La Plaza Olvera is where the heart of Mexican culture in Los Angeles beats. This is where all the tourists go to in downtown to get a feel of a traditional plaza with its mercadito, churros, tamales and obligatory knick knacks to buy. But Olvera Street is more than a tourist spot, it’s a historical landmark known as “the birthplace of Los Angeles,” or Nuestra Ciudad de Los Angeles.

So imagine how thrilled we were when Camila’s Spanish music teacher at school — which so happens to be Sara of Music with Sara! — told us the school’s Spanish immersion students had been invited to sing at the Plaza Olvera’s tree lighting ceremony! Of course we signed her up and she was super excited.

They sang a slew of traditional villancicos, as well as adored songs like “Cómo la Flor” and “Tómbola.” The kids were just amazing and our hearts melted every time Sara would get up to let the audience know that these kids are learning in two languages and most of them don’t even have the luxury of speaking Spanish at home. Yet there they were, singing their hearts out en español y en la Plaza Olvera.

Below are a few Instagram videos I made, but I also share more pictures of this beautiful moment, as well as of the other three music and ballet performances my daughter had the last few weeks, over in this post on my Babble column. She’s sure kept us busy y muy orgullosos!!

Some weeks ago I posted an update on my personal Facebook profile sharing how much I love volunteering at my daughter’s kindergarten Spanish immersion classroom. Not even five minutes later I get a text from a very good friend whom I spend a lot of time with teasing me about using the word “love” in the same sentence as “volunteering.” She kept on going that there was no way I could love that and I had to be exaggerating.

I told her she was totally off. She’s actually right in assuming I’m not the school-volunteering type, in the sense that I did try attending PTA meetings and all that jazz, but soon realized that where I really was more valuable and could make some direct impact was in the classroom.

One peculiar thing about dual immersion programs is that parents must not only be incredibly committed, but also very involved. The only drawback, is that for parents to be allowed to volunteer in the actual classroom, they must be fluent in the target language — in our case, Spanish. You can imagine how difficult this makes it for the teachers to have a steady flow of parents assisting in the classroom; and, yes, parents volunteering are an extremely valuable asset to the teacher. Most parents either work or don’t speak the language fluently enough, but I do.

So, I spend 90 minutes of my morning once per week doing flashcards of words and numbers in Spanish with my girl’s kindergarten classroom and I truly do love it. It’s created a very special bond between my daughter, her teacher and even with her classmates that I can’t put a value to.

I actually wrote a story that I’m sharing on Babble called “Flashcards With My Daughter” that describes exactly why I volunteer and the impact it has on my daughter and my involvement in her bilingual education. Please click here to read it. I think you will love it .

I know that firsthand since I grew up in a  war-torn El Salvador where tragedies, death and the fear of the anything-can-happen-to-you-at-anytime was prevalent. Yet, I grew up shielded from the rawness of the atrocities and the true darkness of it all. In other words, I grew up protected and with a veil over my eyes. I once regretted that, but now that I’m a mom I get it, I really get it.

Over at my Babble blog, Besos, I dig more into this story and my reasons for not wanting my daughter to know about the Aurora shootings or anything that goes on in the news until she definitely is old enough to “have” to. Here’s an excerpt of the post titled The Aurora Tragedy: Is it Even Possible to Shield Your Kids From Violence?

Am I naive in thinking that by shielding my 5-year-old daughter from real events I will protect her soul? YES I AM, and here’s why.

I grew up in El Salvador amidst a violent and bloody civil war. The war raged on until the year after I left my home country to go to college in my country of birth, the United States. The whole time I lived in El Salvador I was aware that there was political and civil unrest because there was no escaping it. I heard bombs on a semi-constant basis; I could recognize the sound of a fire cracker versus that of a shot (I still have a knack for that); I had to flee the country when in my senior year; my house had a permanent guard — rifle and all –at our front door all times; my stepdad’s cars were bullet proof; friends’ relatives were kidnapped, and on and on.

