WordPress weekly photo challenge: Hands

These are the hands that tickle Elmo’s nose when he gives a hug to my son for a picture at SeaWorld San Diego. That will teach him to try to sell millions of Tickle me Elmo dolls.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: hands – Elmo and Bert at SeaWorld San Diego

These are the painting hands that let the artist’s creative juices flow freely.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Hands

These are the firefighter’s sturdy hands that sometimes need a little extra help from the jaws of life to save lives. Thank you, hands.

Firefighter holding the jaws of life in his hands

Of course, I couldn’t help myself from including Jewel’s beautiful and inspiring Hands song for this weekly photo challenge, so enjoy it!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Blue

Living in San Diego, CA, I get to enjoy beautiful blue skies the majority of the year. I’m not sure what makes the sky so blue here, but I’m guessing it has to do with our latitude and the ways the sun rays light up the sky. It really does help when taking photos of various subjects, and using the blue sky as a nice, contrasted background.

I took this photo in our backyard a few weeks ago, after what will probably be our last rain for the next six months.

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Blue

I also can’t help thinking about my boys when I hear the word blue. My whole world is blue because of them. They avoid the aisles of girl toys, calling them “the pink aisles”. They both have beautiful blue eyes and look great with blue tops, so I buy a lot of those. We also have a blue couch at our house, courtesy of IKEA. With a removable cover you can throw in the washer, this is one of the best furniture investments I’ve made with two kids. Here’s my four-year old when he was just a baby, sitting on the blue couch in his blue footsy pajamas, with his beautiful blue eyes (which you really can’t see well on this picture). 

And here’s a photo of his brother when he wasn’t even two years old, sitting on our blue couch in my blue T-shirt, using my Boppy pillow and a burpcloth to breastfeed his lovey. How cute is that? I also have a photo of him using my breastpump but you’ll have to wait for the color “yellow” to be the theme of the photo challenge!

I love you, Mama!

My early Mother’s Day card from art class

In honor of this upcoming Mother’s Day, I’d like to share a funny story about my personal journey through motherhood.

I love hugging, kissing and cuddling my kids throughout the day. And without prompting they often will do the same to me, even to each other. Watching these two brothers hugging will always be my favorite part! Every night before the kids go to sleep, I spend a few minutes in each bed, cuddling with them individually.

Here’s how things usually go with my four-year old when I’m about to leave his bed for the night. 

“Je t’aime beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup,” I’ll say.

If you don’t speak any French, this means I love you very, very, very much. 

To which my son will always (ALWAYS) respond, “I love you, caca liquide.” 

Again, if you don’t speak French you may need me to translate this one. Are you ready for it? It means, I love you, liquid poop. Lovely.

To his defense, you have to understand that over the years we’ve endured many bouts of digestive problems, stomach viruses and gross toilet stories. Diarrhea has been one of the many symptoms, but caca liquide is a lot easier to pronounce for a little one. And so it’s stuck with him as a “tender” term to call his own mother. It’s one of those jokes we’re both in on. Er, I think…

A couple of days ago though, the routine suddenly changed. Maybe my son was very tired and had already put his funny hat down for the night.

“Je t’aime beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup,” I told him.

“I love you, Mama,” he replied.

Say what? Oh my gosh, I love this kid! He finally admits he loves me, just me, no toilet jokes included. Ah, it felt so good.

So last night, I got myself ready for a repeat. I know, I do have high expectations for him, but it’s good to try to reach for the stars.

As I was leaving his bed, I whispered “Je t’aime beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup.”

That’s when I heard, “Je t’aime beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup, caca liquide.”

What can I say? The kid said it all in French! I’m a proud, beaming Mama…

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms around the world, whether you’re celebrating this weekend, or did earlier this week (year) or will do so later this month.

Oops, did I just hear the F word?

A few days ago my four-year old got in trouble at preschool for bossing the other kids around. The teacher was getting the classroom ready for an obstacle course and the kids were being pretty loud and rambunctious. So my son decided to take the matter in his own hands and tell his classmates to “shut up!”. I don’t know if he was effective but it didn’t go well with his teacher, who relayed the incident to me. He seems to be going through a “testing” stage right now and likes to assume his individuality and test boundaries, which can get on my nerves but I know he’ll eventually get over it.

I figured out the best thing to do would be to have him apologize to his teacher about telling the other kids to shut up. So we walked into the classroom the next morning while the teacher was alone and the other kids were standing outside. I asked my son what he had to say to his teacher.

“Sorry,” he said in a shy voice.

“Sorry for what?” I asked.

“Sorry for saying f&*^%ing.”

Oops, did I just hear the F word? Fortunately his teacher seems to have a good sense of humor because she couldn’t help but burst out laughing. As for me, I thought it was pretty f&*^%ing funny too! What can I say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree… This one will definitely make it to my Kids Say the Darndest Things list.

How to have a memorable start of the week

After a two-week hiatus for Spring break, my boys went back to school this morning. My five-year old starts at 8:15am so his brother and I drove to school to drop him off first. The two of us then go back to my car and read books while waiting for preschool to start 30 minutes later.

I had parked a little far away from the school so I gave my son the option to drive into the school parking lot when the time came. Except, I didn’t plan on my car not to start. Nooooooooooo! I had power and I could hear some electronic noises as I turned the key in the ignition, but it was still a no-go.

So we walked to class while the wheels in my head started spinning. I had planned to stop by my P.O. box to collect an overdue client’s check, bring all of my payments to the bank, stop by the library to drop off books and get new ones, inquire about summer camps, even do some work… Of course it would all have to wait until I found out what was wrong with my car. 

As we were walking, I heard my little guy express some concern. If my car was going to need repair, how would I pick up his brother from school and get everybody home? I loved to see how concerned he was about his brother’s well-being. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he gets picked up two hours before his brother, so I may have a problem…

Back in my car, I called Ford Roadside Assistance. They promised me a tow truck in 45 minutes. It arrives in just 20. The tow truck driver inquired about my car trouble. I demonstrated the no-start feature and he guessed the battery was probably dead. But I still have power, I said! Can you guess I don’t know much about cars? For my defense, the last time I had a dead battery, the car was completely dead – no vital signs whatsoever. The driver brought jumper cables over, connected them to my battery and asked me to start the car. Vrooooom! Halleluyah!

Damn car battery, dead after only 20,000 miles. I’ll blame three people for this. My two kids for leaving the overhead lights on overnight too many times. How many times have I asked you to turn off those lights? You’re going to drain my battery. Well, you’ve done it now! Of course, I should also blame myself for leaving the car doors and trunk open all the time when the car is parked in the garage. And for leaving the radio and fan on every day when I stay in the car with my youngest before preschool.

I thanked Akram, my Middle-Eastern tow truck driver, for saving the day. This guy had the most mesmerizing golden eyes I’ve ever seen. So cool looking I really wanted to take a picture of them. Come on, what’s my chance of meeting someone with such rare eye color ever again? But I didn’t want to look more looney than I already appeared, so I got back in my car and drove off. Instead I took a picture of this very cute rabbit, who was having a feeding frenzy while I was waiting for the tow truck.

White tail jack rabbit in San Diego

I drove to Pepboys and got a new car battery in just 45 minutes, leaving me enough time to run a few of my errands before picking up my four-year old from preschool at noon. Not bad after such a bumpy start.

Happy Monday, everyone!