Vos, tu y Usted

En Honduras se habla de "usted" y de "vos". El usted denota mas respeto y es mas formal, mientras el vos es mas casual y de confianza. Yo le hablo a mis padres en usted y ellos a mi. Mi hermana le habla a sus hijos en vos. Otro hermano les habla en vos y ellos a el en usted. Hay diferentes combinaciones :) Cuando Chiara nacio yo le hablaba en vos. Es lo que me salia natural. El usted se me hacia demasiado formal o distanciador.
PERO cuando ella empezo a hablar y me hablaba en vos, lo sentia TAN pero TAN raro, que tuve que tomar una dura decision: empezar a hablarle en usted. Al principio se me hacia super raro pero ya me acostumbre. Lo excelente de todo esto ha sido que ella no me habla ni de vos ni de usted, sino de TU! Y me encanta, porque es un termino medio entre vos y usted :) Como en el barrio en español todos hablaban en tu, se le pego. Vamos a ver cuanto le dura :)

Chiara ve suficiente de esto en casa que lo hace con Raquel y con sus bebes. Aqui dandole una bendicion a su bebe!!

Utah

Wow, como pasa el tiempo de rapido. Han pasado muchas cosas en dos meses! Aqui les va un super resumen:

- El 18 de Abril nos fuimos huyendo a Utah para que Cody pudiera estudiar. A una semana de su examen, nos volvimos a enfermar las tres (enfermedad = niñas que no duermen en la noche) y vimos que habia menos probabilidad de pasar el examen si nos quedabamos. Asi que la santa de mi hermana volo a Cali para manejar conmigo a Utah. Nos salvo!!!

Nos la pasamos alla con la family por mas de dos semanas. Todavia no sabemos si Cody paso, sabremos esta semana de hecho, pero al menos durmio bien por una semana y tuvo tiempo extra para estudiar :) (Esto lo escribi hace mas de un mes. El update es que Cody sí paso su examen!! Wohoo!!!)

Dario andaba de visita asi que fue super pasar tiempo con el y su familia tambien. Aqui les van algunas fotos:

Catching Up

As you may have already noticed, I have a lot of catching up to do, like A LOT! For those of you who receive emails for each post, bear with me, because I am going to try and write as much as my girls let me. That could be one post but hopefully it's more like 3 :)

One of Chiara's favorite book is "If you give a mouse a cookie" so it was a pleasant surprise to find this little guy among her toys. She is nice enough to make sure she puts the mouse in the fridge so he can get his milk. After all, who eats cookies without milk?!

One of Chiara's favorite thing to do during playtime is to play with her castle and princess and friends. Since princess is very popular she kept making lots of friends and this was causing Chiara some trouble. One of her things is to give everybody a ride on princess carriage, and she couldn't fit all of them or they would fall off. Luckily she agreed when mommy suggested that maybe we should get princess a bigger vehicle that would fit everybody. Not very princessy if you ask me, but it does the job well! :)

Feb, March and April :)

Alright, we have a few things to share! We have had craziness in the Marsh Manley residence mainly because we moved out of Casa Granada aka Coast. We were there since we moved to California and it was a good place to live, most of the time :)

 We are now in Fountain Valley and we like our new place a lot :) Overall it is a nicer area, nicer bike ride and a bigger park close by which we plan to use often when craziness goes back to normal levels.

The girls are in a really fun stage nowadays. Raquel is all smiles, except when we disappear from her sight for a few seconds. She doesn't like quiet I guess because she starts screaming and wailing until Chiara and mommy come back into scene.

She is already babbling and singing (which at this point sounds like she's screaming, but you can tell it's a happy one), rolling over and sitting up, and we think pretty soon she'll start crawling. She loves to get her hands on anything she can reach so mommy is up for a busy stage once she starts cruising.

Chiara is just too fun! She is a great sister and loves to give Raquel hugs and kisses. We are working on teaching her to share her toys and I feel we are getting somewhere.

She loves her play area a lot, which has been great for me because it has given me some time to unpack.

Her world nowadays revolves a lot around the potty world and pee and poo, so much so that every so often she pulls daddy's and mommy's pants down to check if we have pee or poo!!! So if you ever come to visit, for precautionary measures just don't give your back to Chiara for too long :)

In February, grandma came to visit us and help out with the girls while we moved out. We don't have words to say how nice it was to have her here! The girls had a lot of fun and we were able to get a lot done!

