La Mother Tongue: B is for Bebe, C is for Gato

Musings of a Language Nerdo Mami

2012-02-23T06:46:00.002-05:00

The manzana really doesn’t fall far from the tree. I think my daughter is a Langauge Nerdo too!! Yes, at age 3! I hope I haven’t overdone it….but really, how can I stop being me? Ha ha…whom am I kidding? I LOVE it!

We are fortunate enough to live in a very, very diverse area of the country. So a trip to the supermercado can often replicate the lunch line at The United Nations. Whenever we are in a store and Sofía passes someone else hablando Español, she will tell me. “Esa señora habla Español también, Mami.”

One day we were in Target and there were two women speaking Portugués. Sofía walked up to them, stared, and then looked at me and said, “Las señoras están hablando Portugués, Mami.” (The women are speaking Portuguese, Mami.) The women, were shocked as well as I was! They immediately started to speak to us en Español. I explained that on YouTube, Sofía often watches some of her shows (Mickey Mouse Club House, Pocoyo, Hello Kitty, or Pulgarcita) in Portugués. CONSTANTLY. We make a conscious effort to always point out in which language she is watching. Reoccurring languages are Portugués and Ruso. It is interesting because she watches the same show over again in the same languages. She’s intense and she knows what’s going on. As we were walking away, one of the señoras said, “Oh what a good ear she has!” I beamed! The Academy Awards of a Language Nerdo Mami’s ears!

This post is part of February's Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism hosted by Perogies & Gyoza.

Angelina Ballerina

2012-02-20T01:25:00.008-05:00

Sofía, the performer, has shown a great amor for bailar, cantar, and performing for people. She told me that she wants to take clases de ballet, so I signed her up for the next session of lessons. Meanwhile, we stumbled across the series Angelina Ballerina. We love it! There are so many things about the series that I love….the animation, the morals, the appropriate language and gentleness, the music, and the kind way the characters treat one another. If you aren’t familiar with Angelina Ballerina, she is a gentle little mouse who loves ballet. There are many You-Tube videos out there in English, but almost nada en Español. I started to search for videos but without much luck. After a little research, I ended up calling the company that produces Angelina Ballerina, Hit Entertainment. I spoke to the first person who answered the phone and told her that I was looking for the DVDs of Angelina Ballerina en Español. She was SUPER! To make a long story short, she ended contacting someone and getting a list of all the DVDs that have audio en Español. She then emailed me within the hour with that information! Can you believe that??? I was super amazed at what great customer service I was provided by an employee of Hit Entertainment that could have just shoved me to the side. This wasn’t the customer service number….I just called the company directly! So I placed an order for two DVDs. I think that what happened was that Amazon just didn’t include all the product information and listed English as the only language track. Here is one of the few long video clips I can find of Angelina Ballerina en Español on YouTube. і Disfruten!

Sofía Montando la Bici SOLA

2012-02-16T14:47:00.008-05:00

Sofía loves her triciclo. When we were outside with it, she never seemed to be able to pedal although I thought she had enough strength. So I took off the push bar, cleaned it up and brought it in the house. I suspected that the combination of the asphalt and the weight of the bici might be making it too heavy for her to be successful at it.

I was right (I love to be right!). Sooooo without further ado……..Sofía montando la bici SOLA por primera vez!

іFeliz Día de San Valentín!

2012-02-14T21:58:00.006-05:00

іWow…Papi sent us some flores…..unas rosas preciosas! (From Colombia of course!) Later all three of us went out to dinner at a restaurante called, La Rosa Mexicana. We got home so late that night that we had to give Sofía her regalitos the next day! No one wants a three year old eating chocolates at las Nueve at night! We also gave her this great little tea set made by Green Toys Inc. The tea set is made from 100% recycled materials, can be used to really eat from, and can be put in the dishwasher! This means we can eat REAL food during our tea parties!

іFeliz Día de San Valentín!

A Round-Up….El Show!

2012-02-10T14:24:00.005-05:00

I was thinking of what I could write about that would summarize what Sofía has been doing lately or what her interests have become since I took my little hiatus. I think this video sums it all up! Sofía has been watching Mary Poppins (Or Muffin Poppins as she calls it) lately and she has become enthralled with the music, dancing and singing. She now sings and dances like she is performing on Broadway every night. The best part is that she makes up her own songs (sometimes words) and moves. This video is one of the first that she actually allowed me to record. It is also one of her earliest performances. USUALLY she doesn’t get embarrassed to perform which amazes me, but de vez en cuando….a little stage fright will set in.

The video is a bit long and shaky because I was on the bed moving around as she moved and I only had my celular!

Seriously….I hope you enjoy this as much as we do!

Fulanito RoRo

2012-02-05T23:02:00.013-05:00

This morning I woke up and was so lamenting the fact that I didn’t take fotos at Sofía’s fiesta that I became obsessed with making sure I video-taped her opening presents. Then I planned on going through the house and taking the fotos that I could from what was left. Everyone was still asleep, so I figured I could do it quickly and not be so regretful later.

Sofía and I went downstairs to open presents. I video-taped it, I felt like I was kind of redeeming my motherhood. Then that all got shot to pieces. I walked into the living room and noticed one of our baby gatos, Fulanito, was lying like he was sleeping, but he wasn’t sleeping. He wasn’t moving-he, like me, wasn’t breathing, but he was lifeless. It was a horrible image that seems to be burned in my eyelids and I can’t erase it. What ensued was horrible. I sobbed and sobbed for hours and days. I cried so much that Sofía kept saying to me, “No llores más Mami” Don’t cry any more Mami. Nacho and Fulanito are/were our first babies. They both are/were with us constantly, whatever we are doing. Since I stay home and don’t work outside of the home, that means I am with them almost 24 hours a day, so I feel a huge void that he is gone. After the fiesta, he sat with us and snuggled and played, like usual, so I didn’t understand what happened to him because he wasn’t sick. Our vet told us that he had feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy disease. It shows no symptoms (unless an ultrasound of the heart is done) and is painless, and affects young healthy cats. When a cat passes away, it is usually instantaneous and painless as what it seemed to be with Fulanito who apparently died in his sleep. Our vet did an ultrasound of Nacho (on her personal time with her personal sonogram machine) and it seems that although the disease is hereditary, Nacho does not have it! So we are all mourning the loss of our baby Gato. Sofía didn’t seem to understand at first that FuFu wasn’t coming back EVER. We told her that he is now the Ángel Fulanito and that he is always watching over us. Nacho looks for his twin brother and it is very, very sad, but he seems to be doing better now. (Maybe better than I am!) I feel like I’ve lost a child! And I suppose for those of you who had Baby Animals before you ever had kids, then you know what I’m talking about. The vet gave us paw prints of FuFu and that was very calming for me. My husband walks around with Fulanito fotos on his celu. FuFu was suuuch a good gato. Sooo the after-the-fiesta-fotos that I thought I was going to be able to take…never happened. I also cancelled a neighborhood fiesta that we were going to have for Sofía because we just plain weren’t in the fiesta mood. FuFu was so young and we just weren’t expecting something like this.

Besos para mi Baby Fufu……

La Fiesta de Hello Kitty

2012-02-04T21:15:00.005-05:00

Lately I seem to be slipping with my daughter’s cumpleaños and fiesta fotos. I forgot to take fotos of her party! Last year, I was so meticulous about it and this year…..it completely slipped my mind! So I was able to salvage a few shots of a few things. This year, our theme was Hello Kitty! We repeated some of the same things as last year such as the Ground Hog Cupcakes and adult goodie bag with Sofia Godiva Chocolate bars. Our party favors this year were awesome Hello Kitty lunchboxes. One Abuela made apple and cheese strudel and the other made Alfajores. Of course there are no pics of that! We don’t even have a video this year! I don’t know where I left my cabeza! In terms of entertainment, the one thing that we did diferente was to have a water table set up….it was a “splash” with the little tots! Ha ha! There was LOTS of food! Yummy, yummy food! (no fotos of that either!). Luckily I had asked Sofía’s godfather to take fotos of her blowing out her cake. We wouldn’t even have a foto of the cake had he not STOPPED me from cutting it first! So here are our memorias from La Fiesta de Cumpleaños de Sofía!

іFeliz Cumpleaños Sofía!

2012-02-02T22:03:00.002-05:00

Sofía turned tres años today! We still can’t get over it! She used to be this little tiny cosita that my esposo held in one arm from his hand to his elbow and now she is soooo tall that she is off the charts! (Literally she is off the charts!)

