Maria tentatively spoke up.

“Mama, her voice sounds kind of funny,” she said nodding toward the stereo.

The voice she heard belongs to a pop singer without much range, a young woman who once melted down publicly and is attempting to come back. The voice on her latest single is most definitely not completely human.

I explained that some popular singers aren’t really great singers. They get some, or a lot, of help in the studio. They’re famous anyway because, well, maybe they’re good performers.

I didn’t tell her that we really don’t know why on earth some people get famous and rich with little, or no, talent. (Have you heard of this girl/woman? Horrifying!)

The conversation left me with a strange feeling. Like, I’ve cracked into her childhood a little bit and taken away from some of the truths we are teaching her. Like, do good work and you are rewarded. But, now she kind of knows: Hey, you can’t sing (or act) you can still get on the radio.

She now knows that what you see and hear isn’t always authentic, and I guess that is good.

Maybe I am bothered by her new awareness because it seems like some trust and innocence is lost.

Now she makes a habit of commenting on the singers’ voices.

“Mama, do you think her voice is real?”

“Mama, I think his voice was good and really his.”

“Mama, I think they put her voice through a machine.”

“When I grow up and become a singer, I won’t need auto-tune.”

Here’s to praying she’s always authentic.

Hallmark came to Nashville last week and I snagged an invite to a small gathering they had with local bloggers.

It was mostly conversation about celebrating the little things in life, and getting to know a little bit more about how they go about creating the cards and products that help us express words and feelings.

I learned some of them have titles such as “emotioneer” and I would love to be a Hallmark “font specialist,” as I have a thing for fonts. I love how they evoke emotion by the very simple point of whether there is a serif or not, whether it is curly or long or not. Anyway, I can’t design a lick, so that is out. I have to stick to writing.

Quickie disclosure: I am working with Hallmark over on the Tiki Tiki on the Life is a Special Occasion campaign, which means they sponsor essays in the ‘del alma” section. (Here’s the last post on “dichos of encouragement.”)

OK, one of the things we did during our gathering in Nashville was to announce what is a most special occasion in our lives. Hallmark gave us a t-shirt and a purple Sharpie.

See what I wrote: “Singing in Spanglish with my Daughter…is a Special Occasion.”

I explained I often have to trick Maria into speaking Spanish with me via games and song. And when she sings along with me to anything from Julio Iglesias to Marc Anthony to In the Heights, I am delighted, elated, overjoyed, proud.

This super cool tee — a blank one — and other cool Hallmark stuff will be given away soon on the Tiki Tiki. Watchea for it.

And, if you want to see the beautiful and talented Nashville crowd — the Center of the Blogging Universe — and what they wrote, check out the photo gallery. (The photo of me was taken by the talented Kevin Cozad, a Hallmark photographer. Imagine that job! Wepa!)

Now, tell me:

What makes a Special Occasion for You?

We get into the car. It’s about 100 degrees and humid.

Maria says:

“Ay, carajo, it’s hot!”

Guat?

And then, I realize. We’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the musical, In the Heights — love and hope in Latino Washington Heights. The line my kid so expertly and correctly gave me from the back seat comes from the song “Paciencia y Fe” and sung by an elderly Cuban abuela.

I go into a nervous laugh. I explain that “carajo” is not the most polite word. It means “damn,” which we don’t use, alright beba?

But, I tell her the truth: Her Cubans use it a lot. Hell, if we lived in Miami, she would learn that her relatives use it at least a dozen-and-a-half times a day, for emphasis, for cursing, even for expressing delight. Her people carajo, carajo, carajo all.the.time.

But little girls in Tennessee, and even in Miami, aren’t supposed to use carajo.

Unless they’re singing an award-winning song of patience and faith in their very own kitchen.

Too bad, really. Because, carajo, she sounded so cute when she said it out of the blue, and oh so appropriately. Porque de verdad hay un calor del carajo here right now.

Calor! Calor! Calor!

The opening lyrics of Paciencia y Fe, from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wonderful play, which we saw in Nashville this year.

Calor! Calor! Calor!
Calor! Calor! Calor!
Ay Mama!
The summer’s hottest day
Paciencia y fe
Paciencia y fe
Ay carajo, it’s hot!
But that’s okay
Mama would say,
“Paciencia y fe”

And the delightful Carnaval del Barrio, which we sing on a daily basis. We especially love to sing the line: Since when are Latin people scared of heat? And we get really, really loud when it is time to alza la bandera.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams: Queen City Cayenne and Coriander with Raspberry Sauce. Ay!

I used to know where all the hot new Nashville restaurants were. It was the double bonus of sitting near the newspaper’s food critic, gossip columnist and music writers. Those people know everything.

These days I am more suburban soccer mom than reporter-on-the-spot and I don’t get out much to places when they make the first splash. Damn, I haven’t even been to the Watermark yet and it has been around since 2005.

