ni hao!

We began the first of our International Dinners tonight. I didn't prepare for it quite as much as I had intended to, but it went pretty well. Uncle Denny had volunteered to cook Chinese for us, so he made shrimp fried rice. I stopped to get egg rolls, chopsticks, fortune cookies, and an order of Chinese doughnuts on our way down to his house. Once there, we talked about Chinese facts (Dennis knew that "ni hao" means "hello"), Uncle Denny showed him a wok, and I printed some activities for him to color (thanks to Kristin for recommending enchantedlearning.com) and complete. When I handed him the papers, he chose the dot-to-dot outline of China to do first. He likes the flag (it is mostly red) and already knew that the giant panda is from China. He even corrected me when I told him pandas live there ("Mommy, do you mean GIANT pandas?"). He also told me they weren't just black and white but could be red as well. He colored a bit of the panda page and saved the flag to color later. When I handed him the page on how to write Chinese numbers, he nodded and began counting in Chinese. Kudos to Nick Jr television! His panda knowledge is from Diego and his Chinese info came from Ni Hao Kai Lan (I like that there aren't commercials on that channel as well!).

Uncle Denny showed him where China is on the globe and looked up pictures of the Great Wall of China to show him. He told him about Chinese New Year and how their calendar is very different (and I happened to know that this is the year of the rabbit). He learned about rice and chopsticks, and he ate some of everything (though we had to work hard to remind him that he does indeed like shrimp). I'm very pleased with how it all went. He was pretty interested much of the time (and took some breaks to play with his construction set), and he loved watching Uncle Denny cook. He wanted to help so much!

This was a big day for us. We went to the pancake breakfast at church this morning after Dennis had accompanied David on some errands. They had attempted to visit David's paramedic friends so that Dennis could get the ambulance tour he's been asking for, but they had to go out on a call and the truck wasn't there. After the brunch, Dennis and I rode with his Grandma to his cousin Jeff's 2nd birthday party. There were lots of kids and toys to play with, and I had to drag Dennis away crying when it was time to go. He napped just a little on the way back and was ready to party with Uncle Denny tonight. He told Uncle Denny "my birthday is coming up soon and you are invited to my police party--be sure to bring presents!". He's told me today he wants a CARS birthday party (like Jeff had), a construction party (what he's said for the past month), and a police party. I'm going to give it a couple more weeks to see what he wants most and to figure our a location.

I can't wait for our next International Dinner! It isn't planned, but I have some ideas. What a fun way to introduce other cultures!

last minute snow fun

Well, it's mostly melted away, but we savored the last moments of the snow. It was still everywhere this morning when we left for preschool, but the temperature was rising and the sun was shining. We weren't at school long--I was just there to teach one science class--before we headed home. He had to make a last snowman, of course, possibly the best of the lot. And tonight he made snow ice cream with his daddy (1 big bowl of snow + 1 can sweetened condensed milk + 1 tsp vanilla = yumminess!). We had a wonderful snow experience! And we had a pretty cool lesson on gravity at school today.

Tonight we delivered the Valentine cookies we baked and spent time excavating Dennis' room. It was time for a furniture rearrangement and toy redistribution, and even though we worked for hours, we have more to do later! We are trying to thin the herd a bit, especially since his birthday is rapidly approaching. He's asked for a new bicycle (he's grown into a 16" size according to his toy store test drives) and a kid-sized treadmill and exact replicas of the toys his cousin is getting tomorrow at his 2nd birthday party. And we still have a month to go.

hooray for snow!

Best snow day EVER! We got home last night after picking David up from work, and the grass at home was already covered up in snow! I left my Good Parent skills in a closet somewhere and took my sick-with-a-cold self and my sick-with-a-cold child outside to have a late night snowball fight. David snuggled up on the couch and shook his head, not a big fan of snow (and, as he pointed out, recovering from a 12 hour shift). Dennis and I headed out around 10 or so, and I fear we might have awakened the neighbors with our exuberant giggling (and screams of laughter as our snowballs found their targets). Dennis is a pretty good shot, as it turns out, and we had an excellent battle and a nice long walk in the snow.

It has snowed every winter, real snow, since Dennis was born. That first time, just before he turned 1, he sat in the snow in his snowsuit and didn't do much. Then he fell over and cried. The next winter, we spent Christmas snowed in up in Washington and Dennis got to ride on a sled and tromp through deep snow. Then we were snowed in the next month in Gatlinburg, and then it snowed in Alabama, so he was pretty used to it. He learned that winter how to sort of toss a wad of snow at us. Last February, we had a great snow and he caught snowflakes on his tongue, worked on his snowball skills, and learned about snow ice cream. This year he was like a real 'big kid', frolicking, rolling around, making snow angels, playing 'steamroller' as he rolled down a hill, nailing us with snowballs, and making a makeshift sled out of a plastic storage bin lid. He made two snowmen today, one dressed as a fireman and one as a knight with chest armor and helmet. He plans to make a scuba diver snowman in the morning. He has already set out fins, mask, and floaties but hasn't found his snorkel yet.

I had SO much fun watching and listening to him playing today. He would periodically burst into song, random lyrics he invented on the spot, all about loving the snow. And, oh, the giggling! Big happy belly laughs rang out loudly and often. He knows how to have some serious snow fun now, and I hope the coming years will continue to provide the opportunity for him to hone his skills. Today was just magical. Thank you, Lord, for sending enough snow to create beauty and fun but not enough to cause havoc on the roads. Awesome!

