Happy Birthday Anna

Last Friday Anna turned 7 years old!!! Unbelievable.

Here are some photos from the festivities.

Tacos

People are always asking me what do we eat. Mexican and Americans are curious as to how our family eats in Monterrey. I admit that our eating and my cooking have changed in the past couple of years. It's very practical to make a variety of guisados (usually meat & veggies in a sauce meant to be eaten on a tortilla) and serve them with beans and a salad. So naturally the girls have gotten used to usually having tortillas at meal times. But sometimes they cross the boundaries in what makes an acceptable taco. Recent examples:

Tortilla w/ Rice & Mashed Potatoes
Tortilla w/ Crumbled Tostada Shell
Tortilla w/ Spagetti
and pictured: Tortilla w/ Oatmeal

Maggie & Anna All Dressed Up & Nowhere to Go

Elaine's Words

Here's Elaine repeating a few things.

Elaine

Sweet Elaine 6 months ago. She is now 1 1/2! She continues to be generally sweet natured & flexible. But she definitely holds her own with her big sisters. She will protest when she doesn't like something they (or I) are doing to her. She toddles about all day asking for whatever food item pops into her head. Her motto is "One Word to Rule Them All." She will repeat a word over and over and over and over and over until you finally give in. There's only so many times you can hear: "cookie, cookie, cookie, cookie, cookie" or "cereal, cereal, cereal, cereal, cereal" until you decide what's it going to hurt to give it to her. She is saying tons of words, and will repeat almost anything you say. I also think she has finally figured out that each of her sisters have a different name. For awhile she has called them all Anna.