Dear Castillo Children,
Hello, my beauties! I hope you will always remember that I find both of your breath-takingly beautiful. I love waking you up and giving your cute little cheeks kisses. You're wonderful and so kind. You make me laugh with your antics and make me smile with your gentle hugs and kisses.
This week the most exciting thing we did was go to Mesa on Saturday to celebrate Annalise turning one! We went to Grammy and PopPop's house and had a big bbq! Your aunts, uncles and both sets of grandparents were there. Even Great-Grandma Geniel came, she's the one that you got your middle name from, Annalise. It was so fun to eat hamburgers and steak (your dad really likes steak) and your Grammy made you a panda cake since you're our Anna-Panda. One fun thing we did was do a Chinese tradition. Your Aunt Dianna gave you this little Chinese outfit from Chinatown in New York and we dressed you up in it. On their first birthday there is a tradition where you place 4 objects in front of the baby and allow them to pick one. There is a book - to symbolize that you'll seek after knowledge, money - that you'll seek after finances, a toy - that you'll seek after entertainment and a pen - that you'll seek after self expression. You went straight to the pen. I can't wait to see if you'll be an artist like so many of us in the family. It's in the blood. You also went for my big, fabulous sun glasses so you might also seek to be fabulous. :)
Earlier in the week we had the Missionaries over for some cookies. Elder Boyd and Elder Grigg stopped by and we've seen them a lot. They were so nice that they even brought a pineapple because they liked the way your dad cooks pineapples. He likes to roast them with a little bit of cinnamon. That's how they do it Brasil, where he served his mission. Nora was in LOVE with the pineapple. She wanted to smell it, then wanted me to smell and finally she wanted Miss Mable (her special little doll) smell it. Oh, Nora, Nora, Nora. Your relationship with the elders is SO funny. On Sunday we had them over for dinner and while Elder Grigg was washing his hands in our powder room you went in there, announced that you were going to go pee pee and started to pull down your pants. Elder Grigg RAN out with his hands still wet. We all had a good laugh about it. Until after dinner when you went to the potty and came running back out without any pants on. Oh, how we traumatized the poor elders. Good thing they love us and our (correction: your dad's) cooking.
This week was hard for me personally though. I found out that I had a cyst on my ovary that burst and caused me a lot of pain and bleeding. I hate having to do medical exams and taking medicine. I hate having something wrong with my body again after the year I just got done with. All I wanted was a year without having to go the doctor's office- with exception of check up visits. It's only January and I already broke that goal. Oh, well. Chinese New Year Resolution? Year of the Dragon?
I was also given a new calling at church that I have to admit that I am NOT excited about. They asked me to be the Ward Chorister. Bah!? I had no desire to do this calling, especially since I was in charge of music before and doing a choir is hard. At least this time around I can just focus on a choir without doing all the other music stuff. Todd is in charge of that. :) So, to make it more fun for me, I decided to focus more are vocal technique and actually teach music to the choir. I think I'll break down my choir time like we did when I was in school. Half technical, half rehearsal. I'm hoping it'll work and be fun for me and them. I'm trying to make the best out of something that isn't my most desired position. Here's to hoping.
Love you, my babies. We have magical moments together, and some painfully annoying moments. I hope we both remember the magic more.
With Love,
Your Mother
You have been busy! Happy birthday to your little one! She and Jamen are almost the same age. I will have to do the four objects thing- that sounds fun!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with choir director. I love being in choir, but I think directing it would be hard (knocking on wood).
I am sorry about your medical issues. I had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured and had to have emergency surgery on it. It was not fun, and now I'm lopsided. Luckily that was between Isaac and Elena, so we've been able to have more kids okay. I hope you feel better and that you won't have anything else for a LONG time.