Tonight, he wore a swimsuit, floaties, fins, and mask around the house for hours. I guess now that he's had his snow experience, he's ready for summer! David walked in and saw him and said "it never hurts to be optimistic, Buddy!".

snow moment

We are now home. Forgot to mention the time at Winn Dixie that Dennis spent with the window rolled down, head stuck out and mouth wide open to catch snowflakes from our parked car. He waved to passing shoppers and yelled "snow, snow, isn't it GREAT and beautiful?" and giggling loudly.

waiting for accumulation

We are sitting in the parking lot at Winn Dixie (no, this isn't another iPhone commercial, but it is great to be able to blog from anywhere), watching the snow pour down from the sky. We are waiting for David to get off from an unexpected 12 hour shift so that we can all go home. Preschool will be closed tomorrow, so all those red heart sugar cookies we rolled out and baked this afternoon won't get delivered. Luckily we took a few to church tonight for one of his teachers.

Maybe we'll get some real accumulation this time! Let's hope so, for Dennis' sake. We get to sleep late (and we're going to make sure Dennis gets the message ahead of time) and hopefully get some good snow play in the morning.

Quote of the day: "mommy, you're my sweet bamboo". He's been watching the Charlie Brown Valentine special, and I presume he meant "sweet baboo" (Sally's pet name for Linus).

sassy sassy fun

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you wake up before the alarm goes off and you get that blissful realization that you still have time to sleep longer? Just as I was settling back in for another half hour, the dog commenced howling to either go out or come in (I can't remember which). I took care of that, and then Dennis came to find me. He asked for breakfast and said something about his Daddy. I asked what Daddy was doing (as I headed to the bathroom) and Dennis said "well, unfortunately, Daddy is still sleeping" (and the way he pronounced "unfortunately" was pretty darn adorable, and I must admit to being pleased that he knows the correct usage of the word). As I was washing my hands, I heard him yelling "WAKE UP DADDY! WE HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL AND I NEED BREAKFAST!". Poor David--I had intended to take care of everything, but Dennis wasn't having it!

After school we went over to Gran's and Pop's house to have lunch (and Gran and I had a Zumba date), and Dennis kept asking if he could go to Wal-Mart after we ate. I told him he couldn't, and he said "I'm not asking you, I'm asking Pop--I want to go with Pop." I informed him that I was the one making those decisions for him today, but I heard him go and ask Pop to take him to Wal-Mart anyway. I also heard Pop ask him what his mother said, and Dennis said "you have to ask her or Gran can ask her." Yeah, I knew this time was coming, but it caught me by surprise anyway. We didn't fall for this trick, but he got me later. I was trying to get him to leave their house (always a major event), and he KNEW he was going to home to get a nap and DID NOT WANT TO. He said he wasn't going home and delayed by heading upstairs, taking a long time to put his coat on, and finally asking for chocolate milk. Gran poured some for him, and he drank half of a very small glass and then put it back in the refrigerator. After he'd complained and said his goodbyes, he announced that he needed more chocolate milk and escaped from my grasp to run to the kitchen and take one more sip. He was asserting his independence and I knew it. Sometimes he needs to control some part of his day, but this was a tough day for me to accept that. Sometimes I need to feel like I'm in charge, especially on a day when I've taught sassy and stubborn preschoolers that had listening disabilities. I think preschool was also why he wanted some control over his day--he doesn't really get to control anything at school (and this is a lesson he'll learn again and again in the coming years).

We drew with chalk when we got home, and we read tomorrow night's lesson and Bible verse for church, and THEN I put him to bed. I had to physically lay him down (he kept popping up and complaining), but he went to sleep before two minutes had passed. He's fighting a cold and needed the rest. When he got up, he felt positively animated. He had a terribly nutritious supper of chicken fries, popcorn, and a lollipop (I tend to pander to him when he is under the weather). I did let him have lemonade instead of water, and while I was pouring it, he jumped up and down and said "Mommy, you sure look cute today!". Then he ran into the living room and began yelling at Tabasco "YOU ARE SUCH A CRAZY DOG!". Right now he's standing on the seat of my recumbent exercise bike, gazing at my Coca-cola collectibles and trying to convince me to let him play with the aluminum pick-up truck. He's telling me I need to share it with him, that it's not nice to not share, that he promises to be extra careful with it and not break it like he did last time. And now he's grabbed a red Sharpie and says he needs to sign his name on some things, so I will quickly conclude here.

mini ninja

I asked Dennis a few weeks back if he'd like to take tae kwon do classes, explaining that it was kind of like karate. I think he'd be old enough to start sometime this year--classes start at age 4 and are offered locally. He didn't seem all that interested, so I let it pass. Today he must have remembered our conversation because he jumped all over the kitchen and gave us a variety of karate poses, hands in full chop, one leg in the air, mouth making appropriate karate noises. I asked him where it had come from and he said he was going to learn it in karate class. I'm going to let it go again, at least until he's a little more mature and won't continually attempt to karate kick us into doing his will (which he did today).

He's fighting a cold, the same cold that I'm almost over, and his little eyes are so red that I told him he needed to head to bed. He said "no, my eyes are green and that means I can stay up!" (I am presuming he was thinking of red light versus green light). David said "no, your eyes are blue, but my eyes are brown and that means you have to listen to what I say!". I just decided not to play this game any further.

He has spent the last half hour sliding across our wood floor on his knees. David and I were sitting in the couch in the den and I had to laugh the first time Dennis came flying across the opening between the living room and den. David gruffly told him to cut it out, so I reminded him of what he and Michael and I did right after we installed that hardwood floor. Thick socks, no furniture--we slid ourselves crazy. I think of that when I find myself sliding across the floor every once in a while (just because it's fun). Dennis has just discovered the joy of sliding, but he slides on his knees. I'm guessing we won't be passing on many size 4 pants.