Customs continued

How FITTING that I was just blogging about customs. My sister-in-law's family, Rachel, has a tradition/custom in her family. It has been sooooooo popular that my children have now adopted/borrowed the Melendez tradition. Whenever anyone has a birthday, the birthday boy/girl gets to take the first bite of the cake. Literally. You just chow down on the nearest corner of the birthday cake. Then, the cake cutting ceremony takes place. Now whenever anyone has a birthday, Mateo and Tino ask "Can I get the first bite of the cake?"

I figure that one of the reasons that I don't blog as often is because I rarely have a moment of peace in my life where I can actually sit down at the computer and concentrate for an extended period of time or upload pictures, etc. Case in point. I was getting ready to publish the previous post and I heard a commotion coming from the kitchen. When I got to the kitchen, all I could see was Rebecca's and Mateo's faces huddled around a certain object. They both had their teeth planted into something. I asked them to remove their teeth from whatever it was they were trying to bite. And I found this . . . .
Can you believe it????? If you can't recognize the picture, this would be the DOVE ice cream that has been hiding in the top shelf of the freezer . . . way in the back supposedly out of view of 2 and 3 year olds or whoever might happen to open up the freezer and be looking for a sweet treat to eat. I have been waiting so very patiently until FRIDAY/"FREE" day when I would be able to truly enjoy eating the chocolate ganache topping and then delving down into my DOVE ice cream. Yeah, apparently Rebecca and Mateo wanted ice cream. They were having difficulty scooping the ice cream part, so they decided to go ahead and take turns sinking their teeth into the chocolate ganache topping. This is one of those moments that I am irritated at customs being passed down and/or shared. But, then again . . . let's look at the positive. I wouldn't want my 3 mile walks, 2 latin-cardio/Zumba classes, and 1 boot camp session to be a complete waste of time this week right? Who needed the extra calories of that chocolate ganache anyway??? There's always NEXT Friday. :0)

Quinceanera

So there are many times that I have wondered if Tino, Mateo, and Sarah will end up adopting more United States/ "American" customs or if they will pick up any Dominican/Latin-American customs. We went to a quinceanera on Saturday night. 7-7-07. It was a lot of fun. Great food. Great friends. Great dancing. Great Hispanic/Latin-American custom. And then it hit me . . . will Sarah celebrate her 15th birthday or will it be a Sweet 16 celebration? If it's a quinceanera, we better start saving up the money now. . . . Hotel or other venue for the party, D.J., florist, caterer, custom made quinceanera cake, fancy invitations, formal dress, etc. As for the Sweet 16, Sarah can invite a bunch of friends over, order some pizzas, pop in 16 Candles or other chic-flick/teenager appropriate movie . . . and call it a day.

Monstering

Mateo: We're playing monster.

Rebecca (Mateo's friend): Yeah, we're playing monster.

Mateo: Sarah is monstering us. And she's really scary.

Rebecca: Don't worry Mateo. I promise. Wait, wait. I will protect you.

Mateo: Yeah, let's go do that again.


Mateo and Rebecca: Running down the hallway, they scream in unison: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Hurricane Days

This is what we do when it's Hurricane Season. We invent. Now instead of Mateo and Sarah riding around the house on Sarah's tricycle, big brother Tino decided he needed to ride along as well.

I just your curious guy

Mateo was sitting on my lap while at the computer. He saw something he had never seen before.

Mateo: What's that mami?
Mami: What's what?
Mateo: That thing. What it's called?
Mami: It's a 3 whole punch.
Mateo: Oh . . . . . . what it does mami?
Mami: It makes holes in mami's papers.
Mateo: Oh. That's so beautiful. I'm just your ker-ious (curious) guy huh mami? I'm just sooooooooo ker-ious.

Progress

Last Friday, Sarah's case worker from the county came to the house. We reviewed her test results and progress over the last 3 months. In the area of cognitive skills and speech she regressed. The bad news is that she regressed. The good news is that her case is going to be opened up again and she will qualify for more services. Speech and possibly pre-school. AND, her behavior therapy was extended for an additional 6 months.

This morning when I went to get her out of her room, she said the following:

Sarah: Morning Mami.
Mami: Good Morning Sarah.
Sarah: I yucky. EEEEEE-ooooooooooooooooooooooooh.
Mami: You're yucky? What happened?
Sarah: I pee-pee. Look. (Proceeds to show me her drenched pajamas because she must have decided sometime throughout the night that she didn't need her diaper and she took it off.)

YEAH! We had the entire conversation without screaming or using sign language. She communicated with me using WORDS. Real honest to goodness WORDS.

Peer Pressure

SILENCE and then giggling and then more SILENCE coming from the laundry room. This is the conversation I overheard when I went to see what Mateo and Sarah were up to.

Mateo: You go. It's your turn.
Sarah: O.K. Teo. . . (brief pause). . . Teo's turn. (Sarah proceeds to grab Mateo by the head and push him towards the open dryer).
Mateo: No Sarah. Do you see the picture of the fire (pointing to a warning label on the dryer)? If I go inside the dryer I'll be on fire. Because that's berry berry dangerous for me.

Mom: How many hours until Cristian gets back from Dominican Republic?????????