Moody Mommy

I don't usually get embarrassed by my family but I was yesterday and they really didn't do anything that bad. I must have been in a mood.

We usually go out to eat for lunch but since Brad worked, we went out for dinner yesterday. We almost always go to Mr. Pizza (although we never get the pizza, in fact, we never even get Italian food, we usually get Thai or Indian food). Ezra LOVES "Dinosaur Meat" which was the way I got him to first eat it (instead of KFC) and now, it's the only thing he wants. Which is fine because it's so healthy--asparagus, colored peppers, onions and chicken sauteed in a brown garlic sauce. In fact, "we" freak out if we can't have dinosaur meat.

Okay, I've gotten sidetracked. So when we go for lunch, there's lots of families there all making tons of noise but yesterday evening, there was only one other little girl there. Afterwards, we always go to the Italian bakery and there's tons of noise in there as well. And then, to the movie store. The kids sit on a chair and eat their pastries while we look at movies.

But yesterday, there just wasn't much noise in any of the places we usually go to. It was so freakin' quiet and we were so freakin' loud. I don't know, maybe my ears were just overly sensitive or something, but it felt like everyone was listening to us and we were yelling at each other instead of talking. It sucks when English is the only language you speak because if other people are going to learn a language, that's the language they'll learn. I can go into "Red Neck" and they can't understand us as easily, but I try to avoid that as much as possible. *wink, wink*

So we go into the bakery, I give the kids a tray, some tongs and let them go pick out their pastry. For some reason, Elias decided he could get TWO things and I told him he needed to put one back and as he did so, he dropped it on the floor. I was so embarrassed. I can't even tell you why; I guess because they always give us dirty looks when we give our kids this independence anyway but I'm always on them like flies on shit. But since I was holding Zuri...well, I just didn't explain Brad's job to him clearly enough and sometimes, accidents happen.

I took Zuri's temperature yesterday rectally and left the thermometer down. Later, Ezra said, "Look, Mommy, I'm sick," and he had it in his mouth. Okay, really I took it Friday and left it down for TWO days. Sometimes, I suck.

Cheers!

Sometimes, I just need to ramble.

After my facials, I am invited to sit for a few minutes and drink a cup of tea and eat a small cookie or some fruit bites. But yesterday, I sat down to a bowl of what looked like broth. Upon closer examination, I found that it wasn’t broth but some kind of chunky soup. The girl motioned for me to go on in and eat and I could tell she was excited that they were serving it.

She closed the door behind her as she left. I thought about dumping it in the garbage can but if they found out, I would feel TERRIBLE--so I sucked it up and took a bite. It was slightly sweet with a flour-y aftertaste. It wasn’t the taste so much that got me, though. It was the texture. It was like big chunks of Jello with an extremely thick skin stirred into a gravy. It was really gross. Not ever wanting to offend any cultures, I made myself spoon about half of it down my throat.

I realized that I could take one last bite and not offend anyone and as I raised the spoon to my mouth, I thought I might ralph all over the place and I had to set it down. I just could not do it. The trash idea came to my mind again, but I’m no Hillary Clinton; I was too afraid I’d get caught.

I could tell as I left that the girl wondered how I’d finished so quickly and was a bit disappointed but I ran so I wouldn’t have to explain anything.

***********************************
Elias woke me up by standing over me in bed last night screaming crying that his molar was coming in and that he was ~*~DYING~*~ from the pain. I think that if I hadn’t had a couple (or three) Mimosas for bed, I might have had a heart attack. Instead, I groggily thought for sure it was just his sinuses hurting his jaw but I reached my finger in his mouth and felt where his jaw-gum was really squishy. I gave him some Tylenol and a rag to chew on (only because I couldn’t think of anything else to do) and he went on to sleep. I slept beside him for a while until I heard Zuri crying next to Brad.

Zuri is just not a good sleeper. He wants to be snuggled up next to me all night, or so I thought. I cuddled with him and cuddled with him and he just wouldn’t go to sleep. I honestly don’t know how I function half the time. I guess women have done this their whole existence, though. The other two slept always through the night with us in bed only occasionally waking up to nurse when they were babies. I think Zoobo is just stubborn.

