True Love

is F going out in this bitch ass heat to buy me chocolate because I am going through withdrawl without it. Why do I need chocolate every night? Because I am a fat ass. Thank you F, for loving me for the junkie that I am.

J, the Educator

J-Do you think we should sign the babies up for classes so they are not so wild?
Me- No, they are fine. They are learning rules at BT.
J- They will never remember those.

On why he did not want to meet a friend of mine with her kid in the park: She always meltdowns. She meltdowns in the museu,, she meltdowns in the park. I do not like it ( I, personally love the placement of the "s")

J the Advocate

as L left yesterday, J looked at her and then at me: You should give her breaks mamá.

when someone I was talking to said he still "believed in Obama"- You should believe in him, he is a real person.

When we left the church (to get our farm share) and J looked at the beds for the shelter: One night can we sleep here?

As J lay on the subway seat, I said " Just enough room  for you to rest. M added: And for you to pick your nose. J retorted: I can pick my nose anywhere.

When I told him I hated my haircut and why: Does the man have hair? I am going to go cut all of his hair off!

NYC Day

What a nice NYC morning. Met tía D at 14 st and took the Q to Coney Island. First of all, what a great subway ride, I highly recommend it. The view as you leave Manhattan, the outside travel in Brooklyn, the arrival onto a boardwalk! steps from the beach, your metrocard does not take you anywhere as cool as this. MoJo frolicked in the water before there were really any people on the beach. We explored the aquarium (free with our zoo membership!) and then ate at Nathan's (of course), where I vaguely remembered going as a child. J begged me to take him to the "festable" (ie the nasty amusement park) and we got tickets for two rides each. After ice cream and rides, MoJo was ready for the long ride back to Manhattan. What a fun and inexpensive day. Now we are home, watching some Netflix and waiting for our babies.

"Ya está" (loosely, "all done")

is V's favorite new phrase. He applies it to most situations and quite adroitly. Yesterday he pooped on the floor, in many spots, then looked up, and said it. When the super turned of the vacuum (the sound of which terrifies both of them), he looked up at L and said it too. I love this midget. When I put him to bed, he took out his chupete and said "ciao ciao."

J Today

J: Take out your nose ring.
No, I like it.
It makes you look like a teenager, not my mother.
___
On families...
Abuelo R is your stepdad.
No, he is my father. Grandpa is my stepdad.
Abuelo R is tía A's stepdad.
No.
___
You have white and yellow hair.
Yes, I know Papi needs to dye my hair.
He does not know how to do that.
Yes, he does, he is very good at it.
Does he have the materials?
No, I have to buy them.
So do you like put your head in a bucket?
No, you do with a special brush.
And ink?
__
I never go anywhere. My life is never fun.
__

J's Am Thought

When A Rock Obama dies, V can become president!

J on Food

to his bff's grandpa when they were on a play date: Can you take me to the restaurant with the M?

to his father tonight who made him yummy salmon: This is my favorite vegetable ever!
me: Not a vegetable.
Do you mean this is a real fish? You are killing nature!

Recent J Lines

J with a magnifying lens in his hand: Can I look at your arm? Good job shaving, you do not have too many hairs on them.
__
J to me: We should have a behavior chart for the babies too.
__
J: Did tíg G (mine not his) drive a taxi?
Me: No
J: Then it was abuelo R. I am sure someone in this family drove a taxi (it was grandpa in Sydney).
__
J to M: What do you like to do to your body? My favorite two things are to twizzle my hair and to shine  my nails.
M: Oh.
J: Do you not care about your body?
__
As we counted many dogs on our way to BT, J to me: This is nature's way of telling you that you should like dogs.
__
J likes Jubo (Judo)
___
J to tía S when she was on the phone: Who are you talking to?
tía S: My mom.
J: Abuela S?
__
J to me on the bus out of the blue: I will always love you!

Qué los Cumplas Feliz....

querido padre
happy birthday to you!

TQMYTAMFCMC

Thursday

hot hot hot
ate too much
watched too much tv
off to read
tomorrow i am taking mojo to one of my street squash student's 8th grade graduations. so proud of them.
F is back tomorrow. Yippee!

