A Letter to Jun

9/21/2013

Dear Jun,                                                                                            

You were so worried about moving to a new town and starting 1^st grade, I was so worried about moving to a new town and having you start 1^st grade.  After your first few weeks of school, I am so proud of you, Jun.  I realize mothers say that all the time to their children and I realize most of the time they probably mean it, but I feel like I hear the phrase often enough that when I write, “I am proud of you”, it probably doesn’t mean all that I want it to mean.  It probably doesn’t mean , “I want nothing more in this world than to hug you and squeeze you when I see your excited smile as you come running out the front door of the school at the end of day”, it probably doesn’t mean, "my heart is bursting when I listen to you chatter about how much you love your art class”, and it probably doesn’t mean,” you’ve come so far in just a few weeks and after all you’ve experienced in your little life I can’t believe I’m looking at such a well-adjusted, bright, happy, joyful, and thoroughly engaged little boy whom I truly love more than life itself”,  all of that is what I mean when I say, “I am proud of you, Jun”.  You have thrived in the first few weeks of school  and I cannot wait to see how you continue to progress as your school career goes on.

Love you!

Mommy

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?