Pretend Boyfriend

Jocie has become very interested in boyfriends. First it was being a mommy, or a princess who obviously needed a prince, then getting married and having a husband, now it's boyfriends!! I promise I do not let them watch any TV where she could be getting this ideas from. I think the princess stuff came from all the princess stories and fairy tales that we read, and the husband thing obviously from watching mom and dad, and I think the boyfriend thing might come from watching my sisters dating and getting engaged. Aaron gets really irritated with the "pretend boyfriend" deal and tells me not to encourage it, and I don't think I do, but I do want to hear what is in her little mind and I want to build that trust on which they can feel comfortable to come talk to me about whatever they want without feeling embarrassed.

The other day Jocie wanted to do just that. She came to me and said:

Jocie: "Mom, I want to tell you something"
Mom: "Yeah? What's that?"
Jocie: " I have a boyfriend"
Mom: "Really?"
Jocie: "It's just a pretend boyfriend mom"
Mom: "Tell me about your pretend boyfriend. What is his name?"
Jocie: "Carlo"
Mom: "Oh, Carlos is a good name"
Jocie: "No mom! CARLO"
Mom: "Oh, sorry! CarlO."

...And the conversation continued until she had described to me every detail about him. He spoke Spanish, had brown hair, green eyes, and was tall, but not as tall as the sky just taller than her, plays soccer, is smart at school, he is nice to her, his parents and friends and likes to take her to the movies. Naomi kept interrupting saying that Jocie's pretend boyfriend liked to eat bugs, and that she was going to tell daddy, haha! I think she was a little jealous she didn't come up with that idea first.

Did I mention she is only 3-almost 4?

Bedtime battles

Every night Jocie and I have a little bedtime battle where she wants me to stay and sleep with her. She is turning 4 in less than a month and she still wants her mommy to sleep with.  She has tried it all to get to me stay. One of her favorite quotes to use in her efforts to convince me to stay is: " No te vayas mami, quedate conmigo!" ( "Don't leave me mom, stay with me!") in a very compelling tone of voice. She used a  a new strategy tonight that took me by surprise, I didn't know where she was going with it at the beginning, I almost fell for it. It went like this:

Jocie: "Mami, you did a lot of things today"

Mom: "Yes, we did"

Jocie: " You had a long day mami"

Mom: "Yes, mami had a long day"

Jocie: "You need to rest mom, you need to sleep."

*** At this point she almost had me convinced***

This little girl keeps getting trickier and trickier to slip away from at bed time. I love her.

This will make you laugh.

This happened a few weeks ago, and I think it is so funny that I still remember it and laugh every time I think about it.

Jocie was sick, in fact we were all sick with this weird sore- itchy- throat- cough,  not a cold, no runny noses, just that. The cough lingered for a couple of weeks, Jocie was the last one to get rid of it. One of those days she comes running to me all excited announcing: "Mom, mom! I coughed and I didn't even fart!"

Are you laughing too?

Our favorite subject lately

I have been away from the bloggin world for quite a while. If you follow me on facebook you know what I have been up to. It has taken so much time from my kids, my husband and myself, yet has been very rewarding and  I have learned a lot.

Anyway, I just remembered that I have a blog and I have been letting so many things go unrecorded ( I think that is a word) Our favorite subject around the house this days is that of "babies" : How did the baby get in your belly? How will the baby come out? Will it be a boy or a girl? Where are we going to put the baby? Can we name it pink, or purple, how about rainbow or flower? Yeah, you guessed it...we are having a baby. So here's the beginning of the interesting baby related dialogues I have had and will continue to have with my girls!

Jocie: Mom, how did the baby get in your belly......did you eat it?
Me: ***speechless


Jocie: Mom, I know how the babies come out!
Me: Really...how?
Jocie: Through the butt!
Me: Who told you that?
Jocie: I saw it on TV!
Me: What? You did!?
Jocie: Yes, the elephant had a baby, it came out through the mami elephants's butt.
Me: Oh yeah! We did see it on TV. (Glad that took care of it)


Naomi: Mom, how will the baby come out?
Me: *** mom remembered her little conversation with Jocie some days earlier*** Well, do you remember that show we watched where the mami elephant was having a baby?
Naomi: Yes.
Me: Well, is the same with humans.
Naomi: Oh! --took a couple of seconds to process and then: ....Whew!!!!! Gross!!!!!

DREAM Act

Here's what I have in my mind lately, in case you haven't notice.

 Please read.
http://hubpages.com/hub/DREAM-Army

What do you want to be when you grow up?

This conversation happened today, in the car, on or way to my parents house. Jocie seems to be drawn to notice constructions sites. So today as we passed the construction of a bridge near my parents house she couldn't help but notice and pointed it out. I know this is silly, but I think she might want to be an architect when she grows up. So I told her..."When you grow up, you can be an architect and build bridges too!"  She loved the idea. Then I asked Naomi (even though I knew the answer... or part of it)

Mom: "What do you want to be when you grow up"
Naomi: "While my husband stays home with the kids, I will be a cupcake maker. I will go to the bakery and make cupcakes for my customers."
Mom: mom's jaw falls to the ground wide open.....then recovers and tries not to laugh ( I wouldn't want to discourage her from following her dreams)....but eventually did break out a little laugh.....and then said "Ok then! That sounds like a great idea!"

