Conversations with Daniel

Reposted blog entry from November 26, 2007

We pulled up to a stop sign and a woman with headphones jogged through the intersection. The following conversation went like this...

Daniel: Mommy, what's she running from?
Me: She's exercising.
Daniel: Hee, hee, no! Maybe its a car.
Me: You know how Dad exercises at home when he runs on the treadmill? Well, some people run on the street to exercise.
Daniel: When I'm on the street and a car comes, I exercise too!

Another reposted entry from October 25, 2007

We went to the beach today. When it was time to go home, Daniel was speeding for the car. Asha on the other hand was in no hurry at all and lagging quite a bit behind. Daniel calls for me to hurry and here's the following conversation...

Daniel: C'mon, Mom!
Me: Honey, we have to wait for Asha.
Daniel: Why?
Me: Because we can't leave our sister at the beach.
Daniel: Why? Will someone else come and take her?
Me: Yes.
Daniel: And they'll be happy to have a new sister?
Me: Are you happy to have a sister?
Daniel: (silence)
Me: Daniel, are you happy to have a sister?
Daniel: (pause...and then an unconvincing) yes.

Anyone else feeling the love? hmm...

Another reposted entry from December 9, 2007

I hear Daniel and Asha fighting in the hall and then it sounds like someone is getting smacked. I'm pretty sure its Asha getting hit since I don't hear Daniel telling on her.
I call out to him, "Daniel, hitting is not an answer!"
He calls back, "Is it a question?"

In Motion (Part 1)

Even though we have about 6 more weeks before we fly back to the United States from South Korea, we are already in motion.

The movement began with an assignment.  We were originally suppose to be here in Korea for two years, but after we had been here for just a few months, we found out that we would be moving to Alabama after only one year.  At that point, plans began to be made and life began to take on a temporary feel.  We had to get housing set up for the new assignment right away (you can read about that here).  Conversations started to include the statements '...before we leave...' and '...after we move...' While we waited for orders (official paperwork), our calendar started to fill up with dates for the process of moving, the first of which is getting our stuff from here to there.

Since it takes a few months for household goods to make the trip by boat, they needed to be sent ahead of us.  The moving company had an inspector come to evaluate our move.  This is the beginning of the part that makes me feel unsettled.  I don't like people looking in my closets and cupboards, and though it may not be true, I always feel like I'm being sized up.  Being in Korea didn't help this at all.  The inspector kept making comments about us having too much stuff and our TVs being too big, etc.  Since English was not his first language, and he kept smiling while saying it, I could never figure out whether he was insulting us or complementing us.  A week later the movers arrived at 8am and had us packed and loaded on the truck by 3:30pm of the same day.  Previous movers have always taken at least 2-3 days so I was up all that night wondering if they broke anything in their haste.  The guy in charge kept assuring me that Korean movers are the most careful ones.  I hope that proves to be true.

We were only in the hotel for a couple nights when loaner furniture was delivered to our empty apartment so that we could continue to live there until it is time for us to leave.  This part is nice.  Well, mostly nice.  The double mattress that the base loaned us is not really big enough for two people to sleep on so I have spent many nights on the loaner couch.  Its also smallish, but so am I, so it mostly works.  What really works though, is having less stuff.  I already miss things like our bed and my desk, and eventually I would miss the rest of it too.  But for a while, less stuff is nice.  Its less to take care of.  Less to be responsible for.  There are less dishes and laundry to do, though that also means they have to be done more often. *sigh*  I must say that I do like having less toys to convince the kids to put away.  I think I might even be hoping that the box marked 'toys' gets lost during the move.

To read Part 2 go here.

Exercise

Reposted blog entry from September 25, 2007

My husband keeps bugging me to get back into my exercise.
"I can't live without you so you have to exercise and stay healthy so that you can outlive me." he says.
I know that I have slacked off on my exercise "program", but I think what I do all day should count as exercise.

Do you think it should count as exercise when I scrub the kitchen floor on my hands and knees while a 2 y/o and 4 y/o climb on and off my back for added resistance? Are there bonus points for mopping again an hour later after the 2 y/o decides she can pour her own lemonade and gets more on the floor than in the cup - and the 4 y/o walks through it with dirty feet after playing outside with no shoes on?

Would you call it a sort of lunge when I dart back and forth across the lawn while bending over so as to get the sprinkler in just the right spot without getting wet?

I do lift 20lb and 40lb weights all day long when kissing boo-boos and wrestling the kids in and out of highchairs, car seats, bath tubs, etc...

And is it considered cardio when my heart rate shot up as I chased my stubborn toddler down the sidewalk praying that she didn't reach the intersection before I reached her?