Elias’ piano lessons this morning went well and poor Zuri was asleep in his stroller and I started to feel guilty about having the sick thing out in the cold weather and so we cut the play time afterwards short and came on home.

Why is it my kids would rather build characters on Wii than actually play any games?

Why is it that they have gone completely brain dead now that we have it? They demand to be entertained even more than before. Our rule is weekend only but they seem to have lost all imagination and I’ve cut them off for the rest of the day, it has been a painful decree but I just can’t stand it any longer.

So they’ve decided they’ll make my life Hell if they can’t have what they want. I’m sick of tattling, screaming, fighting and crying. They pulled out Legos for about 10 minutes and I told them they needed to pick them up before they moved on to something else and so they argued over who picked up the most and who needed to pick up more. (And now they’ve proven me wrong and have gone over to play nicely together. Kids.)

Brad just walked in the door early from work. YAY!

It's just weird that Zuri is the only one looking in the camera:

Saturday--eight new pictures

We've had a pretty good day. We ate at the Cantonese restaurant and I went for my facial, the boys have read and played and Ezra is currently Wii boxing. It's so funny but he's actually so crazy that he wins. KO! We just had some food delivered from a Taiwanese restaurant that's in our compound and we've decided we'll do it everyday rather than having me cook. I love cooking but I've lost the drive recently. It's like writers block for cooking. I just don't have time (with the ~lovable~ needy baby) to create "feasts" anymore like I used to love to do. This food is light, filling and healthy and not too expensive and they deliver. What more could you want? :)

Friday afternoon, we went to Ezra's school to "adopt a baby tree." I thought Ezra was going to get to plant a tree. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Not only is this not a baby tree, this tree has been there for a few years.

I was asked to write something on the paper. I wasn't told WHAT to write and when I asked, I was told with a thick Chinese accent, "I don't know, about planting a tree and watching it grow." Well, I think most people wrote something poetic on theirs maybe comparing a tree growing to a child growing...ya know, a Chinese proverb. Blah, blah, blah. I think I missed the point, don't you?


Here's Zuri's paparazzi. This is IN our apartment compound. Chinese people LOVE babies, I tell ya.


Here I am in the rain, looking smooooooooth: (I'll be honest, I just look thin in this picture and that's the only reason I posted it.)

I told Ezra he needed to go relax in his room for a little while and I found him thus:


This baby is ALMOST crawling:


Ezra with his best friend, DingDing. He speaks absolutely no English but they play so well together.


This is so appropriate. We are all Elias' puppets.


Until we meet again,
xoxoxoxo

Big Son, Second Son and Little Son

Elias went back to school today. He's still got a bit of a cough but his teacher just emailed me and told me he has been okay today.

The two times I have seen him with his friends at play time, it has amazed me how he sits back and watches more than he actually participates in the hyperactivity. Maybe it's because I'm around? He definitely is quite different from what I guessed he would have been.

Ezra and I have hidden Easter eggs and played pin the tail on the bunny this afternoon. We're about to go to his school and "Adopt a Baby Tree." I'm not quite sure what that entails but we'll figure it out.

Zuri has been happy today. He's not been crying much although separation anxiety has kicked in full force. I told ayi that if he can't see me, he thinks I'm dead because that's the best I can explain separation anxiety in Chinese. With two children, you'd think she'd know all about this but nope, someone else has always taken care of her children (I've even heard it's the grandparents who wake up in the middle of the night to feed the babies and who sleep with them all night) and so she might not understand what I mean; she said something about "you foreigners" so I think she thinks I'm weird.

Well, gotta go put some pants on Second Son.

Easter continued.

