Mak-isms

On the subject of birthdays..

Mak: when is daddy's birthday?
Me: May fourth.
Mak: oh! Maybe he can have a T-Rex birthday.
Me: I think he'd like that.

Spring time in SoCal

It's early March and the Dolfos have started another garden! More tomatoes, herbs and this year we'll be attempting carrots as well.

Every morning the boys go out to tend to our garden. Water the plants, trim the tomatoes, etc. Ellie follows them, but mostly eats the dirt. Hmm. She must be needing more fiber. ;)

Much love.

Release.

I scream. 

I've always relied on the excuse that I'm a loud, emotional, Mexican woman, and we are screamers. I scream when I'm happy or excited as well. But lately, with all the stressors surrounding us, I've been raising my voice as a means to release the energy that I'm feeling inside. It has always, in my (almost) 28 years, been cathartic to scream. 

But now I have kids. And I'm noticing that by releasing my energy, they receive it. And as children, they don't understand how to compartmentalize and ignore it as just my need to release stress through yelling. They take it in, they feel the stress I feel, and they scream back because THEY need to release the energy. 

Take heart - I am not screaming at them. I'm not even screaming at my husband - something he's learned throughout the seven years we've been together - I'm just letting it out. 

But then they scream at me, and the child in me takes it as they do: personally. So I start to scream back until I remember that I'm the adult, I set the example. What are they learning from me? That screaming is the only way to release negative energy? I don't want that for them. I learned it from my mother, and I can choose better (I have an AWESOME mom, by the way, this is in no way meant to criticize her). 

So I've chosen to breathe. Take a drink of water. Yoga. P90X. Running. Writing. I've chosen to model calm voices, and the behavior I *DO* want them to learn. 

I'm not perfect. I know there will be days I forget to be Zen and I will scream. Then I will apologize for not appropriately releasing the energy, and I will remember to model something better. Maybe my kids will even remind me to find my calm voice. I hope they do. 

Much Love. 

The Flu hits.

Sounds like a bad TV movie, but no. The flu hit our household hard. It started with Makani on Saturday night (not the recent one, but two weeks ago). No appetite, not his usual self, and a fever. He spent all Sunday, Monday and some of Tuesday with a fever, too. I hate seeing my little man so down. I tried to get him to eat, but no dice. So it was lots and lots of fluids (with some mashed potatoes in between). 

Also, lots of movie watching. Ellie remained unscathed, and I was crossing my fingers that it would stay that way. Mak also took a four hour nap. It was glorious. 

He stayed this way for a few days. Then came the fun part, phlegm and cough. But before I could blink, Ellie started being crabby, then HER fever hit. 

Thank goodness for babywearing! 

Thankfully, I have the best mom ever. She came to take my energetic three year old so I could mostly sit on the sofa cuddled with baby like this:

I was signed up to run a half marathon on Jan 20th, so I was hoping that I wouldn't get sick, too! But it's so hard to stay healthy when your babies are tag teaming you with their sickness, and you're not getting enough sleep. Lo and behold, the flu caught me the Friday before my race. 

That's a different blog post, though. So I'll be back in a few days with that story. 

Much Love. 

Things to do...

Winters are tough. Thanks to daylight saving time, in the winter, there's a good two hours between sunset and bedtime. Sometimes three. Kids don't like to be cooped up, so evenings are often spent trying to find activities to sufficiently tire them out in hopes of a smoother bedtime.

Tonight, we needed lightbulbs for the bathroom and I wanted to take advantage of a BOGO offer on orchids, so we all got in the car and headed to Home Depot.

What was supposed to be a five minute run in turned into a thirty minute browsing. We looked at the flowers, talked about colors, Makani helped me pick out new orchids for the house. Ellie, I think, was just happy to be out.

It's the little things, right?

Some Mak-isms...

On January first:

Me: Mak, you want some pizza? 
Mak: yeah, because I don't like salad.

On January second: 

Mak: why is fire hot?
Me: ..... um.... well... let's ask google!
(looked up some complex explanation)
Me: well, fire is hot because it's releasing energy. Like when you run around really fast, and you get all hot and sweaty. 
Mak: oh. WOW. 

