Ole!

Early Halloween celebrations? Nope. Just a stop off at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Which leads me to my rant today.

While waiting for our waitress, we were teaching Megan how to say various foods in spanish...papas fritas (french fries), hamburguesa con queso (cheese burger), cerveza (beer), you know, the basics. When our waitress showed up we innocently asked her what the spanish word for pumpkin was as Megan had told us that she learned it in spanish class that day but couldn't remember it. (I, on the other hand, had seven years of spanish in high school and I don't think that's a word that I ever learned.) (It's calabaza, by the way.) Of course Megan had to count to 10 for her as well. (She'll sing it for you too.)

The waitress proceeded to tell us that she too has a daughter in kindergarten and that she had to enroll her daughter in english classes. You see, she has never spoken to her in english and upon entering school her daughter couldn't say or recognize a single word.

Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was taken back by that. Here we are, proud of Megan for learning another language and yet this woman, who lives in the US, sends her daughter to an english speaking school, couldn't be bothered to teach her child a single english word?

See, when we found out that Megan would have spanish class every Friday in school, I was happy about this. Bill on the other hand? Not so much. I look at it as a good thing. Everyone should know a different language and in fact, I wish that I had retained more and used what I learned in those seven years more frequently.

But the conversation we had with our waitress simply reiterrated Bill's point and irritation about this subject. We're completely behind a parent's wish to ensure that their child can speak their native language and of course they would want to maintain their family's culture as well. But you live in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Where we speak ENGLISH!! If you are going to live in this country, learn the language and use it!! Then go home and speak spanish, french, german, italian, yiddish, whatever, to your little heart's content. And don't ask me on a phone call to press 1 for english or 2 for spanish...just continue speaking in english and give the option for an alternate language. I shouldn't have to choose!

Maybe I'm being a bit too regressive on this issue. I look at other countries where english is splattered all over the place, on products and in public places, and think nothing of it. Am I being a hypocrite? Perhaps.

To top it all off, this woman was quite fluent and spoke with barely a hint of an accent. So I assumed that she was sharing this story with us because perhaps she had a tinge of regret for speaking to her daughter solely in spanish for the past 5+ years. Perhaps she now saw how maybe some english (and I'm being generous by saying "some") would have been a good thing to help ease her transition into kindergarten...in an english speaking school... After she told me how her daughter was progressing and that she had begun to pick up the language fairly quickly, I asked her if she now spoke to her in english a little more often to help out with the learning curve. Her response was, "no", with a big, content smile on her face.

And we wonder why spanish is predicted to become the predominent language spoken in our country...

**UPDATE** Yes, I know that there are not 7 years in H.S. No, I did not fail math during that time frame either. I had 1 year of spanish in elementary school and then another 6 beginning in 7th grade. I was just too lazy at the time of the post to clarify this so I lumped it all together. Next time I will not be so general with my information in order to keep everyone informed properly. (By everyone, I mean BILL.)

Blackmail

Call it what you want - say what you will. Honest to God, I had kids so that I could torture them some day the same way I was tortured growing up.

Don't feel sorry for them. I endured weeks of nausea, 27 months of incubating them, hours of NATURAL childbirth and the pain of squeezing those 3 melon heads out of my cooch. (I'm quite eloquent with words, aren't I?) This was followed up by months - years it seems - of sleepless nights, crying, talking back, snotty noses and temper tantrums. And, yes, I'm fully aware that the best is yet to come. Therefore, the following is just a small example of what I will be collecting as they grow up before me.

And for those who can't see the video - here's a little glimpse of what's inside:

Yes, I truly love being a mother!

New tricks

Robert is growing up so fast these days. He's laughing a little more when provoked, is much sturdier when in a sitting position and has figured out how much fun it is to jump and bounce around. Time spent in the bouncy seat is slowly being replaced by his Bumbo chair (although he only lasts in this for a few minutes before growing bored) and his "jumpy" thing-a-ma-bob. I have no idea what this thing is called these days so I simply refer to it as "the jumpy". He absolutely loves his jumpy and can be found hanging, jumping and twirling from the doorway at any given time.

