Last week, we were reading a book from the Baby Einstein series, The ABC's of Art. There are a series of famous paintings of certain objects that would correspond to subjects beginning with the letters A to M in this book. Also included are a few thought provoking questions. We got to the page about E for Elephants. They were splashing in the water at sunset. One of the questions was, what time of day is this, and what sounds would you hear? Maggie responded with the na-na-na song, that is na-na-na to the tune of Brahm's Lullaby, their favorite lullaby for naptime/ goodnight time. So cute!
Also wanted to record some of AJ's words that start or contain L.
Mommy, can I sit on your wap? (lap)
I wuv you (love)
I yike you (like)
My hair is bwrown.
Maggie's hair is bwack.
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Monday, November 1, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Dreams
I know that Maggie and AJ dream cuz I've seen them giggle in their sleep. Even when Maggie was 4 months old and she was sleeping on her tummy, I saw her giggle and laugh like she was watersliding, with her eyes closed in the crib. At the waking hours of dawn, I've seen AJ clap his hands and let out a really cute chuckle or two.
This morning Brian asked Maggie what she dreamed about, and she said "In my dreams, I can wish for puppies and lots of birds." Very interesting!
In my recent dreams, I dreamt of trying to photograph some Snowbirds passing overhead with my cell phone camera. So elusive.
This morning Brian asked Maggie what she dreamed about, and she said "In my dreams, I can wish for puppies and lots of birds." Very interesting!
In my recent dreams, I dreamt of trying to photograph some Snowbirds passing overhead with my cell phone camera. So elusive.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Mother's Day Poem
Here is another poem that came with a Mother's Day gift.
My mommy cuddles me
kisses me, hugs me and misses me
pampers me, praises me, always amazes me.
Washes my clothes for me,
tickles my toes for me,
giggles and talks with me,
and also goes on walks with me,
Says "sweet dreams" to me,
Sings sweet songs to me,
I am glad she belongs to me.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
My mommy cuddles me
kisses me, hugs me and misses me
pampers me, praises me, always amazes me.
Washes my clothes for me,
tickles my toes for me,
giggles and talks with me,
and also goes on walks with me,
Says "sweet dreams" to me,
Sings sweet songs to me,
I am glad she belongs to me.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Mulan, AJ's favorite "hero"
My kids love to watch Mulan (Disney adaptation) for our Friday/ Saturday "movie night" in nine minute segments on youtube. It's great because we can watch the movie from any point of entry, or go to a specific music sequence and watch only clips of the movie to finish early. However, apparently they watch this during the daytime too with their nanny, by special request. I guess that's ok too.
Summary: Girl pretends to be a boy and joins the Chinese army to fight the Huns in order to save her aging father from mandatory conscription. Of course Disney adds various embellishments and catchy musical tunes, but there are underlying themes of free choice in marriage, girl power, comraderie, friendship, true honor, national pride, clever strategies, stuff blowing up, and even a bit of romantic possibility between Mulan and Captain Shang after her true identity is revealed and he is no longer her commanding officer.
We also have all the disney princess stories in a pink Storybook Treasury in short story format. Of all the princess stories, Mulan is the only story that AJ will sit straight through and listen to without being distracted. He always wants to "watch Mu-lan?" (in a very cute and earnest voice) but fortunately if I offer to "read Mulan?" when it's not movie night, he's just as happy. She's definitely his hero (for now). Maggie and AJ also love to sing the various themes such as "A girl worth fighting for..." and "I'll make a man out of you.... MYSTERIOUS as the dark side of the moon..." and they'll grab a broomstick, hockey stick, or long tube and pretend to fight and sing "Hut hut hut hut.... unafraid..." from Mulan 2. (maybe not so good). Or Maggie will go into a long lyrical diva-like sequence... "Who is that girl I see? Staring back right at me. When will my reflection show, who I am inside..."
