Mom's Musings About Kids

I'm planning on posting some Easter pics, but not yet. Here are some things worth noting that have happened in the past few days.

I explained to Xander today that he could have one piece of candy now and held it up in my hand, or he could have 2 pieces of candy in 15 minutes. I showed him how long 15 minutes would be on my watch and asked him if it was a long time or a short time. He said it was a short time. So, I asked him again what he wanted and he said "One piece of candy in one minute!" I could tell by his answer that he thought he had said the best answer. He turns 4 years old next week, so maybe we'll try this little test again when he's a bit older. The study says that 4 year olds who will grow up to be successful children will choose to delay gratification.

Driving in the car with Xander...

Xander "Mom, does Heavenly Father have a cell phone?"

Mom "No"

Xander "Does Jesus have a cell phone?"

Mom "No, why do you ask?"

Xander "How are we supposed to call them?"

Mom "We say a prayer if we want to talk to them."

Xander "Oh" - didn't seem too impressed that gadgets, flashing lights and beeping noises weren't involved.

Unrelated to this. I asked Xander to say the blessing on the food for dinner.

Xander "My blessings don't work"

Mom "What do you mean?"

Xander (serious face) "They don't work"

Time for another conversation about prayer. He has said this about bedtime prayers that his "prayers doesn't work." Guess we haven't done a very good job resolving this concern yet.

Anneliese is becoming more mobile. She loves roaming from one no-no to the next, which keeps mom constantly on her toes. New no-nos include:

- The toilet, and today she discovered the toilet paper roll - wow! That was a lot of fun.

- The garbage can! Ew! She stands up, reaches over and grabs whatever she can and throws it onto the floor. Then she happily sits down to play with her new toys. Today she was busy shredding a banana peel into tiny bits when I found her (in Vietnam the peels are thinner than in America) - double Ew!

- Mom's purse, primary bag, and bookcases are favorites to empty out.

Emma just started a soccer class in her after-school activities. She was excited, but said that all the boys in her class complained that she had never played before. The coach put her to work kicking and practicing to be a goalie. She was so excited that she was able to stop all of the balls that came her way in practice. Way to go Em!

Tonight at dinner Emma asked if she could have her own iPod.

Mom "What? I don't even have my own iPod! I have a Shuffle that I got when I turned 30."

Emma "Well, at least can I have an iTouch?"

Mom "We're done with this conversation."

I'm thinking what music does she think she's going to listen to? Disney?

Every night before Emma goes to bed she asks me or Christian to tell her a story when we were little. I told all the favorite ones months ago, but she still asks every night and it's forcing me to delve deeper into my past to recover little tidbits of my life. I really should write down what I tell her so that I can remember 20 years from now. It's been a good exercise.

Walk-A-Thon for Blue Dragon

Emma had a walk-a-thon at school last Friday to collect money for the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, which helps provide education, food and medical support to orphans and children whose parents are in prison. You can find out more information about Blue Dragon at the following websites: http://vietnamstreets.blogspot.com, or http://www.bdcf.org

Here is Emma running (green shirt and blue pants). She worked so hard and she was so proud of herself. As she ran, she kept telling herself "Don't stop, Don't give up, Keep going." Emma ran 10 laps around the track! Way to go Emma! Mom and Dad are so proud of you!!! The school had marked a normal-sized track on the soccer field for the kids to run on.

Thanks everyone who sponsored Emma for this event. She even sponsored herself and used 'fun money' out of her bank for her contribution. She raised a total of $185 USD! Below are some of her classmates showing off the marks they got from running each of their laps.

Super Junior

This is a rare blog posting by Christian. Last night Jennie and I went to a rock concert at the largest stadium in Hanoi. 40,000 of our closest Vietnamese tennie-bopper and young adult friends were all in attendance. The free concert was hosted by MTV, USAID and AusAid (Australian Aid). The purpose of the concert was to raise awareness of trafficking in persons - a really good purpose. MTV has been hosting these Exit concerts all over the world for the last several years to help educate and inform young adults of the dangers of modern day slavery.

Since USAID helped fund the concert, the Embassy got some tickets and we were able to go. I was surprised how sought after these tickets became. We were getting calls from all of our government contacts asking for help to line up tickets. There were several Vietnamese groups that performed - mostly pop, one folk and one good ol' fashioned rock. An Australian singer - Kate Miller Heidke - also performed. She was really good, and thankfully didn't sing her most famous song (if you are wondering what that is just google her name). Luckily, I didn't know until I got home after the concert and looked for a YouTube video of some of her songs.

The real reason the predominantly young female audience showed up for the concert; however, was to see the Korean Boy Mega Band Super Junior (also known as SuJu). They are one of the most well known bands in all of Asia right now and all the young female hearts swooned as they took the stage. It was quite a sight to see 40,000 young Vietnamese scream their hearts out for their very own Backstreet Boys wanna bees. Thousands of the fans had their faces painted and were carrying blue glow in the dark mini light sabers that they waved around to the beat while they danced to the band's music.