We went to a restaurante a few days before her birthday and celebrated there. The waiters all came out and sang to her with a HUGE piece of torta. Sofía isn’t sure how to handle certain types of attention and when the singing came as a surprise….this is what her reaction was!

We actually had a small gathering today at our house with the dos abuelas and cake and helado. I accidently erased those precious fotos. I’m soo bummed but I suppose I can reenact it with our little famila next week…so maybe not so big of a deal! Our big Hello Kitty Fiesta is this weekend!

іFeliz Cumpleaños Gatita!

Dos Manos Fun and the Huffington Post

2012-01-30T15:24:00.004-05:00

On December 9, 2011, my brand new tienda, Dos Manos Fun, was featured in The Huffington Post! One of my products, a Rice Sensory Tub, was chosen by Etsy as a top toddler toy of the season!

I Opened an Etsy Store! Dos Manos Fun!

2012-01-28T15:10:00.002-05:00

One reason I’ve been soo neglectful of my precious BLOG is because I opened an Etsy Store! (Bueno, it opened in November 1!) I was coersed and I LOVE it! :) But I was working like a crazy person to get it up and running and do a little publicity for the Holiday Season. (The store was also ignored for a while during our busy family Holiday Fest, but now that my BLOG is actualizada….it is time to do the same for DosManos Fun!)

The store is called Dos Manos Fun and we sell fun, creative, and simple hands-on activities for Toddlers and their Parents. All of course are spiced with a little Español. ;)

Have a look around and tell me what you think!

www.DosManosFun.etsy.com

Almost Caught Up!

2012-01-24T14:52:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have been reading….I went on a little hiatus from August until January. Sooo much going on and just plain ole behind on everything! I have FINALLY and feverishly written posts from August 2011 to January 2012. They are not as detailed or as language and culture oriented as I would have liked, but I tried to at least leave some kind of documentation of Sofía’s development. It isn’t the best, but it is the best that I can do right now! HA HA. Soooo….I will promise to get back on track from here on out! Sofía’s cumpleaños is around the corner, so I may not be able to jump in head first…I will at least be wading along!

Thanks for sticking with me!

Elizabeth

Lombrices

2012-01-12T14:30:00.005-05:00

Our newest favorite thing to do is dig up and observe the lombrices from under a stump. We watch them, touch them, and then put them back so that we can check them out another day.

Nieve

2012-01-10T14:19:00.001-05:00

ііPor fin....nieve!!!!

Los Reyes Magos

2012-01-06T21:36:00.002-05:00

Enero 6 is the Fiesta de los Reyes Magos or when the Three Wise Men came and visited Baby Jesus. Many countries have very different and very chévere celebaciones. I wish I had the time to expand on the, but that will have to be for a future post. Bueno….our familia tries to give a little gift on that day too. This year, we kind of did our own thing and celebrated the night of Enero 6 instead of the night of Enero 5…but whatever, it was a Friday and it worked for us. So we did a simple little dinner (yes AGAIN!) of baked rigatoni and meatballs and Sopa de Espárragos. (red and green!). Sofía’s favorite cousin, Juan Diego and his mother were still in town visiting, so los abuelos and la Tía Greta and JD of course came over. Juan Diego and Sofía decorated cupcakes that Sofía and I baked. We all put our shoes by the door and like magia, while we were eating, the Reys Magos came and left us regalitos in our zapatos! It was a nice simple way for us to end the Holiday Season (now we can officially take down the Árbol de Navidad) and take a short breather before we prepare for Sofía’s cumpleaños!

Feliz Cumpleaños Doménico!

2012-01-03T14:04:00.001-05:00

Sofía made her amigo D come cupcakes for his third cumpleaños. They were cyber-shared!

Navidad

2011-12-25T14:44:00.002-05:00

іFeliz Navidad!

Los Preparativos

2011-12-24T13:49:00.001-05:00

Here are part of our Holiday decorations (yes in a nutshell!) Every year we host a Santa Fiesta where Santa makes a visit and gives all the niños regalos. We also always host Noche Buena(Christmas Eve)and this year due to kitchen malfunctions at Abuela’s house, we hosted Christmas Día also! Wow!

Repetition

2011-12-18T14:41:00.001-05:00

At two years and 10 months, Sofía still isn’t that into opening gifts. So when people give us presents early, we try to open one a day so that she won’t be all that overwhelmed or STOP opening presents all together. This year’s favorite present……an easel with a dry erase board!! So much entertainment writing with marcadores and erasing it!

¡Feliz Cumpleanños a Mí!

2011-12-14T13:41:00.002-05:00

¡Feliz Cumpleanños 42 a Mí! We always forget to take birthday pictures. Here Is what is left of my yummy torta! Yes, it had my nombre on it! My husband is the best!

Pesebre 2011

2011-12-09T14:37:00.000-05:00

Every year, we put up both an Árbol de Navidad as well as a Pesebre. Although our Pesebre is not nearly as elaborate as many European households, we still like to make a big production out of putting it together. Sofía decided to add her own animales this year!

Odontólogo

2011-12-08T14:15:00.001-05:00

We finally went for our first visita with a pediatric odontólogo or dentista as my husband says. (I think that Colombia is probably one of the few places that uses odontólogo for dentist and I think it may drive him a bit loco that I can’t erase my Colombian ways for his Peruvian! Sofía uses both terms depending with whom she is speaking.) It went as well as expected (I set the expectatives pretty looooowww!) Sofía received a, ball, balloon, and a rinoceronte among some other really cool dental gifts like toothpaste and a toothbrush!

Árbol de Navidad

2011-12-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

And here is the producto final....

Buscando

2011-11-27T14:24:00.001-05:00

El mejor árbol de Navidad! We always go to a Tree Farm to cut our own árbol de Navidad. It is a suuuper fun tradition. My pobre esposo has to cut and haul the tree and at about 14 feet…well, it isn’t an easy task. Makes for great memories though!!

A Rare Event

2011-11-24T14:02:00.001-05:00

Sofía sleeping in the car. Happy Thanksgiving!

Hojas

2011-11-02T19:14:00.000-04:00

This is what Otoño SHOULD look like!

Colombino o Chupeta--It's all Azul to Me!

2011-11-01T07:06:00.000-04:00

And here is what my tongue looks like after eating my first Día de las Bruja’s colombino or chupeta as Papi says. Lengua Azul!

El Día de las Brujas

2011-10-31T18:42:00.001-04:00

El Día de las Brujas, Halloween, was strange this year in all aspects.

Sofía dressed up as Campanita. Here she is visiting Papi’s office.

Our other fotos of Campanita got erased and since Papi went out of town, we didn’t get many other good fotos before we went pidiendo dulces (by ourselves—still a little bitter!). It snowed, yes, SNOWED, the day before Halloween in Northern Virginia.

We had to make adjustments to the Campanita costume.

Next year, I’m making a costume to go over the Winter coat.

Se Parecen

2011-09-28T06:55:00.002-04:00

Really?? Can’t anyone see that we look alike? After 9 months of hard work, can’t you give Mami something??? іSe parecen!

Ooblek

2011-09-19T07:01:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, you HAVE to let los niños just get messy. We made some ooblek and mixed it with some granos de café, put it in a big container, a few large spoons and went outside. Hours of fun entertainment and lots of scientific observation!

Story Time Sapa

2011-09-11T15:17:00.000-04:00

I swear I posted this already, but it must have only been in my mind! I took Sofía to storytime at Barnes and Nobles. It had been a VERY long time since we had gone there. I wasn’t sure what to expect from her since the last time, over a year ago, she really didn’ t want to have anything to do with the lector (unanimated, boring, monotone and clueless about tots). Well…this time, Sofía marched right up and sat next to the reader. I didn’t video tape it, so you will have to just believe me when I say that she is definitely a Sapita (brown-noser)!

Los Números en Tiza

2011-09-09T23:52:00.013-04:00

While we were outside playing, Sofía spontaneously grabbed the chalk and drew a número and then said, “іMira, el número dos!”.

She did the same thing again, but this time said, “іMira, el número tres!”.

Going Up!!!

2011-08-30T14:52:00.000-04:00

Sofía and I were riding in the asensor to go swimming at our Health Club. I told her to press the buton B1 and do you know what she did? She pressed B1!!!