But this week, I dipped my toe back into hitting the good stuff early. Helloooooo, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and Yayo’s O.M.G. An artisan ice cream shop that just opened, and a gourmet Mexican food truck — both within 24 hours.

I am living large, I tell you. Large!

OK, first Jeni’s because even if you don’t live in Ohio, where it was founded, or in East Nashville, where the latest shop is, you can make your own amazing ice cream via the owner’s book. Seriously, people, buy the book.

We’re talking goat cheese and red cherries, or goat cheese with cognac figs; tres leches ice cream; lime and cardamom frozen yogurt and cucumber, honeydew and cayenne sorbet. (Hello, yes, tres leches ice cream, gente.) Here are some free ice cream and sorbet recipes from Jeni as published in Food & Wine.

You know, I get the porn addicts of the world a little better now. Should I say that? I’ve gone through my book a dozen times and fantasized about what we’ll be making first. But, before we even delve into Jeni’s recipes, we have a freezer full of ice cream and paletas I already have made.

Look:

Blackberry and blueberry ice cream and mango/orange sorbet.

OK, and then after I get through Jeni’s book, I have to make the turron ice cream I found in The Perfect Scoop. And then, the leche merengada ice cream. Yes, you read those right.

I am not sure how with this current ice cream thing I have going on I am going to get beach body by 45. But, life is about joy, no?

Which brings me to Yayo’s.

Mahi Mahi Tacos

They’re new to Nashville, hailing all the way from South Florida, where they have mas food trucks. They go all over town, but park from noon to 3 p.m. each Wednesday outside of Conexion Americas on 18th Ave. South, on Music Row. And that’s where I met them. Que fab son.

I watched the continuous line from inside Conexion, an amazing non-profit I once volunteered with. People came to Yayo’s despite the horrendous heat. It was well worth it. Maria had a fancy quesadilla, but it was the choco-flan she says made the trip worth it for her. Of course.

Yayo and his wife are all sorts of awesome and they’re loving the Music City vibe and people. (They even nicely indulged my campaign for a seitan taco…I tried, vegetarians, I tried…)

The daily specials.

Yayo's cool truck.

You can read more about Nashville food trucks in this recent Tennessean story and in this Nashville Scene cover, Food Truck Frenzy.

And more about the ice cream adventures that Nashvillians can enjoy in this story, which lists places to consume helado and paletas.

Now, if you catch me posting more photos like these and hanging in long lines in front of the Grilled Cheeserie, please remind me that I never will achieve Brazil Butt by August 2012.

Temptation at Jeni's.

In the last week, I have dunked myself in the Harpeth River, taken a jon boat out on the lake at Montgomery Bell state park, and swum at the faux beach on the park’s lake.

A few nights ago, my daughter stripped off all her clothes and danced in a torrent of cool summer rain. (One more reason it’s good to live in the Boonies with no close neighbors: Naked drive-way dancing.)

Today, we are going creek stomping and barn dancing in the country, about an hour into the green pastures that surround Nashville.

I love summer in Tennessee.

The water. The open fields. The country roads. Turtles, turkeys, deer, woodpeckers.

All just outside my door.

As I sprayed my tuna-white body with SPF 50 sunscreen this week, I had a deep longing for the days of coconut and piña colada-scented SPF-nada suntan oil summers of my past. My Miami Beach and Jersey Shore years. Ah, remember those carefree, screw-skin-cancer summers? The sand, the ocean, the hot guidos y papi chulos?

And then the moment kind of passed.

I slipped into the warm lake and splashed around with my husband and daughter, listened to the birds call in the trees and felt total love and joy for the right. here.right.now.

I love the beach with red-hot passion, but I love the lazy river, lazy lake days we enjoy.

A year ago as my community was recovering from the flood, we couldn’t access the river as easily, we didn’t have time to just splash around in a lake.

What a difference a year makes. Though, if you look closely at the photo above, you will see trees knocked over. It doesn’t totally look normal yet along the river.

But, we’re gratefully back to enjoying all of what a Tennessee summer offers.

Deep sigh. Big smile.

Elsewhere

Before I go spray myself with more noxious SPF, a couple of links:

I wrote an essay over at fellow Nashvillian Jamie Reeves’ site, Blonde Mom Blog. The topic: Why I didn’t sign Maria up for a bunch of camps this summer.

And because making paletas and ice cream is such a part of our summer this year, here’s a Tiki Tiki round-up of fabulous tropical fruit paleta and ice cream recipes. You will thank me.

Frida did.

Frida likes pineapple paletas.

Have you heard the NPR series on Summer Sounds?

Lawnmowers, beans in buckets, bull frogs.

I love that series as much as I do Story Corps. Delicious.

