Dinner

I've read that it's important for kids to know where their food comes from. I've also read that should help with dinner preparation as much as possible. I can't really remember why or how , but both things had something to do avoiding childhood obesity. I want my kids to help when I make dinner, but it has nothing to do with health or fighting obesity, I want them to help because some of my fondest memories are of the times I spent in the kitchen with my mom. I always thought I was helping her, but now that I have my own children I can see that my washing the broccoli probably meant my mom had to wipe up the puddle I made on the floor while doing it or that my adding the chopped veggies to the salad probably meant my mom cleaned up the tomatoes and carrots that were thrown on the floor and all around the salad bowl. Sure having help from small kids requires more actual work, but that extra time we get to spend together makes the extra little bit of work so worth the effort. And the other added bonus is that Lena actually eats broccoli when she can say she "made" it! (Maybe that's the part that makes experts say kids preparing dinner helps fight childhood obesity).

Cleanup

Sent from my iPhone"Cleanup, cleanup, cleanup", the kids sang this morning as the actually cleaned the house. Lena is a star cleaner and is almost always willing and wanting to help, but Jun has never felt that way until today. I've gotta figure how to keep this new habit fun for them because it was great for Todd and I!

Kids

Little dolls

For so many reasons, I just love this picture! Lena loves her Djaju and doesn't see a reason in the world why he wouldn't spend all day playing dolls with her.

Haircut

For about 2 minutes she loved it! Then a drop of water went in her eye and before I knew it she tilted her head back, opened her mouth, and very dramatically let it be known that the haircut wasn't as much fun as she had imagined. Jun went to the barber last week to get a haircut. Lena has been asking for one several times a day since then. Her hair is just now starting to grow out, but it's a little mullet-like so after watching her pull little pieces of hair and pretend to cut them as she gave me pouty-cute eyes and said "hah cu" (hair cut) several times this morning I thought we could take a quick trip to the hair dresser.

The Sleeper

Lena wants to be carried up to bed every night, but she's figured out that she has to walk upstairs on her own 2 feet unless she's asleep...so what does she do? Every night as soon as we close the last book and she knows its time to go to bed, she quickly shuts her eyes and pretends to be asleep. You'd believe she's really asleep, right?

Decision to Blog

I went back to work a few weeks ago and I thought that would be the end of the blog, the blog is a great way to let people know what we're up to, but it's also a great alternative to hand-writing a journal.  I had these visions of creating some sort of beautiful scrapbook of each of our trips to China, I had visions of spending the next several years keeping a memory-filled, mushy journal that I could present to Jun on his 18th birthday, and even had visions of keeping a second memory-filled mushy journal which I would present to Lena on her 18th birthday... I was actually thinking I'd also print a fabulous photo-book EACH year for EACH child...  but 3 weeks into my return to work and reality has made it painfully obvious that none of those things will actually happen.  But, I also realize I really do want some way to document our not-so-special events in daily life because they are what create special memories.

I want to remember making tea eggs with Jun and Lena for Chinese New Year a couple weeks ago.

I want to remember how proud they were of the fact that they cracked the eggs and made the broth the eggs cooked in for the next couple hours.  I want to remember that Lena at 3 eggs in one sitting!

I want to remember that Jun matched her egg for egg while holding onto the stuffed penguin.  

  I want to remember creating our Chinese NY banners for the Year of the Snake,

Jun's wish to have a Phoenix

Lena's wish was for... well, we weren't sure, but she had a lot of fun making her banner.

 And I want to remember how happy both kids were when Todd pulled out a pair of snowshoes for each of them when we got our last big snowstorm.  

 Sitting at a computer is something I'll spend a few minutes doing at the end of the day.  Downloading a few cute pictures is something I can spend a few minutes doing.  So, I hope my kids don't mind, but I'll have to figure out how to make books out of the blog and that's what they'll get on their big birthdays years down the road.