Wednesday

Today was the official start of summer and it was scorching hot! So so hot, but not hot enough that we don't have a leak. That's right, our dripping water/destroyed ceiling theme continues, as I can no longer sit on the couch, because it is right in the drip's path. To make life a little spicier, J has a sleepover tonight, so morning cartoons will be extra tricky tomorrow morning. My only goal is to get all five children sunscreened, dressed, fed and out to the door for our 1.4 mile walk to BT. After that, I will have just MoJo left, and they are going to be dropped off with tía S, so I can take four kids to the museum (auction winning). Oy.

Tuesday

was not relaxing. Started with our morning reading/math with MoJo. No, it actually started with the babies not waking up at 4 or 5 am (too good to be true) but at 6am. Believe it or not, since everything is relative, 6am feels like 9 am (or 11) to most of you normal people. I, of course, could not sleep. I had awful nightmares involving the babies. So, we headed out to get J a haircut. Dentist called that he was running late. We stopped by BT to drop off hand me downs, went to Petco, get a snack and then the dentist called to say he was ahead of schedule so we headed there. Double cleaning coupled with the awesome news (and physical evidence that I could not deny) that M needs braces. I will have to think about that one, since it entails THOUSANDS of dollars not covered by anything. I need to take her for a consultation with an orthodontist. Went to Banana to exchange shirt sizes for F, bus to Deluxe (MoJo's diner of choice) where I ate my weight in french fries. GROSS. Library where I admitted that I could not find a book and paid $4 to own it (had I not I could have accrued late fees totaling a limitless number of dollars). Train down (all this with MoJo in tow) to PT where I worked hard while my therapist entertained J (hyper). Oh, we had also stopped at the supermarket, so laden with bags we hopped onto the subway. It took us 50 minutes to get from 72 st to our house (two stops). There was a power problem, there were 1,000 Bronx middle schoolers in our car, grumpy MoJo, no seats, you get the picture. Got home, dropped our stuff, grabbed the scooters and swimsuits and we were off to the park on 100 St. That, was not a relaxing day. Today promises to be better. Morning work is done and M is off to a Yankee game, where she will surely melt (thanks tía D) and J is about to go out with his bff from BT for an afternoon adventure. Yes ladies and gentleman, there are about 3 hours that I will be FREE, as in sans bambini. Not sure what I will do! F is off to San Fran and it is scorching hot! To be continued. Stay hydrated New Yorkers:)

Updates...

Happy Father's Day (belated- sorry) to my father (a dedicated blog follower), my stepfather (never reads it)  and to the father of my (four!) children (also a non-reader).
No real news to report other than....
V speaks A LOT (door, out, book, más, nena, caca, mamá?, dadá!), A hits A LOT (must be frustrating to not have words) and MoJo is officially on super duper vacation (ie no school until mid September- yikes!). This summer will be the true test of how much time we can spend together without anybody going cuckoo. So far so good. Morning time includes 30 min of work (math, reading- M independently and J avec moi) and we are trying to have at least one project /play date per day to break up the park and tv times. This am M got a haircut, they came with me to the dentist, and in the pm we are meeting friends in the park. F is off to San Fran on Wed, so here we go again. Coxsackie seems to be gone, but the increasingly messed up sleep patterns (read V waking up bt 4am and 4:30am EVERY DAMN NIGHT) are here to stay?
Buona giornata a tutti voi!

J's Lessons on Religion

J- Whenever you are sad g-d is there with you.
Me- I do not believe in him
J- If you do not believe in him, he will not believe in you.
M- Okay.
J- Who do you think made me?
me- I did, with papi.
J- Well who made you?
Me- Abuela S and abuelo R.
J- No. G-d did. Without him you would be dead.
(Oy vey).

Penis Baggies?

Yes! Coxsackie is what A, and now I guess V (also with a fever) have. Yippee! M's playdate invite was revoked so I had to suspend my invitation to one of J's friends to come over. My intention was to have the two boys alone, not with M and two sick babies. Four kids is enough for now. Long summer ahead! Nothing to do for this virus, just ibuprofen for the fever and pain and wait.....

