For weeks we had been looking forward to my brother and his family visiting from San Jose, California. He has a 2-year-old that's four months older (and four inches taller) than K, and a first-grader. So we were certain that the two girls would get along just famously, besos y abrazos all over the place.

Wrong. I have no idea why we thought that. No idea. It wasn't fighting, per se, but there was definitely a lot of not sharing and 'oh no she didn't look at me that way!!!!' random screaming that went on, because you know, their language skills aren't exactly fully up and running just yet. It was just a lot of ignoring, in the way you ignore that friend-of-a-friend who you really don't like at all kind of way. You talk/play past each other. You don't really engage.

But, in a surprise move, the toddler K totally loved being with her older cousin, whom I'll call The Rocketeer. He's in first grade, an excellent reader who can read Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop to her, and is just full of school-kid inquisitiveness and silliness. Silliness that tired adults can find annoying, and toddlers find crazy hilarious. She was totally like a mosca on a piece of pan dulce and just ate it all up. And when it came time to leave, she was completely overcome with sadness, cried and asked constantly (for about 20 minutes) for the Rocketeer, I want the Rocketeer! I want the Rocketeer! I want the Rocketeer!

It made me think back to visits from my own cousins when we were little. We grew up in a small town but many of our cousins lived elsewhere, so when they'd come visit the grandparents in the summer we'd have the most awesome fun time that would last weeks. Grandma would douse us with OFF and we'd play tag or three-legged races in the dark at night. On Friday nights, we'd watch Night Tracks on TBS, and when my parent bought a video camera we'd spend all day choreographing and filming music videos. And then the day would come when our cousins would leave, when the house was left with just me and my brothers, and we would all run to our rooms and bawl into our pillows, which smelled of our cousins. I remember it felt like I was being ripped apart inside.

The toddler K soon forgot about her sadness, but when it came time to telling my nephew goodbye he asked, "Am I going to see you again?" and I said he was going home, to which he replied, "I'm going to miss you." And in that moment I felt a little pang in my chest and remembered leaving my own cousins and I thought, well, it means he had a great time, and I hugged and kissed him and told him I was going to miss him, too. And I do miss him. I wish we all lived closer to each other.

So about the girls not getting along -- I have three brothers, no sisters, and I didn't see my girl cousins who were around my age enough to develop any rivalries, but I've heard stories from friends. Maybe not necessarily child rivalry, but parent rivalry?

Now it's back to no cousins, K. Enjoy your time alone while it's here.

I grew up with three brothers -- so that makes us four siblings, and we were all born with a 5 year 3 month window. Like nesting dolls. So growing up, that meant natural selection was in full effect at our house. Or better explained, if you weren't the first one to get to the box of Fruity Pebbles you were going to miss out because whoever got to it first would eat the whole box --just 'cos. Survival of the fittest. Of course, if another sibling wanted to challenge the pecking order there was always fighting that broke out -- and I don't mean whiny arguing. I mean duking it out, hair pulling, nail digging, chasing around the house, rolling on the floor kind of fights. As soon as my mom heard us or saw us fighting, she always said the same thing: Bola de animales! Stop fighting! And we would, eventually. Looking back I think two things -- how did she raise four kids that close in age and how are we all fairly normal people?

I was thinking of my mom's favorite expression of "bola de animales" yesterday I took the toddler K to the National Zoo -- all by herself, no sibling competition. And the actual bola de animales we were going to see, well, these actually behave, probably because they don't have to fight for their food or shelter or even love, as even their mating is planned sometimes. The husband is sort of against zoos for that reason -- he hates the captivity part. But how else is the toddler supposed to learn about animals? I mean, when she saw a squirrel she said oso because she has no size perspective.

So yes, we're really into animals at our house right now, and the toddler K has most of the basic ones down. The only thing is I switch between English and Spanish all the time, which I guess isn't so bad because she knows most of them by their English and Spanish name. I cheat sometimes when I read books and will just say the name in Spanish. Like in Brown Bear book, I tend to say all the animal names in Spanish instead, but otherwise read the book in English. The toddler is also into making animal sounds, also in English and Spanish. As in guau guau to imitate a dog, instead of woof or ruff. Miau and meow are cognates, right? And a horsie neighs in English, but what does it do in Spanish? She hasn't learned kikiriki or cock-a-doodle-doo yet because we've actually never shown her a rooster in real life -- which is weird because growing up I distinctly remember hearing them in the morning when I slept at my guela's house -- not on a farm, the neighbor had them. Small town. They were sooooo ahead of the free-range and backyard chicken trend.

