Doing things her way

It is so funny that we had this argument again so close to mother's day; what she wants to wear. She has SO MANY cute clothes. I want to try them all, match carefully, see all the different outfits on her. She picks her favorite skirt and then we argue about which shirt matches it. I prefer pants or shorts, she likes skirts every day. She likes her long and down straight. I like it up and off her ears. The reason this is funny is I have very vivid memories of fighting with my mom about clothes, too. It takes all of my strength to bite my tongue and let her pick because I want to pick so badly. But our relationship being intact is more important than her wearing the outfit I like, and so I will do my best to keep it to myself!

Also doing things her way, she's been a bit constipated the last few weeks. Tonight she was super uncomfortable, I could tell by how she was walking and complaining and after her customary 10 second potty run and crying about how she can't do it (actually, her exact words were, "There's no use Mom, I can't push it out!!" ) I made her sit down and try for a longer time. We put the stool under her feet, got a story book and sat. And she's bouncing up and down on the toilet seat, saying this helped. I got her some water, and she would swish it around her mouth and then swallow, because that 'helped' too. Water swishing would be followed by more bouncing. "If I just do this 20 times, then it will come out" I was DYING trying to stop myself from laughing, it was absolutley hysterical. After about 10 minutes and no action she decided some PE was neccessary. so we went to the living room where she lead me through a series of stretches and exercises, and sure enough after that we went back to the potty and ta da!

When does it stop being ok to tell poop stories? It was just so so funny.

She does lots of funny things. I just can't remember them. Need to start keeping a list as they happen.

Meat

I know I facebooked this but I have to blog it, too, because it is so funny.

While talking with Gemma about the farm tour, the truth about where meat comes from came out. She totally doesn't believe it of course (that meat comes from cows) and has trying to process this new information. She asked me again on Saturday, "Are you SURE meat comes from cows?" Cuz I milked a cow at the farm and I was watching and no meat came out!"

Love it.

Field Trip

Gemma went on her first field trip today, to a farm. She got to
-milk a cow
-feed the cow
-feed the bunny
-roll a haybale

She saw a lizard climb up a tree, and saw a goat. How awesome for schools to take kids on trips. Seriously, what an enriching experience.

I know Taipei is very urban, but I would say I am satisfied with the amount of wildlife and nature we enjoy. We see lizards, frogs, giant snails, fish, ducks, birds of all kinds, and turtles all the time. We go to the park almost everyday, where there are lots of trees and bushes and leaves falling and ponds and equipment. I think of parks as backyards, and we just own a lot of them and other people maintain them and keep them beautiful ;) True, no grass (well, no grass we really play on) True, the air is not fresh. But I'm grateful for what we have and think it is sufficient.

Gemma's Holiday

What does Gemma like at holidays?

-Playing in the pool.
-Using floaty tubes and toys in the pool. In the purple tube. And then out. Then in the floaty car. Then out... and on and on.
-She loved the Aquarium. She liked to see all the animals, get 'scared' in the dark ancient ocean display, and pretty much just enjoyed all the aspects of the ambience created there. Both the kids were SO patient, as it too over an hour to get out there; including 50 minutes of waiting at a bus stop on the side of the highway. Long story short: bus drivers kept telling me 'no' they didn't go there so I finally went back to the front desk girl who told me to wait there and she sent someone from the hotel out to help us... ANYWAY, we made it. (Chris was meeting a friend in the opposite direction, which is why he didn't drive us.)
-Eating icecream with marshmallows dipped in the chocolate fountain
-missing school ;)

Drop off

I dropped Gemma off at school on Friday. Break your heart! She acts tough, fights back the tears and says, "I'll miss you so much mommy" and with her chin up marches in. What on earth am I doing to her with this full day torture???? She of course has a lovely time and is happy when I pick her up, but Chris says that mornings are still tough. I'm happy I'm the 'pick up' person usually and not the 'drop off' person. (Sorry, honey :)

Anyone have good reading about teaching your kids foriegn languages? I'm not sure that simply 'immersing' her is working. Need to make some sort of plan, as well as decide how to maintain/develop her English skills as well... So much to think about and 'try'; I so wish I didn't have to experiment on my child; what if I make a terrible mistake and damage her for life?

I'm sorry first born dear, I love you and tried my best!!!

If I wear make up...

I pray for wisdom on nights when I hear this:

Gemma is putting on makeup in the bathroom. She is smiling. I ask her, "What are you doing?" She says, "There's a boy at school who likes me. If I put on makeup, then he will like me even more!!!"

I will also point out that this is at night, before bed. Because he daddy won't let her wear makeup to school, so she was trying to do it at night before.


We've been talking (I've been trying to talk) a lot about being beautiful on the inside, how Esther was beautiful but used her beauty for good, a wife of noble character.... ANYTHING I can think of to de-rail that train!

Random info...

Gemma is doing great! So many little stories, can't ever remember them at night time, though.

We are done with another 10 weeks of gymnastics, and although I would like to keep going I think its time for a break. She loves it too, and I think the studio is great, but its just too much for the schedule. I teach till 4 on Wednesdays, rush home to get Guinness, rush to Gemma's school to get her, rush her to gymnastics (which starts at 4:30), and chase Guinness the whole time. He likes the place too, and gets to jump and play before class but during class he wants to be on the trampoline, on the bars, and generally in the way. Which means I have to man-handle him the entire hour. Which is tiring! Gem learned a lot there and I hope we go back in the future, but I guess we should break for a bit.

We finished the Secret Garden today. She got a bouquet of flowers to celebrate.

The scholar?

We were working on Gemma's homework (yes she has a bit of homework every week, which I didn't know about ooops, so we are actually working on last week's homework) and she is bored.

I am pretty tired at the end of the day. I know I should make this so fun and exciting and foster learning and build that passion... but I'm tired. We'll see if I can get the creative juices flowing.

It really isn't anything at all; color a picture about something they learned that week. Last week it was God made the Sky. Practice writing 2 bo po mo fo characters. She has to write each one three times. Big deal, I think; I am personally PUMPED to be learning bo po mo fo as I feel it holds and important missing piece to my study of Chinese. She is bored. Sigh.... No pressure. I do want her to love school so we'll just do it quickly and happily and put it away. And I'll try to trick her into learning it another way....

What is bo po mo fa? Chinese phonics; a way to break down characters to sound them out. Only kids use it, then they just memorize all the characters.

Check this out:

Or this one. This one shows the sentence. You can see the small bo po mo fo symbols beside the character; so you use this to sound out the character but eventually you have to just memorize them.

Living Vicariously?

Gemma's room is ALWAYS clean before she goes to bed. (99% of the time). We always clean it after Guinness goes to sleep before we can have our special mommy-Gemma playtime.

My room is never clean. Maybe once a month or every 6 weeks I'll finally get so disgusted I'll hang up all the clothes (mine and Chris'..mostly mine), pick up the floor, sweep, etc.

Gemma's clothes are laid out for the next morning. I scramble to find something to wear.
Gemma's lunch bowl and water bottle are washed and packed for the next morning. I try to quickly make a PBJ sandwich for breakfast and remember to grab leftovers for lunch. Or at least my wallet to buy some instant noodles.

Gemma's hair gets combed and done before we leave the house. I wear the same ponytail all day sometimes.


I wish I were organized and prepared, but if I can't be at least she is!!

Great Day at school

She complained all morning about it.

I don't want to go.
Make sure you come pick me up in 2 minutes!
I don't like it!
Don't be late.


But her eyes were bright and round as lightbulbs as we got to the door. Shoes off, coat off. Proudly showing where the coats go, "I ALWAYS use the purple hanger for my coat." She was excited to go, happy to be there. Hardly said goodbye. Couldn't wait to see her teachers and her friends.

And she had an awesome day, the head teacher said her best day yet. She was cheerfully working on an art project when I got there at 4:10 (Wednesdays is art, I guess. And the workbook they have is SO COOL!!) So much excitement she was hopping around getting her stuff to go home.

Sigh. Of. Relief.