Cosechando Tomates

2011-08-28T14:59:00.001-04:00

Earlier en la temporada, Sofía and I cultivamos some tomate plantas. FINALLY we got some results with a few pleasant sorpresas!

We only cultivamos a pot to see if our netting would keep the animales from eating our fruits!

Mi ayudante colecto los tomates en su balde.

Quality control is always importante. (She ate them ALL before we got into the kitchen!)

We made a new amigo! I thinking he was guarding them for us! Sofia liked checking out the Grillo!

Montando Potrillo

2011-08-26T15:09:00.001-04:00

What is the Summer without a Feria? We got back from our trip just in time to catch the end of a nearby Feria. We will definitely be going back next verano! Sofía rode a potrillo for the first time! She LOVED it!

Bembos Park

2011-08-20T15:19:00.001-04:00

Bembos is a fast food resaurante chain in Perú. It serves a variety of hamburguesas y papas fritas. I took Sofía there one morning, not for the food, but for the children’s play area. I’ve always been impressed with how Latin America has great play areas for children in their fast food places. Nothing like I’ve ever seen here. Take a look!

This is a foto of the restaurante from the outside. If you see where it says, Bembos Park, that entire section is the play area. It has lots of natural light and a high ceiling for climbing and going down cool slides.

I was also really impressed with how well things were labeled and the rules set out.

This is the giant ball pit. There is a tunnel slide that opens into it also. Sofia played in it (since we were the only ones eating at 11:30 AM) and liked it!

¡Salud!

2011-08-18T15:12:00.001-04:00

As one can imagine, while we were in Perú, there were lots of familia get-togethers with buena comida and lots of brindises. One morning, while we were eating our breakfast, Sofía grabs her cup of leche and taps it against my coffee cup and says, “¡Salud Mami!” I was shocked and she was proud of herself. Now she does a brindis with many other things too; pencils, magic wand, and paint brushes….always saying, “¡Salud Mami!”

Anticuchos de Corazón

2011-08-16T15:34:00.000-04:00

One thing that we wanted to do with Sofía during our brief viaje a Perú was expose her to all the delisioso cuisine that we could. One night we took her to Pardo’s Restaurante (what I like to refer to as a Chicken Shack). My hands were too greasy from the roasted chicken and fried yuca to take a foto when the food actually arrived. But what I was able to snap was a foto of Sofía and the Anticucho menu. Mi esposo LOVES anticuchos. He has tried to make them here, but really nothing compares to the Mother-Land. The word anticucho is quechuan for “cut stew meat”. Basically anticuchos are any shish-kebab marinated vinagre and grilled in specific Peruvian spices. Although anticuchos can be of any kind of meat, generally it is made from Beef heart. (It tastes like liver to me; I eat it, but it isn’t anything I crave.) Long story short…..Sofia ate anticuchos de corazón-and liked it!

Primos

2011-08-14T15:16:00.001-04:00

Sofía was able to see her second primos again while we were in Perú. My husband has tías who are our age so, his primos are only a few years older than Sofía. It all works. Now that Sofía is a bit older than the last time she saw them, she fell in love with her primos, Juan Diego and Salvatore. Especially Juan Diego.

She “talks” to him ALL THE TIME on her Mickey Mouse cell phone. She tells him what she is doing and what she is going to do and if I interrupt her, she puts up one finger to tell me to wait un minuto!

¡A Perú!

2011-08-10T07:47:00.001-04:00

We are very afortunados that my husband gets to travel (for work) a few times a year and that Sofía and I usually get to tag along. So when mi esposo told me that he needed to go to Perú the following week, I got busy! It was hot Agosto in D.C., but mid Winter en Lima. I had to run and purchase tickets and make hotel and transport accommodations, as well as buy Sofía warm clothes! She obviously outgrew all her long pants and long-sleeve shirts from last season. (As I write this blog, she has since outgrown those clothes we purchased for the trip!! Yes, my daughter is near the 100 percentile in height!) This trip really had only one purpose. It was not the big event of our matrimonio, nor the culinary weekend celebration, or the cultural escapades of the Hacienda and the Pachamanca. Mi esposo is from Perú and he still has close familia that live in Lima; aunts, uncles, cousins and most importantly, his abuela. So Sofía learned to tell people that she was going on an avión to Perú to visit her bisabuela. La bisabuela is about 84 years old and as feisty as ever, and Sofía is the first bisnieta that she has ever met!

A Mini Mi

2011-07-28T15:18:00.000-04:00

For those of you who know me, you will appreciate this Mini Mi foto. We even bought Sofía an absorbent towel like mine too (which actually got left behind on a trip L - maybe Santa?) Sofía really loved this foto shoot! She may really, really look like Papi, but she is totally a Mini Mi!!

Crema de Afeitar

2011-07-26T15:20:00.000-04:00

Another sensory experience I like to give Sofía is playing with creama de afeitar (shaving cream). Right now, she just plays and isn’t interested in drawing shapes or anything yet, but when she is ready, it will be a great way to practice shapes, letters and numbers.

¡A Pintar!

2011-07-24T15:21:00.000-04:00

Sofía LOVES to pintar. She got a little emocionada with the pintura….luckily, it is very, very washable!

S es para Sofía

2011-07-21T15:21:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine gave this book to Sofía when she was born. It is a really nice personalized book. There is a fairy for every letter of the alphabet and the book spells out the child’s name with a different fairy. The fairy’s represent a flower and talks about an attribute of the child. The book is written en Inglés, but we “read” to her en Español. It is a super way to expand her vocabulario with words that aren’t really used every day. The other day, Sofía pointed to the letra S of the S Fairy (The S Fairy talks about how Sofía is sensata and superespecial.) and said, “La letra S de Sofía”.

There is a New Jefe in Town!

2011-07-19T15:23:00.000-04:00

Sofía and I went to see Papi at work….kind of a sorpresa. He wasn’t in his oficina, but after he got this foto, he appeared soon!

1, 2, 3, Just for Prosperity Sake!

2011-07-17T07:40:00.000-04:00

I have forgotten to post about this, so just for prosperity, I need to mention this. Since Abril, Sofía has been able to count both en Español and en inglés. Well, at first, she would just say a few numbers, then she learned to say them correctly in order, gradually increasing to 10. Lastly, she can actually count objects, which is a much slower process as we know. But she learned them almost in tandem-almost…Español really was first, but Inglés followed almost simultaneously. I can’t take any credit her for the Inglés because she really learned them from this Baby Signing Time YouTube video clip.

A Bedtime Story Revelation

2011-07-14T07:28:00.000-04:00

One night, while I was rocking Sofía before bed, she started asking me her usual“¿Cómo se llama…um…” en inglés. We had just given her a bath and combed out her hair, so it seemed pretty normal for her to ask how to say, “peine” en inglés. I answered her, “comb”. Her response: ¿Hmmm…..es “come” o “comb”? Of course, I answered her; she soaked it up, repeated it, contemplated it, and then went on to ask me another question. I was jumping out of my SKIN!!! I knew she could differentiate between sounds, what I wasn’t quite aware of is that she could verbalize the process! For those of you who do not know, these are two sounds that are very hard for foreigners to differentiate between. Ah….proud moments of a Language Nerdo Mamá!

Campanita

2011-07-10T15:18:00.002-04:00

Sofía’s latest movie obsession is Campanita. We discovered the movie on Youtube, probably by accident and she became so hooked that we actually made the purchase of the DVD. I never knew who Campanita was before, but now I feel like una experta! What we learned linguistically about Campanita is fascinating to me, the Language Nerdo. We use the word, Campanita, but on Youtube, Sofía found a version of the película from España. They don’t call her Campanita, but Campanilla. What is even more interesting is the addition of the DVD. The DVD uses Español from México. They call her Tinkerbel! (Say it like Antonio Banderas!) Sofía noticed the diferencias of course and asked about them. I explained them to her and she decided that she liked to listen to the versión Española the best. She uses the word Campanita and will watch the versión Méxicana, but sometimes she won’t! ¡Increíble!

My Mami AND HER FRIENDS are Language Nerdos!

