sweetisu

Every now and then I create silly stories with the kids, and it usually starts with me providing some basic structures and they fill in with imaginative objects / names / actions. Here’s the story from tonight, between our 5-yr old Sebastian and Mom (that would be me).

Mom: Once upon a time, there was a _____

Sebastian: Poop

Mom: and his name was _____

Sebastian: Stinky

Mom: and he liked to _____

Sebastian: go swimming in the toilet. And he likes to get flushed away. And then he walks out of the toilet and jumps on the floor. HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sebastian: “Fiona, this is how you belch . . .Urrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.”

Fiona giggles, and follows it with a not-so-convincing “Urrrrrrrrrrrrgh“

The kids were on my Mac this morning as I slept in a little longer (1). The two of them came to get me later on, and the older one proceeded to tell me “Mama, I forgot I should not draw on your computer.”

Raised eyebrows, groggy puffy eyed, I said “Draw on my computer? Where and why?”

“I forgot I should not!” He pleaded.

Decided it’s no use to argue without seeing the damage.

Minutes later, I’m very upset. The screen has several long RED LINES across it. I tried to remove them with my dry fingers - nothing.

Frustrated. Stew by self. Sit and read emails, eat breakfast.(2) Still frustrated, having to read through the RED LINES on the screen.

Kids on the floor playing with some toys. “Guys, please take it upstairs to play there” is met with silence. Typical. (WHY do kids not hear us / respond when we need them to???)

I lost it. I went down and cupped his face with my hands “DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?(3) TAKE. THIS. UP. STAIRS. TO. PLAY!”

Traits of Worst Mother:
(1) Sleep in while the kids run rampant.
(2) Eat breakfast at the computer instead of eating and talking to them.
(3) Shouting at the kids.

Cut a few holes in a box, it suddenly becomes a house with windows! And now it’s time to paint them rooms!

My little artists hard at work:

With paints from this selection. After it’s all done and tattered from playing with for days, recycle the boxes.

Couple of days ago, out of the blue, he tilts his head and asks me,

“Mama, do you know why birds fly south in the wintertime?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s too far to walk!”

* * *

Our 4.5 yr old loves to read. Although the above is from a riddles book, I’m pretty sure he just told his first real joke with a real punch line!

We interrupt the string of short posts with another short post.

Late Monday night / early Tuesday morning while I was pounding on the keyboard fervently, inputing data for new products for KangarooBoo, I heard cries for help.

I went to Sebastian, our 4.5 yr old’s room, found him literally burning up and coughing badly, with giant tears streaming down his face. He was shaking / seizing, his limbs were kind of noodle’ish and limpy. Couple of minutes later, the thermometer revealed 103.5F. After a dose of Motrin, he started to cool a little bit. 30 minutes later he cried again. He needed Mama to sleep next to him.

At 5 a.m. Fiona woke up and joined us. She rolled in bed while Sebastian continued to sleep until nearly 7a.m. (unheard of, as he’s also a 5-6a.m. riser) and I stuck in the middle. Fortunately I had the foresight of getting a full-size bed for him.

Tuesday - he stayed home from preschool. Still feverish and still coughing.

Today - both kids have preschool today, but both are home. Sebastian doesn’t seem to be too much better, although the fever is under control with Motrin. Fiona is also having low fever and some coughing.

Santa made his round at our preschool last week.

The other day I asked the kids if they told Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

Sebastian beamed and said, “YES I did!”

“Did you sit on Santa’s lap?” “Yes,” came the excited reply.

“Fiona, did you sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what you want for Christmas?” “NO, I’m scared of Santa.”

o_0 If I was 2 years old and some dude with long white hair and a big belly wanted to carry me, I’d be scared to death too. Further examples that Santa can be very scary for 2-yr olds: just look here, here, and here. (Also? Remind me to tell you the story of how this guy insisted on giving me a hug so I locked myself in the bathroom for hours until he left)

“Yes he’s kind of scary isn’t he. He has a lot of white hair.”

Sebastian asked, “Why does he have so much hair? On his face too.”

“That’s called a beard. Some people have hair on their faces, like Baba does sometimes. And Santa always have a very long beard.”

Deep in thought, Sebastian asked, “Why does he have so much hair?”

Nanoseconds later, “WHERE is his mouth, and HOW does he eat?”

Good questions son. He eats when no one is looking, consuming mostly cookies and milk and then rushes away to other faraway places in his sleigh.

x x x x x

Merry Christmas everyone. May you always believe in the magic, even if Santa isn’t part of it.

Even today she still sleeps with froggy-legged sometimes.

I may be biased, but she is the prettiest 2-year old on earth.

June 2006

July 2007

I probably would be a millionaire by now, or close to it, if I got a penny for every time our kids don’t finish their meals. I would be sufficiently wealthy if they finish even just half of what I put in front of them.

We have one Very Picky Eater, and one Semi-Picky Eater. Almost every meal I have to repeatedly say phrases such as sit down please, eat your food please, NO JUMPING on your chair, please DON’T BOTHER YOUR sister/brother, eating time is not playing time, don’t play with your food….

Not much luck at all.

Although they are not malnourished (and you can see they are not, from the Halloween pictures a couple of posts below this one), they aren’t getting all the basic food groups into their bodies most meals.

Many people have told me that when they were younger, their parents used to tell them something along the lines of “there are little children starving in China / Africa, you’re lucky to have food on the table,” and that usually worked to get them to straighten up.

I haven’t tried that yet, even so, I’m pretty sure they will just giggle and look at me like I’m a crazy mama.

When I was growing up (in rural China), having enough food on the table was a problem. So needless to say, we devoured any and all foods during mealtime without any persuasion from our parents.

Do (did) you have a picky eater or eaters at your home? How do you get them to eat without bribing them? Or is the adage that, they’ll eat what they need…?

I’ve been busy. Will be busy for a long while, which is a good thing!

Before they go into the Digital Black Hole which is the iPhoto* archives, here are the Halloween pictures from this year. Seb was a doctor (he was a doctor last year, too), and Fiona was a Tigger (Seb’s costume from 2 years ago). What that meant was, NO costume shopping or sewing was needed. Yay!

My happy cheery models:

Seb even checks our ears, eyes, and heart, and then “writes” prescriptions for us. He’s a great doctor!

Fiona loves showing off her tail. She requests this pants frequently even weeks after Halloween is over. It is difficult to refuse when she’s having so much fun, and the giggles that ensues makes it impossible to resist.

* I LOVE my Mac. LOVE love it.

** It seems digitizing pictures have become a way of shoving everything into some byte form and not many makes it into print. Do your pictures get printed out often? How do you manage 2 gazillion+ pictures.. ?