My crazy, over-stimulated life

Dear door-to-door salesman, friend stopping by to chat, family member who expects my house to be clean, and girlfriends during craft night,

I am sorry that you have been at my door for 45 minutes trying to sell me household cleaning products, and that my silence leads you to believe that I will. My mind is as empty as my fridge because I haven't been grocery shopping nigh on a month. To my friend who wants me to go with her to Zumba this week... ah yes. It was my idea that we go to that. Sorry I forgot. Sorry I will probably forget again.

The truth is I am overwhelmed. And I have the results, or rather the lack of results to prove it.

My house is in a state of unrest, the toys and clothes are competing guerrilla forces and there is only all-out civil war in sight. Or more accurately, the real insurgents are battle-crying three- and four-year-olds that will only cease fire if Mom drops the iPad and brings out the blocks. Or gummy snacks. Or.. **breathing into a paper bag** the watercolors..

Did you know the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours of screen time for older toddlers and preschool kids? Any more than that over-stimulates the little tykes, and leaves parents with turnips for children. "Tubers and the tube". Couch potatoes.

Weeelll, with the squash I painted orange at pumpkin-painting night as my witness, I too am easily over-stimulated.

There's so much I want to cram into each day, so many newspapers to read and daily deals to check in my inbox. By the way, the Thanksgiving week newspaper delivery was out of control. It got to be so many that I stopped bringing them inside. That and toys + clothes piled knee-high really drains a person.

And so I crawl under my stack of to-dos and hide, it's too much I tell myself. Total mental shutdown.

But when your little ones surprise you with catapults and castles they've fashioned out of blocks, or your mini-Monet actually paints something recognizable, it hits home. Even the non-verbal baby shows his love for you in a full, if toothless, grin. My boys dress me as a princess and give me bouquets of the flowers that are supposed to go on the Christmas tree. These little guys not only keep me on my toes but they often have a solution where my creative consciousness falls short. They rely on me and Job to meet their physical and emotional needs and in return things are so much more fun with them around. I love my crazy, over-stimulated life!

"In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul." *

Me at craft night with my homegirls: "Oh, I'm just painting the squash the color it should be," I told the group. And that was orange. Go figure.

*Lisa T. Shepherd

Ruckus at the caucus

Am I the first person to cry at a caucus meeting? Picture a very prego lady who parked illegally 1/2 mile away from the door of the school building and arrived to her caucus meeting a little flushed but determined to do her duty as a citizen. Cuz that was me on March 15, 2012 and I may have looked ready to pop, but for me, being there to vote was so right. At least until they asked for delegate nominees and I got that tap-on-the-shoulder impression that it was my turn to stand up and yes, nominate myself. 

My speech was heartfelt, I talked of PTA advocacy and being on graffiti watch in my neighborhood but I felt very strongly that I should tell the small gathering just exactly where the Republican party was heading vote-wise with the Latino college-aged kids. I related to them an article in the Salt Lake Trib's weekly Spanish paper where they interviewed youth at the University of Utah and they kids expressed that the Republican party held nothing for them. They claimed that their needs were being ignored. And I concluded, in the spirit of transparency, by telling everyone that my husband would become a citizen in April. The looks in the faces at my neighborhood caucus meeting told me that they were not prepared for this kind of a talk, I had lost them.

Long story short, the group could only vote in 3 of the delegates and out of the 4 nominees I was the one not voted in. I stood up in my chair as my already flushed face turned blotchy and tried to make my way out the door. Two men seemed to want to intervene, to say that I made some good points but whaddya know, their condolences only opened the floodgates. 

My point is this, we can all guess that the big issue for Latinos is immigration. A survey referenced in a December article of that same weekly Spanish newspaper also named the economy and jobs as factors for the presidential vote among Latinos. But the Republican party has chosen a hard line on the immigration subject and, in so doing, has cast aside the opportunity of rallying this untapped market."Republicanos en aprietos para ganar el voto hispano.", AhoraUtah 

Do I necessarily think that the Republican party is the end all, be all of our democratic system? Uh no. But I feel like the party that aimed to appeal to married, religious voters had a huge gap in foresight in ignoring the Latino demographic."Religion, marriage and the GOP's demographic challenge brought to the fore by 2012 election", Deseret News

Unleashing the blogger in me

Two years and yet another man-child later, I am reminiscing on the good 'ole days when I not only led bilingual storytime at the library every week (I called it Spanish playgroup) but miraculously lived to tell about it on my blog. Times may have changed (that's three kids now!) but I am again drawn back to the blogosphere. The thing is this time I come with a platform. I am still a momma to my boys, never fear, and my husband is my greatest ally and friend. I still count my lucky stars that I have my faith to help pick me up when I fall, and to give life it's savor. I would be nothing without it.

