My son Santiago suffers from second child syndrome. Have you ever heard of that? It refers to how most second children don’t get the same kind of attention first children get. It’s not like I’m neglecting Santiago or anything like that, I just haven’t done the same sort of things I did with Vanessa at his age.

For starters, I’ve been working full-time since right before he turned one, which means I haven’t had nearly as much free time with him as I had with her. We also stopped going to our bilingual children meetup once Vanessa started kindergarten, so Santiago never really got the chance to make any friends in the group. I’ve also noticed I don’t read to him as much as I read to her, although luckily, now that Vanessa knows how to read, she does a lot of the reading and Santiago loves it.

Then, the other day he was giving me a hard time while I was trying to get him dressed for preschool when I decided to start singing “Arroz con leche” just out of the blue. Santiago LOVES music like no other child I’ve met and I was amazed that my singing worked wonders since he immediately came to me and let me get him dressed. But it broke my heart to realize that even though he wanted, he couldn’t follow along because he didn’t know the lyrics.

How is is possible that my 3-year-old son can’t sing “Arroz con leche“? I felt terrible so I continued singing to see what other traditional children’s songs in Spanish he didn’t know. “Los pollitos dicen“? Barely. “Aserrín, aserrán“? Not a clue. “Tengo una muñeca“? Never heard of it. Seems like “Pimpón” was the only one he knew almost in its entirety.

At his age, Vanessa knew how to sing all of the songs above and many more. I know it’s not the end of the world because I can still teach them to him, but it just got  me thinking how crazy it is that I didn’t even realize he hasn’t really heard them all that much.

Music is such a great way of enriching a bilingual child’s vocabulary — and in Santiago’s case even more so since he’s so in love with music. So now we’re making sure we listen to all the CD’s we have with traditional children’s music in Spanish. Santiago has a CD player in his room, so I’ve just started playing these songs whenever we’re in his room and he’s totally into them.

Teaching my son these traditional songs reminds me of my own childhood, and I can only hope that one day, when he becomes a dad, he’ll sing them to his child and remember his own childhood. By the way, if you don’t remember all the lyrics, there’s an amazing site called Mama Lisa’s Wolrd which includes all of them (with English translations) divided by country. Besides songs, you can also find nursery rhymes from all over the world. I promise that once you visit, you’ll be hooked and you’ll remember even more traditional children’s songs in Spanish.

The two CDs we play the most in our house are Canciones Infantiles and Canciones Infantiles del Tiempo de la Abuela.

And here’s a list of some of our other favorite CD’s with children’s music in Spanish:

• Music With Sara
• Salsa for Kittens & Puppies
• Caramba Kids
• Moona Luna
• Chocolalala
• Sones de México Ensemble
• Cha Cha Cha: Canciones Infantiles
• Chakuchukuchá-Bilingual Latin Beats
• The SpanglishBaby YouTube Musica Playlist

The one comfort food I crave when the temperature goes down or when I’m down with a cold is a warm bowl of arroz con leche. In El Salvador we eat arroz con leche warm and with a very watery consistency, more like a soup than a pudding. I remember it was the one thing I looked forward to when I got sick!

Pastry Chef Luis Villavelazquez, the creator of the delicious recipe below, decided to take on the challenge of revamping traditional Latino breakfast recipes and adding the special touch of honey instead of sugar. ”Using honey allows me to innovate, and as the basis for these recipes it adds character to some items and also beautiful floral flavors to others without over stimulating the senses,” said Chef Villavelazquez.

I’m actually giving this one a try because I always prefer natural honey over sugar and need to bring back the tradition of arroz con leche in my house!

Arroz con Leche with Honey Recipe

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 oz of honey
• 1/2 cup of white Jasmine rice
• 2 cups of 2% milk
• 1/2 cup of cream
• 1/2 tbsp orange zest
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Preparation:

In a large pot, heat milk, cream and rice. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring consistently to prevent rice from burning on the bottom of the pot. During this time, grate 1/2 an orange peel, being careful to only grate the orange part and not the white pith. Next, add the honey and vanilla extract. Cook for another 8-10 minutes until the rice is cooked and has a nice bite texture. Top with orange zest, serve and enjoy!

*Note: When re-heating, warm 1 cup of milk in a pot and add in chilled porridge. Bring to a boil. Add more honey to taste.

Photo by The Infamous Gdub

I think one of the treats I took the most for granted when I lived in El Salvador and, later, in Mexico was the paleta, the ultimate frozen treat.  They are everywhere and anywhere.  I grew up with the ding, ding of the bell hanging from the paletero’s cart as he walked in front of my house at the same time every afternoon.  My favorites were the paletas de coco, de fresa, pistachio and horchata.

I still remember the time my father, who lives in Houston, went to visit me in Mexico City.  He would make me take him to the corner paletería every single day to devour one or two paletas.  I seriously thought it was a bit obsessive from his part.  I could understand if he wanted something more típico, like quesadillas de huitlacoche, something he just couldn´t find in Texas.

Now that I don’t have paletas at every street corner, I get it and I crave them. You might think a popsicle is just a popsicle. How different can they be?  If you´ve ever had a popsicle in a Latin country you know what I´m talking about.  These paletas are thick, creamy, rich and totally natural.  The typical Mexican ones have bits and chunks of the fruit frozen in them.  Since diversity is what Mexican culture is all about you can find paletas in tons of flavors ranging from fruits, nuts, flowers, cucumbers and even chiles.  Yes…have you ever tried a mango con chile paleta?  Yum, yum.

I live in L.A. where I can find comparable-tasting paletas if I look and go out of my way.  The paleteros in my hood don´t carry the real deal.  Natural is so hard to come by these days.  So, my best alternative is to make them myself for my paleta-obsessed 3 year old.

I recommend spending a couple of dollars in a basic paleta mold that you can reuse.  I bought these some months ago and really like that I can pop out each one individually.  Another option is to use paper cups and wooden popsicle sticks.

For any basic paleta de agua you will need fruit, water, probably some lime, and a blender. The idea is to make a chunky juice and then just pour it into the molds and freeze for 5 hours. The chunkier, the tastier.  Try this site for a good variety of simple recipes.

If you want to get more fancy and prepare a heartier paleta, I´ve got a couple of tasty milk-based recipes that Toma Leche sent my way.  Somehow, they convinced a bunch of the best paleterías in California to share their most popular recipes. And now, I’m sharing my favorite recipe with you. A paleta can’t get more real or nostalgic than this.

This is also a great summertime activity with your kid where you can tell them in Spanish all about arroz con leche, paletas and the memories they stir.

Paleta de Arroz con Leche (makes 12 paletas)

Ingredients

1 cup of rice

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup whole milk

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup condensed milk

To make:

Put the rice and cinnamon stick in a saucepan with enough water to cover the rice completely and a bit more.  With the heat on low, let the water evaporate just to where it’s level with the top of the rice and add the whole milk. Continue simmering until the rice is “al dente.”

Add the sugar in the saucepan and mix together.  After 5 minutes add the evaporated milk and mix.  Once the rice is cooked through, transfer to a serving plate and then add the condensed milk.  You can blend the rice and milk before pouring into the paleta molds.  For an extra touch, add a pinch of cinnamon and/or raisins to taste.  Put in the freezer for four hours.

When you’re ready to take the paleta out of the mold, pass it under warm running water and gently pull until it comes out.

Tell us, what’s your favorite sabor de paleta?

Disclosure:  I was invited by the lovely ladies of Toma Leche to learn about their new campaign and was treated to a tasty paleta.  All the words I wrote about my paleta obsession are completely mine, mine.