In the business of everything, I forgot to hide Easter eggs for Ezra and let him find them himself. I think he and Elias did it maybe once with about 10 eggs. We still have boiled eggs from where we had dyed them last Friday and so today, I decided to hide them for him as a surprise. What started as just a quick game, quickly became much longer as I totally enjoyed his squeals of delight as he found each new egg. He was thrilled to hunt and to hide (and he even thinks outside the box and finds his own hiding places) and I was thrilled to watch his excitement. So we played several times. Ayi especially enjoyed watching.

At the party, I grabbed his hand and we ran together to a place where not many kids were hunting because I realized that he wouldn't get a single one if left to his own devices. Not only is he not aggressive, but he's just plain slow, bless his heart.



I also forgot to mention something silly I did. At the Korean store, you can buy 100% acetic acid. Vinegar contains just a small portion of acetic acid. But silly me, I thought that I could put a splash of acetic acid in and then add water and make vinegar and then add the dye. (I've told this story before and many people are confused about the addition of vinegar anyway. Am I going crazy? I thought you were supposed to put vinegar in too?) After a little while, I noticed there was dye all over the floor. It was dripping from the towel I had (luckily) placed under the paper cups.

Oh gosh, the acetic acid was EATING THROUGH THE PAPER CUPS and the dye was leaking out onto the towel! I quickly put the disintegrating cups into another cup, emptied them and added more hot water and that cured the problem. The boys had fun and the smell didn't make them high as I began to worry it would so I'll just say "Ya live, ya learn" and be done.

Preschool drama!

Oh goodness! Poor little Ezra. I feel for him. He's such a sweet kid and I had no idea what he was trying to tell me last week until yesterday. He was telling me about the rings and I just dismissed it. Well...

When the kids go outside to play, all of them hold on to a ring attached to a rope and walk with the teachers pulling the rope. It keeps all the kids together assuming they don't let go of the ring.
See the rings?


So Ezra's best friend DingDing didn't want Ezra to hold the ring next to his anymore. A new kid named HaoHao has become DingDing's best friend now and HaoHao wants to hold the ring next to DingDing. What Ezra was trying to tell me is that they were fighting over the rings.

Stone (one of Ezra's teachers) said, "I wondered why Ezra was sitting in a corner reading rather than playing with the others and I just now realize." The thought is just too sad; he feels like he's been cast out. BUT, Stone also said there's a new HaoHao (HaoHao #3, actually) and that he and Ezra are playing now. I told Stone that they should all play together and he said he would encourage it. One of the reasons we chose to send Ezra to school is because he wanted "frans."

But ya know, even though Ezra never wants to get dressed in the morning, after he IS dressed, he always runs to the door to leave with Brad and is excited to go to school. He absolutely adores JiaJia Laoshi, his other teacher, so it can't be tooooooo devastating, right?

He's Poot-astic!

Zuri is a freakin' handful. There's no rest for the weary, even at night. He latches on all night long to nurse for a few minutes and he's not even a very good nurser. His latch is awful (never has been good) and so he kind of gnaws on it instead, which keeps me awake. I'm exhausted.

He complains all day long about nothing at all and if I'm not walking, he's not happy. He'll be crawling any day now and I'm so hoping that mobility will make him a bit less unhappy. Zuri also has a cold, though, and so he won't eat much solid food. I've been taking a bit of dairy here and there b/c when I mix my breast milk with solids in his tummy, he doesn't seem to have gas but since he's not eating solids, he's got tons of gas. And until you hear a baby poot so loud that you can hear it several rooms away and you think it's your other son making noises with his mouth, you've never heard a baby in so much pain with gas. It's sad and I feel really guilty.

Elias has been home from school all week. He has the croup and a cold and just isn't feeling so good. He's starting to get better but he'll probably not go to school for the rest of the week.

Ezra's been to school yesterday and today. He's fine although I just had to get mad at him for coming downstairs without pants on. Cover up that bum, son!

I've been trying to post about Elias' favorite part of the party last weekend but my kids keep intervening. Most of the kids brought gifts for Elias and Ezra, things like Legos and books. I thought it was weird but one Taiwanese lady told me that you shouldn't come to a party without a gift. Well, I wasn't expecting that one!

