to go out to eat as a familia once a week.  Usually it is Saturday and until recently had been a last minute, impromptu thing.  Now we try to plan it so that we can save time, money, and go to an interesting new restaurante instead of scrambling to get to the nearest place to pick up whatever. 

As part of my Verano Fun Coverage, we are going to not only eat out every Sábado, but also post a review about the restaurante. 

Our first review is a restaurante called, Sette Osteria. 

When you first approach this Osteria, you may wonder if it is too fancy to be kid friendly.  Don’t let the stylish décor hinder your decision to dine here with your little ones as not only is the food espectacular, but they are more Kid Friendly than McDonalds!   What we ate isn’t as important as our feelings about the restaurante as a whole.  The food was fresh, tasty and clearly prepared by a seasoned chef and staff who take much pride in their art.  Everything about the restaurante was clean and felt new.  Although Sofía doesn’t use a high chair anymore, I did take a peek at a nearby high chair which appeared to actually have been cleaned before (yes I did say cleaned before) the customer used it (and not by the customer either!)  The wait staff was exceptional!  They were not only extremely friendly and professional, but highly knowledgeable about their menu and its origins.  They were very, very, very attentive to us.  We are not an easy crowd.  We have lots of difficult food allergies to work around and we were never made to feel that we were those annoying customers or not taken seriously.  

We usually dine early, so we were able to easily choose our seats out on the patio.  The entire combination—the authentic and well-made Italian fare, the heat, the patio and friendly atmosphere made us feel like we were vacationing again in Italy and enjoying a simple family meal at a local Osteria. 

If you are ever in DC, and whether you have children or not, you definitely want to make a stop at Sette Osteria for savory dishes and exceptional customer service!

іCien Años!

Have you ever met anyone 100 años? Well we were privileged to meet Anna Paitz at my mamá’s 70^th Cumpleaños.  Really it was a re-encounter because our familia has known her for AÑOS!  Anna was my abuela’s elementary school friend in “the old country” before the war, before any of us were born, and before they immigrated to la USA.  So although Sofía never will meet her maternal bisabuela, also her namesake, it at least pleased me that she was able to meet la bisabuela’s  lifelong amiga. 

A Tiza Game

Check out our post on SpanglishBaby™ about a fun outdoor game to play with your bebés!

іFeliz Cumpleaños Mamá!

іJust look at mi Mamá!   Can you believe that she turned 70 years young today? 

We organized a Surprise fiesta for her!  It was fantástico! 

Sofía greeted her at the door and yelled, “іSorpresa!”

Not only the Cumpleañera was excited about eating torta!

іWow! 70 never looked so espectacular!

Celebrando Bebes is....

evidently Contagioso!
We’ve had a lot of contact lately with pregnant mamás.  Sofía has been checking out many of my amiga’s barriguitas.  One day in the park, she lifted up her shirt to show me HER bebé!

Read our post on SpanglishBaby™ about Celebrating Baby Showers and Traditions!

¡Un Poema para El Día de la Madre!

This past week I’ve been posting about the NECTFL conference I attended at the end of Abril.  Yesterday I introduced you to Dr. Eugenia Muñoz, a poet, author, mamá, and Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. I attended Eugenia’s session titled:  A Method of Teaching Literary Reading, Analysis and Interpretation.  We were treated to Eugenia reading one of her beautiful poemas to us.  For me, there is nothing better than an author reading her own work!  It was espectacular and I am honored that I was part of a privileged audience that she chose to share it with! 

It gave me goose bumps, melted my corazón, and brought tears streaming down my face.  For those of you whom do not understand el Español, I’m afraid I can’t even attempt a translation for fear of not doing the poema justice!  But for those of you who can…..¡Disfrútalo y Feliz Día de la Madre!

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

Dr. Eugenia Muñoz

PARTIDA

Te vas hoy.

Hoy emprendes solo tu vuelo
hijo mío.

Te vas hoy sin mí.

Desde aquí sigo tu jevenil vuelo
vigoroso, con la mirada confiada
hacia el horizonte sin fin.

Hoy aquí me quedo

recordando que un día
Saliste de mí
frágil, tierno capullito…
Aquí me quedo,
recordando todos los días
de la siembra, el riego
y la esperanza.

Hoy me quedo esperando

que nunca olvides

que aquí, en el nido de mi corazón,

siempre encontrarás
agua fresca y pan tibio
para ti hijo mío.

Photo courtesy of VCU School of World Studies

Making a Difference and Cultural Imprint

In my last post, I wrote about attending the NECTFL conference and the great things I took away from it.  Not only did I meet educators who raised bilingual and bicultural children, I also met educators and their students…who also became educators! 

Here is a foto of Dr. Eugenia Muñoz, a poet, author, mamá, and Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.  She is smiling with her former student, Jane Tarwacki, President of the Greater Washington Association of Teachers of Foreign Language.  It’s nice to know we make a difference in people’s lives!

NECTFL Conferencia

At the end of Abril, I was lucky enough to be able to attend NECTFL, The Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. 

It was so nice to attend sessions and learn new ideas or reaffirm old ones.  One of the things that I liked the most was that it gave me a chance to hook up en vivo with other professionals in my field.  I met some amazing people. 

The first person I wanted to share with you isn’t just one person at all…there were many people (women actually) and I unfortunately didn’t get their names or a foto, but I can certainly talk about them.  I was inspired by the many Language Educators who have children who have followed in their footsteps in one way or another.  One woman in particular, who I believe is a high school Spanish teacher, has a son who went to live in España after graduating from la Universidad.  He didn’t major in Education, but he is currently teaching English in a small pueblo in northern España.  He shares all his adventures on Facebook and his mother is able to use the actual fotos in her classes with real, from the heart, anecdotes.  I was so moved to hear these stories of how these women have obviously raised their children to be bicultural because I of course brought Sofía to the conference with me.  Ever since I started training teachers, I have dreamed of one day bringing my children with me to conferences.  It may not make sense to everyone why, but for us mamás who strive to raise our hijos bicultural and bilingual, I’m sure you understand!

іFeliz Día del Maestro!

Read our article, Special and Thrifty Gifts for TeacherAppreciation Day, on SpanglishBaby™!