Talk about a strong, independent little mentality! Can somebody tell me where she got this idea from?

A new concept

So I have been thinking.... and came to the conclusion that I am turning this blog into a journal of the little cute, and clever things my kids say everyday. Really, if you think about it, that alone will give me plenty to write. I'll have an infinite source of quotes and conversations that come out of my little ones mouth. Naomi, right now, will be the main source of my blogging. Since she is the oldest, she can talk and express so much more than her little sister right now. The cool thing is than in a few months, as Jocie acquires more and more vocabulary, and imagination,  I know I will have double the material to blog in here. And maybe, just maybe I'll throw in a bonus update of our family every now and then. I think this is pretty much what I have been doing for a while, but now it's official!

Let the blogging begin!

The Backyard

Spring is here, and even though the weather can be unpredictable, we are loving it! This week I was able to remember the thing I love most  about our house- our backyard! To lay under the shade of that big tree and  watch the girls chase the dog around, swing in the hammocks,  and listen to their little make believe conversations is just like heaven on earth, right in our backyard. 

 

Tea party picnic

A watchful eye

At play

Sisterly love

It's not always tears and fights ;)

Loving it!

Does my belly look big?

So the girls are trying on dresses that I have stored in a box in a closet, most of them are Naomi's hand-me-downs for Jocie, and some of them fit Naomi small, from last year. Anyway, Naomi tries on a dress and walks over to me to ask "Mommy, does my belly look big?"  My answer was of course "No! You look beatiful!" but really what I was thinking was "AAAAAAAH! !What!? How old are you!!" but instead I asked "Where did you hear that?" She didn't say she heard it from me, but that was probably what she was thinking. I am very careful, or so I thought, not to ever say "I'm fat!" or "Does this make my butt look big?" in front of the girls. I know they are always watching and listening and the absorb everything like a sponge, but I guess I need to be more careful and I will be more careful. What's next? Boys?

Update

It's been a while since I do our usual update. There's really not much to say, since everything is pretty much the same. Aaron is busy with school, taking 4 classes right now trying to finish with his associates this summer. I think this is the one semester where he's been the busiest. He's gone 3 times a week from leaving to work in the morning and not coming home til 10pm, and then he has a class on Saturday mornings. Having a new job has made this semester so much easier, working the normal 8 hour days is so much more predictable and healthy. There would be times when he didn't even come home to sleep, it was ridiculous! With this new job he's been able to take 4 classes and get good grades, not that he didn't before. He is doing awesome in school and I am so proud of him.

I am training for a marathon. You can read about that here. I just re-did our living room last week with new paint and carpet. Aaron's been busy so he only helped with moving the furniture, which was more than enough. I'm gald I did not have to move that piano! My sister Nathalie and her boyfriend Don-Hee helped me painting. I don't know what I would have done without them! and of course we paid someone to do our carpet, I did not do that myself. Next project in my list, I have many projects, the office that is more like a dump ground right now. UGH! I can feel the stress levels going up, so I'll move to another subject.

The girls. Naomi is in school, thriving everyday. She is figuring out friendship and all the drama that comes with it. I'm in school with her once a week and get to see the little conflicts she goes through, from rejecting other classmates to being rejected, I think it might be even harder on me. I have to remind myself that they are just kids. I can call her out when she is being rude or mean to someone else, but I can't really do much when she is on the other end. The other day for example, one of the moms told me Naomi and her little girl had had a conflict that day and Naomi had made the other little girl cry telling her that she did not want to be her friend anymore. I talked to her on the way home and asked to apologize the next day and try to have a better day the next day. The next morning we walked in the classroom, I had forgotten about our little conversation, but she remembered. I was so happy to see her run to her little friend as soon as she saw. She apologized for being mean and gave her a big kiss and a hug. She is a sweet little girl that little girl of mine.

Jocie. Oh my Jocie! She is definetly the sweetest thing I've ever met. She is going through a phase where she wants to sleep in our bed. Since Aaron and I have a different bed time than the girls, we have allowed her to fall asleep in our bed and then we transfer her to her bed after she has fallen asleep before going to bed ourselves. I often wake up with her wraped around my neck in the morning because she woke up during the night and came to our bed without me even noticing, which is a bit scary, to be completely knock out not to notice your own kid climbing into bed next to you, I blame the marathon training. Jocie is definetly fallen into the usual little sister protocol where she gets to see her big sister doing all the fun stuff that she does not get to do yet. She wants to go to school, I have a hard time leaving the classroom every day because she wants to stay too. She gets to sit by the sidelines during big sister's dance classe wishing she could join her. Soon she will be old enough to do so!

We are starting to enjoy the outdoors more everyday, from swinging in our hammocks and playing in the sand, to digging out worms and finding insects. A couple of days ago I got my first dandelion so far this year from thr girls. Welcome spring! Kind of.  Life is sweet.