Our own secret garden adventure

So I am home for 3 days this week 'cause Chris is in LA for a conference. I like to do extra special things with the kids because I know as a working mom I am often tired and busy and often we have stuff we HAVE to do instead of play (but really, I know that ALL parents and families have responsibilities and no one can play all the time, right?) So this morning we went off on a garden tour of small gardens set up along our main road. It's part of a 'green' project put on by the city and the floral expo to make some of Taipei's ugly spaces, well, less ugly. They tear down old abandoned buildings and then plant grass and flowers, etc, in the empty lot. (Ooo, like Wonderpets save the tree!) We have three of these right by our house and they are cute and beautiful and interesting. As we were walking to the second one (the one with the shopping carts at the Guting elementary school pedestrian overpass) we noticed that the lot beside it was all walled up! We liked this lot because it had a stone path, and one time we found pieces of a 'p-edallion' there. Gemma says 'p-edallion' sometimes but she means 'medallion', as in a kind of fancy treasure. One time we found a few pieces of broken blue and white tile. So we collected them and brought them home and tried to assemble it but we couldn't and even though I threw those pieces out every time we go there she wants to look for more medallion pieces, "And Mommy, DON"T throw it out this time, even if I don't play with it for a long time, OK??????" But anyway, the lot had a wall! Just like the secret garden. And after we looked by the edge of the wall and found more medallion pieces and played with caterpillars, and walked along the garden wall and climbed the overpass to look at cars go by and check out the new church, we were ready to go get food and go for a picnic. Because why not spontaneously decide to go for a picnic when you're on holidays? One the way past 'the wall' we saw the door. And it was LOCKED!!! (Because it is condemned and unsafe for people, I am assuming, or else why a wall?) But I want to play along and I remind Gemma that interestingly enough a few days ago we found a key so I ask her if it would fit? Gemma looks at the key hole, and says, No Mommy, we need a screwdriver!!! I didn't actually look but I play along and say Ok, lets go home and get it and come back and then go on our picnic. Because that is the kind of things you can do when you are on holidays: walk 10 minutes home to make a picnic, get a screwdriver and walk back to an empty lot to try a key to a magical door, then walk BACK past your house again to get to the picnic spot. (TaiDa).

Smart girl; when we got our picnic in order and screwdrivers and made it back I actually looked at the lock. And it was a cross shaped hole; thats why she knew she needed a screwdriver and not her key, because she knew her key was one flat line, not two crossing ones. But sadly, it didn't fit (good thing, people would wonder why a foreigner lady and her two kids were breaking into city property!)

Ahh, no time limits and schedule to muck up our day :) Its fun to just go with it.

Sadly, not the case for the next two days! But I'll try to schedule some spontaneity, haha!

Phewww

Way better day today. I was in a near panic this morning about what to do, but she made it to school no problem, had a great day, and even went to bed at 9:30, in her own bed. I hope this becomes the new norm and she is 'adjusted'. It is only 3 more months, so I think we'll stick it out. A note on culture: There was a lot more sympathy for Gemma from the Canadian side of things. Friends here were more on the side of tough it out.

Of course if it got really bad we'd pull her, we are not out to damage her for life but I think its normal to have some adjustment issues with a new situation, and since we're at 7 good days of 8 think she's doing OK. Knock on wood, we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Drop out?

It is not getting easier to take her to school. It is getting harder.

She cries. And doesn't want to stay.

She's napping at school, which is good for them but bad for us. It is 10:45 and she is wide awake, reading books in here with me. She hates the nap time, she says. And I am so exhausted staying up with her.

I have no idea what to do. We have to pay the tuition tomorrow, and its like a thousand bucks CDN. So don't really want to shell that out if its not going to work. Tonight she begged me, Please don't take me to that school.

Or do we push through; its only 15 more weeks.

Pray for us!

Secret Garden

We're halfway through Secret Garden! She keeps asking for it, so thats good, she seems to be getting most of it. We're at the part where she meets Colin, and we are learning how demanding and spoiled he is (Rajah Craven!). I love this book!!!! Tonight she fell asleep while I was reading, so precious. I know I am biased, but she is so beautiful.

Pictures of school

A friend whose son is enrolled at the school emailed me these pics and a little report. (She must have dropped her son off after I left) Here's what she said:

"Hi Nevada,
I thought you might like these pics of Gemma that I took for you this morning when I was there from 9:00 - 9:30am. Just wanted to let you know that she was happily engaged in play with the other girls when we showed up during the early free play time. During the worship songs, she paid close attention to the teachers and tried to do the actions with the songs. Of course, getting to play in the big cars was quite a thrill for her and all of the kids! She seemed to be really enjoying herself overall."



Pheww, sigh of relief. It will be the hardest thing for me I think to not know what she is doing all the time.

1st day!

A successful first day, I think!

We were at school a bit early, so it was very quiet. Gemma was looking very interestedly at all the toys. We found out where to put her bowl and spoon, water bottle, sleeping bag, coat, shoes... And then she was ready to play. We played with some blocks for a bit while we waited for other kids to come. One of the teachers was putting costumes on a few kids and Gemma got a flower costume, then she was a part of the welcome team which welcomed people to school. Except she didn't want to stay there and be a flower, she was ready to go and check out the new stuff. Once the kids started coming and she was more interested in her surroundings I said goodbye and left. First time I left my daughter for a whole day at a new place like that! But I knew she'd have fun, and she did.

We'll find out more on Friday when her communication book comes home about what she learned, etc. I asked her what they had for lunch and she said, "I don't know what it was called" Ha ha, Taiwanese lunches can be a little odd to say the least. But she said it was yummy, so OK. She did have a nap at nap time, "I was tired!" she said, which explains why now tonight she didn't fall asleep till 10. Hopefully that works itself out over time. I think this is the honeymoon phase of school, where everything is new and exciting and fun, but I imagine we'll have some hard days when we have to wake her up to get ready, and when she realizes her days of TV watching and hanging around the house are done :)

Pictures.... I took pictures. A friend emailed me some pictures... Let's see if I can get a few up here before I fall asleep on my keyboard.

Chapter Book

We are reading our first chapter book, and I love it! I was telling her one day about the story of The Secret Garden, and she was very interested, and the more I thought about the story the more I thought it was right up her alley; secret keys, grumpy Mary, mean uncle, and the surprise of Colin (and, of course, the secret garden!!) I brought it home from school and we've read a chapter or two a night for the last three nights. Amazing! (Knock on wood) I hope she stays interested. Tonight Mary met Ben Weatherstaff, and found the garden with no door. The next chapter is the 'wailing in the corrider' and Mary will discover Colin; I think Gemma will love the mystery of it.

I hate sleep training

I am so tired of waking up in the middle of the night.

Now Gemma is coming to our bed. Which is fine because then we actually SLEEP instead of me walking over to her room 3 or 4 times a night. But since I would like to sleep with Chris instead of Gemma (although she is cuddlier and has better breath) last night we insisted she go to her own bed. And so I was up because she woke up three times crying. And if we want to sleep train her we will have to go through this for days and days until she starts to sleep n her own in her own room. All night. And I can not cave in and fall asleep in her bed. Or let her come to my bed. Which means I will not sleep much. Not that I do already. Ugg, I am already in a bad mood thinking about it. Lack of sleep makes you crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier bedtime = success

We've been doing an 8:30 bedtime for a week or so, and its worked! And in fact, on Thursday night I kept her up just because I was being selfish and I wanted to go to the rest of Chinese Corner because it was being hosted in our building so after I paid the babysitter ad made sure Guinness was asleep I just took her upstairs. This bumped bedtime to 9:45. And that night was terrible!!

A friend suggested this sleeping incentive. Every night she sleeps in her own bed, and doesn't sleep in our bed, she gets to put a sticker on a chart. The stickers say S L E E P I N G and when she gets them all she gets a prize. 2 nights of success, yay!

Did that just happen??

The things I see in this country never cease to amaze me.

Tonight I was watching one of Gemma's educational Chinese language VCDs. Its a great set starring ChaoHu, the tiger, ChiChi his rabbit friend and a host of other animals and puppets. Lots of cute songs and repetition, and we've learned a lot from it.

So tonight we're watching a new one I haven't seen yet. And they are doing a farm tour. We see the cows in the field, eating, and they're talking about how hungry they are, etc. Then they go back to the barn because they are full. Once there, they have their udders washed and we see a milk machine demonstration. Ok, thats cool. Then we see the milk go to a processing plant, etc, and put into bottles. So far so good, right? Well, this ties right into a 'where do cows come from' segment. It shows a cartoon cow with an egg. Noooo, cows don't come from eggs. A large X appears on the egg laying cow, and the next clip is a LIVE COW GIVING BIRTH. Yes, you see a real live cow giving birth on the TV. Can I just say that I would NOT expect that appear on a children's DVD at home, ever in a million years???? But like I said earlier, the things that I see in this country are just not what you'd expect sometimes.

Gemma's School

Gemma will be starting preschool after Chinese New Year break, February 14. Annabelle is leaving us; getting married to a Taiwanese American and moving to the US and we needed a new plan for the kids. We've been thinking about school for a while but they don;t do it here like they do at home; twice a week for a few hours or whatever. Here it is everyday, half days or full days. Except half days are almost as expensive as full days and because Chris does most of his meetings/work over the middle of the day so we are going for the full day program. Gulp. Is my daughter ready for full days out of the house? Drop between 8-9, pick up between 4-4:30.

