First Cry

Gemma had her first cry this week about moving.  She will miss her friends so much, she said, and she won't be able to see them..

I think we are entering the 'heartbreak' phase of moving, as all these realizations about what goodbye to Taiwan really means start to kick in. 

I tried to be as encouraging and optimistic as I could, but honestly, my heart is breaking too.  Canada will be great, but we have some very wonderful people in our Taiwan community.

Awesomeness all around

We were riding home from school yesterday, reflecting on the neat events of the week; Gemma losing her second tooth, Guinness learning to use the potty... and I said, "Well, we have two really awesome kids, maybe we should have another one and he or she will be awesome, too."  Then I asked Gemma, "What do you think, Gemma, would you like a brother or sister?"  She replied with a firm 'yes,' because then she'd have someone to teach things to.  So I asked her what she would teach the new baby, and she said, "You know; how to be awesome!!!"

Right on!

Except you do know that it was a purely hypothetical situation and there is absolutely no inkling of a thought about adding to our family. :)

Awesome New Trick!

I can put Gemma's bike on the back of my bike and carry it to school!!!  This is a dream come true for her.  Every day she asks me, Mom, did you bring my bike?  And I always say no because I'm too late to walk with it to her school by the time I get home.  But now that the training wheels are off, it fits perfectly across the back kid seat, Guinness rides in the front, and we are off!!

This has been the most amazing week for Gemma; on Tuesday she lost her first tooth AND learned to ride a two wheeled bike.  I'm speechless.  It's so amazing how much she's grown and matured, and I've just been marbling in her awesomeness lately.

We were having a picnic on Tuesday night, and Chris was giving her a hard time 'cause she couldn't get the corn on the cob that well.  Well, she sat down and was eating a french fry and then I noticed a hole in her mouth.  I said, "Gemma where's your tooth???" and she looked down at the ground and found it right away; she had just flicked it there because it came out in her fry and she didn't know what to do with it.

I don't know if she's even been that excited before.  She told us the story about a hundred times (even though we were both eye witnesses).  And she state awake until 11:30.  She could not. stop. talking. about it.

The second one is almost all the way out, too.  What is the going rate for the Canadian tooth fairy?  Gemma got 50NT (a bit less than 2$)

Instead of story time....

This is her line because more than anything else she likes to play. So most nights we trade story time for playing time. Still a lot of Queen and princess, and mother daughter. I did bring home a non-fiction book called "Lady of the Manor" which talks about what the life of a medieval lady would have been like, with lots of real photographs, so we'll see if I can pique her interest.

Popcorn Server and Babysitter

Gemma is all about the new babies, and the first thing she asks our friends when they come over is, "Can I hold her?" Thankfully tonight BOTH our friends with new babies came over so there was one for each of us, ha ha!

Gemma also serves the popcorn. She counts how many people there are, hands out the napkins, gets a vote on which flavour to make, hands out the bowls, and then brings the popcorn around.

Her other habit lately is to change clothes 12 times a day. Warmer, cold, ballerina, etc. Just keep trying different outfits.

Kids are funny

So Gemma put her hands tight over her ears. "Mom??" "MOM???" "Can you hear me, mom?"


Uh, yah. I can. My ears aren't covered and therefore working fine.


Hee hee, that would be my DNA working its way out.

In the bathroom...

Gemma called out from the bathroom yesterday, "Mom? There are these little boxes in here, and they have an O and a B on it. What ARE they?"


Uh.....

Ridiculous games part two

And to add to my last post about silly things we play: one of her other favorite games we play together is Old Maid. Yep, with just the two of us:). When will she catch on that one? Ha ha, buts still fun trying to trick eachother at the end into taking the old maid. At least we were playi g with a full set this time!

Scooter

Gemma was given a two wheeled scooter; major step up from the three wheeled pink fairy one she bought this summer and is now happily 'owned' by Guinness. She can balance pretty good, but the biggest trouble is resisting the temptation to push all the time because if you push and push and push and push then you get going REALLY fast. So she is doing pretty good and push push coast, push push coast. With this crummy weather we've been playing down in the B2 parking garage all week. This is Gemma's favourite game to play:

"You be the mom, and I'll be the daughter, and I'm riding my scooter."


Umm?

Jan Latta

Today I met author/photographer Jan Latta. She has spent years and years traveling and taking pictures for kids books about animals, and they are pretty awesome. Here is a link to one of her videos

The series is called True to Life Books. Check it out :)

Chris!!!

Chris and I were planning on enjoying some Subway on our own, but after a great sale at the NorthFace shop we got home later than we planned, and at the same time as the kids. So I whipped the kids up a sandwich from stuff we had at home, but of course they wanted in on the yum yum goodness that is Subway. I was explaining to Guinness again and again that 'No, mommy's has jalapeños on it, you won't like it," when Chris finally did cut him off a slice. Gemma looked down her nose at him, admonishing eyes, and said in a perfect hushed tone, "CHRIS!!" It was so funny, I laughed for 5 minutes. Such a bossy mother hen!