2011-07-07T15:04:00.002-04:00

If Sofía could write and verbalize everything she was thinking, I would have my hands full. This is one example of what she would write:

I thought it was just my Mami who was a Language Nerdo. As it turns out…so are her amigas. The other day I was talking about something important like going to the park and I could tell that she wasn’t listening to me because her eyes glazed over. Then later, she called her friend who I thought was normal, but turns out to be another Language Nerdo. I don’t really know what in the world Mami was talking about but I did hear her tell her amiga how thrilled she was because I used the SUBJUNCTIVE properly. And the crazy thing is that her amiga understood and thought it was awesome too. I heard Mami say something about how other people get excited when their kids take their first steps and that she gets excited about the SUBJUNCTIVE. Then she told her amiga that I used the word, “Escarapela” and that she was really amazed at how my vocabulary flourishes. I mean, really, how does she expect me to identify the escarapela if I don’t say it! I don’t know what it all means….but it must be good to those crazy Language Nerdos!

El 4 de Julio, 2011

2011-07-04T22:49:00.001-04:00

El Día de Independencia! Papi *estrenó a new parrilla for El 4 de Julio. He got fancy with the hamburguesas too. He made varios kinds (note the cutsie signs I made for the hamburguesas below) and everyone brought a plato to share. It was hot, we were outside and I forgot to take fotos. Sorry Sofía….maybe I’ll remember next year!

*Estreno- this is a cool verb en Español. You use extreno o estrenar (technically) when you are using something new-shoes, an outfit, a chair, a new recipe, a new hairdo, anything new- for the first time.

Bedtime Stories of a Language Nerdo’s Child

2011-06-30T14:50:00.003-04:00

After Tío and Tía Cathy left to return to their own casa, Sofía started to insist that I put her to bed instead of Papi. We sat in the rocker and she snuggled back in my brazos, kicked up her little patitas and instead of calming down and beginning a rich drifting into sleep, she put herself into fifth gear. It started with, “Mami, ¿Cómo se llama…..” (Mami, what is the name of…). I would respond to her, “¿Quieres decir, ‘¿Cómo se dice …. en inglés?” And that started her quest to find out how to say anything and everything en inglés. After I would tell her how to say a certain word en inglés, she would repeat it, nod her head and say, “Okay” and then move on to the next word. There are three favorite stories about her questioning that stick out in my head.

“Mami, ¿Cómo se llama…um, um…árbol?”
“¿Cómo se dice ‘árbol’ en inglés? En inglés se dice, ‘tree’.
“¡Oh, Mami, dos palabras, árbol o tree! (Oh Mami, two words, árbol or tree!)

My other favorite is soup.
“Mami, ¿Cómo se llama…um, um…sopa?”
“¿Cómo se dice ‘sopa en inglés? En inglés se dice, ‘soup’.

“Soupppppppppp” (She drags out the p and sprays us laughing.)

When I corrected her, she laughed. Now whenever she hears the word “sopa” she likes to say it her special way en “inglés”.

The last anécdota is about Papi.

We were trying to get back into the routine of Papi putting Sofía to sleep at night. I told her that she could still ask how to say things en inglés and that Papi could answer her. Her response, “No. ¡ Papi no sabe inglés!” (No. Papi doesn’t know English!)

Sofia Lee Libros a Mami

2011-06-28T14:45:00.000-04:00

Sofía began to read out loud to us! She imitates us well….the sounds of the words, the cadence, the tone….we love it! Here is a short, simple ejemplo. Her favorite tono to imitate is none other than Dr. Seuss. What is sooo funny about it is that she is imitating Fox in Sox en inglés! My husband hasn’t read that to her for over a year!

Brócoli

2011-06-27T14:43:00.000-04:00

Not sure if I ever mentioned how much Sofía looooovvvvveeeesss brócoli. She also loves remembering how Tío makes a fool out of himself grandiosing the word and sign for brócoli. Every time she thinks about it, she rolls in carcajadas. When Tío came to visit, he brought her a planta de brócoli!

Un Verano de Columpios

2011-06-26T08:29:00.003-04:00

This year, Sofía’s love for columpios has really taken off, as you can see in her face in this foto. My brother came to visit and while I took Sofía to the park, he took his superduper zoom lens. Ah, it is so nice to have a professional fotógrafo in the familia because, really, where else are you going to get fotos like this? I think her cara tells it all!

Una Fiesta de Perros

2011-06-22T20:14:00.000-04:00

Sofía celebrated her friend Victoria’s cumpleaños. The tema of the fiesta was Perros. Victoria’s mami did a really great job of intertwining the tema everywhere. First of all, the main dish was….hot dogs! So they served all different flavors of hot dogs. The decorations also had perros everywhere, but the best were the party favors where I think that Victoria’s mami went all out! She pays a lot attention to details. The cupcakes had little perro finger puppets on the top, a book about perros (ours was in Español – how sweet!), a Clifford the Big Red Dog CD with songs and coloring pages, varios perro candy, a perro hat, and a bookmark about perros. What we really like about our friends is that although they don’t really speak Español, they are so into helping us keep up our tradition with Sofía. They always make the effort to give her things in Español instead of Inglés and they try here and there to incorporate what Español they do know. So while man’s best friend is a perro, friends like Victoria’s familia are priceless!

Señor Papa

2011-06-21T08:31:00.001-04:00

¡Mira! Look what Sofía did! Her very first Señor Papa!

El Día del Padre

2011-06-19T08:27:00.000-04:00

Just like El Día de la Madre, El Día del Padre isn’t celebrated on the same day all over the world. In Spanish-speaking countries, it is even celebrated on diferente días. Some celebrate el 19 de marzo which is actually the día to honor José or the earthly padre of Jesús. Others celebrate the third domingo en junio like in la USA.

In honor of el padre de Sofía, we gave him cards, had an asado (cookout) and ate icecream cake. Sofía loved showing her lengua azul to people more than actually eating the cake!

This was the first time that she was actually able to say, “¡Feliz Día Papi!”

Disney World: Un Parque Chévere-Epcot Día II

2011-06-18T08:14:00.000-04:00

Epcot has an atracción where you can go and meet all the personajes at once and take pictures of with each of them separately. It is kind of nice. You wait in line and pass from one to the other and you can take fotos and they also have one of their fotógrafos taking fotos also. I was really impressed with how much time each personaje spent with Sofía and really made her feel like she was the only child they had seen in years! I was also impressed with how they all (at every park) seemed to understand some Español. This experience was BY FAR the most enjoyable for Sofía as you can see from her cara. As we waited in line at 8:30 PM, she was tired and really didn’t grasp the concept of what we were going to do. We told her that she was going to get to meet Mickey and Pato Donald, etc…but it just really didn’t click….unitl….she rounded the corner. When she saw Mickey Mouse, she squeeled and RAN to him. She sat in his lap, she hugged him and couldn’t stop smiling. This definitely was what Disney World meant for Sofía and by far her favorite, “Parque Chévere!”

Pluto is a big fluffy fur ball!

Minnie gave Sofia lots of hugs and love!

Tribilin is really, really, tall!

Sofia gives Pato Donald un beso!

Disney World: Un Parque Chévere-Epcot Día I

2011-06-17T14:13:00.001-04:00

In Marzo, I commented about Sofía’s obsession with Ratatouille and wanting to go to París for dinner. Well at Epcot we were able to do both those things! We ate dinner at a French Restaurante in “Francia”. This particular restaurant was home to ……. (hear the drum roll?) ¡Ratatouille, El Chefcito! Needless to say, Sofía was ¡dichosa!.....¡estática!

Siguente Post:
Disney World: Un Parque Chévere-Epcot Día II

Disney World: Un Parque Chévere-Magic Kingdom

2011-06-15T13:50:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have just tuned in, I’d like to reiterate that Disney World is the most efficient, organized, and clean place I have ever been to! You can even go online and map out what atracción you would like to experience. Best of all, you can indicate that you would like to see what is available for certain age groups. ¡This was fantástico! So we knew ahead of time what atracción we could take Sofía on and were able to eliminate things that we didn’t think she would like. ¡Claro que her atracción favorita was el carrusel!

The other cool thing we/Sofía enjoyed were the short “sporadic” parades and dance shows. I call them “sporadic” because you don’t need a ticket and you don’t need to stand around for hours in a line and actually enter any building. You can be walking along somewhere and a show or parade will pop up. If you are skilled like my esposo, you know WHERE these “sporadics” are going to happen (and what times) and can at least plan to be in the general area.

Sofia has a great view of the Dance Party at the Castillo.

Next Post: Disney World: Un Parque Chévere-Epcot

Disney World: Desayuno con los Personajes

2011-06-13T15:01:00.002-04:00

Another thing about Disney World that really amazed me was how much attention to detail they took in creating EVERYTHING about the environment.