Of course, it is an excellent school. It is at a nearby church, and they have a huge facility, lots of materials and things, across from a huge park. High teacher student ratio. Designed for 3-4 year olds. Very Christian in teaching; lots of prayer and worship time, music time. Nap time after lunch. PE, music, art, science, math, history, geography, Chinese and English. (Although the instruction and day to day will be in Chinese) I always get a kick out of things like geography for 3 year olds but whatever, its cute and they need to learn stuff so thats cool. There will be 4 other wei-guo-ren children there (foriegner) so she'll have some companions, at least for half day as those children have mothers who stay home.

I think she is ready for the challenge of school, and although this is a big step I think she'll do great. I can't wait to see what she'll learn.

Night Terrors/Confusional Arousals

They're back.

My girl had these confusional arousals for a long time. I could count the number of times she slept through the night on one hand until she was three years old. Then, finally, blissfully, she slept. 10-12 hours UNINTERRUPTED! You can imagine how amazing this made my world!

Until now. Recently (the last 6 weeks) she has been up 5-7 nights a week, several times a night. Calling out, crying, yelling, getting mad at people (me, Annabelle, Guinness...) thrashing, yelling louder. These sessions last for 10-30 minutes. She is not awake. She has no idea I am in the room. I can not say or do anything to calm her down. I almost never get her to wake up. (And experts say NOT to wake them up, they will pass sooner if you just leave them alone.)

I call them confusional arousals as opposed to night terrors because that's what some experts call them. Terrors are more screaming afraid type behavior, whereas confusional arousals are more agitated, anger, upset behavior. Terrors aren't generally as long as arousals. In both behaviors the kids have no recollection of what happens. And, the most maddening thing about all the reading I've done and research is THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.

Ugg, great. So basically don't sleep through the night ever again. Ok, they are supposed to outgrow it. But when?

One thing the books do say is that being overtired can make them worse. So bedtime is officially bumped up. Guinnes: 7:45. Gemma, lights out by 8:30. She is very active in the day, not napping anymore, so that could be part of the problem. I am thinking that school will help (when she starts attending full time in February, more to follow) because she will behave naps there (and I suspect she'll sleep) and be more tired at home after a full day of activity.

Anyway, you know what my prayer request is now...SLEEP!

Biker!

Gemma loves her new bike, and is for some reason obsessed with TaiDa and going biking there. On Christmas day we did an almost 2 hour bike trip. Boxing day we did an hour and a half. Today she was so excited to go (even after walking the zoo for 6 hours) that we were all dressed and in the porch at 5:45, even though we had a 6:40 date with Auntie. So what did we do? Walked to Auntie's house to help with garbage, then to TaiDa for biking. We didn't get home till about 7:15. I have to job to keep up with her sometimes, she can really cruise, and so I think the bike is going to be an awesome present for all of us. Hours outside everyday, yay!!

Except I have to keep Guinness in the stroller, because he won't cooperate and walk in the same direction as us. I try to please both but the battle of choosing one kid over the other continues.

I really like doing these things with her.

Gemma and Time

Still working on time words...

SETTING: Gemma is in the office playing computer games. I come in.

N: How long have you been playing computer games?
G: About 1 hour.
N: We better stop then. An hour is a long time.
G: Hmm, maybe 2 hours. Is that shorter than 1 hour? (imploring expression)
N: Uh, no Gemma. That's even longer.
G: I know, 5 minutes. That's how long I've been playing.

Uh huh, Gemma. Whatever you say.

Birthday

A successful Totally Spies rescues the Princess party! Fun rescue mission, cake was good, thoughtful presents, and of course friends. It was a pretty exciting, long awaited day.

Squiggly

Still lots of love for the amazing Squiggly.

How do you explain to an almost 4 year old that NO, there is absolutely NO WAY we are bringing the fish to church? And that NO she can't touch him. She was trying to scoop him into a paper cup so we could change his water, and after multiple swoops around the bowl I intervened, saying 'you're scaring him!' To which she retorted, "He's not scared: I"M his mommy!!"

Birthday a coming...

Getting ready for the party of the year!

Gem is so excited, she wants to decorate and do everything now. I think I have blogged this before but we are having a Totally Spies rescue the Princess birthday. No games, just an elaborate rescue mission that will involve princesses, gadgets, monsters, and clues. Oh heaven, please give me energy!

Party is November 27 at 1pm.

Good for my ego...

I was telling Gemma we needed a new container for our magnets because the old lid doesn't stay on well and Guinness can dump them out at will, so I found a tupperware we can use and as I was showing Gemma the lid she said, "Brilliant idea, mommy!!!!"

Brilliant :)

Ah ha moment...

We let our kids watch TV. Not too much, but probably more than we should. And I discovered where this may become a problem: REALITY!

Like when we were at a waterfall in JiaoXi, and Gemma said, "I am going to skip over those rocks. I can!"

Umm, actually, you can't. I'll help you. My help is always met with resistence.

And then this week, she was telling me how great she was at something, and I was gently trying to bring her down a notch (or 5) and she trumped me with this; "Well, I can see invisible things."

Oh boy. I tried to explain that she couldn't actually see invisible things to no avail.

Soccer...

went pretty well, I think. Gemma had fun and obeyed the teacher, which was my number 1 concern. The park was mental busy; I don't think there is any way to explain to a Canadian just how busy a Taipei park can be on a good weather Sunday. Well, first imagine the sidewalk leading up to your local park. Now put people on it shoulder to shoulder, lined up in a steady stream. That is the traffic in and out of the park. Think Future Shop on Boxing Day, says Chris. Now imagine a play structure 5 or 6 times bigger than the ones in Saskatoon. The average play structure we saw at home had a few slides, a bridge or two, fire pole and two or three monkey bar systems coming up to it, and maybe a kitchen or fort or whatever underneath it. So we'll say 10 points of interest. Well, the new play structure at this park (Daan Park) has at least 30 ups and downs and ins and outs, and the line of children on it is steady. Every bridge and slide has a line, every staircase has children on it. So anyway, all to say the place was a zoo, so a bit hard to concentrate. (No we didn't have soccer on the play structure, but the whole park was busy; the grassy areas were busy, everywhere.) Also, it was the first class and the kids had no idea what to expect. But the drills were good and interesting and I think it was ok. Major problem was that they planned it to be 2 hours long. Well, my 3 year old is not going to do anything for 2 hours, so I don't that will work for us. And the time goes over when church starts so double no. I may check out different days and times, and see.

Going to check out a gymnastics place tomorrow at 4:30; The Perky Tiger its called. We'll see how that goes.

Songs and Soccer

Gemma is very into making up songs. They are usually about God or Jesus, and usually go something like this:

"God, we love you, you are so good and we love you in our hearts. And our hearts love you because you are nice, you are nice and good and big."

Today she did one I'll call "God is the biggest". It went a little like;

"God is so big, He is the biggest, the biggest, and the most... (thoughtful pause) power-est, He is bigger than the daddies, than the daddies, than the daddies."

Also in Gemma news; she will be attending her first soccer practice tomorrow. Some friends have found a preschool team and so we're checking it out tomorrow; we'll see how it goes. We talked a bit about it today, and I guess our sports education has not been so good.

"Gemma, are you excited to try soccer tomorrow?"

"Yes. But I don't have a ball."

"Well, that's ok. If you like it, maybe we can get one."

"Ok. But I'll need to practice before my game."

"Well, we can use another ball to practice."

"I will pick it up and throw it in the net"

"Uh, well, you see Gemma, what's interesting about soccer is that you can't use your hands. You just use your feet and kick the ball around."

"But how do I pick it up?"

"Well, you don't. You use your feet and kick it."

and then I started to get worried about tomorrow...

She asked what the net would look like and I explained it was rectangle and on the ground, and someone will stand there and block her shot, to which she said she would kick it over their head. This is part of her inability to grasp reality thing; she really thinks that she will be able to score goals very easily, and kick the ball where she wants it, etc. It is so hard to watch her try these things because she is truly so disappointed that she can't do it. She doesn't understand it at all. Then she gets frustrated and mad.

Tear Jerker Moment

FINALLY made it out to the water park today, my first time although the kids have gone already. It was sunny and hot; perfect for building water park anticipation! As the sprayers and fountains came into view, I said excitedly, "I'm so EXCITED to be here!" And Gemma replied, "I'm so excited to be here with YOU!!"

Aww!

Reality?

"Mommy, what would happen if a monster came in my room?"

"Well, Gemma, then I would think you were on a TV show or a movie because monsters aren't real."

"No, but Mommy, what if?"

"Hmm, well, I guess I would hope you had some of your super spy gadgets to help you."