Well, here's the runt crying again. Goodness me.

I wish yesterday was beautiful like today.

So, I forgot to mention something that happened yesterday. After the hunt was over, a little Japanese girl came up to me and said very quietly in my ear, "Will the Easter Bunny visit me tonight?"

You've never seen me so tongue tied. I had no idea what to say. If I say yes and then he doesn't, she'd be crushed. And if I said no and her parents did the Easter Bunny, well, they'd be pissed. Seriously, I fumbled over my words. Well, er, um, er, um...I swear, it went on and on but LUCKILY, her mother walked up behind the little girl right then and somehow just KNEW what my problem was and shook her head up and down. I was so relieved to be out of that mess!

Looking back, I know now to say yes because if he wasn't going to come, the parents would have already explained to her that the foreign parents trick their kids in good fun.

The kids woke up this morning and the Easter Bunny had definitely remembered to come to see them. Since Zuri's so young, I figured I could eat all of his candy, right? :)

Today, we're off to paint Easter eggs and Brad (who just got home from a few hours of work) is heading of to play tennis with some friends. I want to go to a Cantonese restaurant for lunch and then I'm cooking leg of lamb for dinner. I hope it's good.

I hope everyone's Easter was fun.

And it's over!

And it went off pretty well. :)

I woke up at 6:40, all nervous, thinking about what I needed to get done, but like a good procrastinator, I waited around until 7 when the alarm went off. Yesterday, they turned off the water all day to our apartment building so they could "clean" the pipes. I have no idea what that means, I just know that it REALLY cramped my style when I was trying to wash all of the 14,000 blankets off of our beds. Our beds are hard as rocks, and since I brought over so many blankets, we use them as padding. Well, when Elias got sick, rather than puking on the floor, he leaned over and puked on Ezra and hence, all over the bed covers and extra blankets/padding. But that's not all. We then cleaned the boys up(showers and all) and put them in Ezra's bed to sleep (this time with a garbage can next to the bed) and wouldn't you just know it? Elias leaned over a puked on Ezra AGAIN! So yes, I had lots of laundry to do and no water. I did finally get it done last night but I had to fold it all this morning which was one reason why I was a bit stressed.

Another reason was because I had bought TONS of eggs the day before but there wasn't nearly enough for the casserole so I had to run back down to the store and buy 32 more. But ya know, 10:00 rolled around, I pulled the casserole (or quiche?) out of the oven, then had myself a Mimosa and it was all uphill from there!

The kids played the Wii and ate and chased the cat for a while and honestly, that probably would have made them happy but we did play Bunny Bingo (and color the cards). I also read them a book, if you can believe it. It was a book, though, about Easter and maybea famous one that I've never heard of. One of the English kids told me that she had read the book before.

I had made a bunny for to Pin the Tail on the Bunny, but there wasn't time for it.

Anyway, the Easter Egg Hunt was over in about, oh, 5 seconds. We went ahead and did it in the rain but at least it wasn't cold.

I forgot to serve the cake! Can you believe that??? I'll take it to Elias' class on Monday and let them eat it then.

Here's a picture of the kids:

The day before!!

Ayi just brought over the food her home town is famous for. Oh gosh. People make fun of ME for liking salt? HA! This was the saltiest, chewiest chicken and duck I've ever tasted. Actually, it was probably the saltiest food I've ever tasted. She told me they soak the chicken and duck for 23 days in salt. I soaked our last Thanksgiving turkey for less than 24 hours and it was amazing. This was going overboard, though. The duck tasted better probably because it has more fat??? Anyway, I ate a lot of it because I felt bad she had picked out what I considered the best pieces to give us! She said she looked for pieces that didn't have a lot of skin and she had only given us the white meat of the chicken. (She's watched me cook and knows what we prefer. ) I told her it would be really good with a bit of rice but kept eating. Ezra ate a bit and so did Zuri. Elias wouldn't touch it and I didn't force the issue.

He got sick last night. BAD. He's fine today; has eaten plenty of food.