At the zoo, we got to see the pandas chowing down on their bamboo, and the sloth bear reminded me that I needed to cut the toddler's nails. The lions were out and playful. But of course, my favorite animals are the farm animals. Pandas are cute and all, but we're not allowed to pet the pandas like we can do with the burros and chivos in the Kids' Farm. I was actually trying to teach the toddler the sound the chivo made, and all I could think of were the poor chivos tied to a tree outside my grandmother's that were about to become cabrito guisado after a few hours. It was a total Clarice Starling moment, but instead of lambs I hear chivos. **shudder** Well, at least these zoo chivos have their own little playground.

Moving on to happy thoughts, as expected the burros made our day. Look at how cute and sweet. No wonder we've immortalized them in pinatas and entrusted them as keepers of the candy!

All I could say when I saw this viral baby yoga video (click on link to see it) was OMG, OMG, OMG. That is just an insane way to handle a two-week old baby, and probably borders on child abuse. It is at least child endangerment because even in expert hands something could go terribly wrong. I wouldn't even venture to do that with my 18-month old.

We'll stick to down dog.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine and I took our toddlers to a "soft playroom" which is exactly what it sounds like -- a room where the mats, big blocks, slides, walls, EVERYTHING is cushiony soft. Like those Charmin bears. It's a place where you can let Toddler go wild, let them thrash and throw themselves around and not have to worry about them bumping their heads or breaking a bone in a fall. The whole time we were there I couldn't shake the image in my head of those rooms they keep people with straight-jackets in the asylum. I wanted to thrash myself around.

Other than the overt safeness of it all, the other thing I noticed was that parents outnumbered children. Or even if they didn't, they seemed like they did because they're bigger and they take up too much room in a place like that. I was so glad when the toddler K decided she didn't like the plastic ball pit area. Five parents were just sitting around soaking their feet in plastic balls, as if it needed more funk smell, while one child played in there. I'm not exactly the chat-em-up-with-random-parents-I-don't-know kind of mama (versus the husband, whom I call The Platicator). Not much into the playdates, either.

There was LOTS of hovering going on. LOTS. Me included, mostly because what kind of a parent would I be if I let her roam freely while I sat on the sidelines and read a magazine or did my nails or Facebooked-away on my iPhone? Uh, I'd have the mindset of an '80s or '70s or '60s or anything before that kind of parent. Actually, if that were really the case I probably would've been no where in sight or outside having a smoke or something '60s-ish.

In defense of myself, I sort of had an excuse to hover. The toddler is 17 months, and there were other kids in there who were like 4-years old. She's still a little on the babosita side, so I have to guide her. But soon as she's independent playerette, vamonos, you're on your own kiddo. At least that's what I hope.

It'll probably be okay because we're ensconced by safety, right?

Let me digress a little ... I'm always lamenting playgrounds of the past. We live right next to a park, and there's a street sign right by our house with a see saw on it, which means a hell yeah! playground. But the toddler will never know what it means because THERE IS NO SEE SAW HERE. Know where it is? Yeah, in the '80s, with all the other McDonald's and Burger King playground equipment. And along with super tall metal slides that burn the backs of your legs. Merry-go-rounds that spin so fast it makes you puke and stumble off it drunk on exhilaration. Monkey bars.

No, what's in our playground is one of those standard yellow and blue all-in-one playground pieces and a modern jungle gym that is cool, but safe, of course. And cushiony rubberized flooring everywhere!

It's not that this is bad playground equipment. It's nice-looking. And safety is important. But I don't think any of this stuff gets a kids (5 and up, I mean) heart pumping with adrenaline the way that little merry-go-round got ours. Maybe that's why they prefer to stay glued to a Nintendo DS? I'm not advocating we put high beams on the playground and let the kids leap off them into glass shards, but there's got to be a mid-point between old school playgrounds and soft playrooms, right?