"I don't. What would I do?" (her look is totally serious still)

"I think you should try and trick him. Like tell him 'Hey monster look over there,' and then run away."

(a moment of silence as she processes this... then she laughs.) "Yah!! Good idea."

So we start on a trail of 'good ideas'.

Mommy: "Or you could hide, Gemma."

Gemma: "Yah. Or I could turn invisible."

Mommy: "Um, yah, I guess. Or you could poke him in the eyes."

Gemma: "Or I could poke him with a porcupine. In the tummy! Or poke him in the tummy with a long sword"

Because even though 'gadgets' aren't real or possible, she may have a sword or a porcupine ready. :)

There was an old woman who tried to teach a three year old about jokes

So we've been saying some nursery rhymes because I got a bunch with some old flannelgraph at school. And one of my favorites, of course, is There was an old woman. In case you forget, it goes like this:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children, she didn't know what to do
She gave them some broth without any bread
And spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed!


So Gemma gave her rendition the other day:

"There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
He house was so STINKY she didn't know what to do!"

(because its a shoe, get it?)

We may have also entered the 'joke' era. On the bus to Green Bay yesterday, a kindergarten student was sitting with me and my Gemma at the front and she says,"Want to tell jokes?" Well, Gemma was totally into that idea, and she said "YAH!!!" and went forth with a monologue that went something like this:

"Banana pants! Banana pants on your head. Bananas pants head! Got some bananas on your head? Funny pants head banana man." etc... for about a minute or so, laughing the whole time like she was making the best jokes in the world. The 5 year old just stared at her. After a minute or so she either ran out of material or noticed the stunned silence on her playmate's and Gemma said, "Ok, you can talk now!"

Scropped

So Gemma and Nate were roughousing in the pool this weekend, and after Gemma showed me her arm and said, "This is where Nate scropped me." And I just said, Hmm, yah, where Nate scratched you. And she insisted, 'No mommy, where he SCROPPED me.' And I said, 'Oh, that's where he scraped you.' And she still persisted; "No mommy. SCROPPED."

What is to scrop? I don't know.

Other funny words;

"Mom, give me a hunt. (meaning a hint)

Handcuffing Chris' wrist with her hand, she pronounces, "Ha ha! Now we're engagement!!"

Tired of tantrums

Someone please tell me that just because my daughter is prone to tantrums now she will still grow up to be a wonderful person.

'I can speak...'

I know you wish I was going to finish this sentence with 'Chinese' but, sadly it is not so. I will try and repeat the conversation Gemma and I had on the way to the park tonight:

(biking past a small dog)

Me: "Gemma, look at the puppy!"

G: "Oh, its so cute! It's following us! It has no one to take care of it."

M: "No, I think it has someone to take care of it."

G "WE could take care of it. It could come on my bed and snuggle me."

M "Uh humm..."

G I could speak to it on dog language. I can speak dog language, mommy, do you want to hear me? ruff ruff (sort of higher pitched small dog sounds.) This is how I speak to little dogs. And this is how I speak to big dogs. Woof woof. WOOF."

(Gemma barks loudly at the dog now back in the distance. Then she barks at the next lady who walks by. A moment of silence and then Guinness is the front seat starts up; woof woof!)

Product review; Crayola Color Bath Dropz

So cool! Gemma got these from Annabelle, and these tablets (that look like Easter egg tablets but slightly bigger) fizz and make the water a funky bright color! One tablet was enough for a bath. Guinness thought it was so amazing, and Gemma loved looking at what her body parts looked like through the colored water.

5 stars.

Where is Grandpa?

Poor girl waited very patiently through 4 airports and 30 hours of flying. When we were in Saskatoon, that last customs line was when she finally started asking intensely; Where is Grandpa? Where is Baba? There were a few tantrums on the plane, but she slept ok on the last two flights and behaved well in the airports and lines. She;s waking up early but still getting about 8 hours at night so that's good, and she has a pretty heavy afternoon nap that we can hardly wake her up from but more sleep is better than not enough.

When tantrums and angry glares are so common now, this morning so blessed my heart. She presented herself to me at 6:20am beside my bed, all dressed. She said, Mommy I dressed myself!! It was very cute. And I was thrilled it was after 6. And I was thrilled because she slept all night upstairs by herself in her own room, and instead of laying in bed crying for me to come and get her when she woke up, she woke up and took care of herself and came downstairs to get me. We played very nicely all morning till Kaitlyn and Ian came over and then they all played nicely.

She's finding it quiet, too, and not sure where all her friends are. But we'll have a great summer, I'm sure!!!

Librarian

We got a lovely stack of books from a student of mine, and Gemma loves to unpack them and pack them and unpack them and pack them. She is playing librarian. She gets this from her favorite episode of Backyardigans; the Masked Retriever, who is really the librarian in disguise to get back that overdue book at all costs.

She loves packing things. She will pick up a plastic grocery bag and walk around her room filling it up with a little of this and a little of that. Then she'll switch it to her suitcase. Then she'll put some things in her treasure boxes. And take them out. And put new things in. Today we went on vacation to Mexico, and we both needed to pack a bag.

Tantrum

Gemma is sleeping right now...

sleeping on the floor outside her bedroom.

sleeping on the floor outside her bedroom because she locked it to prevent me from going in there during a HUGE tantrum right before bed about not being able to watch two episodes of Backyardigans. Well, that's what started it but I'm not sure really what she was so in a tizzy about. It got very escalated and crazy, and although one spanking was issued it didn't do much and I sort of just watched the storm unleash its fury.

I got to say I love you to her before she fell asleep. Not sure what set her off. Not sure what to do. Hmm...

Time to reflect

Gemma often wakes up in the morning with her reflections or commentary on the events the day before. Must just take her some time to process. On Wednesday I was home with the kids, so she unloaded on me her thoughts about Tuesday's music class:

"Mommy, that girl ______ was so mean, she kept trying to hit me with her jingle bell!!" (You'll have to imagine the indignation in her tone and on her face). "And so and so hit me on my brain with his Easter egg!!!" (meaning the egg shaker). But he hit her 'brain'; maybe to much time spent with Auntie Adrienne the science teacher's human body models.

Other funny quotes:

After be chastised for squeezing Guinness around the neck for the upteenth time today, she stomped off but turned back to retort; "Hmmph! But I just love him." stomp stomp stomp...

G: Can I rent a movie today?
M: No, Gemma
G: But mommy, don't say no. You think about it!!


(last night at my birthday dinner, singing...) There's a banana on my head, on my head! There's a banana on my head on my head! Hey, look at me guys!! Everyone, look at me!! There's a banana on my head, on my head..."

Play play play

Not so much blogging because it is so hard to keep up with Gem and all her fun ideas.

We've been watching Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses. (Yes, they look a bit weird, but they are very nice to eachother and sing beautifully, and I like the dancing. And that they use some real music; Mendelssohn. Still trying to figure out how old Genevieve is since she gets married at the end but whatever) I made 12 flower pictures and taped them in a circle in her room to be the 12 stones, and so we've been playing princesses a lot, trying out there different names and characters, saving poppa and going off to the magic land.

Silly sense of humor, too. Does a unicorn go on my nose? Does a unicorn go on a butterfly? Ha ha ha, laugh giggle giggle. All kinds of silly things like that.

The funniest was when she came out of her room, and climbed into my arms and said, "Now you carry me like this till the morning." I wish :)

"When I grow up..

.. I will be a big tall DADDY!"

So says Gemma today as we are brushing teeth. Teacher was her second option.

Juicy

Maybe she's watching too many princess movies, but when we got married today I got a VERY long and juicy kiss. Sorry, Gemma, no romantic kisses until you are much much older.

She knows some numbers. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10. She doesn't know 6, 9, 8, and 2. I didn't realize she knew them. we have a preschool readiness workbook so we've been doing school a bit. She doesn't want to work in order, which of course kills me but I want her to have fun and learn so I go with it. She loves cutting out the little matching cards and when we play games with them.

OH, and she has started to earn her own money. I give her about 5 minutes to pick up as many toys as she can from around the living room and put them on a spread out blanket. Then we count them, and for every two she gets 1 NT (1NT = 3cents). She is earning roughly 10NT a day; about 30 cents, which I think is high but I want her to be excited about it and I wasn't sure how many toys she's be able to pick up and how much she'd be earning in a day. I think after the summer we will change the ratio from 2:1 to 3:1; 3 toys for 1NT.

What do you pay your children and how?

When Guinness grows up...