On our first day we went to Animal Kingdom and thought we would TRY to get in to have desayuno with los Personajes. Another perk about staying at a Disney resort? You get to enter earlier and stay later at the parks than other people. Pretty slick deal when you are trying to get in to the more popular atracciones.

I took these fotos of the restaurante where we had desayuno. They incorporated cracks in the building, exposed wires, and random clothing hanging from makeshift clotheslines. I have been to Maruecos, only one country in Africa, and I felt like I had returned. (Of course it could have also been a plethora of places in Latinoámerica also!) There is more below the fotos.

Since this was Sofía’s first experience with the personajes, she took a while to warm up to them. You will see in a later post how she loses her shyness. The desayuno was a gigante buffet loaded with anything you can imagine including the most popular dish, Mickey Mouse shaped wafles! During desayuno, each personaje (Mickey Mouse, Tribilín, Daisy, and Pato Donald) will come to greet you at your table. You will also get to participate in a jamming parade lead by one of the personajes. We actually got to participate in two dancing ditties – we truly are Latino eaters taking our good ole time!

As you can see by the look on Sofía’s cara…..she thought the desayuno was ¡¡CHEVERE!!

Next Post: Un Parque Chévere-Magic Kingdom.

Disney World: Awesome Safari Hotel Kidani

2011-06-09T14:41:00.003-04:00

Disneyworld has resort hotels. There are many perks of staying in these hotels. They are closer to the parks. The shuttle buses take you directly to the front door of the parks and they offer a meal plan that saves you big bucks if you are planning to stay a while at the parks and eat there or in the hotels for that matter.
We stayed at a resort in Animal Kingdom. The theme was Africa. This means that all the decorations and food themes are African. The food themes do not change from night to night. That is the only bummer. I guess they think people will eat at different places during their stay. The thing we loved about the hotel? The view from our rooms. Whenever we looked over the balcony we could see jirafas, cebras, and much more. Sofía LOVED it. I really liked this resort for Sofía’s age because it was quiet and calm. Sofía could take her nap during the day without obnoxious music or party-goers and easily sleep early at night also. In fact, nowhere in any of our experience did we find obnoxious, boisterous people out of control. We really liked that!

We think that during out next trip we will stay somewhere along the boardwalk just to have a different kind of experience. The other thing I really liked about Disneyworld? Everyone knew just a little bit of Español and that really added to the language rich environment in which we try to engulf her.

Below are fotos I took with my iphone. They are not the best quality...but you get the idea. How maravillosa is it to wake up and see THIS in the morning?

¡Stay tuned for our Desayuno con los Personajes!

Disney World: En General

2011-06-06T08:59:00.000-04:00

My husband presented at a conference in Orlando, so Sofía and I tagged along to for a little vacación de familia. I had never been to Disney World, or La Casa de Mickey as Sofía calls it. (Last year we went to Disneylandia but really there was no comparison.) I’m a convert now. I LOVE Disney. I could spend hours of time explaining how amazingly organized, efficient, clean and family-friendly the joint is, but I won’t unless you ask me to. We will definitely be returning many times in the future. I always thought it was just an amusement park and IT IS NOT. Sofía really learned who Mickey Mouse was last year at Disneylandia and has been in love with him since. But it really didn’t all come together for her until this trip. So the next couple of posts, I will share some of our vacaciones.

The first and most important point of our viaje was that we didn’t need to bring a carseat. We stayed at a resort hotel that offered incredibly efficient bus transportation to anywhere we needed to go. So we took a much happier Sofía on the avión with a harness instead of a car seat. She may not look very happy in the foto, but don’t confuse tiredness with the placer of being able to stretch one’s legs and have moving room.

Up next….our AWESOME Safari Hotel!

Un Pez Hecho en Tiza

2011-06-03T14:40:00.000-04:00

Sofía and I were playing with chalk on the back patio. She pulled on my arm and told me that she drew a pez (fish). I went to look and sure enough…she drew a pez!

Fotos de 2 Años

2011-06-02T14:33:00.000-04:00

Por fin we went to take our fotos de 2 años. We actually went in Marzo, so we were still in the acceptable time frame to call it a 2 Años foto. This time we went to Sears Portrait Studio and I am much happier with them than the Picture People. There was no wait, no line, a big spacious area to hang out for the proofs and most importantly, a fotógrafo that knew how to deal with toddlers! Sears always has good bargains on their website for free fotos and the overall cost isn’t outrageous either. They continue to send me additional coupons so I feel confident that we will be visiting them again for Navidad!

Abril

2011-06-02T14:23:00.000-04:00

Much of Abril was spent doing the same things over and over again. Sofía is a two-year-old after all. She discovered that she now DOES like the swings, los columpios, and so wants to go and play on them EVERY DAY, ALL DAY LONG. She is also very, very, very into the movie, Ratatouille, and it’s DVD case which she carries with her everywhere. We put the case in the stroller for a spin, in the cuna to sleep, and below you can see that Ratatouille also has a love for the columpios.

Where has the time gone?

2011-06-02T14:09:00.002-04:00

Wow! Have I ever been MIA! I feel like I have been busier than ever…which is no excuse to rob my Gatita of her hopefully-to-be-cherished memories. Slowly, I will catch up and get up to date!

Libro de Gatitos

2011-03-28T14:37:00.001-04:00

Sofía’s Tío and Tía Kathy gave her a Little Gato book for her cumpleaños. She read it to me the other day while I changed her. It went like this: “Algunos gatitos dis. Amén.”

Vueltas

2011-03-25T14:32:00.000-04:00

Before I left Sofía with her abuela this morning, I told her that I had to go and “hacer vueltas” which means to run some errands. Litteraly, a vuelta is a circle as in to move oneself in a circle, like if I wanted you to turn all the way around so that I could see your outfit, I would use the word vuelta. When I returned and we were eating our almuerzo, Sofía was telling me what she and her Abuela did while I was gone. She told me and then said, “Mami vueltas.” and made circles with her pointer finger. I laughed…. “si, Mami hizo vueltas”.

Dos Manos

2011-03-24T14:22:00.000-04:00

“Dos manos Mami” Sofía tells me as we are driving down the road. I kind of shake my head in bewilderment and think I didn’t hear what I thought I heard. But again, Sofía tells me, “Dos manos Mami.” I was indeed only driving with one hand at the time. I put both hands on the wheel and asked her if she wanted me drive with two hands on the wheel. “Si, dos manos Mami.” I of course tested it out and each time my second hand came off the wheel, I heard the same cantaleta, “Dos manos Mami.”

Los Elefantes

2011-03-22T14:13:00.000-04:00

Every year Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to the metropolitan DC area. When they arrive to the city, they parade the elefantes from the train station to center of town where the circus is held. Sofía and I skipped nap time and went downtown to see the spectacle. I thought that there would be a LOT of people, but there weren’t. We waited for those elefantes right on the sidewalk next to the closed off street. I was probably more into the entire fuss than Sofía. There was a small parade of clowns and acrobats and various animales. It was really quite cool to see elefantes walk down the middle of a street.

The entire parade lasted no more than four minutes. We had waited over an hour and half because we arrived early in case there was traffic or road closures etc…(None of that happens by the way. When the police hear the elfantes coming, they close the road and the cars must wait for the parade to go by.) While we waited, we hung out in the outdoor park at the United States Botanical Gardens. It was a beautiful day and Sofía really enjoyed it. In fact, she tired herself out so much that by the time the parade came around, she was almost comatose! Sofía’s favorite part of the parade was not the elfantes, but the payasos (clowns) which I didn’t get a foto of!

París

2011-03-21T15:30:00.000-04:00

In an earler post, I mentioned that Sofía is obsessed with the movie Ratatouille. She continues to be obsessed with it. In the beginning of the movie, el Chefcito climbs out on a ledge and has an espectacular view of París and the Torre de Eiffel. She now recognizes the Torre. Yesterday, we were running errands and I told her that we would stop to eat somewhere. This is how the conversation transpired, en Español of course.

Mami: We are going to stop at a restuarante to eat.

Sofía: ¿París?

Mami: París like where Ratatouille Ratatouille eats?

Sofía; Si, París like Ratatouille.

Mami: Well, I’m not sure if we can find París around here or not, but we can look.

Sofía: Eat in París.

Our París turned out to be Burger King. (I’m embarrassed but, we needed food REALLy fast!) We are at the counter waiting for our food.

