Wedding day!

Today Ted and I celebrate 12 years of marriage. The past 4 years have been a lot more interesting than the first 8 were, but we haven't had much time to reflect on that. For the past few days, our minds have been consumed by a much more recent wedding: Tia Glenda and Tio Bill finally tied the knot yesterday!

Arriving at the reception

The kids were supposed to be the ring bearers and flower girls, but things didn't quite go as planned. While waiting to get our pictures taken, Isaac realized that we'd put mousse in his hair and freaked out. He did not recover in time to walk down the aisle (hours later!), but Jude saved the day by marching to the front of the church by himself, carrying both his Bible and Isaac's ring pillow. (Witnesses tell me that he walked right up the platform toward his Abuelito, who was officiating the ceremony. After a bridesmaid delivered him to his daddy, he loudly declared, "I did it! But I walked too fast.") The girls, who were right behind Jude, got off to a good start, but when Dahlia ran out of petals halfway to the altar, it was her turn to freak out, and both girls turned back, crying.

With a 25% success rate, it feels like it was a whole lot of effort for very little return. But I am consoled by the fact that, by the time Glenda and Bill celebrate their 12th anniversary, all they'll care about is how adorable the kids looked in their wedding attire:

We love you, Tia Glenda and Tio Bill! Thanks for making us a part of your day!

"Vintage" clothes

As you probably know by now, I'm a sucker for comparison photos. So this weekend, when Lucy and Dahlia found the muumuus that Tia Glenda brought them from Hawaii a couple of years ago, I just had to grab my camera. Here is the original picture I posted of the girls modeling their then-new outfits:

And here they are in the same outfits (matching bloomers now serving as shorts), almost exactly two years later:

The girls also still love to wear the dresses that Bisabuelo brought them from Peru nearly three years ago:

Last year they wore them as long shirts over khaki shorts; today they wore them as decidedly shorter shirts with the very same shorts (apparently Lucy and Dahlia are getting taller but not any bigger around!):

Very soon my beautiful daughters will grow out of these not-quite-vintage clothes. When they do, you can bet that I will carefully put away these special outfits in the hopes of someday seeing my granddaughters grow up in them!

Inhibition can wait

Dance like no one's watching? When you're 3 years old, there is no other way to dance:



Who cares if your moves are a little more Benes than Jagger? When you're 3 years old, inhibition can wait!

If only I could figure out how to bottle her utter lack of self-consciousness ... I know I'll be longing for this age of innocence soon enough!

Stoplights and marbles

There's a new sheriff in town:

Our refrigerator chart

Here's how it works: Every morning, the kids all start out on green (happy face). Throughout the day, bad behavior such as talking back or not listening can get you moved to yellow (worried face). You have two chances to make a better choice before you land on yellow, but some infractions (such as hitting) will land you directly on red (sad face). You can get back on green by being obedient, kind, helpful, or otherwise having a better attitude.

If you are on green at the end of the day, you get to put a marble in a jar; landing on red at any time, however, means that you must take a marble out of the jar. When the jar is filled, you get a big prize! Right now the kids are working toward a trip to a cafe (something that they've been begging to do after seeing one on TV) and they are almost there:

Our marble jar 
(full for the purpose of demonstration)

Lucy, Jude, and Dahlia are highly motivated by this system because it's what their teacher used in preschool last semester and they understand what the stakes are. Since Isaac was in a different classroom, however, he is still learning just what this green/yellow/red business means. He does get a kick out of putting a marble in the jar, though—so much so that, even though we have not yet formally tried to potty train him, he now goes #2 exclusively in the potty just for the chance to "putta narble inna jar":

So proud of himself!

And I think that, alone, makes our stoplight system a resounding success!

Copycat artist

Check out what I found on Isaac's magnadoodle today:

Magnadoodle art by Isaac, 3.5 years old

Don't recognize it? Maybe this will jog your memory:

Believe it or not, Isaac copied the logo from his memory. And here I thought Dahlia was going to be the artist in the family!