We did some puzzle with Daddy yesterday, and had so much fun. Laughter is a great medicine (not better than coffee, but I think important to have every day) so I am hoping that 'laughing together as a family every day' is a realistic goal for 2012.

Yes, I can make goals for 2012 now because the Chinese New Year has just begun.

5 going on 15

Growing up.... by her attitude sometimes you would think that the birthday that follows five is fifteen. Isn;t this a good disgusted teenager look?

Age Gap

The kids got along pretty good for a long time. She likes to play computer games, he is happy to sit and watch. She likes to boss around, he likes to be bossed. Gemma did a good job of handling the baby business, and has been a pretty patient big sister till now, but the terrible twos are causing some frustration.

When Gemma was two and three, she loved to play the same games over and over; you be the mother I'll be the daughter, over and over again. Guinness is very into super heros, and we've been playing Spiderman for about three months. And Gemma is tired of it. She doesn't want to play superhero ANYMORE!

Gemma likes setting up her little villages and houses and stuff. Guinness physically can not resist the urge to plough it down. He draws on her art, he makes messes that take away mommy's time, he pushes buttons on the iPad when she's playing, he playfights too hard sometimes... the whole little brother thing is getting too frustrating.

It's been just amazing how much she's changed this fall. Really growing up.

She has one more week of holidays, then a final semester of Chinese school. We are pretty sure she'll join me at my school next year for kindergarten.

Tastes like...

Kids brains' are so weird! Today I made pancakes and bacon, and the kids love bacon. Gemma was dipping hers in her syrup, telling me, "Mom, you HAVE to try this." so it did, and she said, "It's so good, it tastes like chocolate ". Does the word 'chocolate' mean 'tastes good'?


And then, a minute or two later, Guinness was munching his bacon and he said, "this is is so yummy, it tastes like CUPCAKES!".

Like I said, weird!

Singing

Gemma was making us smile so much today when she was singing her heart out in the car to Adele and Hillsong. She was also being funny in her sleep last night, one minute yelling and being mad and the next minute singing the end of Down by the Station.

I'll hold you

My kids have been saying the funniest things lately, man oh man. Like right now, Gemma and Guinness are having a bath and I just overheard Gemma tell him, "You go under the water, and I'll hold you." Ha ha ha, tempting offer, but NOT!!!!!

Squiggly ???

Squiggly is not doing so well.

(Squiggly being the beta fish Gemma got as a present about a year ago and spent his first 6 weeks in a cut off plastic bottle; would have lived there longer without thoughtful friends who gave Gemma a fish bowl for Christmas. Anyway.)

It looks like he has swallowed a marble. His gut is very round and swollen, and sort of turning white-ish. His side fins are all stringy and falling apart. His overall colour is poor; very dark and cloudy. I have no idea what to do!!! I mean, he is obviously suffering. We are terrible pet owners. Haven't cleaned his bowl in like 6 weeks. We feed him sporadically. But do I have it in me to kill a fish?? And my friends say that just flushing him down the pipe is not a good idea: they can live down in the pipes!!! Well, I don't want him to suffer down there, either! So do I let him alone, to die in his own way??? Yuck yuck yuck.


One of the many reasons we are NOT pet people.

School 180

Gemma is at the point where she says several times a week, "I love my school!" Pheww, I am so thankful. AND her teachers wrote in her communication book on Tuesday that "Gemma speak much Chinese today." Wow, another miracle.

Halloween!

We don't really celebrate Halloween, I guess, but the girl wanted to do something so we had a mini Halloween party at our house for us and a neighbour. Making decorations consumed the afternoon (yay!) and then we had our spooky supper. Rented a Scooby Doo movie but I had to turn it off. It was called 'Scooby Doo and the witch of ______', but I assumed it would be in typical Scooby style where the monsters are never real and there is no connection to evil forces, etc. Not the case in this one. With phrases like, "We're not witches, we're super cool Wiccans who love nature and use healing herbs', a witch like girl band called 'The Hex Girls', a spell book that could control the evil forces of darkness.... Yah, just not ready for my kids add the word 'Wiccan' to their vocabulary, or to think that being an Eco-Goth witch is in any way cool. We played 'pin the eyes and mouth on the jackolantern' and attempted limbo (our guest had a broken foot so that was not so easy of a game). To replace the failed Scooby Doo, Chris found Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin and rented it. Then we trick and treated at Gemma's friend's house as we took her home. Pretty fun!

As we were riding home from dropping Friend off, I told Gemma we had to stop at our across the hall neighbour to trick or treat, and Gemma said, "I have to trick or treat at two houses!!! I'm so tired, mom. Trick or treating is really hard work!" TWO HOUSES! Our girl needs some exposure to more American culture, eh?

Of course I love Saturdays, the kids and I have been having a blast lately. Play play play!!