I'm glad he was impressed with my watered down explanation. He's left alone for the most part since then. Man, this kid is smarter than me. 

Daily story:

Mak: Hey, guys! I have an idea! Let's get our jackets on, get in the car, drive to the airport, get on a BIG, BIG plane, fly to Minnesota and get some SNOW!! 

We ended our last week of vacation with a train ride. Back to the grind tomorrow, and I know the kids and I will miss Brad terribly, as we always do. 

Much love. 

Spider-Mak!

We decided to clean up today, go through books, movies, clothes, etc and just toss out what is taking up space. It felt glorious! And was a wonderful start for the New Year. 

Mak decided to help with the heavy lifting... he even brought his muscles. ;)

Love seeing this kid's imagination blossom. And I love having conversations with him. Today for lunch, we had a short one: 

Me: Mak, you want some pizza?

Mak: yeah, because I don't like salad. 

This kid cracks me up. He had changed costumes by then, and was walking around the house dressed as Batman. Then he follows his 'salad' comment with:

Mak: mommy, does Batman eat pizza?? 

Me: I'm sure he does.

Mak: oh, good! 

He seemed genuinely concerned on what my answer would be. I don't know if he would have cast aside the pizza or the Batman costume, but crisis averted, and Batmak happily ate his pizza. 

It's days like these I know I'm right where I should be. 

Much love. 

A New Year!

December has come and gone, and now it's officially 2013. But before we get to those resolutions, here's a glimpse of what December looked like:

We celebrated Ellie's first birthday.

We celebrated Christmas!

And finally, we brought in the new year like most parents did: babies to bed, champagne poured, *clink* at 9pm west coast time. It was the best new year's eve a girl could ask for, really.

I'm going to make an effort to blog more this year. I want to leave something behind that my babies can read, to see what their childhood looked like. Hopefully it's a pleasant snapshot.

Much love,
The Dolfos

November?!

The last two weeks of October really flew by. Granted, we did spend pretty much an entire week celebrating the awesomeness that is Mak. On October 16, he turned three years old. Three. It still feels strange to say that. "My three year old..." It doesn't quite fit right on my tongue yet.


Mak wanted a Dinosaur Train party. So that means Dinosaur piñatas. They were pretty small, so we got three. :) He was pretty excited! He kept wanting to "break them", like I told him we would. I promised him he could when his party started.

Party day came! It was a lot of fun! We kept it small, only had about five friends of his over, which turned out to be a great number (since four of those five also had little siblings around Ellie's age).

When it came time to break the piñatas, sadly, Mak was too scared! I didn't account for the possibility that he may get attached to them.... oops! Bad mom. =/ Luckily, Mak did have a few friends who were game to try and break it.

And little hands are always down to grab some candy. ;)

We did presents after everyone left, in some peace and quiet - Mak doesn't like too much attention. But I was happy to see him playing nicely with all his friends. Makes a mamí proud.

On his actual birthday, we had a family party. Almost everyone was able to make it, even though it was a Tuesday.

Uncles Kai and Myles

Me and my (not so) little bros

My brother, Gilby, being a good Tío

And finally: 

Our three year old. 

I have no words. My love for this little boy that, three years ago, made me a mom. I hope these have been a great three years for him, since I know they have been for us. Brad and I are always saying how we can't imagine a life without him. And it's true. The world really is a better place with you in it, Mak. 

Much love (and a few bittersweet tears),

The Dolfos

Preschool

I would love to homeschool my kids. Not for religious reasons or anything (we all know I'm not religious), but I feel like I could do a better job than the mainstream "standardized testing" school system.

And here's the thing, I figure if I really want to do this, I should get to know my kids, academically. So I signed Mak and me up for a "mom and me" preschool.

Here's a picture of him on his first day!

Just because I'm going with him for three hours, twice a week, didn't stop me from getting all choked up. Part of it was missing Ellie, who I'd never been apart from, but most of it was just sad that this precious child of mine is old enough to be going to a preschool class. 

He fit right in. He was just as tall (if not taller) than those three and four year olds. Since I know him so well, I knew he'd be a little shy at first. My thinker, my scholar, my cautious one... My observer. He finally started, on the third day, feeling comfortable about sitting and singing along during circle time. 