What really made me laugh was when the group introduced themselves in Korean (with corresponding screams from the fans) one of the band members launched into a long soliloquy in Korean that no one understood (I assume it was about trafficking in persons). It was pretty funny. Lucky for Jennie, she remembered to bring her earplugs. The music itself wasn't that loud but all the girls screaming made it quite the cacophony of sound. The whole concert lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Super Junior only sang 4 songs, but finished off their performance with their big hit "Sorry, Sorry" (above) which should be renamed "Shorry, Shorry" by the way they pronounce the word. We had a good time, even though we had to sit in our car for half an hour after the concert before we could move anywhere (we were boxed in by thousands of motorbikes). It was truly a Hanoi moment and a pretty good lesson in Asian sociology overall - and a fun evening to boot.

Adventure of the missing tooth

Emma lost another tooth and when she was showing it to Xander, it dropped on the ground and rolled underneath the oven. After a brief outburst of tears, I convinced her to try a rescue operation involving a flashlight and a long cooking chopstick. She took on the challenge and after many determined attempts she was successful and soooooo happy that the tooth fairy could come visit her that night. Please don't look too closely at the lovely crumbs on the kitchen floor.

Saturday morning Emma and Xander made a little Vietnamese specialty with Huong. It is glutinous rice paste with a sugar cube inside, boiled in water with sesame seeds on top. More or less like a gooey, stick to your teeth, eyeball-looking type of thing. We still have some left over in our fridge...want some?

Xander's favorite game in the WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD is hide and seek. I love the way he counts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18, 16, 15, 18, 14, 17 until he asks "daddy/mommy, are you ready?" and when he gets a yes, he says "ready or not, here I come." He loves to hide where you hid last, and then he gives you clues by saying "over here" and whistling in his cute Xander way (more of a "woo-hoo." And then he is equally thrilled and surprised when you find him in his secret hiding place.

Here he is wrapped up in the curtains hiding (a no-no in our house by the way) and then a pic of him being found. Love you to pieces Xander.

New "Cwock"

Our little guy, Xander has been waking up WAY too early and it's cramping my style! We had a special date yesterday to go and buy a clock "cwock" (as he says it) for his room so he won't wake up too early. I am super pleased to report that it worked this morning - whew! We love the Asian-English printed on the clock. The froggy sticker on the short hand needs to line up with the froggy sticker between the six and the seven. This morning Christian said: you need to move the froggy sticker closer to the seven!

Xander fixing his Tonka truck with his repair tools he got for Christmas. He is blurry because he was working so fast and hard on fixing his truck. We have rules about what things Xander can 'fix' with his tools. He is often asking: mom, is it okay if I fix this? Sometimes it's yes, often the answer is no, followed by a good suggestion.

Group snuggle of Anneliese and Xander with Huong our housekeeper.

Happy Birthday Anneliese

Big helpers in the kitchen, swirling the raspberries in the mini-cheesecakes.

Emma and Xander singing Happy Birthday to Anneliese. You can hear Emma singing in the "baby voice" she uses when she plays with her Littlest Pet Shops.

Anneliese's birthday dinner - she wasn't quite sure what all the fuss was about. Xander didn't want to be in the photo, so I scooped him up anyway. Emma made the beautiful B-day sign.

Anneliese liked the whole wheat pizza better than the cheesecake.

Cheesecake-free and all squeaky clean.

Getting goodnight 'zerberts' from Daddy and showing off all four teeth while grabbing on to his glasses. We love this little pearly smile, and she loves her Daddy's tickly kisses.

Kids...

I have been meaning to post for over a week, but everything has been in Vietnamese on my blogspot page - so frustrating! I've been taking random guesses and clicking on things, but all to no avail. Christian set me straight again last night, so here goes.

I love the things kids say. Here are a couple things within the past week that have amused me...

Xander: "Daddy I want play in dirt with you"

Daddy: "I would love that"

Xander: "Where [is the] dirt?"

Daddy: "I love my little boy."

We live in a concrete jungle. However, we are thinking of putting a sandpit on our balcony. We saw some friends do it and we think it would be perfect on the 3rd floor balcony because it has an overhang, and therefore, precious shade from the sun!

Emma dressed up for school Performing Arts Concert

Family sitting at dinner table.

Emma: "Why do I have so many pieces of broccoli?"

Dad: "You have 6 pieces because you are 6 years old."

Emma: "Then mom should eat 100!"

Dad: Chuckling "Why is that?"

Emma: "Because mom is more than 100 years old."

Mom: Sitting at table, mouth full of broccoli "Wow! That's insightful"

Xander dressed in Chinese outfit at Embassy's Tet - New Years Party

Xander has a new way of expressing gratitude. He has been saying it for the past couple weeks to me and Christian at random times. We'll be playing cars, walking down the street, eating lunch or whatever and he'll say: "Mommy, you're so cute." I love my little guy's compliment.

Dragon Dance at the Tet Party

Emma was home sick yesterday and we decided to walk around and run some errands together with Xander. On the way back home, she said: "I really think that you and dad made a good choice. I mean, you're the bestest parents I've ever had. I really mean it." I asked her what good choice she thought we had made. She answered: "I mean that you chose each other to get married." I thought that was really sweet and again insightful to her more-than-100-year-old mother.

Anneliese eating her first Cheerios in Kenya