Later:
Okay, the party is on it's way to be completed. I just need to make the egg casserole and finish deciding the games since there's now a 100% chance of rain. I'm off!

The cake is finished!

After an annoying trip to the import store for more icing with all three littluns because Brad had to work very late, the cake is done. I think it's cute. :)

My to do and have done list.

Oh gosh! I thought I wasn't going to be able to post! This took forever to load.

I've been so busy planning the party on Saturday. I've got the cakes about 1/2 way done and ran out of icing and need to run and get more but I think I'll wait until Brad gets home. I've printed out Bunny-Bingo cards for everyone, stuffed the plastic eggs, fried all the bacon and bought a whole bunch of cheap toys to give out as prizes when the kids win something. I thought that if we finished early, we could just play outside but now it's looking like lots of rain so I have to come up with lots of indoor activities and we'll just do the hunt outside at the very, very end. I've invited LOTS of kids and their families and I have no idea how many will be coming. Apparently, RSVP is lost on some people.

So, I need to make the fruit salad and egg casserole and finish the cake, pick up the donuts and croissants that I ordered from the bakery and I should be about finished other than setting it all up which I intend to do before everyone gets here Saturday.

I plan on drinking lots of Champagne Mimosas and just enjoying the kids. It's all about THEM and the fun they'll remember and I'm hoping they'll have a good time. :) I'm really going all out but honestly, I figure this may be the only Easter Egg Hunt some of them ever get to go to and so I SHOULD. :)

I really wish that we could find a bunny costume and make Brad wander around in it. That would be funny. Teehee.

Marmie sent me all kinds of Easter themed candy which arrived yesterday. I'm almost through a bag of jelly beans, ya know they're my fave, but there's so much sweet stuff anyway (and these Asians are REALLY going to be blown away by all the candy that this American has bought) that it doesn't matter. I've decided to give the Cadbury eggs to Ezra's class tomorrow as an Easter treat.

Two things I remembered:
You can really tell Elias is from the South. He wrote a note to Brad that said, "Today. Sports Party. Like soccer and practice baseball. For Shore."

Ezra says the following when we're outside, "Step on a line, you crack your mamma's back." I just thought it was so funny that he butchered it like that! He gets onto me if I step on cracks now. "You're cracking your Mamma's back, Mamma!"

I hope Brad gets home early tonight. I need to go to the store and buy some icing. I road my bike over to the Neighborhood Center but it didn't have any and I couldn't go to the other imported place because I didn't have time. My goal was to finish the cakes today but I'm afraid that won't happen. sigh.

So, the Great Firewall has cracked down on what I can access due to the rioting so I can't read all of my great friends' blogs right now...even with the proxy that a friend set up for me. *cry*

We had a good weekend. Saturday, we went to a birthday party and enjoyed watching the kids play together. Ezra, of course, disappeared and played all by himself with the "new" toys (not the presents, the other children's toys).

I had a facial (first one in MONTHS) that afternoon and came home to piapias all over the house. Imagine someone taking all of your spare change and throwing it down everywhere. That's what I had to pick up. Apparently, they had had a war while I was gone and they didn't wear the goggles. I turned a blind eye to that one. (Luckily, not literally.)

Saturday morning, we had piano lessons and a play afterwards with Elias' friends. We went over to their house and had some of his special curry later that evening. The meal was awesome. I drank two glasses of wine in 3 hours and it's been so long since I've had anything to drink, I was feeling it!

It's colder and rainy today. I had a few things to tell that Ezra and Elias have done or said in the past couple of days and can't remember now. I think I'll have to wait until later and maybe I can remember some of them.

*praying for warm, sunny weather on Saturday*
CHEERS!

About me but with pics

I stepped on a banana peel and honestly slipped. I caught myself before I landed on my backside. I thought that only happened in cartoons.

I love to step on the berries that are falling off the Ficus-like trees around here. The crunch they make under my feet is so pleasing and I go out of my way and/or slow down to do it.