Sofía: Is this París?

Mami: No, this is not París. I’m sorry Bebé, but we are going to have to wait for Papi before we go and eat in París. Don’t you think that Papi would want to eat in París with us?

Sofía: Papi, Mami, Sofía eat París.

Las Flores

2011-03-19T14:48:00.001-04:00

Today is the last day of posts in the mini-series of our aniversario. The flowers in Peru are exotically beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take fotos of all the flower arrangements, but we do have a few. After our second date, my husband sent me flowers. I didn’t know what to do! Not only was he the first man I had dated to send me flowers…..I had always said that the first man to send me flowers would be the man I marry! So I used a foto of that bouquet to show our wedding florists what I wanted to be used as our centerpieces and bridesmaid’s bouquets. They were gorgeous!

When I arrived to my suite the night before the wedding, these roses are what awaited me. My husband sent them to me….just because.

La Pachamanca

2011-03-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

Today’s post of the mini-series our aniversario is fun and cultural. Yesterday, I explained about our adventure at the Hacienda the day after our wedding. At the Hacienda, we were lucky enough to partake in a Pachamanca which is a ceremonious event to cook a typical Peruvian dish or dishes in a hot-stone pit. The origins of a Pachamanca go back to the Incas. Once the pit is covered, Padrinos of the Pachamanca are chosen to ceremoniously dance around the pit and kind of “give it a blessing” as it starts to cook. We chose guests from each side of our families. You will have to ignore all the noise from the videographer….crazy bride flapping her mouth!

La Hacienda

2011-03-17T21:08:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned before, the day after our wedding, our close family went to an Hacienda where we saw a fantastic horse show and partook in a Pachamanca. A Pachamanca is a ceremonious event to cook a typical Peruvian dish in hot stones in the ground. While that was cooking, we were entertained by a horse show featuring Peruvian Caballos de Paso. I put together a brief photo story of the process of preparing the Pachamanca and the horse show. You can see how the cooks layered the pit with the food (beef, pork, tamales, corn, papas, etc..) and bricks and banana leaves. Tomorrow’s post is the ceremonious dance over the covered pit!

Culinary Weekend Celebration

2011-03-16T15:18:00.006-04:00

In continuing my mini-series on our Aniversario and sharing some fun cultural tidbits that we incorporated into our wedding weekend in Peru, I mentioned that it really was a Culinary Weekend Celebration. Our Rehearsal Dinner took place after we went to Tea at a local Country Club. Tea also included an array of little appetizers that could have sufficed as dinner itself….we just didn’t know that! So our Rehearsal Dinner was held at Restaurante Brujas de Cachiche. We specifically wanted dinner to be filled with yummy traditional Peruvian food (served in traditional clay plots) for everyone - foreigners, Peruvians who have lived outside of Perú for many years as well as the locals. My brother is a professional photographer and so I asked him to take fotos of each dish so that I could use it as a teaching tool with my students. It was a very wise move! My mouth is watering just thinking about all the platos!! ¡Qué deli!

Picarones: Fried squash fritter rings with syrup

Ceviche

Causa: Mashed potato and Tuna roll

Salmon y alcaparras: Salmon and capers

Pulpo al Olivo: Octopus in olive oil.

Camote y Choclo: Sweet Potatoes and Corn

Ensalada de Habas: Faba Bean salad

Fried Yucca.

Papas-Yellow potatoes, which are originally from Peru, served with Salsa a la Huancaina, a hot cheese sauce.

Chorros a la Chalaca: Mussles with onion, tomato, and aji.

Escabeche de Pescado: Fried fish with onion sauce

Tacu Tacu: Peruvian-style refried beans and rice

Rocoto Relleno: stuffed rocoto peppers...very very hot!

Pastel de Papa: Peruvian potato bake

Torta de Tres Leches

Flan

Carapulcra: Dried potato stew

Pescado Saltado: Fish, potato, tomato and onion mix

¡Feliz Aniversario!

2011-03-15T14:43:00.001-04:00

Today is our aniversario! I am reposting last year’s aniversario post because well, nothing has really changed! I still married the Man of My Dreams and I still LOVED our wedding weekend! (Sofía was born 11 months after!) I have learned a little bit more about videos and so over the next few days, I am going to post a couple of fun videos from our wedding weekend as well as some fotos my brother took for me of our Rehearsal Dinner with typical Peruvian Food. My husband once again took the day off to celebrate our aniversario together as a family. Sofía REALLY enjoyed watching the recording of the wedding this year—she recognized the majority of her family too!

The short video at the end is a little summary clip that the videographer put together for us. If you look carefully you can see some really neat things about Peru in the video. The flowers were exotically gorgeous and you can see that in the bridesmaids’ bouquets. Lima is really a desert and you can see the contrast of the brown sandy cliffs up against the ocean. An impromptu traditional Peruvian dance, La Marinera, sprung out on the dance floor complete with white handkerchiefs/napkins! And finally, Lima is in the middle of Summer in March, so we are dripping with sweat in the 90 degree heat! The video ends abruptly….sorry, I’m still not THAT good with the technology!
Originally published Marzo 15, 2010
¡Nuestro Aniversario!
Today is our wedding aniversario! I loved our wedding! (I should say we loved our wedding!) Well, the first reason I loved our wedding is because I married the Man of My Dreams and I couldn’t ask for anything more of him, not one thing; he is perfecto! The other not-nearly-as-important reason why I loved out wedding is that we had a destination wedding. I insisted that we have a destination wedding because I just thought it would be so much more fun for everyone to go somewhere. We decided on Perú which is from where my husband is. We had a blast! What we really had was a culinary weekend celebration! If you don’t know anything about the food in Perú, you are missing out on one of the finest cuisines in the world! We combined various traditions from different cultures in our celebrations and had so much fun! We had 20 people (only 10 of them being from my side!) come from the USA and the other 40 was the part of my husband’s family that still live in Perú. So it was a small wedding filled with the most important people to us. (It was also nice because much of my husband’s family traveled to Perú for the first time in many years since they emigrated from there and brought their offspring, also for the first time.) The day before the wedding, the people who came from afar went on a tour of the city and then we went to Peruvian Tea time. The rehearsal dinner was typical Peruvian food. After the wedding ceremony in the church, we had a Champaign brindis (a toast) with appetizers and the food at the reception was an array of sea food al la Peruana. The next day, our close family went to an Hacienda where we saw a fantastic horse show and partook in a Pachamanca which is a ceremonious event to cook a typical Peruvian dish in hot stones in the ground. It was a LOT of eating in three little days. There are so many other details that I won’t bore you with—a live trio, an orchestra with dancing and balloons, the choir at the church with moonlighters from the Peruvian National Symphony----- We have a beautiful DVD of the wedding complete with traditional and meaningful songs that my husband picked out to accompany it. I love to watch it and decided that every year on our aniversario, that we would watch it and reminisce with Sofía and hopefully her siblings. I’m not sure how much she got out of it last year, but she has many more years ahead of her to catch every detail! My husband took the day off so that we could be together today to celebrate as a family. I would love to hear how other people celebrate their aniversarios or why their weddings were special to them.

Apodos

2011-03-14T13:55:00.000-04:00

Sofía has nicknames, apodos, which she uses for her familia and amigos. At first, I wasn’t sure if apodos would be the correct name to call it because I wasn’t sure if she could pronounce some of the names completely and that was the way the words were coming out of her mouth or if she was making a choice to say the names. Most of them are apodos with the few exceptions of certain sounds like ‘F’ when it is followed or preceded by certain vowels.

Anyway, here they are:

Tía Emma – a real name. But her husband is Luis Miguel whom Sofía refers to as Tío Emma.

Tía – is my sister, her only blood related Tía.

Tío or Tío Sisipe - is Tío Felipe.

Tío Cisco – is Tío Francisco. Tío Francisco has a son that they call Cisco. Sofía learned his name immediately and decided that the rest of the family should have his name too. Cisco’s sister, Bianca is also called Cisca. (At least Sofía has grasped the concept of gender…amazing isn’t it! Some of these grammatical “rules” are innate according to Linguists.

Lolo – is Abuelo. Sofía can say ‘abuelo’ when she wants to, she just likes Lolo.

Primo Ryan- is Sofía’s cousin whom she has only seen twice, but has for some reason stuck in her head. She talks about him all the time. Very funny.