Gem and Guin were bathing together, and Gemma was admiring his 7 teeth. "Wow, he has teeth now! He's getting so big!" She then went on to talk about how big Guinness was going to be. She pointed to herself and said "He will be this big one day." And I started listing things he will be able to do then that she can do: get dressed, go to the potty, eat by himself, and she interjected, "Wear makeup!!!" Uh, hopefully not. Although with Gemma as a sister it is likely. The boy is already in love with Dora :)

We then pretended Guinness had a baby in his tummy. Hmmm..

Trickery

Gemma is refusing to take her medicine. *(Is this my punishment for staying up late to read the My Sister's Keeper???)

I told her to take it quickly and get it over with.

I told her she would be sick forever.

I told her we would never play with her friends because you can't play with friends when you are sick and she will be sick until she takes her medicine.

I told her fine, you don't have to drink your medicine but you have to have this glass of cherry juice. (with medicine in it; ha ha!!)

So how far should the trickery go? What is the most outlandish trick/lie you've ever told to your children?

Sick, too

Gemma is not throwing up, thankfully, but is having some interesting moments on the potty. Yesterday I was talking to Chris and she went to the bathroom and farted so long and loud that I just burst out laughing; it was so funny because it sounded like a 50 year old man or something. I guess she heard me and our sudden silence because then she called out; "Mommy? Are you laughing at my poop sounds?" Busted.

She's having a hard time because poor Guin doesn't want to be put down ever, which limits play time with her. And I want to clean when Guinness is finally down, so I am trying to resist that urge and focus energy on her.

Mommy, let's tell stories!

We tell stories a lot. They usually begin with Once upon a time, and have babies in them or witches. Or both :)

My favorite are stories that begin, "When I was a little girl" or "When I was younger..." She really acts so old and grown up and like her youth was so long ago!!!

Something funny that I am remembering this week is how super alert she is when she first wakes up. She opens her eyes wide and calls. I go to her room (stumble to her room) and say, What Gemma? And her first sentence is a completely clear and coherent thought. "Mommy, we need to get up and get dressed because today Annabelle is coming to take me out and we have to be ready on time!" Sometimes I can convince her to come lay down with me in our bed and she'll drift off again. But other times we just begin our day and ride that energy wave.

Today

Gemma announced that she doesn't like music class because she 'doesn't want mommy to teach all the other kids. Just her.' Kindermusik is going OK. Yah, I'll leave it at that.

Tonight in Gemma's world she had 'kohlorabi' to eat (she meant lasagne), and gave Dora an hour long bath in the sink, using her and Guinness' toothbrush and almost all the soap in the process. There was lots of singing during this bath time. We ripped Ariel's head off trying to play paper dolls, ooops, so then we went to Katrina's because we were out of tape.

The latest bedtime trap? Asking for a drink of water, then spilling it n herself so she can change pyjamas, buying herself more mommy time. She is sleeping in her underwear tonight because I didn't want to change her, and besides, all her other jammies are in the wash.

Moose

"I will roar. Like a cow!" I look at her with a puzzled expression. "Ah, honey? Cows don't really roar." She nods knowingly, accepting my answer. "Like a MOOSE." Um, ok. So I take this. "Maybe we'll see a moose this summer when we are in Canada," I tell her. "OK," she says. " I will ride it!" I raise my eyebrows. "Uh, well, you can't really ride on moose," I try to gently explain.

"Are they mean?"

"Well, no, but they are shy."

"Oh. Well, that's ok. I'll just go up to it and tell it my name. We'll be friends."

Pretend

By far Gemma's favorite game of late is Daughter. "You be the daughter and I'm your mommy" she says. So I comply. Variations include, "We are Dora's parents" (she has a toy Dora), or Dora is her sister. The one thing that never changes is Guinness. He is always the baby named "Yocho" Hmm, don't know how to spell it but they are both long o sounds. She loves having pretend names; Coreela, Cassandra, Katrina, etc. Or different princess names. Like the pretzel princess or the french fry princess, whatever is going on.

Today she was playing with her toy cell phone and got a few emails she had to read to me. One was from Lorranda, our cousin, and Gemma very excitedly told me that it said "Lorranda is going to have a BABY!" ha ha, did you get that Lo? We were also invited to a few weddings in some other emails. Ha ha.

My body says...

Gemma had a few accidents this week; waiting too long to go to the potty I suspect. So I was being more diligent in reminding her and I told her she should go. "You haven't gone for a long time, " I said. "Isn't your body saying, 'I have to go'" To which she replied, "Noooo.... My body is saying... squeak squeak" Ha ha!

Gemma Gemma! I love this girl tonnes. She has been dressing herself lately, which means stripping down to nothing and walking around the house, announcing that she is going to get dressed 'all by myself'. About 10 seconds later comes the 'Mommy, can you help me?' But she is trying really hard and can do a lot of it on her own.

She hasn't been eating much lately and having runny poops, too, that are the weirdest colour. Sort of wheat colour. And really stinky, and lots of stinky farts. YUCK! She seems better today and ate more, so thats good.

She was typing message on her keyboard tonight and she said 'this is how to type Gemma:' and she punched the G, and then the N two times (which is close, right? They look similar and are side by side) and the A. Not bad.

Sleepover Success

Well, the babysitters and the child were happy today so I count it as a success. She didn't go to sleep till 2:00am and INSISTED on coming home before going to work, but other than that PIng said "She was perfect" and Victor said, "We're waiting a few more years before we have kids." Seriously, though, they were so awesome and so great to her. They really showed her a great time. She made her first professional voice recordings (Victor is a musician) so that was cute. Chris and I got this email about 11pm; a sound clip of Gemma singing and Victor playing. She had a bath, she played chasing and Barbie, and after her quick trip home went to work for 2 and half hours and was super great again. They did some more visiting after that and didn't make it home till 3:40! We are so blessed by friends who love our kids so so much, as much as we do.

Sleepover

Gemma is at a sleepover with Ping and Victor (whom she calls her 'phony daddy') Ha ha. Hope they have a great night. I'm sure they will. She hardly said good bye to me, she was waiting impatiently for the end of church and was out the door of the nursery before Chris finished announcements, ready to go. It is 9:52, and I am hopefully going to get a good night's sleep. Of course I don't get my hopes up. 'A Aood Night's Sleep' has been teasing me too much over the last three years and I don't trust it at all.

ChinChing Farm

Gemma had a great vacation at ChinChing farm. She loved the animals, calling the sheep her friends and naming them all. She loved following them around and patting them, and trying to boss them around: "Come HERE sheep-y!" COME HERE!" She was quite the little shepherd and spent about 20 minutes unafraid and on her own following the sheep and feeding them, etc. Of course the show interested her little, even the horse show with these huge horses zooming around a rind and girls doing flips and standing on their heads on the horse's back. She was waiting for the kids merry-go-round and train that was set up at the entrance/exit. We had fun walking around, looking at rocks, climbing rocks, smashing rocks. I remember having lots of fun doing that, too, when my dad used to fly model airplanes and would take us out to the gravel pits to play as he flew his toys. Gemma loved the little playground/yard at our hotel, calling it her barn. There were some of those animals with seats on giant springs for riding and she called them her animals: goats, sheep, a seal, and her motorcycle. The gap in the hedge was her door, which she carefully locked each time she exited to protect her animals from robbers. Her attitude toward the constant attention from strangers throughout the trip was apparent as she toured me though the barn: "my animals do NOT like Chinese people." Sigh. Of course she doesn't really get what she is saying; when you ask her 'but what about Uncle Andy?' she will say that he is not Chinese, same with Auntie Audrey. To her Chinese is a language thing, not a racial thing. And it is annoying rude strangers she doesn't like, not Chinese people. We're working on it :)

Oh Gemma. She has been whiny since I've been on break which is so hard to take, and I even lost my temper with her twice today. On Christmas Eve, too, sigh... Lord, I need more patience and mercy as a mother.

It has been a fun Christmas eve day though, I hope for her too. Looking forward to our trip to Taichung tomorrow to see Andy and Audrey and Elias and then the mountains. I will make it a point to remember something cute she says or does rather than how frustrated I was with her.

Paper Storage

Any good ideas on how to store paper? Gemma got that huge Costco pack of construction paper for her birthday, but how and where do you keep it? Leave it on its end and it bends. Leave it on its side and to hard to grab out one sheet.

Accident

We had a cookie party this morning with a dozen people, and Gemma missed her nap. She had an ENORMOUS benny before church (a benny is a tantrum, my UK word of the day) making us late for church and anyway..she walked up to Auntie Adrienne at the beginning of the music and said, "I'm grouchy. I didn't take a nap." So Auntie asks if she wants to sit with her, so Gemma crawls on her lap and falls asleep fairly promptly. I was in the back with Guinness. In the middle of the service Adrienne all of a sudden jumps up, and rushes to the back. Gemma was so passed out tired that her bladder had let go and she peed all over Adrienne's lap. Adrienne ran to the back, Gemma bouncing on her shoulder; she was still completely out, and so they laid her down in the kid's room, and Auntie tried to clean herself up the best she could.