J's Sense of Time

J: Is it a long time until my birthday?
Me: Yes.
J: Like twenty years?
Me: No, Your birthdays come once a year.
J: So in howlong?
Me: Like 9 months.
J: Is that long?

Last Day!

A has a high fever and I need to go to my very last day of work today. Anti bias training. I am leaving L with 3 for the day. This woman never says no. I will build her a monument. But today I wish I could just stay cuddled on the couch (she will only cuddle because she is sick, otherwise she hits, laughs, and runs away) with A. Pobrecita. V is obsessed with "waff?" and requests them at all hours.

MoJo Conversation

J to M: Do I have hair here? (pointing to his upper lip)
M- Yeah.
J- Oh good, then I am starting to grow up.
_____
Mto J: Do I have one?
J- No, because you are a girl. But you know what is strange, M in my class has a little moustache.

MoJo Wisdom/Inquiry

They say, if you don't be nice to children, they won't be nice to you. (J)
Do people drink alcohol (eyeing my wine) because they like it or because it is a habit?

Recent Lines...

J: It is not fair that when volcanos come the people in jail cannot get out.
Me: Do not worry, they save people in jail when there are volcanos or floods or hurricanes. There are not very many volcano emergencies though.
J: Oh, yeah? Well what are all of these cracks on the sidewalk from?
___
J to me: If you behave for us, we will behave for you.
___
M to J: You are never independent in early childhood (nursery to K) like you are in first grade.
___

Yee Haw!

AMAZINGLY long but satisfactory day. Learned a lot about moving and movers and trucks. Coordinated the emptying of 3 floors (about 30 classrooms) of furniture and the pick ups. Damn. The school's driveway is currently full with items for my last pick up tomorrow am. What a beautiful thing to see a 40 foot container filled with our desks and chairs, all being shipped straight to Haiti. In addition to the container to Haiti, we donated two trucks worth of items to two NYC daycares, 40 desks/chairs to a school in Nicaragua, a truck's worth of items to a church in Harlem, and the final mountain of items destined to a non-profit in Philly. How appropriate. I am sad that I will never again have the same classroom (see pic). It has been my second home for 12 of my 13 years at school. I am not very good at change. But I do love me a challenge. Maybe I can add mover to my résumé?

M's Work

She just came back with ALL of her work for the year. I will have to share some. Her acrostic poems cracked me up:

M erry at every second (everyone knows I exude joy and optimism)
A caring member of the family
Muchos besos
A very helpful woman

Plays with us often
A smart man
P ays close attention to what we're doing
I s very cautious

J umpy at every moment
O dores candy (I think he adores not odors it)
A lways going into our parents room to sleep
Q uick runner
U nique in every way
I s quite picky
N ows a lot about rock stars (spelled wrong but cute)

A dorable
L oves to walk
E xcellent
L ucious cheeks
I ncredible


Also...
N ever knew
D elicoas (not sure what this is...)


V ictory is born!
I nterestingly large stomach (like mother like son)
T riumphant boy (not sure what this means)
T errificly chubby
O ptimist
R really jolly
I normous
O ften hugs his nanny (note that even M knows that I get no baby love)

Heaven!

Matrimonial Madness

We just had a fun filled weekend rife with food, travel, family, music and dancing. To the bride and groom. L'Chaim!

J's Mind

As I cleaned up the alphabet puzzle in our living room I could not find the N. Where is it?
J: I moved it, it was wrong. He sang the song and then I saw it in front of me Y n Z.
___
We went to buy ice cream and J has had his own money (from abuelo). When he took it out it was wrapped in a paper towel. I asked why.
J: Money is dirty.

Part Time Lover

A has never given anyone a hug, any typical sign of affection. She tries to poke my eyes out and pulls on my hair and bellybutton and I am pretty sure that she loves me (I think) but she NEVER kisses and I have only seen her hug L. Yesterday, this little traitor, passionately kissed my uncle, MANY times. She flirted and hugged, kissed and kissed again. A usually cries in terror when a new person enters our house but she apparently likes older men who drink vodka and smile a lot. I am still waiting for my first kiss!