Daily Learning

When my husband and I met our daughter’s preschool teachers during orientation last year, we made sure we let both of them know we were raising her bilingual using the mL@H method. We explained that although, at first, it would seem as if Vanessa was not very verbal, the truth was that her vocabulary was much more extensive in Spanish than in English, since we only speak to her in the former. We just wanted to make sure that theyRead More ...

I forgot how much we enjoy it… It’s totally true what they say about second children being a bit neglected. I’m guilty. I remember I started reading to my daughter, Vanessa, a few days after we brought her home from the hospital. Unfortunately, such has not been the case with my son. I could go on to list the myriad of reasons why, but I guess the most important thing is to just change it. I do have to sayRead More ...

“Au revoir,” my daughter finally said to the owner of our neighborhood French bakery recently as we were leaving after getting our fill of the most yummy, buttery croissants and perfectly baked quiche Lorraine. I was beaming. She’s known how to say goodbye in French for a while now, but she always refuses to say it when I prod…I wonder why? We go to the bakery at least once every two weeks, after I pick her up from preschool .Read More ...

My girl is finally at an age (2.6) where she can manage to sit still long enough to be read a book.  I was always jealous of moms who could sit with their baby or toddler and go through a book without having it fly across the room or be torn, chewed on or otherwise destroyed.  We couldn´t even really enjoy storytime at our local libraries because there was just no sitting still for Camila.  Running, screaming, snacks in theRead More ...

For some reason I can’t even explain, I’ve always said Thanksgiving is not a holiday I feel connected to…until now. You see, even though I’ve never hosted a Thanksgiving feast, I’ve always attended one. It’s usually over at my sister’s who loves to entertain and always has the best and most delicious concoctions for any feast. This year, however, she’s not around and for the past couple of weeks, I’ve had this strange feeling, a kind of empty feeling everyRead More ...

One of the things that I love the most about the fact that mi mamá lives so close to us–besides the obvious–is that she’s always teaching my daughter, Vanessa, songs and stories from my childhood that I don’t even remember. These help her enrich her vocabulary without making it a task, but it also reinforces our cultural heritage, an area in which I feel like I always need help. When she was a baby, it was my mom who startedRead More ...

Although I know most people would just find it funny–I mean, even I chuckled when I first heard it–the truth is I was pretty disturbed by what happened a few days ago while my daughter, Vanessa, was building a house with her pink and purple blocks. We were in the living room and she was telling me what she was doing when, all of a sudden, one of the towers she had built toppled to the ground. Her reaction wasRead More ...

Last April marked five years since one of the most spectacular human beings I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet, passed away… mi papá. April was the last month of 2004 that he was alive, although I don’t know if alive is an accurate description for he was in ICU a while and afterward he was never really himself. I think about him everyday, but specially this month because my Dad used to hate Father’s Day and his birthday –Read More ...