After three children, I made my first bottle EVER this week. I was given some free Isomil and decided to put some in Zuri's breakfast. I hate expressing milk. He's still never actually had a bottle of milk and he wouldn't take one anyway. We try giving him juice and he just chews on the nipple.

It's springtime and I'm LOVIN' it outside!

Zuri with a guard:


Friends:



Zuri with his Daddy:


This is so dangerous. Look carefully at the man standing on the edge of his balcony. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. This was taken out my kitchen window. You can click on this one to see it bigger.

Device not recognized.

I'm sitting here in floor and Zuri is sitting in between my legs and I wasn't really paying much attention to what he was doing. He was just being very quiet and very good. When suddenly...

a balloon popped up "Found new hardware"

I thought that was strange. Just out of the blue? But I kept on typing. Then another one came up

"USB device not recognized."

I kind of shrugged it off and then realized! OH! Zuri is sucking on the other end of my camera connector!! LOL


The invitations. You can click on them to see them bigger.

I'm kind of nervous about it! This is going to be a pretty big party and I'm not really sure what kind of stuff we're going to have since I don't have access to my usual breakfast fare. Wish me luck!

Pork Lard

I told Brad last night that the next time we were at his mother's house, I was going to hand him her jar of sausage fat and a spoon and just let him go to town on it. Why?

Well, we went out to eat Sunday night and he insisted upon ordering Chinese bbq pork because they have it at work and he LOVES it and I don't know how to cook it. I know it's good, but it's gross. It's cubes of "meat" about half an inch high and then another inch high of fat on top of that. You're not supposed to cut off the fat; you just eat the whole thing. I was, of course, taking mine apart and giving the fat to Brad. As I would pick it up, it would slither down on either side of my chop sticks in half so I had to be quick. It's completely disgusting and I can just SEE that crap bumping along in my veins.

So, he had piece after piece of this, "Oh, it's sooo good. I just love it. Mmmmm...I love it." He kind of sounded like me and my Korean kim chi hot pot but at least MINE is healthy. Well, he was all songs until about 10:00 that night and his body began to try to digest all of that funk. His stomach began to rebel. I could hear him beside me doing the, "I've got to burp because I feel like I'm gonna puke"-dance.

At work the next day, it cleaned him out like a pregnant woman who has just taken castor oil. He said he could feel his heart having to work harder. I don't mind ordering it but leave the fat on your plate, dude.

But I did my stupid thing yesterday. Ya know, it never fails that as soon as you say your baby CAN'T do something and you give them the opportunity to prove you wrong in a dangerous place, they will. I was doing laundry and I didn't want to set Zuri on the floor because I was worried he might fall over and hit his head on the tile floor. So, I set him down in a basket instead. Mistake.

I turned around to put the bleach in and looked back at him and he had pulled himself up for the first time. He's never even offered to do that before but I guess he had the opportunity to be a daredevil so he decided to try. Before I could do anything, he'd toppled over and banged his head on the tile floor. He now has a "bump-a-head" over his eye. I feel just awful but at least I know now that he can pull himself up. Not that he'll ever do it again until he's in dangerous place.

He's been extremely grumpy mornings around here. I don't know what his deal is. Maybe he's teething.

I bought "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories" yesterday. It's in English and Chinese and is cheaper than just the English version. I'm going to go back and get some of the other Dr. Seuss books she has. I think it'll be good memorabilia for the kids to give their kids of their living in China. I've got so many little toys for them. The latest one is a porcelain doll key chain. It is so adorable. Someone gave it to Ezra at school. The thing is, things like that aren't just available everywhere. You either have to get lucky or you have to know where to go but more likely, you just have to be given it by someone.

I'll post a bunch of pictures tonight or tomorrow but right now, I've got to get some chores done. Ezra wants to go on a picnic rather than eating at school so that gives me very little time. It's gorgeous today.

xoxoxo

Rainy Saturday

Cold and wet and drizzly today. I hate weather like this, it's the worst!

We had our family pictures made today and I really hope they turn out well. He'll allow us to come and view them on Thursday. I was really stressed out about what to wear because we don't have many clothes but I think it ended up all good. I hope so since I've already paid for it!!

