Spring Fling

Of all the holidays, Easter is the one that I have the most fun with.  We take our kids to a community egg hunt or two where it is a free for all.  Plastic eggs filled with sweets are just lying on the ground.  When they get the signal, the kids run around grabbing as many eggs as they can before another kid does.  There are tons of kids at these events, getting tons of candy and tons of happy.

Then we have an egg hunt at home that is just for our family.  We hide our eggs and vary the difficulty by age.  Each kid has two colors assigned to them and they can only collect eggs with their colors.  Each kid also has the same number of eggs to hunt so all is fair and square.  …except for the golden egg with cold hard cash in it.  There is only one of those, and finders keepers.

Since the kids have already gotten more sugar than I would ever wish for them to have at the free hunts, our family hunt is a sugar-free event.  Instead of sweets, I fill the eggs with little toys and trinkets I have picked especially for them.  I enjoy the challenge of shopping for fun things to put in their eggs.  I try to be as creative as possible for as cheap as possible.

Last year while shopping, I spotted some ceramic eggs.  They were pots that were pre-packaged with dirt and seeds, just add water.  Oooh, they were so cute!  And I was so tempted!  But $3 per egg filling is my limit and these were $5 and change.  It gave me the idea to use seed packets as an egg-filler though.  Those are under $1.  I picked out the perfect one for each kid; cucumber seeds for Ethan, sugar snap pea seeds for Daniel and wild flower seeds for Asha.

As expected, the kids were super excited when they found seed packets in one of their eggs.  They wanted to plant them immediately.  I told them to wait and finish up what we were doing and then we would head out to the back yard to plant them.

Asha did not hear this because she had already ripped open her packet and, in a flash, was twirling around in the middle of our front yard, squealing with delight, as she flung the seeds across our lawn.  I looked at her in stunned silence, my mouth agape, as she excitedly asked, "When do you think they'll bloom?"

I do see you.

My daughter earned a dollar the other day.
She was very excited to go to Walmart with me to see what it would buy.

It bought...
a notepad and pen set.

After we got home, she wrote as many notes as she could think to write,
and then tore them all off and put them in here.

Once or twice a day she brings it to me and tells me to
close my eyes and pick one.

This is what I have picked so far...

The last one is by far my favorite.

I do see you too, honey...
and I love what I see.

Stranger Danger

"There are no such things as strangers, only friends we haven't met yet."  ~Unknown

My quite gregarious daughter struggles with the definition of a 'stranger.'  I was asked by a teacher once if Asha would go with a stranger if they had a puppy.  I laughed.  A stranger would not need a puppy, they would simply need to say, "Hi."  We've gone over it with her often, but it is often quite clear that she does not understand the parameters.

She came home from Kindergarten one day last year in Korea and began to tell me about the 'Stranger Danger' lesson that had been taught in class.  She told me all about how strangers don't always look like bad guys, that you should never take gifts or rides from a stranger, and that you should tell your parents or teacher if a stranger tries to talk to you.
I was elated!  Finally!  She gets it!

...or maybe not...

Two days later she was shopping with me outside the Osan Air Base gate.  I was standing just inside a shop door and she was a foot away from me on the outside of the open door.  While I was speaking with the shop owner, my daughter says to me, "Mom, I'm going to go say 'Hi' to this man."  She's pointing to someone just out of my view and turning to go.  "No, Honey."  She protests, "But he wants me to come over there."  I quickly grab her shoulder and turn her to face me.  "Honey, you don't talk to strangers without mom, right?"  She looks at me completely bewildered.  "But Mom, he's not a stranger!  Look!  He's smiling!"

Perfect.

The very scruffy looking old man with missing teeth sitting in the alley is not a stranger because he is smiling at her.

Recently, my daughter learned our phone number.  I was delighted because this could help her if she ever got lost.  She was delighted because she could tell her friends so they could call her.  I was not delighted to discover that she defines 'friends' as the two boys she just met at a McDonald's playground.

Oh, and on the way home from school today, she informed me that her "best song" (favorite song) is the Maybe song.  You know,

♫ Hey, I just met you, And this is crazy,
But here's my number, So call me, maybe? ♬

Perfect.

Conversations with Asha

Asha: Are you going to tell them I'm your son?

Me: You're not my son.

Asha: (Looks at me very confused.)

Me:  You're not my son, you're my... (Pausing for her to fill in with....)