Oh, auntie! We're sorry! Thank you for all you do for us!!

And Gemma, so cute, when she woke up at church she said, "I'm all wet!" Hahaha.

3 years old

If I had any energy I would look through our external hard drives of pictures and get a good one of Gemma when she was born... They are all on the flicker if you want to see (check the our links section). Just look at Guinness' blog and you'll remember what she looks like!

The party was a huge success! Thankfully we got everything done in time, people came, and everyone had a blast. (Almost wasn't done in time; the party was to start at 3:30 and at 3:40 Chris leaned his head out the balcony to call out to me running around the yard setting stuff up, "Are you done? There are a dozen people here and I don't know what to do!" Bless his heart, he did a tonne to get ready but being the social director for a room full of toddlers is not up his alley.

If you look online you will find the plans for hundreds of Dora birthdays. I though I was being pretty original choosing Dora over the Princess Tea Party theme, but I guess not. :) Here is our Dora party outline:

Decor; we had an old Dora book that was ripped so we cut the good pictures out of it and hung them from long ribbons in the middle of the room, and put some pictures on the windows. Hung up multi coloured streamers and balloons. Taped Dora tissue paper on the table as a table cloth.

When the kids got there we had snacks (because it was right after school) and put on Dora tattoos. As the kids came Chris put the presents into a big box. After snacks we went open the presents, but OH NO! They had mysteriously vanished! There was a picture of Swiper there, and a note. So off we went to find the swiped presents. Map was there to help us. Our adventure took us to the parking garage looking for the purple planet, over seashell bridge (paper seashells taped to the sidewalk), to the singing gate (paper eyes, mouth, and eyebrows taped to the big gate at the front of our yard), through crocodile swamp (water bottles with paper crocodile heads taped on). The kids had lots of fun. We found the presents after jumping over the corcodiles, went upstairs and opened them, cut the cake (wahh!) and ate it up. Audrey, Adrienne, and I make Dora backpacks out of purple felt for treat bags, and everyone went home around 5ish.

Present highlights:a hello kitty coffee pot that sings and actually pours water!! It is so awesome. You add the water in the back, just like a real coffee machine, put the pot on the burner and push the button...TA DA! Out comes a single serving of 'coffee'. It is really adorable. Gemma also got a doll house, tea set, watch, Dora playdough set, arts and crafts stuff. We got her that huge pack of construction paper from Costco, the Wizard of OZ book, and a Dora doll with tonnes of clothes. (I found that on Kijiji this summer when home for 20$)

Gemma used her yellow playdough on a 'project' yesterday, mixing it up with glitter glue and sticking it to a piece of paper, and Chris and I scolded her. I told her, You won't have any playdough left if you do that with it, and she said, "that's ok. I'll get some for my birthday!" Ha ha, not for a while now Gems!

New Passports

Going for new passports this week, the kids and I. I thought the newborn photo was hard, well the 3 year old photo was not much better.

Sit up. Not so up. Put your head down. Lift your chin up. Look at me. Look at me. Don't look over there. Don't turn your head. Move your hair off your ears. Don't turn your head. Sit up. Don't smile. Don't show your teeth. No, you can't do that either. Almost done, Gemma. Almost done. Look at me...

Guinness was equally brutal. Pray they get accepted!

Survivor, anyone?

Usually we watch Dora before bed. So you can imagine my surprise when Gemma said,"Can we watch Survivor?" Adrienne was here and said, who do you want to watch on survivor? And Gemma replies, "Shambo!" (I guess you need to be following survivor to get it...)

She got some awesome new winter hand me downs, including some beautiful shoes. She insists they fit, even though they are 3 sizes too big. "Look," she says, "My feet are this big and they are this big! So they fit!". She was traispsing around ins some lovely pink dress shoes with pointy open toes and a small heel. Other treasures? A pair of white cowboy boots! She showed Chris and he said, No way. I don't like them. So she told Adrienne later that, "Daddy don't like them!" with her very serious face.

Gemma's baby

The imagination of toddlers...

Something Gemma loves to play with in the bathtub is hand towels and face clothes. She needs like 6 of them and then drapes them over the tap making a tower, or whatever. The last few months she's been pretending they are a baby.

She balls them all up and then cuddles it. And announces it is her baby. And she wants to bring her baby out. One time I got her a pan to put her baby in (you know those times you think it will be only one time and turns out to be the beginning of a very long tradition?) So now she always asks for a pan for her baby. (Usually it is a loaf pan, but sometimes it is an 8inch circle pan). She gently places her soaking, saggy, dripping baby into the pan, and refuses to let you dump it out. Weird, right? (I am reminded of Kaitlyn and her sleeping with the spatula days...)

turning the corner?

She slept completely through the night the last two nights. My toes are crossed, my fingers are crossed and every piece of wood in this house has been knocked on. Could it be we are rounding this corner?

Birthday

We are starting to get ready for the birthday party. Decisions to made on:
date
time
snacks? supper?
cake? There are about a million Dora cakes to choose from
decorations
guest list

Have some stuff organized, but not much. This weekend I'll get to it.

What does Gemma want? Hmmm, pretty much anything. She loves to say when we go out shopping, Can I get this for my birthday? It could be a pen, a drink, a book... On the real gift list is sand for her mini sandbox, construction paper, new paints, a dora doll with clothes I bought from Kijiji this summer, and some barrettes and hair things. A late birthday is good because any extra presents she gets can be saved until Christmas. She loves princesses, she needs some new coloring books.

We'll keep you in the loop.

Let's have a meeting

You can tell that Chris and I do a lot of church work; Gemma is all about meetings. She sits down with either one of us and says, "Let's have a meeting." So we pick a topic and ask eachother questions about it. We've had lots of meetings about Gemma's upcoming birthday, we talk about what we are going to do that day, or about Gemma's bedroom. Whatever. Today at Starbucks Chris and Gemma had a meeting about coffee. Chris asks her, What kind of coffee do you like? She says, "Strawberry." They go through some dialogue about cream or sugar, room for milk, ice or hot. Then Gemma takes on the role of interviewer and asks Chris what kind of coffee he likes. Black is his reply. Well, the little wheels in her brain start turning... She thinks about this for a moment and then retorts, "'I like pink coffee" (get it? Because she liked strawberry coffee but learned you should use a color when describing coffee, so she thought back to her answer and what color it was.)

papier mache

Had a great night of fun with Gemma. Took a nice walk, did some window shopping, then came home to finish up a papier mach project the nursery is working on for our church's 5th anniversary party this weekend. (Cinco de Pearlo). Gemma and I had to o the second layer because our friends are coming to help paint/decorate on Wednesday.

Her medicine makes her groggy and go to sleep really fast. Is it wrong of me to love that ;)

And today's lesson is...

Don't put sticks in your mouth. Especially if you found them outside. And used them to make nature stew with every rock, leaf, berry, flower, etc, you found while playing outside.

This is what happened at our house today. Gemma came in from outside, with her stick. I caught her with the end in her mouth and said, Gemma, that is so gross! Take that out of your mouth. Well 5 minutes later she starts bawling her head off that her mouth is hurting and burning. I look at it and it is all red around her lips and chin, and on her palm where she was holding the stick. Of course I assume the stick has been in poison or something and I run Guinness to the neighbour and we head to the doctor.

No official diagnosis (sigh, Taiwan) but got some medicine and a recommendation from the dr. not to eat sticks anymore. Thanks, buddy. The red is gone, but then at church she started crying because she said her hands hurt, but that seems to be ok now.

Such is life.

That's what she said...

Gemma was explaining to me how she wanted to do her America puzzle, and Chris and I were trying to tell her that, No, she couldn't do it because she needs help, Guinness was going to get it, etc... And so she said to Chris, "Ok, here's the deal..." and started explaining her situation. Heehee.

Also said today, "I love you so much so much so much so much..in the whole wide world." Adding in the whole wide world to anything makes it very very big in her mind.

We went out for a long walk after school today (oh wait, I stayed home from school because Guin was sick, I had a sore throat, and Chris wrecked his ankle playing ball) so anyway, this afternoon we went out for a walk and looked at the Sanrio store (makers of Hello Kitty, a pet store, and a few other places. It was a lovely afternoon walk with my kids.

Hurray!

She's potty trained!!!

I'm being played!!!

Wow! And unreal conversation took place tonight as Gemma was falling asleep...