I overheard the following conversation this morning between Brad and Ezra:

"Ezra, did you pull my plant out of the dirt again?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"How many times to I have to tell you? That stick will NOT grow!"

I cracked up. I didn't know that this had been an on-going battle. I also didn't quite understand exactly what was happening the other day when Ezra brought me the stick and a butter knife and asked me to cut off the bark. He had a whole plan which was to color the stick with orange crayon, cut the tip's bark off and "grow" fire. Like I said, I didn't realize what was going on but I do now! I think that Brad's plant is now protected from Ezra's evil plan but as I just glanced over at the window, I see a stick sticking out of the flower pot. So maybe not.

Another story that will hopefully embarrass Ezra when he's older concerns boogers. He has Brad and me eating out of the palm of his hand. If he wants something, all he has to say is, "But I LOVE it!" and Brad or I give in almost every time. It's just the tone of voice he uses is so sweet and so innocent that we just can't help it. It melts your heart.

Well, I didn't realize that he has us figured out until the other day when I said, "Ezra, you have a HUGE booger. Please go blow your nose now."

No movement.

"Come on, Ezra, go blow your nose, that's really gross."

Again, nothing.

"Eeeezzzraaaaaa....." "

"But Mamma, I LOVE it!"

Don't think I'll ever fall for that one again.

(So, I just read over this post and realize this: It DID work! He never went and blew his nose. I just laughed and possibly even gave him a hug. Please tell me I didn't give him a hug. Oh gosh...that kid.)

To brag or not to brag.

I was reading this article about gifted children and I was also comparing the "signs that your child is a genius" with my children. Ezra demonstrates a lot of the so-called qualities; but alas, I was thinking, Ezra does not lie.

About that time, Ezra came running in to me, no pants on as usual. He kind of shook his bum in front of me and I realized that he wanted me to check if it's clean. He had been using the bathroom for about five minutes. Amazingly, all clear.

"Did you flush Ezra?"

Pause.

"Maggie pooped in there."

"Ezra, don't be silly. Maggie didn't poop in there!"

Whatever faults our psychotic cat may have, she absolutely never makes a mistake.

"Yes she did. Just like she pooped on the couch."

Oh yeah. We once locked her away from her litter box and she messed up. That was our fault, though, and a long time ago.

I went into the bathroom and sure enough, there was a big, huge pile of crap in the floor. Deeeeeeefinitely human poop.

And then it flashed in my mind...a picture of a Chinese hole-in-the-ground toilet. He'd been gone for at least five minutes to poop. There wasn't a drop in the toilet. Ezra had just SQUATTED DOWN AND POOPED IN THE FLOOR and then LIED ABOUT IT?

I cleaned up the poop, threw his clothes in the washer and did what any competimommy would do: I basked in my glory, "So he IS a genius after all!"

Pincher Fingers

I saw Zuri working on his pincher fingers a couple of days ago and later, I was letting him practice with Legos. I soon realized this wasn't such a good idea and so it was off to the high chair for some peas. He loved them and loved playing with them. He's getting pretty good with that pincher grip, too!

He also ate and ate and ate some beef stew that I cooked last night. I've never seen him eat so much! His clapping is perfect now.

Sunday, I was letting him slide down the slide and then I'd quickly slide him back up to the top (backwards) and he'd clap when he'd get to the top like a big boy. It was so cute.

He's asleep for I think what is the first time on his back without me curled up next to him. He keeps stirring so I don't think he's too comfortable with it but I'm hoping to start slowly weaning him from needing my touch all night long. Maybe by one year, he'll be ready to sleep by himself.

The boys with their Popaw:


I've been told that Elias and two of his friends are being so loud on the bus in the mornings that they are disturbing the other kids. Doesn't surprise me in the least!