But I love this story on many levels. It helped to explain a very complex situation such as "war" to Maggie. As far as she knows, war is about fighting the bad guyz and "kicking butt" in her words. During Brian's long deployment to Afghanistan, Maggie was always aware that he was in "KandaHAR". I was able to explain that there was a war there. Why? To fight bad guyz and kick butt. Fortunately that was a good enough answer at the time.
What did Daddy do in Afghanistan?
The effects of separation are still evident because she knows that Brian goes to work during the daytime, but if he leaves for soccer or shopping after dinner without really explaining where he's going, she used to think that he was leaving for Kandahar. In the past few days, he's been in Petawawa for a military excercise. The kids get a kick out of saying "PETa wawawa!"
This morning she asked me, "Why he's in Petawawa not Kandahar? (sic)" I answered that there was an excercise there, for training. "Why?" It's a pretend-war. She also noticed that his ranger blanket was missing. This is a camo print army blanket that has been everywhere around the world with him. Funny that she noticed that was missing. All I could really say was that he took his "blankie" with him to PETa wawa! I added, haha. Great, now they always say "haha!" for each cynical situation too.
The wierdest question she asked him was, "Daddy would you die for honor?" (That's a quote from the movie) Now that's deep, how can you explain about that to a child? And the best question she's asked me is, "Where's her mommy?" Actually if you notice in all or most of the disney stories - Cinderella, Ariel, Nemo, Jasmine etc.... the mom is noticably absent (or MIA for various reasons). Well sometimes I just give a simple answer like, mommy's at work.
Anywayz I thought of this today because Mulan is always on AJ's mind. We were reading a story about "The Princess Knight" and there's a princess who grew up training to be a knight with her brothers. So in all the illustrations of her dressed in armor, fighting with a sword or riding a horse, AJ kept saying "ITs Mulan." So cute.
Summary: Girl pretends to be a boy and joins the Chinese army to fight the Huns in order to save her aging father from mandatory conscription. Of course Disney adds various embellishments and catchy musical tunes, but there are underlying themes of free choice in marriage, girl power, comraderie, friendship, true honor, national pride, clever strategies, stuff blowing up, and even a bit of romantic possibility between Mulan and Captain Shang after her true identity is revealed and he is no longer her commanding officer.
We also have all the disney princess stories in a pink Storybook Treasury in short story format. Of all the princess stories, Mulan is the only story that AJ will sit straight through and listen to without being distracted. He always wants to "watch Mu-lan?" (in a very cute and earnest voice) but fortunately if I offer to "read Mulan?" when it's not movie night, he's just as happy. She's definitely his hero (for now). Maggie and AJ also love to sing the various themes such as "A girl worth fighting for..." and "I'll make a man out of you.... MYSTERIOUS as the dark side of the moon..." and they'll grab a broomstick, hockey stick, or long tube and pretend to fight and sing "Hut hut hut hut.... unafraid..." from Mulan 2. (maybe not so good). Or Maggie will go into a long lyrical diva-like sequence... "Who is that girl I see? Staring back right at me. When will my reflection show, who I am inside..."
But I love this story on many levels. It helped to explain a very complex situation such as "war" to Maggie. As far as she knows, war is about fighting the bad guyz and "kicking butt" in her words. During Brian's long deployment to Afghanistan, Maggie was always aware that he was in "KandaHAR". I was able to explain that there was a war there. Why? To fight bad guyz and kick butt. Fortunately that was a good enough answer at the time.
What did Daddy do in Afghanistan?
The effects of separation are still evident because she knows that Brian goes to work during the daytime, but if he leaves for soccer or shopping after dinner without really explaining where he's going, she used to think that he was leaving for Kandahar. In the past few days, he's been in Petawawa for a military excercise. The kids get a kick out of saying "PETa wawawa!"
