The funny thing about Taiko

My son Luca and I have started taiko classes. More specifically osuwa daiko. This is a mixture of Japanese drumming with some martial arts movements. It is quite a challenge for Luca being Deaf, but I think it is important for him to learn about music as it will help him develop his ability to listen and appreciate sounds better. The fun thing about this class is that is for both of us. The parents do it then the children do it. I can tell you something, I did it 2 days ago and I can feel my arms. It is some serious exercise if you do it right, and when all the drummers are synchronized it is so awesome! For Luca on the other hand, it is hard and it is difficult both to hold the bachi (sticks) and to follow the rhythm. But we don't give up, I never did, why should I do it now? Challenges are challenges and once you conquer them, you feel so great. Luca will conquer this one, and we will both celebrate. On his second day, initially he didn't want to go, but then he decided that when he grows up he wants to be a drum player and give performances. How cool is that?

  Mi hijo Luca y yo hemos empezado clases de taiko. Mas en concreto de osuwa daiko. Es una mezcla de tambores japoneses con algunos movimientos de artes marciales. Es un desafio para el al ser sordo, pero creo que es importante que aprenda sobre la musica ya que le va a ayudar a desarrollar su abilidad de escuchar y apreciar mejor los sonidos. Lo mas divertido es que la clase es para los dos. Los padres lo hacen entonces les toca a los ninhos. La verdad, lo hice hace dos dias y lo noto en los brazos! Es un ejercicio muy fuerte si lo haces bienm y cuando los que tocan estan sincronizados es chulisimo! Para Luca en cambio, es dificil tanto sugetar los bachi (palos) como seguir el ritmo. Pero no nos rendimos, nunca lo hice, porque hacerlo ahora? Los desafios son desafios y una vez los conquistas, te sientes muy bien. Luca conquistara este, y lo celebraremos los dos. En su segunda clase, al principio no queria ir, pero luego decidio que de mayor queria tocar los tambores y hacer espectaculos. Que chulo no?

 Changing subjects, these past weeks have been full of grief. A lot of lost lives around people that are close to me. It is easy to relate, unfortunately, and so awful to remember how painful it is to lose someone you love so much. Another reminder that life is just a short dream, and that we better make the best of it. This, we tend to forget easily and we continue to believe that we are immortal and everlasting. I tried to teach Luca about life and death, with his new friend Jack, the goldfish, but only tears came out of his eyes. Well, it is better to learn about this concept that is so natural all around us at an early age, so that he has it present and he is conscious about life, good choices, and the joy of living. I'm not trying to traumatize the kiddo but I am just not scared to talk about it. Death is part of life, I think it is OK to cry and grieve the lost of someone we miss, that is natural too, but we cannot pretend that death doesn't get to us....because it will one day.

  Cambiando de tema, estas ultimas semanas han sido bastante dolorosas. Muchas vidas perdidas de seres queridos de gente cercana a mi. Es facil sentirme identificada, por desgracia, y terrible recordar lo doloroso que es perder a laguien a quien quieres mucho. Otro recordatorio de que la vida no es mas que un corto suenho, y que mas vale disfrutarlo al maximo. Esto, lo solemos olvidar y seguimos creyendo que somos inmortales y eternos. Le intente explicar a Luca sobre la vida y la muerte, con su nuevo amigo Jack, el pececito, pero nada mas que le salian lagrimones. Bueno, es mejor saber sobre este concepto que es tan natural en todo nuestro entorno desde bien temprano, para que este presente y sea consciente sobre la vida, las buenas decisiones y la alegria de vivir. No quiero traumatizar al enano pero no me da miedo hablar de la muerte. La muerte es parte de la vida, esta bien llorar y sentir dolor porque echamos de menos a los seres que nos faltan, es natural, pero no podemos desestimar que la muerte no nos llega a nosotros...porque un dia lo hara.