Asha:  Honey?

Me:  (Smiling)  Well, yes, but...  (Let's try this another way.) Boys are sons and girls are...

Asha: Honeys!  (What?  No!)

Ethan:  Sisters!!

Me:  No, she's your sister but she's my...  (Looking at Asha and pausing for her to say...)

Asha:  Brother.

Me:  (Staring at her blankly for a moment... )

Asha: Husband?

Me: uh... (Really?)

Asha: Honey!

(It is now that I realize just  how much I call her that.)

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.

Travel Companions

We're in the car less than 5 minutes when I hear it start.

Asha: Please, Ethan!

Ethan: No!

Asha: Ethan, if you don't let me, I won't play with you ever again.

Me: Asha, stop threatening Ethan.

Asha: Okay, Ethan, if you won't let me, I won't let you play with my bunny.

(Trying to distract them I point out the window.)

Me: Asha! Look at the flowers on the trees!

Daniel: Those must be the cherry blossoms.

Me: Yes, aren't they pretty?

Asha: They are pretty - Ethan!! Stop looking out my window! Look out yours!

Ethan: Nuh-uhh!

Asha: Ethan! STOP looking out MY window!

(And then she splays her head, arms and hands out to cover as much of the window as she possibly can in an effort to block his view.)

Ethan: Argg!

Dad: Asha you are not being nice.

Asha: I don't want him to look out my window. Ethan, look out your window!

Dad: Look, gold tires.

Ethan and Asha: Oooh!

Dad: Asha, you don't get to look at them; they're on Ethan's side and you can't look out his window.

Asha: But I WANT to...

(After an intermission the second half of the show starts.)

Asha: Ethan, are you pretending to be asleep or are you pretending to be dead?

(This is a logical question because several times a day he will say to us, 'Pretend I'm dead.' and then he adds 'Blaaaaahhh,' and falls down on the ground with his eyes closed and his tongue out.)

Ethan: I'm not dead.

Asha: Oh. 34, 35, 36, 37...

Ethan: Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm....hmm,hmm,hmm, hmmmmmm.

(He's humming the Star Wars theme song as loud as he can to annoy her.)

Asha: Ethan! Stop! You're messing me up! 38, 39...

Ethan: Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm....hmm,hmm,hmm, hmmmmmm. Heh, heh, heh, heh!

(That last part is a weird, maniacal laugh that he likes to use to taunt his siblings.)

Asha: Ethan!! I can't hear myself count!

Dad: You guys are being so loud I can't hear myself think!

Asha is the first to break the brief silence: Ethan, why are you chewing on your sock? 

------------

I'll leave you with a video that I took last year
during a very LONG red light.

If you listen closely at the end you can hear my husband sigh :)

My Little Trooper

Reposted blog entry from August 10, 2007

Asha fell and broke her arm on Monday.
She cried all the way to the hospital but then she ran around the ER like nothing happened. Both bones were broken and you could see her arm crooked but she kept taking the splint off so she could use her hand.
After all the doctors and nurses oohed and ahhed over how she didn't seem to be bothered by pain, they put her under anesthesia to pop the bones back into place and cast it. The cast is suppose to come off in about 5 weeks.
She woke up the next morning to go about her business as if she had only ever had one arm!
She's my little trooper.

Another entry from August 28, 2007

I promise not to believe what your kids say about you...

...if you promise not to believe what my kids say about me!

While I was reading Asha a bedtime story, she leans forward and then pops back and hit my neck so hard I yelled Awh!  Daniel asked me what happened and I told him that Asha hit me and it hurt.

After I tucked her in, I come into the living room to hear Daniel telling Dad, "Mom read Asha a story.  Then she hit her and then she put her in bed."

All I could think was 'What will people think when they hear that and then see Asha's cast?'  I just want to clarify for the record... -She hit me- and then I put her in bed.

Social Butterfly

Today is my daughter's first day of kindergarten.

 She went to kindergarten last year too,
but technically she was a jr. kindergartener.

 She could not have been more excited for today to come.

 I'm pretty sure she asked one or more times a day for the last
two months if she got to go to her new school 'today.'

She's a social butterfly and she can't wait

to be surrounded by friends all day!

 

"See my new lunch box and water cup?"

She's not even to her classroom yet and already she's socializing.

Spread your wings, Sweet Girl.

You are beautiful when you fly.