I don't know if there is a way to quantify all the bending, lifting, twisting, -and groaning- that I do all day but I think I ought to get credit for it.

i am wonder woman

I wonder about my life sometimes.

I wonder why I can make restaurant quality Macadamia Nut-crusted Ono but I can't for the life of me make a decent pancake for breakfast.

I wonder why my husband cannot remember to close the cabinets.
Like, ever.

I wonder why my 3 year old son insists on waking up at 4:30am every morning no matter how early or late I put him in bed the night before.

I wonder why my 8 year son old makes random loud annoying alarm noises ALL-THE-TIME.

        Seriously, have you seen this clip from Rio?

       

        No kidding, the 8 year old is worse.

And I wonder if anyone will ever be able to explain to me why my 6 year old daughter is obsessed with toilet paper.  Really?  She will shred it into little tiny pieces all over her room.  She will unroll half the roll (or more), roll it back up and stuff it in her pocket or backpack and carry it around with her.  She will use it for 'blankets' for her stuffed animals.  She wanted to put a ponytail in my hair the other day but instead of using the rubber band that she just took out of my hair, she used toilet paper!  I am grateful that it wasn't used toilet paper.  But still.
It makes me wonder about her.

Here she fashioned it into a head scarf.

ROK/US Airmen and Air Force Civilian Family Invitation Event May 11, 2012

Recently our family was invited to participate in the ROK/US Airmen and Air Force Civilian Family Invitation Event.  It was a fantastic day and we were very honored to be a part of it.  Here are just a few of the pictures from that day.

Click here to view these pictures larger

The Moments

In honor of Mother's Day

Reposted note from March 10, 2010

Although the moment after the kids go to bed is a great part of my day, my favorite part is the moment before. The moment when we snuggle up close and enjoy each other’s company with a couple of good books, then shower each other with hugs and kisses and I-love-you’s after we express gratitude for each other to the One who loved us first.

That's Daniel at 3 months.

We started this practice when Daniel was only a few months old. He loved books! He could go on and on. I would indulge as long as I could until I knew prudence dictated that I put him down to sleep. Asha took a little longer to warm to the process. Until she was a year we would sing instead of read. I enjoyed this too, but there’s just something about reading books with your child that gives you a unique opportunity. A chance to see inside them. To see what interests them, what they love and what they’ve learned. Their excitement and attentions give them away. Especially for the little ones like Ethan, it is a glimpse into their unspoken world.

Reading books is also a way I share myself with my children. Not just my time, but my interests… “Did you know that I loved this book when I was your age?”, and my values... “Did you think that was the right way for them to treat each other?”. It provides a forum to talk about things that I think are important, and to teach things that the constant motion of the rest of the day just isn’t conducive for. I get to teach them new words, new ideas, and new ways of looking at the world. A moment when I don’t just get to see inside them, I get to change them from the inside out. It always changes me too.

I don’t think there are any other moments that can compete with these moments. Yes, they are only moments in my lifetime, but more than that, I think they are the best moments in my life.

Rocking My Baby

In honor of Mother's Day.

Reposted note from February 18, 2011

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Cobwebs and dust are the least of my worries.  As my friend Mari witnessed yesterday, it was moon sand, spaghetti sauce and Science covering my table, and popcorn covering my floor, and a host of other toys and papers covering my counter.  But instead of spending the evening cleaning, I spent it dancing.  I danced in the kitchen with a most handsome and charming half naked young man.  I was enchanted by the sparkle in his eyes, captivated by his laugh, and highly entertained by his lack of dancing skills (though his are still better than mine).  Someday he will be too busy to dance with his mother.  I will have plenty of time to clean then.  And then, the memories that I will wish to remember will not be of my house, but of my child.  I know that my time was well spent...
  I was rocking my baby, and I will not care that my house was not neat first.

The Voices in His Head (and body)

Reposted blog entry from September 17, 2007

Daniel told me today that he wanted to eat something because his heart told him that he was hungry.

You know how its suppose to be okay to talk to yourself just as long as you don't start answering back too? Well I heard him in the back yard the other day asking himself questions and then answering back. But to top that, he came in the house and told me about the conversation! He says, "Mommy, that's what I told myself."

You might not think there's a little schitzo under that little grin of his, but a mother can tell early on.
Last year when he was two and a half, he was using his hands as puppets. That might not sound ab-normal, but let me explain. He would hold his forearm vertical with his wrist loose, flap his hand up and down, and talk to it like it was a separate entity. He would encourage it, ("You can do it, hand.") and then praise it ("Good job, hand!") One time he was trying to put something together and when he finished, he stood up and held his flopped over hand out to me and said, "Mommy, hand did it!" then he held up his other hand and said, "Other hand helped too!"