Yun-ka-ka – is my Dutch friend, and mother of Sofía’s friend Marnix. Her name is Jonneke.

Baby Nachi- is Nacho the gato, whose name was Sofía’s first word.

Fufu-isthe other gato, Fulanito, or Fufu for short. Sofía is funny when she makes the ‘F’ sound in Fufu. She doesn’t verbalize it with an open mouth, it is almost as if she says it through her nose---there is no open mouth or lips moving and you can hear the air escape through her nostrils.

I’m always Mami, but Papi can be Papi or Papito depending on her mood! Oh…and we can’t forget her stuffed peluche el perro. His name is Perro, but Sofía NEVER says the name Perro. She either signs, “dog”, or calls him, “Wuf Wuf”!
I'm sure there will be more to come soon!

Pecigalletis

2011-03-10T14:58:00.004-05:00

Pecigalletis (prnounced pez - y - galleties) This is a new word that Sofía made up. She uses it to refer to these.

Since en español, galletas, is the word for both cracker and cookie, she wants to be sure we know EXACTLY what galleta she wants! And yes, we eat the integrales, the whole grains!

Carros del Supermercado

2011-03-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

Hoy, I discovered a way to FINALLY be able to go the mercado with Sofía. It was kind of embarrassing at first, and I didn’t know if she was going to like it or not and I was kind of turned-off by the dinginess of the carro, but it worked like magia.

It worked soo well, that she threw a little pataleta when I tried to put her in our car to go home. She insisted on going back to the front of the store to try out the other color carros. So since I couldn’t believe that is exactly what she wanted, that is exactly what we did!

Elmo Va Al Baño

2011-03-08T06:51:00.001-05:00

If you are looking for resources en Español for your baby, toddler, or preschooler, really, is there any better place than the internet? I found this great video on YouTube about using the baño. (I was looking for an alphabet song and stumbled across it) We are in the pre-potty training stage at our house, so not only will it be thematic appropriate, I know Sofía will LOVE the canciones, música, and personajes. If you are looking for a specific resourse and can't seem to find it, let me know. I don't necessarily post about all the cool stuff I find, although I try to!

Pizzelles

2011-03-07T18:23:00.002-05:00

Mi familia has been making pizzelles for as long as I can remember. In our casa, Fridays were Pizzelle days. So it goes without saying that my husband, Sofía and I also make pizzelles. We like to do it…we feel it really is a process that requires more than one person, so making them is nice bonding time. If you don’t know what Pizzelles are, you can go here and get a synopsis. But basically they are a traditional Italian waffle galleta. Not everyone can make pizzelles as they require a pizzelle iron….so it makes a nice treat for special occasions or gifts.
Today, Sofía actively participated in the making our pizzelles!

Sofía mixed the masa.

Then she rolled the masa into balls just like Mami.

The balls were weighed and placed on the pizzelle iron to “bake”.

Then pizzelles are moved to cooling racks so they don’t get soggy as they cool.

Here Sofía is making silly faces as she waits to try her first pizzelle of the day.

No fotos of her eating the pizzelles….I can’t possibly eat and take a foto at the same time!

Las Pepitas de Cerezas

2011-03-04T13:43:00.000-05:00

In a recent post, I talked about how Language is Culture and one really can’t separate the two. If you are going to learn a different language you must also learn the culture of the language. This is too deep of a topic to delve into right now, but I wanted to share a cute anécdota that Sofía picked up on yesterday. She decided that she wanted to eat uvas, grapes, instead of cerezas, (not to be confused with cerVeza!), cherries. So I ate the cerezas. And like any good Latina would do, I inconspicuously spit the pepita, seed, into my closed fisted hand and secretly slid it onto my plate. She seemed to be intrigued by this. So since she didn’t have any pepitas in her uvas, she made me spit them into HER mano and then she not-so-secretly, put them onto her plate! I don’t know what other countries do this besides some Spanish-speaking ones. I also don’t know if in España this is done or not. I like it much better than the practice that we often see in La USA and at dos años, I’m glad that Sofía has picked up on it already!

Pijama Day

2011-03-03T22:21:00.001-05:00

Today was a Día de Pijamas. No particular reason. Sofía just never made it out of her pijamas. I think this is more of a reflection on me than on her since she doesn’t dress herself. But the entire day was kind of a lazy day and we ended it by a lazy dinner….Pizza delivered from Pizza Hut!

¡A Cantar!

2011-03-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

Sofía LOVES to cantar. In a previous post, I mentioned how she woke up in her cuna cantando “Happy Bithday.” Now as soon as she wakes up, she starts cantando. She has also expanded her repertoire of canciones. She will cantar a canción from our Music Class that is like this: “Hola _____, Hola _____ gusto verte hoy.” She usually fills in the blanks with the names of her friends and family but also whatever object or animal that comes to mind. This morning it was “la caja” (box) and “mami”. There is another little jingle en Español that she will belt out: Mi Mamá me mima, mi mamá me ama, mi mamá me ama, mi mamá me mima. The words itself aren’t as important as the play on sounds and blends. She of course continues to sing “Happy Bithday yo” or to whomever she feels like singing it to that morning. The last canciones that Sofía will sing are the silly canciones that I make up for her during the day. These are my favorite because they really keeps me on my toes. I’m still trying to find a way to record her and share it with you. So meanwhile, I will leave you with a YouTube audio song of Ella Fitzgerald singing “Blue Moon” which has been our most recent dinner time entertainment. We sing the refrain in Español, Inglés, and we simultaneously sign it!

La Torre de Legos

2011-03-01T15:18:00.000-05:00

Three weeks ago, Sofía didn’t want anything to do with her nuevos Legos. This morning, she ran over to me with her nuevo Lego torre in her mano and said, “Mírala” (Look at it.). She was very proud!
The Legos have various numbers and drawings on them. She was pointing out the numbers and drawings and identifying them to me. “uno, manzana, cinco”. Later she returned again and said, “Este qué es?” This is the first time she has asked a question with three words together. “Es el número 7.”, I answered her. She was satisfied and ran back to make more torres!

Sofia inspects her torre de Legos.

Booooo Mario Brothers!

2011-02-28T15:28:00.001-05:00

Our familia went to a fiesta de cumpleaños where the theme was the Mario Brothers. Now I don’t know anything about Mario Brothers, but I knew I would be able to find a little figurine of Mario or someone to put on top of our tiny, personalized, 5 inch, double layer, chocolate cake that we made the birthday boy. When I got to the party and sat down at the table to eat, I studied the decorations. This is what I saw.

I began to ask, “Why is there a bullet on the birthday party decorations?” I was told that it is Bullet Bill and he is a character in the Mario Brothers games etc… “A bullet?, like a REAL bullet?” Yes a bullet. "I'm confused, like a bullet that you know, causes harm, destroys, and kills? On children's PARTY decorations?" Yes a bullet. (I probably wasn't the most popular person at the party. Oh well.) I turned the decoration around so that Sofía didn't have to see it.

I’m disturbed and disappointed. Shouldn’t Four year olds be playing with sand and blocks and maybe watching a little Mickey Mouse here and there? Shame on whomever it is that makes all that Mario Brothers jazz.

I wish I had put Bambi on top of the cake!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Primas!

2011-02-22T07:17:00.000-05:00

Today is the Trillizas Third Cumpleaños! ¡Felicidades!

You can read all about how Hannah, Hailey, and Emily spent their Third Cumpleaños HERE! At Navidad, they sent us a tarjeta with their foto on it. Sofía has not stopped saying their names since. (She really, really likes to say the name, Hannah!) So we keep the Navidad tarjeta in a drawer with her books so that she can pull it out whenever she wants to (usually in the morning.) Sofía will be the only one of us who can tell who is who!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Hannah, Hailey, and Emily!

We made them a Feliz Cumpleanos Sign too!

International Mother Language Day!

2011-02-21T06:51:00.001-05:00

Language Is Culture. When I used to work as a consultant training foreign language and ESL teachers, one thing I used to repeat over and over is that Language is Culture. You can’t separate them because they are so intertwined and they really must be taught intertangledly (my own new word!) The United Nations obviously thought it was important enough to declare today as International Mother Language Day. You can read more about International Mother Language Day HERE, but in short, The United Nations summarizes it as the following: “International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.” Teaching cultural understanding and tolerance will pave the way to peace. It’s a huge task that can only be accomplished one tiny little pebble at a time. Of course we hope that OUR Little Pebble will pave an even greater peace-path than what we could ever fathom!)