Ok so here comes a cocktail of pictures from the last 2.5 months:

Sooo efficient, Chiara already taught her baby how to use her hand and knee to grab the bottle on her own! If mommy would only learn...

The other day we had a fun outing with one of Cody's coworkers and his wife. They are both Chinese so we went to eat authentic Chinese food. They were nervous that we wouldn't like it but it was yummy! I am a soup lover so this was a hit for me! I can't wait to go back again!

So Raquel is already eating solids, and the first solid that she ate was....paper!

Miles Square Regional Park is close to us and a very nice park. Here is Chiara chasing ducks and enjoying the playground

Raquel is all smiles nowadays and we love it!!!

Sisters playing together

 Chiara is such a good mommy/big sister to her baby dolls! It's so cute to see her try and do what mommy is doing with Raquel.

One of Chiara's latest obsessions is backpacks. Here is the one we improvised :)

Somebody wanted her chair out after Raquel got hers out. It has been nice because all the mess from her eating is mostly contained in her tray

Daddy daughter time. He is so great!

Learning to use a sippy

I don't know how she got her foot in that hole, my little wriggler!

Oodles and oodles of pictures part III

I guess Scooby doo's services won't be needed anymore

Appeasing Chiara's need to go out with a walk inside the Complex

Enjoying homemade ice cream!

Chiara's bath is not complete without shaving her legs

The price to pay to wear clothes with buttons: to have Chiara all over you!

A moment we thoroughly enjoy as parents, reading the scriptures with Chiara. She repeats after us and does a great job. 

Oodles and oodles of pictures part II

Playdate with AJ. After this one, they became best friends. Every time they see each other they are all hugs and kisses

I guess somebody wanted some milk. ..

Baking cookies with daddy

Waving bye bye and ready to go out the door

Raquel' s gotten to the point where she needs to be buckled up all the time!

Oodles and oodles of pictures part I

Raquel is growing up so fast it's crazy! She's wearing 6-9 months old clothes like nothing!

She gets so happy when Chiara is around (except when she's trying to sleep and Chiara bangs the door open and enters the room busting out a song!)

Chiara taking a picture with her phone :)

Hello kitty going potty

Recuerdos

Me siento un poco nostálgica hoy. Mis hijas están creciendo super rápido. Es curioso. Veo las travesuras y las ocurrencias de chiara y no puedo creer que pronto crecerá y dejará de hacerlas para hacer otras cosas y dejar de ser niña. Como hay que disfrutar cada momento!!! Cada día que pasa aprendo esta lección más vividamente.

Algunas veces la abrazo y me dan ganas de llorar de la nostalgia! Me veo ya mayor, mirando hacia atrás y extrañando esa sonrisa traviesa, su cantar a todo pulmón, su obsesión por tener sus manos limpias, sus ocurrencias, su dulzura, su espíritu especial, etc.
Que cosa más extraña. Quisiera detener el tiempo y que mi niña siguiera siendo la niña que es.

Por ejemplo, antes le encantaba dar abrazos y sólo había que pedirle uno y ella corría a darlo. Algunas veces ni siquiera había que pedirlo. Ahora, le pido uno, y si no está muy ocupada o entretenida con algo, me lo da, sino, me quedo con las ganas :)

Ah chiara! Mi dulce chiara! Nunca en mi vida he deseado ser tan perfecta o tan excelente como ahora, al ser madre de dos seres tan dulces, y pareciera que es cuando más imperfecta soy!! Quisiera tener toda la paciencia, todo el amor, toda la sabiduría, toda la creatividad, toda la perspectiva, toda la  inspiración, etc para poder disfrutar cada momento y poder darles el mejor chance a mis niñas de ser felices, seguras de si mismas, de ser las mejores amigas entre ellas y conmigo, y de ayudarles a desarrollar una relación profunda con su Padre Celestial y Jesucristo.

Pero me quedo infinitamente corta. Y mi única esperanza es la promesa de que si hago mi mejor esfuerzo, eso será suficiente, porque la gracia de Cristo llenará los vacíos. Así que mi fortaleza es Jesucristo y su expiacion. Mi esperanza, mi motor, mi porrista personal, mi ejemplo perfecto es Jesucristo. Y en El espero, que así como me sana día a día de mis pecados, mis errores, mis heridas emocionales, de los condicionamientos y hábitos y percepciones de la niñez, que así también pueda hacerlo con mis niñas, y que sea en Sus manos donde estas tres obras se perfeccionaran y llegarán a ser lo que El desea que sean! :)

Bueno, quería compartirles esta secuencia de fotos, me encanta!