I'm Feeling the Heat!

Okay, this will be a short one (postscript: Okay, not so short...what can I say, I like to write!)...and no pics...YET!

I've been feeling the heat from our faithful blog readers about my failure to keep to my 'once a week' blog update over the last month! Sorry Lisa, Heather, and all you other blog faithful's out there...if I haven't lost you already! :)

I do have some WONDERFUL pics of the kids to post on here that I've been saving for weeks...some highlights include playing dress-up with the cousins, tubing at Buck Hill, Valentine's Day and more! There are also a couple of hilarious dance party videos to link you to as well! I really will get these things up here soon!

English acquisition is coming along...though slowly at times it seems. Sometimes I wonder if we are doing them a disservice to learning English by continuing to speak predominantly Spanish in our home. We don't want the children to lose their Spanish language roots, and we find that communicating in Spanish is especially helpful during cuddle/bonding times as well as explanation of consequences and expectations.

That being said, I think John is quite our linguist. He really understands so much more than we know...and he keeps us laughing when he suddenly and unexpectedly busts out in an English phrase! The above named dance party videos came about after John came home from school one day and did some of his classic Michael Jackson-ish moves while singing "Everybody Dance Now..." :) We happened to have the C&C Music Factory CD (a throwback to our college years) and we got it out and there have been dance parties regularly since! It is definitely John's new favorite song! Yesterday, Angie was saying something in 3 year old Spanish to my niece Ashley and Ashley was asking me, "Holly, what does 'Mami posa' mean?" and I kept thinking Mami posa...what could she be getting at...when John piped up and said "Mariposa...Butterfly"! He not only translated 3 year old Spanish, but translated it into English too!

Robert and I have found "English Dinners" to be fun at times too...this is when we declare a dinner hour "English only" for Mami & Papi. That means that we as parents only speak in English, but we tell the kids that if they aren't sure what we said that they can help each other figure it out. Sometimes Laura translates for Angie or John translates for both girls or all together they figure it out. We've been surprised when we've done English Dinners in the past as to how much they really do know.

I think we'll reach a tipping point soon where all of a sudden we'll see much more English acquisition and understanding flooding in!

In the meantime, keep checking for the pics and videos...I promise they will be worth the wait!