Ratatouille

2011-02-18T15:12:00.000-05:00

Sofía hasn’t been feeling well lately---I think it is a side effect of her vacunas from last week. When she woke up REALLY early from her siesta, I curled her up on our bed to watch the movie Ratatouille (en Español of course). Sofía now associates watching Ratatouille with being enferma and uses it as a free ticket to watch TV. She will also narrate what she did when she was enferma. She will say something like this. “Cough cough, Ratatouille, arriba” and signs ‘ blanket’.

Her movie/siesta did her some good because she was an energetic little pistol while making a torta for Papi in the afternoon.

My grandmother never let us stick our fingers in the cake batter and now I know WHY!

¡X 2!

2011-02-17T14:43:00.001-05:00

¡Qué Día Más Bonito x 2!! What strange clima for us in the mid-Atlantic region! But today it was another nice día and we took advantage of it as much as posible. It is not that often that we can have un picnic smack dab in the middle of Febrero!

¡Qué Día Más Bonito!

2011-02-16T20:21:00.000-05:00

We spent the morning playing outside in the sol on the patio. It was truly a día precioso. It was about 50 grados out but with the sol shining so strongly, it felt like 60! Sofía spent her time picking up sand and transporting it to the other side of the patio and dumping it. I guess she REALLY misses playing with her sand because she is already talking about playing with it again mañana!

¡No!

2011-02-15T14:46:00.000-05:00

Tres días before Sofía’s second cumpleaños, she learned to say “¡NO!”. She's now mastered it. Need I say more?

¡Feliz Día de San Valentín!

2011-02-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

Normally, in Latin America, el Día de San Valentín isn’t celebrated. México might have some spots where possibly they acknowledge Febrero 14, but I’m not sure. What I am sure about is that in Septiembre….somewhere around septiembre 16, many of Latin America celebrate El Día de Amor y Amistad. Something like El Día de San Valentín, but much, much, much more low-key. Más tranquilo. Today we had big planes for our Día de San Valentín, but Sofía woke with a fever, so we stayed home. We decorated tarjetas de San Valentín for her neighborhood amigas and delivered them. She also opened up several very chévere regalos. One of them, the stuffed erizo, is pictured with Sofía below! ¡Gracias Abuela!

Señas for El Día de San Valentín

2011-02-12T21:36:00.001-05:00

Signing Times señas for El Día de San Valentín!

La Fiesta

2011-02-11T15:08:00.001-05:00

Día Siete of our Segundo Cumpleaños Preparación: La Fiesta!So all of our intricate work and obsessive planning paid off and looked like this:

The Goodie Bag Table for our invitados.

The gift table.

Dining room decorations view 1.

Dining room decorations view 2.

Home-made Red Velvet Torta! Yum! Yum! Deli!

Feliz Cumpleanos sign for the bathroom door...I'm very proud of all the signs being in Espanol!

Buffet station view 1.

Buffet station view 2. (My husband doesn't allow me to decorate the food station! :(

There was SOMEONE else who enjoyed the decorations as much as I did!

Singing Happy Birthday to Sofia!

Sofía had a LOT of fun with her friends and family. She really understood that it was her birthday and what that meant. She learned how to sing “Happy Birthday” and simulate the blowing out of the candles. (She doesn’t like the lit candles so much.) She also learned to answer questions about her age. Before her birthday, we asked her “¿Cuántos vas a cumplir?” (How old will be you be?) and now we ask, “Cuántos años tienes?” (How old are you?) and she knows how to answer: DOS! Looking back on all the neurosis that went into planning the party….I’m segurisima that we will do it all again next year! If you missed the fiesta...at least you can relive the Singing of "Happy Bitday", as Sofía likes to call it!

Games

2011-02-09T13:43:00.003-05:00

Día Sies of our Segundo Cumpleaños Preparación: Los Juegos. I tried to find old-fashioned party juegos that our guests could play together, adults and niños, and have fun. So we set up a few things around the house for entertainment. Some of it worked well, some of it not so much. Trial and error I suppose. The things that worked well were:

The Bean Bag Toss

The Fishing Game in a tub of water. By FAR everyone's favorito!

And the train table of course. No foto here sorry!
Things that didn’t work as well as I would have liked them to:

The Bowling Game made of cool foam pins and balls with a set up grid. This was MY favorito!

The Ring Toss. The little tykes liked to play with the rings!

It might be that these last two didn’t go over as well because they were not located on the same floor as the rest of the fiesta. We set them up in the basement where the kids usually play by themselves. Maybe we’ll have to come up with replacements for next year or just scrap them all together. Vamos a ver.

Barras de Chocolate

2011-02-08T14:58:00.001-05:00

Día Cinco of our Segundo Cumpleaños Preparación: Chocolate. We like to give party favors to our adult guests as well as our little guests. This year I became obsessed with creating a personalized wrapper for a barra de chocolate. I was having a hard time finding the small size of Hershey’s bars with foil wrappers that I had originally wanted. One day my husband came home with the large Godiva Bars with foil wrapping and we were sold. They were really fun to make.

I am particularly proud of the código de barras with the numbers of Sofias birth date. Now, I'm thinking how I can make them for a next event. (Don’t tell my husband….he is the one who had to cut and fold all the wrappers!)

So the Niños Grandes at our fiesta got to take home Sofía Vino in little cans and a Sofía barra de chocolate. We liked the combination and hope they did too!

Decorations

2011-02-07T14:23:00.000-05:00

Día Cuatro of our Segundo Cumpleaños Preparación: Decoraciones. As I mentioned previously, our tema for the Segundo Cumpleaños fiesta was Mickey Mouse. Really there were just a few Mickey Mouse accents around the place with basic party decoraciones everywhere. There were a few key items that I thought were pretty chevere and wanted to share. In order to set the mood BEFORE even stepping foot in the casa, we made a sign for the puerta principal. It was simple (basically because I didn’t have a whole lot of time to add embellishments, but can later.) If you look closely at the F of “Feliz” you may be able to note where the gato, Fulanito, added his own special touch—with his teeth of course.

The other thing we did was make Groundhog cupcakes (Sofía’s cumpleaños is Febrero 2, el Día de la Marmota) for the little guests to take home with them. This year we got smart and ordered cupcake holders (never knew they existed before!) so that transporting and displaying them were much easier. The cupcake holders were Mickey Mouse of course. This year, my husband made the groundhogs all by himself and they look ¡espectacular!

Baking

2011-02-06T14:59:00.001-05:00

Día Tres of our Segundo Cumpleaños Preparación: Hornear. Sofía and I baked lots of galletas for the fiesta. We made heart-shaped sugar galletas, pizzelles, and Rice Crispy Treats. For Her torta de cumpleaños, we baked a delicioso Red Velvet torta with Cream Cheese cubierta! ¡Deli! I have let Sofía help make galletas before, but this time was different. Sofía’s cousin Trillizas’ mami gives them each a baking sheet and dough and lets them bake and roll their OWN galletas. I thought it was a marvelous idea. If you have never done this before…..you need to try it!

Sofía was MORE than entertained with the process for a VERY long time! She even cut out her own heart-shaped galleta and placed it on the pan to hornear without my help. (For a two year old, that hand-eye coordination and dexterity is quite an accomplishment.)

Rifa

2011-02-06T13:54:00.000-05:00

New Age Mama is sponsoring a Give Away via an automated rifa. One lucky person (hopefully me!) will win a Melissa and Doug shopping cart. Sofía LOVES push toys and she LOVES her Little Tykes shopping cart like it is an extension of me. She would be besides herself to have a shopping cart for INSIDE the house as well. Let me set the record straight….she doesn’t NEED one, but she would LOVE one. And if I can win one FREE for her…well just more cool thing to donate to a good charity when she outgrows them!

So in order to enter, I had to do a couple things. One was to write about the giveaway on my blog and the other was to post on New Age Mama’s site what other Melissa and Doug product I would like. We have other Melissa and Doug products and I really like them. They have really well-made and well-thought out products. I wrote about the Tiered Special Occasion Cake. Since Sofía and I make cakes all the time, I thought she would like to have one of her own. After thinking it over really hard (I debated about buying her one for her birthday) I came to the conclusion that I would maybe, just MAYBE, like to have it more than her. It looks awesome, doesn’t it?

Foto is courtesy of Melissa and Doug...I hope they don't mind me using it!