Read the entire post HERE.

There are stages in parenthood that are easier than others. We all want to grasp and hang on to those days when our children are cooperative, responsive and full of joy.

Then there are those days when they test our parenting skills – or lack of – and they take us to limits we honestly dread. We have to be honest and upfront that this happens even to the best and most zen of us. There’s a reason for it.

I truly believe that the tests our children put us through exist to show us about ourselves. I’m not being egotistical in the sense that it’s all about “me” and denying that there’s a root to the problem our children are experiencing in that moment. But once someone taught me that to change a child’s behavior, I needed to first see what had to change inside of me. We’re all a reflection of each other; or like the ancient Mayans used to say as a greeting to each other (and many still do): In Lak’ech – meaning “I am another yourself.”

I’m in reflection mode right now because my daughter is in a “phase” that’s feeling a bit temporary and it’s beating me up. I looked inside and what I found I shared here: I’ll Admit It: I Need Parenting Help.

Would love to know if you have these days, weeks, months when none of the parenting advice and/or skills seem to have any relevance. Please do share.

We were given some great news yesterday: SpanglishBaby made it to Babble’s Top 100 Mom Blogs of 2011.

We are honored and humbled to end an already blessed year on such a high note. And we have to thank all of you, our supportive community, for all the accolades we’ve received. Although the work is hard, your feedback tells us it’s all worth it. Thank you for believing in what we’re doing here and for helping us grow into such a welcoming community for all those who are raising bilingual and bicultural children.

But most of all, we’d like to take this moment to honor all the wonderful women without whom SpanglishBaby wouldn’t be what it is: our smart, engaged and totally dedicated contributors! Gracias chicas from the bottom of our hearts!

In fact, when you click on SpanglishBaby – #46 on Babble’s Top 100 list – you’ll see that under our favorite post this year we chose one from our very own contributor, Vanessa of De Su Mama. Her super personal post The Promise I Made To Raise My Daughter Bilingual was about how Vanessa’s abuelo made her promise to teach her daughter Spanish right before he passed away.

The post was heartbreakingly beautiful, but it also touched many of us because although we might have not made a similar promise, raising bilingual children is a matter of family and connection to our past and those we hold dear and near to our heart. ¡Gracias Vanessa!

The best part about our contributors is that each of them brings something completely different to this community. They each have a very distinct story to tell and they all come from different backgrounds.

So special thanks to:

— Chelsea, our Book Editor, who for the past few months has been compiling really awesome lists of bilingual and Spanish books for our children, writing reviews and posts about literacy that we have all been loving.

— Elsie who has delighted us all with her beautiful writing, provocative posts and touching poetry. You can also find her in her own blog, Mama Feminista.

— Susan who’s raising two trilingual boys (Spanish/German/English) using the OPOL method and this year spent several weeks in my home country, Peru, immersing her children in Spanish. Oh, and did I mention Spanish is NOT her fist language? We’re in awe of her.

— Suzanne another mom raising a trilingual baby (Spanish/French/English) and has been taking us through the process since before her daughter was born and she was researching the best ways to do it. Her daughter is a lucky little girl! You can find Susan blogging in her own space at Interpretations of a Bilingual Life.

— Kim who has shared with us many a personal post about raising her twin boys, who have special needs, bilingual. In doing so, she has showed us that the myths surrounding this issue and bilingualism are just that, myths. We appreciate her candor.

— Ericka, our Culture of Food contributor, who makes our mouth water every time we get one of her delicious recipes from her. Have you seen her recipe for Choco-Mint Christmas Cookies? They look absolutely yummy! I want some right now

— Tracy, our features writer extraordinaire and the mastermind behind the hilarious and extremely well-written Latinaish. She always, always comes through no matter what we throw her way!

— Ruby, of Growing Up Blackxican, a super talented mother of two who recently joined us and has been showering us with beautiful and not too complicated (thanks!) activities for our bilingual niños.

¡Mil gracias!