A Fifth Grader and a Second Grader

Summer left just as fast as it arrived and this year seems a little bit different. I, for one, didn't have reoccurring nightmares throughout the summer that it was the first day of school and my students had arrived and there were no desks, nor chairs, let alone planning done on my part. I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but it feels good. And it only took me 9 years to get here. I hope it's not a fleeting feeling of calmness. The Honduras trip was a good thing for me.

And the girls. They are getting so big. So independent. So helpful. Yes, I know this is just day 1, but I'm feeling appreciative of their proactive attitudes and their willingness to help more and more in the daily routine. They were excited last week to pick out their very own alarm from amazon and have loved getting up to that. Marcela made her famous breakfast burritos for all of us and Cecilia helped at dinner by helping with the salad and getting drinks for all of us after she saw that I sat down exhausted. Marcela even helped out by getting Armando to help her fill out the of the back-to-school paperwork with Armando while I made dinner. As Cecilia would say it was a Win-Win-Win-Win-Win. :)

Our 1st day of school photo ritual was adjusted a bit because Marcela, although willing to make breakfast for everyone, was not feeling too willing to pose for the camera. She was worried we'd be running late to school and just wanted to get out the door. Cecilia, on the other hand, would have loved to take a few more. Funny how they change. It has been the exact opposite in years past. I'll take what I can get. Sure love my girls. And watching them grow is hard and wonderful at the same time.

So, here's our little moment frozen in time. I'll blink and tomorrow they'll be taller. Our fifth and second graders:

It's Summer, so Reach Out and Touch a Cloud

View from our second flight as we flew over Cuba.

The first leg of our trip was a red eye and even if I had wanted to look out the window, I was too exhausted to even try. I had barely slept at all over the past several days as we finalized preparations for our trip and finished out the school year. But when the sun rose and we began our next flight, I couldn't let much time go by without making my way to the window and taking it all in. It is against my nature. So I talked Ceci into letting me sit in her seat and she sit on my lap. We peered out together as the plane flew over Cuba and that is when I felt the first surge of summer. I was free from the preoccupation of school, work, and the rigor of our weekly routines. And I was present, just taking in the view with Cecilia and actually able to listen as she chattered along. "Mommy, I wish I could reach out and touch a cloud," she began.
"That would be fun! What do you think it would feel like?"
"A cotton ball!" she responded with an enthusiastic smile. And then her next thought came as she pointed to the wing of the airplane, "Imagine if you could walk out on the wing!"
"Do you think you could survive?" I questioned.
"No way!" she exclaimed. And without a breath, she continued into her next thought, "And that's what I've always wondered...what if we didn't exist? What if there was no world?"

At that moment I remembered having those same deep wonderings as a child, my mind not able to grasp the what-ifs and the hows of this grand universe. And as an adult I still don't understand everything, but at that moment, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the blessing of being a mother--her mother and Marcela's mother--the chance to journey with them in this life and to share the deepest of thoughts and questions, and especially to be able to really listen in the moment to her little mind and how it's processing everything that she takes in. These are the moments that invite true teaching and learning.

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Fast forward to a few days later as we were in the bedroom at Abuela Rina's house and I was brushing her hair, Cecilia said, "Mommy, this might make you cry, but why do you love me?" My heart smiled. She is so tender. And she knows that to express my love, sometimes I do cry. This time I didn't cry, but I told her all of the things that we love about her: how she is the comedian of the family, how her singing brings life to our house, how she is so kind-hearted, how she loves to read and how her artwork brightens our walls, how life just wouldn't be complete without her and the beauty and light that she brings to it.

I'm thankful to be a mom and I'm thankful for summer vacation where the daily rhythm of life can change enough that I can see, feel, hear, and touch these precious moments as a mother. The photos in this post came from one of those moments when I was free to follow Cecilia's impulse to venture into the quiet street in front of Abuela Rina's house and dance and spin in her Sunday dress for the camera. I love these pictures because they are her. I just followed her cues and her innocent, childhood beauty glowed in the setting sun. I need these moments to relish in the beauty of simple things that fill me.