This morning she asked me, "Why he's in Petawawa not Kandahar? (sic)" I answered that there was an excercise there, for training. "Why?" It's a pretend-war. She also noticed that his ranger blanket was missing. This is a camo print army blanket that has been everywhere around the world with him. Funny that she noticed that was missing. All I could really say was that he took his "blankie" with him to PETa wawa! I added, haha. Great, now they always say "haha!" for each cynical situation too.
The wierdest question she asked him was, "Daddy would you die for honor?" (That's a quote from the movie) Now that's deep, how can you explain about that to a child? And the best question she's asked me is, "Where's her mommy?" Actually if you notice in all or most of the disney stories - Cinderella, Ariel, Nemo, Jasmine etc.... the mom is noticably absent (or MIA for various reasons). Well sometimes I just give a simple answer like, mommy's at work.
Anywayz I thought of this today because Mulan is always on AJ's mind. We were reading a story about "The Princess Knight" and there's a princess who grew up training to be a knight with her brothers. So in all the illustrations of her dressed in armor, fighting with a sword or riding a horse, AJ kept saying "ITs Mulan." So cute.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Where's the sun's bed?
Earlier this evening, from their bedroom window there was an amazing view of the sunset. Maggie and AJ were fascinated by the dark clouds in the sky today at sunset, with the sun illuminating the clouds from the bottom with a firey glow. She was saying "the dark clouds are not big and scary" and AJ "ooooooh" wow! She kept asking me why the clouds were black so I explained it was a sillouette, not a shadow. AJ loves that new word "Se loo ent" He repeats every new word these days.
I told her the sun was shining from below like a fire. She must've remembered something about the "fire cloud" we had seen one wintry morning and she said, it's a sunrise! So I had to correct this reverse phenomenon. I took the opportunity to explain the difference between a sunrise and a sunset. In the best Chinese I could muster, I explained about the sun rising up from the window in my room in the east, and how it walks across the sky all day and falls asleep in the sky down there as seen from Maggie's window, west. She asked many times, where is the sun's bed and she searched everywhere. At last I had to explain that it was behind the fire station, behind the gas station, behind the school, behind the trees and way way far below the sky line.
And then another question, where's the sun's mommy? daddy? She seemed disappointed that I said he had none. What about his brother? So I thought it would be partly true to say yes, in another galaxy. Where's that? In another sky. And thank goodness that was a good enough answer for that.
I told her the sun was shining from below like a fire. She must've remembered something about the "fire cloud" we had seen one wintry morning and she said, it's a sunrise! So I had to correct this reverse phenomenon. I took the opportunity to explain the difference between a sunrise and a sunset. In the best Chinese I could muster, I explained about the sun rising up from the window in my room in the east, and how it walks across the sky all day and falls asleep in the sky down there as seen from Maggie's window, west. She asked many times, where is the sun's bed and she searched everywhere. At last I had to explain that it was behind the fire station, behind the gas station, behind the school, behind the trees and way way far below the sky line.
And then another question, where's the sun's mommy? daddy? She seemed disappointed that I said he had none. What about his brother? So I thought it would be partly true to say yes, in another galaxy. Where's that? In another sky. And thank goodness that was a good enough answer for that.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
A Poem from an Awesome Mom
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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Maggie is in Business
Maggie has recently realized the value of money. She's managed to find afew pennies from around the house and we brought them on our shopping trip to Metro. I made a point to pay for the $1.03 tomatoes in cash so Maggie would have a chance to use them. them She gladly gave the cashier the pennies and got the tomatoes in return. (i.e. Money can buy things!!)
Afterwards, Maggie asked Bing for pennies but she told her to ask mommy. When I got home from work I told Maggie that she needs a job and to go to work to get money. So Maggie asks "Can I have a job?" So I asked Maggie to set the table for dinner, and afterwards gather the dirty dishes etc. After that she asks, "Can I have more jobs?" So she got to sweep the floor and set the table for dessert, earning four pennies in total!
Next I want to teach her about giving money to Jesus. I did ask her if she will give a penny to Jesus for offering and she said yes! Hope that's ok for the offering counters.
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