Lately, he's been having difficult waking up in the morning. Well, that's what he says, but really, I think he just wants to see how far he can push it. I once told him that he really helped me because he got ready all by himself in the mornings. Do you know the next morning and all the mornings after that, he stopped being so cooperative? I don't know if they were related or not. He's been waiting until 7:44 to put his clothes on when we need to be downstairs at 7:45. Yesterday, as I was heading downstairs, he kind of stuck his head out of the door like, what are you gonna do about it? I told him that if he missed the bus, he just wouldn't go to school. That sounded a little bit pleasing to him so I added that he could just stay in his room ALL day. Well, that distressed him a bit but I still don't think it helped. Brad handled it this morning, somehow, because when I got out of the shower, he was dressed. Of course, he then waited until 7:44 to start brushing his teeth, but we made some headway. A little bit anyway.


I love naked baby pictures:


I told Brad yesterday that while he works 11 days and gets one day off, that means that I only get one hour off in that 11 days! Not that I really need to complain, Brad helps a lot, as much as can be expected.

I'm off!

Bad day.

Elias had his piano lesson this morning and he did so well. He didn't act silly or try to fall into the floor like last week. He also moved on to ("fa" or "F") and is very excited. He is going every week while Brad is working.

I've been quite stressed out today. It started with going to the bank and being unable to withdraw money from the ATM. They do this when our electricity is due. They want us to pay (with cash) but they don't allow us to withdraw money to do so. It really makes no sense. So, I have 50RMB and go to buy meat at the market. I've been unable to go to the grocery since we've been back. It's been a real PITA trying to plan meals around here. I buy some beef that I thought would make a good stew. Only after I get it home, opened and defrosted, do I realize that it is GROUND beef. Not only is it ground, but it's flavored. I might try some sort of "Poor Family Stew" but it stinks. Not rotten stinky but they've put some Chinese seasonings that make it not smell appetizing. *sigh* If I'd known that, I would have bought some peanut butter; we're out of this family's staple. Gosh, I need to go to Auchan.

Well, then, I opened up some of my emergency beans and heated them up with a can of stewed, seasoned tomatoes. Zuri was in his walker and I pulled him out into the dining room while walking backwards. As I did so, I stepped in something icky and Zuri was moving so quickly, his feet rolled through it too. Guess what it was? Cat throw up. I was so pissed. I had to wash Zuri's feet and the whole floor. At that point, I was beginning to be disgusted with my house and freaked out.

I handed the duster and vacuum cleaner to Elias and began directing Ezra. My house gets cleaned every day top to bottom Monday through Friday but sometimes, I think my house will never be clean again. Kids mess everything up, leave everything out and clean nothing up until their mother starts threatening, don't they? shew.

I'm out of diapers but no money to go buy some. I wish Brad would hurry up and get home.

Elias just wrapped his friend's birthday present and Ezra is really excited about going. We've explained he wasn't invited. I wonder if it's rude to call and ask if he's invited too? Elias' friend has a little brother Ezra's age. He's been talking about J's birthday party and while we were wrapping his present, Ezra said, "If I help with this, I will get to go to J's party," as if that's all it takes. It was the cutest, most innocent voice...it broke my heart and pricked my eyes.

Mamma Elias Day

YAY! Brad was off from work today. He had to work late last night and he has to go back tomorrow but at least the kids got some individual time and are behaving so much better this evening than they have in a long while.

I told Elias last night (when I found out that Brad didn't have to work) that we would go together to the Neighborhood Center and buy his friend a birthday present, eat KFC together and just have an "Elias-Mamma time." Imagine his disbelief when we decided to go eat lunch at Mr. Pizza. His feelings were so hurt; he was heartbroken and he welled up. Makes me feel great but I know he just wanted to spend some of my money. ;)

I explained that we would go afterwards and he seemed to get it together. I let him buy himself a laser pointer for 5RMB and we bought his friend a toy that was a "bit" more. Well, on the way home, he tells me, "I think I'll just give J* the laser pointer and I'll take the other one." Yeah, right, buddy.

Anyway, we had a good time together and I told him so. He was ... surprised ... and ... pleased. Made me even happier that he was happy.