I have three brothers, and none of us ever broke any bones growing up. And we played outside a ton WITHOUT parent supervision. And rode bikes without helmets. And we never wore sun block and got super dark by the end of summer. Of course, my little brother did take a bad fall from the top of the monkey bars in preschool and busted his face going down, until he hit the hard dirt floor. The teachers hadn't noticed until my mom got there to pick him up. And, the worst play accident to happen to me was when I was around 7, and I came up behind my older brother as he was practicing his Little League baseball swings with an aluminum Louiseville slugger bat. He didn't notice me and hit me right across the forehead. I fell flat on my feet, got a huge orange-sized bump on my head that receded to a little knot that I still have today. My parents didn't even take me to the doctor. I probably would have taken my child to get an MRI because that's how parents roll these days. That's how we roll, in a world of soft playrooms.

I saw these ¡Mucha Lucha! plush dolls last week in downtown Laredo at a toy store called BB Toys -- written in the same font as Toys 'R Us. Yeah, so I was thinking ooh, **deal** if it's a rip off store. It was two days before Christmas, crazy crowded and a madhouse in there -- probably because a lot of shoppers just aren't crossing the border nowadays because of the ongoing narco war. I had to leave my mother waiting outside in the stroller while me and the husband plowed through in search of gifts for a niece and nephew. The store had shelves along the edges but all in the middle was just boxes filled with Made in China toys. I usually am up for a good hunt for a bargain, but this place was suffocating, not to mention full of mostly crap toys that break in a few weeks. For that, I'll hit up the Dollar Tree. I walked out empty-handed, and opted to buy old-school games like Candyland and Connect Four to give as gifts instead.

Anyway ... about the dolls ...

¡Mucha Lucha! the cartoon never hit my radar when it was out, in the early 2000's, but seems like it would pass muster. The characters have names like Rikochet and Buena Girl, The Flea and El Rey. You can build and name your own luchador on the Mucha Lucha website.

If I were a luchadora, I'd name myself La Mama Dama. Maybe. Hmmm, gotta think about this. I could also riff of Mujer Maravilla and be La Mama Maravilla. Wonder Mom! Me gusta.

I'm thinking of sending the Big Man in the Red Suit this letter:

Yo, Santa:

I would like several boxes of batteries for Christmas for all those comatose toys we have lying around. See, the husband loves to buy toys for the toddler that use batteries to dance, sing, light up or do general foolishness. It's probably a guy thing. I try to avoid them as much as possible because there's nothing sadder than a dying electronic toy thaaat caaaaannnnn'ttttt gooooooo or taaaalllkk anymooooooore.

I need all sizes, especially AA and AAA because our remotes now have no batteries, either. A few D's and C's too. **snap, snapping fingers** Steer your brain back, viejo -- I'm talking about BATTERIES, not BRAS here. I need enough to last us the year.

Wonder which kinds of toys kids prefer, anyway? The toddler seems to love her singing munecos, but she gives much love to the ones who don't talk, too. Any insight would be helpful.

XoXo,

Mama C

My Mexican eyes deceived me today. When I first saw this inflatable, bouncy horse (and I am just realizing its a horse as I Google it), I totally thought it was a cute little burro. It does look like a burrito, right, with its short legs and big ears? Hello! I'm not the only one that sees burro pinata, right? See the resemblance:

This little inflatable burro belonged to the son of one of my co-workers. I have no idea what the toddler K thought it was, but she hopped right on it and started happily bouncing away.

The reviews for the Rody horse/pony all seem to be pretty good. I like that it's inflatable, which means when you're done with it you can deflate and store easily. Here's the description:

The Gymnic Line Rody Horse is a favorite with children! Made in Italy from super strong yet soft latex-free vinyl for long lasting use and durability, this horse is a great exercise product for indoors and smooth, safe outdoor surfaces. Promotes body coordination, balance and lymph circulation while providing a fun workout. Recommended for ages 3 through 5 years.

You can also put it on a rocking base to make it a rocking burro. I like the red burro. They run about $40. Pretty adorable.