 And these are some of my latest pics...I have been lazy lately, the crummy weather doesn't help, let's see if the sun will decide to come out to take more pics.

  Y aqui van algunas de mis ultimas fotos...he estado un poco perezosa, este tiempo medio chungo no ayuda, a ver si el sol se anima a salir para hacer mass fotos

Thai pants

I have always liked pants for me to wear, I have always like wide pants of different kinds, and when I saw somewhere in the internet about these pants that reminded me to my hometowns festival, I though I should go and make some. The problem here is that fabric is expensive and they require lots of it. I then saw that a store was closing and went and of course the color I had to buy was mustard yellow...for these kind of pants. Anyways, I made them, I like them, I have worn them just once, but I feel very comfortable with them and I still have fabric leftover :)

Siempre me han gustado pantalones anchos, de diferentes tipos, y cuando vi en internet unos que me recordaban un poco a las fiestas de mi pueblo, pense que deberia hacerme unos. El problema es que aqui la tela es muy cara y estos requieren bastante. Cuando vi que cerraban una tienda de telas, fui y claro esta me tuve que comprar la tela de color mostaza...para estos pantalones. Bueno, los hice, y me gustan, me los he puesto una vez, pero me siento muy comoda en ellos y aun me sobra tela :)

Fishished!

Ha! I made a mistake writing the title but then I laughed and left it as is because we did get a fish this weekend and so I am a bit obsessed about it ad it even comes out when I am trying to say something else. Jack is the reason why I have been out of most other things these past couple of days. He is a goldfish that came from a fair, poor thing traveled in a plastic bag, and went to the pet store, where we could buy him some food. There I was told that he wouldn't live much, unless I had a huge tank and I changed the water frequently because they are dirty fish, get the water dirty quickly and usually die because of fungal disease derived from the dirty water, this is specially true for small aquariums. So I decided to buy him the best affordable aquarium I could get, small one, because I have no room for more, and all the accessories and when he moves on to a better life, then we can get an easier fish. Luca treated him like one more member of the family, he talked to him and showed him his car and asked him if he could buckle him in the car. Very funny, and very strong feelings! When I told him that sometimes fish die because they might not be happy in their new house, he cried and cried and tried to figure out how to make him happy. He wondered of it was his fault for shaking the bag all the way home, he cried about 10 min about it even though I assured him that in the sea it was shaky as well because of the waves. Well, he had a sad couple of day but he seems to be doing fine! He is still with us and I am learning a bit more every day about how to take care of him. Let's see how he does! For now, we have this whole new learning experience!

Ja! Me he equivocado en el titulo y me rio porque la verdad es que puse "fishished" queriendo poner "finished" pero esque como tenemos un pececito en casa se ve que estoy un poco obsesionada con eso y es lo que me sale. Jack es la razon por la que he estado en otra en estos ultimos dias. Es un pececito de color que vino de una feria, el pobrecito viajo en una bolsa de plastico, y fue a la tienda de animales domesticos, donde le fuimos a compar comida. Ahi ya me avisaron de que no duraria mucho vivo, a no ser de que tuviera un tanque mas grande y le cambiase el agua a menudo porque son peces sucios, manchan el agua muy rapido y suelen morir de alguna enfermedad u hongo derivada del agua sucia, sobretodo en peceritas pequenhas. Asi que le compre la mejor pecera dentro de mi presupuesto con todos sus accesorios y cuando pase a otra vida, compraremos otro que sea mas facil de criar. Luca le trato como uno mas de la familia, le hablaba y le ensenhaba nuestro coche y luego le queria atar al asiento. Una risa, y com mucho sentimiento! Cuando le comente que a veces los peces se mueren porqeu puede que no esten contentos en su nuevo hogar, lloro y lloro y empezo a pensar como hacerle feliz. Se preguntaba si era culpa suya por menear la bolsita al traelo a casa, lloro como 10 minutos por esto aunque yo le convenci de que igual el mar se menea con las olas. Bueno, tuvo un par de dias tristes pero parece que ya esta mas contento! Aun esta con nosotros y estoy aprendiendo cada dia algo mas de como cuidar de el. A ver como le va! Por ahora, es una experiencia nueva!

