14 months old... today!

yep, it's fun being a toddler!

playing with the Tias

I love my New York tias, Lisa and Cat. They always make me smile.




We hung out with Tias Tina and Kit before they left for 3 weeks in the woods.


Then, we visited a local working farm, where I finally met some of the animals in my books. How many times have I heard, The cow goes, Mooo. The sheep goes, Bahhhh. The Xela goes, Huuh? Finally, it makes sense.

little piggies

a new friend

city slickers pose as hayseeds

finding my inner cowgirl

first Passover

last year in Guatemala. next year in Jerusalem?

What's not to love about a holiday celebrating the struggle for freedom? You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate the Passover story. We are all slaves, bound by chains of poverty, disability, oppressive government, psychic wounds. Not to mention car seats, high chairs and strollers; I spend half my life in 5-point restraints. I wish I could slip the surly bonds of babyhood (even when it's not good for me.) Like everyone, I long for an ideal of freedom that is impossible.

Passover is about hope. We can't give up, can't give in to despair. There is meaning in the struggle. Passover also is about the power of words. Telling the story of the Jews escaping slavery connects us to people throughout history struggling to be free. Passover is about civil rights and gay rights. Passover is about Darfur, Tibet, Iraq.

Plus, Passover is all about food. Like I said, what's not to love?

Why do we dip parsley into salt water not once but twice?
Beats me. But it's good.

Maggie shrewdly stationed alongside the high chair

a few randomly selected plagues:
Darkness

Beasts

Locusts

Spilling "blood" demands intense concentration

Sammy tucks into matzoh ball soup

Abuela, peel me a grape

Playing with Abuelo aka Bampy

hmmm, why do they call this 'the Bampy face'?



Searching for the Afikomen: getting warmer...

Found it!
I can have my Afikomen and eat it too.
Yeah, we Jews know how to party.

a decade of Gabe

Happy Birthday, sweet boy.

Cyrus's Birthday Bash

My best bud turned one today. Streamers, Indian food, cake, plenty of family and friends... what a blast. Madhulika and Ben throw a great party.

Mmm.. this cake is just as tasty as the one at my party

Now we're both toddlers. Watch out, world, here we come.

keep on the sunny side

Today, April 15th, is:

1. Tax day

2. the day the Titanic sank

3. my Papa's 76th birthday

4. my best buddy Cyrus's 1st birthday

Answer: All of the above.

Which proves that any single day carries infinite potentials: for vexation, tragedy, celebration, death and life... There's so much we can't control. No one chooses their birthday. No one chooses to be born at all. But I'm here, and whenever possible, I'm choosing joy. It's a glorious spring day. Our taxes are done, the sun is shining, flowers are blooming. Time to celebrate. Happy birthday, Papa and Cyrus! Happy spring! Happy day!

Pocket Park

Today, between April showers, we visited this cool Asian-themed park squeezed between triple-deckers in our neighborhood. It's tiny, a former concrete pit recently rehabbed with astroturf "grass," a push-button water sprinkler (for warmer days) and embedded sculptures by artist Murray Dewalt. Apparently it won a landscape architecture award. I was wary at first, but soon I was feeling the zen...

Plastic grass?

Art you can climb... I like!

a funky, random silver dome... friend or foe?

can I touch...?

Yep!

May the dome be with you

p.s. Gracias, Papa, for the rose-pocket capris
I love them, and love you! xoxo xela

Sunshine for a rainy April morning

meet me in the bleachers

Nationality, nationalism, national identity... I get so confused.

I mean, I was born in Guatemala to a Honduran mother. Then,
when I moved to the US with my new mother last October, I
became a U.S. citizen, replete with welcome letter from the White House.
George W says we are bound by principles that move us beyond
our backgrounds. He encourages me to participate fully in our
democracy, to serve my new Nation. Yet as a foreign born citizen,
I can never become president, as he did. And do I want to leave
my roots behind, "move beyond" my Guatemalan and Honduran
background? What would that mean? Is it even possible?

And when I look around the world and see all the wars erupting
in the name of nationalism, I wonder... who needs it? Can I be a
citizen of the world?

But in one nation, I embrace my citizenship without shadows
of ambivalence, confusion or regret:

RED SOX NATION!

Today is the season opener at Fenway Park. Go Dice-K! Go Sox! WooHoo!

new 'do

It's that terrifying time again when Mama grabs the scissors
and thinks she's a stylist... check out my new spring hairdo:

kidding!

Here's the real deal... what do you think?

Cutie of the Month

no April fooling...
check this out!