This is the lovely stationary stage, which will be replaced all too soon by the mobile, won't sit still, can't keep up with him and can't get anything accomplished around the house, stage.

Summer weather - Fall fun

We took the kids on an impromptu trip to Lyman Orchards over the weekend. This was my first trip there and I was pretty impressed with the corn maze that they created. In fact, they had copies of the mazes over the past few years and I never realized just how extensive the designs were. This years theme was spider man:

Bill helped them find their way through the maze while I sat in the shade with a sleeping wee-one. (I guess I need to stop calling him that - he's not so "wee" anymore.) From there we wandered over to the hay ride. Although now that I think about it, there was no hay, so I guess, technically, it was just a horse and wagon ride. After that we picked out the perfect pumpkin for carving. Here are the pics from our day.

Hanging out by the duck pond

Entering the lazy man's pumpkin picking patch-heck with wandering a field, just pick from the pile!

The end result

...and Chunky Monkey

Robert went in for his 4 month check-up and our little chunker weighed in at 18lbs 8 3/4 oz!! (26" long). We're just about ready to ship him to his cousin Karen in Japan!

"Hey Karen. Can you get Robert to his Sumo training class on time for us?"

Not only is he outgrowing his clothes but he's also outgrowing the 'oversized' kitchen sink!

Notice the strategically placed bubbles

Chug Monkey

While eating out Friday night, Matt asked if he could play a video game when he was done. We of course agreed as this pretty much guaranteed a speedy inhalation of his food. So when he finished his PB&J, Bill dropped some money into the machine for Matt to play away.


Sounds innocent enough, right? HA! You must have forgotten who the parents are of this child!


Matt could be found bellied up to the bar, playing a rousing game of Chug Monkey. The object of the game was to have your monkey catch the mug of beer as it came sliding down the bar and chug it before catching the next one. The more you caught, the drunker your monkey became. Obviously this meant that after a few successful catches and chugs the more difficult it became to catch those brewskies! Occassionally the monkey would slide right off of his bar stool and onto what I'm sure must have been a beer covered and peanut strewn floor. He was a trooper though, that monkey. Because he would crawl right back up onto the stool and continue on.


(Reminds me of a few people I've partied with in the past!)

Driving 3 year old

Conversation between Matt and Daddy yesterday in the car:

flick, flick, flick

"Matt, don't play with the window controls."

"Because if I put the window down, it won't come back up, right Daddy?" (BMW on it's last legs - or windows, right now.)

"Right buddy."

"And if I pull on this handle, the door will open and I will fly out."

"That's right Matt. Don't play with that either."

"And if you pull on your handle, you will fly out the door. But then I will climb up front and drive."

The kid is always thinking...

Baby blue eyes

...teaser continued...

Check out those little blue peepers!

Sneak preview

Because you've harrassed me unmercifully about pictures, I broke down and gave in last night. (No, I'm not mentioning any names. cough Aunt Alicia cough) I delayed this poor child's bath and bottle in order to charge my camera and give you what you want. (Do you feel guilty yet?)

And then I thought...why give in so easily? Make her wait for it! No full facial shots and no complete body shots. You'll get to view him and all of his glorious chubbiness in person on Sunday. So here you go...

Peek!

Baby toes - YUM!

More rolls than an italian bakery, as the saying goes (Cankles...see?)

Cankles continued...

The other night Bill and I were discussing just how chunky Robert is. Bill grabbed his leg and said, "as you would say, the boy has cankles!" He moved his hand just a little further up his leg and said, "no, make that thankles."

To which I replied, "I think they're more like stankles."

(Get it?)

(Thighs + ankles = thankles)

(Stomach + ankles = stankles)

(Oh, nevermind. I found it funny but it kind of loses it's comedy when you have to explain each word.)

(sigh)