Kevin has been taking the kids swimming just about every week. Mostly they go to Grandma’s house, but the picture above was taken in my cousin’s backyard. Thanks to Daddy’s tutelage, I’m proud to announce that as of 3 weeks ago Alex is a swimmer! He can tread water, doggy paddle, and swim underwater!

Here’s Ana carefully portioning American cheese into bite size pieces. Of our two older children, she’s the one who shares Daddy’s love of cheese. Other than American she also likes cheddar and Gorgonzola.

Ana went through a pirate phase, walking around the house growling, “Arrr! I’m a pirate!” then summoning us to her bedside telling us she couldn’t sleep for fear of pirates, despite Kevin’s assurances that pirate ships can’t sail into the Inland Empire. Finally I learned that Alex had been telling her scary pirate stories at bedtime. I asked him to quit it, and Ana’s worries about pirates disappeared overnight.

Two weeks ago I cooked up 8 lbs of pork that Kevin bought on sale. I made Chinese bbq pork, carnitas, and chile colorado. Ironically, the Chinese dish turned out extremely mediocre, but the two Mexican dishes turned out fantastic. Kevin said they take him back to a little village in Guadalajara. I said just call me Rosa Chen.

Tags: summery
Categories: food, kids and parenting
1 Comment »

School let out for the summer about 2 weeks ago. Alex and Ana have been staying home with me. Every morning they get up astoundingly early, earlier than they would on school days. By the time I get up they’ve usually been awake for 2 or 3 hours. At first they waited for me to get up to ask for breakfast, but lately Ana has started scavenging for food herself. She rummages through the cabinets that she can reach to find cereal, then eats it dry out of the box. Alex doesn’t seem to have much appetite in the mornings, so he still waits until I’m up before eating.

Earlier this week I finally got over the summer cold that Angie recovered from over a week ago and Ana recovered from over 2 weeks ago. It wasn’t much, just some sinus congestion. At one point I even forgot that I was sick. But when it started turning into sinusitis I felt totally listless. In the end I successfully fought it off without antibiotics, so I guess all that time spent feeling mentally useless was worthwhile.

Last week, this made me laugh…

Ana: (with a blanket draped over her head) Look Alex! Oooooh! I’m a zombie!

Today, this made me stammer…

Alex: Mom, is it really you and Dad that put the presents under the tree at Christmas?

Tags: sick,silly,summery
Categories: kids and parenting
2 Comments »