I love learning with him. And I love that this is a new thing, just us two. Just me and Mak. I forgot how much fun I had when it was just me and him at home. Don't get me wrong, I love Ellie, too, but it's clearer to me now that one-on-one time with each kid is important. 

Looking forward to the rest of the year. We're bringing cupcakes on Tuesday for Mak's birthday. Fun! I loved celebrating my birthday in class. :) 

Much Love,

The Dolfos

October eve.

I'm in total denial that tomorrow is the first of October. It's hitting me hard because it means that Makani, the awesome little human being that made me a mom, is going to be three years old. I'm not ready for it. I hope the first fifteen days go slowly so I can soak up my wonderful two year old before he grows up a little more, and as always, too quickly.

We love you, Makster.

Much Love,
The Dolfos

Jungles are chaotic.

All day long, Makani has been saying, "Remember, I go to the jungle and watch the chargers game?" and we just could not figure out what he meant. Then, lightbulb: jungle = the stadium. Cracked. Me. Up. That my two year old's brain is brilliant enough to recognize the chaos at a football game and equate it to a jungle!

Tasty Animals

Me: I wonder if she works for PETA or something.
Brad: People Eating The Animals?
Me: Noooo, People Eating Tasty Animals.
Mak: I want to eat tasty animals, too! Me, too!

Bhahahahaha.

Much Love,
The Dolfos

A morning moment.

Brad has a new job. It starts at 7:30am. Which means he leaves the house at 6:30am.

I am not a morning person, so this is tough on me, but I push through it. Counting the hours to nap time usually helps.

Ellie (and I) have gotten into the habit of sleeping until 7:30 (me, until 7). I thought it'd be fine if I just left her bundled up in our bed sleeping (safely, of course) until her normal wake up time, so I went downstairs to be with Mak and commence the morning. Ellie stirred. I rushed up to comfort her back to sleep.

Mak followed. SHHHH!! I insist. He whines, wanting to "help" wake up his little sister. So I resort to what every parent resorts to in times of desperation.

Bribery.

If you let me put baby back to sleep, I whisper, I'll give you a jellybean.

He taps his chin with his finger. I see him thinking. Then, in his LOUDEST whisper, he replies: No, I want TWO jellybeans.

Fine, I say. I can spare two.

Too late. Mak's loud whisper carried into his sister's ears, and her eyes pushed wide open. I hang my head in defeat.

SHE'S AWAAAAAKE! Mak screams with a smile. He climbs on the bed and kisses her belly. I can't be mad.

But, no, I did not give up the jellybeans.

Much love,
The Dolfos

Weekend photo.

It's been hot, hot, hot this weekend! Perfect for some bubble fun.





Much love,
The Dolfos.

Weekend photo.

We've just been so busy! Left us quite tired:





Much love,
The Dolfos.

Disneyland - Day 1.

We have lots to celebrate this July... Abue turned 50! Our baby cousin, Lia, graduated high school and is headed to the prestigious St. Olaf in Minnesota.

Naturally, a trip to Disneyland was in order!

Makani insisted that the first ride we go on should be Buzz Lightyear. Fast line, so why not?



I carried Ellie around in a Tula carrier. She was safe and snug while still able to see everything.



Yes, that's Lia with a Mickey/Perry hat.



So excited to see Buzz!



Very serious work.



When you attempt Disneyland with two young kids, I'd assume that you generally look for rides with the shortest lines. That was our strategy and it worked really well.

Small world was next. Huge plus that it was air conditioned inside!



Ellie fell asleep. Disney is sooo relaxing when you're being carried by your mami.



Boys in wonder.



Kind of hard NOT to wake up when you hear loud music playing. This girl didn't cry once!



So happy.



Family photo attempt...



And again... Fail?



Brad took a turn in carrying Ellie with the Tula.. On his back!



Lunch was followed by Mickey shaped beignets! They were delicious!



After a failed attempt at naptime in the hotel room, we went straight back for more Disney fun.



Carousel ride!



That really ended up being all the Disney we could handle on day one. Had some lovely dinner, then back to the hotel for some quiet R&R so we could be ready for day two!

Much love,
The Dolfos.