Woe is me...

Sometimes this whole thing (life in general) seems too hard. Am I doing something wrong here?
Why do other people seem to have it so much more together than I do?

Cheese and crackers

I see so many mothers loading up at the supermarket with ready-made, over-processed crappy food for their children while I am scouting the aisles for organic, whole grain, etc, etc and having nervous breakdowns because I can't find unscented laundry soap. As this is what we have been doing since he was born, I don't usually think too much about it BUT I had to laugh while Matito was eating this evening.

While his peers are chowin' down Ritz crackers with Cheez Whiz, our guy is enjoying some nice creamy brie on vegetable stone wheat crackers, "made with organic unbleached wheat flour and a delicate blend of organic garden vegetables and herbs."

Same idea, different universe?

Why? Why? Why?

As of late, it seems that Matito's favorite word is 'why'.

Today I am in a funk and have a few 'why's'of my own:

Why is my child ill?
Why has it been raining for 23 days in a row (this is not an exaggeration, we are breaking some sort of record according to the weather report)?
Why does my prof find it acceptable to criticize people for being 5 minutes late to class, yet find it absolutely fine to take off an hour early so she can do the photocopying she should have had done before class even began?
Why is my car such a piece of crap?
Why is my house so untidy?
Why have I received only 1 comment on this blog?
Why am I so grumpy?

Why, why, why?

and don't answer "because..."
Even Matito wouldn't accept that answer.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Matito knows he was born in Mexico and that he lives in Canada. We have also explained to him that Mommie is Canadian and that Papi is Mexican.

BUT

if you ask him he will adamantly inform you he is NOT Canadian NOR is he Mexican.

According to Matito he is from Chapters, the bookstore down the street !

No me cabe en la cabeza*

Some good friends came over to our place this afternoon . These are the people we tend to hang out with on a regular basis, so we see them fairly often.

One of them has a little one, about a year and a half younger than Matito. We have known this child since she was a few days old. Recently, it seems that every time I see her, she has about a thousand new things she has learned. In the span of only a couple of months, S. has gone from being a fairly helpless baby to being this amazing talking, walking, funny-face-making individual. Today she ran down the hallway after Matito!

Amazing! Was this Matito such a short time ago? How could that be?

I know it is nothing out of the ordinary, but each time I think about how much children have to learn between birth and five years old, my mind does flip-flops at the wonder of it all. It is so absolutely awesome, in the truest sense of the word.

* literally, "it does not fit in my head", basically equivalent to the English expression "I cannot wrap my mind around it".

Dia de los Reyes

I realize I haven't really given any background about our family situation yet, but the basic gist of things is that I am Mother to a bi-cultural child and trying to raise him in a primarily anglo society while keeping alive his Mexican heritage.

As he is not even three years old yet, the journey has barely begun.

Today was a special day for us, Dia de los Reyes or Three Kings Day. According to Catholic tradition, this is the day we commemorate the arrival of the 3 Kings who brought gifts to the newborn Jesus. In Mexico, this is traditionally the day that children receive presents.
We are trying to preserve that tradition here to some extent.

Matito has been whispering his longings for a lego train and water tower (water 'shower', according to him) to the figurines of the Three Kings we have had hiding in the cupboard for the last week. At 7:30 this morning, he ran into the dining room to look for the gift he knew the 'big Reyes Magos' had left him in the night.

After daycare, we went to the local Latin bakery and got some sweet bread that he likes and then went to a community event in honour of the day at a Catholic Elementary school in a neighboring city. It was like those summer carnivals daycares sometimes put on, with different stations and activities for the children to take part in. Matito's Spanish-speaking cousins were there, so he was pleased. I was happy to be able to hang out with their mother!

After some time and some food (quesadillas, tamales, chips and salsa) the Three Kings showed up (just like Santa does at Christmas parties). First they did a vignette and then they had a "question and answer period" where the children could ask questions to the Kings. It was fun for the kids. The best part in Matito's opinion, was that he got a regalo (gift) at the end!
He fell asleep in the car on the way home, clutching the toy truck the Kings had given him ("a special one, just for me, Mommie")

I feel really good about the day, it was something so uniquely Mexican that was being celebrated in such a uniquely Mexican way.

I feel this is very important for the little guy, but it is usually just us who are making it happen or it is being done in a very watered down way to accommodate for the various Latino populations (ie from different Latin American countries) in our area. We knew this would be the case when we came here from Mexico, but I guess I didn't consider how important this would become to me. I don't want my son growing up without the wonderful and rich traditions of his birthplace and his anscestors.

He may be Canadian, but he was Mexican first. He might live in Canada, but Mexico is his home too.

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