In my back woods, the summer sound is frogs in the pond. I have no idea what kind of frogs they are, but they’ve been with us for a few months, many hatching from tadpoles.

They are loud and likely too loud for anyone who isn’t used to them, but if they weren’t there, I would miss them. They are my sound of summer.

When I take the dog out for his last walk in the evening now, the breeze is warm, the fireflies are dancing in the darkness, and the frogs are calling.

It is an instant pick-up after a long day of work and kid and rush. My few minutes of just being quiet and listening.

I know I have been gone from here too long. I know there is nary a soul checking in, but that’s been OK. It has given me the space to think about where I want this site to go. How much time I want to dedicate to it, why I should even do so when uploading a quick comment or photo to Facebook is so easy and so private.

Yes, I think Facebook killed my blog.

There is a safety there because I know those folks. I don’t know the googler from Indonesia. You know?

And Maria is halfway to 8 now. Telling stories about her, about her path to bilingualism and biculturalism was great fun when she was 3, but I am much more careful about sharing her in a blog. So, she won’t be making too many appearances here.

So what is left then if not the mommying stories?

I feel like I have some of those to share from my perspective. Like how a non-Latina friend wants me to write a parenting manual titled: “No es No es No es No! Parenting a lo Mami” or the complicated choices about schooling or the continued struggle to achieve bilingualism.

But, I also live in a wonderful city and beautiful state that I’d like to share more about. The undiscovered spots, the thick culture of music, the growing up of a city that 20-years-ago seemed so behind.

This past month marked the 20th year of my arrival. I was 23. And though cliche as it seems to say, it seems like yesterday. There are a lot of good experiences packed in there, strong friendships created and a passion for a place I thought I’d inhabit for just a couple of years.

I thought about writing more about running a business (The Pollitos) and the business of blogging (The Tiki Tiki) pero no se. There is so much good stuff out there already, that we’ll see. Maybe it’ll be more about the food we grow, new Latin-inspired vegetarian recipes, a little bit Vlogging tips. A part of me is way too fascinated with the process of aging, so don’t be shocked if you find me writing about my new gray hairs and my chicken-skin neck. Plus, I have promised myself a bikini body by 45 (that’s 13 months away), so perhaps my sweat will inspire posts. (Here’s a business of blogging post: Full-time Blogging makes you Gordita. The End.)

I guess where we go depends on who finally lands here, who returns.

When I launched Bilingual in the Boonies in 2006, it was very much about raising a bilingual kid. The readers, mostly, came for that. (And some who just googled “Latin ass.”) I had great fun, and after more than a decade of having editors, it was like riding with no hands.

So now I am dipping my toe in again because while I write weekly at the Tiki Tiki, and work there daily, it is a space akin to a cocktail party. This is my house and there are things we say in our own house that we don’t say at the party.

And, truth is, though I have not known exactly what to say all these past months, I miss having people over.

I am in the kitchen, putting dirty dishes in the sink.

My husband and daughter are in the dining room cracking up and repeating “The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!” over and over and over again.

I have no idea why this cracks them up so much.

He tells her sports stories, press box stories (he has spent a lot of time in press boxes) and she cracks up. Often.

He also plays War with her, sets up tennis in the garage and submits to her WWF-style wrestling.

I’m the one who tells her to hurry up, to brush her teeth, to eat her beans.

I’m also the one who often tells her to “Hang on, Mama has a few more things to do on the computer.’’

I’m just not fun. (OK, sometimes he’s the hammer, but you know my hammer strikes more often…)

It is time to let some things go so that I can have the time to do nothing but crack up with my kid a little more often.

The list I created is not that long, but the public part of it is that I am shutting down the Boonie Blog for a while.

The goal is to let it simmer until the New Year, which feels like enough time to get done the things I need, and want, to get done.

Chief among the tasks is re-doing the Los Pollitos Dicen website, selling out existing inventory and adding new stuff. So, if you’re looking for some bargains, sign up for the newsletter. An update and sale is forth-coming.

I’m still going to be hanging out at the Tiki Tiki Blog and my Twitter streams — @carriefweir | @tikitikiblog | @lospollitos — will be active. Those, I can do from my phone, whether in line at school or at the grocery store checkout. Amen.

If you’re new here, there are plenty of archives.
If you’re an old friend, thanks for understanding.

Hasta 2011.

Besitos…and I leave you with two musical Cubanitos, Raul Malo (also of Nashville!), singing Me Voy Pa’l Puebo, about a peasant whose heading to the country (like me) and Pitbull with Shut it Down… “Sube, sube hasta las nubes…Pa’lante, ‘lante!” (Thank you, Latina-ish for the title!)

Seen in NYC, August 2010.

So, Maria has started school.
The First Grade.
Oh, what a big, big girl…

I realized this week, as I dropped her off, that in the three years she has been in school, my New Year’s Resolutions kick in.