And here's the kicker: I'm not the only one!

To my Latino friends and all else who will carry the same banner. Let faith, family and holy matrimony be the standard we bear. So let it be written, so let it be done. I hope you'll join in the discussion and follow the issues with me. And by the way, I'm not gonna undo what I've already done with this blog. So feel free to browse archives if you have a hankering for homemade drum crafts and contextualized immersion. Or not :)

Our Christmas posadas

It has been great to have ten days with my parents-in-law, my brothers-in-law, sister-in-law and lots and lots of Spanish speaking. Being the only family with grandchildren on my husband's side has its advantages. Many of the festivities took place at our house. One of the highlights was that we put on our very own pastorela (nativity play). My youngest son was a donkey, my eldest an angel and my brother and sister-in-law (who are newlyweds) got to be Mary and Joseph. We did no preparations in advance other than making crowns for the three kings, donkey ears and throwing together a manger. It was fun though to read directly from scripture and just kind of improvise the acting with what was read aloud. We did it only for ourselves, there was no audience, but it felt good remembering the purpose of the season in such a hands-on way. My sister-in-law especially liked it when my youngest exclaimed "Tia!" for the first time at the end of our closing song. What can I say, it was a hallelujah moment!

There were pre-party setbacks, emotional family meetings and even late-night stitches this holiday (think forehead to sharp-cornered shoe stand!) but our family has been brought closer together and we're stronger for it. Strengthening these ties is, I hope, the foundation my children will need to keep hold of their Latin culture and Spanish-language heritage.

And my side of the family was a part of the action too. My siblings watched El Grinch (The Grinch in Spanish) with the rest of us and sang us villancicos they learned in their dual-language academy. Ever since my parents and younger siblings have buckled down and started learning Spanish, it has thrown a curve into my 2 year old's language separation. With talk of regalos and navidad coming from his tios who 6 months prior spoke no Spanish at all, he started chiming out in Spanglish "Quiero open it" with gusto during present unwrapping time.

Needless to say, we had a blast this Christmas.

Library Playgroup: Hispanic Heritage Month, Columbus Day and decorating banderas (flags)

Music/Movement Time:
Sapito/Little Toad
Un sapito (A little toad)
Que feliz vivía (Lived happily)
Debajo de un puente donde un charco había (Under a bridge where there was a puddle)
Dura dura dura dura pas pas pas (nonsense words)
Yaqui yaqui yaqui yaqui pas pas pas

Cabeza, Cara, Hombros, Pies/Head, Face, Shoulders, Feet
Cabeza, cara, hombros, pies (Head, Face, Shoulders, Feet)
Hombros, pies (Shoulders, feet)
Hombros, pies (shoulders, feet)
Cabeza, cara, hombros, pies (Head, Face, Shoulders, Feet)
Y una vuelta entera (And a full spin/turn)

Song vocabulary:
El sapito - the toad
Feliz - happy
La cabeza - head
La cara - face
Los hombros - shoulders
Los pies - feet
Una vuelta entera - a full spin/turn

Storytime:
De la A a la Z con Cristóbal Colón


Display/Story vocabulary:
La máscara - mask
El barco - boat
El país - the country (nation)
Las plumas - feathers
El maíz - corn
Frijoles/Judios - beans
El mar - the sea
La bandera - the flag

This was a super cute book about Columbus reaching the new world and what he found there. We had a good time reading about the people and structures and even gods of the Americas at that time.

Activity:
1. We decorated banderas. I had moms pick in advance the country their kids would like to represent and then we had full-color flags to glue feathers, beads, noodles, pipe cleaners and tissue paper to using the pre-Columbian setting from storytime as our inspiration!

Library Playgroup: Hispanic Heritage Month, drums and circle game

I had a really fun time finding ideas to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month!

