Ah, Natalia

We did something new tonight and went to a family concert at a local non-profit. This group does amazing things with music and kids, including lessons and classes and family stuff and music in the schools. They did a workshop at Sacha's school and, hence, she found out about this concert tonight. It featured a group called Fandango sin Fronteras and it was awesome!

The headliner was from Veracruz, Mexico, and the other musicians had come together from around this area to back her up. In addition to being fun to listen to, the music turned out to have a personal connection. The second song they did was about the singer's youngest daughter, whose name is Natalia! It was all about being a mother and about this girl specifically. I admit I only got the gist of some of it because it was all in Spanish, but I did get the chorus completely: it was "ah, Natalia!"

It was pretty fun to have our Talia there and for her (I imagine, at least, not being able to read the mind of a 22-month-old) to feel like the song was all about her!

And, I have to say, it was validating to hear this amazing Mexican singer talk about her daughter being named Natalia. Whenever people ask about our Natalia's name, they invariably think that it is a Russian name and that we must have picked it because of Sacha's Lithuanian/Jewish heritage. And, while that is an aspect of Tali's ancestry that we wanted to honor, we largely picked her name because of the Mexican side of her geneology. So, it was validating, at least for me, to hear this powerful Latina woman talk about picking the same name for her daughter!

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In other news, Mateo has learned how to snap! He can actually do it and make a sound, too. He did it the other day and, of course, we assumed he had learned in preschool. Nope. He insisted that he had not. Did someone else teach you?, we asked. No, he said. Then, he said something like this: "I just thought about snapping all night long and then I thought about it and thought about it and now I can do it!" I guess visualization really does work! It is very cool to watch him do it, and he is extremely proud of himself for learning all on his own.

Also, this might explain why he was in our room last night at 12:30 am, wide awake and ready to party. Let's hope night-long ruminations aren't the only way he can learn new skills, or high school might be challenging for all of us!