Cecilia Sketching

One of Cecilia's gifts is art. She has taken to "sketching" and claims that the trick to a good sketch is making mistakes all along the way. The other night as I rounded the corner from the bedrooms to the kitchen I caught her kneeling in front of the picture of Christ that we have hanging in the living room. It touched my heart to see her kneeling to sketch this photo as if she were doing it with absolute reverence.

Cecilia La Bailarina!

I'm a happy and proud mom today! Cecilia did an outstanding job at her very first cultural dance celebration. Her class (first graders) danced to the Colombian "Pollera Colorá" and she made so proud because she is so much like me (timid and shy), but she didn't let that stop her from having fun on stage in front of hundreds of people! (Something I'd have a hard time doing today, not to mention when I was a 1st grader!)

Watch for her shimmy shoulder magic at about 1:30. She surprised us all! Go Cecilia!

Aunque sea un pedacito . . .

It always feels weird to celebrate a birthday the weekend before and then not do anything at all on the actual birthday. So on the morning of Ceci's birthday, we put up the birthday banner and sang to her and Armando brought home a big cupcake for her that night so that she could blow out some candles on her actual birthdate. 

One of the girls' favorite traditions is one where everyone sings in Spanish "Take a bite, take a bite!" ("Que lo muerda! Que lo muerda!") And of course if anyone is close, when the birthday person goes to take a bite, they push their face into the cake a little. In years past, this has brought tears when it was unexpected, but now they see it as a game. 

I smiled when I saw this succession of photos. 

And then Cecilia decided that in order to make things fair, Marcela needed a turn too!

I'm just glad everyone ended up smiling and there were no tears involved. Happy 7th Birthday to our spunky Koki! We love you!

Cecilia's Toothless Grin

In December, Cecilia was eating an apple as an after-school snack and suddenly came running to me saying, "Mommy, I just broke something!" She reached in her mouth to feel her tooth and, to our surprise, her front tooth was finally loose! She's been waiting for years (ever since Marcela started losing teeth) to get a loose tooth and would always "wiggle" them and say they were loose, but this time she felt the difference. She was giddy with excitement.

She is quite the tough one and has a good tolerance for pain and loved wiggling and twisting and making it budge and bleed a little more every day.

She also likes to make silly faces with her loose teeth.

When Marcela had loose teeth, she'd keep her distance from Armando who would always tease her that he would pull it out for her. Cecilia, on the other hand, was begging Armando to pull hers and he actually had to tell her no because he didn't feel like it was loose enough yet.

Over the last couple of months, Cecilia has been working hard on wiggling her teeth and is now sporting the cutest toothless grin.

Cecilia's Bowling Birthday Party

At the end of a long week of Parent Teacher Conferences and sandwiched between two weekends of Friday evening and all day Saturday seminars I was attending for work, we celebrated Cecilia's 7th birthday and since I was in the middle of 2 crazy work-weeks, we decided to go simple and outsource everything from the candles to the entertainment. I came very close to having almost completely forgotten to get a cake. (Oops!) Thanks, Fat Cats, for doing the work for us. We all had a great time bowling, eating yummy pizza, and playing games!

Chores and the Pay Off

Over the last few weeks, I've been grabbing the camera to document the girls doing their chores and as I sat down to post this, realized that I only documented Cecilia doing hers because I help her out along the way and so that's how I'm spending my Saturday mornings, doing chores along side her. I'll have to get some more pictures of Marcela next Saturday doing her jobs.

Cecilia has become quite the expert at sweeping the kitchen.

And washing the bathroom mirrors.

And...having a little fun as she does it!

And the pay off? Just the other day we were grocery shopping and when she laid eye on these pants she said she HAD to have them and was so overjoyed that I said the decision was up to her as long as she had the money...she was screaming with joy when we got in the car. She's one who knows what she likes. And she's happy with these fancy pants! And it feels good not to say no and to see her reasoning about how many weeks worth of savings it took to buy one pair of pants that she really wanted.