Welcome song:
Cantemos todos juntos, Halo, Halo, Halo
Cantemos todos juntos, Halo, Halo, Halo

Cantemos a (name here), Halo, Halo, Halo
Cantemos a (name here), Halo, Halo, Halo

Cantemos a (name here), Halo, Halo, Halo
Cantemos a todos, Halo, Halo, Halo

Let's all sing together, Hello, Hello, Hello
Let's all sing to (name here), Hello, Hello, Hello
Let's sing to everyone, Hello, Hello, Hello

Getting to know you:
Jimbo the puppet introduced himself and asked kids, "Cómo te llamas?" and "Cuántos años tienes?" which means, "What's your name?" and "How old are you?"

Activities:
1. We did a traditional circle game from Spain called "La Tía Mónica". You can watch some little girls dance to a slightly different version on youtube.

Lyrics in both English and Spanish are found here, as well as a sound file you can play on your computer.

We actually played the José-Luis Orozco version at the playgroup though, it's from his cd "Diez Deditos". In English it's "My Aunt Monica" and it's a cute song about how a child's aunt moves different body parts when she dances.

Vocabulary:
los ojos - eyes
las sejas - eyebrows
las pestañas - eyelashes
la nariz - nose
la cabeza - head
los hombros - shoulders
los codos - elbows
"así se da la vuelta" - this is how she turns

2. We made caribbean congo-style drums with plastic circles cut from a blue kiddie pool and some sturdy plastic cups. We used rubber bands to attach the plastic and then decorated them with stickers and paper. I got this idea from Handy Manny's Hispanic Heritage Month Party page.



After that we drummed along to a song called "Debajo del Botón" on the same José-Luis Orozco cd. It has these great repetitions like, "Debajo del botón, ton, ton que encontró Martín, tin ,tin" and so on that are perfect for keeping rhythm with. I said "un, dos, tres" a few times to add extra emphasis as I drummed.

Transition to playtime song:
Ahora vamos a jugar, a jugar, a jugar
Ahora vamos a jugar, a jugar, a jugar

Excerpt from "Y Ahora Vamos a Cantar" also on the cd "Diez Deditos"

Cleaning song:
Limpia, limpia
Guarda todo en su lugar
Limpia, limpia
Todos deben cooperar

Taken from Barney, it's the "Cleanup" song, spanish version

Downtown Playgroup: Seasons, Weather, Tactile Adjectives

We've had three get togethers as of today and we've talked about the seasons fall and winter, weather, and learned some tactile adjectives.

Seasons/Weather:
Vocabulary:
las hojas - leaves
el otoño- fall
el invierno - winter
la lluvia - rain
el viento - wind
el sol - sun
la nieve - snow
la tormenta - storm

Activities:
1. We crumpled up squares of tissue paper in red and yellow to represent las hojas and in white to represent la nieve and we threw them around the room and blew them around just like el viento does.

2.We made a tormenta with a spray bottle of water as la lluvia, the metal sheet from the front of my dishwasher to shake for trueno (thunder) and a cardboard representation of a nube (cloud) to wave to make viento. We also turned the lights off and on to represent relámpago (lightning).

3. We took a big floppy teddy bear and dressed him with appropriate clothes for un día soleado (sunny day), de nieve (a snowy day) y de lluvia (and a rainy day). The clothing they chose from: sun hat, swim shorts, surf shirt, snow suit, scarf, rain jacket and an umbrella

Songs:
Cae la Lluvia Alrededor
Este Era un Mono
Palomitas de maíz


Tactile Adjectives:
Vocabulary:
frío - cold
liso - smooth
áspero - rough
suave - soft
duro - hard

Activities:
1. I brought a bin of dress up clothes and while the kids put on dress up items we talked about the different textures. There was a vest to dress up like a lion that was suave and a straw hat that was áspero. They also played with a helmet that was duro and also liso.

2. We set up a learning table where the kids touched ice cubes that were frío and rocks that were either liso or áspero. There was also sandpaper for the kids to touch.

3. We went around the room describing things we saw and, among other things, found a couch that was suave and a table that was liso and duro.

Songs:
I made this one up and sung it to a tune that was familiar to me. You could pick any tune that is familiar to you.

Suave, suave, como el gato
Duro, armadillo
Liso, liso, como uvas
Áspero, piña