 

But what that title was really referring to was the quilt that I made for Luca. He designed the part with the logo and the colorful part was my idea. But I did use his own drawing of Batman. He is happily using it in his bed now. I am glad to finish a big project yipiii!!! Pero a lo que el titulo se referia realmente era a que acabe la colcha que empece para Luca. La disenho el, la parte del logotipo y la parte colorida es mi idea. Pero use su dibujo de Batman. Esta feliz durmiendo con ella en su camita. Estoy contenta de haber tenminado un proyecto tan grande Yupiiii!

Volver

  And here we are again, second try. Will this last??

  Y aqui estamos de nuevo, la segunda vez. Durara??

Castle

Luca loves going to the library. We go so often that it has become something really special for both of us. We used to get 3 or 4 books and maybe a movie but now we get out of there with at least 10 books for him. It is so much fun to read random books that you really don't even know what they are about. Sometimes they are too hard or too long or too abstract, but sometimes we love them, they are funny, easy to follow and interesting. At school, they also have a library, and now once a week, they go get a book to take home. Luca told me took a book about "making". It was a book about constructing things out of recycled materials you would find at home. He had his eyes on this humongous castle, and his aunt to help him. They worked hard all weekend, didn't get out of the house for 2 days, but this is what they made. Amazing isn't it?

  A Luca le encanta ir a la biblioteca. Solemos ir tan a menudo que se ha convertido en algo muy especial para los dos. Soliamos traernos 3 o 4 libros y alguna peli pero ahora nos volvemos a casa con al menos 10 libros para el. Es tan divertido leer libros que no sabes ni de que van. A veces son demasiado dificiles o muy largos o muy abstractos, pero a veces nos encantan, son divertidos, faciles de seguir e interesantes. En el cole, tambien tienen una biblioteca, y una vez por semana, van y cogen un libro para llevar a casa.Luca me dijo que habia traido un libro de "hacer cosas". Es un libro de manualidades usando cosas recicladas de casa. Ya le habia puesto el ojo a este tremendo castillo, y tenia a su tia para que le ayudase. Trabajaron duro todo el fin de semana, no salimos de casa en 2 dias, pero esto es lo que hicieron. Increible no?

Espejito espejito

I love to try new things, create new things, and of course I am most of the time to anxious to start a new project before I finish the ones I have started....I have been trying to finish up, and with some deadline, I have finished some things that I had around here. Of course, I keep on starting new things, so it is the never ending story. But this week, I finished something I started a week ago. It took me a while to figure out the details, but once I had it all measured and the back cut, then it was a matter of using the hot glue gun and putting it together. And the funnest part, spray painting it. Now I want to spray paint more things....here is my project, which I got from an idea in pinterest....really cool and easy to make. My new mirror!!

  Me encanta probar cosas nuevas, creas cosas nuevas, y por supuesto siempre estoy con ganas de empezar otra cosa cuando aun no he acabado con los proyectos en los que estoy trabajando...he estado tratando de acabar algunos y con algo de presion, he acabado algunas cositas que tenia por aqui. Claro que, como sigo empezando cosas nuevas, esto es la historia de nunca acabar. Pero esta semana acabe algo que empece la semana pasada. Me llevo algun tiempo decidi como iba a hacerlo, pero una vez que tenia las partes medidas , y cortadas, solo era cuestions de usar la pistola de pegamento caliente solo era cuestion de montarlo todo. Y lo mas divertido, pintarlo con pintura de spray. Ahora quiero pintar toda la casa asi...aqui esta el resultado, que saque la idea de pinterest...muy chulo y facil de hacer. Mi nuevo espejo!!!