Gemma was awake in bed, I was working in my bedroom, and Chris had just gotten home so he was in saying goodnight to her. She said, "Mommy's working, so Daddy, you lay down with me," And then Chris said, "No, I think you can go to bed by yourself," and she said, "Then I will just go like this: 'Mommy?'" Unaware of the conversation taking place in her bed, I replied (as I always do,) "Yes Gemma?", and she turned to Chris and said, "See?" with a look of mischief on her face, knowing that she is the puppet master of bedtime.

I am a sucker!!!!

Staff Retreat

It was our annual staff retreat at Green Bay this weekend (thursday friday) and it was awesome!!

Got to the hotel at about 4, jumped into our swim gear and hit the beach. Gemma LOVES the waves and the sand, and it was so perfect weather wise. She jumped the waves and slid down the sand hills, getting completely covered. Friday we spent the whole day at the pool (the ocean was a bit rough, and the sand super hot). Good thing we had one of those wetsuit style bathing suits, because Gemma got a super tan on her lower legs and forearms. Such a wonderful time.

It finally happened...

The conversation that was made famous by the movie Kindergarten Cop:

"Mommy, Guinness has a pokey thing and I have (pause) bumps."

And I say Hmm, 'uh huh...' and then a little dog walked by and Gemma added, "And dogs have...THAT!"


Yep, it was funny.

My body says...

Our new babysitter is very sweet and always brings Gemma a treat; microwave popcorn or goldfish crackers or whatever. So last night she brought over one of those lunch sized bags of fritos. Well Gemma talked about them all night; I want my chips. Even I have my standards and said, no, not before bed, we'll eat them tomorrow. First thing in the morning she is after Chris,"I want my chips." And Chris says, no. And she says,

"My body says, 'I want some chips! I want some chips!'" And she lifts up her shirt and wiggles her body, like its really her body 'talking' to us.

She tried it again with me tonight. So funny!

We started the whole listen to your body thing early in potty training. I told her that her body would tell her when she has to pee, she just needs to listen. So she often says, "My body says, 'I have to pee!'"

She loves pretending lately. She loves to talk to her toothbrush, her toys, Mr. Finger (mommy's walking fingers). "Make it talk, mommy." Or this one, talking about why she doesn't poop in the potty, and she says, "My poopy says, 'I don't want to come out.'" Oh great.

REALLY glad she was speaking English...

Preface: the first time Gemma saw me nurse Guinness she called them 'bottles'. And in the moment I just said, 'Uh yah. Those are mommy's bottles." Now I can begin the story.

We were waiting in line at the bathroom yesterday at the MRT. I was holding Gemma, and she pointed at the lady behind us who was wearing a pretty tank top with a lacy ruffle around the neck. "She bottles are so pretty-ful." OK, the English is bad too, by 'she' she meant her, by 'pretty-ful' she meant beautiful. It was funny.

Heart melter!

Gemma has this princess CD that she is obsessed with, and it talks at one point about it being her birthday, so anyway she is on a huge birthday kick. She already knows she is having a Dora party, and she talks about it all the time. Well tonight she was telling me about it again and after some undecipherable blabber she said something about a sleepover. I said, who are going to have a sleepover with? And she looked at me and said, "You, mommy! I want to have a sleepover with you!" Talk about melt your heart.

Glad she's speaking English

We were riding in a taxi yesterday with a female driver yesterday (not so common). This woman had a deep voice, and a short haircut, and Gemma scooted up to look around the front seat at her. As we pulled her back onto the seat she said, "I just want to see if it is a man or a woman."

Pheww, so glad the driver didn't hear/understand.

Truly Taiwanese

We were at the Greenstore today and Gemma grabs her crotch and exclaims, "I have to go PEE!!" I leap into action. Out of the store we run, and (will anyone believe me) and turn to the side of a quiet lane and take care of it. By me holding her over a gutter. Yes, my little girl pees on the street.

On the way home she said she had to go again, so I asked the clerk in my newly learned Chinese pharse Ce suo dzi na-li? (Sorry if my pinyon is a bit off, but it means where is the toilet?) and he said No! So we rushed out into the street to a place with a potty and crisis averted.

In charge

You know you are risking disaster when you leave the 2 1/2 year old alone with the 4 month old while you shower...

So Gemma comes to the shower curtain. "Let me in!!" So I peek out. She starts her story: "I I I I I I I" (she has that sort of stutter where she has so many words she can't get them all out.) "I I I Guinness has a poopy diaper so I take he's diaper off, and I can't put it back on!"

Oh boy. I brace myself.

FORTUNATELY she just checked to see if he had a poopy diaper, he didn't actually have one, so the diaper was put back on and everything was ok.

Potty Training...the saga continues

We are doing good with the potty training. 2 accident free days! Well, she pooped in her diaper tonight when she was in bed, but as she says, "That's OK!" She is still wearing a diaper to bed. I told her that she needs to listen to her body and when her body says she has to pee, she needs to listen so now our days are filled with listening. It's really cute, she'll say "My body says it needs to pee pee!!"

Funny things

We have one hard and fast bathtime rule: No pooping in the bathtub. No peeing goes along with this, but sometimes it happens and I just say, "Just DON"T poop!". So we go through the pre bath routine of Do you have go pee? "Noooo, mommy." And kast night as soon as she stood in the water she said, "I'm starting to pee!" And as she looked down the the stream that followed, she said, "It's like a fountain!"

I am loving watching Gemma spend time with family. Watching her and Ty play with our old Princess of Power toys brought back so many memories of us playing at our grandparents house. Gemma and Baba had a nice date tonight while Chris and I were celebrating our anniversary. They went to McDonalds, and then shopping, and Baba said she was so good. We all got home at the same time and as she walked around her side of the van clutching a McDonalds bag, she said, "Where's Baba?" I pointed to Baba at the back of the van and she walked over there, and asked if she could feed Anna. Baba said OK, and so we started toward the house. Gemma very confidently told me, "Anna doesn't like ketchup. She eats milk. And french fries." She then prceeeded to feed Anna the french fries in the bag. It just amazes me how her thinking skills are progressing. Baba probably told her that in the car, and she remembered it, conveyed it to me... I just love watching the little wheels in her brain work.

Gemma summer

Gemma loves Canada. She loves her Grandpa and Grandma and Baba. She loves bossing Anna and Petri around. She loves the wide variety of snacks being presented to her. She loves the water park. She loves her friends. She loves her princess bed.

She doesn't like the car seat. 'Not too tight, mommy!'. I wish kid, sorry!

Canada

Gemma hasn't misssed a beat with this trip to Canada. She travelled well, didn't whine or tantrum too much. Ty was here, and also was up all night the night before so Mikala and I had a great time playing with the kids and visiting until 2am. Gemma loved walking upstairs and downstairs checking out all the toys and sights, and her and Ty are getting along great. It's so fun watching her play with my old toys :)

Poop Update

We had poop today. Not very fun for Gemma to pass, but hopefully this is the final hard one. She is on stool softener now and so hopefully all the hard stuff is gone and things will get easier for her.

Keep praying!

What blankets are for...

We were getting ready for bed and Gemma declared she needed her baby's blankie. I asked her if she knew where it was, and she nodded; "In the living room," and off she walked to go get it. A few minutes later she came back with two blankies her baby's and Guinness'. I asked her, "Is that yours?" and she nodded but not so confidently. I told her that was Guinness' blankie but she could borrow it for her baby. She nodded and said, "For when my baby throws up." Cause that's what blankies are for.

Also funny tonight, we were washing her hair which she hates, and I as usual told her she would be a stinky girl of she didn't wash her hair. And she cried in her whiny voice, "I want to be a stinky girl!!"

In other news, she has been so constipated this week. (STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON"T WANT TO TALK POOP)




Like, SOOO bunged up she cries when she has to poop. I took her to the Dr., got some medicine, nothing happened, gave her a suppository which helped her pass one hard poop, but that was two days ago and today was again full of straining and pain. I've been giving her tonnes of water, fruit and veg, (as much as she will eat) cut out refined flour, but still today nothing. Finally after school, during a bad attack, I finally forced her to sit on the potty. (She usually poops standing up, but I knew this was making it harder for her to get it out). As I bent her body to get her sitting she totally cried out and I knew it was coming out and it was the most awful thing to witness as a parent. Yes, I know this is disgusting but I watched her poop come out. And I thought for sure she is going to have a colon relapse or tear something because it was so hard and round it looked like she was growing a tail as it tried to get out. But it passed with no (apparent) damage. She did another smaller one an hour later and I just praying that is the end. It was not very fun to watch her in so much pain. Pray for her, anyway that her body gets back to normal.

Funny things Gemma said...

I usually pray with Gemma in her bed at night before she goes to sleep, and tonight I asked her who we should pray for and then asked her to pray. This is what she said:

"Dear Jesus; GIVE ME CHOCOLATE!"

