Vahn “I’ve had lots of sugar today mommy”

Mommy “Why do you say that?  Does your tummy hurt?”

Vahn “No,” he starts rubbing his head “sugar makes your hair short”

Mommy “Is that right?”

Chandlur “Yup! You  have these little holes you can’t see.  The sugar comes out of them”

If only sugar came out of my head and not turn to fat, I’d be one happy mama!

Along the lines of my Chan man…….

Recently at the bus stop a little boy approached him.  He was standing next to Cozette.  The boy looked back and forth at the both of them a few times.  He then looks at Chandlur and asks, (pointing to Zettie) “Is she your sister?”  Chandlur puts his arm around Cozette, puffs out his chest, “yes she is”.  The little boy looks back and forth again a few more times.  ”She is white”, he says completely confused.  Chandlur nonchalantly, “I”m just different.”, gives a slight shoulder shrug and looks over the kid’s shoulder at the other boys.  He had already moved on.

Vahn has been too incredibly cute.  Randomly he will come up to me and say “mommy, I wuv your baby”.  He even on occasion, will hug my belly and say he is giving my baby a hug.  I like to hear his sweetness so I provoke him sometimes.  I will say “Vahny, I love you and your baby”, or quietly say “I love your baby”.  He smiles his dimply smile with his head cocked sideways and his eyes have closed, and says “Nooo mommy.  I don’t hafe a baby.”  Then of course he says he loves my baby.  Sometimes he even will tell me “Nooo mommy.  Boys don’t hafe babies.  Only gills have babies.”  and he chuckles.

I guess Chandlur has babies on the brain. First I have to figure out how to explain about the man in Bend who is pregnant again. How confusing for a little kid! He looks like a man and he is going to have baby. After a pause trying to figure out what to say, I told him, he really is a girl but looks like a man. Whew, he took that. Then a little while later, THE question. “Mommy, how do babies get in mommies tummies?” O crap, another long pause figuring out what to say. I told him when a mommy and daddy get together. Whew! He took that and didn’t ask anymore questions. One of those questions you know is coming but are completely caught off guard when it happens.

When Kevin is gone a lot, the kids act out.  I know it’s probably a combination of missing him and my attitude.  On Wednesday at dinner I asked Cozette why she was kept being mean and crying all the time.  Without skipping a beat she said “because I miss daddy”.  I was speechless.  It never ceases to amaze me how smart my kids are.  I know she is certainly an intuitive girl, however, I was shocked.  What do you say to that??  All I could come up with is “mommy misses daddy too”.  The kids continued with dinner as if nothing was off.  They constantly amaze me!!

We teach patriotism in our house.  To Kevin and I it is very important.  Our kids have a book which they read teaching them about the presidents.  They even know quite a few by picture.  They love flags.  We talk about history in little kids terms when it comes up in conversation.  Last night when the debates were on, I told the kids it was about the next president, it was very important, and they needed to be quiet or go to the playroom so I could hear it.  Chandlur was playing around and would listen off and on.

About 3/4 of the way through, he turns to me, “Mommy, I like his voice”.

“You like the way his voice sounds?”

“Yeah Mommy, I like his voice better than the other one.”

If it were up to this 5 year old, he would be voting for McCain.  Does he care about foreign policy?  Nope.  Does he care about health care?  Nope.  He cares about the important stuff, how his voice comes across.

What has happened to my happy comedian.  It’s like he hit puberty in girl mode.  When he gets mad, he clenches his fists, bangs them against the imaginary table, grits his teeth, and yells at the offender.  Everything makes him cry, and he has been taken over by the whiny monster.  Where did my sweet Vahny go?  Kevin thinks maybe he is in a bad mood because he is refusing to poo.  Potty training with him has been a struggle.  It seemed to happen over night though.  All of a sudden he didn’t want to wear pull ups and we hadn’t been working on it very long.  Well, the whole poop part of it scares him (it cary mommy, cary).  For the last 3 days he has refused to go although he complains about how it hurts.  He keeps asking for me to put a diaper on him and I have been refusing.  He won’t even accept bribes which have worked in the past!  Seriously, so every time he needs to go, I will have to put a diaper on him and clean it.  I don’t think his teacher at school is going to enjoy changing the diaper of an 8 year old.  Finally this morning he went all on his own.  I think I saw the clouds part and heard the angels sing.  Granted he still has some of his ‘tude, however, he isn’t as clingy and whiny.  YEAH!!  Maybe this is the beginning of no more potty struggles (fingers crossed)!

Vahn is funny in this way.  His yes is yes and his no is no.  It is hard to bribe him.  He also has to be diciplined in a different way than the other two.  Example, I took away pretty much all their toys because they weren’t cleaning them up.  Vahn smiled while Cozette was crying.  I told them they can earn them back by doing chores.  Vahn said in his famous (it’s never just no) ‘”no fank you”.  Vahn got to go to bed instead and it didn’t seem to bother him at all.   As we speak, most of his toys are still put away and he doesn’t care!  I have to stand my ground or he will run me over.  Compromise hardly ever happens.  It isn’t in a bad way, it’s actually pretty funny!  He is one we aren’t to worried about peer pressure (it doesn’t work now and it will probably not work in 10 years).  Each of my kids crack me up with their personalities and idiosyncrasies.

Last night at dinner
Chanldur: daddy, ya know those things with the strings on them?
daddy: sorry Chan, i have no idea what you are talking about.
Chandlur: hhmm i don’t either daddy.

The kids were in the bath playing “fashion show”. They were giving each other silly hairstyles then “displaying” them. Aaaww, we are going to have expensive kids! They love massages, playing fashion show, and looking good when they leave the house.

Moments like these erase the whiny morning and the sibling rivalry. i believe in speaking into my kids (i.e you are kind, gentle, thoughtful, brave etc.) and dream building with them. In our house we talk a lot about what they want to be when they grow up. After naptime i was snuggling my youngest (3 in 10 days). In the past he has said he wants to be a doctor who fixes cars (can you guess his favorite movie?) or a police officer. Today i asked if he wanted to be president of the United States (we have a president book we read and they memorize), he nodded no. Do you want to be a police officer? Again, nodding no. Do you want to be a fire fighter? Nodding no. Do you want to marry a rich girl so you can sit and watch t.v all day? An enthusiastic nodding of yes.