The birds and the bees

Our dinner-table conversations lately have been about baby names. The kids think it's hillarious to come up with silly names for the baby (mostly character names like Winnie the Pooh or Dora the Explorer). Then Lucia said, "Next time we have a boy, we can name him..." I stoppped her mid-sentence to say, "There won't be a next time. No more babies after this." And Lucia said, "How do you know?" I said, "Because I'm the factory and it's closing after this one." Lucia proceded to ask, "But don't babies come from heaven? What if another one decides to come down from heaven?" Hmmm, I thought, how to answer that one? "Well, they do come from heaven, but we aren't having anymore." She then asked, "How does the baby get into your tummy anyway?" Julio and I looked at each other and then he changed the subject, "So how was school today?"

I guess we'll have to have "the talk" soon since she's becoming more curious about it. I just don't know exactly how to go about it. Any suggestions? I could say something like: when a mommy and daddy love each other, they come together and the daddy puts a seed into the mommy's tummy. I don't know!!!! Help! I guess I should go get a book about it from the library that explains it in a more child friendly way. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Travesura #10

Another Sylviaism. Today, when I came out of the shower, I found Sylvia jumping on my bed throwing something white into the air and yelling, "Its snowing!" I couldn't figure out what it was, until I got a closer look. Her clothes and hair, my entire bed, and the carpet were covered in PONDS COLD CREAM!!!!!!! She had climbed up on the vanity and gotten the jar and opened it and smeared it everywhere. I was shocked, and then...I stepped on the tube of toothpaste that was on the floor and saw there was toothpaste all over the carpet as well! I swear, this child is going to give me a heart attack one of these days. And when I reprimanded her and stuck her in the shower with all her clothes on, she just laughed and said, "Sorry Mom!" She is now locked in her room where she will remain the rest of the afternoon. I know, I'm a mean mommy, but I can't handle another disaster right now. And, Julio is in San Francisco. Lovely.

Catching up.

So January is the longest, dullest month of the year with it's gloomy, cold weather. We've been getting back into our school routine. Lucia was Star of the Week last week at school. She got to take some of her favorite photos from home and some of her favorite items (her Goldilicious book, a maraca her Primary teacher brought her from Mexico, and a block with a picture of her and her siblings and cousins). She got to present her stuff to her class on Friday and I missed it! I got there right after she was done. Bummer! I did take treats for her to share with her class. I am the worse picture taker!

After school on Friday, we went to see Aunt Nancy who came to visit from Oregon (she's actually my great-aunt). She has given our kids many darling stuffed animals over the years from a gift shop downtown called Joann's. Sadly, Joann is closing her doors and so Aunt Nancy came to help and buy the last gifts for our kids. They were so excited to open their new stuffed animals!

Another change as of this month is with Julio's job. His office here in town ran out of work for him to do, so they're sending him to their San Francisco office. It is a 2 1/2 hour commute each way and costs $40 per day to travel. It is a long and exhausting day when he has to go to SF. Last week, he only went 3 days, so hopefully he'll be able to stay in town the majority of the time with enough work to keep him busy. We don't know what the future holds, he is looking for another job, but we want to keep our health insurance until the baby comes. It's hard, but staying positive and praying for reassurance has helped.

Happy New Year!

The Hernandez Family New Year's Party (10:30 pm New Year's Eve)

We had a very low-key New Year's. Julio and I went to dinner at Spataro's downtown with our friends the Donaldson's. The kids went to Callie and Brian's. We were home by 9, and as you can see, all but Julio conked out. We did let the kids watch the ball drop in New York City live. I was telling Lucia that I was there on New Year's Eve once. She asked what year it was and I told her it was New Year's 2000. She asked what year was it before that and when I said 1999-she couldn't fathom it.

This year we are looking forward to our new baby girl being born. Julio and I were talking about what goals to set. We need to read the scriptures every night as a family. I need to potty train Sylvie. He's going to work on the yard. Other than that, we don't have any big trips planned or anything. I guess we'll see how things go.

Here's hoping for the best in 2011!

Christmas Day

These pictures are out of order. At Mom and Dad's house Christmas Day.

The aftermath.

Julio and Brian with the pillow pets.

Before the kids came in.

I think I was just as excited as the kids were this year. They had made their wish lists and sent them to Santa and were anxiously awaiting to see if their wishes came true. Well, they did get EVERYTHING on their list this year. Can you say spoiled? Actually, they didn't ask for much or for anything extravagent. I'm enjoying this time while they are little and aren't asking for expensive electronics or video games. So we can endulge since some of the things they wished for cost less than $5. So, the kids woke up at 8 and we let them into our room to have our family talk before we went in to see what Santa brought. They were so anxious, it was hard to get video of them running down the hall. Marco's first words were, "It's just what I wanted!" Lucia kind of walked past her gift and started looking through her stocking. I said, what about the present? And she said, "That's not what I wanted." (hmmm, she asked for a Barbie Vacation House and she got a Barbie Party Cruise instead). She quickly got over that though. Sylvie was too interested at first to see what her siblings got to notice what she got. She doesn't say much, but she did push her stroller around for a little bit.

Then we waited for Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle B, Callie, Brian and Eden to come over to have breakfast and open the rest of the presents. It took us well over an hour to open everything. It was a good year. We were able to skype with Tami and Dan and the kids in Utah and Brian and Callie skyped with his parents in Slovenia. By the time it was all done, I had a migraine and went to bed.