Uhh, amen?


Other funny things she's said lately:

chicken nubbets (instead of nuggets)
super dupey lots!
Put it on the plate and blow on it (giving me instructions about her lunch)
all my byself. (instead of all by myself)

Sleepover

Gemma went on a sleepover last night to her best friend (and our babysitter) Annabelle's house. She was so excited and packed her bag; her baby, a stick, an empty paper towel tube, and some books. (I then put the bag away until I could pack it on my own) I resisted every urge to call, and so I have no idea how it went. Just got a text saying they had breakfast and were on their way back. I DID sleep until 8am, wowsers!! It's been too long.

Dancing...

OK, I know I am way behind but will throw this quickie up there;

We were watching American Idol, Gemma in her diaper and shirt and she all of a sudden starts peeling off her shirt. "I want to dance naked!!" and giggles with delight. Naked is the best way to dance I guess :)

Fountain

We went to 101 today, me and the kids and Uncle Nate. Right outside the place is a huge fountain, one of those ones that just shoots out f the ground, no walls or catch pool, just jets of water squirting way up in the air in a variety of patterns. Well Gemma ran ahead of us to go see it, and we were wrapped up in picture taking. She was watching the water, getting closer than she should and just as we were walking to go get her, SPLOOSH! All the jets fired up and she got her one side totally soaked. Not to mention scared the pants off of her. What a way to start our trip. (I didn't have extra clothes. I packed extra for Guinness but not Gem.)

p.s. This is just a picture of it I found online so you see what I mean, and how easy it would be to get trapped in a sudden spray! Poor girl.

THEN, on the way home, she was talking to her reflection in the elevator door, and put her hands on it just as it opened...and got her little fingers sucked right into the crack. It was terrifying; Nate was trying to pull them out and get the door open and I was tryingto figure out what I should do. Grab her, push a button, which button? So pushed the door open button, duh wrong choice, her little hand was getting pulled IN, and Nate shouted DOOR CLOSE and when I did that the door came closed and released her hand. She was super freaked out; just clung to me and didn't talk for about 20 minutes. But they weren't bleeding and she could move all her fingers so I guess she is ok. It was so scary though, don't know what I would have done had I been alone.

potty training persistence

So the potty training continues. I didn't know it would take this long.

She does a great job as long as I am on my game. If I tell her every hour to go on the potty, she does. She will even hold it when we are out, but if I forget to put her on the potty when we get there, then she has an accident. So is she really being trained? She does announce, "I'm peeing!" and "I'm pooping". But by then it is too late. She especially can't poop on the potty. When we catch her in the act and then say, wait, go sit on the potty and do it, she loses her focus or whatever and can't go. So I don't like to interrupt her too many times lest she get bunged up. So anyway...

Do we keep going, hoping she eventually catches on? Or just give up for now, try again in a few weeks.

Logic

Gemma and I were channel surfing this morning and she says, "Let's watch this, mommy. 'Cause this is what's on."

Ahh, I see. Good idea.

Spaghetti!

We were the first at the restaurant for dinner yesterday, and as we were waiting for all our friends, Gemma kept trying to order. Anytime a waitress would get close to her she would look right at them and say "spaghetti!" She did this about 3 times, it was so funny.

She also phoned uncle Nate tonight as she was laying in bed. "Uncle Nate? You at my house? No, not yet. You get haircut like daddy?" (She for some reason thinks that Uncle Nate is going to shave his head like Chris, and that a shaved head is 'so silly')

Here is Gemma and her monster from McDonalds, and her monster face.

Precious

Tonight Gemma fell asleep with a stuffed dog in her arm, and clutching her Nemo bedtime book which she was listening and singing with moments before she fell asleep. Just one of those precious sights I hope and pray I never forget.

Easter

A little late coming, sorry. There were so many great pictures it is hard to pick. Gemma was really into it this year, and still talks about finding Easter eggs. She also loved her poofy slip, and didn't want to wear anything over it. Note the Easter tattoos; a present from the Easter Bunny:) And she wanted to put them right there on her leg, just like daddy. (Is tattoo a word common in a two year old vocabulary?)

Thinking about it

Gemma hardly ever uses real cups because she won't stop sticking her fingers in them and playing. But today she did, and as she was reaching her little fingers in there I said, "Don't even think about it!" So a few minutes later, she looks at me with this mischeivious grin, fingers 'pretending' to go in the cup, and she says,"I'm thinking about it!!"

Sicko

So the sicko has coughed on everybody and I think her cold is going to make its rounds through our family. Guinness its hard to tell, but he is snorting and coughing a bit too, so hopefully he can fight it off.

We made banana muffins tonight and she had to stick her finger in every ingredient to try it. Flour, baking soda, whatever. (to the best of my knowledge she didn't try any raw egg, but she did poke it). Then when we were sampling the muffins after, she kept digging the chocolate chips out. I told her, No Gemma, you can't do that, and she said very solemly, "I HAVE to mommy! I HAVE to." I replied, no you don't, and she grabbed my face with her hands and looked deep into my eyes; "I HAVE to, mommy!"

In other Gemma communication: the first time she saw me nurse she called it a bottle. So instead of correcting her, we've just been going along with it: "Yes, Gemma; those are mommy's bottles for Guinness." So today her dragon was the mommy to her baby, and she wanted the dragon mommy to give the baby a bottle. Have you ever seen a dolly breastfeed from a dragon? So cute.

Need new books

OK, so I did all the reading for the 0-2 stuff but now that she is 2 and a bit, I am so at a loss at what to do sometimes!! Specifically this week is naps. All of a sudden she won't nap. She will lay in the bed for an hour before falling asleep, and I just get more and more annoyed and tired myself (if I don't fall asleep!) And then nap time doesn't end until way late; it takes the whole afternoon because it doesn't actually start until late. So what do I do? Let her miss it? Except then she is a wreck by supper time. Let her sit in bed for an hour and then get up? It is so weird. Seriously though, any good parenting titles would be appreciated.

Also, she has been a terrible sleeper the last week; up so many times crying and carrying on... Last night was the first night she slept through since Guinness was born. Uggg! And she was up till 11pm before finally conking out.

Anyway, I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about it, so lets change to cute things Gemma said this week:

Last night, as she was sitting on my lap WAY past her bedtime after coming out of bed, and Adrienne and Chris and I were getting ready to play a game. I said, "OK, who wants to play a game?" And she chimes in instantly "ME!!". Ha ha, yah right!

Reading her book to her baby this morning every page begins with Once upon a time.... Every time she turned the page she would start again, Once upon a time...

Chris was putting her to sleep and sitting with her for a minute and Baba and I were visiting in the living room, and Gemma told Chris, "Baba is too noisy!": So Chris called Baba in and Gemma told her, "Baba, you are too noisy! You need to speak more gentle!" So Baba came back out and we kept visiting, more quietly but only for a minute and then our volume got up again and Gemma told Chris again, "Now Baba is LOUDER!" So sassy; what am I going to do?


It's been a hard week; she's sick again and whiny like crazy and we can't really go out cause its cold and windy, and our playmates our sick too so we're a little bit cabin fever here.

New McKenzie Website

New website address: http://web.me.com/chrismckenzie/themckenzies

With the arrival of Guinness (our new son) I realized that we would need a new blog for the little guy. I also started thinking of you the readers (potential readers) and how bothersome it would be to jump back and forth between 4 blogs and a Flickr site. So what I've done is created a website that hosts all four of our McKenzie blogs and that gives us an opportunity to share so much more....like photos and videos. I'm using a hosting service that tends to be a bit slow loading, so I apologize for that, but I hope you'll enjoy the new look. Please remember to "bookmark" this page or save it in your "favorites".

From now on rather than going to our individual blogs just head to our one main website and everything you need is there.

Funny things Gemma said...

Like I said before, she says so many things now its hard to remember all her conversations. Also, I'm not sure if they are as funny to read as they are first hand, but I will try.

Tonight in the nursery at church, after asking several times for me (which she never does; so weird) she finally just put her hand on the volunteers face, and said in the most sincere, serious tone, "Ping, I want my mommy!"

Yesterday was marked with some impatient moments, which were reflected in how she put her babies to sleep last night. In a very stern voice, eyebrows raised and looking down she told them, 'You close your eyes right now and listen to Gemma.'

And her newest response to food she likes: "It's not too bad!"

Mostly she has been very good. She is getting used to the new baby, and always helps change his 'mustard poops'. She says nice things about him and kisses him. Tonight she said, 'He's so beautiful!'. She can be a bit unfriendly at times, and says NO! but we are working on it.

Going to Kaohsiung tomorrow. Be home Wednesday.