I don’t wait until January.

My constant list:

• I will finally finish the scrapbooks
• I will go to the gym more
• I will clean out the closets
• I will find more freelance work

And on and on.

And yet, there’s never enough time.
Or is it that I need a resolution to make more time?

Latina Bloggers in the Meat Packing District: Melanie from Modern Mami; Ana, Spanglish Baby; me; Sylvia, Mama Latina Tips; Jeannette from Todo Bebe.

Little more than two years ago, I wrote a post titled Looking for All the Latina Bloggers. The post was inspired by my attendance at a great conference that was sorely lacking in Latinas. I later determined, as best I could, that there were three of us out of a couple hundred. Que-que? Why so few? I already knew of lots of Latina bloggers, but they weren’t at the conference, and they sure weren’t getting the swag, ads, and corporate sponsorships our non-Latina blogger friends were raking in.

But, we’ve come a long way.

I just got back from Blogher, my first Blogher convention, and there were a few dozen Latinas that I knew of, and hung with. (Ay, que fun!) There also was an all-Latina panel, organized by a group called Latism and focusing specifically on creating content for Latinos, marketing to Latinos and reaching out to Latino blog publishers — the latter being of high interest to the non-Hispanic marketers and publicists in the session. We can be a confusing group of gente, after all.

My trip, and that of six other Latina bloggers, was sponsored by Vme TV, a national network of Spanish-language programming that I respect (no half-naked dancing girls) and one of the first American companies to reach out to Latina bloggers in the same way other American companies have reached out to “mommy bloggers.” We were there to help educate and spread the word about Vme’s programming. Easy. Fun. A win-win for them, and for me, and the relationship will continue with their ads running soon on the Tiki Tiki Blog.

Below, I’ve posted a round-up of links and stories on Latina bloggers that have come out of the Blogher event. Take a few minutes to spin through them and click through to the blogs listed. The voices are varied, the women interesting, and inspiring.

Some cool stuff.

I got my face all done pretty-like for a Yahoo! Shine interview on Reinvention. My video should load in a couple of weeks and I will update this post with it.

Matt Lauer, a few feet from me, in the Plaza.

The Today Show invited bloggers to attend a morning taping so we got up close with Meredith Viera, Matt Lauer and Al Roker in the Plaza and in the studio. They were gracious. We also got to go into the control room, which was a blast. One of their producers, the lovely Alicia Ybarbo, also interviewed me along with Melanie of Modern Mami and Ana of Spanglish Baby on the rise of the Latin blogger.

There were a bunch of parties sponsored by big names. I went to a few and got a bunch of swag. So much that my amigas who know I often reject all the mierda laughed their rears off when they saw me with four bags of stuff…two bags were not mine, but I joked that my eyes were spinning red and white like a cartoon character.

I have to say that my favorite things were hanging with friends, new and old, seeing the Vme folks and learning about their plans, the Today Show experience, an amazing brunch at the Loews Hotel (those people know class..and fancy cheese!) and filming a Spanish video spot for Spanx. Yes, I told the world about my underwear…and it was fun.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Explosion of the Latina Blogger from Wired Latinos.

Latina Bloggers Courted by Spanish TV Network from She Posts.

Bloguera Power from RL Public Relations.

Latinas in Social Media: The Power of Familia and Sisterhood by Angelica Perez-Litwin at Modern Familia.

Click here to see Roxana Soto from Spanglish Baby in the Yahoo! Shine Reinvention interview. It is in Spanish, but it looks like all, or most, of the others are in English. Roxana is a smart, passionate and dynamic woman and I was lucky enough to hang with her this weekend…especially at the Wax Museum on Time’s Square…what happens at the Wax Museum, stays at the Wax Museum though.

Pa’lante.

What I can look like when I work it.

What I usually look like when I don't work it. Too-busy-to-try-look.

Ponytails daily!

What I do when I get tired of not working it. Cropped!

I have been told it takes guts to cut off your hair. I guess it does. Honestly, for me, it takes more guts to walk around in a ponytail all the time. I have felt dragged down by the pelo, so off it came. I feel lighter, happier, hipper…and when you’ve just turned 43, hip is a good feeling to work toward.

Only my husband and daughter have turned their noses up about it. They are getting used to it though.

Sometimes, you gotta knock it all off and start all over again…it’s a cycle-of-life, re-growth thing…And, I have been feeling in the mood to knock things over, get rid of things, purge, lighten up, since the floods hit in May. For some reason, my movements toward change always begin with a shearing…this is the fourth time in my adult life that it all has come off.

Something good always comes out of it…I am waiting to see what this cycle brings.

Have you ever chopped off all your hair? Ever felt the need to knock it all down and start again? (And I am not talking hair…)